Yesterday, medical marijuana’s House supporters announced a big compromise they hope will be amenable to law enforcement and signed into law by pot unfriendly Gov. Mark Dayton.
The compromise, announced at a Capitol news conference by House Speaker Paul Thissen (D-Minneapolis), Majority Leader Erin Murphy (D-St. Paul), and Rep. Carly Melin (D-Minneapolis), “would create a medical cannabis clinical trial, allowing limited participation by children who are suffering and adults with severe illnesses,” a House DFL news release says. The bill gets it’s first hearing today, and could potentially pass before the end of the session.

Update, 5/1/14: We love when we are wrong about things like this. The Iowa legislature officially passed their CBD-only bill this morning, with the bill clearing both the House and Senate by 4:30 a.m. today.
The bill, which would allow sick Iowans with a doctor’s reccomendation to purchase CBD oil out of state then bring it back to Iowa, passed the house with a 75-20 vote and was approved by the senate with a 38-8 vote. The bill now heads to Gov. Terry Branstad for his signature.

Florida is still a long way from legalized medical marijuana. The Sheriff’s Association is waging a fierce campaign against it. The governor has hinted he might not sign any new laws on it. The conservative House has yet to take up the issue.
Yet history was made in the Florida Senate Monday, when legislators for the first time passed a bill to legalize medical pot. The bill, which would make it legal to obtain low-THC marijuana from a doctor to treat epilepsy in children, flew through the Senate with a 36-3 vote.

Yesterday, as we reported, a bill calling for post-traumatic stress disorder to be added to the conditions approved for treatment by medical marijuana came before the Colorado House committee on State, Military and Veterans Affairs. But it was rejected by a 6-5 vote.Sensible Colorado’s Brian Vicente, attorney and co-author of Amendment 64, has been fighting for this cause since at least 2010. He’s clearly frustrated by this turn of events, as well as some of the misinformation heard during testimony. But he’s not ready to give up.
“This is something Sensible Colorado has worked on for four years-plus,” Vicente notes, “and it seems that time and again, the government has acted to prevent PTSD sufferers from ready access to medical marijuana. We think the vote last night was just shameful.”

The many opponents of legalized marijuana in Florida have come and gone, defeated with facts and science and the power of the people. But, like a ferocious hungry hydra looking to devour the movement at every turn, opposition continues to rear its long, scaly talons at preventing medical weed from being legalized.
The most recent — and perhaps biggest — opposition to date comes in the form of the Florida Sheriffs Association, which has launched a staunch anti-Amendment 2 campaign called “Don’t Let Florida Go to Pot.”

Will Florida’s 2014 governor’s race become the election that was over before it even began? Ever since Governor Rick Scott’s approval ratings plummeted shortly into his tenure, rumors have floated that Charlie Crist would officially become a Democrat and trounce Scott in an election … and that seems to be what’s going to happen. Maybe.
Recent polls show Crist with a comfortable lead over Scott, but the margin has shrunk since 2013 when several polls showed him with a double digit lead. Miami New Times has more.