News

Alaska Implements New Pot Law Allowing Recreational Use On February 24, 2015

www.cnn.com link

Uraguayan President Says Colorado Has It Wrong

www.oregonlive.com link
By Noelle Crombie

Uruguay is hailed by marijuana advocates as a leader in pot policy, but a close look at details shows President Jose Mujica’s plan is more restrictive than Colorado’s approach to legal marijuana, AP reports.

Associated Press reporter Leonardo Haberkorn takes a look at the rules for marijuana sales in Uruguay. The rules go into effect Tuesday. Marijuana, under the new system, is expected to sell for less than a $1 a gram.

The state will sell five different strains, containing a maximum level of 15 percent THC, the substance that gets consumers high. Each bag will be bar-coded, radio-frequency tagged, and registered in a genetic database that will enable authorities to trace its origin and determine its legality, Canepa said. The rules limit licensed growers to six plants per household — not per person, as some pot enthusiasts had hoped. And while people who buy in pharmacies will be identified by fingerprint readers to preserve their anonymity, every user’s pot consumption will be tracked in a government database.

Mujica predicted that many will call him an elderly reactionary once they see this fine print, but he says his government never intended to create a mecca for marijuana lovers.

“No addiction is good,” he said. “We aren’t going to promote smokefests, bohemianism, all this stuff they try to pass off as innocuous when it isn’t. They’ll label us elderly reactionaries. But this isn’t a policy that seeks to expand marijuana consumption. What it aims to do is keep it all within reason, and not allow it to become an illness.”

Uruguay Government Planning to Sell Marijuana

ABCnews.go.com

President of California Dispensary Chain Held in Federal Custody for Supposed Drug Trafficking

ABCnews.go.com

Cartel Marijuana Field with 2500 plants Busted in North Carolina

CNN.com

Small Ocean Bound Vessels Loaded with Marijuana Used to Smuggle into California

MSNBC.com

Trayvon Martin’s Blood and Urine test Positive for THC at Low Levels

nydailynews.com

Colorado Senate defeats driving-while-high bill; key backer was absent

Colorado Senate defeats driving-while-high bill; key backer was absent
POSTED: 05/16/2012 01:00:00 AM MDT
UPDATED: 05/16/2012 02:42:34 AM MDTBy John Ingold
The Denver Post

A bill making it easier for prosecutors in Colorado to convict people of driving high on marijuana died in the state Senate special session Tuesday because one key supporter was absent.
After the Senate voted down the bill on an informal vote, an effort to revive it failed on a 17-17 split. The missing vote was that of Sen. Nancy Spence, a Centennial Republican who was the deciding vote on a nearly identical bill in the legislature’s regular session.
Reached by phone, Spence said she was in San Diego, where she had plans to celebrate her grandson’s birthday that were made well before the special session was called. Spence said she was prepared to fly back to Denver on short notice to vote for the bill but that she didn’t know the bill would be brought before the full Senate on Tuesday.
“I’m really sad about it,” Spence said. “I feel terrible for (bill sponsor) Steve King, who worked so hard to get that bill passed.”
The result was surprising for a bill that, again, appeared headed for passage before being tripped up late. Earlier in the day, the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee passed the bill 4-1. That came after the bill received its final approval in the House Tuesday morning.
That meant the bill needed to pass only two votes — one Tuesday and one today — by the full Senate to head to the governor’s desk. Gov. John Hickenlooper has said he supports the bill.
The bill, HB12S-1005, would make it a crime to drive with more than a certain amount of THC — the psychoactive chemical in marijuana — in your blood. A nearly identical proposal appeared headed for passage during this year’s regular legislative session. But it became entangled last week in the end-of-session fight over civil unions and died on the calendar.
Spence said she received a text message this morning from Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, asking her how soon she could return to Colorado. Spence said she asked how soon she was needed but that she didn’t know the Senate would be taking up the bill today until she turned on her laptop to watch the Senate session remotely.
“I assumed it wouldn’t be brought up until tomorrow morning,” Spence said.
“I’m just so, so sorry and so disappointed,” she added.
Cadman said he wasn’t sure Spence’s presence would have made a difference, saying that several lawmakers were keeping quiet about their vote and might have switched against the bill had Spence been there.
“That’s how close and, I think, complicated this issue became,” Cadman, who voted for the bill, said.
Reviewing the vote shows lawmakers voted today exactly as they had during the regular session.
Senate President Brandon Shaffer, a Longmont Democrat who also supported the bill, said lawmakers didn’t play games with the bill schedule. Because every day in a special session costs the state more than $23,000, Shaffer said legislative leadership wanted to keep the session to three days. That meant the bill had to be heard today in order to pass.
“We weren’t trying to pull a fast one,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer said Spence didn’t ask for permission to miss the vote. She was listed as absent for the vote, contrary to the usual courtesy of listing lawmakers who have to miss votes as excused.
“I was very disappointed with the outcome of today’s vote,” Shaffer said.
At the earlier committee hearing, medical-marijuana activists argue that the proposed limit — 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood — is too low and would result in near-certain convictions for sober drivers.
The bill’s opponents argued that medical-marijuana patients have no way of determining what 5 nanograms means. How much can they consume? How long do they have to wait afterward?
“There needs to be a way to know whether a medical patient has the 5 nanograms in their system so they can know whether they can get behind the wheel,” said Debbie Olander, a representative from the United Food and Commercial Workers union. “With alcohol you can.”
Supporters of the bill counter that the vast majority of people would be impaired at 5 nanograms and would need to wait only about two to three hours after using to fall below the limit. They argue that, even though some people could be sober at 5 nanograms, it is important to send a strong message.
“The law works best when there are clear, effective, enforceable standards,” Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett said, testifying in support of the bill.
The regular-session version of the bill passed the full Senate by a single vote.

