By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

The New York Legislature decriminalized marijuana in that state back in the 1970s. But simple marijuana possession is still the #1 cause of arrest in New York City, with 149,951 pot busts last year. What gives?

NYPD cops use the "public view" exception to the decrim law to trap people, that's what. Officers will misleadingly ask a suspect to "take the pot out of your pocket," and then bust them for "public display" of the weed, which ups what would have been a traffic ticket-like event into a violation with arrest and possible jail time.

More and more civil rights activists have noticed this disturbing phenomenon, and the NYPD is increasingly coming under pressure to stop its dishonest tactics when it comes to busting pot smokers. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried last year to remove the "public view" provision in the criminal code last year, reports John Surico at the Village Voice, and even NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has asked his officers to back off with the pot arrests, already.

Happily, it seems this is finally starting to have an impact, 35 years after decrim.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Attorney General Eric Holder encountered an unhappy crowd of dozens of pro-marijuana protesters at the University of California Berkeley's campus on Saturday when he visited to address the graduating law school class.

During Holder's visit to campus, an airplane circled above Berkeley's Greek Theater for more than two hours, pulling a banner reading "Holder: End Rx Cannabis War #Peace4Patients," reports Carly Schwartz at The Huffington Post. As the Attorney General's limo turned toward the graduation ceremony, demonstrators were waving signs reading "Fight Crime, Not Cannabis."

"There's no doubt we got the A.G.'s attention," said California NORML President Dale Gieringer. "He can't come to Berkeley and not be reminded of his department's bad faith with respect to marijuana."

Holder and the Obama Administration have been harshly criticized for the stepped-up federal crackdown on the medical marijuana industry in California and other states which allow the medicinal use of cannabis.

Though medical marijuana was legalized by California's voters through Proposition 215, a 1996 ballot initiative, cannabis remains illegal for any purpose under federal law.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Illinois Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon on Sunday said she supports a bill allowing the medicinal use of cannabis, explaining that testimony from seriously ill veterans and other medical marijuana patients helped to change her mind.

"As a former prosecutor my first reaction was, 'I'm not interested in changing our laws on medical marijuana,' " Lt. Gov. Simon told The Associated Press in a Sunday interview.

But after hearing from patients and reading up on the bill -- described as the strictest in the nation among medical marijuana states -- Simon said she is convinced the regulations are stringent enough.

The bill, which has cleared the Illinois House and awaits a Senate vote, would let physicians authorize patients with whom they have "an existing relationship" to use medicinal marijuana for more than 30 medical conditions, including cancer.

A pilot program would be created; patients and caregivers would be required to undergo background checks and would be limited to 2.5 ounces per patient per purchase from state-regulated dispensaries.

Governor Peter Shumlin Expected To Sign Bill Into Law

Proposal backed by tripartisan group of legislators and state's top law enforcement officials will replace criminal penalties for simple marijuana possession with a civil fine similar to a traffic ticket

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

State lawmakers gave final approval Monday to a measure that will decriminalize possession of limited amounts of marijuana in Vermont. The bill will now go to Gov. Peter Shumlin, who is expected to sign it into law in coming weeks, at which time Vermont will become the 17th state in the nation to decriminalize or legalize marijuana.

“We applaud the Vermont Legislature for adopting this much-needed legislation and setting an example for other states in the region and around the country,” said Matt Simon, a legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). “The exceptionally broad support demonstrated for this measure reflects the progress our nation is making toward adopting a new and more sensible approach to marijuana policy.

“The days of criminalizing people simply for using a substance less harmful than alcohol are coming to an end,” Simon said.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Researchers have announced that the conclusion of an 11-year study has found a strong association between frequent marijuana use and significantly reduced risk of bladder cancer. The more pot you smoke, the lower your risk, according to the study.

The new study compared the risk of bladder cancer in more than 83,000 men who smoked cigarettes only, marijuana only, or both substances, reports Kathleen Doheny at USA Today.

The investigators found that men who smoked only cannabis were the least likely to develop bladder cancer over the course of the 11-year study.

"Cannabis use only was associated with a 45 percent reduction in bladder cancer incidence, and tobacco use only was associated with a 52 percent increase in bladder cancer," said Dr. Anil A. Thomas, study author and a fellow in urology at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Smoking both tobacco and cannabis raised the risk of bladder cancer, but not as much as for those who smoked only tobacco, Thomas said. He presented the findings on Monday at the American Urological Association's annual meeting in San Diego.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

A bill which would legalize the medicinal use of marijuana in Illinois cleared a key Senate committee vote on Wednesday.

