The Politics of Pot!

Trump’s new ‘drug czar’ poised to roll back the clock

After years of regressive and reactionary policies associated with the “war on drugs,” Americans saw real progress in the Obama era. As we discussed in April, voters in a variety of states voted in recent years to legalize recreational marijuana use – a step that seemed hard to imagine in the not-too-distant past – and when Barack Obama commuted the sentences of many non-violent drug offenders, few blinked an eye.

There was a burgeoning consensus, backed by plenty of prominent figures from the right and left, that the decades-long “war” was needlessly expensive, punitive, and damaging. It was time to move forward with a newer, smarter approach.

That progress, however, was interrupted by Donald Trump’s election. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has made no secret of his intentions to renew the drug war, and he’ll likely have a partner in Tom Marino, a Republican congressman whom the president nominated late last week to take over the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Vox noted yesterday that Marino’s voting record “suggests he’s to the right of many of his Republican colleagues on the war on drugs.” Among other things, the Pennsylvania Republican “voted against a bipartisan measure (which ultimately passed) that blocked the US Department of Justice from cracking down on medical marijuana businesses in states where medicinal pot is legal. He voted against a bill that would’ve let Veterans Affairs doctors recommend medical marijuana to patients.”

But I remain especially interested in this Washington Post piece from April.

As a congressman, Marino called for a national program of mandatory inpatient substance abuse treatment for non-violent drug offenders. “One treatment option I have advocated for years would be placing non-dealer, non-violent drug abusers in a secured hospital-type setting under the constant care of health professionals,” he said at a hearing last year.

“Once the person agrees to plead guilty to possession, he or she will be placed in an intensive treatment program until experts determine that they should be released under intense supervision,” Marino explained. “If this is accomplished, then the charges are dropped against that person. The charges are only filed to have an incentive for that person to enter the hospital-slash-prison, if you want to call it.”

Wait, did he say “hospital-slash-prison” for non-violent drug users?

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Yep!

Here’s one marijuana trend you should actually be worried about

The latest federal survey data shows that while teen marijuana use continues to decline in the era of legal pot, adult use is rising. The percent of people over the age of 18 who smoke it in a given year has risen from 10.4 percent in 2002 to 14.1 percent in 2016. In other words, 46 million people got high last year.

In and of itself, the increase in adult marijuana use isn't particularly alarming. Public-health researchers are typically more worried about adolescent drug use, which can derail a young person's life. If more adults are smoking marijuana once or twice a year — even once or twice a month — it's not really a huge concern.

More concerning, though, is the number of people who are getting high all the time — heavy users who smoke on a daily or near-daily basis. The federal data shows that those numbers are increasingly precipitously.

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Marijuana consumption in the US is really high

But researchers cautioned against assuming that relaxed laws governing recreational and medicinal pot are driving the trend.

“Results ... did not show significant increases in use related to medicinal marijuana legislation,” lead investigator William Kerr said in a statement. “It appears that the passage of these policies reflects changing attitudes toward marijuana use, rather than the other way around.”

Overall, 12.9 percent of adults have used marijuana since 2015, up from the 6.7 percent 10 years earlier, the study revealed, yet did not find a significant intersection between higher rates of pot use and legislation, which has legalized medical marijuana in 29 states and permitted recreational smoking in eight states — Washington, Oregon, Colorado, California, Nevada, Alaska, Massachusetts and Maine — plus the District of Columbia.

The study also showed that people aged 50-59 are especially avid users of pot, with men increasing from .5 percent of the age group to 11.6 percent, an increase of 2,220 percent and women going from .1 percent to 7.3 percent, a staggering 7,200 percent increase.

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Justice Department No. 2 Makes Ominous Comments On Marijuana Legalization

The Trump administration is continuing to weigh whether or not to reverse Obama-era guidance that generally allows states to legalize marijuana without federal interference, the Justice Department’s number two official said on Thursday.

