The federal government has for years employed a bizarre circular logic when it comes to marijuana. Officially deemed to have a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical application, marijuana is listed by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act - on a par with heroin and LSD. Yet that very listing has severely limited the research that could settle the question of whether marijuana does indeed have therapeutic value, as attested to by countless ... ailing people and their physicians who report anecdotally that marijuana eases suffering. [continues 282 words]
Across the United States, heroin and other drug users have died in alleys behind convenience stores, on city sidewalks and in the bathrooms of fast-food joints - because no one was around to save them when they overdosed. An alarming 47,000 American overdose deaths in 2014 has pushed elected leaders from coast to coast to consider government-sanctioned sites where heroin users can shoot up under the supervision of a doctor or nurse who can administer an antidote if necessary. [continues 442 words]
HARRISBURG (AP) - Senate backers said Monday that they hope medical marijuana legislation will get to Gov. Tom Wolf 's desk this week and start what could be a two-year process of setting up regulations for growers, dispensaries and physicians. A Senate committee approved changes to a bill that passed the House last month. Backers said they expect a final Senate vote today, followed by a final House vote on Wednesday. The Democratic governor supports the bill. The changes were designed to eliminate potential glitches in how the set up and regulation of the industry is supposed to work, Senate officials said. [continues 388 words]
Requests Decriminalization of Small Amount of Marijuana A former Pottsville native Monday asked the city council to pass an ordinance to allow residents to possess "a small amount" of marijuana, "30 grams or less." "I am here tonight to request that the city adopt a progressive and rational ordinance regarding the decriminalization of marijuana, allowing possession of a small amount of marijuana in the city," Vincenzo "Vince" Mercuri, the founder of Marijuana Farmers University, based in California, said at City Hall. [continues 810 words]
The biggest news in Pennsylvania involving marijuana is the new law authorizing its use as medicine, which was long overdue. But a bill also is pending in the Legislature that would authorize something involving the plant that is even more overdue. It would allow farmers to grow industrial hemp. The plant is a form of marijuana that does not contain THC, the chemical that makes pot either high-inducing or therapeutic. But hemp is incredibly versatile otherwise. Around the world, it is grown in more than 30 countries and used in more than 25,000 products. According to the Congressional Research Service, the United States imported about $600 million worth of hemp in 2013. [continues 117 words]
Amid a long and dispiriting budget battle, Republican state lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf found common ground last week on an important bill to expand the arsenal of safe drugs used to combat pain. The House passed a bill to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, 149- 43. In the process, representatives rejected a series of poison-pill amendments by misguided law-and-order advocates that would have made the bill impossible to implement in practice. Sen. Mike Folmer, a conservative Republican from Lebanon who helped shepherd a similar bill to passage in the Senate last year, expected that the House and Senate bills will be reconciled and sent to Wolf, who plans to sign it. [continues 155 words]
HARRISBURG (AP) - The Pennsylvania House of Representatives took up a proposal Monday to permit the use of marijuana for medical purposes, a potential breakthrough for supporters who have worked for several years to get legalization through the Republican-controlled Legislature. The debate began with passage of an elaborate amendment, crafted by a bipartisan task force, laying out rules for how the program would work, including eligibility and regulations. It was approved by a 152- 38 vote, but the measure still requires a final House vote. [continues 300 words]
Heroin use in the United States increased by nearly 80 percent between 2007 and 2012 alone, and The New York Times' main reaction to this depressing fact is to be overjoyed that the new addicts are mostly white. The important point is not that ragingly addictive drugs are sweeping small-town-America or young lives are being cut short. What matters is that the drug epidemic is not having a disparate impact. Excitedly reporting that "nearly 90 percent of those who tried heroin for the first time in the last decade were white"- yay!- the Times claimed that, with white kids dying from heroin overdoses, their parents are taking a "more forgiving approach" to heroin addiction. [continues 801 words]
