A proposed New Jersey bill that would “allow” other patients to purchase medical cannabis out of state and then bring it back to New Jersey passed through a state Assembly committee yesterday.
The bill has a number of setbacks, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who has said he is done expanding the state’s medical marijuana program. The other setback is that a marijuana laws passed in New Jersey have no bearing in other states.
| 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.
New York state Sen. Liz Kreuger has introduced a bill that would legalize the possession, use and sales of limited amounts of cannabis for New York adults.
The bill would legalize the sales of up to two ounces of cannabis to adults 21 and up, but it would also legalize the possession and use of cannabis for all adults 18 and up – including a group of 18- to 20-year-old adults that have managed to be ignored so far in other state legalization measures.
Legal cannabis sales start January 1, and a handful of dispensaries will be opening their doors at 8 a.m. to help kick off a green new year. But will there be enough to keep up with demand?
Dispensaries are allowed to transfer 15 percent of their inventory over to the recreational side, and that means 15 percent of everything: mother plants, flowering plants, bud inventory, hash, edibles and anything else with THC involved. But several dispensary owners say that just won’t be enough. More over at Denver Westword.
Yesterday, Colorado officials unveiled the Marijuana Inventory Tracking Solution, or MITS, a system intended to keep tabs pot for sale in Colorado. But while the press was invited to the event, a number of medical marijuana patients coordinated by the Cannabis Therapy Institute invited themselves — to protest what they believe will be regular breaches of confidentiality.
Get details about the event and the history of allegations regarding alleged info sharing over at Westword.com
The effort to legalize marijuana in Missouri continues as ten different legalization proposals have been sent to the Secretary of State Jason Kander’s office and are open for public comment.
But these aren’t just changes to laws. They’re changes to the Missouri State Constitution, similar to what Colorado has and done so in a way so no buzz-kill state legislator can try to repeal it. The Riverfront Times has the full story.
Attorneys in Washington and Colorado advising clients on how to best follow state marijuana laws are still violating state ethics codes and could be sanctioned or lose their license to practice law because marijuana remains federally illegal.
That’s the tentative ruling from both the Colorado and Washington bar associations, though both admit they are hesitant to pursue any sanctions and have asked their respective Supreme Courts to fix the matter.
In his weekly ESPN The Magazine column this week, NFL commentator Howard Bryant argues that the NFL is in the position to “actually lead, to open a discussion about medicinal marijuana and about the culture of pain maintenance among its players.”
Instead, he says, they’re blowing it like a bad fourth-down, goal-line play with little time left on the clock.
For the first time a Field Poll survey of California voters shows that a majority believe marijuana should be legalized and regulated sales to adults with ID should be allowed. A previous poll conducted in 2010 showed a 50 percent split among voters just months before Proposition 19 failed in California.
Only 31 percent of the state opposes legalization.
| Nanette Gonzalez/LA Weekly. |
Marijuana fans were up in arms when we reported last year on USC research that suggested a link between pot smoking and testicular cancer. Well, this should raise your spirits. Swiss researchers using mice as subjects believe there could be a possible positive link between weed and better erections.
Read more over at LA Weekly.