Tuesday, 20 Apr 2010 – In case you forgot American Government 101, the U.S. has a federal system in which states can make their own laws. Nowhere is that more evident than with marijuana policy.

Laws differ drastically state-to-state, and certain states are significantly more progressive than others.

Here’s a look at some of the states with more moderate or lenient laws; as a rule they tend to be in the West and Northeast, the places with more marijuana users.

Mellow California

The state-leader in marijuana reform is California. Though Oregon was the first to decriminalize possession of small amounts in 1973, the Golden State followed shortly after, and broke the mold by allowing medical marijuana in 1996.

Possession of less than a ounce merits a $100 fine, and while trafficking is still a felony, the sale of any amount is punishable by two to four years in prison without any fine.

In February 2009, however, State Assembly member Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced another piece of landmark legislation, AB 390, the first bill of its kind to call for taxation and regulation of marijuana.

Though the bill expired and was replaced with a newer version, AB 2254, Quintin Mecke, Communications Director for Ammiano says, “the momentum regarding legalization and the conversation around overall drug policy really took off last year in ways that I’m not sure that even we expected when we first introduced the bill.”

Gabriel Bouys | AFP | Getty Images

Since then, reform advocates, led by Richard Lee, owner of Oaksterdam University, a school that teaches people how to harvest, cultivate and run their own medical marijuana dispensaries, collected enough signatures to secure a ballot measure, that will allow California residents to vote about whether to tax and regulate the drug in November 2010.

Though the ballot item is different from Ammiano’s bill in that counties must “opt in” to the legalization model rather than it being uniform legislation, it represents a huge opportunity for reform advocates.

If the vote is yes, Meckle says, those counties that are actively regulating marijuana and have dispensaries will be the ones that will quickly get up and running.

“There is a general assumption is that a lot of new counties are not going to come online,” he adds. “The counties that are currently supportive of the issue have created a system, and no one wants to reinvent the wheel if there is already a system in place for medical.”

Although Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Mike Meno says it is too early to say what November’s vote will conclude, he points to a field poll done in May 2009 that showed that 56 percent of Californians supported ending marijuana prohibition.

A good portion of this is happening right now due to the state’s economic problems. The economics are presenting a window for the larger reform conversation, which has been building for quite a long time.

“We can’t continue to keep our heads stuck in the sand and pretend that this current model of prohibition works in any way shape or form. Our drug policies are an abject failure. Anyone who looks at the situation with regards to the Mexican violence on the border has got to be literally smoking something,” Meckle says.

California’s legislative is considering a number of other bills, from reducing adult possession penalties to medical marijuana-related paraphernalia.

Continental Divide

Other western states like Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Hawaii and Alaska also have progressive marijuana policies. (Two-term New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson called for legalization in 1998.)

Cities like Denver, Portland, Oregon, Missoula, Montana as well as cluster in California (Oakland, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and San Mateo) have made pot use the lowest of priorities for local police departments.

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Oregon, also one of the earliest states to sanction medical use, continues to reform its laws. There are currently more than a dozen bills in the state legislature, covering everything from medical users and the workplace to sentencing to the creation of a task force to study driving while under the influence.

Hawaii is considering legislation to reduce the already-light penalty for possession under an ounce.

In Alaska, marijuana is also both decriminalized and allowed medically. It also has a low arrest rate based on the user population. According to the Marijuana Policy Almanac, compiled by Jon Gettman, Criminal Justice Professor at Virginia’s Shenandoah University and public policy consultant, Alaska ranks 49th in arrest rates nationally. In 2007, of the state’s 74,000 users, only 1.4 percent were arrested.

This is markedly lower than a state like Kentucky, which ranked third, with 5.8 percent of the 350,000 users being arrested. Both New Mexico and Colorado allow medical marijuana and are considering taxation and regulation, as well as decriminalization.

On the other side of country, Rhode Island also has relatively liberal marijuana policy. First off, it passed medical marijuana two years ago. Bills on reduced penalties for adult possession and outright possession, manufacture and sale of limited amounts are pending.

Rhode Island also ranks 47th In Gettman’s Marijuana Policy Almanac in terms of arrest rates; of their 144,000 annual users, 1,463 people are arrested each year.

Like other states in the Northeast, Rhode Island has a relatively high proportion of users compared to its total population. This is why, says Gettman, their interests may be better represented. In the Ocean State, for example, there are 144,000 annual users, out of a total population of 1.05 million.

In California, there are 3.3 million users out of 36.6 million people. These ratios are higher than in a state like Delaware, which has a more conservative marijuana policy and an estimated 79,000 users and 865,000 residents.

Law And Economics

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In a traditional Blue State like Rhode Island, one might think that reform would move quickly. However, this is not the case. One of the reasons is that the state likes to be methodical, and in June 2009, legislators formed the Special Senate Commission to Study the Prohibition of Marijuana in Rhode Island. The Commission’s Chair, Rep. Joshua Miller (D-Cranston) says that Rhode Island likes to have experts come in and look at issues.

“Once medical marijuana was behind us, those of us who were interested wanted to start a conversation about decriminalization.” They waited because they didn’t want medical marijuana to lose any momentum as a result of other potential initiatives.

Knowing Rhode Island’s major fiscal problems, Miller says proponents knew the only way they would be taken seriously is if they could demonstrate some kind of positive impact on the state budget.

