Documents Put City One Step Closer To Legal Medical Use

This time, there will be plants. Fifteen years after voters gave the green light to a medical marijuana program in the nation's capital, a pair of locations approved to grow or sell the drug have cleared regulatory hurdles and will set up shop a few months into the new year, according to city officials.

A cultivation site in the Northeast quadrant of the city obtained its certificate of occupancy this month, meaning it can grow marijuana once the D.C. Department of Health completes a final inspection. It is one of six sites approved to grow the drug for medical purposes before it is sold at one of five dispensaries scattered across the city. One such dispensary, located just a mile north of the Capitol, also obtained its occupancy documents.

[continues 668 words]

Re: "President's pot comments prompt call for policy," Dec. 17

In the aftermath of the Connecticut school shooting, I find it both ironic and infuriating that a president of the United States would discuss legalization of marijuana, the drug that has been so damaging to America's children.

President Obama said he has "bigger fish to fry" than recreational pot users, but marijuana is far more dangerous than most people realize. It is currently 244 percent more potent than it was in the 1970s, and more than 15 other nations link it to schizophrenia.

[continues 155 words]

He Is Not Ready to Support Widespread Legalization but Is Willing to Reconsider Enforcement.

WASHINGTON - President Obama and a key Senate Democrat said Friday they were willing to consider relaxing federal enforcement of the laws against marijuana for those who possess small amounts of the drug.

They were reacting to new voter-approved laws in Washington and Colorado that permit recreational users to have an ounce of marijuana at home. In addition, California and 17 other states allow the medical use of marijuana.

[continues 760 words]

President Says It's Time to Have 'A Conversation'

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama and a key Senate Democrat said Friday they are willing to consider relaxing federal enforcement of the laws against marijuana for those who possess small amounts of the still-illegal drug.

They were reacting to new laws in Washington and Colorado that permit recreational users to have an ounce of marijuana at home. In addition, California and 17 other states now permit the medical use of marijuana.

Despite this state-by-state move toward limited legalization, federal law still classifies marijuana as a dangerous drug and makes it a crime to sell or possess even tiny amounts.

[continues 524 words]

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says the federal government won't go after recreational marijuana use in Washington state and Colorado, where voters have legalized it.

In a Barbara Walters interview airing Friday on ABC, Obama was asked whether he supports making pot legal.

"I wouldn't go that far," Obama replied. "But what I think is that, at this point, Washington and Colorado, you've seen the voters speak on this issue."

But the president said he won't pursue the issue in the two states where voters legalized the use of marijuana in the November elections. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

[continues 224 words]

Marijuana Is Growing Mainstream

Legal prohibition against marijuana is going up in smoke. Cops in Seattle now look the other way when potheads puff in public because Washington has become the first state in the nation to decriminalize the possession of marijuana. Voters in the Evergreen State approved Initiative 502 on Nov. 6. The age of cannabis arrived on Dec. 6 as the new law took effect.

=93Legalize it=94 campaigners celebrated Thursday by gathering by the dozens at Seattle's Space Needle to light up at the stroke of midnight. The law allows anyone 21 years or older to possess up to an ounce of weed, but only for use indoors. Colorado passed a similar ballot measure, which took effect yesterday when Gov. John Hickenlooper signed it into law.

[continues 405 words]

WASHINGTON - Senior White House and Justice Department officials are considering plans for legal action against Colorado and Washington that could undermine voter-approved initiatives to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in those states, according to several people familiar with the deliberations.

Even as marijuana legalization supporters are celebrating their victories in the two states, the Obama administration has been holding high-level meetings since the election to debate the response of federal law enforcement agencies to the decriminalization efforts.

Marijuana use in both states continues to be illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act. One option is to sue the states on the grounds that any effort to regulate marijuana is pre-empted by federal law. Should the Justice Department prevail, it would raise the possibility of striking down the entire initiatives on the theory that voters would not have approved legalizing the drug without tight regulations and licensing similar to controls on hard alcohol.

[continues 653 words]

Regarding the Nov. 26 editorial "What should the feds do about pot?":

The new laws of Colorado and Washington state do not simply decriminalize marijuana; they commercialize its production and sale, thus creating a major commercialized drug industry. These laws are explicitly modeled on the tobacco and alcohol industries - industries that make the bulk of their profits from substance abusers. Marijuana has 60 percent more cancer-causing agents than tobacco and stays in the body and brain 20 times longer than alcohol. There are overwhelming public health reasons to oppose legalization of marijuana.

[continues 66 words]

How the Obama Administration Should Respond to Colorado and Washington State

SMALL-TIME MARIJUANA use will soon be legal in Colorado and Washington state. Sort of. This month voters in those states approved ballot measures permitting possession of up to an ounce of pot. But the federal government has not changed its policy, which labels the drug an illegal substance. Members of Congress introduced legislation Nov. 16 that would allow state marijuana rules to preempt federal ones. But that, in effect, would resemble federal legalization, and it's unlikely to pass anytime soon.

[continues 419 words]

It is encouraging that the Justice Department is not immediately challenging Washington state and Colorado's marijuana legalization laws ["Marijuana legality elicits confusion," news, Nov. 10]. The best course is a "wait-and-see" approach.

