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So, back to that legalization thing


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On 3/17/2021 at 9:48 AM, TexArcher said:

This is correct.  The War on Drugs has been a massive fiscal drain for decades.

 

 

 

Depends on what you mean by "drain".

 

It absolutely has a been a cash boom for private prisons; local, state, federal police depts; and fear-mongering politicians' election campaigns.

 

 

 

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I'm sorry, was I bitching ?  I said if taxes go to where they say they're going great, if not I have a problem with that. I'm also staunchly for legalization of weed.

Then why to you vote for the party that is staunchly against it?
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21 minutes ago, tigol said:


Then why to you vote for the party that is staunchly against it?

Because I'm not voting on a single issue. If it never gets legalized it won't be a big deal. I haven't had trouble finding weed since HS.

I don't think Joe, and the rest of the old school democrats are for legalization either.  His I'm for it, before he was against it was pandering to the college age voters.

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43 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Because I'm not voting on a single issue. If it never gets legalized it won't be a big deal. I haven't had trouble finding weed since HS.

I don't think Joe, and the rest of the old school democrats are for legalization either.  His I'm for it, before he was against it was pandering to the college age voters.

This is probably fair. I don't think Biden personally prefers to legalize it. But I do believe the majority of the party probably does.

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Just now, BradInATX said:

This is probably fair. I don't think Biden personally prefers to legalize it. But I do believe the majority of the party probably does.

I'd definitely agree. It's an age thing IMO, but I know a shit load of old democrats who smoke em up... a lot of 'em were my sources back in the day.

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The first time i smoked in Austin, it was walking down San Jac/Dean Keeton area with some friends in the middle of a busy Saturday afternoon.  I was nervous as hell but my more experienced friends said no big deal, cops are different here.  Sure enough we walked right past a cop while smoking a J and the cop didn't even blink in our direction.

Same thing gets you arrested in College Station apparently, even when you're a 5* receiver.

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6 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

New York set to legalize. Fucking finally.

Deal Reached to Fast-Track Legalizing Marijuana in New York ["https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-24/deal-reached-to-fast-track-legalizing-marijuana-in-new-york"]

Gotta make up all those lost tax dollars......

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Bunny Colvin must have gotten his job back, because Hamsterdam is back in business.

 

Baltimore will no longer prosecute drug possession, prostitution, low-level crimes (nbcnews.com)

 

Quote
March 26, 2021, 4:15 PM CDT / Updated March 26, 2021, 5:40 PM CDT
By Jon Schuppe

A year ago, as the coronavirus began to spread across Maryland, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby stopped prosecuting drug possession, prostitution, minor traffic violations and other low-level offenses, a move aimed at curbing Covid-19's spread behind bars.

That shift — repeated by prosecutors in many other cities — didn’t just reduce jail populations. In Baltimore, nearly all categories of crime have since declined, confirming to Mosby what she and criminal justice experts have argued for years: Crackdowns on quality-of-life crimes are not necessary for stopping more serious crime.

On Friday, Mosby announced that she was making her pandemic experiment permanent, saying Baltimore — for decades notorious for runaway violence and rough policing — had become a case study in criminal justice reform.

In the 12 months since she ordered scaled-back enforcement, violent crime is down 20 percent and property crime has declined 36 percent, she said. Homicides inched down, though Baltimore still has one of the highest homicide rates among cities nationwide. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found sharp reductions in calls to police complaining about drugs and prostitution, she said.

“Clearly, the data suggest there is no public safety value in prosecuting low-level offenses,” Mosby said at a news conference.

 
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But whether Baltimore is indeed an experiment that can be replicated elsewhere remains to be seen. Enforcement of low-level crimes has dropped in many parts of the country over the past year, as police limited operations to avoid contracting and spreading the virus and as prosecutors and judges sought to contain the virus’s spread in jails. But Baltimore is one of the few big cities where violence did not increase. In dozens of cities, homicides and shootings rose in 2020.

While many prosecutors have maintained their pandemic suspensions on low-level offense prosecutions, few have said those shifts will remain in place in perpetuity. Some newly elected prosecutors, though, have vowed to abandon low-level cases permanently.

At Friday's news conference, Mosby also faced questions about a federal investigation into her campaign finances, as well as the finances of her husband, a city councilman. Her attorney has called the investigation "politically motivated." Mosby dismissed a reporter's questions about the probe, saying she wanted to focus on her new policy.

She said the Baltimore Police Department will be a partner in this shift away from low-level prosecutions, in which officers and prosecutors will focus on violent crime and drug trafficking as courts begin holding criminal trials again.

