| Wikimedia commons/Dennis Jarvis. |
Are you an international pot dealer missing 1,800 pounds of marijuana? You are? Okay, well police think they found it on a beach in Greece Thursday.
We wouldn’t suggest trying to get it back from them.
Author William Breathes
A conservative anti-tax lobbyist has become an unlikely supporter of marijuana reform at the federal level. On Thursday, Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, told reporters that despite never trying cannabis (“absolutely not”), he is against the federal over-taxation of medical and recreation marijuana.
“There’s always a slight giggle factor on the issue dealing with marijuana,” Norquist tells Time magazine. “That said, this is tax policy, this is real stuff. This is important. This is everything from jobs to whether the federal government comes in and writes rules that upsets the apple cart in many, many different states.”
The group that was behind Arizona’s medical-marijuana law plans to push a marijuana-legalization initiative in Arizona in 2016.
The national Marijuana Policy Project actually hopes that Arizona is one of 10 states where it can help pass marijuana-legalization laws, such as the one in Colorado, by 2017. The Phoenix New Times has the full story.
| Wikimedia commons/D. Ramey Logan. |
Long Beach city leaders have decided to allow medical marijuana collectives in the city and are working on a draft ordinance that would regulate the centers
Long Beach City Council unanimously voted on Tuesday to create laws allowing for the centers, which have been ousted from Long Beach over the last year thanks to a citywide ban. A group seeking to overturn that ban lost an appeal to a federal judge on Monday, leaving city council as one of the last options to increase cannabis access in the city.
The Colorado Department of Revenue has released its set of rules for the soon-to-be recreational marijuana industry. And there are a lot of them. The document is 144 pages long.
Much of the language in the doc is taken from existing medical marijuana rules in Colorado (which also got an update this week) including when and how cannabis can be sold and who can own and operate marijuana dispensaries. Denver Westword has my local coverage as well as a copy of the rules.
Update – 9/12/13: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Tuesday signed a bill into law that makes it a little easier for parents to access medical cannabis for their sick children in that state. This is the second time this bill has made it’s way to the governor’s office, with Christie rejecting the first version in August because he said increased too much access.
“I’m pleased the legislature accepted my recommendations so that suffering children can get the treatment they need,” Christie said in a statement. “I’ve said all along that protection of our children remains my utmost concern, and this new law will help sick kids access the program while also keeping in place appropriate safeguards. Parents, not government regulators, are best suited to decide how to care for their children, and this law advances that important principle.”
A San Francisco lawmaker has introduced legislation in California that would create statewide regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries for the first time. Currently, medical collectives are governed by local municipalities, which recently won the right to ban the centers outright in the state supreme court.
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano says the bill will help the state stave off federal raids, pointing to the recent memo released by U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole that asks federal prosecutors to respect state marijuana rights in states with robust regulatory systems in place. Ammiano doesn’t have much time to get Assembly Bill 604 passed this session, though, as Sept. 13 is the last day for each house to pass bills according to the state legislative calendar.
| Laketta Ransom. |
It’s 3 a.m. You’re driving around a Dallas suburb hot-boxing your car when the cops pull you over for a minor traffic violation. Smoke billows from the window as the officer approaches. The smell of marijuana is unmistakable. What do you do?
NORML, the national pot-advocacy group, has a handy primer on its website, also printable as a wallet-sized “Freedom Card”, that gives some tips. Hide the weed, as well as any paraphernalia; refuse any warrantless search of your person; be polite, and don’t physically resist. Laketta Ransom, 38, carries no such card in her purse. Dallas Observer has the full, ridiculous tale.
| Sen. Patrick Leahy. |
Sen. Patrick Leahy yesterday pushed for historic strides in federal marijuana policy, including remedying banking conflicts and getting further assurance from federal prosecutors that states with legal marijuana laws enacted would be allowed to move forward with regulations and taxes.
“The absolute criminalization of personal marijuana use has contributed to our nation’s soaring prison population and has disproportionately affected people of color,” Leahy said at the hearing.
Washington D.C. City Council member David Grosso says he plans to submit a recreational legalization measure before city leaders September 17 when the council returns from summer recess.
Grosso’s plan – which is similar to laws passed in Colorado last year – would legalize and regulate the sale, cultivation and possession of limited amounts of cannabis in the nation’s capital. The announcement comes on the heels of a decriminalization measure proposed in June that would make an ounce or less a $100 fine instead of a criminal offense has ten of the 13 council member’s support.