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Speaking with reporters, [...]]]> Truly a landmark event in the medical cannabis movement!

Obama Administration

to Stop Raids on

Medical Marijuana Dispensers

From the NY Times:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday outlined a shift in the enforcement of federal drug laws, saying the administration would effectively end the Bush administration’s frequent raids on distributors of medical marijuana.

Speaking with reporters, Mr. Holder provided few specifics but said the Justice Department’s enforcement policy would now be restricted to traffickers who falsely masqueraded as medical dispensaries and “use medical marijuana laws as a shield.”

In the Bush administration, federal agents raided medical marijuana distributors that violated federal statutes even if the dispensaries appeared to be complying with state laws. The raids produced a flood of complaints, particularly in California, which in 1996 became the first state to legalize marijuana sales to people with doctors’ prescriptions.

Graham Boyd, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union drug law project, said Mr. Holder’s remarks created a reasonable balance between conflicting state and federal laws and “seem to finally end the policy war over medical marijuana.” He said officials in California and the 12 other states that have authorized the use of medical marijuana had hesitated to adopt regulations to carry out their laws because of uncertainty created by the Bush administration.

Mr. Holder said the new approach was consistent with statements made by President Obama in the campaign and was based on an assessment of how to allocate scarce enforcement resources. He said dispensaries operating in accord with California law would not be a priority for the administration.

Mr. Holder’s comments appeared to be an effort to clarify the policy after some news reports last month interpreted his answer to a reporter’s question to be a flat assertion that all raids on marijuana growers would cease. Department officials said Mr. Holder had not intended to assert any policy change last month but was decidedly doing so on Wednesday.

Ethan Nadelmann, the founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, said Mr. Holder was telling the Drug Enforcement Administration that it should leave legitimate growers of medical marijuana untouched. “The message from the Bush Justice Department was ‘watch out — we have the authority to go after everybody,’ ” he said.

On other matters, in his first wide-ranging conversation with reporters as attorney general, Mr. Holder said the Justice Department was still reviewing the case files of detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to determine whether they could be released or would be tried in a civilian criminal court or some other legal forum. He said it was possible that some detainees like the Uighurs held in Cuba could be released into the United States.

#1 Landslide At The Ballot Box: Election Day Voters Reject Bush War Doctrine

Millions of Americans nationwide voted on Election Day for marijuana law reform, approving nine out of ten ballot measures to liberalize penalties on cannabis use and possession. In Massachusetts, [...]]]> NORML’s Top Ten Events That Shaped Marijuana Policy in 2008

#1 Landslide At The Ballot Box: Election Day Voters Reject Bush War Doctrine

Millions of Americans nationwide voted on Election Day for marijuana law reform, approving nine out of ten ballot measures to liberalize penalties on cannabis use and possession. In Massachusetts, where 65 percent of voters decided to reduce marijuana possession penalties to a $100 fine, and Michigan, where 63 percent of voters approved legalizing the medical use of cannabis, supporters for pot law reform outnumbered supporters for President-Elect Barack Obama.

#2 Members Of Congress Demand An End To Federal Pot Possession Arrests

Members of Congress convened a Capitol Hill press conference in July to demand lawmakers enact legislation to eliminate the government’s authority to arrest and prosecute adults who possess marijuana. Lawmakers called on colleagues to endorse HR 5843, which sought to remove federal penalties for the possession and non-profit transfer of marijuana by adults. 

#3 California Courts Rule: Medical Pot Statutes Don’t Conflict With Federal Anti-Drug Laws

State provisions allowing for the possession and use of medical marijuana do not conflict with federal anti-drug laws, according to a series of California court rulings. In two separate cases, the California Supreme Court refused to hear challenges to the state’s 12-year-old marijuana law finding that counties are obligated to issue identification cards to qualified patients and that police cannot seize marijuana from state-sanctioned medical pot users. Read the full story at: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7678 .

#4: Marijuana “Exceptional” At Reducing MRSA

The administration of natural plant cannabinoids significantly reduces the spread of drug-resistant bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus (aka MRSA), according to a study published this fall in the Journal of Natural Products. MRSA is responsible for over 18,000 hospital-stay deaths each year.

#5 Marijuana Arrests For 2007 Reach All-Time High

Police arrested a record 872,721 Americans for marijuana violations in 2007, the highest annual total ever reported by the FBI. Since 1965, over 20 million Americans have been arrested for violating state or federal marijuana laws.