The medical marijuana bill was approved on a 10-5 vote by the Senate Executive Committee late Wednesday night, reports Monique Garcia at the Chicago Tribune.

The bill was approved over the objections of members of the law enforcement community, who claimed the bill wouldn't prevent medical marijuana patients from driving while under the influence of cannabis. (Statistics from states where medical marijuana is legal has shown they have fewer fatal auto accidents than before medicinal cannabis laws were passed.)

The bill now goes to the full Senate, which approved similar legislation in 2009. The proposal already cleared the Illinois House last month, and Gov. Pat Quinn has said he is "open minded" on the subject.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

A Denver attorney is threatening a lawsuit if Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signs House Bill 1317, the marijuana regulation bill that includes a requirement for marijuana magazines to be kept behind store counters.

HB 1317, recently passed by the Legislature, also contains other regulations on the sale of marijuana and the licensing of cannabis businesses, report Lindsey Sablan and Phil Tenser of The Denver Channel. Gov. Hickenlooper has said he intends to sign the plan into law.

David Lane, a veteran criminal and defense attorney based in Denver, threatened a lawsuit over the marijuana magazine rule. He is representing two cannabis publications, the Daily Doobie and the Hemp Connoisseur.

"My own personal belief is that this is a blatant First Amendment violation," Lane wrote in a letter to Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. "It has apparently passed muster with the House and Senate and the governor will be signing it shortly. Please inform Governor Hickenlooper that if this is signed into law, he can expect a First Amendment law suit filed promptly."

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

More California cities are planning to shut down medical marijuana dispensaries following a state Supreme Court ruling that such citywide bans are legal.

San Bernardino authorities raided a dispensary on Thursday, seizing 30 pounds of marijuana, 80 plants, a 12-gauge shotgun and $9,000 in cash, and citing four dispensary employees, according to City Attorney James Penman, report Richard K. DeAtley and John Asbury at the Riverside Press Enterprise.

The city also sent closure notices to about 30 shops, threatening fines of $1,000 a day. By Wednesday, 17 of the shops had voluntarily shut down.

"Most were very friendly; their lawyers had contacted them and they were in the process of removing their signs, their green crosses," Penman smirked.

"We're treating these businesses as illegal drug houses and drug businesses," Penman bragged. "What we hope to find today and every day is that these stores have closed. Our goal is to shut everyone down." Eleven shops were still operating by the end of thursday, Penman said.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Voters in the city of Los Angeles have a decision to make on May 21, with the fate of hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries at stake. Angelenos will have to choose between three medical marijuana measures on the ballot. Estimates of the number of dispensaries in town range between 850 and 1,600.

Widespread confusion among voters appears to be the norm, reports KPCC, as they prepare to decide which of three measures -- D, E, and F -- should be used to regulate medicinal cannabis dispensaries.

Their decision is slightly simplified by the fact that backers of Measure E have abandoned it and thrown their support behind Measure D.

Measure D would shut down most of L.A.'s hundreds of dispensaries, only allowing about 135 of them -- the ones that first registered with the city six years ago -- to continue operation.

Measures D and F and alike in several key ways. Both require dispensaries to be at least 1,000 feet form schools. Both raise taxes on the shops from $50 to $60 per $1,000 in gross receipts.

The biggest difference is that Measure F would allow an unlimited number of dispensaries. That's more fair than limiting the number to 135, according to political consultant Garry South of the Measure F campaign.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Regular marijuana smokers are no more likely to develop lung cancer than those who smoke only occasionally, according to a new study. The study's results back up those of other large-scale studies.

The finding of no significant increase in lung cancer risk held true whether marijuana users smoked once, twice, or more each day, and regardless of how many years they had smoked, Dr. Li Rita Zhang reported at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research, writes Michele G. Sullivan of the Oncology Report Digital Network.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

A 63-year-old Florida woman with Lou Gehrig's disease wants her medical marijuana back -- and she's going to court to make sure the cops never confiscate her pot plants again.

