420 Use and Health

[Crow]

United States (Politics)

Gingrich Proposed the Death Penalty for Pot Smokers -- Even Though He Admitted to Smoking it Himself

Newt Gingrich proposed the death penalty for marijuana in 1997, and yet he is one of the 100 million Americans who have smoked marijuana.

Over the weekend, struggling Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson reminded MSNBC viewers that GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich had once to called to punish some drug offenders with death.

“Newt Gingrich, in 1997, proposed the death penalty for marijuana — for possession of marijuana above a certain quantity of marijuana,” Johnson explained. “And yet, he is among 100 million Americans who’ve smoked marijuana.”

“I would love to have a discussion with him on the fact that he smoked pot, and under the wrong set of circumstance he proposed the death penalty for, potentially, something that he had committed. I have troubles with that,” he added.

Johnson, a former New Mexico governor who has advocated for marijuana legalization since 1999, is at least partially correct about Gingrich’s position.

As Speaker of the House, Gingrich introducedthe “Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996.”

The bill would have required a “sentence of death for certain importations of significant quantities of controlled substances.” It would have applied to anyone convicted more than once of carrying 100 doses — or about two ounces — of marijuana across the border. Defendants would have had a window of 18 months to file their one and only appeal.

Continued at http://www.alternet.org/drugs/153414...ing_it_himself

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Seattle, Washington (US)

Lawsuit filed over Seattle's medical-marijuana ordinance

by Jonathan Martin, Seattle Times

Seattle's effort to bring medical-marijuana dispensaries under the wing of city ordinance was challenged as unconstitutional Wednesday on grounds it would require an admission of illegal activity.

A lawsuit, filed by longtime marijuana defense attorney Douglas Hiatt, accuses the city of legal hypocrisy by requiring dispensary owners to get licenses, pay taxes and abide by zoning laws while the city is also enforcing drug-nuisance laws.

The lawsuit exposes intrafamily fighting among marijuana-legalization advocates Seattle City attorney Pete Holmes, whose office championed the ordinance, and Hiatt, who views most regulation as de-facto admission that operating a marijuana dispensary is a federal crime.

"I think a lot of people are being misled" into thinking the city's ordinance protects dispensary owners, Hiatt said. "Those are all admissions of guilt in federal prosecution, and even in state prosecution."

Seattle's ordinance, passed in July, was the first municipal attempt in the state to regulate the medical-marijuana dispensaries that have blossomed — with an estimated 80 in Seattle alone — over the past several years.

Among the 16 states allowing medical marijuana, Washington has one of the most chaotic regulatory schemes because a bill in the 2010 Legislature to legalize and regulate dispensaries was mostly vetoed by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

She allowed municipalities to go their own way, resulting in patchwork local regulation, which funneled so-called "pot shops" into the most progressive cities.

"It's unfortunate that the most tolerant city in the state has been singled out for trying to do the right thing," Holmes said.

Philip Dawdy, spokesman for medical-marijuana trade group Washington Alternative Medicine Alliance, said the lawsuit undermines efforts by Holmes and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, who also is an advocate of marijuana legalization.

"Hiatt should be thanking them. Instead, he's suing," said Dawdy.

Since July, at least six municipalities have followed Seattle's lead and passed ordinances intended to treat dispensaries like other businesses.

Kurt Boehl, a Seattle attorney who represents dispensaries, said those ordinances helped to make legitimate patients' access to marijuana safer. "I don't know of anyone in the industry that has been harmed by legitimate regulation."

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @jmartin206.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ijuana15m.html

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Great. Just what I need right now... A 'group of patients' trying to stifle reform:

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Seattle, Washington (US)

Patients challenge Seattle marijuana rules

By Gene Johnson, Associated Press

SEATTLE — A group of patients sued to block new medical marijuana regulations in Seattle on Wednesday, saying cities in Washington have no authority to impose such rules.

The lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court sets up a legal fight over whether cities can take steps to regulate marijuana providers, following Gov. Chris Gregoire's veto of a bill that would have set up a system of state-licensed dispensaries.

Seattle is one of seven cities in Washington that have passed rules governing collective gardens since the veto. Others have imposed moratoriums forbidding the gardens from operating or providing marijuana to patients.

Seattle's City Council last summer approved rules requiring medical marijuana businesses to follow the same rules as any other businesses - obtain a license, pay taxes, follow land use and historical preservation codes, and follow safe food-handling guidelines. Mayor Mike McGinn signed the bill.

Douglas Hiatt, the Seattle medical marijuana lawyer who filed the lawsuit, said Wednesday that the state has not granted local governments in Washington the authority to impose rules governing medical marijuana, and that furthermore, requiring dispensaries to obtain a business license forces them to incriminate themselves. Washington's medical marijuana law, passed by voters in 1998, didn't make marijuana legal - it just allows patients to present a defense if they're charged with possession in state court.

"I told the City Council that if they passed this I would sue them, because they don't have the power to do this," Hiatt said. "I'm keeping my promise."

The Seattle city attorney's office would defend the law but has no further comment, spokeswoman Kimberly Mills said.

Kurt Boehl, a criminal defense attorney who worked closely with the city attorney's office to draft Seattle's ordinance, said he was disappointed.

"I don't see how suing the city helps patients," Boehl said. "We found a city that was willing to work with patients, to work with the medical marijuana community, and this is a slap in the face."

He argued that cities have inherent authority to regulate businesses that are open to the public in their jurisdiction. The business licensing requirement does not actually force dispensaries to incriminate themselves - at least not under state law, which allows for patient-to-patient transfers of marijuana, he said. He conceded that it requires the business owners to incriminate themselves under federal law, but he said he doubted if anyone had ever been investigated or prosecuted on that basis.

Issaquah, Mukilteo, Shoreline, Ellensburg, Gig Harbor and Castle Rock also have regulations governing collective gardens, according to Philip Dawdy, of the Washington Alternative Medicine Alliance. Several other cities, including Tacoma, are considering them.

"I have to ask why a longtime advocate for safe access to cannabis turns around and sues the principal city that has been able to provide safe access," Dawdy said of Hiatt. "What the city did was brave and heroic, and I don't know who's being hurt by these regulations."

Hiatt insisted there are problems with the regulations and with the state's medical marijuana law that need to be sorted out by the courts.

"Putting your head in the stand and pretending the problem doesn't exist doesn't make it go away," he said. "What I am trying to do is establish what the law is, what it can be and what people's rights are."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...mid=obinsource

[Crow]

United States

'Feds To Grant Exclusive Cannabinoid License To Pharma Firm'

The U.S. federal government's Department of Health and Human Services seems about ready to award exclusive rights to apply marijuana as a medical therapeutic. You read that correctly: "exclusive rights."

Now, I don't think of myself as a conspiracy theorist. But when the federal government keeps taking actions that, even when considered separately but especially when viewed together, all seem to be part of a bigger plan to pave the way for the pharmaceutical industry to bulldoze the cottage medical marijuana industry, I start getting antsy.

"We find it hypocritical and incredible that on the one hand, the U.S. Department of Justice is persecuting cannabis patient associations, asserting that the federal government regards marijuana as having absolutely no medical value, despite overwhelming clinical evidence," said Union of Medical Marijuana Patients director James Shaw. "On the other hand, the Department of Health and Human Services is planning to grant patent rights with possible worldwide application to develop medicine based on cannabis."

"Though UMMP welcomes any potential new research that could come from KannaLife Sciences' federal endorsement, it is highly disconcerting that the contemplated grant is an exclusive one," the organization posted on its website.

