420 Policies and Laws

[truthwolf1]

DEA Raids Legal Medical Marijuana Dispensaries In Washington, 'Humiliating' Shop Owners

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3653071.html

[Crow]

Last gasps... It's high time the DEA moves on to the bigger problems... Methamphetamine, heroin, and crack cocaine are prime examples.

-------------

First Medical Marijuana Sale Reported in DC

Voters in the District of Columbia approved Initiative 59, to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana, with 69% in favor in 1998. The effort was immediately put on hold after the US Congress passed the Barr Amendment, which prohibited Washington from using any of its funds for implementing its medical marijuana program. A decade later, in 2009, Congress finally overturned the amendment and the city could begin to implement the medical marijuana initiative in earnest. About four more years after that, the first sale of cannabis to a licensed medical patient occurred in the District of Columbia this week.

Expected Soon: More Decriminalized Marijuana In Michigan

As part of an ongoing cannabis law reform effort in Michigan, voters in three more Michigan cities will soon have the chance to do what their elected officials regularly fail to do: pass laws that decriminalize a small amount of cannabis for personal adult use.

The Detroit Free Press reports today that three Michigan cities–Ferndale, Jackson and likely Lansing–will have binding voter initiatives that effectively decriminalize cannabis possession in these three municipalities.

Tomorrow: Will Uruguay Be First Country To Legalize Marijuana?

As soon as tomorrow afternoon votes are expected in the Uruguayan House of Representatives which will cast the country into the lead to become the first country to official end cannabis prohibition.

The country’s president, José Mujica, and the ruling party in the Uruguayan Senate, Frente Ampli, are also public supporters of replacing cannabis prohibition with a state monopoly on cannabis commerce.

Since President Mujica’s public support for legalization was made public in Uruguay last year, a concerted effort to reform the country’s cannabis laws has been underway featuring national TV ad campaigns: with well produced ads featuring mothers, doctors and lawyers.

[Crow]

DEA settles left-in-cell case for $4M

Daniel Chong, the self-confessed pot smoker who was caught up in a drug sweep last year and nearly died after federal agents inadvertently abandoned him in a holding cell for five days without food or water, is now a millionaire.

Attorney Eugene Iredale announced Tuesday he reached a $4.1 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, without even filing a lawsuit.

The harrowing experience for Chong, 25, an engineering student, began on a Friday night in 2012, when he admittedly went to some friends’ house in University City to celebrate April 20, a special date for marijuana users.

Chong didn’t know it at the time, but the home had been under surveillance by a federal narcotics task force.

Drug agents executed a search warrant early in the morning of April 21, Among other things, they found 18,000 ecstasy pills, marijuana and several weapons in the residence, according to court papers.

The agents also found Chong sleeping on a couch in the front room and transported him and six others to the San Diego field office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for follow-up interviews.

Chong said he answered all of the agents’ questions and they agreed to send him home without criminal charges.

But instead he was returned to a temporary holding cell, where he spent the next four days without food or water. He has said he became delirious, drank his own urine, ate the broken shards of his glasses and used the glass to cut the message “sorry mom” in his own forearm.

Continued

[Crow]

Welcome Nr 20

Illinois Becomes 20th State To Sanction Therapeutic Use Of Cannabis

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn this morning signed legislation (HB 01) into law making Illinois the 20th state to authorize the physician-recommended use of cannabis for qualified patients. (View numerous pictures of today’s bill signing ceremony from Illinois NORML here.)

Continued...

-------------



States with medical cannabis laws
States with decriminalisation laws
States with both
States with legalised cannabis

[Crow]

..... and a follow-up with respect to Uruguay --

Uruguay votes to legalise marijuana

[Lambo-fan727]

Epic thread.

[Burnsey]

http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/20...11-at-8-pm-et/

Weed, should be a good medical perspective.

[Crow]

Absolutely... Now, I know that psychological dependency will be brought up (as it should); but how exactly will that be addressed? In-depth? Or just off-the-cuff?

It will be interesting to see how it is all presented.. Thanks for the link!

[Crow]

With Liberalized Laws, Young Adult Marijuana Use Plummets

"According to polling data released this week by Gallup, 38% of Americans admit to having smoked marijuana in their lives. This rate remains relatively unchanged from Gallup’s previous surveys on this question. 34% responded in the affirmative when asked in 1999 and 33% in 1985.

What is significant about this data is that, while total use had risen very slightly, use among 18-29 year olds has fallen 20% since 1985. In 1985, 56% of 18-29 year olds admitted to having tried marijuana, which dropped to 46% in 1999 and is now down to 36%. This decrease has occurred while twenty states approved medical marijuana legislation, sixteen states have decriminalized possession, and two states have fully legalized marijuana. The threats of skyrocketing young adult use seem incredibly unfounded when it appears the current trajectory towards marijuana legalization has had the opposite effect."

------------

Continued...

[Burnsey]

Absolutely... Now, I know that psychological dependency will be brought up (as it should); but how exactly will that be addressed? In-depth? Or just off-the-cuff?

It will be interesting to see how it is all presented.. Thanks for the link!

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/vi...juana.cnn.html

From last night: Dependency/addiction is the point that Samuels tries to make, he is confusing.

[Crow]

Marijuana Prohibition Responsible for Death of 2-Year-Old Girl

by Sabrina Fendrick, Director of Women's Outreach (NORML)



"Marijuana prohibition has taken yet another innocent life. In January 2013, two- year-old Alexandra Hill was taken from her home in Round Rock, Texas because her parents had admitted to smoking pot after their child had gone to bed. As a result, she was placed with an abusive foster mother, who subsequently beat her to death.

According to her father, Joshua Hill, who spoke with KVUE, a local ABC affiliate, “She would come to visitation with bruises on her, and mold and mildew in her bag. It got to a point where [he] actually told CPS that they would have to have [him] arrested because [he] wouldn’t let her go back.” A few days later, the Hill family got a call informing them that their daughter was in a coma, and they needed to get to the hospital right away. Two days after that, Alex was taken off life support. Up until she was snatched from her family in January, the 2 year old had never been sick or gone to the hospital.

“When a parent who responsibly consumes marijuana after hours is seen as neglectful in comparison to a parent who responsibly enjoys a glass of wine, then the system isn’t just broken, it’s deadly,” said Sabrina Fendrick, Director of Women’s Outreach at NORML. Little Alex’s fate was sealed the minute the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) determined that such behavior qualifies as “neglectful supervision,” and put her with a foster mother who had not been given a proper background check."

Source

[sirloot]

Erin Burnett talks to Dr. Sanjay Gupta about him changing his mind on medical marijuana.

http://www.rr.com/video.Bi9ddQXX_IoH...L4gknpWQzKvpF8

[Crow]

[Skell18]

I think he just wants to get high

[Crow]

NORML Guest Column On CNN’s Frontpage

(CNN) – Despite decades of propaganda from marijuana prohibitionists, a majority of the American public has indeed said “enough” to the policies of cannabis criminalization. And no amount of fear-mongering is going to change this fact.

Writing in a just-published report by the Brookings Institute, ”The New Politics of Legalization,” authors E.J. Dionne and William Galston conclude, “In less than a decade, public opinion has shifted dramatically toward support for the legalization of marijuana. … Demographic change and widespread public experience using marijuana imply that opposition to legalization will never again return to the levels seen in the 1980s. The strong consensus that formed the foundation for many of today’s stringent marijuana laws has crumbled.”

Read the rest of the essay here.

-------------

Source