Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access
Standard Podcast Feed (27.5MB 64Kbps) | High-Def Podcast Feed (82.5MB 192Kbps)
Download audio file (NORML_SHOW_LIVE_2012-02-03.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

• Colorado Legalization Effort Comes up 2400 Valid Signatures Short
• Washington State Bill Asking Government To Reclassify Marijuana Moves Forward
• Ballot Measures Competing for Funds from Big Backers
• Firefighters Mistake Butane Hash Oil Extraction Equipment for Pipe Bomb
• “Fast and Furious” Program Sparks Lawsuit and House Hearing for the Attorney General

Daily Toker Tunes

Rockin’ Friday: Brought to you by Urb Thrasher from Urb Age Designs

• Lionize – “Superczar”

Legislative Update with NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano

• ALABAMA: The Michael Phillips Compassionate Care Act (HB 25) which seeks to enact legal protections for authorized medical marijuana patients, has been marked for reintroduction in the Alabama Legislature for the session starting on February 7th. It is currently assigned to the House Committee on Health. A separate medical cannabis bill, House Bill 66, has also been prefiled in the House and is also before to the House Committee on Health, while a third measure that seeks to reduce penalties on adult cannabis possession is anticipated to be introduced shortly. You can learn more about these efforts via NORML’s ‘Take Action Center’ here.
• INDIANA: Senate lawmakers heard testimony on Tuesday, January 24, in favor of legislation, SB 347, to decriminalize marijuana possession penalties in Indiana. Lawmakers on Senate Committee on Corrections, Criminal, and Civil Matters did not vote on the measure. Therefore, there is still time for constituents to contact their Senate members and encourage them to support marijuana law reform. You can do so via NORML’s ‘Take Action Center’ here. A separate House measure, HB 1370, that seeks to legalize the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes, is pending before the House Committee on Public Policy.
• KANSAS: House Bill 2330, which seeks to enact legal protections for authorized medical marijuana patients, was heard by the House Committee on Health and Human Services on Tuesday, January 24th. You can read media coverage of the hearing here and here. You can track the progress of this measure and contact your state elected officials regarding HB 2330here.
• NEW HAMPSHIRE: Members of the House Criminal Justice Committee heard testimony on Thursday, January 25, in favor of House Bill 1705, which seeks to allow adults age 21 or over to use marijuana legally in their home. The measure also seeks to establish a regulated cannabis market governing the wholesale production and sale of marijuana. Non-commercial transactions involving less than one ounce of cannabis would not be subject to state taxation or regulation under the measure. You can watch clips from the hearing here and you can contact your elected officials in support of the measure here.
• The House Criminal Justice Committee is also scheduled to hear testimony this Thursday in favor of separate legislation, HB 1526, which seeks reduce the penalties on minor marijuana possession offenses (up to one ounce) from a criminal misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine to a nominal monetary penalty of no more than $100.00. To contact your House representative regarding HB 1526, please visit NORML’s ‘Take Action Center’ here.
• VIRGINIA: Legislation seeking to establish a joint study committee to investigate the fiscal impact of regulating the production and sale of marijuana to adults 21 and over is anticipated to be heard by the Virginia House Committee on Rules as soon as this Thursday. You can read NORML’s published op/eds in support of this measure here and here. To learn more aboutHouse Joint Resolution 140, please visit Virginia NORML or contact your state officials here.

NORML Newsmakers

• Mark Pedersen from Sensible Missouri and Show-Me Cannabis Regulation

Today the Colorado Secretary of State’s office announced that the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol campaign missed its mark by about 2,500 verifiable signatures. We have been tracking the progress of the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol ballot measure that would legalize marijuana for adults over the age of 21.

Just like the initiative’s name suggests, marijuana would be taxed and regulated in a similar fashion to alcohol. The bill would also open allow cultivation, processing and sales of industrial  hemp. Last month, a random sample of those signatures that the group turned in to qualify for the ballot –  signified only about 50% of them would be valid, so they were required to do a line by line, signature by signature count according to the rules of the state.  The Campaign needed 86,105 valid signatures to make the ballot, so they turned in almost 160,000, almost assuring them a spot on the ballot, or so we thought.

Supporters of the Initiative will now have 15 days to collect the remaining 2,409 valid signatures for one last shot at qualifying for the November ballot. Mason Tvert from Sensible Colorado said that he remains confident that collecting the remaining signatures is just a very small bump in the road.

On Friday’s NORML SHOW LIVE, Tvert came on air to say that this was all part of the ballot measure process, and his group can collect that many signatures in a few days. If put on the ballot, voters in Colorado would vote to pass a regulated legalized marijuana market that would allow limited home-growing and restrict its usage to those over 21. We will let you know as this story continues to develop.

External Links:
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19885405

In Colorado, the last bank that worked openly with medical marijuana businesses was the Colorado Springs Bank, and they closed the last remaining dispensary and clinic business accounts they had in September of last year. At the time they said it was due to concerns about legal issues. Jon Whiten, President of Colorado Springs State Bank that at one time courted those kinds of business accounts, said that the legal and regulatory issues need to be resolved before banks can handle those kind of business accounts, citing increased federal pressure.

