By BEN FINLEY
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky law will now allow industrial hemp farming – but only if the federal government ever lifts restrictions on the plant.
Gov. Steve Beshear on Friday said he will let the bill become law without his signature. The governor said he won’t actually sign the legislation out of concerns, shared by some in law enforcement, that marijuana growers could camouflage their illegal crops with hemp plants.
Hemp is similar to marijuana but has a negligible amount of THC, the psychoactive compound that gives marijuana users a high. Hemp can be used to make products including the cosmetics and nutritional supplements sold at stores such as Whole Foods Market. Proponents of hemp farming say it could be a cash crop for U.S. farmers.
Full Article:
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20130405&id=16321200
Month: April 2013
Bill to Legalize and Regulate Marijuana Introduced in Alabama
by Erik Altieri, NORML Communications Director
Many traditionally write off the Southern United States as an area dead to cannabis law reform, but one Representative is behind a new effort that can change all of that.
This week, Rep. Patricia Todd (D-Birmingham) has introduced House Bill 550, the Alabama Cannabis and Hemp Reform Act of 2013. This measure would legalize the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana and the cultivation of up to 12 mature marijuana plants by those over the age of 21. It would also authorize the Department of Revenue to establish marijuana retail outlets. You can read the full text of the measure here.
Full Article:
http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/latest-national/latest-national-news/41918-bill-to-legalize-and-regulate-marijuana-introduced-in-alabama.html
Lawmakers Hold Hearing On Bill To Regulate And Tax Marijuana in Nevada
Carson City, NV (KRNV & MyNews4.com) — The Nevada Assembly Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing Friday morning on a bill to make marijuana legal for adults and establish a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol.
A.B. 402, introduced by Assemblyman Joe Hogan (D-Las Vegas), would allow adults 21 and older to privately possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to six marijuana plants in an enclosed, locked space. It also directs the Department of Taxation to license and regulate marijuana retail stores, cultivation facilities, product manufacturing facilities, and testing facilities, and it establishes an excise tax on wholesale and retail sales, which will be directed to the State Distributive School Account in the State General Fund.
Full Article:
http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/story/Lawmakers-Hold-Hearing-On-Bill-To-Regulate-And/pX6uyVOoVkWET-8-o2oOng.cspx
Hawaii bill would establish a hemp remediation, biofuel program
By Erin Voegele
Pending legislation in Hawaii aims to develop a two-year industrial hemp remediation and biofuel crop pilot program. The program would be administered by the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The appropriations bill, H.B. 154 H.D. 2 S.D. 1, was first introduced in the Hawaii House of Representatives in mid-January. It passed in the House on Feb. 28 and was transmitted to the state Senate. It has already been passed by two Senate committees, and was referred to the Senate Ways and Means committee earlier this week.
The legislation addresses phytoremediation, which involves the use of plants and trees to remove toxins, such as metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives and crude oil, from soil. According to the bill, the legislature considers hemp to be a superior phytoremediator because it grows quickly and can extract toxins without the need to remove any of the contaminated top soil. The plant is also able to grow unaffected by the toxins it accumulates, features a fast rate of adsorption and can bind compound contaminants from the air and soil. In addition, the bill points out that industrial hemp is an environmentally friendly and efficient feedstock for biofuel.
The measure allows the director of the college of agriculture and human resources at the University of Hawaii Manoa to establish a two-year industrial hemp remediation and biofuel crop pilot program, provided the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration issues the university a federally-controlled substance registration for the program.
Full Article:
http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/9693/hawaii-bill-would-establish-a-hemp-remediation-biofuel-program
Medical Marijuana Charges Against Robert and Cathy Jordan Dropped
By Chris Joseph
Back on February 25, cops raided the home of president of the Florida Cannabis Action Network Cathy Jordan, like a SWAT team crashing into Pablo Escobar’s mansion.
Law enforcement officials swarmed Jordan’s home after a government employee who was visiting a neighbor spotted some marijuana plants on her property.
Turns out, Jordan is wheelchair bound and has Lou Gehrig’s disease since 1986. She uses marijuana as treatment.
However, on Tuesday, the State Attorney’s office in Manatee County decided to drop the charges against Cathy’s husband, Robert, who owns the home.
The case was dropped once it was established that Cathy needs marijuana for medical reasons.
Full Article:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2013/04/medical_marijuana_charges_agai.php
Fighting Drug Addiction With Marijuana
By TED HESSON (@tedhesson)
The mayor’s office in Bogota is considering a pilot program that would look to transition drug addicts from hard drugs to marijuana. (Doug Menuez/Getty Images)
For decades, Colombia has been searching for ways to treat people who are addicted to basuco, the nation’s version of crack cocaine.
Now, the country’s capital, Bogota, is considering a new approach: transition users to marijuana.
Full Article:
http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/fighting-drug-addiction-marijuana/story?id=18851710#.UV-OvaLOlLp
Now, the country’s capital, Bogota, is considering a new approach: transition users to marijuana.
Full Article:
http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/fighting-drug-addiction-marijuana/story?id=18851710#.UV-OvaLOlLp
Pot driving limits win unanimous approval in Colorado
Kristen Wyatt
The Aspen Times
A bill making it easier to convict people of driving stoned passed the Colorado House on an initial vote Tuesday. “This is about traffic safety in the state of Colorado,” said Rep. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat who is one of the bill’s sponsors.
