Legislation

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Los Angeles D.A. Really Hates Pot Legalization Initiative

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

Photo: L.A. District Attorney’s Office

Los Angeles County D.A. and California Attorney General candidate Steve Cooley hates pot and opposes legalization. He probably thinks you suck hard, too.

Pot-hating, publicity-loving Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who has claimed medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal operations, is now targeting the legitimacy of a November ballot initiative to legalize recreational cannabis and allow local governments to tax and regulate it.

In an April 13 letter (PDF) to Attorney General Jerry Brown, Cooley claims the title and summary for the measure is “wrong and highly misleading” and should be disallowed, reports Peter Hecht at The Sacramento Bee.

Cooley, an ambitious hot-dogger of a Republican who’s hoping to replace Brown as attorney general, claims the initiative falsely offers “major tax and other benefits” for state and local governments by regulating marijuana similarly to alcohol.

Choke On This: Florida Bong Ban Passes

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

Photo: Customs and Border Protection

Florida Rep. Darryl Rouson says these are “destructive utensils” that “destroy communities”

A bill passed Wednesday will make it illegal to sell bongs and other glass pipes in Florida.

The “Bong Bill” passed unanimously by both the Senate (36-0) and now by the House (115-0) heads to the desk of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist for his signature, reports Brian Hamacher at NBC Miami.

The bill outlaws the sale of the pipes by businesses that don’t make at least 75 percent of their money from tobacco sales, or if they make more than 25 percent of their money from selling the pipes.

Violators could face up to a year in jail.

Rural California Sheriff Ignores Voters, Favors County Pot Ban

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 27, 2010 Legislation, News

Photo: Redding Record Searchlight

Sheriff Steve Warren wishes he was a DEA agent: “No matter what, marijuana is still against federal law”

Maybe Lassen County Sheriff Steve Warren wasn’t paying attention 14 years ago when medical marijuana was legalized in California.

Sheriff Warren told the Board of Supervisors at their April 20 meeting that his position on marijuana is “very clear.” The sheriff said he’d already asked the administrative office if the county could “simply prohibit marijuana cultivation and dispensaries in the county.”

“Pardon my ignorance,” Warren, who must have been unaware of just how much he was asking, said to the supervisors, “but I thought we already had a moratorium. I thought we already had a prohibition such as Citrus Heights, Lincoln, Roseville, and some of those other cities have done.”

“I thought the only one [dispensary]we had in the world around here was in the city,” the sheriff said, reports the Lassen County Times.

But Warren said his department has “encountered” two other marijuana dispensaries in the county.

Canada: Ottawa Police Chief Supports Pot Decriminalization

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 26, 2010 Legislation, News

Photo: Chris Mikula/The Gazette

Ottawa Police Chief Vern White said although he doesn’t want people to have criminal records for simple marijuana possession, he doesn’t agree that cannabis is harmless.

Ottawa Police Chief Vern White said he isn’t interested in arresting marijuana users or giving them criminal records, and would support discussing decriminalization. “My only concern about the word ‘decriminalizing’ is the suggestion to the public that [marijuana]is not a dangerous drug,” he said.

The Ottawa Citizen asked about pot decrim following a recent community meeting, reports Tony Spears.

An Angus Reid poll earlier this month showed a majority of Canadians want to legalize marijuana. And on April 20, hundreds flocked to Parliament Hill to light up in an annual tradition in support of decriminalization.

Montana Still Wastes Tax Money Arresting Medical Pot Patients

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 26, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Livingston Current

Under Montana law, qualifying patients and caregivers may grow and possess up to six marijuana plants and one dried smokable ounce of cannabis.

Officers knocked down a Montana man’s door with a battering ram, and once inside, found what they expected — 39 marijuana plants. But they claim that it was only after thousands of dollars in equipment and cannabis were seized and destroyed that they learned Alan Edson is a legal patient, allowed to grow and sell marijuana for medical purposes.

“They proceeded to go through my entire home,” Edson said. “They confiscated and destroyed my legally licensed property and my personal property. They even went through my wife’s underwear drawer,” he said, reports Kim Skornogoski of the Great Falls Tribune.

