News Nuggets

COLORADO

State Supreme Court rejects right to medical pot

Colorado medical cannabis patients have no constitutional right to take their medicine. That’s the bottom line after the state Supreme Court refused to revisit a lower-court ruling against a man whose failed drug test cost him his job.

By refusing to hear the case, the high court affirmed the decision last year by the Colorado Court of Appeals that the state constitution did not protect Jason Beinor from being fired after he tested positive for THC. The appellate court ruled the constitution only marijuana patients from criminal sanctions resulting from their use of the drug.

Medical pot advocacy groups, including Sensible Colorado, worry the Supreme Court’s denial of review could be interpreted as a green light for other actions against patients, such as denying them child-custody rights or gun permits.

Amendment 64 gets strong support, poll says

Sixty-one percent of Colorado voters surveyed say they plan to vote in support of Amendment 64, the “Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol” initiative set for the November ballot, according to a new Rasmussen poll.

The survey of 500 Colorado voters considered likely to vote in the General Election took place on June 6. Just 27 percent said they plan to vote against the measure, which would allow Coloradans 21 and older to possess up to 1 ounce of pot and no more than six pot plants for recreational use. Twelve percent said they were still undecided on the issue.

Conventional wisdom holds that ballot measures need to show at least 60-percent support in surveys to have a chance of passage. The Rasmussen poll has a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Commerce City OKs MMJ businesses

The Commerce City Council last month voted 8-1 to issue rules that required medical marijuana businesses to apply for conditional permit and a business license, the Denver Post reports. The license program will take effect July 1.

The Commerce City ordinance will regulate cultivation facilities, the manufacturing of medical marijuana products and dispensaries. For example, cultivation sites will be required to employ an odor control system approved by a building inspector.

Signage and advertising will also be tightly regulated. Signs that are located off the premises will not be allowed. The word “marijuana” must always be used alongside the word “medical,” according to the new rules. Councilman Steven Douglas voted against the new regulations.

MICHIGAN

Michigan bans synthetic marijuana and “bath salts”

Declaring ersatz drugs to be “a very bad thing,” Gov. Rick Snyder has signed into law a statewide ban on sales of so-called “synthetic marijuana” and the designer drug known as “bath salts.”

Michigan is now one of at least 40 other states that have outlawed synthetic pot, a mix of herbs sold under names such as “K2” or “Spice.” State elected officials have only recently begun to address concerns over bath salts—a synthetic form of amphetamine alleged to cause violent and irrational behavior in users. Police investigators in Miami say bath salts may have played a role in the bizarre cannibal attack on a homeless man in late May, though the claim has not been verified.

Many store owners in Detroit and other Michigan cities had already pulled the synthetic drugs from their shelves, heeding warnings from state officials about their alleged danger and in anticipation of the ban.

High court to Detroit: Go ahead with legalization vote

Michigan’s highest court has given the green light for Detroit residents to vote “yea” or “nay’ on legalizing cannabis in the city.

The move by the state Supreme Court followed more than two years of legal wrangling over the referendum, which would allow possession and use of up to 1 ounce of marijuana on private property. The Detroit Election Commission had voted in August 2010 to block the measure, sparking a court challenge by referendum sponsor Coalition for a Safer Detroit.

The legalization question will appear before Detroit voters on the Aug. 7 primary ballot.

Legalization proposal faces “uphill battle”

A proposal that would legalize marijuana across Michigan still needs more signatures in order to make it to the November ballot, according to AnnArbor.com. The Committee for a Safer Michigan’s constitutional amendment needs more than 322,600 signatures from registered voters to make the ballot. So far, the campaign has gathered together about 40,000 signatures.

“Realistically, we definitely have an uphill battle,” Matthew R. Abel, a campaign organizer and attorney, told MLive.com.

