WASHINGTON, D.C. - Advocacy groups have poured millions of dollars into legalizing both recreational and medical marijuana in states across the country. One of the most powerful and influential groups - Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project - was behind successful recreational measures in Alaska and Colorado, two of four states that now allow recreational use. Organizers hope to replicate those efforts in five other states during the 2016 elections, an undertaking they say will - if successful - prove significant for the effort to end marijuana prohibition. [continues 3106 words]
Spokesman: Marijuana Is 'Still Illegal Under Federal Law' SANTA FE - Medical marijuana is legal in New Mexico, but the federal Drug Enforcement Administration seized and destroyed numerous pot plants from a licensed dispensary in Santa Fe after a recent explosion burned two employees. The Santa Fe police asked the DEA to help investigate after the blast at the NewMexiCann Natural Medicine dispensary in Santa Fe on July 23. Two employees were seriously burned as they were using a process that involves soaking marijuana in butane and then using propane heat to extract THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, to produce concentrated hash oil. [continues 754 words]
So many good things have happened to Joseph Rivers lately that it's easy to forget that the good came from a bad experience in Albuquerque four months ago when Drug Enforcement Administration agents took his $16,000 and thus his dream without benefit of arrest or criminal charge. Which is not to say that the bad is completely over - because it isn't. Rivers, you may recall, is the young man from the Detroit suburbs who was headed west to Los Angeles to seek his fortune as a rapper and music video producer when the Amtrak train he was traveling in made a stop April 15 in Albuquerque and his $16,000 in cash, stored in an envelope in a blue suitcase, was seized by DEA agents who had a hunch - - but no search warrant, charging document or probable cause - that the cash was connected with criminal activity. [continues 729 words]
ALBANY, N. Y. (AP) - Tie-dyed they're not. Entrepreneurs, physicians and wellheeled investors are among those authorized by New York health officials to grow and dispense medical marijuana, the latest sign that the industry has come a long way from its humble beginnings 20 years ago. "You can't ignore that this is a billion-dollar industry," said Marc Ross, a New York City attorney who has studied the emergence of medical marijuana. "The big businesses are sitting on the sidelines now because they can't come out of the closet - not just yet anyway." [continues 624 words]
If current trends hold, it is likely that California will soon legalize marijuana for recreational use if not in 2016, then in the not-too-distant future. To prepare for this eventuality, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy, chaired by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, was established in 2013 to analyze questions and policy issues arising from legalization. The commission released its final report last week, and the results are a mixed bag. The report details 58 strategies, goals and other recommendations, including focusing on education and treatment programs, limiting youth access and ensuring that smaller businesses have as much opportunity to enter the market as larger ones. [continues 314 words]
Regulations May Result From Enquiry SANTA FE - An explosion at a Santa Fe medical marijuana dispensary that severely burned two employees is being investigated by federal Drug Enforcement Administration and multiple city and state agencies. Nicholas Montoya, 29, and Aaron Smith, believed to be 28, were severely burned while using butane and propane in a process to extract THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, from cannabis around 4:40 p.m. on Thursday at NewMexiCann Natural Medicine, one of the state's licensed medical pot producers. A process using butane and boiling over heat is widely used to produce concentrated hash oil. [continues 608 words]
The High Taking Over Streets Is So Variable, It's Hard to Stop or Treat The man in the Mickey Mouse shirt was clinging to a light pole on H Street NE when police showed up, and then he dropped his pants. Another man near Eastern Market was laughing so hard that paramedics had trouble keeping him on a stretcher. A third, whom police found prancing through Capitol Hill, started kicking and screaming when eight police and fire officials tried to restrain him. [continues 1862 words]
Tony Papa is living proof that a drug offender slapped with a harsh sentence for a nonviolent crime can turn his life around if given a second chance. Since he was sprung by then-Gov. George Pataki in 1996 after serving 12 years of a mandatory 15-years-to-life sentence under New York's Rockefeller drug laws, he has had a successful career as a painter, author and advocate for a truce in the country's War on Drugs. "I think it's great. It's putting a spotlight on the issue of mass incarceration, that people were put in prison at alarming rates for nonviolent drug crimes," Papa told The Post Thursday of President Obama's push for sentencing reform. [continues 250 words]
The march to bring marijuana legalization before California voters in 2016 ramped up Thursday with the announcement by a group of longtime Bay Area cannabis advocates that they have hired heavy-hitting Democratic political strategists and plan to release a draft of the proposed initiative in the coming weeks. Santa Rosa-based attorney Joe Rogoway is part of a team with the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform that is crafting an initiative under a project dubbed ReformCA, backed by California NORML - the state branch of the national marijuana reform group - that would create a framework for a "robust set of regulations" to legalize cannabis for use by adults while maintaining regulations already in place for medical use. [continues 784 words]
Sacramento - Recent news stories and studies have documented the degree to which California law enforcement agencies use something called "civil asset forfeiture" to take cars, cash and even real estate from people who have never been accused of a crime. They need only offer probable cause the property has been used in the commission of a crime - and then it is fair game. There is so much financial incentive that some police agencies are accused of focusing their limited resources on forfeiture-related matters that bolster their budgets rather than on traditional crime fighting. It's outrageous. [continues 611 words]