Medical Marijuana Prescription Holders Face Delays in Washington, D.C.

HuffingtonPost.com

Obama’s Marijuana War Ramps Up in Colorado

HuffingtonPost.com

Bottom Drops Out of California’s Emerald Triangle Marijuana Market

MiamiHerald.com

Florida Pill Mill Empire Dismantled

MSNBC.com

Synthetic Marijuana Bust in South Haven, Michigan

WWMT.com

Suspected Juneau Grower Indicted for More than 25 Plants

JuneauEmpire.com

Jimmy Kimmel Addresses Legalization of Pot at White House Correspondents’ Dinner 2012

HuffingtonPost.com

Connecticut House Passes Marijuana Bill



SacBee.com

Mendocino Prosecutor Charged with Growing Illegally

SacBee.com

Wiz Khalifa Cited for Marijuana Possession in Nashville

RollingStone.com

Obama Unclear on Medical Marijuana

FoxNews.com

Marijuana Rally at Colorado University on April 20, 2012

USAToday.com

Honolulu Police Arrested for medical marijuana

HawaiiNewsNow.com

5 arrested for dumping garbage bag of pot in Civic Center and passing it out, police say

5 arrested for dumping garbage bag of pot in Civic Center and passing it out, police say

The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20181528/5-arrested-dumping-garbage-bag-pot-civic-center#ixzz1pmiqRrDZ

Denver Police officers arrested five people in Civic Center this afternoon, after a garbage bag full of marijuana was allegedly dumped out, re-bagged and passed out to park patrons.
Around 12:30 p.m., officers were called to the park, near where Occupy Denver typically holds demonstrations and marches, after they received reports of the marijuana, said Sonny Jackson, a spokesman for the Denver Police Department.
The bag was dumped on a blue tarp in the northeast corner of the park, police said. About 30 people were in the park when the marijuana a was being distributed.
“Why they were doing this we don’t know,” Jackson said. “This is a public park and we cannot have people openly distributing marijuana.”
It did not appear that anyone was paying for the marijuana.
Officers on bikes, motorcycles and on foot responded to the scene.
Several people in the park recorded the incident on cell phones and video cameras as officers loaded the bag into a car.
As officers cleared the park, one woman called the cops “pigs” and “terrorists.”
It is unknown if any of the people taken into custody have been arrested at the park before. Their names have not been released.

Legalizing Marijuana for Everyone

wildcat.arizona.edu

California Marijuana Legalization Efforts in Disarray

LAtimes.com

Pat Robertson Supports Legalizing Marijuana



MSNBC.com

Teen Marijuana Use and Related Operating Under the Influence on the Rise

HuffingtonPost.com

California Court Stops Cities from Using Nuisance Ordinaces to Ban Dispensaries

SFgate.com

Obama’s Switch to Hardline on Medical Marijuana a Mystery

MotherJones.com

Plane Carrying 20 Pounds of Marijuana Strays into Obama’s Marine One Restricted Helicopter Airspace

CNN.com

UFCs Nick Diaz Caught for Marijuana Use

SportsIllustrated.CNN.com

Colorado’s Legalized Marijuana Initiative has 15 Days to Collect Approximately 2500 Valid Signatures

Colorado pot-legalization initiative needs more signatures
Posted: 02/03/2012 07:34:43 AM MST
Updated: 02/03/2012 02:15:16 PM MST By John Ingold
The Denver Post

A proposed initiative to legalize limited possession of marijuana in Colorado needs more signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The Colorado Secretary of State’s office announced today that the campaign collected only 83,696 valid signatures. It needs 86,105 to qualify.

