[caption id="attachment_7523" align="alignright" width="233"] Chris Benge, Oklahoma Secretary of State[/caption]

Today, Oklahomans for Health submitted an application for petition with Oklahoma Secretary of State, Chris Benge, which proposes to add a question to the November ballot asking whether or not Oklahomans should legalize medical marijuana for serious conditions like cancer, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.

The initiative would call for the reclassification of marijuana as an herbal drug, which would be regulated by the Oklahoma State Department of Health. It would also create licensing and regulatory rules for cultivation and distribution through dispensaries. Patients wanting to use medical marijuana would need to pay a $125 application fee for a medical marijuana card and have an Oklahoma board-certified physician provide a recommendation.

The proposed initiative comes at a time when support for medical marijuana is growing in the state with a recent poll showing 71% approval rate for decriminalizing medical marijuana. A rally was held at the State Capital in February, where parents of epileptic children came to talk to their representatives. Even Josh Stanley of Strains of Hope, featured on WEEDS by Sanjay Gupta, showed up to support Oklahomans in their plight.

Although Oklahoma has some of the harshest marijuana laws, Chip Paul, Chairman of Oklahomans for Health, believes the "language in this initiative…should be a very easy thing for the state of Oklahoma to manage."

The annual WMUR Granite State Poll released Wednesday by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center shows a growing majority of New Hampshire adults support making marijuana legal and regulating it like alcohol.

The survey found 55% percent support making possession of small amounts of marijuana legal in New Hampshire — up from 53% in 2013 — and 67% approve of marijuana being sold in licensed retail outlets and taxed at levels similar to alcohol if marijuana possession becomes legal.

The poll also found that three out of five New Hampshire adults (61%) support House Bill 1625, a measure approved by the State House of Representatives and now being considered by the Senate that would reduce the penalty for possession of up to one ounce of marijuana to a $100 civil fine. Currently, possession of any amount of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000. New Hampshire is the only state in New England that treats simple marijuana possession as a criminal offense with the potential for jail time.

The poll of 510 randomly selected New Hampshire adults was conducted March 24-April 1 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3%. The entire poll is available at http://cola.unh.edu/survey-center/most-granite-staters-support-changes-states-marijuana-laws-4914.

On Tuesday, Yvette Alexander, District of Columbia Council member for Ward 7, introduced the Medical Marijuana Expansion Amendment Act of 2014. The bill would amend the previous qualifying conditions list restricting D.C. patients’ access to medical marijuana. Currently, a doctor can only recommend medical marijuana for four conditions (HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, cancer, and multiple sclerosis). 

Marijuana has been found to help treat a wide variety of conditions beyond those that qualify a patient for the D.C. program.  Alexander’s bill would strike out the qualifying conditions list altogether and permit the physician to make the decision as to whether or not medical marijuana would benefit a patient. This way, doctors wouldn’t have to be constrained by politics or wait for government officials to pass laws every time new benefits are discovered.

According to an NBC Washington report, all 13 Council members are in favor of this amendment. Even the Health Department Director, Joxel Gracia, testified that recommending medical marijuana should be up to doctors instead of government officials.

D.C.’s prohibitive medical marijuana laws have been largely ineffective, only protecting about 250 patients of the estimated 40,000 eligible patients living in the District since the current law went into effect in 2013. However, the bill would amend neither the rules governing the heavily regulated process by which a patient acquires a medical marijuana card, nor the rules controlling cultivation and distribution

Hearings on the new medical marijuana bill are likely to begin in early May of this year, with a vote following soon after.

A report released yesterday by Rhode Island-based OpenDoors estimates that passage of the Marijuana Regulation, Control, and Taxation Act will generate between $21.5 to $82 million in annual tax revenue. Although it would not completely solve Rhode Island’s budget woes, revenue from legal sales of marijuana to adults could help ease the financial burdens the state is facing.

Every day across Rhode Island, otherwise law-abiding men and women purchase and consume marijuana illegally. Proceeds from these sales go untaxed and only serve to enrich criminal actors. Bringing adult marijuana sales above board allows the state to tax both wholesale and retail marijuana transactions and provides much greater transparency over who sells it, where, and to whom. 

In addition to the generating revenue, passage of the Marijuana Regulation, Control, and Taxation Act will create hundreds of jobs in an emerging industry.

After being approved by the General Assembly on Saturday, a bill that would replace current penalties for possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana with a fine passed the Maryland Senate. The bill will now go to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who has indicated he will sign the bill into law. This would make Maryland the 18th state to decriminalize simple possession of marijuana. 

