FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 3, 2010
Colorado Nets $7,340,000 From Medical Marijuana Dispensary License Applications
Seeking Regulation and Legitimacy, More than 700 Apply for Licenses that Will Generate Millions in New Revenue for Colorado
CONTACT: Mike Meno, MPP director of communications …………… 202-905-2030 or 443-927-6400
DENVER, COLORADO — More than 2,000 people in Colorado applied for licenses to run state-regulated medical marijuana dispensaries, growing facilities or related businesses before this weekend’s application deadline, according to state officials. In total, the state made $7.34 million from application fees alone.
More than 700 applied specifically for dispensary licenses, far exceeding the number expected by state officials, who estimated that only half of the state’s roughly 1,100 pre-existing dispensaries would apply for licenses. State officials will now conduct thorough background checks on applicants before awarding licenses, which are expected to generate additional millions in annual revenue for Colorado.
“This outpouring of applications is another sign of how willing and eager marijuana business owners are to be taxed, regulated, and given equal treatment to other legitimate establishments,” said Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project. “By sensibly regulating its medical marijuana industry, Colorado stands to gain untold millions in new revenue while at the same time providing legal clarity and rational oversight to what may soon be the largest regulated marijuana market in the world.”
In June, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter (D) signed legislation designed to regulate the state’s medical marijuana industry through a system of local and state licenses. A state-licensed medical marijuana program is up and running in New Mexico, and similar programs will soon be operational in Rhode Island, Maine, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. – but the number of sanctioned dispensaries to be allowed in each of those states is fewer than 10. Colorado’s law will authorize hundreds, and potentially more if future demand increases.
A Rasmussen telephone poll released May 15 showed that there is also plurality support among Colorado voters for further expanding the state’s marijuana laws. Forty-nine percent of likely voters said they support taxing and regulating marijuana like alcohol, with an additional 13 percent still undecided.
With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 3, 2010
Gubernatorial Candidate Peter Shumlin to Discuss Marijuana Policy Reform at University of Vermont
Former State Rep. Daryl Pillsbury Will Also Speak At Aug. 10 Event
CONTACT: 802-579-1377 or [email protected]
BURLINGTON, VERMONT — Next Tuesday, Aug. 10, the University of Vermont will be the setting for a discussion on current marijuana laws in Vermont and efforts to decriminalize the substance in the Vermont legislature. Speakers will include Vermont Senate President Pro Tempore and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Pete Shumlin, as well as former Vermont State Representative Daryl Pillsbury. The event will be sponsored by Marijuana Resolve, a Vermont non-profit focused on marijuana policy reform issues.
WHAT: Discussion of marijuana decriminalization efforts in Vermont
WHO: Gubernatorial candidate Pete Shumlin and former State Rep. Daryl Pillsbury
WHERE: University of Vermont, Ira Allen Lecture Hall, 42 University Place, Burlington, VT 05405
WHEN: Tuesday, August 10, 7 to 9 p.m.
Legislation that would have made possession of up to an ounce of marijuana a civil, rather than criminal violation, punishable by a $100 fine without the possibility of jail time was pending throughout the latest legislative session and had the support of Vermont voters. A 2009 Mason-Dixon poll of voters in the state showed 63% supported the measure with just 27% opposed, and a nonbinding resolution on the Montpelier town meeting day ballot urging the legislature to pass the bill got over 72% of the vote. Nonetheless, the bill never received a hearing.
If elected, Shumlin has pledged he will work to pass such a measure, which has the support of at least one of Vermont’s State’s Attorneys, Windsor County’s Robert Sand. “Police officers could respond, but they could respond roadside and issue a ticket without the need to arrest, process, run a criminal history, prepare a docket for state’s attorney review,” Sand told the Rutland Herald last month. “That would be a significant savings in law enforcement time, which would allow police officers to then move on to what I would suggest are more pressing matters, like patrolling for drunk drivers or responding to crimes against persons.”
Tuesday’s event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Vidda Crochetta, Marijuana Resolve’s State Coordinator, at (802) 579-1377 or email [email protected].
With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.
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Cultural Baggage * Century of Lies * 4:20 Drug War NEWS * Time 4 Hemp
Note: We now produce a segment each Friday at 11:45 PM Central for Time 4 Hemp on American Freedom Radio (dot com)
Cultural Baggage for 08/01/10 29:00 Larry Talley, former naval intelligence officer now with LEAP + Jasmine Tyler of Drug Policy Alliance & Okla Atty Kevin Adams re ongoing police corruption scandal in Tulsa
LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3006
TRANSCRIPT: Tue
Century of Lies for 08/01/10 29:00 Joseph McNamara, former Police Chief of San Jose and K.C. + Leonard Pitts Jr. Pulitzer winning journalist from Miami Herald
LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3005
TRANSCRIPT: http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3005#comments
4:20 Drug War NEWS, 08/02 to 08/08/10 Link at www.drugtruth.net on the right margin -
Sat - M.J. Borden of Drug War Facts: Drug Policy + Fear = HIV Fri - Joseph McNamara, former Police Chief of San Jose & K.C. on why drug war a mistake Thu - Leonard Pitts Jr., Pulizer winning journalist: "Drug sentences create racial caste system"
Wed - Mothership G.M. & listeners defend Drug War NEWS against nay sayers on "Open Journal"
Tue - Okla Atty Kevin Adams re ongoing police corruption scandal in Tulsa Mon - Jasmine Tyler of Drug Policy Alliance on drug policy progress in D.C.
