Racial Disparities Persist Among NYC Marijuana Possession Arrestees

New York City police are continuing to disproportionately arrest African Americans and Latinos for minor marijuana possession violations, despite ongoing pledges from Mayor Bill de Blasio to halt the practice.

In 2017, city police made an estimated 17,500 arrests for marijuana possession in the 5th degree — a class B misdemeanor. Consistent with past years, 86 percent percent of those arrested were either Black or Hispanic.

Since the de Blasio administration took office in 2014, city police have made over 75,000 misdemeanor marijuana possession arrests; 86 percent of arrestees were either Black or Latino.

Under state law, the possession of up to an ounce of cannabis is a non-arrestable offense, except instances where the police contend that the substance was either being burned or was in public view.

During his mayoral campaign, de Blasio said that the city’s elevated marijuana arrest totals “demonstrate clear racial bias” and promised to “direct the NYPD to stop these misguided prosecutions.”

Despite consuming cannabis at rates comparable to whites, recent analyses of marijuana arrest data from multiple states find that African Americans are consistently arrested for marijuana possession offenses at at least three times the rate of Caucasians.

Source: http://blog.norml.org/2018/02/28/racial-disparities-persist-among-nyc-marijuana-possession-arrestees/

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Racial Disparities Persist Among NYC Marijuana Possession Arrestees

New York City police are continuing to disproportionately arrest African Americans and Latinos for minor marijuana possession violations, despite ongoing pledges from Mayor Bill de Blasio to halt the practice.

In 2017, city police made an estimated 17,500 arrests for marijuana possession in the 5th degree — a class B misdemeanor. Consistent with past years, 86 percent percent of those arrested were either Black or Hispanic.

Since the de Blasio administration took office in 2014, city police have made over 75,000 misdemeanor marijuana possession arrests; 86 percent of arrestees were either Black or Latino.

Under state law, the possession of up to an ounce of cannabis is a non-arrestable offense, except instances where the police contend that the substance was either being burned or was in public view.

During his mayoral campaign, de Blasio said that the city’s elevated marijuana arrest totals “demonstrate clear racial bias” and promised to “direct the NYPD to stop these misguided prosecutions.”

Despite consuming cannabis at rates comparable to whites, recent analyses of marijuana arrest data from multiple states find that African Americans are consistently arrested for marijuana possession offenses at at least three times the rate of Caucasians.

Source: http://blog.norml.org/2018/02/28/racial-disparities-persist-among-nyc-marijuana-possession-arrestees/

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2018 States of States Report: Frequently Asked Questions

This week Americans for Safe Access released “Medical Marijuana Access in the United States: A Patient-Focused Analysis of the Patchwork of State Laws.” The report examines the status of states that have passed some form of medical marijuana laws and grades them on a 500 point scale based on how well their current law and regulations accommodate patient needs. The report reviews existing laws and regulations and laws passed in between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017, giving states letter grades from “A” to “F.”  Unlike previous versions of this report, states are urged to begin to use medical cannabis as a tool to fight the opioid crisis in the areas of improvement section.

Source: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/_2018_states_of_states_report_scores_and_frequently_asked_questions

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State of the States’ Medical Cannabis Programs

WASHINGTON, DC — February 28, 2018 — Today the medical cannabis advocacy organization, Americans for Safe Access, released its annual report entitled “Medical Marijuana Access in the United States: A Patient-Focused Analysis of the Patchwork of State Laws.” The report examines the status of states that have passed medical marijuana laws and grades them on a 500 point scale. Forty-six states and three territories have some form of medical cannabis program, meaning approximately 95% of the American population lives in a state with some form of medical cannabis law.

Source: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/state_of_the_states_medical_cannabis_programs

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Missouri: Medical Marijuana Initiative Effort Reaches Signature Milestone

Proponents of a Missouri voter initiative effort to legalize and regulate the therapeutic use and distribution of cannabis statewide have surpassed over 200,000 signatures. Advocates must collect a total of 160,000 qualified signatures in six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts by May 6, 2018 in order to qualify the measure for the 2018 electoral ballot.

The initiative permits patients, at the discretion of a physician, to cultivate limited quantities of marijuana or to obtain cannabis and cannabis-infused products from licensed facilities.

