After years of effort, Connecticut is on the verge of becoming the newest medical marijuana state. On April 25, the Connecticut House of Representatives voted 96-51 to approve An Act Concerning the Palliative Use of Marijuana, HB 5389. The Senate followed suit in a 21-13 vote on May 6. Gov. Dannel Malloy said he’ll sign the bill, which is headed to his desk.

HB 5389 will allow state-registered patients or their caregivers to obtain marijuana from dispensaries, which in turn would obtain marijuana from licensed producers. Only pharmacists could apply on behalf of dispensaries. HB 5389’s qualifying medical conditions are cancer, glaucoma, HIV, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries causing spasticity, epilepsy, wasting, Crohn’s disease, and PTSD. The Department of Consumer Protection could add additional medical conditions.

Patients — who must be 18 or older — would be able to obtain a one-month supply, and the amount would be determined by the department. Most of the bill will go into effect on October 1, including a provision to allow patients to obtain a temporary registration to possess marijuana while the department implements the remainder of the act.

This victory comes despite saber-rattling from Connecticut’s U.S. attorney, who sent a letter on April 23 saying that dispensaries and growers are illegal under federal law and saying the Department of Justice could prosecute or enjoin them. Connecticut is the latest of several states to move forward with well-regulated dispensing programs despite receiving similar intimidating letters. Please ask your member of Congress to support legislation to remove federal penalties from state-legal programs.

Connecticut decriminalizes possession of marijuana

On the next to last day of the 2011 session, after an epic five hour debate, the Connecticut House of Representatives gave its approval to SB 1014, a bill to decriminalize the possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana. The Senate passed the bill the day before, after a marathon debate of its own. Governor Dan Malloy signed the bill into law on June 30, and it took effect the next day.

The new law removes criminal penalties for the use or possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana and paraphernalia, lowering the penalty from a misdemeanor to a civil violation. Rather than facing up to a year in jail and fines of up to $1,000, first time offenders are cited and assessed a $150 civil fine. Subsequent offenses are subject to increased fines of $200-$500, and upon a third violation, offenders are referred to a drug awareness program. Most importantly though, they are no longer arrested or saddled with a criminal record. In addition to the fine, anyone under 21 who is found responsible for possessing less than a half-ounce of marijuana faces a 60-day suspension of their drivers’ licenses.

Cannabis Times is having a open discussion with two Connecticut attorney’s..  

Hear Defense Attorney Daniel P Weiner, Stamford CT.  and C. Charles Young, attorneys from Connecticut discuss the facts tonight!

Stamford attorney Daniel P. Weiner has served people in Fairfield County and throughout the state of Connecticut For more than 33 Years,

He and his staff are committed to providing effective legal counsel and serious, aggressive representation to people dealing with a wide range of legal matters, including criminal charges, juvenile matters, personal injury or divorce and family law issues.

At the Law Offices of Daniel P. Weiner, they believe that you deserve an attorney who will provide the individual attention your case deserves, while maintaining an honest and straightforward relationship with you throughout the process.

Law Offices of Daniel P. Weiner
24 Hoyt Street
Stamford CT 06905
Telephone: 203-883-9945
Telephone: 866-487-0092

Our second Attorney! C. Christian Young, A trial attorney of 14 years with a focus on representing individuals and organizations who have been subjected to criminal investigations or criminal accusations by state and federal law enforcement agencies.  I have met many great people and families who have become casualties of the failed war on drugs along the way.  Long before I became an attorney, I was a strong advocate for the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana.  My colleagues are John R. Gulash and Eugene J. Riccio, trial attorneys of over 35 years each.  We share in the focus of defending those who are accused of engaging in conduct prohibited by state and federal governments.  Together, we are strong team defending and fighting for our individual rights and freedoms.

For years, advocates for the legalization of medical marijuana – many of them individuals suffering from various health problems – have appeared before legislative committees. Their stories were the same – only the use of marijuana provided relief from their debilitating conditions without the unbearable side effects of prescribed drugs.

The Huffington Post  |  By Drew Guarini—

Imagine you had a building material that was energy-efficient, non-toxic and resistant to mold, insects and fire. The material may even have a higher R-value, or thermal resistance, than concrete, a claim that is still being investigated. The only problem? The base of the Hempcrete creation is hemp, which comes from the cannabis sativa plant — the same one that produces marijuana, which is a federally banned substance. Because of this, industrial hemp production is illegal in the United States.

