Tag: marijuana legalization

Anti-Marijuana Attorney General Jeff Sessions Resigns

“Our hope is the next attorney general will recognize that it is not politically popular to escalate the war on drugs,” said one drug reform advocate.

Jeff Sessions is out as U.S. Attorney General.

The former U.S. Senator from Alabama resigned on Wednesday (Nov. 7), a day after the midterm elections.

“At your request I am submitting my resignation,” Sessions wrote in a letter to the White House. His chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, will serve as acting attorney general until a permanent replacement is found.

Sessions’ departure from the Department of Justice is cause for celebration for advocates of drug policy reform.

“He’s been an absolute disgrace on drug policy. We would welcome any attorney general whose policy ideas would move beyond the 1980s,” said Michael Collins, interim director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance.

The 71-year-old former Alabama senator’s opinion of marijuana in particular is perhaps best illustrated by this statement he made during a 2016 Senate hearing: “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.”

He also said in February 2017, “I don’t think America is going to be a better place when people of all ages, and particularly young people, are smoking pot. I believe it’s an unhealthy practice, and current levels of THC in marijuana are very high compared to what they were a few years ago, and we’re seeing real violence around that.”

Last year, he took aim at sentencing reform, telling federal prosecutors to stop seeking leniency for low-level drug offenders and start seeking the toughest penalties possible, as NBC News reported at the time.

And in January, Sessions reversed an Obama-era policy—the 2013 Cole memo—that prioritized marijuana cases that presented a safety threat (involving minors, organized crime, etc.) but otherwise left alone U.S. states that have approved marijuana in some capacity. In his own memo, the attorney general called it a “return to the rule of law.”

But despite Sessions’ anti-marijuana stance, on Tuesday, Michigan became the 10th state to legalize cannabis for adult use, and two others—Utah and Missouri—approved medical marijuana.

Marijuana policy reform has been winning with each election, and appears more popular than ever.

“Our hope is the next attorney general will recognize that it is not politically popular to escalate the war on drugs,” said Collins of the Drug Policy Alliance.

View the original article at thefix.com

9 November 2018
Medical Marijuana Participation Drastically Drops In Oregon

Experts have a number of theories as to why the state’s medical marijuana program has experienced a 40% drop in participation.

The number of people participating in the medical marijuana program in Oregon has dropped by about 40% this year, as more people opt to get their cannabis from recreational outlets rather than navigate the complex medical marijuana system.

“Marijuana is legal in Oregon,” Oregon Health Authority spokesman Jonathan Modie told the Sun Herald. “You don’t need a medical card. We’re not surprised we’ve seen a drop.”

Medical marijuana patients don’t need to pay the same taxes as recreational users, who are taxed at about 20%. However, medical patients need to pay a $200 annual registration fee to renew their license and are subject to tight restrictions.

Diana Calvert of River City Retail marijuana dispensary says she repeatedly heard from customers who have left the medical marijuana system.

“They say, ‘I let my medical card expire. It’s too expensive to renew. I’ll just pay the taxes.’”

At the same time, growers are opting to switch to recreational sales rather than learning a complex new tracking system that the state requires for medical sales or exchanges.

“I think a lot of people say, ‘Let’s cut my overhead and go to the rec side,’” Republican State Rep. Carl Wilson said.

The changes could reflect that some people on the medical marijuana program were just trying to access the drug legally, said Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Association of Oregon Counties.

“Those that were getting an [medical marijuana] card as a ruse to get marijuana for recreational purposes … no longer need to continue the ruse after we legalized recreational marijuana,” he said.

The medical system in Oregon was legalized in 1998, and allows registered participants to grow their own cannabis or obtain it from someone who grows it for them.

However, a new tracking system has made exchanging marijuana on the medical market more complex, so that many people who previously grew cannabis for medical patients have stopped doing so.

“Many patients are just unable to find a grower to supply them. Previously I think it was relatively easy for a patient who didn’t know anyone, in relatively short order, to find a grower to provide free or low-cost cannabis,” said Cedar Grey, a grower and member of the Oregon Cannabis Commission, a state advisory body. “With the changes they’ve made [to the medical marijuana program], it’s much more difficult to care for other patients. Therefore, the number of growers willing to do that has dropped significantly.”

Recreational use of marijuana was legalized in 2014, allowing people to grow their own plants or obtain cannabis from licensed growers and dispensaries.

Despite the fact that it’s arguably easier than ever to obtain pot, Pete Gendron, president of the Oregon SunGrowers Guild, an association of growers, said that the breakdown of the medical market could affect low income people particularly hard.

