Veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder and other chronic pain issues may be able to ask their VA doctors for a new treatment soon: medical marijuana. Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to back the Veterans Equal Access Amendment. Under the measure, Veterans Affairs would be allowed to recommend medical marijuana to patients for everything from back pain to depression to flashbacks. Veterans who support the proposal say that it is safer and helps more than the addictive and debilitating painkillers that are often prescribed. They say using medical cannabis can help combat PTSD's insomnia and panic attacks. [continues 264 words]
The Senate Appropriations Committee did something last week the Senate has never done - it passed a marijuana reform measure. It was the narrowest of proposals, an amendment co-authored by Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., to a military spending bill that would prohibit the Department of Veterans Affairs from using federal money to prosecute doctors who recommend medical marijuana to veterans in states where the drug is legal. Last year, the House passed five measures that supported states' rights on marijuana. [continues 456 words]
Newsom Task Force, Others Debate Merits of Drug's Legalization OAKLAND - As Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom's marijuana commission explores how best to tackle legalization of the weed, everyone agrees protecting California's youth is paramount. They just can't agree on the best way to do it. Some commissioners at a public forum Tuesday at the Youth Uprising neighborhood hub in East Oakland - a community wracked both by illegal drugs and the government's effort to control them - believe legalization is better than an unacceptable status quo. They argued that "just say no" programs haven't stemmed drug use by youth - and that suspending or expelling users from school and shunting them into the juvenile justice system often dooms their futures. [continues 550 words]
The already novel criminal case against Ross W. Ulbricht, the recently convicted founder of the website Silk Road, has taken yet another unusual turn. Mr. Ulbricht could face life in prison when he is sentenced on May 29 in Federal District Court in Manhattan for his role in running Silk Road, a once-thriving black market for the sale of heroin, cocaine, LSD and other drugs. And although prosecutors have not yet said what length of sentence they will seek for Mr. Ulbricht, 31, they have told Mr. Ulbricht's lawyers that they intend to introduce evidence of six overdose deaths attributable to drugs bought from vendors on Silk Road, according to a recent defense filing. [continues 543 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - A fight next year over whether to allow recreational marijuana use in California may serve as a tipping point as legalization proponents press their campaign in other states. "A lot of eyes are on California," said Gavin Newsom, the state's lieutenant governor and a legalization proponent. "It's very different than almost any other state because of the scale and the magnitude of the change and what it will represent across the country." The most populous state is among at least five, including Massachusetts and Maine, in which legalization measures are likely to appear on ballots in November 2016. Both advocates and opponents say California is the key battleground, where success or failure is likely to determine whether most of the country decriminalizes the drug for recreational use. [continues 887 words]
Law enforcement agencies have become increasingly reliant on the seizure of assets and property to finance their operations, regardless of the justification. The Drug Policy Alliance released a report last week on asset forfeiture abuse in California. The report highlighted a handful of cities in Los Angeles County that lead the state in asset seizures per capita: Vernon, Irwindale, Beverly Hills, La Verne, South Gate, Pomona, Baldwin Park, Gardena and West Covina. Combined, the nine police departments made $43 million from asset forfeitures during fiscal years 2006-13. [continues 279 words]
And the resignation of Chief of Administration Michele Leonhart offers the chance for change Marijuana legalization advocates are excited about the departure of Michele Leonhart, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, whom they long considered an obstruction in their goal of reforming the nation's drug laws. "We are happy to see her go," says Dan Riffle, the director of federal policies at the Marijuana Policy Project. "She's a career drug warrior at a time when we've decided the `War on Drugs' is an abject failure." [continues 709 words]
There was plenty of weed at the Cannabis Cup celebration last weekend in Denver. Billed as the biggest marijuana party in the world, the Cup is a three-day psychedelic mash-up of counter culture, high technology and entrepreneurship, equal parts Woodstock, SXSW, Comic-Con and Gold Rush. After the state Marijuana Enforcement Division announced a couple days before the event that businesses with Colorado licenses wouldn't be allowed to offer free samples, I wondered what the effect might be on the party, since freebies are at least part of the reason more than 40,000 people, many from out of state, are willing to pay $40 a day for tickets and wait for more than an hour just to get in the place. [continues 827 words]
Arrests drop, favor whites Last week, the New York City-based Drug Policy Alliance released a 17-page report titled "Marijuana Arrests in Colorado After the Passage of Amendment 64" (tiny.cc/w6mbwx), which shows the amendment's implementation has predictably gutted the rate of marijuana arrests since 2010. Statewide, arrests for possession, cultivation and distribution have dropped almost 95 percent. However, arrests are still disproportionately high for black Coloradans, as they were before legalization. The statewide marijuana arrest rate for white people in 2010 was 335 per 100,000 people. For black people, it was 851, a rate 2.4 times higher. In 2014, the arrest rate per 100,000 people for whites was 116, and 281 for blacks, a difference still 2.4 times higher. [continues 356 words]
Nonviolent Drug Offenders Affected WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday shortened the prison sentences of nearly two dozen drug convicts, including eight serving life in prison, in an act the White House said continues Obama's push to make the justice system fairer by reducing harsh sentences that were handed down under outdated guidelines. The effort could lead Obama to grant clemency more often as his second and final term in office winds down. In December, Obama issued his first round of commutations under new guidelines that were put in place to cut costs by reducing the growing prison population and grant leniency to nonviolent drug offenders sentenced to years-long terms of confinement away from society. A commutation leaves the conviction in place and ends the punishment. [continues 324 words]