Though morality and civil liberties are still relevant issues in the broader debate, the Commission found that there are serious budgetary advantages to decriminalization, and that treatment is a better policy than incarceration.

“I think the public sentiment is very favorable towards it, but whether it has legislative momentum is a whole other thing,” says Miller.

Miller says the only way decriminalization will be passed before the session ends in June is if it is seen as having an important role in solving pressing state fiscal problems, for example, flooding or the budget crisis. Otherwise, Miller says, it will have to wait until next year.

Of the other states in the Northeast, Maine also has a liberal policy—it allows medical marijuana and has decriminalized possession.

The state also comes in 40th on the Marijuana Policy Almanac’s arrest-rate ranking based on user population with 2.3 percent of the 143,000 state users arrested. The sale of less than a pound is a misdemeanor, punishable by one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

“I want to be very clear, there’s no knocking the South here,” says Gettman. “There are states in the south that have very reasonable policies about marijuana – North Carolina and Mississippi both have decriminalization. Georgia also has a lenient policy for first offenders with small amounts.”

Though times seem to be changing, Gettman points out in his blog that there are many obstacles to marijuana law reform, citing overconfidence on the part of reformers as the No. 1 barrier: “While many marijuana users think legalization will never occur, it seems that just as many are so convinced it is inevitable they don’t bother to take part in activities to bring it about.”  Source.

Feburary 9, 2010 – LOS ANGELES — This school doesn’t have a problem with students not paying attention.

“They’re paying us to come, and our classes are full,” says Jeff Jones, chancellor of the Los Angeles branch of Oaksterdam University, where students learn the business of marijuana from seed to ash.

Attitudes are changing as 14 states now have laws allowing some form of legal marijuana use with a doctor’s recommendation. And with legalization comes a growing cannabis industry.

In California alone, the medical-marijuana business could be worth as much as $2 billion, says Dale Gieringer, state coordinator for NORML, a marijuana advocacy group. Prices vary widely, but dispensaries have advertised an ounce of dried marijuana for $340 or more.

“Ten years ago I couldn’t get a room full of people to talk about this,” Jones says. Now, people from across the country come to learn how to legally grow, distribute and profit with pot, even though it remains illegal under federal law.

Oaksterdam holds classes in three California cities and is expanding out of state. Students learn about the law and science of marijuana as well as how to lobby local government leaders and how to tamp down the pungent, tell-tale smell of cannabis gardens. Growers often worry about theft, and because of legal uncertainties, there is always the risk of a raid by authorities.

About 7,000 people have taken classes at Oaksterdam, says Executive Chancellor Dale Sky Clare, who oversees all branches. There are waiting lists to enroll — 850 students started courses this semester, and more than 300 have signed up for next semester, she said.

“It’s not just hippies in tie-dye,” Clare says.

Mixed group of students
Jeff Studdard, a former police officer, was among students at a recent class. Studdard, 46, of Riverside County, said he had been a school district police officer and a Los Angeles County auxiliary sheriff’s deputy trained to recognize drug users until a broken back forced him to retire. The pain, even after three surgeries, prompted him to try marijuana.

“I never smoked pot as an officer,” he says, but after the injury, “I know first-hand the benefits.” He was hoping to incorporate medical marijuana in a holistic treatment business.

Kenji Klein, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California-Irvine, is studying the emerging legal pot market as a basis for his doctoral thesis. “It’s interesting to me the way social change and entrepreneurship get linked together,” Klein said.

Many students, worried about legal uncertainties, did not want to be identified.

“We all like to have fun in this industry, but sometimes people go to jail,” says Sarah Diesel, an instructor.

Oaksterdam University opened in 2007 in Oakland. Its name is part Oakland, part Amsterdam, the Dutch city known for its permissiveness toward pot. Classes are offered in Oakland, Los Angeles and Sebastopol, north of San Francisco. Last year, it expanded to Michigan, where voters passed a medical-marijuana law in 2008.

On a recent weekend, 55 students in Los Angeles paid $250 each for Marijuana 101, a two-day introductory course.

They were instructed on key court decisions, how to work in a dispensary, which varieties of cannabis are best for various ailments and how to cultivate a good pot crop.

Oaksterdam is not the only school of its type. In Michigan, Nick Tennant, 24, opened Med Grow Cannabis College. “Our law is in its infancy,” Tennant says. “We’ve been doing very well. I think there’s huge demand.”

‘People come from all over’

Oaksterdam’s founder and owner, Richard Lee, is a successful medical marijuana entrepreneur. His Coffeeshop Blue Sky is one of four dispensaries licensed in Oakland. He recently financed most of a $1 million signature-gathering effort for a proposal on California’s ballot this fall to fully legalize pot while establishing state and local taxation.

“It’s been amazing, the response,” Lee says of his school. “People come in from all over the country.”

Special Agent Casey McEnry of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, wouldn’t comment on the cannabis school but said, “It is not the practice or policy of DEA to target individuals with serious medical conditions who comply with state laws.”

Much of the school’s teaching is devoted to helping students operate within the law, while acknowledging that gray areas remain 14 years after California approved the nation’s first medical-marijuana law.

“If you have a grow, don’t let anyone know,” Diesel warns.

In a recent Los Angeles class, there were students from states with medical-marijuana laws, such as Colorado and Nevada, and states without, including Arizona, Florida, Minnesota and Texas.

“Everybody wants to get in” Source. By William M. Welch.