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Stay strong, Arizona medical-marijuana patients.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and local authorities have little power to stop you from consuming, possessing, or even growing cannabis under state law.

The 2010 Arizona Medical Marijuana Act contains a sort of “Dracula clause“: If freedom-hating prohibitionists try to kill it, it will come back to life and bite them. Read it in the Phoenix New Times.

A new study found that people who are more likely to develop schizophrenia are more likely to try cannabis. It also found  new evidence that cannabis use can cause schizophrenia.

The number of pregnant women who use cannabis is  up more than 60% since 2002. While knowledge of how cannabis affects fetuses is limited, Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, called it “cause for concern.”

The Duluth News Tribune looks examines the case for, and against,  treating PTSD with MED.

More experts say cannabis  should be prescribed before opiates, VICE reports.

Ohio doctors say they’re  reluctant to recommend MED.

An article from “The American Tribune” on an overdose from injecting cannabis  turned out to be fake news.

Connecticut has approved its first MED study,  to compare pain relief with an opiate in patients with fractured ribs. A Connecticut hospice will use cannabis to  reduce its dependence on opioids.

President Obama  granted clemency to 231 individuals. His total of more than 1,300 sentence commutations totals more than his 11 predecessors combined. Here’s the story of one of them,  Paul Free, who was serving a life sentence and is now eligible for parole in 2020.

Obama also granted  78 “pre-Christmas” pardons.

Vox examines how Obama has  reshaped the war on drugs, and how that legacy is will be jeopardized under President Trump. For one thing, Obama tended not to use the term “War on Drugs.”

A court ruled that Arizona MED users  can’t be convicted of DUI without evidence of impairment.

A Colorado man who drove impaired and  killed a motorcyclist was sentenced to 10 months in jail and two years probation.

A day after they opened, six unlicensed Cannabis Culture dispensaries were  raided and closed in Montreal. The 10 arrests included owner and “prince of pot” Marc Emery.

Spotted in D.C.: “ This is your brain on Jeff Sessions.

In Milton, Mass., a dispensary seeks to open in the historic “ Swift Hat Shop” building.

The study is from a U.S. government agency.

Here’s your daily dose of pot news from the newsletter WeedWeek.

U.S. teenagers find it harder to buy weed than they have for 24 years, according to an annual survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The same study found that teen drug use is declining nationally.

Humboldt County’s growing areas voted against REC, but the cities voted for it.

A long awaited task force report in Canada recommended 18 as the legal buying age. For more see hereand here. The country plans to legalize REC next year.

REC businesses in Portland, Oregon, are struggling to obtain licenses. And the head of the state’s lab accrediting agency is stepping down.

Florida lawmakers are thinking about how to regulate MED. For more see here. A proposal in Ohio would allow 40 MED dispensaries in the state.

Tennessee Republicans are considering a MED program.

Radio Free Asia reports that Chinese visitors to North Korea buy pot by the kilogram and sell it for a healthy mark-up in China.

Australian economists say legalizing REC would be good for the Queensland economy.

Stanford Medical School professor and tobacco advertising expert Dr. Robert K. Jackler editorializes that “If nationwide legalization happens, it is essential that the tobacco industry is banned from the marijuana market.”

L.A. Weekly profiles Seventh Point LLC, a cannabis private equity firm focused on Los Angeles. The firm expects L.A., the world’s largest cannabis market, to be the “Silicon Valley” of weed. The city’s cannabis community is uniting to legalize dispensaries.

Keith McCarty, CEO of delivery app Eaze, is stepping down, shortly after the company secured $13M in funding. He’ll be replaced by Jim Patterson, who, like McCarty was a senior executive at Yammer, a workplace social network which sold to Microsoft for more than $1 billion.

Possibly the largest legal pot company in the world.

Here’s your daily dose of pot news from the newsletter WeedWeek.

Canada’s Canopy Growth Corp. will acquire Mettrum Health Corp. for C$430M, creating a dominant Canadian player.

Vice examines 280E, the tax code provision used to tax marijuana businesses more than other businesses.

Warehouse rents are skyrocketing in legal states. But the New York Stock Exchange IPO of cannabis real estate trust Innovative Industrial Properties went nowhere, following the Sessions nomination.

The BBC calls Albania, a small, poor country in southeast Europe, the continent’s “ outdoor cannabis capital.

The industry could create an opportunity for clean energy technologies like “ renewable microgrids.

LAWeekly asks if small cannabis businesses can survive legalization.

Accounting Today says, “ The Cannabis Industry Needs Accountants.

Pot was a hot topic at the 2016 Wine Industry Expo. For more see here.

Financial firm Cowen said legalization is bad for beer sales. MarketWatch disagrees.

Dispensaries offered discounts for “ Green Friday.” (The shopping day after Thanksgiving.)

The BBC profiles John Stewart, an executive who was CEO of Purdue Pharma, which sells the opioid Oxycontin and now leads a MED company in Canada.

