Our recent victory in Delaware brought the count of medical marijuana states up to 16.
Today, I’m happy to report that we’re also making incredible progress in other states and — with your support — we will remain on track to reach our goal of making medical marijuana legal in 27 states by 2014.
- We’re raising money to place a pair of medical marijuana initiatives on the November 2012 ballots in Arkansas and Idaho. The Arkansas signature drive has already started, and the Idaho drive will hopefully start in September.
- We’re now just a couple votes short of passing our bill in New York state, and the governor has recently improved his position. We’re ready to re-start our lobbying campaign in Albany as soon as we raise the money.
- In Illinois, our bill fell just three votes short in the state House. We’re now actively organizing to pick up those three votes, and we already have the support of the governor.
- Here in the District of Columbia, the city government will soon be accepting applications from business entrepreneurs who wish to grow and dispense medical marijuana. We’re now so close to having five dispensaries in our nation’s capital!
- In Maryland, the governor just launched a commission to formulate a medical marijuana bill that will be acceptable to key legislators and other powerbrokers, and one of MPP’s staff attorneys has been appointed to that commission.
I’m going to be blunt: MPP will be incurring $100,000 in monthly expenses to keep this “27 states by 2014” strategy on track. But it will be worth every penny.
A few months ago, Congressman Jared Polis told the Colorado Independent that he thought it would take a majority of states legalizing medical marijuana or otherwise liberalizing their laws before Congress would be likely to do anything at the federal level.
Currently, 16 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. Now it looks like at least one more state is moving in that direction, with two different measures moving toward a vote in Ohio.
From The Columbus Dispatch: While Cleveland billionaire Peter Lewis already had sent up smoke signals about organizing and funding a medical marijuana ballot issue, another group quietly has been laying the groundwork for a constitutional amendment.
If approved by voters, the Ohio Medical Cannabis Act of 2012 would establish a regulatory system modeled after the Ohio State Liquor Control system. There would be an Ohio Commission of Cannabis Control, plus a state division and superintendent to run it. Marijuana purchases would require a doctor’s prescription and would be subject to state and local sales taxes.
Peter Lewis is the chairman of the board of Progressive Insurance Company, a company founded by his father. He has donated almost a quarter of a billion dollars to Princeton University, at least $15 million to the ACLU and $3 million to the Marijuana Policy Project, an organization that, among other things, tracks marijuana policy in the states.
Karen O’Keefe, of MPP, says she sees a scenario by which 27 states have legalized medical marijuana by 2014. In addition to Ohio, other states apparently on the cusp include Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Arkansas, Idaho, North Dakota and New Hampshire.
Once a majority of states have passed laws, she says it becomes much more likely that Congress will pass a bill like the one recently introduced by Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, Rep. Jared Polis and others that would actually legalize marijuana federally, leaving it to each state to either keep it illegal at the state level or to legalize, regulate and tax it.
She said that even if a bill like that doesn’t pass, with each new state that legalizes medical marijuana it becomes more likely that congress will address the issue by at least instructing federal law enforcement agencies not to prosecute anyone who is in compliance with state laws that legalize and regulate medical marijuana.
CO- In his Coloradoan July 2 Soapbox, Ray Martinez made many disparaging claims about medical marijuana centers in order to bolster his attempt to ban MMCs from Fort Collins. Too bad that none of his assertions are supported by facts.
Acting police Chief Jerry Schiager reported no medical marijuana business “surge in crime,” and no increase in 911 calls (1). The ordinance regulating MMCs, passed by Fort Collins’ City Council, is stricter than the state requires (2) In fact, state regulators track every gram of medicine produced by MMCs “from seed to sale” preventing any diversion to “the new black market” (3) as Martinez claims.
Proponents of the ban would also like us to believe, based on anecdotal “evidence,” that marijuana use is up among teens and MMCs are the cause.
Wrong again.
Two studies released this week show the opposite. The National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse reports that from 1999 to 2010, teen marijuana use dropped 22 percent (4). And a separate nationwide study shows that there is no causal relationship between medical marijuana and an increase in teen marijuana use (5).
MMCs are clearly not the boogey man that Martinez and company would have us believe.
Instead of fear-mongering and fantasy, we need a discussion based on reality.
The people of this state voted to make medical marijuana legal in 2000. Lacking any regulatory framework, Colorado’s state Legislature passed HB1284 in 2010. As a result, Colorado’s licensed MMCs are the most heavily regulated and taxed among all 16 states that allow for medical marijuana use.