Article continued at: http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/12...nse_to_pha.php

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Seattle, Washington (US)

Smokin' Oldies: Colombian Weed Returns To Puget Sound

by Steve Elliot, Seattle Weekly (blog)

The ascendancy of medical-marijuana culture has made available an intoxicating array of cannabis strains from across the planet. Squat, potent indicas from the steppes of Afghanistan, towering sativas from the Thai highlands, and a million hybrids in between add up to a dizzying array of choices for the discerning patient.

Strain collectors have sought to preserve the genetic legacy of dozens of landrace cannabis plants from around the globe. Which means weed-culture phenoms whose names sound like a recitation of the '70s Greatest Ganja Hits -- including legendary strains like Panama Red and Colombian -- are making a comeback.

Of course, talk is cheap and names are expensive. In the absence of DNA matching, objective verification of a strain's genetic authenticity is all but impossible.

Some of us old-timers, though, were around the last time Colombian hit the scene, and that gives us a baseline from which to work. (The last time I saw it was around 1980 or 1981.) That's the reason I wanted to try the Colombian sativa at Puget Sound Health Alternatives, which opened September 1 at the edge of Queen Anne and Interbay.

I'd taken a wait-and-see attitude after seeing the 'Lombo listed on PSHA's online menu at WeedMaps.com. I later found out that the evocative description had been penned by none other than co-owner Tim, who was budtending on the recent Sunday I visited. "All you old-time smokers will travel down the slippery slope of memory when you smoke this one-of-a-kind gem," it read. "Musky and sweet. The high is long and strong."

When Tim actually showed me the Colombian sativa buds, they weren't the big donkey-dong flowers you see in High Times centerfolds--though PSHA did have plenty of those, in other strains. But what they lacked in size they made up for in trichomes and the promised sweet, musky smell.

But the truth is in the toking, so I happily made a 50-buck donation to try an eighth. My skepticism was soon shaken, because this weed does have the cerebral solidity of old-time Colombian, along with the ineffable sativa headrush that inspired a million late-night album marathons.

Nausea? Poof. Anxiety? Poof. Even pain was set back on its heels by this strain--and that doesn't always happen with sativas. (Now if I can just fight off this unhealthy yearning for Blue Öyster Cult . . . )

PSHA also had some powerful indicas, including Pineapple and Shiska Berry, for a donation of $15 per gram and $50 per eighth. (Very good $10 strains of both sativa and indica varieties are available--in fact, PSHA had some of the more spectacular $10 flowers I've ever seen.) Pineapple had a deliciously sweet taste and a satisfying wallop of pain relief and body stone. My stunned thought processes slowed to a leisurely, pleasurable crawl whilst I took an indica-inspired mental vacation.

Puget Sound Health Alternatives has plenty of parking and is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at the crossroads of 15th and Dravus at 3202 15th Ave. W., 402-5082, e-mail info@pugetsoundhealthalternatives.com, website pugetsoundhealthalternatives.com.

Could it really be Colombian after all these years? The Toke test says yes.

Article: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/daily...ian_weed_r.php

[LincolnSnuff]

bah....

[Crow]

bah....

Care to elaborate?

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United States (Politics)

Rep. Barney Frank Educates George Will and Paul Ryan on Marijuana Legalization

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), the primary sponsor of HR 2306: The Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011, appeared on ‘This Week with Christiane Amanpour’ on ABC with fellow guests George Will of the Washington Post and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).

The conversation found its way to marijuana legalization which led to Barney Frank calling out the hypocrisy of most of his conservative colleagues.

“It’s a great embarrassment to the conservatives,” said Frank, “They want to tell people who they can have sex with. Come on, all this is big government! Who can I have sex with? Who can I marry? What can I read? What can I smoke? You guys, on the whole — not all of you — but the conservatives are the ones who intrude on personal liberty there.”

The debate got heated between Frank and George Will. “I mean, personal liberty, if someone wants to smoke marijuana who’s an adult, why do you want to make them go to jail?” Frank questioned.

“I need to know more about whether it’s a gateway drug to other drugs, I need to know how you’re going to regulate it,” George Will replied.