“Our understanding is that the police are going to follow what they’ve been doing for the past year, which is not arresting people based on the offenses I mentioned,” Mosby said.

At the same time, law enforcement will work with a local nonprofit, Baltimore Crisis Response Inc., to provide services to people suffering from mental illness, homelessness and drug addiction.

The Baltimore Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Police Commissioner Michael Harrison told The Washington Post that the policy had been difficult for officers to accept when it was implemented last year, and that he expected crime to rise. He told the Post that he now believed the pullback may have worked.

 

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A spokeswoman for the local police officers union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kobi Little, head of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP, said at the news conference that Mosby’s move was a recognition that decades of heavy-handed enforcement in Baltimore had done more harm than good.

“We want to see more elected officials stand up on these issues,” he said.

Kim Foxx, the state's attorney in Cook County, Illinois, said Mosby’s announcement was the culmination of years of discussion among reformers seeking ways to reduce focus on low-level offenses. “Covid provided a real opportunity to test it, to move from theory to practice,” she said.

“What Marilyn has been able to do is demonstrate that those changes didn’t lead to an increase in violent crime, didn’t lead to mayhem in the streets. The theory in practice yielded good results.”

Foxx, like Mosby, halted prosecution of minor crimes in the early days of the pandemic. But she is still exploring whether to make those changes permanent. Cook County — which includes Chicago — has seen an increase in homicides and shootings. That means Foxx will have to do a deeper analysis of what caused the spike before deciding what to do.

Michael Kahn, director of the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he believed Mosby was the first prosecutor to permanently shift away from minor offenses. More will likely follow if they see that their policies did not cause crime spikes, he said.

“I would expect now that the dam has broken that in the next few months we will start to see folks follow once they have their arms around the data,” Kahn said.

 

 

Edited by Tom
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SAFE Act passed the House again and will come up in Senate with 27 cosponsors if I’m reading it right, bipartisan support too. Shields financial institutions from federal prosecution for dealing cannabis companies.

New York Senate just passed and the Assembly should be doing it tonight, maybe. Cuomo already said he’d sign. Will expunge all former convictions, but looks to be getting slowplayed for legal sales for a year. So gonna be a lot of happy drug dealers for the next year I guess as it legalizes it immediately

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Wiki's map on legalization already includes New York as blue (legal rec). Everywhere west of Texas to the Pacific will soon be blue. I know New Mexico catches a lot of shit on Surly, but I actually really like that state.

Map of cannabis laws in the US

Blue = Legal recreational

Dark Green = Medical

Light Green = CBD

D = Decriminalized

Grey = Poor Idaho

Wikipedia's article does note this about Austin:

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In January 2020, Austin City Council voted 9–0 in favor of a resolution that effectively eliminates penalties for possessing up to 4 ounces of cannabis and directs the city manager to "take the steps necessary and appropriate to eliminate, to the furthest extent allowable under state law ... the use of arrest or other enforcement action for cannabis-related possession offenses".[61][62] In July 2020 Austin Police Department announced that it had revised its enforcement policies to comply with the resolution.[63]

4 ounces is a shit load of weed. In other words, possession for the everyday toker is pretty much legal inside the city limits.

 

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Tx Lege made it hard for most counties to test the difference between hemp and marijuana. If it’s changed since last session, I’ll defer to the law dawgs.

Wyoming looks to be the next western state to legalize. They’re not Bible beaters, just leave-me-alone Big sky cowboys 

POLITICS

Wyoming Lawmakers Approve Marijuana Legalization Bill Sponsored By Top GOP Leaders

https://www.marijuanamoment.net/wyoming-lawmakers-approve-marijuana-legalization-bill-sponsored-by-top-gop-leaders/

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On 3/22/2021 at 10:18 AM, High Plains Drifter said:

when LA, OK, and AR are ahead of you, you know something is fucked.

Gee... that's the same for covid vaccine administered per capita as well...

What I honestly want to see is Mr. Alright, Alright, Alright run on creating smart infrastructure starting with simply reliable energy. Legalization of marijuana as a tax revenue source, and incarceration/legal cost savings because it's just smart. And also trying to get affordable broadband into rural areas to increase educational access for those that want to better themselves but who are poor.  

Stupid as shit not to have marijuana legal. But fuck we have a guy as Governor whose entire life was built around a huge insurance settlement who rails against insurance settlements.  We have an A.G. who has been under felony indictment for nearly the entirety of his time in office.  So why would you ever think such world class hypocrites would have the intellect to do something smart, fiscally conservative, and forward looking?  

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1 hour ago, Patricio Swayze said:

he only way I see him changing the schedule of weed is in year 4 when he needs a boost for re-election (or to help whoever his old ass endorses).

