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Browsing: Legislation

Washington: New Marijuana Legalization Drive In February

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: Sensible Washington
New cannabis legalization petitions should start circulating in February 2011 in Washington state.

​By William Budz, Guest Author
While a marijuana decriminalization initiative does not appear on the 2010 Washington state ballot, issue supporters say 2011 is a whole new bag. The Sensible Washington campaign plans to file its new initiative, which was recently endorsed by NORML, in January 2011 and circulate it in February.
Many pro-cannabis voters were disheartened earlier this year when they heard that I-1068, an initiative that would have removed state civil and criminal penalties for persons 18 years or older who cultivate, possess, transport, sell, or use marijuana, had failed to generate enough signatures to make it onto the 2010 ballot.
Philip Dawdy, vice-chair of Sensible Washington, the organization which backed I-1068, said while the campaign anticipated that money and volunteers would be challenges, they never expected to have to battle Mother Nature.
“It was the weather that was truly our biggest obstacle,” Dawdy said. “We had a very wet May and June (the months when most signatures get gathered by any campaign) and it became a struggle to turn out signature gatherers in tough weather.”
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President: Prop 19 Could Change Colombia’s Drug Policy

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By on Global, Legislation, News

Photo: follow the money
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos: “Tell me if there is a way to explain to a Colombian peasant that if he produces marijuana we are going to put him in jail… [while]the same product is legal [in California]”

​Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has said that if Proposition 19 passes next week in California, legalizing marijuana in the state, it could force his country to rethink its drug policies.

“Tell me if there is a way to explain to a Colombian peasant that if he produces marijuana we are going to put him in jail… [while]the same product is legal [in California],” President Santos said, reports All Headline News. “That’s going to produce a comprehensive discussion on the approach we have taken on the fight against drug trafficking.”
Just a couple of months ago, Santos endorsed the call for a debate on drug legalization made by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, reports Juan Carlos Hidalgo at Cato @ Liberty. However, Santos also said he believes legalization would increase consumption of drugs, despite the fact that it hasn’t happened in countries with liberal drug policies such as Portugal.
Santos brought up the subject again on Tuesday at a Latin American presidential summit in Cartagena, Colombia. “If we don’t act in a consistent way on this issue, if all we are doing is to send our fellow citizens to jail while in other latitudes the market is being legalized, then we have to ask ourselves: Isn’t it time to review the global strategy against drugs?” he asked.
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Oregon: Big Names Line Up For And Against Pot Dispensaries

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation

Graphic: Oregon Measure 74

​Oregon voters may notice this election that some big names are supporting Measure 74, a voter initiative that would approve state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.

Radio listeners on Monday heard a new ad with the voice of former Portland mayor and police chief, Tom Potter, supporting the measure, reports Dan Tilkin at KATU News.
“But I do support Measure 74,” Potter says in the radio ad. “It regulates medical marijuana. That change is overdue. Since medical marijuana is legal, we need to regulate it.”
The measure would allow authorized patients to buy cannabis, so that they would no longer have to either grow their own, rely on a personal grower, or count on other patients with extra medical marijuana.
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S.D. Highway Patrol Electioneering Against Medical Marijuana?

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: KELOLAND.com
The South Dakota Highway Patrol isn’t officially allowed to interfere with elections. But they found a way around the rule.

​South Dakota’s medical marijuana initiative, Measure 13, is fending off a new foe: the state’s Highway Patrol.

The South Dakota Highway Patrol saved “news” about marijuana busts from the summer — supposedly related to “out of state medical marijuana” — to release two weeks before the election, Michael Whitney of JustSayNow.com told Toke of the Town on Wednesday.
“It certainly looks like the South Dakota Highway Patrol is interfering with the state’s medical marijuana ballot initiative,” Whitney told us Wednesday afternoon.
“Just Say Now is working with Measure 13’s campaign to fight back,” Whitney said.
Measure 13, which would legalize the medicinal use of cannabis in South Dakota for patients with a doctor’s authorization, is in a tight race going down to the wire on November 2.
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Medical Marijuana Bill Could Re-Emerge In Maryland

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By on Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Medical Marijuana Blog

​Republican state Senator David Brinkley wants to renew efforts to legalize medical marijuana in Maryland. Brinkley said if he is reelected, he will introduce a bill that would not only protect medical marijuana patients from arrest, but would also address the issue of providing authorized patients with safe access to cannabis, rather than forcing them to obtain it on the black market.