“Anything is a gateway to anything,” Representative Frank shot back, “That’s the slippery slope argument which is a very anti-libertarian argument. The fact that if somebody is doing something that’s not in itself wrong, that it might lead later on to something else then stop the something else. Don’t lock them up for smoking marijuana.”

Will defended himself claiming, “What you’re calling a cop-out, I’m calling a quest for information.”

“How long’s it going to last, George?” Frank asked, “We’ve been doing this for decades.”

http://blog.norml.org/2011/12/19/rep...-legalization/

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Washington (US)

Senator Kohl-Welles' bill summary

From Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles:

Bill summary - Dec. 15, 2011

On December 15, 2011, Sen. Kohl-Welles sent a summary of her proposed legislation. She is seeking
feedback from the medical cannabis community by December 22, 2011. Her email address is
jeanne.kohl-welles@leg.wa.gov

Collective garden restrictions

Amends the section which authorizes collective gardens

 Membership in gardens is limited to patients and designated providers. Patients and providers
may only be a member of one collective garden;
 Collective gardens may have a maximum of 10 members and the membership period must be
for at least 5 days;
 Members may produce, process, transport, or deliver cannabis for the medical use of its
members;
 Plant and useable cannabis limits at set at 15 plants per member up to a total of 45 plants and
24 ounces of cannabis per member up to a total of 72 ounces;
 Contributions of patients and providers may not be solely monetary;
 Only one garden is allowed per tax parcel;
 Local governments may impose zoning, licensing, permitting, and health and safety
requirements, taxes, fees, or other conditions upon a collection garden but such regulation may
not preclude the siting of collective gardens within that jurisdiction;
 A copy of each member's valid documentation or registration card and proof of identity must be
available on the premises.

Nonprofit patient cooperatives

Permits nonprofit patient cooperatives (NPCs) providing counties, cities and towns with opt-in and
opt-out options

 Counties (and the cities within those counties) with a population of less than 200,000 are
permitted to opt-in. NPCs will not be permitted unless such jurisdictions allow by ordinance;
 Counties (and the cities within those counties) with a population of 200,000 or more are
permitted to opt-out. NPCs will be permitted in these jurisdictions unless they agree to prohibit
them by ordinance. The population number is copied from the pilot project language in SB 5955;
 If local jurisdictions allow NPCs they may impose zoning, licensing, permitting, and health and
safety requirements, taxes, fees, or other conditions upon a NPC. Local jurisdictions may also set
limits on the number of members.

NPCs must:

 Be registered with the secretary of state as nonprofit corporations;
 Limit membership to qualifying patients or their designated providers;
 Confirm that a nonregistered patient qualifies for the medical use of cannabis by contacting the
authorizing health care professional's office;
 Comply with plant and useable cannabis limits
o 15 plants per member up to a total of 99 plants
o 24 ounces of useable cannabis per member up to a total of 144 ounces
 Make available on the premises a copy of each member's valid documentation or registration
card and proof of identity;
 Only deliver cannabis to members;
 Not permit cannabis to be consumed on the premises;
 Ensure that cannabis cannot be viewed from outside the facility;
 Not be located within 500 feet of community centers, child care centers, or schools. Local
governments can increase/decrease this requirement;
 Not advertise to the general public in any manner that promotes the use of cannabis. This
prohibition does not apply to advertising in medical marijuana trade journals and on medical
marijuana websites;
 Set the price of cannabis and membership fees at a rate that only covers expenses. Fees may be
adjusted based on individual consumption rates and level of participation in the NPC;
 Allow only members or staff of the NPC to be on the premises except that NPCs may periodically
allow media and government officials to visit the NPC;
 Be independent facilities, unaffiliated with other NPCs. NPCs can have multiple locations but
plant and usable cannabis limits cannot exceed what’s allowable for that one NPC;
 Permit local government employees to access records while engaged in their official duties.

