cannabisnews.com: DC Mayor Vows To Move Forward With MJ Legalization
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DC Mayor Vows To Move Forward With MJ Legalization
Posted by CN Staff on February 25, 2015 at 16:08:34 PT
By Matt Ferner
Source: Huffington Post
Washington, D.C. -- In the final hours before marijuana possession is scheduled to become legal in the nation's capital, House Republicans have warned District of Columbia officials that they could go to jail if the measure to legalize goes into effect, but D.C.'s mayor has not backed down."You can go to prison for this," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) in a Wednesday interview with The Washington Post about the marijuana law that is supposed to go into effect Thursday. "We’re not playing a little game here." 
In a letter sent to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Tuesday, Reps. Chaffetz and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) told the mayor that if the city decides to move forward with the legalization of marijuana in the District, "you will be doing so in knowing and willful violation of the law.""We believe that we're on very strong legal ground," Bowser said Wednesday, Reuters reported. "My Administration is committed to upholding the will of DC voters. We will implement Initiative 71 in a thoughtful, responsible way," Bowser wrote on Twitter Wednesday. In a statement Wednesday, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) blasted what she called “unnecessarily hostile congressional reactions" to the District moving forward with its marijuana law. Norton specifically called out Chaffetz, characterizing his letter and comments to the media as "baseless threats" that fail to acknowledge that there is a "good-faith and honest" difference of legal opinion on the effects of a provision within the recently passed federal spending bill that seeks to block D.C.'s marijuana law.That difference of opinion arises from language used in a provision introduced by Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) aimed at blocking D.C.'s ability to use funds to enact marijuana laws, which was tucked into the federal spending bill Congress passed in December. Initially, the bill said that D.C. may not "enact or carry out" any law to legalize marijuana, but it was altered in the version that was signed in to law to read that D.C. cannot "enact" any law to legalize marijuana. Norton, along with multiple congressional Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), believe that the measure was "enacted" by voters when they approved it in November and are in favor of allowing the law to move forward. D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) submitted the marijuana legalization initiative to Congress in January, ignoring the GOP's effort to block the measure.D.C.'s city government is mostly autonomous, but the U.S. Constitution gives Congress final say over the District's laws. As such, there has been much debate over whether the District can implement its recently passed marijuana law.In November, D.C. voters approved an initiative that legalized up to 2 ounces of recreational marijuana for personal use and up to six marijuana plants for home cultivation. While marijuana sales remain banned under the measure, there has been some discussion of implementing further legislation that would allow for sales and taxation of cannabis. A mandatory 30-day congressional review of the bill has been ongoing, but the clock is running out for lawmakers to take action against marijuana legalization in D.C. The measure will automatically go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday if Congress does not interfere. “The District is not responsible if the Republican language failed to convey their apparent intent, and their failure should not result in unbecoming threats to District officials," Norton said. "It is particularly absurd and threatening to conclude that differences in opinion between lawyers for Republicans and lawyers for the District put city officials 'in knowing and willful violation of the law.’”In their letter to Bowser, Chaffetz and Meadows wrote, "It is a basic legal tenet that legislation is not enacted and does not become law until the final act effectuating that process occurs." They go on to say that even the District's act of transmitting the initiative is already "likely in violation" of law."Given Congress's broad powers to legislate with regard to the District of Columbia it would be unprecedented for the District to take actions proscribed by legislation passed by Congress and signed by the President," they wrote.In the letter, the House Republicans also demand that Bowser provide a list of any D.C. employee who participated in the enactment of the marijuana law, as well as the employees' salaries and how much time they've spent on action surrounding the measure. They also ask for a tally of all funds used to enact the law, as well as for any related documents.Marijuana policy reformers were appalled by the suggestion that any D.C. officials could go to jail over the new law."I thought putting people in jail for using marijuana was absurd enough, but a member of Congress threatening the mayor of the nation's capital with prison time just for implementing the will of her city's voters is completely unacceptable," Tom Angell, chairman of reform advocacy group Marijuana Majority, told HuffPost. "Other Republicans would do well to distance themselves from these undemocratic comments."Source: Huffington Post (NY)Author: Matt Ferner, The Huffington Post	Published: February 25, 2015Copyright: 2015 HuffingtonPost.com, LLC Contact: scoop huffingtonpost.comWebsite: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/AgQPxPyCCannabisNews  -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #6 posted by afterburner on February 27, 2015 at 18:34:38 PT
Hempworld #2
Not to be left out, Trinidad and Tobago are considering following Jamaica's example!Decriminalise it.
Published on February 22, 2015 in Crime in T&T, Culture, General T&T, Law and USA. 3 Comments
Tags: julien neaves, marijuana, newsday.
