Search Results: priority (148)


At the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party convention in Duluth last month, 1076 delegates cast ballots related to the party’s 2014-15 action agenda. Resolutions ranged from taxes to veterans to recreational cannabis.
This last one needed 619 votes to pass, but ended up with 603, according to tally takers. In other words, the activists who guide policy for the DFL — the party that currently controls the House, the Senate and the governor’s office — were 16 votes shy of making recreational cannabis a legislative priority for the next two years. That comes out to a mere 1.5 percent.

We recently reported about the controversy over an Arapahoe Basin executive announcing that skiers caught smoking marijuana in public at the resort could lose their lift ticket — a warning that stirred plenty of controversy. But one important factor may not have been fully considered by those on either side of the issue: Arapahoe Basin, like most Colorado ski areas, is on federal land. Moreover, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman stresses that pot is illegal in such places — and stopping its use remains a priority. Denver Westword has the full details, brah.

Jon Miller
Sensible Washington organizer and attorney Douglas Hiatt, right, fires up activists before a marijuana march in downtown Bremerton, Washington, earlier this month

Sensible Washington Announces Paid Signature Gatherers in Bremerton, Washington 
Sensible Washington on Monday announced that several “gracious and anonymous donors” have agreed to pay signature gatherers $1 per valid signature, “to assure we get our Bremerton initiative on this November’s ballot.”
This initiative would make cannabis the lowest enforcement priority within the city, as well as ban the city from cooperating with the federal government in the implementation of federal cannabis policies (federal non-cooperation).

Sensible Washington

Recently the cannabis advocacy group Sensible Washington announced it was filing initiatives making marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority in six cities throughout Washington State. Now signature gathering drive has begun in three of those cities: Olympia, Everett and Bremerton.
“It is our goal to get these quickly on the ballot, as to effectively run a successful campaign to pass these initiatives into law,” said Anthony Martinelli of Sensible Washington.
If put on the ballot and passed, these initiatives, all titled the Marijuana Reform Act of 2012, will make cannabis the lowest law-enforcement priority, and also prohibit city and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal authorities over the implementation of federal cannabis policies.

Sensible Washington

​Washington state legalization group Sensible Washington announced earlier this year that they would be running local, city-wide initiatives in 2012. Last month the group declared Spokane its first city. Now, just days away from filing, the group has announced the next five cities where they’ll be running initiatives:

• Everett
• Olympia
• Bremerton
• Kent
• Bellingham
According to Sensible Washington, these initiatives will combine making adult cannabis offenses the lowest law-enforcement priority, and prohibiting cooperation of local law enforcement with federal authorities in marijuana enforcement.

YouTube
Attorney General Eric Holder: “If in fact people are not using he policy decision that we have made to use marijuana in a way that’s not consistent with the state statute, we will not use our limited resources in that way.” Or something.

​It’s easy to get whiplash trying to keep up with federal medical marijuana policy, and my neck’s hurting again after hearing the latest from Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder on Thursday repeated the support of the Department of Justice for the Ogden Memo, the 2009 policy statement which deprioritized the prosecution of medical marijuana providers who are following state law.

“What we said in the memo we still intend, which is that given the limited resources that we have, and if there are states that have medical marijuana provisions … if in fact people are not using the policy decision that we have made to use marijuana in a way that’s not consistent with the state statute, we will not use our limited resources in that way,” Holder said in his usual convoluted (dare I say tortured?) fashion, reports Lucia Graves at Huffington Post.

Steve Elliott ~alapoet~
Tacoma Police officers hassle booth vendors selling pipes at this year’s Tacoma Hempfest in June. Police claimed that pot was “already their lowest priority,” but voters made it official on Tuesday.

​Voters in Tacoma, Washington, just south of Seattle, sent a powerful message Tuesday to law enforcement and to state legislators in Olympia by joining Seattle in officially declaring marijuana possession laws the city’s “lowest law enforcement priority.”

Organizers Don Muridan and Sherry Bockwinkel, cosponsors of Tacoma Initiative No. 1, CannbisReformAct.org, gathered the necessary signatures and the voters of Tacoma resoundingly agreed, passing with measure with 65 percent approval.
The measure overwhelmingly passed by an almost 2:1 margin, despite being voted on in an off-year election. Modeled after Seattle’s 2003 initiative, Tacoma Initiative No. 1 makes adult marijuana possession offenses the lowest priority for law enforcement.

Graphic: Sensible Portland

​Could Portland become Potland? Enforcement of marijuana laws will become the lowest priority for police in Portland, Maine, if supporters of a petition drive are successful.

Under the proposal being circulated by Sensible Portland, police would refrain from arresting or even fining anyone 21 or older for possession of marijuana or paraphernalia, reports Ann S. Kim at the The Portland Press Herald. Police would also be directed to refrain from trying to even find out whether someone has cannabis or paraphernalia.
The proposed ordinance is in line with the values of a community that has supported Maine’s medical marijuana laws, according to John Eder, spokesman and organizer for Sensible Portland.
The eagerness of those who sign the petition and other anecdotal evidence indicate that Portland residents don’t want police wasting resources pursuing people with small amounts of pot, Eder said.

Graphic: Sookiesooker/Dangerous Minds

​The Los Angeles city clerk’s office has released a “priority list” of medical marijuana dispensaries with the date and time they originally registered under the September 2007 moratorium. The list will be used to determine the order in which dispensaries will have their choice of locations in the city.

For example, the first shop registered, with first choice, can locate anywhere in the city that zoning regulations allow.
Going down the priority list, each time an additional dispensary picks a location, the available choices will get a little thinner, because no other dispensary can locate within 1,000 feet, per the L.A. medical marijuana ordinance.


Photo: city-data.com
Tiny Hailey, Idaho is Mayberry — plus marijuana

​Could it be the Mayberry of marijuana? Pot smokers and civil libertarians won a victory in a small Idaho town Monday when the mayor announced that cannabis use on private property was officially the lowest police priority.

“This has not been easy, but I think that we have come up with something that works for those on both sides of this issue,” said Hailey Mayor Rick Davis at a City Council meeting, reports Tony Evans of the Idaho Mountain Express.
“This means that Hailey police will not go out and actively look for people smoking pot on private property — but they never have,” Mayor Davis said afterward.
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