ALBANY - When New York State's lawmakers were mulling legalizing the medical use of marijuana last summer, some proponents feared that the proposed law was so restrictive that it would prevent many patients from receiving the drug. Now, with the state's Health Department close to issuing final regulations about the new program, the law's supporters say their fears may soon be realized. The law itself is quite restrictive: Only 10 conditions qualify for medical use of marijuana; the drug may not be smoked; and New York will initially allow only 20 dispensaries across the state, run by five organizations. [continues 1144 words]
Law Enforcement Seeks Veto of Legislation Ending Civil Asset Forfeiture SANTA FE - Prompted by calls from across the political spectrum, New Mexico lawmakers took aim during this year's 60-day legislative session at civil asset forfeiture - decried by some as "policing for profit." The measure, which was approved unanimously by the House and Senate, would prevent law enforcement from seizing money, cars or other types of property from people on civil grounds during an arrest or traffic stop on suspicion the property was connected to a crime. [continues 1190 words]
DENVER (AP) - The legalization of marijuana in Colorado hasn't solved the racial disparities in enforcement that drug-policy reformers had hoped to end, with blacks still far more likely than whites to be charged with pot-related crimes, a new report says. The report, issued Wednesday by the pro-legalization Drug Policy Alliance, showed that marijuana arrests in Colorado all but stopped after voters made the drug legal in small amounts for those 21 and older. But the report noted continuing racial disparities involving the marijuana crimes that remain, including public use and possession in excess of the 1-ounce limit. [continues 120 words]
Black People Still Far More Likely to Be Charged With Marijuana-Related Crimes DENVER (AP) - The legalization of marijuana in Colorado hasn't solved the racial disparities in enforcement that drug-policy reformers had hoped to end, with blacks still far more likely than whites to be charged with pot-related crimes, a new report says. The report, issued Wednesday by the pro-legalization Drug Policy Alliance, showed that marijuana arrests in Colorado all but stopped after voters made the drug legal in small amounts for those 21 and older. [continues 632 words]
CAZENOVIA - On ideas about future drug policy, a speaker Friday night in Cazenovia talked grassroots action and called for politicians to do more. The program, "War on Drugs: Charting the past, present and future of drug policy in the United States, "was part of the 2015 Cazenovia forum, and was held in Caz College's Catherine Cummings Theater. Speaking was Gabriel Sayegh, the managing director of policy and campaigns at the New York State Office of Drug Policy Alliance. Sayegh told the crowd how he grew up in a small farming community in Northern California, and how a lack of community support and services lead to him using methamphetamines. [continues 279 words]
I see plenty of people getting excited about legalizing marijuana in California, but are there any ballot initiatives ready to go? Any you can recommend? - -Ivana B. Puffingwun There are a few ready to go, but I am not sure they will have much of a chance. The folks behind the California Cannabis Hemp Initiative are trying (again) to get their initiative on the ballot. While I really like the language of their proposal (the tax on pot is really low, you would be able to grow an incredible amount of weed in your home and it would free people in jail for nonviolent cannabis crimes), I don't think they have a chance. The CCHI has no money, and no real organization. Sigh. [continues 389 words]
Last year, Congress passed an amendment that barred the Department of Justice from using federal dollars to prosecute medical-marijuana dispensaries in states that have legalized them. Last week, three senators have proposed a measure to clean up the federal-state medical-marijuana mess once and for all. Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced their Carers (Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States) Act, which should draw support from the right and left. Why? First, it would reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II drug, granting recognition that marijuana has legitimate medical uses, a sop to the left. Second, it would direct the federal government to stop prosecuting dispensers in states that have legalized marijuana for medical use - a states' rights emphasis that should draw GOP votes. [continues 491 words]
After Washington State Made It Legal, a Struggling Small Town Went into Business North Bonneville, Wash. - Deep in the Columbia River Gorge, a short drive from the Bridge of the Gods, the nation's only government-run marijuana shop was running low on weed. The store had been open for just a few days. Inside, manager Robyn Legun was frantically trying to restock. Outside, five customers stood waiting for the doors to open. Someone cracked a joke about this being a typical government operation, always running late. [continues 1522 words]
The weekend after marijuana became legal in the District, Capital City Hydroponics ran a sale on the indoor gardening kits needed to grow it. Business doubled. In a narrow Petworth basement stuffed with high-end gardening supplies, Michael Bayard gingerly explains that tomatoes are best grown indoors given the District's unfavorably dank weather. Tomatoes, it turns out, are cultivated similarly to marijuana. And since his shop, Capital City Hydroponics, opened in 2011, Bayard has often explained to customers how to grow the food - tacitly aware that some of them just go home and use their new tomato knowledge to grow pot. [continues 968 words]
Proposed Carers Act would redefine cannabis as a Schedule II controlled substance When Sens. Cory Booker (D., N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) and Rand Paul (R., Ky.) announced a bill Tuesday to reform federal marijuana regulation, they pitched it not just as a health, military veteran and states' rights issue, but from a business angle. And they used words that investors in the developing marijuana industry have been waiting to hear for a long time. "This is very, very encouraging," said Alex Thiersch, a managing partner at Salveo Capital, a Chicago firm in the process of raising a potential $25 million fund to invest in marijuana businesses. "This opens many, many doors for us to pursue opportunities." [continues 618 words]
