MJ News for 01/06/2015

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7greeneyes

MedicalNLovingIt!
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https://www.yahoo.com/health/surge-in-marijuana-ills-causes-cries-for-stricter-107307309887.html






Surge In Marijuana Ills Causes Cries For Stricter Control




The number of children treated annually for accidental pot consumption in Colorado has reached double-digits and a drug treatment chain has seen a surge of teens treated for cannabis abuse, a leading U.S. anti-marijuana group said on Monday.

In a report, marijuana legalization foe Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) also pointed to higher-than-average use in the first states to sanction recreational cannabis, Colorado and Washington state, and an increase in burns from butane hash oil production.

"We need a pumping-of-the-brakes on the marijuana industry," SAM’s president, Kevin Sabet, said in an interview. "When we have hospitalizations and burns and deaths, we need to stop many of these products from being sold."

The report comes amid rapidly shifting state laws governing marijuana use. Voters in four U.S. states opted to legalize its recreational use, most recently in Oregon and Alaska. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Legalization opponents say Washington state and Colorado have been flooded with dangerous products, from infused candies and concentrates, many far stronger than what might have been smoked in the 1960s.

At least 14 Colorado children ages 3 to 7 were sent to hospitals in the first half of 2014 for accidentally ingesting marijuana products, compared with eight in 2013 and four between 2008 and 2011, SAM said of state data.

In Colorado, teen marijuana abuse treatment at about a dozen Arapahoe House Denver-area facilities increased by 66 percent between 2011 and 2014, SAM cited that group as reporting.

Separately on Monday, Colorado health officials announced a $4 million Internet, television and radio public-education campaign aimed at exposing the dangers of cannabis-infused products and aspects of the law.

Use among people ages 18 and older from 2011-2013 in Colorado and Washington has risen about 3 percentage points, from roughly 16 to 19 percent and from 15 to 18 percent, respectively, SAM said, citing federal data. The national average is about 12 percent.

The University of Colorado observed 17 cases of marijuana-related burns in 2014 and 11 cases in 2013, largely from botched butane hash oil extractions, with one case each in the three years prior, SAM said.

"Trying to draw any conclusions with less than one year of data is irresponsible," pro-cannabis Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Mason Tvert said.

He said research on pot has drawn conflicting results and has been limited by the federal ban.
 
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2025391517_potholmesxml.html






(Washington) Put medical marijuana under state’s recreational-pot system, says city attorney





Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes urged the Legislature to fold medical marijuana into the state’s recreational system in a wide-ranging policy memoMonday.

He also pushed the city of Seattle to crack down on medical-marijuana businesses not following state law or city regulations.

Some businesses aren’t operating with proper permits. Others have not paid local business and occupation taxes. Some opened after the City Council passed an intended moratorium on new medical-marijuana businesses.

Holmes said he published the memo to clarify any confusion about medical-marijuana laws.

“If you’re a commercial (medical-marijuana) operation lacking a 502 license (Initiative 502), it’s a felony operation. Period,” said Holmes.

Holmes said he hopes his memo reframes the debate about medical marijuana. He said recent court decisions have made it clear that medical-marijuana providers have a “limited affirmative defense” in court, but that’s it.

“I have talked to some medical producers who are clearly commercial,” Holmes said. “They say, ‘Are you going to make it illegal?’ This memo is clear: You’re already illegal.”

He said the “debate should no longer be about if, but when” medical-marijuana businesses cease operating or join the Initiative 502 system.

In the memo, Holmes endorsed state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles’ proposal to fold medical marijuana into the state’s highly regulated recreational system. He also pushed for “marijuana lounges” that would allow users to vaporize or consume edibles on site.

State law does not allow consumption of pot at marijuana stores, so those at pot lounges would need to bring their own weed.

Mayor Ed Murray announced plans last month to propose new regulations for medical marijuana, including a licensing system.

The mayor Monday said he intends to send the City Council a draft ordinance that will protect patient access to safe, medical-grade marijuana.

“Shutting down all collective gardens is not the right solution because it leaves our patients out in the cold,” he said in a statement.

Holmes said he would prefer the Legislature address medical marijuana and that a city license would stand on questionable legal ground.

He wrote in the memo: “Licensing commercial marijuana activity outside the I-502 system ... would send a message that the city endorses a parallel but different system for such activity, perhaps conflicting with state law and undercutting arguments for legislation at the state level.”

He said that doesn’t mean his vision conflicts with the mayor’s.

