Judge amends rules on medical marijuana Authorized users cleared to ingest as well as smoke
Apr 15, 2012 Online Issue
People authorized to use medical marijuana can bake it in brownies and drink it in their tea, not just smoke it in dried form, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled 
Friday.
Justice Robert Johnston concluded that the restriction to dried marijuana in Health Canada’s Marijuana Medical Access Regulations is unconstitutional because it breaches Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
On April 27, Johnston will hear arguments on how and when the amendments to the regulations go into effect. The Crown will ask the judge to suspend implementation of his decision for one year, said federal prosecutor Peter Eccles.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Justice Robert Johnston, legalization, marijuana, medical use, weed
Will medical marijuana get OK’d in New York?
Apr 15, 2012 Online Issue
Not everybody is buying state Sen. Diane Savino’s bid to legalize medical marijuana in New York state.
“It brings us one step closer to legalizing marijuana for recreational use,” said Luke Nasta, head of Camelot Counseling Centers here.
Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo is also a buzz-killer, saying that the risks associated with medical marijuana outweigh the benefits.
Ms. Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) plans to introduce her bill tomorrow, which she said will likely be the beginning of a months-long effort to get the legislation approved.
“We should start the ball rolling,” she said, “start the conversation.”
While the Assembly in the past has backed medical marijuana, no bill has ever come to the Senate floor.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: legalization, Medical Marijuana, New York
Vallejo marijuana dispensary raided for second time
Apr 1, 2012 Online Issue
For the second time in 30 days, a local marijuana dispensary was raided Friday afternoon.
At about 4:25 p.m., Vallejo police officers served search and arrest warrants at Better Health Group, 3611 Sonoma Blvd., police said.
During the raid, owner Jorge Espinoza, 25, and three other workers at the dispensary were arrested on suspicion of selling marijuana, police said.
They were identified as Jeffrey Hughson, 38, of Novato; Aaron Castillo 21, of Daly City; and Jonathan Linares, 22, of Vallejo.
It was not immediately disclosed if any marijuana or other products were seized Friday, which marks the fourth marijuana dispensary raid since Feb. 21. There may be as many as 20 other dispensaries operating in Vallejo.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: legalization, marijuana, marijuana use, Medical Marijuana, pot, vallejo
Medical-marijuana shops near schools face cutoff today: Close or move
Feb 27, 2012 Online Issue
In the ongoing stare-down between state-legal medical-marijuana dispensaries and federal law-enforcement officials, today is the day somebody blinks.
Letters sent last month to 23 dispensaries near schools in Colorado gave the businesses until today to either move or shut down. If they do not, the U.S. attorney’s office has vowed to take criminal or civil action against the businesses, which are inherently violating federal law but are in compliance with state medical-marijuana law.
U.S. Attorney John Walsh has said he is not bluffing.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Denver, legalization, marijuana, marijuana dispensaries
Legal Recreational Marijuana: Not So Far Out
Feb 6, 2012 Online Issue
The drive to legalize marijuana has long been a fringe cause, associated with hard-core libertarians and college-age stoners. But it could go
mainstream in a big way in this November’s election, when Washington could become the first state to legalize recreational pot use. If it does — or if voters in any of several other states do — this year could be a turning point in the nation’s treatment of marijuana.
The idea that a majority of voters could support legalizing marijuana may seem far out — but the polls say otherwise. In many states, the prolegalization and antilegalization camps are roughly equal in size. In a poll of Washington state voters released last month, supporters of the legalization referendum outnumbered opponents: 48% vs. 45%. And Washington probably won’t be the only state voting on marijuana this year. In Colorado, supporters last week fell about 3,000 signatures short of getting a legalization measure on the ballot — but the law gave them 15 days to collect the rest, and it seems likely they will. Activists are also collecting signatures in other states, including California, Michigan and Montana.
Read the rest of this entry »
Feds’ medical marijuana prohibition should end
Dec 4, 2011 Online Issue
There’s an initiative that may go before voters next year that would legalize, regulate and tax the sale of mari-juana, and not just for
doctor-authorized medicinal use.
I-502, even if it collects enough signatures to get on the 2012 state ballot, seems like a bridge too far, at least for now.
But Gov. Chris Gregoire’s petition to the Drug Enforcement Administration doesn’t. Her request to have marijuana reclassified as a Schedule 2 drug seems like a sensible step in the right direction for states such as Washington to be able to effectively implement medical marijuana laws passed by voters.
Read the rest of this entry »
Medical Marijuana: a Local Issue
Nov 6, 2011 Online Issue
We’ve talked plenty of pot at the federal and state levels here at Law Blog, but there are some serious local battles over medical 
marijuana unfolding in California, fueled by referendum movements, something permitted by state law.
The New York Times has a story on Kern County, whose conservative rural residents, live-off-the-land values and devotion to the Republican Party make it an odd forum for voter rebellion.
And yet medical marijuana advocates are gaining purchase in the county with a petition drive to challenge a pot ban passed unanimously in August by the county’s all-Republican Board of Supervisors.
It isn’t the only place in California, the original medical marijuana state, where local laws are being challenged. In San Jose, advocates for medical marijuana filed tens of thousands of signatures last Friday to try to force a vote on a new law that would have regulated dispensaries there.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: legalization, marijuana, Medical Marijuana
