Suppose voters decided that they’ve had it with federal drug rules that make marijuana an illegal substance akin to heroin or cocaine, and they change Washington state law to make marijuana legal.

Not in all instances, not for everyone, not at any time.  But for adults, in regulated quantities, for limited uses.

While that might be a fair shorthand description of what Initiative 502 proposes this November, this isn’t just a hypothetical scenario about the future.  It’s also a description of the past.  In 1998, Washington voters “legalized” marijuana for medical uses, even though the federal government said at the time, and still does, the drug belongs on the list of controlled substances that have no legal medical use.

Fourteen years later, state officials still struggle with developing a system to regulate medical marijuana production and sale, while the U.S.  Justice Department continues to prosecute “dispensaries” under federal drug trafficking statutes for selling pot to state-approved medicinal smokers unwilling or unable to grow it for themselves.

Supporters of I-502 — which would allow for the possession and consumption of small amounts of marijuana by adults but keep it illegal for minors and anyone operating a vehicle — say it will free local law enforcement and state courts from the cost of marijuana enforcement.  The prosecution, defense, court and jail costs of those cases cost Washington governments more than $200 million between 2000 and 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington recently estimated.

Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart said the chance to lighten the load on local police and avoid filling local courts and jails makes I-502 a good choice.  While there’s no guarantee what federal drug agents and prosecutors will do, the chance to begin discussions also would be a plus, he said.

“If nobody acts, nothing’s going to happen,” he said.

I-502 won’t stop federal officials from enforcing the law, most concede.  But it will spark discussions on how to shift from individual users to large criminal organizations bringing drugs across state and national borders, said Pete Holmes, the Seattle city attorney and a supporter of the initiative.

“It would take a great deal of hubris to just brush it aside,” Holmes said.

The state’s federal prosecutors won’t even talk about what they would do if voters approve I-502.

“We’re not making plans right now,” said Mike Ormsby, U.S.  attorney for Eastern Washington, adding he’s had no discussions with supporters of the initiative and “I don’t intend to have any.”

Jenny Durkan, U.S.  attorney for Western Washington, hasn’t had any official discussions on what actions federal law enforcement would take if the ballot measure passes, a spokeswoman said.  “We are prohibited from commenting on Initiative 502,” Emily Langlie said.  “It’s possible, between now and the election, the Department of Justice will provide further instructions.”

Last year, Ormsby warned dispensaries in Spokane that they faced federal prosecution if they didn’t shut down.  A letter from Ormsby and Durkan to Gov.  Chris Gregoire prompted the governor to essentially gut a bill that legislators had hammered out to regulate the production and sale of medical marijuana, which was called for in the 1998 ballot measure.

“Growing, distributing and possessing marijuana in any capacity, other than as part of a federally authorized research program, is a violation of federal law regardless of state laws permitting such activities,” they wrote in April 2011.

I-502 calls for the state to regulate the production, processing and sale of marijuana — and collect taxes on it — through the state Liquor Control Board.

Holmes believes the passage of I-502 could actually ease the federal pressure on medical marijuana dispensaries.  It was the proliferation of those facilities and readily available “prescriptions” that helped spur the federal crackdown, he said.

“There are a lot of sham users of medical marijuana,” he said.  “The number of dispensaries you see is quite a bit beyond what’s needed for medical marijuana.”

I-502 would likely preclude the need for dispensaries because medical patients could find the drug relatively easily, he added.

State Attorney General Rob McKenna, who is running for governor this fall on the same ballot as I-502, said passage of the measure will create “a serious conflict between state law and federal law.” If state and local officials don’t prosecute marijuana cases, federal prosecutors likely will, he said.

“It’s not a state’s rights issue,” McKenna said: It’s an issue where federal law rules under the Constitution’s supremacy clause.

Like his Democratic opponent for governor, Jay Inslee, Republican McKenna opposes I-502.  If the measure passes, one or the other would be faced with dealing with the fallout, although neither has specific plans.

Inslee’s campaign said simply that he would “work with legislators and stakeholders to implement the new law.”

McKenna said he believes the initiative will fail, so he won’t deal with a hypothetical like how he would deal with the U.S.  Justice Department.  “I don’t want to comment on what could happen on a law that won’t pass.”