#6 Cannabis Determined To Be Less Harmful Than Alcohol

The potential health risks associated with cannabis are less than those associated with alcohol and do not justify the continued criminalization of the plant or its users, according to a report published in October by The Beckley Foundation an independent British think-tank that analyzes drug use and drug policy.

#7 Teen Pot Use Declines In States With Medical Cannabis Laws

States that have enacted legislation authorizing the use of medical cannabis by qualified patients have not experienced an increase in the drug’s use by the general population, according to a comprehensive report issued in June by the Marijuana Policy Project.

#8 Medical Marijuana Use Not Associated With Adverse Side Effects

The medical use of cannabis is not associated with serious negative side effects, according to a meta-analysis published this summer in the journal of the Canadian Medical Association (CMAJ).

#9 California Attorney General Issues Guidelines Recognizing Patients’ Medical Cannabis Use

State and local law enforcement should not arrest state qualified patients who possess, cultivate, or travel with medical marijuana, according to guidelines issued in August by the California Attorney General’s office. The guidelines also permit for the distribution and non-profit sales of medical cannabis is permitted by qualified “collectives and cooperatives.”

#10 NORML Daily Audio Stash Gains record Listenership

The popularity of NORML’s podcast grew significantly in 2008, topping more than 110,000 downloads in the month of October alone. Said host Russ Belville, “When it comes to the subject of marijuana, more and more people are turning away from the federal government and away from the mainstream media; instead, they are turning to groups like NORML and the NORML Daily Audio Stash as their most trusted source of information for all things cannabis.”

NORML and the NORML Foundation: 1600 K Street NW, Suite 501, Washington DC, 20006-2832
Tel: (202) 483-5500 Fax: (202) 483-0057 E

More details:

* Fort Collins, Colorado – A Fort Collins couple wants the police to reimburse them $200,000 for their 39 cannabis plants, which were confiscated and died from neglect while in police custody. The LA Times says that , “a year later, the case against the Masterses — who claimed [...]]]> Cannabis news in the other 49 states:

* Fort Collins, Colorado – A Fort Collins couple wants the police to reimburse them $200,000 for their 39 cannabis plants, which were confiscated and died from neglect while in police custody. The LA Times says that , “a year later, the case against the Masterses — who claimed they used the drug for medical purposes — fell apart, and a judge ordered the police to return their property.”

The LA Times with a quote from ASA: “Of the 12 states that have legalized marijuana for medical use, Colorado stands out for its law specifying that police must not “harm, neglect or destroy” seized plants in such cases, said Noah Mamber, legal services coordinator for Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group.

* Boston – Six people were arrested at a pro-marijuana rally.

* Port Orchard, Washington – The Seattle PI reports that a Kitsap County man has been convicted of growing pot, despite having a doctor’s authorization for medical marijuana under state law.

* USA (general)

The FBI says:

• Marijuana arrests now comprise a shocking 47.5 percent of national drug arrests, up from 43.9 percent in 2006.
• Marijuana arrests in the United States rose 5 percent last year to a record 872,721.
• The 2007 total was more than 43,000 above the previous year’s 829,627 marijuana arrests.

Martin’s attorneys wrote that their client had been manufacturing candy [...]]]> Michael Martin, who joined the medical marijuana movement after seeing his father die painfully of prostate cancer in 2002 after a 10-year battle, was sentenced yesterday to a year in a halfway house and a year of home detention for conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana.

Martin’s attorneys wrote that their client had been manufacturing candy as a medicinal cannabis product. They argued that their client, “was not motivated by profit” and that he now has “a negative net worth of $147,000.”

Martin owned a factory in Oakland that made cannabis candies under the name Tainted, Inc., which was later changed to Compassion Medicinal Edibles. Tainted produced several different brands of candies, such as Buddafinga, Mr. Greenbud, and Stoners, along with other medicinal cannabis edibles including: cookies, ice cream, peanut butter, granola bars and barbecue sauce. Although we fell the sentence is totally uncalled, thankfully Mr. Martin will not go to prison.

More from SF Gate:

In federal marijuana cases, defense attorneys are barred from telling jurors that companies supply medical cannabis products through licensed dispensaries to qualified patients. Proposition 215, the initiative approved in 1996 by state voters, legalized growing and using marijuana for medical purposes with a doctor’s recommendation. Under federal law, marijuana used for any purpose is illegal.

The investigation bore similarities to DEA raids in Oakland in 2006 in which five people connected with a company called Beyond Bomb were convicted of making marijuana-laced treats with such names as Munchy Way, Rasta Reece’s and Puff-a-Mint Pattie.