It’s a big step towards national legalization.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.
Politicians have not caught up with public opinion.
The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.
A new poll found that for the first time, Republicans narrowly favor legalizing marijuana, 45% to 42%. Last week, however, Republicans voted against including support for MED in their party platform. As far as I saw, the plant went unmentioned at the convention.
Hillary Clinton named Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) as her running mate. Speaking at a high school in April, Kaine said he favors “drastic changes in sentencing laws…[but] wouldn’t vote for a law at the federal or state level that would decriminalize marijuana.” Kaine has a NORML rating of F.
Donald Trump has a NORML rating of C+. Hillary Clinton gets a B+. Libertarian Gary Johnson scores an A+.
Leafly meets Ann Lee, founder of Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition (RAMP). Lee, 86, attended the GOP convention as an alternate in the Texas delegation. Her son Richard Lee founded the trade school Oaksterdam University in Oakland.
Decriminalization appears to have support from the Texas Association of Business and bipartisan support in the Texas legislature. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) opposes legalization.
Marijuana.com digs up that the DEA has reduced the size of its 2017 cannabis order from last year. This hints, the piece suggests, that the agency will not reschedule. The DEA gets its weed from a facility at the University of Mississippi, the only federally legal grow in the country.
Fifty-one percent of voters oppose Massachusetts’ REC initiative and 41% percent support. The numbers are similar in Arizona.
An Arizona judge will hear cannabis-opponents in a case that could block the upcoming REC vote. They argue that the 100-word petition voters signed didn’t adequately explain the effects of legalization. Plaintiffs include Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery (R), Phoenix’s lead prosecutor.
Last year, before a weed convention in Phoenix, Montgomery offered “An aside, just a polite warning to folks traveling here…I can’t confirm or deny whether or not local or federal law enforcement may be on hand in an undercover capacity. So welcome to Phoenix, enjoy your stay, but be careful.”
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) opposes the state’s MED initiative. In Wisconsin, a poll found that REC legalization has 59% support. Activists are collecting signatures for a MED initiative in Oklahoma.
Florida’s first CBD dispensary opens this week. The state is expected to vote on MED in November.
| Flickr/IntelFreePress.. |
It looks like there’s finally an official plan in place for the purchase of some more body cameras for hundreds of local law enforcement officers.
Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson announced this afternoon that her office plans to dole out $1 million to the Houston Police Department and $900,000 to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office for the purchase of hundreds of body cameras, which will be worn by officers while they’re on duty. The money will come from assets the office has seized during criminal investigations, Anderson said.
| Flickr.com/Mr.Thomas |
When it comes to sentencing nonviolent drug felons, St. Louis County prosecutors are not afraid to use the “Prior and Persistent Drug Offender” statute, Missouri’s three-strike drug law that allows — and sometimes forces — judges to hand out decades in prison for very small amounts of drugs.
A review of 100 Prior and Persistent Drug Offender cases that were brought to the appeal level mostly within the past fifteen years found that 47 were in the St. Louis area, including the county and city. Get more over at the Riverfront Times.
| Flickr.com |
The Washington Post in a video segment yesterday detailed two sets of parents using cannabis to control seizures in their children – specifically the cannabinoid CBD.
In the cannabis community, this is common knowledge and the reason why many patients seek marijuana as their therapy. Nevertheless, it’s a powerful video to watch as these two kids — like dozens if not hundreds of others — find relief from their painful affliction with cannabis.
| Sunrun |
| New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: “It’s not fair, it’s not right. it must end, and it must end now.” |
| Caravan4Peace |
| Caravan participants, together with national and local community leaders, expressed their solidarity with those incarcerated |
| Drug Policy Alliance |
| An online advocacy campaign features powerful video testimonials from people who have been illegally searched and falsely charged for marijuana possession in New York City |
| Metro |
| New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo |
| NORML Women’s Alliance of Butte County |