Wednesday: Community Groups, Elected Officials Gather in Albany For Press Conference and Rally to Demand Legislators Fix Broken Marijuana Possession Law

You might be familiar with Reefer Madness, the drug war film from the 1930s that has become a cult classic because of its over-the-top scare tactics about marijuana. Generations have laughed at the film’s cartoonish hysteria, with young students portrayed committing acts of violent lunacy after smoking a joint with their friends. Rather than educating young people about marijuana,Reefer Madness is widely seen as the epitome of unreliable and exaggerated propaganda.

The District of Columbia’s Department of Health seems to have a taken a page directly fromReefer Madness for its new advertising campaign, suggesting a synthetic form of marijuana known as “K2″ or “Spice” will turn people who use it into “zombies.” The ads recently made their debut on the DC Metro, and are wacky enough to look like a parody. Teenagers — presumably under the influence and grotesquely made up to look like “Walking Dead” extras — pose in various stages of decay with captions like “No One Wants to Take a Zombie to the Prom.” Seriously?

Just about everyone agrees that teenagers should be discouraged from taking drugs and warned about potential health risks. But decades of exaggerated claims and egg frying commercials have taught us that wild and fictitious notions about drugs do very little to generate confidence, trust and safety among young people. Research by the Government Accountability Office, in fact, has found that these sorts of tactics are ineffective at reducing teen drug use rates.

There may be legitimate health concerns associated with synthetic marijuana, a chemical compound created to imitate the still-prohibited plant. Like any drug, “fake weed” should be carefully studied to better understand its effect on humans, and regulated accordingly. Giving teens access to information grounded in science and health is a much more sensible alternative to preparing them for the zombie apocalypse.

Sharda Sekaran is Managing Director of Communications at Drug Policy Alliance, the nation’s leading organization promoting drug policies that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sharda-sekaran/dc-department-of-health-synthetic-marijuana_b_3269070.html

ALBANY, NY — As lawmakers in Albany continue to struggle to fix loopholes in New York’s 35 year old marijuana decriminalization law that result in continued marijuana possession arrests, one State Senator has a better fix: legalize and regulate marijuana for adults.

“It is my intention as a New York State senator to soon introduce a law that would actually decriminalize, regulate and tax marijuana in New York,” State Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) said last week at a forum hosted by Baruch College.

Krueger’s “Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act,” which has not yet been filed, would allow New Yorkers over the age of 21 to grow up to six mature marijuana plants at home, and would establish a system of retail stores regulated and overseen by the New York State Liquor Authority.

New York state Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), who hasn’t inhaled “since the 70′s,” intends to file a marijuana legalization bill in the Empire State.

The bill proposes a marijuana tax of $50 per ounce, of which 80% would go to the state’s general fund, with the rest earmarked for substance abuse, criminal re-entry and job training programs.

Cities and towns would be given the option of imposing an additional 5% tax on marijuana sales in their community, or banning retail sales of marijuana entirely.

The bill would also contain provisions preventing the operation of motor vehicles under the influence of marijuana.

Under New York state law, the private possession of up to 25 grams of marijuana is a non-criminal civil citation, punishable by a $100 fine, but the possession of any amount of cannabis in public view remains a criminal misdemeanor.

Although New York decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana in 1977, the “public view” exception to the law continues to allow police to continue to arrest people — mostly young minorities — in record numbers for simple marijuana possession.

The practice, which has drawn criticism to the New York Police Department and earned the Big Apple a reputation as the “Pot Bust Capital of the World,” involves police officers telling a suspect to empty their pockets, thus bringing the marijuana into “public view” — an arrestable offense.

A report released in March found that the NYPD had spent one million hours making marijuana arrests over the past decade, and that simple marijuana possession misdemeanors are the number one arrest in New York City — by far.

Studies have shown that arresting and prosecuting low level marijuana offenders in New York City has little or no long-term impact on law enforcement efforts to reduce violent crime in the city.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called for reforming the state’s marijuana possession laws and fixing the “public view” exception, but the legislature has been slow to act.  The Assembly came close to a legislative fix in March after weeks of negotiations, but when they couldn’t agree on a simple proposal, they voted to adjourn for vacation.

Last year, Governor Cuomo introduced similar legislation to reform the law, but the Senate refused to act when  then-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau County) stalled progress of the bill, expressing an absurd concern that people could walk around with 10 joints in each ear – despite the fact that the reform proposal was supported by law enforcement leaders throughout the state.

