Pot shops: Washington state versus B.C.

One year after Washington state legalized the sale of marijuana, B.C. remains bound by Canadian drug laws that consider pot sales, except to about 40,000 authorized medical users, illegal.

This status quo is being challenged, not just by marijuana activists, but also by municipalities, which are grappling with ways to handle consequences of pot prohibition, including illegal grow-ops, gang violence and organized crime.

An ex-soldier who set up a cannabis factory at his Birmingham home to help him cope with his horrific war experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq has escaped a jail sentence.

Police had initially gone to the 28 year-old’s address in Ewell Road, Erdington, following a report of a burglary, discovered 32 plants, at various stages of maturity, being grown in an upstairs room.

Paul Prentice had also illegally by-passed the electricity supply.

Medical Marijuana. Two-thirds of respondents want medical marijuana allowed in Poland - the results of a special survey carried out on behalf of PBS Radio TOK FM, Wyborcza.pl and the Foundation Step By Step. This is the first such study in our country.

In the survey, 42 percent. of respondents said they use marijuana or products derived therefrom in Polish medicine and should be allowed, but only in accordance with medical indications. Another 26 per cent consider that such treatment should be available without restriction.

Lujan - She is carrying 392 loaves of drugs in burlap bags in the back of a utility. The driver, a Uruguayan of 39 years, was arrested.

Nearly 240 kilos of marijuana that were hidden inside a utilitarian truck were seized during a traffic stop in Luján.

The procedure, in which the arrest of the driver of the vehicle was conducted by staff of the Community Prevention Command (CPC) Lujan on Route 5 to the junction with Calle Duarte was achieved.

According to sources, it all started when police intercepted the passage of a van Fiat Fiorino.
When the troops began to look inside the van, the driver tried to escape, but was arrested.

CANNABIS CULTURE - Health Canada has changed medical marijuana regulations to allow the production and distribution of marijuana oil and fresh bud. Find out what the new rules actually mean for patients.

1) I heard Health Canada just legalized cannabis cooking oil. What’s going on?

As a result of a recent Supreme Court decision, Health Canada has just announced that they will be allowing licensed medical marijuana producers (LPs) to also apply for a license to sell fresh, uncured cannabis buds, and cannabis-infused oils. However, LPs cannot sell extracts like hash, resin oil or shatter, or infused food products.

2) Why fresh cannabis buds? Won’t those just go moldy during shipping to patients?

Over the course of his two-month-old campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has argued that he is the candidate for voters who don’t think Hillary Clinton is progressive enough. On issues from regulating Wall Street to campaign finance reform to civil liberties and war, Sanders has positioned himself to the left of the former secretary of state.

And now he seems to be flirting with the idea of using marijuana reform — which polling shows Democrats overwhelmingly support — as another way to appeal to voters who want to bring big changes to America.

“Maybe it’s time we began to rethink the so-called ‘war on drugs,'” Sanders said during a campaign rally in Portland, Maine on Monday.

Former Toyota Motor Corp. executive Julie Hamp was released from detention Wednesday after prosecutors decided not to indict her regarding the import of a narcotic painkiller.

Prosecutors released the 55-year-old American after deeming that her action had no ill-intent, given that she had her family send the drugs to relieve her knee pain, investigative sources said.

Hamp was arrested on June 18 on suspicion of importing a mail package containing 57 oxycodone pills, which are illegal without a prescription in Japan.

Customs officials at Narita airport on June 11 found some of the pills placed at the bottom of a box listed as containing a necklace, and the rest inside an accessory case.

Pot shops would have access to banks under new legislation in the Senate.

The Marijuana Business Access to Banking Act, introduced Thursday in the Senate, would allow marijuana companies to store their money in banks.

Dispensaries are currently blocked from the banking system. Even though a number of states have legalized the use of medical and recreational marijuana, it is still illegal under federal law.

This pot paradox has forced many marijuana businesses to keep their cash in their stores because banks are prohibited from doing businesses with them.

Reflecting growing public support for changing the nation’s drug laws, a bipartisan group of senators on Thursday introduced the chamber’s first bill that would legalize banking for recreational marijuana companies.

Introduced by the Senate delegations from Oregon and Colorado, two of the first states to legalize recreational marijuana, the bill would prohibit the federal government from penalizing banks that work with marijuana businesses.

One of the most popular topics on the 2015 elections agenda is legalization and cannabis is by far the most widely used illegal drug in the Canada. The interplay between potential legalization models and our current federal medical cannabis system, the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR), is important because it will probably shape the direction legalization takes in Canada. Our federal system is unique globally and over one year later, has some important big name interests vested within.