Source: @norml @WeedConnection
Posted By: norml@weedconnection.com
media :: news - Tue, 24 Mar 2015 04:20:21 PST
Nevada: Voters To Decide In 2016 On Statewide Measure Regulating Marijuana Sales
Carson City, NV: Nevada voters will decide next November on ballot language that seeks to regulate the licensed production and retail sale of cannabis to adults. Lawmakers had until late last week to act on the initiative petition, filed by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), but failed to do so - thus placing the measure on the 2016 electoral ballot.
Proponents of the measure, "The Initiative to Tax and Regulate Marijuana," turned in over 200,000 signatures from registered Nevada voters in December to qualify it for the ballot.
The ballot language permits adults to possess and grow personal use quantities of cannabis (up to one ounce and/or six plants) for non-commercial purposes. The measure also regulates and taxes the commercial production and retail sale of cannabis.
It states, "The People of the State of Nevada find and declare that the use of marijuana should be legal for persons 21 years of age or older, and its cultivation and sale should be regulated similar to other businesses."
Similar ballot measures are likely to be decided in 2016 in several other states, including Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Missouri.
More information @ https://www.regulatemarijuanainnevada.org
Poll: Majority Of Connecticut Voters Say Legalize Marijuana
Hartford, CT: More than six out of ten Connecticut voters favor legalizing marijuana use by adults, according to statewide polling conducted by Quinnipiac University.
Sixty-three percent of respondents said that they favored permitting adults to legally possess personal use quantities of cannabis. Only 34 percent of voters opposed this idea.
The poll possesses a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points
Legislation, House Bill 6703, is presently pending in the state, "to allow marijuana use for persons twenty-one years of age and older, and to regulate the sale, possession, use and growth of marijuana."
In 2011, Connecticut state lawmakers approved legislation reducing marijuana possession penalties from a criminal misdemeanor to an infraction. Lawmakers legalized the production and distribution of medical marijuana in 2012.
This week, judges for the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that those with previous marijuana possession convictions could petition the court to have their criminal records expunged. "The legislature has determined that [minor marijuana possession] violations are to be handled in the same manner as civil infractions, such as parking violations," Justice Carmen Espinosa opined. "The state has failed to suggest any plausible reason why erasure should be denied in such cases."
Study: Elevated THC/Blood Levels Persist In Habitual Consumers
Victoria, Australia: The presence of THC may persist in the blood of habitual cannabis consumers for multiple days at concentrations above 5ng/ml, according clinical data recently published in the journal Forensic Science International.
Australian researchers assessed daily concentrations of THC in the blood of 21 subjects over a period of 7 days of monitored abstinence. Subjects reported having engaging in the "heavy" use of cannabis during the months leading up to the study.
Of the 11 participants who completed the entire 7-day program, seven tested positive for THC/blood concentrations of 2ng/ml or higher on the final day of the trial. Nine of the 21 subjects tested positive for concentrations of THC above 5ng/ml some 24-hours after their last reported use of cannabis, with one subject testing positive above this threshold some 129 hours after being admitted into the study.
Several other participants experienced rapid declines in THC/blood levels followed by subsequent spikes in THC concentrations following multiple days of cannabis abstinence.
Researchers reported: "While many of the subjects showed expected blood THC profiles, there were several who appeared to have a prolonged redistribution phase lasting a day or more and some who sustained high blood THC concentrations for several days. There were also subjects who showed a 'double hump' pattern with an initial fall in levels followed by a transient rise on the third or fourth day of abstinence."
They concluded: "These results suggest that the toxicokinetics of THC are not as simple as was previously thought. ... This makes interpretation of toxicology results much more difficult than it has been when it was assumed that THC followed a well-defined pattern of elimination kinetics and further suggests that a reliable algorithm for mathematical modeling of THC metabolism in real-world heavy users remains elusive."
The results challenge the notion the presence of THC in blood can be a consistent or accurate predictor of recent cannabis use or behavioral impairment. In particular, these findings further call into question the imposition of per se traffic safety laws for cannabis. Such laws, which are presently imposed in over a dozen states, legally define drivers with trace levels - or in some cases, any levels - of THC in their blood as criminally impaired.
Full text of the study, "Residual cannabis levels in blood, urine and oral fluid following heavy cannabis use," appears in Forensic Science Journal. Additional information is available from the NORML website here: https://norml.org/library/driving-and-marijuana
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