Tag: massachusetts

Appeals Court Upholds Ban on Student Wearing ‘Only Two Genders’ Shirt

A U.S. appeals court on June 9 upheld a ban preventing a Massachusetts middle school student from wearing a shirt reading “There are only two genders.”

Another prohibition by school administrators, this time blocking the same student from wearing the shirt with “only two” covered by tape, on which was written “censored,” is also allowed under court precedent, according to the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

“The question here is not whether the t-shirts should have been barred. The question is who should decide whether to bar them—educators or federal judges. Based on Tinker, the cases applying it, and the specific record here, we cannot say that in this instance the Constitution assigns the sensitive (and potentially consequential) judgment about what would make ‘an environment conducive to learning’ at NMS to us rather than to the educators closest to the scene,” U.S. Circuit Judge David Barron wrote for a unanimous panel of the court.

In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1969 ruled that a ban on students wearing armbands in protest against the Vietnam War violated the students’ First Amendment rights.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani cited the ruling when in 2023 she ruled in favor of the administrators at the John T. Nichols Middle School (NMS) and Middleborough School District in Massachusetts against Liam Morrison (L.M.), the boy who wore the “two genders” shirt to school.

“[The school] permissibly concluded that the shirt invades the rights of others,” Judge Talwani said before quoting Tinker. “Schools can prohibit speech that is in ‘collision with the rights of others to be secure and be let alone.’”

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Adding CBD Or THC To Food Or Drinks Is Illegal, Massachusetts Officials Say In New Memo

Massachusetts agencies have declared that intoxicating hemp-based products can not be sold outside of licensed dispensaries and have tasked local boards of health to enforce what they say is federal law.

On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Department of Agricultural Resources released a joint notice in order to address the recent influx of hemp-based products like gummies and drinks that contain the same active ingredient as cannabis products. The notice made explicit that the “addition of CBD and/or THC to food manufactured or sold in Massachusetts is illegal.”

This action by the two state agencies reflects what they have been saying about the legality of these products. Now, with the advisory, they have made the guidance explicit and have charged local boards of health to enforce it.

Following the notice, the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission warned its licensees that their licenses could be suspended or revoked if they are caught selling hemp-derived products.

“This is a big win for both the cannabis and the hemp industry, specifically those who are licensed by the CCC and MDAR,” said Ryan Dominguez, the head of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition. “This is a step in the right direction for us to be able to now enforce what was already on the books so there’s no kind of gray area.”

Intoxicating hemp products have been showing up in liquor stores, gas stations and smoke shops across the state because of a 2018 federal law that removed hemp from the definition of marijuana. There are many companies that have popped up to sell hemp products.

The hemp products, which are often marketed very similarly to cannabis products, are not regulated in the same way. Whereas cannabis products face strict regulations around testing, packaging, labeling, taxation and age restrictions, the hemp products have none of these requirements in Massachusetts.

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Massachusetts Marijuana Regulator Calls Intoxicating Hemp Products A ‘Public Menace’

The Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) for the first time is raising concerns about intoxicating hemp products showing up in stores, restaurants and gas stations across Massachusetts, with commissioner Kimberly Roy calling them a “public menace.”

At a meeting of the commission last week, Roy and other commissioners said the largely unregulated products are putting more heavily regulated cannabis products at a disadvantage.

“I’ve heard from many of our licensees that [unregulated hemp is] impacting them greatly. It’s a phenomenon known as gas station weed,” said Roy. “These are hemp products that are unregulated, that aren’t tested, that our children can buy. It keeps me up at night, the concerns around this gas station weed.”

Intoxicating hemp products contain the same active ingredient as cannabis products but are regulated very differently. They are on shelves in the Commonwealth because of a 2018 federal law that removed hemp from the definition of marijuana. An entire industry has popped up around the country selling intoxicating hemp products.

Adam Terry, the CEO of Cantrip, a Boston beverage maker, said in a CommonWealth Beacon commentary last month that many of the hemp-based products are manufactured in Minnesota, which regulates them just as rigorously as marijuana products.

Previously, the Cannabis Control Commission had not taken a stance on the hemp products because the agency believes the product falls outside of its jurisdiction. But the agency, which regulates cannabis and hemp products that are sold inside cannabis dispensaries, is now preparing to testify before a joint legislative hearing on the hemp products before the cannabis policy and agricultural committees on July 11.

Roy offered to serve as the commission’s representative at the legislative hearing. She stressed that the unregulated hemp products are not tested or age restricted in the same way that cannabis products are.

“[Unregulated hemp products are] having a serious negative impact on our licensees who are bound by the law and bound by our regulations,” said Roy. “Then you have all these other convenience stores or smoke shops or gas stations who are not.”

