U.S. prosecutors dealt setback in medical marijuana cases
Source: Reuters
The U.S. Department of Justice cannot spend money to prosecute federal marijuana cases if the defendants comply with state guidelines that permit the drug's sale for medical purposes, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
The ruling, from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, comes as voters in nine more states will consider allowing the recreational use of marijuana this November.
Twenty-five U.S. states currently allow for medical marijuana. While the sale of the drug is still illegal under federal law, Congress in 2014 passed a budget rule which prohibits the DOJ from using federal funds to interfere in the implementation of state marijuana regulations.
Due to this rule, defendants in 10 cases in California and Washington argued that their federal charges should be dismissed. The 9th Circuit in San Francisco, which covers nine Western states, ruled on Tuesday that the DOJ could not spend money as long as those defendants "strictly complied" with all state regulations.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-ruling-marijuana-idUSKCN10R1YN
U.S. | Tue Aug 16, 2016 1:52pm EDT
By Dan Levine | SAN FRANCISCO
= new reply since forum marked as read
access to mmj, and the law says they can buy it over the counter like everyone else.
Without the medical need, it just makes people felons again. Oddly, the people who fought for these patients were Republicans.
Good work. November is coming.wonder if they will remember?
Forced into the Black Market
On July 1, Washington State's medical marijuana market disappeared. Here's why the most needy patients will likely suffer.
by Tobias Coughlin-Bogue
A life or death situation: Meagan Holt worries that recreational stores won’t carry the full plant extract oil that her daughter, Madeline, relies on to control her seizures. MICHAEL SCOTT
On July 1, Washington State's medical marijuana dispensaries and collectives officially closed, leaving only state-licensed recreational stores to serve patients. This is a result of the Cannabis Patient Protection Act (SB 5052), which is perhaps the most egregious bit of doublespeak ever. The law does not protect patients. In fact, evidence suggests that it will put the state's most vulnerable patients at risk.
Both the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board and the Washington State Department of Health—the state's two regulatory agencies that govern the new medical cannabis system—have stated that they believe the only difference between medical and recreational use is the intent of the user. Essentially, that the needs of the medical market can be just as easily served by the recreational market. If only that were true.
Under the new system, the state's 1,500-plus dispensaries and collective gardens will disappear. To make up for the loss, the state issued just 222 new retail licenses.
That will directly impact patients such as Madeline Holt. She's three and a half years old and has a terminal genetic disorder that gives her frequent seizures. According to her mother, Meagan Holt, doctors didn't believe she would live this long.
http://www.thestranger.com/news/2016/07/06/24303868/forced-back-to-the-black-market
Can't figure out a good way to celebrate this..........
