420 Use and Health

[Crow]

A Pot Pardon Plea: Prisoner Seeks Presidential Pardon For Thirty Year Sentence For First Offense

Below is a request from a NORML member and recently retired prison employee from Illinois seeking a presidential pardon for a man sentenced ten years ago as a teenager to thirty years for a first time marijuana offense.

One of the reasons the walls of Cannabis Prohibition are coming down faster and faster these days is because of citizens like George from Oakford, who can no longer stand idly by and be witness to the waste and cruelty of incarcerating citizens for so-called marijuana-related ‘crimes’.

George’s signature is first, mine is second…will you please join us in asking President Obama to pardon Jason Spyres after he has served 10 years for a ‘crime’, that some day soon will no longer be a crime.

Thanks in advance for caring and sharing,

-Allen St. Pierre
Executive Director
NORML
Washington, D.C.

—— Forwarded Message
From: George A.
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 09:50:05 -0500
Subject: Need Help?

Hi: I am a NORML member and wanted to ask you to circulate a White House Petition that only needs 150 signatures(online) to become searchable (under marijuana or cannabis). It is:

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition...harge/mxbD3tDp

I would appreciate your response or suggestions. It is in regard to an Illinois inmate who got locked up for 30 years, of which he has served about 10 years, for a first time marijuana offense. He was first locked up as a teenager. I worked as a Correctional Officer around this inmate and know that he does not deserve to be locked up for so long. I retired in 09 and can now help this young man fight for his deserved freedom. Please help if you can.

George A.
Oakford, IL

[wa3zrm]

Get Pot for FREE!!!!

Americans Get Pot From US Government
http://www.wlky.com/news/29325812/detail.html ^ | 9/28/2011 | WLKY
Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2011 10:00:09 AM

EUGENE, Ore. -- The U.S. government considers marijuana among the world's most dangerous drugs, classifying it as a highly-addictive substance that has no medical use.
But there's a catch: The government also supplies four people with 300 marijuana cigarettes each month. They are patients in the government's Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program.
The program began when a Washington, D.C., man sued the government in order to get access to marijuana to treat his glaucoma. He won, and the program was born.
The pot is grown in Mississippi as part of the government's research into marijuana. It's then sent to a facility in North Carolina, where it is rolled into cigarettes.
The government distributed more than 100 pounds of high-grade marijuana to patients between 2005 and 2011.

[Premium Parrots]

300 a month each!?! crap. I must be getting old.


either that or its ditch weed.

[snusgetter]

Such a magnanimous gesture!!
The gob'mint actually grows it and produces the cigs!
Wonder what the cost is to US taxpayers for this service?

[Crow]

Czech Republic

Czech Health Ministry to legalise medical cannabis

The Czech Health Ministry says it will take steps to change the law to allow medical marijuana on prescription for the first time.

The Czech Ministry of Health has indicated that it will take marijuana off the list of banned substances and allow it to be prescribed by doctors for its medical effects.

“By the end of this year we will submit to parliament an amended law on addictive substances which will move marihuana from the list of banned substances to the list of those which can be prescribed,” Deputy Health Minister Martin Plíšek pledged, as cited Wednesday by the daily Hospodářské noviny.

Article continued at http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/po...ical-marijuana

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The Gender Gap: Are Women the Key to Ending Marijuana Prohibition?

by Kate Zawidzki, MPP

As a female working in the generally male-dominated world of marijuana policy reform, you’d think I’d be accustomed to the gender gap that exists between male and female support for the taxation and regulation of marijuana. And yet, I’m continually shocked when poll after poll reveals sizeable differences among levels of support between the two genders. Although nationwide support for legalizing marijuana has never been higher, we’re going to need the backing of the ladies to push the issue over the tipping point.

