Pharmed out…
Tag: the war on (some) drugs
Circle K To Start Selling Marijuana At Its Florida Stores
In another big step along America’s path to normalizing the use of a once-taboo plant, major convenience-store chain Circle K will begin selling marijuana at its Florida gas stations.
Circle K’s foray into the marijuana business will go live in 2023, through a partnership with Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries, a medical and recreational cannabis wholesaler and retailer with a presence in 15 states. Florida’s marijuana market is the country’s second largest, trailing only California.
Green Thumb CEO Ben Kovler calls the new venture a “game-changer”:
“The new RISE Express model is a huge step forward in making it easier and more efficient for patients to purchase high-quality cannabis as part of their everyday routine when stopping by their local convenience store.”
Circle K parent Couche-Tard is a global pioneer. “Legal marijuana has so far been sold only in stand-alone dispensaries in the US and within pharmacies in countries such as Uruguay and Germany,” reports Bloomberg. Couche-Tard also has a Canadian convenience-store cannabis pilot with Fire & Flower.
Federal Bureaucrats Say We Can’t Reschedule Marijuana Because of How It’s Scheduled
Last week, President Joe Biden announced that he would pardon all Americans federally convicted of simple possession of marijuana. The announcement was a welcome, though limited, shift in the U.S. government’s seemingly unending war on drugs. Biden additionally called on governors to follow suit in their respective states and grant clemency to the vast majority of offenders convicted under state laws. He also encouraged Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra to review marijuana’s classification under federal law.
But that shift may be easier said than done thanks to the age-old problem of federal bureaucracy.
Currently, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance, indicating “a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.” In his announcement last week, the president noted that this puts it in the same category as heroin and a more restrictive category than fentanyl.
In 2015, the last time the government assessed marijuana’s classification, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and HHS recommended keeping it at Schedule I. The assessment included, among other factors, “the scientific literature on whether marijuana has a currently accepted medical use”—a tall order since Schedule I status makes it much more difficult to study in the first place.
The Washington Post reported today that “such an evaluation—the first initiated by a U.S. president—is made all the more difficult due to tight restrictions on research into marijuana.” Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a research institute within the National Institutes of Health, told the paper, “It’s something that we constantly communicate: We really need to figure out a way of doing research with these substances.”
In other words, as Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute tweeted, the government “can’t research whether marijuana should remain a ‘Schedule I’ substance bc of govt restrictions on… researching Schedule I substances.”
Consistency…
Kamala Harris Dragged For Saying No One Should Go To Jail For Smoking Weed
Critics ripped into Vice President Kamala Harris over the weekend as video circulated of her claiming that no one should go to jail simply for smoking marijuana.
Harris’ remarks came on the heels of President Joe Biden’s Thursday pronouncement declaring mass pardons for thousands who have past federal convictions on drug charges — and flew in the face of her record as a prosecutor in California.
“And speaking of the system of justice,” Harris began. “We are also changing — y’all might have heard that this week — the federal government’s approach to marijuana.”
As the crowd cheered, Harris continued, “Because the bottom line there is nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.”
San Francisco Republican Party Chairman John Dennis — who is challenging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her seat in Congress — called out the vice president in a tweet, saying, “Shameless. As California Attorney General Harris sent people to jail for …smoking weed.”
“The hypocrisy is staggering,” actor Matthew Marsden added.
U.S. Senate Candidate Mark Meuser (R-CA) pointed out: “Clearly, Kamala has forgotten her legacy in California.”
“REMINDER: Kamala Harris has sent at least 1,560 people to prison for marijuana-related offenses,” Steve Guest, special communications advisor to Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said.
Seesaw politics…
Thanks, Joe, so kind…
The GOP’s Biggest Narcs Are Predictably Furious About Biden’s Weed Pardons
GOP officials’ takes on President Joe Biden’s surprise weed announcement Thursday ranged from moral outrage to begrudging praise to complete and utter silence.
Biden, a longtime opponent of legalizing weed, which he called a “gateway drug” as recently as 2019, announced Thursday—after nearly two years of pressure from cannabis and criminal justice reform advocates—that he would pardon all federal simple cannabis-possession convictions.
Biden also called on governors to pardon simple possession offenses at the state level and said he’d directed Cabinet officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, to begin reviewing cannabis’ Schedule 1 status under federal law, which puts it on the same level as heroin.
“I’m calling on governors to pardon simple state marijuana possession offenses,” Biden said Thursday. “Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely for possessing marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason either.”
But despite the fact that 19 states and Washington, D.C., have already legalized recreational use of the drug, some Republicans criticized Biden’s announcement.
“In the midst of a crime wave and on the brink of a recession, Joe Biden is giving blanket pardons to drug offenders—many of whom pled down from more serious charges,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who has repeatedly said he thinks the U.S. has an “under-incarceration problem” despite the fact that the U.S. imprisons more people per capita than any nation on Earth.
The cannabis advocacy group NORML responded on Twitter: “LOL look at this loser.”
No Treats, Only Tricks: Republicans Try to Ruin Halloween With Fake Rainbow Fentanyl Threat
A group of Republican senators has released a video warning parents that Mexican drug cartels have begun targeting children by disguising fentanyl as candy, despite actual experts claiming its bogus.
The public service announcement, a portion of which was aired on Fox News Friday morning, said that “by working together and being on high alert this Halloween, we can help put an end to the drug traffickers that are driving addiction.”
Halloween this year falls exactly 8 days before the November midterms, and what better way is there to drive home your tough-on-crime, war on drugs-electoral messaging than to convince parents that the cartels are in the house down the block and are handing out synthetic opioids to your kid?
“Rainbow fentanyl comes in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes, including pills powder and blocks that resemble sidewalk chalk,” said Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy. “Even just handling these pills or powders…can kill a person,” added Senator Steve Daines (R-Mon.), alluding to the myth that touching fentanyl can cause an overdose.
Nebraska Senator Deb Fisher warned that “according to the DEA, these pills are a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults.”
However, experts, who at this point are exasperated at the “poisoned Halloween candy” myth’s yearly resurgence, are again reiterating that drug dealers are not handing out narcotics to children en masse. In fact, the use of colors is typically a way for producers to distinguish their products from other manufacturers and to make them identifiable to existing consumers, not a way to market them to children. Mariah Francis, a Resource Associate with the National Harm Reduction Coalition, criticized the GOP lawmakers misrepresentation of the ways drugs circulate in communities. “Drug markets are based off profit gain and profit margins,” explained Francis. Drug dealers “are not making money giving free fentanyl tablets […] to small children.”
Biden to pardon all federal marijuana convictions
U.S. President Joe Biden is set to pardon all federal offenses of marijuana possession, the White House announced.
The pardons apply to all federal cases of simple marijuana possession as well as convictions in the District of Columbia. At least 6,500 individuals will be immediately impacted by Biden’s pardons.
“President Biden pardons all prior federal convictions for simple marijuana possession – including under DC law – also directs states to do the same, and asks HHS & AG to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law,” reported Fox News’ White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich.
“Senior admin official says 6500 people w/ federal convictions + thousands more under DC law will benefit… but no individuals are currently in federal prison solely for simple possession of marijuana. Most are @ state level,” Heinrich’s report continued.
The pardons will not affect anyone convicted of simple marijuana possession in state jurisdictions.
Hellbound and Down 
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