The group behind the effort, New Approach Missouri, includes members of both national NORML as well as its state and local affiliates.

For more information about this initiative campaign or to become involved, click here.

Proponents sought to place a similar effort on the 2016 ballot. That effort failed after the courts upheld the decision of St. Louis-area election authorities to reject some 2,000 signatures in the state’s second Congressional district.

Missouri is one of several states where voters this year are anticipated to decide on cannabis-related ballot measures. In November, members of Michigan NORML and other coalition members turned in 360,000 signatures in an effort to qualify the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act for the November ballot. (Just over 252,000 valid signatures from registered voters are necessary.) Also in November, grassroots activists in South Dakota turned in over 15,000 signatures in an effort to place the South Dakota Medical Marijuana Initiative on the ballot. (Over 13,800 valid signatures are necessary.) In Utah, advocates are well on their way to gathering the necessary quantity of signatures necessary to place The Utah Medical Cannabis Act on the 2018 ballot. In Oklahoma, voters will decide on June 26 whether or not to approve State Question 788 — a broad-based initiative that permits physicians to recommend medical cannabis to patients at their sole discretion. NORML endorsed State Question 788 in January.

Source: http://blog.norml.org/2018/02/27/missouri-medical-marijuana-initiative-effort-reaches-signature-milestone/

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Maine: Lawmakers Push To Rewrite 2016 Voter-Approved Marijuana Law

Gov LePage (R-Maine)

State lawmakers are moving forward with a legislative proposal to significantly amend various provisions of the state’s 2016 voter-approved cannabis law: The Marijuana Legalization Act.

Members of the Marijuana Legalization Implementation Committee have voted 16 to 1 in favor of overhauling the law, which has yet to be fully implemented. Lawmakers had initially voted last year to delay the enactment of provisions regulating the retail production and sale of cannabis. Then in November, Republican Gov. Paul LePage vetoed legislation that sought to license and regulate marijuana businesses and sales, stating: “Until I clearly understand how the federal government intends to treat states that seek to legalize marijuana, I cannot in good conscience support any scheme in state law to implement expansion of legal marijuana in Maine.” Lawmakers voted in favor of sustaining LePage’s veto.

Now lawmakers are pushing a plan to amend and repeal numerous provisions of the law, including provisions that have already taken effect. Specifically, language in the new proposal would limit the quantity of mature marijuana plants that an adult may legally grow in a private residence from six to three. Legislators are advocating for this change despite the fact that no regulated, commercial market yet exists for cannabis — leaving adults reliant exclusively upon home cultivation operations. Further, no data has been presented indicating that the state’s existing plant quotas are either being abused or that home-cultivated marijuana is being diverted into the criminal market. NORML opposes this proposed amendment.

“A majority of Maine voters decided in favor of legalizing and regulating the use of marijuana by adults,” NORML’s Political Director Justin Strekal said. “It is time for lawmakers to implement the will of the people, not undermine it.”

Other language in the new proposal would repeal language permitting for the operation of state-licensed social use facilities, and would eliminate provisions redirecting portions of marijuana-related tax revenue to localities that explicitly permit such operations. Separate language in the bill seeks to impose a new 21.5 percent excise tax on wholesale marijuana transactions. The bill also makes it easier for communities that wish to ban adult use operations to do so.

If you reside in Maine, you can use NORML’s ‘Take Action Center’ to contact your lawmakers here.

A finalized version of the bill is anticipated to go before lawmakers in the House and Senate in late March. Rep. Teresa Pierce, D-Falmouth, the Implementation Committee’s House chairman, said that the so-called “compromises” in the plan are necessary because of the close nature of the 2016 vote and because the Governor has remained steadfastly opposed to the issue. Yet, even despite the proposed amendments, House Minority Leader Ken Fredette predicts that LePage will likely veto this committee bill too.

In Massachusetts, where voters approved a similar 2016 initiative regulating the adult use and retail sale of cannabis, regulators this week also announced delays and changes to the voter-approved law. On Monday, following pressure from the Governor and other lawmakers, members of the Cannabis Control Commission voted for a limited rollout of retail marijuana sales in July — postponing licenses for home delivery services, marijuana lounges, and other distribution channels until early next year. Commercial marijuana production and sales were initially slated to begin on January 1, 2018, but lawmakers last year passed emergency legislation postponing the enactment of those regulatory provisions until this summer.

