Marijuana and Cannabis News
Is it legal to grow hemp in Colorado? Like, right now?
That's a complicated question -- and one that the Colorado Department of Agriculture is trying to clear up in a statement issued this week: "Amendment 64 did not authorize the immediate cultivation of hemp. It instead directed the General Assembly to enact legislation governing the cultivation, processing and sale of industrial hemp. This they have now done."
So can farmers start planting? Not yet. Melanie Asmar with the Denver Westword has more.
The New Hampshire Senate yesterday gave approval to House Bill 573, which will legalize the medical use of cannabis for patients with qualifying conditions.
New Hampshire state house.
But the question of whether medical marijuana patients should be allowed to grow their own medicine is still up for debate, though. The bill originally passed by the House back in March allowed for home cultivation, but thanks to pressure from Gov. Maggie Hassan, the Senate removed those provisions. The New Hampshire House and Senate will now have to iron out their differences before sending final language off to Hassan.
Springfield, Missouri City Councilman Doug Burlison believes that marijuana can be a helpful medicine and that it's time to stop treating it like such a harmful, dangerous drug. Compared to other local elected officials, however, he is very much in the minority -- so much so that his colleagues continue to reject efforts to pass a minor reform that would reduce the punishments for low-level possession cases.
Couldn't resist.
The council once again voted down the initiative this week. Riverfront Times has the rest.
Actress Amanda Bynes was arrested last night for marijuana possession and reckless endangerment at her apartment in New York City.Wikipedia commons. Amanda Bynes.
According to police, the (very uncool) doorman in Bynes's building called the cops complaining that the actress was puffing a joint as she walked through the lobby of the building.
San Diego Mayor Bob Filner is a friend of medical marijuana patients. Not only has the guy apologized for federal raids on dispensaries in his city, he's now urging jurors in a local medical marijuana case to ignore federal marijuana laws and find a defendant not guilty for operating a medical marijuana dispensary. 
San Diego mayor Bob Filner.
Ronnie Chang was arrested by federal agents in 2009 and faces trial this fall. His attorneys argue that he was following California law allowing him to operate a medical marijuana center. But federal courts won't allow those arguments to be heard since they don't recognize medical marijuana at all.
A California family claims school officials and police targeted and set up their special-needs high school-aged son in an undercover sting at Temecula, California's Chaparral High School. Doug Snodgrass, the father of the unnamed boy, says the move has left his son shattered and unable to trust anyone.
A frame from the ABC news report.
In a lawsuit filed against the district, Snodgrass says says the school "participated with local authorities in an undercover drug sting that intentionally targeted and discriminated against their son" likely due to past behavioral issues at his former school.
The NYPD's stop and frisk campaign led directly to the surge in low-level marijuana arrests, figures released today by the New York Civil Liberties Union show.
For context, marijuana arrests are the top arrest category in the entire stop and frisk program. Last year, five percent--or 26,000--of all stops were for suspected possession of marijuana. Despite the fact that whites use marijuana at a higher rate, blacks by far bore the brunt of those stops--61 percent, in all. Incredibly, just 9 percent of marijuana-based stop involved white folks. More over at the Village Voice.
Los Angeles is okay with medical marijuana dispensaries, but not at the overwhelming level at which they populate the city currently. 
Voters in L.A. yesterday overwhelmingly supported a measure that allows for medical marijuana dispensaries to operate in the city, but drops the number of shops down from somewhere between 800 to 1,000 to just 135 - the number of shops before L.A.'s original 2007 dispensary moratorium. Dispensaries opened after 2007 will have to shut their doors.
According to the Michigan Supreme Court, medical marijuana patients who drive after using cannabis are not automatically breaking the law reversing a lower court decision that barred medical patients from driving with any amounts of THC in their system. 
The unanimous ruling issued Tuesday, centers around Rodney Koon, who was pulled over for going nearly 30 mph over the limit back in 2010. Koon admitted to drinking a beer and taking his meds earlier in the day and a blood test for active THC proved he had about 10 nanograms per milliliter of blood, but he contends that wasn't why he was speeding. After being shot down in lower courts, he appealed his way to the Supreme Court.
The family that grew ganja together is now the family that pleaded guilty together. In the spring of last year, federal agents and Miami-Dade narcotics detectives dismantled a clan of marijuana growers that distributed thousands of pounds of high-grade weed from South Florida to New York City. Gilberto Santiesteban Jr., his dad, and his three brothers operated 21 grow houses for nearly seven years. Heck, even their significant others participated in the green conspiracy. It all unraveled when the Santiestebans decided to kidnap and murder a man who stole close to 50 pounds of their herb.
Gilberto Santiesteban, Jr.
