State News

California marijuana advocates have killed a bill in the legislature that could have landed countless innocent drivers in jail. The bill, sponsored by Democratic Assemblyman Jim Frazier, would have made it a crime to drive with a certain amount of THC in the bloodstream. THC is the psychoactive chemical in marijuana. A growing number of states are adopting this “per ...

It’s now official: California won’t see legalization until at least 2016. The last of four attempts to put legal weed on the ballot this November fell short in April, putting the final nail in the coffin for major reform in 2014. The California Cannabis Hemp Initiative, also known as the Jack Herer initiative, had until April 18 to gather enough ...

A proposed law that would place new regulations on California’s medical marijuana industry cleared a key hurdle in the state legislature in April. The state Assembly’s Public Safety Committee approved the bill April 22. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a Democrat from San Francisco, introduced it. It’s one of two such proposals under consideration in the legislature. The other recently won approval ...

A rigid attempt to regulate medical marijuana in California cleared an important Senate panel in April. The bill, backed by law enforcement groups and opposed by the state’s largest medical group, would license dispensaries and impose tight new restrictions on doctors who recommend cannabis to patients. It would also make it easier for local governments to ban pot shops. The ...

A California lawmaker is pushing new rules on medical marijuana that could make life much easier for the industry and keep the feds out of everyone’s hair. After trying and failing more than once before, state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco has introduced a bill he hopes will provide the regulation MMJ badly needs in California. “I’m cautiously optimistic,” ...

California is struggling through its worst drought in memory, and observers say marijuana growers aren’t helping the problem. The Golden State produces most of America’s weed, including the state’s own massive medical marijuana supply. Even with Colorado and Washington turning to local growers for their legal pot, California will remain a major exporter of cannabis. Most of that marijuana is ...

One of California’s last remaining attempts to legalize pot in 2014 has apparently secured a last-minute financial backer who could give the proposal the juice it needs to make the ballot. Advocates behind the Marijuana Control, Legalization and Revenue Act announced in a press release that they had found a backer among “California’s over 100 billionaires” who has committed $10 ...

Early in 2013, the California Supreme Court upheld a total ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in Riverside. It was a watershed case, allowing more than 200 local governments to cement their own bans and opening the doors to bans in other communities. But almost a year later, it’s not clear how much has really changed in the wake of that ...

A ruling by the California Supreme Court in March could undermine medical marijuana in vast swaths of the state, even as voters prepare to legalize weed in just a few years. The court declined to hear a petition from MMJ advocates fighting a total ban on cultivation in the City of Live Oak. The ban applies to all grows, indoors ...

A campaign that failed to get legalization on the ballot in 2014 has been given new life, though probably not for long. The backers of the so-called Jack Herer amendment tried to collect enough voter signatures to get their proposal on the ballot, but they came up short last month. Now they have won approval from the California Secretary of ...