Source: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Copyright: 2012 The Spokesman-Review
Contact: editor@spokesman.com
Website: http://www.spokesman.com/
Author: Jim Camden

The recent acquittal of a Saskatchewan driver on impaired driving charges — even though she admitted using marijuana before hitting the road and bungled a number of coordination tests — is raising questions about the ability of law enforcement to go after drugged drivers.

Some advocates say that Canada’s drug-impaired driving laws introduced in 2008 are deficient and that federal lawmakers should move to adopt drug-intake thresholds similar to the 0.08 blood-alcohol limit.

The judge in the Saskatchewan driver’s case said police and prosecutors failed to convince him that her use of marijuana actually affected her ability to operate a vehicle.

Saskatoon police set up a roadside checkpoint on June 19, 2011. An officer approached a vehicle and smelled an overwhelming odour of marijuana.

The driver admitted to the officer that she had smoked marijuana about 2-1/2 hours earlier. The officer, who was a trained drug recognition evaluator, had the driver perform a number of coordination tests. During the walk-and-turn test, the driver missed a number of heel-toe steps and failed to turn, as instructed. During the finger-to-nose test, she was able to touch her nose only once during six attempts.

The officer also noticed eyelid tremors and reddening of the drivers’ eyes.

Following these and other tests, the officer concluded the driver had marijuana in her system, which was later confirmed by a urine analysis.

But in a court ruling Aug. 21, provincial court Judge Daryl Labach said the evidence presented in court only showed that the accused had used marijuana prior to being stopped and that some of it was still in her system when she was evaluated by police.

“What (the officer’s) evidence does not convince me of is that at the time she was driving, her ability to operate a motor vehicle was impaired by marijuana,” he said.

The judge said he was left with many questions: What signs of impairment would one expect to see in someone who has been using marijuana? How long after using marijuana would you expect to see these signs and how long would they last? Was the accused’s performance in some of the tests just as consistent with someone who has poor balance or poor coordination as it was with someone who had used marijuana?

The lack of answers, and the lack of evidence of erratic driving, raised reasonable doubt the driver was driving impaired, the judge said.

There have been similar acquittals in other jurisdictions. Labach referred to a 2010 case out of Ontario.

A man had hit a mailbox with his car and went off the road. Police observed that the driver had droopy eyes, slow and thick speech, and was unco-ordinated.

A police drug-recognition expert concluded that the driver was likely impaired by a central nervous system depressant, which was later confirmed by a urine analysis.

But Ontario Justice Stephen J. Fuerth acquitted the driver, saying evidence of the driver’s impairment was “far from compelling,” and that the Crown had failed to show beyond a reasonable doubt that the drug had caused the driver to be impaired at the time he was driving.

Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Author: Douglas Quan

Jay Lassiter, a onetime New Jersey politics blogger who would use profanity to drive home a point, texted one word to describe his feelings about becoming one of the state’s first patients eligible to smoke medical marijuana: “Wow.”

“Just registered. . . . Shouldn’t be long now,” the advocacy consultant from Cherry Hill then told his Facebook followers. Lassiter is among the more than 100 people who signed up last month as the state’s long-stalled medical marijuana program advanced.

Lassiter, 40, who previously wrote for the liberal website BlueJersey, wants to obtain marijuana to stimulate an appetite ravaged by HIV/AIDS and the side effects of a cocktail of potent medications. The drug requires a prescription from a registered doctor.

Whether the patient registry is “the sweet victory” Lassiter anticipates or just another step in the program’s bumpy road remains to be seen. There are still hurdles and confusion as the state Department of Health takes a firm stance in checking and double-checking every detail.

No marijuana dispensary has received final approval to open for business, despite years of planning and review. So far, only one – the Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair, Essex County – has been licensed to grow the crop.

Greenleaf is expected to begin selling the drug to patients this month “assuming they meet all the criteria,” Health Commissioner Mary O’Dowd said.

But the government and dispensary seem to have a different understanding about what’s left to be done before Greenleaf opens.