As a matter of fact, women generally tend to lag at least five percentage points behind men when it comes to support for ending marijuana prohibition. In national polling, for example, a March 2011 Pew Research Center poll found 48% of males favor marijuana legalization, while female support trailed at 42%. An October 2010 Gallup poll showed a more striking gap between male and female support, with 51% of males and only 41% of females in favor of making the use of marijuana legal.

Unfortunately, this gender gap also exists in state-level polling, as evidenced by the following cases from Colorado and Washington state. An August 2011 Public Policy Polling poll of Colorado voters found 54% of males, but only 49% of females, support making marijuana usage legal in the state, while a September 2011 Strategies 360 poll of Washington state voters showed 56% of males and a whopping 37% of females think the use of marijuana should be made legal in Washington. That’s a difference of nearly twenty percentage points!

Colorado and Washington state are notable examples here, as voters in both states will likely have the opportunity to vote on state ballot initiatives to tax and regulate marijuana in 2012. With voters in those states currently split on the issue, a boost in female support is exactly what’s needed to achieve strong majority support for taxing and regulating marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. And speaking of alcohol, just as women were pivotal in bringing about the repeal of its prohibition in the 1930s, so too will they be instrumental in effecting the end of marijuana prohibition.

In fact, perhaps we can learn something from our Prohibition-era sisters. Did you know that many of the women who initially supported alcohol prohibition ultimately grew disenchanted with it and fought for its repeal? Pauline Sabin, founder of the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform, favored prohibition in the beginning because she thought it would be best for her children. But Sabin, like many others, finally came to the conclusion that the prohibition against alcohol was more dangerous and destructive than the substance itself. Perhaps, someday soon, more and more women will come to realize that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is the prohibition against it.

Though women are increasingly coming out in support for reforming our country’s marijuana laws, from “stiletto stoners” to “marijuana moms” and “ganja grannies,” we need to broaden our base to include more women who aren’t necessarily marijuana users, but who share the belief that our current marijuana policies have failed and it’s time for a new approach. Whether they’re ultimately inspired by personal liberty arguments, maternalistic concerns for children and family, issues of public safety, or economic cares related to the waste of public resources, women could very well be the driving force in getting the nation to that critical moment when the demand for the end of marijuana prohibition simply cannot be denied. I hope to see the female voters in states like Colorado and Washington leading the charge in 2012.

Why do you think women are more reluctant than men to support the end of marijuana prohibition? And what can we collectively do to try to change that? Please comment or send me an email at kzawidzki@mpp.org.

http://blog.mpp.org/prohibition/the-...tion/09302011/

[Ansel]

When i have smoked a spliff before when a cigarette smoker i didn't feel the need to have a cigarette for around 2 hours after smoking the spliff. There was just no craving. And this would happen each time, always the same.

Now with snus, i don't get a craving for it after smoking the spliff but if i carry on with it regardless as usual and put in some snus within the 2 hours, well - it's just great.

[Crow]

When i have smoked a spliff before when a cigarette smoker i didn't feel the need to have a cigarette for around 2 hours after smoking the spliff. There was just no craving. And this would happen each time, always the same.

Now with snus, i don't get a craving for it after smoking the spliff but if i carry on with it regardless as usual and put in some snus within the 2 hours, well - it's just great.

When I was smoking cigarettes, I also found my cravings were reduced after smoking some herb. Using snus and snuff, I've also managed to kick the cigarette habit.

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California (US)

BILL SEEKS TO ALLOW INDUSTRIAL HEMP GROWS IN KERN, THREE OTHER COUNTIES

It may be distantly related to pot, but industrial hemp most definitely is not, say supporters of a California Senate Bill aimed at legalizing cultivation of the cannabis cousin in four counties, including Kern.

Senate Bill 676 or the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act -- which is on the governor's desk for signing by Oct. 9 -- would create an eight-year pilot program permitting farmers in Imperial, Kern, Kings and San Joaquin counties to grow industrial hemp for sale of its seed, oil and fiber to manufacturers.

