"Keep your mouth closed so the flies don't get in".I think that applies in this case. I'm sure I messed this up, but this is close to the Spanish saying.
"Cerrar la boca para mantener fuera las moscas"When I first read the saying I understood the words, but I didn't know what the words meant. Time Difference is DO IT -267696852
Her fine is an $10,000 fine with an 80% or so surcharge which brings the fine up to $18,000.
If the private sector did that it would be considers fraud.
The charges on here crime allow a $150,000 fine with an 83% surcharge of $124,500 which brings the fine up to $274,500.
If the private sectors did that they would be charged with fraud and misleading advertizing.
We saw two crimes today.
The first crime was when a big guy was beating up a small guy on the light rail just before the stop on 3rd Street & Washington.
The second crime was in the court room.
At first I thought it was armed robbery when the court shook down Rain for an $18,000 fine.
The judge said it wasn't an $18,000 fine, but rather a $10,000 fine with an 80% surcharge.
But then I began to think this was a white collar crime because it was done in a government court room by white collars criminals.
Maybe it should be called a black collar crime, because the judge who robbed her was wearing a Black robe with a black collar.
But I don't like to call it a black collar crime because that reminds me of the crimes committed by priests in name of god.
Dear friends,
As you may or may not be aware, I am still going through the criminal justice system for my association and activities with the medical farmers market. While we confidently ran the market feeling we were in the right and law abiding, recent court cases clarifying the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act have come to light. Patient to patient sales has been deemed illegal. The obviously, confusing language of AMMA (Arizona Medical Marijuana Act) that has sent so many patients through this very same ordeal, has been decided in the courts.
I really could use some help with this battle. I am being accused of facilitating an illegal control of an enterprise. It is a felony charge that could effectively destroy my life and my livelihood. I am currently licensed and work full time as a registered nurse in the state of Arizona. I am praying for the judge to agree to classify it as a misdemeanor at sentencing. Having a misdemeanor will mean I can still have my nursing license and my career which I have worked so hard for. Having a felony would mean my nursing license is revoked for an automatic 5 years and my career and livelihood destroyed.
My next hearing is Friday, May 6th at 11am, it is a sentencing hearing.
Superior Court-Central Court BuildingI have asked to have a mitigation proceeding mostly because I want the judge to understand why I did what I did. I believe we had an abundance of circumstances that point to us practically being entrapped by the Phoenix Police department but my attorney does not feel it is adequate to proceed with a trial. I am hoping the judge will see not only an outpouring of support in the courtroom but can see that I am a good person. I’m hoping this will get my sentence lighter since dismissal is no longer an option.
ROOM 801
201 W Jefferson St
Phoenix, AZ
Won't you take a few minutes out of your busy schedule to help? I really could use a bit of compassion from the overseeing Judge and the Maricopa County Attorney‘s office.
Please lend a hand and help by writing a letter confirming I am of good character. I am hoping that letters in support of my character will translate to leniency for my sentence. I have attached a copy of some instructions that will help you with what to say. Letters can be addressed To the Honorable Judge Como and the letters themselves should be sent to me asap please. I have 5 days to turn them in.
If you feel you would like to be a character witness at my upcoming hearing please contact me directly.
Thanks Rain
*602 363 4985*
I am not sure about this, but I suspect that Rain Baker was turned into the police by Andrew Myers or one of the folks at at the Arizona Dispensary Association for running her "Farmers Market", which allowed low income medical marijuana patients to get their medicine at reasonable rates, rather then the rip off $300+ an ounce prices the crooks at the medical marijuana dispensary charge.
Phoenix medical-marijuana dispensaries clear hurdles
Amy B Wang, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:43 p.m. MST July 12, 2014
Nearly four years after voters passed the Medical Marijuana Act, Phoenix now has 10 state-licensed dispensaries
Standing behind a long counter in a white lab coat, Lauren Anton is ready for the day, greeting customers as they were buzzed through a door. The sleek lighting, orange-and-chrome color scheme and zebra-print floors suggested a trendy coffee shop or frozen-yogurt bar.
Instead, Anton was busy running her family's business: TruMed, a medical-marijuana dispensary.
TruMed is one of the 10 state-licensed medical-marijuana dispensaries that have cropped up in Phoenix, nearly four years after Arizona voters passed the Medical Marijuana Act.
Many owners say it was a complicated process: They had to overcome strict zoning requirements, hefty legal and registration fees, an oft-wary public perception of medical marijuana and, now, competition from illegal dispensaries.
"It's a difficult industry," said Anton, who faced questions from relatives and friends when she started the process of opening TruMed three years ago, along with her father, brother and friend. Still, as a former oncology nurse who said she saw firsthand the benefits of medical marijuana, Anton and her family proceeded.
Most of Phoenix's state-licensed dispensaries give off a modern, urban-industrial feel. Orange seems to be the accent color of choice. Other similarities include heightened security — bank teller-like windows where patients pick up their marijuana and private guards — and strict hours. Per city regulations, all Phoenix dispensaries must open after 8 a.m. and close by 7 p.m.