President Barack Obama has seized on the righteous issue of mass incarceration for the final lap of his presidency. This one has a broad ideological and bipartisan coalition behind it, with Republican senators, governors and funders ( including the Koch brothers) linked with the likes of the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP. But Obama is not going far enough. Since the start of the war on drugs decades ago, the population in state and federal prisons has exploded by more than 500 percent. This is ruinously expensive - states' prison budgets tripled since 1990 - and explicitly unfair. The lifetime likelihood for a white male to go to prison is 1 in 17; for black men it is 1 in 3. The U. S. rate of incarceration is six times greater than China's and nearly 10 times greater than Germany's. [continues 241 words]
Howard Wooldridge, a Washington lobbyist, is a former detective and forever Texan on an important mission - trying to persuade the 535 members of Congress to end the federal war on marijuana. Liberals tend to be an easier sell than conservatives. With liberals, Wooldridge dwells on the grossly racist way the war on drugs has been prosecuted. "The war on drugs," he tells them, "has been the most immoral policy since slavery and Jim Crow." Conservatives hear a different argument, but one that Wooldridge holds every bit as dear: "Give it back to the states." [continues 482 words]
Many state legislators from other parts of the commonwealth often treat Philadelphia like an exotic foreign country. But they should pay close attention to a Dec. 30 Commonwealth Court decision on a case that originated in Philadelphia, and quickly codify its findings as law. At issue was civil forfeiture, a procedure that initially was authorized by many state legislatures as a weapon against drug-dealing, but which has become a cash cow for many law enforcement agencies nationwide at the expense of innocent civilians. [continues 234 words]
SEATTLE - A year into the nation's experiment with legal, taxed marijuana sales, Washington and Colorado find themselves wrestling not with the federal interference many feared, but with competition from medical marijuana or even outright black market sales. In Washington, the black market has exploded since voters legalized marijuana in 2012, with scores of legally dubious medical dispensaries opening and some pot delivery services brazenly advertising that they sell outside the legal system. Licensed shops say taxes are so onerous that they can't compete. [continues 610 words]
If Pennsylvania House members had been asked to legalize marijuana for recreational use, their commitment to delay would be understandable. Legalization in Colorado, Oregon and Washington is a work in progress, an experiment that could guide other states in the future. But the state House and Gov. Tom Corbett have treated the legalization of medicinal marijuana as a law enforcement matter rather than the introduction of a valuable medicine to relieve suffering. That position contradicts the experiences of 21 other states where medicinal marijuana is legal and uncontroversial. [continues 179 words]
Berwick has done it. So has Sunbury. Two communities in neighboring counties that have been ravaged by drug abuse took the bold step of enacting an ordinance that banned landlords from renting to anyone who had been convicted of a felony drug offense. Mount Carmel could vote on a similar ordinance as soon as Nov. 20. The impact of drug abuse is felt on communities every day, including those in Schuylkill County. Because of it, we drug-test in schools, we drug-test in work places. Like the proposed ordinance, such procedures push the boundaries of constitutionality, and yet many leaders, see little choice. [continues 242 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) - A debate over legalizing marijuana in the nation's capital is focusing on the outsized number of arrests of African Americans on minor drug charges. Pot legalization supporters in Colorado and Washington state also spoke about racial justice, but their voters are mostly white and their campaigns focused more on other issues. The race factor hits closer to many more homes in the District, where nearly half the population is black. And that means this referendum could change how the nation talks about marijuana, some drug-policy experts say. [continues 320 words]
Thirty years ago, a college kid in Kentucky was caught growing marijuana plants in his closet. That turned him into a convicted felon, and although he's been on the right side of the law ever since, he still can't vote. On any job application, he must check the box next to "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" All this misery for growing a plant whose leaves the past three presidents admit having smoked. We know this story because Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky keeps telling it. That a Southern Republican probably running for president is condemning such prosecutions as unfair speaks volumes on the collapsing support for the war on marijuana - part of the larger war on drugs. [continues 487 words]
GREENFIELD - Those who are concerned that loved ones may be at risk for heroin overdose are urged to attend a free community Narcan training at the RECOVER Project on Federal Street Monday afternoon. Participants will receive training and a dose of the nasal spray version of the drug that can save lives by reversing the effects of a heroin overdose. The Aug. 11 training will be conducted by Tapestry Health at the RECOVER Project, 68 Federal St., at 1:30 p.m. Advance registration is not necessary. [continues 469 words]
