| TokeoftheTown.com |
Serious marijuana discussion is taking place in our nation’s capitol, if only at the municipal level.
According to the Washington Post, D.C. city council members are trying to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana and have a few proposals in the works to do just that.
Marijuana advocates were abuzz last month — and by “abuzz” we mean excited, of course — when a bill to reduce penalties for marijuana possession was passed out the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. The bill had been watered down to apply only to people younger than 21, but the Texas chapter of NORML, the national pot-legalization organization, still called it an “amazing step for Texas.”
Also encouraging was progress on a medical marijuana bill that would make medical need a valid defense in pot possession cases. The measure, some version of which has been introduced in the past several sessions, got a hearing for the first time ever. Both those bills — the only pro-marijuana legislation to get any sort of traction this session — are now officially dead, which isn’t to say that marijuana activists are admitting defeat. Dallas Observer has more.
If the state allows people to use medical marijuana, they should also allow those patients to drive so long as they aren’t impaired. That’s the gist of a law currently making its way through the Nevada legislature that would exempt medical marijuana patients from laws prohibiting drivers from having any marijuana – active or inactive – in their systems.
Discussions about the bill to regulate Colorado’s ground-breaking marijuana legislation, Amendment 64, continue to draw in unexpected implications — including language that essentially requires that marijuana magazines like High Times be treated as though they’re porn. If that section lasts, they’ll be hidden behind the counter — no matter how many clothes are on the cover.
And now that the proposal is an official part of the main bill, the countdown to a lawsuit has begun. Westword has more on the likely legal battle.
An Illinois Senate committee voted 10-5 Wednesday to move House Bill 1 to the full Senate for a vote, despite a push from law enforcement to shut down the bill.
As it stands now, the bill creates a four-year pilot program would allow qualified patients and primary caregivers to purchase and possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana every two weeks from a state-regulated medical marijuana center.
The Vermont senate gave their final approval yesterday to a bill that decriminalizes small amounts of cannabis.
The bill also makes legal small amounts of hash and possession of paraphernalia, but leaves crimes in place for sales and cultivation.
Colorado lawmakers yesterday passed what are being considered the first laws in the nation to regulate adult cannabis use and sales. Among that: when and where cannabis can be sold, limiting how much pot out-of-state visitors can purchase, to where pot magazines can be sold.
The rules still have to go before the governor for signing, but for the most part things seem to be set.
| New Hampshire state house. |
Thanks to pressure from Gov. Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Senate health committee stripped provisions of proposed state medical marijuana laws allowing patents to cultivate their own supply. The committee also removed post-traumatic stress disorder from the list of qualifying conditions.
With the amendments, New Hampshire looks poised to join the 19 other states and Washington D.C. in allowing doctors to recommend medical cannabis to patients, who can legally possesses and use the herb.
After three years of trying and despite the science to back it up, the Colorado legislature finally passed a bill limiting the amount of THC a person can have in their system to 5 nanograms per-milliliter of blood.
House Bill 1325 received more than two-thirds support earlier today. If signed by the governor, the limit will be set in stone. According to Kristen Wyatt with the Associated Press, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has already asked for the bill so that he can sign it. Hickenlooper had campaigned for setting a limit over the last few months.
(An earlier edition of this post incorrectly stated the nanogram limit and has since been changed)
| Los Angeles. |
The California Supreme Court yesterday ruled that cities like Los Angeles can indeed ban pot shops through zoning if they so desire.
Too late? After unsuccessfully trying to ban dispensaries, the L.A. City Council is backing a May 21 ballot initiative that would allow 100 or so of the marijuana businesses to survive: That proposal, called Measure D, is also supported by those very dispensaries, the ones that have been around since before an October, 2007 “moratorium” on pot shops that was also unsuccessful. L.A. Weekly has the rest.