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Bill Would Regulate "Wild West" of Medical Marijuana
Category: Medical Marijuana | Posted on Fri, April, 29th 2011 by THCFinder
The "wild west" of medical marijuana dispensaries could be coming to an end in California.
State lawmakers are working on a bill that would ban medical marijuana dispensaries from operating within 600 feet of residential areas.
Anaheim City Councilwoman Kris Murray, who is pushing the measure, told the Los Angeles Times that some California residents don't feel safe on their own streets anymore.
Sen. Doug La Malfa said the 1996 ballot measure permitting medical marijuana sales has created a "wild west" in the industry and legislators have been trying to catch up.
In San Jose, the city had conversations of using eBay to auction of MCD permits when it talked of reducing the number of medical marijuana dispensaries from over 100 to 10.
If passed, the legislation would create buffer zones in residential neighborhoods where medical marijuana clubs would not be allowed to operate. Cities would also be given the power to adopt stricter regulations if they so choose.
(Source)
Pass it to the Right: Medical Marijuana Gaining Steam in Illinois
Category: Medical Marijuana | Posted on Thu, April, 28th 2011 by THCFinder
Back in November, Senate Bill 1381, which would have legalized medical marijuana, failed to receive enough votes.
The man behind the bill, Rep. Lou Lang (D-16thDistrict) told Skokie Patch in the past that many lawmakers were for the legislation – enough to pass it and then some – but that they wouldn't vote for it because of possible political fallout.
Back then, Lang fell short by seven votes during a lame-duck season in Congress. Some lawmakers feared Illinois would become another California.
Fast forward to today and a similar bill is gaining steam, as Lang and new allies – some Republican – are laying out a stricter set of rules for the bill.
The bill has new life, mainly because Republican Representative and House Minority Leader Tom Cross said he will support legalizing medical marijuana. His support came after talking to cancer patients and a disabled veteran.
The controversial plant would treat people with HIV/AIDS, cancer and severe glaucoma, among other illness. Yet Illinois lawmakers want to make sure that to make their state doesn’t become another California.
In California, for example, a person could receive a prescription for stating that they are simply having frequent headaches, something Illinois lawmakers don't want for the state.
Marijuana distribution sites in Illinois would also be not-for-profit, unlike those in California. There would also be severe penalties for those that sell the plant after obtaining it through prescription.
"How do you turn down the people who are sick? Who are in pain? People who haven't been able to have a quality life," Lang asked elected officials in Illinois. "This is not a bill about drugs. This is a bill about health care."
(Source)
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ACLU bids to reinstate suit over Walmart worker's medical marijuana firing
Category: Medical Marijuana | Posted on Wed, April, 27th 2011 by THCFinder
The American Civil Liberties Union today asked a federal appeals court to revive its lawsuit that claims Walmart wrongfully fired a Battle Creek employee who used medical marijuana to treat a brain tumor and cancer.
U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker dismissed the ACLU’s lawsuit in February, holding that Michigan’s medical marijuana law does not require companies to accommodate employees who are medical marijuana patients, nor does it prohibit them from firing employees for drug use.
But in a filing today with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, the ACLU argued that Jonker got it wrong. Specifically, the ACLU argued that Jonker ignored the text of the state’s medical marijuana law that prohibits businesses from firing patients who use marijuana in accordance with state law. The ACLU also argued that the case belongs in state court where the ACLU originally filed it.
The employee in this case is Joseph Casias, a 2008 Associate of the Year at a Walmart in Battle Creek who used marijuana to treat pain associated with an inoperable brain tumor and cancer. Casias was fired from his job after testing positive for marijuana in 2009, which led to the ACLU’s lawsuit.
The ACLU argued that the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, passed by voters in 2008, protects medical marijuana patients from “disciplinary action by a business.” Moreover, Casias never ingested marijuana while at work, and never worked while under the influence of marijuana, the group argued.
“The lower court’s ruling failed to uphold the will of Michigan voters, who clearly wanted to protect medical marijuana and facilitate its use by very sick people like Joseph Casias,” Scott Michelman, staff attorney with the ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project, said in a statement. “No one should ever have to choose between adequate pain relief and gainful employment, but Walmart forced Joseph to pay a stiff and unfair price for using a medicine that has had a life-changing positive effect for him.”
WalMart defended its decision to fire Casias.
“This is just an unfortunate situation all around, and we’re sympathetic to Mr. Casias’s condition,” said WalMart spokesman Greg Rossiter, noting that the decision to fire Casias was a safety issue. “Walmart has to consider the overall safety of our customers and our associates, including Mr. Casias. When we have to make a difficult decision like the one we did, ultimately the issue for us is the ability of our associates to do their jobs safely.”
