law

Eyeing a June 30 deadline to get a bill to Gov. Charlie Baker's desk, the Massachusetts Senate on Friday released a proposal that attempts to come closer to the recreational marijuana law voters approved in November. Through a ballot question, voters broadly legalized usage of recreational...

Massachusetts marijuana advocates were enraged on Wednesday, saying taxes on Bay State marijuana could skyrocket to 56 percent under a State House plan to overhaul the legalization law approved by voters. Hours later, state House Speaker Robert DeLeo said lawmakers will not vote on the bill...

The marijuana market has been volatile since the elections of November 2016. Enthusiasm greeted passage of state laws that liberalized and/or decriminalized possession and use for medical or recreational purposes. Confusion over administrative delays threatens to delay the law's realization...

Massachusetts lawmakers, toiling behind closed doors, could vote as soon as Thursday on an overhaul of the voter-passed marijuana legalization law. The state House of Representatives has scheduled a formal session for June 15, and one of the bills expected to be on the docket is a pot law...

With the passage of Proposition 64 in November, Californians were finally free to enjoy recreational marijuana. For average stoners, this meant being free from the fiction that the weed they purchased was prescription medication. Minor offenses such as possession of less than an ounce of weed or...

I was speaking to a legislator this week readying himself for his vote on Florida's medical marijuana legislation when he posed an interesting question: How can we defend voting in favor of any medical marijuana legislation if in so doing we are essentially passing a state law that is prohibited...

Colorado is ramping up efforts to try and prevent marijuana from being diverted to the black market. Gov. John Hickenlooper signed two bi-partisan bills into law Thursday. "I think we're protecting neighborhoods from the violence often associated with organized crime," said Hickenlooper. "We're...

The state's top prosecutor wants police to be able to arrest people for having marijuana on college and university campuses, even if they have a state-issued card allowing them to buy and use the drug. In new court filings Thursday, Attorney General Mark Brnovich contends the Arizona Court of...

With a bill altering the voter-approved legal marijuana law expected by the end of the month, marijuana activists held a rally on the Statehouse steps Wednesday to tell lawmakers to leave the law as it is. For more than 20 years, the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition and the local...

There were a few years when the War on Drugs, at least concerning marijuana, seemed to be over. It took decades for popular opinion to change, but ultimately a majority of Americans came to see marijuana policies as a waste of resources at best and a civil rights travesty at worst. Activists...

Just because a court finds you were legally growing marijuana plants doesn't mean you get those plants back after police have seized them. Local leukemia survivor Bob Crouse found that out the hard way. Recall from past reporting by the Independent that his case began in 2011, when cops...

For as long as the War on Drugs has persisted, marijuana and its skunky, distinct smell have been used by law enforcement as probable cause to search vehicles and detain individuals on the street. Now that recreational weed is legal in California, it would seem the validity of this oft-used...

Clinton Township is trying to figure out what steps it needs to take as Michigan enacts new medical marijuana laws. The state's new law goes into effect January 1, 2018. Medical marijuana advocates have already begun to lobby for recreational use of marijuana in Michigan. In Supervisor Robert...

More than 100 new patients have received permission to use a form of medical marijuana in Georgia this month, bringing the statewide total of people using the product to more than 1800 less than three years after the state began the program. They still don't have easy access to the drug...

Michael Watts runs a factory where cranes move heavy molds and machinery, hoisting them overhead. Nearby presses hold molten plastics under intense heat and pressure. The most dangerous piece of machinery there, he says, is a common forklift. "I'm the boss, and I wouldn't let myself drive one...

Gov. John Hickenlooper hasn't signed the bill yet, but there's already a citizens' effort to block it if he does. The measure, HB1220, would limit to 16 the number of marijuana plants that can be grown on residential property, down from the current 99. As is allowed by law, a citizens'...

More than 100 new patients have received permission to use a form of medical marijuana in Georgia this month, bringing the statewide total of people using the product to more than 1,800 less than three years after the state began the program. They still don't have easy access to the drug, which...

Pennsylvania is gearing up for full implementation of its medical marijuana law early next year, but significant questions still remain about exactly what that will look like for patients and businesses. Some of those questions have to do with the fact that medical marijuana is a new market...

As Rep. Jason Chaffetz looks to leave office, one of his unintentional legacies could be this: propping up an underground market for marijuana in the nation's capital and making dealers more money. Chaffetz, R-Utah, helped lead the charge to block a voter-approved law in the District of...

More than 100 new patients have received permission to use a form of medical marijuana in Georgia this month, bringing the statewide total of people using the product to more than 1800 less than three years after the state began the program. They still don't have easy access to the drug, which...