While local legislators predict the Illinois Senate has the votes needed to pass a proposed medical marijuana bill, those same legislators are taking a dim view of the proposal that would legalize a person with specific medical conditions, including cancer, multiple sclerosis or HIV/AIDS, the ability to possess up to 2 1/2 ounces of it during a 14-day period. The House has already approved such a measure and if the Senate and Quinn sign off on the bill, the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program would be created for a four-year period, after which time it would be re-evaluated. [continues 631 words]
Like a lot of Californians, Stockton businessman Matt Davies, 34, expected that when Barack Obama was elected in 2008, the new administration would not prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries operating under a law passed by California voters in 1996. After all, as a candidate, Obama contended that he saw federal enforcement against medical marijuana as a waste of resources. On Oct. 19, 2009, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden released a memo that instructed the Department of Justice not to focus federal resources "on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana." Davies took that memo as a green light to join the "green rush" and use his MBA expertise to run a taxpaying enterprise to distribute what he refers to as "medicine" to sick people. [continues 480 words]
"Mandatory sentences breed injustice," Judge Roger Vinson told the New York Times. A Ronald Reagan appointee to the federal bench in Florida, Vinson was railing against a federal system that forced him to sentence a 27-year-old single mother to prison life without parole because her dealer ex-boyfriend had stored cocaine in her house. Note to D.C. Republicans: This would be a great time to take on the excesses of the war on drugs. The Times was writing about conservatives, including Jeb Bush and former Watergate conspirator Chuck Colson, who advocate for smarter, more humane incarceration policies under the rubric "Right on Crime." In light of the GOP's need to woo more young voters, drug-war reforms offer an ideological good - limited government - and also might be politically savvy. Think: Ron Paul and his rock star status on college campuses. [continues 667 words]
DENVER (AP) - Michael Jolton was a young father with a 5-year-old son when Colorado legalized medical marijuana in 2000. Now he's got three boys, the oldest near adulthood, and finds himself repeatedly explaining green-leafed marijuana ads and "free joint" promotions endemic in his suburban hometown. "I did not talk to my oldest son about marijuana when he was 8 years old. We got to talk about fun stuff. Now with my youngest who's 8, we have to talk about this," said Jolton, a consultant from Lakewood. [continues 931 words]
A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision expanding drug testing in schools will have the Unit 40 Board of Education considering a similar policy. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled school officials can give random drug tests to any students who participate in extracurricular activities, and not just student athletes as previously allowed. While Unit 40 currently does not conduct drug tests, Superintendent Dr. Don Roberts said, the board will certainly be considering in the near future implementing a drug testing policy. [continues 186 words]