Greenleaf chief executive officer Joe Stevens said his nonprofit company already had harvested the crop and was ready to sell as early as this week, once the state conducts a final inspection of his storefront dispensary and reviewed his security plans. State Health and Agriculture Department inspectors already have checked the plants for mold, pesticides, and other contaminants and found them to be clean, he said.

“Now that patients are registering, we’ve been getting calls as to our opening date. . . . We’re hoping for the first or second week in September,” Stevens said.

But O’Dowd said the inspection of the plants was only preliminary. The marijuana still needs to undergo further inspection and laboratory testing before it can be sold, she said.

Plus, a daylong inspection of the dispensary would include computer and employee training and security checks. “We are asking for security to make sure [marijuana] is not diverted for inappropriate illegal purposes,” O’Dowd said.

Some patients have vulnerable immune systems, she said, and the Department of Health needs to ensure that the drug won’t harm them.

So far, more than 100 patients who have cancer, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, HIV, or other afflictions that qualify for marijuana treatment have begun the registration process. About 8,400 people visited the state’s medical marijuana website the day patients were allowed to sign up.

Stevens said he had cultivated enough marijuana at his 5,000-square-foot facility to serve only 60 patients the first month. Since more than 100 people have registered, he said, he may ask patients to “limit their purchases in the beginning so that everyone who is sick can get their medication.”

Stevens, a former funeral director who will run the dispensary with a childhood friend, Julio Valentin Jr., a former Newark police detective, said he did not expect to have the only dispensary to open in the state.

In March 2011, the Department of Health selected six nonprofit companies to grow marijuana and operate dispensaries, two for each of three geographic areas. The others have been stymied either by local opposition to their businesses or the rigorous state approval process.

Until the others open, registered patients across the state are free to travel to Greenleaf.

Stevens said his company initially had difficulties because “the start dates kept being pushed back” by the state, but now, “if there were differences in the past, there are none now.”

Compassionate Care Foundation, one of two dispensaries chosen to serve South Jersey, has been paying $25,000 a month in rent on a vacant warehouse in Egg Harbor, near Atlantic City, since April.

Chief executive officer William J. Thomas said he did not anticipate that the state background checks of his board members and lenders would take eight months. He had hoped to be ready to serve patients this month, but since the investigations are continuing, he now expects to see a December opening at the earliest.

“We are being held to the same standard as a casino owner,” he said, noting that investigators had asked his associates, doctors, and lenders for three years’ worth of IRS statements, bank accounts, mortgage information, and job history, and for personal interviews.

“We have no revenue, and if it goes on any longer, we’ll just have to walk away from this,” Thomas said.

Some lenders have dropped out because the process is so time-consuming and intrusive, he said.

“We are being treated like a hot potato,” he said.

Thomas said he could not apply for a permit to begin growing until the investigation was complete. Cultivation then takes about three months.

O’Dowd said that Department of Health conducts in-depth investigations to make sure no one associated with a dispensary has laundered money, has ties to organized crime, or has a criminal record.

“This is an illegal operation in the eyes of the federal government, so we want to make sure there are no concerns that would bring into question the integrity of the investors and the board as a whole,” she said.

In other states, notably California, federal agents have raided dispensaries when they discovered the improper sale of medical marijuana to people who were not sick. O’Dowd said she wanted to ensure that New Jersey’s program “will withstand the scrutiny of federal law enforcement.”

New Jersey is one of 17 states and the District of Columbia that permit medical marijuana despite the federal government’s ban on cannabis sales. The Obama administration has issued memos saying it will look the other way when dispensaries follow a state’s regulations.

Ken Wolski, who heads the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey, a patient advocacy group, said New Jersey’s program was unnecessarily the strictest in the nation, depriving very sick and terminally ill patients of a drug that could help them cope.

The program has focused more on bureaucratic requirements and less on the suffering of the patients, he said.

Gov. Christie has said that he wants to make sure there are “sufficient legal safeguards so we don’t turn into California and everybody with a headache is going out and getting high.”

Lassiter said that was not why he needed marijuana. “A big part of my strategy for staying well is keeping my appetite robust,” he said. “The alternative is dying.”

