Update 4/17/13:Legislators in Vermont approved a third reading of a bill that would decriminalize an ounce or less yesterday, sending the measure on to the Senate for approval.

Like the proverbial broken clock that is right twice a day, U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) is occasionally doing things that aren’t completely crazy, like defending the Taliban or accusing the Obama Administration of intentionally lying to the American public about the Islamic terrorists who carried out the attack on the U.S. embassy in Bengazi, Libya last year (because you know how soft Obama and his army of drones is on Islamic terrorists). To wit: Rohrabacher has authored legislation that would amend the U.S. Controlled Substances Act to prohibit the federal government from prosecuting people who do not violate state marijuana laws. OC Weekly has the rest.

North Carolina lawmakers are considering a bill that would downgrade marijuana possession of an ounce or less from a misdemeanor charge to a civil infractions on par with a traffic ticket.
State Rep. Kelly Alexander, who earlier this year pushed unsuccessfully for medical marijuana in North Carolina, introduced House Bill 637 earlier this week. In addition to decriminalizing small amounts of cannabis, if House Bill 637 were to pass it would also allow people convicted of simple marijuana possession of less than an ounce to have the conviction expunged from their record.