Search Results: washington state (993)

Graphic: patients4medicalmarijuana.wordpress.com

​A bill to legalize medical marijuana in Maryland, with state-run production centers, is getting support from legislators in both parties.

“This bill will provide Maryland’s doctors and patients with another tool in the toolbox, to be used safely and responsibly like any other therapy,” said Delegate Dan Morhaim (D-Baltimore County), who is the bill’s co-sponsor and a medical doctor.
Marijuana dispensaries would be licensed by the state under the plan. The cultivation and distribution of cannabis would be monitored by Maryland’s agriculture department and health department.


Graphic: thefreshscent.com

​If you’re a legal medical marijuana patient in Washington and you thought your doctor’s recommendation protected you from search or arrest, you’re wrong. According to a new court ruling, you can be arrested and hauled into court every time an officer smells pot at your home — even if you are complying with the law.

In a sharply divided decision, the Washington Supreme Court Thursday ruled against a patient arrested for possessing marijuana — despite the fact that the patient had a doctor’s recommendation for medicinal pot.

Incredibly, the court found that police had probable cause to search the patient’s home, even after he presented what both he and the police believed to be a valid medical marijuana authorization form under Washington’s medical marijuana law.

Photo: alapoet
Seattleites protest marijuana laws in the annual Marijuana March, May 2008.

​As promised, Seattle’s new city attorney is dismissing marijuana possession cases.

By the end of January, more than 25 people charged with possession could be off the hook, reports Linda Brill at KING 5 News.
Even if you are arrested for marijuana in Seattle, it’s more than likely you won’t be prosecuted.
During his campaign for city attorney, Pete Holmes promised he would dismiss marijuana possession cases brought by his predecessor, former City Attorney Pete Carr. Despite an initiative passed by Seattle voters a few years ago, Carr’s office had continued to vigorously prosecute many cannabis cases.

Photo: Quest Magazine
Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen wants to keep being able to bust all marijuana users — even the medical ones.

​Wisconsin’s attorney general claims legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes in the state would create serious problems for law enforcement.

While it’s no surprise he thinks so, let’s interpret Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen’s statement generously: He may actually be right.
That is, if you define “having to pursue real criminals instead of sick and dying patients” as a “problem.” And you could do that, since real criminals are usually a lot more dangerous, can run faster, and sometimes shoot back.
The A.G.’s office was one of only five groups testifying against the medical marijuana bill introduced this month in the Wisconsin Legislature, while more than 100 people testified in favor of it, reports Gil Halstead of Wisconsin Public Radio.
The attorney general claims the bill is “seriously flawed” and “will create a nightmare for law enforcement.” Once again, the dude is probably telling the truth, since lots of cops seem to already have nightmares about pot being legal for anyone, even the sick and dying.

www.freeclassicimages.com

​There are 166 million marijuana users in the world, representing 3.9 percent of Earth’s population between 15 and 64, according to a new study.

The herb is “most used among young people in rich countries,” led by the United States, Australia and New Zealand, followed by Europe, according to the paper, published in medical journal The Lancet on Friday, canada.com reports.
The study’s authors grudgingly admit that marijuana’s impact “is probably modest” compared with the burden from legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco. After all, these are scientists, and they do have to acknowledge those troublesome data.
But the scientists fall all over themselves rushing to warn that “cannabis has a long list of suspected adverse health effects,” dutifully toeing the line that “marijuana is dangerous,” while lacking any convincing evidence to prove that claim.

Photo: www.freedomsphoenix.com
Calm down, Chief. It’s just pot.

​Port Orchard, Wash., Police Chief Al Townsend is against legalizing pot, and he’s called a new bill to legalize marijuana in the state “ludicrous.”

“If the goal of the bill is to legalize marijuana for the purpose of generating tax revenue, that’s ridiculous,” Townsend wrote in an email to Kitsap Sun crime reporter Josh Farley.
Chief Townsend calls into question the judgment of his fellow Kitsap Countian, Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo), one of the co-sponsors of HB 2401, which would legalize marijuana for persons 21 and older.

loopylettuce.wordpress.com
Here’s what pot does to you. Just ask Jill Wellock!

​Freelance writer Jill Wellock has a problem.

She really, really dislikes marijuana and, apparently, those who use it.
Wellock generously shares this extreme distaste with us in a guest op-ed piece in today’s edition of The Olympian, the newspaper of Olympia, Washington, the state’s capitol.
Jill gets right down to business with a real winner of a headline:
‘Marijuana saps initiative, ambition and responsibility’
Headline aside, we know right off the bat we’re in for a bumpy ride when Jill starts off by confiding in us that she attended a “rough junior high.” Apparently not really one for nostalgia, Wellock recalls “the stoner girls” carving “Joe Elliot” [sic]“into their forearms with wood screws to prove Def Leppard allegiance.”
Oh, Jill. First of all, if they carved “Joe Elliot,” they aren’t done carving, because the rock star’s name is spelled “Elliott.” Maybe you should give those “stoner girls” a call and tell them they need to get back out the wood screws.
Secondly, if these had been real “stoner girls” during the time period mentioned, they wouldn’t have been carving freakin’ Def Leppard tributes on their arms; it would have been Marilyn Manson. Or maybe Jerry Garcia.

Photo: Seattle P.I.
THC-attle loves cannabis: Comely reveler at Seattle HempFest

​They don’t call it THC-attle for nothing. The Seattle City Council has voted to officially support bills currently before the Washington Legislature which would decriminalize adult possession of marijuana.

“[…]We support reclassifying possession of small amounts of marijuana from a misdemeanor to a civil infraction,” the council’s official statement said.

Council members Monday unanimously passed Resolution 31174, which sets the 2010 state legislative agenda for the city. The agenda includes support of SB 5615 and HB 1177, the decrim bills introduced by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles and Rep. Dave Upthegrove.

theskunk.org
Congress respecting the will of the people? What’s next, democracy?

​Eleven years later, it’s about time: The U.S. Senate today passed historic legislation to end the decade long ban on implementation of the medical marijuana law Washington, D.C., voters passed with 69 percent of the vote in 1998.

“This marks the first time in history that Congress has changed a marijuana law for the better,” said Aaron Houston, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), based in D.C.
The “Barr Amendment,” a rider attached to appropriations for the District of Columbia, has forbidden D.C. from extending the legal protection of Initiative 59, the “Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative of 1998,” to qualified medical marijuana patients.
The amendment has long been derided as an unconscionable intrusion by the federal government into the District’s affairs, according to MPP.

addictionrecoveryhope.com
America has a Marijuana Majority, according to a new poll.

More than half of adults in the United States are ready to legalize marijuana, according to a poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion. According to the new poll, 53 per cent of respondents support legalization, while 43 per cent are opposed.

Support for legalization is highest among Democrats at 61 percent. Independents favor legalizing pot with 55 percent, but only 43 percent of Republicans want to legalize.

Less than 10 per cent of respondents support the legalization of other drugs, such as ecstasy, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine.

The use of marijuana is illegal in the U.S. except in some regulated cases of medical use in 13 states. The amount allowed for such purposes varies depending on the state. Some states have passed laws to reduce penalties for possession of small, “personal use” amounts of marijuana (“decriminalization”).


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