Latest Entry
Mar 6, 2014 Online Issue
Source: Washington Post
Washington, D.C. — The D.C. Council on Tuesday is poised to make the city one of the nation’s most lenient for marijuana possession, easing penalties that most often ensnare African Americans including a potential one-year jail sentence that is expected to be reduced to a $25 fine.
To keep the odor of marijuana from wafting across the nation’s capital, however, city lawmakers in recent weeks pulled back from an even more liberal proposal to buffer residents from arrest: Smoking marijuana in public would remain a crime, akin to toting an open can of beer, and would carry a maximum penalty of up to six months in jail.
Amid growing support locally and nationally for legalizing marijuana, D.C. lawmakers said they are acting out of an interest in greater social justice when it comes to pot arrests — not civil liberties to allow more drug use. By leapfrogging many states in loosening its marijuana laws, the city is firmly planting itself in a national debate over legalization — even as questions remain about how much a new law might accomplish.
Decriminalizing possession of marijuana, but leaving the act of smoking the drug a crime, critics say, will keep alive concerns about racial profiling in arrests. It also will add gray areas in policing: D.C. officers would not be able to arrest on the smell of marijuana, for instance; they would have to see the smoke. And being marijuana-impaired in public would not be a crime equal to public intoxication — unless it occurs behind the wheel.
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Recent Entries
Mar 6, 2014 Online Issue
Source: Reuters
Atlanta — A Georgia measure that would legalize use of a liquid, non-intoxicating form of marijuana for patients with severe seizure disorders has been passed by the state House of Representatives with wide support.
Lawmakers approved the legislation on Monday in a 171-4 bipartisan vote, and the bill, which would limit availability of medical marijuana to a handful of research facilities, now goes to the state Senate for consideration.
The measure’s sponsor, Republican Representative Allen Peake, said he had become interested in the issue after learning about a constituent’s 4-year-old daughter, who suffers from a seizure disorder.
“This really was a human story,” Peake said in an interview on Tuesday. “I couldn’t be more proud of my colleagues for the courageous vote they cast.”
Medical marijuana in various forms is legal in 20 states. Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and at least six others are considering legalizing it, according to Washington-based pro-marijuana group NORML.
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Mar 6, 2014 Online Issue
Source: Time
USA — The new commercial from MarijuanaDoctors.com might seem to make perfect sense to a medical marijuana patient who has just taken a dose of their medicine. For most others, the logic may take a moment to sink in.
During the one-minute spot, which the company is touting as the first ever medical marijuana business commercial to air on major networks, a faux dealer pushes sushi in the street, opening up a coat filled with raw fish like cartoon thieves open trenchcoats filled with black-market Rolexes. “You wouldn’t buy your sushi from this guy,” the voiceover concludes. “So why would you buy your marijuana from him?”
“We felt the viewing public would agree that in the states providing safe access, continuing to obtain medicine illegally is as absurd as purchasing raw fish from a drug dealer,” the company’s CEO Jason Draizin said in a press release. Of course, purchasing “sushi” from the “sushi dealer” remains the only option for those who are obtaining the “sashimi” for recreational purposes, as opposed to those who require “California rolls” for medical reasons, in most places.
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Feb 17, 2014 Online Issue
Posted by CN Staff on February 14, 2014 at 19:46:01 PT
By Danielle Douglas
Source: Washington Post
Washington, D.C. — The Obama administration on Friday gave the banking industry the green light to finance and do business with legal marijuana sellers, a move that could further legitimize the burgeoning industry.
For the first time, legal distributors will be able to secure loans and set up checking and savings accounts with major banks that have largely steered clear of those businesses. The decision eliminates a key hurdle facing marijuana sellers, who can now legally conduct business in 20 states and the District.
So far, the Obama administration has dealt with the legal dilemmas posed by Colorado and Washington — where state laws now allow recreational marijuana use — largely by choosing not to enforce the federal statutes. Eighteen other states allow the sale of medical marijuana — though federal law does not allow that, either.
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Feb 17, 2014 Online Issue
By Gene Johnson, Associated Press
Source: Boston Globe
World News — In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley. In Morocco, one of the world’s top producers of the concentrated pot known as hashish, two leading political parties want to legalize its cultivation, at least for medical and industrial use.
And in Mexico City, the vast metropolis of a country ravaged by horrific cartel bloodshed, lawmakers have proposed a brand new plan to let stores sell the drug.
From the Americas to Europe to North Africa and beyond, the marijuana legalization movement is gaining unprecedented traction — a nod to successful efforts in Colorado, Washington state and the small South American nation of Uruguay, which in December became the first country to approve nationwide pot legalization.
Leaders long weary of the drug war’s violence and futility have been emboldened by changes in U.S. policy, even in the face of opposition from their own conservative populations. Some are eager to try an approach that focuses on public health instead of prohibition, and some see a potentially lucrative industry in cannabis regulation.
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Feb 17, 2014 Online Issue
By refusing to participate in the Affordable Care Act, enacting a malevolent voter ID law to discourage voting, and by paying for tens of millions of dollars’ worth of corporate tax breaks by firing unprecedented numbers of teachers, police and firefighters, Governor Walker has earned his spot as a Republican front runner, and serves as an example, rather than a shame, for his colleagues.
So it should come as no surprise that when President Obama recently spoke out about the dangers of alcohol versus the dangers of weed, Walker had to pipe up.
“If I’m at a wedding reception here and somebody has a drink or two, most people wouldn’t say they’re wasted,” Walker recently told a reporter from The Cap Times. “Most folks with marijuana wouldn’t be sitting around a wedding reception smoking marijuana.”
What the hell does that even mean, Governor?
How many drinks did you have before that interview?
Logic be damned, he continued, “Now there are people who abuse [alcohol], no doubt about it, but I think it’s a big jump between someone having a beer and smoking marijuana.”
This Reefer Madness mentality of Walker’s relies on the same talking points put in place by fellow Republican, Richard Nixon, when he launched the laughable “War on Drugs” during his tumultuous term as president over 40 years ago.
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Feb 17, 2014 Online Issue
US Army Sergeant Horace Brown was clad in camouflage while driving through Louisiana early Sunday morning, but still couldn’t manage to hide about 23 pounds of greenery from the Louisiana State Police.
According to a LSP release, Brown was pulled over for “improper lane usage” in Port Allen, Louisiana. We’re not sure what that charge means, but wouldn’t be surprised if it’s just a Louisiana cop term thrown around for “I’m pulling over a dark-skinned man late at night because I think he looks suspicious.”
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