Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Feds Say Marijuana Can Be ‘Summarily’ Seized From State-Legal Businesses—But Not If It’s Rescheduled

Federal agencies tasked with border security are contesting a lawsuit from New Mexico marijuana businesses that have had their state-legal products and other assets seized—arguing that, because cannabis is a Schedule I drug under federal law, it can be “summarily” taken.

But that might not be the case if marijuana was moved to Schedule III, the the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) suggested in a new federal court filing.

As a proposal to federally reschedule cannabis sits in limbo—with administrative hearings on the Biden administration-initiated reform effort delayed at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)—the agencies indicated that the potential policy change could impact their own forfeiture authorities.

In a memorandum submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico on Friday, DHS and CBP expanded on several previously voiced arguments on why the judge should support their motion to have the underlying lawsuit dismissed, challenging the idea that the marijuana-related seizures from state-licensed cannabis businesses is unconstitutional.

As they previously emphasized, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), and so seizing the property at border checkpoints within New Mexico is consistent with federal law, regardless of the state’s decision to legalize cannabis.

“It is beyond dispute that the Controlled Substances Act is a valid exercise of Congress’s authority under the Commerce Clause” of the U.S. Constitution, it says.

It acknowledged that DEA is currently considering rescheduling. However, since “no reclassification has occurred to date, marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance.”

Notably, the memorandum suggested that the forfeiture process would be different if cannabis was classified as a Schedule III drug or lower.

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Montana Senate Approves Bill To Shift Marijuana Revenue From Conservation Programs To Police And Addiction Treatment

The Montana Senate on Thursday advanced a measure to change what programs receive more than $60 million in funding from recreational marijuana tax revenue.

Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, is carrying Senate Bill 307 to shift marijuana tax revenue away from Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks programs, and bolster marijuana prevention and enforcement operations.

McGillvray framed the bill as a “simple” policy choice, and asked legislators whether they care more about children and those impacted by marijuana, or wildlife habitat.

“I would submit to you that the deer, the elk, the ducks, the geese are all doing pretty good in Montana,” McGillvray said, adding that FWP has “buckets” of money they could spend.

“I’m asking [us] to prioritize the babies, the moms, the teenagers, the children, the adults that are addicted to this and need a way out,” he said.

But opponents said that the funding was allocated for FWP programs for a reason, and that if the Legislature wants to address prevention efforts, they should tackle that separately.

Sen. Sara Novak, D-Anaconda, served on the Business and Labor Committee during the 2021 session, when recreational marijuana was legalized with support from conservation groups counting on some of the revenue.

“We worked very hard on a big piece of legislation that put all the guiderails around the legalization of marijuana, and it included the allocation of revenue sources,” Novak said. “I do wholeheartedly think we need to take a hard look at prevention, education, treatment, the crime that goes along with all of that and the whole trickle effect, I just don’t think that this bill is the way to go about doing that.”

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Using Psychedelics Is Tied To 25% Lower Likelihood Of ‘Frequent Bad Headaches,’ Study Shows

People who have used so-called “classic psychedelics” such as psilocybin or LSD are less likely to report having frequent bad headaches, a new study concludes.

The results, authors wrote this month in the Journal of Pharmacology, “add to the literature suggesting classic psychedelics as a possible future prophylactic treatment option for primary headache disorders.”

Researchers gathered data from 11,419 records collected from 1999 to 2000 as part of the British Child Development Study 1958, which follows a cohort of people born over the course of a single week in March 1958.

Specifically, they looked at responses to three questions: “Do you often have bad headaches?” “Have you ever tried LSD, also known as acid or trips?” and “Have you ever tried magic mushrooms?”

The team’s analysis showed that “lifetime use of classic psychedelics was associated with 25% lower odds of having frequent bad headaches.”

There are, of course, limitations as to what conclusions can be drawn from the observational nature of the study.

“Although we have proposed a direction of association, we cannot draw any causal inferences about the association between lifetime use of classic psychedelics and frequent bad headaches,” they wrote. “It is possible that the negative association found is a result of people suffering from frequent bad headaches abstaining from the use of classic psychedelics.”

Data from the same survey, for example, showed that low alcohol use was associated with higher likelihood of frequent bad headaches. In that case, authors interpreted the finding by saying it “may be explained by individuals experiencing frequent bad headaches choosing to abstain from alcohol,” noting that alcohol is understood to be a trigger for headaches.

Overall, 16 percent of people in the survey reported frequent bad headaches. Of those, 71 percent were female and 29 percent were male. Lifetime use of classic psychedelics, meanwhile, was reported by 6.5 percent of people with frequent bad headaches and 8.6 percent of those without.

Notably, when the research team divided reports by sex, they noticed a stronger association between psychedelics use and headaches among female respondents.