Similar incidents are probably happening weekly across the state, according to State Narcotics Bureau Chief Mark Long. “If we get a tip that a person is growing plants — whether it’s six plants or 600 — we have to investigate it,” Long claimed.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services licenses medical marijuana patients and providers under state law. But in an all-too-common practice of pot-phobic law enforcement officers acting as if they are qualified to practice medicine, local police officers and sheriff’s deputies claim it’s their job to “make sure those people follow the law,” and they go about “making sure” with what seems close to unhealthy zeal.

L.A. City Council Approves Pot Dispensary Fee Schedule

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 23, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: Medical Marijuana Blog

The Los Angeles City Council gave final approval Friday to a fee schedule for medical marijuana dispensaries, adding the last element to the years-long effort to regulate pot shops in the city.

The council approved the measure by a 9-1 vote, with Councilman Bill Rosendahl continuing to oppose the measure, which he said is too restrictive, reports Rick Orlov at the Los Angeles Daily News.

Florida Senate Unanimously Passes Bong Ban

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 22, 2010 Legislation, News

Photo: Florida House Democratic Caucus

Are these bongs “destructive utensils” that “destroy communities”? The Florida Senate thinks so.

The Florida Senate has unanimously passed a bill that would ban the sale of glass smoking pipes at most stores that currently carry them.

Senate Bill 366 requires 75 percent of a business’s gross sales to come from tobacco products before they are allowed to sell bongs, water pipes and “air-driven pipes,” reports WJHG.

It passed the Senate unanimously, 36-0, on Wednesday.

Supporters of the legislation claim the pipes can be used to smoke illegal drugs like marijuana and cocaine.

The proposal could hurt some businesses, like Condom Knowledge in Panama City Beach.

Colorado House Approves Medical Marijuana Bill

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

Graphic: Cannabis N.I.

The Colorado House of Representatives has approved and sent to the state Senate a bill that would allow the state to license medical marijuana dispensaries, growers and people who make medical cannabis-infused edibles.

Under the bill, HB 1284, owners of medical marijuana dispensaries would be required to undergo criminal background checks. Anyone with a drug felony would be barred from owning a pot shop.

The bill passed 39-23 with bipartisan support, reports the Vail Daily.

Many medical marijuana activists are unhappy with the legislation.

“These bills will create a government-sponsored monopoly of a few mega-Walmart dispensaries,” said Lauri Kriho, director of Cannabis Therapy Institute (CTI).

New Poll: Majority Says Pot Should Be Treated Like Alcohol

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 22, 2010 Legislation, News

Graphic: NORML

Careful who you trust to interpret poll results. You may have seen the poll that was trumpeted just in time for 4/20, supposedly showing that “55 percent of Americans oppose legalizing marijuana.”

The headlines about the April 20 Associated Press/CNBC poll (PDF) on marijuana legalization read “Most In U.S. Against Legalizing Pot,” but Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grim dug down into the results and found that one of the poll’s questions actually appears to show majority support for legalizing and regulating marijuana like alcohol.

“[W]hen pot is compared to alcohol, support for reforming the laws surges,” Grim writes. “Forty-four percent of respondents said that ‘the regulations on marijuana [should]be the same as those for alcohol.’ Another 12 percent said they should be ‘less strict,’ meaning that a full 56 percent support the policy change — perhaps the highest number ever recorded in favor of legalization. (Alcohol is, after all, legal.)”

Kind of odd, wouldn’t you say? The results of a nationwide poll show that a substantial majority — 56 percent of Americans — support either the same restrictions or looser restrictions on marijuana than on alcohol, which is already legal. But somehow, that gets reported in the national press as “Most In U.S. Against Legalizing Pot”?

California Team Working To Defeat Marijuana Legalization

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 22, 2010 Legislation, News

Graphic: International Cannagraphic

They never get tired of flogging this stuff.

In 2008, they defeated an initiative that would have emphasized treatment over jail for non-violent drug offenders. Now, the same political campaign team is organizing anew to fight against the November ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in California for adults over 21.

Two years ago, Sacramento political consultant Wayne Johnson directed a coalition led by law enforcement associations in a successful attempt to defeat Proposition 5. The reactionary campaign against Prop 5 labeled the measure “The Drug Dealers’ Bill of Rights,” reports Peter Hecht at The Sacramento Bee.

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