Marijuana Blog

Marijuana is legal in Colorado for recreational purposes but medical cannabis is still present. The two stores differ from each other. In the medical dispensaries, the taxes aren’t as high, considering that these people are patients. But since the regulations of the cultivation and distribution will expire this year if lawmakers don’t act, the officials in Colorado need to act quickly but of course, debate ensues. 

 

 

Gov. Hickenlooper’s regulators want to administer 15 changes to the laws, including a crackdown on caregivers, who are the people who are growing for patients in the medical marijuana registry. But the senators from both parties voted 5-0 to not take that approach. Instead, they want to debate every aspect of the regulations, providing an open door for big changes on how marijuana is grown and sold in the medical world in Colorado. “Many of these are rather major policy changes and those should be debated individually,” said Sen. Owen Hill, R-Colorado Springs.

 

 

“There’s a concern of a general lack of oversight of the caregivers, said Brian Tobias of the Department of Regulated Agencies, which are the people who make pot-rule suggestions to lawmakers. If the government were to crack down on caregivers, the quality of marijuana could possibly go down, as well as the quantity. Patients are even getting upset, as well as activists, with some hinting at lawsuits because the constitution guarantees pot patients the right to designate someone else to grow their marijuana. Other suggested that caregivers just straight up refuse to register and continue to grow their medicine illegally. “These people aren’t going to do it, because they don’t trust law enforcement. They don’t trust the government,” warned medical marijuana patient and activist, Phillip Barton said.

 

 

Making testing for medical marijuana is something else that the administration suggested. As of right now, medical marijuana doesn’t need to be tested for potency and contaminants, yet recreational weed is. Patients agreed with this legislation but wanted private citizens to be able to have their pot tested if they wanted to. Companies that test marijuana testified that these regulations prohibit them from accepting home grown marijuana, leaving patients stuck buying pricier weed from the dispensaries. “It’s just ridiculous that they can’t have a product tested,” said Martha Montemayor, who works at Healthy Choices Unlimited, one of the major companies that tests cannabis. 

 

 

“I would love to start from scratch and put the right things in there… Rather than pull the wrong things out,” Hill said. Debate on the changes to the legislature begin next week and a bill must be introduced by January 23rd in order to meet a legislative deadline.

Marijuana reform can save law enforcement a lot of time, effort, and money. A great example of that is occurring in Philadelphia. Philadelphia passed a marijuana decriminalization bill last year. As a result of the change in public policy, marijuana arrests are down 88% compared to years past. That is that much more time that cops can focus on real crime, instead of being tied up investigating someone for consuming a joint. Per Philly.Com:

 

Police made 63 arrests for marijuana possession between Oct. 20 (the day the new procedure went into place) and Dec. 31. There were 35 of the new citations issued in the same time period. The code violations are $25 for possession and $100 for smoking in public.

 

Philly420 first reported a 78 percent reduction in arrests during the first month of decrim. Now a police spokeswoman says the numbers have been adjusted down even further for simple possession. Police say they now have a new arrest code for those caught “in the act of a transaction.” Those “buyer of” weed arrests don’t show up in the possession totals.

 

Compared to previous years, this now amounts to an 88 percent decline in arrests. There were 559 arrests in November and December of 2013 for possession of less than 30 grams of cannabis.

 

This is great news for the City of Philadelphia. Imagine if marijuana was fully legalized in Philadelphia, and throughout Pennsylvania. Imagine how much money would be saved then. Add to that tax revenues generated by a legal marijuana industry, as well as the boost to local economies from the new jobs that would be created. Hopefully that day is not too far off in Pennsylvania.

 

Source: http://www.theweedblog.com/marijuana-arrests-down-almost-90-in-philadelphia/

The short answer? No. Most people recognize the fact that marijuana is not nearly as dangerous as the other drugs that the government has lumped them in with. Considering the deterioration of the human body when introduced to something like heroin, marijuana seems as harmless as a seashell. Yet the plant is still under the classification of a Schedule 1 substance, saying that it is as dangerous as heroin and that it contains virtually no medicinal value. Of course, this ridiculous claim has been proven by many different studies to be untrue. Cannabis holds the potential to help many illnesses and diseases that are currently untreatable or treated with more dangerous substances, such as drugs closely related to heroin. 

 

 

Recently, during a case involving alleged marijuana growers in Northern California, US District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller held a five day hearing late last year in order to determine whether or not the Schedule 1 classification was unconstitutional, as the defendants contend. Even though this subject has to be brought up by a judge, it should be common sense to see that marijuana and heroin have virtually nothing in common and lumping them in to the same category is just unfair. 

 

 

Even though there are 23 states that have allowed the use of marijuana for medical reasons, the feds still defend the classification of the plant as a Schedule 1 substance. They claim that there are not enough long term studies available to see what the long term effects of the plant are. Their argument goes on to include the idea that marijuana may have long term health risks that should keep in in the Schedule 1 classification. But as well all know, celebrities like Cheech and Chong have been smoking for years without any ill effects and Chong even beat cancer using cannabis oil as part of his treatment. Thankfully, Congress and Obama passed legislation saying that the federal government cannot use funding in order to enforce marijuana laws in states that allow medical marijuana. This ended prohibition on medical marijuana in every state that currently allows it.