After six years, the Attorney General would report on any law enforcement effects of the pilot, while the Hemp Industries Association, a co-sponsor of the bill, would report on its economic impacts.

The bill also lays out law enforcement provisions designed to make it difficult to grow marijuana under the guise of farming industrial hemp, including stipulations that farmers' crops are tested for THC content ( hemp contains only trace amounts ), that they clearly mark their fields and that farmer grow at least five acres.

http://www.mapinc.org/norml/v11/n606/a05.htm

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Illinois (US)

Evanston mayor proposes mellowing of pot possession penalty

Ordinance would fine, not jail, offenders caught with 10 grams or less

Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl thinks anyone caught with 10 grams or less of pot does not intend to sell it, and so should only be ticketed and fined — not jailed.

She recently asked the city's legal department to draft an ordinance that lightens the penalty for anyone possessing small amounts of marijuana. Tisdahl said she wants to keep a young person's criminal record from hindering employment.

A city committee will study the proposed ordinance once staff drafts it, Tisdahl said.

"I do not want young people in Evanston who do not have access to high-powered attorneys to have arrest records for possessing less than 10 grams," Tisdahl said in an email. "I want them to have jobs. A ticket and a fine will suffice."

Evanston's ordinances now say that anyone found in possession of 10 grams or less of marijuana could be fined between $50 and $500. State law dictates that possession of between 2.5 and 10 grams of marijuana is a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and up to a $1,500 fine. It's up to police which penalty to pursue.

"The state charge is typically always given for that type of offense," said police spokesman Cmdr. James Elliot. However, when dealing with a juvenile, Elliot said police tend to issue an ordinance violation — particularly if the juvenile is a first-time offender.

Tisdahl's proposed ordinance could remove that discretion and keep all those busted with small amounts of pot — regardless of age — out of the court system, putting them into the city's administrative adjudication process.

The law change would place Evanston among a growing number of communities that are rethinking the way they prosecute marijuana possession.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...han-bullington

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Maine (US)

Portland neighbors welcome proposed medical marijuana dispensary

PORTLAND, Maine — People who will live and work near a proposed medical marijuana dispensary off Longfellow Square in Portland say they welcome the new business to their neighborhood.

“I think it’s awesome,” Allison Stevens, who lives in an apartment building across the street from the proposed site, told the Bangor Daily News. “I think it’s a viable business. I think it’s a shame it’s going to be taxed, but people need [medical marijuana] and this will make it accessible.”

Northeast Patients Group has secured a lease to set up a dispensary for the legalized marijuana at 685 Congress St., in a 6,500-square-foot space in the rear side of the brick building that also houses Local 188 restaurant.

“We’re in the process of renovating it,” said Becky DeKeuster, chief executive officer of Northeast Patients Group. “We have some build-out and adjustments we want to do with the floor plan to make it functional for patients, but it’s a fantastic site with great neighbors. We were really, really fortunate to find that site.”

Northeast Patients Group was awarded four of Maine’s eight regional medical marijuana dispensary licenses made available by the state after the passage of 2009’s Medical Use of Marijuana Act. DeKeuster said the organization is seeing patients in the Thomaston area by appointment, plans to have a facility up and running in Hallowell in November, and is currently in talks to secure a lease in the Bangor area, in addition to the Portland dispensary.

DeKeuster said her group still must go through the municipal permitting process for her business at the Portland location, but because it’s in a zone where such a business is allowable, she “doesn’t anticipate any difficulty in permitting.”

Northeast Patients Group reportedly has obtained $1.6 million in financial backing from sources such as the California-based The Farmacy Institute for Wellness and former professional basketball player Cuttino Mobley.

“We have secured financing and we’re moving forward aggressively,” DeKeuster said.

Two employees of Local 188 setting up chairs outside the restaurant Friday afternoon said they did not want to be identified in the newspaper, but said they were unconcerned about the arrival of a medical marijuana dispensary behind the eatery.

