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Browsing: Legislation

Is I-502 Marijuana Legalization? Is It Good For Washington?

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By on Legislation, News

The Marijuana Project

By John Novak
The Washington State Office of Financial Management has finally released its much anticipated report on the marijuana “legalization” initiative, I-502. (See link to the report at the end of this article)
While it claims that the state could see a financial windfall in the billions from the taxation and regulation of cannabis, it also warns of some very serious consequences and the possibility of zero revenue.
Steve Sarich, a well known Seattle area medical marijuana personality and anti-I-502 activist, sued the Office last month, stating the early numbers being used “are so far off it’s incredulous.”
He and the other activists that joined the lawsuit demanding a new report that included all the risks, including possible results from federal lawsuits.
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Medical Marijuana Headed For November Ballot In Arkansas

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Arkansans for Compassionate Care

By Angela Bacca
The Facebook page for Arkansas for Compassionate Care (ACC) has been alluding to big news all week. “If you have your ear to the ground in just the right place, you know the good news is coming. Arkansas get ready, greatness is upon you!”
The group has reason to celebrate. At 2 p.m. EST on Monday they will travel to Little Rock to submit approximately 130,000 signatures, more than double the 62,000 needed to qualify, putting medical marijuana up for a vote in November. 
If the Arkansas initiative passes, its supporters are confident that it will represent the dawn of a sea change in federal marijuana policy. They believe that by becoming the first Southern state to pass such a bill, the Federal government will be forced to address prohibition at a national level.
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Uruguay’s Marijuana Legalization Proposal Sent To Parliament

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By on Global, Legislation, News

Fox News

Law Would Make Uruguay First Government In World To Legally Supply Marijuana 
The president of Uruguay on Wednesday submitted a proposal to Parliament to legalize marijuana under government-controlled regulation and sale, making it the first country in the world where the state would sell marijuana directly to its citizens. The proposal, signed by Uruguayan President José Mujica, is part of a package of measures aimed at fighting crime and requires parliamentary approval before being enacted.
Despite Uruguay being one of the safest countries in Latin America, it has faced an increase in crime from drug gangs due to its position on a drug transit route to Europe via West Africa. The aim of the measure is to combat the rising insecurity in Uruguay by removing the profits of marijuana sales from drug gangs, separating the marijuana market from those for other illegal drugs, and avoiding marijuana users’ exposure to drug dealers who also sell coca paste and cocaine. Additionally, the revenues from marijuana sales will be invested into treatment for “problem” drug users.
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Medical Marijuana, Hemp Bills Introduced In Virgin Islands

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By on Global, Legislation, News

American Medical Marijuana Society

Bills which would legalize the production of industrial hemp and the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes will be considered on Monday and Tuesday, August 13 and 14, in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Senator Terrance “Positive” Nelson, the first and only Rastafarian senator in the Virgin Islands, is bringing the bills forward. Senator Nelson has vowed to bring marijuana legislation before the Senate, and has other senators who have publicly supported him and these bills for ballot referendums.
Senator Nelson has also said publicly that he is working on a marijuana decriminalization bill that will be presented before the end of this Senate session. Toke of the Town has seen a draft of the as yet unnumbered bill, which is not yet final.
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Why You Should Vote No On I-502

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By on Legislation

THC Finder

By Ezra Eickmeyer
Safe Access Alliance
Washington state’s I-502 was carefully crafted to look like “responsible” cannabis legalization to the general public. Unfortunately, in trying too hard to appease law enforcement and other opponents of legalization, I-502 creates a list of brand new threats to medical cannabis patients and providers without actually legalizing marijuana. 
I-502 only decriminalizes possession of an ounce or less of cannabis and only applies to adults, 21 and older, who purchase cannabis from a state licensed store with heavy taxes. 
We can’t allow this initiative to set national standards for other legalization initiatives in other states, nor can we stand by and allow it to pass, knowing the years of trouble it will take to try and fix this terrible initiative. Meanwhile, many patients will lose their driving rights and be forced back to the black market for medicine. 
We have to come together to oppose this initiative and send our own message; that changes in policy need to be good changes, not just any changes, and that patients can organize and defeat threats against us. 
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NAACP Endorses Oregon Marijuana Legalization Measure