“They don’t have the money to go to the corner dispensary,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

9 November 2018
Mixed Results For Marijuana Legalization At The Polls

Advocates received a major win in Michigan, which became the first midwest state to legalize recreational marijuana.

Marijuana advocates hoping for a mandate on legalization instead got a mixed result at the polls on Tuesday, when Michigan became the 10th state to legalize recreational cannabis and voters in Missouri and Utah approved medical marijuana programs, but North Dakota residents rejected a legalization bid.

Michigan became the first midwest state to legalize recreational marijuana, with 56% of voters coming out in favor.

“Adults will no longer be punished for consuming a substance less harmful than alcohol, and rather than having to resort to the illegal market, they will be able to access it safely and legally from licensed businesses,” Marijuana Policy Project deputy director Matthew Schweich told The Washington Post.

Michigan residents who are 21 and older will be able to legally posses up to 2.5 ounces of weed in public and 10 ounces at home as soon as the election results are certified, which is likely to be in early September, according to the Detroit Free Press. Commercial sale of marijuana is likely to begin in 2020, although public consumption will remain banned in the state.

The change to the law in Michigan means that 25% of Americans now live in a state that has legalized recreational weed, despite the fact that cannabis remains a Schedule I substance under federal law.

In Utah, a hotly contested measure to begin a medical marijuana program in the state was slightly ahead with 53% of the vote in unofficial reporting, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The deeply conservative state is heavily influenced by the Mormon church, which opposed approval of the medical marijuana program. Advocates for cannabis reform say that the victory shows a wide-spread change in the public perception of marijuana.

“When Utah flips, the whole country will be watching, and you all did that,” Christine Stenquist, a medical cannabis patient and founder of the advocacy group TRUCE Utah, told voters on Tuesday night.

In Missouri, 65% of voters approved a measure to legalize medical marijuana and tax it at 4%, with the funds directed toward healthcare for veterans. Voters rejected two similar measures that also legalized medical marijuana, but taxed it at either 2 or 15%.

However, the news was not rosy for marijuana advocates in North Dakota, where nearly 60% of voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational cannabis without establishing a marketplace or even regulations.

“Tonight, parents can sleep easy knowing their children won’t wake up to more marijuana use in their schools,” Luke Niforatos, senior policy adviser to Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group that opposes legalization, wrote on Twitter. “The sensible, wonderful people of North Dakota have rejected marijuana commercialization in their state.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 November 2018
Mike Tyson To Star In Sitcom Based On His Marijuana Business

Tyson stars in the series along with his real-life bodyguard and comedian Russell Peters who’ll play Tyson’s “useless best friend.”

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has begun production on a television sitcom based on his new career in the cannabis industry.

Tyson will star as a retired boxer who grows marijuana in Rolling with the Punches, which is filming at Tyson Ranch in El Segundo, California.

The series, which the boxer compared to Curb Your Enthusiasm, echoes Tyson’s own interest in cannabis cultivation and technology, which he plans to oversee from his 40-acre Tyson Ranch.

Tyson’s business partner, film producer and entrepreneur Rob Hickman, said that a demo reel has been delivered to the major networks. The series is expected to air within five months.

Tyson stars alongside his real-life bodyguard, Chuck Zito—himself an actor on Oz and Sons of Anarchy—and comedian Russell Peters as Tyson’s “useless best friend.” According to the New York Post, the series will also feature Tyson Ranch merchandise.

“It’s simple. I’m playing a retired boxer who is growing marijuana,” said Tyson. “It’s basically me acting like me, so people can get a look at what my life could be like in different scenarios.”

Tyson, who said that he is a both a proponent for medical cannabis and a frequent user—”I smoke it all day, every day,” he told the New York Post—has been making inroads into the cannabis industry in recent years.

A groundbreaking ceremony for Tyson Ranch, which is located about 60 miles southwest of Death Valley National Park, took place in late 2017.

The property—which is operated by Tyson Holistic, a company staffed largely by military veterans—would serve as both a resort and cultivation facility, with areas designated for growing cannabis and learning about the industry, as well as a hydroponic feed and supply store and edibles factory.

Additionally, cabins, camping grounds and an amphitheater will accommodate tourists. Tyson and his partners envision the ranch as a means of giving back to the region through the creation of new jobs.

Tyson Ranch will also serve as one part of a larger brand that will be devoted to cannabis culture and business; High Times reported that an entity called “Iron Mike Genetics” was trademarked for the ranch’s branding and marketing prospects.

