Search Results: cotter (9)

A plant of “Charlotte’s Web”.

Charlotte Figi has been through more hardships in her six short years than most people do in a lifetime. About a year and a half ago, seizures caused by a rare genetic disorder would rip through her tiny body up to sixty times in a day.
Things had become so bad, that her parents had signed “do not resuscitate” forms for their daughter – deciding that if it was her time to go, then it would at least be the end of her suffering. At the end of their rope, her parents tried one last thing to prolong their daughter’s life: medical cannabis. Not only did it work, it’s drastically improved the quality of life for little Charlotte and other children around Colorado. Unfortunately, the treatment isn’t legal for most U.S. children affected by this condition.

flickr.com

Think two years in jail and four years on probation is too much for someone to spend in jail for growing medical cannabis? Of course you do, you have a heart and a brain.
But federal prosecutors in Montana feel differently, and are pushing to increase the sentences handed down by a District court judge earlier this spring on four medical cannabis growers, including a former University of Montana quarterback.

National Patients Rights Association

The National Patients Rights Association (NPRA), a Michigan-based alliance of leading medical marijuana advocates working to protect patient rights, on Wednesday announced strong opposition to proposed legislative changes to the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act it they said would would directly violate patients’ and caregivers’ civil and constitutional rights, privileges and protections.
Specifically, it opposes Michigan House Bill’s 4851, 4853, and 4856. The NPRA also strongly opposes HB 4834, which is sponsored by Gail Haines.
Under the proposed legislation, the most troubling, HB 4834, will allow officers or security personnel to easily gain access to the registry without a warrant, as is currently required. Patient and caregiver information would no longer be strictly confidential, and their private medical treatment choice will be available to a “near endless” list of authorized officials, according to the group, including security personnel or recreation officers hired by the state or local townships.

Gweedopig.com

​Twelve criminal search warrants for marijuana were executed on Wednesday, November 16, at premises in Kalispell, Missoula, Somers, and Whitefish, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana.

The execution of the warrants comes after a year-long investigation into “drug trafficking” activities of a “criminal enterprise” operating in Montana, claims a press release from office of U.S. Attorney Michael W. Cotter.
Four civil seizure warrants for financial institutions in Missoula, seeking an unspecified amount of cash, were also executed, reports KRTV.

broadcast-everywhere.net
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette refuses to defend the laws he is sworn to uphold. Is this asshole Michigan’s attorney general, or is he a federal agent?

​Hey Michigan, Your Attorney General Is An Asshole

Police are not required to return confiscated medical marijuana to a patient or caregiver — even though a state law prohibits medical pot seizures, according to an opinion issued by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on Thursday.

Schuette, who has evidently mistaken himself for a federal officer rather than someone in charge of enforcing state laws, said the provision in Michigan’s 2008 medical marijuana law directly conflicts with, and is pre-empted by, federal law, reports Kim Kozlowski at The Detroit News.
“By returning marijuana to a registered patient or caregiver, a law enforcement officer is exposing himself or herself to potential criminal and civil penalties under the (federal law) for the distribution of marijuana or abetting the possession of distribution of marijuana,” Schuette’s opinion stated — despite the fact that this scenario has never happened in any state.

Photo: Eliza Wiley/Helena Independent Record
Chris Williams of the Montana Caregivers Association watches as DEA agents and local law enforcement raid his Montana Cannabis grow operation on March 14. Willliams is now suing the federal government.

​Two Montana medical marijuana providers have accused the United States government of civil rights violations in what is believed to be the first lawsuit of its kind, in response to a federal crackdown on medicinal cannabis operations nationwide.

The owners of Montana Caregivers Association and MCM Caregivers said that federal raids on medical marijuana businesses across Montana in March were unconstitutional, exceeded the government’s authority and preempted the states’ medical marijuana law, reports Matt Volz at the Associated Press. Montana’s medicinal cannabis law was approved by an overwhelming 62 percent of voters in 2000.

Graphic: Salem-News/NORML Blog

​It only took two years for the U.S. federal government to get from “we won’t interfere in state medical marijuana laws” to threatening raids and even arrests of state employees if dispensaries are legalized.

The administration is using a new tactic in its war against medical marijuana patients and providers. In at least four states in the past two months, U.S. Attorneys have been given the dirty work of threatening states if progressive medical marijuana legislation is passed.

Things got started in February when the U.S. Attorney for Northern California threatened to prosecute operators of a proposed commercial medical marijuana farm in Oakland, even though the farm was licensed by that city and legal under state law.
U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag “strongly warned” Oakland that big industrial marijuana farms are illegal under federal law, and that the Department of Justice was considering “civil and criminal legal remedies” if the city went ahead with its plans to permit them. The plans were put on hold.

Graphic: KTVQ

​Montana’s state House and Senate have passed a bill aimed at radically slashing the number of authorized medical marijuana users and eliminating large cannabis businesses in the state.

The measure cleared both chambers of the Legislature on Wednesday, and now heads to Governor Brian Schweitzer for his signature, veto or amendment recommendations. Schweitzer has already vetoed an outright repeal of the state’s medical marijuana law, saying it went against the will of the voters, who approved the law in 2004.

Graphic: Big Sky Patient Care
Big Sky Patient Care only stayed closed a week after being raided by gun-wielding DEA agents.

​Valerie Sigler said her business did nothing illegal, so the co-owner of Big Sky Patient Care, a medical marijuana dispensary in Four Corners, Montana, was back open for business on Monday.

Sigler and her husband decided to continue providing medical marijuana to patients after speaking with their lawyer on Sunday, reports Daniel Person at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Big Sky Patient Care was one of around 10 dispensaries raided by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents last week.