There’s an incubator that aims to turn formerly-incarcerated drug dealers into legal entrepreneurs.

Century Bank in Massachusetts openly works with pot businesses.

A new site called The Cannifornian will cover legalization in the state.  Parent company Digital First Media also owns The Denver Post and its site The Cannabist.

RAND Corporation scholar Beau Kilmer editorializes in favor of the state legalization experiments.

Denver’s social use measure may face legal challenges. Juneau, Ak.’s first dispensary opened and sold out in three hours.

Maryland’s pot regulator has hired a diversity consultant, after it failed to award any of its initial 30 licenses to African-Americans. It has also given preliminary approval for 102 MED dispensary licenses. The names will be made public this week.

Florida’s MED community has few friends in Tallahassee. The new law will also undermine the state’s largely disregarded bong ban.

The Cannabist meets Rilie Ray Morgan, the 66-year old man who championed MED in North Dakota.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) is launching a new effort to use pot taxes to build apartments for the chronically homeless.

Massachusetts may delay implementing aspects of its REC law. Maine will recount its REC vote. MED legalization is on the table in Ireland and South Africa.

British politician Nick Clegg called for legalization. Vice sketches out what a legal U.K. market for recreational drugs could look like.

Here’s your daily dose of cannabis news from the newsletter WeedWeek:

On a conference call with reporters this week, Bill Piper, the Drug Policy Alliance’s Senior Director of National Affairs, discussed the nomination of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions (R) for U.S. Attorney General:

“Civil rights groups point out that Sen. Sessions has been one of the Senate’s most extreme voices on issues affecting immigrants, Muslims, African-Americans, Latinos, Women and the LGBT community. He has a long record of obstructing civil rights.

“In the area of drug policy reform, Sen. Sessions is a drug war dinosaur. His has nearly singlehandedly blocked bipartisan sentencing reform in the Senate. Sessions has been critical of the Obama Justice Department’s guidelines around sentencing that were designed to limit harsh sentences, and he has criticized the Justice Department’s use of consent decrees that force local police departments to address police brutality, racial profiling and other civil rights issues. He opposes giving formerly incarcerated individuals the right to vote. 
“He recently described marijuana as a dangerous drug and said that, “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.” He has criticized the Obama administration for respecting state marijuana laws. 
“If confirmed as U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions could escalate the failed war on drugs. He will likely use his position to oppose any kind of sentencing or criminal justice reform…He could also undo the Cole Memo which provided guidance to U.S. attorneys instructing them to generally not raid marijuana dispensaries in states where it is legal.
“The war on drugs could also be a weapon that Sessions and the Trump administration use to spy on, investigate incarcerate or deport immigrants and other targeted groups. Already, President-elect Trump has said he wants to aggressively deport any immigrant who commits any offense, no matter how minor, including drug offenses…Senator Sessions could not only escalate the war on immigration and the war on drugs, he could combine them.

“He was deemed unfit to be a Federal judge in 1986 and I believe he will be deemed unfit to be U.S. Attorney General when the Senate looks at his history and record during confirmation hearings next year.”

Following Piper, representatives from LatinoJustice PRLDEF, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, theCouncil on American-Islamic Relations, and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, and the Cato Institute—“massive, massive privacy concerns” – each discussed what Attorney General Sessions could mean for criminal justice and civil liberties.

As Piper writes in a blog post, it isn’t clear how state-legal marijuana businesses would be affected if Sessions wins confirmation:

“No one knows for sure what exactly to expect, but we should assume the worst. His administration, which looks set to be staffed by drug-war extremists, could go after state marijuana laws. Instead of just opposing sentencing reform, they could push for new mandatory minimums. They might demonize drugs and drug sellers to build support for mass deportations and a wall. Trump’s law-and-order rhetoric could fundamentally alter the political environment, nationally and locally.”
Piper adds:
“We need to pace ourselves, choose our battles carefully, be strategic, and perhaps most importantly, keep our morale up. We need to find ways of supporting each other…
“It’s especially important that we find ways to create division among Republicans, who now hold Congress and the White House. The more they disagree, the less they can get done. Two areas that stand out for us are marijuana and sentencing reform. We have enough Republican support on both these issues that we might be able to create dissent within the GOP if Trump tries to do something bad in these areas…
The rise of Trump and Trumpism has put a national spotlight on white supremacy and misogyny. Everywhere, people are now organizing against hate. Drug policy reformers should be part of that fight.

We can start by taking a hard look at our movement and the marijuana industry we have created. If groups draft legalization laws that  ignore racial justice, we need to call them out. If dispensaries, marijuana magazines or other marijuana businesses objectify and demean women to sell their products, or if they exclude people of color, we need to call them out. It is long past time to clean up our own house.”