View the original article at thefix.com

7 November 2018
Francis Ford Coppola Enters The Cannabis Business

Coppola is launching a “cannabis lifestyle brand” in partnership with a sustainable cannabis farm in the Emerald Triangle.

Francis Ford Coppola is best known as the director of the Godfather series and Apocalypse Now. But in recent years, Coppola has launched a lucrative wine business and also owns hotels in Italy, Guatemala, Belize and Argentina.

Now, Coppola is getting into the cannabis business, which is shaping up to be a big growth industry. As Forbes reports, Coppola’s new cannabis business is called Sána Company LLC, and it will be independent from his Family Coppola enterprises. Sana is a sanskrit term for marijuana.

In a statement, the company announced that it wants to “give life to a progressive vision for pioneering the highest-quality, sun-grown cannabis products through sustainable farming.”

Coppola is launching The Grower’s Series, which he’s calling a “cannabis lifestyle brand.” The company is working in conjunction with Humboldt Brothers, a cannabis farm located in the Emerald Triangle, “the Napa Valley of cannabis.”

As the famed director declared in a statement, “Wine and cannabis are two ancient and bounteous gifts of Mother Nature, linked by great care, terroir [a Northern California fog that gives cannabis a special flavor] and temperateness. Expertise making one applies to the other. As with growing grapes, location matters, and The Grower’s Series reflects California agricultural expertise creating a true blend of art and science.”

Coppola’s Grower’s Series will include sativa, indica and hybrid strains that will come in one-gram packages that are shaped like wine bottles. Each package will go for $99, complete with a pipe and rolling papers.

Corey Beck, an executive at Coppola Winery, told The Drinks Business, “This is another avenue we’ve created for a tasting experience. We need to be able to market to our consumers, wherever they may be. If they are in a dispensary, they can see that bottle and it may resonate with them the next time they see that bottle when they’re in a Safeway or Kroger.”

The Herb Somm, another cannabis lifestyle brand, will help promote The Grower’s Series. Like Coppola, Somm founder Jamie Evans worked in the wine industry.

Evans told Forbes, “I think it’s incredible to see such an iconic family get into the space. There are so many synergies that exist between the two industries, especially in Northern California. The more support we can get from leaders like Francis Ford Coppola, the closer we get to breaking the stigma of cannabis nationwide.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 November 2018
Anthony Scaramucci Thinks Trump Will Legalize Marijuana

During a recent interview, Scaramucci discussed how Trump may change his stance on legalization in the near future.

Anthony Scaramucci is predicting a greener future under the Trump administration.

Specifically, that is, he thinks the president will legalize marijuana during his last two years in office.

The former White House communications director offered his pro-pot prediction during a half-hour YouTube interview with Succeed.com founder Charles Peralo.

In the final minutes of the interview, which tackled everything from entrepreneurship to immigration to trade, Peralo lobbed a quick question about the odds of seeing Trump change his stance on marijuana legalization—and The Mooch responded without pause.

“I do. I think he’s going to legalize marijuana,” he said. “I think he’s waiting for after the midterms. I think he’s on the side of legalization. I think the attorney general probably wasn’t but I think the president is.”

The reference to stridently anti-marijuana Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the past tense prompted a follow-up. “He’s on his way out most likely?” Peralo asked.

“Yeah, I think he is,” Scaramucci responded. “Well I don’t wanna speak about that because anything happens in the Trump world.”

It’s not clear, as Marijuana Moment pointed out, whether Scaramucci’s prediction is based on gut feeling or insider knowledge—but he’s not the only politico highlighting the possibility of pot reform.

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told Fox Business that the president made a “solid commitment” to addressing pot legalization after the Nov. 6 elections.

“I have been talking to people inside the White House who know and inside the president’s entourage,” Rohrabacher told the TV network. “I have talked to them at length. I have been reassured that the president intends on keeping his campaign promise.”

The idea, Rohrabacher said, would be to greenlight medical marijuana on a federal level and leave individual states to decide on the legality of recreational pot.

“I would expect after the election we will sit down and we’ll start hammering out something that is specific and real,” the Congressman added.

To some, marijuana reform seems like a political necessity for the president. Conservative blog Hot Air predicted that any failure to approve pot could turn into a Democratic talking point against Trump in 2020.

“He could short-circuit that by getting out in front of the issue,” the website predicted. “Any other Republican president might expect blowback from seniors and evangelicals for making a move like that, but Trump isn’t ‘any other Republican president.’”

