Mass. should not legalize marijuana. This November, voters in Massachusetts will be asked whether to legalize marijuana. Our state has already decriminalized the drug for personal use, and we’ve made it legally available for medical use. The question before us now is whether marijuana should be fully legal and widely available for commercial sale. We think the answer is “no.” Where marijuana is legal, young people are more likely to use it, according to a January report from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The report found that while use among minors has declined nationwide in recent years, states like Colorado have seen an increase. There, young people are 20 percent more likely to have used marijuana regularly since it became legal for adults two years ago. And they’re 40 percent more likely to be regular users than their peers in Massachusetts. Advertisement What the evidence shows us, though, is that marijuana is not safe.
There are also serious and immediate implications for public safety. Legal Issues. State Laws. Markell signs Delaware marijuana decriminalization bill. Legalizing Marijuana: Why Citizens Should Just Say No. Abstract: This November, California voters will consider a ballot initiative, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010. Scientific research is clear that marijuana is addictive and that its use significantly impairs bodily and mental functions. Even where decriminalized, marijuana trafficking remains a source of violence, crime, and social disintegration. Furthermore, studies have shown that legalized marijuana will provide nowhere near the economic windfall proclaimed by some proponents. The RCTCA addresses neither the practical problems of implementation nor the fact that federal law prohibits marijuana production, distribution, and possession.
The scientific literature is clear that marijuana is addictive and that its use significantly impairs bodily and mental functions. The current campaign, like previous efforts, downplays the well-documented harms of marijuana trafficking and use while promising benefits ranging from reduced crime to additional tax revenue. Colorado Supreme Court upholds firing of medical marijuana-smoking Dish employee. DENVER — The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed Monday a lower courts’ rulings to uphold the firing of an employee for using medical marijuana while not on duty. The case involved Dish Network employee Brandon Coats, a quadriplegic who smoked marijuana at home to control seizures.
Coats failed a random drug test in 2010 and Dish, citing its zero-tolerance policy of drug use, fired him. “If we’re going to allow people to smoke marijuana are we just not going to allow them to work?” Coats said. Coats sued, but lost at trial court, the Colorado Court of Appeals and now the Colorado Supreme Court, which ruled 6-0 that Dish had the right to fire him. Brandon’s attorney said Colorado has the strongest marijuana laws there are, but that is where his case ends. “I wouldn’t be able to actually work if I didn’t have it. Though Brandon still can’t find a job, he said it’s now his mission to convince legislators to protect his medical needs along with his wants “I want to be able to work one day.
Morgan Freeman Shoots Straight: On Legalizing Marijuana and His Escape From New York. The former Florida congressman was a major critic of our 2000 election. And now he says the election in Kazakhstan—a dictatorship—was open and fair? Hmmm. Former Congressman Robert Wexler has found the cure to what ails American democracy, and he’s discovered it in the most unusual of places: Kazakhstan. The Central Asian dictatorship might seem like a weird choice for rhapsodic odes to the virtues of free elections. In other words, Nazarbayev wields absolute power. Wexler recently returned from Kazakhstan, where he served as a self-described “independent” monitor observing the country’s presidential election last month. And so Wexler ventured to Kazakhstan, a country that has not had a free and fair election since, well, ever.
“Clearly, an incumbent president that gets 97.5 percent of the vote, most Americans—myself included—would shrug and say that’s not a contest,” Wexler told me. In truth, everything about this election was a sham. “Every system is imperfect,” he added. 5 companies cashing in on the blooming marijuana industry. © Time Inc. All rights reserved. Fortune.com is a part of the Time.com network of sites.
Powered by WordPress.com VIP Email address or Password is incorrect Forgot Password? Want the Full Story? Privacy Policy Thank you for your interest in licensing Fortune content. 1. Willie Nelson becomes latest celebrity in marijuana business. Country music star Willie Nelson announced plans Monday to roll out his own brand of marijuana, capitalizing on his association with pot and the unofficial stoner holiday, 4/20.
The move makes the 81-year-old "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die" singer the latest celebrity to jump into the marijuana marketplace. "Willie's Reserve" will be grown and sold in Colorado and Washington, where recreational pot is legal. Nelson said in a statement that he's "looking forward to working with the best growers in Colorado and Washington to make sure our product is the best on the market. " Nelson joins other famous pot personalities, including rapper Snoop Dogg, who endorses vaporizing products; singer Melissa Etheridge, developing marijuana-infused wine; and reality TV star and self-help guru Bethenny Frankel, who is working on a strain of Skinnygirl weed that wouldn't leave users with the munchies.
Washington and Colorado made pot legal for adult use in 2012. Others see it differently, however. Ruling on Marijuana Classification Disappoints Advocates. A federal judge in California declined Wednesday to remove marijuana from the list of most dangerous drugs, disappointing activists who saw the case as a chance to get closer to their goal of nationwide legalization. U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller said during a brief court hearing that she was initially prepared to rule that marijuana should not be a Schedule 1 drug but then decided it was up to Congress to change the law if it wishes.