“There’s so many moving pieces,” said Holmes. “What the mayor has proposed is something we’ll really need if the Legislature punts again.”

Although Holmes’ memo encouraged more legal action against marijuana businesses, his office primarily handles civil enforcement against them.

Felony criminal charges are handled by King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg.

Holmes said he was pleased Satterberg filed charges against Matthew Segal and several employees who were operating several medical-marijuana businesses, including Rain City Medical.

Seattle police raided Segal’s multimillion-dollar operation in last June. Satterberg’s office charged Segal in December.

“I commend Satterberg for filing criminal charges against Rain City,” said Holmes. “My office advised SPD they could raid the establishment and seize the plants.”

Holmes acknowledged he was limited in his ability to carry out his vision for pot policy, but hoped the 20-page memo would persuade legislators to take action on medical marijuana.

“I don’t have the legislative power in the city or state,” he said. “All I can do is offer my good-faith opinion.”

Holmes said he plans to be active in Olympia sharing his vision.
 
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/05/obamas-department-of-justic.html






Obama’s Department of Justice says marijuana as dangerous as heroin




In December, Obama signed a bill containing a provision that prevents the federal government from interfering with states' medical marijuana activities. Yet, two weeks later, Obama’s Department of Justice filed "a strenuous defense of the drug’s Schedule I classification — the same category reserved for heroin."

This isn’t an abstract issue relevant only to constitutional obsessives. It’s a basic principle of ordered liberty that arises from even deeper foundations than our founding document. When the laws are in such discord and conflict as our drug laws are now, the enforcement of the law becomes of necessity an exercise in executive whim—compounding the capriciousness of arbitrary, selective application that Obama has made so conspicuous in his approach to governance.

At a time when the legitimacy and uniformity of government coercion has come into deep question among urban blacks in addition to suburban whites, the president needs to realize that in dithering on marijuana law he is playing with fire. His haphazard and contradictory mismanagement of America’s shift toward pot reform lends dangerous credence to the growing sense that our government no longer cares to guarantee our equal protection under the law.
 
http://whotv.com/2015/01/05/pharmacy-board-votes-to-give-cannabis-oil-schedule-ii-status/




(Iowa) Pharmacy Board Recommends Cannabis Oil Be Schedule II




DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Board of Pharmacy met Monday to discuss a request to re-classify marijuana.

Right now marijuana is listed in Iowa code as a schedule I, or a drug with no proven medical use.

Carl Olsen of Des Moines petitioned the board last July asking them to classify it as a schedule II, or drug with some accepted medical treatment.

“We don`t have any other plants in schedule I that are used to make pharmaceutical drugs, they`re all in schedule II or lower,” says Olsen.

However, the board was hesitant to make such a big step.

“We should keep marijuana in schedule I but the chemical entities that are developed from that should go into schedule II,” says board member Susan Frey.

Olsen’s request was denied, but the board unanimously voted to recommend cannabidiol or cannabis oil be classified as a schedule II, or a drug with accepted medical treatment.

“I feel more comfortable making a recommendation on cannabidiol than I do on marijuana,” says board member Edward Maier.

Last year the legislature approved the use of the oil to treat seizure disorders in children.

However, the drug can’t be dispensed in Iowa so parents have to travel out-of-state to get it and are running into road blocks crossing other state lines.

Olsen says while the decision isn’t what he hoped for, it’s a good first step.

“I think it`s a little more momentum, we`re not moving as fast as I would like to see but it`s still moment in the right direction.”

The recommendation will now head to the legislature for a vote.

However, Marshall County Democratic Senator Steve Sodders already put a bill in to classify marijuana as a schedule II. He says re-classification needs to be the first step.
 
7G, I will pick you up on my way to Olympia to march against redoing MM in Washington.. This can't happen, but it probably will, and I will become illegal and my husband and I will have a fight.... this is WRONG.
 
I'm game, Rose. Let's go raise hell!

There's got to be some way to reconcile MMJ and the new recreational laws. Right?!?
 
If they tell us we can't grow out own meds... I am going to go all radical hippy on them... And don't be limiting me to 3 plants. how do you make rso out of three plants? The state could not have screwed this up any more then they have.
 
I'm upset too... how hard is it to reconcile the new rec laws with mmj...I mean c'mon!

Yesterday they chose to shut down all dispensaries here in Tacoma, sucks cuz I just found a great mj nursery here with rooted female cuts...oooh well time to buy'em up before they disappear...
 

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