Quantcast

Toke up, hippies!

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
40,931
13,129
Portland, OR
Feds to issue new medical marijuana policy

WASHINGTON – Pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers should not be targeted for federal prosecution in states that allow medical marijuana, prosecutors were told Monday in a new policy memo issued by the Justice Department.

Under the policy spelled out in a three-page legal memo, federal prosecutors are being told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law.

The guidelines issued by the department do, however, make it clear that federal agents will go after people whose marijuana distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law or use medical marijuana as a cover for other crimes.
Not sure how well it will work, but the ATF raids in California are ridiculous.
 

igz-

Monkey
Nov 30, 2008
265
0
Santa Cruz
Honestly I think weed is the lowest priority in the legal sense where I live...

Laws aren't going to change much, those who want to blaze will do so.

;]
 

Greyhound

Trail Rat
Jul 8, 2002
5,065
365
Alamance County, NC
Good on 'em. I never quite understood the logic of states being able to pass legislation relaxing the laws on consumption and supply(by prescription holders) but having Federal laws trumping those for prosecution purposes. I guess that's government at work for ya, but at least now the two are in line with each other a little more. The hippie lettuce is the least of our worries at this point in our history.
 

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
40,931
13,129
Portland, OR
:stupid:

While I don't enjoy the recreational herb, I found the harassment of authorized establishments in California by ATF to just be a crazy waste of resources. I can somewhat understand going after pot dealers, but the state passed a law and should be allowed to enforce it themselves without the Feds getting in on it.
 

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
You'd think Conservatives (big C) would be all for this legislation since it strengthens states' rights... Anyone want to bet on which side they're *actually* going to come out on this?
Actually, I think Clarence Thomas will surprise you. All the other strict constructionists, no so much.
 

dante

Unabomber
Feb 13, 2004
8,807
9
looking for classic NE singletrack
Since this isn't actually going before SCotUS I doubt he'll ever get his chance to speak his mind. I'm talking about Beck, Rush, Bachman, McCain, Palin, etc. Ron Paul is probably the only one with the stones to actually get up and say that this is a great thing for states rights...
 

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
Since this isn't actually going before SCotUS I doubt he'll ever get his chance to speak his mind. I'm talking about Beck, Rush, Bachman, McCain, Palin, etc. Ron Paul is probably the only one with the stones to actually get up and say that this is a great thing for states rights...
It's already been there, Gonzales vs. Reich.

It'll end up there again, somehow.
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
All I can say about the change in medical marijuana enforcement is that I feel a big headache coming on right now...
 

rockofullr

confused
Jun 11, 2009
7,342
924
East Bay, Cali
"pot sales in the United States are the largest source of money for violent Mexican drug cartels"

Who the hell gets there weed from mexico? It's 2009 people! The Canadian's sh!t is better, and cali's the best so WTF.
 

ohio

The Fresno Kid
Nov 26, 2001
6,649
23
SF, CA
"pot sales in the United States are the largest source of money for violent Mexican drug cartels"

Who the hell gets there weed from mexico? It's 2009 people! The Canadian's sh!t is better, and cali's the best so WTF.
Seriously, support domestic manufacturing and buy 'Merkin you goddamn communists.
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
A friend told me about how his buddy flew from Texas with a baggie of marijuana to SFO.

Besides the huge risk, taking pot to NorCal is bringing ice to the eskimos.
 

3D.

Monkey
Feb 23, 2006
899
0
Chinafornia USA
It'll be nice to see less of our tax money wasted on kicking down doors and yanking paraplegic females out of their beds at gun point.

I’ve always believed that the growers should have to deal with the IRS laws rather than common penal laws.
 

Ciaran

Fear my banana
Apr 5, 2004
9,839
15
So Cal
Looks like it might be time to get a card so I can take medication for my "stress" and "insomnia". :D
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
It's like eating McDonalds in Italy.
It was total skunk weed from Meheko.