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Author: Jan Hefler, Inquirer Staff Writer
Published: September 4, 2012
Copyright: 2012 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
Contact: Inquirer.Letters@phillynews.com
Website: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/

Supporters of a contentious medical marijuana program are rallying behind a Coe Hill-area family practitioner facing medical marijuana-related fraud charges across Canada

Dianne Bruce is a vocal advocate for the Health Canada operated program and the drug she praises for enabling her to enjoy simple pleasures such as getting out of bed in the morning.  Without medical marijuana she said she would be overcome by a barrage of ailments including crippling aches and chronic pains.

Bruce’s first hand knowledge of the program is fuelling her displeasure about the scrutiny and public backlash being shown to Dr.  Rob Kamermans since news of his arrest earlier this month.

She worries that Kamerman’s ordeal could threaten the program and patients like her who depend heavily on daily dosages of marijuana – her “medicine” – to function.  Bruce credits medical marijuana for easing a range of ailments including spinal disc herniation and pancreatist.

Kamermans, 66, was subjected to myriad of restrictive conditions to which he and two sureties agreed when he was then granted bail.

His wife and co-accused, Mary Kamermans, 64, also released on strict conditions – including reporting to the Bancroft OPP detachment once per week-

The couple was charged in relation to fraudulent endorsement of Health Canada’s medicinal marijuana documents in Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and British Columbia, between January 2011 and April 2012, police said.

Bruce has licences to possess and a permit to produce what’s designated by Health Canada as medical marijuana.  Proof of her participation in the program is crucial, somewhat akin to having a driver’s licence, she said.

“They want to take this program away,” she said.

The documents issued by Health Canada details whether the licence holder is permit to grow indoor or outdoor, plant limits and the amount they can possess.  Cobourg resident

“No doctor will want to go near this after what’s happened to Dr.  Kamermans,” she said.  “We have a medical doctor that has been doing the right thing.”

Bruce relies on doctors like Kamermans who have been active participants in the program.  She visited Kamermans about a year ago in an attempt to bump up her dosage and said Kamermans should not be penalized for travelling to other jurisdictions to care for patients seeking his help.

“It’s very hard to find doctors who are willing to sign,” Bruce said.  “If other doctors would take care of their patients, he wouldn’t be as needed as he his.”

Inside Bruce’s purse is handful of pill bottles containing synthetic “pot” in the form of a pill, which Bruce requires a prescription to acquire.

She takes six tablets daily to stem effects of fibromyalgia, a syndrome which involves body pains and tenderness in the joints, muscles and other soft tissues.  Fibromyalgia has also been linked to fatigue, sleep problems, headaches.  Bruce credits the pills for soothing her chronic pain issues.

“I take the pill in the morning and within 20 minutes I can get up out of bed,” she said.

Debby Smits also attributed her improved mobility and noticeable reduction in chronic pain to her consumption of the “synthetic medication.”

She said she battles a plethora of ailments, including arthritis.  She too has a licence that allows her to possess and produce marijuana and has made prior visits to Kamermans to seek assistance.

“I was there the day before his office was raided,” she said about the January raid at Kamermans’ Coe Hill office.

Smits said there is a misconception about some patients are misusing the product as a drug rather than for legitimate health reasons.

Contrary to public perception, patients like say medical marijuana does not provide the euphoria enjoyed by people who use it on a recreational basis..

“We don’t get high when we use it,” she said.

Dr.  Kamermans was charged Aug.  15, in Sturgeon Falls while his wife Mary – a registered nurse – was charged in Bancroft.  The Kamermans are scheduled to re-appear in court in Belleville on Sept.  20.

Source: Intelligencer, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012, Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact: http://www.intelligencer.ca/feedback1/LetterToEditor.aspx
Website: http://www.intelligencer.ca/
Author: Jason Miller

A Montana medical marijuana provider with a history of serious illness died Thursday after his transfer to a federal prison that could give him proper medical care was delayed for months.

Richard Flor’s death came weeks after a federal judge denied an attorney’s request to release the 68-year-old Miles City resident while he appealed his five-year sentence. U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell wrote in his Aug. 7 order that it was “unfortunate” that Flor’s transfer to a Bureau of Prisons medical facility was delayed, but “it is not factually or legally significant.”

