Search Results: chafee (26)

Business Insider
Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee: “This has been a difficult decision”

​Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee has blinked first in his stand-down with the federal government over medical marijuana dispensaries in his state.

The governor officially rejected pleas from patients and advocates to provide safe access for seriously ill Rhode Island patients who have doctors’ authorizations to use medicinal cannabis.
“It’s a sad day for those of us from Rhode Island,” Tom Angell of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) told Toke of the Town Thursday afternoon.
Medical marijuana advocates had called upon Gov. Chafee to open the dispensaries, allowed under state law, but Chafee refused, citing the supposed threat of federal prosecution after receiving one of the recent threatening letters sent by U.S. Attorneys in several medical-marijuana states.

StoptheDrugWar.org

Gov. Chafee Signs Bill Making Rhode Island the 15th State to Remove Criminal Penalties for Small Amounts of Marijuana
 
Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island on Wednesday signed legislation that will reduce the penalty for possession of marijuana to a $150 civil fine for most offenses.
Last week, the Rhode Island General Assembly voted in support of the two identical bills that will make possession of up to an ounce of marijuana a civil infraction, similar to a parking ticket, and will remove the criminal penalties that currently exist. Minors found with marijuana, in addition to the civil fine, will be sentenced to drug education courses and community service.
Marijuana possession is now punishable in Rhode Island by up to a $500 fine and up to a year in jail. The new law will go into effect on April 1, 2013.

Reason

Bills Would Replace Criminal Penalties for Possession of Small Amounts of Marijuana with a Fine
 
The Rhode Island House and Senate on Tuesday voted in favor of twin bills that would reduce the penalty for possession of marijuana to a $150 civil fine for most offenses.
H 7092 and its companion bill, S 2253, would make possession of up to an ounce of marijuana a civil infraction — similar in seriousness to a parking ticket — and would remove the criminal penalties that currently exist.
Marijuana possession is now punishable in Rhode Island by up to a $500 fine and up to a year in jail.
These bills received overwhelming support in both chambers, passing with a vote of 50 to 24 in the House and 28 to 6 in the Senate.  

GoLocalProv

The Rhode Island Senate is set to decide on a compromise designed to allow medical marijuana dispensaries to open in the state.

A vote on the legislation has been scheduled for Wednesday, reports The Associated Press. The House is considering a similar bill.
Lawmakers authorized the safe access points so patients in the state’s medicinal cannabis program could have a state-regulated place to get their medication.
But Gov. Lincoln Chafee blocked the three authorized dispensaries from opening last year after the state’s U.S. Attorney threatened they could face criminal prosecution for violating federal drug laws. Marijuana is illegal for any purpose under the federal Uniform Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule I drug.

Releaf
Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has reached a compromise with the Legislature under which medical marijuana dispensaries will be allowed to open in the state

​Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee and the Legislature on Thursday agreed to allow medical marijuana dispensaries to open in the state after negotiating a compromise. Chafee had blocked the dispensaries from opening, fearing they would violate federal law and result in DEA raids in the state.

Three dispensaries already picked by the state to distribute medicinal cannabis could open soon after the General Assembly endorses the compromise, reports the Associated Press.
According to lawmakers, state health officials will be directed to limit the amount of marijuana dispensaries may possess to answer concerns that larger shops would run afoul of the federal Controlled Substances Act, which outlaws any amount of marijuana for any purpose.
Chafee, even while slamming the Obama Administration’s crackdown on medical marijuana, put on hold the licensing of the three dispensaries last year after the state’s U.S. Attorney warned that operators of the shops could face federal charges. Chafee had joined Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire in asking the federal government to reclassify marijuana from its current status as a Schedule I substance, meaning the feds regard pot as having no medical value and a high potential for abuse.

Broadcast Engineering
Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee said the results of the Obama Administrations crackdown on medical marijuana were “Utter chaos”

​Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, under political fire for blocking three medical marijuana dispensaries authorized back in 2009 and selected in 2011, says the real problem is the inconsistent policy of the President he endorsed in 2008.

When asked by Rolling Stone magazine what the result has been of the Obama Administration’s effort to prevent states from implementing laws allowing the distribution of medicinal cannabis, Gov. Chafee replied, “Utter chaos,” reports Ted Nesi at WPRI.com.
The governor has faced protests and legal threats from medical marijuana patients and advocates since suspending Rhode Island’s dispensary program in May 2011.

Zazzle

​A January 25-26 Public Policy Polling survey found strong support for marijuana policy reform, including more than two-to-one support for reducing the penalty for possession of marijuana to a $150 civil fine. Marijuana possession is now punishable in Rhode Island by a $500 fine and up to a year in jail.
 
Of those polled, an overwhelming 65 percent supported decreasing the penalties for simple possession of less than an ounce of marijuana by removing the possibility of jail time and making the offense a civil citation. Such a change received support from across the political spectrum, with 73 percent of Democrats, 64 percent of Republicans, and 60 percent of independents in favor of the measure.
Two bills, H 7092 and S 2253, have been introduced in the Rhode Island House and Senate to remove the threat of arrest and jail for personal possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

Out There Monthly

​The Spokane City Council unanimously agreed on Monday that marijuana should be federally legal to possess by people who have a legitimate medical need for the drug.

State voters passed a medical marijuana law 14 years ago, back in 1998, but the city council is concerned about federal raids continuing in Spokane and elsewhere in Washington and other states that have legalized cannabis for medicinal purposes.
The council approved a nonbinding resolution endorsing a letter that Gov. Chris Gregoire and Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee sent to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in November requesting that marijuana be reclassified from being a Schedule I drug to a Schedule II drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act, reports Jonathan Brunt at The Spokesman.

Mike Purdy’s Public Contracting Blog
The Washington State Capitol building in Olympia

​History was made on Wednesday as 42 members of the Washington Legislature petitioned the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration to reschedule marijuana from its current Schedule I status to a less restrictive classification to allow for its medical use.

“I don’t think a state legislature has done this before,” Seattle-based activist Philip Dawdy told Toke of the Town Thursday evening.

Among the lawmakers signing the letter to DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart was Rep. Timm Ormsby, brother of federal prosecutor Michael Ormsby, U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington. Ormsby, along with Western Washington U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan, last year oversaw a federal crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.

Council of Conservative Citizens
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton: Gov. Jan Brewer and her Attorney General “have not shown that any action against state employees in this state is imminent or even threatened”

​A federal judge on Wednesday granted an American Civil Liberties Union request to throw out a lawsuit filed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer seeking to strike down the state’s voter-approved medical marijuana law that would allow sick patients to access important medicine.

Gov. Brewer, a notorious opponent of medical marijuana, argued in the May lawsuit that state officials fear federal prosecution for implementing the law — this in spite of the fact that Arizona’s former top federal prosecutor specifically said publicly that the federal government “has no intention of targeting or going after people who are implementing or who are in compliance with state law.”
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