Of course, when we started making jokes about bringing wine from Texas, my Texas friend immediately came to the defense of Texas vineyards.
 

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
40,931
13,129
Portland, OR
It was total skunk weed from Meheko.

Of course, when we started making jokes about bringing wine from Texas, my Texas friend immediately came to the defense of Texas vineyards.
I stand by Humboldt grown over any other domestic brews. I could just be biased, though.
 

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,137
16,532
Riding the baggage carousel.
Support for legalizing marijuana grows rapidly around U.S.
Approval for medical use expands alongside criticism of prohibition

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 23, 2009



The same day they rejected a gay marriage ballot measure, residents of Maine voted overwhelmingly to allow the sale of medical marijuana over the counter at state-licensed dispensaries.

Later in the month, the American Medical Association reversed a longtime position and urged the federal government to remove marijuana from Schedule One of the Controlled Substances Act, which equates it with heroin.

A few days later, advocates for easing marijuana laws left their biannual strategy conference with plans to press ahead on all fronts -- state law, ballot measures, and court -- in a movement that for the first time in decades appeared to be gaining ground.

"This issue is breaking out in a remarkably rapid way now," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "Public opinion is changing very, very rapidly."

The shift is widely described as generational. A Gallup poll in October found 44 percent of Americans favor full legalization of marijuana -- a rise of 13 points since 2000. Gallup said that if public support continues growing at a rate of 1 to 2 percent per year, "the majority of Americans could favor legalization of the drug in as little as four years."

A 53 percent majority already does so in the West, according to the survey. The finding heartens advocates collecting signatures to put the question of legalization before California voters in a 2010 initiative.

At last week's International Drug Reform Conference, activists gamed specific proposals for taxing and regulating pot along the lines of cigarettes and alcohol, as a bill pending in the California Legislature would do. The measure is not expected to pass, but in urging its serious debate, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) gave credence to a potential revenue source that the state's tax chief said could raise $1.3 billion in the recession, which advocates describe as a boon.

There were also tips on lobbying state legislatures, where measures decriminalizing possession of small amounts have passed in 14 states. Activists predict half of states will have laws allowing possession for medical purposes in the near future.

Interest in medical marijuana and easing other marijuana laws picked up markedly about 18 months ago, but advocates say the biggest surge came with the election of Barack Obama, the third straight president to acknowledge having smoked marijuana, and the first to regard it with anything like nonchalance.

"As a kid, I inhaled," Barack Obama famously said on the campaign. "That was the whole point."

In office, Obama made good on a promise to halt federal prosecutions of medical marijuana use where permitted by state law. That has recalibrated the federal attitude, which had been consistently hostile to marijuana since the early 1970s, when President Richard Nixon cast aside the recommendations of a presidential commission arguing against lumping pot with hard drugs.

Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said he was astonished recently to be invited to contribute thoughts to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Obama's drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, was police chief in Seattle, where voters officially made enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority.

"I've been thrown out of the ONDCP many times," St. Pierre said. "Never invited to actually participate."

Anti-drug advocates counter with surveys showing high school students nationwide already are more likely to smoke marijuana than tobacco -- and that the five states with the highest rate of adolescent pot use permit medical marijuana.

"We are in the prevention business," said Arthur Dean, chairman of the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. "Kids are getting the message tobacco's harmful, and they're not getting the message marijuana is."

In Los Angeles, city officials are dealing with elements of public backlash after more than 1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries opened, some employing in-house physicians to dispense legal permission to virtually all comers. The boom town atmosphere brought complaints from some neighbors, but little of the crime associated with underground drug-dealing.

Advocates cite the latter as evidence that, as with alcohol, violence associated with the marijuana trade flows from its prohibition.

"Seriously," said Bruce Merkin, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group based in the District, "there is a reason you don't have Mexican beer cartels planting fields of hops in the California forests."

But the controversy over the dispensaries also has put pressure on advocates who specifically champion access for ailing patients, not just those who champion easing marijuana laws.