SEATTLE (AP) - As Washington plows toward the legalization of pot, it's finding that getting the cannabis market off the ground has been even tougher than anyone imagined. Among the frustrated are growers who have been waiting months for permission to start raising their bar-coded plants; advocates who wish more public health messaging had been done by now; and would-be pot vendors like O'Neil who said bad luck, minor oversights on their applications, or errors by state officials have torpedoed otherwise promising efforts. [continues 120 words]
BETHESDA, Md. - From her perch as head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Nora Volkow watches anxiously as the country embarks on what she sees as a risky social experiment in legalizing marijuana. For those who argue that marijuana is no more dangerous than tobacco and alcohol, Volkow has two main answers: We don't entirely know, and, simultaneously, that is precisely the point. "Look at the evidence," Volkow said in an interview on the National Institutes of Health campus here, pointing to the harms already inflicted by tobacco and alcohol. "It's not subtle - it's huge. Legal drugs are the main problem that we have in our country as it relates to morbidity and mortality. By far. Many more people die of tobacco than all of the drugs together. Many more people die of alcohol than all of the illicit drugs together. [continues 501 words]
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A veto-proof majority of Philadelphia City Council is supporting a bill to effectively decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. The bill passed Thursday, 13-3, with every Democrat in favor of it and every Republican against it. A spokesman for Mayor Michael Nutter would not immediately say whether the Democrat would sign it. The measure would allow the police department to change its policy to no longer require officers to arrest somebody who is 18 and older for possessing 30 grams or less of marijuana. It would still be punishable by a $25 fine. Councilman Jim Kenney said the new policy could save the police department and the courts $4 million a year. [end]
WEST SPRINGIELD - The fire department, the first in the area to equip its fire engines with Narcan, has already employed it twice to revive two patients suffering from suspected heroin overdoses. The fire department began carrying the nasal-spray version of the drug on it's engines about two months ago. Deputy Chief Steven A. Manchino, who is also ambulance director for the department, said the Narcan was used to good effect on April 28 and May 7. In both instances, engine crews revived the victims before ambulance crews, who also carry the drug, arrived. [continues 324 words]
WEST SPRINGFIELD - Resident inmates recovering from drug addiction at the Western Massachusetts Correctional Alcohol Center, a component of the Hampden County Sheriff's Department, spoke out about the dangers of substance abuse Wednesday at the High School as part of a forum geared toward raising awareness about drug abuse for families and students in grades 5 through 8. More than 75 people attended the presentation, which is part of a national effort called "notMykid," with officers from the West Springfield Police Department and the Hampden County Sheriff's Department leading discussions about parental involvement and awareness, and information on rehabilitation programs. [continues 256 words]
The American public has so conditioned itself to think of drug abuse as an innercity problem seen mostly among poor black and brown people that it is jarring when reality paints a very different picture. That happened last week when authorities announced that they had broken up a drug ring catering to privileged teens in Philadelphia's tony suburbs. Nine adults and two 17-year-olds allegedly sold drugs to students at Lower Merion, Harriton, Conestoga, and Radnor High Schools. The arrests made national news, which shows how rare major drug busts are in such settings. But that's not because Main Line teens are immune to drug abuse - particularly when it comes to marijuana, apparently the principal product sold by this ring. [continues 204 words]
The heroin epidemic ravaging the nation is tied closely to the availability of powerful, legal prescription painkillers classified as opioids. People become addicted to the painkillers but switch to heroin, which generally is cheaper and easier to obtain. Such abuse of legal drugs is illegal and regrettable. But it should not, and does not, prevent medical professionals from prescribing the legal drugs for people who need them. And then, there is marijuana. Pot is a curious case because its provenance in the culture is as a "recreational" drug. Yet marijuana has been shown to have therapeutic effects, including pain relief, nausea suppression and appetite stimulation. And now, an oil derived from marijuana has shown promise as a treatment for a seizure disorder that affects young children. [continues 189 words]
DEERFIELD - Narcan, an increasingly available drug used to counter the effects of heroin overdose, has revived three people within a recent 72-hour span, Police Chief John Paciorek Jr. said. "Until you have witnessed this in person you can't describe it," Paciorek said of the drug's ability to bring those suspected of overdosing on heroin - often literally on the brink of death - back to life within seconds. The first suspected overdose, involving a 30-year-old woman who was described as unresponsive at a River Road residence, was reported about 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, Paciorek said. [continues 584 words]