“It doesn’t bother me,” added Travis Hall, who rents another apartment across Congress Street from the proposed location. “I wouldn’t think that it would [have an affect on the crime rate].”

http://bangordailynews.com/2011/09/3...na-dispensary/

[snusgetter]

Bottom Line -

IRS ruling strikes fear in medical marijuana industry

By Al Olson
In a potentially crushing blow to the burgeoning medical marijuana industry, the IRS has ruled that dispensaries cannot deduct standard business expenses such as payroll, security or rent.

Harborside Health Center, one of the nation's largest medical marijuana dispensaries and considered a model for the industry, is on the hook for $2.5 million in taxes from 2007 and 2008. That is $2 million more than the Oakland, Calif.-based company paid for those tax years.

“I see only two outcomes here,” said Steve DeAngelo, director and chief executive of Harborside. “Either this IRS assessment has to change or we go out of business. There really isn’t a middle ground for us.”

DeAngelo says the ruling will likely be appealed. He has 90 days to respond to the ruling.



MORE

[Crow]

California (US)

California pot dispensaries told by feds to shut down

SAN FRANCISCO — Federal prosecutors have launched a crackdown on pot dispensaries in California, warning the stores that they must shut down in 45 days or face criminal charges and confiscation of their property even if they are operating legally under the state's 15-year-old medical marijuana law.

In an escalation of the ongoing conflict between the U.S. government and the nation's burgeoning medical marijuana industry, California's four U.S. attorneys sent letters Wednesday and Thursday notifying at least 16 pot shops or their landlords that they are violating federal drug laws, even though medical marijuana is legal in California. The attorneys are scheduled to announce their coordinated crackdown at a Friday news conference.

Their offices refused to confirm the closure orders. The Associated Press obtained copies of the letters that a prosecutor sent to 12 San Diego dispensaries. They state that federal law "takes precedence over state law and applies regardless of the particular uses for which a dispensary is selling and distributing marijuana."

"Under United States law, a dispensary's operations involving sales and distribution of marijuana are illegal and subject to criminal prosecution and civil enforcement actions," letters signed by U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy in San Diego read. "Real and personal property involved in such operations are subject to seizure by and forfeiture to the United States ... regardless of the purported purpose of the dispensary."

The move comes a little more than two months after the Obama administration toughened its stand on medical marijuana following a two-year period during which federal officials had indicated they would not move aggressively against dispensaries in compliance with laws in the 16 states where pot is legal for people with doctors' recommendations.

The Department of Justice issued a policy memo to federal prosecutors in late June stating that marijuana dispensaries and licensed growers in states with medical marijuana laws could face prosecution for violating federal drug and money-laundering laws. The effort to shutter California dispensaries appears to be the most far-reaching effort so far to put that guidance into action.

"This really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. The administration is simply making good on multiple threats issued since President Obama took office," Kevin Sabet, a former adviser to the president's drug czar who is a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Substance Abuse Solutions. "The challenge is to balance the scarcity of law enforcement resources and the sanctity of this country's medication approval process. It seems like the administration is simply making good on multiple statements made previously to appropriately strike that balance."

Greg Anton, a lawyer who represents the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, said the 14-year-old dispensary's landlord received an "extremely threatening" letter Wednesday invoking a federal law that imposes additional penalties for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and playgrounds.

The landlord was ordered to evict the pot club or risk imprisonment, plus forfeiture of the property and all the rent he has collected while the dispensary has been in business, Anton said.

The Marin Alliance's founder "has been paying state and federal taxes for 14 years, and they have cashed all the checks," he said. "All I hear from Obama is whining about his budget, but he has money to do this which will actually reduce revenues."

[Crow]

Montana (US)

Montana Attorney General Fights Feds’ Gun Ownership Ruling Regarding Medical Cannabis Patients

HELENA - Attorney General Steve Bullock voiced his objection Monday to the U.S. Justice Department over its recent memo banning the sale of guns or ammunition to licensed medical marijuana users and urged the agency not to prosecute anyone for now.