Criminals are out. Standards are in place. Taxes are collected. And law enforcement keeps a 24/7 watch to ensure compliance. While this is tedious and expensive for center owners, we know that our customers and community members feel more secure because of the tight restrictions and security.
Reality check:
More than 8,500 people hold valid licenses to purchase medical marijuana in Larimer County. That averages out to more than 16,000 transactions a month, or 200,000 every year.
Let’s imagine for a moment that Martinez gets his way and MMCs disappear. What then?
Patients will lose out. Treatment protocols will be interrupted when the products, services and specialists patients rely upon and trust disappear. This will result in negative health outcomes for patients.
Our economy will suffer. One half-million dollars in sales taxes will go uncollected every year. More than 200 people will lose their jobs. Dozens of commercial leases will be abandoned. Millions of dollars in business investments will be lost. Bankruptcies will soar.
Our neighborhoods will become less safe. Currently, medical marijuana businesses are licensed, regulated, secured, and taxed. If we ban these businesses, medical marijuana sales will be pushed into our neighborhoods where they will be unlicensed, unregulated, unsecured, and untaxed, and increase the risk of illegal sales, fires, and home invasions.
Assuming home growers follow the rules and serve only five patients each, 1,500 homes are needed to serve Larimer County’s 8,500 registered patients. That’s 200,000 sales taking place in 1,500 private homes! Home invasions, electrical fires and chemicals dumped unmonitored into our sewers will become common.
This will be a disaster.
medical marijuana centers are the safest way to ensure that legal patients have access while protecting our community.
Please act to keep MMCs legal in Fort Collins.
Steve Ackerman is a longtime Fort Collins resident and business owner. He is president of the Fort Collins Medical Cannabis Association (FCMCA) and owner of Organic Alternatives. He may be reached at 214-1152. Sources: 1: Schiager, Jerry. Statement to Council. City Council Adjourned Meeting & Work Session, Feb. 22. 2: Agenda Item Summary Feb. 22, Item 3. (n.d.). Agenda Item Summary, Issues Relating to Medical marijuana Businesses, (p. 2). Fort Collins.Fort Collins; 3: (2011). Colorado Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division Rules. Denver: State of Colorado Department of Revenue; 4: National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, (June 29, 2011). Adolescent Substance Use: America’s #1 Public Health Problem (pg. 28). New York: CASA Columbia; 5: O’Keefe, K. E. a. (June 2011). Marijuana Use by Young People: The Impact of State Laws. Washington D.C.: Marijuana Policy Project.
Arizona officials said a new federal memo they reviewed Friday on possible medical marijuana-related criminal prosecutions leaves unanswered questions as to whether state-licensed dispensaries and state employees who administer a fledgling medical marijuana program are at risk of prosecution.
Like a similar memo issued by the Justice Department in 2009, the new document said users of marijuana for medical purposes and individuals who provide care to other individuals shouldn’t be prosecution priorities. However, significant drug trafficking “remains a core priority” and commercial dispensaries and growers “and those who knowingly facilitate such janactivities” would still be violating federal drug laws regardless of state law, it said.
Expressing disappointment and frustration, Attorney General Tom Horne said Friday that memo states there’s no shield from prosecution for those who “knowingly facilitate” marijuana commercial cultivation and distribution even if purportedly complying with state laws on medical marijuana.
“The federal government knew there was broad concern about whether ‘facilitate’ sale was a term that could endanger state employees,” Horne said.
That means Arizona will continue to press the lawsuit it filed May 27 against the federal government and other parties.
The state’s suit asked a judge to rule on whether Arizona can implement its medical marijuana law despite the apparent conflict with federal law.
Gov. Jan Brewer
While Gov. Jan Brewer and Horne expressed concern that state employees could face legal jeopardy, a League of Arizona Cities and Towns official said Friday he doesn’t see any impact on cities or their workers.
“Cities are not engaged in any level of commerce regarding marijuana,” said Ken Strobeck, the league’s executive director. “They are simply complying with state law regarding local zoning regulations should someone set up a dispensary in their city or town” under the state’s medical marijuana law and state regulations to implement it.
Ryan Hurley, an attorney for would-be dispensary operators, said the department’s stance is consistent both with the 2009 department memo and recent letters from U.S. attorneys.
Hurley said prospective dispensary operators remain at risk of federal prosecution. However, patients and individual caregivers apparently still won’t be prosecution targets, he said.