Recent polls have shown that New Yorkers support marijuana reform. A December poll found that 51% of New Yorkers would support a marijuana legalization bill in the state, and a poll released this week found that over 82% are in favor of legalizing medical marijuana.

Lawmakers are considering several medical marijuana bills this session, including one that has been quietly advancing through the legislative process.

The Compassionate Care Act, Assembly Bill 6357, sponsored by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, has substantial support in the Assembly, with over 60 co-sponsors. An  identical companion bill, Senate Bill 4406, is pending in the Senate, with over a dozen co-sponsors.

The bills, both introduced by lawmakers representing voters in New York City, would create one of the nation’s most tightly regulated medical marijuana programs, and has the support of hundreds of patients and providers and dozens of organizations across the state.

The medical marijuana legislation is expected to be debated by lawmakers  before the end of the legislative session in  June.  New York residents can click here to contact their elected officials and urge them to support this important legislation.

But not everyone in New York is in favor of marijuana reform.  One state Senator, Greg Ball (R-District 40), has introduced Senate Bill 4930,  the “Illegal Narcotics Dispensary Ban,”  which aims to prevent any medical or recreational marijuana dispensaries that may become authorized from current pending, or future, legislation.

Another lawmaker, Assemblyman Dennis H. Gabryszak (D- District 143), introduced a bill to ban novelty candies shaped to resemble marijuana, regardless of whether they contain cannabis, from being sold in the state.  That bill quickly advanced through the Assembly, earning a third reading in the Senate before the Assembly Consumer Affairs and Protection Committee killed the bill.

Source: http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/18041/new-york-senator-to-introduce-bill-to-tax-regulate-marijuana/

OLYMPIA, WA – With Washington state about to embark on a first-of-its-kind legal market for recreational marijuana, the budding ranks of new cannabis growers face a quandary over what to do with the excess stems, roots and leaves from their plants.

Susannah Gross, who owns a five-acre farm north of Seattle, is part of a group experimenting with a solution that seems to make the most of marijuana’s appetite-enhancing properties – turning weed waste into pig food.

Four pigs whose feed was supplemented with potent plant leavings during the last four months of their lives ended up 20 to 30 pounds heavier than the half-dozen other pigs from the same litter when they were all sent to slaughter in March.

“They were eating more, as you can imagine,” Gross said.

Giving farm animals the munchies is the latest outcome of a ballot measure passed by Washington voters in November making their state one of the first to legalize the recreational use of pot. The other was Colorado. Both were among about 20 states with medical marijuana laws already on their books.

The federal government still classifies cannabis as an illegal narcotic, and the Obama administration has not yet said what actions, if any, it will take in answer to the newly passed recreational weed statutes.

Matt McAlman, the medical marijuana grower who provided the pot leavings for Gross’ pigs, says he hopes the idea expands with the likely impending expansion of Washington state’s marijuana industry.

“We can have pot chickens, pot pigs, grass-fed beef,” he said.

Draft regulations issued last week to govern the burgeoning recreational-use industry seem to leave open that possibility. The rules dictate that marijuana plant waste must be “rendered unusable prior to leaving a licensed producer or processor’s facility,” adding that mixing it with food waste would be acceptable.

Gross’ pigs were butchered by William von Schneidau, who has a shop at the famous Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. In March, von Schneidau held a “Pot Pig Gig” at the market, serving up the marijuana-fed pork as part of a five-course meal.

He quickly sold out the remaining weed-fed meat at his shop but plans another pot-pig feast later this summer, he said.

“Some say the meat seems to taste more savory,” he said.

The results beg the question of whether pot-fed pork contains any measurable traces of THC, the mind-altering chemical ingredient in cannabis.

The European Food Safety Authority reported in 2011 that “no studies concerning tolerance or effects of graded levels of THC in food-producing animals have been found in literature.”

The agency also noted that “no data are available concerning the likely transfer of THC … to animal tissues and eggs following repeated administration.”

Source: http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/18037/marijuana-waste-helps-turn-pot-eating-pigs-into-tasty-pork-roast/

The bill, Senate Bill 439, would take the first steps to regulate the sale of medical marijuana state-wide since California voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996, legalizing medical marijuana in California.

The legislation would require that medical marijuana dispensaries are non-profit, although dispensary owners would be able to receive “reasonable compensation” and reimbursement for expenses for providing medical marijuana to patients.

The bill comes as a legislative response to a two-year federal crackdown on dispensaries in California by the Department of Justice, who claim that California’s largely unregulated medical marijuana industry has grown enormously profitable and out of control while making medical marijuana easily available for recreational use.

