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Trump recants; guapo rants (legalizing marijuana)


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11 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

Or maybe the Tobacco Industry is ready to get into the business and push out craft growers.

that would suck and i hope things dont go down that way.  At least there are enough established craft growers in CO, cali, Wash etc that will be able to flood the market with good buds.  

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If I had to guess, and this is what yall need to be worried about, the tobacco industry will push for some sort of broad national safety standard with a state preemption clause and ATF regulation that effectively limits the ability of states to regulate internally.   I mean, if I was an evil motherfucker and you asked me how I would do it, that's the way.

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On 4/30/2018 at 11:36 AM, Bateshorn said:

If I had to guess, and this is what yall need to be worried about, the tobacco industry will push for some sort of broad national safety standard with a state preemption clause and ATF regulation that effectively limits the ability of states to regulate internally.   I mean, if I was an evil motherfucker and you asked me how I would do it, that's the way.

FDA regulation, friendo.  It's inevitable.

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Last month, Georgia Division of Family and Children Services took custody of Suzeanna and Matthew Brill's son after Twiggs County Sheriff's Office deputies arrested them for giving him marijuana.

It's a charge they don't deny.

"We openly admitted to them in front of Twiggs County sheriff's deputies," said Matthew Brill.

Their son, whom 13WMAZ did not identify because he is a minor and the sensitive nature of this case, was taken from the Brills' custody.

According to a Twiggs County Sheriff's Office report, they're now charged with reckless conduct.

However, they say they're not bad parents – they were doing what they had to to stop their son's frequent seizures.

The Brills say their son suffered from several seizures every day, "seven days a week, 24 hours a day."

After trying several prescription drugs and even cannabis oil with no results, they turned to marijuana.

"I smoke it first," said stepfather Matthew Brill. "I know where it comes from, I know my people. Made sure the bag was good, packed the bowl in my bowl, which I know ain't been anywhere else, and I set it on the table and told him that it was his decision. I did not tell him he had to or not."

The Brills say their son began smoking several times a day and when he did, it kicked off a 71-day stretch without a single seizure.

Even though they're facing a reckless conduct charge, the parents say they'd do it again to protect their child.

"Nothing else was working," said Suzeanna Brill. "I can't have my kid dying because no one wants to listen."

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/georgia-family-loses-custody-of-son-after-giving-him-marijuana-to-treat-seizures/85-558956588

There is a lot to take in on this story.  So many tangents...

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On 4/30/2018 at 11:36 AM, Bateshorn said:

If I had to guess, and this is what yall need to be worried about, the tobacco industry will push for some sort of broad national safety standard with a state preemption clause and ATF regulation that effectively limits the ability of states to regulate internally.   I mean, if I was an evil motherfucker and you asked me how I would do it, that's the way.

This isn't unlike what is happening with vape pens.  There is legislation on the books right now that is being hashed out after the fact regarding pens.  RJ Reynolds and Altria are behind it.  The legislation makes EACH FLAVOR/MIXTURE of vape pen require FDA testing.  So to get a lemongrass scent as opposed to raspberry in your vape, each flavor must go through the same scrutiny with the FDA as pharmaceuticals.  Estimated cost to get these through is about $2mm a pop.  Big tobacco let the vape industry come in, prove that it was a viable product, and is now actively crushing the people who took the risk.  Once the small guys wilt away the big boys come back through with their big dollars and take over the market.  Like I said, this legislation is already approved/passed and now the FDA is working to figure out how to exactly enact the regulation.

There is almost no way this doesn't happen with weed.  Especially with test states like CO/CA/WA out there.  When we legalize MO this fall there is almost no chance that the CO companies aren't the first ones with a grow license.  It sucks but that is the way things work.  On one hand, I want to congratulate all of the stoners out there and greenthumb people who have made marijuana legalization a real possibility.  On the other hand I want to slap them in the back of the head and ask "You didn't really think legalization meant that the small time dealer/grower was going to be the only guy who was going to enter the marketplace did you?"  Because I feel like that is what a lot of proponents of mj think.  The fact is that they opened up a marketplace.  That doesn't mean they get to dominate the marketplace.  I know a guy who was once a player in a certain "high use" neighborhood in Missouri.  Now he is scrambling to figure out what he is going to do since he likely won't be able to sell weed anymore.  He advocated for legalization forever without the foresight to realize that he was creating his own competition.

