MPP was all over the news this past week when we initiated the process of putting a medical marijuana initiative on the November 2016 ballot in Ohio.

MPP communications director Mason Tvert issued the following statement:

MPP is committed to working with local patients, advocates, and professionals to pass a well-written initiative that ensures seriously ill Ohioans are able to access medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it. We are in the very initial stages of this process — filing a committee, starting to build a campaign team, and conducting outreach to potential coalition partners and donors. MPP has helped pass several state medical marijuana laws through the initiative process and through state legislatures. We are looking forward to working with our allies in Ohio to produce the most effective and responsible medical marijuana system possible.

This initiative and campaign will be very different from the broader and ultimately unsuccessful 2015 initiative to legalize marijuana for medical and adult use.

State lawmakers are also contemplating medical marijuana legislation. The House recently announced it is launching a task force that will meet with medical professionals and representatives from business and law enforcement to discuss the issue. Meanwhile, members of the Senate announced they would be touring the state to hear testimony from Ohio residents.

It's great to see some legislators are finally taking this issue seriously and MPP would support well-written, comprehensive medical marijuana legislation if it is brought forward. In the meantime, we feel it is important to move forward with plans for an initiative in the case that the legislature fails to take action this year. That seems quite likely given the discouraging remarks some legislative leaders have been making in the news.

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Arizona’s constitution allows the people themselves to pass laws by initiative. After years of legislative meddling in the people’s laws, Arizonans approved the Voter Protection Act (VPA) to protect their laws from legislative interference. Despite the VPA, legislators have passed multiple measures to undermine the medical marijuana program that the people of Arizona voted for in 2010 — and they’re at it again.

A series of bills proposed by the legislature would limit Proposition 203, which made medical marijuana legal in the state, and run afoul of the medical marijuana law and the VPA:

-- HB 206, introduced by Rep. Kelly Townsend, would ban the use of medical marijuana by pregnant women, inappropriately inserting the legislature into the doctor/patient relationship; and

-- HB 2404 and 2405, introduced by Rep. Vince Leach, would limit where marijuana can be grown and increase some patients’ fees.

If that wasn’t bad enough, now Rep. Bob Thorpe has introduced a resolution (HCR 2023) to gut the VPA and allow the legislature to change ballot initiatives passed by the voters in ways that are contrary to the purpose of the initiative.

An additional bill, HB 2019, introduced by Rep. Jay Lawrence, would have limited access to medical marijuana by restricting the types of medical professionals who can recommend it. Thanks to hundreds of patients and supporters calling and emailing Rep. Lawrence in opposition the bill, he decided to withdraw it, saying that he had not done enough research and would not support similar legislation in the future.

If you are an Arizona resident, please ask your lawmakers to stop interfering with medical marijuana!

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Last week, the Washington Post reported on a pair of studies released in January that further disprove an often-repeated theory that marijuana use is linked to lower intelligence.

You might have heard that smoking marijuana makes you stupid.

If you grew up in the '80s or '90s, that was more or less the take-home message of countless anti-drug PSAs. In more recent years, it's a message we've heard — albeit in more nuanced form — from Republican candidates on the campaign trail and from marijuana opponents at the state-level.

The contemporary version of argument can be traced to a 2012 Duke University study, which found that persistent, heavy marijuana use through adolescence and young adulthood was associated with declines in IQ.

Other researchers have since criticized that study's methods. A follow-up study in the same journal found that the original research failed to account for a number of confounding factors that could also affect cognitive development, such as cigarette and alcohol use, mental illness and socioeconomic status.

Two new reports this month tackle the relationship between marijuana use and intelligence from two very different angles: One examines the life trajectories of 2,235 British teenagers between ages 8 and 16, and the other looks at the differences between American identical twin pairs in which one twin uses marijuana and the other does not.

Despite vastly different methods, the studies reach the same conclusion: They found no evidence that adolescent marijuana use leads to a decline in intelligence.

The full article is available here.

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The Maryland General Assembly voted this week to override Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto of SB 517, decriminalizing marijuana paraphernalia.

SB 517, introduced by Sen. Bobby Zirkin (D-Baltimore County), removes criminal penalties for possession of marijuana paraphernalia. The measure also imposes a new civil fine of up to $500 on public cannabis consumption. Gov. Hogan vetoed the bill in May 2015, after it was approved 32-13 in the Senate and 83-53 in the House of Delegates.

