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Browsing: Legislation

Montana Orders Med Marijuana Providers To Drop 5,400 Patients

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Students for Sensible Drug Policy

Following the Montana Supreme Court’s September 11 ruling overturning an injunction on parts of the current medical marijuana law, the Montana Department of Public Health & Human Services (DPHHS) is now ordering a majority of the state’s providers to decide which patients they will cancel from their rolls.
The directive is intended to bring the providers into conformity with the current requirements of the state’s medical marijuana law without the injunction in effect. Today, DPHHS is mailing letters to 267 providers, leaving more than 5,400 patients without safe access to a medical marijuana provider.
 
“I spoke with my provider last week,” said Doug Shaw, a 61-year-old patient in Libby, Montana. “He says I’m on my own now, and he doesn’t know anyone sticking with the program.”
“Where I am I supposed to go for medical marijuana?” Shaw asked. “Maybe the Legislature will provide it to me.”
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Oregon Defense Lawyers Endorse Marijuana Legalization

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By on Legislation, News

Vote80.org

Joining civil-rights organizations like the NAACP and labor organizations like United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555, the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (OCDLA) has officially endorsed Measure 80.
 
“Oregon is now engaged in a great debate across the public safety spectrum to seek and adopt rational evidence-based policies that will make our state and people safer,” said Lane Borg, OCDLA president. “The evidence in this case supports that a common-sense, sane drug policy would end the futile prohibition on cannabis and instead adopt a rational regulation policy that hopefully would end the dangerous conditions brought on by both illegal trafficking and aggressive enforcement in the war on drugs.” 
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Montana Marijuana Advocates Release Ad Against IR-124

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Patients For Reform – Not Repeal

Ballot Issue Radio Ad Features Sen. Larry Jent Acknowledging that SB 423 Was Intended as “Defacto Repeal” of Voter Intent for Medical Marijuana Patients
A radio ad airing statewide beginning Tuesday uses the voice of state Senator Larry Jent (D-Bozeman) to urge voters to reject Senate Bill 423, the new “repeal and destroy” medical marijuana law passed by the 2011 Montana Legislature, it was announced today. 
In the ad, Jent admits that the Legislature’s final vote in the 2011 session was actually intended to functionally repeal (rather than fix) the state medical marijuana law adopted by voters. “And it worked,” Jent concludes.
“We’re urging voters to vote ‘no’ on IR-124, because it is a slap in the face to voters as well as cruel and harmful to the seriously sick patients Montanans sought to help,” says Bob Brigham, campaign manager for Patients for Reform – Not Repeal. 
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OR House Ways & Means Co-Chair Backs Marijuana Legalization

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By on Legislation, News

Vote80.org

Continuing the momentum of local and national support for common-sense cannabis policy in Oregon, Rep. Peter Buckley (D-Ashland) has officially endorsed Measure 80, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act. Buckley joins an expanding list of political and community leaders around Oregon and the nation calling for an end to America’s catastrophic war on drugs. 
“It makes absolutely no sense to me that we continue to waste millions of dollars every year to prohibit adults from making the choice of whether to consume marijuana, especially when we could be regulating and taxing that market and funding the programs we’ve been cutting session after session,” said Rep. Buckley, co-chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. “Oregon is a pioneer state, and I for one want us to make history this November by ending prohibition and regulating marijuana just like we regulate liquor.” 
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Do Drugged Driving Laws Hurt Medical Marijuana Patients?

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By on Legislation, Medical

Law Offices of Daniel Rosen
This map shows drugged driving laws by state, as well as which states allow medical marijuana.

By Judy Pokras
The White House has issued a call for every state to make strict drugged driving legislation a priority. What makes this complicated, however, is that for most illicit drugs, including marijuana, there’s no agreed-upon limit that reliably determines impairment.
There are currently 16 states that allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, and over a million medical marijuana patients across the country. With three different types of drugged driving laws across the U.S. — and varying state limits for determining impairment from marijuana — depending on which type of law a state uses, a person who is legally allowed to use medical marijuana can be convicted of driving while impaired, even if he or she did not use medical pot on the same day.
This is because THC — the main psychoactive element of marijuana (that causes a person to get high) — can be present in the blood of a heavy pot user for several hours or even days, long after any impairing effects of the drug have gone away. And THC-COOH — a secondary metabolite in marijuana that is formed after a person gets high, and that has no psychoactive effect — is detectable in urine for weeks or even months after past use.
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Montana’s Restrictive Med Marijuana Law Polls Under 50%

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Montana Cowgirl Blog
A billboard that reads “Welcome to Yellowstone County, Where the Will of the People Doesn’t Count” on Montana Avenue in Billings. The billboard encourages Montanans to vote “NO” on IR-124.  

