By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Two months ago, Tacoma Municipal Court Judge Jack Emery told police to give the man his marijuana back. Police refused. Judge Emery on Thursday repeated himself with emphasis: He gave the cops one week to comply with his February 28 court order and return the cannabis to Tacoma resident Joseph L. Robertson, or face possible contempt of court charges.

"Appeal or comply," Judge Emery told Assistant City Attorney John Walker, reports Sean Robinson at The News Tribune of Tacoma. "Or next week, show up, and I would advise you to bring counsel."

The ruling -- a procedural victory for Robertson -- will likely set the stage for a precedent-setting case.

Police seized the marijuana back in May 2012 after they had pulled Robertson over for speeding. The officer who made the traffic stop claimed he smelled marijuana inside Robertson's car, and later he found a small amount of weed inside the vehicle.

Robertson was ticketed for driving without a license and misdemeanor marijuana possession and released. City prosecutors dismissed the possession charge in December after Washington voters approved the legalization of small amounts of marijuana in November.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

One of the new medical marijuana dispensaries in the nation's capitol is poised to open with a prime view of the Capitol Dome. Capital City Care on April 22 became the first D.C. dispensary to obtain its license.

Two other access points -- Metropolitan Medical Center, located within walking distance of federal government buildings in Eastern Market, and Takoma Wellness Center in Takoma Park -- are expected to be licensed in the next few days, reports the Washington Free Beacon.

Although legal for medical use within the District of Columbia and 18 states, cannabis is still illegal for any purpose under federal law. Distributors hope to avoid clashes with the federal government as some prepare to open their pot shops just blocks from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Justice.

The federal government still officially considers marijuana a Schedule I narcotic, with no accepted medical uses and a high risk of abuse, and the Obama Administration has cracked down on medicinal cannabis dispensaries in other areas.

Enforcement, however, has been spotty and selective, and D.C. distributors hope to avoid federal attention by keeping a low profile and staying within District regulations.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

State Rep. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) on Wednesday introduced a bill that would make the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana a civil infraction punishable by a fine, rather than a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

"We know, and the people here in Michigan know, that marijuana prohibition is not working," Irwin said during a press conference at the Capitol, reports Jonathan Oosting at Mlive.com.

"Despite the fact that we're spending a minimum of $325 million a year on arresting, trying and incarcerating marijuana users in this state, we know marijuana has never been more available," Irwin said. "We know that law enforcement has not been successful at keeping marijuana out of the hands of anyone in the state."

Irwin has at least two Republican cosponsors for the bill; joining him at a press conference were Rep. Marcia Hovey-Wright (D-Muskegon), Rep. Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) and Rep. Mike Callton (R-Nashville).

"This is the right time to have this debate in Michigan," Rep. Shirkey said. "We're using a lot of money, energy and resources in Michigan and across the nation to accomplish something we've failed at.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Florida lawmakers have passed a bill outlawing the sale of marijuana pipes.

The bong ban, HB 49, on Friday passed the Florida Senate on a 31-2, reports The Associated Press. The measure, which had already passed the House on a 112-3 vote, now heads for the desk of Governor Rick Scott for his signature.

Florida law currently allows stores to sell the pipes. Any sale of marijuana pipes would be a first-degree misdemeanor if Gov. Scott signs the bill into law. Second and subsequent violations would be a third-degree felony.

Recovering crack addict Rep. Darryl Rouson believes marijuana is a gateway drug to things like, well, crack cocaine (despite all the evidence to the contrary). He sponsored the bill to ban all bongs, glass bowls, roach clips, and other things that can used as devices with which to smoke pot, reports Chris Joseph at Broward Palm Beach New Times.

"If we can make people drive to Georgia and Alabama and South Carolina to get fireworks, they can drive to get these utensils of death," the overly dramatic Rep. Rouson said.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Alaska is poised to become the next battleground in the state-by-state push to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

Almost 40 years ago, back in 1975, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that adults have a constitutional right to possess and smoke marijuana for personal use in their own homes, reports Becky Bohrer of The Associated Press. Then in the late 1990s, Alaska became one of the first wave of states to legalize the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

But marijuana law reform then sputtered in the state; residents in 2004 turned down a ballot measure which would have legalized marijuana, in in 2006 the state passed a law re-criminalizing possession of even small amounts of pot.

But supporters say attitudes towards weed have loosened in the past decade, and that they have a real chance in Alaska.

The proposal would make it legal for adults 21 and older to use and possess up to an ounce of marijuana, but not in public. It would set out provisions for legal cultivation and establish an excise tax.

"The whole initiative, as you can tell, is scaled down to be as palatable as possible," said one of the sponsors, Bill Parker.

