Tag: the war on (some) drugs

California Marijuana Regulators Unveil New AI Tool To Prevent Product Packaging That May Appeal To Kids

California cannabis regulators are rolling out a new AI tool to help businesses identify marijuana product packaging may appeal to kids in violation of state rules.

The Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) on Monday announced that licensees can now utilize a Cannabis Product Image Analyzer (CPIA) that was developed to aid in preventing the market launch of potentially problematic packaging that violates state statute by enticing minors.

Marijuana business licensees can “simply snap a photo using their smart phone or mobile device, screenshot or any other supported file format and upload to the CPIA tool,” DCC said. “The image will be analyzed and provide a summary of its findings.”

DCC said it won’t retain images uploaded to the CPIA database, or the summaries of findings that it produces. Rather, the goal is to “assist licensees in their independent evaluation of whether packaging or labeling may be attractive to children.”

That includes packaging and labels that depict:

  • Images of minors or anyone under 21 years of age
  • Cartoons
  • A likeness to images, characters, or phrases that are popularly used to advertise to children
  • Images that are any imitation of candy packaging or labeling and
  • Images with the terms “candy” or “candies” or variants in spelling such as “kandy” or “kandeez”

“The CPIA uses artificial intelligence technology to review images submitted by a user to identify issues that may indicate attractiveness to children for further evaluation,” DCC said in a notice. “The CPIA may not identify all concerns an image may present, or that the Department may find attractive to children.”

Regulators stressed that licensees should not “rely on the CPIA’s output, as it does not establish definitively whether advertising or marketing violates” state rules. And if the tool finds that an uploaded image is likely compliant, that alone “does not preclude a finding by the Department or a factfinder in a disciplinary or administrative action from determining the uploaded image violates the regulation.”

“Because artificial intelligence systems evolve, update, or produce variable outputs, the CPIA’s evaluation may change from day to day, even when reviewing the same image. The quality, clarity, angle, lighting, or completeness of an image uploaded by a user may affect the CPIA’s review and assessment. Users are solely responsible for ensuring uploaded images accurately depict the product’s labeling.”

Cannabis licensees are being encouraged to provide feedback on the AI tool through an online survey.

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Top Kentucky GOP Lawmaker Wants State Officials Prosecuted For Abiding By Governor’s Medical Marijuana Expansion Order

Kentucky’s House Majority Whip Jason Nemes (R) asked Attorney General Russell Coleman (R) to help ensure agencies “not cooperate” with Gov. Andy Beshear’s (D) expansion of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana recommendations.

Nemes, a Louisville Republican, made the comments Tuesday morning during the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary.

He called Beshear’s June 2 executive order, which added several conditions to the state’s list of approved conditions for medical marijuana, an “unlawful expansion of conditions.”

The Lantern asked Beshear’s office for a response around noon and will update this story with its statement.

“Any organization, any licensee, that participates in this unlawful expansion should be prosecuted,” Nemes said during Tuesday’s meeting. “This is not the way forward.”

He also said: “The General Assembly does not approve of” the expansion.

In 2023, the legislature legalized medical marijuana for Kentuckians suffering from chronic illnesses including ​any type or form of cancer, chronic or severe pain, epilepsy or other intractable seizure disorder; multiple sclerosis, muscle spasms, or spasticity; chronic nausea or cyclical vomiting syndrome; or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

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Legal Marijuana States Are Moving To Increase Possession Limits, Allowing Consumers To Carry More Cannabis Without Fear Of Criminalization

Lawmakers in at least three states have passed legislation this year to significantly increase the amount of marijuana that adults can legally possess.

These expansions of existing state cannabis legalization laws are advancing as part of broader legislation that addresses various aspects of marijuana regulatory programs that will change how licensed businesses operate within their markets.

But for everyday consumers, the possession limit increases mean they will be able to buy more marijuana when they go to the store and will be protected from potential criminal penalties for carrying certain amounts of cannabis.

Illinois lawmakers this month, for example, passed omnibus cannabis legislation that would allow residents of the state who are over 21 years of age to possess up to 60 grams of marijuana flower—double the amount in current law. They will also be able to have up to 10 grams of cannabis concentrates and infused products with up to 1,000 mg of THC—also double the current limit.

Possession amounts for adult non-residents would also be doubled under the bill.