A new poll shows that IR-124, the November 6 referendum on the 2011 Legislature’s unworkable medical marijuana law, faces steep odds, with support at only 46 percent.
Bob Brigham, campaign manager for Patients for Reform, Not Repeal, said, “Historically, ballot measures that don’t start near 60 percent support are in danger of failing. IR-124 doesn’t even hit 50 percent. That’s a bad sign for the Legislature’s proposal, especially if we do our job and explain to voters why they should vote against this ‘godawful’ law.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey was released Thursday afternoon in which the full ballot summary for IR-124 was read aloud to 656 registered and likely Montana voters. The summary describes Senate Bill 423, which was forced to the ballot by opponents and appears as IR-124.
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Portland City Councilman Backs Measure 80 Pot Legalization

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By on Legislation, News

Measure 80 – The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act

Adding to the chorus of political and community leaders around Oregon and the nation that is calling for an end to America’s catastrophic War On Drugs, Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard has officially endorsed Measure 80, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.
 

Portland Community College
Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard: “Regulating and taxing marijuana for adults is just common sense”

“As a career Portland firefighter, a State Legislator and a Portland City Council member, I have always fought for funding for our first responders and resources for our social safety net,” Leonard said. “Regulating and taxing marijuana for adults is just common sense, because it allows us to get pot out of kids’ hands, focus our public-safety resources on dangerous drugs, creates jobs and provide a new revenue stream to fund much-needed social services.”
 
According to Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron, Oregon has spent more than $60 million a year on marijuana-related offenses, from local police enforcement costs to court-room costs to the millions spent on incarceration.
Measure 80 would replace a failed system of prohibition with an effective taxation-and-regulation model. While adults 21 and older would be able to purchase cannabis products only at state-licensed stores, Measure 80 introduces tough new criminal penalties, such as felony charges for selling cannabis to a minor, and criminal misdemeanor charges for providing cannabis to a minor.
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Montana Supreme Court Hands Marijuana Decision To Voters

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

THC Finder

Court Rejects Patients’ Right To Medical Marijuana; Patients’ Group Says Voters Will Reject ‘Godawful Law’ by Defeating IR-124
 
The Montana Supreme Court ensured late on Tuesday that voters will have the final say on the Legislature’s 2011 medical marijuana law this November, and Patients for Reform, Not Repeal believes voters will say “No” to it.
The court held there is no fundamental right to use medical marijuana, or any drug that’s prohibited under federal law, reports Sam Favate at the Wall Street Journal. In a 6-1 decision, the court reversed a lower court ruling blocking enforcement of IR-124, a state law to restrict access to medical marijuana.
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I-502 Opponents Decry ‘Legalization’ Misinformation Campaign

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By on Legislation, News

Northwest Leaf

No On I-502 says that New Approach Washington is using a McCarthy-style campaign, employing their considerable financial resources, complicit members of the media and influential local political connections to misinform the public regarding the specific issues surrounding the group’s opposition to I-502, a marijuana “legalization” initiative on the November general election ballot.

The “No On I-502” Committee has announced a Wednesday press conference “to clarify, once and for all, our opposition to I-502 and to debunk the propaganda from NAW, and some in the press, that we represent some mysterious, greedy group of marijuana business interests that they’ve failed to specifically identify.”

Speakers at the press conference will include top marijuana attorneys Jeffrey Steinborn, Aaron Pelley and Douglas Hiatt, who will address the facts surrounding both legalization issues and the “per se” DUID provisions of I-502, including the dramatic impact this law will have on tens of thousands of voters in Washington state.
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CA Supreme Court Dismisses Case Against City Regulation of Medical Marijuana

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Citizens For Patient Rights

The California Supreme Court has dismissed the case of Pack v. Long Beach, in which an appellate court had ruled that the restrictive permitting scheme for medical marijuana dispensaries in the city of Long Beach was illegal. This case was often cited by medical marijuana opponents to support the claim that any permitting or regulation of medical marijuana — including those found in the local medical marijuana initiative proposals that have qualified for the November ballot around San Diego — may not withstand legal challenges.

These initiatives include Proposition H in Del Mar, Proposition W in Solana Beach, and Proposition T in Lemon Grove.
Fortunately, with this dismissal, the Pack decision was de-published. This means that attorneys can no longer cite Pack as valid law. Similarly, a municipality cannot rely upon the Pack decision to ban lawful medical marijuana dispensaries, nor to conclude that local regulation of lawful medicinal cannabis dispensaries violates federal law.
The California Supreme Court also recently, and unanimously, let the 2012 decision, Pack v. Colvin, stand, which held that a qualified patient who was managing two storefront dispensaries was entitled to a defense in court to criminal charges of transportation of marijuana and possession of concentrated cannabis.
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