On June 14, prospective dispensary operators filed two lawsuits challenging the state’s decision to not accept dispensary applications. One of those cases has been dismissed by an appellate court, but it can be refiled with a trial court.
Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes: “Ending marijuana prohibition and focusing on rational regulation and taxation will free up law enforcement resources to combat violent and property crimes, and it will restore respect for government and the law”
There’s a new move afoot to legalize cannabis in Washington state. The newly formed political action committee New Approach Washington on Wednesday filed an initiative to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in the state. Sponsoring the measure are prominent civic leaders, along with members of the public health and legal communities.
The initiative would authorize the Washington State Liquor Control Board to regulate the production and distribution of marijuana for sale to adults 21 and older through state-licensed stores. A new marijuana excise tax would be earmarked for prevention, research, education, and health care. State and local retail sales taxes would be directed to the general fund and location budgets.
Unfortunately, the initiative would not allow the cultivation of marijuana by recreational users (medical marijuana patients in Washington are already allowed 15 plants). Cannabis users would be required to buy their supply at state-licensed stores. Another possible sticking point is the codification a THC blood level of of 5 ng/ml as per se driving under the influence; that would criminalize any driving by most medical marijuana patients, although very few daily medicinal users would be impaired at that level.
Photo: Don Skakie
From left, Mark Johnson, Bob Wood, Rick Steves, and Alison Holcomb are among the sponsors of the New Approach Washington initiative to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in Washington state
Sponsors of the initiative are:
• Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes
• John McKay, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, 2001-2007
• Travel writer Rick Steves
• Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, Washington state legislator, 36th District
• Kim Marie Thorburn, M.D., MPH, former director of the Spokane Regional Health District, 1997-2006
• Salvador A. Mungia, immediate past president of the Washington State Bar Association
• Mark Johnson, past president of the Washington State Bar Association, 2008-2009
• Robert W. Wood, MD, former director of the HIV/AIDS Program of Public Health – Seattle & King County, 1986-2010
• Roger Roffman, DSW, professor emeritus, University of Washington School of Social Work
• Alison Holcomb, New Approach Washington campaign director
The campaign has until December 30 to collect 241,153 signatures to qualify for the ballot. If and when those signatures are filed, the initiative will go to the Legislature for consideration during the 2012 session. If the Legislature takes no action, the proposal will go before the voters in the November 2012 election.
Photo: Don Skakie
Alison Holcomb, New Approach Washington campaign director
“Ending marijuana prohibition and focusing on rational regulation and taxation will free up law enforcement resources to combat violent and property crimes, and it will restore respect for government and the law,” said Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes.
More than 8,200 Washington adults were arrested for simple possession of marijuana in 2008 — more than 20 a day — with more than 3,200 convictions, costing the state millions of taxpayer dollars.
Marijuana is already one of Washington’s largest cash crops — second only to its famed apples — and billions of dollars go into the illegal market untaxed.
“We cannot afford to ignore an enormous source of untaxed revenue, and we must stop the financing of drug cartels,” said Mark Johnson, former Washington State Bar Association president.
“These are revenues we could capture and direct to effective programs that protect youth from risk factors that contribute to early use of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana,” said Roger Roffman, a “marijuana dependency” treatment expert.
“As a parent and as someone who cares deeply for my community, I’ve seen how Europe treats drug use as a public health issue rather than a criminal one,” said travel writer Rick Steves. “The fascinating result: per capita, Europeans consume far less marijuana and have far fewer people in prison than we do.”
Initiative sponsors pointed out the serious impacts that current marijuana laws have on people. “Criminalizing marijuana use disrupts families and cannot be justified when marijuana is compared to alcohol and tobacco,” said public health doctor Kim Thorburn.
“The public health impacts of alcohol and tobacco and more serious than marijuana, but we do not criminalize the use of those substances,” said Bob Wood, a public health doctor. “It is time for Washington to take a new approach to marijuana focused on regulation and education rather than punishment.”
Further, marijuana laws are enforced disproportionately against people of color. In Washington, an African American is three times as likely to be arrested, three times as likely to be charged, and three times as likely to be convicted for marijuana possession as a white Washingtonian, despite the fact that whites use cannabis at higher rates.
“Even a misdemeanor conviction for marijuana possession can permanently alter the trajectory of a person’s life,” former bar association president Sal Mungia said.
The campaign expects petitions to be ready for signature gathering beginning in August, giving New Approach Washington a five-month window within which the gather the 241,153 signatures.
