| CBD-rich oil from Colorado’s Kind Love dispensary. |
A bill legalizing just CBD and only for seizure disorders was unanimously sent to the Georgia state House this week, advancing what would arguably be the country’s most restrictive medical cannabis laws to date.
The bill, sponsored by Georgia Republican state Rep. Allen Peake, is aimed at helping the families of children suffering from rare disorders. Peake says he wrote the bill after meeting several sick Georgia children.
| United we stand, divided we fall my arse. |
Medical marijuana supporters in Kentucky are celebrating a small victory this week, as a compassionate medical cannabis bill made it’s way out of a Democrat-controlled Health and Human Services Committee meeting. The bill will now go before the House for consideration.
Sadly, that might be about as far as House Bill 350 will move in the otherwise conservative House and Senate.
Be careful what you wish for. That is the lesson being realized today by pro-cannabis advocates and activists in America’s Finest City.
| San Diego, California |
Yesterday, on a nearly unanimous 8-1 decision, the San Diego City Council finally cast a meaningful vote on establishing an official medical marijuana business ordinance in the city, laying down a law on pot shops for the first time since the California Compassionate Use Act, commonly referred to as Prop 215, was passed nearly 18 years ago.
| Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon. |
In what could possibly be a shift in the way Governor Jay Nixon will approach reforming Missouri’s draconian marijuana laws, he gave an ever-so tepid “maybe” to the question of legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes when asked about it on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday.
On a panel with three other governors – Rick Perry from Texas, Mike Pence from Indiana, and Dan Malloy from Connecticut – host Candy Crowley asked Nixon his thoughts on legalizing marijuana for recreational use.
Well, sort of. The Riverfront Times has more.
| Salted Caramel. |
Megan Auclair is not some tie-dye-wearing college kid whipping up potent pot brownies in the communal dorm kitchen. In fact, Auclair wants to wipe that stereotype from everyone’s subconscious.
Auclair is a medical professional, an entrepreneur, and as soon as the bill for medical marijuana passes, Auclair plans to heal the state with her yum-tasting THC-containing edibles. Assuming, of course, all her customers have prescriptions.
Broward-Palm Beach New Times has the full story.
It’s been nearly five years since New Jersey passed medical marijuana laws in their state, but so far few dispensaries have opened and others have dragged their heels to the point where patients have had enough.
Yesterday, the state Assembly Regulatory Oversight Committee took an hour to listen to testimony from patients and dispensary owners fed up with the current system. Among their gripes: dispensaries have taken more than three years to open, patients in parts of the state have little access to legal meds and doctors should be able to write pot recommendations without having to sign up themselves up with a onerous physician registration system.
The hearing came after more than 16,000 emails and calls were made to the state health department from frustrated cannabis patients.
The South Carolina legislature has cannabis on their minds and seem to be okay with industrial hemp, but don’t think they are coming close to actually legalizing pot anytime soon.
A bill allowing South Carolina farmers to grow industrial hemp moved through a state Senate agriculture panel Thursday with little opposition and a lot of support. Meanwhile, state Sen. Tom Davis filed a bill that would allow doctors to recommend CBD-rich oil to patients with seizure disorders.
| Dr. Steven Jenison. |
Minnesota may be closer to legalizing medical marijuana than anyone realizes. At a press conference earlier this year, Gov. Mark Dayton reiterated his opposition to medical marijuana and argued that “objective information” was needed in the debate, seeming to slam the door shut.
But a couple weeks later, some legislators and public health advocates met privately with Dr. Steven Jenison, the first director of New Mexico’s medical marijuana program, to talk about the potential challenges of implementing a similar program in Minnesota. Seriously.
The Minneapolis City Pages did the digging and has the complete story.
In a move chided by most medical marijuana patients and just about every medical marijuana collective owner in the state, the Washington state House last night approved a bill that would eliminate medical pot shops as they currently exist and force patients into a heavily-taxed recreational system.
House Bill 2149 passed by a vote of 67 to 29 last night, has been billed as a way to help keep federal agents out of Washington as well as a way to help funnel more tax revenue through the recreational system. The measure also decreases the total amount of plants patients can grow at home from 15 down to six and drops possession limits from 24 ounces to three.
Kern County, which stretches from the California Coast Ranges, east over the Sierra Nevada mountain range and into the Mojave Desert, has been a key battleground in the war on medical marijuana over the past two years in Southern California.
In June of 2012, a 69% majority of voters approved Measure G, which enacted a de facto ban on all storefront dispensaries in the county, as a reaction to a rapid addition of pot shops in the relatively small high desert towns. Bakersfield, the county seat, was exempt as it had its own regulations in place, but the rest of the county saw restrictions so tight, that all existing weed shops found themselves out of compliance almost overnight.
Local cannabis advocates have spent the past year and a half arguing against Measure G, calling it a farce and political stunt, to no avail. Their latest attempt, however, used an idea you almost have to be baked to come up with – and it worked.
