The president-elect may not be a hardliner, but he’s surrounded himself with them.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.
The all-but-final Election Day tally is California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Maine legalized REC, whileFlorida, Arkansas, and North Dakota legalized MED.
Arizona rejected a REC measure. Montanans voted to allow a MED industry, though it remains contentious.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R), a legalization opponent and former DEA chief, said the process requires federal input. “It’s an example of the states innovating in a risky area, and certainly the states are leading on this, but we’re to a point that the federal government is going to have to readdress this,” he said. “This does not call for a state-by-state solution, it calls for … a national solution.”
This is an early indication that the cannabis industry will be harder for the Donald Trump administration to ignore than it was for the Obama administration.
Vice president elect Mike Pence (R) has replaced New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as head of Trump’s transition team. Both are known for their hardline stances against legalization, as is former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, a possible attorney general in the administration.
Several pieces speculate on what a Trump presidency means for legalization. Here are three: The Cannabist, MJBiz, Reveal (Center for Investigative Reporting).
Drug Policy Alliance head Ethan Nadelmann said, “the federal government retains the power to hobble much of what we’ve accomplished…The progress we’ve made … will be very much at risk when Donald Trump enters the White House.”
Vivian Azer, a stock analyst with Cowen, predicts cannabis will be a low priority for Trump.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D.-Ore.), probably pot’s best friend in Congress, said he thinks the industry’s priorities for banking and tax reform could both pass a Republican Congress under President Trump.
For a segment called “The Pot Vote” that aired Sunday, October 30, 60 Minutes came to Colorado to investigate the marijuana boom. The piece began as a typical new-industry-brings-ups-and-downs-to-community piece that swung not so subtly to pose an ominous — and misrepresentative — picture of what’s going on in this state’s cannabis industry.
Jonathan LaPook, a two-time Emmy-winning journalist with an M.D. to boot, begins the segment by promising to show “what’s working and what’s not” in Colorado, the first state to allow the sale of recreational marijuana, then briefly discusses how attitudes toward legalization have shifted in recent years.
Earlier this week, we reported about a letter written by three state legislators in which they asked Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, an organization opposing a measure there that would legalize limited recreational marijuana sales, to stop airing a commercial filled with alleged falsehoods about Colorado’s cannabis experience. The dubious information was shared in the spot by two former Colorado officials, ex-governor Bill Owens and onetime Denver mayor Wellington Webb.
In that post, we also noted that outgoing Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey had sent a letter to the No on 64 Campaign and SAM Action, organizations fighting against a similar recreational-marijuana-legalization measure up for vote in Colorado; its name, Proposition 64, echoes Colorado’s Amendment 64, passed in 2012. In the missive, on view below in its entirety, Morrissey writes that crime has gone up in the state since Amendment 64’s passage and law enforcers are busier than ever trying to deal with the measure’s repercussions.
LivWell is standing up for growers in Pueblo County.
Voters in that county are facing Ballot Question 200: “Shall the Pueblo County Code be amended by Ordinance to prohibit all licensed Retail (recreational) Marijuana Establishments in all areas under the licensing jurisdiction of Pueblo County, by requiring all existing Retail Marijuana Testing Facilities, Retail Marijuana Cultivation Facilities, Retail Marijuana Product Manufacturing Facilities, and Retail Marijuana Stores to close by October 31, 2017 and by immediately prohibiting Pueblo County from approving all new licenses for these facilities?”
Party favors are an easy way to make friends. Although they might not be the type of people you necessarily want to be longtime friends, having a few party pals definitely beats standing in a corner with a closed mouth while everyone else has fun. If you’re not into party favors that make you sweat and love bass, bring a bottle of Super Lemon Haze to the next gathering full of people you don’t know and watch the vultures circle as the smell fills the room.
Medical-marijuana doctors and certification centers report seeing an increase in appointments over the two days following the negative election results of Proposition 205.
The measure to legalize marijuana in Arizona appears to have failed, though the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Arizona is waiting for all the votes to be counted before making an announcement. The Associated Press called the race for the “no” side late Tuesday night.
Ashley Kilroy
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announced Monday that Ashley Kilroy will be adding a new job title to her resume.
In addition to serving as the city’s executive director of the Office of Marijuana Policy, she will replace Stacie Loucks as the director of Excise and Licenses, the central business-licensing department for the City and County of Denver. The Office of Marijuana Policy will become a division of Excise and Licenses, which has long handled licensing for dispensaries.
Dear Stoner: Will secondhand pot smoke get me high?
Rudy
Dear Rudy: Thanks to advice from Casanova (the eighteenth-century Italian adventurer/author/player), oysters are renowned as an aphrodisiac — a natural Viagra, if you will. But while oysters are high in zinc, which increases testosterone, and dopamine, which stimulates the brain, Casanova said he ate five dozen oysters per day. Are you going to eat that many oysters on a date to go full-chubs faster? If not, you probably won’t be game to inhale enough smoke to get a contact high, either.
Update: Last month, we highlighted complaints about an Arizona campaign commercial opposing Proposition 205, a measure that would legalize limited recreational marijuana sales in that state; see our coverage below. The spot features two prominent former Colorado officials, ex-governor Bill Owens and onetime Denver mayor Wellington Webb, delivering claims that vacillate between misleading and completely untrue according to Colorado-based cannabis reformer and Proposition 205 advocate Mason Tvert.
Now, three Colorado officials currently in office — Senator Pat Steadman and representatives Jonathan Singer and Millie Hamner — are echoing Tvert’s complaints in a letter that calls on Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, the organization behind the commercial, to stop airing the falsehoods immediately.
Dear Stoner: I would like to get a test for my THC levels without risking my driving privilege. If the marijuana industry is so smart and innovative, why is nothing being offered to consumers?
Steve
Dear Steve: Didn’t know the marijuana industry was responsible for your self-control or driving habits. I probably wouldn’t blame Oskar Blues if I got a DUI; I haven’t needed a breathalyzer to figure out that I’ve had too many since…ever. Still, I can see how the lack of science and clarity behind marijuana impairment is frustrating for all parties involved. Sadly, there isn’t much of a solution on the horizon, because proving marijuana consumption and actual impairment aren’t one and the same — and science can currently only do the former.