Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jul 2013
Source: Colorado Springs Independent (CO)
Column: Cannabiz
Copyright: 2013 Colorado Springs Independent
Contact:  http://www.csindy.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1536
Author: Bryce Crawford

MORE BANS, LAWSUITS AND MARIJUANA STUDIES

Green mountains fail

The trend of regional governments opting out of allowing 
recreational-marijuana stores continued last week, when Green 
Mountain Falls' Board of Trustees voted 5 to 1 against allowing them 
in city limits.

"According to the state, [dispensaries] can't be too close to a 
school or too close to a government building," Mayor Pro Tem Jane 
Newberry was quoted in the Gazette as saying. "We're really sort of 
landlocked when it comes to that."

The daily reports that a recall of several trustees, initiated by 
local resident Judy Wiedner, is in the beginning stages.

(See the results of Colorado Springs City Council's vote, which comes 
after our deadline, and a timeline of the plant's history on p. 18.)

Supreme stubbornness

The national medical-cannabis advocacy group Americans for Safe 
Access deserves points for tenacity, if nothing else. In 2002, a 
coalition built around ASA petitioned the federal government to 
reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I substance. The Drug 
Enforcement Administration waited nine years to deny the petition, 
but finally did in July 2011.

The group then appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals, 
D.C. Circuit, which in January offered a 2-1 ruling against ASA, 
saying that there was not enough advanced clinical evidence of 
marijuana's medical efficacy to overturn the DEA's decision.

Well, now comes word that the ASA last week petitioned the U.S. 
Supreme Court to review the decision. Says the group's attorney, Joe 
Elford, in a release. "The Court has unreasonably raised the bar for 
what qualifies as an 'adequate and well-controlled' study, thereby 
continuing the government's game of 'Gotcha.'"
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom