Police in Buffalo Township, Penn., were looking for marijuana when they raided a home on Oct. 7, taking the female homeowner out of the house without pants after she answered the door. But there was a hitch. The homeowners weren't growing pot. They grow hibiscus plants in their backyard. Edward and Audrey Cramer filed a civil lawsuit last week against the police and Nationwide Insurance Co. Among their allegations: false arrest, excessive force, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of privacy. [continues 551 words]
LAS VEGAS -- For Hilary Dulany, long roots in Michigan and the prospect of expanding her Oregon marijuana business are luring her back to the Great Lakes State. For Nancy Whiteman, the prospect of taking her business national has her looking for partners in Michigan. For the two women and many other entrepreneurs attending the MJ Biz Conference in Las Vegas last week -- the pre-eminent conference where 18,500 professionals looking to get into the cannabis industry gathered -- the common thread was Michigan's soon-to-explode marijuana business. [continues 1137 words]
Patient response to Pa. marijuana program 'extremely positive' What if Pennsylvania had a medical marijuana program but few people knew about it? With hundreds of millions of dollars invested in cannabis growing facilities and dispensaries -- and the health of thousands of prospective patients on the line -- alerting state residents to the program should be a priority. But there's effectively a gag order on nearly all players involved. The state Department of Health, responsible for the program's roll-out, has no budget to pay for advertising. Marijuana growers, processors and dispensaries are prohibited by law from actively promoting their wares. And doctors who write recommendations for medical cannabis are forbidden from publicizing that they're participating. [continues 565 words]
Stateline, a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts, provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy. When Californians voted to legalize marijuana last year, they also voted to let people petition courts to reduce or hide convictions for past marijuana crimes. State residents can now petition courts to change some felonies to misdemeanors, change some misdemeanors to infractions, and wipe away convictions for possessing or growing small amounts of the drug. "We call it reparative justice: repairing the harms caused by the war on drugs," says Eunisses Hernandez of the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group that helped write the California ballot initiative. [continues 1219 words]
A case report about the seizure and death of an 11-month-old after exposure to cannabis has prompted headlines about "the first marijuana overdose death" this week. Except that's not what the doctors meant. "We are absolutely not saying that marijuana killed that child," said Thomas Nappe, an author of the report who is now the director of medical toxicology at St. Luke's University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Nappe, who co-authored the report with Christopher Hoyte, explained that the doctors simply observed this unusual sequence of events, documented it and alerted the medical community that it is worth studying a possible relationship between cannabis and the child's cause of death, myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle. [continues 503 words]
The state health department has drafted proposed regulations for the medical marijuana industry, setting rules for quality testing, tracking and increasing fees. The Billings Gazette reports the Department of Public Health and Human Services plans a public hearing in Helena on Nov. 30. Agency spokesman Jon Ebelt says the state sought input from Montana providers and researched practices in states that have legalized marijuana use. Under the rules, providers would have to have their products tested for levels of THC along with metals and pesticides. [continues 56 words]
VICTORVILLE - San Bernardino County Sheriff's Deputies seized 3,475 marijuana plants after serving search warrants at four High Desert locations Friday, the agency announced Saturday. All of the marijuana grows were not in compliance with the California medical marijuana law or other ordinances, the sheriff's department said in a statement. At three of the four locations investigators found that the illegal growers had tampered with the main power lines at residences to bypass the electrical meters installed by the utility company, allowing the theft of electricity needed to operate equipment used to grow marijuana. [continues 68 words]
Sarasota-based medical marijuana company AltMed Florida is poised to begin growing its first crop of marijuana at a facility in Apollo Beach. The Florida Department of Health authorized Plants of Ruskin -- the nursery that is partnering with AltMed -- to begin operating the cultivation facility. "We have worked diligently to build what we believe will be the most advanced indoor cultivation facility in Florida, and one of the finest in the country," AltMed CEO John Tipton said in a press release Monday. [continues 270 words]
To the editor: Last March, I wrote Congressman Seth Moulton asking him to become a co-sponsor of H.R. 975, the "Respect State Marijuana Laws Act." He responded that, "The federal government ought to respect the will of the voters in states like Massachusetts, Colorado and Washington that have approved marijuana legalization." Yet, instead of signing on as a co-sponsor, he chooses to leave federal enforcement up to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Mr. Sessions understands the proper roles of Congress and his office. He stated at his confirmation hearing, "I think one obvious concern is that the United States Congress made the possession of marijuana in every state and the distribution of it an illegal act. If that's something that's not desired any longer, Congress should pass a law to change the rule. It is not the attorney general's job to decide what laws to enforce. We should do our job and enforce laws effectively as we are able." By "able" he is referring to budgetary constraints of attempting to enforce federal prohibition of a plant that grows in every state. Mr. Moulton, leaders lead. Get off the fence and sponsor the legislation. Steven S. Epstein West Street Georgetown [end]
State Sen. Scott Wiener, who has adopted the cannabis industry as one of his major concerns, is taking aim at new state regulations for recreational marijuana that will allow for big growing operations in California. "By not limiting the amount of land that can be cultivated by any one operation, we are basically inviting mega industrial-scale operations into the state," the San Francisco Democrat said. "It will squeeze out the small farmers that have been at the forefront of the industry for many, many years." [continues 218 words]
The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday approved funding sources for increased law enforcement against illegal indoor pot grows, following a two-month pilot program that led to the closure of 614 pot houses. The city expects to spend between $700,000 and $1.1 million on police efforts to stop the approximately 1,000 illegal grows in Sacramento houses in the fiscal year ending June 30. The city will pay those costs with tax revenue collected from legal marijuana businesses, which are expected to start operating sometime after Jan. 1, when adults can purchase pot for recreational use statewide. The city plans to supplement that tax revenue with administrative fines collected from illegal pot growers. [continues 338 words]
The owner of a pipe and bong store in the Philadelphia suburbs, caught up in a crackdown on head shops, was convicted Monday of selling drug paraphernalia. Craig Hennesy, 49, whose Piper's Smoke Shop opened in 2016 in Limerick near Ursinus College, could get two years in jail and be fined $10,000 when he is sentenced on two misdemeanor counts. Hennesy was convicted by a Montgomery County Court jury despite hearing testimony from a retired county chief of detectives who said the products sold were legitimate. [continues 272 words]
ALBANY - New Yorkers who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder will now be able to use medical marijuana as a form of treatment. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law Saturday that added PTSD to the list of conditions eligible for medical marijuana in New York. "As of today, marijuana will be legalized if a doctor authorizes and finds the condition of PTSD for a veteran, and I think that can help thousands of veterans. It's something that we've been talking about for a long time, and I'm glad we're taking action," Cuomo said. [continues 413 words]
Demonized for decades, marijuana remains controversial even on the brink of its statewide legalization - and even in pot-friendly strongholds such as San Francisco. The city is one of many still debating local regulations that will either embrace an overdue retreat from the drug war or effectively prolong the failed policy at the neighborhood level. For vacillating municipal officials, some context is in order. This week alone, New Jersey and Virginia voters resoundingly elected gubernatorial candidates promising to liberalize marijuana policy; Constellation Brands, a Fortune 500 seller of many popular wine and beer brands, was reported to have bought a nearly $200 million stake in a Canadian cannabis company; and California's attorney general approved signature-gathering for a ballot measure to legalize psilocybin mushrooms. [continues 272 words]
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation to add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of ailments that can legally be treated with medical marijuana. The PTSD bill was part of a package of legislation that Cuomo signed Saturday to mark Veterans Day. The Democratic governor said 19,000 New Yorkers with PTSD could be helped by medical marijuana. He said the potential beneficiaries include veterans as well as police officers and survivors of domestic violence, crime and accidents. [continues 55 words]
A citizens committee in Colton has launched an initiative to regulate and tax local cannabis cultivation, manufacturing and distribution in order to generate millions of dollars in revenue for law enforcement, schools and public safety programs. The Committee for Safer Neighborhoods and Schools recently filed its proposed marijuana ordinance with the city and will soon begin gathering signatures for placement on the 2018 ballot. Meanwhile, the Colton City Council awaits a drafted ordinance of potential regulations recommended by a committee of city leaders and other representatives. [continues 531 words]
When 74 percent of San Francisco voters last year backed legalizing the adult recreational use of marijuana statewide, the idea was to make it easier to buy and smoke pot - a substance that has never been that hard to buy or smoke in San Francisco anyway. Tell that to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The Keystone Cops of Cannabis have spent countless hours over endless committee meetings in recent weeks, devising ways to dramatically limit where people can buy and sell marijuana once the substance becomes legal for recreational use statewide on Jan. 1. [continues 1120 words]
A global credit rating agency says taxes on recreational marijuana in California could reach 45 percent in some places, high enough to keep the thriving black market in business despite legalization. The report by Fitch Ratings, "Local Taxes May Challenge Cannabis Legalization in California," warns that state and local taxes may combine to threaten the government revenue expected from the sale of legalized cannabis and cannabis products. The recreational use of the drug will be legal in California starting Jan. 1 under Proposition 64, the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act, passed by voters last November. [continues 469 words]
Can you be fired in Michigan for using medical marijuana? Joseph Casias injured his knee at the Battle Creek Wal-Mart where he worked in 2009. Per company policy, he took a drug test. It came back positive. Casias had been using marijuana at home to treat pain from sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor. The American Civil Liberties Union sued on his behalf for wrongful discharge in violation of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. A U.S. District Judge sided with the company. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld the ruling. [continues 1250 words]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Supervisors in famously pot-friendly San Francisco are under pressure from cannabis advocates to pass regulations that would allow the industry to flourish once recreational sales become legal throughout California in January. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is scheduled to take up proposed regulations Tuesday, when they may vote on a stop-gap measure to allow the sale of recreational cannabis through existing medical marijuana outlets on Jan. 1. That would give them time to figure out where to allow new stores. [continues 403 words]
(HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday issued an advisory about harms tied to kratom -- an imported herbal supplement with opioid-like effects that is increasing in popularity. People are taking the unapproved supplement to treat conditions like pain, anxiety and depression -- without medical supervision, FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. Others use kratom for its euphoric effects, or to wean addicts off opioids such as prescription painkillers or heroin, also without medical say-so. [continues 413 words]
San Francisco is having a surprisingly difficult time establishing regulations for the broad legal pot market, thanks in part to criticism from older Chinese immigrants who oppose marijuana use. Divided San Francisco supervisors are scheduled to take up the issue at a board meeting Tuesday, where they may vote on a stop-gap measure to allow the sale of recreational cannabis through existing medical marijuana outlets on Jan. 1 as they continue to figure out where to allow new stores. The possibility of overly strict regulations has businesses fretting over access and some San Franciscans wondering what happened to the counter-culture, anti-Prohibition city they know and love. The smell of cannabis being smoked is not uncommon in certain neighborhoods and parks. [continues 404 words]
WASHINGTON -- Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine joined 43 other state attorneys general to ask Congress to repeal a law they argue has damaged the Drug Enforcement Agency's ability to crack down on drug manufacturers and distributors that have contributed to the nation's sweeping opioid epidemic. In a letter Tuesday to House and Senate leadership, the attorneys general argue that a bill passed by voice vote in 2016 made it more difficult for the DEA to take action against drug companies that were flooding communities with prescription painkillers. [continues 214 words]
Palm Beach County's first medical marijuana dispensary is now open for business. At noon Tuesday, Knox Medical opened the center at 1 South Dixie Highway in Lake Worth, across the street from Lake Worth City Hall. The dispensary occupies a former bank building in downtown Lake Worth, and the interior resembles a dentist or doctor's office. Patients check in at the foyer and then can proceed to a room with glass display cases showcasing Knox Medical's products. Knox Medical CEO Jose Javier Hidalgo said the new dispensary will improve access to medical cannabis for everyone in South Florida. [continues 528 words]
In just three years, the number of marijuana arrests in Buffalo dropped by more than half. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of people arrested continued to be people of color. A new study, released Tuesday, found 86 percent of the people arrested for marijuana possession in Buffalo during the five year-period ending last year were black or Hispanic. In Erie County, people of color accounted for 77 percent of all marijuana possession arrests over the same five-year period, according to the study. [continues 587 words]
A proposed deal to cut through San Francisco's cannabis debate and allow existing medical dispensaries to sell recreational pot on Jan. 1 could put a choke hold on the industry, two former supervisors said Tuesday. Scott Wiener and David Campos, who formed an unlikely partnership to intervene in the city's cannabis legislation, blasted the proposal by Supervisor Aaron Peskin hours before it went to the full board. Peskin's idea of granting recreational permits to the city's 46 existing pot businesses, when coupled with zoning rules that other supervisors have introduced to keep the pot trade out of their neighborhoods, would create a monopoly for those already in business, Wiener and Campos said. [continues 155 words]
Federal agents arrested a Philadelphia police officer Tuesday, accusing him of conspiring with officers in Baltimore to sell cocaine and heroin seized from that city's streets. Prosecutors say that Eric Troy Snell, 33, earned thousands of dollars serving as a conduit between corrupt members of a Baltimore police task force who stole the drugs and his brother, who sold them in Philadelphia. Investigators also have accused Snell of threatening the children of a Baltimore officer who pleaded guilty in the case. [continues 362 words]
Regarding your editorial "High on Incentives" (Nov. 2): After the 21st Amendment lifting prohibition in 1933, the excise tax rate on alcohol was adjusted down to around 5% to undercut moonshiners and to eliminate any continuing profit for the mob. Later, the excise tax rate was adjusted up to approximately 15%. Mentor Capital's elasticity analysis of the cannabis tax load in various locales versus illegal marijuana-market activity shows a roughly inverse linear relationship. That is if the tax rate is 45%, the illegal market will be 45% of the whole cannabis market. [continues 83 words]
In July, the Food and Drug Administration took the important step of approving two final-phase clinical trials to determine whether a party drug that has long been on the Drug Enforcement Administration's Schedule I list of banned substances could be used to treat a psychiatric condition that afflicts millions. The drug is MDMA, a psychedelic commonly known as Ecstasy, previously deemed to have "no currently accepted medical use." The trials aim to determine whether the drug is, as earlier trials have suggested, a safe and effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, when combined with psychotherapy. [continues 869 words]
Buyer beware. Nearly 75 percent of CBD marijuana extracts sold online are mislabeled, with many of the products containing little to none of the active ingredient, according to a study led by a University of Pennsylvania researcher. CBD, or cannabidiol, is a molecule found in cannabis believed to have therapeutic properties. Preliminary studies have found it to be effective in treating some forms of intractable seizures, pain and anxiety. It does not deliver the high associated with the better known psychoactive molecule, THC. CBD products are widely available despite a federal prohibition on their use. The DEA, and the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, consider CBD a Schedule 1 substance without a valid medical use. [continues 100 words]
Each of San Francisco's 11 supervisors has called for "equity" in the city's cannabis laws, meaning they want to create a racially diverse industry that gives former drug offenders a shot at success. On Wednesday, Supervisor Malia Cohen presented an ordinance to help the city achieve its social justice goals when sales of recreational marijuana become legal throughout the state in January. The city won't issue permits to sell recreational cannabis until an equity program is approved. Cohen's proposal - modeled after a similar program that Oakland approved in March and another that's being considered in Los Angeles - would prioritize permits for dispensary operators with marijuana arrests or convictions between 1971 and 2009. Also eligible for priority would be entrepreneurs who committed other nonviolent crimes during that time period, or who earn 80 percent of San Francisco's area median income, or who were displaced from their homes within the past 22 years. [continues 475 words]
In an expansive report released Thursday that ranges from enforcement to treatment and research, President Donald Trump's opioid commission repeatedly discussed issues with funding to combat the deadly opioid crisis. "The Commission urges Congress to respond to the President's declaration of a public health emergency and fulfill their constitutionally delegated duty and appropriate sufficient funds to implement the Commission's recommendation," the Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis wrote in the lengthy report. This report comes about a week after Trump declared the epidemic a public health emergency, falling short of calling it a national emergency that would have allowed for more significant funding to be diverted to combat the issue that has killed thousands in Connecticut alone. [continues 386 words]
Nine years after Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative that permits doctors to prescribe marijuana for therapeutic purposes, state and local lawmakers are still struggling to design a regulatory scheme that balances the interests of patients, providers and residents. Earlier this year, Michigan legislators finally adopted a new regime that establishes distinct licensing criteria for growing, processing, testing, transporting and distributing the drug, which is still forbidden by federal law, and dividing the tax revenues generated by those activities between the state and local governments. [continues 630 words]
