All Entries Tagged With: "pot"

Seattle Times endorsing marijuana legalization bill

The Seattle Times is endorsing a bill in the Washington state Legislature to legalize marijuana, in an editorial to be published this Sunday.

The paper is coming out in favor of House Bill 1550, which would make it legal to sell pot in liquor stores.

The editorial comes just days after Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said he has stopped prosecuting user-level possession cases.

Full Story Here: Seattle Times endorsing marijuana legalization bill | KING5.com | Seattle and Washington Political News.

Willie Nelson arrested for pot possession

Willie Nelson charged with marijuana possession after 6 ounces found aboard tour bus in Texas

A U.S. Border Patrol spokesman says country singer Willie Nelson was charged with marijuana possession after 6 ounces was found aboard his tour bus in Texas.

Patrol spokesman Bill Brooks says the bus pulled into the Sierra Blanca, Texas, checkpoint about 9 a.m. Friday. Brooks says an officer smelled pot when a door was opened and a search turned up marijuana.

Brooks says the Hudspeth County sheriff was contacted and Nelson was among three people arrested.

Full Story: Willie Nelson arrested for pot possession | Raw Story.

Feds’ Warning on Legal Pot Bad News for Big Growers

The federal government made it clear today that it will continue to enforce drug laws even if California votes to legalize marijuana on Nov. 2.

Observers said the Obama administration’s pronouncement that it would continue to “vigorously enforce” the laws against people buying, selling, or growing marijuana for recreational use would have a greater effect on big pot impresarios rather than the average stoner if Proposition 19 passes.

“I don’t see them coming in and taking down people with their little five-foot by five- foot gardens,” said Bill Panzer, an Oakland lawyer who helped write seminal state legislation on medical marijuana.

Full Story: Feds’ Warning on Legal Pot Bad News for Big Growers – The Bay Citizen.

Former Police Chief: Legalize Pot, Now

As San Jose’s retired chief of police and a cop with 35 years experience on the front lines in the war on marijuana, I’m voting yes on Prop. 19.

California voters have a chance on this November’s ballot to bring common sense to law enforcement by legalizing marijuana for adults. As San Jose’s retired chief of police and a cop with 35 years experience on the front lines in the war on marijuana, I’m voting yes.

I’ve seen the prohibition’s terrible impact at close range.

Like an increasing number of law enforcers, I have learned that most bad things about marijuana — especially the violence made inevitable by an obscenely profitable black market — are caused by the prohibition, not by the plant. Legal marijuana is long overdue, but leading up to November, wrongheaded opponents will implore Californians with the same old mistaken arguments to stay the course. Prohibition advocates will promote fear, and they will ignore the vast bulk of law enforcement and medical experience on marijuana. People should not be fooled by cannabis opponents’ appeal to prejudices and emotions when they argue:

Full Story: Former Police Chief: Legalize Pot, Now | Drugs | AlterNet.

Montana Medical Marijuana Cards Available To Out-Of-State Applicants

A person doesn’t have to live in Montana to receive a medical marijuana card from the state, health officials said Friday.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services discovered what it calls a loophole in state law after reviewing plans to require medical marijuana applicants to have a Montana driver’s license or state-issued identification, said department spokesman Chuck Council.

The new driver’s license policy was to begin on Monday, but the legal review has halted those plans.

“The law is mute on the subject of legal residency and there is no recourse for the Department of Public Health and Human Services but to keep the situation as it stands,” Council said. “On Monday, we will be moving forward, status quo, on the processing of out-of-state applications.”

Full Story: Montana Medical Marijuana Cards Available To Out-Of-State Applicants.

San Jose union begins organizing pot workers

A major California labor union is organizing medical cannabis workers in Oakland, a move that analysts say will help efforts to legalize marijuana and open the door for the union to organize thousands more workers if state voters pass a measure in November to allow recreational marijuana use by adults.

The 26,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 in San Jose is believed to be the first union in the country to organize workers in a marijuana-related business. It is considering new job classifications including “bud tender” – a sommelier of sorts who helps medical marijuana users choose the right strain for their ailment.

“Union bud tender,” said Carl Anderson, executive director of AMCD, an Oakland nonprofit medical cannabis dispensary that is going through the city’s permitting process. The dispensary has 15 freshly minted union employees as it readies for an expected opening in December. “With full union health benefits and a pension,” Anderson said.

Full Story: San Jose union begins organizing pot workers.

Oakland looks to become first US city to tax, license commercial marijuana production

Local governments in California and other Western states have tried to clamp down on medical marijuana, but Oakland has taken a different approach.

If you can’t beat ‘em, tax ‘em.

