Know about Marijuana

The laws of the majority of the world’s countries prohibit the possession, purchase, cultivation, distribution and use of marijuana. Anyway, even though there’s no nation that has completely legalized medical marijuana, there is a number of countries that have decriminalized the cultivation and use of restricted marijuana amounts. As of today, medical marijuana is lawful in an increasing number of nations, involving Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, Australia, and 14 USA states – Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

Cannabis is still illegal in the USA at the federal level, even despite the 14 states that have legalized it for personal use and possession. In the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, marijuana is categorized as a Schedule I drug along with the highly abuse-potential drugs. The act prohibits the employment, growth, selling, and having marijuana at one’s disposal. The debate betwixt the federal and state regulations has become the cause of the raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in the state of California by the Drug Enforcement Administration, also referred to as DEA. The US Supreme Court has ascertained that the federal government is allowed to control and criminalize cannabis, even in times when it’s used for medicinal purposes.

In 1996, Proposition 215 was issued in California. The document is also referred to as the Compassionate Use Act. It protects people from prosecution, if they were medically suggested to employ marijuana for their treatment of such illnesses, like anorexia, glaucoma, cancer, or AIDS (this is far from a complete list of those diseases). Tom Ammiano, a representative of the state of California, has introduced a Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act on the 23 February, 2009. This is the first bill to legalize, regulate, and tax the employment of marijuana in California. The bill is also referred to as AB 2254 – Assembly Bill 2254 – and it will be also issued on the November 2010 ballot. If the bill passes and will get signed, marijuana would be openly taxed and distributed to people age 21 and older in the state of California. Tom Ammiano is convinced that the legalization of the plant will evolve into more than $1 billion a year into the treasury of California, as reports the Wall Street Journal. Today, cannabis is the largest cash source with annual seales reaching $14,000,000,000. AB 2254 as well includes a $50 levy for 1 oz. of cannabis, which is usually distributed for couple of hundreds of dollars in the streets.

Also, a little more than a year ago, Senate Bill 1801 and House Bill 2929 have joined the laws of Massachusetts. The bills’ enacted goals are the reduction of cannabis abuse, offence removal, and the increase of the national earnings associated with the plant. These bills also offer a tax for all distributed marijuana, which is supposed to vary from $150 to $250 per ounce, in dependence on the amount of the THC present in marijuana.

Although it gets better on the state level, attempts to push marijuana legalization into the federal laws remain unsuccessful. On June 18, 2009, Barney Frank has introduced the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009 into the US House of Representatives. If this act will pass and will be enacted, it will remove federal penalties for the individual possession of as much as 3.5 marijuana ounces. If this happens, the states will definitely decide on their own upon cannabis possession regulations.

Today, the president Obama’s position is far from legalization, and is as far from decriminalization. Even though the federal prosecutions are really loose right now, the entire situation doesn’t point to“happily-ever-after” marijuana legalization.

Yet, there are 14 states in our nation that have legitimized use, possession, purchase, distribution, and cultivation of medical marijuana. Of course, prior to applying for a medical marijuana card registration, the best thing to do is to check the laws of your state regarding the use and possession of medical marijuana.