Programs produced at Pacifica Radio Station KPFT in Houston, 90.1 FM. You can Listen Live Online at www.kpft.org
- Cultural Baggage Sun, 7:30 PM ET, 6:30 PM CT, 5:30 PM MT, 4:30 PM PT
- Century of Lies, SUN, 8 PM ET, 7 PM CT, 6 PM MT & 5 PM PT
Who's Next?": TBD
Hundreds of our programs are available online at www.drugtruth.net, www.audioport.org and now at James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. http://www.bakerinstitute.org/dtn
We have potcasts, searchability, CMS, XML, sorts by guest name and by organization. We provide the "unvarnished truth about the drug war" to scores of broadcast affiliates. You can tune into both our 1/2 hour programs, live, at 6:30 central time on Pacifica's KPFT at http://www.kpft.org and call in your questions and concerns toll free at 1-877-9-420 420.
The two, 29:00 shows appear along with the seven, daily, 3:00 "4:20 Drug War NEWS" reports each Monday morning at http://www.drugtruth.net . We currently have 91 affiliated, yet independent broadcast stations. With a simple email request to [email protected] , your station can join the Drug Truth Network, free of charge.
Check out our latest videos via www.youtube.com/fdbecker Please become part of the solution, visit our website: www.endprohibition.org for links to the best of reform. "Prohibition is evil." - Reverend Dean Becker, DTN Producer, 713-462-7981, www.drugtruth.net
There is some seriously messed up stuff going down in the woods:
The ACLU-WA presents a discussion on the history, current status, and future of marijuana-law reform in Washington and the United States. Local and national panelists include travel writer Rick Steves; Keith Stroup, founder of, and legal counsel to, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws; Washington state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles; Rob Kampia, co-founder and executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project; and Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Moderated by ACLU-WA Drug Policy Director Alison Holcomb.
Free and open to the public. This is not a ticketed event. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Panelist Bios
Rob Kampia is co-founder and executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, the largest organization in the U.S. that's focused exclusively on ending marijuana prohibition; MPP and Kampia are based in Washington, D.C. Kampia has testified before Congress, the Washington state legislature, and nearly a dozen other state legislatures. Kampia has debated on national TV dozens of times, including on NBC's "Today Show," the Fox News Channel's "O'Reilly Factor," CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," the Fox Business Network, CNBC, and MSNBC. MPP was partially or exclusively responsible for enacting the medical marijuana laws in the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Rhode Island, and Vermont; the marijuana decriminalization law in Massachusetts; local marijuana initiatives that have passed in Seattle and dozens of other cities; and the U.S. Justice Department's policy to de-prioritize the enforcement of federal marijuana laws in (the now 14) states where medical marijuana is legal.
Jeanne Kohl-Welles has represented the 36th Legislative District in the Washington State Senate since 1994 after serving for three years in the House of Representatives where she was Majority Whip. In addition to her chairmanship of the Sen. Labor, Commerce & Consumer Protection Committee, Sen. Kohl-Welles sits on the Senate Ways & Means and Judiciary Committees. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education from UCLA and was a Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program. Sen. Kohl-Welles was prime sponsor of SB 6032 (passed in 2007), which clarified Washington’s medical marijuana law and required the state Department of Health to study patient access issues, and SB 5798 (passed in 2010), which expanded the list of healthcare professionals who can authorize the medical use of cannabis to include physician assistants, osteopathic physicians’ assistants, advanced registered nurse practitioners, and naturopathic doctors.
Ethan Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a leading organization in the United States promoting alternatives to the war on drugs grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights. Nadelmann was born in New York City and received his B.A., J.D., and Ph.D. from Harvard, and a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics. He then taught politics and public affairs at Princeton University from 1987 to 1994, where his speaking and writings on drug policy—in publications ranging from Science and Foreign Affairs to American Heritage and National Review—attracted international attention. He authored Cops Across Borders, the first scholarly study of the internationalization of U.S. criminal law enforcement, and co-authored another book entitled Policing the Globe: Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations, published by Oxford University Press in 2006.
Rick Steves grew up in Edmonds, Washington and studied at the University of Washington where he received degrees in Business Administration and European History. But his real education came in Europe — since 1973 he's spent 120 days a year in Europe. Spending one third of his adult life living out of a suitcase in Europe has shaped his thinking. Today he employs 80 people at his Europe Through the Back Door headquarters where he produces over 50 guidebooks on European travel, the most popular travel series in America on public television, a weekly hour-long national public radio show, and a weekly column syndicated by the Chicago Tribune. Rick Steves lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington. His office window overlooks his old junior high school.
Keith Stroup is a Washington, D.C. public-interest attorney who founded NORML in 1970. Stroup obtained his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Illinois in 1965, and in 1968 he graduated from Georgetown Law School. Following two years as staff counsel for the National Commission on Product Safety, Stroup founded NORML and ran the organization through 1979, during which time 11 states decriminalized minor marijuana offenses. Stroup has also practiced criminal law, lobbied on Capitol Hill for family farmers and artists, and served as executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). In 1994 Stroup resumed his work with NORML, serving again as Executive Director through 2004. He currently serves as Legal Counsel with NORML. In 1992 Stroup was the recipient of the Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Drug Policy Reform presented by the Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, D.C.
The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation present Hempstalk 2010. Please join us in beautiful Kelley Point Park.
For more information, please see http://www.hempstalk.org/ or call 503-235-4606.
The 2010 NORML Conference will be held in beautiful Portland, Oregon...please join us!
Panel Topics:
Medical Cannabis-only day
For more information and to register, see: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=8125.
For general questions, please contact 1-888-67-NORML or [email protected].