Still, the Hempcrete mixture of hemp, lime and water is being used to some extent for construction jobs across America. One of the companies working with Hempcrete is Hemp Technologies, a construction company based in North Carolina that is adamant about the advantages of building using Hempcrete. They’ve built homes out of hemp in Hawaii, Texas, Idaho and North Carolina, where they are currently working on a project known as “NauHaus.”

“We got started about three years ago and I was looking for sustainable building products, Hemp Technologies co-founder David Madera told GOOD Design. [Co-founder Greg Flavall] was in Europe, found Hempcrete and we basically did a tour of Europe and looked at everything that they had done in the U.K., France, Belgium, and Switzerland. We did our first seminar in 2009, and it was the most important thing that helped promote it.”

Seeing Hempcrete as a more efficient and sustainable building material has led to some dubbing it as a gateway product. The people behind the U.K.-based Tradical Hemcrete are using their hemp based product to create a carbon negative thermal walling material. Hemcrete can be used for everything from roof installation to flooring to wall construction. The creators of the Carson, California-based HempTraders.com, distributors of “fine hemp products”, sell Hempboard. Hempoboard is a medium density fiberboard made from 100 percent hemp hurds and can be used to make environmental furniture, counter tops, walls and shelving.

Considering the ban on the industrial hemp production in the United States, the eco-friendly and potentially cost efficient — were it legal — use of hemp for building will remain a bit complicated for now. Hemp Technologies have a section of their site dedicated to the perplexing history of America’s hemp laws, perhaps an indication that they understand their place in evolving the discourse on the issue that hemp isn’t just a “drug”, but an untapped, underused resource for good.

Medical marijuana has become the defining issue of the race to decide Oregon’s next attorney general. Dwight Holton, a former federal prosecutor, will face Ellen Rosenblum, a retired appellate court judge, who has been vocal in her support for Oregon’s medical marijuana law, which allows for the cultivation, possession, and use of marijuana for patients with a doctor’s recommendation.

The pot lobby has come out in support of Rosenblum. Drug Policy Action, a driving force behind the passage of Oregon’s 1998 medical marijuana law, has thrown its weight behind her campaign.

“Drug Policy Action supports Ellen Rosenblum for attorney general because she supports the rights of Oregonians who are medical marijuana patients to have safe and legal access to their medicine,” wrote Jill Harris, managing director of strategic initiatives for Drug Policy Action. “Oregon voters approved the medical marijuana law 14 years ago, and it should be respected.”

“Dwight Holton’s hostility to this landmark Oregon law is unacceptable,” added Harris, a Eugene native. “As a federal prosecutor and as a candidate for attorney general, Holton has made it clear that he does not respect Oregon’s medical marijuana patients and providers. We will not stand by and let Holton seize a new platform to undermine and attack a program that Oregon voters passed and continue to strongly support.”

Holton — who served as an interim U.S. attorney from 2010 to 2011, authorizing a handful of controversial raids on pot farms in southern Oregon last fall — has been outspoken in his opposition of the pot lobby. In a recent campaign letter he accused his opponent of benefiting improperly from her support for a hands-off approach to medical marijuana.

“More national weed money is coming in for Ellen every day,” wrote Holton, according to Oregon Live. “It is surprising that someone who has spent the last 22 years as a judge is willing to sacrifice her legal credibility by effectively promising not to enforce the law if she’s elected attorney general — but that’s precisely what Ellen has done.”

Holton has positioned himself as the law-and-order candidate, receiving backing from Oregon district attorneys and county sheriffs as well as many public employee’s unions, enabling him to take the lead in fundraising with $536,000 to Rosenblum’s $416,000 as of Tuesday.

Lucia Graves

lucia@huffingtonpost.com

On September 15, I was confronted and harassed by an Oregon State Police officer in Ontario, OR. The officer seized my medicine, interrogated me, and stated firmly he did not believe I was a medical marijuana patient despite me providing the proper paperwork.

I am one of the only four surviving medical marijuana patients part of a federal program that supplies marijuana to patients. I am 70 years old, was born with congenital cataracts and as a child had several eye surgeries, eventually developing glaucoma in my thirties which led to blindness in one eye.

