Wednesday, September 28, 2011

From Indianapolis

September 28, 2011

Indiana police seize California woman's medical marijuana

INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis airport police say they'll destroy medical marijuana seized from a breast cancer patient from California who was boarding a flight.

The Indianapolis Star reports (http://bit.ly/qsdNSG ) that Transportation Security Administration screeners found the marijuana and a pipe in luggage Tuesday after it passed through an X-ray machine at Indianapolis International Airport.

A police report says the 36-year-old woman from Van Nuys, Calif., told police she has breast cancer and showed them a medical card confirming that she was prescribed the marijuana.

Authorities told her that while it was legal to possess and smoke medical marijuana in California it's illegal to do so in Indiana. The woman was not charged and police said they intend to destroy the marijuana.

Text Only

Breaking News

Notre Dame president protests birth control inclusion
The president of the University of Notre Dame has written the Health and Human Services secretary asking the administration of President Barack Obama to change its health care overhaul so that the school need not provide birth control to its students and employees.
September 28, 2011
Climatologist says Indiana could face tough winter
Indiana residents who slogged through last year's icy, snowy winter may be in store for a repeat of that icy blast in the coming months if forecasters tracking global weather patterns are correct.
September 28, 2011
Police: Person of interest held in five Indiana deaths
Police say they are questioning a man with a long criminal record in the deaths of five people found shot in rural southeastern Indiana.
September 28, 2011 1 Photo
Loughner arrives for mental health hearing
The man accused of wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a deadly shooting rampage has arrived at a federal courthouse in Tucson for his first court appearance since an angry outburst got him kicked out of a May competency hearing.
September 28, 2011
House speaker says Florida primary likely Jan. 31
Florida is poised to hold its presidential primary on Jan. 31, a move that likely would mean an earlier start to the GOP nominating contests than what the national Republican Party had planned.
September 28, 2011
Indiana police seize California woman's medical marijuana
Indianapolis airport police say they'll destroy medical marijuana seized from a breast cancer patient from California who was boarding a flight
September 28, 2011
Stocks open higher on solid durable goods report
Stocks are opening higher after a report on U.S. manufacturing came in better than economists expected.
September 28, 2011
Ex-student gets four years for Muncie school rape
A former Muncie Central High School student faces four years in prison for raping a classmate at the school in a case in which the former principal is charged with not reporting the assault.
September 28, 2011
Film, workshop slated at Mounds State Park
A documentary film about a legendary environmentalist will be shown at Mounds State Park with a workshop.
September 28, 2011
Laura Bush to speak at Warsaw Ivy Tech dedication
Former first lady Laura Bush has added a second event in northern Indiana next week

Monday, September 26, 2011

A Legal Mess ? Getting Medicine to Patients

The mess of medical marijuana

BY UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL BOARD,

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2011 AT MIDNIGHT

The successful referendum challenging San Diego’s restrictions on the location of medical marijuana dispensaries, and the City Council’s subsequent decision to repeal the restrictions, has boomeranged on the drug’s proponents. More importantly, it has served to make an even mushier mess of the 15-year effort to provide access to marijuana for legitimate medicinal purposes while still protecting neighborhoods and not running too far afoul of the outright prohibitions of federal law.

Rightly concluding that in the absence of the ordinance he has a moral responsibility to enforce state law and local zoning, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith last week intensified efforts to take the dispensaries to court to shut them all down, in phases, beginning with those he believes are the most flagrant violators. He sought injunctions against a dozen dispensaries allegedly operating within 600 feet of schools, a violation of state law.

He said he did not want to “overwhelm” the judge considering the injunctions by going after all the dispensaries at the same time, but that he will do it “in waves” until all 187 or so dispensaries are closed.

The City Council is legally limited in what it can do in the wake of the referendum, but Goldsmith said the court has more leeway to impose conditions on the dispensaries, which have mushroomed from an estimated 160 since the restrictions were repealed, or even to order Goldsmith to halt his enforcement effort.

“I’m just looking for some direction and some help,” Goldsmith said.

All of which serves to highlight just how badly written was Proposition 215, the 1996 measure approved by California voters that sought to legalize marijuana use for medical purposes but which has essentially become a vehicle for legalized recreational use of the drug.

There is ample evidence that marijuana offers more relief than conventional medications for some patients who suffer from some serious ailments, such as multiple sclerosis, AIDS and cancer.

But if marijuana is to be used as medicine, it ought to be treated as medicine under the law. And the only state that comes close to that standard is New Jersey.

Under the New Jersey law passed last year, there can be only six nonprofit dispensaries, scattered geographically around the entire state. Like other dangerous drugs, patients are limited to how much marijuana they can buy each month. The level of THC – the active ingredient in marijuana – is limited. Patients can get a recommendation for marijuana only from a doctor with whom they have an established and bona fide relationship, and the doctor must be registered and approved by the state. And the list of ailments qualifying for marijuana treatment, while lengthy, is limited.

Sadly, it is 15 years too late for California to be that smart. The medical marijuana mess will be with us for a long time to come.