Source: http://blog.norml.org/2018/02/27/maine-lawmakers-push-to-rewrite-2016-voter-approved-marijuana-law/

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Review: Maria McFarland’s ‘There Are No Dead Here’

Drug Policy Alliance executive director Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, a veteran Latin America specialist with Human Rights Watch, tells a grim but also inspiring story in There Are No Dead Here: A Story of Murder and Denial in Colombia (Nation Books). It details the efforts of three courageous Colombians to bring to light official complicity in the reign of paramilitary terror in the country over the past generation.

These three won a measure of success, but at the cost of relentless death threats and assassination attempts. One paid the proverbial ultimate price. Their interlocking tales paint a picture of Colombian officials’ staggering cynicism, especially during the 2002-2010 presidency of Álvaro Uribe, whose administration was thoroughly integrated with the ostensibly illegal right-wing paramilitary networks, even as he denied everything and portrayed himself as a centrist democrat.

Author and DPA head Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno

The book opens with the figure who became a martyr in the quest for truth—Jesús Maria Valle, an attorney and human-rights defender in the city of Medellín, who was among the first to raise the alarm about the mounting paramilitary violence in the 1990s. Uribe was then governor of the department of Antioquia, where Medellín is located. Valle initially tried to alert him about the violence in rural communities, before determining that the governor’s own anti-guerilla militia force was cooperating with the paras. In 1998, armed men invaded Valle’s office and assassinated him.

Antioquia proved to be a testing ground for the strategy Uribe would apply nationally as president. Iván Velásquez, the prosecutor and jurist who doggedly investigated the Uribe government’s collaboration with paramilitary groups, picked up Valle’s torch. Uribe road-blocked Velásquez every step of the way, launching a media smear campaign against him, while paras operated in the shadows with threats and attacks on his team.

Velásquez was greatly aided by the work of Ricardo Calderón, an investigative journalist with Bogotá’s Semana newsweekly. Calderón eventually concluded that Uribe’s intelligence agency, the Department of Administrative Security (DAS) was working closely with the paras, spying on judges, journalists and opposition politicians, and feeding the information back to the illegal and ultra-murderous right-wing militias. This became a major scandal in Colombia, and in a measure of justice, DAS was disbanded in 2011.

With Uribe out of office and the paramilitaries officially disarmed under a political deal with their leadership, some of the para leaders—now extradited to the United States and doing time on cocaine charges—started to sing. The big boss of the network, Salvatore Mancuso, came clean from his U.S. federal prison cell on Uribe’s effective collaboration with the paras during his time in power.

EXCERPT: “Starting in the late 1990s, the paramilitaries carried out a bloody expansion campaign throughout much of Colombia. Fueled by an endless stream of drug profits, they committed gruesome massacres in the name of defending the country from the brutal Marxist guerillas of FARC… Nobody, it seemed, was trying to stop them.”

But Uribe, maddeningly, is free today and continues to lead Colombia’s right-wing opposition. In 2016, when new President Juan Manuel Santos negotiated a peace deal with the left-wing guerillas of the FARC, Uribe campaigned bitterly against it. The book ends on a tentative note of hope, as the peace deal with the FARC goes ahead despite the best efforts of Uribe to sabotage it.

The story McFarland tells is an important one, but with the relentless accounts of assassinations and atrocities, it’s easy to lose the narrative thread. More serious is her cursory portrayal of what the fighting was all about, particularly the role of Colombia’s narco-economy. She writes that the government’s war on the cocaine cartels was a “parallel” conflict to that of the civil war that pitted the FARC against the security forces and their paramilitary allies. But after the cartels were crushed, the “drug war” and the civil war were really the same war. The demise of Medellín kingpin Pablo Escobar and his Cali-cartel competition in the ’90s set the stage for the paras and the guerillas to enter into a direct struggle with each other for control of the cocaine economy. It’s the key to real political power in Colombia, and McFarland little mention of this.

Finally, there’s little mention of “Plan Colombia,” the massive U.S. military aid package that backed Uribe’s armed forces through the bloodiest years of the conflict when state collaboration with the paramilitaries was at its peak. The story of Washington’s complicity in Colombia’s state terror is one that still needs to be told. 

