Alaska will vote on marijuana legalization this summer, the DC council gives preliminary approval to a decriminalization bill, the farm bill with the hemp amendment intact passes Congress, advocates urge India's parliament to act on access to pain medications, and more. Let's get to it:

Marijuana Policy

[image:1 align:right caption:true]Alaska Legalization Initiative Qualifies for Ballot. State election officials said Tuesday that a marijuana legalization initiative has enough signatures to qualify for the August ballot. The measure isn't officially certified yet, but it's all but a done deal.

DC Council Gives Preliminary Approval to Decriminalization. The District of Columbia city council Tuesday approved a marijuana decriminalization bill, Council Bill 20-409, but only after first accepting amendments that would criminalize the public use of marijuana and allow police to search vehicles if they encounter the odor of marijuana. A second and final vote will most probably happen next month, and efforts are underway to strip out the bad amendments. Meanwhile, a legalization bill and a legalization initiative are pending.

Deputy Drug Czar Forced to Admit Marijuana Safer Than Alcohol. Deputy ONDCP head Michael Botticelli had a rough hearing Tuesday at the House Government Oversight Committee. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) got him to admit that marijuana is safer than alcohol, but it was a painful process. Click on the link for the dialog.

Medical Marijuana

Delaware Finalizes Regulations for a Single Medical Marijuana Compassion Center. The Marijuana Policy Project complains that its limit of 150 plants will be too few to meet patients' needs, but says its efforts to get the cap lifted have been blocked. Maybe the regs can be changed later, the group said.

Project CBD Responds to Attacks from Project SAM. Project CBD's Martin Lee has penned a lengthy rebuttal of a recent Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) "fact sheet" that seeks to justify continued marijuana prohibition "by misinforming the public about cannabidiol and THC." Check it out at the title link.

Hemp

Farm Bill With Hemp Amendment Passes Congress. The Senate Tuesday passed the omnibus farm bill with the hemp amendment intact. The amendment will allow universities and agriculture departments that have approved hemp production to undertake research. The president is expected to sign the bill any day now.

Drug Testing

Farm Bill Passes Congress Without Drug Testing Amendment. The same Farm Bill package that passed the Senate did not include language passed in a version of the bill last summer that would have encouraged states to drug test recipients of Supplemental Nutritional Assistance, also known as food stamps.

South Dakota Public Benefits Drug Testing Bill Dies. A bill that would have required drug screening and testing for public benefits recipients died Tuesday in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on a 5-2 vote. The bill had been fiercely opposed by the administration of Republican Gov. Dennis Daugard.

Law Enforcement

Silk Road Mastermind Indicted By Feds. Ross Ulbricht, the suspected mastermind behind the dark web's Silk Road web site, has been indicted by federal prosecutors for allegedly trafficking drugs through the site. The indictment supersedes the original complaint from October 2013. Meanwhile, another version of Silk Road is back online, and so are competitors.

Prescription Drugs

Florida Prescription Drug Database Overhaul With Privacy Protections Passes Senate Committee. A bill that amends the state's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to require investigators to get court orders to access the database passed the Senate Health Policy Committee Tuesday. The move came over the objection of law enforcement, which said it would hamper its ability to curb the abuse of controlled substances. The bill is Senate Bill 7106.

Students

South Dakota Bill to Reduce Collateral Student Drug Punishments Advances. The Senate Education Committee Tuesday approved a bill that would reduce the collateral penalties for high school students convicted of drug offenses. Under current state law, students convicted of drug offenses are suspended from school activities for a year, but can get that reduced to 60 days if they attend treatment or counseling. The bill approved by the committee would reduce that to 30 days if the student undergoes treatment.

International

British PM Rejects Junior Partner's Call to End "Unwinnable" Drug War. British Prime Minister David Cameron flatly rejected Deputy PM Nick Clegg's call to end the war on drugs and explore alternative approaches. Clegg made his comments in over the weekend on a trip to Colombia, but Cameron was having none of it, according to a spokesman: "No. The PM's views are well-known and unchanged," when asked if Cameron agreed. "He thinks that we have the right approach. The government has a good record in this area, with drug usage at the lowest level since records began." [Ed: Actually, the prime minister's views are changed, or at least the public version of them. Prior to becoming prime minister, Cameron favored legalization.]

Indian Doctors, Advocates Call for Parliament to Quit Dithering, Pass Opioid Medication Law. Indian doctors and pain patient advocates are calling on parliament to pass an amendment to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Bill that would increase the availability of opioid pain medications. They say millions of Indians are suffering from untreated pain because of lack of access to such substances. Among the groups calling for action on the bill are Pallium India, the Indian Association of Palliative Care, and CanSupport, which provides home care and palliative care for patients with cancer.