NPCs may:

 Produce cannabis and/or obtain cannabis from collective gardens (subject to plant and useable
cannabis limits);
 Hire staff to assist in operating the NPC or use member volunteers;
 Staff is provided with an affirmative defense unless they are patients or designated providers
who are registered.

Members of a NPC may:

 Only be a member of one NPC at a time;
 Volunteer or work for a NPC but are not required to do so;
 Also be a member of a collective garden if that garden produces cannabis for the NPC (patients
and providers can only be a member of one collective garden and one NPC).

Medical cannabis registry

Establishes a voluntary registry within the Department of Health (DOH)

 Patients and providers who are registered and in compliance with state law are provided with
arrest protection;
 Patients and providers who are not registered may assert an affirmative defense if they
otherwise comply with the law;
 DOH must adopt rules relating to the creation, implementation, maintenance, and upgrading of
the registry. This process will be guided by a stakeholder advisory committee;
 DOH may contract out the operation of the registry;
 Law enforcement may only access the registry in connection with a specific legitimate criminal
investigation;
 Before seeking an arrest warrant law enforcement must make reasonable efforts to ascertain
whether the person under investigation is registered;
 Personally identifiable information must be nonreversible, not susceptible to linkage, and
subject to current best differential privacy practices;
 Registration cards must be issued on tamper resistant paper.

Other provisions

 Removes obsolete references to licensed dispensaries, etc.,
 Allows for the taxation of the medical use of cannabis until it is rescheduled;
 Modifies the Washington State Institute for Public Policy study to focus on activities of local
governments;
 Requires cannabis exceeding a total of 24 ounces to be transported in a locked metal box that is
bolted to the transporting vehicle unless it is being transported by a patient or provider and is
for the personal medical use of the patient or the provider's patient;
 Prohibits law enforcement from discriminating against non-registered patients;
 Exempts records containing names and other personally identifiable information relating to
patients, providers, collective gardens and NPCs from the public records act.
 Disallows conviction of DUI for qualifying patients based solely on the presence, or presence in a
certain concentration, of components or metabolites of cannabis. Proof of actual impairment is
required.

Your feedback has been requested.

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United States

"Pot Patriotism Plus Jury Nullification Equals US vs. Heicklen"

by Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director

George Washington University law professor and longtime jury nullification proponent Paul Butler pens a noteworthy op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times.

Notable not only because of the important subject matter vis-à-vis the first example proffered by Professor Butler, but also too because of the defendant in the case at bar cited.

Professor Julian Heicklen has been protesting Cannabis Prohibition laws since the mid 1990s, mainly around the Penn State campus where he was a longtime Chemistry professor, principally by causing a ruckus around jury nullification and protesting without permits.

Here is a related story NORML featured about Prof. Heicklen in 1998.

Well, to his ever-loving credit, in his retirement, this 79-year-old freedom loving activist is still–through his own pain and suffering–working hard to inform the public and potential jurors that they (better said, we) all have the right to vote our conscience when in judgment of our fellow citizens in a criminal court of law.

I too join Professors Heicklen and Butler in what some prosecutors deem a ‘crime’ and that is to educate as many citizens as possible that they don’t have to keep upholding bad laws like Cannabis Prohibition by voting to punish citizens for non-violent cannabis-related criminal offenses.

American citizens when acting as jurors have the right and responsibility to “Just Say No” to enforcing the country’s failed and expensive Cannabis Prohibition laws.

Many thanks to John Peter Zenger, Julian Heicklen, Paul Butler and all citizens who fully exercise their rights to nullify bad laws.

http://blog.norml.org/2011/12/21/pot...s-vs-heicklen/

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Drug Education Should Reflect Reality Not Deny It

by Sabrina Fendrick, NORML Women's Alliance

[Fact: Drugs are pervasive in our society and, one way or another, adolescents will be exposed to mind-altering substances.]

It is an unmistakable reality that a significant number of high school students will try marijuana. According to the recent 2011 Monitoring the Future Survey, nearly 40 percent of all high school seniors admit to having smoked marijuana in the past year – a percentage that has held relatively stable since the study’s inception over 35 years ago.