Pity the heroin or painkiller addict in Massachusetts who wants to kick the lethal habit. Sound like a strange statement? There are many barriers to getting -- and staying -- clean in Massachusetts. It's a lot easier to get another fix (or get into detoxification following an arrest) than it is to find a bed in a detoxification facility or a longer term stay in in-patient treatment or sober housing. Insurance companies, including MassHealth, make it difficult for addicts to get the help they need, according to many who have studied addiction and attempted to help addicts. That must change immediately. [continues 427 words]
Cookies, Candy Can Be More Potent Than Smoking Pot DENVER (AP) - A college student eats more than the recommended dose of a marijuana-laced cookie and jumps to his death from a hotel balcony. A husband with no history of violence is accused of shooting his wife in the head, possibly after eating pot-infused candy. The two recent deaths have stoked concerns about Colorado's recreational marijuana industry and the effects of the drug, especially since cookies, candy and other pot edibles can be exponentially more potent than a joint. [continues 257 words]
HARRISBURG (AP) - A state lawmaker who's running for lieutenant governor is introducing bills to lessen penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Sen. Mike Stack, a Philadelphia Democrat, said at a news conference Wednesday that one bill would make possession of less than an ounce of pot a summary offense for the first two incidents. After that, local prosecutors would have discretion to file criminal charges. Stack, one of six candidates vying to be the running mate of the Democratic nominee for governor, also is introducing a bill to make it easier for people to have their records expunged of convictions for possession of small amounts of the drug. Reforming Pennsylvania's marijuana laws has been an issue in the five-way Democratic gubernatorial race. [end]
HARRISBURG (AP) - Marijuana was the issue that set John Hanger apart from the other Democratic candidates for governor, and proponents of legalizing the drug for medical purposes in Pennsylvania credit him with drawing attention to their cause before he dropped out of the race this week. Hanger supported the medical pot proposal, but he also was the only candidate to advocate the more radical step of legalizing the drug statewide - a proposal he put on even footing with issues of wider appeal such as creating jobs and improving public schools. [continues 538 words]
To the Editor: Marijuana. It is a very touchy subject, and it is not generally accepted among most people. It's taboo. Why is that? It's because it is illegal, so there is a fear placed among the people. Why is a plant so hated in our society? I'm writing this to voice my opinion and try to make a change. I've seen and heard too many people who are on my side say, "They should just legalize pot, man." That is not the answer. These people just break the law and expect things to change. That is not how it works. If you simply rebel and disobey the law, you will not have a voice. If you abide and peacefully protest, then you may be heard by the people who have the power to make this change. There is a vast majority of people who want it legalized but do not make a stand and fight for what they believe in reasonably. I'm going to discuss some vital points, rumors and misconceptions of marijuana. [continues 534 words]
Marijuana has held an odd place in American culture, especially since the federal government specifically outlawed it in 1937. That followed the release of the 1936 movie, "Reefer Madness," which today is widely lampooned for its over-the-top depictions of pot's addictiveness and effects on smokers, along with its warnings about other evils - especially jazz. Marijuana's reputation always has exceeded its actual danger, as noted in a recent column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by longtime forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht. He said he had seen many cases in which legally prescribed narcotics had played a role, but never one in which marijuana was the cause of death. [continues 206 words]
LONDON (AP) - The United Nations' drug watchdog agency said the legalization of marijuana in the U.S. states of Colorado and Washington poses a threat to the international fight against drug abuse. In a report published Tuesday, the International Narcotics Control Board said that it "deeply regrets" moves by those two states to lift restrictions on the sale and use of cannabis. The board said the moves violate drug control conventions and called on national authorities to block the states' moves. The U.S. Justice Department has made clear it won't go after state-legal businesses even though federal law still bans marijuana consumption. The INCB, which has no enforcement power, has previously voiced its opposition to legalization. [end]