“This bill is not about the legalization of marijuana,” said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), sponsor o the bill. “It does seek to assure that patients who need medical cannabis have access to it. It is intended to assure that drug cartels and other criminals do not benefit from the lack of regulation.”

Sen. Steinberg says his legislation, along with a separate bill filed in the Assembly by San Francisco Democrat Tom Ammiano, would create a well-regulated medical marijuana industry that would, hopefully, allow California to come to “some sort of an understanding” with the federal government, who still maintains that marijuana is a dangerous, addictive, and prohibited drug.

Steinberg’s bill would adopt guidelines issued by Gov. Jerry Brown when he was the state’s attorney general in 2008, making it clear that the dispensaries cannot operate at a profit. Those operating within the guidelines could not face state prosecution, although they could still face federal prosecution.

The 2008 guidelines also said dispensaries should track their members and product and take steps to discourage the marijuana from going to those without a legitimate medical need. Steinberg’s bill would put those non-binding guidelines into state law.

Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) said nearly 50 California cities use the 2008 guidelines already to regulate dispensaries in their communities.

In the Assembly, Rep. Ammiano’s bill, Assembly Bill 473, would create a  new agency within the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to regulate the growth, supply and sale of medical cannabis, replacing standards that now vary wildly from one city and county to another.

“It’s never been regulated by the state as any other business,” said the bill’s sponsor, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano. “Cities and counties don’t know what to do or what they can do. Police are unsure how to respond, and the federal actions are confusing.”

Although a majority of the hundreds of thousands of legal medical marijuana patients in California rely on dispensaries, the state has so far left regulation up to its localities.

The result is a situation where what is tolerated on one side of a suburban highway may be prosecuted on the other side.

There are currently more than 50 local ordinances, urban and rural, regulating medical marijuana dispensaries, which has led to a patchwork of local laws that serve some patient populations, but not others, forcing many people to travel long distances or use the black market to obtain a strain of medical marijuana that works for them.

This patchwork system has also caused confusion for public officials, and created more work for law enforcement.

The proposed bill hopes to change that by creating the Division of Medical Cannabis Regulation and Enforcement (DMCRE), which would be a part of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

The DMCRE  would be empowered to establish statewide standards for the cultivation, manufacturing, testing, transportation, distribution, and sale of medical marijuana and medical marijuana products, as well as a statewide licensing fee structure.

The bill also requires the DMCRE to develop uniform policies statewide for the taxation of the medical marijuana industry, establish a licence structure and uniform identification card program.

The DMCRE would be required to work in conjunction with state law enforcement agencies to enforce medical marijuana regulations to ensure compliance with the law.

“California has been in chaos for way too long,” says Ammiano. “Cities have been looking for state guidance, dispensaries feel at the mercy of changing rules and patients who need medical cannabis are uncertain about how their legitimate medical needs will be filled.”

Since 2011, when federal prosecutors in the state announced their crackdown on the unregulated medical marijuana industry, the DEA has raided numerous dispensaries and other medical marijuana-related businesses, including Oaksterdam University.

In the past two years, hundreds of California dispensaries have shuttered their doors, in part because of the fear of federal prosecution and in part because of local moves against them.

Source: http://business.time.com/2013/05/20/how-much-will-a-legal-marijuana-habit-cost-you/

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles politicians have struggled for more than five years to regulate medical marijuana, trying to balance the needs of the sick against some neighborhood concerns that medical marijuana dispensaries may attract crime.

Voters will head to the polls Tuesday to decide how Los Angeles should regulate medical marijuana dispensaries with three separate measures that seek to either limit the number of dispensaries or allow new ones to open and join an estimated several hundred others that currently operate.

Election Day in the nation’s second-largest city comes just two weeks after a pivotal state Supreme Court decision gave cities and counties the authority to ban dispensaries.

More than 200 local municipalities have bans, and some cities that were awaiting guidance from the state’s highest court have taken immediate action this month and begun shuttering clinics.

While some cities have been able to manage medical marijuana collectives and dispensaries, Los Angeles fumbled with the issue and dispensaries cropped up across the city as a result. Councilman Ed Reyes said Los Angeles has run into trouble where other cities such as Oakland haven’t because of the sheer size of LA and a movement that is more organized and litigious.

“The pie is so big here, so thick and rich, that we have many people making a run at it,” Reyes said. “Regardless of which measure you support, the city is going to have to focus on enforcement. I think as long as we don’t have enforcement, it’s just letters on paper.”

