Legislation

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Garden Supply Sales Down After Med Marijuana Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 15, 2011 Growing, Legislation, Medical

David Dayton, Heightened Harvests: “A lot of it is related to what’s happening with the news lately”

Montana’s medical marijuana system is set to begin a new, extremely restrictive phase, and cultivators and dispensaries aren’t the only businesses affected by the crackdown.

Owners at Heightened Harvests said they’ve seen a drop in demand for indoor growing equipment since Senate Bill 423 passed, reports Kyle Midura at KULR 8. The store specializes in indoor gardening supplies.

Store owner David Dayton said hardware sales, especially of grow lights, are down. “Indoor gardening typically is a big slower in the summer and it usually picks up in the fall, but a lot of it is related to what’s happening with the laws lately,” Dayton said.

Connecticut Marijuana Decrim Kicks In On July 1

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 14, 2011 Legislation, News

Photo: a public defender

If you have less than half an ounce of weed, you’ll get a fine, much as with a traffic ticket, after July 1.

Connecticut’s new medical marijuana decriminalization law takes effect on July 1. Current laws remain in effect through the end of June, which means you could possibly still get arrested and thrown in jail for any amount of pot.

The decrim law only applies to amounts under half an ounce, reports Sam Tracy at the Hartford Advocate. While the bill started out with a one-ounce limit, that got lowered to half an ounce during the legislative process.

“And to get real technical about it, it’s amounts under half 1/2 an ounce, meaning if you have exactly .5 ounces on you, you can still get arrested,” Tracy writes. “Word is, police are now going to have certified scales in their cars, and will be measuring the amounts they confiscate to decide if it’s a ticket or an arrest.”

Portland, Maine Could Make Marijuana Busts Lowest Priority

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 14, 2011 Legislation, News

Graphic: Sensible Portland

Could Portland become Potland? Enforcement of marijuana laws will become the lowest priority for police in Portland, Maine, if supporters of a petition drive are successful.

Under the proposal being circulated by Sensible Portland, police would refrain from arresting or even fining anyone 21 or older for possession of marijuana or paraphernalia, reports Ann S. Kim at the The Portland Press Herald. Police would also be directed to refrain from trying to even find out whether someone has cannabis or paraphernalia.

The proposed ordinance is in line with the values of a community that has supported Maine’s medical marijuana laws, according to John Eder, spokesman and organizer for Sensible Portland.

The eagerness of those who sign the petition and other anecdotal evidence indicate that Portland residents don’t want police wasting resources pursuing people with small amounts of pot, Eder said.

Oregon May Double Medical Marijuana Card Fees

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 13, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Graphic: Medical Marijuana Hut

Budget-strapped Oregon lawmakers may have decided to tap the state’s popular medical marijuana program for an estimated $7 million to fund other health programs, doubling the annual fee charged medical marijuana patients from $100 to $200.

If there’s a silver lining to that cloud, it’s the fact that in so doing, the legislators have also decided to reject a whole pile of bills that would have made it much harder for people in the state to get a medical marijuana card. Some members of Oregon’s medical marijuana community, even as they cry foul at the doubling of patient fees, believe it may move the state one step closer to their goal of bringing medicinal cannabis into the mainstream economy, reports Jonathan J. Cooper at CNBC.

“It’s not good for patients,” said Christine McGarvin, a member of the state’s Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee. “I do appreciate the politics of it.”

Colorado Medical Marijuana Regulators Helping Bust Grow Sites

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 13, 2011 Growing, Legislation, News

Photo: Cannabis Therapy Institute

The MMED’s new logo. Whoever thought they’d see a law enforcement badge with the words “medical marijuana” on it? Just in case we forget how they look at medical marijuana patients and providers, it has ‘CRIMINAL’ right up at the top and center.

Colorado medical marijuana regulators have partnered up with local law enforcement to help cities shut down what they say are illegal commercial cannabis cultivation sites and prosecute those running them.

As the only state with medical marijuana regulations allowing companies to profit from selling cannabis, Colorado has adopted strict business licensing requirements, reports the Associated Press, making it easier for law enforcement to find, raid, and prosecute marijuana cultivators.