Lovell sentenced Flor in April after Flor pleaded guilty to maintaining a drug-involved premises. Flor previously was diagnosed with dementia, depression and numerous medical conditions, and Lovell recommended that he be evaluated by federal prison hospital officials to determine what facility would be best suited for him.

Flor had been held at Crossroads Correctional Facility, a private prison in Shelby, while awaiting the Bureau of Prisons’ decision on where he would serve his sentence.

He was removed from the Shelby facility Tuesday and was being temporarily held in a Las Vegas jail Wednesday when he suffered two heart attacks, renal failure and kidney failure, said his attorney, Brad Arndorfer.

Flor was hospitalized and placed on life support while still shackled to his bed, Arndorfer said. His family decided early Thursday to take him off life support.

Arndorfer said Flor’s death was a failure of the federal justice system at all levels.

“I can point the finger at everybody,” Arndorfer said. “The fault is in prosecuting a man like this. The next fault is sentencing a man like this to prison. Then you’ve got the Marshals Service taking him to a place like Crossroads, which has no medical facilities capable of taking care of him.”

Arndorfer said Flor was being held in the Las Vegas jail as a layover en route to a destination that he did not know.

Lovell released a brief statement through his staff Thursday afternoon saying, “I was sorry to learn of the passing of Mr. Flor. Judicial ethics prohibit further response.”

Neither the Bureau of Prisons nor the U.S. Marshals Service returned calls for comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Fehr confirmed that Flor died Thursday in a Las Vegas hospital but said she had no further comment.

The Great Falls Tribune first reported Flor’s death.

Steven Owen, a spokesman for Crossroads owner Corrections Corporation of America, said in a statement that staff there “are firmly committed to the health and safety of the inmates entrusted to our care” and the facility is regularly inspected and audited on its “processes for delivering care.”

Arndorfer asked Lovell in July to release Flor while he appealed his five-year sentence, which Flor believed was too harsh. Flor had fallen out of a bed at Crossroads and broke his clavicle and cervical bones. He also reinjured the ribs and vertebrae hurt in a fall in detention the year before, Arndorfer said.

“He is in extreme pain and still is not being given round-the-clock care as is required for someone with his medical and mental conditions,” Arndorfer wrote in his request. “It is anticipated he will not long survive general population incarceration.”

Lovell denied the request Aug. 7, saying he checked with Bureau of Prison officials and Flor had recovered from the injuries.

“Defendant’s medical requirements have been reviewed by the Bureau of Prisons, which is able to provide any medical care needed by the Defendant,” the judge wrote.

After initially saying CCA did not know of any injury Flor suffered while housed at Crossroads, Owens later acknowledged there was a report from June that Flor fell out of his bunk. He said medical privacy rules prevented him from speaking any further about the fall or Flor’s injuries.

Flor was one of the co-founders of the now-defunct Montana Cannabis, which provided marijuana for about 300 people from locations in Helena, Missoula and Billings, and from Flor’s Miles City home. It was one of the largest medical marijuana operations to be raided by federal agents in March 2011 in a crackdown on large providers.

Three of his former partners are either facing or have pleaded guilty to similar federal drug charges after protesting that they were operating in compliance with state medical marijuana laws.

Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Author: Matt Volz, Associated Press
Published: August 30, 2012
Copyright: 2012 The Associated Press

Juan Gomez-Garcia was standing outside a Bronx Kentucky Fried Chicken on May 16, 2012, waiting for his order to be prepared, when a police officer approached and asked him if he had any drugs.

The 27-year-old says he admitted to carrying some marijuana, at which point the cop reached inside his pocket and pulled out a ziploc bag containing weed. Months earlier, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly issued a memo to New York City cops: “A crime will not be charged to an individual who is requested or compelled to engage in the behavior that results in the public display of marijuana.”

The directive– considered an attempt to curb the growing amount of low-level marijuana arrests in New York City– did not spare Gomez-Garcia from being cuffed outside KFC.

Under a current New York law– which Reason this past week crowned as the nation’s “Dumbest Drug Law”– possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana shouldn’t result in arrest unless it’s “burning or in public view.” Rather, it’s considered a violation with a punishment comparable to a parking ticket.

The law allows the NYPD, however, to ask the hundreds of thousands they stop on the streets each year (87 percent of whom, in 2011, were black or Latino) to empty their pockets.