"I don't want to say we keep arm's length from the other groups. You end up with all of us in the same room," said Joe Elford, counsel for Americans for Safe Access, which has led the court battle for medical marijuana and is squaring off with the Los Angeles City Council. "It's a very broad-based movement."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/22/AR2009112201986_pf.html

I still need someone to decide, if weed is leaglized can I smoke it on my weekend and not worry about DOT or FAA yanking my license. And I would definitely have to move back to Oregon.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,558
24,181
media blackout
I still need someone to decide, if weed is leaglized can I smoke it on my weekend and not worry about DOT or FAA yanking my license. And I would definitely have to move back to Oregon.
I think that's one of the questions that is still unanswered. But we haven't gotten to that stage yet.



Also:

"We are in the prevention business," said Arthur Dean, chairman of the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. "Kids are getting the message tobacco's harmful, and they're not getting the message marijuana is."
Gee, I wonder why :rolleyes:
 

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
40,931
13,129
Portland, OR
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/22/AR2009112201986_pf.html

I still need someone to decide, if weed is leaglized can I smoke it on my weekend and not worry about DOT or FAA yanking my license. And I would definitely have to move back to Oregon.
In Oregon, you can serve in the military (at least the National Guard) and smoke prescribed pot as long as the symptom being treated doesn't affect your ability to perform your job.

Of course proving that is near impossible. But the facts are they can't just kick you out for having a prescription.
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
The casual attitude towards marijuana is going to negatively affect children. One of my nephew's sports heroes, Tim Lincecum of the Giants, was recently caught with a quarter of pot during a traffic stop where he was doing 74 in a 60mph zone.

You can see how much he is embarrassing all of Northern California as he just smoked up Willie Mays before accepting the Cy Young.

 
Last edited:

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,137
16,532
Riding the baggage carousel.
Resurecting this thread for some relevant info.
I still need someone to decide, if weed is leaglized can I smoke it on my weekend and not worry about DOT or FAA yanking my license. And I would definitely have to move back to Oregon.
Myself and another guy at work have been digging into this question the last couple of days, and it would appear that the answer is "no".
Recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued guidelines for Federal prosecutors in states that have enacted laws authorizing the use of “medical marijuana.” http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/medical‐marijuana.pdf.
We have had several inquiries about whether the DOJ advice to Federal prosecutors regarding pursuing criminal cases will have an impact upon the Department of Transportation’s longstanding regulation about the use of marijuana by safety‐sensitive transportation employees – pilots, school bus drivers, truck drivers, train engineers, subway operators, aircraft maintenance personnel, transit fire‐armed security personnel, ship captains, and pipeline emergency response personnel, among others.
We want to make it perfectly clear that the DOJ guidelines will have no bearing on the Department of Transportation’s regulated drug testing program. We will not change our regulated drug testing program based upon these guidelines to Federal prosecutors.
The Department of Transportation’s Drug and Alcohol Testing Regulation – 49 CFR Part 40, at 40.151(e) – does not authorize “medical marijuana” under a state law to be a valid medical explanation for a transportation employee’s positive drug test result.
That section states:
§ 40.151 What are MROs prohibited from doing as part of the verification process?
As an MRO, you are prohibited from doing the following as part of the verification process:
(e) You must not verify a test negative based on information that a physician recommended that the employee use a drug listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. (e.g., under a state law that purports to authorize such recommendations, such as the “medical marijuana” laws that some states have adopted.)
Therefore, Medical Review Officers will not verify a drug test as negative based upon information that a physician recommended that the employee use “medical marijuana.” Please note that marijuana remains a drug listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. It remains unacceptable for any safety‐sensitive employee subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportation’s drug testing regulations to use marijuana.
We want to assure the traveling public that our transportation system is the safest it can possibly be.
Jim L. Swart
Director
Office of the Secretary of Transportation
Office of Drug and Alcohol
Policy and Compliance
Department of Transportation
October 22, 2009
http://www .fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/Medical-Marijuana-Notice.pdf
What a buzzkill. But its okay for my Dr. to perscribe me opiates that are gonna show up in my pee as long as I'm not under the influence at work :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,137
16,532
Riding the baggage carousel.
Bumpity bump.