The nation can now observe two different experiments in state marijuana control - if the Justice Department cooperates. But if it fights these states the way it has fought state medical marijuana laws for 16 years, it will delay the learning of potential regulatory and social techniques to control marijuana use, production and distribution.

[continues 102 words]

Colorado and Washington state voted to legalize the possession and sale of marijuana for recreational use Tuesday, becoming the first states to defy the federal ban on the substance.

The two ballot initiatives push forward a cause long fought by legalization advocates, who liken the ban to the prohibition of alcohol and point to the drug's economic and health benefits.

It's also a rebuke of the decades-long federal crackdown on cannabis, which the Justice Department has called a "dangerous drug."

[continues 388 words]

Regarding the Nov. 4 news article "Mexican drug cartels establish networks in U.S. cities":

Since March 2009, the Obama administration has placed an unprecedented amount of personnel, infrastructure and technology along the southwest border. The U.S. Border Patrol has doubled in size, we've bolstered operations at our ports of entry and we've expanded successful partnerships with the Mexican government that are cracking down on cross-border crime. These actions have improved our ability to disrupt drug-trafficking across the United States.

[continues 137 words]

WYTHE CO., Va, October 30, 2012 - What do Snoop Dog, Pat Robertson, Yoko Ono, and Bill O'Reilly have in common? They all believe marijuana should be legalized and taxed, just like alcohol.

Liberal or conservative, Jew or gentile, black or white, a consensus has been acknowledged and it is time to act.

At the forefront of the effort to legalize marijuana is Tom Angell, Media Relations Director for LEAP, (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.) His latest effort has been to create a website that allows not only celebrities and politicians to be heard, but ways for the average American to participate in the effort as well.

[continues 752 words]

WASHINGTON - Marijuana supporters told a federal appeals court panel Tuesday that government agencies have created a "self-fulfilling prophecy" by keeping cannabis illegal despite evidence that using it can be medically beneficial.

Marijuana activists are seeking to "reschedule" marijuana as a drug suitable for medical use and thus remove it from Schedule I of the government's drug classification system, reserved for drugs with high abuse potential.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services say marijuana has no medical use, is as dangerous as ecstasy and heroin, and has even more abuse potential than cocaine.

[continues 229 words]

A Medical Marijuana Advocate Cites a 'Bias,' Saying the Benefits Are Ignored and the Dangers Exaggerated.

WASHINGTON - A medical marijuana advocate urged a federal appeals court to require the U.S. government to relax, or at least rethink, a more-than-40year-old rule that treats marijuana as a highly dangerous drug with no medical value.

Federal drug regulators "have failed to weigh the evidence" from a growing number of medical studies showing that marijuana is effective for relieving pain and nausea, said Joe Elford, counsel for Americans for Safe Access.

[continues 447 words]

Measures in 3 States Would Legalize Sale of Drug for Recreational Use

Voters are set to cast their ballots in three Western states next month on whether to legalize the sale of marijuana for recreational use, initiatives that would directly violate federal law but that have drawn only silence from the Justice Department.

Despite the urging of drug enforcement experts, officials in Washington have not said how the federal government would deal with possible state laws in Colorado, Washington and Oregon that would conflict with the federal Controlled Substances Act. Federal law prohibits the production, possession and sale of marijuana and classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, putting it in the same category as LSD and heroin.

[continues 956 words]

WASHINGTON - Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Michael Baumgartner on Wednesday endorsed Initiative 502 to legalize retail sales of pot, calling the war on the illicit drug a matter of national security.

The freshman state senator, who is challenging Democrat Maria Cantwell, worked several years ago for a State Department program in Afghanistan to help farmers grow wheat instead of opium poppies.

He said his experience in Helmand province - and watching the U.S.-funded efforts to eradicate Mexican drug cartels - convinced him criminalizing marijuana for adults only enriches traffickers and takes law enforcement efforts from pursuing organized crime.

[continues 137 words]

WASHINGTON - The Caravan for Peace arrived in Washington, the last stop on its tour of the United States, during which families of the victims of violence on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border have marked "an end and a beginning" with their condemnation of the war on drugs.

After traveling more than 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) and stopping in 26 cities, the 110 participants in the caravan led by Mexican poet Javier Sicilia arrived in the United States capital.

[continues 434 words]

D.C. Store Closes in Wake of Oct. Police Raid

Adam Eidinger stands next to the wall and gives it a good, solid knock. "Hemp board," he says. "First retail store to be built out of it. It's held up remarkably well."

Eidinger and business partner Alan Amsterdam imported 2,000 pounds of the stuff from China while building Capitol Hemp in an Adams Morgan basement four years ago. Since then, hempboard shelves have held products also made of non-psychoactive strains of industrial cannabis - - soap, paper, shoes, coats, hats. Dog beds and wood stain, even.

[continues 632 words]

The Plant Is a Raw Material, Not Pot, Head of Soap Company Says

David Bronner locked himself in a metal cage Monday outside the White House with a stash of hemp plants and equipment, hoping to make enough hemp oil to spread on a piece of French bread.

Bronner, president and chief executive of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, never got to finish the oil-pressing process or to have his usual breakfast.

D.C. police and firefighters used a chain saw to cut open the steel cage door and arrest him. Bronner was charged with possession of marijuana and blocking passage.

[continues 406 words]