If the initiative is accepted by the state, supporters will have until January to gather more than 30,000 signatures required to qualify for the 2014 primary ballot.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Behind the scenes, Colorado lawmakers are talking about introducing a measure that could repeal marijuana legalization in the state, according to advocacy groups on both sides of the issue.

State lawmakers are considering a bill to tax newly legal marijuana by more than 30 percent. Some of them want to add a caveat to the tax proposal -- that cannabis won't be legal anymore unless voters approve the taxes in November.

Legalization supporters called a Friday morning news conference to decry the effort, reports John Ingold at The Denver Post. "Numerous" lawmakers are looking at putting a measure before voters that would repeal marijuana legalization in Colorado if voters don't agree to a measure on marijuana taxes this November, said Mason Tvert, one of the authors of Amendment 64, the initiative which legalized cannabis.

The tax measure, which was approved by one legislative committee on Thursday and another on Friday, would place state sales and excise taxes on marijuana that could reach 30 percent of the retail price.

So far, no lawmakers have publicly mentioned a proposal to repeal legalization.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

The pro-marijuana movement is making inroads in some unexpected places, with a new survey showing almost half of young Christians in the United States favor legalizing cannabis.

In the poll, conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), 50 percent of self-identified Christian young adults ages 18 to 29 favor pot legalization, with 44 percent opposed. By way of contrast, only 22 percent of Christian senior citizens who took part in the survey said they favor legalization.

"While most religious Americans overall continue to oppose the legalization of marijuana, the generational sea change on this issue is also shifting the ground inside churches," said Robert P. Jones, CEO at PRRI. "Christian young adults are twice as likely as Christian senior adults to say both that marijuana should be legal and that using marijuana is morally acceptable."

A bigger percentage of young Christians say they find smoking cannabis to be morally acceptable compared with the general population, interestingly enough. Fifty-two percent of young Christians said it's OK to smoke pot, compared with 49 percent of all Americans.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

A bill to regulate California's medical marijuana industry by turning it over to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control cleared a hurdle on Tuesday when the Assembly's Public Safety Committee voted to move it forward.

AB 473, sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), would require all cannabis-related businesses to follow rules created by Alcohol Beverage Control, reports Carly Schwartz at The Huffington Post.

Ammiano said medical marijuana in California is in a state of "chaos."

"It's never been regulated by the state as any other business," he said. "Cities and counties don't know what to do or what they can do. Police are unsure how to respond, and the federal actions are confusing."

Since California voters made the Golden State the first in the country to legalize medical marijuana back in 1996, the industry has exploded, generating more than $100 million in taxes annually. But the Obama Administration in late 2011 launched an aggressive crackdown on dispensaries, forcing hundreds of them to close and leaving thousands of workers unemployed.

According to former Ammiano spokesman Quentin Mecke, U.S. Attorneys "are using a lack of statewide regulation as justification."

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Coloradans who test positive for marijuana can be fired from their jobs, even if their marijuana use was legal under state law, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday.

The court in Thursday's split decision said marijuana use is still prohibited by the federal government, even though medical marijuana and adult cannabis use has been legalized by Colorado's voters, reports Steven K. Paulson at the Huffington Post.

"For an activity to be lawful in Colorado, it must be permitted by, and not contrary to, both state and federal law," the appeals court ruled.

The decision stems from the case of Brandon Coats, a 33-year-old telephone operator for Dish Network, based in Englewood. Coats, a quadriplegic, has been a medical marijuana patient in Colorado since 2009; he was paralyzed in a car crash as a teen.

He was fired after failing a company drug test in 2010, even though his employer didn't claim Coats was ever impaired on the job. He sued to get his job back, but his claim was dismissed by a trial court in 2011. That judge agreed with Dish Network that medical marijuana isn't a "lawful activity."

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

The Bremerton Police Department, along with many other law enforcement agencies around Washington State, is not training its new police dog how to sniff out marijuana. After voters legalized marijuana last November, Dusty is the first drug detection dog in Kitsap County who won't be looking for pot.

But in the unlikely event that cannabis once again becomes illegal in Washington, it would be easy to train 18-month-old Dusty accordingly, said Bremerton Police Officer Dahle "Duke" Roessel. "We can train them on marijuana in a weekend," Roessel said, reports Josh Farley at the Kitsap Sun.

The Washington State Patrol won't be training future drug detection dogs to find marijuana, either, according to spokesman Bob Calkins.

"It's problematic because the dogs could alert on a legal amount of marijuana," Calkins explained. "And then we're violating someone's privacy."

There's a concern that if a dog were to find a valuable piece of evidence because he had alerted on a legal amount of marijuana, all the evidence might be thrown out in court, according to Calkins.