“We are reviewing that policy. We haven’t changed it, but we are reviewing it. We’re looking at the states that have legalized or decriminalized marijuana, trying to evaluate what the impact is,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in an appearance at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“And I think there is some pretty significant evidence that marijuana turns out to be more harmful than a lot of people anticipated, and it’s more difficult to regulate than I think was contemplated ideally by some of those states,” he said.

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Twenty-nine states and Washington, D.C. have comprehensive legal medical cannabis programs, and eight states and D.C. have legalized marijuana for adults over 21 years of age.

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And ~70% of the population says legalization is reasonable.

After years of regressive and reactionary policies associated with the “war on drugs,” Americans saw real progress in the Obama era.

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http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-...r-poised-roll-back-the-clock?cid=sm_fb_maddow

LOL....real progress would mean DJT and his admin wouldn't be able to come in and totally undo everything with the flick of a wrist.

The MSM and their kool-aid drinking fan base are fucking retards.

JackLuis said:

The Evil Kebbler Elf wants to kill every thing that progressives have done to make the world sane again.

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Everything that progressives have done? LOL

On the federal level "progressives" have done fuck except try to dodge the issue with "it needs more research" and other bullshitting.

JackLuis said:

Justice Department No. 2 Makes Ominous Comments On Marijuana Legalization

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Of course they are, the "progressives" left it on the table .

Marijuana Legalization Isn't Causing More Pot Use, But Vice Versa

Marijuana legalization is not the cause of increased marijuana use nationwide, a new study finds. Instead, it's the other way around: Marijuana legalization reflects increased acceptance of marijuana.

In the study, published this month in the journal Addiction, researchers from the Public Health Institute's Alcohol Research Group examined 30 years' worth of data from National Alcohol Surveys, which also include questions on marijuana use, and compared that data to changes in state laws.

What they found is not that pot policy drives behavior, but vice versa.

"Medical and recreational marijuana policies did not have any significant association with increased marijuana use," the authors concluded. "Marijuana policy liberalization over the past 20 years has certainly been associated with increased marijuana use; however, policy changes appear to have occurred in response to changing attitudes within states and to have effects on attitudes and behaviors more generally in the U.S."

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Marijuana legalization hits all-time high support

Newsweek reports:

The movement for marijuana legalization is riding high. Like so high, man.

A strong majority of Americans (64 percent) now say marijuana should be legal, according to a new Gallup poll — and even support from Republicans is suddenly blazing. It is the strongest public support for legal weed ever recorded in the survey, and falls in line with a national trend of more love for bud.

Views on legalizing pot have shifted drastically over the past decade. In 2001, only about a third of the U.S. public supported legalization, according to Gallup. But since 2013, a majority of U.S. adults have steadily been in favor of making ganja use OK in the eyes of the law.

For the first time ever, a majority of Republicans — 51 percent — support legalization, which stands in stark contrast with the Trump administration. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said marijuana is only "slightly less awful" than heroin and has vowed to crack down even on legalized and medical marijuana.

Meanwhile, roughly seven out of 10 Democrats want to make toking up legal.

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Jeff is out of step, "Get in step, Jeffy boy!"

Want more sex? Marijuana smokers get lucky more often

Closing the gap, Eisenberg analyzed information collected from a national survey that took place between 2002 and 2015 of more than 51,000 Americans (28,176 women and 22,943 men). Participants ranged from 25-45 years old, but were nearly 30 on average, and answered questions about their personal lives—including ones on sex and drug use. People opened up about how frequently they smoked weed in the past year as well as how often they got lucky.

It appears stoners get more love. Women who didn’t smoke weed only had sex six times in a month, while daily pot smokers reported seven encounters in the same time period. The same was true for men: nonsmokers engaged in 5.6 bouts of sex while stoners claimed to be more active with 6.9 sessions. And the doctor found that nearly every type of pot smoker enjoyed more frequent sex.

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23% more nookie!

Several major pot busts and finds have occurred in Pot Heaven California. The reason is people aren't going to pay another Brown tax when they can get their drugs off the street. It doesn't really hurt the "drug" stores as they are run by the same people who sell on the street so it is a win win with them when the dopers come a calling. Pot is a way for politicians to "buy" votes just like using illegals as slave labor. Hey if it works go for it. The politicians get rich off corruption and the people get used and abused. Win win.