By Julien Neaves
February 22, 2015 – newsday.co.ttMarijuana. WITH Caribbean neighbour Jamaica making moves to decriminalise marijuana University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor Emeritus Kenneth Ramchand is renewing his calls for marijuana to be decriminalised in Trinidad and Tobago for medicinal purposes.In January this year the Jamaican Government tabled the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, 2015 in that country’s Senate to decriminalise marijuana for medicinal, religious and personal use.Ramchand, in an interview with Sunday Newsday, said that TT “should absolutely decriminalise marijuana for medical purposes” and pointed to a good argument for decriminalising for personal use in limited quantities. He stressed that for purposes of personal use, the key term was “limited quantities” and people should not be allowed to walk around with “40 marijuana cigarettes” or such quantities as might suggest they were selling.“I am pretty certain we will get to the point of decriminalisation for medicinal purposes. I think we are getting there,” he said.In August 2000, Ramchand, then an Independent Senator and UWI lecturer, called for marijuana to be decriminalised for medical purposes in his contribution to debate on the Dangerous Drugs Amendment Bill.“Well, all those marijuana fields we are burning now, we should seize them, compress the marijuana, start to process it and since we have to do what America says, when they de-criminalise, ‘buss’ the market,” he had said.In the United States, 23 of the 50 States have legalised marijuana for medical use and three states — Oregon, Washington and Colorado — have legalised the drug for recreational use.
Full Article : newsday.co.tt
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Comment #5 posted by The GCW on February 26, 2015 at 01:35:23 PT
Sam Adams,
Right about Utah. It's similar to booze. They resisted but one thing in the end that changed their prohibition of booze was ski areas etc. They started realizing they were losing tourism dollars to Colorado and some of the resorts sued because they were unable to compete and slowly booze was made available at tourist locations at first... (if I'm not mistaken)Colorado has a few cannabis prohibition ignoids that claim Colorado will lose tourist $$$'s since We RE-legalized cannabis but I think that can't be true. Sure there are some less desirable people who will vacation elsewhere but over all, Colorado will gain vacationers because vacationers like to go to hip place. The message is: COLORADO has reasonable people; Utah, not so much. -as an example... since Colorado often gets compared to Utah regarding tourism...-0-It's also very revealing about the MORMONS, when God indicates He created all the seed bearing plants saying they're ALL good on literally the very 1st page of the Bible, YET, the MORMONS fight to have the legal opportunity to cage humans for using cannabis. That says a lot about where the MORMONS really are!-The only Biblical restriction is that We use cannabis with thankfulness (see: 1 Tim 4:1-4); Mormon cannabis prohibition is anti-Biblical. Anti-Christian. Anti-allkinds of things...-Then, realize, The Christ requests that We love one another and in doing so We will be given access to the "spirit of truth" (see John 14-16 and 1 John). MORMONS haven't realized YET that they can not love someone and cage them for using what God says is good on the 1st page of the Bible, AT THE SAME TIME. -They are UNABLE to receive the "spirit of truth." & & &&& that's for everyone to see, even people who don't believe in Christianity, The Christ or the Bible, BUT DO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS WRITTEN FOR THOSE WHO DO BELIEVE.It's always interesting to see how different people rationalize caging their fellow humans for using a beneficial, relatively safe plant.Creeps who avoid Colorado should request their pilot avoid Colorado air space.Utah.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on February 25, 2015 at 20:22:10 PT
HempWorld
Thank you for the article! We are really winning! I love it!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by Sam Adams on February 25, 2015 at 18:48:01 PT
one day soonÉ.
legal MJ will be rammed down Utah's political throat!  Just look at what's happening with gay marriage - redneck counties in Alabamba being forced to marry people by the courtsÉÉit won't be long till Utah turns green
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Comment #2 posted by HempWorld on February 25, 2015 at 18:02:08 PT
Ganja! Jamaica eases marijuana law...
Dear FoM, you will probably find a better article, I just wanted to break it here. (see momentum with W/DC)Link: http://www.thailandnews.net/index.php/sid/230568749And as I've stated about Ma ma Marijuana... (no, you can't have it) it is the acid test for democracy...That said, cheers and good riddance!
Ganja! Jamaica eases marijuana law...
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on February 25, 2015 at 16:41:58 PT
Look, an ignoid laying on the train tracks.
Utah RE-pub Rep. Jason Chaffetz (are any Utah elected not Mormon?)is mistaken stating, "We’re not playing a little game here." That is exactly what the ignoid is doing. -Cannabis prohibition has been reduced to a game.The U.S. government's effort at Cannabis prohibition and extermination has run it's course except for some last little game moves. Moves designed to flex muscle which doesn't exist anymore. Moves calculated at prolonging discredited government jobs programs. Etc.Word from the wise: Don't lay on the tracks and demand the accelerating train stop or else.Showdown at midnight.
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