Kevin Sabet, the president and CEO of Virginia-based Smart Approaches to Marijuana, has become arguably the most influential critic of marijuana legalization in the United States. But in an extended interview on view below, he fights against the perception that he’s a one-dimensional prohibitionist along the lines of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sabet stresses that he and his organization, shorthanded as SAM, take what he sees as a sensible approach to cannabis by arguing in favor of treatment rather than jail time for users in trouble and advocating for greater study of the substance to determine the best ways to utilize it medically.
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The nominee doesn’t seem to care much about the environment either.
Here’s your daily dose of pot news from the newsletter WeedWeek.
President Elect Donald Trump selected Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R) to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt has repeatedly sued the agency to block anti-pollution laws. While this might be seen as support for states’ rights — and by extension the marijuana industry — Mark Joseph Stern at Slate calls Pruitt “ one of the phoniest federalists in the GOP.”
In particular, Pruitt joined Nebraska in suing Colorado over the state’s REC industry. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, retired Marine General John F. Kelly, opposes legalization saying that it increases health care costs and crime, and that the state experiments with it open the U.S. to accusations of hypocrisy from Latin American nations. Kelly is open to the plant having medical benefits.
Meanwhile veterans’ group American Legion, pushed the administration to loosen cannabis laws. ” I think they were a little caught off guard and didn’t expect such a progressive statement from such a traditional and conservative organization,” a senior Legion official told Marijuana.com.
It also emerged that Jim O’Neill, a Silicon Valley investor who Marijuana.com describes as a “ Marijuana legalization activist,” could be tapped to lead the Food and Drug Administration. O’Neill is neither a doctor or scientist, typical credentials for the position. For more see here.
Marijuana entrepreneurs want Trump to see them as “ job creators,” Forbes reports.
The New York Observer, which is owned by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, called for rescheduling.
In an effort to protect marijuana laws under the Trump administration, Colorado is cracking down on home growers. The state is poised to surpass 3,000 licensed businesses next year.
What attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) means for state-legal pot business remains the big green question. In an in-depth piece, Politico says Sessions could easily “ ignore the will of millions of pro-pot voters” and crack down. Time lists seven reasons Trump is unlikely to go after the industry.
The Sessions hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 10 and 11.
Pro-cannabis group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is petitioning the Justice Department to correct what ASA says is incorrect or misleading information about cannabis on the DEA web site. ASA is represented pro-bono by the major San Francisco law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.
Though he’s promised to legalize next year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he still wants police to prosecute dispensaries. His pro-pot supporters feel “cheated.”
Canadian producer Cronos Group will work with First Nations groups in Canada to help them join the cannabis economy.
An upcoming March ballot measure for regulating the industry in Los Angeles raises many questions.
A Democratic state Senator in Texas introduced a “longshot” MED bill. Virginia Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R), asked for a study of how the state’s cannabis laws might be changed.Tennessee could also be in play.
Oregon took emergency steps to lower the testing burden on growers, but the industry is skeptical.
REC opponents in Maine were accused of not providing enough volunteers for a recount of the recent vote. A judge ruled that following the recent vote, MED dispensaries in Montana can reopen immediately.
Maryland named 102 pre-approved dispensary license winners. In New York, licensees are worried about competition in the relatively small market.
Guam is implementing a MED program. Dusseldorf, Germany is on the path to legalization.
It has raised more money than almost anyone else.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.
Privateer Holdings, parent company of Leafly and other cannabis brands, raised $40M bringing its total to more than $100M.
It’s one of many theories.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.
Angelina Jolie’s exhaustion with Brad Pitt’s cannabis use, reportedly contributed to her filing for divorce. The Guardian asks what that means for custody of their children. Vulture chronicles Pitt’s “ battle with marijuana.”
Three Phoenix cops resigned and face criminal charges after allegedly forcing a 19-year old to eat marijuana or go to jail.
Pro-legalization activists say opponent Kevin Sabet broke the law by displaying a bag of infused gummies on a television panel in Boston. Sabet didn’t return an email requesting comment.
In California it can be even cheaper.
Here’s your daily round up of pot news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.
A month’s supply of MED costs $1,000 in New York, three times as much as in Colorado.
Some teens like to vape pens filled with fruit flavoring. Modern Farmer visits a grow trying to get certified as pesticide free.
Responding to criticism of his escalating war on drugs, Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to leave the United Nations. CNN went inside a very crowded jail in the country. The N.Y. Times tells the story of a father and son killed in custody. The L.A. Times goes out with “ Nightcrawlers,” the journalists covering the bloodshed.
There wasn’t much talk of marijuana inside the arena at this year’s Democratic National Convention.
The industry was all over Philly.
The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.
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.
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.
| FlickrCommons |
| Virginia Ervin gave up college and motherhood to protect her criminal boyfriend after he set her and her baby on fire |
“She then realized that both her and her child’s hair were on fire”
Not the sort of words you’ll ever hear leading up to a ‘Mother of the Year’ acceptance speech, but those just so happen to be the exact words written in the affidavit prepared by officers from the Missoula Police Department after investigating the aftermath of a hash oil related explosion earlier this month.
18-year old Virginia Ervin, a student at the University of Montana, initially avoided being arrested in connection to the apartment explosion that we reported on two weeks ago. As the smoke was still clearing on the scene, she readily admitted that she made a conscious decision to “just chill” with her infant child in the same apartment where the highly explosive hash oil extraction was being performed. Still, she walked away free…until last Friday.
| Boston Public Library Flickr edited by Toke of the Town. |
As we reported back in June, Maryland state Rep. Andy Harris, a Republican, is spearheading a move that would block the decriminalization of limited amounts of marijuana in Washington D.C.
But many, including D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray see it as a shot to D.C.’s home rule and Democrat-controlled city council. Now Gray is urging all D.C. residents to boycott Maryland’s beaches and resort towns.
In January of this year, The Washington Post conducted a poll of Washington D.C. residents which found that 8 in 10 polled said they were in favor of either decriminalization, or straight up legalization, of weed in the nation’s capital.
In March, the City Council voted to decriminalize cannabis possession, knocking the punishment down from a year in jail, to a $25 fine. The District’s medical marijuana program is expanding, and much like in Colorado, none of these things are leading to the reefer madness we’ve been warned about for decades.
But with legalization talk being passed around the tightest circles in the nation’s capital, leave it to local Congressional Republicans to try to halt the inevitable progress of reform.