Some want to use this fact as a justification to deny any opportunity to rationally discuss marijuana, its use, and its risks with children in an open and honest manner. They think that saying anything about marijuana other than encouraging its total abstinence is condoning its use. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

When society teaches sex education, are we suggesting that all the teenagers go out and engage in sexual intercourse? No. Rather, it is an acknowledgement that the best way to reduce the negative effects associated with sex (unwanted pregnancy, STD’s, etc) is through honest, objective information that allow people to understand their options and provides them with the tools they need to make informed decisions.

When we talk to teenagers about the dangers of drinking and driving, are we condoning alcohol use among minors? No, of course not. It is, however, a reality that many adolescents will a) likely consume alcohol as seniors in high school and b) have access to a car. Yes, we encourage students not to drink. But, we urge them specifically not to drink and drive.

We can all agree that teens should not smoke pot, or be using any mind-altering substances. Those are important, developmental years. Still, teens should be educated regarding how smoking marijuana can affect their body’s development specifically, how to reduce any harms associated with its use, and to distinguish between use and abuse. There should be honest, truthful drug education.

As Kristen Gwynne states in her AlterNet article, “Give young people accurate information, and they will use it to make better decisions that result in less harm to themselves, because teens, like everybody else, do not actually want to get hurt or become addicts.”

She goes on to say, “Giving students honest information about drugs [will]…increase the odds that they will use drugs safely, and reduce the likelihood of experiencing the [relative] harms associated with [it].”

By contrast, the Drug Czar and federal law advocates for complete prohibition, limited information explaining the real effects of marijuana and condemning any opportunity, as Gwynne states, to provide “education that helps teens understand their health options, and ways of reducing the harm of drugs.” When it comes to our children, like everything else we teach in school for development and behavioral growth, drug education should be based in reality, not a denial of it.

In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “If a state expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

http://blog.norml.org/2011/12/23/dru...y-not-deny-it/

http://norml.org/women

[Ansel]

Use of Ayurvedic herbs to complement marijuana:

http://organicindiausa.com/MarijuanaandAyurveda

and:

David Winston, herbalist

In my clinical practice I use holy basil to enhance cerebral circulation and memory. It is used in ayurvedic medicine to relieve “mental fog” caused by chronic cannabis smoking. It can be combined with other cerebral stimulants such as rosemary, bacopa, and ginkgo to help people with menopausal cloudy thinking, poor memory, attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and to speed up recovery from head trauma.

Quote from here: http://www.holy-basil.com/6865.html

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Marijuana doesn't harm lung function, study found

Smoking a joint once a week or a bit more apparently doesn't harm the lungs, suggests a 20-year study that bolsters evidence that marijuana doesn't do the kind of damage tobacco does.

Smoking a joint once a week or a bit more apparently doesn't harm the lungs, suggests a 20-year study that bolsters evidence that marijuana doesn't do the kind of damage tobacco does.

The results, from one of the largest and longest studies on the health effects of marijuana, are hazier for heavy users - those who smoke two or more joints daily for several years. The data suggest that using marijuana that often might cause a decline in lung function, but there weren't enough heavy users among the 5,000 young adults in the study to draw firm conclusions.

Still, the authors recommended "caution and moderation when marijuana use is considered."

Marijuana is an illegal drug under federal law although some states allow its use for medical purposes.

Article continued at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...uanalungs.html

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Michigan (US)

Michigan Marijuana Amendment Would End Debate Over Medicinal Use

Michigan marijuana activists are gearing up for a campaign to amend the state's constitution to legalize the herb.

If passed, the proposed amendment would end the prohibition of marijuana in Michigan. It covers the cultivation, use, sale and distribution of the cannabis plant for adults over the age of 21.

