Marijuana

Although it has the support of the governor and the public, a Vermont bill to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana is stalled, held hostage by a hostile House speaker, the Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus reported Saturday.

[image:1 align:left caption:true]Under the bill, House Bill 427, possession of less than an ounce by people 21 and over would be punishable by no more than a $150 fine. People aged 18-20 would be subject to the fine on a first offense and a drug awareness course or community service on the second offense. Minors would be subject to drug awareness or community service for a first offense and could be fined up to $300 for failure to comply. Current law mandates up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $500 for simple possession.

Speaker of the House Shap Smith is blocking the bill. Tom Cheney, an aide of Smith's, told the Times-Argus the bill will not make it to a floor vote this session. Cheney said Smith had concerns that some in the state’s law enforcement community may not support the legislation.

That wouldn't include Commissioner of Public Safety Keith Flynn, who has said he supports decriminalization and that the state should make better use of its law enforcement resources. That also wouldn't include Gov. Peter Shumlin (D), who has said he supports decriminalization because it would free up law enforcement resources.

Flynn and Shumlin are joined by a majority of the state's voters in supporting decriminalization according to a poll last week. Commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), which is pushing the legislation, the Public Policy Polling survey found that 63% supported decriminalization as envisioned in HB 427, with only 29% opposed. The poll also found that 52% said if their legislator voted for decriminalization, they would be more likely to vote for him or her, while only 25% would be less likely.

"It's time for legislative leadership to bring this sensible proposal to a vote, so that Vermont can focus its limited criminal justice resources on crime with actual victims," said Karen O'Keefe, MPP director of state policies.

Somebody needs to get the Speaker of the House on the same page as his colleagues, his governor, and the people of Vermont.

The Columbian, 20 Feb 2012 - County Commissioners Correctly Decide to Protect Employees From Prosecution Athough many local residents might suspect there's a legalizing-pot debate under way among Clark County leaders, that's really not the case. A more accurate description is that of a legal dilemma. County commissioners are caught in a tug of war between a new state law that allows collective medical marijuana gardens, and federal law that prohibits growing, distributing and possessing the substance.Last year, the commissioners made the right call when they imposed a moratorium on implementing the state law, and now they say they will extend that moratorium beyond its July expiration date. That, too, appears to be a correct decision, even more so in light of a recent letter to county commissioners from the U.S. Department of Justice. As Stephanie Rice reported in Friday's Columbian, commissioners had asked the feds if county employees would be immune from prosecution if they perform tasks related to zoning and permitting of state-sanctioned collective medical! marijuana gardens. That seems to be a question of profound importance, especially of county employees who don't want to face federal criminal charges for doing their jobs.

Daily Nebraskan, 20 Feb 2012 - Marijuana Policy Project Refutes Claims of Study, Says It Doesn't Account for All Factors Smoking marijuana just a few hours before driving nearly doubles a person's risk of getting into a car accident, a recent study found.

St. Joseph News-Press, 20 Feb 2012 - Sixteen states, as well as the District of Columbia, have legalized the use of medical marijuana. A statewide group is looking to take it a step further, however, and legalize all marijuana use in Missouri. A group of about 65 volunteers have been hitting the streets in St. Joseph, looking for supporters of Show-Me Cannabis, an association that seeks to legalize and regulate marijuana use in the state. Missouri's Secretary of State requires 150,000 signatures on a statewide petition by May 6 in order for a legalization measure to appear on November's ballot.

All 16 cannabis coffee shops in the city of Haarlem have united in opposition to the Dutch government's "Weed Pass" program, which would bar foreigners from entry to the coffee shops and make the coffee shops "members only" for Dutch citizens. The plan foresees placing a cap on the number of members each coffee shop could have.

[image:1 align:left caption:true]The conservative coalition governing the Netherlands doesn't like marijuana. It has created the Weed Pass program first as a measure to reduce "drug tourism" in Dutch border cities, and second as a means of restricting coffee shop numbers within the county. It was supposed to be rolled out in the border towns in January, but has been delayed until May, and is supposed to go nationwide next year, despite objections from, among others, the city of Amsterdam.

The Haarlem coffee shop owners, unified as Team Haarlems' Coffeeshopentrepreneurs (THC), announced Friday that they "have decided not to comply with the new criteria for tolerated coffee shops, like registering Dutch citizens as cannabis users, and discriminating against all non-Dutch coffee shop visitors."

