Tag: black market

JD Vance Says ‘Bags Of Marijuana’ And Candy Laced With THC And Fentanyl Are Coming Across The Border, Blaming Biden-Harris Immigration Policy

Former President Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), is accusing Vice President Kamala Harris of failing to stop marijuana and fentanyl disguised as Nerds candy and other popular brands that appeal to children from coming across the border.

At a Faith & Freedom Coalition event in Atlanta last month, the senator talked about being invited to the evidence room of a sheriffs department where he says he saw “every drug you can possibly imagine,” including “bags and bags of marijuana,” pressed fentanyl pills and meth.

“I say, ‘Guys, what is going on here? You’ve got all these drugs here that looks to me just like a box of candy—a box of Nerds candy,” Vance said. “And they say, ‘Well, sir, that’s actually THC and fentanyl.’ But I say, ‘Wait a second, the cartels have disguised deadly fentanyl to look like child’s candy so that they can make it easier to get into our country?’”

“Yet we know that one of those packets of fentanyl is going to end up in one of our neighborhood streets,” he said. “One of those packets of fentanyl is going to end up in a child’s playground. One of those packets of what looks like Nerds candy, but is actually a deadly substance, is going to end up in our schools, and a kid’s going to open up a packet of candy, take a piece of candy out and lose their life because of it.”

“Now that is a sick and deranged human being that would do anything like that. But it’s a sick and deranged human being who would give that person power over the United States of America, and that’s exactly what Kamala Harris has done,” he said. “She has given these drug cartels free reign over our country, and now they’re smuggling in deadly drugs that look like child candy.”

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Nebraska Attorney General Announces Crackdown On Illegal THC Product Sales

Saying he was stepping up Nebraska’s fight against “mislabeled” and “dangerous” delta-8 products, Attorney General Mike Hilgers (R) on Wednesday announced the start of citywide crackdowns on retailers who sell the items.

He said that while his escalated effort started in Norfolk, other cities should expect similar blanket investigations.

“We are ramping up our efforts to clean up Nebraska,” Hilgers said. “For the first time, we have sued every store in a community. The stores are misleading Nebraskans.”

Four new lawsuits

Flanked at a media event by U.S. Rep. Mike Flood (R-NE) of Norfolk, Hilgers told reporters of four new lawsuits covering five Norfolk stores. Filed Wednesday in Madison County District Court, they allege violations of the Consumer Protection Act, Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act and Nebraska’s Pure Food Act.

The latest suits joined legal actions filed since last year against a dozen other vape shops and businesses across the state. Some cases have been settled, with retailers agreeing not to sell prohibited hemp products that contain or have been modified with synthetic THC.

THC is the compound in the cannabis plant most commonly associated with getting a person high. Some of the THC-containing products in question were packaged and made to look like candy and snacks.

A spokesperson for two of the Norfolk stores said, however, they were unaware there was any problem with the products they buy from a wholesaler distributor.

Tiffany Colsden, general manager of NP Mart stores in Norfolk, said her team learned of the investigation Wednesday, when a reporter came knocking.

By noon, she said, the two stores had pulled the items in question off the shelves.

“All they had to do was tell us,” Colsden said. “If Nebraska doesn’t want us to sell it, we won’t. It’s that simple.”

She described NP Mart, which has two locations in Norfolk, as a convenience store that sells gas.

Lawsuits also were filed against Smokin’ Deals, Smokes R. Less and Vapor Hutt.

A person at Smokes R. Less hung up the phone when a reporter called.

Vapor Hutt officials could not be reached.

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Illegal Weed Growing Operation Found In House Owned By Oakland Police Officer

A illegal weed growing operation was found – of all places – in a home owned by an Oakland police officer this spring. 

State Department of Cannabis Control officers discovered about $1 million worth of illegal marijuana in a Bay Area neighborhood in Antioch. One of the three raided houses was owned by Oakland Police Officer Samson Liu, 38, who was placed on administrative leave on April 30.

The Oakland Police Department, citing an ongoing investigation, did not disclose the officer’s name, but CNN identified him. Records show Liu bought a 2,800-square-foot house in Antioch in 2020 for $608,000.

The department said it “is aware of the allegations made against one of our members and is cooperating with outside law enforcement agencies on the case”, according to the LA Times.