In 1988, I was placed into the Federal IND program. To this day I receive 300 medical marijuana cigarettes each month from the Federal Government.

The Oregon State Police did return my medicine, however, I want to make sure that an incident like incident like this does not happen again and want to help the Oregon State Police to better understand medical marijuana policy – which will help them do their jobs more effectively.

I understand that medical marijuana laws can be confusing and so I’m simply and politely asking that the Oregon State Police undergo training provided by Americans for Safe Access so that they understand both Federal and Oregon State marijuana policy to prevent an unfortunate incident like this from taking place again.

WASHINGTON — Reps. Sam Farr (D-Calif.), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) have joined forces in an effort to cut off funding for the federal government’s ramped-up enforcement actions around medical marijuana.

The lawmakers’ bipartisan legislation, which would prohibit the use of federal funds to interfere with state pot laws, is expected to hit the House floor as part of a broader debate over a bill, H.R. 5326, that funds the Department of Justice.

“Patients suffering from painful and serious illnesses are following the recommendations of their doctors by using medical cannabis to minimize their pain and support their recovery,” Rep. Farr told HuffPost in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “It is time for the federal government to stop targeting the legal vendors that are providing safe access to this treatment, and instead focus limited resources on those who sell illicit drugs. The amendment I will offer with my colleagues will work to assure funds under the Department of Justice do not target the safe access to treatment patients need.”

The Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment.

The bill comes as the administration has unleashed an interagency crackdown on the cannabis industry, with more than 100 raids, primarily on California pot dispensaries, many of them operating in full compliance with state laws. Since October 2009, the Justice Department has conducted more than 170 aggressive SWAT-style raids in nine medical marijuana states, resulting in at least 61 federal indictments, according to data compiled by Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group. Federal authorities have also seized property from landlords who rent space to growers, threatening them with prosecution, and authorities have even considered taking action against newspapers selling ad space to dispensaries.

The bipartisan legislation could come up for debate as soon as Tuesday night. The full text of the amendment

Lucia Graves

lucia@huffingtonpost.com

Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, a staunch opponent to the measure, spoke for close to five hours before she began introducing amendments to the bill.—

Following a passionate debate that stretched on for nearly 10 hours, the Connecticut Senate early this morning gave final legislative approval to a bill that legalizes and regulates the medical use of marijuana.

Gov. Malloy hailed the bill’s passage and said he will sign it into law once it reaches his desk.

“There are thousands of people in Connecticut who will likely benefit from this legislation as they struggle with debilitating and life-threatening illnesses,” Malloy said in a statement issued moments after the votes were tallied at 2:35 a.m. ”With them in mind, I want to commend the General Assembly for passing this bill.”

Although lawmakers have pondered the issue several times in the past decade, supporters say this year’s bill is superior to previous versions. It contains safeguards and restrictions that are lacking in other states, said Senate President Donald Williams.

“When I looked at some of the other states that took what I thought was almost a wild, wild west approach of allowing people to grow plants at home and the lack of oversight and regulation, I did not believe it was the right thing for Connecticut to do, to emulate those states and those versions,” Williams said.

Three Democratic Senators–Paul Doyle of Wethersfield, Joan Hartley of Waterbury and Gayle Slossberg of Milford–joined with Republicans to oppose the bill. Four Republicans, John Kissel of Enfield, Kevin Wikos of Canton, Andrew Roraback of Goshen and Anthony Guglielmo of Stafford, voted yes. Two Senators, Edith Prague, D-Columbia, and Eileen Daily, D-Westbrook, were absent.

The bill, which passed the House of Representatives late last month, ”emphasizes regulation and oversight and controls,” said Sen. Eric Coleman, D-Bloomfield and co-chairman of the legislature’s judiciary committee. ,

Leading the charge for the opposition was Sen. Toni Boucher, who began speaking before 6 p.m. Friday and was still going strong at 2 a.m. Saturday. The Republican from Wilton cited studies, statistics and anecdotes during her filibuster before a chamber that was largely empty at various points throughout the long discussion.

