Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Ohio GOP Senate President Outlines Plan To Amend Voter-Approved Marijuana Law Next Week, Days Before Legalization Takes Effect

Ohio’s Republican Senate president says his chamber will take the first step toward amending a voter-approved marijuana legalization law at the beginning of next week, with just days left before key provisions of the initiated statute take effect. But the House speaker, for his part, still says he doesn’t necessarily see the urgency.

GOP legislative leaders and Gov. Mike DeWine (R) have been discussing revisions to the cannabis statute ever since voters passed the reform at the ballot last month, with the main focus being on possible changes to provisions concerning tax revenue,  youth prevention and impaired driving.

Two Republican-led bills to amend the legalization law have been introduced so far, but Senate President Matt Huffman (R) said the plan is to take up separate, unrelated House-passed legislation in the Senate General Government Committee on Monday, attach yet-to-be-seen cannabis amendments as an emergency clause and advance the proposal on the floor on Wednesday. The House would then need to concur with the changes.

An emergency clause would mean the bill would require a two-thirds vote instead of a simple majority to pass, but it’d mean the legislation would take effect immediately rather than after a standard 90-day period following signature by the governor. That seems to be the only option if lawmakers want to revise the marijuana law before possession and cultivation become legal on Thursday.

“It would be better for people going forward to know what the law is than people begin spending money or taking actions and then the law changes six months from now or 90 days, you know, a year from now,” Huffman told WCMH.

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New York Lawmakers Send Governor Bill To Allow Hemp Seeds In Food For Pets, Horses And Llamas

The New York legislature has sent a pair of bills to the governor that would allow hemp seeds to be included in animal feed for pets, horses and camelids such as llamas and alpacas.

About five months after the Assembly and Senate passed the legislation from Assemblymember Donna Lupardo (D) and Sen. Michelle Hinchey (D), the identical versions from each chamber were transmitted to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Wednesday.

The measures specify that industrial hemp seed that could be added to certain animal feed includes seed hulls and seed meal. Supporters say that the cannabis products could be a nutritious additive that’s high in protein and fiber.

“Industrial hemp produces a wide range of useful materials, including building materials, fibers that can be woven into clothing, chaff for animal bedding, and seeds that are available on grocery store shelves in items [like] granola, snack bars, and cookies,” a justification memo attached to the legislation says. “Industrial hemp is federally approved for each of these uses.”

“Only the seeds of the industrial hemp plant, including shell casings and seed meal resulting from processing hemp hearts for human consumption, would be authorized for use in animal feed,” it continues. “Studies indicate that industrial hemp seed provides a high protein, high fiber ingredient for animal consumption.”

The legislation, which is similar to measures that have been enacted in Montana and Pennsylvania, is backed by the National Hemp Association.

“Protecting industrial hemp production in New York will encourage greater production and research into the myriad uses of this plant, including as a renewable building material,” the text says. “It will also open the door for small, New York-based animal food processors to establish this marketplace before hemp seeds are authorized far use in commercial feed nationally.”

A fiscal note says that the legislation could ultimately increase tax revenue for the state because of “increased sales of New York hemp seed product and commercial feed.”

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A Los Angeles Jail Let a Woman Die of Withdrawal, Then a Coroner Allowed Her Body To Decompose

Amanda Bews was arrested last September after shoplifting from a Los Angeles-area liquor store. Within two days, she would be found unresponsive in a jail cell, dead from apparent alcohol and drug withdrawal. 

According to a lawsuit filed this month, that wasn’t the only way jail employees mishandled Bews’ case. Not only did jail employees fail to treat Bews, despite numerous medical records stating she would need withdrawal medications, but once she had died, the jail mishandled her remains, leading to major decomposition that Bews’ mother said made her daughter look “mummified” 

After her arrest on September 7, Bews was first taken to a local hospital before booking, due to her admission of extremely heavy alcohol use and recent heroin use. According to the lawsuit, Bews told staff about her substance history and her drinking “just prior” to her arrest. Her arrest records state that she was a “prolonged heavy drinking.”

When medical staff released her, they gave law enforcement medical documents that “would have included Amanda’s history of alcohol dependence and heavy recent use,” according to the lawsuit.

“In her ED Summary Report, the ‘disposition’ is listed as ‘TO ACUTE CARE FACILITY,’ indicating that Amanda should have received acute care (meaning consistent monitoring and inpatient treatment) at the jail she would be booked into,” the complaint reads.

However, Bews didn’t get this necessary treatment. Instead, she was placed into a shared cell during the afternoon of September 8th. Just after midnight on the 9th, the complaint says that staff cleared Bews “for detox and required no medications,” and they “stopped treating Amanda for detoxification and withdrawal.”