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The Republican Party of Texas has officially endorsed decriminalization of marijuana, offering yet more proof of the dizzying speed at which attitudes are changing toward marijuana and marijuana prohibition.

At the state's GOP biennial party convention in San Antonio last week, assembled delegates lent their overwhelming support to adding four cannabis-related planks to the party platform, including the repeal of criminal penalties for marijuana possession, the expansion of the state's incredibly limited medical marijuana law, a call for the rescheduling of marijuana at the federal level, and the legalization of industrial hemp production. All measures passed with 80 percent of the vote or more.

https://reason.com/blog/2018/06/18/texas-gop-endorses-marijuana-decriminali

I've been to the State convention before.  I know how the convention works.  The party planks don't mean much of anything with respect to legislative priorities for actual politicians, but this was a bit surprising to me given the preponderance of old guard "social government conservatives".  I didn't attend the convention this year, so I didn't get a chance to survey the crowd, but maybe the Ron Paul revolution types are still fighting for liberty.

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31 minutes ago, maninblack said:

"The jurors let him go. He was minding his own business and wasn’t hurting anybody, they reasoned. He just doesn’t belong in prison."

my-nigga-gif-7.gif

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Congressman Pete Sessions racist and ignorant ass got voted out.

 

He single handedly blocked marijuana bills of all kinds from coming to the House floor for the last 4 years or so. The question is will the democrats put these bills up for a vote? I think a lot of them would pass. Especially medical protections.

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On 11/12/2018 at 2:58 PM, Voldemort86 said:

Congressman Pete Sessions racist and ignorant ass got voted out.

 

He single handedly blocked marijuana bills of all kinds from coming to the House floor for the last 4 years or so. The question is will the democrats put these bills up for a vote? I think a lot of them would pass. Especially medical protections.

 

 

Yes, and because Sessions is out, Politico now says that this could be the year it is legalized.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/21/marijuana-legalization-congress-224031

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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Friday introduced legislation that would legalize marijuana at the federal level, designating the measure S. 420 in a nod to cannabis culture.  Rankin is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee:

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/429139-dem-senator-files-s-420-bill-to-legalize-marijuana


 

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California's War on Weed Continues Thanks to a Red Tape-Fueled Black Market

 

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Yesterday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra made a big deal about a bunch of police raids and arrests over the past year. Were these violent thugs or scam artists engaging in hacking or theft?

No. They were people illegally growing marijuana in a state that legalized growing marijuana. California has botched its legalization so badly that the state's attorney general is putting out press releases to brag about how many people they're still arresting.

Becerra announced that through the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) program, the state's Department of Justice had raided 345 grow sites, arrested 148 people, and destroyed nearly 1 million marijuana plants that were being grown illegally, sometimes on public lands, across the state over the course of 2019.

"Illegal cannabis grows are devastating our communities. Criminals who disregard life, poison our waters, damage our public lands, and weaponize the illegal cannabis black market will be brought to justice," Becerra said in a prepared statement.

Becerra's release is heavy on talking about cooperation between federal, state, and local agencies to wipe out these illegal grow operations and about the potential environmental harms from massive pot farms out in the wild. Only a couple of the photos they've provided actually show any marijuana. Most show piles of trash, making it look as though they're raiding homeless encampments, not massive illegal grow operations.

Becerra's statement is silent about why a state that has legalized marijuana use—both medically and recreationally—still has such a massive black market. There's no mention about the massive state and local taxes that have driven up prices so much that a black market persists. There's no mention of how costly regulations and bureaucratic red tape have made it hard to legally grow marijuana for sale. And most importantly, just like all the old drug war announcements about drug site raids, there is no evidence that any of these arrests will actually succeed in shutting down the black market. Raids hadn't succeeded back when marijuana was illegal; why would these raids be any different?

The Golden State has done such a terrible job at actually legalizing marijuana that even 60 Minutes recently produced a segment on how the bureaucratic and regulatory systems California has put into place continue to foster black markets.

One small legal grower named Casey O'Neill noted he was $50,000 in the red trying to comply with all the regulations—"$2,500 a year for the water board discharge permit. It's $750 a year for the pond permit. It's $1,350 application fee to the county, plus another $675 when they actually give you the permit, annually." When asked about his profits, his response was blunt: "What profits?"

Black markets aren't caused solely by banning a good or service. They're also fostered when the government makes it so hard to legally operate that, unless you have the right government connections, the only way you'll realistically make money is by defying the law.

