The Politics of Pot!

just4friends said:

Now now .. even Woody Harrison has stopped smoking pot
Smoking is bad for you.
He did suggest a nice brownie in Colbert

Now... somebody warn Willie Nelson how dangerous weed is!
The poor man might kill himself with that stuff

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nowisthetime said:

I'm not a pot smoker but plenty of millennials smoke. Cigarettes, junk food, and alcohol are far more damaging to the body systems than pot. Pot has shown many health benefits such as alleviating pain, fighting cancer (antioxidant), treating Glaucoma, just to name a few.

I'm glad there is a trend of more states legalizing recreational marijuana. The West coast is far more advanced than the East Coast states, sad to say.

I hope to see a day when it is legalized on a federal level, maybe not under this sham of a president, but in the future.

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BotanyBoy said:

I don't run and fetch citation for people on the internet who aren't even making an argument otherwise and will likely just dismiss anything I post anyhow.

If you want to argue that they didn't have an iron fist around their economy then no amount of citation will be able to fix that level of stupid, but if you do it well I might get some citation at that point for the fun of it.

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magicalmoments said:

So... You're just making it up then?

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The executive director of the California Growers’ Association, Hezekiah Allen, said Wednesday the state would have to scale down the production of marijuana as it is currently producing eight times the amount than is normally consumed.

This hadn't been a problem till now as the surplus was exported to other states; but a new law set to go in effect in January will ban growers from selling their products outside the state, leaving them with fewer outlets to sell their surplus weed to.

Joseph Devlin, chief of Cannabis Policy and Enforcement for the City of Sacramento, and Lori Ajax, chief of the state’s Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation, were also present at the time that Allen made the announcement at a press conference in Sacramento, Chicago Tribune reported.

He said their primary objective would be to prevent cannabis growers from illegally sending marijuana to other states using the black market.

“We are producing too much,” Allen said, adding marijuana farmers “are going to have to scale back. We are on a painful downsizing curve.”

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JackLuis said:

California to cut back on surplus marijuana



Supply vs Demand ?

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JackLuis said:

Why is the price so fucking high to get high?

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JackLuis said:

California to cut back on surplus marijuana

Supply vs Demand ? Why is the price so fucking high to get high?

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Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker on Friday signed a bill raising the tax on retail sales of recreational marijuana to 20 percent, up from the 12 percent rate proposed in a successful 2016 ballot initiative.

The state is one of eight in the United States to have legalized use of the drug by adults 21 and older. Marijuana possession was legalized on Dec. 15, 2016, but retail sales of the drug remain illegal until Jan. 1, 2018, a delay intended to give state and local authorities time to decide how to regulate the trade.

Baker, a Republican, opposed legalization as did several senior state officials, and he voiced concern about the future after signing the law.

“I don’t support this. I worry terribly about what the consequences will be,” Baker told reporters. “We appreciate the careful consideration the legislature took to balance input from lawmakers, educators, public safety officials and public health professionals, while honoring the will of the voters regarding the adult use of marijuana.”

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Marijuana would become legal at the federal level if Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has it his way. The congressman introduced a bill aiming to remove marijuana’s Schedule I listing under the Controlled Substance Act and make the plant legal.

While the overall legislation seeks to make marijuana legal in all 50 states, the driving force behind Booker’s bill, called the Marijuana Justice Act, is the wish to rectify the unjust targeting of the African-American and low-income communities that have been most affected by marijuana arrests.

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In March, a number of U.S. representatives from Colorado and Oregon introduced the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act, which aimed to remove cannabis’ Schedule I listing and to allow all pot to be sold and consumed in a similar manner to alcohol. The bill would also establish a marijuana tax and give researchers the opportunity to conduct more studies on the plant without the pressures of federal government oversight.

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On November 8, it seemed like John Morgan got everything he had ever wanted out of politics. His amendment to make medical marijuana legal in Florida, an effort he had championed for the previous four years, had passed with more than 70 percent of the vote, the kind of winning margin that thoroughbred horse owners like Morgan daydream of.