Colorado MMCs, as well as dispensaries and medical marijuana business in other medical marijuana states, have been left with few banking options. In Colorado, in particular, state law requires medical marijuana businesses to keep diligent track of every transaction, but record keeping is very difficult for the average business owner if they have no bank to work with. So, cut off from the traditional banking options, a Democrat and a Republican have teamed up to co-sponsor Senate Bill 75 in Colorado to help create a system that marijuana businesses can turn to for help.  Democratic Senator Pat Steadmad and Republican Rep. Tom Massey would like to create financial cooperatives that would be regulated similarly to credit unions, but be insured by non-federal insurance policies.

Robert Friechtel, the director for the Medical Marijuana Business Exchange estimates that about half of Colorado’s 700 registered dispensaries lost their accounts last September when the Colorado Springs Bank changed their policies. Some kind of industry banking is needed so that business owners can run their businesses successfully and safely.

Brian Vicente of Sensible Colorado says that Senate bill is a positive step forward for an industry that is crying out for sensible banking. The problem has been brewing for quite a while, with big name national banks closing any marijuana-tied legal businesses back in 2007 when the DEA warned big banks that they could face potential legal liabilities if they did business with dispensaries. Dispensary owners would just be happy to put their money somewhere, there is a public safety issue in general if business have to exist with piles of cash laying around. Both Representatives agree that there might be some danger of a federal intervention, but remain hopeful that this moves the issue forward to a solution that works for business owners.

External Links:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/colorado-springs-state-ba_n_936208.html

"They called the raids what, Sharon? Bloody bastards!"

Officers from Colorado were involved in para-military like raids of dozens of homes across Denver this morning. Denver Metro Police, along with agents from outside agencies, indicted 16 people this morning, according to the Adams County District Attorney’s office.

Those suspects, whose names have not been released, are facing charges of racketeering, marijuana distribution and money laundering. According to police in a statement today, the raids were a part of an on-going investigation into homes in Adams and Weld counties, Broomfield, Denver, Erie and Breckenridge. They are saying marijuana grown in Colorado was being shipped out of state, sometimes using the US Mail.

Police said that these raids have no links to the state’s medical marijuana system. But an Attorney that may be involved in the case, Sean McAllister, disputed those statements, saying that some of those arrested may be medical marijuana caregivers. McAllister said that a continuing confusion about the caregiver requirements in the state leaves providers vulnerable to police raids.

Multiple agencies coordinated the raids today including DEA agents and agents from the Internal Revenue Service, several local police agencies and the North Metro Drug Task force.

Adams County District Attorney Don Quick said that they served 25 houses with warrants as part of this mornings activities. Dubbed “Operation Sweet Leaf” and they say they seized about 1,000 cannabis plants spread out over more than a dozen of those homes raided.

Summit County Sheriff John Minor whose agency worked on the raids said that today hopefully served a lesson to others that non-medical marijuana cultivation is still a crime and will not be tolerated. Those raids were conducted at 6am Wednesday morning.

External Links:

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_19818388#ixzz1kVkwqtoY

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access
Standard Podcast Feed (27.5MB 64Kbps) | High-Def Podcast Feed (82.5MB 192Kbps)
Download audio file (NORML_SHOW_LIVE_2012-01-19.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. Colorado Initiative Will Require a Detailed Review of Signatures
2. St. Louis Police Sergeant Arrested for Selling Seized Marijuana
3. California Supreme Court Agrees to Review Dispensary Cases
4. Washington Dispensary Bill Moves Forward

Daily Toker Tunes

• Groovin’ Thursday: Fusion Unlimited – “Smoke, Drink & Cut”

Southern California Scene with Hollywood Hemptress Tere Joyce

• Red Beard from 420 Grow Solutions

Radical Rant

• Get Well, Ralphie May!

The Secretary’s Office has rules dictating which ballots require a certification by a signature-by signature review. The office starts validating with a sample of the signatures turned in and at some threshold, then project how many valid signatures there would be if they counted the remaining signatures. If that number is more than 110 percent of what they need, they can certify the measure.

But based on the first review of sample signatures, Secretary of State staffers were not able to find enough of them valid to say with certainty that the measure surely had enough. They projected that out of those 160,000 signatures turned in, about 89,000 would be valid based on their sample, or only 103 percent of the signatures they needed. So, the line by line signature count begins tomorrow and we will have to wait until February 3rd to find out if they made it on the ballot or not.

If it is approved, which is still highly likely, it will be the very first measure certified for the 2012 ballot. This week, a second measure that would legalize cannabis possession for adults but with no limits on the amount you could posses received the go ahead from the state board that they can start their signature collections drives. And also this week we have learned word of a third legalization measure is making its way to the Colorado capitol. A group of marijuana activists announced this week that they, too, intend to file a legalization initiative.