The Christian Science Monitor tries to parse how or if AG Sessions will go after the industry. So does The Hill. “Pot policy in the U.S. is up in the air,” Brookings Institution scholar John Hudak tells the NYTimes.

Cannabis business lawyer Hilary Bricken shares her views at Above the Law. More from LAist, andMarijuana.com.

Pro-pot activist and journalist Tom Angell told Buzzfeed, “From a political lens, I think reversing course on [marijuana]and trying to shut down broadly popular state laws, that’s going to be a huge distraction from all the other things they care a lot more about,” Angell said. “It’s a fight that they don’t want to pick.”

To put this differently, unlike going after undocumented immigrants or Muslims, an attempt to crush the legal marijuana industry would likely have political consequences for a Republican administration.

If Sessions doesn’t realize it already, he’ll soon learn that gutting the REC and MED industry would require opposing state Legislatures in Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and going against the will of voters in states including Florida, Arkansas, Nevada, Colorado, Montana and North Dakota. It would mean killing tens of thousands of jobs, and perhaps prosecuting White, media-savvy, cannabis executives, who can afford good lawyers.

Trump did not make a return to prohibition central to his campaign — his support for MED has beenrelatively consistent – and for a president who wants to win re-election, it’s hard to see much if any upside for him in a widespread crackdown. Given these uncertainties, there is a case for the industry to keep its head-down and hope President Trump has other priorities.

There is also a case for action.

In important respects, the marijuana industry is a marginalized community. But unlike other marginalized groups, marijuana is also a thriving industry, one expected to generate more than $6 billion in revenue this year.

During the Obama years, the marijuana industry has obtained the resources and geographic scope to make the Sessions confirmation a fiercely contested battle, and perhaps even defeat him. To do so, Republican Senators, especially those from legal states, need to understand that a vote for Sessions will cast a long shadow over their political futures.

For more than two years, cannabis executives have been telling me that this industry isn’t just about getting high and getting rich, that it’s rooted in struggles for health and justice. The Sessions nomination is the test of that commitment. If industry leaders don’t fight when other groups –including those that include colleagues, friends and customers — appear far more vulnerable, it’s hard to see how this industry stands for anything except its own enrichment. If the industry doesn’t fight now, who will stand up for it if political realities shift and legal cannabis emerges as a primary target?

The cannabis industry is indebted to countless Americans whose lives have been ruined by the war on drugs. Honoring their sacrifice demands a full-throated, and generously-funded, campaign against the Sessions nomination.

Prohibition is part of the international order.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.

As Canada moves to legalize it has two options regarding international treaties to which it is a part. It could take a “ principled stand” against prohibition or quietly withdraw from the treaties and then attempt to re-enter them with exemptions. Canada being Canada, it is leaning towards the quiet approach.

The announcement comes shortly after it raised millions of dollars.
Here’s your daily round up of pot news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.
Vancouver-based grower Aurora Cannabis is planning a giant 600,000 square-foot grow in Alberta. That’s the size of 10 football fields. Canadian grower Aphria inked a deal to supply an Australian company with MED.
At least two large Canadian producers consider the  new federal home grow rules  “a setback for the advancement of sound cannabis policy.”
The Commodities Futures Trading Commission approved the first exchange for trading hemp derivatives.
The total is still below 15%.
The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.
A Gallup poll found that 13% of U.S. adults currently use cannabis, up from 7% in 2013.

At SFWeekly, I argued that the 2016 Presidential candidates have dodged their responsibility to discuss legalization.

Ohio is looking for an experienced pot grower to help write the state’s MED rules. The successful applicant will likely have to pass a drug test.

Some Ohio communities are taking action to keep out MED businesses, though dispensaries won’t open in the state until at least 2018.
The alcohol industry wants Congress to know that cannabis-impaired driving is a problem. Officially, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America is neutral on legalization, but this year an industry group donated to stop Arizona’s REC initiative.
The San Jose Mercury News editorializes in favor of legalization in California. So does the East Bay Times.

The National Conference of State Legislatures endorsed rescheduling.

North Dakota will vote on MED in November. Arizona will vote on REC. Supporters of the Oklahoma MED initiative are “ cautiously optimistic” that they gathered enough signatures to make the ballot.

Two MED initiatives could qualify for the Arkansas ballot. The question of which one voters get to decide may end up in court. The Arkansas Farm Bureau and the state’s Chamber of Commerce oppose both.

Denver’s limited public use initiative collected more than double the number of signatures needed to qualify for a vote in November.

Nashville may decriminalize. The Chicago Tribune visits a grow house, and catches up on the Illinois industry.

High Times lists its “ hateful-eight,” the country’s most influential legalization opponents.

Illegal drug sales on the so-called dark web have tripled since the 2013 closure of the site Silk Road.

Watch out for knock-off vaporizers.

In Oregon, some Craigslist sellers ask for payment in cash or cannabis. Minnesota’s two MED producers are both losing money.

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