Massachusetts the Nations Role Model in Cannabis?

What’s good, in this article I’m gonna fill you in on all the wonderful things happening in Massachusetts with House Bill 1371. If passed, this will make Massachusetts the first state in the nation to control and regulate sales of marijuana to adults over the age of 21. Although this would demand licensing requirements and create taxes on the for-profit retail sale of cannabis, Massachusetts will become a role model for the rest of the 49 states. This measure is also being referred to as the “Joint Committee of the Judiciary,” I believe there was no pun intended. For the full story click here.

“House Bill 1371 proposes to make Massachusetts the first state in the nation to enact a rational public policy for the control and regulation of marijuana. Please show your support for this measure by contacting your state elected officials and urging them to support these common sense proposals.”

Please don’t read over this and shrug away, do your part! It might not seem like it, but every email and letter sent in is a step in the right direction. If not for our country, but do it for our lovely lady Mary Jane.

Massachusettes Court: Odor Of Pot Not Enough To Order Suspect To Exit Car

Photo: Flawless Hustle

Yes, I know what the car smells like, officer. Maybe you haven’t heard about the decision from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

​

Huge Victory In Massachusetts Limits Police Power

It’s a logical outcome of decrim, and it finally happened today. The mere odor of burning marijuana is no longer reason enough for police officers to order a person out of their car in Massachusetts, now that possession of less than an ounce of pot has been decriminalized there, the state’s highest court ruled on Tuesday.

“Without at least some other additional fact to bolster a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, the odor of burnt marijuana alone cannot reasonably provide suspicion of criminal activity to justify an exit order,” the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a decision written by Chief Justice Roderick Ireland, reports Martin Finucane at the Boston Globe.

Photo: News @ Northeastern

I like this guy: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick Ireland

​

According to the court, the people’s intent in passing a ballot question which decriminalized possession of small amounts of cannabis was “clear: possession of one ounce or less of marijuana should not be considered a serious infraction worthy of criminal sanction.”

“Ferreting out decriminalized conduct with the same fervor associated with the pursuit of serious criminal conduct is neither desired by the public not in accord with the plain language of the statute,” the court ruled.

In a long-overdue triumph of logic, the court ruled that the change in the law should — you guessed it! — affect how police behave in the field.

Justice Judith Cowin, who has since retired, wrote a dissent in the 5-1 decision. She wrote that up until this ruling, Massachusetts state law has allowed police to perform a warrantless search if they smelled burnt marijuana in a car.

“Even though possession of a small amount of marijuana is now no longer criminal, it may serve as the basis for a reasonable suspicion that activities involving marijuana, that are indeed criminal, are underway,” she wrote in a torturous example of non-logic.

“Our case law is clear that ‘the odor of marijuana is sufficiently distinctive that it alone can supply probable cause to believe that marijuana is nearby,’ ” Cowin wrote.

“The advent of decriminalization certainly has had no effect on the distinctiveness of marijuana’s odor. Nor has decriminalization affected the criminal status of numerous other activities involving marijuana,” she wrote, inadvertently revealing that her fevered imagination around what those potheads must be doing is a lot keener than is her shaky legal acumen.

Massachusetts voters in November 2008 overwhelmingly approved Question 2, which decriminalized marijuana, with backers calling for a “more sensible approach” to marijuana laws and asking law enforcement to focus on more serious and violent crimes.

Pot Brownies shut down Prom!

 

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Marijuana brownies put a premature end to the junior prom at one Massachusetts high school. The dance for students of North Andover High School was shut down early Friday night after four students were hospitalized because they ate the pot-laced brownies before attending the prom, according to CBS station WBZ. As many as eleven students consumed the baked goods at the school before going to the prom itself. The brownies were handed out by another student, reports the North Andover Patch newspaper. “In the course of the investigation, it was determined that 19 brownies had apparently been distributed by a student earlier in the day before arriving for the evening at the high school,” North Andover Superintendent Chris Hottel said. The prom was held at the Atkinson Country Club in southern New Hampshire. All four of the students that went to the hospital were sent home. While they’re doing fine, the school said they will face disciplinary action, WBZ reported. North Andover police are investigating, too.

 read more: http://www.thcfinder.com/marijuana-blog/news/2011/04/pot-brownies-shut-down-prom-in-boston-suburb#ixzz1ImYFAm9t