Boucher summoned various arguments throughout the night, from the medical (marijuana is highly addictive and smoking it can cause cancer and other health problems) to the legal (permitting the medicinal use of marijuana would put Connecticut in direct conflict with federal law) to the educational (the bill sends the wrong message to young people.)

“I guess I’ve spent some time trying to convince you that … this is the wrong direction,” Boucher said at one point, with just six of 36 senators in the room and the galleries above both sides of the ornate Senate circle devoid of spectators.

Sen. Len Suzio, R-Meriden, said Boucher gave the equivalent of a college-level course on the dangers of marijuana.

Boucher, who views marijuana as a “gateway drug” that destroys lives, offered to drop her opposition if lawmakers amended the bill to limit medical marijuana use only to those facing a terminal illness. That amendment — the first of the 48 to come up for a vote — failed, 23-11, at 10:30 p.m.

At 11:20 p.m., senators voted on the second amendment, which would have excluded glaucoma patients from using medicinal pot. Like the earlier effort to change the bill; this one also failed, on a vote of 24-10.

Lawmakers ultimately worked their way through just seven of the amendments, each one of them falling short.

Unlike other states that have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, notably California and Colorado, Connecticut would tightly regulate the drug’s use, advocates say. To qualify, patients would need a physician’s certification that they have a debilitating medical condition, such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis or epilepsy.

Marijuana would be dispensed only by pharmacists who obtained a special license. Qualifying patients and their primary caregivers would be required to register with the Department of Consumer Protection.

“We don’t want Connecticut to follow the path pursued by some other states, which essentially would legalize marijuana for anyone willing to find the right doctor and get the right prescription,” Malloy said. “In my opinion, such efforts run counter to federal law. Under this proposal, however, the Department of Consumer Protection will be able to carefully regulate and monitor the medicinal use of this drug in order to avoid the problems encountered in some other states.”

The debate in Connecticut has changed sharply since 2003, when the measure failed on the floor of the House after an emotional debate. The proposal passed one year later, in 2004, by a vote of 75-71, but it has never been signed into law. After being passed by both chambers in 2007, the bill was vetoed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a Republican.

In those early days, it was primarily stoners and people from “the radical left” who favored the bill as a way to force social change on marijuana policy, Kissel said. “Very few people in medicine supported the bill,” he said.

But as the years went on, lawmakers began hearing from medical professionals. They also heard harrowing, deeply personal stories from people coping with chronic and serious illnesses about the role that marijuana plays in their medical treatment.

“There has been a sea change over the last decade,” Kissel said.

Senate Minority Leader John McKinney said he understands the suffering seriously ill patients endure. “I remember walking out of my car one day in…college, to go pick up my father from the train station,” said McKinney, whose father was the late Congressman Stewart McKinney. “I hadn’t seen him in about six months…and I didn’t recognize him because he had lost 40 or 50 pounds because he was dying of AIDS. I understand that suffering and that pain.”

But, McKinney said, “I have never been able to get around…the fact that what we are authorizing to be done is a violation of law. And I don’t know if we’ve ever done that in this circle before.”

Boucher argued that legalizing medical marijuana would send a devastating message to young people. “There are reams of data that speak to the cost of the state due to the unhealthy effects of marijuana,” she said.

Long-term marijuana use, Boucher said, affects the heart and lungs and causes problems with infertility in men; in addition, it leads to increased depression, schizophrenia and psychosis, she said. Marijuana users are also “more than twice as likely as other drivers to be involved in motor vehicle crashes,” she said, comparing “doped driving” to drunken driving.

Smoking one joint per day is like smoking four to five cigarettes, Boucher said. “It is an accepted fact that smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer,” she said. “This implies … that marijuana leads to some of the same results. … The smoking of cannabis has a detrimental effect to our lungs. … I think we’ve made the case on that. This is why the FDA has been very, very cautious about the public moving in this direction.”

But Sen. Anthony Musto said it was “a bit hypocritical” to single out marijuana for criticism when many drugs, including some of those sold over the counter, that can give users a high.

“The drugs that many of us have in our medicine cabinets right now are more addictive and more dangerous than marijuana,” Musto said. “There are certainly problems with drugs but the solution…is not to abandon the good they can do. The solution is to regulate them, to use them only under a doctor’s care, to put in place any number of safeguards to make sure they are not abused.”

by DANIELA ALTIMARI

My name is Elvy Musikka and I’m one of only 4 surviving federal medical marijuana patients.

