Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Minnesota Republicans Warn Of ‘Blackouts And Brownouts’ From Marijuana Cultivation’s Energy Use

Two Minnesota Republican state lawmakers are claiming that home cultivation of cannabis as the result of the legalization law enacted by the Democratic legislature and governor last year could lead to a power failure as grow lights put an overwhelming strain on the state’s electrical grid.

“Now, I hope most of you are not familiar with the marijuana grow operation,” Rep. Paul Novotny (R) said at an event last weekend, “but I will tell you that it takes a ton of electricity.”

“Get ready for blackouts and brownouts. That’s what’s going to happen,” added Sen. Eric Lucero (R), who called cultivation under the law “unsustainable.”

As noted by Heartland Signal, which reported on the event, some states that have legalized marijuana, such as Massachusetts and Illinois, have taken steps to regulate energy use. Many, however, have done little to curb power consumption, according to a New Frontier Data report in 2018 that found that cannabis cultivation in the U.S. consumed about as much energy as the country’s Starbucks stores.

In addition to grow lights, indoor cultivation can also require various temperature and humidity controls, which also consume electricity.

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Boise Police search Idaho Harm Reduction Project locations

The Idaho Press is reporting that the Boise Police have severed search warrants at both Idaho Harm Reduction Project locations in Boise and in Caldwell.

A spokesperson for the department told the Idaho Press report that the search warrants are part of an ongoing investigation into the distribution of drug paraphernalia.

The Idaho Harm Reduction Project “Works to serve the drug using community of Idaho, as well as the general public by creating safe communities through evidence based programming, education, needle exchange, and appropriate needle disposal,” according to their website.

The Idaho Harm Reduction Project provides harm reduction supplies like sterile injection equipment, sharps disposals, and Narcan, among other things. They also provide training on the use and administration of Narcan, a drug that can stop an Opioid overdose from killing a drug user if administered timely.

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North Carolina Judge Bans People With The ‘Odor Of Marijuana’ From Entering Courts

Anyone who “has the odor of marijuana” will be banned from entering the North Carolina Superior Courts of Robeson County from here on out under an order signed by a judge on Wednesday.

The order says that smelling like cannabis will be grounds for removal from the courthouse, and the sheriff will be directed to “ask you to leave and come back without the odor owns [sic] your persons.”

A “findings of fact” section states that “the Robeson County Courthouse is a government facility open to the people for the purpose of conduction official business for the State of North Carolina.”

“The public is free to enter the courthouse during normal hours of operation to conduct business and the courthouse should be readily and reasonably accessible to the public in such a fashion that the safety and health of those entering the courthouse to conduct business, as well as those who work in the courthouse on a regular basis, are not threatened or impaired,” the order from Senior Resident Superior Court Judge James Gregory Bell says.

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Did Decriminalization Boost Drug Deaths in Oregon?

Oregon is considering legislation that would recriminalize low-level drug possession, reversing a landmark reform that voters approved in 2020. Although critics of that ballot initiative, Measure 110, cite escalating drug-related deaths, decriminalization is not responsible for that trend.

Opioid overdose fatalities have been rising nationwide for more than two decades. That trend was accelerated by the emergence of illicit fentanyl as a heroin booster and substitute, a development that hit Western states after it was apparent in other parts of the country.

“Overdose mortality rates started climbing in [the] Northeast, South, and Midwest in 2014 as the percent of deaths related to fentanyl increased,” RTI International epidemiologist Alex H. Kral and his colleagues noted at a conference in Salem, Oregon, last month. “Overdose mortality rates in Western states did not start rising until 2020, during COVID and a year after the introduction of fentanyl.”

That lag explains why Oregon has seen a sharper rise in opioid-related deaths than most of the country since 2020. But so have California, Nevada, and Washington, neighboring states where drug possession remains a crime.

Decriminalization under Measure 110 took effect in February 2021, and a 2023 Journal of Health Economics study estimated that it was associated with a 23 percent increase in “unintentional drug overdose deaths” that year. But “after adjusting for the rapid escalation of fentanyl,” Brown University public health researcher Brandon del Pozo reported at the Salem conference, “analysis found no association between [Measure 110] and fatal drug overdose rates.”

