Cali measure for legal adult cannabis faces November vote

By Chris Conrad

The Secretary of State confirmed March 24 that the Control and Tax Cannabis initiative will be on the Nov. 2, 2010 ballot, the first non-medical use initiative to qualify in the state since the 1972 California Marijuana Initiative. The mere fact of cannabis being up for a vote with a slim majority of support among CA voters has stoked national and international media discussion of how legal adult cannabis use is to be regulated in the future.

The campaign is garnering a growing string of endorsements, which already includes the CA NAACP, political and union leaders, Oakland City Council, economists, and most cannabis reform groups. It is forming coalitions of physicians, attorneys, faith leaders and organizations, who are generating support for the initiative amongst their constituents.

Vocal opposition is led by lobbyist and spokesperson for the California Peace Officers Assn, John Lovell.

Read More: IT’S ON THE BALLOT

Renowned speaker, activist, best-selling author:
Jack Herer, 1939-2010

By Chris Conrad

Jack Herer, a living legend of the cannabis reform movement who spoke at thousands of events across the US and Europe, died in the company of his family April 15, 2010 in Oregon and was laid to rest in Los Angeles.

Hundreds of people came from afar for his eulogy and funeral at Eden Memorial Park in Mission Hills CA on April 25 to honor a larger-than-life man who changed so many people’s lives. Joints and handsful of marijuana were tossed into the grave with the urn containing his remains.

Born June 18, 1939, Herer’s early years as a Goldwater Republican and a Korean War veteran gave no indication that he would one day become a world-famous champion of legalizing all things cannabis and write a book that changed the world, The Emperor Wears No Clothes.

The gravel-voiced, strong-willed activist, who in the 1960s

Read More: RIP Jack Herer – The Hemperor

By Paul Armentano NORML

Subjects exhibit virtually identical psychomotor skills on a battery of driving simulator tests prior to and shortly after smoking marijuana, according to clinical trial data published in the March issue of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.

Investigators from Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine assessed the simulated driving performance of 85 subjects in a double-blind, placebo controlled trial. Volunteers responded to various simulated events associated with automobile crash risk — such as avoiding a driver who was entering an intersection illegally, deciding to stop or go through changing traffic lights, responding to the presence of emergency vehicles, avoiding colliding with a dog who entered into traffic, and maintaining safe driving during a secondary (in-the-car) auditory distraction.

Subjects performed the tests sober and then again 30 minutes after smoking a single marijuana cigarette containing either 2.9 percent THC or zero THC (placebo).

Investigators reported

Read More: Cannabis has little effect on driving, study shows; most drive more slowly

Tax receipts around $100m

By Dale Gieringer  California NORML

The California Board of Equalization reported that the state is collecting $50 – $100 million annually in sales taxes from medical marijuana. The report confirms an estimate previously published by California NORML* and independently confirmed by Americans for Safe Access.

California NORML currently estimates the state’s domestic retail market for medical cannabis at over $1 billion per year in a total adult use market of $6 billion. Even more is shipped out of state.

Prohibitionists, led by Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, have sought to choke off the state’s lucrative medical market by claiming that sales are illegal. Advocates argue that medical sales are legal under SB 420, and the state stands to lose millions in sales tax revenues if LA’s dispensaries are closed.

Regulated adult use could net the state $1.4 billion in revenues according to the state Legislative Analyst’s office, or

Read More: Medi cannabis helping California pay its debts

‘Branding,’ cannatourism and sustainability all on agenda

By Liz Davidson, HUMMAP

The Humboldt Medical Marijuana Advisory Panel (HUMMAP) was formed on April 20 to promote the virtues of Humboldt-grown cannabis, to educate county communities and government, to help draft regulations, and to ease local growers’ transition to possible legalization.

HUMMAP is a coalition of cannabis patients, cultivators and associated community members united to develop a comprehensive countywide medical cannabis regulatory policy. Its goals are to integrate all related health and safety issues under state law with sustainable organic cultivation practices, and to promote the Humboldt brand name identity.

“Medical cannabis is legal under state law, but a patchwork of regulations and the relative isolation of patients and medical growers in Humboldt has left both them and the county government confused and frequently in conflict,” said HUMMAP chair Syreeta Lux, asking growers to “share their knowledge proudly, form strong relationships with county government, and assert

Read More: Humboldt group looks ahead to the legal market

By Mike Meno, MPP

Washington DC will soon be added to the list of jurisdictions that give seriously ill patients legal access to medical marijuana, after a unanimous May 4 vote by the District council approving amendments to a medical use law passed in 1998 by 69 percent of voters in the nation’s capital.

For more than a decade, Congress blocked its implementation via the socalled “Barr Amendment” — a clause in the annual federal budget bill that appropriates money to the District of Columbia.

After years of lobbying by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and others — including former Rep. Bob Barr (DGeorgia), the notorious restriction’s namesake, who later reversed his position — the ban was at last lifted last year, opening the way for the Council to enact what would have been the country’s second medical use law. Once Mayor Adrian Fenty signs the law, it goes to Congress for a

Read More: Medical marijuana coming to nation’s capital

By Warren Edson, Esq.

The 2010 Colorado legislative session brought dramatic changes to the medical marijuana community, due to the passage of House Bill 1284. Provided that Governor Ritter signs the bill, as he said he will, Colorado will begin regulating — and legitimizing — the industry on July 1, 2010. In order to create a clean legal slate, the bill creates three new statutory defenses, the language and general framework of which will be adopted by local municipalities over the next year.

Dispensaries will now be known as Medical Marijuana Centers. An MMC is allowed to be a for-profit business, and it is specifically not the patient’s ‘caregiver.’ The MMCs will be able to retail to patients, and they will be able to wholesale up to 30 percent of what’s in their storefront to other MMCs, Infused Product Manufacturers (IPM, a new category, described below), and caregivers. By Sept. 1, they

Read More: New Colorado law to regulate dispensaries