A similar bill passed the Maryland Senate last session, but failed in the House of Delegates, reports Arlene Borenstein at NBC Washington.
Defendants charged with use or possession of marijuana can argue medical need as a mitigating factor in their sentencing under Maryland’s current “affirmative defense” law. But judges can still fine patients $100, even if medical necessity is proven.
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N.J. Governor, Legislator Spar Over Medical Marijuana Rules

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Jeffrey L. Weinstein, Attorney at Law
N.J. State Sen. Nicholas Scutari: Gov. Christie’s proposed rules “unreasonably limit the supply of, and reduce qualifying patients’ access to medical marijuana”

​A sponsor of New Jersey’s medical marijuana law on Monday introduced a resolution that would repeal what he called “restrictive” proposed rules for the program if Gov. Chris Christie does not make them at least resemble the original legislation.

“Many of the rules are not only burdensome and unnecessary, but they propose amendments to the new law, not merely regulations to enact it,” wrote Ken Wolski, a registered nurse who is also executive director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New Jersey (CMMNJ), on Tuesday.

Angry words were exchanged between the offices of Gov. Christie and of Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), the medical marijuana law’s sponsor, reports Susan K. Livio at NJ.com.
Behind the controversy is the Christie administration’s decision to license just two growers statewide, to supply just four dispensaries from which cannabis could be sold. Dispensary owners could apply and pay an additional fee to open one satellite location each, according to the proposed rules.
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Former U.S. Surgeon General Supports Marijuana Legalization

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By on Legislation, News

Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders said Sunday that she supports legalizing marijuana.

“What I think is horrible about all of this, is that we criminalize young people,” Elders said, reports CNN. “And we use so many of our excellent resources… for things that aren’t really causing any problems.”
Californians vote in two weeks on Proposition 19, a ballot initiative to legalize, regulate and tax cannabis. The measure would effectively legalize adult recreational marijuana use in the state, though federal officials including Attorney General Eric Holder have claimed they would continue to enforce marijuana laws in California even if voters approve the initiative.
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WA Patients To Protest Marijuana Dispensary Ban Tuesday Night

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation

Graphic: Cannabis Defense Coalition

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Graphic: CDC

​Medical cannabis providers in Tacoma, Washington, were served with cease and desist notices by the city on Friday, a major escalation in what activists are calling the city’s war on medical marijuana.

Most of Tacoma’s dozen or more medical marijuana providers, already licensed to do business in the there, received certified letters from the a city licensing agent claiming that “dispensing medical marijuana to more than one person is illegal” and demanding the dispensaries be shut down by October 24.
The letter, which is copied to several police officials, claims that failure to comply will result in fines and penalties “up to and including criminal prosecution.”
“The City of Tacoma is clearly misinterpreting state law on medical marijuana,” said Douglas Hiatt, chair of the Sensible Washington cannabis legalization initiative campaign and a longtime medical marijuana attorney.
“The city’s reading of the law is inconsistent with what Washington voters approved in 1998,” Hiatt said. “It’s also inconsistent with how the same law is read by King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg and Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes.”
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Marijuana Martyr Fights To Legalize Medicinal Pot In Tennessee

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By on Legislation, Medical



Photo: Cannabis Culture
Bernie Ellis: “If I were a rapist, the government couldn’t take my farm.”

​A public health scientist is losing his retirement, along with part of his farm, in the fight to legalize medical marijuana in Tennessee.
Bernie Ellis grew marijuana on his farm to help dull the pain from fibromyalgia and a degenerative disorder in his hip and spine. When neighbors told him about terminally ill patients in the area, he gave them free cannabis as well.
That’s until helicopters came flying over, and the federal government raided Ellis’s farm, seized 25 acres of it, and sent him to a halfway house for 18 months.
“If I were a rapist, the government couldn’t take my farm,” Ellis said in 2007. “I grew cannabis and provided it free of charge to sick people, so I run the risk of losing everything I own.
“That just doesn’t compute to me,” Ellis said.
“I don’t want to appear to be obstinate, but there’s a point at which you say enough is enough,” Ellis said. “They can’t have my home.”
Does he regret growing marijuana? “There are a number of things I regret in this experience,” he said. “I regret being naive to the process. But I do not regret using marijuana, and I do not regret helping people.”
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Atty. Gen. Holder To California: You Can’t Legalize Marijuana

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: Angry White Dude
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder: “We will vigorously enforce the [Controlled Substances Act] against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law”

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says the people of California can’t legalize and regulate marijuana. Let’s see what the people of California have to say about that on November 2.
Holder sent a letter earlier this week to former heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in which he promised that the Justice Department would continue to enforce federal marijuana laws in California — even if the state’s voters approve Proposition 19, which would make marijuana legal for all adults 21 or older and allow localities to tax and regulate the sale of cannabis.

Holder seems to have forgotten that states are the laboratories of democracy in a federal republic — and he seems to have forgotten that he’s our Attorney General, not our daddy.

“We will vigorously enforce the [Controlled Substances Act] against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law,” Holder wrote in the letter, as reported by The Associated Press.

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