View the original article at thefix.com

5 November 2018
Despite Legalization, Canada’s Pot Black Market Continues To Thrive

Officials are hoping that dealers on the illegal market will be priced out.

Last week Canada became only the second country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana, but the black market for pot is continuing to thrive as customers seek out products that they can’t buy legally, including edibles, and sellers push back on government intervention in their industry.

“We’ll keep selling what we are selling,” Don Briere, the owner of an illegal Vancouver pot shop, told The New York Times. Briere sells edibles and other products that are currently illegal under the national law, which only allows for the sale of fresh or dried cannabis, seeds, plants and oil.

Canada—especially Vancouver—has long had a thriving illicit marijuana industry, worth an estimated 5.3 billion Canadian dollars each year.

One of the aims of legalization was to close the illegal shops that are common in cities like Vancouver.

However, Briere and other industry insiders object on principle. “The government taking over the cannabis trade is like asking a farmer to build airplanes,” he said. He’s not alone. In Vancouver, hundreds of illegal shops remain open.

At a lower level, street dealers try to entice customers by offering services like delivery and selling joints at a two-for-one price. Some customers who were frustrated that legal stores ran out of product went back to their illicit contacts.

“Definitely going to use my dealer from now on his business is going way up because of your crappy service,” one frustrated customer wrote on Twitter.

Despite the disregard for the law, Canadian law enforcement isn’t likely to step up consequences for people who are selling illegally. They have their hands full dealing with more pressing issues, including fentanyl overdoses, said Chief Constable Del Manak, police chief of Victoria and president of the British Columbia Association of Chiefs of Police.

However, this doesn’t mean that authorities are oblivious to the fact that the illegal market still exists. “It is naïve to think that just because cannabis is legalized, the criminal will walk away from a highly lucrative industry,” said Del Manak.

Mike Farnworth, British Columbia’s minister of public safety, said that the government is hoping that over time the legal market will undermine the demand for illegal sales. “It’s a very Canadian way of doing things,” he said. “It won’t happen overnight.”

Farnworth added that there won’t be any police raids with “guns and head-bashing.”

However, in Toronto, police raided five illegal pot shops after the legalization law was passed. Others have voluntarily closed, showing that the government’s approach might be working. Even Briere has shuttered some of his stores across the country and is applying for licenses for the remaining stores.

Officials are also hoping that dealers on the illegal market will be priced out. Today, marijuana on the street costs about one-third of what it did five years ago, making it less lucrative for dealers.

View the original article at thefix.com

30 October 2018
Couple’s Lawsuit "To Block Legalization Of Marijuana" Goes To Trial

The Colorado couple say they have been “injured by a conspiracy to cultivate recreational marijuana near their land,” according to the lawsuit.

A couple of disgruntled property owners in Colorado are taking their neighbor to court over growing cannabis, which they claim has brought down the value of their property.

According to the original lawsuit filed on behalf of Hope and Michael Reilly, “growing recreational marijuana is ‘noxious, annoying or offensive activity’ by virtually any definition because marijuana plants are highly odorous, and their offensive smell travels long distances.”

The lawsuit, filed in 2015, saw its first day in Denver federal court on Monday (Oct. 29). Colorado has had a legal market for cannabis for adults 21 and older since January 2014.

The Reillys, who own a little over 100 acres of rural property in Rye, Colorado, say they have been “injured by a conspiracy to cultivate recreational marijuana near their land,” according to the lawsuit.

It’s now up to a jury to decide if the Reillys have a case. Similar lawsuits against state-legal cannabis operations have been filed in California, Massachusetts and Oregon, according to the Associated Press.

The neighbor targeted in the Reillys’ lawsuit is Parker Walton, who purchased 40 acres in Rye in 2014. Since then, he has built a 5,000-square-foot indoor cannabis growing and harvesting facility on his land, to sell his product to retailers.

The defense says it can prove that the Reillys’ property value has not been harmed. In fact, according to the AP, the defense will argue that tax valuations of the couple’s property have gone up over time.

Lawyers for the Reillys are suing under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), federal anti-racketeering laws established to target the Mafia in the 1970s. In this case, RICO allows private parties to sue claiming their business or property has been damaged by a criminal enterprise, AP explains.

If they can prove their case, they may be financially compensated for three times the damages plus attorneys’ fees.

According to the Safe Streets Alliance, which filed the Reillys’ lawsuit, the lawsuit could impact the future of other state-legal cannabis operations.

“In addition to shutting down the operations targeted in its suit, Safe Streets hopes that its use of the federal racketeering laws will serve as a model for other businesses and property owners who have been injured by the rise of the commercial marijuana industry,” reads its website.

