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Browsing: Legislation

MT Could Outlaw Driving Up To 25 Days After Smoking Pot

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By on Legislation, Medical

Montana Medical Grower’s Association

​The Montana House Judiciary Committee will meet Wednesday to discuss DUI legislation, House Bill 33, sponsored by Republican Ken Peterson, which provides that any amount of a “dangerous drug” in a driver’s body results in the conclusion that the person is impaired.

While the bill stipulates that if the drug has been prescribed by a licensed physician and taken as prescribed, the driver is not guilty of violating the law, it fails to include physician recommendations for medical marijuana.
The bill thus fails to provide appropriate protection for patients, according to Jim Gingery, executive director of the Montana Medical Grower’s Association.
“To exclude those drivers who are taking prescribed pharmaceuticals while omitting patients who are using a recommended alternative treatment is not in the best interest of the public nor is the assumption of impairment without proper testing,” Gingery said.
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Washington Might Extend Protections To Marijuana Patients

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By on Legislation, Medical

Artwork: Jimmy Wheeler
The late Jimmy Wheeler, a medical marijuana patient in Washington, created this artwork. Washington patients could finally get the arrest protection they seek if a bill that would do just that passes the Legislature.

​Medical marijuana patients in Washington could have protection from arrest if the Legislature passes a bill reforming the 1998 voter-approved law authorizing use of cannabis for some terminal and debilitating illnesses.

I know what you’re thinking. “Shouldn’t they ALREADY have arrest protection if medical marijuana is legal for them to use?”
Yes. Yes, they should.
Although the law has been in place for more than 12 years, many patients complain they are still harassed by police, said Sen. Jerome Delvin (R-Richland), a co-sponsor of the Senate of the Senate version of the bill, reports Michelle Dupler at the Tri-City Herald.
Delvin pushed for the bill to include a voluntary patient registry that would provide medical marijuana patients a card they can show to police rather than submitting to searches of their homes or property.
“It allows us to know what’s going on out there,” said Delvin, a former Richland police officer who retired in 2006. “It gives law enforcement an easier tool. They can have confidence in the registry. If someone has a card — case closed.”
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Supreme Court Looks At Smell-Based Home Searches For Pot

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: britannica.com/Salem News

​Can Police Can Kick Down Your Door If They Smell Pot? Some Justices Think So

Police smelling marijuana coming from behind an apartment door can enter the home without a warrant if they believe the evidence is being destroyed, some U.S. Supreme Court Justices said on Wednesday.
More than 60 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police couldn’t enter a residence without a warrant just because they smelled burning opium, reports Adam Liptak at The New York Times.
On Wednesday, during the argument of a case about what police were entitled to do upon smelling marijuana outside the door of a Kentucky apartment, two justices were concerned that the Court may be ready to eviscerate the 1948 ruling which stemmed from a Seattle case.
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Federal Request For Michigan Patient Info Raises Privacy Issues

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Graphic: MJ Dispensaries of Southern California

​Medical marijuana proponents in Michigan say confidentiality of patient records is at risk if the federal government can obtain state-compiled records as part of a federal witch hunt, I mean “drug investigation.”

“It would set a pretty significant precedent against patient privacy rights,” said Kris Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access (ASA), reports John Agar of The Grand Rapids Press. “It’s not just a problem in Michigan, it’s all over the country.”

The Michigan state agency that collects confidential medical marijuana patient information will comply with a federal request for access to its records if ordered to do so by a judge, the state said in court filings.

ASA had planned to protest Wednesday morning outside of U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids — where the federal government’s request was to be heard — but the protest was canceled when the hearing was postponed by a last-minute filing from the Michigan Association of Compassion Clubs (MACC).
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Washington Legislature To Debate Expanded Medical Cannabis Law

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Graphic: THC Finder

​A coalition of lawmakers in the Washington House and Senate has introduced legislation seeking to expand the state’s 12-year-old medical marijuana law and create greater legal protections for authorized patients, providers, and caregivers.

Senate Bill 5073 and House Bill 1100 seek to provide state licensing to medical marijuana producers and dispensaries in order to assure that qualified patients “will have access to an adequate, safe, consistent, and secure source of medical quality cannabis.”
The proposed laws do not in any way alter or amend patients’ existing rights to possess up to 24 ounces of marijuana for medical purposes, and cultivate up to 15 cannabis plants.
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AR Legislator: Medical Marijuana Bill Should Be Filed In House

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By on Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Arkansans For Medical Cannabis

​​An Arkansas state senator who previously said he expected to file a bill this year to legalize medical marijuana in Arkansas now says the bill should be filed in the state House, not the Senate.