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Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Challenging Marijuana’s Schedule I Prohibited Status

A federal district court judge in Manhattan today granted the government’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit that sought to challenge the constitutionality of cannabis’ prohibited status under federal law.

The 98-page complaint, filed in July 2017 by a legal team that includes New York attorney Michael Hiller, NORML Legal Committee member Joseph Bondy and Empire State NORML Director David Holland, contended that the federal government “does not believe, and upon information and belief never has believed” that cannabis meets the requirements for a Schedule I designation under the Controlled Substances Act. It further argued that current administrative mechanisms in place to allow for the reconsideration of cannabis Schedule I classification are “illusory.” Lawyers for the Justice Department argued for a dismissal of the suit, arguing: “There is no fundamental right to use marijuana, for medical purposes or otherwise.”

Presiding Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein sided with the federal government, opining in a 20-page ruling: “No such fundamental right (to possess or use cannabis) exists. Every court to consider the specific, carefully framed right at issue here has held that there is no substantive due process right to use medical marijuana.” The judge further ruled that plaintiffs had not yet exhausted all of the potential administrative remedies available to them — such as filing an administrative petition to reschedule cannabis with the US Drug Enforcement Administration — and therefore, it was inappropriate for the court to intervene. “There can be no complaint of constitutional error when such a process is designed to provide a safety valve of this kind,” he opined. “Judicial economy is not served through a collateral proceeding of this kind that seeks to undercut the regulatory machinery on the Executive Branch and the process of judicial review in the Court of Appeals.”

Judge Hellerstein also rejected plaintiffs’ claim that the federal law is unconstitutional because “it was passed with racial animus.” He held that plaintiffs lacked the standing to argue such a claim because they “have failed to demonstrate that a favorable decision is likely to redress plaintiffs’ alleged injuries,” such as a dismissal of their past criminal convictions.

With regard to the question of whether the plaintiffs legitimately benefited from cannabis as a medicinal agent, the judge argued that the merits of this claim was beyond the scope of the court. “Plaintiffs’ amended complaint, which I must accept as true for the purpose of this motion, claims that the use of medical marijuana has, quite literally, saved their lives,” he wrote. “I highlight plaintiffs’ experience to emphasize that this decision should not be understood as a factual finding that marijuana lacks any medical use in the United States, for the authority to make that determination is vested in the administrative process.” He added, “Even if marijuana has current medical uses, I cannot say that Congress acted irrationally in placing marijuana in Schedule I.”

Legal counsel for the plaintiffs have yet to publicly announce whether or not they intend to appeal Judge Hellerstein’s ruling.

A judge for the Federal District Court in Sacramento considered similar arguments in a 2014 legal challenge, also spearheaded by members of the NORML Legal Committee, but ultimately rejected them — ruling that plaintiffs failed to show that Congress acted irrationally when classifying cannabis as a schedule I controlled substance. “At some point in time, a court may decide this status to be unconstitutional,” the judge determined. “But this is not the court and not the time.”

Text of Judge Hellerstein’s decision in Washington et al. v. Sessions et al is online here.

Source: http://blog.norml.org/2018/02/26/federal-judge-dismisses-lawsuit-challenging-marijuanas-schedule-i-prohibited-status/

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Americans for Safe Access Announces Partnership with Releaf App Aimed at Creating a New Class of Patient-Focused Dispensaries

Washington, D.C. - February 21, 2018 -- Today, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a non-profit organization promoting safe and legal access to medical cannabis since  2002, and Releaf App, an experience tracking tool for cannabis patients, officially announced their partnership to empower medical cannabis patients and establish a new class of like-minded U.S. medical cannabis dispensaries.

Source: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/releaf_app_press

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Netanyahu Shuts Down Israel’s Cannabis Export Plan

Israel has halted its plan to export medical cannabis. Following a call from U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu ordered it to be frozen.

“I spoke with Trump and he told me about his general opposition to the legalization of cannabis,” Netanyahu explained on Feb. 8. “I’m not sure Israel should be the export pioneer.”

