The Politics of Pot!

A bill in the California State Assembly that would supposedly make it easier for drug felons to obtain marijuana licenses is so narrow in scope that it appears to have been written for one powerful white California entrepreneur: Steve DeAngelo, who is likely the most powerful legal marijuana business owner on the planet.

If the bill is passed, DeAngelo will glide through the marijuana licensing process, while most other cannabis felons, including many of the people of color who were disproportionately targeted by the war on drugs, will need to individually convince a licensing board that they have been rehabilitated. A source close to the Assemblymember who wrote the bill told BuzzFeed News that it had specifically been introduced as a favor to DeAngelo.

“It’s like a running joke in the industry at this point. Steve got a bill written for himself,” said Casey O’Neill, who cultivates cannabis, flowers, and produce at HappyDay Farms in Northern California. O’Neill has a felony conviction for cannabis cultivation on his record, but it would not be covered under this bill.

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On February 19, Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) introduced a bill that would prohibit the state from denying a license to drug felons who meet three very specific criteria: First, the conviction must have occurred out of state. Second, the conviction must not have resulted in jail time. And third, the felon must also be approved by a local licensing body. DeAngelo, who already has licenses to operate in Oakland, San Jose, and San Leandro, perfectly meets all three qualifications.

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As the push to legalize marijuana nationwide grows, a first-of-its-kind case in Colorado is shaking the industry. A man who killed his wife is claiming as an excuse that weed made him do it, the Daily Beast reports.

Richard Kirk shot his wife and killed her in April 2014 — after Kristine Kirk told a police dispatcher he was hallucinating. Hours earlier, Richard Kirk had eaten “Karma Kandy Orange Ginger,” a marijuana edible he had bought at a dispensary called Nutritional Elements.

Kirk has claimed the edible made him kill his wife and has plead guilty by reason of insanity. His wife’s family is suing the seller for failing to adequately warn customers of risks. Both the suit and Kirk’s plea raise legal questions about pot in the first state to legalize its recreational use.

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Signs point to marital discord between the couple in the days leading up to Kristine’s death, including financial problems and, in one incident, Kristine telling a co-worker her husband had “cursed angrily” at her, and it left her afraid.

“The substance-use piece may or may not be a red herring,” Pitt told the station. “At the end of the day, he’s not going to be found insane because of some edible marijuana he ingested. If he’s legally insane, it will be because he has a mental disease or defect that is separate and apart from his substance use.”

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JackLuis said:

Okay BB how do you feel about this?

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Hard_Rom said:

Hand held detectors are coming to market for LE to be able to do roadside checks. This will help. DUI is DUI, if caught.

Stoners beware, you may not get a criminal record for simple possession but you may for a DUI.

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Comedian and marijuana legalization activist Tommy Chong ripped Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign after he was pulled from a speaking spot at a campaign rally.

“It’s lip service to get the votes, but they don’t want to endorse what I stand for and what I’ve stood for all my professional career,” Chong told The Hollywood Reporter. “It was an insult.”

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A spokesperson for Sanders’ campaign told THR that Chong lost his speaking slot because “a scheduling issue came up.”

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The growing acceptance of and access to legal marijuana has some people worried that the youth are going to start using it more frequently, but that’s not the demographic where pot has really taken off. Instead, it’s senior citizens.

Whether it’s wide-open medical marijuana states like California or fully legal states like Colorado, the gray-haired set is increasingly turning to pot, and not just to ease their aches and pains With a half-dozen more states likely to have legalization on the ballot (and win) this year and medical marijuana coming to more, grandma and grandpa are set to become even more interested.

Last week, CBS This Morning reported on the phenomenon of senior marijuana use, and the numbers are striking. Citing data from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the program reported that the number of pot users over 55 jumped from 2.8 million in 2013 to 4.3 million in 2014, a 55% increase in a single year. Watch the video here.

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urguyscott said:

It does make it easier for drug dealers to become "honest"

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In early January, the California Growers Association (CGA), an organization of marijuana farmers, gathered at the Sacramento Grand Ballroom in the state’s capital to nail down political strategy for the coming year. By most indications, the mood in the sweeping ballroom, with its intricate chandeliers and gilded ceiling, should have been jubilant. In just a few years the association had evolved from a provincial group with only a single full-time grower on its seven-member board to a statewide operation with 550-plus members and a leadership team comprised of young, energized marijuana growers ready to move out of the shadows.

“Half of my board is third-generation farmers, people who grew up in the drug war, lying about what their parents did and wishing they were normal,” said Hezekiah Allen, CGA’s executive director and Humboldt County native, in an interview last year. “And we are in charge now.”

These farmers are coming out in a big way. On Tuesday, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), a major cannabis legalization initiative backed by deep-pocketed funders and major marijuana organizations, qualified for California’s November ballot. If it passes, AUMA will launch a legal cannabis industry in the world’s eighth-largest economy. AUMA builds off of the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act (MMRSA), a series of three bills passed last year that will launch California’s first-ever statewide medical marijuana regulations over the next two years. (While California voters legalized medical cannabis in 1996, marijuana regulations have varied widely across the state.) Together, AUMA and MMRSA pave the way for those who’ve long operated in the state’s marijuana grey market—including California's estimated 53,000 small-scale cannabis cultivators—to become key players in the new regime.

