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Search Results: budget/ (4)

Medical Marijuana Program Goes Forward In D.C.; Feds Watching

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Medicinal DC

​The District of Columbia passed its first milestone in selecting who gets the much-coveted licenses for the city’s medical marijuana program, even as the federal government is taking a second look at its hands-off approach to those who legally grow and sell cannabis under laws allowing its medicinal use.

More than 80 individuals or businesses applied to cultivate or sell medical marijuana through letters of intent submitted to the Department of Health, reports Tom Howell Jr. at The Washington Times. The applicants range from entrepreneurial lawyers and gardeners in D.C., to medical marijuana professionals based in states like Colorado and Montana.
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Mayor Approves Final Medical Marijuana Rules For D.C.

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By on Legislation, Medical

Photo: The Georgetowner
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray on Wednesday approved final regulations for medical marijuana in the District of Columbia.

​More than 12 years after D.C. voters overwhelmingly passed a medical marijuana ballot initiative, seriously ill residents of the District of Columbia will finally be able to begin using cannabis to treat certain medical conditions.

On Wednesday, Mayor Vincent Gray approved the final regulations on the licensing, distribution, and use of medical marijuana in the District. The full regulations will be published officially on April 15. The City Council has 30 days to review the regulations, but they will go into effect immediately on that date.
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Cops Say Obama Is All Talk On Treating Drugs As Health Issue

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: Philly NORML
Neill Franklin, LEAP: “The President needs to put his money where his mouth is”

​Another budget, another year of a drug control budget disparity that prioritizes punishment over actually treating drugs as a public health issue. Will President Obama’s rhetoric ever be made into brass tacks budget reality?

A group of police officers, judges and prosecutors who have waged the so-called War On Drugs is criticizing Obama because his federal drug control budget, released Monday, doesn’t match his rhetoric on treating drug abuse as a health problem.
Obama’s federal drug control budget maintains a Bush-era disparity, devoting almost twice as much money to punishment as it does for treatment and prevention. This is despite the President saying, less than three weeks ago, “We have to think more about drugs as a public health problem,” which requires “shifting resources.”
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Governor Dislikes Medical Marijuana, But Likes Tax Money

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: The Associated Press
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter: “I was not in favor of medical marijuana, but I’m also a lawyer and a governor, and I believe in the law”

​Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter doesn’t like medical marijuana, but he sure likes the tax money that comes from it. Gov. Ritter said on Monday that the state is using $9 million from medical marijuana registrations to help the state meet a $60 million “fiscal emergency.”

Ritter said the state expects to end the year with 150,000 applicants for medical marijuana licenses, up from 41,000 in 2009, reports The State Column. Colorado marijuana cards cost $90 per year.
“I was not in favor of medical marijuana, but I’m also a lawyer and the governor, and I believe in the law,” Ritter said, reports Tim Hoover at The Denver Post. “And it’s the law in this state.”
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