Search Results: lieutenant governor (9)

Andrew Freedman is moving on from his position as Colorado’s Director of Marijuana Coordination, Governor John Hickenlooper announced on January 5.

Freedman will still be involved with the cannabis industry and constructing policy: He’s launching a consulting firm, Freedman & Koski LLC, which will advise state and local governments on the implementation of marijuana legalization. (The firm’s website is already live, and packed with pot info.)

After working as Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia’s chief of staff from 2011 to 2013, Freedman became the campaign director for Yes on 66: Colorado Commits to Kids; from there, Hickenlooper hired Freedman to head up the state’s marijuana coordination office.

Andrew Freedman is moving on from his position as Colorado’s Director of Marijuana Coordination, Governor John Hickenlooper announced on January 5.

Freedman will still be involved with the cannabis industry and constructing policy: He’s launching a consulting firm, Freedman & Koski LLC, which will advise state and local governments on the implementation of marijuana legalization. (The firm’s website is already live, and packed with pot info.)

After working as Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia’s chief of staff from 2011 to 2013, Freedman became the campaign director for Yes on 66: Colorado Commits to Kids; from there, Hickenlooper hired Freedman to head up the state’s marijuana coordination office.

Wikimedia Commons

Sen. Mike Stack, a Democrat from Philly, isn’t a big marijuana supporter, but he’s sick of seeing an “expensive, ineffective and misguided” marijuana policy ruin the lives of people in his state. As such, he’s introduced legislation that would make marijuana possession of 30 grams or less a ticketable offense on-par with “crimes” like jaywalking as well as another bill that would allow people to have past pot crimes taken off their record.
Currently, 30 grams or less is a misdemeanor charge with a $500 fine and up to 30 days in jail. More than 30 grams is a misdemeanor with up to a year in jail and $5,000.
“These bills are not intended to be a commentary on the wisdom or health of marijuana use,” Stack said release this week. “These bills are a challenge to those who walk these halls and profess their support for smaller government at a lower cost to taxpayers.”
Senate Bill 1307 would make the first and second offense or the possession of 30 grams of ganja or less would be a fine no more than $500. Third and subsequent offenses could revert back to the existing misdemeanor charges, though the bill leaves room for judges to levy lighter sentences. Judges could also order people into “Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition” (rehab). The bill does not address paraphernalia possession or hash possession – possession of both would remain a misdemeanor.
Senate Bill 1308 would allow people busted on misdemeanor pot charges in the past to expunge their record so long as five years has passed.
Stack, who is also running for lieutenant governor, may face an uphill battle with his would-be boss, Gov. Tom Corbett. The guv, who is also running for office, has repeatedly said he wouldn’t be dropping his guard when it comes to the state’s pot laws – even when it comes to medical cannabis. He’s one of those old-school drug war sheep who still calls marijuana a “gateway drug”.
Both bills have been referred to the state judiciary committee for discussion.

California’s Lieutenant Governor called for an end to marijuana prohibition over the weekend, pointing out that the war on drugs is a failure that merely fuels the disproportionate rate at which minorities are arrested in this country.
That’s encouraging news, especially considering Newsom is said to be one of the top contenders for the governor position in 2014.

Justin Sullivan
California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom: “These laws just don’t make sense anymore”

Newsom Adds Voice to Growing List of Prominent U.S. and World Leaders Calling for Alternatives to Failed Drug War
  
California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom is the latest elected official to call for marijuana legalization. In a Friday front page New York Times story, Newsom said he believes marijuana prohibition is counterproductive and voiced his support for making marijuana legal.
“These laws just don’t make sense anymore,” said Lt. Gov. Newsom, widely considered a leading contender for California’s governor in 2016. “It’s time for policitians to come out of the closet on this.”
 
Newsom first came to international prominence when, in 2004, as the newly-elected mayor of San Francisco, he issued a directive to the city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

LA Weekly
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom will join former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, NAACP director Alice Huffman and more than 1,000 drug policy experts and health care professionals to kick off the opening plenary at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference

​California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson and California NAACP director Alice Huffman will headline the opening plenary session at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference on Thursday, November 3 at 9:30 a.m.

In the past decade, voters and legislators have enacted more than 150 drug policy reforms on issues ranging from medical marijuana to treatment-instead-of-incarceration for nonviolent drug law violations.
Building on the momentum from these victories, Newsom, Johnson, Huffman, Mexican poet and movement leader Javier Sicilia, and travel writer Rick Steves will join more than 1,000 drug policy experts, health care and drug treatment professionals, a half-dozen elected officials, law enforcement, students, and formerly incarcerated people from around the country and across the world to promote alternatives to the failed War On Drugs.

Photo: Pocketburgers.com

​Delaware, ​”The First State,” could become the 16th to legalize medical marijuana.

State Senator Margaret Rose Henry and three Senate co-sponsors on Tuesday introduced SB 17 in the Delaware State Senate, calling for a common sense approach to providing compassionate care for seriously ill patients seeking relief with medical marijuana. Rep. Helene Keeley is the prime sponsor in the House, with eight co-sponsoring House members on the bill.

Montel Williams, a popular former talk show host and multiple sclerosis patient, attended Tuesday’s legislative session to meet with lawmakers and the Governor to urge them to support SB 17. Neuropathic pain associated with MS is one of the ailments for which marijuana has been shown to provide relief.
Passage of the bill would allow Delaware patients suffering from several devastating illnesses to receive medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.


Photo: Dyersburg State Gazette
Members of the West Tennessee Drug Force in Lake County: “I haven’t found any pot plants. Have you found any pot plants? I hope we have jobs next year.”

​Pity the poor Lake County Sheriff’s Department and the Governor’s Task Force on Marijuana. They are facing difficult times this summer in Tennessee. Not only do they have the usual worries of trying to catch pot farmers, and wasting enough tax money so their budgets don’t get cut next year — now they can’t even seem to find any damn plants.

To hear the red-faced lawmen tell it, Mississippi River floodwaters are blocking access to the clandestine marijuana fields, reports the Dyersburg State Gazette.

Members of the task force used trucks, four-wheelers and even a helicopter to canvass the county, concentrating on areas where plants were “suspected.”