| U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Virginia. |
Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Republican from Virginia, has introduced a bill this week in Congress that would reclassify the plant from a Schedule I controlled substance with no medical value according to the feds to a less restrictive Schedule II status. The move, he says, will allow doctors to legally prescribe cannabis as well as give protection to states around the country with medical laws in place.
Florida is still a long way from legalized medical marijuana. The Sheriff’s Association is waging a fierce campaign against it. The governor has hinted he might not sign any new laws on it. The conservative House has yet to take up the issue.
Yet history was made in the Florida Senate Monday, when legislators for the first time passed a bill to legalize medical pot. The bill, which would make it legal to obtain low-THC marijuana from a doctor to treat epilepsy in children, flew through the Senate with a 36-3 vote.
Yesterday, as we reported, a bill calling for post-traumatic stress disorder to be added to the conditions approved for treatment by medical marijuana came before the Colorado House committee on State, Military and Veterans Affairs. But it was rejected by a 6-5 vote.Sensible Colorado’s Brian Vicente, attorney and co-author of Amendment 64, has been fighting for this cause since at least 2010. He’s clearly frustrated by this turn of events, as well as some of the misinformation heard during testimony. But he’s not ready to give up.
“This is something Sensible Colorado has worked on for four years-plus,” Vicente notes, “and it seems that time and again, the government has acted to prevent PTSD sufferers from ready access to medical marijuana. We think the vote last night was just shameful.”
Governor Jay Nixon came to St. Louis on Friday for a ceremony celebrating the building of a dental school. And after the event, he finally addressed the topic of granting clemency to Jeff Mizanskey, the man who has been in prison for more than twenty years, serving a life without parole sentence for marijuana charges.
Well, maybe “addressed” is being a bit generous.
The Arizona Legislature adjourned last week, and despite more than 200 bills being signed into law, very few will have any effect on most people.
There were some very good proposals that didn’t pass, which probably would have made Arizona a better place to live and do business. Check out the Phoenix New times picks for 10 bills that should have passed, but didn’t.
Over the past few weeks, critics of marijuana legalization have drawn attention to several news stories they see as demonstrating the dangers of more accessible weed. First, the death of a college student and the murder of a mom were linked to marijuana edibles, and now, the local and national media is giving big play to reports about Greeley ten-year-olds who sold pot on the playground of their elementary school.
Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project and one of the main proponents for Colorado’s Amendment 64, sees such reactions as part of an age-old practice of demonizing cannabis that won’t derail the push for progressive marijuana policies here and beyond. Denver Westword has more.
The many opponents of legalized marijuana in Florida have come and gone, defeated with facts and science and the power of the people. But, like a ferocious hungry hydra looking to devour the movement at every turn, opposition continues to rear its long, scaly talons at preventing medical weed from being legalized.
The most recent — and perhaps biggest — opposition to date comes in the form of the Florida Sheriffs Association, which has launched a staunch anti-Amendment 2 campaign called “Don’t Let Florida Go to Pot.”
| Florida Gov. Rick Scott. |
Will Florida’s 2014 governor’s race become the election that was over before it even began? Ever since Governor Rick Scott’s approval ratings plummeted shortly into his tenure, rumors have floated that Charlie Crist would officially become a Democrat and trounce Scott in an election … and that seems to be what’s going to happen. Maybe.
Recent polls show Crist with a comfortable lead over Scott, but the margin has shrunk since 2013 when several polls showed him with a double digit lead. Miami New Times has more.
There’s a study that’s floating around today linking marijuana use to heart complications, with some reports saying that marijuana use is directly linkable to cardiovascular death. It’s sure to get even more traction over the next few days, but here’s a few things you should know about why this study is a load of crap.
| Benson Kua/Commons. |
Here’s the deal, Colorado, you’ve got a pretty good thing going so far what with limited amounts of pot possession and cultivation now legal. But the catch there is that you can’t be stupid with it like the grandparents of two Greeley, Colorado fourth-graders accused of selling their grandparent’s edibles and pot at school.