Search Results: senator (345)

Photo: Freedom To Exhale

If confirmed as administrator, we would continue to enforce the federal drug laws.

~ Michelle Leonhart, November 17, 2010

It’s not looking good for marijuana advocates after day one of the Senate confirmation process for Michelle Leonhart, President Obama’s nominee to head the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Acting DEA director Leonhart is nominated to officially fill the position she’s already held for three years, and after being prodded by reactionary Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, she had no compunctions about pledging to continue to enforce federal drug laws in states where medical marijuana is legal.
Such a pledge is remarkable in view of the fact that just last year, the Justice Department issued a memo instructing federal attorneys to back off on enforcement against medical marijuana patients and providers who are following their state laws.

Graphic: Safer Texas Campaign

​Texas politicians are heavily under the influence of alcohol — big alcohol industry money, that is.

With Texas politicians collecting a significant percentage of their campaign contributions from the alcohol industry after the November election, the Safer Texas Campaign is renewing its call on elected representatives to stop accepting such money until Texas allows the regulated use and sale of marijuana as a safer alternative to alcohol.
According to campaign records provided by the nonpartisan, nonprofit FollowtheMoney.org, the five Texas politicians who have received the largest contributions from the alcohol industry are:
• Governor Rick Perry
• U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
• Lt. Governor David Dewhurst
• Texas House Speaker Joe Straus
• Attorney General Greg Abbott
These five politicians accepted a total of $1.4 million from Big Alcohol during the 2010 election cycle, according to the Safer Texas Campaign, which is a project of ProtectYouth.org.

Photo: Huffington Post
Michele Leonhart, acting administrator of the DEA, is a Bush-era drug warrior who has overseen raids of legal medical marijuana dispensaries — yet Obama is keeping her on.

​The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing tomorrow for Michele Leonhart to serve as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), a post Leonhart has held on an interim basis for two years after serving as deputy administrator under the Bush Administration from 2003 to 2007.

During her tenure, Leonhart has presided over hundreds of paramilitary DEA raids on medical marijuana patients and providers in states where medical marijuana is legal.
Even after the Department of Justice, in an October 2009 memo, instructed federal prosecutors to no longer target medical marijuana providers “whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with state laws,” the DEA, under Leonhart’s “leadership,” has continued to raid individuals and collectives operating under state law.
DEA agents in July flouted a pioneering Mendocino County, California ordinance to regulate medical marijuana cultivation by raiding the very first grower to register with the sheriff.

Photo: DEA
Michele Leonhart, acting administrator of the DEA, is a Bush-era drug warrior who has overseen raids of legal medical marijuana dispensaries — yet Obama is keeping her on.

​After more than two years as acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Michele Leonhart, who served as deputy DEA administrator during George W. Bush’s presidency, is scheduled to be confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, November 17.

No friends to medical marijuana patients, Leonhart and her former boss, DEA Administrator Karen Tandy, were responsible for more than 200 paramilitary-style raids on patients and their providers.
As acting DEA administrator, Leonhart has continued to raid dispensaries, growers and medical marijuana testing labs despite a change in federal policy under President Obama.

Graphic: Opposing Views

​New Jersey Senate and Assembly committees on Monday are looking at new resolutions to force changes to the overly restrictive medical marijuana rules proposed by the administration of Governor Chris Christie.

The Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) issued draft regulations for the state’s medical cannabis program last month, reports Chris Goldstein at the Philadelphia NORML Examiner.
Among the new limitations proposed by the Christie Administration:
• A physician registry
• Capping THC content at 10 percent, compared to an average 18-20 percent in most medical marijuana states (no other state caps THC content)
• Having just three strains of cannabis available
• Forcing physicians to tell patients marijuana has a “risk of addiction
• Limiting licensed cultivation to just two grow centers.

Photo: EUCON
Can you say marijuana tourism? As soon as Saipan legalizes marijuana — which it almost did this week — the stoner dollars will start pouring in, mine included.

​Ahhh… Sugar white beaches and sugar-frosted sticky buds.
A tropical Pacific island paradise almost just legalized weed — and no passport is required to visit from the United States, since it is a protectorate. While that stony dream may have just suffered a setback, it lives on and may soon be put up for a popular vote.
The House passed the marijuana legalization bill on Wednesday, but at least five of nine senators are lukewarm to the idea of legalizing marijuana in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), which includes Saipan, Tinian, Ascuncion and Rota islands in the Pacific. This probably means the bill is doomed, reports Haidee V. Eugenio at the Saipan Tribune.

Photo: BakedLife.com

​New Requirement Called Openly Hostile, “Blatantly Political”

New Jersey doctors who have begun enrolling some of their sickest patients in the state’s medical marijuana program Tuesday found they must agree to tell the patients there’s a “lack of scientific consensus” that cannabis works, that it could even hurt them, and that it has a risk of addiction.

Physicians must sign off on a statement attesting to their patients’ qualifying conditions and the failure of “conventional medicine” to help alleviate their suffering, reports Susan K. Livio at NJ.com.
But the statement goes much farther than that. It also forces doctors to provide “education for the patient on the lack of scientific consensus for the use of medical marijuana, its sedative properties, and the risk of addiction.”

Graphic: Tacoma Cross

​With hundreds of cannabis supporters in attendance, the Tacoma City Council on Tuesday night agreed to a compromise plan that would allow established medical marijuana dispensaries to continue selling to patients until the Washington Legislature spells out more clearly how patients can legally access the herb.

“The Tacoma City Council is not opposed to safe and legal access to medical marijuana for patients with legitimate need,” Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland said, reports Lewis Kamb of the Tacoma News Tribune.

Graphic: Medical Marijuana Blog

​Republican state Senator David Brinkley wants to renew efforts to legalize medical marijuana in Maryland. Brinkley said if he is reelected, he will introduce a bill that would not only protect medical marijuana patients from arrest, but would also address the issue of providing authorized patients with safe access to cannabis, rather than forcing them to obtain it on the black market.

A similar bill passed the Maryland Senate last session, but failed in the House of Delegates, reports Arlene Borenstein at NBC Washington.
Defendants charged with use or possession of marijuana can argue medical need as a mitigating factor in their sentencing under Maryland’s current “affirmative defense” law. But judges can still fine patients $100, even if medical necessity is proven.

Photo: Jeffrey L. Weinstein, Attorney at Law
N.J. State Sen. Nicholas Scutari: Gov. Christie’s proposed rules “unreasonably limit the supply of, and reduce qualifying patients’ access to medical marijuana”

​A sponsor of New Jersey’s medical marijuana law on Monday introduced a resolution that would repeal what he called “restrictive” proposed rules for the program if Gov. Chris Christie does not make them at least resemble the original legislation.

“Many of the rules are not only burdensome and unnecessary, but they propose amendments to the new law, not merely regulations to enact it,” wrote Ken Wolski, a registered nurse who is also executive director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New Jersey (CMMNJ), on Tuesday.

Angry words were exchanged between the offices of Gov. Christie and of Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), the medical marijuana law’s sponsor, reports Susan K. Livio at NJ.com.
Behind the controversy is the Christie administration’s decision to license just two growers statewide, to supply just four dispensaries from which cannabis could be sold. Dispensary owners could apply and pay an additional fee to open one satellite location each, according to the proposed rules.
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