The Uruguayan military has no doubt been involved in at least a few anti-marijuana operations in their history, which makes the choice to possibly grow marijuana on military land pretty awesome.
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“Joe is a freshman legislator in a Republican-controlled house, so he’s got zero juice to get anything done.” So says John Morgan, an Orlando-based attorney and cannabis reform advocate.
The “Joe” he is referring to is Florida state congressman Joe Saunders (D- Orlando), who recently filed House Bill 859, which if passed, would skip right past the voters in Florida, making legal medical marijuana the law of the land.
Morgan, who has personally raised $4,000,000 in an effort to get a similar piece of legislation before Florida voters this November, calls Saunders’ plan nothing more than a publicity stunt.
Lawmakers in Mexico City fed up with the social and financial cost of marijuana criminalization in their city are floating the idea of decriminalizing up to 35 grams of cannabis.
Currently the possession of up to five grams of marijuana is legal in Mexico under 2009 minor drug possession reforms aimed at curbing police corruption and crime. It’s done nothing to end cartel violence, but so far hasn’t been a major issue.
In what would be a major shift towards the acceptance of cannabis by the federal government, Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday announced that banks and credit card companies would soon be allowed to open accounts with state-legal cannabis operations.
For years banks have denied or closed accounts with medical dispensaries because banks are federally insured and are barred from dealing with money they know comes from a federally-illegal operation. It’s caused the businesses to become cash-heavy targets for robberies in California and Colorado.
While New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will no doubt get some political points for sidestepping the legislature and finally allowing medical marijuana in his state, the program is extremely limited and leaves some once-hopeful medical cannabis supporters without options.
Notably: the cannabis that will be dispensed through a limited number of hospitals likely won’t be varied enough to include high-CBD strains so beneficial for things like pain and seizure management.
A recent study by the National Institutes of health shows teen cannabis use increasing across the U.S. as perceptions of the of the plant as a dangerous drug have declined. Probably because of all of the bullshit fed to them over the years about cannabis being a harmful, life-wrecking substance turned out to be so wrong in the first place.
The NIH 2013 Monitoring the Future Survey polled 41,675 kids from 389 public and private schools around the country. Only 39 percent said marijuana was harmful and about 6.5 percent of the seniors say they smoke weed daily – up only slightly from ten years ago when 6 percent admitted to a daily toke.
| Flickr.com/Simon Strandgaard.td> |
It was a Tuesday morning in San Diego, just over a month ago on November 7th, when SDPD received reports of broken glass at a local business, with a possible burglary having had occurred overnight. Police investigators arriving on the scene quickly determined that the business in question was a medical marijuana dispensary, and the focus of their investigation quickly shifted from aiding possible burglary victims, to persecuting law abiding citizens and shuttering a legitimate business.
You see, San Diego was home to nearly 300 storefront medical marijuana dispensaries as recently as two years ago, but an intense crackdown by joint task forces, combining the might of local and federal authorities, led to nearly every single brick and mortar storefront being closed by the end of 2011.
| TokeoftheTown.com |
Update 12/11/13 – 8:20 a.m.: Uruguay yesterday became the first country in the world to legalize and regulate cannabis sales as well as legalize the home cultivation for adults over 21. The Uruguayan Senate yesterday gave final approval to the proposed measure, passing the bill over to President Jose Mujica, who is expected to sign it into law. The bill passed with a 16-13 majority.
“Today is an historic day. Many countries of Latin America, and many governments, will take this law as an example,” Sen. Constanza Moreira said after the vote.
| Orange County District Attorney’s office. |
| Kyle Handley. |
In what is arguably one of the most vile stories out of the medical marijuana world we’ve ever seen, four people have been charged with kidnapping, torturing and castrating the owner of a medical marijuana dispensary in California.
Their reasoning? They thought the unnamed owner has buried a large amount of cash in the desert and they wanted the location.
| Flickr.com/sarahakabmg |
As we reported here last week, lawmakers in the Caribbean nation of Jamaica, citing progressive new pot laws in states like Colorado and Washington here in the U.S., will begin to move forward with talks regarding the decriminalization of marijuana on the irie isle.
The potentially good news out of Jamaica came hot on the heels of an announcement out of Switzerland, where as of October 1st, adults over the age of 18 who have been accused of small-scale possession will face a misdemeanor and a fine of 110 Swiss Francs – or about $100 U.S. – rather than the standard court appearance and possible ding on their criminal record.