When Morgan began this quest in 2014, the upper echelon of the Democratic Party donor class informed him it would be impossible to legalize medical marijuana in Florida; this isn’t Colorado, he was told. Morgan responded to that pessimism by pumping nearly $9 million of his own money since 2014 into his effort, known as Amendment 2. He barnstormed the state by bus and, in one celebrated appearance, delivered a profanity-peppered speech with a drink in his hand at a Lakeland saloon called Boots N Buckles that helped to set the medical marijuana issue on fire in the Sunshine State.

In the end, Amendment 2 beat the 60-percent threshold by 11 points, recording 2 million more votes than Donald Trump got in a state that he won. In a post-election news conference on the morning after, when political outsiders were suddenly in vogue, the eminently quotable Morgan, a longtime critic of business-as-usual in Tallahassee, did little to tamp down speculation that he might parlay his victory into a bid for the governor’s mansion.

“If I were king of Florida, I would walk through the prisons and release everyone in there for possession alone,” Morgan said at the news conference. “Everyone.”

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Many states in the U.S. have worked towards legalizing cannabis with the permission to use recreational marijuana as a medical drug. Recreational marijuana is permitted in a number of states including California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada. While some states are still fighting back, many are unaware of the benefits of marijuana for cancer patients.

On its website, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it understands many are moving towards marijuana in an attempt to help those suffering from seizures and chemotherapy-induced nausea. But, the agency, "has not approved marijuana as a safe and effective drug for any indication."

Read: Is Marijuana Bad For You?

"The agency has, however, approved two drugs containing a synthetic version of a substance that is present in the marijuana plant and one other drug containing a synthetic substance that acts similarly to compounds from marijuana but is not present in marijuana," it wrote. "Although the FDA has not approved any drug product containing or derived from botanical marijuana, the FDA is aware that there is considerable interest in its use to attempt to treat a number of medical conditions, including, for example, glaucoma, AIDS wasting syndrome, neuropathic pain, cancer, multiple sclerosis, chemotherapy-induced nausea, and certain seizure disorders."

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A marijuana company purchased the entire town of Nipton, California, for $5 million this week as part of a new cannabis tourism venture.

Phoenix-based American Green announced that the 120-acre plot will eventually become the “country’s first energy-independent, cannabis-friendly hospitality destination.”

The company plans to keep the existing infrastructure, which includes a hotel and a trading post, and invite other marijuana-friendly businesses to set up shop as it expands.

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“We are excited to lead the charge for a true ‘Green Rush,’” David Gwyther, president of American Green, said in a press release. “The Cannabis Revolution that’s going on here in the US, has the power to completely revitalize communities in the same way gold did during the 19th century.”

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Pollution from illegal marijuana farms deep in California’s national forests is far worse than previously thought, and has turned thousands of acres into waste dumps so toxic that simply touching plants has landed law enforcement officers in the hospital.

The volume of banned or restricted pesticides and illegally applied fertilizers in the woods dwarfs estimates by the U.S. Forest Service in 2014, when a top enforcement official testified that the pollution was threatening forest land in California and other states.

California accounts for more than 90 percent of illegal U.S. marijuana farming, with much of it exported to other states from thousands of sites hidden deep inside forested federal land, and more on private property, law enforcement officials said. The state is still developing a licensing system for growers even though legal retail sales of the drug will begin next year, and medical use has been allowed for decades.

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urguyscott said:

I get a kick out of people on here saying well wine and smokes and too much fatty foods are bad so why not use pot.

- After all jumping off a bridge is unhealthy, but people do it so it reasons that drugs are just as good for the people as jumping off a bridge and people should be allowed to do it.

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Much to the dismay of US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Senate Appropriations Committee recently approved a budget amendment in an appropriations bill covering fiscal 2017.

The amendment would protect states with responsible medical marijuana laws from Department of Justice interference and would help prevent a federal crackdown on state-legal cannabis businesses—a position the majority of Americans support

However, the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently issued a letter that stated "Congress has determined that marijuana is a dangerous drug and that the illegal distribution and sale of marijuana is a crime.” The DOJ is committed to enforcing the Controlled Substances Act under the guise of addressing “the most significant threats to public health and safety.”

