Search Results: congress/ (11)

On March 30, Representative Jared Polis reintroduced the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act, as colleagues introduced four other measures in the U.S. House of Representatives that would protect states with legal marijuana from threatened action by the Trump administration.

Under the Obama administration, the Department of Justice followed the 2013 Cole Memo, which essentially protected states with legalized medical or recreational marijuana from federal interference. When Polis originally introduced the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act in 2015, it did not pass — perhaps in part because states with legal marijuana did not feel threatened.

California Governor Jerry Brown, apparently feeling the holiday spirit, spent a good part of Christmas Eve this year flexing an Executive power reserved only for state Governors, and the President of the United States himself – the power to pardon individuals of past crimes. While a pardon does not completely erase a crime from a person’s record, it does re-grant them certain rights, such as voting, serving on a jury, or in some cases even owning a firearm.
Governor Brown handed out a respectable 127 pardons this year, 93 of which pertained to drug-related crimes, many of those weed-related. The most notable from that array of individuals was 65 year old Robert Akers, convicted in 1968 of selling pot.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon.

After his federal industrial hemp bill failed to move forward late last week, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden wagged his finger in shame not at the closed-minded Senate that wouldn’t work with Wyden, but at marijuana users.
See, Wyden thinks that because marijuana users are prone to being pro-hemp that the two issues are seen as one in the same. And it’s clearly the pot smoker’s fault according to Wyden, not the ignorant elected officials.

Often lost in the debate over marijuana legalization is the role that industrial, commercialized hemp production could potentially play in mainstream American society, as well as in our economy. But because all cannabis varieties, including hemp, fall under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the many industrial and even medical uses for hemp-based products here in America depend almost solely on foreign imports – mostly from China.

Sully The Urban Hillbilly
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon: “My amendment to the Farm Bill will change federal policy to allow U.S. farmers to produce hemp for these safe and legitimate products right here”

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) explained the difference between industrial hemp and marijuana on Wednesday in a floor speech backing an amendment to a Senate farm bill which would allow farmers in the United States to grow hemp.

Wyden’s amendment would remove the federal rule which prohibits farmers from growing hemp, replacing it with a state-administered permit system, reports Daniel Strauss at The Hill. Amendment 2220 is cosponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
“This is, in my view, a textbook example of a regulation that flunks the commonsense test,” said Wyden. “There is government regulation on the books today that prevents America’s farmers from growing industrial hemp and what’s worse is this regulation is hurting job creation in rural America and increasing our trade deficit.”

Bodhi Group
Canadian farmer harvests a bountiful hemp crop. He could be joined by his U.S. neighbors if Sen. Ron Wyden’s amendment to the Farm Bill is successful

Vote Hemp Encourages Support for Proposed Amendment by Senator Wyden on Industrial Hemp in the Farm Bill
Amendment Would Exclude Industrial Hemp From the Definition of Marijuana
Vote Hemp released an action alert on Thursday encouraging support for Senator Ron Wyden’s submitted last-minute amendment to the Farm Bill, S. 3240, the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012, which would exclude industrial hemp from the definition of “marihuana.”

Break The Matrix

​The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on two bills that would escalate the War On Drugs.

One bill scheduled to be voted on Wednesday (HR 1254) would criminalize possession and sales of chemical compounds found in products such as “K2,” “Spice,” and “bath salts.” A second bill which is expected to be voted on next week (HR 313) would make it a federal crime to engage in an activity in another country that would violate U.S. drug laws if committed in the United States — even if the activity is actually legal in the other country.
Both bills are expected to pass and would subject more Americans to lengthy federal prison terms — while increasing already-skyrocketing prison expenses that taxpayers have to pay. This comes at a time when members of Congress are cutting drug education, treatment and prevention, citing the need to “reduce federal expenses.”

DarkGovernment
A few billion dollars thrown away there, a few million people in prison here, first thing you know you’ve got a Drug War

​Bill Would Make It A Crime

To Even PLAN To Smoke Marijuana In Another Country– Even If It Is Legal In That Country

The House Judiciary Committee is considering legislation (HR 313) Thursday that makes it a federal crime to plan to commit a drug offense in another country that would be illegal if it was actually committed in the U.S. — even if the offense is actually legal in the other country.
Federal legislation (HR 1254) that would criminalize possession and sales of chemical compounds found in products such as K2, Spice, and “bath salts” will also be voted on in the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday and is expected to pass. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Charles Dent (R-Pennsylvania), has already passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee, so the next step would be the full House. Similar legislation is sailing unimpeded through the Senate.
Both bills would subject Americans to mandatory minimum sentencing and increase prison expenses that taxpayers have to pay — at a time when members of Congress are cutting drug education, treatment and prevention citing the need to reduce federal expenses.

Photo: Roger Goodman for Congress
Roger Goodman: “Sorry, DOJ. Please give it another try.”

​Last week’s Department of Justice memo, supposedly meant to “clarify” the DOJ’s position on medical marijuana, doesn’t reflect any real changes in policy from prior administrations.

This latest “clarification” was seemingly needed after a prior “clarification” in 2009 gave many the impression that the DOJ would not prosecute medical marijuana patients and providers in states that had authorized such programs.
That 2009 document, called the “Ogden Memo,” did not actually provide for a hard change in policy, but rather directed U.S. Attorneys to be careful in how they use their limited department resources, suggesting that prosecuting medical marijuana patients is not a good use of government funds.
1 2