Want to own a medical marijuana dispensary in Massachusetts? Get in line and bring your checkbook.
Officials with the state public health department announced that more than 100 people applied to be one of 35 licensed dispensaries allowed under state law. The deadline for applications was yesterday at 3 p.m.
| Security footage from First Reliable dispensary. |
Last month we reported on the slaying of two employees at a Bakersfield, California medical marijuana dispensary who were gunned down in a senseless act of violence during a robbery.
Yesterday, the 16-year-old girl charged as an accomplice in the murder of security guard Tony Sherman and dispensary employee Devin Daniels began her trial.
| Dakta Green. |
Dakta Green wants to legalize cannabis. He’s open about his cannabis use – you kind of have to bee when you’re the co-coordinator of New Zealand NORML, you’ve been arrested for operating a place that openly allows the use and sale of herb – and has been a major an advocate for New Zealand repealing and reforming their marijuana laws.
And now Green is running for mayor of the Ruapehu District (roughly the same as a county in the United States) on the North Island of New Zealand on a cannabis reform/lowering electricity costs platform.
Don’t expect any major changes in marijuana policy from the White House any time soon (okay, if you were expecting major changes in the first place you were in for a disappointment).
At a press briefing yesterday, CNN’s Jessica Yellin asked White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest if marijuana rescheduling was on the president’s radar these days after what seems to be a rapid public opinion shift on all things marijuana over the last few years. The answer? Our president isn’t even considering it — at least, not now.
Has the U.S. Justice Department given approval for Colorado and Washington to move forward with implementing legal marijuana sales to adults over 21 by simply not saying “no”?
Colorado and Washington officials seem to think so, according to reports released this week from Talking Points Memo and the Huffington Post.
| Mary McNeil/Flickr. |
| Vancouver Police Department Chief Jim Chu. |
Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu says that police need more options in dealing with marijuana possession charges and decriminalizing the possession of 30 grams or less at the federal level could save millions in court and police costs.
Chu delivered his message to his peers earlier this week at the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police annual meeting. The association also passed a resolution urging the government to provide alternative ways of dealing with the “crime” of low-level marijuana possession.
| U.S. Customs and Border Protection. |
Add scuba diving across the St. Clair River to your list of marijuana smuggling methods that don’t work.
U.S. Border Patrol arrested a Canadian man around 1 a.m. Monday morning in Michigan after he surfaced from the river with a dry bag with about eight pounds of Canadian herb inside.
A new poll suggests that the war on drugs is even more unpopular than Congress.
A survey from last month showed Congress with a 12 percent approval rating. However, a new poll finds that only 4 percent of respondents feel we’re winning the war on drugs, while 82 percent disagree — and a national marijuana-reform advocate thinks Colorado’s example is likely to inspire even more people to give peace a chance. Denver Westword has the full story.
For almost two years now, medical marijuana patients the state of Delaware have been sitting in limbo waiting on their state to enact medical marijuana dispensary laws passed in May of 2011.
Thankfully, they won’t have to wait much longer as Gov. Jack Markell announced last week that lawmakers will establish the rules and implement the program soon.
The New Jersey Senate has caved in to Gov. Chris Christie’s demands, altering a medical marijuana bill that would have eased access for suffering children to make it more restrictive.
The 34 to 1 vote means that children will have to have two doctors signing off on a child’s recommendation for medical cannabis, one of which has to be a child psychiatrist. The new bill also expands the available forms of medicated edibles, but limits those new forms to children only – a baffling move to anyone who has researched medical cannabis for even five minutes online could tell you.