The LA Times report says that the raid underscores the scale of illegal marijuana operations in California and the involvement of Chinese organized crime since legalization in 2016, according to the cannabis control agency.

Law enforcement described these operations as sophisticated and linked to “Chinese criminal syndicates” but provided no further details due to ongoing investigations. 

A Los Angeles Times investigation recently revealed that contraband pesticide use has spread across California’s cannabis farms, both illegal and licensed, over the past three years.

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Number of illegal cigarettes in Ireland hits 10 year high as one in five packs smuggled in

The level of illegal cigarettes in Ireland was at its highest level in over a decade last year with almost 1 in 5 packs smuggled into the country, according to research by Revenue.

However, there is no evidence of any counterfeit tobacco products being sold to consumers in the Republic.

The latest annual survey commissioned by the tax authorities to assess the scale of illegal tobacco products being sold in the Republic found 19% of cigarette packs analysed last year were classified as illegal. It is the highest rate since the annual survey was introduced in 2009 and up from 17% the previous year.

Revenue has estimated the potential loss to the Exchequer from the consumption of 32.9 million illegal cigarette packs last year is approximately €422 million – up €38 million on 2022 estimates.

However, the survey found that none of the illegal packs detected last year were counterfeit cigarettes. The figure for counterfeit tobacco products had peaked at 7% in 2021.

The survey showed 99% of illegal packs analysed in 2023 were categorised as “contraband” – normal commercial brands of cigarettes which were bought either duty paid or duty-free abroad and smuggled into Ireland. The remaining 1% of illegal packs were “illicit whites” which are classified as cigarettes manufactured for the sole purpose of being sold illegally in another market.

The level of cigarettes brought into the country from abroad by smokers for personal use was also at its highest ever rate last year. The survey found 15% of cigarette packs were legal but without duty paid in Ireland which indicates they were legally purchased in another jurisdiction and brought into Ireland by the smoker.

The rate had been below 10% for most of the past decade. “The 2023 results suggest that the prevalence of both illegal and legal non-Irish duty paid packs has increased in recent years,” said Revenue.

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Utility company’s proposal to rat out hidden marijuana operations to police raises privacy concerns

Operators of illegal marijuana grow enterprises hidden inside rural homes in Maine don’t have to worry much about prying neighbors. But their staggering electric bills may give rise to a new snitch.

An electric utility made an unusual proposal to help law enforcement target these illicit operations, which are being investigated for ties to transnational crime. Critics, however, worry the move would violate customers’ privacy.

More than a dozen states that legalized marijuana have seen a spike in illegal marijuana grow operations that utilize massive amounts of electricity. And Maine’s Versant Power has been receiving subpoenas — sometimes for 50 locations at a time — from law enforcement, said Arrian Myrick-Stockdell, corporate counsel. It’d be far more efficient, he suggested to utility regulators, to flip the script and allow electric utilities to report their suspicions to law enforcement.

“Versant has a very high success rate in being able to identify these locations, but we have no ability to communicate with law enforcement proactively,” Myrick-Stockdell told commissioners.

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Trudeau’s Signature Pot Legalization Is Failing On All Fronts

Isaac Newton said he lost money on the South Sea Bubble financial collapse because, although he could track the movement of stars, he could not calculate the madness of men.

In Canada, the legalization of cannabis in October 2018, unleashed a mania that has seen nearly 1,000 companies receive federal production licences and retailers open nearly 3,500 stores selling cannabis products across the country. It is a short street indeed that doesn’t have a pot shop on it.

The Cannabis Act was a cornerstone piece of legislation for the Trudeau government — a welcome end to 94 years of failed prohibition and an attempt to make Canada safer by closing down the black market in unregulated pot.

It hasn’t quite worked out that way and now there are dire warnings that the onerous federal regulatory and tax regime is in danger of killing the nascent licensed production market.

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New York Dispensary Launches ‘Illegal Cannabis Buyback’ Program, Enticing Consumers To Transition To Legal Market With Discounts

A New York marijuana dispensary is taking steps to help eradicate illicit cannabis businesses that have proliferated in the state by offering discounts and benefits to people who transition to the legal market.

Housing Works, the parent company of the state’s first legal adult-use dispensary Housing Works Cannabis Co, announced the “illegal cannabis buyback” program on Thursday. As regulators continue their push to shut down unlicensed operators, the company is providing consumers with incentives to transition to the legal market.

