Search Results: stern (279)

Fox News, which has a history of portraying Colorado pot smokers as apathetic morons, recently ran a piece suggesting that the Western Slope community of Durango has been overtaken by panhandlers in the wake of recreational cannabis legalization. The head of a business organization that created a Facebook video ripping the article as false says the Fox News reporter with whom he spoke seemed disinterested in any information that contradicted his conclusion that weed had put the town on the fast road to hell even though the supposed link between homelessness and cannabis has been widely discredited.

More Arizonans than ever hold medical-marijuana cards, boosting state-legal cannabis sales — and the tax revenue from them — to a new record.

Arizona patients bought 29 tons of cannabis products in 2016, according to records published today by the state Department of Health Services.

Included in the total are about 27 tons of buds and another couple of tons of edibles and concentrates like wax, shatter, and hash oil.

That’s a 53 percent increase over last year’s 19 tons of cannabis products sold.

The practice seems frankly un-American.
Here’s your daily dose of pot news from the newsletter WeedWeek.
Though the practice is not widely understood, 84% of Americans oppose civil asset forfeiture, once it’s explained to them, according to a Cato Institute/YouGov survey. It defined the practice as “taking a person’s money or property that is suspected to have been involved in a drug crime, before the person is convicted of a crime,”
Lawyers for Jeronimo Yanez, the Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Philando Castile last summersay Yanez should be pardoned in part because Castile was high.

With pot now legal in Massachusetts, some police dogs are “ overqualified.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who wants to advise President-elect Trump on drug policy, says that as mayor of Davao he used to personally hunt drug suspects down on his motorcycle and kill them, in order to encourage constituents to do the same.

A court ruled that finding evidence of marijuana use in someone’s trash is not alone grounds to search the house. A law professor disagrees.

Colorado is awarding $2.35M in research grants to study driving while high and the effects of dabbing, among other topics. The Cannabist says DUI is a pressing issue.

A Johns Hopkins study found that cannabis legalization reduces opioid overdose deaths by as much as 25%.

The synthetic marijuana that sent 18 people in Brooklyn to the hospital in a “zombie” like state, was 85 times as powerful as marijuana.

Doctors remain skeptical of marijuana’s medical value.

Colorado is about to raise the allowances for residual solvents in concentrates. Leafly investigates how much of these chemicals is unhealthy.

A doctor tell’s Gwyneth Paltrow’s site Goop that cannabis can help with PMS.

Illegal grows in California are sickening and killing wildlife.

A Connecticut MED user is suing Amazon and a staffing company for refusing to hire him.

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.

Dear Stoner: Now that other states have legalized marijuana, what does that mean for Colorado? Will the roads be less crowded?
Kip

Dear Kip: Probably not. I’m not even going to get into the whole “legal weed is why this state is so crowded and more expensive” discussion, but maybe that will be settled over the next year, when Coloradans see yet more transplants coming into the state — even though several other states just legalized marijuana. Since 2012, Denver has regularly been in the top three metro areas experiencing employment, population and rental growth, and while that growth has slowed since 2015, this city is still growing. California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada all voted to legalize recreational marijuana on November 8, and although some California cities are popular with millennials, Boston and Las Vegas aren’t projected to experience anywhere near the growth in employment and residents that booming Western cities such as Denver, Portland and Seattle have.

Ray Stern | Toke of the Town

Mayor John Suthers of Colorado Springs, Colorado, is an outspoken opponent of marijuana legalization — but even he doesn’t support Arizona’s felony-possession law.

Suthers — also a former Colorado Attorney General — came to Arizona this week to denounce Prop 205 on behalf of the opposition group Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy. The proposition, which will appear on November’s ballot, would legalize personal amounts of marijuana for adults 21 and older, and set up a system of cannabis retail shops.

Everyone wants the agency to make up its mind already.
The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.

The DEA is reportedly in the “final stages” of deciding whether to reschedule marijuana. Cannabis Wire says the agency could reschedule CBD but not the whole plant.

