DENVER (AP) - Colorado has enacted statewide regulations for the medical marijuana industry which could potentially allow hundreds of dispensaries to continue operating. Gov. Bill Ritter on Monday signed two bills passed by lawmakers this session to rein in the estimated 1,100 medical marijuana dispensaries that have cropped up around the state. Both laws take effect immediately. One allows only doctors in good standing to recommend medical marijuana. The other sets up a uniform set of rules for marijuana dispensaries as well as growers and makers of marijuana-infused snacks preferred by some patients. [continues 373 words]
As Bob Marley music wailed in the next room, the makeshift clinic hummed along like an assembly line: Patients went in to see a doctor, paid $150 and walked out with a recommendation that they be allowed to buy and smoke medical marijuana. So it went, all day, at a hotel just blocks from the state Capitol that was the latest stop of the so-called cannabis caravan, a band of doctors and medical marijuana advocates roaming Montana that has helped thousands of patients apply for medical marijuana cards from the state. [continues 849 words]
Effort to Legalize Drug's Use by the Ill Earns Enough Support for Ballot Spot The deadline to file petitions to get an initiative on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot is still a month away, but on Tuesday an effort to legalize medical marijuana became the first to qualify for a spot. The Secretary of State's Office on Tuesday determined that the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project had submitted enough valid signatures to qualify. In April, the group turned in 252,000 signatures; they needed at least 145,698 valid signatures. [continues 575 words]
HELENA - Montana is hardly alone among the states that have legalized medical marijuana and now are struggling with how to regulate a rapidly growing and increasingly contentious industry. The most common regulatory effort, officials say, focuses on those who provide the drug to approved patients. Moves are afoot in Oregon and Colorado to regulate marijuana "dispensaries," which are largely unregulated in Montana. "Since the Obama administration changed federal policy, there's been a real drive in states with medical marijuana laws to actually regulate their industry at a state level, especially the providers of medical marijuana," said Mike Meno, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., a group advocating for lesser state penalties for the medical and non-medical use of marijuana. [continues 904 words]
HELENA - Montana is hardly alone among the states that have legalized medical marijuana and now are struggling over how to regulate a rapidly growing industry. The most common point of regulatory efforts, officials say, is those who provide the drug to approved patients. Moves are afoot in Oregon and Colorado to regulate marijuana "dispensaries," which are largely unregulated in Montana. "Since the Obama administration changed federal policy, there's been a real drive in states with medical marijuana laws to actually regulate their industry at a state level, especially the providers of medical marijuana," said Mike Meno, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., a group advocating for lesser state penalties for the medical and non-medical use of marijuana. [continues 889 words]
Montana is hardly alone among the states that have legalized medical marijuana and now are struggling over how to regulate a rapidly growing industry. The most common point of regulatory efforts, officials say, is those who provide the drug to approved patients. Moves are afoot in Oregon and Colorado to regulate marijuana "dispensaries," which are largely unregulated in Montana. "Since the Obama administration changed federal policy, there's been a real drive in states with medical marijuana laws to actually regulate their industry at a state level, especially the providers of medical marijuana," said Mike Meno, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., a group advocating for lesser state penalties for the medical and nonmedical use of marijuana. [continues 825 words]
Other States Facing Medical Marijuana Explosion HELENA - Montana is hardly alone among the states that have legalized medical marijuana and now are struggling over how to regulate the rapidly growing industry. The most common point of regulatory efforts, officials say, is those who provide the drug to approved patients. Moves are afoot in Oregon and Colorado to regulate marijuana dispensaries, which are largely unregulated in Montana. "Since the Obama administration changed federal policy, there's been a real drive in states with medical marijuana laws to actually regulate their industry at a state level, especially the providers of medical marijuana," said Mike Meno, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., a group advocating for lesser state penalties for the medical and non-medical use of marijuana. [continues 884 words]
Ballot Measure Would Let the State License Dispensaries for the Drug Advocates of medical marijuana on Thursday submitted 110,000 signatures, more than the amount required, for a ballot measure to allow state-licensed pot dispensaries in Oregon. The proposed measure would not change the medical conditions under the law for which medical marijuana may be used. If such a measure ever becomes law, Oregon would join California and a few other states that allow dispensaries. But supporters of the measure argue that reported problems with dispensaries in California are precisely what the Oregon measure is trying to avoid. And one marijuana reform-minded group says it will remain neutral on the issue. [continues 601 words]
With Advocates Energized and the Tide of Public and Scientific Opinion Turning in Their Favor, New York State Considers Legislation to Legalize Medical Marijuana It was snowing on the evening of March 9, 2001, as Dave Lawson was driving his band's GM Astro to a gig in Vermont. Carrying the instruments and one other band member, Lawson was going a cautious 40 miles in Troy when another vehicle pulled into the intersection directly in front of him. Unable to stop on the slick road, Lawson says that he hit the car on the passenger side. Everything that happened directly after that is fuzzy. Mostly what Lawson remembers are the years of rehabilitation and persistent pain that followed. [continues 3678 words]
