Category: In the News

New Approach Oregon has surpassed the required number of signatures to add it’s Marijuana initiative to the ballot.

The marijuana legislation hoping to make it to vote hands regulation of marijuana to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. This system will help keep marijuana out of the hands of minors in the same manner that alcohol is kept away from minors (which is a much better system then hoping a drug dealer doesn’t want to sell to kids…).

New Approach Oregon’s Initiative:

• Retains current DUI and driving while impaired laws
• Retains drug-free workplace rules
• Prohibits all public use and display of marijuana.
• Limits personal homegrown marijuana by individuals for their own use
• Retains current medical marijuana laws

The Initiative also outlines taxation of marijuana with revenues from the taxes being divided between School Funding (40%), State and Local Police(35%), and Drug treatment, prevention and mental health programs (25%)

Although more restrictive then other marijuana legislation that hoped to make it to ballot this year, The New Approach Initiative seems like a common sense way to deal with Marijuana. What are your views on the initiative? Let us know in the comments below.

The New York Legislature passed a bill Friday (6-20-2014) Legalizing medical use of Marijuana in the state. New York joins it boarder states Connecticut, Vermont and New Jersey (all of whom have already legalized medical marijuana).

You Can’t Grow Your Own

The New York bill follows Colorado’s “seed to sale” model which requires the seller to be the grower and packager of the medical marijuana. Although a slap to the face of capitalism, proponents of this system touts it’s ease of accountability.

Kevin Sabet executive director of anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana admits the anti free market intent of the program by saying “If you’re going to have a program, it needs to be very limited without advertising or any kind of commercialization attached to it,” (via NY Daily News). New York plans to monopolize the Marijuana trade within the state by only allowing 5 companies to grow, package, and sell medical marijuana in the state. Each of those 5 companies will be allowed to open 4 dispensaries.

Don’t Spark up a Bowl

The New York bill allows for Doctors to prescribe medical marijuana in a “non-smokable” form raising costs for patients who will now have to get their cannabis in a processed form.

Although I am glad that more states are allowing the medical use of Marijuana, the restrictions they are placing on marijuana are absolutely against everything America stands for.

It is sad to think that at one point in our nations history, it was thought that no “drug” could be outlawed because the constitution guaranteed us the right to the pursuit of happiness, chemical or otherwise. It is sad to think that at one point in our nations history, the good Christian Women of the temperance movement promoted smoking marijuana as a good alternative to the evil alcohol. And now, we have fallen so far, that we have to destroy the very nature of freedom to keep a tight stranglehold on a plant that is less harmful to people then a banana.

 

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Continue reading Demand for Medical Marijuana Lighting Up in Connecticut

The Delaware Legislature is set to review House Bill 371 that would reduce the penalties for people caught with small amounts of marijuana.

The Marijuana decriminalization bill eliminates jail time for possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana, and instead substitutes a $250 civil fine, and forfeiture of the cannabis.

The bill specifies “leaf” marijuana (including seeds and stems). Existing penalties for hashish, kief, and hemp oils would stay on the books in their current form.

According to Evelyn Nestlerode of the Deleware controller generals office, 2,334 adults, and 298 juveniles were charged with marijuana possession in Deleware last year.

Decriminalization of marijuana in Deleware was introduced to the legislature by Rep. Helene Keeley, D-Wilmington South, the prime sponsor of the bill. Rep Keeley  introduced the legislation because she was concerned about the damage a marijuana conviction has on job opportunities for people down the line.

Zoe Patchell, spokeswoman for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, explained the other damages that marijuana charges can create.

“Aside from threat of jail and stiff fines, cannabis arrest can result in expulsion from school, loss of employment, loss of housing, loss of license, loss of property, loss of children and difficulty gaining employment in the future,” she said. “A student arrested for cannabis can lose their FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) or be denied for financial aid completely.”

The bill cleared committee on June 18^th 2014, and now heads to the House for a vote.

Although reducing the penalties, and criminal charges for possession of marijuana is a step in the right direction, it still leaves the supply and distribution of the substance in the hands of criminals. It eliminates the opportunity to regulate and tax sales, and is therefore (in this writers opinion) a less then optimal solution. What do you think about Delewares pland to decriminalize marijuana possession (of up to 1 ounce)? Let us know in the comments below.

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Continue reading Will Seattle Get Its Own ‘Marijuana District’

Maryland: Montgomery County Lawmakers recommended at a press conference June 17^th, 2014, that marijuana related offenses should be the lowest priority for police and state attorneys.

“I think we have to change the way that we do police work, and marijuana should not be something we should be pulling people into the criminal justice system for,” said Montgomery County Councilmember Hans Riemer. (via WJLA)

In April, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed a law that decriminalizes marijuana by reducing the first offense penalty for possession of marijuana by anyone over 20 to $100. The bill will take effect on October 1^st, 2014.

The Montgomery County State Attorneys Office as well as 7 of the 9 Montgopmery County Council members have signed on to support the resolution.

“It’s a big part in acknowledging that it’s time to stop making people criminals, and it’s time to start helping people,” said Councilwoman Cherri Branson.

Florida Governor Rick Scott Signed a bill on Monday, June 16^th Legalizing the use of the Charlotte’s web strain of Cannabis for medicinal use in the state.

Charlottes Web is a specific strain of medical marijuana that has very low amounts of THC. It has been shown to help treat children with seizure disorders and other conditions.

“The approval of Charlotte’s Web will ensure that children in Florida who suffer from seizures and other debilitating illnesses will have the medication needed to improve their quality of life,” Scott is quoted by the Orlando Business Journal as saying.

Gov Scott’s signing of the “Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act of 2014” seems to be a deliberate attempt to derail  Amendment 2 A bill slated to appear on the November Ballot in Florida that would further expand the Medical Marijuana in the state.

Rick Scott, a conservative who believes in limited government seems to be going against his own ideals by suggesting that bigger government is appropriate when it comes to what types of plants we are allowed to ingest. Preferring “big brother” interference, Gov Scott seems to prefer legislating nature, your health, and the right to the pursuit of happiness.

As a medical Marijuana patient (who uses cannabis to treat multiple symptoms I have due to nerve damage received in a workplace accident), I know first hand the medical benefits of THC. Rick Scott’s Medical Marijuana bill is to limited in scope. It does little for the majority of ill people who can be helped by medical marijuana. I encourage all of our Florida readers to contact Gov Rick Scott, and let him know that the “Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act of 2014” does not do enough.

 

 

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Continue reading Budding recreational pot industry sparks innovation and investment

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Continue reading NJ medical marijuana program struggling, with worries growing over few doctors, patients enrolled