Im curious as to who has the power to get the dea to reschedule cannabis.  The fact that almost half the country has legalized it yet it’s still a schedule 1 is a real travesty.  Could Biden executive order weed down to. Schedule 3 or 4? 

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It sounds like New Mexico is doing it right, and Virginia might be set to go as early as this summer.

New Mexico Becomes Second State in 24 Hours to Vote to Legalize Weed
New Mexico is set to join New York and 14 other states in legalizing cannabis for recreational use. Virginia could be next.

Things are moving rather quickly for the national movement to legalize cannabis.

The New Mexico state legislature voted to do so on Wednesday night, and once Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signs the legislation as expected, the state will become the 16th in the nation to legalize cannabis for recreational use. New Mexico is the second state to vote to legalize the drug in 24 hours. Earlier on Wednesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a legalization bill, which the state’s legislature had passed Tuesday night.

“This is a significant victory for New Mexico,” Lujan Grisham wrote in a statement after the Cannabis Regulation Act was passed, citing new jobs, new tax revenue, and the state’s “smart, equitable approach to low-level convictions.”

Things are moving rather quickly for the national movement to legalize cannabis.

The New Mexico state legislature voted to do so on Wednesday night, and once Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signs the legislation as expected, the state will become the 16th in the nation to legalize cannabis for recreational use. New Mexico is the second state to vote to legalize the drug in 24 hours. Earlier on Wednesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a legalization bill, which the state’s legislature had passed Tuesday night.

“This is a significant victory for New Mexico,” Lujan Grisham wrote in a statement after the Cannabis Regulation Act was passed, citing new jobs, new tax revenue, and the state’s “smart, equitable approach to low-level convictions.”

“New Mexico is a state, like most other states, that has experienced disproportionate arrests for cannabis,” Kaltenbach adds. “This bill is going to change lives in New Mexico, not only from the automatic expungement and re-sentencing components, but to help create some equity in the industry and protection for users.”

The Cannabis Regulation Act allows for the possessions of up to two ounces of cannabis for adults 21 and over, permits the home cultivation of up to six plants, and, unlike New York’s legislation, prevents local governments from opting out of retail sales. Legal retail sales are schedule to begin in New Mexico on April 1st, 2022.

New York becoming the 15th state to legalize for recreational use and New Mexico voting to become the 16th isn’t the only legalization news from Wednesday. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced that he is proposing changes to legislation passed earlier this year that would rapidly accelerate the timeline for the state to legalize recreational cannabis. If the changes are adopted, cannabis will be legal in the state by July 1st. Under the legislation passed earlier this year, it wouldn’t happen until 2024.

“Our Commonwealth is committed to legalizing marijuana in an equitable way,” Northam said in a press release. “Virginia will become the 15th state to legalize marijuana — and these changes will ensure we do it with a focus on public safety, public health, and social justice.”

State legalization is expanding so fast that Northam’s release is already out of date. If Virginia does indeed legalize cannabis this summer, it will now be the 17th state to do so. Lawmakers will consider the amendments he proposed next week.

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6 hours ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

Im curious as to who has the power to get the dea to reschedule cannabis.  The fact that almost half the country has legalized it yet it’s still a schedule 1 is a real travesty.  Could Biden executive order weed down to. Schedule 3 or 4? 

Inquiring minds want to know. 

They aren't even trying to pretend.

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What good is our state legislature?  Fucking seriously.

supposedly inferior states like New Mexico, Arkansas, and Louisiana are way ahead of us on this. They can’t protect us from freezing to death in an ice storm. These guys are fucking worthless. I can’t believe the people of this great state are so fucking dumb that they vote for hot wheels Abbott, potty Patrick, and indictment Paxton without even consider any alternatives. Our state leadership has gotta be bottom 5 in the country. I guess Texans love their football, death penalty, and their politicians as dumb as possible. Heck look at how good for,er president GWB did in Texas and that guy is as dumb as a fucking rock.

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Quote

 

Virginia's Democratic-controlled Legislature passed a bill legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana on Wednesday, making it the 16th state to take the step.

Under Virginia's new law, adults ages 21 and over can possess an ounce or less of marijuana beginning on July 1, rather than Jan. 1, 2024. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, proposed moving up the date, arguing it would be a mistake to continue to penalize people for possessing a drug that would soon be legal.

Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, also a Democrat, broke a 20-20 vote tie in Virginia's Senate to pass the bill. No Republicans supported the measure.

 

https://www.npr.org/2021/04/07/985014557/virginia-16th-state-to-legalize-recreational-pot-latest-to-emphasize-social-equi

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The governor of New Mexico signed the bill. The map posted above has been automagically updating itself. 
New Mexico legalizes recreational cannabis
When looking at that, recognize that Old Mexico is likely going to legalize, meaning every place that borders Texas will soon have some degree of legalization.

