| New Hampshire state house. |
The New Hampshire House and Senate both approved medical marijuana bills this past session, but the differences between the two proposals were big enough that the two legislative bodies were forced to hammer out their differences in a joint committee.
And from the latest reports, it seems they’ve reached a compromise.
Later today, the Colorado Attorney General’s office will formally release a 71-count indictment targeting businessman Conley Hoskins and eleven others with defrauding investors who wanted to cash in on the state’s booming medical marijuana industry.
Denver Westword got an early look at the document, which should be released shortly. It details what prosecutors believe was a complex plot involving Jane Medicals, whose website notes locations in Denver and Lakewood. Click over to the Latest Word blog for more.
| A sample Michigan medical marijuana card. |
Medical marijuana dispensaries in Michigan are reopening using a new model this month after being shut down since February thanks to a state Supreme Court ruling making patient-to-patient sales illegal.
Higher Expectations Medical Partnership in Battle Creek, Michigan says his shop now doesn’t have any marijuana on site to sell anymore. Instead, HEMP acts as a clearinghouse for caregivers and patients – a relationship that is still allowed by state law.
In less than five years, Barack Obama has spent nearly $290 million to arrest and prosecute medical marijuana caregivers, patients and dispensary owners. It’s a huge number, but interestingly only makes up about four percent of the overall Drug Enforcement Administration Budget.
According to Americans for Safe Access, which compiled the report using DEA and other federal statistics, says federal intervention flies in the face of state-legal cannabis patients, which number more than 1 million people nationally.
Despite the fact that Arizona has a medical-marijuana law, that law does not turn a neighborhood weed dealer into a bona fide medical-marijuana salesman.
This apparently comes as news to several Phoenix residents, as a New Times review of superior court filings shows that police have busted several dealers over the last few weeks, and were discovered by police because they offered “medical marijuana” for sale on Craigslist. Phoenix New Times has the rest.
Nevada medical marijuana patients in need of cannabis will soon have legal storefronts to go to for safe access to their meds, though the tradeoff means the elimination of home growing.
Gov. Brian Sandoval signed Senate Bill 374 into law last night, creating a state-regulated system of growers, processers and dispensaries. The move also allows home growing only until 2016, when the dispensary program is expected to be fully functional.
| A plant of “Charlotte’s Web”. |
Charlotte Figi has been through more hardships in her six short years than most people do in a lifetime. About a year and a half ago, seizures caused by a rare genetic disorder would rip through her tiny body up to sixty times in a day.
Things had become so bad, that her parents had signed “do not resuscitate” forms for their daughter – deciding that if it was her time to go, then it would at least be the end of her suffering. At the end of their rope, her parents tried one last thing to prolong their daughter’s life: medical cannabis. Not only did it work, it’s drastically improved the quality of life for little Charlotte and other children around Colorado. Unfortunately, the treatment isn’t legal for most U.S. children affected by this condition.
| TokeoftheTown.com |
Federal authorities yesterday moved to shut down marijuana dispensaries in Echo Park, Westlake, south L.A., the harbor area, Long Beach, Lancaster and Pearblossom. The action so far involves mainly warning letters to most of the 103 storefronts targeted, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
While weed retailing might still be legal in the city of L.A. and other California communities, the federal government still sees cannabis as a top outlaw drug. The targeted 71 dispensaries in the city of L.A. involved all remaining known shops in the LAPD’s Rampart, Newton and Harbor divisions, feds said. LA Weekly has the full story.
The New York General Assembly yesterday approved a bill allowing medical marijuana use in the Empire State.
Assembly Bill 6357 was voted in with a 95-38 vote. The discussion now moves over to the state Senate in the next few weeks, which takes up the nearly identical Senate Bill 4406. If approved, the bill would allow for qualifying patients to receive a doctor’s recommendation to use cannabis. Patients would be allowed to possess up to 2.5 ounces purchased at one of several state-regulated medical marijuana dispensaries.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, agents who were part of a 45-foot response boat that was on routine patrol last night spotted the sailboat as it attempted to enter the harbor. ” As the crew approached the sailboat, the pilot reportedly veered to the right and ran the sailboat onto the beach,” the Coast Guard’s press release states. “Two people reportedly jumped from the sailboat and ran away. Coast Guard crewmembers docked their boat and made their way to the beached vessel where they reportedly discovered approximately 80 to 90 bales of marijuana.”
The O.C. Weekly has the rest.