A judge on Friday denied a request to temporarily freeze the city of Santa Ana's efforts to approve the county's first legal medical marijuana stores, despite accusations that the process for choosing the winning dispensaries was unfair.

SANTA ANA - A judge on Friday denied a request to temporarily freeze the city of Santa Ana’s efforts to approve the county’s first legal medical marijuana stores, despite accusations that the process for choosing the winning dispensaries was unfair.

The decision by Orange County Superior Court Judge David R. Chaffee allows the city to move forward with approving licenses for 20 dispensaries that were chosen during a lottery earlier in the year.

The stage is set for High Times’ annual Northern California Medical Cannabis Cup, expected to draw several thousand attendees, and hundreds of exhibitors and speakers to the Cow Palace in Daly City Saturday and Sunday.

Doctors will be on-site doling out recommendations for the sedating botanical this weekend, and qualified patients will be allowed to ‘medicate’ on-site in a massive zone, as well as sample and purchase products from exactly 420 collectives and their brands.

California lawmakers are, again, getting close to adopting the state's first system to regulate medical marijuana. Even if they're 20 years late and it's difficult to craft laws for a largely lawless industry, legislators must not let another session end without passing a comprehensive bill to license and control medical marijuana.

Of the many active ingredients in cannabis, cannabinoids — the miracle molecules that deliver most of the medical efficacy of marijuana — aren’t the whole picture. Some cannabis consumers may be aware of terpenes, the cannabinoid-like chemicals that give herb such a pungent smell. What most don’t know is that terpenes also deliver therapeutic relief, just like their cousins the cannabinoids.

Working at a medical marijuana dispensary in 2015, you never know what type of questions you’ll get. Bryan Willkomm, general manager at Humboldt Patient Resource Center in Arcata, said a lot of folks, especially the seasoned old-timers, will just take a sniff of the various buds on offer and say, “Smells good to me.” That whiff gives them all the information they need. Others are more demanding.

A new federal lawsuit against the mayor of Santa Ana is alleging that the city accepted bribes in exchange for granting marijuana licenses to dispensaries.

The city of Santa Ana is still in turmoil over a surveillance video purporting to show police officers in ski masks raiding the Sky High Holistic dispensary three weeks ago with guns drawn, eating marijuana, playing darts and attempting to take down any and all surveillance gear in the shop,NBC Los Angeles reports.

An internal investigation, conducted by the Santa Ana Police Department, is ongoing.

Migraine researchers and clinicians are growing excited about a new class of drugs called Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) monoclonal antibodies, which are showing promise in treating high-frequency episodic migraine and chronic migraine.

“This development is a transformative moment in migraine treatment,” said Peter J. Goadsby, MD, PhD, who is chair of the scientific program of the American Headache Society’s annual Scientific Meeting. Dr. Goadsby is Chief of the UCSF Headache Center, and one of the world’s leading headache treatment experts and researchers.

In a week, City Council will have a chance to adopt the massive Zoning Ordinance update, which includes standards for the allowance of two medical marijuana dispensaries.

But when, and where, are the dispensaries going to pop up?

If council adopts the ordinance at its next meeting on June 23, operators could apply for conditional use permits 30 days later. It’s unclear, at this time, how City Hall plans to deal with more than two applications, should they be submitted. Often, lottery systems when City Hall is giving out a limited number of popular permits but the Zoning Ordinance does mention a lottery.

Given the prevalence of dispensaries in the city of Los Angeles, it’s likely that the two permits will be highly sought after.

(JTA) – Stepping into the lobby of the West Hollywood medical marijuana dispensary where Dina Browner serves up buds to movie stars, it’s hard to miss the name Snoop Lion splashed across a hydroponic grow box painted red, green and gold.

The Rastafarian rapper formerly known as Snoop Dogg didn’t have anyone to operate the custom-made indoor marijuana greenhouse that came as a gift from its manufacturer, so he asked his “doctor” to keep it filled with cannabis flowers.

A group of lawyers have launched the National Cannabis Bar Association to help clients navigate the conflicting maze of local, state and federal laws that govern cannabis businesses.