Toke of the Town

Browsing: Legislation

California Marijuana Arrests Remain Near Record Levels

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: The November Coalition
Near-record numbers arrested for marijuana again in 2009… Hey, California! It’s time to STOP! Kandice Hawes of Orange County NORML protests the madness.

​The next time somebody tells you Prop 19 isn’t needed because “marijuana is already practically legal in California,” call ’em on their bullshit. California reported nearly the same number of marijuana arrests in 2009 as in the previous year, which set a record all-time high for pot busts.

In 2009, there were 17,008 felony and 61,164 misdemeanor marijuana arrests in California, for a total of 78,172.
In 2008, there were 17,126 marijuana felonies and 61,388 misdemeanors, for a total of 78,514. This was the highest number of marijuana arrests since pot was decriminalized in California in 1976, according to Dale Gieringer of California NORML.
“The record is clear that the war on marijuana has failed,” Gieringer told Toke of the Town Wednesday afternoon.
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Illinois Prosecutor Says Medical Marijuana Doesn’t Exist

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By on Legislation, Medical

Photo: billymax85
Rock Island County Assistant State’s Attorney Norma Kauzlarich: “Medical marijuana is a misnomer. No such thing exists.”

​Medical marijuana is a hot topic in Illinois, which could become the next state to legalize medicinal use of the herb. But the seeming inevitability of loosening laws surrounding cannabis means that the usual suspects, i.e., law-enforcement types, are saying some really dumb things in public. And it also unfortunately means that some lazy reporters are letting them get away with it.

“Medical marijuana is a misnomer. No such thing exists,” said Norma Kauzlarich, who prosecutes drug cases as an assistant state’s attorney in Rock Island County, Ill.
“It’s marijuana — simply, plain — just marijuana,” Kauzlarich helpfully informs us, reports John David of WQAD, who could really use some brushing up on his “both sides of the story” skills.
It seems that no matter how dumb a statement reporter David’s interview subjects utter, it isn’t sufficient to kick in his repertorial instincts to ask the obvious follow-up question or to make a challenge that practically begs to be made.
Quad City Metropolitan Enforcement Group Director Chris Endress warned about the “problems generated in states like Colorado and California.”
“These pot clubs bring crime and violence,” said Endress. “We just don’t need it. It’s just not worth it.”
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Palin’s Pick For N.M. Governor Wants To End Medical Marijuana

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By on Legislation, Medical

Photo: Susan Montoya Bryan
Sarah Palin, right, greets Susana Martinez, her pick for New Mexico governor. Martinez wants to end N.M.’s medical marijuana program and take away safe access for patients.

​Sarah Palin’s pick for Governor of New Mexico, Republican Susana Martinez, vows she will work to repeal New Mexico’s medical marijuana program if she’s elected.

“I do not support distributing marijuana for any purposes, which is in violation of federal law,” Martinez told The Daily Lobo, the University of New Mexico’s student paper, last week.
“There are many other treatments for patients in need that do not break federal law,” Martinez said. Yeah, too bad those don’t work, eh, Susana?
But the Palin endorsee may not get her way. Undoing the state’s three-year-old medicinal cannabis law would not be easy, either through the Legislature or through voter referendum.
Collecting enough votes among state lawmakers to overturn the state’s medical marijuana law is a long shot, reports Trip Jennings at the New Mexico Independent.
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Anti-Marijuana Legislator’s Car Covered With Salad Dressing

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: Colorado Springs Independent
Rep. Mark Waller: “I spoke at an event about medical marijuana. My reward: ranch dressing smeared all over my car.”

​Colorado state Rep. Mark Waller claims a recent salad dressing assault on his car may have been a reprisal for his stand against medical marijuana dispensaries.

“I spoke at an event about medical marijuana,” Waller posted on Facebook of his salad dressing disaster. “My reward: ranch dressing smeared all over my car. Gotta love it!”
Mark, I suspect that wasn’t your reward simply for speaking. I would suggest, sir, it was your reward for speaking stupidly.
Rep. Waller’s latest salad setback is reported by Alan Prendergast in Westword, our sister blog in the Village Voice Media empire.
While there’s certainly nothing wrong with the schadenfreude of a good condiment calamity — I mean, who isn’t up for a good sauce setback? — it may not have been marijuana activists who did the ranch-dressing rowdiness.
“That’s the last thing we need to do,” a member of  Colorado Springs Medical Cannabis Council told the Colorado Springs Gazette. “Not only that, but I’m not 16 anymore.”
“At least they didn’t break out the big guns and go blue cheese or Thousand Island!” wisecracked Jeff Clayton on Facebook.