Maryland adopted a law in 2014 that was intended to decriminalize simple marijuana possession, but it did not include marijuana paraphernalia.

The work is not over, however. Until cannabis is legal and regulated for adults, Marylanders who choose to consume a substance safer than alcohol will still be stigmatized as lawbreakers, racially biased enforcement of marijuana laws will continue to result in unequal justice, and the marijuana market will continue to be in the shadows.

The Marijuana Policy Coalition of Maryland believes that regulating marijuana like alcohol is the best policy option — and a new poll released Thursday shows that 53% of Maryland voters agree.

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The Virginia General Assembly began its 2016 legislative session on Wednesday, and already three bills have been introduced to reduce the penalty for possession of small amounts of marijuana to a civil fine. Virginia’s current penalties for marijuana possession are steep: Possessing up to a half an ounce of marijuana is a misdemeanor that carries up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine for first time offenders. Subsequent offenses face up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Let your state legislators know it’s past time Virginia took a more sensible and humane approach to cannabis possession.

The three decriminalization bills would prevent marijuana consumers from suffering the life-altering consequences that can come with having a criminal record. This less draconian approach to penalizing possession of personal use amounts of marijuana also saves law enforcement time and money, and brings Virginia more in line with Maryland, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.’s decriminalization policies.

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New Hampshire officials announced the approval of a location for the first registered medical marijuana growing facility, marking a sign of progress in an implementation that has experienced serious delays.

NHPR reports:

The Department of Health and Human Services issued a conditional registration certificate to Sanctuary ATC, which plans to open a dispensary in Plymouth, to start growing medical marijuana at a designated cultivation site in Rochester.

The move to issue conditional certifications is an attempt by DHHS to speed up the launch of the dispensaries by allowing the companies to start growing the plants before their dispensaries are ready to open.

According to state health officials overseeing the therapeutic cannabis program, it can take three to four months to cultivate usable medical marijuana.

It's been a long road to see New Hampshire’s medical marijuana program through to reality. The law setting up such a program went into effect in July 2013, but no dispensaries have actually opened to the public. DHHS says it’s expecting Sanctuary ATC’s dispensary to open sometime this spring.

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The California State Conference of the NAACP formally endorsed the initiative to end marijuana prohibition in California known as the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA). It is part of a growing coalition in support of the proposal, which would regulate marijuana similarly to alcohol in the state if approved by voters this November.

Alice Huffman, longtime president of the California NAACP, provided the following statement in a press release:

“Creating a legal, responsible and regulated framework for marijuana is a predominant civil rights issue and it’s long overdue. The current system is counterproductive, financially wasteful and racially biased, and the people of California have repeatedly called for it to be fixed.  This measure will ensure that California is not unjustly criminalizing responsible adults while also ensuring that our children are protected while the State receives hundreds of millions of new dollars for vital government and community-based programs.”

MPP announced its backing of the AUMA late last year, and it has established a committee to support the campaign.

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On Tuesday, the Vermont Coalition to Regulate Marijuana held a press conference to announce the launch of an ad campaign featuring former Vermont Attorney General Kimberly Cheney highlighting the benefits of regulating marijuana.

Cheney served as Vermont attorney general from 1973 to 1975. Previously, he served as an assistant attorney general and was elected Washington County states attorney. He has held a variety of other civic positions and is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).

The ads can be viewed here. 

Last week, Gov. Peter Shumlin said Vermont “[has] the capacity to take this next step and get marijuana legalization done right” in 2016, and he promised state lawmakers he will work with them to “craft the right bill that thoughtfully and carefully eliminates the era of prohibition that is currently failing us so miserably.”

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Yesterday, in his state of the state address, Gov. Peter Shumlin asked the Vermont Legislature to develop and pass a marijuana regulation bill in the 2016 session. “I will work with you,” he told legislators, “to craft the right bill that thoughtfully and carefully eliminates the era of prohibition that is currently failing us so miserably.”

[caption id="attachment_9468" align="alignright" width="250"] Gov. Peter Shumlin. VTD/Josh Larkin[/caption]

This is great news, but passage of a marijuana regulation bill is far from being a done deal in Montpelier. Senate committees will begin working out the details very soon, but many legislators remain either opposed or on the fence.

If you are a Vermont resident, please contact your lawmakers and tell them you agree with Gov. Shumlin that it's time to end prohibition.

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