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Massachusetts Trans “Woman” Goes on Stabbing Rampage at Massachusetts Movie Theater – Stabs 4 Girls Ages 9 to 17 without Warning

A trans man is in custody after allegedly stabbing four youg girls at a movie theater in Braintree, Massachusetts on Saturday night.

ABC News reported:

At 6 p.m. Saturday evening, a man entered the AMC Braintree 10 and entered one of the theaters, authorities said.

Once inside the theater, the suspect stabbed four females between the ages of 9 and 17-years-old, police said, adding that the attack appeared to be unprovoked and without warning. The four girls sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were transported to Boston hospitals for treatment, poilce said.

The suspect allegedly left the scene in a black SUV, police said. Using video footage in their investigation, police were able to identify a license plate and alert other law enforcement agencies.

It was after this alert that authorities discovered that a car matching the description was involved in a “similar assault” that occurred in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

At approximately 7:04, about an hour after the stabbing at the AMC in Braintree, the suspect allegedly stabbed two other people — a 21-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man — in a McDonald’s in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Massachusetts State Police said. Both were in non-life-threatening condition and were transported to area hospitals, MSP said.

The pycho-stabber then crashed his SUV before police were able to take him into custody.

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Massachusetts Marijuana Delivery Rule Requiring Two Drivers Per Vehicle Remains In Force Despite Vote To Repeal It

Last December, after months of deliberation, the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) voted to eliminate its so-called two-driver rule—which requires all marijuana deliveries to be handled by two drivers.

The vote was 3–1, with Commissioner Bruce Stebbins the lone holdout. He was concerned about dropping a safety requirement to make the delivery license more lucrative. His fellow commissioners, however, wanted to reduce overhead costs for the delivery companies, which are headed by social equity licensees. “Ample security measures are already in place,” said Commissioner Nurys Camargo, referring to body cams and GPS tracking.

Five months later, the two-driver rule remains in place. Delivery operators are still waiting for relief, and the commission has no timetable for when the rule will be modified. At the commission’s public meeting on May 9, the commission’s general counsel shared that it would be months before the two-driver rule is removed. The CCC attributed the delay to an effort to consolidate a number of regulatory changes dealing with deliveries in a single rewrite.

In the meantime, the two-driver rule remains in place, which is not sitting well with the delivery companies.

“The two-driver rule is a hurdle and a handcuff that companies like mine are facing,” said Gyasi Sellers, the owner of cannabis delivery company Treevit. “There are a lot of companies like mine that are running out of time. Some have gone under already, and that rule is one of the primary causes of that.”

The two-driver rule requires that any cannabis delivery have two drivers in the vehicle so that when one person leaves the vehicle to actually make the delivery, the other person can stay and guard the vehicle. According to the delivery companies, the rule doubles the cost of each job because two people have to be paid for work that can be done by a single person. Plus, if one driver is out, the other driver can’t make the delivery.

Cannabis delivery operators have been speaking out against the two-driver rule for a long time. “[Back] in 2020 and 2021, we were telling the commission that the two-driver rule is gonna really hurt businesses,” said Chris Fevry, the co-owner of Dris Delivery. “We’ve told them multiple times it’s literally just gonna hurt equity. And come to find out it’s still 2024 and the two-driver rule is in place, and companies have gone out of business because of the two driver rule.”

Ulysses Youngblood, the owner of cannabis company Major Bloom, which has a dispensary in Worcester and also a delivery arm, expressed frustration that the CCC wasn’t prioritizing this issue.

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Massachusetts Democrat Governor Maura Healey Approves Millions in New Spending on Illegal Immigrants as Residents Flee State

Massachusetts Democrat Governor Maura Healey has just approved hundreds of millions in new spending for illegal immigrants, even as people are fleeing the state for greener pastures.

Massachusetts is a sanctuary state where homeless migrants must be housed, no matter how badly it works out for citizens.

The state is spending an insane amount of money on people who entered the country illegally.

Townhall reports:

Democrat Massachusetts Gov. Approves $400 Million In Freebies for Illegal Immigrants

Despite residents fleeing Massachusetts, Democrat Gov. Maura Healey (D-MA) signed a bill welcoming hundreds more of illegal immigrants into her state.

Healey signed the state budget this week that includes an additional $426 million to house illegal aliens in correspondence to the state’s “right to shelter” law that requires the government to put illegal immigrants and homeless people into homes.

The Democrat governor’s move comes as Boston declared a state of emergency after it exhausted its resources last year due to the massive influx of illegal immigrants coming to the sanctuary state.

According to a report, Massachusetts currently has more than one million illegal aliens residing in the state. It is expected to cost taxpayers over one billion dollars by 2025 to house them.

This number doesn’t include the 14,000 illegal Haitian immigrants Massachusetts has funded since 2022. CBS News noted that there are more than 3,500 illegal immigrants just in the state’s shelter system— which has been at capacity for months.