SPRINGFIELD -- The City Council on Monday approved a zoning ordinance that will require any proposed medical marijuana facility in Springfield to obtain a local special permit and follow numerous regulations. The zoning ordinance was approved in a 9-1 vote Councilor Clodovaldo Concepcion cast the sole "no" vote at Monday's hearing, saying he has concerns about crime and how such a business would be controlled. "I will not vote for that today or 100 years from now," Concepcion said. Under the approved Springfield ordinance, any medical marijuana center in Springfield must obtain a special permit from the council after a public hearing and must be located within an Industrial A zone. In addition, the centers cannot be located within 500 feet of a residence and must be at least 500 feet from any school, child care center or any other site where "children commonly congregate." [continues 419 words]
It seems marijuana - at least for medical use - is sweeping the nation. More than 20 states and the District of Columbia have either legalized medical marijuana or decriminalized its possession, and in two states, Colorado and Washington, voters legalized its recreational use. The Denver Post even appointed a marijuana editor. The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., found in September that, "For the first time in more than four decades of polling ... a majority (52 percent) of Americans favor legalizing the use of marijuana." In June, they found that nearly half of Americans had smoked marijuana, up from 40 percent three years ago - and 12 percent had done so recently. [continues 480 words]
(AP) - In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley. In Morocco, one of the world's top producers of the concentrated pot known as hashish, two leading political parties want to legalize its cultivation, at least for medical and industrial use. And in Mexico City, the vast metropolis of a country ravaged by horrific cartel bloodshed, lawmakers have proposed a brand new plan to let stores sell the drug. [continues 519 words]
Philip Seymour Hoffman's death at the end of a heroin needle again spotlights the dangers of a poisonous drug. And so did the Vermont governor's plea last month to confront the "full-blown heroin crisis" plaguing his rural state. His population is far poorer and more isolated than an Oscar-winning actor in New York's Greenwich Village. But although drug overdoses are democratic in choosing victims, the War on Drugs is anything but. Every year, billions of dollars pour down the War on Drugs drain, and the drugs are cheaper and easier to find than ever. The war enriches dealers by constricting the supply while turning addicts into criminals afraid to publicly confront their drug use. [continues 465 words]
Whether legal recreational use of marijuana becomes more common likely will depend upon the unfolding experiments in Colorado and Washington. The question of whether cannabis should be used for valid medical treatments is far less complex. Pennsylvania should join the states that allow it. A bill to allow medicinal marijuana use, the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Act, has been introduced in the Senate, where the Law and Justice Committee conduct a hearing Tuesday. Its sponsors are Sen. Mike Folmer, a Lebanon County Republican and cancer survivor, and Sen. Daylin Leach, a Montgomery County Democrat. [continues 130 words]
If you think that protests about overzealous law enforcement are over the top, listen to what unfolded when the police suspected that David Eckert, 54, was hiding drugs in his rectum. Eckert is a shy junk dealer struggling to get by in Hidalgo County, N.M. He lives a working-class life, drives a 16-year-old pickup and was convicted in 2008 of methamphetamine possession. Police officers, suspecting he might still be involved in drugs, asked him to step out of his pickup early last year after stopping him for a supposed traffic violation. No drugs or weapons were found on Eckert or in his truck, but a police dog showed interest in the vehicle and an officer wrote that Eckert's posture was "erect and he kept his legs together." [continues 527 words]
To the Editor: Ruth Marcus makes the common mistake of assuming that marijuana prohibition reduces marijuana use. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure. The United States has almost double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands where marijuana is legal. [continues 68 words]
To the Editor: I'm writing about Ruth Marcus' not-so-thoughtful column: "The perils of legalized pot" (1-14-14). The issue is not whether cannabis is completely safe for everybody, but rather freedom of choice for adults. One in 13 children suffer from food allergies, yet we have no criminalized food. Children have died from eating peanuts, but we don't cage peanut growers, sellers or consumers. The voters of Colorado and Washington state have decided we should not cage cannabis growers, sellers or consumers. I submit that the rest of the nation should follow Colorado's and Washington state's example. Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. [end]
MALONE - North Country prosecutors have sent many a drug dealer to state prison or jail for their involvement with marijuana trafficking. So what do the district attorneys in Franklin, Clinton and Essex counties think about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's intent to legalize medical-marijuana use by certain patients with chronic pain? "For myself, it's A, a slippery slope, and B, if this is a ploy for legalization, go ahead and vote and quit this charade," Franklin County District Attorney Derek Champagne said. [continues 603 words]
