| Graphic: Patients for Medical Cannabis |
After a nine-year effort, one Maryland lawmaker may finally succeed this year in his quest to reduce criminal penalties for medical marijuana use.
Sen. David Brinkley (R-Frederick County) is one of the lead sponsors of a bill that would allow medical marijuana users to be found not guilty on criminal possession charges and would establish a study at a research university regarding the use of medicinal cannabis in general, reports Meg Tully at The Frederick News-Post.
The Maryland House of Delegates gave the bill a preliminary OK on Saturday. If the House acts — as scheduled — to vote on it Monday, then Brinkley said he thought the bill would become law.
| Photo: KFSN |
| Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer: “We do not believe it sends a good message to our youth to accept monies… from an organization that is using marijuana and distributing marijuana” |
A $5,000 donation to the Fresno Police Activities League — which would have helped troubled kids — has been returned. The cops say they don’t want the money because it’s from a medical marijuana dispensary.
The donation was presented to the police department Wednesday morning by the owners of Buds 4 Life, but by Thursday the check was sent back, according to the collective, reports KFSN-TV in Fresno.
While the donation “was made with good intentions,” said Police Chief Jerry Dyer, neither he nor the city “supports medical marijuana,” claiming it would “send the wrong message” to the city’s youth.
If the message is “The Fresno Police Department is a bunch of dumb-asses,” you may consider it already sent, loud and clear, Chief Dyer.
| Photo: Cannabis Culture |
| Under a joke amendment proposed by a Republican legislator in Washington, medical marijuana patients could order pizza on the state’s dime. |
It seems everyone’s a comedian when it comes to cannabis. Now a Washington legislator has added a joke pizza amendment to a bill which would expand the state’s medical marijuana law.
Rep. Glenn Anderson (F-Fall City) proposed a joke amendment requiring the state to reimburse medical marijuana patients for pizza the eat while legally high. Anderson’s amendment specifies it would not reimburse for more than three toppings, or for tips to pizza delivery drivers.
Philip Dawdy, spokesman for the Washington Cannabis Association, a trade group for the medical marijuana industry in the state, didn’t seem to mind the joke. “It’s the best amendment in the history of the Legislature,” Dawdy told reporter Jonathan Martin at The Seattle Times.
“The entire subject is rather cheesy,” Seattle Hempfest organizer Vivian McPeak told Toke of the Town. “All I am saying is give pizza chance.”
“Pizza is a no-no on renal diets but hey, as long as it’s government subsidized… after all, they’re concerned with our health, right?” medical marijuana patient/activist Ric Smith told us.
| Dr. Ruth A. Buck could be facing up to 20 years in prison. |
At first, the DEA went after dispensary owners. Now they’re going after doctors who simply recommend medical marijuana to their patients.
A federal district attorney in Michigan has asked a judge to revoke bond for a Saginaw Township doctor facing drug charges.
In June 2010, Dr. Ruth A. Buck was indicted on three counts of unlawfully distributing controlled substances, a 20-year felony, for prescribing pain and nerve pills, reports LaNia Coleman of The Bay City Times.
Dr. Buck was released on the condition that she not violate any federal, state or local laws.
| Photo: Keith Durflinger/SGVN |
| Robert Ortiz measures out medical marijuana for a patient at Whittier Hope Collective, Thursday, April 7, 2011. Whittier officials are considering capping at one the number of dispensaries allowed in the city, thus handing Ortiz a monopoly. |
The only legal medical marijuana dispensary in Whittier, California, may become a monopoly of one.
City officials, claiming to be concerned about a “potential influx” of pot shops, have proposed a cap of one of the number allowed, reports Mike Sprague at the Whittier Daily News.
The amendment to the zoning ordinance, recommended Monday on a 5-0 vote by the Planning Commission, is expected to go to the City Council at its meeting on May 10.