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By on Legislation, News

Street Knowledge Media

Measure 80 Replaces Marijuana Prohibition With Common-Sense Regulation
The National Association for the Advancement for Colored People (NAACP) Alaska Oregon Washington State-Area Conference (AOWS-AC) has endorsed Oregon Measure 80, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act and calls on voters who are committed to equality and civil justice to vote for Measure 80 on this November’s ballot.
“Our nation’s long, tragic, failed war on drugs has taken a disproportionate toll on people of color,” said NAACP AOWS-AC President Oscar Eason, Jr. “To right the wrongs of the past, we need to end the drug war immediately and replace it with a common-sense approach.”
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N.J. Medical Marijuana Program Open To Patients

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical, News

ImageShack

Doctors Able to Register Patients and Patients Will Receive ID Cards 
State Website Updated With Comprehensive Information Including Interactive Map for Finding Doctors 
Patients, Families and Advocates Celebrate Long-Awaited Milestone
It’s been a long wait — too long, for many patients who never lived to see the day — but legal medical marijuana is coming to New Jersey.
The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act reached will reach a major milestone on Thursday when the New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services opens the patient registration process. Doctors who are treating qualifying patients will then be able to enter those patients into the patient registration system.
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Marijuana Legalization Measure Out-Funds Opposition 60-1

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By on Legislation

Voter’s Edge Colorado
Marijuana legalization is kicking the ass of the “No” crowd in Colorado

Newly Launched Voter’s Edge Colorado Tracks Funding Behind Ballot Measures

Colorado’s marijuana legalization ballot initiative — Amendment 64, which will be on the general election ballot in November — has out-raised its opposition, when it comes to funding, by an incredible ratio of 60 to one, according to figures from Voter’s Edge Colorado.
If Amendment 64 is approved by Colorado voters — and it’s currently leading in the polls — state and local government would regulate marijuana sales like those of alcohol.
Text of the measure is as follows:
“An amendment to the Colorado Constitution concerning marijuana, and, in connection therewith, providing for the regulation of marijuana; permitting a person twenty-one years of age or older to consume or possess limited amounts of marijuana; providing for the licensing of cultivation facilities, product manufacturing facilities, testing facilities, and retail stores; permitting local governments to regulate or prohibit such facilities; requiring the general assembly to enact an excise tax to be levied upon wholesale sales of marijuana; requiring that the first $40 million in revenue raised annually by such tax be credited to the public school capital construction assistance fund; and requiring the general assembly to enact legislation governing the cultivation, processing, and sale of industrial hemp.”
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Hilariously, GOP Leaders Cite Schweitzer In Cannabis Arguments

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Patients For Reform Not Repeal

In their official ballot arguments for IR-124 (SB 423), last year’s legislation which all but shut down the medical marijuana law which was approved by Montana’s voters in 2004, Republican Senate Majority Leader Jeff Essmann and Republican House Majority Whip Cary Smith bizarrely cited Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer.

Prohibition’s End
Democratic Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer called the GOP-controlled Legislature “bat crap crazy” when they voted to overturn the will of the state’s voters on medical marijuana

Schweitzer famously referred to the last Legislature as “bat crap crazy,” and vetoed HB 161, the bill Sen. Essmann and Rep. Smith supported aggressively to completely overturn the will of the voters on medical marijuana.
Later, in addition to issuing an amendatory veto of SB 423, Schweitzer also said of it: “Everybody’s who’s read it says, ‘Oh yeah, it’s unconstitutional.’ “; “I’m kind of disgusted right now”; and “It seems to us unconstitutional on its face.”

Gov. Schweitzer also said SB 423 “violates your constitutional rights to illegal search.” The governor said it requires someone using medical marijuana to “be turned over to law enforcement in every town.”


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Bill Introduced To Protect Landlords Of Marijuana Dispensaries

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Jeff Malet Photography
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-California): “We should be protecting and implementing the will of voters, not undermining our democracy by prosecuting small business owners who pay taxes and comply with the laws of their states in providing medicine to patients in need”

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Seven Initial Co-Sponsors Introduce HR 6335 to Stop Unfair Land Grabs by DOJ
Late on Thursday, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and seven initial co-sponsors introduced HR 6335, the States’ Medical Marijuana Property Rights Protection Act, in an attempt to stop the seizure of property from landlords of state law-compliant medical marijuana businesses. The introduction of HR 6335 comes less than a month after U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag served an asset forfeiture lawsuit against the landlord of Harborside, a medical marijuana dispensary in Rep. Lee’s district of Oakland.
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