Search Results: kersgaard (7)

The Denver Post
Special Agent Barbra Roach, DEA: “By federal law, marijuana is illegal. There is no medical proof it has any benefit.”

​The Drug Enforcement Administration’s new regional chief in Denver, Barbra Roach, wasted no time in offending Colorado. Claiming that marijuana has “no known medical value,” she also said that she will find a place to live that does not allow medical marijuana businesses.

“It is not surprising that in Colorado, where voters have approved medical marijuana, some find her comments more than a little offensive,” reports Scot Kersgaard at The Colorado Independent.
“By federal law, marijuana is illegal,” Roach — who is replacing Jeff Sweetin, who was promoted to run the DEA’s training center in Virginia — told The Denver Post. “There is no medical proof it has any benefit,” she said, ignoring literally hundreds or thousands of medical studies.
Roach told the Post that marijuana is illegal despite Colorado’s constitutional amendment which allows it for medicinal use. She didn’t return subsequent calls seeking further comment.

Missoula Public Library
Rep. Diane Sands (D-Missoula) stood up for medical marijuana patients — and was investigated by the DEA

​Montana legislator Diane Sands has come under investigation by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, and she’s not sure why. But Sands said she suspects the investigation is because she advocates liberalizing the marijuana laws.

Sands told the Colorado Independent‘s Scot Kersgaard that she has no involvement in medical marijuana other than her work in the Montana Legislature. But the Missoula Democrat has been outspoken in advocating for reducing penalties for marijuana, and also advocating for the federal delisting of cannabis so that the issue can be decided by individual states.
“Because of the federal supremacy clause, federal law always trumps state law,” Sands said. “We fought a civil war over this. There is nothing a state can do to make marijuana legal, or even to make medical marijuana legal, but there is a process to change that at the federal level. Now that so many states have made medical marijuana legal, the federal government should remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controllled Substances Act, and let the states regulate marijuana as they see fit.”

Wussup Hater

​Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper apparently doesn’t plan to sign a petition from Govs. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Chris Gregoire of Washington which asks the federal government to change the classification of marijuana, but Colorado will reportedly file its own request before the end of the year.

Gov. Hickenlooper’s spokesperson told Fox News that the governors have a valid point in pushing the petition, reports Scot Kersgaard at the Colorado Independent.

“The governors in Washington and Rhode Island raise a valid conflict that needs to be resolved,” said Eric Brown, a spokesman for Gov. Hickenlooper. “Colorado law requires that we make a similar ask of the federal government by Jan. 1. We will do that. We will also continue to consult with other governors on the issue and with Colorado’s attorney general before deciding whether anything else will be done.”

ACLU of Colorado

​The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado has joined the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, a coalition supporting a 2012 ballot initiative to end cannabis prohibition in Colorado.

The initiative would make marijuana legal for adults, take it out of the black market, and establish a system in which it is regulated, taxed and sold similar to alcohol.
“In Colorado we believe our laws should be practical and they should be fair,” the group said in a statement. “Yet we are wasting scarce public resources in our criminal justice system by having police, prosecutors and the courts treat marijuana users like violent criminals.

Graphic: Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol

Denver-based activists have filed a ballot initiative with the Secretary of State that they say would regulate marijuana in Colorado in a manner similar to alcohol.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol must now gather 86,105 signatures before August 6, 2012 to qualify for the November 2012 general election ballot.

The proposal requires the Department of Revenue to tax and regulate marijuana and directs this new revenue source to the public school capital construction assistance fund.
It would allow people 21 and older to buy and possess up to an ounce of marijuana. They would also be allowed to grow up to six plants and to possess all the marijuana produced by those plants, reports Scot Kersgaard at the Colorado Independent.

Photo: Cannabis Fantastic

​The Montana Legislature this spring all but repealed the state’s medical marijuana law — passed by an overwhelming 62 percent of voters in 2004 — but the court battle rages on, as does the battle for public opinion.

First, the Montana Cannabis Industry Association filed suit to block implementation of the new law. Now, the state has responded with court filings of its own, reports Scots Kersgaard at the Colorado Independent.
Montana’s attorney general claims the new, more restrictive law is not unconstitutional, and his office is prepared to fight for it in court in about two weeks. Meanwhile, that same office is tasked with certifying the language being used in a referendum drive to overturn that very law.

Graphic: Patient & Caregiver Rights Litigation Project

​Medical marijuana advocates Wednesday evening called for the full legalization of marijuana in Colorado, saying that until cannabis is fully legal, it will always be stigmatized and patients will be subject to harassment.

“No patient is really safe until it is legalized for everyone,” attorney Robert J. Corry told the patients and advocates at a meeting in Denver, reports Scot Kersgaard at The Colorado Independent.
Corry and other attorneys said law enforcement officials, lawmakers and other officials will never really act as if anyone has a right to use marijuana until it is made legal for all.
“They are treating patients like criminals instead of the sick people we are,” said Laura Kriho of the Cannabis Therapy Institute.
Advocates said patient access is in jeopardy in Colorado because of rules that allow cities and counties to ban dispensaries, and because of patient fears that their medical marijuana records are not really confidential.