When the marijuana comes out of the pocket, it becomes “in public view,” and they can make an arrest. Additionally– as in Gomez-Garcia’s case– cops will often bring the drugs into “public view” during a stop-and-frisk.

According to a lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society against the NYPD, Gomez-Garcia’s encounter with the officer resulted in an arrest. He was held in a jail cell for 12 hours– during which time he pleaded with a sergeant that he should only be getting a ticket– before being charged with “in public view” possession and pleading guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct.

Thousands of such arrests across the city, the lawsuit claims, highlight the ineffectiveness of Kelly’s September, 2011 memo. Steven Banks, a Legal Aid lawyer, presented City Council with statistics proving Kelly’s order was being ignored by rank-and-file cops.

From The New York Times:

In August 2011, 4,189 people were arrested in New York City for misdemeanor marijuana possession, Mr. Banks said. While the arrests dipped below 3,000 in December, “the decline was only temporary”, he said, adding that by March, the number of arrests had risen to 4,186

In June, Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a bill to decriminalize public possession of small amounts of marijuana, which would have essentially codifed Kelly’s memo into law. The measure enjoyed the support of Ray Kelly himself, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, all five District Attorneys from all five boroughs, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, and numerous civil rights groups.

After all, the combination of the “in public view” law with the NYPD’s controversial use of stop-and-frisks had turned New York City into one of the marijuana arrest capitals of the United States, if not the world.

From a report by the Drug Policy Alliance:

In the last decade since Michael Bloomberg became mayor, the NYPD has made 400,038 lowest level marijuana possession arrests at a cost of $600 million dollars. Nearly 350,000 of the marijuana possession arrests made under Bloomberg are of overwhelmingly young Black and Latino men, despite the fact that young whites use marijuana at higher rates than young Blacks and Latinos.

In the last five years, the NYPD under Bloomberg has made more marijuana arrests (2007 to 2011 = 227,093) than in the 24 years from 1978 through 2001 under Mayor Giuliani, Mayor Dinkins, and Mayor Koch combined (1978 to 2001 = 226,861).

City Councilman Jumaane Williams was troubled by the report, saying, “This data shows that Commissioner Kelly’s memorandum is not being enforced. For instance, the 240% increase in arrests in the last week of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010 is highly troubling. It also seems that much of this rise is occurring in police precincts which cover communities of more color, such as the 67th and the 70th in my district. What these statistics prove is that legislative action is needed to codify the memorandum once and for all.”

But alas, the same month as it was proposed, the bill was struck down by Republicans in the State Senate. “We do not support decriminalization,” Senator Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican, told The Times. Skelos had previously said of the bill, “Just being able to walk around with 10 joints in each ear and it would only be a violation, I think that’s wrong.”

Cuomo spokesman John Vlasto responded to Skelos’s comment, saying, “Carrying 10 joints in each ear would require some set of ears.” He then added, “We look forward to working these issues through with the Senate in order to end an injustice that has been allowed to go on for too long.”

It remains unclear, however, if Cuomo and Senate Republicans can or will come to an agreement.

For now, it seems marijuana arrests in New York will be an issue for the courts to decide.

HuffPost Live will be taking a comprehensive look at America’s failed war on drugs August 28th and September 4th from 12-4 pm ET and 6-10 pm ET.

Click here to check it out — http://live.huffingtonpost.com/ — and join the conversation.

Source: Huffington Post (NY)
Author: Christopher Mathias
Published: August 28, 2012
Copyright: 2012 HuffingtonPost.com, LLC
Contact: scoop@huffingtonpost.com
Website: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Campaigns to become the first U.S. states to legalize marijuana for recreational use in Washington and Colorado have raised $3 million ahead of a November vote, far outpacing the opposition.

Proponents of pot legalization in Washington state have raised nearly $2 million since the initiative qualified for the ballot in January, and about $1 million in Colorado since its measure earned a place on the ballot the following month, according to the most recent state campaign figures.

In Oregon, where a voter referendum qualified in July, the legalization campaign reported less than $1,000 in contributions. All three state measures go on the ballot in November, when Americans vote for president and other offices.

