Tag: Marijuana Reform (page 8)

Backers of an initiative to legalize and tax marijuana have delivered petitions with 700,000 signatures -- more than the required 433,000-- to the state to get on the November ballot.

The new initiative would allow California residents to cultivate up to 25 square feet of pot and possess or transport up to 1 ounce. It would include fines and criminal sanctions for providing marijuana to minors.

The initiative would allow cities to tax pot sales and regulate how much pot can be sold legally. It would permit individual cities to ban local sales but let citizens possess and consume marijuana.

The group behind the effort says legalization would bring in more than $1 billion in tax revenue. [More...]

Seattle's new city attorney, Pete Holmes, says his office will no longer prosecute marijuana possession cases, and is going to dismiss those that are pending.

City Attorney Pete Holmes, who beat incumbent Tom Carr in November, said he dismissed two marijuana-related cases in his first day on the job, and several others are about to be dismissed. In addition, his new criminal division chief, Craig Sims, said he is reviewing about 50 more cases. Unless there are "out of the ordinary circumstances," Sims said, the office doesn't intend to file charges for marijuana possession.

"We're not going to prosecute marijuana-possession cases anymore," Holmes said Thursday during a public interview as part of Town Hall's Nightcap series. "I meant it when I said it" during the campaign.

Seattle has an ordinance making pot possession the lowest priority for police. Last week, a ballot initiative was filed to legalize adult marijuana possession, manufacturing and sales in the state. The Legislature is already considering bills to decriminalize and regulate marijuana, or to make it legal in the state.

In November, Breckenridge voters overwhelmingly passed an initiative decriminalizing >adult possession of small amounts of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. It went into effect today.

Breckenridge is the first town in the country to decriminalize drug paraphernalia, and the second to allow recreational marijuana use (Denver is the first.) Since under state law, possession of up to an ounce of pot or drug parahphernalia carries a $100.00 fine and is classified as a petty offense, it can leave you with a criminal record. So the change in Breckenridge is a welcome one, and not that trivial.

It remains to be seen whether Breckenridge becomes the "Amsterdam of the Rockies", or takes business away from neighboring Frisco, Silverthorne and Dillon, which serve the same ski areas, or results in an uptick in arrests for related activity.

"Skiing while stoned" is still illegal under other laws. As is buying, selling and growing marijuana and smoking or displaying it in public.

SAFER Colorado (Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation) Executive Director Mason Tvert explains in this interview in the Denver Post why alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana and how medical pot issues are being overblown.

Mason says the future is vaporization rather than smoking:

The future is vaporization. You basically heat marijuana to the point where it releases the chemicals and you inhale vapors. It never combusts so there's no smoke. There's never been a documented case of a marijuana- only smoker acquiring lung cancer as a result. Never. Not one.

How legalization would help the economy: [More...]

Breckenridge, Colorado tonight became the first town in the country to vote to decriminalize possession of drug paraphernalia. It also decriminalized possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for personal use.

The vote was 3 to 1, or 73 percent to 27 percent.

"This votes demonstrates that Breckenridge citizens overwhelmingly believe that adults should not be punished for making the safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol," said Sean McAllister, a Breckenridge attorney who proposed the ordinance.

Even though existing state law punishes personal possession of pot -- and bongs, pipes, etc.-- by a $100 fine rather than jail time, it still leaves those convicted with a criminal record. Thanks to voters in Breckenridge, that will no longer be the case. So it is a big deal.

The new law takes effect Jan. 1.

California legislators are holding a hearing today on legalizing and taxing marijuana for personal use. Should they decide against it, voters may still get the final word: three initiatives are expected to garner the necessary amount of signatures to make it to the ballot.

Tax officials estimate the legislation could bring the struggling state about $1.4 billion a year, and though the bill’s fate in the Legislature is uncertain, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has indicated he would be open to a “robust debate” on the issue.

What are the chances? [More...]

Signatures are being gathered in California for three 2010 ballot initiatives to legalize adult marijuana possession for personal use by adults.

