By Quentin Fottrell
Mark Twain is said to have remarked that a gold rush is a good time to be in the pick and shovel business. Investors may be able to apply that same bit of wisdom to the growing number of U.S. states that have legalized pot.
Although federal law prohibits the sale or possession of marijuana, Massachusetts last week joined the ranks of states — 18 plus Washington, D.C. — that allow its use for people suffering from chronic illnesses like cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. In Washington and Colorado, meanwhile, voters passed an initiative to Read more.....
The Associated Press
Springfield, MO.
Supporters of a petition to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana in Springfield are running out of time to collect enough signatures to get the issue on the November ballot.
The city clerk’s office says petition organizers need another 649 signatures before the initiative can go before the city council. They have until Aug. 7 to collect those signatures.
Petition organizer Maranda Reynolds says the group, Show-Me Cannabis, still hopes to have the issue before the council at its Aug. 13 meeting.
The Springfield News-Leader reports ( http://sgfnow.co/MOhHiG) the petition would reduce the Read more.....
BY ED VOGEL
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY – A bill allowing registered medical marijuana users in Nevada to acquire the outlawed drug is one of the 144 bills being drawn up for consideration at the 2013 Legislature.
Assemblyman Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, said Monday he requested the bill, which would be introduced in the state Senate if he is elected to the upper house, because there is no legal way to obtain the drug, which is used to help people with glaucoma and cancer patients who suffer loss of appetite because of Read more.....
California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) has withdrawn from consideration a landmark bill that would have created the first statewide system for regulating medical marijuana.
Assembly Bill 2312 made history this June when it Read more.....
By BRIAN DOWLING bdowling@courant.comThe Hartford Courant HARTFORD — A marijuana dispensing machine, not loaded with goods, is on display Tuesday in a Pratt Street storefront as its developer hopes to spark state rules allowing the automated distribution system for medical use of the plant.
If the system were to come to Connecticut for regular operations, customers with a prescription would be able to walk up, swipe a credit or debit card, have their fingerprints scanned, and get their prescribed leafy drug — a system that’s in place in six western states and Canada.
“The Read more.....
The Huffington Post | By Katherine Bindley Marijuana use among teens has been on the rise for some time–it’s become more popular than smoking cigarettes in recent years–but a provocative new study shows that legalizing pot for Read more.....
By Samuel P. Jacobs | Reuters – Sat, Jun 2, 2012
DENVER (Reuters) – Throughout his presidency, Barack Obama hasn’t exactly been a friend to marijuana users.
Sure, he has acknowledged smoking pot as a young man, but he has disappointed marijuana advocates by opposing its legalization, regulation and taxation like alcohol.
And the Justice Department’s Read more.....
by Melanie Eversley, USA Today
A New York State Supreme Court judge out of Brooklyn is generating buzz because of his public appeal to legalize medical marijuana, as outlined in an opinion piece that he wrote forThe New York Times.
The plea Read more.....
The state opened the door for medical-marijuana dispensary applications yesterday, receiving 15 by the end of the day.
Hopeful pot-shop owners will have until 5 p.m. on May 25 to submit the applications. Besides paying a $5,000 application fee, weed-trepeneurs must include a business plan and details on how they’ll control their inventory.See the state Department of Health Services checklist for Read more.....
The classification of cannabis as a schedule one narcotic is among the least defensible aspects of prohibition.
Dr. Jody Corey-Bloom, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at UC San Diego, recently helped run a study that provided multiple sclerosis patients with Read more.....
A couple weeks ago, Mitch Jesserich, the host of Letters & Politics, a Pacifica radio show, had author Paul Dickson as a guest. Dickson is an historical non-fiction author and was discussing the 1932 presidential election between incumbent Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt (FRR).
On the show, the author mentioned that during the election FDR espoused more conservative policy regarding the Great Depression. He was opposed to the government going Read more.....
by Bob Oakes and Lynn Jolicoeur, Boston NPR (WBUR)
BOSTON — Voters in Massachusetts may get to decide by ballot question this November whether to legalize medical marijuana. It’s already legal in Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island.
But in Rhode Island there is continuing controversy over the law.
In that state, we met 62-year-old Ellen Lenox Smith of North Scituate. She’s one of more than 4,500 Rhode Island residents with state-issued medical marijuana cards.
Living With Pain
“I don’t think I know what life is like Read more.....
by Shannon Young, Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut lawmakers’ approval of the use of medical marijuana includes strict regulations for the cultivation and distribution in an attempt to avoid problems other states have run into when legalizing the plant for medical use.
