For the first time a Field Poll survey of California voters shows that a majority believe marijuana should be legalized and regulated sales to adults with ID should be allowed. A previous poll conducted in 2010 showed a 50 percent split among voters just months before Proposition 19 failed in California.
Only 31 percent of the state opposes legalization.
| Nanette Gonzalez/LA Weekly. |
Marijuana fans were up in arms when we reported last year on USC research that suggested a link between pot smoking and testicular cancer. Well, this should raise your spirits. Swiss researchers using mice as subjects believe there could be a possible positive link between weed and better erections.
Read more over at LA Weekly.
| TokeoftheTown.com |
Update 12/11/13 – 8:20 a.m.: Uruguay yesterday became the first country in the world to legalize and regulate cannabis sales as well as legalize the home cultivation for adults over 21. The Uruguayan Senate yesterday gave final approval to the proposed measure, passing the bill over to President Jose Mujica, who is expected to sign it into law. The bill passed with a 16-13 majority.
“Today is an historic day. Many countries of Latin America, and many governments, will take this law as an example,” Sen. Constanza Moreira said after the vote.
Three marijuana-related bills in Michigan leaped initial hurdles this morning, passing out of the House Judiciary committee. The first would allow for medical marijuana dispensaries to operate in the state again legally and the other makes legal marijuana-infused products including edibles and tinctures.
A third measure passed allowing pharmacies to sell and produce “pharmaceutical grade” cannabis that is if the FDA ever allows such a thing to happen. All three measures move on to the full House for consideration.
At a briefing yesterday morning, Public Safety Committee chair Sheffie Kadane wondered why business owners aren’t punished when police catch someone doing or selling drugs at a bar or restaurant. “My understanding is in some of these places, it’s just blatantly out in the open there, passing drugs, selling drugs … Shouldn’t the owner be liable some way if they’re doing drugs in his facility, whether he knows it or not — and I’m sure he knows it.”
Dallas Observer has the full story.
Yesterday, Denver city councilwoman Susan Shepherd predicted that an amendment allowing people to smoke pot on their front porches and front lawns — a reversal of a ban that seemed certain to pass — would be approved at a meeting last night, and she was right. The new rules sailed through.
Not so for another proposal that concerned Shepherd — one that would have prohibited smoking within 1,000 feet of schools even on private property, like a home. Denver Westword has the full details.
The Drug Policy Alliance Wednesday filed ballot initiative language last week that would legalize up to an ounce of pot and four plants for adults over 21 in California as well as allow for recreational cannabis sales with a tax of up to 25 percent.
But as of now, nobody seems willing to push it. According to a blog post at StopTheDrugWar.org last night, DPA officials say they aren’t sure if they are even going to push for the measure right now due to remaining shell shock from failure of 2010’s Proposition 19 that would have legalized recreational cannabis in the Golden State.
Sensible British Columbia Campaign organizer Dana Larsen Sunday announced that the ballot initiative they had been pushing to decriminalize marijuana possession failed to collect enough signature in time for the deadline.
Still, the group says they collected 200,000 signatures and that they’re looking forward to 2015 with another plan to prevent police from enforcing marijuana laws in the Canadian province.
Hold onto to your e-cigarettes and vape pens while you can, people, because using them in Los Angeles might soon be banned in the same places that prohibit lighting up regular smokes including beaches, bars and restaraunts.
The L.A. City Council today will consider a new motion to be introduced by Councilman Mitch O’Farrell that would treat electronic devices the same way that cigarette smoking is regulated in town. LA Weekly has more.
Update: Dec. 6, 8:20 a.m. – Yesterday the Florida Supreme Court began hearing arguments for and against a proposed medical marijuana ballot initiative. Opponents say the language is too vague and would create a free for all for people seeking to use cannabis legally but don’t have a valid medical condition.
The Justices all seemed to take that argument the most seriously, with several agreeing at least in discussion that the measure is written too broadly.