Obama on the problem of criminalizing marijuana use | CNN

Waukesha, Wisconsin – When it was pointed out that the President’s remarks to The New Yorker magazine about marijuana – which he described as a bad habit but not any worse for a person than alcohol – contradict the administration’s official policy on marijuana, Obama stood by his views.

The President declined to say whether he would support removing marijuana as a “Schedule One” narcotic, a classification that includes heroin and ecstasy.

“I stand by my belief based on the scientific evidence that marijuana for casual users, individual users, is subject to abuse, just like alcohol is and should be treated as a public health problem and challenge,” Obama said in an exclusive interview with CNN.

Read more: Obama on the problem of criminalizing marijuana use | CNN

Barack Obama Says Marijuana Classification Change Job For Congress | TIME

President Barack Obama says in a new interview that that it’s up to Congress to remove marijuana from the federal government’s list of the most serious narcotics, implying but not explicitly saying that he might support such a move.

In an interview with CNN that aired Friday, Obama was pressed on recent remarks he made to the New Yorker that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol, and on whether he would push to remove pot from the Drug Enforcement Agency’s list of so-called “schedule I” narcotics.

Read more: Barack Obama Says Marijuana Classification Change Job For Congress | TIME

First medical marijuana dispensary licenses awarded in Massachusetts | Boston Globe

After much anticipation, state health officials Friday revealed the names of the companies that will receive the first 20 licenses to open medical marijuana dispensaries in Massachusetts, although it will likely be summertime before any open their doors for business.

Read more: First medical marijuana dispensary licenses awarded in Massachusetts | Boston Globe

Colorado Pot Smokers Can Still Be Fired For Failing Drug Tests | BuzzFeed

DENVER — Brandon Coats was working as a customer service representative for Dish Network when he was given a random drug test in spring 2010. Although he had worked there for three years, the company fired him when the 30-year-old quadriplegic tested positive for marijuana.

Coats — who has used a wheelchair since age 16 after a car he was riding in crashed into a tree — says he uses marijuana to control his muscle spasms, which weren’t alleviated by other pharmaceuticals.

“It’s a matter of need, and not a matter of want,” Coats’ attorney Michael Evans told BuzzFeed of his client’s marijuana use.

Coats sued Dish Network, arguing that his medicinal marijuana use was legal and that he was never impaired while working, but the trial judge quickly dismissed the case.

Last April, the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld Coats’ firing in a divided opinion.

The court decided Colorado’s Lawful Off-Duty Activities Statute, which prohibits employers from firing employees for participating in legal activities during their free time, like gambling or drinking alcohol, doesn’t apply to marijuana. For the judges, the fact that marijuana is still a federal crime means it is unlawful across the board and the protections of the law don’t apply.

Read more: Colorado Pot Smokers Can Still Be Fired For Failing Drug Tests | BuzzFeed

Illinois pot stores may just accept cash | The Herald & Review (IL)

SPRINGFIELD – Even after the state implements rules for the sale of medical marijuana, federal banking regulations could make Illinois’ budding cannabis industry a cash-only operation.

While Illinois already has moved to legalize the use of marijuana for certain medical conditions, federal regulations prevent marijuana dispensaries and related businesses from using federally insured banks.

“What it means for a lot of businesses is that they’re forced to operate entirely in cash,” said Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association in Washington, D.C. “That’s not just the sales side. It also affects the business side.”

Read more: Illinois pot stores may just accept cash | Herald & Review (IL)

Florida Medical Marijuana Constitutional Amendment Clears Final Hurdle

Yesterday, the language of the constitutional amendment to allow Floridians access to medical marijuana was approved by the state Supreme Court, placing the ballot question in front of voters this November, where it is expected to be approved given the strong support it already enjoys from Florida voters.

The initiative itself is quite brief in comparison to other laws which have recently passed and leaves most of the details of implementation to regulatory bodies. Importantly, patients with conditions such as PTSD, dementia, and other conditions aided by cannabis but not typically included in medical marijuana qualifying conditions will have the opportunity to legally access cannabis as the law allows patients to be qualified if their “physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks.”

Additionally, the measure defines a “medical marijuana treatment center” as an “entity that acquires, cultivates, possesses, processes (including development of related products such as food, tinctures, aerosols, oils, or ointments), transfers, transports, sells, distributes, dispenses, or administers marijuana, products containing marijuana, related supplies, or educational materials to qualifying patients or their personal caregivers and is registered by the Department.” The Department of Health is required to issue regulations within six months instituting “procedures for the registration of Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers that include procedures for the issuance, renewal, suspension, and revocation of registration, and standards to ensure security, record keeping, testing, labeling, inspection, and safety.”

