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Alaska Could Legalize Marijuana By This Summer

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Photo Credit: matthew kenwrickEnough petition signatures have been verified to place an initiative seeking to legalize marijuana on the ballot this summer in Alaska, election officials said Tuesday.

The petition has met all the thresholds necessary to appear on the Aug. 19 primary ballot, the Alaska Division of Elections said.

The lieutenant governor’s office said it had verified the signatures from registered voters as of Monday evening. The total of 31,500 was a thousand more than needed, with about 6,000 signatures remaining to be checked.

The office has not yet certified the question for the ballot, but it’s expected to do so in the coming weeks.

“It’s good news,” said Bill Parker, an Anchorage man who was one of and initial sponsor of the initiative.

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Why Legal Marijuana is Popular, but Lawmakers Still Pass On Grass

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A CNN/Opinion Research poll earlier this week was the latest to show a spike in support for legal weed. CNN, Gallup and the Pew Research Center all now show a clear-to-sizeable majority of Americans support Americans’ right to toke as they please — as high as 58 percent in Gallup’s polling.

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Despite the surge in popularity, though, we have yet to see basically any major politicians jumping on board. Indeed, it’s tough to name any big-name elected officials who support it — let alone someone who might run for president in 2016.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) this week became the latest lawmakers to just say no, as their state weighs legalizing marijuana.

They have been joined in recent weeks by New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R), California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).

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Alaska Group Takes Next Step to Legalize Marijuana

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Photo Credit: matthew kenwrick

Photo Credit: matthew kenwrick

A citizens’ group hoping to make Alaska the third state in the nation to legalize recreational use of marijuana took a step closer Wednesday, submitting more than 46,000 signatures to the state election office.

If enough signatures are verified — they need about 30,000 qualified signatures — the question of whether to make pot legal in the nation’s northernmost state will go before voters in the Aug. 19 primary. Signatures must come from at least 7 percent of voters in at least 30 House districts.

“It’s clear that Alaskans are eager to have an opportunity to express their displeasure with the current system and make a change,” said one of sponsors, Tim Hinterberger, a professor in the School of Medical Education at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

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New York State Next to Loosen Marijuana Laws

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Photo Credit: Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Photo Credit: Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Joining a growing group of states that have loosened restrictions on marijuana, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York plans this week to announce an executive action that would allow limited use of the drug by those with serious illnesses, state officials say.

The shift by Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat who had long resisted legalizing medical marijuana, comes as other states are taking increasingly liberal positions on it — most notably Colorado, where thousands have flocked to buy the drug for recreational use since it became legal on Jan. 1.

Mr. Cuomo’s plan will be far more restrictive than the laws in Colorado or California, where medical marijuana is available to people with conditions as mild as backaches. It will allow just 20 hospitals across the state to prescribe marijuana to patients with cancer, glaucoma or other diseases that meet standards to be set by the New York State Department of Health.

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It Begins: Colorado Toddler Tests Positive for Marijuana (+video)

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Photo Credit: CBS

Photo Credit: CBS

Police in Longmont are trying to figure out how a toddler got her hands on marijuana that made her sick.

Two year old Evelyn tested positive for pot and ended up in the hospital but her mother doesn’t know how the child came into contact with the now-legal drug.

Evelyn’s mother, Aida Hernandez, believes the child ate part of a cookie she found on the ground in the grass outside of their apartment.

“It was brown, like a chocolate chip cookie,” said Hernandez.

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Dr. Carson: Americans Need to Talk about Ramifications of Legal Marijuana

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Dr. Ben Carson told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado should be concerning for Americans, as it is a gateway drug to more dangerous substances.

Carson said on “On the Record” Thursday though there are some benefits to medical marijuana, he worries about the effect legal pot sales would have on American society as a whole.

“It tends to be a starter drug for people who move onto heavier duty drugs – sometimes legal, sometimes illegal – I don’t think this is something that we really want for our society,” he said…

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Legal Recreational Pot Industry Opens in Colorado

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

Crowds were serenaded by live music as they waited for the nation’s first legal recreational pot shops to open. They ate doughnuts and funnel cakes as a glass-blower made smoking pipes. Some tourists even rode around in a limo, eager to try weed but not so eager to be seen buying it.

And when the sales began, those who bought the drug emerged from the stores, receipt held high and carrying sealed shopping bags, to cheers.

“I’m going to frame the receipt when I go home, to remind myself of what might be possible: Legal everywhere,” said musician James Aaron Ramsey, 28, who did some time in jail for pot possession in Missouri and played folk tunes with his guitar for those in line.

Activists hope he’s right, and that the experiment in Colorado will prove to be a better alternative to the costly American-led drug war, produce the kind of revenue that state officials hope and save the government costs in locking up drug offenders.

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Advocates Eye Legalizing Marijuana in Alaska

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Photo Credit: APAlaska, known for its live-and-let-live lifestyle, is poised to become the next battleground in the push to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

The state has a complicated history with the drug, with its highest court ruling nearly 40 years ago that adults have a constitutional right to possess and smoke marijuana for personal use in their own homes. In the late 1990s, Alaska became one of the first states to allow the use of pot for medicinal reasons.

Then the pendulum swung the other direction, with residents in 2004 rejecting a ballot effort to legalize recreational marijuana. And in 2006, the state passed a law criminalizing possession of even small amounts of the drug — leaving the current state of affairs somewhat murky.

Supporters of recreational marijuana say attitudes toward pot have softened in the past decade, and they believe they have a real shot at success in Alaska.

The state is reviewing their request to begin gathering signatures to get an initiative on next year’s ballot. The proposal would make it legal for those 21 and older to use and possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana, though not in public. It also would set out provisions for legal grow operations and establish an excise tax.

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Ex-DEA Chiefs, Czars Urge Action Against States Legalizing Pot

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Photo Credit: Ed AndrieskiThe Obama administration is facing rising national and international pressure to nullify efforts in Colorado and Washington state to implement new laws legalizing recreational marijuana use.

Nine former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs and four former drug czars are asking the Senate Judiciary Committee this week to “encourage Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to adhere to long-standing federal law and policy in this regard” at its Wednesday oversight hearing.

“Our nation urgently needs action from Attorney General Holder to ensure that federal marijuana laws are enforced, federal preemption is asserted, and our obligations under international drug treaties are honored,” said the officials in a letter dated Monday on stationery from S.O.S.: Save Our Society from Drugs.

The letter comes as a United Nations agency, the International Narcotics Control Board, called on U.S. officials in its annual report released Monday to “ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties on its entire territory.”

Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, issued a statement Tuesday blasting the former anti-drug chiefs for “taking action to maintain the policies that kept them and their colleagues in business for so long.”

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Too High To Drive? Marijuana-Friendly Colorado Debates Blood-Level Limits.

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Photo Credit: Washington PostWhen is someone too stoned to drive? The answer, it turns out, has been anything but si mple in Colorado, which last fall became one of the first states in the country to legalize marijuana.

Prosecutors and some lawmakers have long pushed for laws that would set a strict blood-level limit for THC, the key ingredient in cannabis. A driver over the limit would be deemed guilty of driving under the influence, just as with alcohol.

Such legislation has failed several times in recent years in the face of fierce opposition from marijuana advocates and defense lawyers, who claim a one-size-fits-all standard doesn’t work for marijuana because it affects the body differently than alcohol.

On both sides, passions run high.

“I haven’t had a car accident since I was 18, and I’ve had marijuana in my system for most of that time,” said Paul Saurini, 39, one of numerous weed activists, or “wactivists,” who spoke out against setting a firm blood-level limit during a public hearing in the state capital this week.

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