In declaring the opioid epidemic a public health emergency last week, President Trump promised that the federal government would start "a massive advertising campaign to get people, especially children, not to want to take drugs in the first place." But past efforts to prevent substance abuse through advertising have often been ineffective or even harmful. Perhaps the most famous American antidrug advertisement featured a sizzling egg in a frying pan to the sound of ominous music and a stern voice-over warning, "This is your brain on drugs." A sequel to this ad featured Rachael Leigh Cook smashing an egg and the better part of a kitchen to dramatize the impact of heroin. [continues 689 words]
WASHINGTON - Everyday Advanced Hemp Oil, Bosom Lotion and CBD Edibles Gummie Men may have their fans, but the Food and Drug Administration is not among them. Four companies selling those and dozens of other marijuana-derived dietary supplements have been warned by the F.D.A. to stop pitching their products as cures for cancer, a common but unproven claim in the industry. "Substances that contain components of marijuana will be treated like any other products that make unproven claims to shrink cancer tumors," said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agency's commissioner, in a news release on Wednesday. "We don't let companies market products that deliberately prey on sick people with baseless claims that their substances can shrink or cure cancer." [continues 617 words]
Help wanted: Pot inspector. The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources posted a listing on the state's career site Friday for an agricultural inspector who will specialize in a new crop in Massachusetts: cannabis. "This Inspector position will enforce the laws and regulations involving hemp and overlapping laws and regulations that impact the cultivation of marijuana," the listing says. Other duties of the job include providing "education and outreach to stakeholders relative to the enforcement of pertinent laws and regulations," and reporting and summarizing inspections, the listing says. [continues 219 words]
Teens who use a lot of marijuana and alcohol are less likely to have a full time job when they grow up, or to get a college education or get married, according to a new study by University of Connecticut researchers. The study of 1,165 young adults from across the U.S. also found that dependence on pot and booze may also have a "more severe effect on young men" than on young women. "This study found that chronic marijuana use in adolescence was negatively associated with achieving important developmental milestones in young adulthood." - Elizabeth Harari, University of Connecticut researcher. [continues 282 words]
An Oct. 28 letter to the Daily Herald advocated greater access to marijuana for people suffering chronic pain, citing a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). But if you visit the JAMA website and enter the search word "marijuana," you'll also see dozens of articles showing that marijuana can kill more than just pain: it can negatively impact things like cognitive function, moral clarity and the general health and well-being of users and their children and grandchildren. [continues 157 words]
California's legal marijuana marketplace is coming with a kaleidoscope of new taxes and fees that could influence where it's grown, how pot cookies and other munchies are produced and the price tag on just about everything. Be ready for sticker shock. On a retail level, it costs about $35 to buy a small bag of good quality medical marijuana in Los Angeles, enough to roll five or six joints. But in 2018, when recreational sales take hold and additional taxes kick in, the cost of that same purchase in the new market is expected to increase at the retail counter to $50 or $60. [continues 586 words]
Make no mistake, the war on marijuana has not been colorblind. Despite national surveys showing that white people and black people use marijuana at approximately the same rates, blacks have over the years been nearly four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites. That disparity is as true in Los Angeles as it is elsewhere in the country. African Americans comprise less than 10% of the population in L.A. Yet between 2000 and 2017, blacks represented 40% of marijuana-related arrests. Latinos made up 44% of arrests. Whites made up only 16% of arrests, according to a city consultant's analysis of Los Angeles Police Department data. [continues 704 words]
Pot smokers in the US can't get off scot free, since many will now have to take it on the chin and pay a steep marijuana penalty -- to sign up with life insurers, that is. Marijuana indulgence, recreational or medicinal, is sharply raising the price of some premiums, with certain issuers making the same risk assumptions for pot smokers as cigarette smokers. The cost of a 20-year, $1 million life insurance policy, for example, can be as much as five times higher for a pot smoker compared with a clean-living nonsmoker, according to one broker. [continues 274 words]
The Ohio Department of Commerce has approved 14 applications for small operations to grow medical marijuana, although only 11 will become operational. The 11 sites on which up to 3,000 square feet can be cultivated, will be in addition to 12 sites on which 24,000 square feet can be cultivated. Successful applications for the large sites will be announced in coming weeks, Department of Commerce spokeswoman Stephanie Gostomski said. Medical marijuana is expected to be available to consumers in about a year. [continues 170 words]
