Month: May 2013

History in the Making? Dozens of States Move to Reform Pot Laws

Jeannie Herer

Drug War Chronicle / By Phillip Smith

Photo Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
 
In the wake of the marijuana legalization victories in Colorado and Washington last November, and buoyed by a series of national public opinion polls showing support for pot legalization going over the tipping point, marijuana reform legislation is being introduced at state houses across the land at levels never seen before.
While the mere fact that a bill has been introduced is no guarantee it’s going to pass, that such bills are being introduced in record numbers speaks to how far the marijuana reform movement has come. According to a legislative activity web page maintained by the Marijuana Policy Project, decriminalization bills have been introduced in 10 states and the dependency of the Northern Mariana Islands this year, while outright legalization bills have been introduced in 11 states and the dependency of Puerto Rico.
 
Full Article:
http://www.alternet.org/history-making-dozens-states-move-reform-pot-laws?paging=off

Maastricht to get less strict on cannabis sales to foreigners?

Jeannie Herer

Maastricht to get less strict on cannabis sales to foreigners?
 
Foreign visitors to the Dutch town of Maastricht may find it easier to get their hands on cannabis, a week after a court ruled a ban on selling it to foreigners was, itself, illegal.
Maastricht Mayor Otto Hoes had tried to close the Easy Going coffee shop after it sold marijuana to non-Dutch citizens. Hoes’ spokesman said of youngsters coming to Maastricht to buy the drug: “They were noisy, unruly, a nuisance.” As many as 1.6 million ‘cannabis tourists’ flocked to the town each year.
Last year a judge upheld a law that came into force nationwide on January 1, 2013, and made it illegal for foreign tourists to enter cannabis coffee shops, amid a push by conservatives to stop ‘cannabis tourism.’ But pro-coffee shop lobbyists in Amsterdam, fearing an adverse effect on tourist revenues, managed to tone down the law; as a result individual towns now decide whether or not to ban the sale of cannabis to tourists.
 
Full Article:
http://www.euronews.com/2013/05/03/cannabis-back-on-the-menu-for-tourists-to-the-netherlands/

Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl Thanks Medical Marijuana For Cancer’s Remission

Jeannie Herer

Bill-Rosendahl-remission.jpg
Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl/YouTube
 
Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl announced something fantastic today on YouTube: his cancer is in remission.
In the two-minute vid, an optimistic Rosendahl thanks his support group, “incredible” doctor and of course, medical marijuana. “Medical marijuana has saved my life,” says Rosendahl, a known proponent for the healing powers of prescribed pot.
The man who represents L.A’s 11th District was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer in July of 2012 and was told he would not live to see the November election. “Frankly, I was given a death sentence,” he says.
But after going through “five months of hell,” he’s back, he’s better and he’s “looking forward to the next road ahead.”
 
Full Article with Video:
http://laist.com/2013/05/02/video_bill_rosendahls_cancer_in_remission.php

Medical marijuana in Illinois will be ‘wildly different’

Jeannie Herer

BY CATHERINE BRZYCKI

WEED

David Downs, Marijuana Policy Project, Washington D.C.
Medicinal marijuana will come in many forms, like single drop tinctures (shown), topical creams, edibles and plant form.
 
The proposed Illinois medical marijuana program is not what you think it is. Lawmakers, policy experts, patients and advocates joined together to create legislation, although restrictive, that allows residents safe and legal access to medical marijuana. The four-year Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program will be self-sustained – not generating any revenue.
“We want the best marijuana program in the nation,” said Mike Graham, an Illinois resident who uses medicinal marijuana to treat severe pain caused by a degenerative disc disorder. “The way the bill is set up, we want a clear black and white picture of what the program is.”
Graham said that marijuana, which is still illegal in Illinois, gave him a better quality of life and while he advocates its use, he wants a tightly controlled program so the drug doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
“We don’t want this getting to kids on the playground,” said Graham. “We just want to sick people to have safe afford access to a product that improves quality of life.”
Unlike the big, first state program in California, which generates $100 million in tax revenue, Illinois will have a self-sustaining program, tightly regulated by the state with dispensary fees and a sales tax designed to simply cover all state costs. Unlike Colorado’s program that allows its patients to qualify for usage with the broad condition of “chronic pain,” Illinois legislation does not accept chronic pain as qualifying for use. Unlike Alaska, Delaware, Maine, Michigan and Rhode Island, which recognize patients from other states, Illinois will not.
“When you start looking at some of the specifics of the bill you see that it’s really wildly different from what California and Colorado and some of other states out West are doing,” said Dan Riffle, deputy director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, a national marijuana advocate group.
Dr. Burak Emin Gezen, an internist in downtown Chicago, has a few patients who currently use marijuana, illegally, to alleviate pain. He thinks it’s an underutilized and undervalued treatment.
“If it’s legal and we start using it more, I think I’ll have a lot more patients who will be getting benefits from it, there’s no question about that,” said Gezen.
 
