Despite bipartisan support.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.
An amendment that would have allowed VA doctors to recommend MED in legal states passed both houses of Congress but was stripped from the legislation before it reached President Obama’s desk. Supporters of the bill are blaming Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk (R), who said “I don’t think we have too few high veterans out there” earlier this year.
| Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon. |
U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, says he will most certainly vote to legalize limited amounts of marijuana in Oregon next week. Merkley tells Talking Points Memo that he’s tired of seeing resources wasted on a failed war on pot.
“I think folks on both sides of the argument make a good case,” Merkley said. “And there is concern about a series of new products — and we don’t have a real track record from Colorado and Washington. But I feel on balance that we spend a lot of money on our criminal justice system in the wrong places and I lean in favor of this ballot measure.”
| TokeoftheTown.com |
Update 12/11/13 – 8:20 a.m.: Uruguay yesterday became the first country in the world to legalize and regulate cannabis sales as well as legalize the home cultivation for adults over 21. The Uruguayan Senate yesterday gave final approval to the proposed measure, passing the bill over to President Jose Mujica, who is expected to sign it into law. The bill passed with a 16-13 majority.
“Today is an historic day. Many countries of Latin America, and many governments, will take this law as an example,” Sen. Constanza Moreira said after the vote.
Last week the world watched as Uruguay became the first nation to officially re-legalize marijuana in nearly eight decades. Not to be outdone, our neighbors to the north in Canada may be heading in the same direction, at least if Justin Trudeau, the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party, has anything to say about it.
On July 23rd, while attending a rally in British Columbia, the head of one of Canada’s three major political parties spotted a supporter carrying a sign in favor of decriminalizing weed, and he stated, “I’m actually not in favor of decriminalizing cannabis – I’m in favor of legalizing it.”
| Weedist |
| All Voices |
| uri.edu |
| Anita Toke/Tokin’ Art |
| Graphic: Misplaced In The Midwest |
Just give me the ganja. A new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found that a majority of Americans continue to believe that marijuana should be legalized, but don’t support the legalization of other drugs.
| Graphic: Sodahead |
Changes to Washington state’s medical marijuana laws kick in today, Friday, July 22. But cities, counties, providers and patients are still trying to make sense of the new guidelines, a patchwork of confusing and often contradictory rules left by Governor Christine Gregoire’s hen-hearted line-item veto of legislation which would have regulated the shops.