Becerra shows no sign that he has any understanding that these illegal operations are going to continue as long as regulations and taxes make it too burdensome to legally grow and sell weed. And so, just like every other law enforcement announcement from the past 30 years throwing out big numbers of arrests and drug confiscation, these numbers Becerra and CAMP are tossing out mean nothing. The black markets will continue.

 

 

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The Murder Mountain doc on Netflix touched on this a little. A lot of those old Humboldt county hippies sunk their life savings into the permit process and infrastructure to go legal and lost their ass when the price of legal pot didn't come close to what they were making growing illegally. It wouldn't surprise me a bit to learn that companies like Phillip Morris et al are paying loads of money to keep the permitting process a clusterfuck. They want to drive out all the little guys so they can swoop in and dominate the market when it goes legal nationally. 

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On Wednesday, members of Congress did something that they had never done before. For the first time ever, a body of the U.S. Congress voted to end cannabis’s nearly century-long status as a federally prohibited substance.

By a vote of more than two to one, members of the United States House Judiciary Committee passed legislation, House Bill 3884: The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act. 

The MORE Act removes the marijuana plant from the federal Controlled Substances Act, thereby enabling states to enact their own cannabis regulations free from undue federal interference. The vote marks the first time that members of Congress have ever voted to federally deschedule cannabis.

...

https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/471521-wednesdays-marijuana-legalization-vote-was-truly-historic-heres-why

So this bill will be scheduled for a full House vote in the future I guess. Link to the bill details here:

https://legiscan.com/US/bill/HB3884/2019

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State legislatures are back in session across the US, and it looks like several states could see some movement.

Governors Across U.S. Step Up Push To Legalize Marijuana In Their States

State legislatures across the U.S. have convened for new sessions over the past month, and a growing number of governors are taking steps to push lawmakers to include legalizing marijuana as part of their 2020 agendas.

At least 10 governors have gone so far as to put language ending marijuana prohibition in their annual budget requests, or used their State of the State speeches to pressure legislators to act on cannabis reform.

Some are proactively addressing the issue, while others appear to be mostly reacting to support that has already built up among lawmakers. But altogether, it’s clear that top state executives are now taking marijuana more seriously than ever before.

Here’s a look at how governors are taking action on marijuana as 2020 legislative sessions get underway.

Colorado
Gov. Jared Polis (D), who consistently led the fight for federal marijuana reform during his time in Congress, is continuing to champion cannabis now that he’s running his state.

This month, his administration rolled out a “roadmap” aimed at increasing the number of banks that serve legal cannabis businesses. He also announced an energy efficiency partnership between beer and marijuana companies that involves using carbon captured during the alcohol brewing process to grow cannabis plants.

And during his State of the State address last month Polis emphasized that “keeping Colorado the number one state in the nation for industrial hemp” is among his priorities for boosting the economy.

Connecticut
Gov. Ned Lamont (D) and leading lawmakers are pushing to make 2020 the year that Connecticut legalizes cannabis.

During his State of the State address, the governor spoke about how marijuana legalization in nearby states makes it illogical to continue prohibition. “Like it or not, legalized marijuana is a short drive away in Massachusetts and New York is soon to follow,” he said. “Right now do you realize that what you can buy legally in Massachusetts right across the border can land you in prison here in Connecticut for up to a year?”

To that end, Lamont has partnered with governors from neighboring states to develop a regional approach to cannabis.

On the governor’s behalf, the Senate president and House speaker have filed a bill to legalize marijuana in Connecticut, and Lamont’s budget proposal includes funding for new state employees to craft and implement a regulatory system for cannabis.

Illinois
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), who signed a marijuana legalization bill into law last year, has championed its implementation in 2020. His State of the State address included a line touting how the new policy’s out-of-state appeal “gives us a chance to collect tax revenue from the residents of Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa and Indiana,” all of which continue to prohibit recreational cannabis.

Pritzker’s lieutenant governor was among the first people to purchase cannabis products when legal sales began on January 1. The day before, Pritzker pardoned more than 11,000 people with prior marijuana convictions. Nearly $40 million worth of adult-use cannabis products were purchased in the first month, an economic boost that the governor’s administration prominently touted.

New Mexico
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) formally put marijuana legalization on the legislature’s agenda for the short, 30-day session ending later this month.

“It’s high time we stopped holding ourselves and our economy back: Let’s get it done this year and give New Mexicans yet another reason, yet another opportunity, to stay here and work and build a fulfilling 21st century career,” she said during her State of the State speech.

