Double Toke! Ammiano Reintroduces Bill to Legalize, Tax Marijuana
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has reintroduced his pioneering bill seeking to legalize and tax pot in California.
In a statement released this afternoon, Ammiano's office said the San Francisco Democrat hopes the new legislation will build on support garnered by AB 390, his first pot-legalization measure, which passed out of committee in Sacramento but overran its deadline for consideration by the rest of the Legislature.
The bill's expiration last month appeared more or less in line with the grand strategy of Ammiano, who said he wanted to take plenty of time to build consensus on the issue. Now AB 2254, the latest incarnation of the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act, will get a second shot.
"We're even more optimistic about the fate of this bill than we were about AB 390," Aaron Smith, California director for the Marijuana Policy Project, told SF Weekly.
Los Angeles City Council Votes to Close 800 Marijuana Dispensaries
The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to close roughly 800 medical marijuana dispensaries in the city by passing the first reading of an ordinance which would also require 75% of remaining dispensaries to relocate. The vote, to be confirmed in a second reading of the ordinance next Tuesday, will radically change the landscape of medical marijuana distribution in Los Angeles, which has been largely unregulated since dispensaries were first authorized by state law in 1996.
If the ordinance takes effect later this spring, medical marijuana dispensaries will have to find locations more than 1000 feet from various 'sensitive uses' -- including churches, public parks, schools, rehab centers, and other dispensaries. They will also be required to grow all their cannabis on-site, test it for pesticides, provide written notice of their existence to all neighbors within 1000 feet, maintain 24-hour complaint hotlines, hire unarmed security guards to patrol a two-block radius, keep 90 days of security footage and fulfill a number of other registration requirements with the city.
Top 10 Cannabis Studies the Government Wished it Had Never Funded
Yes, that's right.....Government funded studies have reached conclusions that marijuana prevents cancer, the gateway effect is a myth, and has no increased risk of lung cancer.
Can't really claim bias for this one....
10) MARIJUANA USE HAS NO EFFECT ON MORTALITY:
A massive study of California HMO members funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found marijuana use caused no significant increase in mortality. Tobacco use was associated with increased risk of death.
Judge Orders Return of Marijuana Confiscated by California Highway Patrol
Sixty pounds of marijuana was restored to its “rightful owner” after a judge ruled in favor of the defendant in a case involving possession of marijuana for sale and possession, a charge that violates the California health and safety code.
Thirty-three year-old Sagura Doven was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol, who eventually found sixty pounds of marijuana packed in baggies which were placed in a large duffel bag. Had he been convicted of the charges brought against him, he would have faced up to four years of jail time.
His lawyer Glen Jonas, however, argued that Doven’s possession of marijuana was well within the confines of the law governing medical marijuana in the state. Doven was allegedly on his way to a medical marijuana collective based in Venice, of which he was a member, when he was pulled over. He was, therefore, authorized to transport the marijuana in question.
Colorado judge rules that medical marijuana users in state have right to buy pot
Medical marijuana patients have a constitutional right to buy pot, not just use it, according to ruling Wednesday by a judge.
Arapahoe County District Court Judge Christopher Cross sided with the CannaMart dispensary, which sued the city of Centennial after it was shut down in October.
Cross granted the dispensary's request for an injunction, which will prevent the city from keeping the dispensary closed while CannaMart challenges the city's argument that it can ban pot shops because they violated federal drug laws.
Colorado in 2000 passed a constitutional amendment allowing medical marijuana, which is now allowed in 14 states. Recent decisions by state health authorities, along with a signal this year from the U.S. attorney general that federal prosecutors won't interfere with state pot rules, have led to an explosion of commercial marijuana stores across Colorado.
Curtain closes on Canadian ‘prince of pot’ Marc Emery
Marc Emery sold large quantities of marijuana seeds to Americans. He will be extradited from Canada to the US in January to serve a five year prison sentence.
Walking along Hastings Street in Vancouver, arm in arm with his wife Jodie, Marc Emery (51) looked like anything but one of the US' most wanted drug dealers. But he is in fact number 46 on a list of 50 dangerous drugs criminals. His days as a free man are numbered: he is about to be extradited to the United States to be locked up.
The couple entered the building at No. 307, which they refer to as their "international headquarters". The building was decorated in green and filled with an entourage of followers. The headquarters features a store, an editorial room, a recording studio, political offices and a smoking cafe. Everything related to marijuana is sold here – except marijuana, being illegal. If you want to smoke a joint in the cafe, you have to bring your own. Not that it is hard to come by in Vancouver, a city nicknamed ‘Vansterdam’.