Talk about murky. The economic impact, the potential social and legal landscape, even the split between the pro and con sides in the squabble over the initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot to legalize marijuana for recreational use in California - they're all about as clear as smoke from a bong. Most medicinal-marijuana advocates think it would be just fine if good-time tokers joined their legal crowd. Others worry it might ruin the purity of using pot as medicine. [continues 1640 words]
Who knows, in the near future, on a Friday night after a tough week of work, those so inclined could legally fire up a joint. And who knows, by California allowing that, some of this might happen: A) The tax base gets a much-needed bump. B) Cops can chase real bad guys, not recreational pot smokers. C) The medical marijuana farce goes up in smoke because the drug can be had legally. (A lot of bad backs? Mysteriously cured!) D) And another possible consequence: Prisons would have more room to house society's worst criminals, particularly violent sex offenders. [continues 729 words]
'Cannabis Cuisine' Focuses on Medical Food For an appetizer, it was jalapeno poppers, with marijuana bud ground into the cream cheese and bacon sauteed in marijuana butter. The entree was pineapple-chipotle double-roasted swine that had been sitting in a marijuana marinade for 12 hours. On the side: mashed potatoes made, of course, with marijuana butter, and asparagus seared with marijuana-infused olive oil. Dessert came in the form of a chocolate chili tart whose graham cracker crust contained marijuana butter. It was topped with "Gooey Ganja Mango Sauce." [continues 670 words]
CLEARWATER -- Arthritis attacks his neck and shoulders. Painful spasms ripple across his crippled body. Imaginary needles stab his useless feet. John Haring has lived with the chronic pain since becoming a quadriplegic two decades ago. Then he found a way, he said, to ease his aching body, to lift his depression. Now he's going to jail for it. Haring, 45, was caught growing his own marijuana, a remedy he says he turned to after prescription painkillers wrecked his body and mind. Legal narcotics leave him drugged, depressed and in an angry stupor, he said. [continues 883 words]
PHOENIX - It looks like Arizonans are going to get to decide whether they want to be able to use marijuana for medical reasons. Backers of a plan to let doctors provide written recommendations for marijuana turned in petitions Wednesday with what they said are about 252,000 signatures in support of the plan. That is nearly 100,000 more than need to be found valid to put the question on the November ballot. If approved, Arizona would become the 15th state in the nation with a medical marijuana law. [continues 713 words]
Proponents See Progress in State Senate's Approval The Maryland Senate voted 35-12 on Saturday to give sick people access to marijuana, sending a strong message that the upper chamber is serious about the controversial idea. House leaders have said they will not take up the measure this year. The legislature's 90-day session ends on Monday. Nevertheless, advocates hailed the Senate vote as a victory. "We are very happy," said Mike Meno, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, a national organization promoting medical use of pot. "To vote by such a margin means that the Senate is in line with public sentiment nationally and here in Maryland." [continues 416 words]
PHOENIX -- A Phoenix political consultant has launched a campaign designed to convince Arizonans not to allow medical marijuana in the state. Max Fose has formed a campaign committee called "Stop The Pot." Campaign finance reports show he is the only contributor to date, having put up $2,500. Fose did not return repeated phone calls asking him his interest in the issue or whether he is fronting for some other organization. But Web pages already erected by the committee appear designed both to alarm Arizonans about the effects of the ballot measure and undermine the credibility of the national Marijuana Policy Project, which is funding the Arizona initiative. [continues 503 words]
Marijuana can be used for medicinal purposes under the laws of 14 U.S. states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. New Jersey's measure became law January 18. Here's a little known fact: technically it's legal in Illinois too--and has been for 32 years. In 1978 the Illinois legislature passed a Cannabis Control Act to try to bring common sense to the state's drug laws. Though the drug causes "physical, psychological and sociological damage," the act asserted, it nevertheless "occupies the unusual position of being widely used and pervasive" in Illinois, and so it was time to establish a "reasonable penalty system" that focused on "commercial traffickers and large-scale purveyors." Even then cannabis was being championed for its medical benefits, so in the name of "research," the act gave the Illinois Department of Human Services permission to "authorize" licensed physicians to use it to treat "glaucoma, the side effects of chemotherapy or radiation therapy in cancer patients or such other procedure certified to be medically necessary." [continues 3924 words]
(MCT) WASHINGTON - Mary Lou Dickerson had seen enough. After wrenching cuts to Washington's state drug and alcohol treatment programs, Dickerson, a Democratic representative, introduced a bill this year to sell marijuana in state liquor stores - and tax it. Dickerson is an unlikely crusader for marijuana legalization. A 63-year-old grandmother who doesn't use it, she says money was the only reason for proposing her controversial bill. "According to the state's own estimates, it would bring in an additional $300 million per biennium," she says. "I dedicated (in the bill) a great deal of the proceeds from the tax on marijuana to treatment." [continues 1365 words]
D.C. Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham might be an unlikely advocate for overhauling our nation's broken marijuana laws, but he articulated a central truth about the harms associated with marijuana and marijuana prohibition ["As D.C. votes on marijuana, seeds already firmly planted," front page. May 4]. "People don't feel marijuana is dangerous," Newsham said, "but it is, because of the way it is sold." Exactly. Marijuana is virtually nontoxic, incapable of producing a fatal overdose and much less dangerous than both alcohol and tobacco. But by keeping marijuana illegal, our policies have created an underground, unregulated market that is controlled by criminals and violent gangs. [continues 72 words]