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Court Allows Warrantless GPS Tracking In Marijuana Case

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By on Legislation, News

Graphic: Animal

​In a bizarre and unsettling decision, a federal court has ruled that government agents may sneak onto your property, put GPS devices on your vehicles, and follow you around 24/7 — without bothering to obtain a search warrant.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers California and eight other western states, issued the ruling — which basically means the government can monitor you anytime that it wants — in a case involving a suspected marijuana grower, reports Linda Young at All Headline News.
Among the biggest casualties of the court’s ruling is the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, part of the original Bill of Rights, which just took some major damage. The Fourth Amendment states:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
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L.A.: Only 41 Marijuana Dispensaries Eligible To Stay Open

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times
Budtender Kim prepares an order for a client at Green Oasis, in October 2009. Green Oasis is one of the shops that was shut down under Los Angeles’ restrictive new medical marijuana ordinance.

​Los Angeles city officials announced Wednesday that only 41 medical marijuana dispensaries are eligible to stay in business under the city’s restrictive ordinance. The number is so low that the city said it will suspend the process of narrowing the number of shops, and ask a judge to rule that it is legal, reports John Hoeffel at the Los Angeles Times.

The announcement means that at least 129 of the dispensaries that had been allowed to remain open under the previous moratorium will now be forced to close.

“It was a surprise,” said Jane Usher, special assistant city attorney who worked with the City Council to draft the complex law, and is defending it in court.
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Tightened Medical Marijuana Rules Head To Montana Legislature

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By on Legislation, Medical

Photo: Nick Wolcott/Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Dean Folda sits among the marijuana plants he grows at his home in Bozeman, Montana, to treat chronic pain. Getting medical authorization to use cannabis for chronic pain could get a lot more difficult under the tightened rules proposed by a legislative committee on Tuesday.

​A bill tightening Montana’s medical marijuana regulations will be drafted and forwarded to the 2011 session of the Legislature, a panel of lawmakers decided on Tuesday.

Medical marijuana patients and growers warned that the proposal contains some unnecessary restrictions on patients and suppliers of cannabis, which has taken off as a booming business in Montana over the past year, reports Mike Dennison of the Missoulian.
“If we the people pass a law, then how could a legislative body who we elect, completely carve that law up, do whatever they want with it because they put together a committee?” asked Jason Christ, owner of the Montana Caregivers Network, reports Matt Leach of NBC Montana.
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It Could Get A Lot Tougher To Get A Marijuana Card In Montana

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By on Legislation, Medical

Photo: Anti/LAist

​​A committee of Montana lawmakers discussed on Monday plans to make it much tougher to get a medical marijuana card in the state.
The proposals would “clarify” the list of eligible diseases and “make it easier for authorities to track and regulate the industry,” according to Christian Hauser at NBC Montana.
After a summer’s worth of work, the legislators describe the proposed bill as “tightening up and cracking down,” reports Marnee Banks of KXLH-Helena, all in a misguided response to the state’s rapidly growing medical marijuana community.
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Governor Dislikes Medical Marijuana, But Likes Tax Money

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: The Associated Press
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter: “I was not in favor of medical marijuana, but I’m also a lawyer and a governor, and I believe in the law”

​Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter doesn’t like medical marijuana, but he sure likes the tax money that comes from it. Gov. Ritter said on Monday that the state is using $9 million from medical marijuana registrations to help the state meet a $60 million “fiscal emergency.”

Ritter said the state expects to end the year with 150,000 applicants for medical marijuana licenses, up from 41,000 in 2009, reports The State Column. Colorado marijuana cards cost $90 per year.
“I was not in favor of medical marijuana, but I’m also a lawyer and the governor, and I believe in the law,” Ritter said, reports Tim Hoover at The Denver Post. “And it’s the law in this state.”
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Massachusetts Towns Giving Up On Marijuana Enforcement

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By on Legislation, News

Graphic: ABC News
Some Massachusetts towns are throwing in the towel when it comes to marijuana enforcement. Puzzlingly, some folks, mostly cops, seem upset about that.

​Some towns in Massachusetts have given up enforcing the state’s marijuana law which decriminalized the possession of small amounts of pot, saying the law is written with too many loopholes to be effective.

The decrim law established a civil fine of $100 for those caught with an ounce or less of cannabis. That punishment replaced what had been a criminal offense carrying a penalty of six months in jail and a $500 fine, also for possession of an ounce or less.
But the decrim law, which voters overwhelmingly passed in November 2008, doesn’t require offenders to correctly identify themselves, nor does it give a way for cities to make them pay the fines, reports The Associated Press.
What has resulted is a patchwork of marijuana enforcement across Massachusetts, as some communities continue to hand out hundreds of the $100 civil citations for pot, while others look the other way when it comes to personal cannabis use.
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