At 4:30 a.m., Bews was found unresponsive. Staff gave her a dose of Narcan, but she was pronounced dead at 5:29 a.m. According to an autopsy, the levels of drugs and alcohol in Bews’ system were indicative of withdrawal and there was vomit in her airways.

“On information and belief, deputies also did not check on Amanda during this time, as her condition would have obviously deteriorated. Or, if deputies had, they failed to summon medical care during this time despite her deterioration.”

After Bews’ death, the lawsuit states that both the county medical examiner and Chapel of the Light, a private funeral home hired by the county, mishandled Bews’ remains, leading to considerable decomposition of her body.

The coroners “failed to use the standard of care a reasonably careful person working at a medical examiner’s office would use to handle human remains prior to transfer to their loved ones’ family members. A reasonably careful employee of a medical examiner’s office would at minimum properly refrigerate the remains,” according to the complaint.

“Upon completion of the autopsy and transfer of the remains to Chapel of the Light, Amanda’s remains had deteriorated significantly,” the suit reads. “The County transferred custody of the remains to Chapel of the Light, but Chapel of the Light allowed Amanda’s remains to further deteriorate.”

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California Opens Applications For $15 Million Marijuana Equity Grant Round To Local Jurisdictions

California officials have begun accepting applications for the Cannabis Equity Grants Program for Local Jurisdictions for the coming fiscal year. The grants are part of the state’s effort to use cannabis tax revenue to fund equity programs for people disproportionately impacted by the drug war.

The purpose of the program is “to advance economic justice for populations and communities impacted by cannabis prohibition and the War on Drugs by providing support to local jurisdictions as they promote equity in California and eliminate barriers to enter the newly regulated cannabis industry for equity program applicants and licensees,” a description says.

The funding round is open to any local California jurisdiction “that demonstrates an intent to develop a cannabis equity program or that has adopted or operates a cannabis equity program.”

Applications for the grants program will be accepted through December 14, with awards expected to be announced in January. The online application is available through the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) website.

Money from the program funds local programs offering technical support, regulatory compliance and assistance with securing startup capital to equity applicants and licensees. The grants “will further the stated intent of the AUMA by reducing barriers to licensure and employment in the regulated industry,” according to a description posted on the California Grants Portal. “Offering these types of support will also aid the state in its goal of eliminating or reducing the illicit cannabis market by bringing more people into the legal marketplace.”

Grants for last fiscal year, announced this past February, went to 16 cities and counties across the state, ranging from $350,000 for San Diego County to nearly $2 million for Oakland.

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New York Marijuana Lawsuit Settlement Could Let Hundreds Of Dispensaries Open Soon, But Some Operators Are Wary

Hundreds of people impacted by cannabis-related criminal charges will finally be allowed to move forward with the pot-shops they had already been granted licenses for—if the terms of a settlement agreement filed Tuesday are approved.

With marijuana legalization in 2021, the state created a special class of license called the Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary licenses (CAURD). The aim was to reward those most harmed by decades of harsh drugs laws with the first opportunity to enter the legal market.

That goal stalled in August, when a group of veterans sued the state, arguing that the CAURD program violated the law by not offering licenses to other social equity groups like women and veterans at the same time. An injunction preventing any new stores from opening has been in place since then.

At the time of the injunction, the state had already awarded 463 CAURD licenses, but just 23 dispensaries had opened. Thirty other licensees were close to opening dispensaries when the injunction halted their plans. Meanwhile, more and more illegal storefronts were popping up to fill the demand, as many as 8,000 by some estimates.

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Cartel Narco Tank With Cope Cage Anti-Drone Armor Emerges

AMexican drug cartel recently employed an improvised armored truck, also commonly referred to as a “Narco Tank,” with what looks to be a metal screen over the front section of the vehicle. This is reminiscent of the so-called “cope cages” that have become a fixture on tanks and other armored vehicles on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine and that have also now emerged on Israeli tanks. These screens are primarily intended to provide extra protection against drones, something that cartels in Mexico are now regularly employing against government security forces and each other.

The Mexican vehicle in question was a modified Dodge Ram truck with a four-door cab that also had a box-like improvised armored structure at the rear with ports through which individuals inside could fire small arms. It was one of three Narco Tanks that took part in an ambush of Mexican military forces in the country’s state of Jalisco just over a week ago. The Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), or Jalisco New Generation Cartel, carried out the attack on November 19, which also reportedly involved the rapid establishment of roadblocks to hamper the arrival of government reinforcements.

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It’s Time To Rethink Termination Of Employees For Positive Marijuana Drug Tests

As a social conservative, alcohol has always been my drug of choice. For me, the odor of marijuana on a city street evokes a discomfiting sense of lawlessness and societal decline. But I remind myself that Carrie Nation, who attacked alcohol-service establishments with a hatchet in the lead-up to prohibition, had the same feelings toward the bourbon I so relish. And so it’s time to bury my own hatchet when it comes to cannabis.

