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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.

Among other things, they are preparing safety guides for “trimmigrants”

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek

Reveal follows up on its investigation of sex abuse of trimmigrants in California’s Emerald Triangle, with an update on how communities in the region have responded.

Massachusetts became the first state on the east coast to legalize REC, despite opposition from the state’s most prominent politicians, both Democrats and Republicans. Dispensaries could open as soon as January 2018.

All four states voting on MED approved it. In Florida, voters legalized MED with 71% in favor. In Arkansas, a MED initiative has a comfortable lead with most precincts reporting. North Dakota’s MED initiative passed with about 64% of the vote and Montana’s Initiative to expand MED access also passed comfortably.

Each of the MED states also voted for Donald Trump, who is now president-elect.

It looks like the proposed REC business bans in Pueblo, the Colorado industry’s secondary hub, failed. I wrote about the situation for the L.A. Times.

There were numerous local votes in Oregon on the industry’s status in communities. See the results here.

The Eureka Times-Standard explains your rights in California post Proposition 64. Public consumption will not be allowed except in licensed businesses, which will open in 2018 at the earliest.

Stocks in private prison companies jumped following Donald Trump’s victory. Racial disparities in criminal enforcement remain a concern.

The Nation profiles Bill Montgomery (R), the anti-pot Phoenix prosecutor who won re-election.

An odor problem has earned a Boulder grow $14,000 in fines.

The NFL Player’s Association said it would explore MED as a pain management tool. The league isn’t budging, for now.

Playboy calls legalization one of the election’s “ silver linings.

Colorado Harvest Company and O.pen vape were among the major donors to Levitt Pavilion amphitheater, a new venue for free concerts in Denver.

Taser.
A body camera from the Taser corporation.

Citing the need to increase transparency, accountability and community engagement, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said that his department will use forfeiture funds to purchase 200 body cameras that will begin recording early next year.
The move comes in the midst of statewide movement toward using the cameras. State Senator Royce West introduced a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would require all police departments in the state to purchase and use the cameras. The Fort Worth Police Department already has 600 of the cameras and Lancaster, Duncanville and Denton’s departments are looking to get their hands on some. Susan Hawk, the newly elected Dallas district attorney, has offered to buy body cameras for DPD with funds from her office as well. More at the Dallas Observer.

A bill filed Monday in advance of the upcoming session of the Texas Legislature would make the maximum penalty for the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana a $100 fine. The fine would not count as a criminal conviction and could not considered as such by anyone performing a background check.
Current Texas law classifies the possession of any amount of marijuana less than 2 ounces as a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of no more than $2,000. In 2007, the state passed a law allowing for marijuana users to cited for the misdemeanor and released. Harris, Dallas and Tarrant, the three biggest counties in the state, have not adopted cite-and-release, but Dallas has signaled its intention to do so as part of a January 2015 pilot program.

Dallasboy/WikiCommons.

Until the very end, last Tuesday night’s demonstration in Dallas against the grand jury’s decision in the Ferguson case was uneventful. Marchers congregated at Dallas Police Department headquarters in the Cedars then walked through downtown to protest the grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson for killing unarmed teenager Mike Brown.
“Tonight I’m somewhat numb, but I’m also saddened,” Michael Bowie Jr., new senior pastor of St. Luke Community United Methodist Church in Dallas told The Dallas Morning News at the protest. “First it was Trayvon [Martin], now it’s Michael Brown. And it’s sad that killing of black males is justified and legal.”

Julian Harris, a rookie officer in the Dallas Police Department’s South Central Patrol Division, was arrested Thursday morning after police were called to meet with an injured woman at Dallas’ Charlton Methodist Hospital. DPD detectives say that a fight between Harris and the woman at Harris’ Dallas apartment escalated into violence that left the woman hospitalized with serious injuries.
Harris was booked into Dallas County Jail just after 11 a.m. for aggravated assault. An emergency protective order was also issued to keep him away from the woman. In May, just nine weeks after Harris graduated from the police academy, he and another officer were praised for helping rescue a group of hooky-playing boys from a flooding creek.
The Dallas Observer has more.

Rene Petro and fellow CannaMoms in California.

The last we’d heard from Renee Petro, the Florida pot advocate whose story was highlighted in the Dallas Observer recent feature on medical marijuana refugees, the pint-sized parent was still fighting to obtain cannabis for her son, Branden, a FIRES sufferer. Branden’s debilitating seizures were spiraling out of control, and like the other parents in our story, Renee found herself caught between conflicting state laws and ideologies on medical marijuana. Traditional treatments weren’t working for Branden, and in Florida — much like Texas — when it came to matters of medical marijuana, her hands were tied.
Well, not anymore. After about three weeks on a cannabis protocol, Branden is now quite likely to test positive for THC — legally. More from Angelic Leicht at the Dallas Observer.


Sitting cross-legged on the floor in her apartment outside of Houston, Faith’s mother looks over at the toddler repeatedly as she talks. There are no physical indicators that signal the start of a seizure, but Faith’s mother can tell one is on its way. Everything about raising Faith involves watching and waiting, and today is no different.
Suddenly, Faith’s mom jumps up, her words stalling mid-sentence, and makes her way to the mat where the chocolate-haired child is lying. She plops down next to her daughter, gives her moon face and chubby-cherub limbs a once-over, and places a hand across her tiny chest, feeling for any sign of what’s to come. It’s an unnerving ritual, the watching and waiting, but Faith’s mom can feel what is happening in her own bones. She knows that Faith is about to seize.

The Houston Press took a look at medical marijuana refugees from Texas, and it’s a compelling read.

Klaus with a K.


David Harrison, whose mentally ill son Jason Harrison died at the hands of Dallas police in June, filed a lawsuit on Friday claiming two officers used excessive force when they shot his son six times within minutes of arriving at the son’s home on Glencairn Drive.
Linda Turley, David Harrison’s lawyer, writes in the lawsuit that officers John Rogers and Andrew Hutchins shot Jason Harrison “multiple times when Jason Sherard Harrison, an unarmed man, did not pose a risk of injury to himself or others.” The police have said that the younger Harrison had a screwdriver in his hand and made an aggressive act toward the officers, causing them to open fire.
Both officers and the city of Dallas are named as defendants. More on this alleged police abuse over at the Dallas Observer.

Dallasboy/WikiCommons.
Dallas, Texas.


Get caught with a joint in Dallas this afternoon and you’ll find yourself being chauffeured to Lew Sterrett in the back of a squad car. Get caught with a joint in Dallas this January and you may well escape with a ticket and a stern admonition to show up in court. The Dallas Morning News reported over the weekend that Dallas County will pilot a cite-and-release program next year allowing those caught with less than two ounces of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor, to avoid a trip to jail.
Before you hail Dallas County as a paragon of criminal justice reform, however, keep in mind a handful of caveats.

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