Key Features of New Approach Washington 2012 Marijuana Law Reform Initiative
Distribution to adults 21 and over through state-licensed, marijuana-only stores; production and distribution licensed and regulated by Liquor Control Board (LCB)
Severable provision decriminalizing adult possession of marijuana; possession by persons under 21 remains a misdemeanor
Stringent advertising, location, and license eligibility restrictions enforced by LCB
Home growing remains prohibited; except, initiative does not affect Washington’s medical marijuana law
Estimated $215 million in new state revenue each year1, with roughly $40 million going to state general fund (B&O and retail sales tax) and $175 million (new marijuana excise tax) earmarked:
Evidence-based prevention strategies targeting youth, chosen in consultation with UW Social Development Research Group2
Dedicated funding stream for Healthy Youth Survey3
Washington’s Building Bridges program for at-risk youth4
Science-based public education materials regarding health risks of marijuana use hosted by UW Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute5
Research by UW and WSU into the short- and long-term effects of marijuana use, including driving impairment
Dedicated marijuana Quitline analogous to tobacco Quitline operated by state Department of Health6
Additional marijuana-related public health educational programs administered by Department of Health at the state and local level
Biennial evaluation of impacts of law by Washington State Institute for Public Policy7
Washington’s Basic Health Plan
Community health centers
THC blood concentration of 5 ng/mL or higher is per se Driving Under the Influence8
Remedy provision that stays implementation of any provision found to be preempted by federal law until federal law changes
Florida has some of the nation’s harshest laws when it comes to growing marijuana
– and it leads the nation in busts of grow houses.
You’d think a place called the Sunshine State should be growing outdoors, but last year, more indoor marijuana grow houses were busted in Florida than in any other state, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Nationwide demand for high-potency marijuana has supposedly turned Florida into a top producer of hydroponic weed, reports Alexia Campbell at the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, and hundreds of Floridians are turning their homes into grow houses.
Florida law enforcement agencies raided 818 grow houses in 2010, followed by California’s 719, according to the DEA, but not all agencies report their findings to the DEA.
The heart of Florida’s marijuana industry is in the south of the state, where police conduct numerous undercover stings in the South Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).
Cops are complaining that growers are now learning “high-tech tricks” to hide their grow operations from investigators.
“The bad guys are getting smarter, and we’re not finding them all,” said Captain Joe Mendez, who oversees HIDTA’s marijuana task force in South Florida (can you imagine a more completely useless job?)
Tracking down individual growers has supposedly gotten harder, since many are now using closed circuit TV cameras to monitor their homes from afar. Police said they sometimes raid grow houses and find no one inside, according to Captain Mendez.
Large-scale growers have reportedly moved to rural Palm Beach County and Miami-Dade to evade nosy neighbors and police surveillance.
The supposed “huge profits” made from indoor marijuana grows create a never-ending battle for police, according to Captain Mendez, who claimed each pound has a street value of about $4,000 in South Florida.
Captain Mendez also made the ludicrous claim that “each plant produces about three pounds a year.” Remember, these are indoor plants we’re talking about, where the average is actually more like four to six ounces.
Law enforcement officials are pushing for — surprise, surprise! — “tougher penalties” for marijuana growers. Yeah, right! Those have just worked so well in the past, and with all that extra prison space and plenty of tax money available in Florida to pay for all this nonsense… Yeah.
But logic never stopped cops and politicians before, and in 2008 state legislators passed the Marijuana Grow House Eradication Act, a supremely stupid piece of legislation that lowered the previous level of 300 plants to qualify for a second-degree felony to just 24 plants.
Barb Agro, 70, was barred from mentioning during the trial that she is a registered, legal medical marijuana patient.
A 70-year-old woman was convicted on a marijuana charge by a Michigan jury after they were instructed by the assistant prosecutor to “follow the law and not use sympathy” when weighing her fate.
“You must hold the defendant accountable for her actions,” said Assistant Prosecutor Beth Hand during her closing argument.
In the end, the jury heeded the prosecutor’s advice and decided to convict Barbara Agro, a registered medical marijuana patient and caregiver, as charged, reports Ann Zaniewski at the Oakland County Daily Tribune. Agro faces sentencing on July 13 for one count of delivery/manufacture of marijuana, a felony which can get four years in prison.
Circuit Judge Wendy Potts ponders one of her “head up the ass” style rulings
The former Lake Orion police dispatcher worked as a receptionist at Clinical Relief, a medical marijuana dispensary in Ferndale. When the place was raided on August 25, 2010, Agro told deputies that she had marijuana plants growing at her house. Deputies found 19 cannabis plants and “other items” during a serch of her Lake Orion home.
