| KTVQ |
| Montana Republicans ignored the will of 62 percent of the state’s voters last year when they passed the restrictive SB 423. Now, with the election approaching, they seem to have suddenly discovered their hearts. |
It seems nobody is happy with the medical marijuana law passed by the GOP-controlled Montana Legislature in May 2011. Now even the Montana Republican Party has joined the call for a new bill in 2013.
State Republicans ignored the will of 62 percent of Montana’s voters last year when they passed the restrictive SB 423. Now, with the election approaching, they seem to have suddenly discovered their hearts.
In a landmark change to the party platform this past weekend, Republicans joined Democrats in supporting medical marijuana and called for “the next legislature to create a workable and realistic regulatory structure.”
| The Weed Blog |
It appears increasingly unlikely that a proposal to legalize marijuana in Michigan will make the ballot in November, but organizers say they haven’t given up.
Supporters of the proposal, which would make cannabis legal for adults 21 and older, said on Wednesday they’ve collected about 40,000 signatures, reports Tim Martin at mlive.com. That’s a long way from the nearly 323,000 signatures they need by July 9 to make the ballot and allow voters to decide.
The effort to collect signatures is continuing, according to Committee for a Safer Michigan organizer Matt Abel. He said he hopes volunteers working on the campaign will submit thousands of signatures in the next few weeks and gain new momentum for the push.
| AFP |
| Uruguayan President Jose Mujica |
The government of the South American nation of Uruguay plans to not only legalize marijuana, but to sell it, according to local news media.
Unnamed lawmakers from Uruguay’s ruling party were quoted as saying that the government would send a bill to Congress on Wednesday that would legalize cannabis sales as a “crime-fighting measure.” Only the government would be allowed to sell marijuana, and only to adults registered as “users,” reports Pablo Fernandez of the Associated Press.
| Where’s Weed? |
Barring a miracle, all medical marijuana dispensaries will be banned from Long Beach, California on August 12.
Law enforcement officers gave an update on the city’s current medical marijuana law — which includes an exception allowing 18 dispensaries — during Tuesday’s City Council meeting, reports Jonathan Van Dyke at Gazettes.com.
The Council voted in February to ban collectives, with a six-month exemption for the dispensaries that had gone through a long and torturous approval process — even including a lottery, for Christ’s sake — for the past several years.
On Tuesday, the question was whether the city ever wanted to offer another extension to the existing dispensaries, or whether the initial six-month exemption was intended as a grace period for the shops to “wind down” operations.
Federal Actions Contradict Obama Administration’s Claims That It Is Not Targeting State Law-Compliant Businesses
The operator of Sacramento’s first permitted medical marijuana dispensary, which was raided by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), will speak out at a rally on Wednesday at 1:30 pm in front of the federal building along with other patients and supporters.
Last week, the union-run El Camino Wellness Center was forcibly shut down, after having served thousands of Sacramento patients since 2008. Though no charges have been filed against the dispensary operators, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has seized the facility’s bank accounts.
| Global Commission on Drug Policy |
Landmark Report Released in Advance of 2012 World AIDS Conference in Washington, DC
Global Commission Calls for Drug Decriminalization and Expansion of Proven, Cost-Effective Solutions to Reduce HIV/AIDS – Including Sterile Syringe Access, Safer Injection Facilities, and Prescription Heroin Programs
While Some Countries Have Virtually Eliminated Drug-Related HIV Transmissions, Drug War Policies in U.S., Russia, Thailand and China Cause Millions of Needless Infections and AIDS Deaths
On June 26, the Global Commission on Drug Policy will release a groundbreaking report at a press conference in London followed by a worldwide teleconference. The report describes how the global War On Drugs is driving the HIV pandemic among people who use drugs and their sexual partners.
The report condemns the Drug War as a failure and recommends immediate, major reforms of the global drug prohibition regime to halt the spread of HIV infection and other drug war harms.
| The Weed Blog |
Wanna get paid $3 per signature while gathering for Washington state’s Cannabis Child Protection Act, I-514?
Seriously? Yes, but the details will surprise you.
It’s a bit of a twist not seen in volunteer-supported campaigns, but Toke of the Town is about to pass along to Washington State cannabis reform activists something they’ve been lacking the past few years: the opportunity to collect signatures to legalize (remove penalties for adults, felonies for minors, allow home growing) for cannabis AND adjust I-502’s bad effects (if it passes) by requiring video evidence of impairment before anyone’s blood can be used in a DUI case, all while making cash money.
Curious? Here is the full story.
| ShadyHousePub.com |
| Surprise, surprise! More gutless non-leadership from the Party of No |
Senate Republicans and Conservative Party Break With Top Law Enforcement Officials to Kill Legislation Clarifying Marijuana Possession Laws; Measure Supported by Cuomo, Bloomberg, NYPD Commissioner, District Attorneys Throughout State
Over 50,000 Needless Arrests Cost Taxpayers $75 million a Year, Undermine Ability of Youth to Gain Employment; Majority Leader Skelos and Conservative Party Leader Mike Long Apparently Believe Wasteful, Unlawful, Racially Biased Arrests is “Right Message” for “Youngsters”
Operations Order by Commissioner Kelly Has Proven To Be Ineffective; Advocates, Community Groups and Elected Officials Vow to Continue Fight for Legislation That Ensures Equity, Fairness and Fiscal Responsibility
Monday night, lawmakers in Albany failed to reach agreement on legislation to reduce the staggering number of unlawful, biased arrests for marijuana possession in New York.
The proposal, unveiled by Governor Andrew Cuomo two weeks ago and introduced in the Assembly by Assemblymember Hakeem Jeffries, was widely seen as a responsible measure to address the inconsistency and unfairness in the marijuana possession laws in New York. Yet Senate Republicans refused to take up the matter, appearing shaken, intimidated and frightened by threats from Conservative Party Leader Mike Long, who declared he would pull the Conservative Party line from anyone who supported the measure.
The Senate – in what can only be called a stunning failure of leadership – then refused to take up the legislation, undermining reform. Because of inaction in the Senate, tens of thousands of people, predominately young men of color, will continue to be needlessly funneled through the criminal justice system at an expense of tens of millions of dollars to state taxpayers and untold damage to the relationships between law enforcement and communities in New York.
| The Weed Blog |
A proposed ballot measure to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in the city of San Diego which would also impose a tax on dispensary operators won’t be on the ballot in November, supporters announced on Monday.
The dispensary-sponsored groups Citizens for Patient Rights and the Patient Care Association were unsuccessful in getting 62,057 signatures by Monday’s deadline to qualify. The number of signatures collected fell badly short at under 20,000, less than a third of what was required.
“Qualifying a ballot initiative in the City of San Diego is extremely cost prohibitive,” the group said in a Monday press release. “Recently, the proponents of the successful Proposition B spent over 1.1 million to qualify their initiative for the ballot, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.”
| Gateway Pundit |
The North Carolina Democratic Party endorsed medical marijuana legalization at its convention last weekend, as one of 77 resolutions that members support.
Many of the resolutions adopted at the convention are aligned with official party policy positions, but some, including cannabis legalization, are still seen by the establishment as “fringe” positions, report John Frank and Lynn Bonner of the Raleigh News-Observer. (Frank and Bonner didn’t get the story quite right, by the way; they reported the Democrats endorsed “marijuana legalization,” which, of course, is a whole different animal than “medical marijuana legalization.” Try harder to get it right next time, John and Lynn.)
The party endorsed not just one but two pro-cannabis resolutions, the first for legalizing medical marijuana in North Carolina, and the second in support of renewing industrial hemp as an agricultural crop in the state.