Kral and his collaborators concurred, saying “there is no evidence that increases in overdose mortality in Oregon are due to” decriminalization. That is consistent with the results of a 2023 JAMA Psychiatry study, which found “no evidence” that Measure 110 was “associated with changes in fatal drug overdose rates” during the first year.

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Girlfriend charged with murder of former Texas judge who died of fentanyl overdose

Authorities in Texas have arrested the 35-year-old girlfriend of a former judge for allegedly supplying him with fentanyl that led to his overdose death late last year. Kami Ludwig was taken into custody on Monday and charged with the murder of 47-year-old former Associate Tarrant County Judge William Shane Nolen.

The murder charge is the result of a novel interpretation of a new law that Gov. Greg Abbott signed in June 2023 and went into effect on Sept. 1, 2023, classifying the supplying of fentanyl that results in death as murder. The law was enacted to combat the thousands of Texans who die annually from fentanyl poisoning, but appeared to primarily target drug dealers who distribute the deadly substance.

According to a news release from the Grapevine Police Department, officers at about 4:45 a.m. on Nov. 20, 2023, responded to a call regarding a deceased male — later identified as Nolen — at a residence located in the 4100 block of Mapleridge Drive. Ludwig placed the initial 911 call and identified herself to the dispatcher as Nolen’s girlfriend.

Upon arriving at the scene, first responders said they found Nolen deceased in his bedroom “with signs consistent with an opioid overdose.” Authorities on the scene said they also recovered “several” additional pills from inside the home.

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Missouri Legislation Would Impose Restrictions On Intoxicating Hemp Products, Sparking Clash Over How To Regulate

Missouri lawmakers have heard hours of heated testimony at two hearings in the last week over bills aiming to regulate intoxicating hemp products that get people high the same as marijuana.

Currently there’s no state or federal law saying teenagers or children can’t buy products, such as delta-8 drinks, or that stores can’t sell them to minors—though some stores and vendors have taken it upon themselves to impose age restrictions of 21 and up.

And there’s no requirement to list potential effects on the label or test how much THC is actually in them.

“There’s zero reason why these THC products should not be treated like any other THC product in our state,” said state Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from Defiance, during a Monday Senate committee hearing.

The legislation’s proponents and opponents both agree the state should regulate the existing “Wild West” market for intoxicating hemp products.

The debate, however, is over whether the agency that oversees the state’s marijuana program, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), should regulate these hemp products.

If DHSS is put in charge, the products would have to be sold at DHSS-licensed dispensaries.

That’s what is proposed in legislation sponsored by Schroer and in the House filed by state Rep. Chad Perkins, a Bowling Green Republican.

“Similar to alcohol, one regulatory body covers all intoxicating liquors and alcohol, such as beer, bourbon, wine, moonshine, brandy and even hooch,” said Schroer, who chairs the legislative committee that oversees Missouri’s marijuana rules.

Opponents contend restricting hemp-derived THC products to be sold at the dispensaries would allow the “marijuana monopoly” to take over the market, given the limited number of licenses for dispensaries available.

They argue there should be a separate regulating system in place for intoxicating hemp products that would allow them to continue to be sold in gas stations and liquor stores.

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Maryland Senate Committee Approves Bill To Protect Medical Marijuana Patients’ Gun Rights Under State Law

A Maryland Senate committee has approved a bill that’s meant to protect gun rights for medical marijuana patients under state law.

About one week after the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee first took up the legislation—as well as a separate proposal to let police search vehicles based on the smell of cannabis—members unanimously passed the firearms bill on Wednesday.

There was no discussion, except that the chair briefly pointed out that “we’ve passed the bill like probably five times” over recent sessions, though the reform has not yet been enacted into law.

Sen. Mike McKay (R) is sponsoring the current legislation, which would protect the rights of registered medical cannabis patients to buy, own and carry firearms under Maryland law, even though they are still restricted from doing so under federal statute.

The Maryland legislature also took up the issue around this time last year, with the House Judiciary Committee holding a hearing on a separate but related measure to ensure medical marijuana patients’ gun rights are protected.

The issue has been raised in multiple state legislatures and federal courts in recent years, as marijuana and gun rights advocates challenge the constitutionality of the federal ban that currently prevents cannabis consumers from owning firearms.

