| Andrew Walton. |
Over the last few months in Colorado, there has been a proliferation of free-marijuana giveaways on Craigslist, with respondents getting weed at no charge if they offered a donation or bought something else — like a sticker, or washer/dryer repair. Participants insisted that such offers were authorized under Amendment 64, which allows Colorado adults 21 and over to possess small amounts of marijuana. Law enforcers disagreed — including, presumably, the folks at the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, who’ve busted Andrew Walton for taking part in such a scheme.
Click over to Denver Westword for more on this story.
| USBP |
| A California beach bust from last year. |
Add military bases to your list of places you don’t want to use as a drop zone for your $1 million marijuana haul. Yesterday a 20-foot boat was found floating upside down without an engine floating outside of Vandenberg Air Force base Santa Barbara, California. Since the base – the third largest in the world – is used for testing missiles and firing rockets into space, this caused quite the stir.
| TokeoftheTown.com |
Illinois is one step closer to having medical marijuana laws on the books after a bipartisan subcommittee approved HB0001 to move into the House for a full vote. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time bills have made it this far only to find their demise before the entire House.
If passed, the Illinois medical marijuana bill would allow patients to possess up to two and a half ounces, which they could replenish at one of 60 proposed, state-regulated dispensaries every two weeks. Herb would be grown in 22 cultivation facilities scattered across Illinois.
| Flikr.com |
| Let me grow. |
The movement to reform our failed cannabis policies has grown tremendously in recent years and months. It’s not slowing down anytime soon. Cannabis reform is a mainstream issue, and frankly, there’s no denying it. A majority in the county support legalizing cannabis, and 81% support its legalization for medical purposes.
On top of this, a majority of states in our country (27 in total) have either decriminalized cannabis possession (14), or legalized it for medical and/or recreational purposes (18). The remaining states are hard at work towards reform, and advocates in the states mentioned above are vehemently trying to improve their situation. For those who have been on the line about getting involved in helping bring cannabis law change, now is absolutely the time to jump in.
Below is a breakdown of efforts going on around the country:
| Drug money. |
For their weekly feature story this week, the Phoenix New Times looks into the workings of an Arizona drug smuggling gang:
“Rodrigo, his 19-year-old cousin Sal, his uncle Sergio, and four other family members live in the small house on Phoenix’s west side. From the house’s garage, the pot moves to wholesalers. “Most of them are black or Jamaican,” Rodrigo says. Each year, Palmona’s group distributes about 10,000 pounds of marijuana to different people who drive it to places like Michigan, Maryland, Kentucky, and Chicago, where it’s divided into pounds, half-pounds, ounces.”
For the rest of the (completely amazing) story, head over to Phoenix New Times.
| N.M. State Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino. |
A bill that would require the state of New Mexico to conduct an economic study on legalizing and regulating marijuana passed out of sub committee yesterday and now moves on to the senate for approval.
| Eric Holder. |
When pressed for an official response to Colorado and Washington marijuana laws yesterday in a Senate Subcommittee meeting, Attorney General Eric Holder again balked at giving any real answer – only to again say that his office will comment soon. All this just one day after former DEA chiefs and the United Nations demand that he take action to stop laws in Colorado and Washington.
Darryl Rouson is a former crack addict and current Democratic member of the Florida House of Representatives. He has sponsored a bill to ban all bongs, glass bowls, roach clips and other marijuana paraphernalia, since he believes weed is the gateway to crack. “If we can make people drive to Georgia and Alabama and South Carolina to get fireworks, they can drive to get these utensils of death,” he says. Those dismissing the chances of Rouson’s bill should know he was recently elected leader of the Florida House Democrats. Broward Palm-Beach New Times has the story.
| New Jersey flag. |
The New Jersey Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee gave their approval to a bill that would protect medical marijuana patients from being denied organ transplants in that state. The bill received a vote of 7-2-1 Monday, and will now go before the state senate for approval.