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Nebraska AG Warns Of Coming Crackdown On Hemp-Derived Products, Including Delta-8 THC

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers (R) said Thursday that he is done negotiating with smoke and vape shop retailers he says are breaking state law by selling candy and other products with delta-8 THC, a synthetic version of THC.

Hilgers has spent the past year and a half trying to persuade and sue retailers into pulling off the shelves what he calls a dangerous, unregulated drug before more people than the half-dozen or so complaints his office has received get hurt.

In some of those cases, he has worked with retailers selling the gummies, pouches and other ways to consume delta-8 products to avoid using the full extent of potential state civil penalties and fines. He’s also avoided referring them for prosecution.

No longer, he said Thursday.

He said his civil attorneys in the AG’s Office are sending letters to 35 to 37 owners of 104 stores in the Omaha area demanding the products be pulled from store shelves or the state will sue for maximum pain.

In cases where delta-8 THC sales continue or where harder drugs were offered or sold, he said his office would refer any relevant investigative reports to local county attorneys for the filing of possible criminal charges.

“We gave them plenty of warning,” Hilgers said. “We thought criminal prosecution was not the right tool. They have decided not to change. Now criminal prosecutions are on the table as well… What they should do is take it off the shelf.”

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Federal Judge In Indiana Dismisses Hemp Industry Lawsuit Over Legality Of Delta-8 THC

A nearly two-year-old legal battle is over—for now—after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit over the legality of delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) goods and other low-THC hemp products.

Judge James R. Sweeney II, of the U.S. District Court for Indiana’s Southern District, wrote the suit is “fundamentally” a “question for consideration by Indiana’s courts.”

Delta-8 is an isomer of delta-9 THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Plaintiffs 3Chi, Midwest Hemp Council and Wall’s Organics filed suit in 2023, several months after an opinion from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) found the products are illegal.

The opinion was a direct response to a request by now-former Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter and the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council. Local law enforcement agencies took note, with some notifying retailers they could get in trouble or even raiding retailers, according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs argued that Rokita’s opinion violates the 2018 federal Farm Bill—which removed hemp from the definition of marijuana—and similar provisions in Indiana law by “unilaterally” reclassifying their products as Schedule I controlled drugs. They also sought an injunction.

The judge determined the plaintiffs had standing to sue. But in an order filed Tuesday, Sweeney found they “have not met their burden of demonstrating that their alleged injury is redressable by the Court.”

The “problem,” Sweeney wrote, is that Rokita’s opinion isn’t binding and isn’t law.

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California Supreme Court Rules Federal Prohibition Doesn’t Block Marijuana Businesses From Transporting Products

California’s Supreme Court delivered a victory for the state’s marijuana program, rescinding a lower court ruling in a case that suggested federal prohibition could be used locally to undermine the cannabis market.

The case in question concerns a lawsuit filed by a company in Santa Barbara County that objected to the use of an easement, which is a right to use another person’s property, for the transportation of state-legal cannabis products. A state appellate court sided with the company, ruling in January that federal law preempted the state’s and that the easement could not be utilized for marijuana transport.

But the highest court in the state has now reversed that decision, rescinding the ruling.

“We are pleased the Court agreed to address that Court of Appeal decision at the Department of Cannabis Control’s (DCC) request, supporting California law and its legal cannabis industry,” DCC Director Nicole Elliott said in a press release on Thursday.

While the case—JCCrandall v. County of Santa Barbara—was specific to the company and county, DCC said that the appeals court’s original decision “suggested more broadly that California’s cannabis regulations were unlawful because cannabis is federally illegal.”

Without an intervening decision from the state Supreme Court to rescind the opinion, that could have opened the state up to litigation challenging other parts of its marijuana laws.

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Canada outraged after four citizens executed by China over drug charges: ‘Inconsistent with basic human dignity’

China executed four Canadian nationals over drug charges earlier this year, prompting strong rebukes from the Western country amidst an already rocky relationship.

It is unclear exactly when this year the executions took place, but Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said Wednesday she and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried to stop them — and are seeking leniency “for other Canadians that are facing a similar situation,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

The victims were described as “Canadian nationals” who held dual citizenship with China, though China does not recognize dual citizenship.

China treats drug charges with a notoriously heavy hand, issuing lifetime prison sentences for smuggling and sometimes even meting out executions — though they are rarely carried out against Westerners.

“Canada strongly condemns China’s use of the death penalty, which is irreversible and inconsistent with basic human dignity,” a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada said.

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A New Study Adds to the Evidence That Drug Busts Result in More Overdose Deaths

Prohibition makes drug use more dangerous by creating a black market in which quality and potency are highly variable and unpredictable. Ramped-up enforcement of prohibition magnifies that problem, as dramatically demonstrated by the deadly impact of restricting access to pain medication at the same time that illicit fentanyl was proliferating as a heroin booster and substitute. That sort of perverse effect pervades drug law enforcement, as illustrated by a new study that found drug seizures in San Francisco were associated with a substantial increase in overdose risk.

