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Indiana families may sue over plan to rebury 17 unidentified bodies found during road project

November 30, 2017 Mary Jane General, Legal, Legalization

17 unidentified bodies found near Clarksville, Indiana

Families are threatening a lawsuit over relocation of bodies.

A plan to rebury 17 unidentified bodies discovered during a road project in Indiana earlier this year may end up in a courtroom.

Descendants of people buried in the Stewart-Emery Cemetery, located just north of Louisville, Ky., are threatening a lawsuit to stop town officials from reburying the remains in a nearby nature preserve.

Families told WDRB-TV the proposal would put their loved ones in an area that’s hard to access and has issues with vandalism.

“It’s a beautiful cemetery,” Kathie Miller, a descendant, told WDRB. “It’s been desecrated repeatedly over the years. Lots of vandalism and just the foot path alone is a deterrent.”

A plan to rebury 17 unidentified bodies discovered through a road project has families now threatening a lawsuit. (WDRB)

The cemetery dates back to the 1800s, The Courier-Journal reported. Town officials said finding unmarked remains around a site of that age would not be surprising.

Instead of moving the remains to another location, some families want to see the remains returned as close to the original site as possible.

“We’ve been told that they could probably put three people each in two of the empty plots that we know are here,” Janus Emery-Bowling said.

The Clarksville town manager told WDRB officials are trying to work with families, and repeatedly stated legal issues concerning the remains have made the reburial process complicated.

Families are planning to meet in early December with public officials to figure out the next step, but are also working with attorneys to take possible legal action against the town.

“If that’s what’s necessary, that’s the type of measure we’ll have to take,” Miller said.

Will Michigan be the Next State to Legalize Recreational Marijuana?

May 15, 2017 admin Feature, General, Legal, Legalization

Marijuana would be legalized for recreational uses and taxed at a rate of 16% under a petition which was turned in to the Secretary of State on Friday.

In the event that the state Board of Canvassers approves the petition, the group driving the initiative ? the Coalition to Regulate Marijuan Like Alcohol will have 180 days to gather 252,523 signatures from valid registered voters in Michigan. As a way to get a cushion to account for signatures which may be thrown out, the group is establishing a target of accumulating 350,000 signatures.

That?s a job which will require money, said Josh Hovey, a spokesman for the Coalition. The group hopes to raise between $8 million and $10 million as payment for people who will gather the signatures needed to get on the ballot and to wage a campaign to get the measure passed in November 2018.

?Prohibition is a failed big government program,? said former state Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, who?s the political director of the coalition. ?We have 20,000 individuals detained every year in Michigan. And we?re now going to be in a position to provide our citizens an option to stop that.?

Florida Marijuana Supporters Wants A Special Session For Legal Marijuana

May 9, 2017 admin General, Legal, Legalization

Gov. Rick Scott is called upon by the supporters of legalized marijuana to order a special session after state lawmakers failed to pass a bill that would have implemented a ballot measure approved by 71 percent of voters in November. In the constitutional amendment, it?s in the discretion of the Florida Department of Health to make rules that would let patients with ailments like HIV/AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis access to marijuana.

However, a few patient advocates and some marijuana activists are afraid that the DOH won?t make suitable rules.

?DOH has an obligation to implement this,? said Ben Pollara, among the writers of Amendment 2 and executive director of Florida for Care. ?That?s all the more reason that people really need implementing laws.?

Pollara joined a group of lawmakers and lobbyists who say that the Legislature has to play a part ? even if it?s in the following legislative session, which commences in January.

Sen. Rob Bradley, who had driven a medical marijuana bill, said he isn?t assured that the DOH rules will be in line with bills the Legislature put forward, which had a wide-range agreement on many problems, even though they couldn?t achieve a final deal.

Massachusetts Marijuana Regulatory Panel to be Patterned After the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission

May 9, 2017 admin Blog, General, Legal, Legalization

House Speaker Robert DeLeo on Monday proposed a fresh approach state officials could do regarding how to regulate the new legal marijuana industry in Massachusetts.