Bullock wrote U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder about the Sept. 21 memo from the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to licensed gun dealers. The memo said it is illegal for medical marijuana cardholders to buy guns and ammunition, and illegal for dealers to sell these products to them.

The letter from Bullock followed criticism of the policy last week from all three members of Montana's congressional delegation, Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus, and Rep. Denny Rehberg. A firearms advocacy group and a medical marijuana group had earlier blasted the memo.

Bullock told Holder said he's willing to work with the U.S. Justice Department staff "on exploring a reasonable solution to the problems created by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives letter."

The goal, he said, is to find an approach that works for the Montana and the other 15 states and the District of Columbia that have legalized medical marijuana.

"This would be much better than the type of unilateral proclamation represented by the ATF letter, which was issued without any advance notice or discussion with the elected officials who represent more than one-fourth of this nation's population and one-third of its states," Bullock wrote.

"In the meantime, I respectfully request that the Department of Justice not pursue any criminal prosecutions against law-abiding citizens in Montana who exercise their constitutional rights to possess guns and enjoy hunting, or the licensees who are implicitly threatened by ATF's letter."

Bullock said Montana had about 200,000 hunters last year, and the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks sold more than 580,000 hunting licenses. As Montanans purchase guns and ammunition from sporting good stores, some of them may also have medical marijuana cards, he said.

Bullock said the federal memo essentially warns firearms dealers they cannot sell ammunition or guns to people who use medical marijuana, "even if the person uses it in full compliance with state law that authorizes its use for medical purposes."

"The letter even takes it a step further by emphasizing that ATF is placing the responsibility on licensees to determine if there is reasonable cause to believe that the purchaser did not accurately fill out the ATF forms," Bullock said.

Article continued at http://missoulian.com/news/state-and...#ixzz1a2mqEqhP

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Alabama (US)

Lawmaker Pushes for Alabama’s Medical Cannabis

They say seeing is believing, and when it comes to medical cannabis that’s exactly the case for Alabama State Rep. K.L. Brown. The Jacksonville native told The Anniston Star that his sister used medical cannabis to ease the suffering during her fight with breast cancer, and now he plans to bring legislation in the Alabama House of Representatives to provide that same relief to other patients diagnosed with chronic diseases in his state.

“My sister used it very successfully to control her nausea and pain,” Brown said. “I think the time has come for the state to consider medical marijuana. We’ve got a lot of citizens with Parkinson’s Disease, with cancer, with HIV… we’ve got a lot of people who could benefit from pain control.”

Brown expects to pre-file the bill—compiled by the Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition and drawn from the 16 other successful medical cannabis bills across the United States—by November. He’s also already met with officials from the state health department and discussed their potential role in providing medical cannabis if the bill is passed.

Both Brown and Ron Crumpton, co-president and executive director of the AMMC, think the new bill has a far greater chance of success than previous Alabama medical cannabis bills because of its increased specificity and better writing—going so far as to spell out medical conditions a doctor can prescribe medical cannabis for. And, potentially more importantly, they also see more baseline support for the medical cannabis movement in the Alabama legislature than in previous years.

“I don’t think it will be that much of an uphill battle,” Crumpton said. “Many of the Republicans who took over the Legislature in the last election are younger guys—between 30 and 45—who don’t associate the same stigma with marijuana that older people in their 60s do.”

But while his support for medical cannabis is significant, Brown is quick to emphasize that he is not interested in campaigning to decriminalize marijuana on a broader scale.

“This is not a recreational marijuana legalizing bill at all,” he said. “It’s strictly for medicinal purposes and will be closely monitored by the health department and law enforcement.”