On September 15, I was confronted and harassed by an Oregon State Police officer in Ontario, OR. The officer seized my medicine, interrogated me, and stated firmly he did not believe I was a medical marijuana patient despite me providing the proper paperwork.

I am one of the only surviving medical marijuana patients part of a federal program that supplies marijuana to patients. I am 70 years old, was born with congenital cataracts and as a child had several eye surgeries, eventually developing glaucoma in my thirties which led to blindness in one eye.

In 1988, I was placed into the Federal IND program. To this day I receive 300 medical marijuana cigarettes each month from the Federal Government.

The Oregon State Police did return my medicine, however, I want to make sure that an incident like incident like this does not happen again and want to help the Oregon State Police to better understand medical marijuana policy – which will help them do their jobs more effectively.

I understand that medical marijuana laws can be confusing and so I’m simply and politely asking that the Oregon State Police undergo training provided by Americans for Safe Access so that they understand both Federal and Oregon State marijuana policy to prevent an unfortunate incident like this from taking place again

In January, Senator Morgan Carroll told us she feared Senator Steve King’s reboot of the THC driving bill would be difficult to kill due to a clever maneuver that avoided her committee — and the tricks didn’t stop there. The measure appeared to die on the Senate floor a short time ago, but it was called back for a second vote and passed by a single vote.

Here’s a quick take from Jessica LeRoux, the woman behind Twirling Hippy Confections and an original member of the Department of Revenue’s medical marijuana working group:

“Oh, fuck, they recalled the count with a silent vote, and SB 12-117 passes 18 to 17.”

The bill would establish a per se THC impairment limit of 5 nanograms per milliliter of blood, with “per se” establishing the sort of bright line that translates to instant guilt in the eyes of the law. Opponents raise questions about the usefulness of the standard, in part because of the proclivity of THC to linger in the system of users. For example, medical marijuana reviewer William Breathes registered at nearly triple that level when sober during a test last year. Such evidence led to the original bill being shelved in lieu of further study.

Carroll touched on some of these issues in what Breathes describes as an impassioned plea for legal sanity. She argued that the 5-nanogram limit is too low for many medical marijuana patients. Moreover, she sees the measure as providing an affirmative defense for driving after using cannabis as long as they’re under that number.

“One might think we are debating whether people can drive high in Colorado or not,” she said. “I’m pretty sure the vote would be 35 to zero if that were the case, but it’s not. There is no question that some people at that 5-nanogram level would be impaired. But the problem is that there are also folks at that level who aren’t impaired.”

Speaking in favor of the bill, King quoted statistics concerning the number of drivers found to have had THC in their system. But as Breathes points out, these statistics don’t specify whether the individuals in question registered over or under 5 nanograms or if the THC in their blood was active — a key to establishing actual impairment.

Attorney and former judge Leonard Frieling, who spoke to us in March about what he sees as the astronomical costs associated with the bill, is pleased that a portion of the proposal that would have set a zero-tolerance standard for schedule I and II drugs was stripped out late last week. But that’s the only positive he sees.

“Why is it, they think they are smarter than the guys who looked at this last year?” he asks. “Why are they wasting time with this again? It’s just incredible.”

In his view, the state “doesn’t need this at all, because the current law works. And if they really want to focus on the five [nanograms], they can state it as a rebuttable presumption. Take the ‘per se’ words out of it. That would agree better with the science, which shows that at five, some people may be impaired, but some people are not.

“The correlation between blood alcohol and impaired driving, as I understand the science, is pretty clear: The higher the number, the worse you drive. But that appears not to hold true as cleanly with cannabis. So talking about impaired driving is one thing, but trying to give a number a meaning it doesn’t have is something else entirely.”

Now the bill heads to the Republican-controlled House, where the measure is likely to have a great deal of support — hence LeRoux’s note to opponents. “Every MMJ activist needs to be at the ready to get to the Capitol at a moment’s notice this coming week,” she writes. “Send your e-mails to senators and representatives, tell them not to support SB 12-117.”

Frieling’s conclusion: “We took a very long look at this last year — looked at it very carefully. And the ultimate conclusion was, ‘We are not going to pass this.’ What’s changed?”