Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley wants to shutter dispensaries that sell medical marijuana for profit. But the issue is far from settled.
Browsing: Legislation
| Graphic: Reality Catcher |
With Nevada’s state budget $900 million in the red and a fiscal crisis facing the state, a pro-marijuana group is urging Gov. Jim Gibbons to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana to help close the budget gap.
Gov. Gibbons will deliver his State of the State address Monday night, in which he will discuss Nevada’s financial crisis. According to some reports, the governor is seeking new ways to close the budget gap and is willing to put all options on the table.
“In order to get the state back on sound financial footing, the governor must consider not only cuts in spending, but also new sources of tax revenue,” said Dave Schwartz, campaign manager for Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws.
| Photo: The Wow Report |
| Dennis Peron is co-author of Prop 215, which legalized medical marijuana in California. |
The man who opened the very first “pot club” in the United States for medical marijuana users is coming to Ashland, Oregon Tuesday night to speak in favor of legalizing cannabis.
Dennis Peron, known as the “father of medical marijuana,” is lending his support to full legalization in Oregon, reports John Darling of the Southern Oregon Mail Tribune.
Peron, 64, of San Francisco, was co-author and a major backer of California’s successful 1996 medical marijuana ballot measure, the first in the United States.
Peron is famed for his statement, “All use of marijuana is medical use.”
The passage of medical marijuana laws changed the image of cannabis from something used by “long-hair, hippie crazy” people to a drug of middle class people, Peron said.
“It helped make [marijuana use]more benevolent,” he said. “We turned the tide.”
Peron said the thrust of his work now is ballot measures to normalize marijuana distribution, so “you can get it at Walgreen’s” at affordable prices.
| Graphic: Out Front Colorado |
Dozens of medical marijuana dispensary owners lined up before daylight in Denver Monday to apply for their licenses. It was the first day the owners could apply for the required licenses under the city’s new regulatory scheme.
The new process includes several steps, including $5,000 in application and licensing fees, a background check with excludes felons, a required security plan, and fire and zoning inspections, reports KUSA-TV.
“At $5,000 a pop for the application/licensing, all we need is another 100,000 pot shops to open up in Denver and our budget crisis is solved,” wisecracked “PugMartin1,” one commenter on KUSA’s site.
| Photo: Hardwick Fundlebuggy |
District Attorney Mike Ramsey doesn’t want any marijuana dispensaries in Chico, California. He dislikes them so much, in fact, that he threatened to jail members of the city council if they allow the pot shops in town, reports Toni Scott of the Chico Enterprise Record.
Ramsey, who obviously doesn’t mind running his mouth and throwing his weight around, “warned” the councilors: “I want to make the distinction that you cannot authorize that which is illegal, legal.”
“If that which is illegal is authorized as legal, you can expect to see every one one of those city councilors in jail,” he said.
| Graphic: KATU-TV |
| Legalization is gaining momentum in the Pacific Northwest — and the promise of big tax money is proving hard to resist for some legislators. |
Thanks to Toke of the Town‘s good friend Michael Bachara of Hemp News for alerting us to a KATU-TV news report on the legalization movement in Oregon and Washington (see video below).
Although reporter Anna Song somehow completely misses covering the Sensible Washington voter initiative signature drive, she does interview the very cool Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle) of the Washington Legislature.
“We are treating marijuana like we treated alcohol during Prohibition,” Dickerson says, “and it doesn’t make sense.”
| Photo: Wellsphere |
The Washington Senate Friday passed a bill that adds physician assistants, nurse practitioners and naturopaths as health care professionals who can authorize medical marijuana. Physicians can already authorize cannabis use for medical purposes in Washington.
Senate Bill 5798 passed by a convincing vote of 37-11, and now goes to the Washington House of Representatives for consideration, reports Michelle Dupler at the Tri City Herald.
| Graphic: movies.popcrunch.com |
A bill has been introduced in the Kansas Legislature to legalize marijuana for medical use.
Although the bill, which comes from Rep. Gail Finney (D-Wichita), doesn’t have much a chance, “It’s the right thing to do,” Finney said.
Her bill was introduced the same week that lawmakers voted to make the Sunflower State the first in the nation to outlaw fake marijuana, reports David Klepper of the Kansas City Star.
Finney’s bill, like medical marijuana laws adopted in New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Maine, would set up state-registered “compassionate care centers” where those with a doctor’s recommendation can buy cannabis.
The bill would require that all medical marijuana used in the state be grown in Kansas.
| Photo: phishcoventry.blogspot.com |
| Nice speeches… But same old Drug War. |
Contrary to campaign promises and past policy statements, the Obama Administration is expanding the War on (Some) Drugs and focusing funds toward law enforcement over treatment.
Opinion? No, fact. According to 2011 funding “highlights” released this week by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the administration budgets $15.5 billion for Drug War spending in 2011, an increase of 3.5 percent over 2010.
Even more ominously, the 2011 budget represents an increase of 5.2 percent in overall enforcement funding ($9.9 billion in 2011 vs. $9.7 billion in 2010).
For the non-policy-wonks among you who aren’t into numbers, this is roughly the equivalent of throwing 15 and a half billion dollars up a wild hog’s ass and hollering “soooEEEEEE!”
| Photo: CBS47.com |
| Rick Morse says he will fight for what he believes is right until officers take him away in handcuffs |
An arrest warrant has been issued for the owner of a Fresno, California medical marijuana dispensary.
Rick Morse, who owns the Medmar Clinic in Fresno’s Tower District, is accused of illegally running the dispensary, reports Alicia Coates of CBS47.tv.
Morse’s contempt of court arraignment was Wednesday but he didn’t show, resulting in the court issuing a felony warrant for his arrest.
Surprisingly, local TV station CBS47 found Morse at his Medmar clinic Wednesday night, and he didn’t seem overly worried about the warrant.
“I would rather go by my constitution than what some void order says,” Morse told CBS47.