Assistant City Manager Jeff Collier claimed the cap of just one dispensary was based on the small number of Whittier residents holding state-authorized medical marijuana cards. There are supposedly only 22 in town.
| Photo: Marijuana.com |
| Former Mexico President Vicente Fox: “We’re talking about the last frontier of prohibition” |
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox, a onetime ally of the United States in the War On Drugs who now advocates legalization, said at Thursday news conference in San Diego that prohibiting drugs doesn’t work.
Fox, a member of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, compared drug use to sexual orientation and a woman’s right to an abortion, reports Richard Marosi at the Los Angeles Times.
“We’re talking about the last frontier of prohibition,” Fox said. “Tell me something else that is prohibited today? Abortion is permitted. Marriage between same-sex [people]now is permitted … Smoking cigarettes is permitted; alcohol is permitted.”
Fox, who was in San Diego on a fund-raising trip for his presidential library, has become an outspoken proponent of drug legalization, joining other prominent Latin American leaders who agree that law enforcement efforts to stop drug consumption and distribution are futile.
Fox’s views on drug legalization caused Point Loma Nazarene University to cancel its invitation to have him speak at their San Diego campus earlier this year.
| Photo: Small Business Support |
The Maryland House of Delegates Judiciary Committee approved a bill, SB 308, on Thursday which would allow patients who use marijuana to treat medical conditions to use a medical necessity defense in court.
The bill would also create a panel to advise the Legislature on the best practices for creating a medical marijuana program for Maryland in 2012.
The Senate passed the bill by an overwhelming 41-6 vote on March 24, and will need to approve the bill again because of amendments made by the Judiciary Committee. Thursday’s committee vote was the biggest obstacle advocates faced in their effort to remove criminal penalties for medical marijuana users.
Sponsors of the measure had originally hoped to pass a comprehensive medical marijuana law that would have established dispensaries throughout the state and protected patients from arrest, but that plan was derailed when the Secretary of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene voiced concerns over the cost of implementing it.
| Graphic: Potspot 411 |
Vermont’s medical marijuana dispensary bill survived a close call in the Senate Rules Committee on Thursday.
The bill, S. 17, which would allow up to four medicinal cannabis dispensaries in Vermont, was expected to be debated on the Senate floor this week, reports Terri Hallenbeck at the Burlington Free Press. But first, it had to make it through the Senate Rules Committee, because it didn’t meet the deadline for bills coming out of Senate committees.
“The Senate is being a little stricter with that rule this year,” Hallenbeck reports.
“It looked this morning like the bill might be killed by the rules committee,” Hallenback writes. Sen. Dick Mazza (D-Grand Isle/Crittenden), a member of the committee, is among those who don’t like the idea of legalizing marijuana dispensaries.
| Photo: Weed Quotes |
| Natalie Portman: “I love stoner comedies. I smoked weed in college, but I haven’t smoked in years. I’m too old.” |
Oscar winner Natalie Portman, set to star in not one but two upcoming stoner comedies, said in a new interview that while she used marijuana in her younger days, she’s now “too old” for cannabis.
“I love stoner comedies,” Portman, 29, told Entertainment Weekly. “I smoked weed in college, but I haven’t smoked in years.
“I’m too old,” Portman said. “I wish I was that cool, but I’m like an old lady now. I’m in bed by 10 p.m. I can’t do that anymore.”
Her comments were made before she recently announced her pregnancy.
| Photo: Yuma Sun |
| Border Patrol agent Michael Atondo was arrested after the discovery of more than 745 pounds of marijuana in his patrol vehicle. |
Details are coming to light in the case of Michael Atondo, the Border Patrol agent arrested in Arizona this week with marijuana in his patrol vehicle.
Two agents responding to an activated sensor found Atondo at the border fence, according to the criminal complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, reports Sarah Womer at the Yuma Sun. Because of his “unusual actions” — Atondo was understandably freaking out — the agents asked to search Atondo’s vehicle, where they discovered multiple bundles of marijuana.