Israel’s Health and Finance ministries endorsed the export plan in 2017, with the goal of attaining revenues of more than $1 billion a year. The marijuana would be sold to European countries such as Germany, Canada, and perhaps the U.S. Canada is currently the only country in the world that has so far approved medical-marijuana exports.

RELATED: Israel, the Land of Medical Marijuana

Knesset member Tamar Zandberg, who chairs the committee on drug abuse, called Netanyahu’s decision “a destructive one stemming from ignorance and fear.”

She added: “Israel merited being an agricultural power, and, yes, in the marijuana field, too. It’s good for the economy, it’s good for agriculture and it’s good for the sick. We will live to regret the decision to stop such important progress that Israel has already started making, which will erase the competitive advantage that Israel has developed in the marijuana market that is breaking ground now worldwide.”

Before the freeze on cannabis exports was announced, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked tweeted: “Israel can become an exporter of medical cannabis with an income worth four billion shekels [$1.14 billion] a year. We must not miss the train. Today, we are the locomotive; if we hesitate, we will become the trailers.”

Packaged cannabis available from Breath of Life Pharma in Israel (photo by Jack Guez/AFP)

Israel is world-renowned for its cannabis research. THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, was discovered in the early ’60s by chemist Raphael Mechoulam, now 87, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Other Israeli scientists have gone on to make groundbreaking discoveries about the cannabis plant and its potential as a medicine.

RELATED: Israel’s Tikun Olam Making Moves in the U.S. and Canada

Consumption, sale, research and cultivation of medical marijuana in Israel are completely legal and supported by the government and academia. In a country that’s slightly smaller than New Jersey in both area and population, there are an estimated 50 companies that either cultivate medical cannabis or are developing delivery systems for it.

Despite the decision by Netanyahu, Shaked is confident that she and others will be able to change his mind. “I’m sure that when we sit with the prime minister and we lay out for him all the details,” she commented, “the correct decision will be taken.”

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Pro-Pot Congressman Received Campaign Donations from Manafort

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) may be a friend to marijuana legalization, but that’s where his liberal leanings stop. The Congressman is a major backer of Donald Trump and has been implicated in Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Though his name has not been mentioned so far in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the election, it’s now known that Rohrabacher attended a 2013 meeting with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who’s been indicted by the special counsel.

Rohrabacher, Manafort and former Rep. Vin Weber, a Minnesota Republican who’s now a lobbyist with Mercury, were at the meeting on Mar. 19, 2013, which was disclosed in retroactive filings with the Justice Department last year that detailed Manafort and Rick Gates’ work for the European Center for a Modern Ukraine. Gates, a former Trump campaign aide, pled guilty on Feb. 23 to felony charges of conspiracy and making false statements in a plea bargain with Mueller.

Gates lied about the 2013 meeting and his Ukraine-related work with Manafort. He’s charged with “admitting to take part in a conspiracy to hide tens of millions of dollars that he and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort obtained from their consulting work related to Ukraine.” Gates later helped Manafort prepare “a report that memorialized for Ukrainian leadership the pertinent Ukraine discussions that Manafort represented had taken place at the meeting.”

Rohrabacher said the meeting had taken place at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington. “In retrospect, I don’t remember [Manafort] talking about specifically who it was who had given him a contact,” he said. “Frankly, I don’t remember if it was the Russians or the Ukraines… He certainly wasn’t trying to twist my arm on any policy issue.”

Described as “one of Russia’s most reliable defenders in Congress,” Rohrabacher told Politico on June 28, 2017 that Manafort was “an old friend” of his. “After the dinner I think he gave me a very modest campaign contribution,” the Congressman recalled. Manafort subsequently donated $1,000 to Rohrabacher’s 2014 re-election campaign, according to campaign finance records. Rohrabacher said they talked about Manafort’s work in Ukraine, “but it wasn’t the main focus of the dinner.”

Record of Paul Manafort’s $1,000 donation to Rep. Dan Rohrabacher’s re-election in 2013.

While the 2013 contribution has been reported, a second one in the same amount from Manafort to the Committee to ReElect Dana Rohrabacher in 1997 has not. According to campaign finance records researched by Freedom Leaf, “Paul J. Manafort Jr. of Alexandria, Va.” gave $1,000 to the similarly named Committee to Re-Elect Congressman Rohrabacher on July 28, 1997. Manafort was listed as a partner at Davis, Manafort & Freedman.