From July 1 to September 1, any person who provides proof of membership at an illicit operator will get a free membership at Housing Works Cannabis Co’s “co-conspirator program,” which includes 25 percent off their first purchase and a 10 percent discount on all their purchases for the next year. The membership normally costs $25.

“This buyback initiative is crucial not only for the health and safety of our customers, which is always our top priority, but also for the legal business operators and those who have fought hard for a place in New York’s legal cannabis market,” Sasha Nutgent, director of retail at Housing Works Cannabis Co, told Marijuana Moment.

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UN Human Rights Experts Say Counties Should Legalize Drugs To ‘Eliminate Profits From Illegal Trafficking’

Dozens of United Nations (UN) human rights experts are championing a less-punitive approach to global drug policies, urging member nations to focus less on punishment and criminalization and more on harm reduction and public health while specifically calling for “decriminalisation of drug use and related activities, and the responsible regulation of all drugs to eliminate profits from illegal trafficking, criminality and violence.”

“The ‘war on drugs’ has resulted in a range of serious human rights violations, as documented by a number of UN human rights experts over the years,” says the statement from UN special rapporteurs, experts and working groups. “We collectively urge Member States and all UN entities to put evidence and communities at the centre of drug policies, by shifting from punishment towards support, and invest in the full array of evidence-based health interventions for people who use drugs, ranging from prevention to harm reduction, treatment and aftercare, emphasizing the need for a voluntary basis and in full respect of human rights norms and standards.”

The statement is not a defense of drug use but instead an insistence that nations’ overzealous fight against substances has failed to address health problems while creating harms of its own.

“These widespread abuses have included compulsory drug detention in the name of ‘treatment’, over incarceration and related prison overcrowding, the ongoing use of the death penalty for drug offences, killings, enforced disappearances and the ongoing lack of, and unequal access to treatment, harm reduction and essential medicines,” it says.

“The international community must seek to address and reverse the damage brought about by decades of a global ‘war on drugs,’” it says. “We note that states of exception and the militarization of law enforcement in the context of the ‘war on drugs’ continue to facilitate the commission of multiple and serious human rights violations… [W]e collectively call for an end to the militarisation of drug policy, overincarceration and prison overcrowding, the use of the death penalty for drug offences, and policies that disproportionately impact marginalised groups.”

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Florida Marijuana Legalization Campaign Releases New Statewide Ad Warning Of Dangers Of Unregulated Cannabis

The campaign behind a marijuana legalization ballot measure in Florida released a new ad in support of Amendment 3 this week, arguing that cannabis currently available on the state’s illicit market is dangerously unregulated.

“Most Florida marijuana is illegal, produced by criminals and can be laced with dangerous drugs like fentanyl,” a woman says, described in a campaign press release as “a Florida mom and voter who believes adult Floridians deserve the individual freedom to consume safe, tested adult-use marijuana.”

Titled “Fact,” the 30-second ad is set to air statewide “across broadcast, cable, streaming, radio and digital platforms,” according to the campaign, Smart & Safe Florida.

“Millions of Floridians use marijuana. It’s a fact,” it says. “Most Americans have access to legal marijuana that is regulated and tested for safety, but not Florida.”

Amendment 3, which will appear before voters in November, “gives adults access to legal, safe marijuana and the freedom to make their own choices while generating billions for schools and police,” it adds.

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Video Of NYC Cops’ Marijuana Raid Raises Questions About Mayor’s Enforcement Offensive

As a new mayoral task force conducts sweeps of hundreds of shops suspected of selling illegal weed, a video of a raid on a Staten Island store obtained by THE CITY captures how enlisting police to conduct regulatory inspections can lead to criminal charges, igniting concerns about potential due process violations.

The 90-second clip taken from a store surveillance camera on May 18 shows seven uniformed law enforcement officers, most of them in NYPD gear, cursing, jumping over the store counter and charging at a shopkeeper after he asked them for a court order before opening the door to the back of the store.

Instead, the man was cuffed—before any unlicensed cannabis products were found—and taken to a local precinct where he was charged with obstruction of justice, records show.

“When a cop tells you to do something, you fucking do it,” one officer told the shopkeeper.

The surveillance video was shared with THE CITY on the condition that the identity of the shopkeeper be protected. The arrest and criminal charge was confirmed by police records.

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