Colorado voters will have a decision to make in November, when a constitutional amendment that would regulate marijuana much like alcohol will be on the ballot. At this early stage it would be fair to say it’s too close to call, but pot legalization backers are organized, they’ve shown the ability to raise money and it appears being on the same ballot as a presidential election will benefit the measure.

Backers of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol submitted about 160,000 signatures to the secretary of state last week. They only need about half that many to be approved, so it’s a near-certainty the measure will make the ballot.

“I think Colorado is ready to take this step,” said Mason Tvert, who has organized marijuana-related campaigns in Denver and backed the medicinal pot movement.

A recent poll showed 49 percent of the voters support legalization and 40 percent are opposed. Such polls, taken a long time before an election when opposition has not yet organized, are not worth much. Yet Tvert is optimistic, saying “We have another 10 months to continue having this conversation.”

There’s going to be a debate, all right. The same law enforcement groups that have always opposed any form of legalized marijuana will oppose it again.

You’re going to hear that marijuana still is an illegal substance as far as the federal government is concerned. You’re going to hear that it is a gateway drug that leads to harder stuff.

Pot backers might ask you: “When was the last time you heard of a marijuana-crazed man beating up his wife?” Or: “does it make sense to turn people into criminals for possessing pot when it’s clear alcohol is a much more dangerous drug?”

Under the proposal “adults would only be able to have small quantities, up to an ounce,” explained Brian Vicente, a Denver attorney who has lobbied for medicinal pot and legalization for years.

If the measure passes, the legislature would be able to ask voters for an excise tax on marijuana of up to 15 percent. Another election would have to be held for that. As with alcohol, there would be different kinds of licenses, but none would be issued until January 2014.

Also similar to alcohol regulation, the new laws would be administered by the Colorado Department of Revenue. You’d have to be 21 to buy pot and it would be subject to sales taxes. How much money that would bring in is hard to predict, although backers are already claiming it would be tens of millions.

It’s less about tax revenue, though, than it is about doing the right thing. It’s about time we turned the corner on this and ended pot prohibition, as we did with alcohol generations ago.

http://www.gazette.com/news/ballot-131321-pot-decision.html
Shockingly, in this mornings paper a poll of Colorado Springs residents showed those in favor of legalization 42%-39%. Christ on a crutch, if the backwards bible thumping Jethros in this town are leaning twoards legalization, maybe it will actually happen in CO.
 

rockofullr

confused
Jun 11, 2009
7,342
924
East Bay, Cali
We almost did it in 2010 out here in cali. Went down 53% to 46% :disgust1:

It's gonna happen soon but I would have never guessed that it could be in CO.
 

Ciaran

Fear my banana
Apr 5, 2004
9,839
15
So Cal
We almost did it in 2010 out here in cali. Went down 53% to 46% :disgust1:

It's gonna happen soon but I would have never guessed that it could be in CO.
There is a similar movement going on in California called Regulate Marijuana Like Wine. It looks like they will be able to get it on the ballot for 2012.

If it was REALLY regulated like wine, I would open a "vineyard" in a heartbeat. I won't hold my breath on it though.

And I don't think it will bring in the amount of money some people say it will. If it's legalized prices are going to drop like a stone. Prices have already gone down due to the MMJ pot shops here in So Cal. What was once 60 an eighth is now 45.00 and it's going lower.
 
Last edited:

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
I thought some of the problem with Cali's Prop 19 is that it didn't clearly state what the laws will be.

We are almost totally decriminalized. I realized this when my lawyer smokes up right on the street.
 

stevew

resident influencer
Sep 21, 2001
40,494
9,525
i'd dip every tenth joint i sold in pcp just to keep it interesting.