Louisiana is on track to become the 25th state to permit the use of medical marijuana after Governor John Bel Edwards signed legislation that amended the state’s unused 1978 law legalizing marijuana for medical use. One state legislator estimated it would take 18 to 24 months to get medical marijuana to patients.
The law enacted last week permits physicians to “recommend ” marijuana for their patients rather than to “prescribe” it. That one word prevented the 1978 law from being used because federal law prohibits anyone from prescribing a Schedule I drug.
The new law expands coverage from 3 to 10 medical conditions and stipulates that only cannabis oils may be dispensed. Two universities, Louisiana State and Southern, have the right of first refusal to become the only licensed grower in the state. If neither wants the job, the state will select a licensee based on a long list of qualifications.
Louisiana becomes the first state in the South to legalize medical marijuana. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has created a slideshow that describes the tortuous path of medical marijuana in the state.
24/7 Wall St.Here are excerpts from other recent cannabis-related news stories.
Marijuana Millionaires Cashing In on Cannabis Legislation
Jeremy Moberg peers into a microscope at a leaf in a Petri dish. “Thrips”, he declares to a man wearing a facemask and surgical gloves. “We’ll get rid of those with neem oil.” Moberg spotted the pest while cloning in his greenhouse. He’s not your run-of-the-mill biologist or horticulturalist. The 41-year-old owns a marijuana farm with a multi-million dollar turnover in Washington state, USA, where the drug was legalised for recreational use in 2012. His expertise comes from two decades of growing illegally, deep in the woods, dodging the helicopter raids of drug-enforcement officers.
The smell of marijuana hangs heavy and pungent in the processing centre, where half a dozen people are clipping flower buds. “You’re trimming too closely,” he calls to one man working on his cheapest product as he walks to the boardroom. “Leave it shaggier and go faster.” Life is good for Moberg. He’s generated more than $3m in the 20 months since he started the business. However, he says a glut on the market has depressed prices this year, taxes are high and profits are invested back into the farm, so his personal pay cheque is modest. Still, he owns a couple of houses and enjoys eating out, skiing and fishing.
Read more at The Guardian.
The Marijuana Industry’s War on the Poor
Take a stroll past the gray stucco-clad building in northeast Denver and it’s not hard to figure out what’s going on behind the bright green doors. On a recent afternoon, outside Green Fields Cannabis Co., a sweetly pungent, slightly skunky odor filled the air before a light rain began to rinse it away. Just a block south on Brighton Boulevard, past a salvage yard and a Mexican grocery, the smell of what’s growing inside Starbuds is sometimes noticeable before you arrive in front of the medical and recreational marijuana chain’s original location. Even drivers whizzing by on Interstate 70 catch a heady whiff of Denver’s hottest new product as they zip across town.
But they don’t have to live here.
In working-class neighborhoods like Elyria-Swansea, Globeville and Northeast Park Hill there’s a growing sense among residents that they have been overrun by a new drug trade, legal but noxious all the same. These communities once offered plentiful jobs in the city’s smelters, meatpacking houses, brickyards and stockyards, but those industries are mostly gone now, along with Denver’s cow town image. In the past few years, the city’s newest growth industry has moved in—and not in a subtle way. In Elyria-Swansea alone, more than three dozen businesses are licensed to grow and sell marijuana and another dozen companies manufacture edible pot products. To the people living in the modest homes near the grow operations that supply the dispensaries and shops in better-off parts of town, the smell is not only an inconvenience but a reminder of their lack of political clout.
Read more at Politico.
Marijuana Activists Rally at Michigan Capitol
Marijuana activists working to place a legalization proposal on the 2016 ballot rallied Friday outside the state Capitol, urging elected officials to “free the weed” and celebrating a petition drive they launched at the same location last summer.
The MI Legalize committee has suffered a series of recent setbacks ahead of the June 1 deadline for petition submission, including legislative approval of a bill that could block its attempt to include older signatures that would typically not be counted by the state.
“We’ve scared the establishment,” executive director Jeff Hank told an eclectic crowd of more than 100 people. “…They are literally changing laws to try to prevent MI Legalize from proceeding. That should tell you we’re doing something right.”
MI Legalize, which urged volunteer circulators to bring petitions to the rally or mail them in, has now collected at least 315,000 since June 25, according to Hank. The state requires 252,523 to make the ballot. [24/7 Wall Street’s story]
Read more at The Detroit News.
Marijuana Trafficking Falls Following Statewide Legalization According to Federal Government
Federal marijuana trafficking prosecutions have declined significantly since the passage of statewide laws regulating the plant’s production and retail sale to adults, according to data provided by the United States Sentencing Commission.
According to the new report, the number of marijuana trafficking offenders prosecuted at the federal level fell dramatically after 2012 — declining from over 6,000 annually to fewer than 4,000 in 2015.
“The number of marijuana traffickers rose slightly over time until a sharp decline in fiscal year 2013 and the number continues to decrease,” the report concludes.
The period of decline overlaps with the passage and enactment of adult marijuana sales in various US states, including Colorado, Oregon, and Washington.
Read more at The Weed Blog.
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