The Weed Pass plan would bankrupt their businesses and lead to increases in street drug dealing and personal marijuana cultivation, the association warned. It cited the results of a poll of 700 coffee shop patrons it had conducted.

That poll found that only 12.4% of participants would register under the Weed Pass program. Nearly 63% said they would buy marijuana on the black market, while 21.7% said they would grow their own instead.

If coffee shops lost nearly 90% of their clientele, they would go broke, so complying with the Weed Pass "is simply no option," the association said. Closing up shop would result in the loss of about 90 "budtender" jobs in the city, they added.

"We cannot beat bankruptcy, so our staff, customers and ourselves are ready to start a struggle with Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten, before our civilized city will be divided in working areas for street dealers and drug runners," the association vowed.

Haarlem is a city of about 150,000 people just west of Amsterdam and on the northern fringe of the Randstad, a conurbation of 7.1 million people, that includes Amsterdam, The Hague,  Rotterdam, and Utrecht, and is one of the largest metropolitan areas in Europe.

Globe and Mail, 19 Feb 2012 - Geoff Plant has felt for years that the prohibition of marijuana is wrong. Now that the former B.C. attorney-general is out of government, he has joined the chorus of officials and former politicians pushing for the legalization of the drug. "I have always had a problem with the idea that the state should criminalize an act which is essentially no more complex than putting a couple of seeds in your back yard, waiting a while and then, when something grows, you put it in your pocket, you chew it or you smoke it," Mr. Plant said.

Helena Independent Record, 19 Feb 2012 - The number of medical marijuana cardholders in Montana continues to plummet, while the number of legal marijuana providers is a fraction of its peak, as the industry faces an uncertain future here. The 2011 Legislature passed of a much more restrictive law, Senate Bill 423, which has reduced these numbers. Then there were several dozen federal raids of medical marijuana growing operations, along with the arrests and convictions of some owners.

Rapid City Journal, 19 Feb 2012 - The media have no clue how to cover the death of Whitney Houston. That's because she was slowly dying for years and many in the press simply averted their eyes. It was ultra-disturbing that a beautiful woman blessed with an extraordinary singing voice chose a self-destructive path in full view of the world. I mean, here is a person who signed a $100 million recording contract, actually sold 170 million albums and commanded high six figures to deliver a 90-minute concert. Houston was a genuine international star, and yet she often was seen in public disheveled and confused, her substance addiction apparent. The media simply did not know what to say.

Miami Herald, 19 Feb 2012 - For the first time since the United States launched its "war on drugs" four decades ago, there are signs that the forces supporting legalization or de-criminalization of illegal drugs are gaining momentum across the hemisphere. Granted, this is a debate that is just starting at government levels, and that will take years to produce concrete results.

The Billings Gazette, 19 Feb 2012 - MEDICAL MARIJUANA NUMBERS DROP AS UNCERTAINTY SURROUNDS INDUSTRY HELENA -- The number of medical marijuana cardholders in Montana continues to plummet while the number of legal marijuana providers is a fraction of its peak, as the industry faces an uncertain future here.

Nanaimo News Bulletin, 18 Feb 2012 - The federal government's proposed crime bill was the topic of a protest in downtown Nanaimo Thursday. About 30 people gathered in the rain to participate in a rally that started in Maffeo Sutton Park and ended in front of the courthouse on Front Street.

St. Albert Gazette, 18 Feb 2012 - Four former Attorneys-General of British Columbia - spanning two political parties (NDP and Liberal) and fourteen years in office - have called for the legalization of marijuana. The federal government (Conservative) continues to move towards harsher drug penalties including for the marijuana trade. This political split mirrors opinion in the country, where periodic polls do not show a solid, sustaining majority one way or the other on the issue. Marijuana and harder drugs were not much of a concern in Canada more than half a century ago when I went through my school years here in Alberta, then moved on to military colleges in Victoria and Kingston, without encountering any drugs or users. But the recreational narcotics climate began shifting in the latter part of the 1960s. Whether this was part of a world trend, a North American loosening up in reaction to the Vietnam War, or whatever, the winds of change had a distinct burning leaf odour. My first close awareness came in the summer of 1971, soon after U.S. President Nixon famously proclaimed the "War on Drugs." Having a health issue requiring surgery, I shared a room in an Ottawa military hospital with a chatty airman from the local military aviation base. He explained that the junior ranks quarters there commonly reeked of marijuana fumes. Some years later as a lawyer I had to review the transcript of a court martial from our army in Germany - the barracks scene ! depicted sounded pretty much what the airman had described earlier.

