San Diego County

Marijuana users in San Diego could soon be paying more for the drug if voters approve a local tax on the industry. The plan, sponsored by City Council Member Mark Kersey, proposes a sales tax on all cannabis businesses. If Kersey succeeds with his ordinance, voters would decide the issue in a future election. Kersey’s tax would start at 8 ...

The Spice craze has now settled firmly into the California drug scene, and with it come increasing reports of overdoses, hospital visits, and even death. Police say at least 10 people overdosed on synthetic marijuana in downtown San Diego in late November. Details were initially scarce, but it appears the victims may have used Spice together or shared a dealer. ...

San Diego officials have approved the city’s first license to run a medical marijuana dispensary. The license went to David Blair, owner of A Green Alternative pot shop. Blair plans to open the store in Otay Mesa. The license was cleared by a hearing officer at the San Diego Development Services Department Oct. 15. “We’re at the end of the ...

The Encinitas City Council voted in September to fight an effort to legalize medical marijuana dispensaries in the fall election. The vote, cast Sept. 10, means the city officially opposes the campaign to reverse the city’s ban on dispensaries. Measure F, the proposal that would legalize medical pot shops, will appear on the ballot in November. “It is up to ...

Border patrol officers discovered more than 3,000 pounds of marijuana hidden inside a shipment of Christmas package bows, officials said. On the afternoon of Aug. 28, a 28-year-old Mexican national tried to drive a 1998 Kenworth tractor across the border at Tijuana, officials said. The tractor pulled a trailer full of boxes masked as holiday bows. The tractor and trailer ...

San Diego is already on a tear against unauthorized medical marijuana dispensaries. Now officials may be gearing up to go after MMJ delivery services. The City Council’s Committee on Public Safety has already met once on the issue and will do so again next month. With regulations now in place for dispensaries, officials are looking to clamp down on the ...

A 17-year-old gang member pleaded not guilty May 22 in the robbery of two medical marijuana dispensaries in San Diego that left his accomplice dead and a security guard wounded. Kurese Bell, charged with murder, attempted murder, and robbery, faces life in prison if convicted. He was charged as an adult. Bell and his accomplice, the late Marlon Thomas, first ...

A decision by the Oceanside city attorney to pursue a medical marijuana dispensary has left hundreds of families with nowhere to turn for the medicine their children need. Connor Dalby, four, suffers from severe epilepsy. At its worst, he experiences countless life-threatening seizures. They started when he was three months old. “Connor had lost eyesight,” said his mother, Kelley Dalby. ...

A group of patient advocates sued the City of San Diego in early May, seeking to stop an ordinance regulating medical marijuana dispensaries. The Union of Medical Marijuana Patients Inc. filed the suit in Superior Court, alleging the regulations violate patient rights and the California Environmental Quality Act. This is the second time activists have sued to block the San ...

Mexican police seized 44 tons of marijuana in a raid just across the border from San Diego May 1. Mexico’s attorney general said the Tijuana police, along with the military, conducted one of the country’s largest weed busts to date. The largest, in 2010, netted about 150 tons of pot. According to a statement by the attorney general’s office, authorities ...