Legislation

Browsing: Legislation

Sheriff: Use Pot Eradication Money To Prevent Gangs Instead

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 31, 2011 Legislation, News

Gotta love Sheriff Steve Keane for speaking truth to power.

‘Put the money where the problem is’

~ Sheriff Steve Keane

From time to time, a public servant says something so obviously true, so resonantly sensible, that it’s startling. Yes, it’s kind of sad that we’re startled by the truth, but it’s also great that there are people out there willing to lay it on the line.

Today’s hero is Steve Keane, sheriff of Benton County, Washington.

In a lunch meeting with Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, when the subject of controlling gang violence came up, Sheriff Keane told the A.G. it’d be nice if some money set aside for marijuana eradication could be used for gang prevention so they can “put the money where the problem is,” reports Paula Horton of the Tacoma News Tribune.

DEA Rejects Professor’s Bid To Grow Pot For Medical Research

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 25, 2011 Growing, Legislation, Medical

Photo: The Republican

Lyle E. Craker, UMass-Amherst professor of plant, soil and insect sciences, in the campus greenhouse

One well-known professor’s attempt to get federal permission to grow marijuana for research into its potential medical benefits has been — once again — rejected by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

The DEA has for years claimed that letting anybody other than the federal government grow marijuana would “lead to greater illegal use” of the herb, reports Robert Rizzuto at The Republican.

Lyle Craker, a University of Massachusetts professor of plant, soil and insect sciences in Amherst, has been trying for 10 years to get a license to perform potentially life-saving research on medicinal cannabis.

MI Court: Medical Marijuana Can’t Be Sold In Dispensaries

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 24, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Graphic: The Pacific Northwest Inlander

Medical marijuana dispensaries can be shut down as public nuisances, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in a decision announced Wednesday morning.

The three-judge panel, ruling on an Isabella County case, said the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act “does not include the patient-to-patient ‘sales,’ ” report Joe Swickard and John Wisely of the Detroit Free Press.

Unfortunately, the unfavorable decision can be used as precedent and applied to other cases.

A lower court had ruled that the Compassionate Apothecary was within the law when its operators allowed patients or caregivers to buy marijuana that other members had stored in their lockers rented from the facility. The owners, according to court papers, took at 20 percent cut of the price.

But Michigan’s medical marijuana law doesn’t include sales as “medical use,” according to the appellate judges’ 17-page opinion, and therefore it does not trump existing anti-drug laws.

Florida’s New Drug Testing Policy Hits Taxpayers Hard

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 24, 2011 Legislation, News

Photo: Val Does Politics

Dumb-ass alert: Florida Gov. Rick Scott said it is “unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction” when he signed this bill in May. So why is it OK for them to subsidize politicians’ stupidity?

Welfare Drug Testing Program Costs $5 For Every $1 It Saves

Florida’s dumb-ass new law which requires the drug testing of all families applying for welfare benefits kicked in on July 1. It forces already financially challenged public assistance applicants to front the cost of the drug test, then reimburses them only if they test negative.

Florida Governor Rick Scott, who spends most of his time with head way up his ass, said it is “unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction” when he signed this bill back in May, reported CNN. So why is it OK for them to subsidize politicians’ stupidity?

“It is the right thing for taxpayers,” the deeply clueless governor said at the time. “We don’t want to waste tax dollars.”

Mich. Judge: Med Marijuana Law Does Not Protect Dispensaries

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 23, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: The Oakland Press

Judge Colleen O’Brien won’t even allow dispensary operator Alexander Vlasenko to mention medical marijuana during his trial.

A local judge has ruled that Michigan’s Medical Marihuana Act does not protect dispensaries from prosecution.

In a written opinion issued last week, Oakland Circuit Judge Colleen O’Brien granted a motion from the prosecutors to preclude defendant Alexander Vlasenko from asserting a defense under the state’s medical marijuana law, reports Ann Zaniewski at the Oakland County Daily Tribune.