And for those who use the excuse "we need it for medical reasons" hey getting run over by a bull dozer takes away the pain too and its a lot cheaper so why not use it? I stopped by some friends and found them so high that you could have lit them on fire and they wouldn't have felt any pain. So see it works. Weed is habit forming like tobacco and does led to use of harder drugs.

I see many reports and polls on here, most from outfits no one has ever heard from before, but I would like to enter a report that people with an education have heard about. It's called history. You see there is a win win lose lose situation here. The same politicians that are making crimes and drugs legal and say they are for this "right" and that "right" are all members of the political group that believe in imperialism and have many colonies through out the world. Puppet states that they have taken over from the in side. Then run by the emperors of Russia and China. The so called leaders of each puppet state owe their loyalty to the Masters and not the people.

If you look at history and what happened to the people who put the dictators into power, example the communists and fascists, you will note that the leaders put those brave revolutionary heroes in their graves. They also put gays, drug users, so called intellectuals and entertainers (by way of the cultural revolution) to holes in the ground. A police state needs to destroy the regular police as well as the regular armed forces because both have taken an oath to protect and serve the people, whereas as the leftist on here will agree, a proper police force like the kind that our Washington Federals have turned into under Obama serve political leaders. That the government does not serve the working class or the poor., but the corrupt rich only as you see in the Democratic party of today.

So the win part is that by believing in the lies and the temporary free shinny things that the leaders are giving you and the right to destroy yourself and your freedom you are giving them the right to control you and give you a place of your own in the earth about 6 feet down. Win win. So light up brother and you won't feel the pain of the bullet.

WATCH: Veterans say they ‘wouldn’t be here’ without marijuana — and demand changes to VA policy against it

Veterans with PTSD are in a difficult position as the Veterans Administration denounces patients using marijuana to deal with health issues.

A Washington Post interview with two veterans cite the man claiming the VA thinks “you are doing something bad” when veterans turn from pharmaceuticals to marijuana.

However, Joshua James Frey went so far as to say that without it he’d be dead. He’s a Marine Corps combat veteran of the Third Battalion, First Marine Regiment, who earned the Purple Heart when he was wounded during a tour in Iraq. He was shot twice in 2004, once from a rocket-propelled grenade and again a month later in his right shoulder. The wound that nearly cost him his life.

During an American Legion press conference last week, Frey joined with the mother of another veteran who believes that her son would have been saved if he was using marijuana. The American Legion has produced pages of study and testimony on the successes of marijuana usage to help shell-shocked veterans desperate for help.

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I strongly support the legalization of recreational marijuana. I cannot think of any possible reason for continuing down this failed path of prohibition and criminalization. I live in one of the tope five liberal states in the country. Liberalism is not about being progressive or being free. It is all about control. In my state, although nominally legal, it is nearly impossible to access medical marijuana. Children with intractable seizures and terminally ill patients are callously left to suffer. In states where the people voted to legalize recreational marijuana, the government is dragging its feet on implementation. This is an outrage. Massachusetts for example. There was no question it would be approved. Government should have been prepared for immediate implementation. The only role of government is to do the will of the voters.

Ramone45 said:

I strongly support the legalization of recreational marijuana. I cannot think of any possible reason for continuing down this failed path of prohibition and criminalization. I live in one of the tope five liberal states in the country. Liberalism is not about being progressive or being free. It is all about control. In my state, although nominally legal, it is nearly impossible to access medical marijuana. Children with intractable seizures and terminally ill patients are callously left to suffer. In states where the people voted to legalize recreational marijuana, the government is dragging its feet on implementation. This is an outrage. Massachusetts for example. There was no question it would be approved. Government should have been prepared for immediate implementation. The only role of government is to do the will of the voters.