The back yard of Cathy Jordan, director of the Florida Cannabis Action Network, was raided on February 25 by Manatee County Sheriff's deputies working on a tip that she and husband Robert were growing pot. Deputies confiscated 23 plants, according to a sheriff's department spokesman, who claimed the plants were worth about $30,000.

But the state attorney's office decided it was going to be difficult to get a conviction, given the Jordans' medical necessity defense, and it declined to prosecute the case, reports Billy Cox at the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

Cathy Jordan said she started smoking marijuana in 1989. According to Jordan, cannabis alleviates her painful symptoms, and prescription medications do not.

Her name has become so synonymous with the medical marijuana movement in Florida that when a medicinal cannabis bill was introduced in the state Legislature, it was called the Cathy Jordan Medical Cannabis Act.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Missouri's not a medical marijuana state, but Ken Wells says he's been smoking pot for decades. He has epilepsy, and he says his condition is eased by using cannabis.

"I do it the way I do my other medications -- a measured amount each day," Wells said, reports Anthony Kiekow at Fox 2 Now. Ken said he hasn't had an epileptic seizure since he started using about three grams of marijuana per day as a medication.

Since marijuana works to stop his seizures, Ken is willing to risk arrest every day.

But St. Louis Police Chief Tim Fitch is against legalizing marijuana for medical purposes.

"That is just a front for legalizing it and using marijuana recreationally," Chief Fitch claimed. "They always start with medical marijuana and then it goes to what Colorado and Washington did -- OK, now we are OK with recreational."

Chief Fitch claimed marijuana is a "gateway drug" which leads to the cemetery. "One of the things I have learned over the last 22 Town Hall meetings with folks that lost children as a result of heroin use is every one of them without fail used marijuana first," he claimed.

The chief really should inform himself with the latest research if he's going to be talking in public about this; the gateway theory was debunked years ago.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Without comment, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Tuesday signed into law a bill to allow possession of marijuana on college and university campuses for research. The measure, which takes effect later this year, was made necessary by a bill which Brewer signed last year, officially disallowing pot on campuses (yeah, good luck enforcing that one).

The bill Brewer signed on Tuesday, while leaving intact the ban on marijuana on college campuses, creates an exception for research approved by the FDA, the DEA or the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

And there's the bottleneck. Don't hold your breath, because the DEA never approves research requests, and the NIDA will only approve research designed from the outset to prove the bad effects of marijuana; no medical marijuana research is funded through that notoriously anti-pot agency.

Brewer's spokesman, Matthew Benson, claimed the governor never intended to interfere with legitimate research when she signed the earlier bill, reports Howard Fischer at Capitol Media Services.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

In a refreshing show of common sense, some Nevada lawmakers say that medical marijuana patients shouldn't be punished as if they were impaired when driving, just because they have small amounts of marijuana in their systems.

That idea inspired an intense debate in the Nevada Assembly when Majority Leader William Horne (D-Las Vegas) unveiled AB 351 to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, reports Matt Woolbright of The Associated Press.

"Marijuana is currently the only drug we have a limit where we say, 'You have this much, so you must be impaired,' " Horne told members of the committee. "I think that's unfair."

Drivers with traces of cannabis in their blood are considered impaired under current Nevada law, and are guilty of driving under the influence. The same concept applies to the blood alcohol content of drunken drivers.

But this bill would remove the per se power of marijuana metabolites for medical marijuana patients. Prosecutors would still be able to use the blood test to bolster their case, but more proof would be required to prove the driver was impaired.

"I don't have a problem with the per se limits being there for everybody else," Horne said. "What I am saying is, for a patient, those per se limits should not apply because we don't apply them to any other drug."

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Berkeley Patients Group, widely considered a national model for regulated medical marijuana providers and one of the oldest nonprofit medical cannabis collectives in California, on Wednesday announced it will fight a civil asset forfeiture suit served against its landlord in an effort to shutter the licensed business and seize the property from which it operates.

Berkeley city officials stood with representatives of Berkeley Patients Group (BPG) at a Wednesday press conference to defend the non-profit collective and announce a resolution condemning the actions of the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney.

In response to a similar case filed against Harborside Health Center by U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag in June 2012, city officials in Oakland filed a lawsuit to prevent the closure and stop Haag’s suit from moving forward. This response and the resolution from Berkeley City Council represent a growing demand from state and local officials that the Obama Administration allow states to determine marijuana policy per its stated policy.