Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh's position on medical cannabis is both disappointing and baffling. And it cannot be permitted to stand. Under Mr. Schuh's proposal, medical cannabis facilities, essentially the pharmacies to distribute medication to suffering patients, and all matters of manufacturing and distribution of this medication, would be made illegal in Anne Arundel County. As a member of the House of Delegates, Mr. Schuh voted against medical marijuana and to continue making possession of small amounts of marijuana an offense punishable by months in jail. In combination with his current stance, if Mr. Schuh has his way, citizens of Anne Arundel County, and across our state with debilitating diseases such as cancer, AIDS and glaucoma would continue to be forced to choose between obtaining helpful medication and being a criminal. [continues 578 words]
Re: "Find other ways to reform asset forfeiture" [Letters, Aug. 28]: Fountain Valley Police Chief Daniel Llorens justifies the taking of someone's property based merely on a suspicion and without due process. This sets a dangerous precedent in the abuse of law and property rights. He contends that Senate Bill 443 would allow criminal organizations to benefit from the law but he doesn't mention that current asset forfeiture laws allow the taking of property from individuals with no ties to criminal organizations and without a conviction. The taking of property without due process of the courts and a conviction heretofore, amounts to nothing short of legalized theft and should be illegal. As a constitutional conservative, I believe it is high time for this reform. Bob Miller Anaheim [end]
Oakland has no right to challenge the government's attempt to shut down the huge Harborside medical marijuana dispensary even though it would cost the city millions of dollars in tax revenues, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag filed suit in July 2012 to confiscate the Harborside Health Center's property along the Oakland Estuary for violating the federal ban on marijuana. Harborside, which serves 108,000 patients and is the nation's largest licensed pot dispensary, is fighting the forfeiture suit in federal court, saying it violates other federal laws and the Obama administration's stated policy of deferring to state medical marijuana laws. Its case has been on hold while the courts decide whether the city can intervene. [continues 267 words]
MARIJUANA Half the drivers with active THC in their blood also were under the influence of alcohol. Marijuana use appears to have increased as a factor in deadly crashes last year in Washington. New data from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission shows the number of drivers involved in fatal crashes with THC in their body increased from 38 in 2013 to 75 this past year. About half those 75 drivers had active THC - the main psychoactive chemical in pot - above the level that legally determines intoxication. [continues 378 words]
Justice Dept. Sidesteps Limits Set by Congress In a newly disclosed memorandum, President Obama's Justice Department has told federal prosecutors they can file criminal charges against medical marijuana users and suppliers and shut down pot dispensaries, despite a congressional ban on federal interference with medical marijuana laws in California and other states. The Justice Department had previously made its intentions clear by refusing to drop pending marijuana prosecutions and pursuing forfeiture actions against dispensaries, including Oakland's huge Harborside Health Center. But the Feb. 27 memo, made public Wednesday by Tom Angell of the advocacy group Marijuana Majority, provides the department's rationale for considering the congressional spending restrictions largely toothless. [continues 539 words]
Seeks Council Input Citations Still Skew Toward Blacks in Latest Report That Made News After another round of tickets for public pot use skewed disproportionately toward black people, a frustrated Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole asked City Council members if they want her cops to stop issuing the $27 fines. With 72 such tickets generating national news, O'Toole said Monday she didn't want to report to the council every six months, as is the policy, about tickets written by officers responding to complaints from the public. [continues 295 words]
Over the years, Will Smith has built plastic display cases for major department stores and custom cabinets for collectors of movie memorabilia. Lately the Fair Oaks resident has discovered a booming business making similar products for a different sort of user: operators of medical marijuana dispensaries and legal pot shops. "We're on a real successful track," said Smith, 59. He operates a conventional fabrication operation All Plastic along with his edgier side business in a 6,000-square-foot factory and showroom at 2271 Sunrise Blvd. in Gold River. [continues 536 words]
BOSTON (AP) - Massachusetts has a cannabis conundrum. State law requires every county to have a dispensary for medical marijuana, but federal regulations forbid the drug from being transported across U.S. waters. That leaves the tourist havens of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket potless unless someone gets a license to grow it legally on the islands. Despite their small size, both islands are their own counties. State officials suggest the federal restrictions could add to the challenge of opening medical marijuana outlets on both, or either, of the islands in the near future and might preclude the possibility of the islands sharing a dispensary. [continues 345 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]
Corn Fields Used to Hide Marijuana Plants Ontario Provincial Police are already taking special notice of this year's corn crop, and a particular weed that's growing amongst it. The outdoor marijuana season is in full bloom. "What ends up happening is they will take a section of the corn field and they'll clear it out, plant their marijuana in there," said Sgt. Peter Leon, the OPP's provincial media relations co-ordinator. "As it cultivates and grows, they keep an eye on it, obviously, and then they'll go in and harvest it." [continues 653 words]
