Tag Archives: NORML

Marijuana stores in Colorado and Washington won’t be open for at least a year, but new laws legalizing the drug took full effect in both states this month. Washington’s Initiative 502 kicked in on Dec. 5, sparking a midnight gathering of marijuana enthusiasts near Seattle’s Space Needle to celebrate the occasion. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper formalized Amendment 64 into his state’s constitution just days later. Though President Obama said there wouldn’t be a federal campaign against individual marijuana users in Colorado …

President Barack Obama said he doesn’t intend to crack down on marijuana users in Colorado and Washington, where recreational use is now legal. But marijuana reform advocates are only cautiously optimistic about his statement, because they’ve heard this kind of talk from the president before. “We’ve got bigger fish to fry,” Obama told ABC News’ Barbara Walters on Friday. “It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have …

When Washington voters legalized marijuana last month, they also accepted a new legal standard for toking and driving. Just as .08 percent is a Washington driver’s limit for blood alcohol content, five nanograms per milliliter of blood is their new limit for active THC, marijuana’s psychoactive component. In most recreational users, active THC will drop below that threshold within two to three hours of using marijuana. But among the heaviest users, active THC levels may never drop below five nanograms, …

  The new laws legalizing marijuana in some states make an ounce of weed almost as easy to buy as a bottle of beer.  For example, voters in Colorado and Washington made recreational use of pot lawful, it’s still illegal in Oregon. Lawyers.com reporter Kate Stafford explains some of the legal rights of pot smokers. To avoid getting busted, it is essential that you know the laws of search and seizure. Keith Stroup, a criminal law attorney who founded the …

Colorado raked in $5 million in tax revenue in 2011 from medical marijuana businesses, and its cities collected hundreds of thousands more from the budding industry. With Colorado voters poised to legalize marijuana for recreational use this November, their tax coffers could be facing an avalanche of new funds currently being lost to the black market. But tax revenues aren’t the only potential economic benefit hinging on legal weed. If voters pass Amendment 64, which would legalize marijuana and regulate …