Record of Paul Manafort’s $1,000 donation to Rep. Dan Rohrabacher’s re-election in 1997.

That makes a total of two contributions of $1,000 each from Manafort to Rohrabacher between 1997 and 2013.

Rohrabacher’s Meetings with Michael Flynn and Julian Assange

On Sept. 20, 2016, Rohrabacher met with another now disgraced Trump associate, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who’s been indicted by the special counsel. “All I remember about that meeting is that they were promoting some kind of idea about having Gulf State countries invest in building nuclear power plants of some kind, I think,” Rohrabacher stated.

According to The Daily Caller, “The special counsel is also reviewing emails traded between Flynn associates and the Congressman’s staff.”

On Aug. 16, 2017, Rohrabacher met Julian Assange (along with conservative journalist Charles C. Johnson) at the Ecuadorean embassy in London for three hours. Assange released the hacked Democratic Party emails via WikiLeaks, which bolstered Trump’s campaign against Hillary Clinton. Assange was granted asylum by Ecuador in 2012. Sweden had hoped to extradite him over rape and sexual assault allegations dating back to 2010.

Rohrabacher believes Assange is a hero and should be released. “If he is going to give us a big favor, he would obviously have to be pardoned to leave the Ecuadorean embassy,” the Congressman told TheDC the next day. “He has information that will be of dramatic importance to the United States and the people of our country as well as the government. Thus, if he comes up with that, you know he’s going to expect something in return. He can’t even leave the embassy to get out to Washington to talk to anybody if he doesn’t have a pardon. Obviously, there’s an issue that needs to be dealt with, but we haven’t come to any conclusion yet.

“I can’t remember if I have spoken to anyone in the White House about this. If I had to bet on it, I would bet that we are going to get the information that will be mind-boggling and of major historical significance. And there already has been some indications that the president will be very anxious to hear what I have to say if that’s the determination that I make.”

Rohrabacher added: “They can’t fool the American people all the time, especially if there’s some monstrous fraud that’s been perpetuated on the American people and thus undermining an elected president and his ability to take responsibility given to him by the voters.”

Assange denies the contention by U.S. intelligence agencies that he acted on behalf of Russian operatives seeking to release the hacked Democratic emails.

President Reagan faking a punch to Dana Rohrabacher aboard Air Force One during a trip to California on Nov. 26, 1986.

The Conservative Marijuana Advocate

Rohrabacher was born on June 21, 1947 in Coronado, Calif. After campaigning for Ronald Reagan in 1980, he worked as a White House speechwriter and special assistant to Reagan from 1981-1988. He was elected to Congress in 1989. He chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

In marijuana circles, Rohrabacher is known for his sponsorship of the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which prohibits the federal government from using funds to target cannabis patients and business in legal medical-marijuana states. It passed in 2014. (The amendment is now named for Rohrabacher and Rep. Earl Blumenauer.) Last year, he, Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Don Young (R-Alaska) formed the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.

 In 2016, Rohrabacher said that he used cannabis to treat arthritis. After applying a topical product to the area, he explained, it was “the first time in a year and a half that I had a decent night’s sleep because the arthritis pains was gone.”

He’s spoken at a number of marijuana events, including Seattle Hempfest and the International Cannabis Business Conference.

RELATED: Rep. Rohrabacher Defends AG Sessions

But when it comes to most issues, Rohrabacher follows the Republican party line. He calls concerns about global warming and climate change “liberal claptrap,” voted to repeal Obamacare and opposes same-sex marriage. “The attacks on my conservative positions are unrelenting, nefarious and underhanded,” he said.

Rohrabacher is being challenged for his House seat in November. One of his Democratic opponents, Hans Keirstead, says about the incumbent: “We’ve got a Russian-tainted congressman. Why should the constituents of the 48th district vote for an individual whose interests are elsewhere?”

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said about Rohrabacher in 2017, ‘“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump. Swear to God.” Expect Rohrabacher to continue to play a tangential role in Mueller’s investigation.

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Weekly Legislative Roundup 2/23/18

Welcome to this week’s edition of NORML’s Weekly Legislative Roundup!

First, I want to bring your attention to some of the state level lobbying efforts progressing around the country.