Aside from numerous other proposed changes to rules for marijuana and hemp businesses that are included in the legislation, SB 3222 would also allow people with convictions for possession of up to 60 grams of marijuana to have those records expunged—double the current cutoff allowing only those with convictions for up to 30 grams to be eligible.

The bill cleared the Senate and House of Representatives and now awaits action from Gov. JB Pritzker (D), who in 2019 signed the state’s marijuana legalization policy into law.

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Advanced Alzheimer’s successfully treated with psilocybin, a recent case study says

A newly published case report in Frontiers in Neuroscience describes a remarkable and unexpected clinical response in an 80-year-old woman with advanced Alzheimer’s disease following a single high-dose psilocybin intervention.

The patient had lived with Alzheimer’s disease for approximately 10 years and experienced severe functional decline over the preceding five years. According to the report, she had become largely monosyllabic, demonstrated profound cognitive impairment, chronic urinary incontinence, impaired mobility, dysphagia, executive dysfunction and severe reduction in spontaneous communication and emotional engagement.

After receiving a single 5g oral dose of psilocybin-containing mushrooms (Enigma strain), the patient reportedly experienced rapid and sustained functional improvement across multiple domains.

During the acute phase, the patient entered a prolonged deep sleep-like state accompanied by profuse sweating and clinically suspected hyperthermia.

Then, approximately 19 hours later, something unexpected occurred.

The patient spontaneously awakened and began speaking for hours, engaging in autobiographical conversation and recalling memories that had not been expressed in years.

Over the following days, her family reported meaningful improvements in:

  • Speech and communication.
  • Memory and contextual recognition.
  • Walking and mobility.
  • Emotional connection and social engagement.
  • Bladder control, after years of chronic urinary incontinence.

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Federal Marijuana Prosecutions Hit Another Record Low In 2025 As State Legalization Expands, Government Report Shows

Federal marijuana trafficking cases fell to another record-low in 2025, with a new report from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) revealing a continued trend amid the expanding state-level reform movement that has given consumers more places to buy legal cannabis.

A recently published USSC fact sheet on drug prosecution trends shows just 383 federal cannabis trafficking cases in the last fiscal year. That marks a decline from the 471 cases reported in 2024.

More broadly, USSC said, marijuana trafficking prosecutions have dropped 62 percent from fiscal year 2021 to 2025.

Shifting federal priorities, which seem to have coincided with state-level marijuana reform efforts, have gradually pushed cannabis near the bottom of the list of drug trafficking cases.

The 383 cases from last year stands in stark contrast to the nearly 3,500 cannabis trafficking cases that were reported in 2015. Just two years before that, in 2013, the marijuana prosecutions amounted to approximately 5,000.

Colorado and Washington State became the first two states to approve recreational marijuana legalization in 2012.

Methamphetamine trafficking cases have dominated the list over the past decade, the USSC document published last month shows. In 2024, cases targeting fentanyl took over as the second most common drug trafficking target, followed by crack cocaine and powder cocaine. The number of heroin trafficking cases (356) was marginally lower than marijuana last year.

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All Roads Lead Back to Reagan: The Reagan Era Policies Still Haunting America Decades Later

Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, passed away 22 years ago on June 5th, 2004, at 93 years of age. When it comes to Reagan’s legacy in the political establishment, he is lauded as perhaps one of the best presidents in American history. Upon his death much of the nation was brought to a veritable standstill, as his funeral acted as an unofficial national day of mourning.

As Reagan’s casket was brought out of the Capitol rotunda, cannons fired in his honor, the reading of his funeral rites broadcast in New York’s Times Square as well as on televisions around the world. Over 100,000 people attended his funeral to pay their respects, including multiple former presidents, government officials, and diplomats from around the world. In a CBS News broadcast the day of his death, Reagan’s personal biographer Edmund Morris described him as “looking and acting presidential, a man with dignity”.

Morris describes Reagan’s “largest mission in life” as “the moral leadership of the United States”. In Morris’s words Reagan saw himself as a savior sent to tame the government and get it off the backs of the American people. But beyond the aggrandizement and grandstanding, when one takes a more critical look at the legacy left behind, what is revealed is a much darker history than American political revisionists like to admit. One fraught with systemic corruption and the exploitation of the American people.

In this article, we will take a look at Ronald Reagan’s true legacy, and while not exhaustive, highlight several policy decisions that still impact the lives of American citizens today.

