News

A bill to regulate commercial marijuana, including proposed business license types, was introduced in the Alaska Legislature on Wednesday.

Remains to Be Seen If This Move Will Force the RCMP to Intervene A compassion club in downtown Parksville is now distributing pot-based products.

Marijuana Legalization Seen As a Breakthrough for the Nation's Capital and a National Movement As Thursday dawns on the nation's capital, marijuana will be a legal intoxicant, though Washington will not be Amsterdam, or even Denver. There will be no pot shops, no open-air smoking, but at least for the moment, the District - for once in its decades-long struggle for the right to govern itself - has gotten its way, and a green rush is on.

VANCOUVER - The federal government's decision to prevent Canadians from growing their own medical marijuana and instead forcing them to buy it from commercial producers has robbed them of affordable access to medicine, says a lawyer for a group of patients.

Opinions

Late last Wednesday night I was asked if I was "going to the press conference tomorrow, aren't you part of the new coalition to legalize marijuana?" I said "no" because I didn't know what they were talking about, and I went on Facebook and was shocked to learn of this new group New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform (NJUMR). They held a Press Conference at 11 a.m. on Thursday 2/18.

Dear Stoner: Is it legal to fly from Denver to another medical state with medicine on you? Longmont Larry

Need Weed? Live in Texas? Come to a California In a past life growing up on the East Coast, I had two cities topping my list of places to visit: Montreal and Amsterdam. My reasons were as obvious as they were common. In Montreal, the drinking age is 18. In Amsterdam, you can buy marijuana in a coffee shop. For a thirsty and clear-minded kid in the Boston area, where else do you go to party?

About the time you think things couldn't get any crazier in the American crazyquilt approach to cannabis:

Letters

Re "Catch and release," Feb. 22 It's unfortunate to see law enforcement leaders take the line that locking up problem drug users or threatening them with felony jail time is the way to get them straightened out. Law enforcement never liked Proposition 47 and actively tried to kill it, but its pique doesn't justify misrepresenting what the evidence tells us about addiction and recovery.

I practiced orthopedic surgery in Tallahassee for 35 years. During that time, it was necessary to provide pain medication to my patients many times. There was never any problem doing what was indicated, as I can recall.

To the editor: As a landlord, I want to clarify the "no smoking" policy in my tenants' lease because Alaska voters recently legalized marijuana.

I am writing about the not-so-thoughtful Feb. 8 letter from Robert F. Becker: "Marijuana is not the answer to our problems."

It's hard to change people's mind when they have been given misinformation as a truth: Marijuana is such a topic.

The fight will soon begin in Tallahassee to write legislation to make medical pot available to Floridians who need it. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Seven states know what works because they have been living with medical marijuana laws since 2000. Maine is one. Maine gets high marks from Americans for Safe Access, the national organization for medical marijuana. Maine's law provides provisions for adding new diseases/conditions, child custody protections, employment and other protections, and restrictions on where patients may medicate, among other rules. Maine also allows personal cultivation, the feature most responsible for the rapid collapse of the street market and its violence.

Julia Purdy worries in her guest op-ed that Massachusetts residents will cross over into Vermont to buy marijuana if Vermont regulates sales like Colorado ("Pot's just one toke over the line," Feb. 16). Doing so would allow marijuana consumers to purchase locally grown marijuana of known quality from Vermont retail outlets that generate tax revenue. So what's the problem?