Shortly after 4:20 p.m.–when else would it be, haha–last Friday, Oct. 11, California’s first open-sourced ballot initiative (read it here: MCLR.pdf) officially filed its paperwork for the November 2014 electoral ballot. In other words, despite the lack of leadership by state lawmakers, we’re officially one step closer to California’s era of legalized recreational marijuana.
OC Weekly has the full story.
| Viva la mota! |
Uruguayan lawmakers Wednesday night approved a bill that would legalize marijuana possession and use for adults 18 and up in that country as well as establish government-regulated cannabis shops where the plant will be sold.
If the bill makes it to law, Uruguay will be the first country to re-legalize cannabis in nearly 80 years.
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.
CannaKids founder Tracy Ryan with her daughter Sophie.
The issue often comes up
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The REC initiatives in Massachusetts and three other states include measures that protect parents from losing custody of their children as a result of marijuana use. An Idaho mom has lost custody of her kids and is facing criminal charges after giving her child cannabis butter to relieve seizure-like symptoms.
Despite bipartisan support.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.
An amendment that would have allowed VA doctors to recommend MED in legal states passed both houses of Congress but was stripped from the legislation before it reached President Obama’s desk. Supporters of the bill are blaming Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk (R), who said “I don’t think we have too few high veterans out there” earlier this year.
“Verifying their stories is as difficult as finding your way through the forest at night.”
Here’s your daily round up of pot news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.
A major investigation by The Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal project found “ dozens of accounts of sexual exploitation, abuse and trafficking” in the northern California grow regions. In Humboldt County alone 352 people went missing, more per capita than any other county in California.
A study found that daily marijuana use is growing rapidly, especially among users who are “poor and lack a high school diploma.” “What’s going on here is that over the last 20 years marijuana went from being used like alcohol to being used more like tobacco, in the sense of lots of people using it every day,” according to one of the researchers. (See the study here.)
The number of U.S. cannabis users is set to exceed tobacco users within a few years.
There wasn’t much talk of marijuana inside the arena at this year’s Democratic National Convention.
The industry was all over Philly.
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Marijuana wasn’t often mentioned in the Democratic National Convention’s official program.
Unofficially, it was the “star.” A trade association had a party. MPP had a fundraiser. Marchers carried a 51-foot joint.
At Marijuana.com, Tom Angell (@TomAngell) unearthed the Tim Kaine quote, “I actually kind of like this option of the states as labs and they can experiment [with legalizing]and we can see what happens.” NORML revised its rating on the vice presidential candidate from F to C. (Last week, I referred to MPP ratings for presidential candidates as NORML ratings. I regret the error.)
Marijuana Business Daily interviews former U.S. deputy attorney general James Cole, whose eight-point 2013 memo gave the industry confidence that it could grow without federal prosecution. “It wasn’t really intended to be a huge policy shift as much as reacting to the situation and trying to use some common sense,” he said.
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wants more lawmakers to support legalization.
Former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank (D) said heroin and crystal meth should be legalized. “We should outlaw a drug if it is likely to make you mistreat others. People don’t hit other people in the head because they’re on heroin; they hit other people in the head because they need to get money to buy heroin.”
The New Yorker profiles Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate and a legalization supporter. He said he would not use cannabis as president.
Quartz introduces us to Tick Segerblom (D), a dogged cannabis supporter in the Nevada State Senate.
The U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeals Board said cannabis sellers can’t receive federal trademark protection.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) decriminalized possession, making the state the third largest after New York and California to do so.
About half of the 100 Oregon communities that don’t allow REC businesses will vote on whether to lift their bans in November.
Ohio legislators knew that the provision in the state’s MED law to guarantee 15% of business licenses might be unconstitutional but they kept it in to win votes, the AP reports.
Florida billionaire Carol Jenkins Barnett, a Publix supermarket heir, donated $800,000 to oppose the state’s MED initiative.
A Los Angeles county ballot initiative that proposed a pot tax to benefit the homeless has been shelved. Canna Law Blog dives into the business climate in L.A, one of the world’s largest cannabis markets.
The DEA compared home grows to “meth houses.”
