Search Results: maine (245)

Graphic: Maine Medical Marijuana

​Maine lawmakers on the Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday unanimously endorsed a proposal to expand access to cannabis under the state’s medical marijuana program. A second bill that would have legalized and taxed pot was voted down 7-3 in committee, but observers say the issue promises to resurface in the future.

The first measure, LD 1296, would make registration with the state voluntary rather than mandatory for patients who wish to use marijuana with the support of their physician, reports Meg Haskell at Bangor Daily News. This measure is intended to protect the privacy of patients, according to Rep. Deborah Sanderson (R-Chelsea), who sponsored the bill.
According to Sanderson, some people will prefer to register in order to make sure they don’t run afoul of law enforcement agencies. But patients should not be forced to be listed in a state registry to seek lawful therapeutic medical treatment, she said.

Photo: The Bollard
The extremely cool Rep. Diane Russell of Maine: “We’re dealing with the world as it is”

​Legalizing marijuana would just be recognition of “the world as it is,” according to Rep. Diane Russell, lead sponsor of a bill that would make cannabis legal in Maine.

Rep. Russell (D-Portland) has introduced a bill to legalize marijuana, allow people to grow small amounts for personal use and subject sales to a seven percent sales tax, reports Edward D. Murphy at The Portland Press Herald. The resulting revenue would be directed to law enforcement, agricultural programs, land preservation, weatherization and higher education.
Russell, who has already been anointed Toke of the Town‘s favorite Maine lawmaker, spoke about her plan to legalize pot at Portland City Hall with about a dozen supporters and a lone whack-job protester wearing a sweater with “Jail Diane Russell” emblazoned on its back.

Graphic: Reality Catcher

​Two bills to broaden the decriminalization of marijuana in Maine got bipartisan support from lawmakers at public hearings Thursday, but were — surprise, surprise! — opposed by law enforcement officials.

One measure, L.D. 754, would double the amount of usable marijuana that individuals could possess and still have it treated as a civil, rather than a criminal, offense, reports Rebekah Metzler at Maine Today. The other, L.D. 750, would decriminalize possession of up to six cannabis plants.
“It is my fundamental belief that people who use marijuana for personal use on a recreational basis are not criminals,” said state Rep. Ben Chipman, an independent from Portland, when he spoke to lawmakers on the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
“I just do not think that it’s reasonable to allow 2.5 ounces to be a civil infraction but having zero tolerance for plants and forcing consumers to the black market,” Chipman said.
Medical marijuana has been legal in Maine since 1999, and voters legalized dispensaries in 2009. The Maine Legislature in spring 2009 doubled the amount of marijuana a person could possess without facing criminal charges from 1.25 ounces to 2.5 ounces. Chipman’s proposal would double that amount again, to five ounces.

Graphic: Reality Catcher

​Maine lawmakers have introduced a pair of bills, LD 754 and LD 750, to expand the state’s existing marijuana decriminalization law.

Under present law, adult possession of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana is a non-criminal offense punishable by a fine only.
LD 754 would change existing law so that adult possession of more than 2.5 but less than five ounces is classified as a civil violation.
LD 750 would change existing law so that the cultivation of up to six marijuana plants by an adult is also classified as a civil violation.
Both measures have been referred to the Joint Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, which has scheduled a hearing on both bills for Thursday, March 17.
The hearing will begin at 1 p.m. in Room 436 of the State House on State Street in Augusta.
Every Maine resident has the right to testify at this hearing.
You don’t need to be an expert or an experienced pubic speaker — just come and speak your mind.

Photo: David Learning/Morning Sentinel
Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey inspects the inside of a self-contained nursery unit, with lights, fans and a watering system, that was confiscated Tuesday night from two men who were pushing it down the street. Police claimed they found marijuana residue inside.

​Police in Waterville, Maine, said they’ve never seen anything like the “portable marijuana nursery” they confiscated from two men pushing it down the street late at night — but it’s actually a quite ordinary “grow closet” of the type easily found, and purchased, on the Internet.

Officers investigated after getting a report from an “alert citizen” — OK, a bored neighborhood housewife — on Tuesday of two men pushing what appeared to be a huge toolbox down the street, making a lot of noise, reports WMTW.
Sgt. Daniel Ames and another officer followed the tracks in the snow from the wheels of the metal unit and found the men near a shed on Green Street (yes, really) with a box that fit the description.