The study included 2,653 drug seizures and 1,833 opioid-related deaths from 2020 to 2023. “Within the surrounding 100, 250, and 500 meters,” RTI International researcher Alex H. Kral and his two co-authors reported in JAMA Network Open on Wednesday, “drug seizures were associated with a statistically significant increase in the relative risk for fatal opioid overdoses.”

That is not the result that local authorities expected. “Since fentanyl entered the unregulated drug supply in San Francisco, California, around 2019, overdose mortality rates have reached record highs,” Kral et al. note. “This has sparked increased enforcement of drug laws.”

In December 2021, then-Mayor London Breed “declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco to enable ‘more coordinated enforcement and disruption of illegal activities.'” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who took office in July 2022, “made combatting open-air drug markets and holding drug dealers accountable a top priority of her administration,” her office brags. In May 2023, Kral et al. note, Gov. Gavin Newsom “authorized the assignment of California Highway Patrol and California National Guard personnel to a new multiagency operation with the San Francisco Police Department aimed at ‘targeting fentanyl trafficking, disrupting the supply of the deadly drug in the city, and holding the operators of drug trafficking rings accountable.'”

How did all of that work out? The day after cops busted drug dealers, Kral et al. found, the risk of fatal overdoses rose by 74 percent, on average, within 100 meters. The increase in risk persisted for as long as a week, falling to 55 percent after two days, 45 percent after three days, and 27 percent after seven days. That pattern reinforces the conclusion that these police interventions, which aimed to reduce drug-related deaths, had the opposite effect.

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Company Behind Edible Arrangements Enters Cannabis Industry With New Hemp Delivery Service—And A Different Kind Of Edible

The company behind Edible Arrangements is entering the cannabis market, launching a new delivery service for hemp products.

Edible Brands, best known for its line of ornate fruit arrangements, announced on Thursday that it was expanding to start selling different kinds of edibles: hemp gummies, drinks and supplements.

The products can be purchased for delivery from a new site, Edibles.com.

“Edible Brands’ wellness-driven approach aligns with the evolving future of this category,” Thomas Winstanley, the executive vice president of Edibles.com, said in a press release. “With our robust infrastructure and nationwide footprint, we are uniquely positioned to accelerate industry growth.”

“Joining an organization that prioritizes consumers, advocacy, and innovation allows us to strengthen and shape this emerging market,” he said.

That emerging market—which proliferated after hemp was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill—has been facing challenges in recent years, as more states and Congress have pushed to reign in business selling intoxicating cannabinoid products.

Edibles.com isn’t currently servicing California, where the governor recently signed an emergency order banning hemp-derived products containing any traces of THC. However, the company didn’t reference the policy and simply said it was “unable to offer our products to California residents at this time, but stay tuned as we expand.”

It is launching hemp deliveries in Texas, though. But that would likely be complicated if a bill that passed the state Senate on Wednesday is ultimately enacted into law, similarly prohibiting any consumable hemp products that don’t exclusively contain non-intoxicating CBD or CBG.

It’s relatively rare to find cannabis products with no THC at all, and federal law provides that hemp is legal as long as it contains no more than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight.

In any case, Edible Brands evidently sees an opportunity even amidst the shifting policy landscape. And after Texas, it said it will be expanding to serve consumers in Florida and Georgia. Certain products will be available for shipping nationwide, depending on the state laws.

“The hemp industry is evolving rapidly, but consumers still face challenges with perception, education, and accessibility,” Somia Farid Silber, CEO of Edible Brands, said. “We’re making it easier than ever for consumers to access premium, vetted products with the convenience they expect today.”

Jake Bullock, CEO of the cannabis drink company Cann, which is part of Edible.com’s product offerings, called this market development “a defining moment for the hemp industry.”

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Under Trump CIA Escalates Role In Failed Mexican Drug War

Donald Trump has found a new mission for the CIA—ramping up secret drone flights over Mexico to track and hunt down leaders of Mexico’s drug cartels.

The New York Times reported in mid-February that the CIA’s covert drone program over Mexico, first initiated by the Biden administration, has proved useful in helping the Mexican government to locate fentanyl labs, which emit chemicals that make them easy to find from the air.

During the 2024 election, Trump called for the death penalty for drug dealers. Then on January 20, he signed an executive order calling for a major crackdown on Mexico’s cartels, which have been designated as a foreign terrorist organization—a label that sets the groundwork for potential U.S. military operations directed against them.[1]

On February 28, the Trump administration secured the extradition of 30 prominent Mexican cartel leaders, including Rafael Cara Quintero, a founding member of the Sinaloa drug cartel who was convicted in Mexico of masterminding the 1985 assassination of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.[2]

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