At TruMed, the receptionist sits behind bulletproof glass, monitoring 16 video-camera feeds on a flat-screen TV. There is a security guard on site seven days a week.
Though they pre-emptively put heavy security in place, they have had no problems with crime since opening in August, said Bill Anton, Lauren's father and a co-owner of TruMed. He pointed out the customers who had visited in the last half-hour: Two people were in wheelchairs. A few others were middle-age men and women made small talk with the staff, then left after picking up their orders.
"I think the main reason is the people are not the crazy, low-life potheads many people envisioned," Bill Anton said. "We're not getting riffraff ... who just want to get high around here. They have legitimate reasons. They're responsible. They're upscale, professional people."
Voters in 2010 passed the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act to allow people with certain debilitating medical conditions, including chronic pain, cancer and muscle spasms, to use medical marijuana. Since then, the state has approved about 50,000 Arizonans to participate in the program. The overwhelming majority cite severe and chronic pain as a debilitating medical condition.
The state limited one dispensary for each of its 126 "community health analysis areas," regions state health officials had previously used to monitor cancer reports.
Phoenix is home to 15 such areas, and four more straddle the city's boundaries. Within those areas are the 10 state-licensed medical-marijuana dispensaries in Phoenix proper.
From the start, cities and counties across the state imposed strict zoning requirements. By law, medical-marijuana dispensaries in Phoenix must be at least 1,320 feet away from all schools, churches and parks, requirements that quickly whittled down the number of eligible buildings in any health area.
"The biggest challenge early on was certainly the real-estate issue," said Kurt Merschman, an attorney who represents several Valley dispensaries. "You had, first of all, specific zoning in the city of Phoenix where you could and could not locate these dispensaries. And then you oftentimes had neighbors and citizens that probably were irrationally afraid of the use."
Last year, the owners of Urban Greenhouse staked out three suites in a central Phoenix shopping center. Each one had a minor flaw: The south suite fell too close to Brophy College Preparatory by about 10 feet and would have required a variance to open in a school zone. The central and north suites were just far enough away from area schools, but would have required a variance to open in a residential zone.
Still, the suites seemed the best options, and co-owners Brett Carr, William Gibbs and Jeff Cooper went about trying to reassure the neighbors about a potential dispensary opening near them. They set up an open house for all three suites, complete with (marijuana-free) snacks, binders of detailed renderings and a security guard.
Despite their efforts, the city denied their requests for variances because of resident opposition. After scrambling to find a new location, they opened Urban Greenhouse at 27th Avenue and Indian School Road.
Their story is similar for many dispensary owners. Even after overcoming the real-estate hurdle, many owners find the high-overhead medical-marijuana business does not bring in as much green as they had anticipated.
Dispensary owners must pay a $500 annual agent-card fee to the state for each employee. In addition, the actual product is not grown at any dispensaries because Phoenix requires the cultivation take place in an industrial or agricultural zone.
This means owners usually must pay to maintain two separate sites.
"The regulation has been burdensome, and the cost of getting their cultivations open have been more than people anticipated," Merschmann said. "It is a competitive business and there is a limited number of customers in the state, and so all of the dispensaries are fighting for those patients. It's just like any other retail environment where you're competitive on services, on price and location, location, location."
But by far the biggest challenge, owners say, is the continued presence of "compassion clubs," facilities that dispense medical marijuana without a state license.
"The one thing that's the big hurdle for these guys right now is the continued presence of these illegal pot shops," said Andrew Myers, executive director of the Arizona Dispensaries Association, an advocacy group for dispensary owners.
To add to the confusion, some illegal dispensaries have signs that tell customers they must have a state-licensed medical-marijuana patient card. Both legal and illegal dispensaries appear on websites like Leafly.com and Weedmaps.com, which function as Yelp-like review boards for marijuana dispensaries.
"It's confusing by design," Myers said.
To make it more complicated, state law prohibits the Arizona Department of Health Services from releasing any information — names, addresses, operating hours — about dispensaries, even if they are licensed. Though the state law names only the health department, many cities have interpreted it to apply to them as well.
In June, Phoenix police shut down Green Thumb Academy, at Seventh Street and Virginia Avenue, one of the dozens of dispensaries operating in the city without a license. Myers said the association is working with police and Phoenix officials to close more of the unlicensed dispensaries.
"They're keeping prices artificially high at the (legal) dispensaries," said Myers, adding that he estimated the city is losing out on $1 million annually on tax revenue in letting unlicensed dispensaries continue to operate. "We're trying to get it from a code-enforcement standpoint."
Initial fears that the state-licensed dispensaries would bring with them sharp upticks in illegal activity seem not to have materialized, according to the Phoenix Police Department.
"As far as robberies, no one's aware of any of those being issues at any of the legal dispensaries," police spokesman Steve Martos said. "The ones that are doing it legally, they have actually invested a lot money in their facilities but also their security and everything else. They really don't want to lose their money.
"If something goes wrong, they're likely to lose a lot of their investment. ... The illegal ones, they're likely the ones creating more of a situation for us."