Watch MPP's Rachelle Yeung talk about this major victory:

On Saturday, the Maryland House of Delegates overwhelmingly approved an amended version of the decriminalization bill. In a 78-55 vote, the House approved imposing civil fines — not criminal penalties and possible jail time — on those possessing less than 10 grams of marijuana.

The bill now goes back to the Senate for concurrence, before heading to Gov. Martin O’Malley. Gov. O’Malley has previously said he’s “not much in favor” of decriminalization.

[caption id="attachment_7503" align="alignright" width="146"] Del. Keiffer Mitchell[/caption]

Saturday's vote was the product of lots of hard work from MPP and our allies, both in the legislature and outside of it. Just a few days ago, the House Judiciary Committee gutted the decriminalization bill and replaced it with a task force that wouldn’t report back for two years. Thanks to the leadership from the Legislative Black Caucus and Del. Keiffer Mitchell, we were able to turn the tide. Many thanks to all of our supporters who emailed and called their delegates.

But our work on this long overdue reform is not done. Don’t forget to make sure you’re plugged in to our efforts by liking the Marijuana Policy Coalition of Maryland on Facebook and following the coalition on Twitter.

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee neutered two marijuana policy reform bills. Instead of considering the proposed policies on their merits, the committee completely amended the content of the bills to create a task force to study the issues. The two bills, SB 364 and HB 880, formerly would have respectively decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana and regulated marijuana similarly to alcohol.

[caption id="attachment_7447" align="alignright" width="144"] Rep. Bobby Zirkin[/caption]

The decriminalization bill, sponsored by Sen. Bobby Zirkin, has passed the Senate two years in a row with overwhelming bipartisan support — most recently, last month, in a 36-8 vote.

The Committee acted two days after D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray signed into law the most lenient decriminalization law in the country, and the same day as a national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 76% of Americans don't think people should be jailed for simple possession.

A poll released yesterday by the Pew Research Center showed that for the second year in a row a majority of Americans (54%) support making marijuana legal. This represents a two percent increase in support from last year. Only 42% support keeping marijuana illegal. Three-quarters of those polled think that the sale and use of marijuana will eventually be legal nationwide.

The poll also revealed that 69% of respondents see alcohol as more harmful to individual health than marijuana, and 63% think alcohol is more dangerous to society.

Pew’s nationwide survey of 1,821 adults was conducted February 14-23. Detailed survey results are available at .

A recent survey by WebMD found that 69 percent of health professionals said marijuana “can help with certain treatments and conditions.” The finding is surprising in contrast to the consumers’ response to the question, which only yielded a 52 percent approval of the notion.

The numbers continued to climb when the results were narrowed by the doctor’s specialty. “Oncologists and hematologists showed the highest level, with 82% saying marijuana delivers real benefits to patients.” Of course, these doctors have a high percentage because medical marijuana has a long history of being used to treat cancer pain and nausea related to chemotherapy; it has also been used to stimulate appetite.

The survey also looked at how much doctors and the general public favor legalizing medical marijuana, which still showed doctors at a higher rate, but just incrementally.

WebMD’s survey questioned 1,544 doctors and 2,960 people from the general public between Feb. 23 and Feb. 26, 2014 nationwide.

Here are the findings:

 Doctors:

• 69% say it can help with certain treatments and conditions.
• 67% say it should be a medical option for patients.
• 56% support making it legal nationwide.
• 50% of doctors in states where it is not legal say it should be legal in their states.
• 52% of doctors in states considering new laws say it should be legal in their states.

Consumers:

• 50% support making it legal nationwide.
• 49% of consumers in states where it is not legal say it should be legal in their states.
• 52% say it can help with treatments and conditions.
• 45% say the benefits outweigh the risks.

Last week, the Mississippi General Assembly overwhelmingly passed HB 1231, which would legalize certain, very limited medical marijuana extracts for patients suffering from seizure disorders. While this bill is a strong endorsement of the medical benefits of marijuana by the Mississippi legislature, it is extremely limited and does not even create a realistic way for patients to obtain the extracts.

[caption id="attachment_7490" align="alignright" width="179"] Gov. Phil Bryant[/caption]

The bill, approved by the House 112-6 and the Senate 49-0, now heads to Gov. Phil Bryant, who is expected to sign it. If enacted, it would apply only to patients suffering from epileptic conditions, leaving the vast majority of patients behind. Furthermore, patients would only be able to use marijuana extracts that contain no more than 0.5% THC and more than 15% CBD.

The bill also only allows three specific medical research centers — the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi, the Department of Pharmacy Services at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station at Mississippi State University — to produce or possess the marijuana extracts for research. Given that federal law does not allow medical marijuana, it is extremely unlikely that universities will produce marijuana.