Browsing: Legislation

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Cannabinated Colorado: It appears inevitable that medical marijuana regulations are coming to the Mile High State.

​The first attempt by the Legislature to regulate Colorado’s medical marijuana industry just passed its first test at the Capitol.

The Senate Health & Human Services Committee voted 6-1 Wednesday to back a bill aimed at preventing doctors from issuing medical marijuana recommendations to recreational users, reports Colleen Slevin of The Associated Press.
About 150 people attended the hearing, and most opposed the bill, fearing it would make medical marijuana more expensive.

Photo: The Grand Rapids Press
An anonymous caregiver who grows medical marijuana for patients checks his garden. He has 22 plants of three varieties growing in his Grand Rapids basement. 

​Grand Rapids, Michigan city commissioners have decided on a homegrown approach to regulating medical marijuana.

Commissioners Tuesday decided to go ahead with zoning regulations that will treat medical marijuana growers, also known as caregivers, as home-based businesses, reports Jim Harger of The Grand Rapids Press.
Planning director Suzanne Schulz said the rules will allow medical marijuana growers to operate in a manner similar to music teachers or tax preparers.

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.

Photo: longbeachmedicalmarijuana.org

​The Los Angeles City Council voted 9-3 today to pass an ordinance regulating the sale of medical marijuana by dispensaries. The measure, which the council first began debating more than four years ago, passed quickly, without debate.

Although medical marijuana advocates were able to improve parts of the ordinance, they say certain provisions in the final version will effectively shut down nearly all of the existing facilities and will make it almost impossible for dispensaries to locate anywhere in the city.

Photo: Daniel Beaman Photography
Kush House dispensary in Venice Beach. Hundreds of pot shops, including all 14 in Venice, will be forced to shut down under L.A.’s new dispensary law.

​With the Los Angeles City Council expected this week to give final approval to a new law which would result in hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries being forced to close, some are wondering exactly how the city will enforce the crackdown.

Last week, L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who thinks the city is overreacting to the dispensaries, quizzed city officials on how they plan to shut down the pot shops that aren’t among the fortunate 140 allowed under the new law, reports Frank Stoltze of KPCC.

Photo: Madison NORML
Gary Storck has been using marijuana medically since 1972 — but 38 years later, it’s still illegal in Wisconsin. This newspaper clipping is from 2005.

​Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, who supports the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, will deliver his final State of the State address before a joint meeting of the Legislature on Tuesday night, January 26, at 7 p.m. local time.

Medical marijuana supporters will hold a patient vigil at Gov. Doyle’s last official speech. Supporters will gather outside the Assembly Chambers after 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 26, for the address, according to Gary Storck of Madison NORML.

Gov. Doyle has been on record throughout his two terms as willing to sign medical cannabis legislation if it reached his desk. Since the introduction of JMMA, he has gone further in his support, calling it “senseless” to block safe access for patients.

Graphic: UNK NORML

​A group of University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) students has joined the movement to legalize marijuana.

The UNK chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, is working to educate students about cannabis and lobby for its legalization, reports Sara Giboney of the Kearney Hub.
“From a national standpoint, we want to educate the public in order to get a body of voters to push legislators to overturn marijuana prohibition,” said UNK NORML President Matt Cass.
“I want it to be legalized so people can see it’s not as harmful as they think,” Cass, a political science major, said. “It’s less harmful than alcohol and tobacco.”

Photo: WAMM
Valerie Corral, WAMM’s co-founder: “We are heartened by the federal government’s newly declared position suggesting deference to state medical marijuana laws”

​Seven years after Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided a California medical marijuana farm, forcing patients out of bed at gunpoint, founders of the collective running the farm agreed to settle a lawsuit against the federal government.

The Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) will continue helping terminally and critically ill patients under the settlement.
Valerie and Mike Corral, founders of WAMM, called the settlement a “draw.” “They didn’t win; we didn’t win,” Mike Corral told the San Jose Mercury News.
“We hope that over time the federal government will recognize its senseless position on medical marijuana and will formally codify protections for the sick, dying and marginalized patients who have the right to use whatever substances their physicians recommend to ease suffering,” said Valerie Corral in a statement read before U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel.
“We are nonetheless heartened by the federal government’s newly declared position suggesting deference to state medical marijuana laws and we are extraordinarily proud of our collective’s role in effecting this change in policy,” Corral said. “However, should our government break their word and again pursue this senseless assault on the sick and dying, we stand at the ready and we promise to hold them accountable in a court of law.”


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: puffpuffere, forum.grasscity.com
Imagine the concept: You and your doctor, rather than the Legislature, deciding how much medicine you need.

​The California Supreme Court has struck down limits on how much medical marijuana patients can possess and cultivate.

Patients and caregivers with a doctor’s recommendation to use marijuana can now possess as much as is “reasonably related to the patient’s current medical needs,” a standard that the court established in a 1997 decision.
The court concluded that the restrictions imposed by the Legislature are an unconstitutional amendment of a 1996 voter-approved initiative.
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