Italian lawmakers are beginning to debate legalization. Opponents include Pope Francis. The Italian military grows MED for the country.
Voters will have a clear choice in November.
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The Democratic Party Platform states “We encourage the federal government to remove marijuana from its list as a Class 1 Federal Controlled Substance, providing a reasoned pathway for future legalization.” The Washington Post describes the language as a nod to Bernie Sanders.
For its platform, the Republican Party rejected language supporting MED. It was proposed by Dale Jackson, a GOP delegate from Georgia with an autistic son. Another delegate said mass-shooters are, “young boys from divorced families, and they’re all smoking pot.”
Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) opposed reducing marijuana penalties in 2013.
The Cannabist released its 2016 election guide.
The industry-loathed “ potency amendment” will not be on the Colorado ballot. Frank McNulty (R), a former speaker of the Colorado House and supporter of the measure said the industry paid signature gathering firms to not gather signatures. “Without [signature gathering companies]we didn’t have the ability to get it to the ballot,”McNulty said.
An industry spokesman denied the accusation andThe Denver Post editorial page finds it “dubious.” “ Big marijuana trashes democratic process,” the Colorado Springs Gazette editorializes.
Campaign filings released on August 1 will clarify what happened. (An email query from WeedWeek was not returned.)
The Amendment would have banned products with higher than 16% THC, which account for 80% of cannabis products in Colorado. “Make no mistake,” the Post writes, “139 was an anti-pot measure designed to gut the industry. And it’ll be back.”
With industry support, California plans to regulate water use by growers.
Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association, explains his ambivalence about California’s upcoming Adult Use of Marijuana Act vote: “The initiative is decidedly more friendly to big business and will lead to rapid consolidation of the industry. This is an avoidable and undesirable outcome.” (See the initiative’s exact language here.)
Montanans will vote on a measure to expand the state’s MED program. L.A. County voters will decide on a marijuana business tax to benefit the homeless. The L.A. Times tells government officials, “Legal marijuana should not be seen as the solution to your revenue problems.”
A federal judge rejected the claim that current federal laws are “so arbitrary and irrational as to be unconstitutional.” The complaint was brought by Charles and Alexander Green, two Californian brothers accused of trafficking.
A proposed MED measure in North Dakota would be too expensive, the state health department said. The Pennsylvania legislature approved growing hemp for research.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock (D) blames legal weed for the “urban travelers” who have caused violent episodes on Denver’s 16th Street Mall, the city’s main pedestrian thoroughfare. Recently, a 32-year old Indiana man was arrested after video showed him attacking pedestrians with lengths of PVC pipe. It’s not clear whether he was high at the time.
Other recent incidents, also caught on video, have seen arrests after attacks and aggressive panhandling. New research shows that legal states have seen a drop in Medicare prescriptions for anti-depressants and opiods, and a corresponding reduction in Medicare costs.
Prescriptions did not drop for drugs like blood-thinners that can’t plausibly be replaced with MED. (Read that study here.) If California legalizes REC in November, it could influence federal policy on banking and other issues. Regulators in the state said they will start inspecting dispensary scales to ensure that customers are getting their money’s worth.
Massachusetts’ REC initiative will be on the ballot in November. Gov. Charlie Baker (R), Boston Mayor Marty Walsh (D) and Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo (D) have banded together to oppose it. Arkansas voters will decide on a MED initiative. Fortune sees signs of a backlash in Colorado. Murders in California’s Lake County, a center of growing, reached a 10-year high of eight last year. Donna Weinholtz, wife of Utah gubernatorial candidate Mike Weinholtz (D), is under federal investigation related to her MED use.
The rules for Alaska’s pot café’s are under review. Voters in the state’s Matanuska-Susitna Borough will decide on a commercial ban in the fall. Former Liberal Party deputy prime minister Anne McLellan will lead Canada’s nine-member legalization task force. McLellan is a former law professor at the University of Alberta. Canada’s legal purchasing age may vary across provinces, but the government wants a consistent national law on DUI. Both LSU and Southern University are exercising their option to grow Louisiana’s MED supply.
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