Dennis Bohlke is determined to get a lot of autographs. The 59-year-old computer programmer is heading up the campaign for a bill that would legalize the possession, cultivation and sales of limited amounts of cannabis in a plan nearly identical to one passed in Colorado.
But all that can” come without signatures. More than a quarter million of them.
| Sgt. Gary Wiegert. |
Though the city of St. Louis officially adopted a marijuana reform law this month, one local police sergeant has not been able to publicly lobby for the cause.
Sgt. Gary Wiegert supports policy changes just like the new city ordinance, which moves cops to treat minor offenses like low-level traffic tickets in an effort to save law enforcement resources. But, as we’ve covered here, he has been stuck in a legal fight with his bosses at the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department for months after he alleged in a suit that SLMPD violated his free-speech rights by refusing to let him work on the side as a paid pot lobbyist. Riverfront Times has the local angle.
| Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon. |
After his federal industrial hemp bill failed to move forward late last week, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden wagged his finger in shame not at the closed-minded Senate that wouldn’t work with Wyden, but at marijuana users.
See, Wyden thinks that because marijuana users are prone to being pro-hemp that the two issues are seen as one in the same. And it’s clearly the pot smoker’s fault according to Wyden, not the ignorant elected officials.
| TokeoftheTown.com |
A Louisiana bill to reduce crimes for repeat marijuana offenders and rid the state of abhorrent “three strikes” laws for possession of any amount failed to pass the state Senate yesterday.
House Bill 103 had already cleared the state House late last month, but Senate members refused to call the bill up for a vote on three separate occasions.
| TokeoftheTown.com |
Vermont joins 16 other states today that have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Gov. Peter Shumlin signed H.200 yesterday afternoon, making possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and five grams of hash a civil penalty on part with a traffic ticket for those 21 and up. The maximum fine would be set at $200 for a first offense, $300 for a second offense and $500 for third and subsequent offenses.
Despite the attempts of Colorado lawmakers to put marijuana-centered magazines behind the counter at booksellers and convenience stores like pornography, pot publications won’t have to be hidden from view.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers ruled that the provision of Colorado’s new recreational marijuana laws regulating how marijuana magazines are sold is unconstitutional and said he won’t go to court to defend it.
| A coffee shop menu. |
After the Netherlands banned public cannabis shops in border towns, southern Netherlands coffee shop owners say their business – both local and foreign – went in the gutter. Despite their anti-cannabis stance, the courts agreed and say the owners are entitled to compensation.
But the move also clarified the laws, upholding the bans and other measures used to prevent tourists from buying drugs in the country.
| TokeoftheTown.com |
California legislators failed to pass a bill regulating the state’s medical marijuana industry last week, leaving things the limbo they’ve pretty much been in since then 1990s with no state oversight into the industry.
The General Assembly had debated a bill introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano from San Francisco that would have given state the ability to regulate the industry through the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
The New York General Assembly yesterday approved a bill allowing medical marijuana use in the Empire State.
Assembly Bill 6357 was voted in with a 95-38 vote. The discussion now moves over to the state Senate in the next few weeks, which takes up the nearly identical Senate Bill 4406. If approved, the bill would allow for qualifying patients to receive a doctor’s recommendation to use cannabis. Patients would be allowed to possess up to 2.5 ounces purchased at one of several state-regulated medical marijuana dispensaries.