This Week In Cannabis 6/27

The Right to Know. The Right to Grow.

Rolling Down the Street
A Denver DUI attorney, Jay Tiftickjian, has started advertising his services on rolling papers.

Tiftickjian Law Firm is handing out these paper packs for free as a means of promoting his particular skill set. He credits the burning issue facing Colorado motorists as his inspiration. After seeing the state’s humorous attempt at an advertising PSA (Drive High Get a DUI) he formulated this marketing scheme.

Given that currently driving under the influence of marijuana carries the same penalty as alcohol, it is not a bad means of letting potential clients know “this is how I roll.”

Senate Gives MMJ Green Light
It ain’t easy being green, but the Feds are trying to do their part to make it a little more so according to a Huffington Post article.

Hot on the heels of the House stepping into maintain the rights of legal medical marijuana growers and users, the Senate now seems ready to get in on the action. A co-sponsored Senate amendment (Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, and Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ) looks to enforce those rights of patients and providers of medical marijuana in the 22 states and D.C. by restricting the use of federal funds by DEA agents to prosecute them.

DEA Tells FDA to Weed Out Facts
“No currently accepted medical use” is the phrase used in conjunction with a Schedule 1 drug classification. Marijuana currently has the Schedule 1 status, but it could be coming to an end. The Federal Drug Administration, and this is where it gets interesting, at the behest of the Drug Enforcement Agency (no, you didn’t misread that) is conducting “a scientific and medical analysis of the drug” to determine whether or not to downgrade marijuana from a Schedule I substance.

Of course, there is no concrete timetable on how long the review will take nor is there any guarantee that the findings will be favorable, but it could spell a softening on federal policies regarding financial and tax restrictions as well as medical research.

Brakes Pumped in D.C. Marijuana Decriminalization
Seems like legislators just can’t leave the Nation’s Capital decriminalization efforts alone and it appears that where marijuana grows, so too do sour grapes.

After efforts to stop decriminalization failed in Representative Andy Harris’ (R-MD) home state of Maryland, he found a way to stop it in the District by appealing to House Appropriations Committee.

The measure in question, which would lessen possession of less than 1oz to a civil offense in Washington D.C has been stopped in its tracks, with an amendment attaching a rider limiting the District’s ability to fund implementation of the law. Harris stated that the $25 fine was too low and that the new law would lead to a spike in drug use among young people.

Considering that the appropriations committee has not traditionally been friends of pro-green bills, it was a clever move by the Tea Party Republican, and one that will stall the bill’s passage by setting up another faceoff between the House and the Senate over spending.