Importantly, the measure’s presence on the ballot could set the stage for the first election with national prominence where safe access to medical marijuana is a critical issue for candidates. As Reuters reports, a strong majority of Florida voters support the measure including a majority of Republicans. However, in what is expected to be a closely fought battle, Florida’s incumbent Republican Governor Rick Scott is opposed to the measure while his challenger, Democrat Charlie Crist, openly supports it. Marijuana policy advocates watching this race should expect to note a distinct increase in conversations — both publicly and privately — about the merits of legal medical marijuana among those interested in the race.

The United for Care campaign, a project of People United for Medical Marijuana, has received the bulk of its financial support from prominent Orlando attorney John Morgan, whose father and brother both benefited from the use of medical marijuana. The campaign is being managed by veteran Florida politico Ben Pollara, and has the support of many local and national organizations. And, while the measure is certainly expected to pass, the Florida legislature is currently considering other bills which would bring medical cannabis to Floridians even more quickly.

How to plan your Colorado “weedcation” like a responsible grown-up | Quartz

Visitors to Colorado are now welcomed at dozens of marijuana dispensaries, where they can buy up to a quarter ounce (7 grams) of pot for their own consumption. The new boom in weed tourism has meant long lines at Denver’s dispensaries, and a nascent but growing industry of packaged “green tours,” that are heavy on smoke-filled “magic bus” trips to local growers.

But what if you want to plan an upscale and, yes, responsible “weedcation” of your very own, taking full advantage of Colorado’s amazing outdoors and a serious foodie scene? Quartz asked police and people in the hospitality and cannabis business in Colorado their advice.

Read more: How to plan your Colorado “weedcation” like a responsible grown-up | Quartz.

President Obama on Cannabis: “I Don’t Think It Is More Dangerous Than Alcohol.”

In a wide-ranging interview with the New Yorker‘s David Remnick released last week, President Obama stated, “I don’t think [cannabis] is more dangerous than alcohol,” and spoke out in favor of the social justice benefits of ending marijuana prohibition.

“‘Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,’ [Obama] said. ‘And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.’ But, he said, ‘we should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing.’ Accordingly, he said of the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington that ‘it’s important for it to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished.'”

The president’s comments weren’t entirely positive. He called marijuana consumption a “bad habit and a vice” and said, “I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy.” He also said he thought the “experiment” in Colorado and Washington would be a “challenge.”

But President Obama’s distinct rejection of the usual official fear-mongering about marijuana caught the attention of many and set off a new round of debate in the media about the relative harms of alcohol and cannabis and the societal costs of prohibition.

It also prompted Representative Jared Polis (D-CO) to invite the president and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) – who recently spoke out in favor of legalizing medical marijuana – “to visit Colorado and join me to visit a legal dispensary and grow operation to see how the law is being implemented in the state.”

“I am confident,” Polis continued in his invitation, “that when you see Colorado’s work to implement the law while protecting children and raising revenue for our schools firsthand, we can begin to make similar efforts on a federal level.”

First Legal Sale of Marijuana for Adult Use Highlights Benefits of a Regulated Market

Toni_SeanAt 7:30 a.m. on New Years Day, dozens of members of the media, marijuana policy reform advocates, elected officials, and business leaders crammed in the cavernous lobby at 3D Cannabis Center while hundreds of eager shoppers waited outside in the snow for their chance to participate in the historic day when cannabis was first sold legally, regardless of medical status, in the post-prohibition era.

The press conference, orchestrated by the National Cannabis Industry Association, the Marijuana Policy Project, and Sensible Colorado, highlighted the social, economic, and health benefits of selling marijuana through a regulated market. Speakers Betty Aldworth, Mason Tvert, and Brian Vicente — the leaders of Colorado’s Amendment 64 campaign — highlighted some of the actual and protected benefits of Colorado’s tax-and-regulate system for adult use marijuana, including plummeting arrest case filingssignificant sales contributing to a vibrant market, and the resulting tax revenue.

The press conference was immediately followed by the world’s first legal sale at 3D Cannabis Center, an NCIA Founding Member. Toni Fox, 3D’s owner, conducted the sale to Sean Azzariti, a combat veteran suffering from PTSD who knew cannabis could help him but was previously unable to access it legally.

Following the sale, NCIA members and staffers spent the remainder of the day visiting other adult-use marijuana establishments around the city where long lines full of happy customers snaked around buildings. In the first day of legal sales, it is conservatively estimated Colorado’s 37 open stores conducted well over $1 million in sales. Most observers intend to revise adult use and medical marijuana sales projections for 2014 upward from original estimates of between $400 and $600 million.

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