News

Marijuana Momentum In Michigan: Legalization Vote In 2012?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 10, 2011 Legislation, News

Michigan is undergoing a groundswell of activism for a statewide vote on the legalization of marijuana, and voters could get a chance to have their say in November 2012.

There’s a strong popular will toward reforming the cannabis laws statewide, according to Kalamazoo defense attorney Louis Stocking, who ran the petition drive for that city’s successful citywide vote Tuesday to make enforcing the marijuana laws the lowest priority of police, reports Paula M. Davis at the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Following Michigan’s approval of medical marijuana in 2008, Tuesday’s ballot measure in Kalamazoo was “a way of keeping the tidal wave going,” Stocking sasid.

Federal Domestic Spying May Target Cannabis Growers

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 10, 2011 Growing, News

Michael Montgomery/California Watch

A federal drug agent stands in a marijuana field near Redding. The 2010 raid led to federal charges against 27 people.

The pattern of the American government using domestic spying on its own citizens — begun after the 9/11 attacks and the PATRIOT Act — may soon be going to a new level. Congress may empower federal intelligence agencies to participate in the struggle against marijuana cultivation in national forests and on other federal land.

One provision in the 2012 intelligence authorization bill calls on James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, to report on how federal spy agencies can help park rangers, fish and wildlife wardens, and other federal agents eradicate cannabis gardens, report Andrew Becker and Michael Montgomery at California Watch.

The bill also directs the top spy to work with federal public land managers to identify intelligence and information-sharing gaps related to drug trafficking. The House passed its version of the bill, HR 1892, in September; it is now before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Cannabis Increases Pain-Relieving Effects Of Opiates: Study

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 10, 2011 Medical, News

MS News Channel

Vaporized cannabis “significantly augments” the analgesic effects of opiates in patients with chronic pain, according to clinical trial data published online in the scientific journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco looked at the use of vaporized marijuana over a five-day period in 21 chronic pain patients who were on a regimen of twice-daily doses of morphine or oxycodone. Participants in the trial inhaled cannabis vapor on the evening of day 1 of the study, three times a day on days 2 through 4, and in the morning of day 5, reports the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Medical Marijuana Supporters Rally In Sacramento Today

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 9, 2011 Legislation, News

Eastern District of California Blog

Protester Brian David at the Sacramento Federal Courthouse on October 7

The Marijuana Policy Project and a coalition of advocacy and labor groups are staging a demonstration today to protest the federal government’s escalated attack on California’s medical marijuana laws. A rally of medical marijuana patients and supporters is taking place in front of the Sacramento Federal Building and features state legislators, advocates, labor unions, and dispensary operators impacted by the recent Department of Justice (DOJ) crackdown in California.

Since the beginning of October, U.S. Attorneys in California have released statements giving some medical marijuana businesses 45 days to close or risk prosecution. They have also issued threats to landlords, indicating that they will be prosecuted and their property seized if they rent to medical marijuana businesses.

In addition, media outlets have been warned that advertising for medical marijuana businesses, a major source of media revenue in California, could lead to federal charges as well.

“The recent announcements by the U.S. attorneys of the intent to target the California medical marijuana industry are a waste of law enforcement resources and a betrayal of campaign promises made by President Obama,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). “Shutting down businesses that provide medical marijuana to patients, and threatening their landlords and media advertisers, will not have any effect on the illicit marijuana market.

Bolivia’s President Says U.S. DEA Agents Not Welcome Back

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 9, 2011 Global, News

Bob Strong/Reuters

Bolivian President Evo Morales: “They repressed us in Bolivia. That has ended.”

The president and vice president of Bolivia both said this week that American drug agents will not be returning to their country, despite the newly announced normalization of diplomatic relations with the United States.

Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Tuesday during a regional summit in Bogota, the Colombian capital, that it is a question of “dignity and sovereignty,” reports Vivian Sequera at the Huffington Post.

Tacoma Resoundingly Passes Lowest Priority For Pot Enforcement

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 9, 2011 Legislation, News

Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Tacoma Police officers hassle booth vendors selling pipes at this year’s Tacoma Hempfest in June. Police claimed that pot was “already their lowest priority,” but voters made it official on Tuesday.

Voters in Tacoma, Washington, just south of Seattle, sent a powerful message Tuesday to law enforcement and to state legislators in Olympia by joining Seattle in officially declaring marijuana possession laws the city’s “lowest law enforcement priority.”

Organizers Don Muridan and Sherry Bockwinkel, cosponsors of Tacoma Initiative No. 1, CannbisReformAct.org, gathered the necessary signatures and the voters of Tacoma resoundingly agreed, passing with measure with 65 percent approval.

The measure overwhelmingly passed by an almost 2:1 margin, despite being voted on in an off-year election. Modeled after Seattle’s 2003 initiative, Tacoma Initiative No. 1 makes adult marijuana possession offenses the lowest priority for law enforcement.

Medical Cannabis Supporters To Rally In Sacramento Wednesday

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 8, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Alternative Care Clinics

Lawmakers, Patients, and Activists to Decry DOJ Attacks

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), California NORML and a coalition of advocacy and labor groups are staging a demonstration at noon on Wednesday, November 9 to protest the federal government’s escalated attack on California’s medical marijuana laws.

A rally of medical marijuana patients and supporters is set to occur in front of the Sacramento Federal Building and will feature state legislators, advocates, labor unions, and dispensary operators impacted by the recent Department of Justice (DOJ) crackdown in California.

Can The Cops Track You With GPS? Supreme Court To Decide

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 8, 2011 Legislation, News

Washington City Paper

The United States Supreme Court will decide whether law enforcement should have obtained a search warrant before placing a global positioning system (GPS) tracking device on the car of a Washington, D.C., man who was suspected of dealing drugs, so they could covertly track his movements.

The justices on Tuesday heard oral arguments in an appeal from the Obama Administration, which wants the power to track suspects’ movements without getting a warrant, reports Bill Mears at CNN.

A majority of the justices appeared adamant after a one-hour public session that police officers should have gotten a warrant before placing the device on the subject’s vehicle, Mears reports. A government lawyer didn’t help the Feds’ case when he suggested that such surveillance could be used on members of the Court itself.

Asian and Black Teens Have Lowest Rates Of Drug Use: Study

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 8, 2011 News

Kush And Orange Juice

Asian and black teenagers in the United States are less likely to use drugs or alcohol than adolescents of other races, a new study has found.

The survey of 72,561 teens found that American Indian (Native American) youth had the highest rates of drug or alcohol use, with 48 percent reporting they had used the substances in the past year. That was followed by 39 percent of whites, 37 percent of Hispanics, 36 percent of mixed-race teens, 32 percent of blacks and just 24 percent of Asians, according to the research published on Monday in Archives of General Psychiatry, reports Nicole Ostrow at Bloomberg.

Ohio Could Get Chance To Decide On Medical Marijuana In 2012

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 8, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Ohio Patient Network

Ohioans could grow and use marijuana for medicinal purposes under a state constitutional amendment voters may get the chance to consider in 2012.

The Ohio Alternative Treatment Act recently cleared initial hurdles to allow supporters to start getting more than 385,000 signatures required to place the issue on the November 2012 general election ballot, reports Evan Bevins at The Marietta Times.

The amendment would allow medical practitioners in a “bona fide practitioner-patient relationship” to recommend marijuana for qualifying medical conditions including cancer, AIDS, Parkinsson’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and other diseases, conditions or treatments that produce severe nausea, pain or muscle spasms.

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