Medical marijuana patients in Connecticut now have the ability to purchase medical cannabis from a licensed dispensary after the Healing Corner and Arrow Alternative Care opened their doors Monday afternoon after nearly two years of waiting.
The centers, two of six in the state, opened their doors to long lines yesterday after finally receiving product from Theraplant, one of four state-licensed pot farms legally allowed to supply the dispensaries.
Once more, Santa Ana’s City Council brought up the recent whirlwind of medical marijuana clinics at the September 16th city council meeting. For the first time since the July 15th meeting, they even decided to have a discussion about it. Prior attempts to do so have been delayed due to absent council members. At the July 15th city council meeting, the council voted in favor of allocating $500,000 toward marijuana enforcement, a move initiated by Councilwoman Michelle Martinez. However, they didn’t inform the general public at that meeting (or any subsequent meetings) that pulling money from the city’s reserve funds requires a “supermajority,” in this case, a minimum of 5 “yes” votes. As the July 15th vote didn’t actually have a supermajority, they had to vote on it again at the September 16th meeting.
All this after several high profile dispensary raids this summer.
Floridians may be set to head to the polls in November to legalize medical marijuana, but could individual cities still ban smoking medical pot anyway? Bonita Springs, Florida, is going to try and is already drafting an ordinance banning smoking in public.
Which is slightly funny because Bonita Springs’ most famous store is a fishing shop called Master Bait and Tackle (get it?), and its tourist stores sell a lot of “Bonita Springs: a drinking town with a fishing problem” shirts. But apparently medical pot is a bridge too far.
| A CBD-oil syringe. |
A limited Iowa medical cannabis law that allows parents of minors to bring home high-CBD/low-THC oils from Colorado is hitting some major snags, as would-be patients and politicians are increasingly saying they need to be able to grow their own supply.
The NAACP of Florida announced that it is endorsing the passing of Amendment 2.
“Florida State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People proudly announces its support of United for Care and the passage of Amendment 2 this November,” a news release from the group announced. “The NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, has worked successfully with allies of all races and plays a significant role in improving the lives of minorities in America.”
A proposal to legalize medical cannabis in New South Wales, Australia’s largest and most populous state, gained huge support this week as Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbot gave his approval on a weekly radio program.
In fact, Abbot said that the proposed clinical trials don’t go far enough. Abbot says that there shouldn’t need to be clinical trials for a plant that is already legal for doctor’s recommendation in other Australian states.
| Brandon Marshall/Westword. |
It was a surprisingly sparse crowd that gathered in the Broward College South campus’ Performing Arts Center on Tuesday to watch United For Care’s Ben Pollara and Drug Free Florida’s Javier Correoso debate Amendment 2 and the legalization of medical marijuana.
Yet, the passions that are being inflamed over this issue were ever present, particularly among the crowd of mostly pro-medical marijuana.
| High-CBD oil. |
A plan that would have limited Colorado caregivers to just ten patients that would have cut off the supply of high-CBD oil to hundreds of epileptic and sick children in the state was killed by the state Board of Health yesterday.
| BruceRauner.com |
| Republican Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner, who would have vetoed the Illinois medical marijuana laws. |
Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner wouldn’t have allowed medical pot in Illinois had he been governor over this past term. Since he’s not governor, though it’s easy for him to sit back and play armchair quarterback when it comes to medical cannabis and criticize the current administration for following through with the will of the people and their elected officials.
But medical marijuana is legal, and now Rauner says he would milk it for all he can. His latest idea? Give out grow and dispensary licenses to the highest bidders, effectively cutting out small business owners and giving preferential treatment not to those who care about patients and medicine, but those who purely see dollar signs in the new industry.
| Coleen Whitfield. |
There’s a legal challenge over how licenses might be doled out for growers cultivating a special, high-CBD strain of medical marijuana, which doesn’t make users high and which has already been approved via state law.
Two Florida plant nurseries have sued to replace a proposed lottery system with a more rigorous, merit-based approach.