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DeAngelo thinks the person who stands to gain the most from the distribution requirement is Ted Simpkins, former head of the California division of Southern Wine & Spirits, the country’s largest alcohol distributor, and now CEO of River Wellness, a major new California marijuana distribution company. According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, since early 2015 River has spent nearly $150,000 lobbying and donating to key lawmakers behind MMRSA. (River and Simpkins declined an interview request.)

What’s striking to some observers is that alongside River, one of the other main supporters of the distributor model is the CGA. “I am not sure why CGA has come out publically in support of that model,” said Lynne *****, state director of the Drug Policy Alliance's California chapter. “The only thing I can surmise is they must have made a deal.” ***** isn’t the only one asking questions of CGA and River’s relationship; both operations hired the same California lobbyist, and a River representative now sits on CGA’s board.

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There is no guarantee California will vote to legalize recreational marijuana in November, but political operative and father of four Daniel Conway has already staked his future on it.

Conway left his job as chief of staff to Sacramento’s celebrity mayor, former Phoenix Suns NBA basketball star Kevin Johnson, to help start the marijuana investment company Truth Enterprises.

He is one of hundreds in the most populous U.S. state already pushing ahead with plans to enter a market experts say will be worth $4 billion by 2020.

“I’m someone of an age and of a demographic that sees the legalization and normalization of marijuana as inevitable,” said Conway, 35. “This was a chance not just to build companies but to build an industry.”

With a population of nearly 40 million people, and a thriving medical marijuana trade legalized 20 years ago, California already has the United States’ largest legal marijuana market. Legalization of recreational pot would generate an estimated $1 billion in additional taxes per year.

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JackLuis said:

Recreational weed legalization in California could lead to $1 billion tax windfall for state

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JackLuis said:

Hundreds trying to horn in on the windfall but not doing much to produce or process the weed, just want their cut off the top.

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JackLuis said:

Recreational weed legalization in California could lead to $1 billion tax windfall for state



Hundreds trying to horn in on the windfall but not doing much to produce or process the weed, just want their cut off the top.

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Hard_Rom said:

The capitalists are getting their capital ready for the day it is totally legal. The 1 Billion tax grab will be just a percentage of the profits. Say maybe a 3-5 billion total injection of money into Cali economy.

The Pusherman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFyZf4IElBs

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JackLuis said:

What surprises me is that the folks in Sacramento think that they can actually regulate the black market. So far they haven't been able to do so.

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JackLuis said:

Judging from the number of hydroponic stores in the Sacto area and the scent of skunk on the street, there must be 10,000 growers in the Sacto area. Most probably only doing 10-20 plants. Enough for individual use and a little to fund the electricity bill.

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BotanyBoy said:

LOL California thinks farmers are going to work for free, or the privilege of generating revenue for CA and not themselves....they are idiots.

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A new study from the journal Health Affairs found that the availability of medical marijuana significantly correlates with lower rates of prescribing other drugs. The authors of the study, Ashley C. Bradford and W. David Bradford, looked at data on all prescriptions filled by patients with Medicare Part D from 2010 to 2013.

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The researchers looked at prescribing patterns for medical conditions that states allow to be treated with medical marijuana, like anxiety, seizures and glaucoma.

In states where medical marijuana was legal, Medicare saved $165.2 million in 2013.

However, as NPR points out, insurance plans don’t cover marijuana, even in states where it has been legalized as a medication, because it is still a Schedule 1 drug under Federal law. So in some ways, the cost has not been “saved” but rather shifted to patients, who must pay for marijuana out of pocket (and sometimes experience many other difficulties obtaining it). But one of the study’s authors explained that if medical marijuana became a regular part of patient care nationally, money would still be saved overall, because marijuana is cheaper than other drugs.

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dan_c00000 said:

Isn't that how it works in Colorado though?

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dan_c00000 said:

That's a billion dollar industry for one state. Why would other states not want to get in on that? why would any business regardless of size not want in on the California market?

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dan_c00000 said:

For once I'm not shit talking you and I'm trying to understand your position on this because to me it seems like a win-win. State gets tax revenue and businesses make money.

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Colleagues famously detailed in 1986 that Jeff Sessions, then a 39-year-old attorney in Alabama, said his main point of contention with the Ku Klux Klan was that they smoked weed. He said he thought the folks in the white supremacist hate group were "okay, until he learned that they smoked marijuana," according to testimony that resulted in Sessions being denied a federal judge position.

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As more and more states legalize marijuana for either medical or recreational use a new illness is popping up and confusing doctors who have little experience with it. The result has been “continuing agony and often receiving unneeded diagnostic testing and sometimes surgery exceeding $100,000,” according to The Missoulian.

Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome is what the new condition is called and it results in endless cycles of vomiting and intense abdominal pain. While the syndrome was in first written up in medical journals in 2004, many doctors and pot smokers have no idea what it is.

“You can think of it as a new or emerging disease,” said Dr. Eric Lavona, Denver Health Medical Center chief of emergency medicine. He urges his colleagues “not to trivialize it.”

“These folks are really suffering. They can get pretty sick. They vomit like crazy and make frequent emergency department visits because they just can’t stop vomiting.”

The average patient ends up visiting health clinics five times, makes several trips to emergency rooms and is ultimately hospitalized three or more times, Dr. Cecilia Sorensen, who conducted a study on the syndrome, reported to The Missoulian.

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BoyNextDoor said:

Recreational weed is now legal in MA.

1oz carry outside the home; 10oz possession in the home; legal to cultivate (defined as 6 plants I believe)

Time to go hydroponic.

Boston LitTogether?

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