If any of them pass, California would be the first state in the nation to legalize possession of marijuana. While it would still be illegal under federal law, it might not matter in practice:

Such action would also send the state into a headlong conflict with the U.S. government while raising questions about how federal law enforcement could enforce its drug laws in the face of a massive government-sanctioned pot industry.

....some legal scholars and policy analysts say the government will not be able to require California to help in enforcing the federal marijuana ban if the state legalizes the drug. Without assistance from the state's legions of narcotics officers, they say, federal agents could do little to curb marijuana in California.

[More...]

Via SaferChoice: In 2007, Denver voters passed a referendum amending a city ordinance so that law enforcement would make marijuana enforcement their lowest priority. In response, Mayor John Hickenlooper appointed a panel to implement the new ordinance.

The Denver Marijuana Policy Review Panel recommended today that the fine for marijuana possession be set at $1.

"Upon reviewing the fine schedule, we have noted that a number of offenses carry a $50 fine -- including urinating in public, park curfew, and open container violations -- and others carry even lesser fines, such as disobeying a signal light ($40), light rail violations ($26), and spitting in public ($25)," the Panel wrote in the letter. "We are...requesting that you revise the schedule to reflect the lowest law enforcement priority approved by the voters. "[W]e believe the court should reduce the fine to the absolute minimum allowable, or $1."

If Denver's presiding judge Mary Celeste accepts the recommendation, the $1 fine would be the lowest fine for marijuana possession in the entire nation. The entire letter to Judge Celeste is pasted below.

Medical marijuana dispensaries have been cropping up along the Front Range in Colorado. Already established in Basalt and Carbondale, two in Aspen are planning on opening.

Aspen's community development director issued an opinion Wednesday that the zoning code does not prohibit dispensaries just because it doesn't specifically recognize them. He says they should be zoned just like pharmacies.

Medical marijuana dispensaries are allowed anywhere in Aspen that allows an office, the city’s top planning director said Thursday.

...Aspen’s land-use code does not specifically recognize marijuana dispensaries but Chris Bendon, the city’s community development director, said his office examined various zoning definitions and determined the dispensaries should generally be treated like pharmacies.

Bendon's report will now go to the City Council for approval. What's causing this "brave new world"? [More...]

Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? is now available for immediate delivery. It's already #11 on the Amazon Bestseller list for new releases. It may be the best-selling marijuana book to date on Amazon.

Written by Mason Tvert, Paul Armentano and Steve Fox, with a foreward by former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper, the book argues marijuana is a safer recreational alternative to other substances like alcohol.

If you're in the neighborhood, there will be a launch event for the book Sunday at 2 p.m. at 8 Rivers Cafe, 1550 Blake St. in Denver. The book's Facebook page, with 4,700 members right now, is here.

Via NORML, which is encouraging people to contact their legislators about marijuana reform, here's the e-mail that a constituent received back from GA Rep. Tommy Benton (31st House District). He says he favors caning for minor pot offenders and execution for those that sell marijuana:

Thanks for the email. We will have to agree to disagree on this and whether or not money is wasted. I am opposed to the legalization of marijuana. I think we should go to caning for people caught using and maybe execute dealers. That would solve the problem as well. That is what they do in Singapore and they don’t have a drug problem, but then they have less liberty than we do here.

Rep. Tommy Benton
tommy.benton@house.ga.gov

In a follow-up e-mail, Benton threatened: [More...]

Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) today introduced a bill to eliminate all federal penalties for marijuana possession. Via the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP):

The Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009 would eliminate the threat of federal arrest and prison for the possession of up to 3.5 ounces of marijuana and the not-for-profit transfer of an ounce of marijuana — nationwide.

Please go here and send an e-mail to your Congressperson asking them to support this bill. You can view last year's version of the bill here.

Last week he introduced the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, (H.R. 2835), a bill to protect medical marijuana patients from arrest and jail and to allow pharmacies to dispense marijuana to patients with a doctor's recommendation. You can send a message to your Congressperson asking for support here.

Both bills were introduced last year but died at the end of the Congressional session. Hopefully, we'll have more luck this year. Please, do your part.