Marijuana Blog

A Kansas state senator has proposed a medical marijuana bill.

 

Sen. David Haley, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kan., has introduced the bill, which would allow Kansas to join 18 states and the District of Columbia in allowing people to use marijuana with a doctor's order.

 

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the measure would allow patients to have up to six ounces of marijuana and grow up to a dozen plants at home.

 

Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, says the measure won't get a hearing during the current legislative session.

 

Currently in Kansas, illegally obtaining marijuana for a health condition can mean a year in jail, and growing your own pot can mean up to 17 years in prison

 

Source: http://www.foxnews.com

When citizens of Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana in November they created a conflict, because pot remains illegal under federal law and anyone who lights up is committing a federal crime and could theoretically still be arrested for it. After Colorado passed the referendum, Governor John Hickenlooper said the implementation of the law in his state would be a “complicated process” and he warned residents not to “break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly.”

 

While it seems unlikely that the federal government will make much of an effort to arrest pot users in Colorado or Washington—Obama has said he has “bigger fish to fry”— the tension between federal and state laws on marijuana remains. Just last week, an appeals court rejected a suit that sought to lower the classification of medical marijuana under federal drug laws.

 

That court ruling threw the issue back to Congress and the Drug Enforcement Agency, which should start a serious reconsideration of national policy toward marijuana. The federal government should start by reclassifying medical marijuana, legalizing it outright, or at least dialing down the penalties. And it should begin to have the sort of serious discussion about legalizing recreational marijuana that is now occurring in the states.

 

Read more: http://ideas.time.com/