Lawmakers Say Agencies Are Using 1980s Anti- Drug Laws to Compensate for Budget Cuts. SACRAMENTO - State lawmakers are considering a proposal to rein in California law enforcement agencies' ability to keep money, cars and homes seized from suspects who have not been charged with a crime. The measure is the latest effort to roll back anti-crime policies passed during the height of the 1980s drug wars. Advocates of stricter confiscation rules say that the controversial federal seizure program is now being used by local agencies - which may keep most of the property they confiscate regardless of whether a suspect is convicted - to increase revenue and plug budget holes. [continues 682 words]
Amendment Called for Federal Studies to Gauge Medical Benefits, Risks Medical marijuana is now sold in nearly half of all states, and even one red state has legalized it for recreational use. Veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are clamoring for access to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Loosening pot laws polls better in three swing states than any 2016 presidential candidate. But House Republicans have so far declined to keep pace with shifting public opinion. They did so again late Wednesday, when a rare bipartisan pot proposal died a quiet death in the House that would have reclassified marijuana so that national laboratories could conduct "credible research on its safety and efficacy as a medical treatment." [continues 950 words]
Imagine a place where the government can seize property from people who have not broken the law. The police, sheriffs and prosecutors can auction their property off and use the proceeds to pay their own salaries. But this isn't a Third World dictatorship. It's California. Empowered by "civil forfeiture" laws, the government can seize - and keep - cash, cars and real estate without ever filing criminal charges. Thankfully, state Sen. Holly Mitchell has authored Senate Bill 443 to curb this appalling police power. SB443 already passed by a staggering 38-1 vote, and now awaits a key hearing before the Assembly Committee on Public Safety on July 14. [continues 524 words]
Four decades ago, activists gathered once a year in front of San Francisco City Hall to agitate for their cause. The highlight of the "Day on the Grass" was a ritual smoke-in, with some of the cannabis that one of them also happened to sell out of a Castro District restaurant. Without fail, and in stark contrast to today's elected officials, a sitting San Francisco supervisor would join them. Harvey Milk was a pioneer not just for gay rights, but also cannabis legalization. He frequently fraternized with self-described dope dealer Dennis Peron, who by 1978 had been busted by San Francisco police multiple times for dealing marijuana. [continues 838 words]
Law Officials to Talk at White House Gathering SANTA FE - Law enforcement officials here will have the opportunity to teach agencies from around the country about a new program combating opiate use at a White House conference next week. Mayor Javier Gonzales, District Attorney Angela "Spence" Pacheco and state director of the Drug Policy Alliance Emily Kaltenbach will travel with other local officials to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to talk about a program that keeps low-grade drug offenders out of the court system. [continues 373 words]
However, the Drug Has Been Shown to Alleviate Pain From Chemotherapy and Multiple Sclerosis. Despite medical marijuana's unquestionable worldwide momentum, it hasn't yet been proven scientifically to remedy most of the conditions governments have authorized it to treat, according to an influential new analysis of existing research. While pro-legalization advocates don't disagree with the analysis' findings, they point out that the barriers to legitimate research on cannabis' medical efficacy have been so substantial in the U.S. that President Barack Obama's administration this week slashed some of those bureaucratic hurdles in a historic action - and yet marijuana still remains more difficult to study than cocaine or heroin. [continues 947 words]
America was built on a foundation of second chances. For centuries, immigrants from all parts of the world have come to the United States for an opportunity to build a better life in a country where redemption is reality and where people thrive. But for communities of color especially immigrants that land doesn't really exist. Instead, many work for their second chance only to have it taken away from them. Our justice and immigration systems have evolved in such piecemeal, haphazard ways that enforcement of the law is uneven and the protections of the law are unequally applied, especially pertaining to drugs and deportations. This is a particular problem in California, where half of all children live in a household led by at least one foreign-born parent. [continues 509 words]
A Colorado Court Rules That Businesses Can Fire Employees WHO Use Marijuana During Their Off-Time. The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that businesses can fire employees who use marijuana during their off-time, including those with a legal prescription for medical pot. In a case that has been closely watched by employers in some states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, the Colorado court found that Dish Network lawfully fired a quadriplegic employee and medical marijuana user who failed a drug test. Customer service representative Brandon Coats, 35, used marijuana in his offtime to deal with painful muscle spasms. [continues 868 words]
Senate Panel OK'd Measure to Let Doctors Recommend It for Medicinal Purposes Veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other chronic-pain issues may soon be able to ask their VA doctors for a new treatment: medical marijuana. In May, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to support the Veterans Equal Access Amendment. Under the measure, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs would be allowed to recommend medical marijuana to patients for medicinal purposes for everything from back pain to depression to flashbacks. [continues 287 words]
House Budget Plan Would Continue Ban on Sales but Not Roll Back Legalization House Republicans advanced a budget plan Thursday that would prevent legal sales of marijuana in the District until at least 2017. Advocates for legalization, however, called it a victory. What the Republican budget does not do yet is roll back Initiative 71, the voter-approved measure from November that legalized pot for recreational use in the nation's capital. Since early this year, D.C. residents have been allowed to possess, grow and, in the privacy of their own homes, smoke marijuana. [continues 779 words]
