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There is a new 2013 Hoosiers Survey out, and as with last year, they asked voters if they support marijuana reform. And once again, a majority of participants in the poll supported legalizing marijuana. Per the 2013 Hoosiers Survey:

 

Last year the Hoosier Survey found that 53% of Hoosiers supported decriminalizing marijuana by making it legal to hold small quantities. This year we asked about making marijuana a regulated substance like alcohol and tobacco. Hoosiers support this change, 52% to 45%–very similar to last year’s results. Democrats were very supportive of this (64%), but even Republicans showed support at 49%. When asked if Indiana should tax marijuana like cigarettes, support rose to 78% among all Hoosiers, with virtually no variation by party.

 

When asked if we should tax marijuana like cigarettes, support rose to 78% with virtually no differences by party affiliation.

 

Rather than name states that have polls showing support for marijuana reform, isn’t it easier now to name states that don’t? Are there even any states left? Well, maybe Idaho. There has been a lot of talk lately about regulating marijuana like alcohol. Will we hear more people arguing to regulate marijuana like tobacco? Do you feel that’s a better strategy?

 

I don’t like that strategy because it could result in cigarette companies entering the marijuana industry, and I don’t want that at all. Also, I have always thought about the marijuana industry looking like the micro brew industry, rather than corporate run industries like tobacco or large alcohol companies. If you are in Indiana, get active. Point to this poll over, and over, and over to anyone that is on the fence about marijuana reform.

LANSING, MI — A bill that would allow pharmacies in Michigan to stock “pharmaceutical grade” medical marijuana passed the Senate Wednesday by a 22-16 vote.

 

Introduced by Republican state Senator Roger Kahn and co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, Senate Bill 660 would, if passed, reclassify medical marijuana to a Schedule II drug in the state, controlled in a manner similar to drugs such as OxyContin or Percocet.

 

It would also license facilities to grow the new “pharmaceutical grade” marijuana and distribute it through authorized pharmacies, such as Walgreens or CVS, and require strict laboratory testing for quality and dosage standards.

 

“Marijuana, if it’s to be medical marijuana, should be held to the standard of medical safety and of dosage predictability,” said Sen. Kahn at hearings earlier this month.

 

Even if passed at the state level, the proposal would require federal approval to implement.  Marijuana is currently listed as a Schedule I drug, and it would need to be federally rescheduled to Schedule II for the proposed law to take effect.

 

The bill was supported in committee last week by Chuck Perricone, who represents Prairie Plant Systems, a Canadian company that grows and sells pharmaceutical cannabis.

 

The bill is opposed by many medical marijuana patients and activists who support the Michigan medical marijuana program, which has seen many changes since first passed by voters in 2008.

 

Some lawmakers in opposition to the pending bill say that legislators should focus on fixing Michigan’s medical marijuana program, which has seen dispensaries come and go, while operating in a grey area of legal limbo.

 

Read more: http://www.thedailychronic.net/

PHOENIX — Medical marijuana users have no constitutional right to grow their own drug, a trial judge has ruled.

 

Judge Katherine Cooper of Maricopa County Superior Court threw out a challenge by two men to a provision in the 2010 voter-approved Arizona Medical Marijuana Act that says only those living farther than 25 miles from a state-regulated dispensary can cultivate the plants.

 

She said there is no basis for their claim that the provision limits their health-care rights.

 

But Cooper left the door open for the men to raise a separate challenge that the 25-mile rule amounts to a violation of their rights under constitutional provisions guaranteeing everyone equal protection of the law. She said, though, they have yet to make a case for that claim.

 

The 2010 law allows those with a doctor’s recommendation to get a card from the state allowing them to obtain and possess up to 2½ ounces of marijuana every two weeks.

 

That law also envisioned a system of state-regulated dispensaries to sell the drug. But it also says anyone who lives farther than 25 miles from a dispensary could grow up to 12 plants at any one time.

 

Initially, that exemption applied to everyone because it took the state more than a year to license dispensaries. But state Health Director Will Humble said just about all of the approximately 40,000 medical-marijuana cardholders in Arizona now live close enough to a dispensary.