Full Article:
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=220966
 

Hemp beats weeds on Liverpool Plains

Jeannie Herer
HAYLEY SORENSEN
Quirindi farmer Peter Slade, “Glenmore”, has grown a five hectare trial hemp crop.

Quirindi farmer Peter Slade, “Glenmore”, has grown a five hectare trial hemp crop.

 

AUSTRALIA’S industrial hemp industry has set its sights on the Liverpool Plains as a potential location for large scale production of the fibre crop.Quirindi farmer Peter Slade, “Glenmore”, sowed the district’s first five-hectare trial crop of industrial hemp in late February.
Just eight weeks later, the plants tower above his head.
“It’s amazing, it’s like nothing else I’ve grown,” he said.
Mr Slade, who with his wife Adele also grows millet and nyjer for specialty bird seed products, found industrial hemp was a perfect break crop for his operation.
The hemp grew so rapidly and densely any weeds were quickly choked out, providing a clean slate for the next season’s crop.
 
Full Article:
http://www.farmweekly.com.au/news/agriculture/cropping/general-news/hemp-beats-weeds-on-liverpool-plains/2656055.aspx

Meet the Denver Man Cruising Colorado in a Limo, Passing Out Free Pot

Jeannie Herer

By Doug Fine

Photo Credit: Shutter Stock
 
As he prepared to distribute the first of 100,000 specialized cannabis seedlings in a limo once owned by Ferdinand Marcos, the last thing Denver’s Bill Althouse was worried about was money. This is important, since the debut of his “Free For All” cannabis delivery project, which he invited me to witness on a recent early spring afternoon, hinged on gratis distribution.
“You’re in sync with (Colorado’s cannabis-legalizing) Amendment 64 if you give it away,” the 61-year-old engineer told me as, without fanfare, he launched what he considers to be a landmark project that is part humanitarian outreach and part viable scientific field research.
No, Althouse is not one of the venture capitalists poised to profit from the end of the Drug War. His priorities are closer to those of sourdough starter. Only instead of bread, what he was delivering in his vegetable oil-powered limo this chilly day was a mother plant that had tested high in a non-psychoactive cannabinoid (component of the cannabis plant) known as cannabidiol, or CBD.
Althouse recognized from personal experimentation that high-CBD cannabis strains have helped dramatically ease his own PTSD symptoms. So, with Colorado’s 2012 legalization of adult use of cannabis, Althouse relocated to the Rocky Mountain State because he’d come up with a plan to help other sufferers.
“The idea is to deliver CBD-rich cannabis plants across Colorado, and let the cloning and healing begin,” he told me in the upscale Denver outskirt of Lakeland. He was struggling down his front yard path while clutching a bushy, deep green cannabis plant. “And for people who are already healthy adults, study after study shows CBD to be a cancer fighting tool, part of any adult’s health maintenance regimen. You should be throwing the flowers from this lady in your morning shake.”
 
Full Article:
http://www.alternet.org/meet-denver-man-cruising-colorado-limo-passing-out-free-pot?akid=10386.124431.ZsfHp9&rd=1&src=newsletter833535&t=21

Marijuana possession sentences would be lessened under bill approved by House panel

Jeannie Herer

By Jeff Adelson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

marijuana175.jpg
Penalties for repeated convictions for possession of marijuana possession would be dramatically reduced under a measure working its way through the Louisiana House. The measure, House Bill 103, would also prevent people from being considered a habitual offender if all of their convictions were for marijuana possession. (NOLA.com|Times-Picayune File Photo)
Penalties for repeated convictions for possession of marijuana would be dramatically reduced under a measure working its way through the Louisiana House. Repeat offenders — those convicted only of marijuana possession — also would no longer face sentencing as habitual offenders.
House Bill 103, by Rep. Austin Badon, would drop the maximum penalty for a second conviction to one year and cut 18 years off the highest sentence for all additional convictions.