Marijuana legalization may be the same-sex marriage of 2014 - a trend that reveals itself in the course of the year as obvious and inexorable. At the risk of exposing myself as the fuddy-duddy I seem to have become, I hope not. This is, I confess, not entirely logical and a tad hypocritical. At the risk of exposing myself as not the total fuddy-duddy of my children's dismissive imaginings, I have done my share of inhaling, though back in the age of bellbottoms and polyester. [continues 498 words]
DENVER - A gleaming white Apple store of weed is how Andy Williams sees his new Denver marijuana dispensary. Two floors of pot-growing rooms will have windows showing the shopping public how the mind-altering plant is grown. Shoppers will be able to peruse drying marijuana buds and see pot trimmers at work separating the valuable flowers from the less-prized stems and leaves. "It's going to be all white and beautiful," the 45-year-old ex- industrial engineer explained, excitedly gesturing around what just a few weeks ago was an empty warehouse space that will eventually house 40,000 square feet of cannabis strains. [continues 638 words]
The Justice Department has decided not to fight 20 states and the District of Columbia over laws they have adopted, in contradiction to federal law, to decriminalize medicinal and recreational marijuana use. Attorney General Eric Holder characterized the decision as establishing priorities for use of limited resources. Indeed, those resources should be used to fight criminal conduct rather than legal conduct in states that have adopted the new laws, usually by referendum. If the DOJ had decided to take on the laws in court, it likely would have won because federal laws generally supersede state or local laws when they conflict. [continues 141 words]
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) - The government of Uruguay makes Scotch whisky. It also makes and sells rum, vodka and cognac, and has done so for nearly a century. Many people consider this sideline of the state to be an historical accident - a wasteful and even eccentric contradiction. But President Jose Mujica said Uruguay's long experience at the center of the nation's liquor business makes it more than capable of dominating another substance: marijuana. Final Senate approval of Uruguay's marijuana law is expected by late September, and the government plans to license growers, sellers and users as quickly as possible thereafter to protect them from criminal drug traffickers, ruling party Sen. Lucia Topolansky, who is also Uruguay's first lady, told The Associated Press in an interview. [continues 605 words]
Thousands Gather in Park SEATTLE (AP) - Thousands streamed into a Seattle waterfront park Friday for the opening of a three-day marijuana festival - an event that is part party, part protest and part victory celebration after the legalization of pot in Washington and Colorado last fall. "This is going to be the biggest year for Hempfest," said Jack Beattie, an 18-year-old Seattle University student, as he shared a joint with two friends. "In past years, people were a little bit sketched out about smoking in public. Now, there's going to be a lot more." [continues 360 words]
Doctor Says Drug Helpful for Some Patients NEW YORK (AP) - CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta says he spoke too soon in opposing the medical use of marijuana in the past and that he now believes the drug can have very real benefits for people with specific health problems. Gupta, the network's chief medical correspondent and a brain surgeon, detailed his change of heart in an interview Friday and in an article for CNN's website titled, "Why I changed my mind on weed." He will narrate a documentary on the topic that will air on the network Sunday. [continues 355 words]
WASHINGTON- It took 50 years for American attitudes about marijuana to zigzag from the paranoia of "Reefer Madness" to the excesses of Woodstock back to the hard line of "Just Say No." The next 25 years took the nation from Bill Clinton, who famously "didn't inhale," to Barack Obama, who most emphatically did. And now, in just a few short years, public opinion has moved so dramatically toward general acceptance that even those who champion legalization are surprised at how quickly attitudes are changing and states are moving to approve the drug - for medical use and just for fun. [continues 662 words]
CHICOPEE --Medical marijuana dispensaries will be limited to a small section of the city's industrial zone and will not be allowed next door to schools, homes or churches. After months of writing and re-writing the ordinance, the City Council recently passed the final version in a 13-0 vote. "The city will have to have an ordinance in place so we can have control over this," said Councilor James K. Tillotson, who oversaw the effort to create the regulations. [continues 292 words]
WESTFIELD -- Voters across the commonwealth approved the use of medical marijuana during the November elections, but it is an issue that has remained relatively low-key in Westfield as officials put a moratorium on dispensaries pending further state regulations. Public hearings held by the City Council and Planning Board in May drew no comment from meeting spectators, and Ward 4 City Councilor and Legislative and Ordinance Committee member Mary L. O'Connell said residents have not expressed any opinions on the matter. [continues 360 words]
