Legislation

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California NAACP Backs Marijuana Legalization Initiative

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 29, 2010 Legislation, News

Leaders of the NAACP’s California chapter announced Monday that they are supporting a marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot.

“The War On Drugs is a failure and disproportionately targets young men and women of color, particularly African-American males,” said Alice Huffman, president of the NAACP’s state conference, reports Catherine Saillant at the Los Angeles Times.

The group pointed to statistics showing that last year, 62 percent of California’s marijuana arrests were of nonwhite suspects, and 42 percent were under 20 years old. The statistics were from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.

Cannabis arrests of African Americans occur at double, triple and even quadruple the rate of whites, despite the fact that studies show blacks use marijuana at lower rates than whites, according to NAACP officials.

CA: Control & Tax Cannabis 2010 Is Now Proposition 19

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 29, 2010 Legislation, News

Graphic: Control & Tax Cannabis 2010

Photo: Stuff Stoners Like

Richard Lee: “This is the next step to sane cannabis policies and the end to the hypocrisy and unjust prohibition of cannabis”

The Control & Tax Cannabis initiative has been designated Proposition 19 by the California Secretary of State.

“This is a huge moment for our campaign,” said Richard Lee, the Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur who is the biggest financial backer of the cannabis legalization initiative.

“When we officially got our proposition number, it really hit home for me: This campaign is now real,” Lee said.

“In four months, we’ll be on the ballot, and millions of Californians will have the chance to vote to tax and legalize cannabis,” Lee said.

WA: Democrats Endorse Pot Legalization At State Convention

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 28, 2010 Legislation, News

Graphic: Cannabis Culture

Delegates to the Washington State Democratic Convention endorsed I-1068, the marijuana legalization initiative, with an overwhelming 62 percent “Yes” vote, 314 to 185, on Saturday.

The executive board had given no recommendation on the initiative, because “the committee was even more split than the delegates,” said State Vice Chair Sharon Smith, reports Bryce McKay at PubliCola.

“We expected this to come to a floor discussion,” Smith said. “There are some things that are clearly Democratic Party values, and then there are things like this that aren’t so clear.”

These welcome signs of the Democratic Party growing a backbone when it comes to cannabis issues are encouraging; there’s definitely a whiff of change in the air.

Montel Williams To N.Y.: Pass Medical Marijuana Now

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 28, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: The Daily Voice

Montel Williams uses medical marijuana to ease the symptoms of MS, and he advocates for safe access for other patients

Former talk show host, U.S. veteran and New York resident Montel Williams on Tuesday will urge Governor David Paterson and members of the state Legislature to act quickly in order to finally pass New York’s medical marijuana bill.

The bill would create one of the best regulated systems in the country for providing seriously ill patients with safe and effective access to medical marijuana when doctors recommend it, according to patient advocates.

Under New York’s bill, the state department of health would play an active role in regulating dispensaries that would be licensed to provide medical marijuana to qualified patients.

R.I. To Hold Hearings On Marijuana Dispensary Applications

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 28, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

Graphic: ASA

Rhode Island’s department of health will hold public hearings Tuesday, June 29, to review and receive comments on 15 applicants to open the state’s first medical marijuana compassion centers (dispensaries). The dispensaries will operate as nonprofit entities to safely and securely distribute marijuana to qualified patients in the state.

According to recently released figures, Rhode Island has 1,562 medical marijuana patients who are currently required to grow their own medicine or have caregivers grow it for them.

House Republicans Move To Block D.C.’s Medical Marijuana Law

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 24, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: You Are Hated!

Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz wants you to stay off the pot.

Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) announced Wednesday afternnon that they have introduced a resolution to disapprove the District of Columbia’s city law legalizing medical marijuana, reports Mike DeBonis of The Washington Post.

“While derivatives of marijuana are available in pill form for medicinal purposes, smoked marijuana is a health danger, not a cure, and therefore remains a harmful and dangerous drug for people of all ages,” the clueless Chaffetz said.

