Answer Addiction

Tag: voting

  • Mixed Results For Marijuana Legalization At The Polls

    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

  • Opioid Crisis At Forefront As Midterms Approach

    Opioid Crisis At Forefront As Midterms Approach

    Politicians are eager to offer their take on the crisis, in hopes of connecting with constituents who have been affected by it.

    As November fast approaches, those on Capitol Hill know that the opioid crisis is an issue voters are taking into consideration.

    “We see more and more deaths being attributed to opiates and illicit drugs than ever before. It’s of epidemic proportion and we’re going to lose a whole generation,” said Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia during an interview.

    With a vote of 99 to 1 on Monday (Sept. 17), the Senate passed a package of 70 bills aimed at opioid prevention and expanding treatment. 

    According to KATV, those in support of the legislation say it is just the beginning. The bill package would mean increased the screening of packages sent via the U.S. Postal Service, which U.S. Representative Erik Paulsen has been supportive of, according to a blog post by Advanced Medical Integration, a consulting firm.  

    “While private carriers have to submit electronic data for any of their packages that come into the United States, the postal service has been exempt,” Paulsen stated. “We have a loophole that is being exploited by smugglers.”

    The bill package would also mean shorter opioid prescriptions and increased funding for treatment. 

    “Now we’re able to get money coming to the most addicted areas and that’s gonna be the biggest help to West Virginia,” Manchin stated. 

    Manchin is in a tight race for his Senate seat. His opponent, Attorney General Patrick Morrissey, states that Manchin did nothing to help the opioid crisis when he served as governor of West Virginia.

    “Quite frankly Joe Manchin was governor and I inherited the fact that he was asleep at the switch all while this crisis was raging,” Morrissey said, according to KATV.

    However, Morrissey himself has had to contend with some backlash due to his ties to pharmaceutical companies, which he has lobbied for in the past. “Last year I sued the DEA because I thought that their whole drug quota system was fundamentally flawed and it was spitting out in excess hundreds of millions of pills that were not warranted,” Morrissey stated.

    Midterms and the passing of the bill package could bring some clarity and direction, according to AMI.

    “We have to take some responsibility as a public for we should have recognized it as soon as it reared its ugly head and squashed it then,” the AMI blog post notes. “Now it is out of control. There is hope that one of these programs before Congress will take hold and slowly but surely begin to usher in the change we so desperately need.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Oklahoma Senator: Vote No On Medical Marijuana, It's "Harmful" to Families

    Oklahoma Senator: Vote No On Medical Marijuana, It's "Harmful" to Families

    “No one will convince me that our families will be better if only more parents and grandparents smoke more marijuana,” Senator Lankford said in a statement.

    High Times has reported that U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) is asking his constituents to vote against a measure that would legalize the medicinal use of marijuana.

    Lankford and the conservative religious group Oklahoma Faith Leaders issued a joint statement on May 31 in which they described the measure, State Question 788 (SQ 788)—which would legalize the possession, use and production of cannabis for medical purposes—as “harmful to the social fabric of Oklahoma.”

    Lankford added that he believed that the measure was actually a ruse by “outside groups that actually want access to recreational marijuana.” Oklahomans can voice their opinion on the measure as part of the statewide election on June 26.

    The measure is the work of Oklahomans for Health, which led a signature drive to include it on the June 26 ballot. Under SQ 788, no specific medical conditions would be required to qualify for a license, but patients would need a signature from a board-certified physician in order to obtain one. Licenses would also be required to operate a commercial growing operation or processing operation, and would require a fee of $2,500.

    Users would be allowed to possess up to three ounces of marijuana on their person and eight ounces in their home; a 7% tax would be levied on sales, with the funds going to substance dependency rehabilitation, education and administrative costs. 

    Proponents have said that the measure will benefit patients and reduce costs to taxpayers for enforcement of prohibition. Opponents cite a lack of sufficient restrictions, including where dispensaries can be located and whether employers can test for marijuana use. Senator Lankford’s statement took a broader approach in its criticism, suggesting that state residents will become “more drug addicted and distracted” if the measure is passed.

    “Most of us have seen first-hand the damage done to families and our communities from recreational marijuana,” Lankford wrote. “No one will convince me that our families will be better if only more parents and grandparents smoke more marijuana.”

    Tulsa World noted that Oklahoma Faith Leaders is directed by Paul Abner, an evangelist who was also a paid “faith-based consultant” for Lankford’s Senate campaign in 2014.

    According to Federal Election Commission records, Abner, who is also a current Republican candidate for State House District 100 in Oklahoma City, received at least $75,000 from Lankford since 2014.

    View the original article at thefix.com