The Legislature passed a law last year, HB 1284, requiring a special marijuana business license for dispensaries, cultivators, and cannabis-infused product manufacturers. Under a constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2000, medical marijuana patients had to be registered with the state, but businesses providing it had not been required to register until the new law passed.

WA Supreme Court: You Can Be Fired For Medical Cannabis

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 10, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: LawyersandSettlements.com

If you live in Washington state, it doesn’t even matter if medical marijuana is legal. You can be fired for using it — even legally — even if only if your off hours.

Employers in Washington state are allowed to fire employees who fail a drug test, even if they have a valid medical marijuana authorization, the state Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

The court ruled that TeleTech Customer Care, a Colorado-based company that handles customer service for Sprint from its facility in Bremerton, Washington, was allowed to fire a woman for failing its required drug test, even though she is a legal medical marijuana patient, reports J.B. Wogan at the Seattle Times.

The plaintiff was pulled out of her training class after just a week and fired on the spot on October 18, 2006, because she failed a pre-employment drug screen. She had a valid medical marijuana authorization from her doctor, and sued under the name Jane Roe.

Arizona AG Worked With Anti-Marijuana Leader On Lawsuit

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 9, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Photo: James King/Phoenix New Times

Whack-job Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne started working on a nefarious plan to stop medical marijuana almost as soon as voters had approved it last November.

Elected state officials busily working to defeat the will of their state’s own voters — it’s an unseemly spectacle, and it’s unfolding as we speak in Arizona. Making the entire scene even more ugly is the fact that seriously ill patients are needless suffering as a result.

Within weeks of Arizona voters approving medical marijuana in their state, the top law enforcement official in the state was devising ways to stymie the will of the people. Whack-job Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne discussed a plan to launch legal action agains the state’s medical marijuana law during a January meeting with the law’s biggest opponent, it has been revealed.

Carolyn Short, who led last year’s unsuccessful campaign to stop Proposition 203, which legalized medical marijuana in Arizona, refers to the meeting in a February 16 letter [PDF] to state Department of Health Services Director Will Humble, reports Ray Stern at Phoenix New Times:

“It’s Really A Bummer”: Mayor Orders Pot Dispensaries To Close

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 9, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Photo: BG Organics

The negative effects continue to mutiply after Washington Governor Christine Gregoire’s gutting of a bill that would have legalized dispensaries in the state.

Kent, Washington Mayor Suzette Cook said she is in favor of medical marijuana. In a statement issued on Tuesday, she said she supported the state’s medical marijuana law when it was approved by voters in 1998, and that she “sympathizes” with cancer patients and others who rely on cannabis for medicinal purposes. But following Gov. Gregoire’s gutting of SB 5073, which would have allowed dispensaries, Cooke and her administration felt they had no choice but to tell the four dispensaries in town to close their doors.

Governor: R.I. Marijuana Dispensaries On ‘Difficult Ground’

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 8, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: Business Insider

Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee said dispensaries will be on “difficult ground” until federal pot laws change

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee said medical marijuana dispensaries like those planned for his state will face challenges as long as the federal government takes a hard line on cannabis.

Chafee, an independent, put on hold a plan to license three dispensaries to sell marijuana to patients after the state’s U.S. Attorney warned in April that doing so could violate federal law, reports the Associated Press.

Now Gov. Chafee said state and federal officials should find “common ground” on the question of dispensaries. Last week Attorney General Eric Holder visited Rhode Island and promised to clarify the federal government’s position on medicinal cannabis.

Connecticut Becomes 14th State To Decriminalize Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 8, 2011 Legislation, News

Photo: More Cool Pictures

Connecticut’s lawmakers voted on Tuesday to make Connecticut the 14th state to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, and Governor Dannel P. Malloy has promised to sign the bill.

After about three hours of debate, it passed the House 90 to 57. Over the weekend, the 18-18 tie in the state Senate had been broken by Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, her first and only vote during the session, reports Mary E. O’Leary at the New Haven Register.

Supporters argued that treating the possession of less than a half-ounce of marijuana as in infraction with a $150 fine, rather than as a criminal misdemeanor, will free up prosecutors, public defenders, probation officers and other court officials to deal with serious crime.

Connecticut is only the second state to enact decrim legislatively in the past decade, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). (Massachusetts enacted a similar law via ballot initiave in 2009.)

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