Lansing — The House Judiciary Committee touched off a new effort to legalize dispensaries and edible forms of cannabis for medical marijuana patients Tuesday, sending three new bills to the House floor for consideration.

The bills, containing tighter rules than in failed 2014 proposals and an 8-percent excise tax on gross retail income of provisioning centers, is a compromise plan designed to overcome law enforcement opposition.

A voter-approved medical marijuana law that took effect in 2008 doesn’t specifically mention dispensaries or edible marijuana products, whose legality has been clouded by Michigan Supreme Court and appeals court rulings in recent years. Lawmakers are trying to pass legislation that clarifies the law.

According to the deputy Juan Luis Castro, up to four grams and a plant will be considered a fault, while more than that is a crime.
"We are far from reaching an agreement on the project," said the chairman of the Health Committee.

A reduction of penalties, without their removal, is what the Government proposes on the project that seeks to decriminalize marijuana, which is pending in the House of Representatives.

According an advance from the president of the Health Commission of the House, Juan Luis Castro (PS), the position is that if a person is caught carrying up to four grams of marijuana or has a plant for self-cultivation in his home it will be considered an administrative offense, with citation to the local police court, and a possible fine.

Kerryn Stamation from Irymple says legislation which would allow her terminally ill husband Bill to be treated with medicinal cannabis oil should have been introduced by the Victorian government years ago.

Victorian Health Minister, Jill Hennessy said earlier this month the government would introduce a Bill into parliament by the end of the year to legalise the use of medicinal cannabis in exceptional circumstances.

Bill Stamation was diagnosed with terminal gastric and liver cancer, seventeen months ago and was given six to 12 weeks to live.

His wife Kerryn said since the 57-year-old was diagnosed with cancer in April last year, his treatment, which has included chemotherapy, meant he has been pumped with all sorts of chemicals.

A new bipartisan bill would eliminate a controversial source of funding for one federal marijuana seizure program. Last week, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) introduced the “Stop Civil Asset Forfeiture Funding for Marijuana Suppression Act.” The bill is quite simple: It would prevent the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from using federal forfeiture funds to pay for its Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program. Additionally, the bill would ban transferring property to federal, state or local agencies if that property “is used for any purpose pertaining to” the DEA’s marijuana eradication program.

ST THOMAS, Jamaica – Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) caretaker/candidate for Eastern St Thomas, Delano Seiveright, says that a combination of tourism and ganja cultivation has been proposed as a solution to the high levels of poverty existing in areas of the constituency.

He said that the plan was one of several proposals from a “high-level” task force, which he had established last year to organise and implement a development plan for the constituency, including job creation.

The integrated tourism and ganja plan would include redevelopment of the Morant Bay Courthouse into a museum; re-establishment of the statue of National Hero Paul Bogle, which has been missing for years; and the restoration of the Morant Bay Fort, which dates back to 1758.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —A push to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana in Albuquerque does not appear to have much of a chance of becoming law.

The City Council passed the measure Monday night 5-4 along party lines with Democrats in favor of it, but not before generating a bit of debate between both sides.

"You knew it was illegal, you smoked it, you were caught, you pay the penalty," said Republican City Council member Trudy Jones.

Democratic City Council member Rey Garduno argued an officer would have the flexibility to make sure it's a decriminalized penalty rather than an incarceration.

Probably not, but it's worrisome that the question confuses legislators, prosecutors, regulators, and the governor.

Did Washington legislators accidentally make it a felony for someone younger than 21 to possess any amount of marijuana, as a spokeswoman for that state's governor suggested last week? Did they do it on purpose, as one key legislator claimed? [See update below.] Or did they not do it at all, as the group representing Washington's prosecuting attorneys has concluded? The third answer seems to be the correct one, but confusion on this point casts an unflattering light on legislators' ability to write laws and prosecutors' ability to understand them.

Christie’s predecessor, Democrat Jon Corzine, signed the New Jersey Compassionate Use of Medical Marijuana Act into law Jan. 10, 2010 — his last day as governor. That left Christie with the responsibility of carrying out the law, which was expected to take effect over six months.

The law made it legal for patients with certain debilitating medical conditions (including cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease and any terminal illness where the patient was not expected to live more than a year). It gave the state health department authority to write regulations for the medical marijuana program.

Court ruling cites 2008 decriminalization law

In a decision hailed by civil rights advocates and supporters of marijuana legalization, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday that police cannot stop motorists solely because they suspect the vehicle’s occupants are in possession of the drug.

The Supreme Judicial Court based its 5-2 ruling largely on a measure that voters approved in 2008 that reduced possession of an ounce or less of marijuana from a criminal offense to a civil violation punishable by a fine.

COPS have busted a cannabis farm directly under busy Glasgow train station.

British Transport Police officers swooped on an industrial unit under the railway bridge at Central Station on Monday.

They discovered cannabis plants, worth £15,000, during the search of the premises in Cook Street.

A 57-year-old man was arrested in connection with the find.

Police said a house in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, was later searched and cannabis, worth around £40,000, was found.

Officers also recovered a sum of cash and other items.