Tag: the war on (some) drugs

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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Hawaii Attorney General’s Office Defends Marijuana Legalization Proposal From Law Enforcement Attacks

The office of Hawaii’s attorney general is pushing back against criticism of the official’s recently released marijuana legalization plan, defending its public health and safety provisions as members of the law enforcement community voice opposition to the reform.

After announcing in April that her office would support efforts to enact legalization, Attorney General Anne Lopez (D) unveiled a comprehensive cannabis bill last week, earning praise from supporters in the legislature and mixed reactions from advocates who want to see it revised to more aggressively address equity issues and reduce criminalization.

On the other side of the debate, however, Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm says representatives of law enforcement are firmly against legalizing marijuana in general and the attorney general’s plan specifically, arguing that the current system of prohibition is “not broken,” and regulating adult-use cannabis would lead to increased hospitalizations without mitigating the illicit market.

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People With Anxiety Report Better Sleep On Days They Use Marijuana Compared To Alcohol Or Nothing At All, Study Finds

People with anxiety experience better quality sleep on days when they use marijuana compared to days when they use alcohol or nothing at all, a new federally funded study has found.

For the study, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review, researchers at the University of Colorado, Colorado State University and University of Haifa analyzed the subjective sleep quality of 347 people who reported using cannabis to treat anxiety. They wanted to understand the different ways sleep was affected by the use of marijuana, alcohol, neither or both on a given day.

To that end, people participating in the study were asked to fill out daily surveys for 30 days, recounting their substance use and subjective sleep experience the night prior. Researchers compared outcomes from non-use days, cannabis-only days, alcohol-only days and co-use days.

“Compared to non-use, participants reported better sleep after cannabis-use-only and after co-use, but not after alcohol-use-only,” the authors, who received funding for the study from a National Institutes of Health grant, wrote.

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Wisconsin Governor Grants Dozens Of Marijuana Pardons As Advocates Pressure GOP Leaders To Advance Legalization

The governor of Wisconsin has granted another round of pardons, including dozens issued for people with prior marijuana convictions.

As Democratic lawmakers in the state continue to push for legalization amid opposition by GOP legislative leaders, Gov. Tony Evers (D) announced on Tuesday that he’s exercised his constitutional authority to provide relief to 82 more people, raising the total number of pardons under his administration to 1,111.

About one-third of the latest pardons were granted to people who had marijuana possession, cultivation or sales convictions on their records, with the majority of the cannabis cases related to simple possession. Another third of the overall grants of clemency went to people with other drug convictions.

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Ohioans Arrested For Marijuana Must Be Involved In Talks About Changing Legalization Law, Not Just ‘Anti-Cannabis’ Republicans, Lawmaker Says

An Ohio Democratic lawmaker wants to see people who’ve been criminalized over marijuana, as well as those with industry experience, involved in any efforts to amend the state’s voter-approved legalization law, arguing that it shouldn’t be left up to “anti-cannabis” legislators alone to revise the statute.

Ohio Senate and House GOP leaders have already previewed plans to pass a package of changes to the law before possession and cultivation becomes legal next month, with a focus on potential revisions affecting tax revenue distribution, public consumption and law enforcement, for example.

But Rep. Juanita Brent (D) says it’s important that people who have been directly impacted by prohibition and who may participate in the legal marketplace have seats at the table as leadership moves ahead with possible amendments.

“If you’ve been criminalized by cannabis, the best thing you can do is come back into the field,” Brent told The Statehouse News Bureau.

“Ohioans have to remember that the people who are trying to be the loudest at the Statehouse are people who were anti-cannabis,” she said. “We cannot have anti-cannabis people leading on what’s going to happen with cannabis. We need people who are involved. We need people who have been doing the work. We need people who have been advocating.”

So far, the conversation around revising the initiated statute has been top-level, with GOP lawmakers and Gov. Mike DeWine (R) speaking generally about areas that they’re interested in changing. But there’s been a consistent emphasis on revising provisions on how marijuana tax revenue will be divvied up, which may be an issue for advocates who want to see the sizable investment in social equity and community reinvestment that’s prescribed under the measure as approved by voters.

Senate President Matt Huffman (R) said last week that he didn’t think most voters considered the nuances of the cannabis reform proposal when they went to the ballot and instead simply passed it based on the broad belief that marijuana should be legal for adults. He argued, for example, that the majority probably doesn’t support prioritizing cannabis business licensing for people who’ve been disproportionately targeted by criminalization.

The governor made similar remarks after this month’s election, as he expressed his interest in quickly changing various components of the law. However, he’s stressed that voters shouldn’t expect any “surprises,” and the proposed revisions that are being discussed would still honor the “spirit” of the reform.

Rather than introduce new standalone legislation through regular order, the Senate president said the plan is to incorporate cannabis amendments into an unrelated House-passed bill and use that as the vehicle, sending the revised measure back to the House for a simple concurrence vote.

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