With their war chests, backers of legalization drives in Washington state and Colorado have already bought television ads in a bid to convince voters, especially those who have never smoked pot, of merits of legalizing and taxing it.

Legalizing the drug for recreational purposes would run afoul of the federal government, which says that marijuana is a dangerous narcotic.

The referendums in the three Western states, among the 17 that already allow marijuana for medical purposes, comes as some states battle with the federal government over its raids of medical marijuana dispensaries.

“If one of these initiatives wins, it will really be a breakthrough,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which seeks alternatives to the current U.S. policy to combat drug use.

“And in the end, just as there has been a federal-state conflict involving medical marijuana, we anticipate there will be similar conflicts when states begin to legally regulate marijuana like alcohol,” he said. “But the only way we think change can happen is through this process.”

Polls indicate support in Colorado and Washington for legalizing pot.

A July poll by Survey USA of 630 registered voters in Washington state said 55 percent backed the marijuana legalization ballot measure. The margin of error was 4 percent.

Rasmussen Reports said its June poll of likely Colorado voters showed 61 percent supported legalizing and regulating pot. The survey had 500 respondents and a margin of 4.5 percent.

Billionaire Peter Lewis, the Ohio-based chairman of Progressive Insurance who helped finance successful state-level campaigns for medical marijuana, has emerged as the Washington state legalization measure’s largest supporter with total contributions this year of $875,000.

A representative for Lewis declined requests for comment.

Drug Policy Action, a group related to New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, has given $600,000 this year to the Washington legalization campaign.

The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project has given the two registered groups behind the Colorado campaign most of their roughly $1 million in funds, state records show. Lists of donors to Marijuana Policy Project and Drug Policy Action are not publicly available.

Legal at 21

The ballot measures in all three states would legalize marijuana for people 21 and older, impose state-level taxes on the drug and allow sales of the drug at special pot stores.

A representative for the U.S. Justice Department had no comment in response to multiple requests. The Obama administration’s Office of National Drug Control Policy has argued that pot use is associated with addiction, respiratory disease and cognitive impairment.

“One of the canards the other side puts out is that keeping marijuana, even in small amounts, illegal is essentially equivalent to a modern day prohibition for alcohol, which is a total joke,” said Cully Stimson, chief of staff for the conservative Heritage Foundation, which opposes legalization.

Stimson said having only a couple drinks a day is healthy. “With marijuana use, the purpose is to get high,” he said.

Despite such arguments, opponents of legalization have so far fallen short in fundraising. State campaign figures show that Smart Colorado has raised the most of any anti-legalization group, but its 2012 total stands at less than $40,000.

Holcomb said her pro-legalization group bought more than $1 million in TV air time in Washington state this month.

In Colorado, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol spent $800,000 for fall season television ads, said Mason Tvert, co-director of the group.

Editing by Vicki Allen

Source: Reuters (Wire)
Author: Alex Dobuzinskis, Reuters
Published: August 25, 2012
Copyright: 2012 Thomson Reuters

The Drug Enforcement Administration mailed letters Thursday to 23 medical marijuana businesses in Western Washington, warning they could be prosecuted and the properties seized if they are operating within a school zone.

“Please take the necessary steps to discontinue the sale and/or distribution of marijuana…within 30 days,” read the letter, signed by Matthew G. Barnes, special agent in charge of the Seattle office.

Neither the DEA nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which supported the action, would release the names of the 23 dispensaries or disclose which cities they’re located in.

Barnes said in a statement that “additional notifications” will be sent “as necessary.”

“I am confident that once notified of the ramifications and penalties associated with renting a property for marijuana distribution purposes, property owners will take appropriate steps to rectify the situation on their own. The DEA will not turn a blind eye to criminal organizations that attempt to use state or local law as a shield for their illicit drug trafficking activities,” Barnes said in a statement.

The letters, which threaten property forfeiture and criminal prosecution, follow similar federal action against medical marijuana operations in Eastern Washington, Northern California and Colorado targeting storefronts near schools. In other states, the federal actions at times have clashed with state or local laws allowing dispensaries, flaming renewed debate in the 16 states and the District of Columbia which allow medical marijuana.