Chaffetz, a Mormon convert, Brigham Young graduate and right-wing crank already known for opposing progressive legislation of any sort, is the creepiest sort of reactionary, the “I used to be a liberal” young kind of earnest, clean-cut, gay-marriage-opposing, pot-hating, wholesome-looking wingnut.

San Diego County Adopts Strict Marijuana Dispensary Ordinance

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 24, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

Graphic: Fox 5 San Diego

San Diego County has adopted restrictive rules for medical marijuana dispensaries, following a statewide trend of regulating the proliferating pot shops.

The Board of Supervisors on Wednesday ruled that dispensaries in unincorporated areas of the county must be located at least 1,000 feet from homes, schools, playgrounds and churches. Officials say that leaves only 16 available sites.

Sheriff Continues To Arrest, Rather Than Ticket, Pot Offenders

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 23, 2010 Legislation, News

Photo: M. Spencer Green/AP

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart: “We will act as we always have, which is arrest”

Nearly a year after the Cook County Board passed an ordinance allowing sheriff’s police to ticket marijuana smokers for minor possession instead of arresting them, officers still haven’t written the first ticket.

“The ordinance gives us the discretion to choose,” said Steve Patterson, a spokesman for Sheriff Tom Dart. “So we’ll choose to continue acting as we always have, which is arrest.”

County commissioners made headlines last July when they passed the ordinance that gives officers the choice to either arrest people in unincorporated areas possessing 10 grams or less of marijuana, or to hand out tickets for $200 within the county’s unincorporated areas, reports William Lee of the Chicago Tribune.

The ordinance came into being after Commissioner Earleen Collins’s grandson was arrested for possessing half a joint.

The ordinance, which was supported by marijuana legalization advocates, first ran aground after a county board committee rejected Sheriff Dart’s request to extend the discretionary ticket-writing power to wherever sheriff’s officers patrol. This would have included suburban Ford Heights, which Dart’s office patrols because the town doesn’t have its own police force.

WA: 80,000 Pot Legalization Petitions Go Out With Newspaper

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 22, 2010 Culture, Legislation, News

Graphic: Washington State Marijuana Law Reform

There’ll be something different in the June 23 edition of Seattle alternative newspaper The Stranger — a copy of I-1068, the Washington state marijuana legalization initiative.

Initiative sponsor Sensible Washington said it raised funds last week through its Facebook page to cover the cost of printing 80,000 of the petitions and having them inserted in the free, weekly newspaper that’s widely distributed in the Seattle metro area.

The petition will be accompanied by a full-page ad which will explain to readers how they and their friends can sign I-1068 and get it into Sensible Washington’s hands by the first part of next week.

“Other initiatives are spending upwards of $1 million to get on the ballot with paid signature gatherers,” said Philip Dawdy, I-1068 campaign director and an initiative co-author. “We’re being forced to be a little more creative since it’s been difficult to get our volunteer signature gatherers in front of the public due to the terrible weather in Western Washington over the last two months.”

N.Y. Patients Call On Governor To Include Marijuana In Budget

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 22, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Matt Deturck/Rochester City Newspaper

Chronically ill patients from across New York state gathered in Albany on Tuesday to make a final plea for Gov. David Paterson and the Legislature to include a compassionate medical marijuana program in the state’s budget.

An overwhelming 71 percent of New York voters think medical marijuana laws are a “good idea,” according to a February 4 Quinnipiac University poll.

On Monday, the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York became the latest state health group to endorse New York’s medical marijuana bill.

“Lawmakers need to stop playing games while patients’ lives hang in the balance and include medical marijuana in the budget,” said Richard Williams, a Richmondville, N.Y., resident who suffers from HIV and hepatitis C.

“I have found marijuana to be the best available treatment for the joint damage, nausea and appetite loss caused by my HIV medication, but I am forced to break state law and become a criminal if I seek such relief,” Williams said. “Along with countless other patients, I have waited for more than a decade while other states have passed medical marijuana laws protecting patients and New York has refused. The time is now.”

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