South Whidbey Record, 18 Feb 2012 - LANGLEY - The plans for a medical marijuana "access point" in the Village by the Sea got a warm but wary welcome from city officials at a special council workshop this week. Lucas Jushinski, a 35-year-old Freeland resident, Iraq War veteran and combat medic, has applied for a business license with hopes to set up Island Alternative Medicine behind the All Washed-Up Laundromat on Second Street.

The proponents of a Colorado initiative to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol turned in more than 14,000 additional voter signatures Friday in a last bid to qualify for the November ballot. The initiative needs only 2,400 valid signatures to qualify, meaning a whopping four out of five signatures handed in would have to be invalidated to keep the measure off the ballot.

[image:1 align:right]The campaign had earlier turned in 159,000 signatures, nearly twice the 86,000 needed to qualify. But on examining the signatures, state election officials found that nearly half were invalid, an usually high percentage.

The initiative would amend the state constitution to allow the use, possession, and limited growing of marijuana by persons aged 21 or over. It would also establish a system through which marijuana is taxed and regulated -- like alcohol.

If the initiative qualifies for the ballot, Colorado will become the second state to ask voters to choose to legalize marijuana this year. New Approach Washington has successfully placed a similar measure, I-502, on the Washington ballot. Legalization initiative campaigns are also underway in California, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, and Oregon, but none of those have passed the signature-gathering hurdle.

Issaquah Reporter, 17 Feb 2012 - By a vote of 6-1 Tuesday night, the Sammamish city council supported a motion by former mayor Don Gerend, to authorize mayor Tom O'Dell to sign the Association of Washington Cities Mayor's letter in support of reclassification of marijuana. Ironically, O'Dell cast the one dissenting vote.

Cowichan News Leader, 17 Feb 2012 - Opposition forces seem poised to make a push for reform in Canada's marijuana laws. But no one's expecting the federal government to respond any time soon. The federal Liberals recently adopted cannabis legalization as an official party policy, while that, or decriminalization, has the support of most federal NDP leadership candidates.

Campbell River Mirror, 17 Feb 2012 - With former attorneys general, ex-municipal mayors and a host of medical health officers all advocating for the legalization of marijuana, the public should start to wonder what politicians are smoking to make inaction seem like the right decision. Former B.C. Attorney General Geoff Plant and his colleagues are the latest to lobby the province for reforms to its marijuana laws by ending prohibition on B.C.'s unofficial cash crop. Like prohibition of alcohol during the Great Depression made millionaires out of bootleggers and gangsters, marijuana laws financially benefit both organized crime and petty criminals, while punishing taxpaying, law-abiding citizens for inhaling in the privacy of their homes. The framework for restriction, regulation and taxation of marijuana exists, through our extensive alcohol and tobacco legislation. Impairment laws currently apply to marijuana.

The Record, 17 Feb 2012 - Four of the province's former attorneys general want marijuana legalized to curb gang activity associated with the illegal drug trade. New Westminster's Graeme Bowbrick, along with Colin Gabelmann, Ujjal Dosanjh, and Geoff Plant, signed an open letter on the issue, addressed to Premier Christy Clark and B.C. New Democrat leader Adrian Dix.

Richmond News, 17 Feb 2012 - Four former attorneys general of British Columbia have co-authored a letter asking Premier Christy Clark and Opposition leader Adrian Dix to endorse an end to marijuana prohibition. Colin Gabelmann, Ujjal Dosanjh, Graeme Bowbrick and Geoff Plant represent an unusual alignment of former senior cabinet ministers: three NDP politicians, one a premier and one a B.C. Liberal.

Winnipeg Free Press, 17 Feb 2012 - VANCOUVER -- Oh, band of brothers! Four former B.C. attorneys general - -- Colin Gabelmann, Ujjal Dosanjh, Graeme Bowbrick and Geoff Plant -- have platooned together to fight the war against the war on drugs. They want to see the legalization and state control of marijuana.