Last year, Lujan Grisham convened a working group to study cannabis. It issued a report that formed the basis of a legalization bill that is now advancing through the legislature.

New York
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) unsuccessfully pushed lawmakers to send him a marijuana legalization bill in 2019, but he’s trying again this year.

“For decades, communities of color were disproportionately affected by the unequal enforcement of marijuana laws,” he said in his 2020 State of the State address. “Let's work with our neighbors New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania to coordinate a safe and fair system, and let's legalize adult use of marijuana.”

The governor’s budget includes language to accomplish the end of cannabis prohibition, and he is also proposing to create a new Global Cannabis and Hemp Center for Science, Research and Education in the SUNY system.

Rhode Island
For the second year in a row, Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) put measures to legalize cannabis in her budget proposal.

Unlike the version that lawmakers rejected in 2019, the new language would create a system of state-owned stores to sell marijuana.

House and Senate leaders have thus far expressed reservations about Raimondo’s plan, but it remains to be seen if they will become more open to legalization as a growing number of nearby states—including Connecticut—move to end prohibition.

South Dakota
Gov. Kristi Noem (R) is no big fan of hemp, having vetoed a bill to legalize the crop that lawmakers sent to her desk last year. But in 2020, recognizing that the plant is incredibly popular and that other states are enacting new laws regulating hemp in light of its recent federal legalization, the governor is working with lawmakers to pass new compromise legislation.

Noem laid out what she called “guardrails” that need to be included in any hemp bill that could get her signature, and she also discussed the issue in her State of the State address.

“Federal guidelines have been put in place, a South Dakota tribe has been given the green light on production, and other states’ actions mean we need to address hemp transportation through our state,” she said.

New hemp legislation has already advanced through one legislative committee, and the governor seems poised to sign it into law this year as long as her concerns are addressed.

Vermont
Gov. Phil Scott (R) reluctantly signed a 2018 bill into law that legalizes low-level marijuana possession and home cultivation. Now, lawmakers are pushing to add legal cannabis sales to that, and the governor doesn’t appear as opposed as he once did.

A top lawmaker said that Scott is “at the table” in ongoing talks about legislative language. Although he still has concerns about impaired driving, the governor reportedly has his eye on using legal marijuana sales revenue to fund an after-school program he is proposing.

A cannabis commercialization bill cleared the Senate in 2019 and has already been amended and approved by a number of House committees this year, with a floor vote expected in the coming weeks.

While Scott hasn’t committed to signing it into law, advocates have become more hopeful that he won’t block it because of the tax money it can generate to support his other priorities.

U.S. Virgin Islands
Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. (D) called lawmakers into a special session in December to begin considering a marijuana legalization proposal that he says is needed to generate revenue to support a retirement fund for government employees.

“We must acknowledge the opportunities that regulated expansion of this industry can bring to the territory and the potential benefits” to the retirement program, he said during his State of the Territory address last month.

Virginia
Gov. Ralph Northam (D) campaigned on decriminalizing marijuana in 2017 and has continually pushed lawmakers to send him a bill on the topic. Now that the governor’s party won control of both chambers of the legislature in November’s elections, it might actually get done, and he put marijuana decriminalization at the top of his 2020 criminal justice agenda.

“We need to take an honest look at our criminal justice system to make sure we’re treating people fairly and using taxpayer dollars wisely,” he said in his State of the Commonwealth speech. “This means decriminalizing marijuana possession—and clearing the records of people who’ve gotten in trouble for it.”

Cannabis decriminalization legislation has advanced through several House of Delegates and Senate committees in recent weeks, and cleared the full House this week. A Senate floor vote is expected soon.

Wisconsin
Gov. Tony Evers (D) included language to legalize medical cannabis and decriminalize marijuana possession in his budget last year, but lawmakers removed those provisions.

But the governor is still pushing the issue, calling out the legislature in his 2020 State of the State speech for ignoring the will of the voters.

“When more than 80 percent of our state supports medical marijuana…and elected officials can ignore those numbers without consequence, folks, something’s wrong,” he said.

The GOP House speaker has expressed some openness to allowing medical cannabis in some form, but Senate leadership is more hostile to the idea. It remains to be seen if gubernatorial pressure can convince lawmakers to advance the issue.

 

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Legality of cannabis by U.S. jurisdiction
Map of cannabis laws in the US

  Legal
  Legal for medical use
  Legal for medical use, limited THC content
  Prohibited for any use

  D  Decriminalized

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