But not us.

Shit, we’re more likely to enhance the penalties for it because of a rumor on Qanon that weed makes you gay.

Our dedication to being backwards is impressive.
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1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:


But not us.

Shit, we’re more likely to enhance the penalties for it because of a rumor on Qanon that weed makes you gay.

Our dedication to being backwards is impressive.

Well, yeah, that's why I was pointing out we'll soon be a geographic anomaly on the damn map.

Oh well, we'll just come revisit this thread again in two years when the Texas lege is preoccupying itself with the imminent threat of same sex, trans-species bidets on the integrity of our elections (and children) and ensuring the right to conceal carry while naked in the Baptismal bathtub while we watch OK, AR, MO, MS, & LA calmy and quietly legalize.

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A statewide decriminalization bill has moved out of the TX house Criminal Jurisprudence committee and is set to be vote on, like in 2019. Dan Patrick will stand in the way and stood in the way in 2019.

Public Health committee voted to expand what is and isnt good for medicinal reasons. Chronic pain, cancer and PTSD for veterans included.

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20 minutes ago, StassneyHorn said:

A statewide decriminalization bill has moved out of the TX house Criminal Jurisprudence committee and is set to be vote on, like in 2019. Dan Patrick will stand in the way and stood in the way in 2019.

Public Health committee voted to expand what is and isnt good for medicinal reasons. Chronic pain, cancer and PTSD for veterans included.

I just don't understand how these assholes don't see the benefit. apparently their love for tax revenue is only trumped by their racism. it boggles the goddamn mind

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Well when the growers in Mexico are concerned about legalization in Mexico you can imagine the concerns regarding US expanded legalization.  Super interesting take on the Drug trade from the farmer's perspective. Growers fret Mexico moves to legalize

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BADIRAGUATO, Mexico (AP) — For the first time that María can remember, half of her marijuana harvest is still in storage on her ranch in Mexico’s Sinaloa state months after it should have been sold.

Sitting in her wooden house tucked into the same mountains that produced some of the world’s most notorious drug traffickers, including Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the 44-year-old mother of four thinks she knows why: expectations Mexico will soon legalize marijuana.

“It has never happened to us where we harvest and have it (stored) in sacks,” said María, who asked that her full name not be used and her exact location not be revealed because in the mountains surrounding Badiraguato, where organized crime controls everything, misspeaking can be dangerous.

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For her family and many others, the concern is not whether marijuana is legal, just that it keeps providing income.

The marijuana they managed to sell from the previous harvest yielded $500, or about $25 per kilogram. In contrast, the poppies that were destroyed would have produced about $5,000 worth of opium gum.

Quote

While María prays to St. Jude and hopes her small remaining plot of marijuana carries her family through, in another part of the mountains a skinny 39-year-old man has been growing a strain of marijuana that sells at 10 times the price of the traditional Mexican marijuana because it has a much higher psychoactive content.

If the man, who also requested anonymity, is able to get two harvests — and the army doesn’t find it like it did two years ago — he will have 110 pounds of high-quality marijuana that should yield $15,000. It’s not easy money.

“From the time you plant until you sell it, you’re fighting,” he said.

It's just an interesting article from a different point of view.  It also shows how inexpensive the actual production is, even when fighting the government.  More interesting it showed how engrained into the Mexican economy drug production has become due to the black market in the US.   A good quick read.  

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One of the things I found interesting in the Murder Mountain doc on Netflix was how legal weed was actually hurting the long time farmers in Humboldt county. These people invested their life savings, 100s of thousands of dollars, in all the stuff required to go legal, then the price of pot dropped quite a bit as more and more legal product came to market. A lot of them went bankrupt, or gave up on going legal and returned to selling on the black market to out of state traffickers. 

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On 3/31/2021 at 10:52 PM, SimonBolivar said:

We're still shooting for Northwestern Basketball/Kansas Football level success with personal freedom in Texas? Montana is the real Texas.

Don't know if I'd go that far. Our governor and legislators are trying to figure out ways to bypass the will of the people on rec weed. 

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https://www.kxii.com/2021/03/26/texans-could-get-medical-marijuana-license-in-oklahoma-with-proposed-bill/
 
how likely is this to pass?   The thought of 8-10 million Texans being under 90 mins away from Oklahoma dispensaries with ways to get product from them makes me giddy.
 
fuck you dan Patrick.

Dan Patrick would call for an emergency session to propose a felony possession upcharge in any red River adjacent county.
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