FLORIDA: Medical marijuana enjoys broad backing in Florida, with polls in the past year indicating that 65 to 70 percent of voters support the idea.
But passing a constitutional amendment to legalize medical pot may not be the cakewalk that such numbers suggest.
Florida requires a 60 percent majority to amend the state Constitution. Older voters — who usually dominate turnout — favor medical marijuana, but not as strongly as younger voters do.
ARIZONA: When Scott Cecil wound up facing a felony charge for possessing marijuana for his own use, he started to think the so-called war on drugs was targeting the wrong people.
“It really made me realize there are hundreds of thousands of people per year that are arrested for marijuana and other drugs,” he said. “They haven’t committed any violent crimes, they aren’t selling drugs, they’re just using drugs recreationally.”
Cecil, a student at Mesa Community College and board member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, is part of a larger movement to legalize marijuana in Arizona. He and other activists with Safer Arizona, a grassroots marijuana advocacy group, are trying to collect enough signatures to put a legalization initiative on the November ballot.
Dennis Bohlke, treasurer for Safer Arizona, said Arizona would be a safer place if marijuana were legalized.
“We think it’s safer than alcohol, and we find it outrageous that people are being jailed and being labeled as felons,” he said.
WASHINGTON: Last year I found myself wanting to do more than sit behind my computer and gripe about the government. I wanted to become part of the voices that created the change we so desperately need in our world. So I joined protests against GMO’s. I joined rallies for patients rights to medical cannabis. I started volunteering for non profits benefiting my community.
COLORADO: Across America, lawmakers are eyeing tax revenue from legalized marijuana. Colorado and Washington are each officially expecting over $100 million annually in marijuana excise taxes. In a few days, the Colorado Department of Revenue is due to report how much marijuana tax was paid there for January, the first full month of recreational sales anywhere ever.
But the report on January collections will tell us next to nothing about what other states can expect, and only a little about Colorado. You can multiply January taxes by 12, but that won’t show annual marijuana revenue the state can count on from now on — for two reasons. First, the mature market will not resemble the start-up January market. Second, Colorado will start taxing some transactions that it exempted in January.
Start-up Uncertainties
In future months, Colorado’s industry will probably sell more grams of marijuana than it sold in January, but at lower prices. More grams will pull taxes up. Lower prices will push taxes down. It’s not clear where taxes will end up.
ARIZONA: When Scott Cecil wound up facing a felony charge for possessing marijuana for his own use, he started to think the so-called war on drugs was targeting the wrong people.
“It really made me realize there are hundreds of thousands of people per year that are arrested for marijuana and other drugs,” he said. “They haven’t committed any violent crimes, they aren’t selling drugs, they’re just using drugs recreationally.”
Cecil, a student at Mesa Community College and board member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, is part of a larger movement to legalize marijuana in Arizona. He and other activists with Safer Arizona, a grassroots marijuana advocacy group, are trying to collect enough signatures to put a legalization initiative on the November ballot.
Dennis Bohlke, treasurer for Safer Arizona, said Arizona would be a safer place if marijuana were legalized.
“We think it’s safer than alcohol, and we find it outrageous that people are being jailed and being labeled as felons,” he said.
INDIANA: Stevia Corp., a farm management company focused on the economic development of products that support healthy lifestyle, is expanding its business into legal hemp.
In a press release, the company announced plans to participate in the successful growth of the hemp industry and particularly hemp seeds, oils and related products which are growing in popularity.
George Blankenbaker, Stevia Corp President, comments, “As the public becomes more aware of hemp seeds and their health properties, there is increasing demand for hemp products. We intend to pursue products that contain both stevia and hemp which will appeal to the health conscious consumers.”
COLORADO: As medical marijuana legislation heads to voters in several states this fall, legislators are relying on technologists to prevent their dreams of success from going up in smoke.
There is some cause for concern, despite medical marijuana’s newly polished public image and the growing crop of solutions targeted specifically at the $2.34-billion market. RFID, sensors, and other technologies lauded as the antidote to black market sales to illicit users haven’t always met with success. But implementation, time constraints, and limited budgets, not technology, appear to blame.
MAINE: Susan Collins is the only Republican Senator facing re-election in a state carried by Obama in 2012. Yet her Democratic challenger, Shenna Bellows, a former Maine American Civil Liberties Union director, has received little outside financial funding or national political guidance.
It’s been eight months since I last wrote about medical marijuana, apologizing for having not dug deeply into the beneficial effects of this plant and for writing articles dismissing its potential. I apologized for my own role in previously misleading people, and I feel very badly that people have suffered for too long, unable to obtain the legitimate medicine that may have helped them.
I have been reminded that a true and productive scientific journey involves a willingness to let go of established notions and get at the truth, even if it is uncomfortable and even it means having to say “sorry.”
It is not easy to apologize and take your lumps, but this was never about me.
COLORADO: Organizers want to make this year’s Denver 4/20 marijuana rally into a larger-than-ever festival celebrating the first legal pot sales anywhere in the world.
But Denver city officials are weighing whether they will issue organizers a permit to use Civic Center park, leaving the two-day April event in question this year.
A turning point of sorts came last week. An attorney for the event sent an eyebrow-raising letter to city officials putting them on notice that organizers would encourage attendees to toke up in the park.
The letter asks for the city’s permission for adults to consume marijuana, though attorney and activist Robert J. Corry Jr. also asserts that the city’s sign-off isn’t needed.
COLORADO: Since the legalization of marijuana in Colorado at the beginning of 2014, residents and entrepreneurs throughout the state have been exploring new ways to incorporate cannabis into their lives.
So it was really only a matter of time before brides and grooms began considering how to include it in their wedding celebrations. From vaping stations at cocktail hours to pot-leaf bouquets for the bridal party, marijuana marries itself to the event in countless ways.
“The sentiment is that ‘it’s new,’” said Anja Winnika, site director at online wedding resource The Knot.com, which first noticed the topic being discussed on chat boards. “With it being legal in Colorado, it’s not surprising to hear that some couples are planning to incorporate it into their day.”