Search Results: bates (47)

Things could get even lovelier on the little island of Puerto Rico. Last week, a bill was introduced at the Capitol that would legalize possession of an ounce of marijuana for adults 21 and up.
Sen. Miguel Pereira, who sponsors the bill, is a former federal prosecutor who says the war on marijuana is a win-less effort. He said that possession cases are wasting government money and said that as many as 80 percent of people in jail are there for nonviolent crimes.

The Illinois House approved medical marijuana proposal House Bill 1 yesterday evening. The bill still has to go through the Senate and be signed by the governor, but supporters say House biggest hurdle the law would face.
If passed, House Bill 1 would allow registered patients to possess up to two and a half ounces. Patients would not be allowed to grow their own, but would rely on one of 22 grow facilities to stock their nearby dispensary. There would be as many as 60 medical marijuana dispensaries licensed by the state.

Innovation is inevitable in any industry, and the field of medical marijuana is no different. With laws already in the books in 18 states and more on the way, investors who might not know their Blue Chips from their Blue Dream are flocking to these regions to stake their claim in what they see as the next big commodity.
White-collar Wall Street-types can certainly see the budding upside to sinking money into dispensaries, growing operations, and other cannabis related retail outlets. But those potential gains are often outweighed by the prospects of inventory control, employee management, product naiveté. And of course, the grey area that exists in all current state-level medical marijuana laws that fly in the face of Federal statute. Cue MedBox.

West Sound Workforce

Adult Possession of Marijuana Becomes Legal In Washington State
Blaze a doob or spark a bowl at midnight, Washingtonians! Just don’t drive afterwards. Maybe for a couple days…?
Starting Thursday, December 6, people 21 and over will be able to legally possess up to one ounce of marijuana in the state of Washington. On Election Day last month, 55 percent of voters in both Washington State and Colorado voted to make marijuana legal, making those states the first two to approve legally regulating marijuana like alcohol.
The Washington State Liquor Control Board has until December 2013 to implement rules for the regulated market.

ACLU

By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
I am such a downer. Since Election Day, many friends, colleagues, and even my in-laws and family members who don’t fancy one of theirs being a pot writer, called or wrote wanting to know what I thought of Washington and Colorado passing what they’re calling “the legalization of marijuana.”
I should be ecstatic, as many of the well-wishers have commented. I tell them that it is a win. I tell them that it is progress. What I can’t tell them… is what’s going to happen next.
What we’re dealing with here are cultural norms. 
The question to me is, what is society going to do? How as a nation are we going to look at marijuana? What kind of resistance is there going to be?

Jane Phillips/The New Mexican
Steve Jenison, who worked as medical director for New Mexico’s medical marijuana program until his retirement, will voice his support for the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act, Issue 5

Arkansas Doctors Show Support for Issue 5
A press conference featuring Arkansas doctors voicing their support of Issue 5, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act, will be held Thursday, November 1. Dr. Steve Jenison, chair of the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Advisory Board, will be the featured speaker. Dr. Jenison will speak about the success of the New Mexico program — its regulations, oversight and impact on the State of New Mexico, and about the similarity of the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act to New Mexico’s own program.
Dr. Jenison worked at New Mexico’s Department of Health as the medical director for the medicinal cannabis program before he retired.

Christian Marijuana Organization

Faith leaders call on all Arkansans to support compassionate measure
Arkansans for Compassionate Care, the committee behind Issue 5, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act, on Tuesday announced a dozen clergy leaders from across the state and from a broad range of denominations have endorsed the measure. The religious coalition was announced at a press conference in Fayetteville, featuring medical professionals and Emily Williams, who used medical marijuana to cope with the side effects of chemotherapy.
 
“I am proud to be among the faith leaders who have endorsed the use of medical marijuana by seriously ill patients,” said Reverend Howard Gordon, minister emeritus at the First Presbyterian Church in Little Rock. “We are compassionate people by nature and Issue 5, at its core, is about compassion.

Legalize It

Special Preview and Panel Discussion Planned Oct. 24 In Long Beach
As debates over widely divergent ballot measures to legalize marijuana heat up in Colorado, Oregon and Washington, a group of cops, judges and other law enforcement officers calling for an end to the war on drugs is holding a special sneak peek at Legalize It, a new documentary about Proposition 19, the 2010 California campaign to legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), in conjunction with Willie Nelson’s Luck Films and award-winning filmmakers Dan Katzir and Ravit Markus, on October 214 will host a special screening and discussion panel of the film at the Art Theatre of Long Beach.  
Legalize It, a documentary about the Prop. 19 campaign 
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 7-10 p.m.
Art Theatre of Long Beach, 2025 E. 4th Street, Long Beach

THC Finder

Court Rejects Patients’ Right To Medical Marijuana; Patients’ Group Says Voters Will Reject ‘Godawful Law’ by Defeating IR-124
 
The Montana Supreme Court ensured late on Tuesday that voters will have the final say on the Legislature’s 2011 medical marijuana law this November, and Patients for Reform, Not Repeal believes voters will say “No” to it.
The court held there is no fundamental right to use medical marijuana, or any drug that’s prohibited under federal law, reports Sam Favate at the Wall Street Journal. In a 6-1 decision, the court reversed a lower court ruling blocking enforcement of IR-124, a state law to restrict access to medical marijuana.

Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman: “We are, of course, supportive of legitimate medical marijuana here.”
 

Tell me what company you keep and I’ll tell you what you are.
   ~ Miguel de Cervantes, “Don Quixote de la Mancha Part II” (1615)
By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent
Conventional wisdom for anyone living north of Santa Rosa is that marijuana is an integral component of California’s economy. In the beginning, growers were tolerated by the locals as misfits of society who had migrated north to avoid the world of straight jobs and or had fled to Mendo with the ‘back to the county’ movement to grow their organic beans and fruit.
Venerable local institutions such as the timber and fishing industries were leery of the young freaks with their torn jeans and rusting VW vans. Their fears were soon justified when that first generation found that there were endless acres of hidden land stashed in them there hills.
If a guy could find a secluded patch in the hills that was close to water and had sun, he had the makings of his first clandestine start-up. The Timber giants viewed the encroaching growers as threats to their land, their water, and to the political dominance that they held in NorCal since the mid-19th century. 
By the 1980s, the marijuana industry was entrenched and blooming, much to the chagrin of local law enforcement and community leaders. These former lazy rejects were driving new trucks, sending their kids to school, and buying their veggies at Safeway just like everyone else.  
Thirty years later it is estimated that cannabis industry generates around 13 billion dollars in annual sales. And that’s what is available to count. The timber industry is now a hollow trunk of its former self. The salmon and other fish populations have been so drastically depleted in the last few decades that fishermen can’t rely on their yield from season to season. Many fishing boats on the coast have gone belly up.