[Crow]

United States

Federal Government Announces Escalation Of Its War On Cannabis

“This is not an idle threat. … What we’re trying to do is send a message as broadly as possible. … We are serious about enforcing federal law. … We are not just talking about it, but we are doing something about it. … Prosecuting marijuana cases is a higher priority now.”
–statements of the US Attorneys for the four federal districts in California

We’ve seen this coming for some time, but today the gloves officially came off. No more memos filled with false promises; no more phony pledges to respect states rights, no more giggles. Like a caged animal backed into a corner, the federal government is snarling and spitting back. It has no other way to defend its morally bankrupt policy except through a show of strength and intimidation.

California’s Top Federal Law Enforcement Officials Announce Enforcement Actions Against State’s Widespread and Illegal Marijuana Industry

via the US Department of Justice, Eastern District of California

SACRAMENTO, Calif.: October 7, 2011 – The four California-based United States Attorneys today announced coordinated enforcement actions targeting the illegal operations of the commercial marijuana industry in California.

The statewide enforcement effort is aimed at curtailing the large, for-profit marijuana industry that has developed since the passage of California’s Proposition 215 in 1996.

… While the four United States Attorneys have tailored enforcement actions to the specific problems in their own districts, the statewide enforcement efforts fall into three main categories:

· Civil forfeiture lawsuits against properties involved in drug trafficking activity, which includes, in some cases, marijuana sales in violation of local ordinances;

· Letters of warning to the owners and lienholders of properties where illegal marijuana sales are taking place; and

· Criminal cases targeting commercial marijuana activities, including arrests over the past two weeks in cases filed in federal courts in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Fresno.

The enforcement actions being announced today are the result of the four United States Attorneys working with federal law enforcement partners and local officials across California to combat commercial marijuana activities that are having the most significant impacts in communities.

“The actions taken today in California by our U.S. Attorneys and their law enforcement partners are consistent with the Department’s commitment to enforcing existing federal laws, including the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), in all states,” said Deputy Attorney General James Cole.

… Laura E. Duffy, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of California, commented: “The California marijuana industry is not about providing medicine to the sick. It’s a pervasive for-profit industry that violates federal law. In addition to damaging our environment, this industry is creating significant negative consequences, in California and throughout the nation. As the number one marijuana producing state in the country, California is exporting not just marijuana but all the serious repercussions that come with it, including significant public safety issues and perhaps irreparable harm to our youth.”

Melinda Haag, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California, said: “Marijuana stores operating in proximity to schools, parks, and other areas where children are present send the wrong message to those in our society who are the most impressionable. In addition, the huge profits generated by these stores, and the value of their inventory, present a danger that the stores will become a magnet for crime, which jeopardizes the safety of nearby children. Although our initial efforts in the Northern District focus on only certain marijuana stores, we will almost certainly be taking action against others. None are immune from action by the federal government.”

Dozens of letters have been sent over the past few days to the owners and lienholders of properties where commercial marijuana stores and grows are located. In the Southern and Eastern Districts, the owners of buildings where marijuana stores operate have received letters warning that they risk losing their property and money derived from renting the space used for marijuana sales. In the Central District, … prosecutors have sent letters to property owners in selected cities where officials have requested federal assistance, and they plan to continue their enforcement actions in other cities as well. In the Northern District, owners and lienholders of marijuana stores operating near schools and other locations where children congregate have been warned that their operations are subject to enhanced penalties and that real property involved in the operations is subject to seizure and forfeiture to the United States.

… The statewide coordinated enforcement actions were announced this morning at a press conference in Sacramento.

It has been apparent for some time now that the Obama Administration is escalating its efforts to both crack down on existing above ground, medical cannabis operations in states like California, as well as to thwart the establishments of similar operations in additional states.

So why these stepped up efforts now? The answer ought to be self-evident. The intention of these and other recent, well-publicized threats by the Obama administration is to stifle the development of a viable legal cannabis distribution industry, even in states that have enacted legislation to allow for such an industry.

