Search Results: judge (713)

With over 80,000 Coloradans on the state’s MMJ registry, it’s not surprising that this question frequently crops up: Can a medical marijuana patient on probation still use their cannabis medication?

The answer was supposed to be black and white after a 2015 state law approving allowing people on probation to use medical marijuana, but the reality is still gray and murky, with frequent court arguments over the burden of proof and necessity for a convicted patient’s medical marijuana use while on probation. However, a 2016 DUI case could finally push the Colorado Supreme Court to provide more definitive answers.

A judge ruled last week to reopen Montana’s medical marijuana dispensaries.

In November, voters struck down the Montana Marijuana Act, passed in 2011, renaming it the Montana Medical Marijuana Act. The renaming brought certain changes, one of which forced a three-patient limit on providers — a decision that closed medical dispensaries across the state, leaving thousands of registered medical patients without providers.

Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan, with help from the Texas Attorney General, persuaded a judge to fine a local smoke shop and novelty chain $1.2 million for selling kush, Ryan’s office announced Thursday.

Katz Boutique and Smoke Shop agreed to pay the fines to settle several lawsuits filed by the state and Harris County against the company’s nine area stores. The penalty is the largest ever for sellers of kush, which is sometimes called synthetic marijuana, though the drugs share few similarities.

On Thursday, a Maricopa County judge threw out a lawsuit challenging the pending Arizona ballot initiative to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jo Lynn Gentry ruled that the plaintiffs had no legal standing and made no legitimate claims.

The ruling appears to clear the way for the initiative, officially designated Proposition 205, to appear on the November 8 ballot.

Richard DeLisi, sentenced to three consecutive 30-year terms, or 90 years, for a marijuana importation conviction in 1989, will remain incarcerated. Judge Michael E. Raiden denied a motion requesting a review of his sentence last week. DeLisi has spent the past 26 years behind bars for a nonviolent offense that has a normal guideline sentence range of 12 to 17 years.

In May of 2013, the federal government filed a motion against brothers Ebrahim and Valentine Pouras in an attempt to seize their property located at 2441 Mission Street in San Francisco, California.
The feds’ beef was that the Pouras brothers were knowingly leasing the property in question to a medical marijuana business by the name of Shambhala Healing. The dispensary was located within 1000 feet of two parks, placing it in violation of the Controlled Substances Act. The United States federal government eventually shook the landlords down for six figures, but they weren’t quite satisfied with that.

Broward County Circuit Judge (and misdemeanor drug court judge) Gisele Pollack, who was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in early May, sat before a panel of the state’s Judicial Qualifications Commission on Thursday and vowed never to drink again. Pollack, who pled guilty in September for driving under the influence, has had issues arise due to her drinking, including an incident while she was on the bench.
As a result, the Florida Supreme Court suspended her. She has been trying to get her career back on track ever since.

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Scott Waselik.

October 8, 2013 was a bad day for Scott Waselik. After being stabbed in the chest by his roommate, Kevin Rios, Waselik had to drive to a local police station for help. Once there, he gave the police his home address – reluctantly, he says – before being whisked off to a local hospital for treatment. Meanwhile, the cops were raiding his home, not only to arrest Rios but to charge Waselik with possession of marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia.
Thankfully, a judge this week has some common sense and ruled that the cops didn’t have the right to go into the home in the first place and has tossed out all of the evidence against Waselik.


The conflict between the increasing numbers of state laws favoring the medicinal or recreational use of marijuana, and the federal government’s insistence on keeping its use highly illegal, has led to a dangerous amount of grey area attached to any of the various pot laws passed around the country so far.
One place where this grey area is in full effect every single day – whether the boss knows it or not – is the workplace. Though the courts have historically favored the employer in cases involving medical marijuana, one man in New Mexico just bucked that trend in a Worker’s Comp decision whose ripple effects could set a very meaningful precedent for future cases.

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