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Competing weed initiatives in FL have local Democrats at war with themselves

By Jack Daniel on February 14, 2014 Follow that story, Legislation, Medical

“Joe is a freshman legislator in a Republican-controlled house, so he’s got zero juice to get anything done.” So says John Morgan, an Orlando-based attorney and cannabis reform advocate.
The “Joe” he is referring to is Florida state congressman Joe Saunders (D- Orlando), who recently filed House Bill 859, which if passed, would skip right past the voters in Florida, making legal medical marijuana the law of the land.

Morgan, who has personally raised $4,000,000 in an effort to get a similar piece of legislation before Florida voters this November, calls Saunders’ plan nothing more than a publicity stunt.

Ongoing US cannabis reform causing ripples worldwide

By Jack Daniel on February 13, 2014 Follow that story, Global, Legalize It

Whether it is blue jeans, or Blue Dream, what happens in America, rarely stays in America. When states across the nation began shifting towards medical marijuana legislation, the rest of the world barely blinked.
But once Colorado and Washington took the plunge into full recreational pot legalization, the South American country of Uruguay followed suit, and now the dominoes of worldwide marijuana reform have begun to tumble.

18 U.S. Congressmen asking President Obama to reclassify marijuana

By Jack Daniel on February 13, 2014 Follow that story, Legalize It, News

Congressman Raul Grijalva, a southern Arizona Democrat, has joined 17 other congressmen in asking that President Obama to help reclassify marijuana in the federal drug “scheduling.”
Marijuana is a Schedule I substance at the federal level, which the Justice Department describes as the “most dangerous” drugs that have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” alongside LSD and heroin.
The Schedule I drugs generally are associated with higher penalties. For example, trafficking between 50 and 99 kilograms of pot calls for a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. A first-time offender caught with any amount of a Schedule III drug — which includes certain prescription painkillers, ketamine, and anabolic steroids, among other things — is supposed to serve a maximum of 10 years.

Although Obama himself can’t just reorganize the drug scheduling himself, the 18 lawmakers — mostly Democrats — have asked Obama to instruct Attorney General Eric Holder to use his authority to reclassify marijuana.
Our buds over at the Phoenix New Times have more on this groundbreaking development

University’s Cannabis Genome Research Initiative takes pot science to new heights

By Jack Daniel on February 13, 2014 Follow that story, Legalize It, News

Due to its notorious status, marijuana has often been left behind as science moves forward with the study of botany. But much of that has changed with the passage of Amendment 64.

Phillip Poston/Westword

“Despite the fact that cannabis is one of the most valuable and historically important crop species, we know comparatively little about the plant,” says Nolan Kane, a member of the University of Colorado Boulder’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology, who is heading up the Cannabis Genome Research Initiative.
With this project, Kane intends to map the marijuana genome, creating a more sophisticated knowledge of its DNA makeup and history — a treatment that other plants like corn and soybeans have enjoyed for a few years.
Our friends over at Denver Westword have all of the details on this fascinating technology.

Medical Marijuana in FL: Miamians Predict “Bob Marley Fest Every Day”

By Jack Daniel on February 13, 2014 Culture, Follow that story, Medical

Miami New Times

Is Florida ready for medical marijuana? Well, yeah actually. The latest polls show that seven in ten statewide support legalized weed for various ailments, and supporters have gathered enough signatures to put the question on November’s ballot. One way or another, loosened mary jane restrictions seem coming to the Sunshine State.
But everyone knows Miami rocks to its own beat on just about every statewide issue. How’s the average Magic City resident feel about medical marijuana?
Miami New Times’ Kathryn Sotolongo took a trip to Bayfront Park to find out.

Washington state lawmakers seek to place a ban on cities banning pot shops

By Jack Daniel on February 12, 2014 Dispensaries, Follow that story, Say what?

Both Colorado and Washington made history in 2012 by becoming the first two states to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults. But while Colorado-based pot shops have been raking in mile-high profits since implementing the new laws at the beginning of this year, folks in Washington are still waiting for the green light to begin their own green rush.

But not everyone in Washington is excited about the controversial new industry coming to their neck of the woods. Nearly three dozen of the state’s 75 largest cities, towns, and municipalities have scrambled to enact ordinances, restrictions, and outright bans to keep any eventual recreational weed stores from opening up in their neighborhood.
As covered by local KING 5 News, a new bill (HB 2144) is in the works that would effectively place a ban on any future bans on pot shops, and it has some city officials hot under the collar.

As CT pushes ahead with pot, prohibitionists predictably pull the fear card

By Jack Daniel on February 11, 2014 Follow that story, Legalize It, Legislation

Last month, the Connecticut state Department of Consumer Protection granted the first four licenses for marijuana producers, and they plan to award up to five additional licenses for marijuana sellers by the end of next month. With cannabis already decriminalized in the state, and a heavy liberal bias in the region politically, one may wonder what is taking medical marijuana so long.

Neeta Lind/Flickr

The grow facilities will be considered “pharmaceutical manufacturers” by the state, with all medication produced being put through a mandatory testing process before it gets to the dispensaries. Once on the shelves, sellers will be subject to incredibly strict regulations aimed directly at preventing diversion of medical marijuana to the black market in the state.
Still, with some of the nation’s most strict regulations in place, the usual suspects are screaming from the rooftops that allowing any medical marijuana in Connecticut is going to pose a huge risk for…wait for it…”the kids”.

Marijuana tourism is getting mainstream hype whether state officials like it or not

By Jack Daniel on February 11, 2014 Culture, Follow that story

As we’ve noted, official tourism agencies in Colorado continue to keep marijuana at arm’s length, as it were. For instance, a VISIT DENVER list of things the city has in common with Seattle, released prior to the Super Bowl, somehow managed to skip legal pot entirely.

Not that the media has needed much prodding to promote such trips. A recent CBS feature on the subject has now been supplemented by a hefty Washington Post spread that even includes a “vocabulary lesson for pot tourists.”
Click over to Denver Westword where Michael Roberts has the rest of the story.

Colorado universities can now legally grow hemp for research — but will they?

By Jack Daniel on February 11, 2014 Follow that story, Growing, Hemp

VH Hammer

Colleges and universities in Colorado and other states where industrial hemp is legal are now allowed to grow the crop for research purposes, thanks to a provision in the Farm Bill signed into law on Friday by President Obama. The provision, which was originally introduced as an amendment by Colorado Representative Jared Polis, defines hemp as separate from marijuana — and could give the fledgling industry the scientific boost it needs to get off the ground.
So will Colorado universities start studying cannabis?
Melanie Asmar gets to the root of the story over at Denver Westword

City of Aurora, CO may require $400K in cash to open retail pot shops

By Jack Daniel on February 5, 2014 Dispensaries, Follow that story, Legislation

When Colorado passed Amendment 64 in 2012, cities across the state were given until October 1st, 2013, to have their own individual rules put in place to regulate the inevitable wave of recreational retail pot shops.
Aurora, Colorado, the third largest city in the state, has no legal medical marijuana storefronts, and feeling the pressure of the impending deadline for recreational stores, enacted a moratorium of up to one year on the opening of any retail outlets either. That was in May of last year.
Since then, the spitballing City Council and the Ad Hoc A64 Committee have made some rather far-fetched proposals to get in on the lucrative legal weed market, even proposing that the city grow and sell its own! But their latest proposal may be the most ludicrous one to date.

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