The world’s smallest island nation is banning alcohol and legalizing cannabis. Members of the Nauruan Parliament approved a measure legalizing the sales, cultivation, use and possession of marijuana for adults on the island with a fifteen to four vote.
Nauru now joins Uruguay as one of the two nations to outright legalize the plant. Government offiials say the hope to boost travel to the extremely remote island, which has been almost entirely decimated by 50 years of phosphate strip mining.
Virginia is for medical marijuana lovers, with 84 percent of registered voters polled in a recent Quinnipiac University Polling Institute study saying they want legal access for sick Virginians.
But support for medical marijuana doesn’t equal support for the recreational use of cannabis, with 46 percent of people in the same poll agreeing that adult use be tolerated. That could shift in the next few years, however. Seventy-one percent of voters aged 18 to 29 said they want to legalize cannabis.
| Phil Konstantin |
| San Ysidro Border Crossing By Phil Konstantin |
As the busiest land border crossing in the world, the U.S./Mexico border checkpoint at San Ysidro in California has seen its fair share of smuggling attempts. But to this day, the stop and seizure of a van stuffed with four tons of marijuana back in 2002 remains as one of the largest weed busts on record at the bustling international checkpoint.
The discovery was made as the van was just a few car lengths away from a successful border crossing, in the lane of a seasoned Border Protection inspector by the name of Lorne “Hammer” Jones. Long respected among his peers as the last line of defense on our nation’s southern border, Lorne Jones, it turns out, had spent over a decade working in cahoots with powerful Mexican drug cartels, repeatedly waving through vehicles he knew to be loaded with illegal drugs, or illegal aliens.
No one seriously believes anymore in the Reefer Madness depiction of marijuana use, in which this new-fangled devil weed transforms otherwise upstanding teenagers into murderous sociopaths. Even some otherwise staunch social conservatives (e.g. Texas Gov. Rick Perry) are beginning to embrace some degree of decriminalization as a fair and necessary step toward a fair and rational criminal justice system.
Yet there is a lingering strain of thought that full or partial legalization will inevitably bring a corresponding increase in crime. Not so, says UT Dallas criminology professor Robert Morris, the lead author of a just-published study of crime rates in states that have legalized medical marijuana.
The New Hampshire House pulled an about-face last night, axing a bill they crafted that would have legalized limited amounts of cannabis possession, sales and cultivation for adults 21 and up.
Backers of the California Cannabis Hemp Initiative have been given the go-ahead from the state to begin collecting the required 504,760 signatures needed to get their legalization bill before voters this fall.
If approved, the measure – dubbed the Jack Herer Initiative — would legalize cannabis use for adults 21 and up, allow for licensed and taxed cannabis retail sales, loosen restrictions on doctors recommending medical cannabis for minors, restrict drug testing for pot by employers and forbid any state funds from going toward enforcement of federal marijuana laws. But that’s a big “if”. The signatures must be collected by Aug. 18, and that’s not going to be cheap or easy to achieve.
| VoteKaleka.org |
| Amardeep Singh Kaleka |
Amardeep Singh Kaleka didn’t see politics in his future five years ago, nor did the Indian-American filmmaker think he would become a face for the compassionate use of cannabis. The Wisconsin-raised Kaleka instead was focusing on an Emmy-award winning career. But all of that changed in 2012 when his father, founder of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, was gunned down along with five others by a white supremacist that had entered the temple apparently in an attempt to start a holy war.
In his grief, Kaleka – living in California at the time – turned to medical cannabis to help his anxiety, panic-attacks and complete lack of appetite that comes with the tragic loss of a loved one.
The language of an Arkansas ballot initiative that would legalize limited cannabis use, sales and cultivation was shot down by Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel for being to ambiguous this week, forcing supporters back to the drawing board. Read the entire proposal below.
| New Jersey state Sen. Nicholas Scutari. |
New Jersey is wasting millions of dollars on the enforcement marijuana laws and blowing millions in tax revenue that could be generated if the plant was taxed and regulated. Because of that, New Jersey state Sen. Nicholas Scutari says that New Jersey should follow the lead of Colorado and legalize the use, sales and cultivation of limited amounts of cannabis for adults 21 and up.
Of course, as long as Chris “Tollbooth” Christie is in office, actually getting the measure passed and signed into law is a very long shot.
| Ray Stern. |
Arizonans who want to fight marijuana prohibition in this state have two strong allies in powerful positions: State Senator Kimberly Yee and Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk.
Like would-be leaders of a modern-day women’s temperance movement, the two Arizona politicians share a strong belief that cannabis users deserve to be jailed, and that the legalization movement sweeping the country should be literally nipped in the buds.