Source: @norml @WeedConnection
Posted By: norml@weedconnection.com
media :: news - Tue, 12 Aug 2014 04:20:21 PST
Brookings Institution on Colorado's Legalization of Marijuana: 'Resounding Success'
Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution has issued a report entitled 'Colorado's Rollout of Legal Marijuana is Succeeding', analyzing the first six months of Colorado's legalized cannabis commerce and taxation policies, which voters approved by ballot initiative in November 2012.
Author John Hudak calls the implementation of the new Colorado law "a resounding success." He continues, "My research shows that regardless of the merits of the policy itself, Colorado has created a smart regulatory system that balances safety and security with access to legal marijuana."
The report's conclusion: "Among the many successful pieces of Colorado's regulatory system are effective seed-to-sale product tracking, a vertically integrated market, and strict limits on purchase quantity". Despite a largely successful rollout of the policy, however, the report details a few trouble spots that the author thinks lie ahead for the new system, including "homegrown" plants and the different tax rates between retail and medical marijuana.
The Drug Policy Alliance published a similar report in early July.
Marijuana Arrests in America: New State-by-State Analysis
Washington, D.C.: Despite an overwhelming majority of Americans recently indicating a preference for ceasing arrests for minor marijuana offenses and nearly sixty percent support in favor of outright legalization, a new report from former NORML executive director and Shenandoah University professor Jon Gettman, Ph.D indicates that American law enforcement's continued focus on actively enforcing cannabis prohibition laws is yielding wildly disparate enforcement patterns across the nation.
In 2006 NORML Foundation published a county-by-county analysis of cannabis-related arrests also researched and written by Dr. Gettman.
According to FBI annual data, in 2012 there were 750,000 cannabis-related arrests in America, ninety percent for possession only.
For more information, please contact Jon Gettman, Ph.D at www.drugscience.org or the report can be viewed @ https://norml.org/pdf_files/JBG_Marijuana_in_the_States_2012.pdf
District of Columbia Residents Set To Vote on Marijuana Legalization
Washington, D.C.: This week the DC Cannabis Committee qualified a voter ballot initiative question to legalize marijuana by gathering 57,000 signatures--more than twice the needed amount.
If passed this November by Washington, DC voters, two ounces of cannabis and the cultivation of six plants will be lawful for adults over 21 years of age. The initiative would also permit adults to give (but not sell) up to one ounce of marijuana to other adults. No retail sales are allowed under this proposed change of law.
Recently, the DC City Council passed and implemented a cannabis decriminalization measure that now fines private adult possession of cannabis at $25, and public possession or use at $400.
Washington, DC joins legalization ballot initiative efforts this fall in Alaska and Oregon; and a medical cannabis access ballot measure in Florida.
Medical Marijuana in America: The Map
Washington, D.C.: NORML has updated its homepage's medical cannabis section, including a newly designed national map of medical marijuana states to reflect the recent surge in states that have passed so-called 'CBD-only' legislation.
Currently in the United States, 35 states have reformed their laws via legislation or binding voter ballot initiative to allow qualified patients medical access to cannabis products. This time last year, 21 states and the District of Columbia had medical cannabis laws on the books--a sixty percent increase in a single year.
The laws today governing medical cannabis at the state level breakdown to three basic categories: Self-preservation (patient has medical necessity defense for possessing or growing cannabis); Retail access (patient can access cannabis in retail store; home cultivation is often prohibited) and CBD-only (patients are allowed to possess and use cannabis strains and other products high in cannabidiol [CBD], although generally there is no legal source for the patients to obtain those strains; no home cultivation allowed).
A few states have hybrid medical cannabis programs where patients can both cultivate a personal amount of cannabis and also have retail access to cannabis products (notably Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Maine). Minnesota's law only allows for "oils and concentrates to be 'vaporized'".
NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre stated, "Major media news outlets have recently published inaccurate maps regarding medical cannabis and we want to make sure the public, notably cannabis consumers and patients, have an accurate understanding of America's ever-changing ganja geography. What makes NORML's medical cannabis map up-to-date is that it accurately reflects which states are yet to implement their law reforms to allow legal access."
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