Charmie Gholson, communications director for Committee for a Safer Michigan, the Detroit-based group sponsoring the effort, told HuffPost that media reports claiming a petition drive in favor of the amendment would start this week were a bit premature. Organizers are still waiting for the exact formatting of the proposal to be approved by the State of Michigan, but expect to make a formal announcement next week.

Article continued at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1194313.html

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Florida (US)

Medical marijuana bills filed in Florida House and Senate

By Anne Geggis, Gainesville Sun

A state budget crunch that won’t quit, legislative reapportionment and gaming are expected to crowd the legislative season that starts in Tallahassee Tuesday — but for some, nothing has quite the same buzz as an effort to allow the medical use of marijuana.

It’s the second year in a row that legislation has been filed to start Florida on the path that 16 other states and the District of Columbia have taken, starting with California in 1996. And this year represents the first time that a bill allowing marijuana as a medicinal has been filed in both the House and the Senate.

For some from the home of “Gainesville Green” — a celebrated strain of marijuana — and the recently revived Hemp Fest — including those who have served jail time for being a “Doobie Tosser” — this legislation can’t come quickly enough.

House Joint Resolution 353 and Senate Joint Resolution 1028 propose that the question of allowing marijuana for medical use should appear on the 2012 ballot as a statewide referendum. If approved by at least 60 percent of the voters, the state constitution would be amended.

Never mind that neither of the bills has been scheduled for hearings. Jodi James, executive director of the Florida Cannabis Action Network, is, well, elated.

“This is the first time since 1978 that cannabis advocates will have a sustained presence in the Legislature,” said James, explaining that her Melbourne-based group has launched a website, www.fldecides.org in the effort.

Even more than advocating for the proposed legislation, James’ group is planning on petitioning Gov. Rick Scott, asking him to urge the Legislature to pass a bill that bypasses the constitutional amendment process and allows medical marijuana use in Florida.

“Sick and dying people need access to this medicine now,” James said.

Article continued at http://health.heraldtribune.com/2012...-house-senate/

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Arizona (US)

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer relents; dispensaries will be registered

by Karen O'Keefe, MPP

Today, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) announced she will not re-file her lawsuit questioning the validity of Arizona’s medical marijuana program. She also announced that once litigation is resolved challenging the health department rules, her health department will begin issuing dispensary registrations.

Gov. Brewer’s announcement follows a January 4 ruling dismissing her lawsuit. Judge Susan Bolton agreed with the ACLU, Department of Justice, and other attorneys, and found that there was no genuine, imminent threat that state employees would be prosecuted. Bolton said that Brewer could re-file if the problems with her complaint were addressed.

The U.S. attorney for Arizona at the time the case was filed, Dennis Burke, sent a letter to the Arizona health department on May 2, 2011 that flew in the face of the Obama Administration’s stated policy of not targeting those complying with state medical marijuana laws. Burke’s letter said “the [federal] CSA may be vigorously enforced against those individuals and entities who operate large marijuana production facilities” even if they are in compliance with state laws, as well as those who “knowingly facilitate the actions of traffickers.” After receiving the letter, Gov. Brewer directed Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne to file the litigation requesting clarity, even though Burke told media outlets that his office would not target state employees.

Today, Gov. Brewer wrote the acting U.S. attorney for Arizona, Ann Birmingham Scheel, noting her plans to finally move forward. Brewer requested clarification as to whether there are any activities state employees should not engage in and said “the Department of Justice and the administration which you serve will have a lot of explaining to do to the citizens of our country, and State of Arizona employees in particular, if the State’s reasonable and straightforward requests for clarity are ignored, and the Department of Justice then ambushes State employees with prosecution or civil penalties for implementing the AMMA and licensing medical marijuana dispensaries.”

Now, only one governor is stubbornly refusing to move forward with implementing a duly enacted medical marijuana dispensary program: Gov. Lincoln Chafee (I) of Rhode Island. Here’s hoping he finally sees the light.

http://blog.mpp.org/medical-marijuan...ered/01132012/