Search Results: washington (1156)

Graphic: KATU-TV
Legalization is gaining momentum in the Pacific Northwest — and the promise of big tax money is proving hard to resist for some legislators.

​Thanks to Toke of the Town‘s good friend Michael Bachara of Hemp News for alerting us to a KATU-TV news report on the legalization movement in Oregon and Washington (see video below).

Although reporter Anna Song somehow completely misses covering the Sensible Washington voter initiative signature drive, she does interview the very cool Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle) of the Washington Legislature.
“We are treating marijuana like we treated alcohol during Prohibition,” Dickerson says, “and it doesn’t make sense.”

Photo: Stefan Rousseau/AP
British Home Secretary Alan Johnson holds two prototype pint glasses designed not to break up into dangerous shards on impact. The British government wants pubs to try out the shatterproof glasses to cut back on alcohol-related violence.

​From time to time, we as marijuana users may find it instructive to look across the aisle, as it were, at our alcohol-imbibing brethren.

These glances almost always serve to remind us why we choose pot instead.
Such is the case with today’s news from the United Kingdom, where those booze-loving Brits have invented a new, shatterproof pint glass, according to The Associated Press
That’s right: Limeys will still be able to get smashed, but their pint glasses won’t.
A proud British government unveiled the shatterproof glasses Thursday. Officials claimed the country would save billions in health care by coming up with a glass that doesn’t double as, you guessed it, a lethal weapon.

Graphic: KOMO 4
HB 2401 would have legalized and taxed marijuana in Washington; the herb would be sold in state liquor stores. Since the Legislature dropped the ball, now it’s up to the voters.

​For the first time ever, the Washington Legislature looked at not one, but two bills to reform marijuana laws in the state. And although both were voted down in committee, advocates say marijuana legalization is still alive, with an initiative campaign trying to get a measure on the ballot in November, reports Matt Phelps of the Kirkland Reporter.

“My motivation was to get the criminals out of the business and stop the harm that the current prohibition is doing,” said Rep. Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland), who cosponsored House Bill 2401 with Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle).
“Many polls in Washington and nationwide show a favorability toward decriminalization,” Goodman said.

Graphic: salem-news.com

​Medical marijuana supporters say they are “outraged” over President Obama’s re-appointment of Bush Administration holdover Michele Leonhart as chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

“The retention of this Bush-era holdover is a profound disappointment to all of us who hoped that Obama would bring meaningful change to Washington,” lamented Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).

Graphic: patients4medicalmarijuana.wordpress.com

​A bill to legalize medical marijuana in Maryland, with state-run production centers, is getting support from legislators in both parties.

“This bill will provide Maryland’s doctors and patients with another tool in the toolbox, to be used safely and responsibly like any other therapy,” said Delegate Dan Morhaim (D-Baltimore County), who is the bill’s co-sponsor and a medical doctor.
Marijuana dispensaries would be licensed by the state under the plan. The cultivation and distribution of cannabis would be monitored by Maryland’s agriculture department and health department.


Graphic: thefreshscent.com

​If you’re a legal medical marijuana patient in Washington and you thought your doctor’s recommendation protected you from search or arrest, you’re wrong. According to a new court ruling, you can be arrested and hauled into court every time an officer smells pot at your home — even if you are complying with the law.

In a sharply divided decision, the Washington Supreme Court Thursday ruled against a patient arrested for possessing marijuana — despite the fact that the patient had a doctor’s recommendation for medicinal pot.

Incredibly, the court found that police had probable cause to search the patient’s home, even after he presented what both he and the police believed to be a valid medical marijuana authorization form under Washington’s medical marijuana law.

Photo: alapoet
Seattleites protest marijuana laws in the annual Marijuana March, May 2008.

​As promised, Seattle’s new city attorney is dismissing marijuana possession cases.

By the end of January, more than 25 people charged with possession could be off the hook, reports Linda Brill at KING 5 News.
Even if you are arrested for marijuana in Seattle, it’s more than likely you won’t be prosecuted.
During his campaign for city attorney, Pete Holmes promised he would dismiss marijuana possession cases brought by his predecessor, former City Attorney Pete Carr. Despite an initiative passed by Seattle voters a few years ago, Carr’s office had continued to vigorously prosecute many cannabis cases.

Graphic: salem-news.com

​Monday was a day of celebration for patients and advocates as the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act was signed into law by outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine.

The new law provides patients protection from arrest and prosecution for possession and transportation of marijuana, and establishes state-regulated distribution of medicinal cannabis by “Alternative Treatment Centers.”
New Jersey is the 14th state to legalize medical marijuana, and the third largest in population, after California and Michigan.

Graphic: ABC News/Washington Post
Support for medical marijuana, already high in 1997, his risen to even greater levels in the past dozen years.

​More than eight in 10 Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use, according to a new poll. Almost half favor decriminalizing the herb completely.

According to the new ABC News/Washington Post national poll, 81 percent support legalizing cannabis for medicinal use, up from already sizable 69 percent support in 1997.
Support for both medical marijuana and decriminalizing for all adults is far higher than it was a decade ago, reports poll analyst Gary Langer at ABC News.

MPP.org
MPP Executive Director Rob Kampia is embroiled in a sex scandal which has already resulted in the departures of seven employees.

​Seven of the Marijuana Policy Project’s 38 employees have left the organization recently because of what several described as “inappropriate behavior” by Executive Director Rob Kampia after an office happy hour last August.

Salem Pearce, the former director of membership at MPP, and three other employees told the press that Kampia left Union Pub that evening with his former assistant, who still worked for MPP but had moved to another department.
What happened next remains in dispute, with Kampia and the young lady involved giving different accounts. But Kampia did acknowledge an an email to staff that it was something involving him which he regretted, and that it caused staff defections, report Nikki Schwab and Tara Palmeri at the Washington Examiner.
Even more disturbingly, an anonymous former MPP employee has told Toke of the Town that Kampia’s behavior was part of a years-long pattern.
“Rob has a very long history, known to anyone at MPP who’s been there more than a few months, of hitting on and sexually harassing pretty young women, including employees,” our source told us.
“Even if this particular incident was 100 percent consensual, his behavior should have gotten him fired years ago — or at the very least, put on probation and fired if it continued,” the ex-MPP staffer told Toke of the Town Thursday night.