Comments (13)

Complete terms »Be relevant, civil, honest, discreet and responsible.

Friday, September 23, 2011

90 People an hour arrested for Pot Possession in USA

Marijuana Blog

Cops Arrest Roughly 90 People an Hour for Marijuana PossessioN

Category: News | Posted on Tue, September, 20th 2011 by THCFinder

Marijuana users are still being arrested in record numbers every single day!

âï¿½ï¿½It's hard sometimes to get a handle on raw numbers, likr the large figures dished out by the U.S. Census and other fact-issuing agencies.

The FBI's annual Crime in the United States is a good example. To say that 13.1 million people out of a population of 308 million were arrested is nebulous; so, too, is to say that the highest number of arrests -- 1,638,846 -- were for drug-abuse violations.

Digging deeper, 52 percent of the drug-abuse violators were arrested on marijuana offenses, and 88 percent of them, or 750,591, were jailed for simple possession.

In other words, every hour, more than 90 people are arrested for possessing cannabis in the United States, among the highest totals on record.

Marijuana-related arrests have been rising steadily since 1992's 300,000 busts, or 33 per hour, according to NORML. And even then, there are still far fewer Americans arrested for marijuana than for driving under the influence (1.4 million) and simple theft (1.2 million).

But marijuana users are by far the most arrested -- and it's users, not dealers or distributors, who serve the time. About 82 percent of drug arrests were for possession -- and more marijuana growers and dealers (6.3 percent) are arrested than heroin or cocaine sellers, who make up 6.2 percent of the total, according to the report.

(Source) http://blogs.sfweekly.com

0
Comments

Share Share

Monday, September 19, 2011

From Fox - Banks and Pot

Banks in Medical-Marijuana States Going to Pot?

By Kathryn Glass

Published September 19, 2011

| FOXBusiness

Smoking medical marijuana may be legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia, but selling it still violates federal law, and “ganja-preneurs,” the owners of medical marijuana dispensaries, say this conflict between the state and federal government is a buzz-kill.

Banks in states where marijuana is legal for medical purposes won't do business with dispensary owners for fear that regulators will target them in federal investigations. Federal regulators maintain banks which do business with dispensaries are supporting activities that, even if legal in the state, are illegal at the federal level.

In a memo the Department of Justice issued to U.S. Attorneys last June, the federal government made its stance on federal marijuana law clear: “The Department is committed to the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act in all States,” the memo stated. “Congress has determined that marijuana is a dangerous drug and that the illegal distribution and sale of marijuana is a serious crime that provides a significant source of revenue to large scale criminal enterprises, gangs, and cartels.”

This wording was intended to clarify an earlier memo from October of 2009, which had given the appearance of leniency in enforcement of federal laws prohibiting marijuana. That memo instructed U.S. attorneys that regulators “…should not focus federal resources in your States on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.”

This recent intensification from the Justice Department in its intent to prosecute violations of the Controlled Substances Act is scaring banks away from opening and maintaining accounts for medical marijuana dispensaries.

Jill Lamoureux, who owns and operates four medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, said she’s now been through two credit unions and two banks, the most recent of which, Colorado Springs State Bank, will close her account on Sept. 30.

“There is an unclear regulatory situation…it became unmanageable in a lot of respects and that was unfortunate,” said John Whitten, Senior Vice President of Colorado Springs State Bank.

Whitten said the bank does not want to have to close their medical marijuana accounts, but one thing both banks and regulators agree upon is that until the differences between the federal and state policies on cannabis are reconciled, these businesses will continue to encounter difficulties finding a banker.

“How should the banks approach it? It’s illegal at the federal level and then legal at the state level, and yet the banks have an obligation to take care of their communities,” Whitten said. “These businesses are part of those communities, so how do we reconcile that?”

Lamoureux said she has found a bank to accept her deposits, but wouldn’t mention it by name for fear that any media attention would prompt the bank to close her account. She thinks the banks have shied away from servicing account-holders like her because medical marijuana is still a nascent business in Colorado that’s not yet profitable enough to compel the banks to risk additional regulatory attention.

“In California the banking problem doesn’t seem to be as bad; their dispensaries may not be regulated as much and they are more profitable,” Lamoureux said.

Congressman Jared Polis (D-Co.) has introduced legislation into the U.S. House of Representatives that would shift regulatory responsibility for medical marijuana businesses away from the federal government to the state governments, and would eliminate the need for financial institutions to report medical marijuana businesses’ activities to the federal government.

Calling it a “fast-growing” industry, and citing the $7.34 million the state of Colorado has already received in licensing fees from medical marijuana dispensary applications, Polis argues that roadblocks to the success of the industry need be removed so these businesses can get back to “providing jobs and tax revenues right when our economy needs it.”

Allen St. Pierre, the Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), a D.C.-based advocacy group, said despite these hurdles, dispensaries have made marked progress on the “road to legalization.”

“If the federal government would simply end prohibition, than we wouldn’t be engaged in any of this nitwittery whatsoever,” St. Pierre said. “The federal government created this mess, and they’re about the only entity that can fix it.”