Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Marijuana madness

Excerpt from: Autism Support Network (click for full article)

 

Mieko Hester-Perez is convinced marijuana saved her child’s life.

Just six months ago her son, Joey, a 10-year-old with severe autism, weighed just 46 pounds. He stopped eating after the medications he had been taking to control his behavior took away his appetite, according to the Orange County, Calif., mom.

“You could see the bones in his chest and in his arms and legs,” Hester-Perez says. “He had stopped walking and he would bruise very easily.”

But it was medical marijuana, an unorthodox treatment for autism that’s been the center of debate recently, which got her child eating again and changed his life for the better, she says. It was not a decision she made lightly. “I decided to try medical marijuana truly after I exhausted every other treatment,” Hester-Perez says.

Medical Marijuana Providers Can Beat Oppressive Federal Taxes by Operating as Non-Profits

Excerpt from: TaxProf Blog (click for full article)

 

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have now decriminalized or legalized marijuana for at least some purposes. You hear a lot about the conflict between these state laws and the federal statute criminalizing the sale and possession of marijuana. But since the Justice Department isn’t consistently coming after marijuana sellers, the more immediate problem for many of them is federal tax law. “The federal tax situation is the biggest threat to businesses and could push the entire industry underground,” the leading trade publication for the marijuana industry reports.

Here’s why: Ordinary businesses are taxed by subtracting their business expenses from their gross revenue to arrive at their net income, or profit. That amount is subject to tax. By contrast, sellers of controlled substances—in other words, drugs, including marijuana—are not permitted to deduct any ordinary business expenses other than the cost of the goods they are selling. That’s because of § 280E of the federal tax code, which Congress enacted in the 1980s to punish drug dealers. The provision was largely symbolic for decades, since few drug dealers filed income tax forms. But now, state-licensed marijuana sellers must pay federal taxes not only on their profits but also on the money they spend on salaries, rent, advertising, and all the other expenses related to running a business. In fact, it is conceivable that § 280E could require a business to pay more in tax than its total profits for the year.

Editorial: Stop denying patients access to marijuana

Excerpt from: The Detroit News (click for full article)

 

If marijuana is a medicine, as voters here said it is, then patients should have a safe, licensed outlet for obtaining it, just like they do for any other medicine.

Ideally, patients should be able to get medicinal pot from a pharmacy. But that would require a rescheduling of marijuana at the federal level, which is not likely.

That leaves dispensaries as the best outlet. We agree with local communities concerned that the pot dispensaries too often became little more than head shops, selling marijuana along with a variety of drug paraphernalia.

Dispensaries should be carefully regulated and monitored by the state, and they should sell only marijuana that is inspected and approved. They should not become a means of getting pot more widely into the community.

States Across the Nation Consider Legalizing Marijuana

Excerpt from: Lawyers.com (click for full article)

 

Numerous states are considering bills to legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes, building on the momentum of historic legalization measures approved by voters in Colorado and Washington.

Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina and Oklahoma all have medical marijuana legalization bills pending in the current legislative session. Though some of the efforts have stalled early — Kansas’ bill likely won’t get a hearing due to lack of support on the Senate Health and Welfare Committee — other legislators may consider medical marijuana less politically risky due to laws recently passed elsewhere. New Hampshire became the only New England state that prohibits medical marijuana after Massachusetts voters approved a measure last year, and advocates are confident that a bill will pass in 2013.

Proposed Laws Would End Federal War on Pot

Excerpt from: Lawyers.com (click for full article)

 

Two Democratic congressmen introduced bills yesterday that would drastically reform federal policy on marijuana.

Colorado Rep. Jared Polis introduced The Ending Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2013, which would allow states to choose whether they want to regulate marijuana similarly to alcohol and tobacco. Oregon Rep. Earl Bluemenauer’s bill is The Marijuana Tax Equity Act, which would establish a federal marijuana excise tax.

Polis’ legislation would completely remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and take marijuana enforcement responsibilities away from the Drug Enforcement Agency. Those responsibilities would fall to the renamed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana, Firearms and Explosives. The law also requires growers to purchase federal permits and clearly distinguishes those who cultivate marijuana for personal use from those who intend to sell their crops.

Legalization's Biggest Enemies

Excerpt from: Rolling Stone (click for full article)

 

The marijuana legalization initiatives that triumphed in Washington and Colorado this past fall faced surprisingly little organized opposition. Money tells the story: Washington's pro-legalization initiative I-502 raised more than $6 million from supporters, while the campaign against it pulled less than $16,000.  In Colorado, meanwhile, proponents of Amendment 64 raised more than $2 million, outdoing opponents, who raised about half a million. The anti-drug lobbyist groups that came out en masse against California's legalization initiative Proposition 19 in 2010 were hardly visible in either state, partly because the prison-industrial complex wields less political power there.

So what happens now? The biggest immediate threat to legalization in Washington and Colorado is the federal government, but even the feds might be hard-pressed to stomp out reform. "While there are actions the federal government and its U.S. Attorneys could theoretically take to – in the short term – impede the full implementation of a legal retail cannabis market in Colorado, Washington, and potentially elsewhere, the reality is that federal officials ultimately lack the manpower, public support, and as a consequence, the political will to – in the long term – turn back cannabis legalization," says Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "The genie is already out of the bottle, and it cannot be put back in."