"It has been 45 years since Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act," Mueller said, noting "the landscape has changed" since then. However, the judge pointed out that courts are not designed to act as a maker of public policy and explained that she had made her decision based on the facts of the marijuana growing case that sparked the legal challenge. "This is not the court and this is not the time" to overturn federal law, she said. The ruling came in a case alleging that marijuana was being grown in a remote area of Northern California.
Colorado Marijuana Study Finds Legal Weed Contains Potent THC Levels. This is not your father's weed. Colorado marijuana is nearly twice as potent as illegal pot of past decades, and some modern cannabis packs triple the punch of vintage ganja, lab tests reveal for the first time. In old-school dope, levels of THC — the psychoactive chemical that makes people high — were typically well below 10 percent. But in Colorado's legal bud, the average THC level is 18.7 percent, and some retail pot contains 30 percent THC or more, according to research released Monday.
"That was higher than expected," said Andy LaFrate, president of Charas Scientific. His Denver lab is licensed by the state and paid by marijuana businesses to measure the THC strength in their products before they go to market. "It's common to see samples in the high 20s. " What's really in — and not in — Colorado's retail weed surprised LaFrate.
"We don't want to be alarmists and freak people out, but at the same time we have been finding some really dirty marijuana," LaFrate told NBC News. Glogin?mobile=1&URI= Four lawsuits seek to upend Colorado’s recreational marijuana industry | CPR. Friday is the deadline for Colorado's Attorney General to respond to a complaint filed in the U.S. Supreme Court by Oklahoma and Nebraska. It challenges Colorado’s legalization of recreational marijuana and is one of four lawsuits that aim to dismantle the young industry. The other legal challenges have been filed in federal district court. Two come from an anti-crime group called Safe Streets Alliance; the other is from a group of prosecutors and sheriffs from several states, including Colorado. Safe Streets Alliance is working on its two suits with two Colorado citizens and one business. The sheriffs and prosecutors case seek to re-criminalize possession of recreational marijuana use. The others target the industry and the regulatory structure that supports it.
Attorney General Cynthia Coffman says she will defend the state in each case. Here's more information on the lawsuits challenging Colorado's recreational marijuana industry: States of Nebraska and Oklahoma v. The U.S. Ohio Marijuana Legalization amendment certified. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio Attorney General's Office on Friday certified the petition for the proposed Marijuana Legalization Amendment to the Ohio Constitution. On March 3, the Attorney General's Office received a written petition to amend the Ohio Constitution, entitled "Marijuana Legalization Amendment," from the group Responsible Ohio.
The submission was certified Friday as containing both the necessary 1,000 valid signatures from registered Ohio voters and a "fair and truthful" summary of the proposed amendment. "Without passing upon the advisability of the approval or rejection of the measure to be referred,…I hereby certify that the summary is a fair and truthful statement of the proposed law," Ohio Attorney Mike General DeWine stated in a letter to the petitioners. Once the summary language and initial signatures are certified, the Ohio Ballot Board must determine if the amendment contains a single issue or multiple issues. Read or Share this story: Marijuana momentum in Senate? Joint effort for reform adds GOPer. Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller has become the latest lawmaker to sign onto a groundbreaking bipartisan bill that would make medical marijuana use legal under federal law. Is this a sign the bipartisanship is truly budding in this new Congress?
Bad puns aside, a development like this would be unthinkable just a couple years ago. But clearly the political tide is turning when it comes to pot, with three states legalizing it for recreational use and several more embracing the drug for medical purposes. RELATED: Bipartisan bill introduced for medicinal marijuana “The time has come for the federal government to stop impeding the doctor-patient relationship in states that have decided their own medical marijuana policies. The bill which was unveiled earlier this week by its co-sponsors, Democratic Sens. Booker spoke to this very issue when he unveiled the bill on Tuesday. The bill has received widespread praise from the drug policy reform community. “We applaud Sen.
Senate Bill Would Effectively End The Federal War On Medical Marijuana. A sweeping Senate bill introduced Tuesday seeks to significantly roll back the federal government's war on medical marijuana. The Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States (CARERS) Act, introduced by Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), seeks to drastically reduce the federal government's ability to crack down on state-legal medical marijuana programs and encourage more research into the plant through several major changes in federal law.
"This bill that we are introducing seeks to right decades of wrong," Booker said Tuesday. "Doctors and patients deserve federal laws that are fair and compassionate, and states should be able to set their own medical marijuana policies without federal interference. I am thankful to Senators Gillibrand and Paul as well as the Drug Policy Alliance for their hard work on this common-sense bill to make medical marijuana accessible to the millions of Americans who could benefit from it. " Marijuana Legalization.