[caption id="attachment_6239" align="alignright" width="152"] Rep. Kelly Alexander[/caption] North Carolina State Rep. Kelly Alexander, Jr. (D-Mecklenburg) introduced a bill to downgrade the penalty for simple possession of marijuana in the state.  H637, which was co-sponsored by seven of Rep. Alexander’s Democratic colleagues, passed first reading Wednesday and was referred to the House Committee on Judiciary. Currently, individuals in North Carolina convicted of possession of under a half-ounce…

An opinion released yesterday by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts stated that a person found with a small amount of marijuana could still be charged with intent to distribute, despite a 2008 law removing criminal penalties for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. The statement comes from the ruling on a 2010 case in which a person with around six grams of marijuana in three separate bags was charged with intent to distribute marijuana. Defense attorneys argued that intent did…