Busts

H.B. 81 is gone but not forgotten.
A bill intended to lessen the penalty for possessing small amounts of marijuana expired last night in the Texas House, without receiving a vote.
Considered deceased at the stroke of midnight, had House Bill 81 survived the political process to become law, the bill would have drastically reduced the penalties for individuals caught in possession with personal amounts of marijuana.
Currently punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine, H.B.

I am so thrilled to have another guest post from a fellow mom named Jennifer Landis and to hear her thoughts about how parents can end the stigma of recreational marijuana use.  I wholeheartedly believe that parents, and particularly mothers, will be a huge part of not just ending the stigma, but also end federal cannabis prohibition overall.
I agree with her sentiments and fully support and encourage movement forward in this sector of activism for the cannabis movement.

A veteran Seattle police officer has been arrested and charged with smuggling over 100 kilos of pot to the East Coast. Federal prosecutors have accused Officer Alex Chapackdee with transporting hundreds of pounds of pot from Washington to Baltimore, and returning with boxes full of cash. The officer has reportedly been under FBI surveillance since last year, after a public corruption case was opened alongside the drug smuggling case.

According to the charging documents, Chapackdee has been accused of assisting a drug trafficking ring run by his brother-in-law, Tuan Van Le.

On Thursday, the Texas House of Representatives will schedule a full House vote on legislation meant to dramatically reform penalties for the personal possession of less than one ounce of marijuana.
Originally passed by a 4 to 2 vote in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee with bipartisan support, House Bill 81 was authored by Rep. Joe Moody (D- El Paso) and Rep. Jason Isaac (R-Dripping Springs). Cosponsored by more than 35 elected officials, H.B.

When asked about legalizing cannabis in their state, city or town, local lawmakers and journalists often givre the same ‘wait and see’ response. The tired response supposes some event of magical proportions will appear in Oregon, Washington, or some other legal weed state that will definitively suggest whether recreational legalization will work or not.

Last week, a California judge ordered a district attorney to return over $100,000 seized from a medical marijuana entrepreneur and his family last year. In January of 2016, law enforcement raided Med-West Distribution, a San Diego company that supplied several dispensaries with cannabis oils, edibles, creams, and other products. Agents seized the company's inventory, business records, almost $325,000 in cash, and arrested two employees, who were not charged with any crime.

Shortly thereafter, the District Attorney's Office froze the bank accounts of the business owner, James Slatic, as well as those of his family.

Last weekend, activists and cannabis lovers took to the streets in dozens of countries around the world to voice their outrage that pot is still prohibited in many places.

Cops around the country are having a hard time figuring out if drivers are stoned. With drunk driving, a breathalyzer test can easily alert officers to heightened blood-alcohol content levels, but with weed, which stays in the body for up to a month, it’s damn-near impossible to determine if a driver lit up 10 minutes or 10 days before getting behind the wheel.

Now, according to U.S. News, legislators in Nevada are trying their hardest to eliminate the DUI confusion and standardize the procedure for stopping stoned drivers.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is in hot water with a Democratic competitor after dishing out some bold claims about his impact on cannabis policing reform. 

According to Politico, de Blasio was talking to voters about his track record at a campaign record when the incumbent candidate took credit for “ending arrests for low-level possession of marijuana.”

The only problem with de Blasio’s heroic police reform claims - is that the NYPD is still making thousands of low-level possession busts.

A long-time veteran of the Dallas Police force along with an ovarian cancer survivor have appeared in a television commercial that calls to decriminalize cannabis in the Longhorn State.