Similar to alcohol regulations, the proposal would make cannabis legal for adults 21 and over. If the proposal fails, Abel says, the committee will try again at a later time.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

California State Athletic Commission allows MMJ

Amateur and professional combat athletes who also happen to be cannabis patients can breathe a little easier: The California State Athletic Commission has voted to allow “therapeutic use” exceptions to its anti-doping policies.

The Sacramento-based commission, which licenses boxing, kick-boxing and mixed-martial arts competitors in the state, made the change over concerns that athletes prescribed hormone therapies by their physicians faced sanctions if the chemicals showed up on their drug screens. The ruling, however, used language that also applies to fighters with written recommendations by their doctors to use marijuana.

Since passage of Proposition 215 in 1996, several California combat fighters—notably mixed-marital artists Nick Diaz and Toby “Tigerheart” Grear—have had issues with the commission’s drug policies due to their medicinal cannabis use.

Study: No link between dispensaries and crime

Flying in the face of claims by the federal government and local law enforcement agencies that medical marijuana outlets are magnets for robberies and violence, a new UCLA study found no evidence linking cannabis dispensaries to increases in neighborhood crime.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, examined crime rates in 95 Sacramento neighborhoods in 2009, just before the city passed tough restrictions on dispensaries. The conclusion: dispensaries affected neighborhood crime rates no more “than any other facility in a commercially zoned area,” and may even have helped prevent crime because of their heightened security systems, such as security guards and cameras.

The finding was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Sweeping cannabis regulation bill clears Assembly

In a major win for the medical marijuana industry, a bill that would establish a “Cannabis Commission” charged with regulating dispensaries, pot usage and grow operations has cleared the state Assembly and is now being considered by the Senate.

Introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), AB 2312 would establish a Bureau of Medical Marijuana Enforcement, set a 5-percent maximum taxation limit on cannabis transactions and require cities to allow at least one dispensary for every 50,000 residents. The sweeping measure would also regulate how medical marijuana is harvested.

Once dismissed as dead on arrival, the bill passed the Assembly by a 41-20 vote. A hearing on AB 2312 was scheduled to take place in the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee in late June, after press time. A final vote by the full Senate could happen by the end of this month.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Sweeping cannabis regulation bill dies in Senate

State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) has withdrawn from Senate consideration a bill that would have established a “Cannabis Commission”—responsible for regulating dispensaries, marijuana usage and grow operations—that had cleared the Assembly. The commission would have been the first of its kind in California.

Ammiano said he pulled Assembly Bill 2312—which had made history when it survived a full Assembly vote—after state senators added amendments to it that would have derailed its original intent.

The bill would have established a Bureau of Medical Marijuana Enforcement, set a 5-percent maximum taxation limit on cannabis transactions and required cities to allow at least one dispensary for every 50,000 residents. The proposed measure passed the Assembly in June by a 41-20 vote.

Long Beach Rescue Mission rejects collectives’ gift

Charitable donations to the Long Beach Rescue Mission may be down, but not down enough for the center to accept $100,000 in contributions from a group of medical marijuana collectives.

The Long Beach Collective Association had announced in early June that each of its 10-member collectives would donate $10,000 to the Rescue Mission, which offers services to the homeless and the poor in the city. After speaking with the Christian center’s board of directors, however, Mission President and CEO Jim Lewis publicly announced the offer was declined.

Lewis told reporters the Rescue Mission did not want to be seen as endorsing the association in any way, though he admitted the center could have really used the money.

Initiatives in two San Diego County cities advance

Medical cannabis advocates in the San Diego County cities of Del Mar and Imperial Beach have gathered enough signatures to put the question of lifting the cities’ bans on dispensaries before voters.

Activists with Citizens for Patients Rights and the Patient Care Association collected some 500 signatures—nearly twice the number necessary—from Del Mar voters to place a medical marijuana access measure on the November ballot. The initiative would end Del Mar’s dispensary prohibition, establish regulations for clinics and impose a 2.5-percent tax on cannabis sales. In Imperial Beach, volunteers with Canvass for a Cause and the San Diego chapter of Americans for Safe Access gathered more than 1,550 voter signatures to force a similar measure on the ballot.