Season for Growing Marijuana Outdoors Is Here Police are already taking special notice of this year's corn crop - and a particular weed that's growing among it. The outdoor marijuana season is in full bloom. "What ends up happening is they will take a section of the cornfield and they'll clear it out, plant their marijuana in there," said OPP Sgt. Peter Leon. "As it cultivates and grows, they keep an eye on it, obviously, and then they'll go in and harvest it." [continues 541 words]
Gus DiRenna's addiction started with marijuana and beer in high school. He was popping pills at 18 and selling drugs between jail stints in his 20s and 30s. By age 40, the Whitehall resident was shooting heroin. DiRenna, 56, clean since 2010, said his story is common in what health officials describe as a drug epidemic sweeping America. "I've seen this change with the young adults in our city becoming addicted," said DiRenna, who was among experts discussing the issue Thursday during a special meeting of Pittsburgh City Council hosted by Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak of Carrick. [continues 364 words]
Does anyone in government see the parallel between liquor prohibition of the 1920s and the marijuana situation of today? What the public wants, be it booze or pot, it's going to get one way or another, and to hell with archaic rules and pontificating politicians. With tobacco taxes dwindling, one would think that our cashstrapped governments would gladly jump on the lucrative bandwagon. Have the supposedly intelligent politicians of today learned nothing from the mistakes of the past? Why timidly pussyfoot around an inevitable outcome? Bob Clarke Saanich [end]
A San Francisco federal appeals court dealt a financial setback to medical marijuana dispensaries Thursday, saying that - unlike other commercial enterprises - they can't deduct business expenses from their taxable income because their product is prohibited by federal law. The ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was also another blow to the Vapor Room, which operated as a pot-inhaling shop and social club in the Lower Haight neighborhood from 2004 until July 2012, when it shut down under pressure from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, who said she would seek its eviction for being too close to Duboce Park. Federal law increases penalties against marijuana dispensaries that are less than 1,000 feet from a school or playground, and the Vapor Room was 597 feet from the Duboce playground. [continues 230 words]
It doesn't appear that morality will be winning a popularity contest anytime soon. The marijuana issue has brought reproof directed at opponents of the industry. "This is not a moral issue," "put your moral compass down" and "there's no legislating morality." Not directly related, but more disappointing, a retired minister writing in The Pueblo Chieftain a few years ago said that when you attempt to legislate morals, "That's wrong." May I offer another view? I say that it is impossible not to legislate morals. Every law "imposes" someone's moral "values" on someone else. The issue is whose values will prevail. [continues 123 words]
WHAT HAPPENED? The revenue bonanza predicted by some for recreational marijuana hasn't materialized in the first year; nor have the horrors imagined by opponents. Before Washington voters could decide on legal weed, finance whizzes in state government had to project its tax bounty. The forecasters looked into their Excel tables and shrugged. The state's take, they said, from pot taxes in the first year of sales could be nothing - or could be as much as $249 million. That was the uncertain future facing an untested state-regulated system operating in defiance of the federal ban on all marijuana. [continues 1455 words]
Rally held on Canada Day in front of courthouse Rob Thibault is happy to have his life back. He was part of a small rally every year Canada Day to celebrate and educate people about medicinal marijuana. After a motorcycle accident that left him with injuries to his knee, he went through the gamut of prescribed painkillers without much success. Thibault said that three years ago, he was in a wheelchair and a lot heavier than he is now. "This is what I use for pain relief," he said as he took a drag from a joint. [continues 171 words]
Rally Held on Canada Day in Front of Courthouse Rob Thibault is happy to have his life back. He was part of a small rally every year Canada Day to celebrate and educate people about medicinal marijuana. After a motorcycle accident that left him with injuries to his knee, he went through the gamut of prescribed painkillers without much success. Thibault said that three years ago he was in a wheelchair and a lot heavier than he is now. "This is what I use for pain relief," he said as he took a drag from a joint. [continues 172 words]
Rally Held on Canada Day in Front of Courthouse Rob Thibault is happy to have his life back. He was part of a small rally every year Canada Day to celebrate and educate people about medicinal marijuana. After a motorcycle accident that left him with injuries to his knee, he went through the gamut of prescribed painkillers without much success. Thibault said that three years ago, he was in a wheelchair and a lot heavier than he is now. "This is what I use for pain relief," he said as he took a drag from a joint. [continues 172 words]
What a breath of fresh air to read Gordon Clark's columns on medical marijuana. Finally, someone makes sense of the so-called medical benefits of pot. People who smoke pot will defend it to the end, but in my opinion this has very little to do with medical issues and a whole lot to do with getting high. Do the people promoting this ever look at some of the images in the media of the pro-marijuana gatherings, like the recent 4/20 event in downtown Vancouver? Is that what they would want their kids to look like? [continues 69 words]