 

The challengers, who had been growing their own, did not want to give up that right.

 

They cited provisions of a 2012 constitutional amendment that says individuals cannot be forced to participate in any health-care system.

 

Attorney Michael Walz said forcing those who are entitled to use medical marijuana to buy their drugs at retail from a dispensary amounts to forcing them to participate in that system.

 

Cooper disagreed.

 

“Dispensaries are not a ‘health-care system,’ ” the judge wrote.

 

She said they do not manage, process, enroll or pay for health-care services for qualifying patients.

 

Read more: http://azstarnet.com

Show-Me Cannabis and Missouri NORML will be hosting a statewide conference in downtown Kansas City, on Saturday, November 16th. The one-day conference will include speakers presenting on local and national efforts to create more just and sensible marijuana policies, including a possible Missouri ballot initiative in 2014 or 2016.

 

Speakers will include Neill Franklin, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition; Alison Holcomb, Criminal Justice Director of the ACLU-Washington; Dan Rush, Director of Cannabis Workers Rising of North America of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW); as well as the Show-Me Cannabis board of directors and other local experts.

 

The conference will take place at EventPort 208 in the Crossroads Arts District, and an evening fundraiser will follow nearby.

 

Read more: http://www.theweedblog.com

Sam Hurd will be sentenced Wednesday for his role in a 2011 drug trafficking operation, and now that he’s meeting the prospect of a life in prison head on, the former Cowboys and Bears receiver is opening up about everything from his role in the process to drug culture in the NFL.

 

Speaking with The MMQB, Hurd said he spent the last few years of his career — which began in 2006 as an undrafted free agent out of Northern Illinois — smoking high-grade marijuana “all day, every day.”

 

“Whatever was considered the loudest weed in California — I wanted a notch above that,” Hurd told the site, saying he would import two to 10 pounds at a time from the West Coast. “I had educated myself on different strains and potencies and growing techniques. I was very selective. It was like wine.”

 

Hurd also said he smoked marijuana and sold it at cost to several friends during his time in Dallas, including “20 to 25” teammates on the Cowboys.

 

Hurd didn’t mention any players by name, aside from former Cowboys safety Patrick Watkins, but according to his estimate, which he called “conservative,” at least half of the NFL smokes weed during the season and can avoid testing positive for the substance by knowing when the annual sample will be collected.

 

“Early in his career,” Michael McKnight wrote for The MMQB, “Hurd had been entrusted with a secret known by only a few of Dallas’s veterans: Tests for marijuana occurred at roughly the same time each year.”

 

Read more: http://msn.foxsports.com/

PORTLAND — Two days after Portland police said they would “use their discretion” to enforce state law regarding possession of marijuana, the group that spearheaded passage of a new city ordinance legalizing recreational use said they expect police to yield to the will of the people.

 

On Election Day, more than 67 percent of Portland voters approved of a new city ordinance to legalize possession of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana in the city. The law will become effective on Dec. 6, 30 days after the vote.

 

Recreational use of the drug remains illegal under federal and state laws, which Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck said “pre-empt local ordinances.”

 

In a statement Friday, Tom MacMillan, chairman of the Portland Green Independent Committee, which campaigned for the ordinance, said, “The vote on Tuesday was a clear indication that Portland residents want our police force to stop punishing adult marijuana users. The police have the discretion to do so while still enforcing city, state and federal rules for public use, use under 21 and possession over 2.5 ounces. Portland officials must be accountable to the will of the people.”

 

“It is very encouraging that marijuana possession citations have decreased by 26 percent over a period of a year,” City Councilor David Marshall said in the release. “The voters expect the public and the police to comply with the ordinance when it goes into effect. The election results are a mandate that supports the discretion police are using in regards to adult marijuana possession.”

 

According to a fact sheet posted last Friday on the city’s website, the new ordinance will not affect the Police Department’s enforcement of state law.

 

“Officers will continue to use their discretion and judgment in a manner that will ensure that their enforcement authority is exercised in a fair and judicious manner,” the document said.

 

Read more: http://www.theforecaster.net/