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Arizona Senate Committee Unanimously Approves Bill To Legalize Psilocybin Service Centers

An Arizona Senate committee has unanimously approved a bipartisan bill that would legalize psilocybin service centers where people could receive the psychedelic in a medically supervised setting.

Shortly after a coalition of Republican senators, first responders and military veterans held a press conference to raise attention to the benefits of psychedelic medicines, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee convened for a hearing where members discussed the psilocybin legislation, which is sponsored by the chairman, Sen. T. J. Shope (R), and voted to pass it 7-0.

The measure would allow the Department of Human Services (DHS) to license psilocybin-assisted therapy centers in the state, where trained facilitators could administer the psychedelic.

The senator’s bill would significantly expand on Arizona’s existing research-focused psychedelics law that provides $5 million in annual funding to support studies into psilocybin therapy.

Under the new bill, an Arizona Psilocybin Advisory Board would be established, comprised of members appointed by the governor and legislative leaders. Representatives of the attorney general’s office and DHS, as well as military veterans, first responders, scientists with experience with psilocybin and physicians would be among the members.

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Arizona Lawmakers Approve Bill To Allow Interstate Marijuana Commerce

An Arizona House committee has approved a bill to authorize interstate marijuana commerce, pending a change in federal policy.

After initially rejecting the legislation from Rep. Justin Wilmeth (R) in a split 5-5 vote on Wednesday, the House Commerce Committee reconsidered the measure later in the meeting, reversing course and approving it, 6-4.

If ultimately enacted, Arizona would be joining three other West coast states—California, Oregon and Washington State—that have already adopted laws allowing their governors to enter into agreements to permit marijuana imports and exports between consenting jurisdictions, all of which are principally contingent on federal law changing or guidance explicitly tolerating the commerce.

“The reason I’m running this is because I’m a big believer in interstate commerce,” Wilmeth, who chairs the committee, said at the hearing. “And my understanding is, if we don’t do something like this before the feds legalize it, then we would have to wait a year, maybe two years, for our statute to catch up to whatever the feds do.”

“They could legalize it next week or in 10 years. We really don’t know. But the point of me running this bill this year, this moment, is to be prepared so that when it does come, we can go off to the races and our marijuana industry can be be successful and beneficial in every way possible,” the chairman said. “Obviously, that topic is divisive. Some people don’t like marijuana. I’ve never used this stuff. I don’t care for it either. But that’s not the question of this bill today. It is merely about the commercial commerce side of it.”

Under the Arizona bill, interstate cannabis commerce agreements would need to “ensure enforceable public health and safety standards and include a system to regulate and track the interstate delivery of marijuana and marijuana products.”

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Georgia $150M class action lawsuit accuses STIIIZY, Cookies, others of selling marijuana as hemp

A federal racketeering lawsuit filed in Georgia last week alleges that California cannabis brand leaders STIIIZY and Cookies – along with 12 co-conspirators – illegally sold marijuana products that had been intentionally mislabeled as federally-legal delta-8 hemp goods, and asks for a minimum of $150 million in damages.

The class action suit, filed Feb. 6 in U.S. District Court in the northern district of Georgia, claims that resident Hannah Ledbetter was misled by the defendants into purchasing the federally illegal marijuana products that had been sold as federally legal hemp goods that included 0.3% delta-8 THC or less, which is the federal threshold for legal hemp products.

“Defendants have conspired to import, manufacture, distribute, and possess illegal (delta-8) THC vape pens that are marijuana” and not hemp under federal law, the suit charges. “This scheme could only be accomplished through a pattern of racketeering activity.”

The suit asserts that Ledbetter carefully inspected the product labels prior to purchase “because she did not want to break the law.”

Rather, the suit claims, the products that Ledbetter ultimately bought – at multiple retail chains that do business in Georgia – were found to have delta-9 THC “far above what is allowed by law,” according to third-party testing results.

STIIIZY IP LLC, Cookies Creative Consulting & Promotions, and their partners “have facilitated the manufacturing, distribution, and/or sale of illegal marijuana to thousands of people over the course of the last four years,” the suit charges

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