Naturally, we shall start with foreign policy, as it is arguably the most impactful and extensive. In this area Reagan is typically hailed as a hero more than most in the annals of American exceptionalist revisionist history. He started off his presidency in January of 1981 being credited with bringing an end to the Iran hostage crisis, as Iran would agree to release 52 Americans after 444 days in captivity shortly after Reagan was sworn into office.

This immediately did wonders for Reagan’s image as a diplomatic tough guy that Americans could look up to. But the reality is much more sinister. Acclaimed investigative journalist and founder of Consortium News Robert Parry (1948 – 2018) spent decades amassing evidence ignored by the DC political beltway proving that, in truth, members of the Reagan campaign, particularly campaign manager and future CIA director William Casey, undertook efforts to sabotage attempts by the Carter administration to free the American hostages for political gain. Casey and others would covertly meet with Iranian officials in Madrid during the summer of 1980 and strike a secret deal insuring that Iran would agree to only release the hostages on the day of Reagan’s inauguration in exchange for arms shipments.

With this act of political subterfuge, Reagan’s presidency began with a borderline act of treason, treating American lives as bargaining chips.

Of course, this was only the beginning. As secret dealings with Iran would scandalize the entire Reagan presidency. The Iran Contra affair, beginning in 1985, would go on to leave a lasting and disastrous blight both inside and outside of the United States.

During the height of the Cold War, the staunchly anti-communist Reagan administration would go to any lengths no matter how deplorable to exert American imperialist dominance across the globe. When the leftist Sandinista government came to power in Nicaragua, the Reagan administration sought to oust them with a coup. When Congress denied funding for this operation, Reagan would once again turn to his pal William Casey, now director of the CIA, and their Iranian allies, as well as the cartel.

The CIA would begin making covert arms shipments to Iran via Israel, despite an embargo in place at the time, using the revenue to fund an insurgency by the Contras, a right wing militant terrorist group fighting to oust the Sandinista government. At the same time, the CIA would put itself in business with the Contras cartel allies in a plot to help bolster the Contras funding, a scandal later exposed by journalist Gary Webb whom revealed the CIA helped to facilitate cocaine trafficking into the United States, resulting in the disastrous crack epidemic of the 80s and 90s which unceremoniously claimed thousands of lives.

These undertakings initiated by Reagan have left lasting scars on American society and politics. In the decades since, Nicaragua has continued to be a prime target for imperialist regime change efforts, particularly following the 2006 election of Daniel Ortega which brought the Sandinistas back to power and lead to a series of coup attempts against his government by both the Bush jr and Obama administrations, as well as a deadly relaunching of Reagan-era destabilization efforts against Nicaragua as recently as 2023 under the Biden administration.

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The managed decline of Cobourg parks and playgrounds

Last summer, a five-year-old boy picked up a used needle while playing at a park in Cobourg, Ontario. His mom says they’re not going back unless something changes, but Cobourg has launched a new 10-year Parks and Recreation Master Plan project that doesn’t include a plan of how to fix the squalor, but instead chooses to cede public spaces to it.

Cobourg was coined Ontario’s feel good town for it’s pristine beach, safe streets, and irresistible charm. Now, woke bureaucrats and ideologue politicians seem determined to manage its decline instead of protecting its legacy.

Case in point: families now scour every crevice of every park before letting their kids play, if they dare go at all. They must sweep public bathrooms for needles and paraphernalia before entering, while port-a-potties at local parks risk fentanyl-laced exposure.

What makes this proposed plan even more concerning is that it will be at the centre of every Cobourg kids’ childhood for the next decade.

With families avoiding parks because of encampments, discarded needles, open drug use, crime, disorder and disarray; drug fuelled criminality has turned quiet streets into hubs of chaos and it’s pulling kids away from public spaces.

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Australia Tried To Tax Smoking Out of Existence. Now 80% of Tobacco Aussies Consume Is From the Black Market.

The Australian government has spent the last decade introducing steep tax hikes to curb smoking, and, as a result, the country has the most expensive cigarettes in the world. The average price of mainstream cigarettes is 54.99 Australian dollars per pack (about $40). But the eyewatering prices have driven people to the black market.

In 2025, an estimated 80 percent of the tobacco consumed in Australia was illegal, up from 12 percent in 2017, according to new analysis from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The study, which is the first attempt by the Australian government to estimate the size of the black market, found that “prices for legal tobacco products have almost tripled since December 2016 driven by annual tobacco excise increases, while estimated prices of illicit tobacco products have remained relatively constant.” Since 2020, household spending on legal cigarettes and tobacco has almost halved, but between 2017 and 2025, the amount of nicotine consumed in Australia has risen by almost 40 percent.

