News Nuggets (The Nation)

Medical cannabis freedoms come to Connecticut

Connecticut is poised to become the latest star in the union to remove legal barriers to medical cannabis, following the state’s Senate final approval of a compassionate-use bill and a promise by Gov. Daniel Malloy to sign it.

House Bill 5389, which cleared the Senate May 5 after more than 10 hours of fierce debate and a last-ditch attempt by a Republican lawmaker to amend it into irrelevancy, would allow patients with certain serious illnesses and a doctor’s certificate to obtain cannabis from specially licensed pharmacists. The bill cleared the House earlier in the week.

Once the bill is signed, Connecticut will join 16 other states and the District of Columbia with medical cannabis laws on their books.

Jury reaches mixed verdict in NJWeedman trial

Celebrated cannabis activist and author Ed “NJWeedman” Forchion was convicted in a New Jersey courtroom of misdemeanor marijuana possession, but his jury deadlocked on the more serious charge of intent to distribute.

Jurors convicted Forchion of possessing a pound of cannabis marijuana when he was stopped in Mt. Holly, NJ, while in town to visit his kids. Although he is a registered cannabis patient in California, he had not been allowed to use New Jersey’s pending medical marijuana laws in his defense.

Forchion, a fiercely unapologetic legalization advocate known for his confrontational protest tactics, had shown up each day to his trial in his brightly painted “Weedmobile” van. He remains free pending the outcome of his retrial on the distribution count, which was set to begin May 22.