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City Mandates Free Medical Marijuana for Low-Income Residents

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Photo Credit: My Fox NYWeed welfare?

That’s what the Berkeley City Council in California has unanimously approved, ordering medical marijuana dispensaries to donate 2 percent of their stash to patients making less than $32,000 a year.

The new welfare program in the liberal-leaning city is set to launch in August 2015.

The ordinance, which passed in August and is the first of its kind in the country, comes at a time when several states are debating how to handle a growing movement to legalize marijuana for both medical and recreational use.

But Berkeley’s decision to effectively order weed redistribution is prompting a vocal backlash.

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Bankrupt California City Eyes Marijuana for Revenue

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The bankrupt California city of San Bernardino has a new idea for raising revenue – legalize medical marijuana, and tax the pot.

Ironically, the plan was spurred by concerns about not having enough resources to crack down on the illegal medical marijuana dealers springing up all over town.

So the city is now looking at legalizing the sellers, and using the proceeds to enforce the regulations.

It’s not quite “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” but like many municipalities in California today, San Bernardino is recognizing that it could be bringing millions of dollars into its foundering coffers each year if it opened its doors to regulated medical marijuana dispensaries. And it would be able to have a say in who operates these places, as well as how and where.

“This is a no-brainer,” said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies at the Marijuana Policy Project in California. “More and more people are realizing that you’d really have to be in the Stone Age to oppose this.”

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FNC's Beckel: I've Done Dope in The White House (+video)

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On Wednesday’s edition of “The Five,” co-host Bob Beckel remarked on Snoop Dogg’s revelation that he as smoked marijuana in the White House, by admitting to the same thing.

“I can’t criticize this guy (Snoop) because I’ve done dope in the White House myself,” Beckel said.

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Welfare Cash for Weed in Colorado

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Photo Credit: Dreamstime

Photo Credit: Dreamstime

For the past six months, welfare beneficiaries in Colorado have repeatedly withdrawn their cash benefits at marijuana retailers and dispensaries, according to a new analysis by National Review Online. Such apparent abuses have caught the eye of Colorado’s executive and legislative powers alike, and the state has launched an effort to curb them.

At least 259 times in the first six months of legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, beneficiaries used their electronic-benefit transfer (EBT) cards to access public assistance at weed retailers and dispensaries, withdrawing a total of $23,608.53 in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash, NRO’s examination found.

In 2012, the latest fiscal year available, Colorado used $124 million in TANF money from the federal government, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Withdrawals at marijuana establishments represented only a tiny fraction of the more than 500,000 total EBT transactions that have occurred since recreational weed became legal in Colorado on January 1. And it’s impossible to determine how much of that welfare money actually was used to buy pot, given that cash benefits are fungible and some of these establishments also sell groceries.

Nevertheless, welfare withdrawals at weed stores are coming under increasing scrutiny, and Colorado’s legislators and bureaucrats are beginning an effort to restrict abuses.

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Colorado Is Consuming Way More Pot Than Anyone Ever Believed

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Photo Credit: Time About 9% of Colorado’s population consumes marijuana, according to a market demand study conducted by the state department of revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement Division and the state’s Marijuana Policy Group. And those users, it’s estimated, will get through about 121.4 metric tons of pot every year.

According to the report, that consumption — calculated through survey results, demographic data and source data — is “31 percent higher than a recent department of revenue assessment, 89 percent higher than a study by the Colorado Futures Center, and 111 percent higher than an older study by the Colorado Center for Law and Policy.”

The state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division analyzed the market demand for the drug, which Colorado began selling for recreational use in January, in an effort to “effectively manage production within the regulated industry,” according to a press release.

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Obama Offered Drugs in Denver

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President Obama was asked whether he wanted to smoke marijuana by a fellow patron of a Denver bar last night. The offer came from Instagram user manton89, who posted video of the ask on his Instagram account. “Asked him if he wanted a hit of pot…he laughed!” writes manton89.

Watch here:

A voice can be heard asking President Obama, as he glad hands his way through the establishment: “Do you want to hit this?”

The president does not appear to answer the question, but he does acknowledge it by flashing his signature smile.

Somewhere along the way, President Obama shook hands with someone wearing a horse-mask:

“MY PLANET NEEDS YOU.” pic.twitter.com/ENRT6XuQWn

— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) July 9, 2014

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Open for Business: Legal Marijuana Sales Underway in Washington

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Photo Credit: APWashington state’s marijuana industry is now open for business.

Twenty months after voters legalized recreational marijuana, the first pot stores are licensed and selling the drug. And business was already booming.

Amber McGowan, a manager at Cannabis City in Seattle, said she’s expecting to sell all 10 pounds in the store this first historic day.

“There’s definitely a market out there that would rather go the safe route, because a lot of people don’t like going to their dealer,” McGowan said. “The dealer is usually pretty shady.”

Washington state follows Colorado, which was the first to open pot retail stores on Jan. 1. Voters in both states legalized possession of up to an once of marijuana for recreational use in November 2012. Colorado was able to approve sales earlier because it licensed only medical marijuana shops that were already tightly regulated. Washington’s medical marijuana industry operates with very little government oversight.

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Why Should I Work When I Can Sit Home and Smoke Weed?

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Photo Credit: Amac

Photo Credit: Amac

A welfare recipient called in to a radio show in Austin, Texas gloating about how she gets to just sit at home and do nothing. She claims she also gets to smoke weed. In addition to her gloating, she got on to the radio hosts’ “moralizing” work ethic. TheDaily Sheeple’s video description quotes this proud parasite:

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Alaska Marijuana Vote Pushed to November

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Photo Credit: M.Scott Mahaskey / POLITICO

Photo Credit: M.Scott Mahaskey / POLITICO

Marijuana likely won’t be on the ballot until November in Alaska when voters head to the polls in the general election, because of the state’s Legislature extending its session.

A citizens’ petition to allow recreational marijuana use similar to alcohol qualified to be on the ballot in the August primary, but it is expected to get pushed back to November, Alaska Public Media reported.

The change is caused by the Legislature’s extended session: Lawmakers were unable to reach an agreement on education spending by the midnight deadline and thus continued to meet. Alaska law requires constitutional initiatives to wait 120 days after a legislative session before making the ballot, and the Aug. 19 primary is 120 days from Monday.

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Obama Chops 3 1/2 Years Off Pot Sentence

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Photo Credit: NewsBusters

Photo Credit: NewsBusters

President Barack Obama has issued a commutation to a drug convict, shortening his sentence by three-and-a-half years in what the White House said was an effort to correct a sentencing error.

Ceasar Cantu of Katy, Texas pled guilty in 2006 to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and money laundering. He received a 15-year prison term but a White House official said it was subsequently discovered that a presentence report contained a mistake which caused the extra three-and-a-half years to be added to his sentence.

“A judge ruled that Mr. Cantu did not discover this error in time to correct it through any judicial means; as a result, it can now only be rectified through clemency,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said at the daily briefing, repeating word for word a comment offered on background by another Obama aide earlier in the day.

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