Tagged: New York

August 25, 2014

What’s Next With Medical Marijuana?

No sooner had Gov. Andrew Cuomo put down his pen after signing the bill to allow medical use of marijuana than Holly Anderson and her staff at the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester picked up their phones.

“We started to get some phone calls from people in the community who wanted to know what’s next, how long will it take,” said the executive director of BCCR. They came not just from people with cancer, but individuals with fibromyalgia, HIV, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses where not only the condition but the side effects of treatment can cause unrelenting pain or discomfort.

Anderson said BCCR had planned to host a forum in its cozy suite on University Avenue about the Compassionate Care Act and figured now it needed a bigger place. The free panel discussion Medical Cannabis: Politics — Science — Truth is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday in the theater at Monroe Community College Building 4.

Read more at Democrat & Chronicle: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/08/25/next-medical-marijuana/14542877/

January 28, 2014

Senator Chuck Schumer Supports Marijuana Reform

Today on MSNBC, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that states should be free to try different approaches to marijuana and that the results of those “experiments” will help inform federal policy:

Chuck Todd: Do you see it as inevitable that recreational use is going to be legal in all 50 states in your lifetime?

Chuck Schumer: You know, it’s a tough issue. We talk about the comparison to alcohol, and obviously alcohol is legal, and I’m hardly a prohibitionist. But it does a lot of damage.

And so the view I have—and I’m a little cautious on this—is let’s see how the state experiments work. We now have the states as laboratories, different states at different levels. Colorado and Washington sort of opened the door. The governor’s [medical marijuana] proposal in New York, much more cautious. I’d be a little cautious here at the federal level and see the laboratories of the states, see their outcomes before we make a decision.

Todd: But you believe that the federal government should let the states do this, because they could crack down and say no.

Schumer: Well, I think having the states experiment is a good idea.

See more at Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2014/01/27/chuck-schumer-marijuana-federalist/

January 27, 2014

Where Will Marijuana Be Legal Next? This Map Points to 5 States

When United States Attorney General Eric Holder announced that a new federal policy was in the works to make it easier for pot businesses to deal with federal banks (which was pretty major considering the current limbo state of the legal pot business economy), supporters of marijuana legalization rejoiced.

As it stands now, medical marijuana is legal in 20 states and Washington, D.C., while recreational marijuana is legal in Colorado and Washington. Legalization efforts and ballots are making real progress in a number of states including New York, Tennessee, Florida, Arizona, Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire and Alaska.

But who will actually legalize next? Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, discussed in a Vocativ story what he believes are the five states most likely legalize either medical or recreational marijuana next.

January 20, 2014

New York Marijuana Legalization Gets Widespread Support

NEW YORK, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Most New Yorkers support Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan to allow the use of medical marijuana in a pilot program in up to 20 hospitals, according to a poll released on Monday.

Nearly half (49 percent) of the New York voters polled thought he should skip the pilot step entirely and legalize its medical use statewide, as has already happened in about 20 other states, the Siena College Poll said.

Siena College spoke to 808 registered voters in New York last week for the poll