During today’s conference, all four US Attorneys affirmed that their intent is not to target individual, state-compliant medical cannabis consumers per se, but to emphasize that the Department of Justice is opposed to the regulated commerce of medical cannabis. That’s because once this industry has legitimized itself to the public and local lawmakers in California, Colorado, and elsewhere, then voters will become accustomed to safe, secure, well-run businesses that deliver consistent, reliable, tested cannabis products. They’ll appreciate the way well-regulated medical dispensaries revitalize sagging economies, provide jobs, and contribute taxes to budget-starved localities. They’ll realize all the years of scaremongering by the government about what would happen if marijuana were legal, even for sick people, was nothing but hysterical propaganda. And the voting public will eventually ask: ‘Why we don’t just legalize cannabis for everyone in a similarly responsible manner?’

And that is a question this administration has consistently indicated that the President is unable or unwilling to answer.

http://blog.norml.org/2011/10/07/fed...r-on-cannabis/

[Crow]

United States

Feds Keep Fooling Around With Medical Marijuana: Full Cannabis Legalization or Bust!

It’s getting ugly and NORML needs your help now more than ever to stand up for the rights of responsible adults cannabis consumers. The Administration that promised to base drug policy on science and respect state marijuana laws is ignoring medical facts, the needs of patients, and the economic benefits that regulated dispensaries bring to medical cannabis-friendly states.

There is no way to sugar coat the terrible past two weeks we’ve had at the hands of Prohibition-loving federal and state governments.

Yesterday, the four U.S. Attorneys from California–along with their respective counterparts here in Washington D.C. from the DEA and IRS–declared that a statewide crackdown against large-scale medical cannabis cultivators and sellers with national implications is currently underway.

Question: Will U.S. Attorneys in the other fifteen states and D.C. with medical cannabis laws pursue similarly aggressive enforcement?

But wait! There’s more. Much more.

Earlier this week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a long-awaited $2.5 million ruling against a major medical cannabis dispensary in California. Citing an obscure part of the US tax code meant to target drug cartels, the federal agency is barring dispensaries, even those licensed under state law, from taking any business-related tax deductions and is seeking millions in dollars in back taxes.
This adverse ruling has the very real potential to stop the regulated sale of cannabis currently underway in California, Colorado, Maine and New Mexico; and planned in Arizona, Montana, Delaware, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) issued a heavy-handed one-page memo to every gun and ammunition dealer nationwide informing them that they must, by law, deny sales to lawful patients who possess a physician’s recommendation to use medical cannabis–many of whom posses state-issues medical cannabis ID cards–effectively denying their Second Amendment rights to have a gun to hunt or for personal safety.

Federal regulators cracked down on banks in Colorado, California and Michigan that had previously conduct business with medical cannabis dispensaries, forbidding these financial institutions from allowing cash deposits or processing credit/debit cards from state or locally approved canna-businesses.

U.S. Attorneys in California sent warnings to local dispensaries in San Francisco, San Diego, and elsewhere warning that locally compliant facilities still may be subject to federal prosecution for violating federal ‘drug free school zones’ legislation — leaving these facilities with no choice but to either move or close.

Also, federal attorneys in California have sent hundreds of legal warnings to the landlords of properties that rent to medical cannabis businesses (retail, delivery, cultivation and testing) warning that their properties and assets are subject to swift civil forfeiture proceedings, and that they themselves may be subject to decades in prison. Is it likely that federal attorneys do the same in Colorado, New Mexico and Maine; and to the numerous gray area dispensaries in Oregon and Washington?

Rhode Island’s governor Lincoln Chafee pulled the plug on the state’s nascent medical cannabis dispensary program, despite it having been previously approved 102 – 3 by the state legislature. Why? Governor Chafee cites recent memos from the Department of Justice threatening to federally prosecute employees involved in the state-licensed production or distribution of cannabis.