Photo: MyFoxMaine
Starting January 1, medical marijuana patients in Maine are required by law to register with the state.

​More than 400 residents of Maine have applied to be medical marijuana patients under a new state law. Starting January 1, Mainers must be registered with the state before legally using cannabis medicinally.

For the past decade in Maine, ever since voters approved medical marijuana in 1999, patients had needed only a doctor’s authorization to use cannabis medicinally.
Applications flooded into the Maine Department of Health and Human Services in the final days and weeks of 2010, with hundreds more expected in the next several weeks, reports John Richardson at The Portland Press Herald. State officials said that expect to register 1,200 or more patients by the time the initial rush is over this spring.
“Everybody’s coming in at the last minute,” said Catherine Cobb, director of licensing and regulatory services for the health department. “We’ve been hammered.”

Graphic: Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative
About 100 of the state’s 500 caregivers have already joined the Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine trade group.

​Medical marijuana patients looking for information about the state’s new dispensary law, or checking out options on getting their medicine have a new resource: the Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine, a trade association that plans to adopt cultivation standards, keep prices low and advocate for safe access in the Legislature.

None of Maine’s eight licensed dispensaries has opened yet, reports Susan Sharon at The Maine Public Broadcasting Network. But according to the Department of Health and Human Services, about 100 medical marijuana patients have registered with the state and another 100 are in the process.
Hundreds more patients are expected to sign up by year-end, according to Jonathan Leavitt, board chairman of Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine.
“Realistically the number probably is somewhere between 750 to 1,250 qualified patients in this state,” Leavitt said. “And I think those numbers will bear out by the end of the year when people are actually required to register.”
Many patients will soon access their medicinal cannabis at one of the eight new dispensaries allowed after Maine voters expanded the state’s decade-old medical marijuana law. But for those who prefer anonymity, getting marijuana through a licensed caregiver is another option.

Graphic: Maine.gov
Safe Harbor Maine is expected to open early next year in Biddeford, becoming New England’s first medical marijuana dispensary.

​Until two weeks ago, it appeared that Rhode Island would open New England’s first marijuana dispensary. Now it looks as if Maine will be doing the honors.

One of the two will be the first state in New England to open a compassion center to sell cannabis to patients registered in state-authorized programs.

“It appears our neighbor to the north will beat Rhode Island to the punch,” concedes W. Zachary Malinowski of The Providence Journal.
A spokesman for the Maine Health Department said the first of eight dispensaries across the state should open for business soon after January 1, 2011. Licenses have been awarded over the past two months to operate dispensaries in each of the state’s eight public health districts, according to the Health Department’s Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services.
Safe Harbor Maine Inc., a nonprofit organization, hopes to be the first to open early next year in Biddeford, Maine, not far from the New Hampshire state line. The business will probably serve fewer than 100 patients in the first year, according to Glenn Peterson, Safe Harbor’s CEO.

Photo: FOX6Now

​It’s the feel-good story of the day. About 750 marijuana plants were stolen from a Farmington, Maine law enforcement storage building overnight last week. The storage facility is only half a mile from the police station.

Farmington police officers discovered the break-in Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., according to Police Chief Jack Peck, reports David Robinson of the Central Maine Morning Sentinel.
An overhead garage door had been “pried open” and about three-quarters of the 1,000 marijuana plants seized earlier on Tuesday in a northern Franklin County drug raid and stored in facility that night, were gone gone gone, according to Peck.

Graphic: Medical Marijuana Blog

​The City Council of Portland, Maine has unanimously agreed to include a medical marijuana dispensary in the city’s business zoning ordinance.

Three companies have been selected by the state Department of Health to dispense cannabis  to authorized patients in Maine. The state-licensed dispensaries will be in six locations around the state, including downtown Portland, reports Amanda Hill at WLBZ2.
The state of Maine has agreed to allow Northeast Patients Group to open dispensaries in Portland, Thomaston, Augusta or Waterville, and Hermon.
The group is looking at a number of locations in Portland, now that the zoning ordinance allows it to open a dispensary within the business 2, 3, and 7 zones of the city.
One key location under discussion is the former location of a Key Bank on the corner of Congress and St. John Streets, but one concern is that it’s too tight an area to accommodate a lot of traffic.
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