Rep. Austin Badon.jpg
Rep. Austin BadonNOLA.com|Times-Picayune File Photo

The committee unanimously agreed to send the bill to the House floor.
Badon and other supporters of the measure argued that reducing the penalties is not just a moral issue but a move that could save taxpayers money because the state will no longer be paying to keep pot smokers behind bars for long stretches.
“They’re clogging up the jails right now and the taxpayers have to pay for it,” he said.
 
Full Article:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/05/marijuana_possession_sentences.html

Federal Suit Claims Police Distort Marijuana Searches to Create Misdemeanors

Jeannie Herer

By 
 
One man was walking home with groceries. Another was on a break from his job at a meat market. A third was walking down the street listening to headphones.

That is when the men say police officers confronted them, sometimes violently, searched their clothing and discovered small amounts of marijuana, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit that is expected to be filed on Thursday in United States District Court for the Southern District, in Manhattan.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of five Bronx men, contends that New York City police officers routinely stop black and Latino men without cause and then charge them with low-level misdemeanors when their pockets are emptied and small amounts of marijuana are found.

In each of the cases, the amount of marijuana found on the men would have amounted to little more than noncriminal violations punishable by a fine of up to $100 for first-time offenders. But the lawsuit contends that the charging officers falsely claimed the marijuana was in public view, making it a low-level misdemeanor under Section 221.10 of the New York Penal Code, which allows for sentences of up to three months in jail.

Critics of the Police Department say the practice, which they call manufactured misdemeanors, is widespread. The arrests are often the outgrowth of the department’sstop-and-frisk program, which is being challenged in federal court for, among other things, disproportionately targeting black and Hispanic men.

Full Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/nyregion/5-in-bronx-contend-police-distorted-marijuana-searches-to-create-misdemeanors.html?_r=0

‘N.J. Weedman’ publishes legal motion to help people arrested for marijuana possession

Jeannie Herer

By Mike Davis/The Times
 
Ed Forchion.JPG
A file photo of Ed Forchion, also known as the “N.J. Weedman.”Martin Griff/The Times
 
Ed Forchion is a veteran when it comes to advocating for marijuana legalization, but now the “N.J. Weedman” has turned his attention to the criminal marijuana laws themselves.
The Pemberton Township resident has posted online a 12-page legal motion that he said can be used by anyone arrested for possession.
“I’m tired of being a one-man gang,” Forchion said. “I’ve been arguing these arguments for years. I’m just putting it out there. I don’t care who does it, but let’s get it done.”
 
Full Article:
http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2013/05/nj_weedman_publishes_legal_mot.html
 
 

Maryland governor to sign medical marijuana bill

Jeannie Herer

Associated Press
 
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Gov. Martin O’Malley will sign legislation to make Maryland the 19th state to approve a medical marijuana program, his spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday, but it remains unclear when the program will be up and running.
Raquel Guillory, O’Malley’s spokeswoman, confirmed the governor will sign the measure at a Thursday ceremony, along with dozens of other bills that include a repeal of the death penalty.
The medical marijuana bill allows academic medical research centers to establish programs to dispense marijuana to sick patients. While state analysts have projected a program would not be up and running until 2016, supporters say they are hopeful some research centers will move faster now that they have seen how it would work.
“I’ve long said Maryland should replace the dealer-patient relationship with the doctor-patient relationship,” said Delegate Dan Morhaim, a Baltimore County Democrat who is an emergency room physician. “This law gives us a chance to do that.”
Morhaim said Sinai Hospital in Baltimore has expressed interest in the program.
Full Article:
http://host.madison.com/lifestyles/health_med_fit/maryland-governor-to-sign-medical-marijuana-bill/article_de79b052-558c-5a6c-9094-09cc07715993.html