The Guardian asks if Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will capitalize on the marijuana vote. “It seems that there are more political costs to being opposed to marijuana instead of being in favor of it,” Michael Berry, a political science professor at the University of Denver says. “which is strange because if you go back 10 years ago, it was just the opposite.”

Hillary Clinton and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson are more popular within the cannabis industry than in the country at large. Donald Trump is less popular.

The Islamic State magazine Dabiq writes: “The deviance carried on until the so-called “Brave New World” of America and Western Europe began legalizing marijuana, bestiality, transgenderism, sodomy, pornography, feminism, and other evils, allowing the Christian pagans of Europe, America, and Australia to break the crime record of every disbelieving nation to precede them in history.”

California REC supporters are suing opponents for using “ false and misleading language in official ballot materials.”

Anti-cannabis activist Kevin Sabet announced that his group SAM Action has raised $2M to fight this year’s crop of legalization initiatives. Marijuana.com says Sabet has consistently opposed the kinds of decriminalization measures he says he supports.

A poll suggests Florida’s MED initiative will pass, despite a reasonably well funded opposition. Before Ohio legislature legalized MED earlier this year, MPP had not raised enough money to support a statewide campaign for a more liberal ballot initiative.

The Boston Globe called for the end of an “ unfair ‘tax” on MED shops.

July was Washington state’s best ever sales month. It was also the first month after MED dispensaries closed in the state.

A promised crackdown wasn’t as bad as Detroit dispensary owners feared. (Check out photographer Dave Jordano’s shots of dispensaries in the city.)

A new program at Colorado State University-Pueblo will study legalization’s socio-economic impact.

High Times interviewed Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division chief Andrew Freedman. MJBizDaily interviewed Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D) who’s among the most weed friendly members of Congress. He predicts that in five years MED will be available in every state and REC will be available in most states.

Boston’s first dispensary opened. Delaware’s modest MED industry is growing.

Ray Stern | Toke of the Town

Activists who oppose a measure to legalize marijuana in Arizona were excited to let the world know about a news article shared on social media that blasts the notion that passage would guarantee a tax windfall.

The Twitter site for Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, a well-funded group headed up by Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk and radio talk-show host Seth Leibsohn, shared the July 14 article entitled “The Vicious Truth About Pot Revenue” three times.

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.

Home gardening in Washington D.C. just got a lot more fun.

The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.

Washington D.C. consultant Natalie Carver has started a business assisting home growers. “She rolls her joints with rosemary, lavender, and mullein, a bronchial dilator used by Native Americans in spiritual ceremonies.”

A rabbi and an African-American pastor are among the parties competing for grow licenses in Maryland.

The German bestseller “ High Hitler: Drugs in the Third Reich,” is being translated into English.

Product Earth Expo, the U.K.’s largest cannabis convention, took place for the second time. An Australian man called the cops on his father for burning his crop.

There has been a resurgence of the red cannabis associated with Calabria, the rugged “toe” of Italy. In another piece, Leafly’s Enrico Fletzer asks if legalization is coming to Naples, where organized crime controls the market. Fletzer also calls Bologna the “ Hemp capital of Europe.

Rival pro-legalization groups had an altercation outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. An organizer with Cannabis Culture said he was attacked by someone wielding a yoga mat. I’m just juvenile enough to mention that western Canada’s premiere art museum is known as “ the VAG.”

Washington D.C. consultant Natalie Carver has started a business assisting home growers. “She rolls her joints with rosemary, lavender, and mullein, a bronchial dilator used by Native Americans in spiritual ceremonies.”

Contrary to internet rumors, doughnut chain Tim Hortons will not start selling pot next year.

The video game Hemp Inc. resembles Farmville, with one predictable difference. Vice also interviews some female dealers.

The new 419.99 mile markers on Interstate 70 in Colorado, do not get stolen as often as their 420 mile predecessors.

Olympics-branded weed is available in Rio.

 

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