State & Local Legislatures

The Boulder, Colorado city manager extended the deadline for existing medical marijuana businesses to apply for an operating license, citing massive confusion about the city's rules. If the deadline had not been extended, the majority of the city's dispensaries and growing operations would be operating illegally, though owners may not have known it.

A proposed 45-day moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated Orange County failed by one vote today. The county ordinance, which would have immediately banned new dispensaries and existing dispensaries without the proper permits, needed to be approved by 4/5ths of the board of supervisors. Supervisors John Moorlach and Shawn Nelson voted against the emergency ordinance, arguing there wasn’t an emergency to warrant immediate adoption of the freeze on dispensaries.

The 2011 Montana legislature will be taking up changes to the Montana Medical Marijuana Act voters passed in 2004. Demonstrators held signs in Missoula, saying "Leave medical marijuana alone' and 'Don't take our medicine from us.' They warn the legislative bill could double fees for patients, limit caregivers' service, charge a $10,000 fee to dispensaries, and set other restrictions.

A Michigan Court of Appeals judge urged lawmakers to clarify the state's medical marijuana law, saying the "inartfully drafted" measure has resulted in confusion and arrests. The judge said the law is so confusing that users "who proceed without due caution" could "lose both their property and their liberty."

Authorities in 13 states thought they were acting to curb a public health threat when they outlawed a form of synthetic marijuana known as K2, a concoction of dried herbs sprayed with a synthetic cannabinoid. Barely six months after Kansas adopted the nation's first ban on K2, even police acknowledge that the laws are all but meaningless because merchants can so easily offer legal alternatives.

San Diego City Council has voted to start developing land use regulations that would define where medicinal marijuana dispensaries can legally operate. Currently, more than 100 dispensaries operate in the city. Kate Valentine of Americans for Safe Access calculates the proposed zoning would only allow about 15 dispensaries.