The ballot law that legalized adult use of marijuana and set up a regulatory framework for the market calls for a Cannabis Control Commission within Treasurer Deborah Goldberg?s office. The Legislature agreed to delay execution of the law and its new Marijuana Policy Committee has been considering alterations to it, including creating a more independent commission and possibly removing the panel from Treasurer Deborah Goldberg?s purview.

DeLeo said he believes the state ?can do a combination of both.?

?Our conversations today were attempting to get an amalgamation, in the event that you will, without coming to any final conclusion, to try to find out what can work in relation to marijuana,? DeLeo said.

Goldberg called the meeting ?a great first conversation? and said discussion covered ?a lot of the technical facets.?

?I think this was merely a first conversation, and there?s an acknowledgement that we will all be working collaboratively, and with the members of the committee since they have done a large amount of work to try and determine how to satisfy the needs of and the will of the people of Massachusetts and the way in which they voted,? Goldberg said.

Colorado Marijuana Sales Expected To Break Records

May 9, 2017 admin Blog, Colorado, General, Legal, Pricing, Recreational Marijuana

Following the November elections, eight states currently offer legal adult use of marijuana. But regardless of the growing competition, Colorado, which have the greatest number of marijuana sales this past year, will probably still bag higher marijuana sales compared to the other states in 2017.

Only four months into the year, the Centennial State is already on course to possess its highest grossing year yet in marijuana sales. During January and February, Colorado racked up $235 million in overall marijuana sales, a 30% spike when compared with the state?s recreational and medical marijuana sales during the same time in 2016, based on a report by Cannabis Benchmarks, a company that monitors marijuana sales and prices.

With Colorado?s city streets filled with marijuana stores selling medical and recreational marijuana goods and its booming cannabis tourism, marijuana sales across the state kicked off 2017 at full throttle. In January of this year, $109 million worth of marijuana was sold in Colorado in medical and recreational markets, a more than 38% increase from what the state had in January 2016, when marijuana consumers bought $88.5 million in cannabis products. Sales in February were even more remarkable, with the state generating $126 million in marijuana purchases compared to February 2016?s $92.7 million.

Michigan?s New Centralized Medical Marijuana Agency

May 9, 2017 admin Blog, General, Legal

Michigan recently created the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation to centralize all facets of medical marijuana regulation, the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs reports.

The brand new agency, placed in LARA, combines the present supervision functions of the state?s patient and caregiver registry with the recently established statutory requirements for medical marijuana facility licensing.

?BMMR?s organizational structure places Michigan at the forefront of state medical marijuana regulation,? LARA Director Shelly Edgerton said. ?Many other states have various licenses and patient programs spread throughout different departments and bureaus.?

Centralized services will improve patient protections and make regulations more efficient for business customers.

BMMR is in the procedure for executing the regulatory framework made by legislation signed by Gov. Snyder in September 2016. Regulatory functions comprise the investigation, licensing and enforcement of medical marijuana growers, processors, secure transporters, provisioning centers and security compliance facilities.

The law requires the agency to make licensing programs accessible by December 15, 2017.

Arizona Moms Speak Up On Medical Marijuana?s Impact On Their Kids

May 9, 2017 admin Blog, General, Legal, Pot

A group of mothers who?ve been fighting the stigma, paving the way and educating themselves about the benefits of medical marijuana. They say they are doing it for their kids, all of whom are fighting chronic diseases.

Parisa Mansouri-Rad, one of the moms, says she began looking into the benefits of marijuana while striving to figure out methods to bring comfort to her 16-year old daughter, Yazy, who was born premature at 23 weeks. She?s blind, has cerebral palsy and scoliosis. A spinal fusion operation left her in a great deal of pain. Subsequently her lower intestine failed, resulting in a serious chronic illness, that also caused a great deal of pain and distress.

?We attempted a multitude of pharmaceuticals to figure out what would work, she was like a guinea rabbit for the doctors,? said Mansouri-Rad.

?Not only was she on pain medication that was really damaging to her body, but on other pharmaceuticals that we then had to treat with other pharmaceuticals due to the side effects,? she added.