NORML: A Father’s greif: Cannabis Prohibition, Race and My Son
An unfortunate college photo of Barack Obama comes back to bite. During Obama’s freshman year at Occidental College, a classmate took a picture of the “cool cat.”
Despite the bizarre claims of some prohibitionists and law enforcement representatives that ‘no one in America gets arrested or goes to jail for cannabis charges’, NORML receives hundreds of emails and letters a week from our fellow citizens who’ve been negatively impacted by cannabis prohibition laws–notably due to an encounter with law enforcement.
A few weeks ago I received a letter from a father of a young man arrested and incarcerated on minor cannabis-related charges in Arlington, Virginia. The father’s lament is deep and profound, beyond the standard pleas for help NORML so regularly receives. So much so that I asked him if he would send NORML the original letter for publication.
Rhode Island releases proposed rules for medical marijuana dispensaries
State health regulators have issued proposed regulations for the operation of compassion centers to dispense medical marijuana, but it could still take up to a year before the first center opens its doors in Rhode Island.
Acting under legislation passed by the General Assembly last spring, the state Department of Health last week issued 22 pages of proposed rules for licensing and operating up to three compassion centers in Rhode Island. The rules, covering everything from the amount of marijuana dispensed to the background of those dispensing it to the security systems in place to guard it, will be the subject of a formal public hearing on Feb. 2.
After that, if state Health Director David R. Gifford determines that no revisions are necessary, it would take about a month and a half for the rules to become formally enacted. Then, the licensing process would allow for a 60-day application period for would-be compassion-center operators — which could be prolonged by further public hearings on the applicants before Gifford makes the final decision.
Initiative to Legalize Marijuana Headed for the Ballot in 2010
According to a recent article in the L.A. Times, a ballot initiative that, if passed, would legalize marijuana state wide is slated to be put on the 2010 general election ballot.
It would be a substantial breakthrough for California, which was the country's leader in decriminalizing marijuana for individual use and in developing medicinal marijuana.
Thankfully, it would also eliminate the contradictions that currently exist in the law that lead to absurd and incredibly unjust outcomes. I am specifically referring to the drastic difference in penalties for posessing less than an ounce of marijuana and selling less than an ounce of marijuana.
NOT GUILTY: Marijuana Grower With MS faced 5-10 Years for growing 17 marijuana plants
A New Jersey man on trial for growing 17 marijuana plants on his property was found not guilty yesterday of the most serious charge against him, that of operating a drug production facility, which carries a potential 20-year sentence. But multiple sclerosis-sufferer John Wilson, 37, still faces the possibility of five to 10 years in prison, because the jury found him guilty of second-degree manufacturing and third-degree drug possession. It's possible that Wilson avoided conviction on the most serious charge because he cast doubt on the credibility of state troopers who arrested him in August 2008—with a little help from the National Guard.
Wilson maintains that he was growing the marijuana because it helps alleviate his MS symptoms, but Superior Court Judge Robert Reed had ruled that the validity of medical marijuana was a matter for the Legislature and inadmissible in court. Nevertheless, Wilson was able to make one mention of his condition during his testimony on Wednesday, when he contradicted the state troopers who swore they did not discuss why he was growing the drug. "I told them I was not a drug dealer and I was using the marijuana to treat my M.S.," Wilson said.
California Marijuana Measure Set for 2010 Vote, Supporters Say
A ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use in California has received enough signatures to place it before voters next year, organizers said.
The “Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act of 2010” has garnered 680,000 signatures, more than the 433,971 required to be placed on the state’s ballot, said Salwa Ibrahim, a spokeswoman for the measure’s sponsor, Oaksterdam University in Oakland, which bills itself as “America’s first cannabis college.”
“We’re going to keep collecting signatures until we have to turn it in,” before the February deadline, Ibrahim said in an interview today. “They’re from all over the state of California.”
The measure, which must be certified by the secretary of state before it can officially be placed on the ballot, would allow adults 21 and older to possess an ounce of marijuana and cultivate 25 square feet (2.3 square meters) for personal consumption, Ibrahim said. Cities and counties can decide how and if to tax commercial sales and cultivation.
“So for instance, in a Danville or Alamo, if they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, we do not want dispensaries or any of that in our communities,’ that’s fine, they don’t have to have it,” she said. “But a place like Oakland, where we desperately need the revenue, it would be a perfect fit.”
A Field Poll conducted in April showed that 56 percent of registered voters in California supported legalizing and taxing marijuana.