For example, if a dog sniffs out a legal amount of marijuana and then a gun used in a murder is found along with it, a judge could rule the gun isn't admissible in court.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Marijuana policy reform is advancing on multiple fronts in Oregon, with both medicinal cannabis and general legalization measures gaining traction in an increasingly friendly Legislature.

"We are seeing the best legislative session for drug policy reform -- certainly since the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act passed in 1998, and perhaps ever -- this go-round," Paul Stanford, president of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation (THCF) and the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp (CRRH), which owns Hemp News.

In the last week, the Oregon Senate:

• Passed SB 281 on a 19-11 vote. This bill adds post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the list of debilitating medical conditions which qualify patients for the protections of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act (OMMA).

• Passed SB 40, 24-6. This bill realigns the felony level designations of Manufacturing and Possession to be consistent with the rescheduling in Oregon of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II; and creates misdemeanor marijuana possession (more than one ounce, less than four ounces) and misdemeanor hashish possession (less than 1/4 ounce).

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Funny how everyone in Washington suddenly seems to be a marijuana expert, now that the herb is legal in the Evergreen State. In one of the latest examples of how an advanced cluelessness can make its way into the press, prosecutors and crime lab scientists are claiming that the differentiation between marijuana and hemp in the state's legal marijuana law could make it impossible to go after any pot "crimes" at all.

The problem supposedly stems from a part of I-502 meant to distinguish marijuana from industrial hemp, which is grown for its fiber and seed oil. Washington law now defines marijuana as having more than 0.3 percent of the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, delta-9 THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).

Scientists (who really should know better) with the state crime lab clain that "often," even potent marijuana can have less than 0.3 percent, claiming that it's only when heated or burned that "another compound" turns into delta-9 THC.

"That means if people get caught with more than an ounce of marijuana, or if police bust illicit grow operations, prosecutors might not be able to prove the plants or material seized meets the definition of marijuana, The Associated Press inaccurately reported on Wednesday.

2013 National Drug Strategy Released – Health Rhetoric Doesn’t Match “Lock ‘Em Up” Reality

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (more commonly known as the Drug Czar’s office; ONDCP) on Wednesday released its 2013 National Drug Control Strategy. The strategy has shifted a little from previous national drug strategies, and is being called a “21st Century Approach.”

The Drug Czar’s rhetoric has evolved over the last couple of years – reflecting the fact that three-quarters of Americans consider the drug war a failure – emphasizing the need to treat drug misuse as a health issue and stop relying on the criminal justice system to deal with the problem.

The strategy, however, calls for the expansion of drug courts, which continue to treat drug users in the criminal justice system, where punishment is often the response to addiction-related behaviors such as positive urine screens or missed appointments.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

"I know I'm gonna die," says Tracey Fanning. "But I know I can still do this. I can make a difference."

Fanning, 42, appears to be a typical mom in suburban Connecticut, reports Jeff Glor at CBS News. But after being diagnosed in 2006 with terminal brain cancer, she spent much of her time in bed, racked by seizures and debilitating headaches -- until she discovered medical marijuana.

"The first time I ever did it, it gave me my life back," Fanning said.

"I use medicinal marijuana," Fanning said. "I am breaking the law right now because we don't have growers and distributors here in Connecticut."

The state passed a law legalizing medical marijuana last May, but there is still nowhere to legally buy it.

When diagnosed in 2006, Fanning was the mother of a four-year-old and an 18-month old, and medical marijuana was still illegal in Connecticut. But the suggestion to try it came from her doctor, Andrew Salner.

"It's always difficult for me because when I make a recommendation about trying marijuana, it is telling someone to put themselves in harm's way to go purchase an illegal drug," Dr. Salner said.

But both Fanning and Salner are speaking out now because of the lack of safe access to medical marijuana for Connecticut's legal patients.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

With the tide of public opinion seemingly ready to sweep marijuana prohibition into the dustbin of history, the bipartisan Congressional Research Service, which works exclusively for Congress, has released a legal analysis aimed at helping legislators understand the ramifications of legalization.

The analysis found that there may be some wiggle room when it comes to interpreting the Controlled Substances Act, which makes marijuana illegal for any purpose under federal law, reports Bob Berwyn at the Summit County Voice.

One section of the CSA seems to indicate that "Congress did not intend to entirely occupy the regulatory field concerning controlled substances or wholly supplant traditional state authority in the area … States remain free to pass laws relating to marijuana, or other controlled substances, so long as they do not create a “positive conflict” with federal law, such that the two laws “cannot consistently stand together,” the analysis found.

The analysis gives Congress some solid legal footing to act, according to U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colorado). The report finds that the federal government cannot force states to prohibit cannabis use, according to a statement on Polis's website.