It’s like American citizens are the last consideration.

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Expanding the Drug War To Include Tobacco Would Be a Big Mistake

Last month, New Zealand scrapped a law that would have gradually prohibited tobacco products by banning sales to anyone born after 2008. But Brookline, a wealthy Boston suburb, will implement a similar scheme now that the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (SJC) has cleared the way.

Brookline’s bylaw, which bans sales of “tobacco or e-cigarette products” to anyone born after 1999, is unlikely to have much practical impact, since the town is surrounded by municipalities where such sales remain legal. But it reflects a broader transition from regulation to prohibition among progressives who seem to have forgotten the lessons of the war on drugs.

The local merchants who challenged Brookline’s ban argued that it was preempted by a state law that sets 21 as the minimum purchase age for tobacco products. They also claimed the bylaw violates the Massachusetts Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection by arbitrarily discriminating against adults based on their birthdates.

The SJC rejected both arguments in a decision published on Friday. The court concluded that state legislators had left local officials free to impose additional sales restrictions. And since birthdate-based distinctions do not involve “a suspect classification,” it said, Brookline’s bylaw is constitutional because it is “rationally related to the town’s legitimate interest in mitigating tobacco use overall and in particular by minors.”

The striking aspect of Brookline’s law, of course, is that it applies to adults as well as minors. It currently covers residents in their 20s and eventually will apply to middle-aged and elderly consumers as well.

Since anyone 21 or older who wants to buy tobacco or vaping products can still legally do so across the border in Boston, Cambridge, or Newton, Brookline’s ban looks more like an exercise in virtue signaling than a serious attempt to reduce consumption. The same could be said of the outright bans on tobacco sales that two other wealthy and supposedly enlightened enclaves, Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach, enacted in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

The Beverly Hills ban makes exceptions for hotels and cigar lounges, and both cities border jurisdictions where tobacco sales are still allowed. But even as moral statements, these edicts are flagrantly illiberal, standing for the proposition that adults cannot be trusted to decide for themselves which psychoactive substances they want to consume.

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Massachusetts Officials Eye Regulation Of THC-Infused Hemp Products Sold In Liquor Stores And Smoke Shops

Beacon Hill is waking up to a regulatory loophole that has allowed hemp drinks and gummies with intoxicating doses of THC—the same high-inducing ingredient found in cannabis—to show up in liquor stores, smoke shops and restaurants across Massachusetts.

At a legislative hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Michael Moore (D-Millbury) asked the commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture Resources what she was doing about the spread of these unregulated products. The commissioner, Ashley Randle, said her agency is aware of the problem and working with the Department of Public Health to put out new guidance next month on how these products should be treated.

That was a big step forward. The products are technically illegal in Massachusetts, but neither the Agricultural Department, which regulates hemp, nor the Department of Public Health, which regulates food products, has stepped up with any enforcement. The agencies have left that job to under-resourced local boards of health which have taken no action.

Moore said the current situation isn’t working. “This is a product that people are going to be consuming. When I say people, this could be adults, it could be minors,” he said. “I think we need to have some review just to determine what’s safe.”

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Mystery of Massachusetts’ ‘Monsterland’ – a five-mile stretch of unchartered woods where locals claim they’ve seen flying saucers, glowing orange orbs and BIG FOOT

Deep in the heart of Massachusetts is a spooky place known as ‘Monsterland’ – a five-mile stretch famed for its paranormal activity.

For centuries, the eerie woods that line the small city of Leominster, near Boston, have been a hotbed for rumored sightings of UFOs, strange glowing orbs and even BigFoot himself. 

Some say these mysterious tales first began surfacing in the New England town in the 1800s, with locals sharing stories about a berry-eating beast. 

But suspicions really took off in the 50s after a man claimed in a local bar that he had encountered a ‘monster’ – before vanishing when he left to track it down. 

Since then there reported supernatural sightings have only increased, earning the area its ominous nickname and attracting Big Foot hunters from all over the country. 

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Massachusetts Spending $64 a Day to Feed Each Migrant, On Track to Spend $1 Billion By 2025

State records show that Massachusetts is spending about $64 per migrant per day to feed those in state care, a cost that is contributing to the expected one billion dollars in expenses to be spent by the Bay State by 2025.

The latest numbers show that the state is paying out $16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch, and a whopping $31 for every dinner every day, according to WBZ-TV.

The state insists that it is required to provide the free food due to its 1983 sanctuary city law, which was passed to deal with a far smaller number of homeless people in the state, Fox Business Network reported.

However, the right to shelter law is not exactly being applied as written. The law also says that those afforded shelter must be supplied with refrigerators and the capability to prepare food, but migrants are being given already-made food, not the capability to prepare their own.

The state is currently housing and caring for about 20,000 migrants, according to the Daily Mail.

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