(Source)
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Colo. Medical Marijuana Bill Catches Attention Of Feds
Category: Medical Marijuana | Posted on Wed, April, 27th 2011 by THCFinder
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Under provisions of Colorado House Bill 1043, medical marijuana could be licensed, grown and distributed legally in the state of Colorado, but the federal law disagrees.
Federal law prohibits the manufacture, distribution or possession with intent to distribute any controlled substance, including marijuana.
"They do not consider state employees who conduct activities under state medical marijuana laws to be immune to liability under federal law," said Mike Saccone, communications director for the Office of the Attorney General of Colorado.
The enforcement of the federal law would be focused not on the patients, but the growers and distributors.
"Although they made a decision not to prosecute individuals who are seriously ill who are using medical marijuana in line with state law, they still could prosecute individuals who are involved in the distribution or the trafficking of marijuana," said Saccone.
Local owners of dispensaries said, that in the beginning, the state law sounded good, but now the federal law is worrisome.
"Does it worry us? It's in the back of everybody's mind. If I could press rewind in time, I don't know if I'd be here anymore," said a local medical marijuana dispensary owner.
Colorado House Bill 1043 is pending in the General Assembly and the provisions of the bill could have major effects on dispensaries.
The Office of the Attorney General of Colorado said that these issues will be brought to the General Assembly in the next few days.
(Source)
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Medical marijuana patients, dispensaries head for black market following federal raids
Category: Medical Marijuana | Posted on Wed, April, 27th 2011 by THCFinder
This is a sad solution patients and dispensary owners are even considering with raids continueing. Why does everyone forget that prohibition was put forth once and failed misreably....
In Montana, only 25 percent of medical marijuana businesses raided earlier this year have re-opened, prompting some patients to turn to street dealers as a safer way to get marijuana, according to MSNBC.
Some patients no longer trust the state to keep their information confidential, while others simply think legal businesses are now more likely to be raided than street dealers are.
In fact, one dispensary owner says he will never re-open a legal pot business but is thinking of getting involved in the street trade himself. “I’ll never pay taxes again,” he exclaimed.
From the story:
The uncertainty has left medical marijuana users wondering what’s coming next. Some who lost their caregivers after the raids have found other providers, a transaction that must be registered with the state.
But others have held back from switching or renewing their cards because they don’t want to leave a record with the state. They are fearful they may be targeted as criminals if the state law changes or if federal prosecutors decide to go after them.
A Bozeman patient said he won’t register with the state for just that reason and is buying marijuana from street dealers instead. The man spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is buying pot illegally.
“This is scary more than anything. You go from being a normal person to being a criminal,” the patient said. “But if I get it from a kid on the corner, it’s less likely for me to get in trouble buying it that way.”
“It is really sad that the federal government is trying to drive this back underground,” said Denver attorney Rob Corry, who represents medical marijuana interests.
Commenting on the letter from Department of Justice attorneys to the governor of Washington, wherein the feds declared that even state employees complying with directives from the Legislature may be prosecuted for violating the Controlled Substances Act, Corry said he could not predict if the feds would target Colorado next.
“No one knows. There is a certain randomness to the feds’ actions. There does not seem to be any overriding principle that the government can point to as the basis for their actions.
“Obama said in 2009 that he would devote no resources to prosecution of medical marijuana cases, and now, here we are. Some say the day is coming very quickly that they will move in to shut down every medical marijuana business in Colorado.
“It is federal arrogance, in my opinion,” he said. “I don’t get it. I don’t get how in an age of global terror and tanking economies that they can dedicate any resources to a plant.”
At one time, at least, Obama seemed to agree.
(Source)
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Medical Marijuana Bill Could Pass in Illinois
Category: Medical Marijuana | Posted on Tue, April, 26th 2011 by THCFinder
Although a piece of legislation that would legalize medical marijuana in Illinois failed by a slim margin last December, a Republican leader in the House has shifted his support, raising the chances that the bill could pass. Tom Cross, the House Minority Leader, announced last week that he would support legalization. His change of heart, he said, was because he spoke with some people who use medical marijuana, including a disabled veteran.
He said that the key to the legislation's success was that it limited medical marijuana access to people with particularly painful diseases, like cancer, lupus, and multiple sclerosis. The bill limits each user to two ounces of usable marijuana or six cannabis plants, users cannot drive within 12 hours of smoking, and as Cross pointed out, would only be accessible to people with "debilitating medical conditions." The Illinois Department of Public Health would also be instructed to disseminate information about the health risks associated with marijuana abuse.
Cross's support was disturbing for David E. Smith of the Illinois Family Institute, who wrote an editorial to the Chicago Tribune which concluded, "Medical marijuana is bad policy, bad for families, bad for society, and will cost the state more money for drug rehab."
But some drug experts pointed out that marijuana could replace other drugs that are commonly used to treat chronic pain, like Oxycontin and Vicodin. Both are addictive and lethal if overdosed, neither of which have proven to be issues with marijuana.
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