Michigan courts, the legislature and the state’s Attorney General are steadily dissembling the state’s medical cannabis program, despite the law having passed with 63 percent public approval.

There are only two things to say after reading such an alarming list of recent setbacks to ending Cannabis Prohibition:

1. Rather than pour millions of dollars and human energy into creating a legally and politically contentious policy that allows some cannabis consumers who can obtain a physician’s recommendation to be immune from state (but not federal) prosecution during a time of general Cannabis Prohibition, all cannabis consumers, patients, cultivators and sellers and their families should focus their full attention and resources to once and for all legalizing cannabis for all responsible adult consumers.

2. Make a donation to NORML now, join a local NORML chapter (there are nearly 200 of them nationwide!) today or purchase a NORML-related product and show the country that you support ending Cannabis Prohibition in our lifetime.

Click here to donate.

Everyone at NORML has known that 2012 was going to be the busiest year in our 40-year civil rights efforts to legalize marijuana.

…However, with the Obama Administration’s new and aggressive assertion of federal primacy over states and cities that have crafted superior, public-endorsed, free market-oriented public policies, we’re now assured long and difficult political and legal battles in the coming year with a federal government that still does not ‘get it’ regarding the public’s desire to retire the 74-year-old Cannabis Prohibition right next to the last ‘great social experiment’, Alcohol Prohibition.

Anticipating yesterday’s federal actions in California, members of the NORML Legal Committee (NLC), a nationwide network of over 600 lawyers, is already organizing and poised to challenge federal and state governments who seek to kill patients’ access to medical cannabis and to defend citizens egregiously charged by their own government for law violations.

If you watched the three-part PBS series this week on Alcohol Prohibition, it is impossible not to draw similarities to the absurdity of alcohol’s prohibition to that of the ongoing, heavy-handed criminalization of cannabis, and that ultimately only politically organized citizens came to end the federal government’s folly by putting sufficient legal and political pressure on their elected policymakers.

Our generation must do the same to end our nation’s long-suffering Cannabis Prohibition.

Get (More) Active. Donate now. Be NORML. Every contribution helps.


Thanks for caring and sharing,

Allen St. Pierre
Executive Director
NORML
Washington, DC
director@norml.org

[snusgetter]

Obama: From First to Worst on Medical Marijuana

During his run for the presidency, Barack Obama instilled hope in medical marijuana supporters by pledging to respect state laws on the matter. And for the first two years of his term, he was generally faithful to his promise. Yet suddenly, and with no logical explanation, over the past eight months he has become arguably the worst president in U.S. history regarding medical marijuana.

>>> footnotes for the chart <<<

[Crow]

California (US)

GOVERNOR VETOES INDUSTRIAL HEMP BILL

Though Gov. Jerry Brown called federal regulation of industrial hemp plants "absurd," potential enforcement of those regulations ultimately led to his veto of state Senate Bill 676, which would have allowed hemp cultivation in four California counties, including Kern, as part of an eight-year pilot program.

Supporters of the bill said the federal categorization of industrial hemp plants as the same as marijuana plants is woefully outdated and the fact that industrial hemp is imported for legal products means Californians are missing out on a cash crop.

Opponents said the bill would make it more confusing for law enforcement to bust marijuana grows and -- law enforcement issues aside -- industrial hemp cultivation is still illegal under federal law.

In a Sunday veto message, the governor supported a "change in federal law," adding that "products made from hemp -- clothes, food and bath products -- are legally sold in California every day."

But until federal law changes, Brown said allowing the pilot program proposed in the bill to move forward would have subjected California farmers to federal prosecution.

State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who wrote the bill, said the program "was a real opportunity for the governor to create jobs and help California's farmers in a very desperate time."

Furthermore, Leno said the federal preemption argument is weak.

"The governor supports the production of medical marijuana -- that's no less illegal under federal law," he said. "Why wouldn't we want to pass another law to help California farms grow another cannabis sativa plant -- one that's not even a drug?"