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The big pot news this week was the historic introduction of legislation that would recognize medical marijuana at the federal level. On Monday, senators Rand Paul, R-Kentucky; Corey Booker, D- New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York introduced a bill that’s intended to remove the threat of federal prosecution currently hanging over patients, doctors and businesses in states with medical marijuana laws.
The bill matters because late last year Congress passed and the president signed into law a spending bill that contained a rider that prevented funds from being used by federal law enforcement to “interfere” with state medical marijuana laws.
The rider gave hope that people currently in jail or facing federal prosecution for growing or possessing medical pot would get off the hook. However,
as evidenced in the outcome of the Kettle Falls Five case, which was widely viewed as a test to see how far the feds would go in chasing medical marijuana patients, the language in the rider left enough room for prosecutors to obtain a partial conviction.
The new legislation seeks to make it clear what the federal can and can’t do in the 23 states that have legal marijuana.
Here’s the news elsewhere:
A teen in Birmingham
gave a teacher a weed-laced cookie.
A hacked street sign in Montana
advises passersby to smoke weed everyday.
Six sheriffs in Colorado are
suing the governor over legal pot.
The FDA sent letters to producers of CBD-based products telling them
to cease making claims about the medical efficacy of their products.
Indian tribes seeking to grow pot have
launched a trade group.
Legal pot in Colorado
generated $2.3 million in tax revenue for schools.