Irrespective of one’s thoughts on marijuana legalization, we have reached a point of no return both in terms of culture and economics. More than 50 percent of Americans live in jurisdictions where recreational marijuana is legal, and 74 percent have access to medical cannabis. Revenue of the U.S. cannabis market will exceed $30 billion in 2023 and will increase at double-digit rates for the foreseeable future. State treasuries hunger for the tax revenue.

Given its legality, given its ubiquity, it is time we stop gratuitously destroying careers based on marijuana tests that say nothing about impairment. The problem is particularly acute in the transportation industry, where employers are compelled by federal law to randomly test employees and remove them from their safety sensitive positions based on positive tests. Frequently, that removal is followed by termination by the employer and license action by the regulating agency.

Driven by my sympathy for the affected individuals, I have handled numerous cases for employees who have lost their jobs due to positive tests. Moreover, most of the cases I have handled have resulted in reinstatement—sometimes due to specimen collection errors, occasionally due to deficient medical review and once due to a laboratory’s failure to properly validate its testing methodology. However, our nation’s marijuana dilemma calls for a broader approach: a change in policy.

It is undisputed that the mandated testing methodologies do not reflect time-specific impairment; however, that limitation has always been met with a collective shrug by regulators. After all, the “prohibited drugs” for which the federal government requires testing are all illegal; therefore, it is considered sufficient that the test confirms that, at some time in the recent past, the employee used the drug.

By contrast, a “positive” test for the legal drug of alcohol has always required proof of current intoxication.

The obvious solution would be to apply the alcohol current intoxication approach to cannabis. The problem is that, currently, there is no reliable test for current marijuana impairment. In response to this dilemma, we have seen a sub rosa movement by certain decision makers and regulators cutting some slack for employees who test positive for marijuana.

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St. Louis Will Lose A Half-Million Dollars In Marijuana Tax Revenue After Failing To Submit Documents To Missouri Officials

The city of St. Louis will lose approximately $500,000 in tax revenue after it failed to submit documents with the Missouri Department of Revenue to collect a voter-approved recreational marijuana tax.

City voters approved a 3 percent tax on recreational marijuana in April. State law would have allowed the city to begin collecting the tax on October 1 if paperwork was filed by June 30.

Bill 139 was passed unanimously by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen last December to ask voters for permission to tax recreational marijuana by 3 percent. The state tax on recreational marijuana was set at 6 percent when Missouri voters approved the initiative last November.

“The City wishes to impose an additional sales tax to support efforts for the residents of the City of St. Louis to address historic inequalities,” the bill stated. “These efforts may include but are not limited to funding access to education, workforce opportunities, and youth engagement.”

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Legalize Public Cannabis Consumption

“Smells good.”

If you smoke weed outside, especially in a city, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard that statement of fact from a stranger. It happens to me at least once a week, usually a lot more. 

Look in the pages of the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic, watch local news, or listen to politicians, though, and you might be fooled into thinking that weed does not, in fact, smell good. Wild, right? 

Under titles like “I Don’t Want To See You Get High” and “NYC’s Disgusting Pot Stench Is Keeping Tourists Away,” those loud voices fed up with loud smells are the last gasps of prohibition’s fading foghorns. Weed won and the world hasn’t fallen into disarray (well… at least not because of weed), so cannabis critics are reaching for anything they can to push back against its growing role in American life. These smell sheriffs might even support legalization, just as long as they can’t see or smell it. 

But legalization without the guarantee of safe, free, and open consumption is not legalization at all, and while much of the discussion from inside and outside of the weed industry is about, well, industry, New York has quickly shown us that the right to public consumption should be one of the most important facets of any and every legalization law. 

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California And New York State Officials Tell People To Buy Marijuana On Black Friday

Marijuana regulators in California and New York are encouraging people to take advantage of Black Friday deals and support small businesses by shopping for cannabis at licensed retailers.

As companies promote savings on the post-Thanksgiving sales occasion, both the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) and the New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) shared posts on Friday to help people find marijuana from authorized venders.

“Don’t follow the hordes of shoppers today!” California’s DCC said. “This Friday shop smart, shop licensed cannabis.”

The New York OCM, meanwhile, shared a video of Empire State Development Commissioner Hope Knight, who also serves on the state Cannabis Control Board (CCB), urging consumers to support small and local businesses this weekend to “sustain jobs and generate regional economic growth.” That same sentiment applies to the marijuana market, regulators said.

“While you grab some #BlackFriday deals, take a note from #NYCCB member, Hope Knight and support #SmallBusinessSaturdays at one of your local dispensaries,” they said.

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