City councilors passed an ordinance in 2010 to cut the number of dispensaries from roughly 1,000 to 70. But numerous lawsuits were filed against the city by dispensaries and the ordinance was allowed to expire last year, leading to another surge of dispensaries opening in the city.

Last summer, the city approved a ban, but two months later repealed it after enough signatures were gathered to get the measures on the ballot.

Proposition D would cap the number of collectives that opened prior to 2007 – about 135 – and raise taxes slightly; Proposition E also would do the same but raise no new taxes; Proposition F wouldn’t limit the number of dispensaries but put stringent controls such as audits and background checks on employees. It also raises taxes.

The proposition with the most votes wins, but only if it collects a majority. If none of the measures receives more than 50 percent, the issue could bounce back to the City Council.

Proposition E is essentially dead on arrival because its supporters are now backing Proposition D, which has been endorsed by several council members. Proposition D backers said the initiative meets the criteria of neighbors and the medical marijuana industry by limiting the number of clinics.

“There’s been absolutely no control, and that’s what has hurt the city,” said Brennan Thicke, who runs the Venice Beach Care Center. “At this point, voters need to finally decide this issue. There’s been an overwhelming belief in this city that medical marijuana should not go away.”

Those who support Proposition F say the medical marijuana industry should be an open market, and the measure does more to regulate the industry than its counterpart. They also note that if some of the 135 clinics under Proposition D later close, they won’t be replaced.

“There are bad apples in both groups,” said attorney David Welch, who has represented dispensaries in various lawsuits. “The idea that the (older) collectives are angels and everyone else are the devils is just plain wrong. They don’t want competition, and they want to control the supply and demand.”

Regardless of the election’s outcome, dispensary owners still are under the specter of the federal government, which maintains marijuana is illegal and has raided clinics, prosecuted owners and filed lawsuits against landlords.

Source: http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/18020/los-angeles-medical-marijuana-dispensary-vote-tuesday/

PHILADELPHIA, PA — What began as a peaceful protest against marijuana prohibition in Philadelphia Saturday ended with the violent arrest of several prominent activists, including event organizers, as the crowd chanted “No victim, no crime” in support.

Among those arrested were prominent marijuana activists Adam Kokesh, Don Dezarn, and organizer N.A Poe.

The event, Smoke Down Prohibition V, has been a monthly gathering at Independence Hall sponsored by the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Philly NORML) and the Panic Hour.  The events, which had previously gone without incident, feature music, speakers, giveaways and trivia, are intended to be a peaceful demonstration taking a stand “in opposition  a failed, racist drug war” while  ”ushering in a future without marijuana prohibition.”

The events have always ended with a civil disobedience protest in which most of those in attendance light up at 4:20 pm.

Unlike the previous four “Smoke Down Prohibition” events, as the crowd lit up, the United States Park Rangers and Philadelphia Police cracked down, focusing on organizers and speakers who had just called from the stage for attendees to lock arms and form a circle of solidarity around the stage.

At least six people, possibly as many as ten, were arrested in the minutes that followed.  A video of the event shows police officers shoving through the crowd and violently restraining activists.

Among those arrested were N.A Poe, who is one of the primary organizers of the event, Adam Kokesh, who has been a regular speaker at the Smoke Down Prohibition events and was speaking at the time of his arrest, and Don Dezarn, who is currently the Libertarian Party of New Jersey’s candidate for the New Jersey State Senate in the 14^th Legislative District.

Both Poe and Kokesh are currently being held at the United States Federal Detention facility in Philadelphia.  Dezarn was issued a citation by Park Rangers and released.

Others arrested were issued citations or detained and released by the United States Park Rangers, who have primary jurisdiction at the Independence National Historical Park.

Witnesses say that unlike previous Smoke Down Prohibition events, there was a large police presence — some say there were as many as 50 police cars parked nearby. In addition, the “Free Speech Area” where the monthly demonstrations occur was surrounded by police barricades, with the exception of a few entry/exit points. Along the barricades were signs  posted stating that “the possession and/or use of controlled substances is prohibited.”

More videos and photos, as well as the updated status of detainees, can be found by visitingPhilly NORML or The Panic Hour on Facebook.

UPDATE 5/20/13 2:14 P.M. EDT:  Poe and Kokesh were both charged with a  federal felony “assaulting,resisting, and impeding an officer in course of duty.” Both have been held for detention hearings Thursday at 1:30 P.M.

Source: http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/18002/philly-police-arrest-marijuana-activists-at-peaceful-demonstration/