External Links:
http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_19775060?source=commented-#ixzz1jwNhtDxq

Colorado state senator Steve King announced that he is working on a proposal that would make it easier for law enforcement to convict people of driving while high. Colorado has been down this DUID proposal before. It is a sticking point of many in law enforcement in the case for legalization. Called a per-se limit, law enforcement insists they need a tool that could identify cannabis-impaired drivers in a similar fashion to the .08 blood-alcohol limit from drunk driving. The blood-alcohol limit is a powerful weapon in helping law enforcement get drunk driving charges to stick. A driver does not have much of a legal challenge of their impairment in a court room if their blood alcohol limit is over that .08 legal definition.

The Republican Senator from Grand Junction said that it is time to make people deal with the consequences of making the bad decision to drive high and put people’s lives at risk. Senator King is not quite sure yet if he will include the 5 nanogram limit that was included in a similar bill that failed last year. The Colorado legislature considered a bill last year that would have made anyone testing over the 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood to be found as driving intoxicated and face all the criminal penalties associated with drunk driving. But the limit was debated, and the research was just not conclusive enough to agree that everyone is impaired at that level.

However, instead of raising the limit to try and get the bill passed, Senator King might include a zero tolerance policy in his proposal. He said that under such a scenario drivers who had any amount of THC would be driving under the influence. He told the Denver Post on Friday, “If you have THC on board, you have to make a decision: ‘I have to call a cab. I have to rely on public transportation. At the forefront of that is the protection and the safety of the traveling public of Colorado. Driving is not a right. It is a privilege.”

The issue has been studied and debated before in Colorado, a zero limit tolerance level may be an even harder bill to get passed. After the failure of last years bill, lawmakers had the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice study the issue to help them clarify the science behind the THC driving limit. Not even the commissioners armed with all the scientific data brought up in the debate and tasked with the goal of just making a recommendation could reach a consensus, so no recommendation was made.

External Links:

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19738440

Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

• Worker Denied Compensation Due to Marijuana Use
• Second Colorado Group Seeks to Legalize Cannabis in the State
• Federal Prosecuters Put Colorado Dispensaries on Notice
• Representative Introduces Drug Testing for the Georgia Legislature

Daily Toker Tunes

• Groovin’ Thursday: Lost Souls – “Who Got the Weed?”

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Speaker’s Corner

• Jamie Haase – former Border Patrol / ICE Special Agent on the futility of the Drug War

NORML Newsmakers

• Heather Donahue (“Blair Witch Project”, “Grow Girl”) on ABC’s “The View”

Radical Rant

• Hash Ain’t Pot – your state may punish hashish far more harshly than an equivalent amount of pot

The activists behind both initiatives and the larger question of legalization are the similar for both groups, where they differ is the details. The “Like Alcohol” group is seeking a well-regulated industry for cannabis, and the “Legalize 2012″ group fears over-regulation of a legal cannabis industry.

In the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol initiative, the Legalize 2012 group points out that you can posses as much alcohol as you want without committing a crime. The initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol would make possession of up to an ounce of marijuana legal for adults. More than that would constitute a criminal penalty.

The Legalize 2012 group says it is none of the states concern how much marijuana any one person has. The Legalize 2012 initiative would still limit legal marijuana possession to adults.

They have a large task in front of them, without any major legal backers, the group is counting on a strong grass-roots movement to collect at least 100,000 signatures in February, something the group says they are confident they can produce. You need about 80,000 signatures to get on the ballot, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol turned in 160,000 signatures last week, twice as many as they needed, ensuring themselves a spot on the ballot, although we are still waiting for the Secretary of State to confirm at least 80,000 of those valid. We will undoubtedly be reporting on the efforts of both these groups this year as they work towards the November election.

External Links:

http://coloradoindependent.com/109860/second-colorado-marijuana-legalization-initiative-moving-forward

Wall Street looting? illegal immigration? Nope, THIS is the scourge to society Obama wants to wipe out - people buying and selling marijuana according to state law.

Federal prosecutors announced that they will go after medical marijuana dispensaries that are within a 1000 feet of a school. The US Attorney’s office had identified 23 different Colorado dispensaries that violated the 1000 foot rule and all 23 received a threatening letter.

The letter from the US Attorneys office said the dispensaries had only 45 days to close or they would face criminal prosecution along with having their assets seized under drug forfeiture laws. Letters were also sent to the property owners where the dispensaries were located, a tactic that has been very effective in the closure of many Californian dispensaries.

Colorado US Attorney John Walsh said that the Colorado law specifies the 1000/ft rule, but says that small local governments can shrink that distance if they want to. So far, none have. The 1000-foot buffer zones is significant because it also triggers stiffer federal penalties for drugs crimes.

The federal prosecutors aren’t stopping with the 23 identified dispensaries that aren’t in compliance with the 1000 ft rule.  They say they are looking for other dispensaries not in state law compliance of the 1000 foot rule. US Attorney spokesperson Jeff Dorschner said that he would not name the dispensaries that received the letter because the matter is part of an on-going investigation.  Dorschner also said that their interest is first to have the marijuana dispensaries to move away from schools to protect children.  He would not say what the feds were planning for dispensaries that did not comply in the 45 days, and he answered it would be handled in a case-by-case basis.

The U.S. Justice Department has previously said it would not target people operating in compliance with state medical-marijuana law. It then clarified that policy over the summer to state the exemption doesn’t apply to dispensaries and their owners.

External Links:

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19729288