After becoming the first U.S. city to impose a special tax on medical marijuana dispensaries, Oakland soon could become the first to sanction and tax commercial pot growing operations. Selling and growing marijuana remain illegal under federal law.

Two City Council members are preparing legislation, expected to be introduced next month, that would allow at least three industrial-scale growing operations.

Full Story: Oakland looks to become first US city to tax, license commercial marijuana production | Raw Story.

OPS: Unfortunately, State law won’t supersede Federal Law.

Medical Marijuana Bill Moves Through Maryland Senate In Landslide

The Maryland Senate voted on Saturday to allow patients access to medical marijuana at state-licensed dispensaries. The bill now moves to the state’s lower chamber.

The bill was approved overwhelmingly, with bipartisan support and without objections or discussion, by a 35-12 margin.

Maryland would join 14 other states in legalizing medical marijuana. The neighboring District of Columbia legalized it in a 1998 referendum that was only recently allowed by Congress to go into effect. The District’s city council is writing rules to establish the city’s medical marijuana policy.

Current Maryland law allows defendants charged with pot possession to cite a medical necessity defense. If a judge deems the drug to be beneficial, a maximum hundred dollar civil fine is imposed.

Full Story: Medical Marijuana Bill Moves Through Maryland Senate In Landslide.

Many Felony Pot Cases Getting Tossed Out of Court

Police in a northern California town thought they had an open-and-shut case when they seized more than two pounds of marijuana from a couple’s home, even though doctors authorized the pair to use pot for medical purposes.

San Francisco police thought the same with a father and son team they suspected of abusing the state’s medical marijuana law by allegedly operating an illegal trafficking operation.

But both cases were tossed out along with many other marijuana possession cases in recent weeks because of a California Supreme Court ruling that has police, prosecutors and defense attorneys scrambling to make sense of a gray legal area: What is the maximum amount of cannabis a medical marijuana patient can possess?

Full Story: Many Felony Pot Cases Getting Tossed Out of Court – NYTimes.com.

Pot use among seniors rises

In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.

Long a fixture among young people, use of the country's most popular illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and '70s grows older.

The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Full Story: Pot use among seniors rises | Raw Story.

Hypocritical Obama and Corporate Media Are Agressively Undermining Pot Normalization

While marijuana is more mainstream than ever, legalization still faces backlash from the powers that be.

Fourteen states have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes; 13 more have medical marijuana ballot or legislative measures on the horizon. And medical pot has paved the way for all-out legalization; for the first time ever, polls consistently show that a majority of Americans — albeit a slim one — believe marijuana should be legalized for adults over 18.

Drug reform observers and activists are excitedly awaiting the results of the Tax Cannabis ballot initiative in California this November. While it is not the first time electorates will vote on marijuana legalization (Nevada and Colorado rejected similar measures in 2006; the city of Breckenridge, Colo. legalized it late last year), experts believe California is the first statewide initiative that stands a fighting chance, as AlterNet has reported.

Yet in spite of the positive trend, there are some ominous harbingers indicating that common-sense drug reform relating to marijuana still has a ways to go. Here are five signs that pot legalization faces government and corporate backlash (which may affect public opinion as well), in no particular order:

Full Story Hypocritical Obama and Corporate Media Are Agressively Undermining Pot Normalization | Drugs | AlterNet.

Pot legalization petitions filed in California

California appears headed for a rollicking November ballot fight over whether to legalize and tax marijuana cultivation and use for adults 21 years and older.

Proponents of the “Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010″ said Thursday that they had submitted to the state nearly 700,000 petition signatures – more than enough, if valid, to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen has until June 24 to certify the measure, which needs 433,000 valid voter signatures to qualify.

Full Story Pot legalization petitions filed in California – Sacramento Politics – California Politics | Sacramento Bee.

Holder Vows To End Raids On Medical Marijuana Clubs

Holder Vows To End Raids On Medical Marijuana Clubs.

HufPo

Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference Wednesday that the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana clubs that are established legally under state law. His declaration is a fulfillment of a campaign promise by President Barack Obama, and marks a major shift from the previous administration.

After the inauguration, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) continued to carry out such raids, despite Obama’s promise. Holder was asked if those raids represented American policy going forward.

“No,” he said. “What the president said during the campaign, you’ll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we’ll be doing in law enforcement. He was my boss during the campaign. He is formally and technically and by law my boss now. What he said during the campaign is now American policy.”

The exchange takes place at about the 25:00 mark here.

Holder’s declaration is a high point for the movement to legalize medical marijuana, which has been growing for decades despite federal hostility.

In 2007, for a book on drug culture and drug trends that will be released in June, I toured a number of the medical marijuana dispensaries in question and interviewed their owners and customers. This is what I found, excerpted from the book: