The District Weekly - Latest Comments in CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Chirs — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:36:19 -0000

What are you smoking! Marijuana has nothing to do with Melody Ross and you have no evidence or facts to back up your claim. Most people smoking marijuana just want to stay home on the couch and eat a bag of Cheetos. The only EVIL here is your blatant disrespect for the facts and your callous attempt to use someone’s death to push your self righteous anti-marijuana agenda.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Mike — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:22:58 -0000

Actually…… A twelve year study by the University of Pittsburg dispels the myth that Marijuana is a “gateway drug”. This according to the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Whereas alcohol is readily available and enjoyed recreationally by adults in front of their kids, it is the first drug most kids try. Hence, it is the true gateway drug......close all the bars!

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Mike Ruehle — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:24:27 -0000

Sounds like your friend was trying to explain to you that it is you who is the fool. Sounds like he was spot on.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Mike Ruehle — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:48:49 -0000

What? I'm just getting warmed up. According to Webster's, a fraud can be defined as an act of deceiving or misrepresenting. If anyone is a fraud, it is you Police Officer Greet, the apologist for anything associated with Councilman DeLong, no matter how deceitful.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

PutitintheAir — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:39:01 -0000

That was the stupidest s#!t ever. Sorry for the lost of Melody Ross. But weed was not the problem poor security was the problem. These shops make plenty of money if they paid for more arm gaurds then mybe that would not have happen.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Mike Ruehle — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:29:12 -0000

There you go Greet. Make sure you arrest and run out of town all of those fraudulent resident association members who operate their non-profit businesses registered with the State of California without a business license from the City of Long Beach. After all, like the lady running for school board, we resident participants are all committing fraud per your definition. Go for it. Make it happen police officer Greet. Let's see who gets run out of town you hypocritical whiner lobbyist for DeLong.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Mike Ruehle — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:31:17 -0000

I'm still waiting for you to answer why the city shouldn't go after the resident associations who operate without a business license and to distinguish how non-profit med-pot facilities that operate without a business license are commiting fraud but resident associations aren't. That was the point you continue to ignore. Rather than answer my question, you just chose to change the subject to try to make me look like the bad guy for not challenging the city.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Mike Ruehle — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:48:03 -0000

Greet, once again, that was not the point of my argument. You so quickly changed your argument that all businesses are fraudulent if they don't aquire a license before opening. Your all encompassing opinion on this matter is BS.

You now try to make this an argument challenging why I "voluntarily gave up such a precious and indispensible right" to spend thousands of dollars in court costs to not have to be forced to pay a business license tax when I could easily avoid such a tax at no cost to me.

The issue was your cop statement that businesses exhibit fraudulent activity if they open without a business license. Does this now mean you believe all resident associations in the city must get a business license? Are those resident committing fraud who are members of these resident associations? Shouldn't the city of Long Beach go after these fraudsters as vigorously as any other crime. C'mon, you are the cop. Give us all your cop version of how these thousands of resident association members should all be charged with a crime.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Dave Wielenga — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:16:22 -0000

Hello Tony,
I would love to include your comments in our Letters to the Editor section, if you would please send them--with a full name--to letters@thedistrictweekly.com

Anybody else, too!

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Mike Ruehle — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:08:10 -0000

For at least the 100th time.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Guest — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:39:47 -0000

Mr: Snider: I've read and understood your comments. Thanks for sharing them.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Dwight K Snider — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:23:37 -0000

Officer Greet is right. Everybody else is wrong. That is final and so be it.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

JimMcCabe — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:05:41 -0000

Look John, I give it my best shot. Moritoriums are a separate legal kettle of fish. They are time limited. ---- I am not a resource library. I am disappointed in your tone in this last post.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Mike Ruehle — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:25:27 -0000

It's fortunate for Long Beach resident citizens that you Officer Greet do indeed report to someone who is able to put a collar on your interpretations and enforcement of the law. Without that collar, nearly every resident association would be prosecuted and shut down for operating a business in Long Beach without a business license.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Mike Ruehle — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:13:31 -0000

Greet, you are getting more feverish as your arguments get more convoluted. Next you will be accusing people of insulting you for your condescending remarks. That will be followed by a big Waaaaaah on your part. We all see it coming…..again.

Two years ago, I received a citation from the city’s business license department advising me that I needed to license my business they claimed I was conducting in Long Beach. The business they were referring to was a stock investment club created by 7 work friends who wanted to learn more about investing in stocks. The maximum a clubmember could invest was $200 per month. The club met monthly and only had total investments of $15,000 after 15-years.

I had just been elected Treasurer for the investment club. When I began receiving the ETrade monthly statements at my home, the business licensing department claimed I was conducting a business in my home and sent me a letter with a citation requiring me to get a business license. I called them and was granted no leniency or reasonableness. I guess in your eyes, I should have known this friendly investment club was a business requiring a business license from the city. Using your rationale, I was a fraud and should have been incarcerated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for failing to get a business license. Next, you will say all of the city non-profit resident associations are all frauds and need to be prosecuted for not having a business license. Go get them Greet. You are the cop.

Rather than pay the ridiculous cost of a business license, I instead had the statements sent elsewhere outside of Long Beach. I suspect doing so to avoid paying for a Long Beach business license was another fraudulent action in your eyes. In fact, Reeves and the cops are probably at my door now to arrest me and shut down our fraudulent investment club.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

JimMcCabe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:21:53 -0000

Respectfully, your missing something critical. Its illegal for the City to refuse to grant business permits to a whole class prospective LEGAL businesses. (The Council isn't allowed the luxury of an unlimited "timetable.")So they have to go after the odd situation here that there is a permit at this location for ANOTHER type of business.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

JimMcCabe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:43:18 -0000

You may very well be right about a selective prosecution violation. I just am not sufficiently up on this subject to say for certain that that is what has happened. I try to be perhaps overly careful about this kind of thing since I am a retired lawyer. I don't want folks relying on me unless I really feel I have something nailed down.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Mike Ruehle — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:54:03 -0000

James Young of the City Prosecutor's office has repeatedly told me the Prosecutors' office only goes after crimes that rate 9 or 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. He didn't say what those 9 or 10 rated crimes were, but he was clear that code violations were only a 2 or 3 on the scale and told me the City Prosecutor's office ignored those complaints and citations and instead only went after the 9 and 10 rated crimes. How is that not selective enforcement? Does this mean med-pot is viewed as a 9 or 10 rated crime? Who decides this stuff and what election is Reeves running for?

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

JimMcCabe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:38:10 -0000

Whether or not the Prosecutor's action violates the law against selective enforcement (and no one can tell that one way or the other right now) his prosecution appears to me to be unethical. He is going after something that is not against the law in California because he doesn't agree with that law. The permit violation allegation is clearly a "cover" for an effort to ban the sale of marijuana in Long Beach. As I have said, the City doesn't even make spot checks of even high neighborhood impact permits. They almost certainly went looking for this.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

HighHat — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:37:24 -0000

One love, baby. One love.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Janis Populi — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:31:04 -0000

If someone has a doctor prescribes pot because the patient suffers from anxiety in the workplace, should the person be allow to smoke pot in their work cubicle? Is the employer, city, state denying this poor person from medical relief from their affliction? Can the medical condition be considered a disability and pot a resonable ADA accomodation? Are employers going to have to set up special pot smoking areas? Heck my religion requires that I smoke pot at a certain time every day....Put on some Bob Marely records and reflect on this.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Janis Populi — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:12:52 -0000

SHUCKS!, Another City Hall theory shot down. City does not allow smoking weed in public even if it is "medication". Municipal Code: 8.68.010 Purpose and findings. The city council finds that the smoking of tobacco, or any other weed or plant, is a medically documented danger to health and a material annoyance, inconvenience, discomfort and health hazard to those who are present in confined spaces, and in order to reduce exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and to serve the public health, safety and welfare, the declared purpose of this chapter is to prohibit the smoking of tobacco, or any other weed or plant, in public places and places of employment as stated and required in this chapter.
(Ord. C-7955 § 1, 2004)

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

Janis Populi — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:04:31 -0000

Do the City's no smoking laws apply to "medicinal" pot? Can you legally smoke pot on the beach or at the park or at city hall? Could explain much about what's happening on the 14th floor. Just asking...

As with any drug epecially one that is smoked there are serious side affects and second hand smoke issues. I am sure Michael Jackson pop star would of agreed with you LB City Girl-"Me and my friends won't vote for any politician who stands in the way of a person's right to choose the kind of medication they feel is most effective."

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

What's_in_a _name? — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:10:49 -0000

Me and my friends won't vote for any politician who stands in the way of a person's right to choose the kind of medication they feel is most effective.

Re: CITY TARGETS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FOR VIOLATING ITS OWN BUSINESS LICENSE

What's_in_a _name? — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:07:33 -0000

Tony, the joke will be on you when it turns out God gave us marijuana as a gift because of its wonderful medicinal properties and in reality, the real reason he sends people to hell-- what he considers real evil-- is for practicing intolerance and hatred.

oh, and though it's completely irrelevant--I have kids.