Florida’s anti-pot lobby is back. And just like in 2014, it’s spreading straight-up lies about medical marijuana to try to frighten voters. Two years ago, Amendment 2 netted 58 percent of the vote — just short of the 60 percent it needed to pass.
That result likely had something to do with Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson’s scare campaign to shut the amendment down: Adelson spent more than $5 million to help fund the Drug Free Florida Committee, an anti-pot political action committee and PR campaign.
Now, with another medical marijuana amendment on the ballot this November, the Drug Free Florida Committee is back, but minus Adelson’s largesse so far. This time, Mel Sembler, a former U.S. ambassador and major Mitt Romney donor, is the money man behind the push.
Last week, Drug Free Florida sent New Times one of its first mass mailers — and it is extremely silly. The list, titled “The Top 10 Reasons to Vote NO on Amendment 2,” is chockfull of factual inaccuracies and half-truths straight out of the film Reefer Madness.
Convention-goers and Philadelphia residents witnessed two 51-foot inflatable joints being marched up Broad Street yesterday in celebration of the Democratic National Committee’s progressive platform on marijuana.
The Philadelphia branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and DCMJ, the outfit that helped legalize marijuana in Washington., D.C., organized a group of about two dozen members to carry the blow-up joints about 3.5 miles from Philadelphia City Hall to the Wells Fargo Center, where the convention is being held.
The situation appears under control.
The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.
An investigation in Hugo, Colo. found THC in the drinking water. Authorities found signs of tampering on a well and initiated a criminal investigation. Additional tests are underway to confirm the finding. Initially, the cannabis community said contamination is unlikely since THC is not soluble in water.
Screening stations have been set up for residents and water is being trucked in. Hugo, a town of about 750 on the state’s eastern plains, does not have any marijuana businesses.
LA Weekly looks at how legalization could change employer drug testing policies. The California Supreme Court has ruled that a MED card does not allow employees to be high on the job, or overrule company drug testing policies. In the future, the piece notes, this stance may lead to disability suits.
In California, concentrates remain a “ legal gray area.”
A random controlled study out of Holland proved that alcohol makes users more aggressive and cannabis makes them less aggressive. (Read the study here.)
Vancouver activist Dana Larsen said customers don’t need prescriptions at his MED pharmacies.
Colorado has released a PSA on cannabis and pregnancy. Chronic and/or severe pain is by far the most common qualifying condition for MED.
Washington state hopes new labelling will keep kids away from edibles.
Between 2002 and 2013, it’s estimated that Massachusetts crime lab chemist Annie Dookhan, who was later convicted of perjury and evidence tampering, corrupted more than 24,000 cases. Those convicted based on her work can now seek new trials. Dookhan served three years in prison.
An audit in Houston found 298 wrongful drug convictions. A researcher at the libertarian Cato Institute argues that the drug war has made policing more violent.
Operation Sabot, Canada’s annual sweep for illegal outdoor grows, takes place at the end of summer. Each year it targets a different region right before the harvest.
Maryland withdrew a proposal to ban letters to prisoners (except legal correspondence). The state’s prisons have been overwhelmed by Suboxone, an opioid available in sublingual strips that prisoners receive in envelopes.
If California legalizes, what will happen to people in prison for marijuana offenses? Missouri governor Jay Nixon (D), signed a law that will make it easier for marijuana offenders to get their records expunged.
A bill in the U.S. Senate would protect the families of children with epilepsy from prosecution if they obtain CBD treatments.
At a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing convened last week to consider “the potential medical benefits of marijuana,” lawmakers heard from cannabis advocates and doctors alike. Their testimony overwhelmingly supported marijuana being used for medical purposes; many of the speakers also supported rescheduling cannabis to a Schedule II substance.
Numerous individuals and organizations had been invited to present testimony, including Aaron Smith, co-founder and executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association. NCIA represents more than 1,000 businesses in forty states, including many in Colorado. Smith told the senators that while the American public has acknowledged the medical benefits of cannabis for decades, the federal government has yet to do so. This reluctance at the federal level has prohibited adequate research into cannabis, which furthers the argument of naysayers. It’s a catch-22, he said: Without legitimate research, detractors can continue to claim that marijuana does not have any medical value — but as it stands, scientific research is not possible, so it’s hard to prove the medical benefits of the substance.