“We need to enforce one message for our students: drugs have no place in or near our schools,” the U.S. Attorney for Western Washington, Jenny Durkan, said in a statement.

Washington’s medical marijuana law doesn’t authorize dispensaries. An effort to legalize and regulate them passed the state Legislature last year, but was vetoed by Gov. Chris Gregorie, leaving Washington with one of the most unregulated medical marijuana industries in the country.

Gregoire’s veto left intact a law that allows 10 patients to band together to form a 45-plant “collective garden.” Some medical marijuana storefronts have used a broad interpretation of that provision to form networks of collective gardens, with off-the-street patients signing into an open slot in a garden.

The state law allows local governments to regulate medical marijuana operations. Seattle, home to more than 140 medical marijuana-related businesses, lightly regulates them, requiring only basic business business licenses and compliance with city building safety codes.

Earlier this week, three people involved in running two Seattle dispensaries pleaded guilty to federal drug-dealing charges following raids on several storefronts in November.

The raids come as Washington voters will be considering legalizing, taxing and regulating recreational marijuana use. Durkan hasn’t spoken out on the measure, Initiative 502, except to remind voters that marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

From The Seattle Times Blog

Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Author: Jonathan Martin
Published: August 23, 2012
Copyright: 2012 The Seattle Times Company
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday expanded their crackdown on California medical marijuana dispensaries, filing three lawsuits and sending warning letters to more than 60 clinics in two Orange County cities.

The asset-forfeiture lawsuits filed against landlords who own buildings that house six marijuana shops in Anaheim and the letters order the closure of the clinics or possible criminal charges will be filed.

More than 300 pot stores and grows have been targeted in the Central District of California, which stretches from Santa Barbara to San Bernardino counties, since October when the state’s four U.S. attorneys announced an effort to curb dispensaries.

Prosecutors argue dealers and suppliers are using the state’s medical pot law, approved in 1996, as legal cover for running sophisticated drug-trafficking ventures in plain sight. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Medical marijuana advocates argue the collectives are protected by California law, which allows the drug to be cultivated and supplied to ill people on a nonprofit basis.

The crackdown comes amid a shift by municipalities and law enforcement agencies that say the clinics are abusing the law and in some cases overrunning neighborhoods. Last month, the Los Angeles City Council voted to ban as many as 900 storefront dispensaries in the coming weeks.

A medical marijuana trade group has since sued the city, claiming the ban violated constitutional rights. Activists are also working to qualify a ballot measure to repeal the ban.

In all, 66 warning letters were sent to marijuana dispensaries in Anaheim and La Habra. Some have closed recently, but federal authorities said 38 remain open.

Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Published: August 21, 2012
Copyright: 2012 The Associated Press

Revelers at Seattle’s Hempfest celebration of marijuana were offered a debate by supporters and opponents of Initiative 502. We hope they were sober enough to think through it.

For the first time, it is possible to envision an end to marijuana prohibition. That is a huge change — a huge possible change that hasn’t happened yet. But prohibition replaced by what? Any new regime will have to be acceptable to a majority of people — and not just a majority of revelers at Hempfest or voters in liberal Seattle.

This fall, voters in Washington are being offered Initiative 502. For marijuana activists, it probably is not the ideal offer. The proposed law limits possession of smokable marijuana to one ounce. It has a blood-THC standard for driving a car, and no such standard exists now. It has heavy taxes. It doesn’t allow private growing of marijuana plants except by medical patients.

All this has occasioned bellyaching among cannabis users.

Our advice: Get real. Voters in Washington are just now ready, for the first time, to allow marijuana to be grown, processed and used for recreational purposes.

They are not ready to do this without a standard of intoxication for driving, or without licensing and regulation of people in the business, or without taxing marijuana like tobacco and alcohol.

Hempfest revelers should remember: Your festival is tolerated because Seattle people don’t agree with prohibition.

Nonetheless, state law still says possession of marijuana, except for medical patients, is punishable by fines and imprisonment.

In November, voters will be offered a law that declares possession of a limited amount of marijuana by adults is no longer punishable by fine or imprisonment.

Think carefully before rejecting the offer.

Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Published: August 20, 2012
Copyright: 2012 The Seattle Times Company
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/