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Wednesday pledged to make medical marijuana available to patients by May and released a list of 109 approved practitioners statewide. It also launched the medical marijuana patient and caregiver registry, with instructions on how those interested can sign up. More than 200,000 patients across the state could qualify for medical marijuana treatment. Pennsylvanians with 17 medical conditions are eligible for medical marijuana patient ID cards. Those conditions are Lou Gehrig's disease, autism, cancer, Crohn's disease, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Huntington's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, sickle cell anemia, spinal cord damage, chronic pain, neuropathies and intractable seizures. [continues 410 words]
One painful aspect of the public debates over the opioid-addiction crisis is how much they mirror the arguments that arise from personal addiction crises. If you've ever had a loved one struggle with drugs -- in my case, my late brother, Josh -- the national exercise in guilt-driven blame-shifting and finger-pointing, combined with flights of sanctimony and ideological righteousness, has a familiar echo. The difference between the public arguing and the personal agonizing is that, at the national level, we can afford our abstractions. When you have skin in the game, none of the easy answers seem all that easy. [continues 666 words]
CALISTOGA, Calif. - Marijuana farmers and dispensary owners across Northern California are nervously watching as wildfires burn through some of the state's prime cannabis growing areas and destroy valuable crops, which could drive up prices for consumers across the country. "This is right smack in the middle of people's harvests," said Eli Melrod, the CEO of Solful Dispensary in Sebastopol, in northern California. "It couldn't have been worse timing, frankly." A single marijuana plant can be worth up to $5,000, but pot growers can't get crop insurance like traditional farmers or the vintners whose grapevines tend to get most of the attention here. Wildfires are burning across parts of Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties, which are known for both wine and marijuana, particularly among high-end consumers willing to pay a premium for the name. [end]
As an African-American woman who has seen the negative ramifications an ounce of marijuana can have on one's life, I found the article "Atlanta Mayor Reed to review, sign changes to city marijuana laws," hopeful. According to ACLU, African-Americans are more than four times as likely to be arrested as white adults. By reducing the penalty and eliminating jail time, fewer African-Americans will have a criminal record. In Atlanta, African-Americans make up 92 percent of those arrested for marijuana possession. By decriminalizing marijuana and reducing the penalty, the crime rate amongst African-Americans will decrease. A strict drug penalty is not stopping the usage of marijuana. Why not lessen the offense and put the money into the communities that are disproportionately affected by the incarceration rate? Alexis Blackmon, Marietta [end]
Anthony Gray expected to be an old man when he got out of prison after serving a 30-year sentence for a relatively minor drug offense. Aron Tuff was certain he would die there, having been sentenced to life without parole after he was convicted in 1995 in Colquitt County for possession of .03 grams of cocaine with intent to distribute. Both men were sentenced during a time when tough on crime drug laws of the 1980s and '90s left many low-level drug offenders serving long sentences. [continues 99 words]
I am a pretty quintessential middle-class American woman. My ancestry is Danish and English-maybe some Scottish somewhere. I'm just enough of a WASP to have some ancestors who fought in the Revolution. But I certainly didn't feel superior to the blue-collar Italian and Irish kids in the lower-middle-class neighborhood where I grew up - in fact, I would have laughed at the notion that, merely as white people, any of us were privileged. I reserved that term for the rich kids living in big houses across town. In my book, privilege meant you had a lot more than my family had. [continues 207 words]
You might want to think twice before you light up that joint in Piedmont Park or anywhere else in the city of Atlanta. The drug is still illegal, despite Monday's move by the Atlanta City Council to eliminate jail time and reduce the penalty for possession of small amounts of marijuana, Atlanta Police Chief Erica Shields said Tuesday. In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Shields said some media and advocates of cannabis decriminalization are confusing the public by suggesting the Council's action gives Atlanta residents permission to use pot without consequence. [continues 57 words]
The Atlanta City Council on Monday unanimously passed legislation eliminating jail time and reducing penalties on possession of small amounts of marijuana, but not before mayoral candidates got into heated debates and backers of the bill became rowdy. The legislation, which was resurrected in September after spending months in committees because of concerns it might send the wrong message, brings Atlanta closer to other large cities across the nation that are either lessening penalties on pot or decriminalizing it altogether as Americans' opinions on the drug evolve. It will reduce the financial penalty for possession of one ounce or less from up to $1,000 to a maximum of $75. Jail time, currently six months for possession, would be eliminated for an ounce or less. [end]
Inside United States
