Chronicle AM -- May 21, 2014

Marijuana, marijuana, marijuana. Sometimes it seems like it's sucking all of the air out of the room in drug policy. But there are a lot of other things going on, too. Plus, Michele Leonhart finds a friend, Dana Rohrabacher talks legalization, and Virginia cops are raking in the asset forfeiture cash. Let's get to it:

A marijuana user and his dog. One of a series of photos normalizing marijuana use by Sonya Yruel/Drug Policy Alliance

FBI Ponders Loosening Marijuana Hiring Policies Because Too Many Hackers are Stoners. FBI Director James Comey said Monday the organization may have to modify its no-tolerance policy for hiring people who have smoked marijuana because many of the people it wants to hire as programmers and hackers like to smoke pot. "I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview," Comey said. He added that the FBI was "grappling right now" with how to amend its hiring policies, which currently exclude anyone who has smoked in the past three years. [Update: Not gonna happen. Comey said Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that he is "absolute dead set against using marijuana" and "I did not say I was going to change that ban." His remarks came in response to a question from Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) who was worried about his Monday comments.]

Truven Health Survey Has Support for Legalization at 43% Nationwide. A national survey of attitudes toward marijuana conducted by Truven Health has support for legalization at 43% nationwide, with support for medical marijuana at 78%. Click on the link for more demographic details.

Tennessee Poll Has Three Out of Four Supporting Some Form of Marijuana Access. The latest Vanderbilt Poll has 76% supporting some form of access to marijuana, with just more than one in five (22%) of respondents saying it should not be legal, period. Just under a third (32%) said it should be legal for personal use, while another 44% said it should be legal for medical use.

New Mexico Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates Talk Pot Policy. Marijuana policy is on the agenda in New Mexico, and it's splitting the Democratic gubernatorial candidates. Two candidates -- Alan Webber and Howie Morales -- support legalization and regulation, Lawrence Rael said it should be up to the voters, Linda Lopez wants to "wait and study," while Gary King opposes legalization, but says he supports reduced penalties for personal possession. Click on the link for more details.

Maine Local Legalization Initiatives About to Start Signature-Gathering. Advocates of marijuana legalization got a local ordinance approved in Portland six months ago. Now, they're back and about to start signature-gathering in three more Maine cities: Lewiston, South Portland, and York. The campaign will get underway "in the coming weeks," supporters said.

Medical Marijuana

Illinois House Approves Medical Marijuana for Seizures. The House voted today to approve Senate Bill 2636, which expands the state's medical marijuana law to include both adults and minors suffering from seizure disorders. The measure has already passed the Senate and now goes to the desk of Gov. Pat Quinn (D).

Massachusetts Patients Object to Sales Tax on Medical Marijuana. The state Senate today began debating a state budget, and medical marijuana patients are objecting loudly to amendments proposed by Sen. Brian Joyce (D-Milton) that would impose the state's 6.25% general sales tax on medical marijuana products. "To tax sick and suffering patients is just wrong," said Matthew Allen, executive director of the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance. "By their very nature, medical marijuana patients tend to be lower income people because that's the nature of serious and chronic illness."

New Mexico Appeals Court Upholds Insurance Coverage for Medical Marijuana. The state Court of Appeals Monday ruled unanimously that an injured worker can be reimbursed for medical marijuana purchases by his former employer and the company's insurer. The appeals court upheld an earlier workmen's compensation decision in favor of the worker. The case is Vialpando v. Ben's Automotive Service and Redwood Fire & Casualty. Attorneys familiar with the case said they knew of no similar rulings in other medical marijuana states.

New York Medical Marijuana Bill Wins Senate Committee Vote. In a historic move, a state Senate committee actually heard a medical marijuana bill -- and then voted to approve it. The Senate Health Committee gave the okay to Senate Bill 4406, the Compassionate Care Act, sponsored by Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island). Medical marijuana bills have passed the state Assembly repeatedly in recent years, only to die of inaction in the Senate. The bill now heads to the Senate Finance Committee, which must approve it before it can go to a floor vote.

South Carolina Limited CBD Medical Marijuana Bill Wins Senate Committee Vote. A bill to allow epilepsy patients to use high-CBD marijuana extracts was approved by the Senate Medical Affairs Committee Tuesday. House Bill 4803 has already passed the House and should get a final floor vote next week.

Asset Forfeiture

Virginia Cops Scored $57 Million in Seized Assets Since 2007. Virginia law enforcement agencies have raked in more than $57 million in asset forfeitures in the last six years, according to a lengthy analysis by The Virginian-Pilot. Under the state's asset forfeiture laws, the cops get to keep 90% of what they seize. In its 2010 report Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Forfeiture, the Institute of Justice gave Virginia a grade of "D-" for both its lax asset forfeiture laws and the ease with which they can be circumvented by law enforcement.

Drug Policy

Embattled DEA Head Has a Friend in Virginia Rep. Frank Wolfe. Rep. Frank Wolfe (R-VA) is sticking up for embattled DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart. She was recently scolded and brought into line on sentencing policy by her boss, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Wolfe took umbrage at that. He called the Obama administration "Nixonian" for trying to get Leonhart back on the reservation. "Having served in the Nixon Administration, I am well aware of how the political leadership of an administration can try to politicize the civil service, including law enforcement," Wolfe wrote in a letter to the Justice Department. "This article [Ed: a Huffington Post piece on Leonhart's comeuppance] suggests a similar 'Nixonian' effort to pressure a career law enforcement leader into changing her congressional testimony and public comments to fit the narrative of the administration. I am deeply concerned and hope you will correct the record if the information reported was inaccurate."

Legalization Gets Discussed at House Committee Hearing. A House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on US-Mexican affairs turned briefly into a discussion of the pros and cons of drug legalization Tuesday. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) asked State Department officials whether it wouldn't be better to weaken drug cartels by legalizing drugs than to spend billions trying fruitlessly to suppress them. But William Brownfield, assistant secretary for State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement ("drugs and thugs"), demurred, saying he couldn't recommend a policy that would increase the availability of currently illegal drugs. Rohrabacher responded by saying he had seen no evidence that legalization would increase the number of drug users.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy Sets National Conference for September in DC. Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) will hold its national conference and lobby day in Washington, DC, on September 26-29. Click on the link for all the details.

Drug Testing

O.pen VAPE Feels the Heat, Backs Off on Drug Testing. The Denver-based marijuana vaporizer company O.pen VAPE took a lot of heat earlier this month when it announced an invasive drug testing policy aimed at "dangerous drug" users. Now, the company has switched gears and has announced it will instead use computer-assisted impairment testing. Celeb Stoner has more details, click on the link to read all about it.

(This article was published by StoptheDrugWar.org's lobbying arm, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also shares the cost of maintaining this web site. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)