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Really!
What about the million's suffering psychosis?
I've smoked a fair bit of hash/pot whatever you wanna call it, but only occasionally. Most of my friends from back in the day were/are proper stoners and basically they're fucked, you can hardly hold a conversation with them.
That's good enough reason to ban it.
It's banned in the UK yet freely available and the penalties for possession aren't pursued, only for dealing yet million's are suffering depression and other personality disorders.
Pot has fucked my generation, ban it and burn it all. Oh, except my little stash

Exescort said:

Really!
What about the million's suffering psychosis?
I've smoked a fair bit of hash/pot whatever you wanna call it, but only occasionally. Most of my friends from back in the day were/are proper stoners and basically they're fucked, you can hardly hold a conversation with them.
That's good enough reason to ban it.
It's banned in the UK yet freely available and the penalties for possession aren't pursued, only for dealing yet million's are suffering depression and other personality disorders.
Pot has fucked my generation, ban it and burn it all. Oh, except my little stash

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It is exponentially safer than the legal drugs. Not even close. If this is the standard you want to apply, start by banning tobacco and alcohol immediately.

Ramone45 said:

I strongly support the legalization of recreational marijuana. I cannot think of any possible reason for continuing down this failed path of prohibition and criminalization. I live in one of the tope five liberal states in the country. Liberalism is not about being progressive or being free. It is all about control. In my state, although nominally legal, it is nearly impossible to access medical marijuana. Children with intractable seizures and terminally ill patients are callously left to suffer. In states where the people voted to legalize recreational marijuana, the government is dragging its feet on implementation. This is an outrage. Massachusetts for example. There was no question it would be approved. Government should have been prepared for immediate implementation. The only role of government is to do the will of the voters.

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You've been deceived by socialist posing as "liberals" , this comes from posers intentionally hiding behind the label as well as idiots on the right who perpetuate the falsehood.

Liberalism is about freedom, it's highly capitalistic and pro civil rights and liberties. It's way out right just to the left of libertarianism and well to the right of both conservatives and the socialist republicans.

BotanyBoy said:

You've been deceived by socialist posing as "liberals" , this comes from posers intentionally hiding behind the label as well as idiots on the right who perpetuate the falsehood.

Liberalism is about freedom, it's highly capitalistic and pro civil rights and liberties. It's way out right just to the left of libertarianism and well to the right of both conservatives and the socialist republicans.

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You're right.

Ramone45 said:

You're right.

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In a way you weren't incorrect either as "liberal" has come to be the shorthand for "basic socialist looking for free shit and willing to scream racism/rape to get it." in the common vernacular despite the fact there is little to nothing liberal about these so called "liberals".....bunch of posers.

Totally ruining the good name of liberalism.

Oh well.... I'll keep up the fight for the right to reclaim the label that the socialist degenerates have ruined.

12-Year-Old Girl Sues Jeff Session Over Marijuana

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is being sued by a 12-year-old girl over the nation’s marijuana policy.

Colorado native Alexis Bortell has filed a lawsuit claiming that the federal prohibition on marijuana is unconstitutional.

Bortell uses a strain of cannabis oil called Haleigh’s Hope to help with her seizures, and hopes that the lawsuit will help normalize and further legalize marijuana, she told Fox 31 Denver.

Bortell was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was a young child and traditional medicine was not helping. She and her family moved to Colorado from Texas so they could legally obtain cannabis oils to help treat the sixth-grader.

"As the seizures got worse, we had to move to Colorado to get cannabis because it's illegal in Texas," said Bortell.

Some doctors even suggested that Bortell should consider having brain surgery instead of using the drug, but a drop of liquid THC twice a day has kept her seizure-free for two-and-a-half years.

“I'd say it's a lot better than brain surgery," Bortell said.

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Maybe brain surgery would help Jeffy B?

How many countries have legalized marijuana?

Peru is the latest Latin American nation to legalize marijuana in some form, but where else is cannabis legal?

In many countries, marijuana is only legal on a strict basis. In Australia, Greece, Croatia, Israel, Poland, Mexico, Finland, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Macedonia and Italy, consumers need prescriptions for one of just a few medical conditions. Laws leave some room for research purposes, which makes cannabis technically legal for some to grow, but there are still strict enforcements in place to criminalize most usage. Oftentimes it’s legal for people to possess marijuana, but not legal for anybody to cultivate or sell the drug, leaving a gray area that lowers the rate of arrests for possession but doesn’t allow for most other steps of the process.

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Until you're allowed to grow it legally then it's not legal.

None of these quasi-legal places are legal at all...it's a fuckin' scam.

Marijuana-infused wine is coming to legal weed states

You like wine. You like weed. But how do you feel about weed wine?

As perplexing as that might sound, it’s actually something adults living in legal marijuana states will be able to sip on. Rebel Coast Winery, a California company, is set to launch marijuana-infused wine in January, according to a Paste magazine report released on Wednesday.

The Sauvignon Blanc is the first variety to hit the market.

Although weed wine might sound like a trippy drunk, developers behind the wine insisted the cannabis-infused concoction won’t give consumers hangovers. That's because it doesn't contain any alcohol.

That's where the weed comes into play. Each bottle has 16 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol—the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana responsible for the high.

“After one glass you won’t be thinking your couch is a hippo with short legs or anything. Our goal is not to kill you after you’ve had a few glasses. The goal is to get giggly and naked with someone. We set out to mimic the experience you’d find with traditional wine; a couple glasses will put most people in a great place,” Rebel Coast said in a statement.

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$60 a bottle!

JackLuis said:

Marijuana-infused wine is coming to legal weed states

$60 a bottle!

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Sauté a bit of herb in oil (THC is fat- not water-soluble), pour it into your jug of Thunderbird, and have at it. Two buzzes at once.

These are the best pot products in 2017

Adults in legal marijuana states exercised their rights in 2017 and indulged in a variety of products. Despite a wave of new customers entering the landscape after five states legalized recreational pot in the 2016 election, experts found many old-time cannabis favorites are still the most popular with consumers.

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New Products for a new age!

JackLuis said:

Marijuana-infused wine is coming to legal weed states



$60 a bottle!

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Now add CA's 400-700% (depending on what municipality/county that bottle is made and sold in) tax.

LOL I bet the stuff flies right off the shelf along with their 200 dollar grams of shake instead of just blowing up the black market.

California recreational marijuana law: Rules, limitations coming into effect Jan. 1

year after California legalized the sale of recreational marijuana, the state is all set to start the sale of Cannabis, starting Jan.1.

Proposition 64, passed by the voters fall 2016, also called for recreational cannabis businesses to get state licenses starting on the date. However, if you think that you will be able to walk into a local dispensary and buy a joint on New Year’s Day, you might just be mistaken.

....
Certain limits have been established on both sides, including:

People of the state who are of age 21 and older are allowed to carry up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrates.

Smoking weed in public is still banned under state law. People are allowed to smoke it in a private home but landlords could still restrict smoking on their property.

Many people may not be able to buy pot on Jan.1, as several businesses in various places are still applying for operating licenses and an online system for the applications is still being developed. However, another snag for those who wish to obtain a state permit for sale is that a grower or seller first needs a local permit, and many cities are struggling to establish the rules for local permits too. For example, Fresno and Clovis and Fresno County have banned sales, while the Bay Area, San Francisco and Oakland, Sacramento, and San Diego will be allowing recreational sales starting Jan.1.

Expanding on the existing language of Senate Bill 65, which was approved by Gov. Jerry Brown on Sept. 11, the state made it an infraction to consume an alcohol beverage or marijuana while driving or riding in a vehicle, KTLA reported.

Another law, Senate Bill 94, makes it illegal to possess an open container of cannabis or a cannabis product in an operating motor vehicle, unless it is in your trunk.

Only six cannabis plants are allowed to be grown at home but they must be kept in an area that is not visible from the outside.

Employers in the state can still fire employees for violating rules in case of a drug-free workplace as marijuana is still illegal at the federal level.

Retailers are only allowed to be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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Anticipation high as California rolls out retail pot sales

Unions looking to back marijuana workers in California

Tomorrow Pot will be legal in California if hard to get.

Happy New Year Litizens!