420 Celebrations Around the Country: The Biggest Day for Marijuana

May 9, 2017 admin Blog, Feature, General, Legal, Pot, Recreational Marijuana

It feels like Christmas for the country?s legal marijuana stores today. Not only Christmas but all other holidays rolled in to one one smoky party known as 420.

April 20 has for a long time been a day full of civil disobedience by marijuana users, who assemble in public to light up weed at 4:20 p.m. The phrase ?420? is a longtime code for marijuana users, who work it into dating profiles or post it on signs to show their common interest. But while it used to be a celebration held using a particular degree of furtiveness, the swiftly growing legalization of cannabis means an increasing number of Americans no longer face critical, if any, punishment for smoking weed.

All states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana also have prohibited public consumption, but those rules in many cases are dismissed on April 20, when crowds assemble on college campuses and central parks to light up. That means huge sales days for shops, particularly in states with operating marijuana marketplaces: Washington, Oregon and Colorado, which could see single-day 420 sales of $20 million.

One of Colorado?s largest marijuana stores, the Medicine Man, anticipated to see more than double the regular number of customers each day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Alaska Lawmakers Delay Proposal On Onsite Marijuana Use

May 9, 2017 admin Alaska, General, Legal, Legalization, Pot

Alaska marijuana regulators have delayed discussions about onsite marijuana consumption until next month.

The state?s Marijuana Control Board was expected to consider whether to move forward with proposed rules for letting retail cannabis customers to consume their purchases on site

It?s something that no other state that has legalized the recreational use of marijuana has permitted.

The board used its two day meeting to go through a backlog of permit applications for retail stores and manufacturing facilities.

?They really wanted to concentrate on approved applications at this meeting so people could begin with their businesses as we move into summer,? said Erika McConnell, director of the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Board. ?Onsite consumption was kind of the big time-consuming issue that they pushed until the end and then we ran out of time. ?

A New Bill To Legalize Hemp Cultivation In Arizona

March 6, 2017 admin General, Legal, Legalization

On a sprawling farm in Maricopa, his family?s land has been cultivated by Kelly Anderson for decades.

Ornamental plants are grown by him, dehydrated foliage and wheat which are sold in craft shops. Another possibly more profitable crop: industrial hemp, is being eyed by farmers like Anderson, although demand for the decorative plants is high.

An assortment of the cannabis plant, industrial hemp is used to make rope, paper, cosmetics, food and textiles. It features low levels of marijuana?s main psychoactive substance, but doesn’t create a high. Until lately, it couldn’t be lawfully grown anywhere in the U.S. and was imported from Canada, China, Europe, Russia and elsewhere.

“It uses less water than cotton, it?s a very heat-tolerant plant and we need a good rotation-kind crop to help the soil,? Anderson said. ?Instead of growing cotton after cotton after cotton, or hay after hay after hay, you could rotate this. This could be used to help the ag economy and we?re always trying to expand our production base?

Two state lawmakers are looking into to legalizing hemp cultivation in Arizona.

The procedure to produce, distribute and sell hemp in Arizona would be set up by Senate Bill 1337 through a program managed by the state agriculture department. Processors and growers would be asked to pass criminal background checks and would need to maintain comprehensive records about growing locations. Harvests could possibly be inspected and tested by agriculture officials, and in the event the plants were discovered to have more than 0.3 percent of THC on a dry-weight basis, the crop can be destroyed and farmers can be prohibited from future hemp growing.

Legal

Indiana families may sue over plan to rebury 17 unidentified bodies found during road project

17 unidentified bodies found near Clarksville, Indiana

Colorado girl sues Jeff Sessions to legalize medical marijuana nationwide

Will Michigan be the Next State to Legalize Recreational Marijuana?

Florida Marijuana Supporters Wants A Special Session For Legal Marijuana

Massachusetts Marijuana Regulatory Panel to be Patterned After the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission

Colorado Marijuana Sales Expected To Break Records

Michigan?s New Centralized Medical Marijuana Agency

Arizona Moms Speak Up On Medical Marijuana?s Impact On Their Kids

420 Celebrations Around the Country: The Biggest Day for Marijuana

Alaska Lawmakers Delay Proposal On Onsite Marijuana Use

A New Bill To Legalize Hemp Cultivation In Arizona

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