Meanwhile, between 2016 and 2025, the price of legal cigarettes nearly tripled while tobacco duty revenue more than halved. As a result, the Australian Treasury has downgraded tobacco excise revenue by $8 billion over the next five years in the latest federal budget.

Lower tax revenue is hardly something to mourn, but Australia’s collapsing legal tobacco market has come with a far darker consequence: a severe wave of gang violence, including firebombings and shootings. Since 2023, organized crime groups linked to Australia’s illicit tobacco and vape market have been tied to “more than 200 firebombings,” “at least 3 homicides,” and “multiple other non-fatal violent attacks,” according to the Australian Intelligence Commission.

“It’s hard to see how it could get any worse,” Rohan Pike, a former Australian Federal Police detective and Border Force member, tells Reason. Pike, who created and led Australia’s Illicit Tobacco Strike Team, says the violence is now an “old-fashioned turf war” and that criminal gangs, attracted by the profits, are fighting to control distribution.

Pike says criminal groups are opening pop-up convenience stores, intimidating legitimate retailers into selling their products, and backing up those threats with “firebombings and other types of violence.” Organized crime syndicates have destroyed hundreds of tobacconists, convenience stores, and hospitality venues, forcing legitimate businesses out. “Every part of the tobacco control policy is uncontrolled at the moment,” says Pike.

Public awareness of the black market rose last year when Katie Tangey, a “completely innocent” 27-year-old woman, was killed in Melbourne in a case of mistaken identity linked to the tobacco wars. “We know it is linked to the illegal tobacco trade. That’s one thing we can say with a high degree of certainty,” Detective Inspector Chris Murray told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “This was always our fear, that someone would die as a result of the tobacco wars and unfortunately this has come to fruition.”

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Louisiana Governor Is ‘Tired’ Of ‘Being Inundated With The Smell Of Marijuana’ At Football Games, So He Signed A Bill To Jail People For It

Louisiana’s governor says he signed a bill that threatens to send people to jail for up to one year if they smoke marijuana within 2,000 feet of a school property—including a college campus— because he is “tired” of smelling cannabis at football games.

“Like most of you, I’m tired of going to our college and high school campuses and being inundated with the smell of marijuana,” he said in a video posted to social media. “And I’m tired of seeing drugs littering our high school and college campuses, hurting our students.”

“These drugs take away from the family-friendly environments that our colleges are supposed to be, especially on game days,” the governor said.

The legislation from Rep. Gabe Firment (R) that Landry signed last month applies to people who violate drug laws “while smoking, vaping, or otherwise abusing such controlled dangerous substance while on any property used for school purposes by any school, within two thousand feet of any such property, or while on a school bus.”

The bill “takes a massive step toward protecting our families and children in Louisiana on those campuses,” the governor argued in his new video that was posted on Friday.

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The U.S. Has Killed More Than 190 People in Boat Strikes. We’re Tracking Them All.

Since September, the Trump administration has conducted an undeclared war in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing scores of civilians. The Intercept is chronicling all publicly declared U.S. attacks and providing a tracker with information on each strike.

The administration insists the attacks are permitted because the U.S. is engaged in “non-international armed conflict” with “designated terrorist organizations,” or DTOs. President Donald Trump has justified the attacks, in a War Powers report to Congress, under his Article II constitutional authority as commander in chief of the U.S. military and claimed to be acting pursuant to the United States’ inherent right of self-defense as a matter of international law. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has also produced a classified opinion that provides legal cover for the lethal strikes.

Experts in the laws of war and members of Congress, from both parties, say the strikes are illegal extrajudicial killings because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians — even suspected criminals — who do not pose an imminent threat of violence. The summary executions are a significant departure from standard practice in the long-running U.S. war on drugs, in which law enforcement agencies arrested suspected drug smugglers.

The Pentagon has repeatedly withheld information on the attacks from members of Congress and the American public, despite mounting questions from lawmakers about the legality of these deadly strikes.

So The Intercept is publishing a strike tracker documenting America’s newest war. The locations and casualty figures are drawn from information provided by U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Office of the Secretary of War, and social media posts by Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth.

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