The Denver Post / AP
DENVER — A long-simmering marijuana driving debate in Colorado appears to be nearing an end. The state House gave unanimous approval Tuesday to a bill setting pot blood limits for drivers.
The proposal has sponsors from both parties who argued that it’s time Colorado finally set a pot driving standard. Colorado legalized marijuana last year along with Washington state. But unlike Washington, Colorado did not set a pot driving limit to go along with legalization.
“We have a problem. The problem is, we have people who are deciding to smoke marijuana and get behind the wheel,” said Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora.
The bill would say that drivers are too high if their blood contains more than 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter. THC is the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
Similar measures have failed three times before in the Colorado Legislature.
This year’s pot driving bill is slightly different because people accused of driving stoned would be able to argue that they were sober despite higher blood levels. Marijuana driving limits in Washington and other states are like drunken-driving laws, where drivers in excess of legal standards can’t claim they were sober.
The proposal has sponsors from both parties who argued that it’s time Colorado finally set a pot driving standard. Colorado legalized marijuana last year along with Washington state. But unlike Washington, Colorado did not set a pot driving limit to go along with legalization.
“We have a problem. The problem is, we have people who are deciding to smoke marijuana and get behind the wheel,” said Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora.
The bill would say that drivers are too high if their blood contains more than 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter. THC is the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
Similar measures have failed three times before in the Colorado Legislature.
This year’s pot driving bill is slightly different because people accused of driving stoned would be able to argue that they were sober despite higher blood levels. Marijuana driving limits in Washington and other states are like drunken-driving laws, where drivers in excess of legal standards can’t claim they were sober.
Full Article:
Admitting pot use at U.S. border may get you banned
By Jeff Nagel – Surrey North Delta Leader
Marijuana users may want to be careful what questions they answer at the U.S. border, according to a lawyer in Blaine, Wash.
Pot-smoking B.C. residents are increasingly being banned from entering the U.S. as American border guards try to stem the flow of Canadian marijuana tourists in the wake of Washington State’s weedlegalization vote late last year.
Blaine lawyer Len Saunders said he’s seeing more cases of B.C. residents being permanently denied entry after trying to carry pot across the border, thinking it’s no longer an issue.
Because marijuana is now legal to possess under state law, Canadians caught bringing less than an ounce across aren’t charged, as they were in the past.
“I’m seeing no prosecutions – zero since November,” Saunders said. “But there’s more confusion.”
What happens now, he said, is pot-packing Canucks have their stash confiscated and are then interrogated under oath about their drug-using habits.
Admit that you’ve ever smoked or used marijuana in your life, he said, and you can be deemed inadmissable to the U.S. because you’ve confessed to a crime of moral turpitude.
“The key is to not admit that you’ve ever used it,” Saunders said, stressing he isn’t counselling anyone to lie under oath.
Full Article:
http://www.surreyleader.com/news/200913351.html
Blaine lawyer Len Saunders said he’s seeing more cases of B.C. residents being permanently denied entry after trying to carry pot across the border, thinking it’s no longer an issue.
Because marijuana is now legal to possess under state law, Canadians caught bringing less than an ounce across aren’t charged, as they were in the past.
“I’m seeing no prosecutions – zero since November,” Saunders said. “But there’s more confusion.”
What happens now, he said, is pot-packing Canucks have their stash confiscated and are then interrogated under oath about their drug-using habits.
Admit that you’ve ever smoked or used marijuana in your life, he said, and you can be deemed inadmissable to the U.S. because you’ve confessed to a crime of moral turpitude.
“The key is to not admit that you’ve ever used it,” Saunders said, stressing he isn’t counselling anyone to lie under oath.
Full Article:
http://www.surreyleader.com/news/200913351.html
Film by FTII alumnus hopes to change lives of cannabis growers in Kullu
Rohan Swamy
One of the many odds that the film, Bom – One day ahead of Democracy, faced was to convince government agencies in Himachal Pradesh, particularly in Kullu, to help the people of Malana lead an alternative and sustainable lifestyle. The film that portrayed how the livelihood of people of Malana was devastated after the government banned growing of cannabis, citing its use as an illegal drug, has finally managed to get its way to the decision makers — a breakthrough that could finally bring about the change the film desired.
Impressed by the message the film intends to deliver, the Kullu police will be holding a special screening of the film for senior bureaucrats, politicians, judges and other officials on April 5 — a development the filmmaker, Amlan Datta, considers significant.
According to Datta, the Kullu superintendent of police approached him some time back asking for a copy of the film. “He saw the film and called me over the next day and told me that it would be nice if a screening of the film could be arranged for the officials so that they can sit down to working on the problem that Malana faces,” said Datta, a 1997-batch student of cinematography at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).
Full Article:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/film-by-ftii-alumnus-hopes-to-change-lives-of-cannabis-growers-in-kullu/1095814/0
Editorial: Time to OK marijuana dispensaries
For nearly 13 years, since Nevada voters approved an initiative petition that allows the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, the state has ignored the voters’ will.
Patients have been allowed to use marijuana with the permission of a doctor, but the drug has been nearly impossible for them to obtain legally because the Legislature has been unable to approve a plan to make it available.
That should change this year.
Full Article:
http://www.rgj.com/article/20130331/OPED01/303310031/Editorial-Time-OK-marijuana-dispensaries