#NORML #News Source: @norml @WeedConnection Posted By: norml@weedconnection.com media :: news - Tue, 30 Aug 2016 04:20:21 PST
Court: Budgetary Amendment Bars Federal Prosecution Of State-Compliant Medical Marijuana Providers
San Francisco, CA: Federal officials are not permitted to engage in the criminal prosecution of those who are engaged in activity related to medical marijuana absent evidence that the defendants are in clear violation of state law, according to a unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The ruling broadly interprets a 2014 federal budgetary amendment prohibiting the US Justice Department from spending any funds "to prevent ... states ... from implementing their own state laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana." Members of Congress renewed the provision in 2015.
"If DOJ wishes to continue these prosecutions, Appellants are entitled to evidentiary hearings to determine whether their conduct was completely authorized by state law, by which we mean that they strictly complied with all relevant conditions imposed by state law on the use, distribution, possession, and cultivation of medical marijuana," Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain wrote for the panel.
The Judge opined that Congress could lift the spending ban at its discretion. Because the provision was enacted as an amendment to an annual spending appropriation, Congress must restore the measure each year in order for it to remain in effect.
Arizona: Adult Use Marijuana Measure Cleared For November Ballot
Phoenix, AZ: Voters will decide this November on a statewide ballot measure to legalize and regulate the adult use and retail sale of cannabis.
The Secretary of State's office has confirmed that initiative proponents, The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol, submitted a sufficient number of signatures from registered voters to qualify the measure for the November ballot. A Maricopa County judge has also dismissed a lawsuit that sought to prohibit the measure from going before voters, although initiative opponents may seek to further litigate the matter before the state Supreme Court.
Proposition 205 permits adults to legally possess (up to one ounce of marijuana flowers and/or five grams of marijuana concentrates) and cultivate marijuana (up to six plants) for their own personal use, and establishes licensing for its commercial production and retail sale. Commercial, for-profit sales of cannabis will be subject to taxation, while non-commercial exchanges of marijuana will not be taxed.
Similar adult use measures will appear on the ballot this November in California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada. Voters in Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota will also decide on medical use measures this fall. A Missouri statewide initiative seeking to regulate the plant's medicinal use is in litigation. An Oklahoma medical marijuana measure has collected sufficient signatures to qualify for the ballot, but is awaiting a final review by the state’s Attorney General.
A summary of 2016 statewide ballot measures and their status is online.
More information @ regulatemarijuanainarizona.org
Poll: Two-Thirds Of Californians Support Legalizing Retail Sales Of Marijuana To Adults
Berkeley, CA: Nearly two in three California voters support the establishment of a state-regulated retail market for the sale of marijuana to adults, according to polling data compiled by the Institute of Government Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Sixty-four percent of respondents agree, "Marijuana should be legal for adults to purchase and use recreationally, with government regulations similar to the regulation of alcohol."
Support is strongest among those between the ages 18 to 24 (75 percent), Democrats (74 percent), African Americans (72 percent), those between the ages of 25 to 34 (71 percent), and Latino voters (69 percent). Among voters over 65 years of age, 58 percent back legalization.
The polling data bodes well for the passage of California's Proposition 64 this November. The statewide initiative permit adults to legally grow (up to six plants) and possess personal use quantities of cannabis (up to one ounce of flower and/or up to eight grams of concentrate) while also licensing commercial cannabis production and retail sales. The measure prohibits localities from taking actions to infringe upon adults' ability to possess and cultivate cannabis for non-commercial purposes. The initiative language specifies that it is not intended to "repeal, affect, restrict, or preempt ... laws pertaining to the Compassionate Use Act of 1996." Proposition 64 is endorsed by the ACLU of California, the California Democratic Party, the California Medical Association, California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California NAACP, the Drug Policy Alliance, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and NORML.
More information @ yeson64.org. A summary of 2016 statewide ballot measures and their status is online.