Defense attorney Jerome Sabbota said Agro used cannabis for medicinal reasons.
“In this case here, we have a person who was growing medicine for herself,” Sabbota said.
Sabbota pointed to old laws, such as those surrounding prohibition and a law that once made it a crime to harbor a runaway slave. In his opening statement yesterday, he told jurors that laws sometimes need to be changed.
Assistant Prosecutor Hand said that Sabbota did not contest any elements of the charged crime. She said that marijuana, in the state of Michigan, is still illegal, and said Agro is not charged with using marijuana, but with growing it.
“This is not a medical marijuana case,” the assistant prosecutor claimed.
Hand referenced Agro’s age and told jurors that all different types of people break the law.
“The law is, that sympathy and prejudice have no place in the courtroom,” Hand said.
Oakland Circuit Judge Wendy Potts, who evidently issues rulings with her head up her ass, previously granted a motion from prosecutors seeking to prohibit Agro from mentioning the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act during the trial.
As you’ve heard many times over the past months, LEAP has been preparing for the launch of our new website, and it’s finally up and running! Please click over and look around – we’d love to hear your feedback! LEAP extends our sincere appreciation to the Riverstyx Foundationfor generously funding the redesign.
As you’re exploring the new site, be sure to sign the petition located on our front page from global advocacy organization AVAAZ. Their public petition in support of the Global Commission on Drug Policy’s recommendation for countries to establish a system of legalized regulation is a huge step forward in drug policy reform. As LEAP supporters, you should be a part of this by signing the petition and continuing to move legalization forward. Let’s help them reach one million signatures!
We hope you enjoy our new site. Projects like this are made possible by donors like you. Please consider making a donation today in support of LEAP’s work.
Major Neill Franklin (Ret.)
Executive Director
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When President Barack Obama admitted this before he even began his campaign, Americans everywhere believed this would be the turning point for marijuana legislation. To have a person in such a high-ranking position (Obama was still a Senator when he gave this “confession”) openly admit to not only experimenting with drugs, but using it “frequently” was a big leap forward for marijuana supporters. Even more surprising was the lack of backlash on the part of the public. Previous politicians, such as Supreme Court nominee Douglas Ginsburg, received incredibly scrutiny when giving similar remarks, while others, such as former President Bill Clinton provided nonsensical answers when asked if they tried (“I didn’t like it, I didn’t inhale, and never tried it again?).
Earlier this month, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire vetoed a bill that would have made clear the rules for medical marijuana in the state. However, Gregoire claimed that she was not motivated by the idea of preventing the expansion of medical marijuana, but rather at letter sent by Washington’s U.S. attorneys, who stated that they would prosecute not only growers and providers of marijuana, but also the people who who “knowingly facilitate” their actions. These include state employees who would license and regulate medical marijuana suppliers.
Washington state is not alone in receiving this letter. Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Rhode Island, and Vermont, all of whom have medical marijuana approved in their state, have been sent in recent months a similar message by their U.S. attorneys, again threatening federal prosecution for aids and facilitators of medical marijuana.
Despite Obama’s claim of a looser attitude of the federal government on state drug laws, the Drug Enforcement Agency’s stricter control directly contradicts what Obama had promised. One wonders whether federal arbitration will only increase as Obama soon heads into another election.
The Dutch make lots of money on cannabis tourism — so obviously, they have to stop that. Wait a minute…
The Dutch Cabinet said it will go ahead with plans to force anyone wishing to buy marijuana at the country’s “coffee shops” to first get an official pass — a move designed to stop tourists from buying cannabis.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he plans to begin rolling out the system in southern Netherlands later this year, reports the Associated Press. The southern part of the country is popular with French and German cannabis tourists. The system would then be instituted in Amsterdam’s famed weed cafes, which are major tourist attractions for the city, later in Rutte’s term of office.
The Dutch Supreme Court must still rule on whether foreigners can be blocked entirely, Justice Ministry spokesman Wim van der Weegen said on Friday.
Regardless, the plan will prevent cafes from issuing more than 1,500 permits in all, forcing shop owners to choose between tourists and their regular customers.
That is seen by some observers as a clever way to get around the European Union requirement of treating all EU residents equally — by not telling shops they have to ban foreigners, just tell them they can only sell cannabis to 1,500 total customers. Of course, most or all shops will pick the local regulars, rather than tourists who will only be in town a couple days.
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Rob Kampia