The Read more.....
by Cecilia Rodriguez, Forbes
It was one of those small, curious stories that make it into almost every global news outlet: To fight a national economic crisis bringing hardship and crushing debt to a tiny municipality, the government and residents of Read more.....
by Tom Howell Jr., The Washington Times
Unsuccessful applicants to the District’s medical marijuana program are asking the courts to force the reconsideration of their submissions, claiming they were rejected by a review panel despite meeting or exceeding stated criteria.
Three firms filed a total of five civil complaints to contest the way officials, led by the D.C. Department of Health, scored and Read more.....
by Gia Magnoli, Noozhawk
Under forfeiture laws, property owners may face loss of properties where storefront and growing operations are located.
In their stepped-up battle against local marijuana dispensaries and growing operations that supply them, federal authorities are employing a powerful weapon: asset-forfeiture laws.
The Read more.....
by Michael Steininger, The Christian Science Monitor
For visitors to the Netherlands who enjoy the relaxing effects of marijuana, life has just become a Read more.....
by Rob Kampia, Special to the Washington Post
Rob Kampia is executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project.
During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama raised hopes among those who support medical marijuana by pledging to respect state laws on the Read more.....
Courtesy of the New York Times
HARTFORD (Reuters) — The Connecticut Senate passed a bill on Saturday legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, with tight restrictions intended to avoid the problems that have plagued some of the other states where it is now legal.
After nearly 10 hours Read more.....
by Connor Friedersforf, The Atlantic
Nominated for a Supreme Court seat in 1987, Douglas H. Ginsburg withdrew from consideration when it was revealed that he’d tried Read more.....
Six men have been charged in the first federal prosecution in Oregon of medical marijuana growers, accused of growing much more pot than patients needed and conspiring to sell the excess on the black market.
The arrests follow harvest-time raids in Southern Oregon last fall when federal agents ripped out hundreds of plants with backhoes and hauled them off in dump trucks.
The government said the haul was 4,000 pounds.
Federal authorities have complained that pot grown under the state’s medical marijuana law has been Read more.....
Courtesy of the Huffington Post
A bill that would set a marijuana blood standard for drivers–similar to that of current blood alcohol standards–took a big step toward approval on Tuesday when it passed 18-17 in the Colorado Senate.
by Paige Lavender, The Huffington Post
While delivering his remarks at the 2012 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, comedian Jimmy Kimmel addressed the issue of marijuana legalization.
“What is with the marijuana Read more.....
Courtesy of the Huffington Post
Running for office? Gotta have it. Need to pass a ballot initiative? There, too. Regardless of the campaign, cash is king. And of all movements hoping to see green (ahem), Colorado’s Initiative to Regulate Read more.....
Two of the three Boulder dispensaries that received warning letters from federal prosecutors have closed shop, and the third is offering deep discounts on its remaining product in preparation for closing by the May 7 deadline.
The dispensaries — Fresh Republic, 1335 Broadway, the Hill Cannabis Club, 1121 Broadway, and The Med Shed, 4483 Read more.....
by Doug Oakley, Contra Costa Times
After nearly 13 years in business, a San Pablo Avenue medical marijuana dispensary in Berkeley was set to close Monday evening under pressure from the federal government for being too close to two schools.
The 9,000 member Berkeley Patients Group has not yet found a suitable new location Read more.....
Courtesy of CBS Money Watch
AMSTERDAM — Dutch coffee shops owners went to court Wednesday in a last ditch bid to block a government plan to stop foreigners from buying marijuana in the Netherlands.
Lawyers representing the coffee shops oppose what would be the most significant change in decades to the country’s famed soft drug tolerance: turning Read more.....
by Susan Nielsen, The Oregonian
Something strange happened on the way to the May primary. Ellen Rosenblum became the darling of the marijuana legalization community, and Dwight Holton became the enemy.
The differences between the two candidates for Oregon attorney general aren’t nearly that stark. Yet the heat around this issue shows how sensitive it is to talk Read more.....
by Patrick McGreavy, Los Angeles Times
A proposal that could make it easier to open medical marijuana shops in California was approved Tuesday by the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee despite objections from cities and law enforcement agencies that it unreasonably ties their hands.
The measure by committee Chairman Read more.....
by Scott Morgan, Stopthedrugwar.
The recent multi-agency federal raid of Oaksterdam University, a respected medical marijuana trade school in Oakland, has many people struggling to understand the Obama Administration’s escalating campaign against medical cannabis. Most pernicious among these theories is an idea I’ve Read more.....
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