The campaign will now have 15 days to collect the remaining 2,409 valid signatures. Mason Tvert, one of the initiative’s proponents, said in a statement today that the announcement was unexpected but “just a very small bump in the road.”

“We are confident we will complete this process successfully and qualify the initiative for the ballot,” Tvert said.

Last month, the campaign turned in more than 160,000 signatures in boxes of petitions. But, after reviewing a sample of those signatures, the Secretary of State’s office could not conclusively project whether there were enough valid signatures on the petitions for the initiative to qualify.

That meant the Secretary of State’s office needed to go line-by-line through the petitions, verifying each signature. Today was the deadline to complete that task.

The initiative, a proposed constitutional amendment, would legalize possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for people 21 and older. It would also allow people to grow a small number of marijuana plants in their homes.

The measure would also allow for people to open marijuana retail shops, but it would give communities the ability to ban those businesses. Lastly, it would legalize the growing of industrial hemp.

All such activities would remain illegal under federal law.

The initiative — for now known as Proposed Initiative No. 30 and dubbed by the campaign The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2012 — is one of three separate proposed measures for the 2012 ballot that would legalize marijuana in Colorado.

Another, from Cannabis University of Colorado head Michelle LaMay, would prohibit judges from imposing penalties on anyone for marijuana possession of any amount. Supporters call the initiative The Relief for the Possession of Cannabis Act. The campaign behind it has announced it will begin collecting signatures this month.

Meanwhile, a third initiative was filed Thursday. That measure, which supporters call Legalize 2012, would create in Colorado’s constitution a fundamental right to use and possess any amount of marijuana for people over 18. It would allow for retail sales of marijuana “without restrictions that are onerous or burdensome.” It would require the state attorney general to file lawsuits to prevent the federal government from enforcing federal marijuana laws in Colorado. And it would create a state-funded commission that could help Colorado citizens facing federal marijuana prosecution with their defense.

That initiative has not yet had its first administrative hearing.

Read more: Colorado pot-legalization initiative needs more signatures – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19885405#ixzz1liVKPtHX
Read The Denver Post’s Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Pilot for Major Commercial Airline in Indonesia Arrested for Crystal Meth (between 2010 and 2011 Meth overtook Marijuana as the number one drug in Indonesia)

MSNBC.com

Feds Drop Performance Enhancing Drug Investigation of Lance Armstrong

CNN.com

Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Measure in Colorado Falls Short

HuffingtonPost.com

Medical Marijuana Questions Dominate Obama’s Online Chat

CBS.com

Israeli Researchers Recommend More Doctors Should Prescribe Marijuana to Cancer Patients

Haaretz.com

Medical Marijuana Symposium at Wayne State in Detroit

HuffingtonPost.com

Marijuana Derived Drug, Sativex, may be approved in US



NYdailynews.com

Narco Wars in Central America

CNN.com

Huge Marijuana Bust on Chicago’s West Side

huffingtonpost.com

New Jersey Medical Marijuana Law Fails to Progress over Last 2 Years

NJ.com

Mexico’s Drug War could Jeopardize National Security

CNN.com

Group to File for Medical Marijuana Legislation in Ohio

Dispatch.com

Feds Crack Down on Dozens of Colorado Dispensaries Located within 1000 feet of schools

FOXnews.com

Government Releases Study Saying Marijuana Does Not Damage Lung Function

LAtimes.com

Coast Guard Intercepts Boat Carrying 1 ton of Marijuana off California Coast

MercuryNews.com

Does Cannabis Oil Cure Cancer? Check out this video

Domain Names Related to Marijuana Poised to Increase in Value

NYtimes.com

Military Recognizes Problem with Synthetic Marijuana Among Troops

WashingtonTimes.com

Chicago Bears Football (NFL) Player Arrested for Felony Drug Charges

CNN.com

HuffingtonPost.com

ABClocal.go.com.com (VIDEO)