Search Results: ballot/ (12)

It received the British equivalent of bipartisan support. 

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.

In the U.K., a group representing MPs and Peers from concluded that banning MED is “ irrational.” It is being touted as a major step towards legalization.

Cannabis is an issue in Berlin’s upcoming election.

Vermont’s legislature is revisiting REC after failing to pass it last year. Arkansas Gov. and former DEA chief Asa Hutchinson (R) criticized supporters of the state’s upcoming MED votes for misleading the public about the plant’s medical benefits.

It used to be tolerated in one part of town.

Here’s your daily round up of pot news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.

Residents of Copenhagen’s Christiania area tore down the area’s open air cannabis booths after two police were shot and a suspect was killed. Police are concerned about organized crime’s involvement in the industry.

Alaska AG nominee Jahna Lindemuth said the state won’t allow standalone consumption lounges. Dispensaries may be able to have consumption areas. Denverites will vote on a limited social usemeasure in November. If approved it would allow businesses, such as bars, to create consumption areas.

The service also failed to protect customer information.
Here’s your daily round up of pot news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.

Irvine, Calif.-based Weedmaps is full of bogus dispensary reviews, according to an investigation by the L.A. Times.

Reporter Paresh Dave looked at nearly 600 businesses reviewed on the site and found that 70% included reviews submitted from a single IP address (i.e. a single computer). A textual analysis found that 62% of reviews on the site are “fake.”

Weedmaps, a Yelp-like service with operations in several states, had stored the IP addresses of anonymous reviewers, in its publicly available code. A Weedmaps executive said the 62% figure is far too high, and emphasized that reviews are only part of the product.

The total is still below 15%.
The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.
A Gallup poll found that 13% of U.S. adults currently use cannabis, up from 7% in 2013.

At SFWeekly, I argued that the 2016 Presidential candidates have dodged their responsibility to discuss legalization.

Ohio is looking for an experienced pot grower to help write the state’s MED rules. The successful applicant will likely have to pass a drug test.

Some Ohio communities are taking action to keep out MED businesses, though dispensaries won’t open in the state until at least 2018.
The alcohol industry wants Congress to know that cannabis-impaired driving is a problem. Officially, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America is neutral on legalization, but this year an industry group donated to stop Arizona’s REC initiative.
The San Jose Mercury News editorializes in favor of legalization in California. So does the East Bay Times.

The National Conference of State Legislatures endorsed rescheduling.

North Dakota will vote on MED in November. Arizona will vote on REC. Supporters of the Oklahoma MED initiative are “ cautiously optimistic” that they gathered enough signatures to make the ballot.

Two MED initiatives could qualify for the Arkansas ballot. The question of which one voters get to decide may end up in court. The Arkansas Farm Bureau and the state’s Chamber of Commerce oppose both.

Denver’s limited public use initiative collected more than double the number of signatures needed to qualify for a vote in November.

Nashville may decriminalize. The Chicago Tribune visits a grow house, and catches up on the Illinois industry.

High Times lists its “ hateful-eight,” the country’s most influential legalization opponents.

Illegal drug sales on the so-called dark web have tripled since the 2013 closure of the site Silk Road.

Watch out for knock-off vaporizers.

In Oregon, some Craigslist sellers ask for payment in cash or cannabis. Minnesota’s two MED producers are both losing money.


Back in June we told you about Montana used car salesman Steve Zabawa’s quest to rid his state of all forms of cannabis – recreational, medical, legal or illegal. He was so against cannabis that he started gathering signatures for a ballot initiative, I-74, that would ban the use and possession of all federally-controlled, schedule 1 substances including pot. Basically, it would force the state to submit to federal laws.
If pushed through and approved, it would have wiped out state-legal access to the roughly 8,500 Montana medical marijuana patients. But thankfully, Zabawa isn’t very good at selling his initiative. He should probably stick to used cars.

Keith Bacongo-Flickr edited by Toke of the Town.


Ohioans looking to legally use medical cannabis will have to wait at least another year (or move) as activists collecting signatures for the November ballot failed to reach their goal.
While Ohio Rights Group managed to collect around 100,000 signatures – a commendable figure – they failed to get the necessary 385,000 signatures.
The biggest obstacle: money. The reality of today’s political landscape is that you need paid signature gatherers or it is hard to get anything on the ballot today. John Pardee, ORG President said their campaign never had the funding to accomplish that.

Supporters of an embattled ballot measure to create a constitutional amendment in Florida allowing for medical cannabis say they have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot this November.
Ben Pollara, who is heading up the People for United Medical Marijuana campaign, says that the campaign will hit one million signatures sometime next week – hundreds of thousands more than the 683,000 valid signatures required by state law.

Nuggetry

Voters Say Yes To Regulation, Taxation Plan

Isn’t it just the way it always goes? Nothing for 75 years, then two states in one day. Washington voters resoundingly approved Initiative 502, which regulates and taxes marijuana production in the state, with 56 percent voting Yes and 44 percent voting No.

The state’s voters on Tuesday evening joined those of Colorado, from which results had become final earlier, in legalizing cannabis.

Graphic: Yes On Prop 19

​Proposition 19, the California ballot measure to legalize, regulate and tax cannabis, would enable the state to steer police resources toward more pressing matters, generate hundreds of millions in revenue to fund vital services, and protect children, roadways, and workplaces, according to a new nonpartisan report.

The report (PDF) confirms that Prop 19 will enable state and local governments to tax marijuana and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
According to the report, “Proposition 19 allows local governments to authorize, regulate, and tax various commercial marijuana-related activities… We estimate that the state and local governments could eventually collect hundreds of millions of dollars annual in additional revenues.
The California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), which provides nonpartisan fiscal and policy advice, released the report Tuesday.
Proposition 109 would enable California to sensibly adjust police priorities, according to the report.

Graphic: Reality Catcher
With the demise of I-1068, legalization won’t be happening until at least 2012 in Washington state.

​Sensible Washington, the group which tried to get marijuana legalized in Washington state through Initiative 1068, has fallen just short of the number of petition signatures it needed to get the measure on November’s ballot.

Friday was the deadline for submitting petition signatures to the Washington Secretary of State’s office, and campaign organizers said they will be several thousand names short of the roughly 241,000 needed, reports Andrew Garber at The Seattle Times.
The proposal would have eliminated penalties for persons 18 and older who cultivate, possess, transport, sell, or use marijuana.
Ballot measures in Washington need at least 241,153 valid signatures of registered state voters to make the ballot, and the Secretary of State’s office recommends at least 300,000 as a buffer, to allow for duplicate, illegible and ineligible signatures.
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