“My thinking at this point is that the bill should probably start at the House end,” said Sen. Randy Laverty (D-Jasper) in the Capitol rotunda, where the group Arkansans for Medical Cannabis was launching a two-day program to promote legalizing marijuana for medicinal uses.
“I think perhaps the bigger challenge will be on the House end,” Laverty said. “Do we [in the Senate]want to devote a lot of time and enter into the fray that will come about naturally because of this kind of controversial legislation if we can’t get it out of House committee?”
Laverty said he’d talked to some House members about the issue, but would not name names, reports John Lyon of the Arkansas News Bureau. The chances of a medical marijuana bill getting through a House committee may vary, depending upon the committee to which it is assigned by the House speaker, according to Laverty.
“My guess would be Public Health” would be the committee most favorably inclined toward it, Laverty said.
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Major Medical Marijuana Reforms Introduced In WA Legislature

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: freepress.net
Washington State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles: “Creating a statutory and regulatory structure for licensing growers and dispensaries will allow us to provide for an adequate, safe, consistent, and secure source of the medicine for qualifying patients”

​New legislation to provide clarity and a stronger legal framework for Washington’s existing medical marijuana laws was introduced in the Legislature on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 5073 and House Bill 1100, introduced by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle and Rep. Jim Moeller (D-Vancouver), would establish a regulatory system for the sale and purchase of medical marijuana by qualifying patients. Current law, established under voter-approved I-692 in 1998, permits patients with specified terminal or debilitating medical conditions to grow medical marijuana for personal use or designate a provider to grow on their behalf.
Under the new bill, the Department of Agriculture would develop regulations through a public rule-making process for growing medical marijuana. Patients would be permitted to buy medical marijuana products from dispensers licensed by the Department of Health or by taking part in a regulated patient collective.
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Medical Marijuana Challenge Turned Away By CO Supreme Court

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Graphic: Patient and Caregiver Rights Litigation Project

​Colorado’s Supreme Court has refused to hear a sweeping challenge to the state’s new medical marijuana laws.

The Court turned down — only five days after it was filed — a request by marijuana advocates to hear arguments on whether parts of those laws violate the constitutional amendment that made medical marijuana legal in Colorado in 2000 after being approved by voters.
The pending rules violate patient privacy because of a requirement that dispensaries record medical marijuana sales on video, according to patients and advocates who mounted the challenge. The patients also argue that the laws wrongly give local cities and counties the ability to ban dispensaries.
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Medical Marijuana Battle Gets Personal For Maryland Legislator

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By on Legislation, Medical

Photo: yasni.de
Maryland State Senator Jamie Raskin: “Politicians should not get in the way of people getting the medical relief they need”

​Just weeks after a bill to legalize medical marijuana in Maryland failed last spring, the state senator who sponsored the legislation — Jamie B. Raskin of Montgomery County — found himself with a very personal perspective on the issue.

His doctor told him he had a “worrisome” mass the size of a golf ball in his colon. Raskin, 48, learned four days later he had cancer, reports Ann E. Marimow at The Washington Post.
“Public health is now personal for me,” Raskin said. “I know what it means for people to be living on the absolute edge of hope and despair, and politicians should not get in the way of people getting the medical relief they need.”
Raskin, a Democrat, will be a leading voice on several issues during the legislative session, according to the Post, but when he talks about medical marijuana he’ll add a compelling personal story to the debate over whether Maryland should join 15 other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing cannabis for medicinal use.
Raskin said he didn’t consider medical marijuana during his chemotherapy because of a family history of asthma and cystic fibrosis. But he insists that he and his fellow legislators should work “to relieve suffering.” Medical marijuana, according to proponents and patients, can ease pain and nausea and stimulate appetite for those suffering from cancer, HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
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Arizona’s New Medical Marijuana Rules Still Up In The Air

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: The Huffington Post
The next public comment period for implementation of Arizona’s medical marijuana law begins January 31 and is open until February 18.

​How, exactly, will Arizona’s new medical marijuana law — narrowly approved by state voters in last November’s election — play out? Nobody seems quite sure, as some law enforcement aspects have yet to be spelled out, and lawmakers are not quite ready to spell out just how police will deal with violators.

Determining standards for driving under the influence of marijuana is one issue currently at the forefront of the new law, according to Lake Havasu City Police Chief Dan Doyle, reports Jayne Hanson of the Havasu News-Herald.
“There is no threshold for drugs,” Doyle said. “We have a test for alcohol. But there is no threshold for marijuana.”
Another iffy scenario is possession of cannabis.
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