The Del Mar and Imperial Beach city councils will meet this month to either adopt the ordinances as written or add them to their city’s voter ballots.

WASHINGTON

I-502 gets major boost from Progressive chairman

Supporters of Initiative 502, the cannabis legalization initiative in Washington, have received a big helping hand from the chairman of the Progressive Casualty Company in the form of a $650,000 cash infusion.

Peter Lewis, who heads the insurance giant’s governing board, has long been an avid supporter of marijuana rights, according to news reports. Along with his campaign donation to the I-502 effort, Lewis donated $875,000 to a legalization measure in Colorado—making him the single largest individual donor to both efforts.

Washington residents will vote on I-502 in November.

Legalization measure leading by 13-point margin

Love it or hate it, the marijuana legalization measure known as Initiative 502 has captured the support of 50 percent of likely Washington voters, outdistancing the opposition by 13 points, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey.

The initiative’s 50-37 percentage-point lead is the result of substantial support from young voters, men and libertarian Republicans, notes the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which analyzed the polling data. The unlikely coalition of favor has stirred hopes among Democratic Party strategies that I-502 may drive up votes for President Barack Obama in the November elections.

Likely Republican voters in the state support the initiative by 22 percent, according to the poll.

Pasco City Council keeps ban in place

Last month, the Pasco City Council voted 5-2 to keep its existing moratorium on medical marijuana gardens in place indefinitely, according to a KVEW TV report. Growing medical cannabis remains illegal within city limits.

Pasco’s moratorium would have expired this month.

Councilmen Bob Hoffmann and Tom Larsen voted against keeping the ban in place.

The Legislature in 2011 passed a law allowing collective gardens, but Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed parts of it. Since then, local governments have been waiting for state legislators to clarify the 2011 law. Kennewick, Richland and West Richland are other cities that had adopted moratoriums in light of the legal limbo.

THE NATION

Decriminalization push in NYC hits GOP wall

Opposition by Republican lawmakers to a bill that would decriminalize small amounts of marijuana in New York City will probably doom the proposal, Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned.

The bill—backed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and the city’s five district attorneys—would allow public possession of up to 25 grams of marijuana. It was pushed forward after Bloomberg and others publicly lamented the city’s 50,000-plus marijuana arrests every year—most for simple possession and most involving Hispanic or black arrestees.

Despite widespread support for the bill, many Republicans in the state’s GOP-dominated legislature have denounced the measure as de facto legalization. Without Republican support, Cuomo said, passage of the bill was “highly unlikely.”

Hemp amendment introduced in U.S. Senate

Federal prohibitions on growing industrial hemp would be lifted under a proposed amendment to a U.S. Senate farm bill.

The proposal by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) would replace the ban with a state-run permit system, The Hill reported. In a Senate floor speech, Wyden sought to educate his colleagues on the differences between marijuana and industrial hemp, which is in the cannabis sativa family but has extremely low THC levels. The measure is co-sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky).

While previous congressional efforts to lift the longstanding ban failed, Wyden said his amendment should gain support from fellow senators once they realize it isn’t aimed at legalizing cannabis, The Hill reported.

THE WORLD

Chairman of UK drug panel calls for reforming pot penalties

Saying cannabis prohibition often results in unintended negative consequences for young people, the chairman of the United Kingdom’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has called on the British Parliament to decriminalize marijuana.

In a written report to the Home Affairs Select Committee, Professor Les Iversen told ministers that slapping teenagers with penalties such as driver’s license confiscation, fines and awareness courses for pot possession would better policy approach than current drug policy. Now, young marijuana offenders are saddled with criminal records that can result in them being barred from universities or buying a home years later.

Iversen is not the first chairman of the advisory council to caution against draconian drug policy. In 2009, one of his predecessors was removed from the panel after saying horseback riding was more dangerous than taking Ecstasy.