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Showing posts with label marijuana laws. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marijuana laws. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Connecticut: Lawmakers Vote To Decriminalize Adult Marijuana Possession

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Paul Armentano, Deputy Director
NORML

Connecticut lawmakers moments ago voted 90 to 57 in favor of Senate Bill 1014, decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of cannabis for personal use by adults. Senate lawmakers had narrowly approved an amended version of the measure on Saturday; House lawmakers concurred with the Senate today, sending the measure to Democrat Gov. Dannel Malloy — who will sign it into law.

As amended, SB 1014 reduces the penalties for the adult possession of up to one-half ounce of marijuana from acriminal misdemeanor (punishable by one year in jail and a $1,000 fine) to a non-criminal infraction, punishable by a fine, no jail time, and no criminal record. (This measure would similarly reduce penalties on the possession of marijuana paraphernalia.)

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Bipartisan Coalition Urges Sensible Drug Policy

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Introducing Three Bills to Protect Access to Medical Marijuana 

Rep. Jared Polis

Washington -- In a sign of growing bipartisan Congressional support for reforming our nation’s drug laws, a coalition of Republicans and Democrats today offered three bills that would ensure fair treatment of cannabis businesses under tax and banking law, and change existing law to reflect the medical efficacy of marijuana. The bills were authored by Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA), Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), and Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO).

Stark’s bill – the Small Business Tax Equity Act – would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to take the full range of business expense deductions on their federal tax returns, just like every other legal business is permitted to do under the law. It is co-sponsored by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), as well as Frank and Polis.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Big Pharma set to take over medical marijuana market

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David Edwards
Raw Story

Just as the federal government is clamping down on medical marijuana dispensaries, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) may be set to give Big Pharma the clearance to take over the market.

In 2007, GW Pharmaceuticals announced that it partnered with Otsuka to bring "Sativex" -- or liquefied marijuana -- to the U.S. The companies recently completed Phase II efficacy and safety trials testing and began discussion with the FDA for Phase III testing. Phase III is generally thought to be the final step before the drug can be marketed in the U.S.

"GW Pharmaceuticals plc (AIM: GWP) today announces the initiation of the Phase III clinical trials programme of Sativex in the treatment of pain in patients with advanced cancer, who experience inadequate analgesia during optimized chronic opioid therapy," GW said in a statement. "This indication represents the initial target indication for Sativex in the United States."

Sativex is the brand name for a drug derived from cannabis sativa. It's an extract from the whole plant cannabis, not a synthetic compound. Even GW defines the drug (.pdf) as marijuana.

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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The Incredibly Simple Case for Decriminalizing Marijuana



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Scott Morgan
Stop the Drug War

It's so easy and obvious, even politicians can use it. In fact, here's Connecticut's Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney demonstrating how to discuss marijuana reform in terms almost anyone can understand.

“Our state should not encourage illegal drug possession and use; however, possession of small amounts of illicit substances and related paraphernalia for personal use should not leave a person with a life-long criminal record.” (NBC Connecticut)
That pretty much sums it up. No shortage of drug war scumbags have come forward to insist eagerly that wedon't need decriminalization because "hardly anyone goes to jail for marijuana," but the idiocy of prohibition doesn't begin when the iron bars slam shut.

Every last aspect of marijuana enforcement is an exhibit in mindless injustice, whether it's digging in people's pockets, testing urine specimens, sniffing around doorways, pulling guns on people, or condemning our youth to a lifetime of criminal stigma over a $10 stash. The very idea that we keep records of the people we've identified as marijuana users is so damagingly and unfathomably stupid that one can't help but marvel at how accustomed to it we've become.

The opportunity to end this terrible embarrassment is upon us at last, and it's exciting to see the Connecticut Legislature learning the right lesson from what decriminalization has accomplished for their neighbors in Massachusetts. This is how it starts.

Support ending insane prohibition by Donating to StopTheDrugWar.org or by Subscribing to their website.

RELATED ARTICLES:
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Friday, November 26, 2010

Raiding and Regulating the New Enemy in the War on Drugs: Rawesome 'Foodies'

Eric Blair
Activist Post

As if the prohibition of non-corporate drugs wasn't already enough of a tragedy of liberty, the Feds are now increasingly arming themselves to raid peaceful organic farms, food Co-Ops, and even Amish dairies over raw milk.

This past week the Los Angeles Times reported that policeman, with guns drawn, raided a private organic food store in Venice California called Rawesome Foods:

With no warning one weekday morning, investigators entered an organic grocery with a search warrant and ordered the hemp-clad workers to put down their buckets of mashed coconut cream and to step away from the nuts.
Then, guns drawn, four officers fanned out across Rawesome Foods in Venice. Skirting past the arugula and peering under crates of zucchini, they found the raid's target inside a walk-in refrigerator: unmarked jugs of raw milk.
 
One of the shocked owners was quoted saying, "There's a medical marijuana shop a couple miles away, and they're raiding us because we're selling raw dairy products?"  As if either one being raided by the armed thugs of Corporate-Federal tyranny is acceptable. This would seem to be the most obvious abuse of our inalienable human rights, and the sovereignty over our own physical being; purely designed to intimidate those who wish freely to choose what they ingest into their own bodies.

