Search Results: victory (171)

Days before Congressman Ed Perlmutter was scheduled to speak at a cannabis management conference in Denver this week, he had a defining moment in Washington, D.C. His bill that would allow banking institutions to serve legal cannabis companies became not only the first pot-related proposal to be considered by the full House of Representatives in over fifty years, it actually passed.

“Had we not passed that bill last week, I did not want to talk to you people at all,” Perlmutter jokingly told a room full of cannabis regulators and business owners during the City of Denver’s Marijuana Management Symposium on Thursday, October 3. “The banking piece really is the thing that is the icebreaker in all of this.”

Update: The Yes on 300 campaign is claiming victory for Denver’s social marijuana ordinance, even though all the votes still haven’t been counted a full week after the November 8 election.

Monday evening, the campaign received what it describes as a “near-final tally” on the measure, which will create a pilot program to allow adults to consume cannabis in permitted private establishments such as bars and restaurants. Denver Elections currently shows 53.01 percent, or 151,049 votes, in favor of Initiated Ordinance 300, with 46.99 percent, or 133,876, against.

Medical Marijuana Legal Blog

Fourth District Court of Appeal rejects requirement that all collective members must be actively involved in cultivation
The Fourth District Court of Appeal for California on Wednesday issued a unanimous published ruling in a landmark medical marijuana case that reverses the conviction of a San Diego dispensary operator, Jovan Jackson, convicted in September 2010 after being denied a defense in state court. Wednesday’s historic ruling also reversed the lower court’s finding that Jackson was not entitled to a defense, providing the elements for such a defense in future jury trials.
“This landmark decision not only recognizes the right of  dispensaries to exist and provide medical marijuana to their patient members, it also grants a defense for those providers in state court,” said Joe Elford, chief counsel with Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a medical marijuana advocacy group. Elford also argued Jackson’s appeal before the court.

In yet another powerful affirmation that support for medical marijuana transcends partisan boundaries, the Republican-dominated New Hampshire House voted 236-96 on Wednesday to pass SB 409.
 
Matt Simon, a legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project, praised the House for ignoring Gov. Lynch’s veto threat, which was renewed the day before the vote, and passing the bill with a veto-proof supermajority
 “Gov. Lynch has repeatedly shown he is way out of touch on this issue, and since he has been unwilling to support a responsible medical marijuana law for New Hampshire’s most seriously ill patients, the House and Senate will simply have to get this done without the governor’s support,” he said.
 
The bill’s prime sponsor, Sen.Jim Forsythe (R-Strafford), agreed. “The promise to veto medical marijuana by Gov. Lynch shows a disappointing lack of compassion for patients battling illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, cancer, and AIDS,” Forsythe said.
 

Darren Stone/The Victoria Times Colonist
Owen Smith (center) was the head baker for the Cannabis Buyers’ Club of Canada. He will still have to stand trial on charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking and unlawful possession of marijuana.

In a huge victory for Canada’s medical marijuana patients, people authorized to use medicinal cannabis can use it in infused edibles and drink it in tea — not just smoke the dried flowers — the B.C. Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

Justice Robert Johnston said the restriction to dried cannabis only in Health Canada’s Medical Access Regulations is unconstitutional, violating Section 7 of the Charter of Rights, reports Louise Dickinson at The Victoria Times Colonist.
“The remedy for this breach is to remove the word ‘dried’ where it appears in the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations and I so order,” Justice Johnston said.

Notes From The Psychedelic Salon
Ethan Nadelmann, executive director, Drug Policy Alliance: “It’s evidence that collectively, activists and community leaders and academics and elected officals can really transform a policy. “

​Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, spoke with the Village Voice (owned by the same parent company as Toke of the Town) after the stunning news that the NYPD has suddenly reversed course and announced that it will follow the law and stop arresting New Yorkers for low level marijuana possession that is not in public view.

“At first, I was suspicious,” Nadelmann said. “Is this really what it says it is? And when I read it closely, it looks like it really is a change in policy. That [Commissioner] Kelly is telling the police to stop arresting people when marijuana pops up in somebody’s pocket in a search. And that’s a big change.”
Nadelmann called the NYPD policy change — in which the department agrees to finally, actually follow New York state’s marijuana decriminalization law, passed 34 years ago in 1977 — “an exceptional victory.”
“It’s evidence that collectively, activists and community leaders and academics and elected officials can really transform a policy,” Nadelmann said.

Courtesy Craig Beresh
Craig Beresh, Randy Welty and Phil Ganong give last-minute instructions and prepare to turn in 26,000 signatures collected in 30 days to reverse the ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in Kern County, California. “We then started the victory party!” Beresh said.

It’s a huge victory for the medical marijuana community in Kern County, California. Cannabis proponents have met the deadline to gather enough signatures to block a county ordinance that would have banned dispensaries.

A ban on storefront sales of medical marijuana, approved by the Kern County Board of Supervisors on August 9, would have gone into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, reports Mark Christian at Turn To 23 in Bakersfield.
Late Thursday afternoon, Kern Citizens For Patient Rights marched to the Kern County Board of Elections to turn in the signatures needed to protest and block the ordinance, about one hour before they were due.

Graphic: Freedom Is Green
Welcome to the club.

​Medical marijuana will soon be legal in Delaware. The State Senate on Wednesday approved by a 17-4 vote the bill that cleared the House last week. Governor Jack Markell has promised to sign it.

Once it becomes law with the governor’s signature, it will allow people 18 and older with serious serious or debilitating conditions that could be alleviated by marijuana to possess up to six ounces of the herb.
Qualifying patients will be referred to state-licensed and regulated compassion centers (dispensaries), which will be responsible for growing and dispensing the cannabis.
Delaware joins 15 other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing medical marijuana, but that total could in a sense be said to now be at least 16.5, because Maryland this week also expanded its affirmative defense law to remove all criminal penalties for the medicinal use of cannabis. It had previously been a $100 fine there if a marijuana user could prove his or her use was medicinal.

Photo: Screwed US
Medical marijuana patient Lance Mackey has won the past four Iditarod races. Drug tests were instituted last year — at the urging of jealous opponents, Mackey believes — but the champ tested clean. Now they’re expanding the drug tests.

​Drug tests are back this year for Iditarod dog-sled mushers under updated rules that could now disqualify participants who smoke marijuana before — not just during — the race.

The Iditarod began testing for illegal drugs for the first time last year, reports Kyle Hopkins at The Tacoma News Tribune. Anchorage-based WorkSafe set up a makeshift drug-testing lab in a city supply room in White Mountain, the next-to-last checkpoint on the trail. Officials pulled mushers aside and forced them to take urine tests during their mandatory eight-hour stay in the village.
The top finishers all tested clean, according to Iditarod officials, including champion Lance Mackey, who believed jealous competitors called for the drug tests in hopes the throat-cancer survivor and well-known medicinal cannabis smoker would test positive.

Graphic: NotCooley.com

You Lost, Cooley.

k, thanx, bye

Medical marijuana patient advocates finally exhaled Wednesday as Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley acknowledged defeat in his bid for California Attorney General.
Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a medical marijuana advocacy organization, partnered with the American Cannabis Research Institute (ACRI) to strongly oppose Cooley’s campaign with a website, NotCooley.com, as well as video clips indicating how Cooley was bad for medical cannabis, the environment, and marriage equality.
“A defeat for Steve Cooley is a tremendous victory for patients,” said ASA Executive Director Steph Sherer. “Not only will we have an ally in Kamala Harris to be able to advance civil rights protections for patients, but we have also shown that medical marijuana advocates are a powerful political force.”
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