Yet, cannabis is not dangerous and it is not a public health or safety threat.

Marijuana has been scientifically proven to be less harmful than alcohol and tobacco (both legal substances under federal law passed by Congress).

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SAN FRANCISCO — Marijuana legalization just moved from the fringes of the last presidential campaign to center stage in 2020.

Between a sweeping new package of legislation introduced last week by one of the top Democratic presidential prospects and, on the other end of the spectrum, Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ vigorous opposition to recreational use of marijuana, the debate over legalization of cannabis is about to receive a full airing on the presidential campaign trail.

While Bernie Sanders also supported medicinal use of marijuana and the decriminalization of recreational marijuana, drug policy stayed on the outskirts of the 2016 presidential debate, and growing action at the state level was barely acknowledged.

Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority, a bipartisan nonprofit advocacy group, said New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s introduction of “the farthest-reaching bill ever proposed” will have a catalytic effect on the politics of legalized marijuana and the myriad criminal justice issues related to it.

“Booker is getting a ton of fantastic press about this,’’ he said. “And other candidates will notice that and will want to say, 'I agree — and I want to introduce a bill of my own.'”

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Marijuana-related businesses in California could play a role in shaking up the U.S. banking sector. Earlier this month, California's state treasurer John Chiang called a meeting to explore the issue of banking access for businesses in the marijuana industry — and the possibility of doing it through a publicly-owned bank.

Chiang said that interest in public banking was gaining traction due to "a deep public dissatisfaction with our private banking system."

"The dissatisfaction can in part be traced to the economic havoc wreaked by Wall St. banks in 2008, triggering the Great Recession," Chiang said. "And more recently, there has been the Wells Fargo debacle in which millions of customers had bogus accounts set up in their names."

This meeting was the fifth in a series organized by the Cannabis Banking Working Group — a group of banking and marijuana industry experts — and was not originally part of meetings that the group had scheduled. It was added after the group heard many suggestions and questions about public banking in previous sessions.

Approximately 70 percent of marijuana-related businesses (MRBs) do not have bank accounts. Although California voters passed Proposition 64 last November, which legalized the recreational use of marijuana, the sale and use of the drug is still illegal under federal law. Given the risk of being shut down with little warning or having money from marijuana-related businesses seized by federal authorities, many banks and credit unions are reluctant to open accounts for MRBs.

When Colorado tried to create a credit union for the marijuana industry there, "the Fed denied the credit union access to a master account, which is necessary for transferring money, and the National Credit Union Administration refused to insure its deposits," the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts noted.

This ongoing problem puts owners and operators of marijuana-related businesses — who must hold and move enormous amounts of cash — at risk of being robbed or kidnapped. It also complicates taxation: An entire industry must pay its taxes exclusively in cash — and once it does, it must all be counted by government workers. In California, this issue has existed for two decades since the state legalized medical marijuana in 1996. Since recreational use of marijuana has recently been legalized in six other states and the District of Columbia and a number of other states allow some form of medical marijuana use, this is a growing issue. As the marijuana industry ramps up, it is expected to generate $19 billion in the U.S. by 2020, compounding the problem even further. California may have a partial solution: A public bank.

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The Trump administration and GOP legislators seem hell bent on halting any initiative to legalize marijuana, be it medical or recreational. The House Rules Committee on Thursday blocked an amendment that prevents the Department of Justice from using federal money to enforce prohibition measures against states that approved medical marijuana consumption.

Introduced by Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and sponsored by Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment was enacted by Congress in 2014, but it will expire September 30. The measure also prevents the Department of Justice from persecuting medical marijuana patients and providers.

According to The Hill, Rohrabacher pleaded with his Republican counterparts to encourage House leaders to allow a vote on the amendment. However, his plea did not deter GOP leaders from avoiding a vote among the full House membership.

In the wake of the decision, Blumenauer wrote on Twitter: “This isn’t over! As House & Senate finalize funding bill, we will fight for patients and to continue critical medical marijuana protections.”

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