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Medical marijuana activists say they expect the U.S. Department of Justice at any to issue a statement clarifying the federal government's stance toward state-sanctioned medical marijuana programs - like the one approved by Arizona voters last year, but which remains in jeopardy as lawsuits surrounding its legality play out. Allen St. Pierre, director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), said Justice Department officials told attorneys from his group at a June 16 meeting that the federal government was trying to have their stance ready be released this week.
SWAT raids might happen with less frequency if police departments were required to be more transparent about how they conduct them, said Radley Balko, an editor at the Libertarian magazine Reason. Balko delivered his remarks to about 50 people from Missouri NORML, the state branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Balko said the nation's war on drugs has led police departments to become militarized. He suggested that relatively minor offenses - - such as marijuana possession -- increasingly are triggering unnecessary drug raids, as more and more communities have boosted their SWAT capabilities.
GETTING arrested for possessing small amounts of marijuana will no longer be a crime under a bill now pending in the Legislature. Rather than facing a $1,000 fine and six months in jail, those with less than 15 grams of marijuana -- a little more than half an ounce - - would be fined $150 for their first offense and up to $500 for repeated violations. This bill is a sensible response to the prevalence of marijuana use in today's society. An estimated 100 million Americans have smoked marijuana, and about 25 million have done so in the last year, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. If the bill passes, New Jersey would be following 14 other states, including New York and Connecticut, which have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of the drug...
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