When we witness the utter absurdity of the war on marijuana, and now raw milk, the hypocrisy over health safety clearly tells us that much more is behind their continued prohibition in many of the United States.  The corporate masters simply can't allow us to have these rights or their cartels would lose control over our bodies.  Incidentally, it is estimated that at least 75% of our diet is now patented GMO foods.


The controllers know that this health-safety hypocrisy is too obvious to continue legislating against overwhelming public will, so they must create commercial statutes and regulations written by the chemical and food cartels themselves.  Then they use the local authorities to enforce their monopolies to the detriment of true free markets, authentic health safety, and individual liberty.

Now that it is becoming clear that marijuana will indeed be legalized in California or elsewhere -- perhaps not this year, but soon -- the corporate robber barons are rushing in regulations to squeeze out the small farmer.  In a recent Associated Press story this process was referred to as the "Wal-Marting" of weed:

After weathering the fear of federal prosecution and competition from drug cartels, California's medical marijuana growers see a new threat to their tenuous existence: the 'Wal-Marting' of weed.
The Oakland City Council on Tuesday will look at licensing four production plants where pot would be grown, packaged and processed into items ranging from baked goods to body oil. Winning applicants would have to pay $211,000 in annual permit fees, carry $2 million worth of liability insurance, and be prepared to devote up to 8 percent of gross sales to taxes.
A similar bullying tactic occurs with raw milk sales, where "commercial feed licenses" must be applied -- a process which varies from state to state.  Additionally, there are also proposals that will make the small commercial farmer register and tag individual livestock, while large multinationals will need only one tag per barn load, yet again defeating the little guy through economics. Whenever a new grassroots trend business begins its free-market climb, the elite find a way to coral the market.  It's happening to organic foods, natural supplements, and even biofuels.

It's worth noting, the strategy they use to dominate products like biofuels is to create a quality standard to qualify for commercial sales, where the producer must have each batch tested to meet these standards before selling their product.  The catch is that these tests can run in the thousands of dollars, therefore a small producer who may only produce 5000 gallons per batch can no longer afford to test their product and sell for a profit, while the big boys can.

And once the elite have total control they can easily manipulate food shortages for a number of desired outcomes to benefit their agenda.  These are the small battles that "free market" Libertarians refer to when they scream about big government and over-regulation.  Surely, some liberal raw "foodies" are now getting the message when their freedom to be healthy is being threatened by tyrannical corporate regulation.

"This is about control and profit, not our health," said Aajonus Vonderplanitz, co-founder of Rawesome Foods. "How can we not have the freedom to choose what we eat?"  Incidentally, John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, describes his awakening from liberal to libertarian views in his book Be the Solutionprecisely because of this Corporate-Federal hijacking of healthy products.  The owners of Rawesome foods and others like them must realize that they are in the same battle as private medical marijuana Co-Ops and small organic farmers.  They all must continue to thrive as they play a key role in defeating the multinational food powerhouses, building local self-sufficiency, and restoring personal freedom.

Of course, all of this "regulation" is done in the name of our safety because, you know, the sheep need their shepherd. That is why the U.N. and the World Health Organization have been working hard for many years (since 1963) to quietly create an international standard for controlling natural foods and health products called Codex Alimentarius -- Latin for "food code."  Many good pro-natural health progressives and and civil libertarians are teaming up to defeat proposed freedom-shredding regulations.

Watch video below on the Codex Alimentarius to learn more:

Related Articles:
USDA Reports Food Shortages: Wall Street 'Caught Off Guard' by Severity
Using Local Organic Cooperatives to Defeat Globalists
7 Secret Ways We Are Being Poisoned


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Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Could California's Prop. 19 Lead to Pot Legalization Across the U.S.?

Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
Adam Cohen
Time

The cult movie Reefer Madness, released in 1938, warned of the horrors of marijuana — or, as a movie poster put it, "the torturer that never stops." The film was an extreme portrait, full of death and rape and depravity, but it was only an exaggerated version of the real fears America long had about marijuana. Yet in recent years, as medical use of marijuana has gained acceptance and the backing of the law, that century-old national consensus has slowly broken down. And now, this election season, it could completely shatter, starting in California.

Next month, Californians will vote on Proposition 19: the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010. Prop 19 would make recreational use of marijuana entirely legal — and allow cash-strapped cities to raise funds by taxing it. Completely legalizing pot may sound like a radical idea, but not to the people who are actually going to decide: the latest Public Policy Institute of California poll found that 52% of likely voters support Prop 19, with just 41% who oppose it. (See pictures of cannabis conventions in California and Colorado.)

In fact, Prop 19 is polling better than Senator Barbara Boxer or her Republican opponent, Carly Fiorina. It is also outpolling the gubernatorial candidates, Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman. It is gaining support as the election grows nearer — and it has the backing of the state Service Employees International Union, perhaps the state's most powerful union.

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