The Italian Parliament is gathering today to discuss a proposal for marijuana legalization. If passed, the bill on the table — similar to the proposal Colorado voters passed in 2012 — would allow the cultivation, possession and use of marijuana. Italian citizens over the age of eighteen would be allowed to grow as many as five plants for personal use, have up to fifteen grams of marijuana in their homes and possess a maximum of five grams in public. It would also authorize “cannabis clubs,” where up to fifty people could gather and smoke together.
Cannabis would be taxed at a rate of 5 percent; the government would issue licenses allowing the cultivation of marijuana with the intention for it to be sold for recreational purposes. The tax would be used to fund Italy’s effort to crack down on illegal drug trafficking.
Politicians have not caught up with public opinion.
The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.
A new poll found that for the first time, Republicans narrowly favor legalizing marijuana, 45% to 42%. Last week, however, Republicans voted against including support for MED in their party platform. As far as I saw, the plant went unmentioned at the convention.
Hillary Clinton named Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) as her running mate. Speaking at a high school in April, Kaine said he favors “drastic changes in sentencing laws…[but] wouldn’t vote for a law at the federal or state level that would decriminalize marijuana.” Kaine has a NORML rating of F.
Donald Trump has a NORML rating of C+. Hillary Clinton gets a B+. Libertarian Gary Johnson scores an A+.
Leafly meets Ann Lee, founder of Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition (RAMP). Lee, 86, attended the GOP convention as an alternate in the Texas delegation. Her son Richard Lee founded the trade school Oaksterdam University in Oakland.
Decriminalization appears to have support from the Texas Association of Business and bipartisan support in the Texas legislature. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) opposes legalization.
Marijuana.com digs up that the DEA has reduced the size of its 2017 cannabis order from last year. This hints, the piece suggests, that the agency will not reschedule. The DEA gets its weed from a facility at the University of Mississippi, the only federally legal grow in the country.
Fifty-one percent of voters oppose Massachusetts’ REC initiative and 41% percent support. The numbers are similar in Arizona.
An Arizona judge will hear cannabis-opponents in a case that could block the upcoming REC vote. They argue that the 100-word petition voters signed didn’t adequately explain the effects of legalization. Plaintiffs include Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery (R), Phoenix’s lead prosecutor.
Last year, before a weed convention in Phoenix, Montgomery offered “An aside, just a polite warning to folks traveling here…I can’t confirm or deny whether or not local or federal law enforcement may be on hand in an undercover capacity. So welcome to Phoenix, enjoy your stay, but be careful.”
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) opposes the state’s MED initiative. In Wisconsin, a poll found that REC legalization has 59% support. Activists are collecting signatures for a MED initiative in Oklahoma.
Florida’s first CBD dispensary opens this week. The state is expected to vote on MED in November.
The man on the corner of North Miami Avenue and 24th Street in Miami didn’t say much, but he didn’t have to. His sign did the talking. “Legal Medical Cannabis,” it said, and it pointed straight to NugBrand, a weed-themed apparel shop in Wynwood.
Inside, employee Kevin Machin let curious passersby down easy. No, the store wasn’t selling the potent medical marijuana you might find in a dispensary in California. It wasn’t even peddling the low-THC “Charlotte’s Web” strain recently made legal in Florida.
Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk and talk-show host Seth Leibsohn don’t want Arizonans to be able to decide whether marijuana should remain a felony-level drug or become as legal as beer.
But following a brief hearing regarding the lawsuit they filed seeking to nullify a measure widely expected to appear on ballots this November, they didn’t care to elaborate for the edification of New Times readers.http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/sheila-polk-and-seth-leibsohn-flee-new-times-questions-about-their-anti-legalization-lawsuit-8469739
Kendal Norris and her company, Mason Jar Event Group, have done it again. Her most recent of signatureseasonal Cannabis Pairing Dinners last weekend allowed guests to combine a high-end cannabis experience with fairy tale scenery and amazing food.
Beginning the night with a shuttle service from Sweet Leaf Dispensary to Shupe Homestead Farm in Boulder County, guests socialized, ate hors-d’oeuvres, and drank cannabis-infused iced tea, all under the backdrop of the Rocky Mountain skyline.
Sitting down to a dinner prepared by award-winning chef Hosea Rosenberg of Blackbelly
Samuel Oliphant of Scottsdale was kicked out of his luxury apartment last week, days after a hazmat team found the place trashed, toxic, and just plain gross.
Scottsdale Police Department photographs of the interior of Oliphant’s former crib, obtained by New Times through a public-records request, reveal a garbage-filled drug den reminiscent of a hoarder’s home: a place where a paranoid user of marijuana and other drugs concocted (or attempted to, anyway) distillations or recipes or … something.