New Hampshire's governor signs a package of heroin and prescription opiate bills, a similar package goes to the desk of the Wisconsin governor, Illinois patients seek to add more qualifying conditions, South Dakota's GOP governor rejects a welfare drug testing bill, a key Mexican politician endorses pot legalization, and more.
Marijuana PolicyStudent Marijuana Group Wins Free Speech Lawsuit Against Iowa State University. A federal judge last Friday ruled that ISU administrators violated the First Amendment rights of ISU NORML by barring the group from using ISU logos on its t-shirts. ISU NORML won a permanent injunction against the university preventing it from using its trademark policy to block the group from printing shirts depicting a marijuana leaf.
Denver Social Pot Club Effort Gains New Life. A shelved ballot measure that aims at winning approval for marijuana use at some private businesses is being brought back to life by a newly formed NORML chapter. Denver NORML says it is going to take up where advocates left off. Advocates from the Vicente Sederberg law firm and the Marijuana Policy Project had begun such a ballot effort last year, but withdrew and is now seeking a potential compromise ordinance with city officials and other interested parties. But Denver NORML says it time to "get this done."
Medical Marijuana
Arizona GOP Rep Withdraws Bill to Cripple Medical Marijuana Program. State Rep. Jay Lawrence (R-Fountain Hills) has withdrawn HCR 2019, which would have barred naturopaths and homeopaths from recommending medical marijuana. Nearly 90% of all recommendations in the state are written by those health care professionals. Lawrence said he withdrew his bill after his office "received so many calls" and he actually learned about how the program works.
Georgia Lawmaker Admits Breaking State Law to Help Families Obtain CBD Cannabis Oil. Rep. Alan Peake (R-Macon) admitted last week that he has been going to other states to obtain the medicine and bring it back for patients. Under a law he sponsored last year, CBD cannabis oil is legal for people for certain diseases, but there is no provision for in-state cultivation or sales. "We made sure that families properly registered with the state got access to medical cannabis, including delivering it to them if that's the only way we can make that happen," Peake said. "Maybe at some point there is a need for civil disobedience. It comes down to, 'What would I do if it were my child?'" Peake said.
Hawaii Bill Would Bar Patients From Growing Their Own. Now that dispensaries are set to open up in the state, Rep. Marcus Oshiro (D-Oahu) has filed a bill that would prohibit patients from growing their own, instead requiring them to use the dispensaries. The bill is House Bill 1680. Patient groups don't like it.
Illlinois Petition Seeks to Prod Governor to Expand Qualifying Medical Conditions. The state Medical Cannabis Advisory Board has recommended adding eight new qualifying conditions to the state's medical marijuana program. The petition is directed at Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) and the head of the state Department of Public Health, who will make the final decision. The petition currently has more than 19,000 and has been endorsed by Melissa Etheridge.
Ohio Attorney General Rejects Wording on Medical Marijuana Initiative. State Attorney General Mike DeWine (R) has rejected a third petition for a medical marijuana constitutional amendment. He said there were five discrepancies between the language of the proposal and its summary language.
Heroin
New Hampshire Governor Signs Heroin Bills. Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) has signed into law two bills, Senate Bill 447 and Senate Bill 576 that were part of a comprehensive proposal to deal with heroin and opiate addiction she put forth last fall. The former bill creates a study commission on using naloxone more broadly, while the second increases penalties for the sale of fentanyl, requires insurance companies to use similar evaluation criteria to streamline access to drug treatment, and strengthening the state's prescription monitoring program.
Wisconsin Legislature Approves Package of Prescription Monitoring Bills. The state Senate last week gave final approval to the package, which is aimed at reducing heroin use by requiring pharmacists to register prescriptions within 24 hours and requiring police to register prescription drugs found at the scene of an overdose. The package now goes to Gov. Scott Walker (R) for his signature.
New Psychoactive Substances
Massachusetts Bill Would Criminalize More Than a Dozen New Synthetic Drugs. State Rep. Tim Whelan (R-Brewster) has cosponsored a bill that would specifically target 19 new psychoactive substances listed as controlled substances by the DEA. The possession, manufacture, and distribution of the drugs would be criminalized under the bill.
Drug Testing
South Dakota Governor Rejects Welfare Drug Testing. Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) is not supporting a recently filed bill to require suspicionless drug testing of welfare recipients. He said he had not been enthusiastic about similar bills in the past, that the effort was a waste of money, and it is "somewhat insulting."
International
Israeli Likudnik MK Filed Marijuana Decriminalization Bill. Member of the Knesset Sharren Haskel (Likud) has filed a bill to decriminalize pot possession. Such bills usually come from the left of the Israeli political spectrum. "More than a million Israelis occasionally consume cannabis, and the population that uses it is mostly not a criminal population," wrote Haskel. "These are normative people from all parts of society -- academics, public representatives, and others, who consume cannabis in their leisure time."
Key Mexican Lawmaker Calls for Marijuana Legalization, Medical Access. The president of Mexico's chamber of deputies, Jesus Zambrano, is calling for both medical and recreational marijuana use to be legalized. "The topic has its international component and efforts need to be combined, particularly between the United States and Mexico, to have common rules, laws that are essentially identical, though each with its own modalities, because we are distinct, but the United States must help our country apply, for instance, legalization of marijuana for medical and recreational use," said Zambrano. His was the opening salvo in a national debate on the topic that began Sunday.
