| U.S. Navy. |
| Washington D.C. |
While the elected officials of our nation’s capital have already decided that decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana is the best thing for their city, the move still has to be approved by the U.S. House as per federal law. More accurately, the bill has to be disapproved in 60 days or less, giving congress the option of ignoring the move and letting it become law by default.
But that doesn’t look like it will be the case, as a Republican-controlled House subcommittee plans to discuss the matter.
| Flickr/Alex E. Proimos. |
Arizonans no longer risk getting a DUI for driving with an inactive metabolite of marijuana in their blood following a ruling by the state’s high court.
The Arizona Supreme Court announced this morning that it was reaffirming the trial court’s decision to dump the case of Hrach Shilgevorkyan, who was prosecuted for driving while impaired after a blood test revealed the presence of marijuana. New Times covered the case and overall issue in detail in the Phoenix New Times May 2013 article “Riding High.”
| Twitter.com |
Believe it or not, some Colorado locals were less than thrilled about the annual 4/20 event in Denver this year. But few observers were as negative as Smart Colorado, an organization devoted to “protecting youth from marijuana.” In the wake of the rally, the group put out a statement under the heading “Smart Colorado Speaks About Shocking 4/20 Activities” that decried the gathering in terms that a pot advocate heavily involved in the Civic Center spectacle describes as “hysterical.”
| “Dozens” of people at the 4/20 rally in Hyde Park, from U.K. NORML. |
It seems the British media have no issue portraying this past weekend’s 4/20 rally in London’s Hyde Park as a miserable, wet failure with only “dozens” of attendees when — according to those who were actually there — that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The idea of Texas as a marijuana-hating state might not be exactly accurate according to a study this week from Progress Texas that shows 92 percent of 9,000 Texans surveyed want the plant legalized and 93 percent want it decriminalized.
The study coincides with the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws putting up a billboard in the Metroplex advertising for the 2014 Global Marijuana March on May 3 in Fort Worth with the slogan “Isn’t it high time you got involved?”
Apparently the Florida legislature didn’t get the memo that CBD doesn’t get you high. Currently, lawmakers are working on a CBD-only bill that would give children suffering from rare seizure disorders to access to the extract. It should be a no-brainer. But because CBD is pot-related, lawmakers are still freaked out about it being abused.
| Greg Skidmore/Flickr. |
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie doesn’t even want to try and have an honest discussion about cannabis anymore, even if his constituents demand it. Christie was on local New Jersey radio yesterday for his monthly “Ask the Governor” program when a caller asked Christie about the tax revenue and other benefits (like job creation) that comes with decriminalized cannabis and recreational sales.
A new report published by Minnesota 2020 reiterates what cannabis activists have been saying for years, in some cases decades — that marijuana reform is not merely a matter of medical necessity but of civil rights.
Relying on FBI statistics from 2011, the progressive think tank found that black Minnesotans are 6.4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites. That figure is twice the national average and mostly represents men under the age of 25.
Desmond* has been a weed courier on and off for almost four years. He’s in his mid-twenties now, but he was still in college when he heard about the opportunity through a classmate. He works three days a week, and makes, on average, 15 deliveries a day. If he makes more than 20, he gets a free bag. Usually he’ll give it away or resell it — he used to be a big stoner, but he doesn’t smoke much any more; certain strains make him anxious.
The work helps him pay off his student loans and subsidizes his creative pursuits (he’s in two bands and does photography on his days off). When he’s working, he looks like any one of the hundreds of bike messengers who speed around New York City, clad in shorts, perched on a single-speed bike, with a bag and a couple of delivery tubes slung over one shoulder. And like any other messenger, he can be at your door in 20 minutes or less.
The Village Voice has more.