View the original article at thefix.com

30 October 2018
Canadian Pot Companies Use Legal Gray Areas To Promote Product

The companies are not allowed to promote their product with testimonials, glamorous images or mascots, according to Bill C-45.

As Canada attempts to contend—with varying degrees of success—with the massive demand for cannabis after the country legalized recreational marijuana on Oct. 17, various entrepreneurs have leapt into the fray to connect consumers with product in creative ways.

Among these is the delivery start-up Eddy Delivery, which is offering a unique promotional campaign to bring visitors to its website. The company offered to deliver free snacks to those who add their information to its mailing list, and add their names to a grand prize drawing for a visit to a licensed cannabis production facility.

The campaign is intended to help Eddy add delivery of recreational marijuana to its current service, which delivers medical marijuana.

Eddy’s website states that customers who sign up for its service would be added to a delivery list, which will be served with free snacks (while supplies lasted) on the first day of legal recreational marijuana sales.

Those who signed up could increase their chances for a windfall of munchies by sharing the information and tagging friends on Instagram. Participants were also entered into a random drawing for a “Lucky Green Ticket,” which would grant four winners a tour of a licensed cultivation facility—or “local weed factory.”

The ultimate goal for Eddy is to branch into recreational cannabis delivery, though it will have to overcome considerable hurdles set in place by the legalization legislation.

As High Times noted, prospective cannabis companies are not allowed to promote their product with testimonials or mascots, but the specifics of this rule are—according to Scott Hulbert, managing director of the promotional products company Ideavation—”really gray.”

“It’s a moving target, as far as legalities, restrictions and advertising opportunities,” said Hulbert. “Will it be like tobacco, which is very restricted in its advertising, or alcohol, which has been given more of a carte blanche? We just don’t know.”

Eddy CEO Ryan Dempsey echoed Hulbert’s understanding of the current bill. “They recently changed regulations to allow Ontario retail stores to be run by private companies,” he said. “They’re still also considering changes for other rules, such as private e-commerce and delivery.”

As for Eddy’s chances of entering the recreational market, Dempsey said, “Nothing definite at this point, but we’re optimistic.”

View the original article at thefix.com

27 October 2018
Utah Lawmaker Tries Pot For First Time On Facebook Live

“I decided it was about time that at least one legislator knew a little bit about marijuana before we changed all the laws,” said the state senator.

A Utah state senator decided to do some hands-on research before voting on the state’s marijuana policy in the upcoming November election.

Jim Dabakis, a Democrat, took to Facebook Live to stream himself trying marijuana for the first time. He ate an edible gummy bear in Las Vegas, where recreational weed is legal.

“I decided it was about time that at least one legislator knew a little bit about marijuana before we changed all the laws,” Dabakis said in the video. “I don’t think there’s a senator that’s used marijuana. I think maybe nobody has ever smoked marijuana and we’re going to make the laws.”

Dabakis said “with great sacrifice” he went to Vegas on his own accord to give pot a try. However, he doesn’t like smoke, so he opted for an edible instead.

“I wouldn’t recommend it as a sheer candy because it’s a little bit bitter,” he said.

After trying the candy, Dabakis said that the experience wasn’t remarkable

“It was no big deal,” Dabakis told USA Today. “It was fine. I just felt a little high.”

In a follow-up video, Dabakis said he “wouldn’t recommend shooting up marijuana to anybody.” However, he called on everyone in Utah to just “mellow out” about marijuana.

“The people who are terrified by it seem to be the people who have never tried it,” he said.

In fact, he recommends that all his colleagues takes a moment to familiarize themselves with the issue at hand.

“I think the reefer madness crowd – you guys, you need to try it. It’s not that big a deal,” he said in the video.

He reinforced that stance when speaking with USA Today.

“I want all my colleagues to get amnesty and go get a gummy bear or smoke a marijuana cigarette,” he said. “I think everybody is afraid of what they don’t know about.”

Utah voters will consider legalizing a medical marijuana program in November. The issue has been fiercely debated in the state, where a heavy Mormon influence has resulted in some of the strictest alcohol laws in the nation. While the proposition to legalize medical marijuana seems to be slightly ahead by voters, the governor of Utah recently said that even if it doesn’t pass the state is headed toward legalization of medical cannabis.

“The good news here is that whether [Prop 2] passes or fails, we’re going to arrive at the same point,” Utah Gov. Gary Herbert told The Salt Lake Tribune.

View the original article at thefix.com

26 October 2018