Vlasenko, who is facing three counts of delivery and “manufacture” of marijuana, won’t be allowed to even mention medical marijuana during his trial.

The charges stem from an undercover investigation of a Waterford Township business called Modern Age. (Sad but true: apparently Oakland County law enforcement officials have nothing better to do than conduct “undercover investigations” of medical marijuana dispensaries.)

Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012 Filed In California

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 22, 2011 Legislation, News

Graphic: Ride It Like You Stole It!

The Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012 is now filed with the California Attorney General for title and summary, according to The Committee to Repeal Cannabis Prohibition.

The act would allow adults to legally possess up to three pounds of cannabis and grow a 10×10-foot garden. The California Department of Public Health would be in charge of administering the commercial production of marijuana.

The RCPA 2012 would repeal all criminal prohibitions on cannabis-related conduct for adults while mandating strict rules against contributing to the delinquency of minors and driving while impaired.

N.Y. City Council Members: End Marijuana Arrest Crusade

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 16, 2011 Legislation, News

Graphic: New York Magazine

The Big Apple is King of the World for marijuana arrests

City Council Resolution Highlights Illegal Searches, Targeting of Youth of Color, and $75 Million Wasted

On Wednesday, August 17, at 10 a.m., a group of New York City Council members will introduce a resolution calling for an end to the racially biased, costly marijuana arrest crusade in New York City.

The resolution calls on the state Legislature to pass S.5187/A.7620, a bipartisan proposal to fix the law.

More than 50,000 marijuana possession arrests were made in New York City in 2010, according to the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), despite marijuana possession being decriminalized in the state of New York back in 1977.

Ann Arbor Sets Marijuana Dispensary Application Fee At $600

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 16, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: Ann Arbor Wellness Collective

Nebula, available at Ann Arbor Wellness Collective, 321 E. Liberty Avenue, Suite 1.

The Ann Arbor City Council voted unanimously at its August 15 meeting to establish an application fee of $600 for licenses to operate a medical marijuana dispensary in the Michigan city.

According to city officials, the application fee covers a total of about nine hours of work by staff in the city clerk’s office, police department, planning department, and the city attorney’s office, reports The Ann Arbor Chronicle.

It sounds as if prospective dispensary owners won’t be through paying money to the city even after they cough up the six Benjamins. The ordinance distinguishes between an “application fee” (which this is) and a “license fee.” License fees, according to city ordinance, are to be reviewed by a licensing board, the members of which will be appointed by Mayor John Hieftje.

New D.C. Medical Marijuana Rules Highlight Federal Prosecution

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 15, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Cafe Vale Tudo

Applicants for the District of Columbia’s medical marijuana program are now required to state in writing that they assume the risk of federal prosecution for growing or distributing cannabis, and that they cannot hold the city liable for arrests, according to newly revised rules.

The rules for the long-awaited program, published on Friday, for the first time pointedly mention federal prosecution because a Department of Justice memo from June says the federal government still considers marijuana a controlled substance, reports Tom Howell Jr. at The Washington Times.

Judge Rules Medical Marijuana Not An Agricultural Crop

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 15, 2011 Growing, Legislation, News

Photo: Cigarettes Flavours

Sure looks “agricultural” to me.

Yes, marijuana is a plant you grow from the ground. No, it’s not an agricultural crop. Confused yet?

In what is believed to be the first ruling of its kind in the state, a judge in California has ruled that a marijuana collective can’t operate on land zoned for agriculture, reports Lewis Griswold of the Fresno Bee.

In his ruling last week, Tulare County Superior Court Judge Paul Vortmann dismissed a property owner’s argument that a medical marijuana collective’s cultivation of marijuana is legal because it is in an agricultural zone.

“In this state, marijuana has never been classified as a crop or horticultural product,” Judge Vortmann wrote in his ruling. Marijuana is a controlled substance, the judge said.

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