News

(Reuters) - Vermont's legislature on Monday approved a bill that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, a measure the state's governor expects to sign into law in the coming weeks.

 

The move sets up the New England state to be the 17th in the United States to remove criminal penalties for having small amounts of pot. It does not go as far as Colorado and Washington, which in November became the first states to legalize possession, cultivation and use of marijuana by adults for recreational use.

 

Vermont's House of Representatives on Monday gave final approval to a proposal to remove criminal penalties for adult possession of up to one ounce (28.3 grams) of marijuana and instead penalize with a civil fine, similar to a traffic ticket. Persons under age 21 caught with pot would be required to undergo substance abuse screening.

 

The House's action upheld changes to the bill last week by Vermont's Senate, including a provision that decriminalized possession of up to five grams of hashish, a potent pot derivative.

 

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com

If you did not catch my correction email on Monday, you may have missed that Saint Louis Mayor Francis Slay signed the local decriminalization bill into law a couple weeks ago. If so, you would not be alone in that. Mayor Slay signed the measure very quietly, without so much as a tweet about it, so neither I nor the bill’s sponsor, Alderman Shane Cohn, even knew about it until last Friday. Regardless, now that Mayor Slay has signed the bill, it will become law in the City of Saint Louis on June 1!

 

Fox 2 also ran a good story profiling Ken Wells, a medical marijuana patient and great activist in the Saint Louis area, that also featured some footage of our April 13 conference and comments from Show-Me Cannabis Regulation Board Chair Dan Viets. You can watch the story online and vote in their poll on cannabis policy. As of this writing, nearly 90 percent of respondents said that cannabis should be legal for both medical and recreational purposes, with another six percent saying it should be legal for medical reasons only! That’s not a scientfiic poll, obviously, but it’s nice to see that viewers are responding positively to our message.

 

Read more: http://www.theweedblog.com

BERKELEY, CA — As U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a commencement speech Friday for UC Berkeley law school graduates, a plane flew overhead with a banner that read “Holder: End Rx Cannabis War. #Peace4Patients,” in protest against recent actions by the Justice Department (DOJ) in the Bay Area.

 

Outside the Hearst Greek Theater, where Holder gave his speech, medical marijuana advocates also handed out fake DOJ recruitment flyers, detailing how the Obama Administration is engaging in harmful tactics that are adversely affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients in California.

 

“Patients will not stand idly by while Attorney General Holder’s Justice Department continues to attack our community and endanger the lives of Berkeley residents” said Caren Woodson, one of the leafletters outside the ceremony. “We’re here today to call attention to the misguided policies of the Obama Administration and to ensure that his ongoing campaign against medical marijuana is stopped in its tracks.” The protest today was organized by Americans for Safe Access and California NORML.

 

Holder’s speech comes only days after his Justice Department served an asset forfeiture lawsuit on the landlord of Berkeley Patients Group, one of the city’s oldest and most-respected medical marijuana dispensaries.

 

The lawsuit, which was filed on May 2nd, was strongly denounced at a press conference Wednesday by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and four City Council members.

 

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On Monday, a representative from The Point (KPNT 105.7 FM) contacted Show-Me Cannabis to tell the public advocacy group that Verizon Wireless Amphitheater had refused their vendor application for Pointfest on May 12. Since then, Show-Me Cannabis has been working to resolve the issue with the venue but to no avail.

 

The initial reason offered for the rejection of Show-Me Cannabis’ vendor registration was that the venue’s management believed the Maryland Heights Police Department would shut the booth down for advocating illegal activity. Calls from both Show-Me Cannabis and The Point to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater seeking clarification were not returned on either Monday or Tuesday.

 

On Wednesday, John Payne of Show-Me Cannabis called the Maryland Heights Police Department and spoke to Chief of Police, Colonel William Carson. Carson told Payne that, to his knowledge, no one from the amphitheater had contacted his department about the question. Carson also acknowledged that Show-Me Cannabis has a First Amendment right to advocate for reforms to Missouri’s marijuana laws.

 

Read more: http://www.theweedblog.com

Possession of up to one ounce of marijuana by adults 21 and older will result in up to a $300 as of July 1, 2013

 

MONTPELIER, VT – A bill to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana passed a third, and final, reading in the Vermont Senate on Wednesday.  The bill, which as previously passed in the House, will be sent to the House of Representatives to sign off on amendments made by the Senate before sending it to Gov. Peter Shumlin for his signature.

 

The bill, House Bill 200, introduced by Rep. Christopher Pearson (P-Burlington) with a tripartisan group of 38 co-sponsors, will remove criminal penalties for possession of up to one ounce of marijuana and replace them with a civil fine, similar to a traffic ticket. Those under age 21 would be required to undergo substance abuse screening.

 

Under current state law, possession of up to two ounces of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail for a first offense and up to two years in jail for a subsequent offense.

 

Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell and Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn both testified in favor of the bill in April, and Gov. Peter Shumlin has also expressed support for decriminalizing marijuana possession in the state.

 

On Tuesday, Senators voted 24 to 6 in favor of sending the bill to a third, and final, reading.  Then on Wednesday, the Senate voted to approve the bill, as amended.

 

We are pleased to see the Senate has joined their colleagues in the House and given their initial approval to this important legislation,” said Matt Simon, a legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project. “There is exceptionally strong support for this proposal among the voters and the legislature has really stepped up and delivered.

 

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

RABAT - Moroccan customs authorities on Thursday incinerated 9.5 tonnes of cannabis resin in a suburb of Casablanca, official media reported, days after record hashish hauls in neighbouring Spain.

 

The drugs, which were seized in two separate operations last year by customs authorities at Casablanca port, were burned in the presence of government officials, police and members of the royal gendarmerie, the MAP news agency reported.

 

The first bust was made in June during the inspection of a truck bound for Belgium and found more than 5.7 tonnes of cannabis resin, or "chira" as it is known locally, divided into 10 kilo packages and hidden in hundreds of boxes.

 

The second operation a month later intercepted 3.78 tons of chira hidden in a truck carrying tiles from Fez to the Belgian port city of Antwerp.

 

Late last month, Spanish police found 32 tonnes of the drug in a truck carrying melons from Morocco.

 

Then on Monday, the same police force announced that they had seized 52 tonnes of hashish in an industrial warehouse in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba, setting a European record.

 

Source: http://www.middle-east-online.com