#NORML #News Source: @norml Posted By: norml@weedconnection.com media :: news - Thu, 30 Jan 2014 04:20:21 PST
Feds To Issue Banking Guidelines For Businesses Engaged In Cannabis Commerce
Washington, DC: Federal officials are poised to unveil new regulations allowing for financial institutions to legally interact with licensed businesses that are engaged in cannabis commerce.
United States Attorney General Eric Holder announced the forthcoming guidelines yesterday in a speech at the University of Virginia's Miller Center.
"You don't want just huge amounts of cash in these places. They (retail facilities that dispense cannabis) want to be able to use the banking system," Holder said. "And so we (the Obama administration) will be issuing some regulations I think very soon to deal with that issue."
Presently, federal law discourages financial institutions from accepting deposits or providing banking services for facilities that engage in cannabis-related commerce because the plant remains illegal under the US Controlled Substances Act. While the Obama administration is unlikely to amend cannabis' illegal status under federal law, the forthcoming rules are anticipated to provide clear guidelines for banks that wish to provide support for state-licensed cannabis facilities.
In Colorado, where retail stores began legally selling cannabis on January 1 to anyone age 21 and older, businesses were estimated to have engaged in over $5 million in marijuana sales in their first week of business.
US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Speaks In Favor Of Medical Marijuana
Las Vegas, NV: United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has gone from opposing to supporting the therapeutic use of cannabis.
Speaking with The Las Vegas Sun newspaper, Reid said that he has changed his opinion in regards to the legalization of medicinal cannabis. "If you'd asked me this question a dozen years ago, it would have been easy to answer. I would have said no, because (marijuana) leads to other stuff," Reid said. "But I can't say that anymore. ... I think that there's some medical reasons for marijuana."
Regarding the public policies regarding the broader use of cannabis, Reid acknowledged, "[W]e waste a lot of time and law enforcement going after these guys that are smoking marijuana."
Despite 20 states and the District of Columbia having legalized medical marijuana, no legislation addressing the issue has even been introduced in the US Senate.
Two New Nationwide Polls Find That Majority Of Americans Believe Marijuana Should Be Legal
New York, NY: A majority of US adults believe that the consumption of marijuana ought to be legal, according to the results of two nationwide polls released last week.
A poll conducted by NBC and the Wall Street Journal found that fifty-five percent of American adults nationwide support legalizing marijuana. Nearly a quarter of the respondents said that while they do not personally agree with legalization, they would not actively seek to repeal laws approved by voters or state legislatures.
The second poll, commissioned by CBS, found that fifty-one percent of respondents answered affirmatively to the question, "Should marijuana use be legal?" The percentage is the highest ever reported by the survey, which has been tracking public opinion on the issue since 1979 (when only 27 percent of adults endorsed legalization), and marks a six-point jump in support since the last time pollsters posed the question in April 2013.
Forty-four percent of respondents in this poll opposed legalizing cannabis.
Age, gender, and political affiliation influenced respondents' opinions regarding legalization. According to the CBS survey data, a majority of all respondents under age 65 now support legalizing cannabis. Most men (57 percent), but not women (46 percent) back legalization. Most self-identified Democrats (59 percent) and Independents (54 percent), but not Republicans (35 percent) support making marijuana legal.
Recently released nationwide surveys by Gallup and CNN also reported that a majority of Americans are now in favor of legalizing cannabis.
When asked about their views on the therapeutic use of cannabis, 86 percent of respondents told CBS pollsters that physicians ought to be allowed to authorize marijuana use to their patients -- an increase of 24 percent since 1997, when pollsters first began asking the question.
Sixty-two percent of respondents also endorsed letting individual states rather than the federal government specify marijuana policies.
The NBC/WSJ poll surveyed 800 adults from January 22-25 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.46 percentage points. Over 1,018 adults nationwide participated in the CBS survey, which possesses a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
Florida Supreme Court Votes to Allow Medical Marijuana Amendment on Ballot
Tallahasee, FL: Earlier this week, United for Care, the campaign working to place a medical marijuana constitutional amendment on the ballot in Florida, was advised by the secretary of state's office that they had collected and certified the required number of signatures for qualification. Advocates collected well over the 683,000 signatures necessary to qualify the measure for the fall ballot.
Then later in the week, the Florida Supreme Court, where the language of the ballot summary had been challenged by the state, ruled 4-3 in favor of allowing the amendment to be placed on November's ballot.
"Florida and national NORML salute the decision of the Florida Supreme Court to allow our citizens the right to decide for themselves if medicinal marijuana is an appropriate course of conduct for their own adult lives," stated NORML Board Chair and Florida resident Norm Kent, "Our group will be working vigorously, from Key West to our northwest panhandle, to pass this amendment and give our citizens the right to make health decisions best suited for their own lives."
"This is a tribute to the initiative of John Morgan, the group United for Care, and the thousands of petitioners who labored all over the state to acquire the requisite number of petitions to get this item on the ballot," Kent said.
Twenty states have now passed laws permitting medical marijuana and two have legalized cannabis for recreational use. Florida represents the first southern state to launch such an initiative, which divides the gubernatorial candidates, with the present governor, Rick Scott, opposing the initiative, and his likely opponent, Charlie Crist, saying he supports the effort. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted in November showed 82 percent of Florida voters support the medical use of marijuana.
