Thursday, December 20, 2012
The State Department of Public Health is working on coming up with statewide regulations.
As municipalities across Massachusetts await medical marijuana regulations from the State Department of Public Health, the Boston City Council is preparing the city the best it can for medical marijuana for January 1. Boston has a 120-day window through city zoning regulations starting Jan. 1 to create new zoning for medical marijuana dispensaries, but the state law states medical marijuana dispensaries can be opened on Jan. 1. The state law also says anyone who receives a prescription from their physician can then legally grow their own marijuana. District 5 City Councilor Rob Consalvo, chair of the Committee on Public Safety, said the city is continuing to work on creating zoning to allow medical marijuana dispensaries. Consalvo has said…
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
While officials don't know how many facilities the city will get yet, it's clear Boston will get some.
Massachusetts voters spoke loud and clearly on Election Day by overwhelmingly supporting the legalization of medical marijuana starting January 1. Now, Boston has to figure out where the medical marijuana dispensaries will be within the city. District 5 City Councilor Rob Consalvo led the charge at Wednesday's Boston City Council meeting, saying while they don't know how many facilities the city will get yet, it's clear Boston will get some. "I’m proposing what we do regularly - update our zoning code," Consalvo said. "This will be my seventh effort of amending the zoning code. Clearly this is a new use and a new change in front of us." But first the state needs to provide regulations, "We don’t know how the state regulations will take…
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
City Councilor Rob Consalvo estimated that Boston will get about four medical marijuana dispensaries in 2013. But where will they be located?
The Boston City Council will begin its discussion of how Boston will handle the legalization of medical marijuana on Wednesday. "We respect the will of voters," said District 5 City Councilor Rob Consalvo, who filed an order to hold the necessary hearing. "In the first year alone 35 dispensaries are to open up (in Massachusetts), and it's unlimited after that." Consalvo said he is guessing that Boston will start with four dispensaries due to it having 10 percent of the state's population. He said he was unaware of whether there is a difference between medical dispensaries and growing facilities, but that will be discussed at the hearing. An unlike several Massachusetts municipalities, such as Reading, which created zoning rules to not …
Friday, November 9, 2012
The medical marijuana ballot initiative passed on Tuesday, which means up to 35 medical marijuana dispensaries can open in 2013. Would you be OK with having one in your neighborhood?
Medical marijuana is coming to Massachusetts. The question is: where? The medical marijana ballot initiative that passed in Tuesdays election with 63 percent voter approval means that up to 35 medical marijuana dispensaries can open up in the state in 2013. The new law goes into effect January 1, but requires rules and regulations be set up by the Department of Public Health. Some towns and cities, such as Quincy, reportedly are already trying to line up regulations that would keep dispensaries out of their municipalities, which have proved troublesome in some of the nine states where medical marijuana dispensaries have been legal. What do you think? Is this a classic case of NIMBY (fine, but Not In My Back Yard)? Or do medical marijuana …
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
A spoof website ignites discussion on both side of the issue.
A group fighting to keep marijuana illegal says that a recent spoof of their website was anything but funny, and took a potshot at its creator. "This is no joke. This whole situation is demonstrative of the problem at hand: who is really behind this initiative to legalize pot as medicine," a writer on mavotenoonquestion3.com shot back after freelance web designer Scott Gacek revealed that he bought the website the group had listed with the Secretary of State William Galvin's office, VoteNoOnQuestion3.org. Galvin's office sent out its guide for voters last week, including information on the three ballot questions, with the second website address listed. But since the anti-pot group never registered the URL, Gacek was able to buy it and set…
Friday, June 15, 2012
Ballot to be finalized by AG's office on July 3.
Of the 31 initiatives put forth for the fall ballot, only four both have enough signatures and been certified by Attorney General Martha Coakley in order to make it on the ballot by the July 3 deadline. And of those, one looks likely to be resolved by the Legislature before that date. The initiative that appears likely to reach resolution is called "An Act Promoting Excellence in Public Schools." Backed by Stand for Children Massachusetts, it involves retaining and promoting teachers based on performance reviews and test scores rather than seniority. Proponents say it will raise teaching standards and make it easier for schools to fire ineffective teachers. But opponents, which include the Massachusetts Teachers Association, say that …
Friday, April 13, 2012
The results of our poll from earlier in the week indicate this potential November ballot question could find overwhelming support this time around.
Earlier this week, we asked readers to weigh in on a question that has been asked in Masachusetts for several years now: Should the Bay State allow medical marijuana? We put together a poll asking if people support various degrees of legalization or decriminalization for medical purposes, if they support legalizing, regulating and taxing pot with no prescription required, or if they do not support such initiatives under any circumstances. We knew this would be a topic of interest, but we were not prepared for the outpouring of responses, nor the one-sided nature of respondents’ answers. Without further ado, here is what our readers told us about medical marijuana. Our poll generated 329 responses and, out of those, a whopping 284 people …
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
There's a hearing today on Beacon Hill regarding a ballot question, that, if passed, could legalize marijuana in Massachusetts for people with debilitating conditions, but is this something you would support?
The Massachusetts legislature's Committee On Public Health is planning to hold a hearing today to evaluate a possible ballot question that would legalize marijuana for "patients with debilitating medical conditions such as cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis" who have a doctor's prescription for it, according to an article on MyFox Boston. The ballot question, which Attorney General Martha Coakley has already certified to appear on the ballot, also "calls for the state to register up to 35 nonprofit medical treatment centers around the state to distribute the marijuana." The states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, …
FlyingTooLow
11:34 am on Thursday, December 20, 2012
I copied the below comment from another website. I think the American veteran who wrote this sums it up very well: "I am a disabled Army Veteran and smoke marijuana strictly for medical purposes. I never smoked before I broke my back in the military and it hasen't been a gateway to anything. I started smoking because of my cauda equina syndrome. I had a herniated disk in my lower back that … more ›