Activists gathered in Denver, CO on Wednesday to try and change the conversation on employee drug testing and partner with local business. Several Denver board members and activists attended, building relationships and trust with legislators and other interest groups and lobbyists. Additionally, NORML of Florida chapters, along with Sensible Florida, Inc (the organization behind the constitutional initiative “To Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol”) supporters met in Tallahassee on Tuesday to host press conferences and lobby state lawmakers in support of marijuana law reforms.

Also at the state level, the New Mexico legislature has adjourned for this year, effectively killing a bill to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana, a decriminalization bill, and one to allow doctors to recommend cannabis in place of opioids. Three Arizona bills are also dead for this year, including one that would have put legalization on the ballot, a decriminalization bill, and one to obtain sanctuary state status for marijuana operators.

At a more local level, officials in various parts of the country are speaking out against the Trump administration’s crackdown on marijuana. The District Attorney for Alameda County in California has announced her intent to automatically vacate thousands of past marijuana convictions. And newly elected Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner also announced that his office will no longer prosecute marijuana possession offense violations. City officials in San Francisco recently announced plans to automatically expunge thousands of past marijuana possession convictions and Seattle officials have also announced a similar plan to dismiss past convictions.

Following are the bills from around the country that we’ve tracked this week and as always, check http://norml.org/act for legislation pending in your state.

Don’t forget to sign up for our email list and we will keep you posted as these bills and more move through your home state legislature and at the federal level.

Your highness,
Carly

Priority Alerts

Federal

End Prohibition: Representatives Tom Garrett (R-VA) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) have introduced bipartisan legislation, HR 1227, to exclude marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, thus leaving states the authority to regulate the plant how best they see fit.

The “Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2017” eliminates federal criminal penalties for possessing and growing the plant. This legislation gives states the power and flexibility to establish their own marijuana policies free from federal interference.

Click here to e-mail your Representative and urge them to support this important legislation

Maryland

Introduced by state Senator Will Smith, SB 1039 would put an amendment to the Maryland Constitution on the ballot to be decided by voters to ensure that citizens have the right to possess, smoke, and cultivate marijuana. Delegate David Moon is sponsoring the House companion, HB 1264.

Update: SB 1039 was debated on the Senate floor on Tuesday, and HB 1264 is scheduled to be heard by the House Judiciary Committee on 3/13 at 1pm.

MD resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of leaving it up to the voters

Alabama

Senate Bill 251 and House Bill 272 reduce penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana from a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $6,000 fine, to a non-criminal violation, punishable by a fine of no more than $250 — no arrest and no criminal record. However, provisions in the bills also reclassify offenses involving quantities of marijuana above one ounce as felonies.

Update: Both bills were heard by the Judiciary Committees in their respective chambers on 2/21. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved SB 251 by a 6 to 4 vote, however, the House committee rejected HB 272 by a 7 to 5 vote. HB 272 is now dead for this session.

AL resident? Click here to email your elected officials and urge them to amend SB 251 in a manner that benefits all marijuana possession offenders

West Virginia

Legislation is pending, House Bill 3035, to regulate the adult use and retail sale of marijuana. Senate Bill 593 is also pending and would allow adults over 21 years of age to possess up to four ounces of marijuana at home and two ounces in public. They could also grow four mature cannabis plants and four seedlings.

Update: New, similar legislation was introduced, HB 4491 to also regulate the adult use and retail sale of marijuana.

WV resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of legalization, taxation, and regulation

Tennessee

Earlier this year, Senator Sara Kyle (D) and Representative Larry Miller introduced legislation SB 2320 and HB 2391, seeking to place a ballot initiative before voters to let them decide on the legalization of medical marijuana.

Update: SB 2320 was put on the final calendar for The Senate State & Local Government Committee, the date is TBD. HB 2391 was placed on the House Local Government subcommittee calendar for 2/21, but then deferred to a later date, TBD.

TN resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of a medical marijuana ballot initiative

Missouri

New legislation is pending, HJR 86, to put the issue of depenalizing the adult use of marijuana before voters this November.

If enacted by lawmakers, voters would decide upon the following question: “That the possession or consumption of marijuana by a person twenty-one years of age or older shall not be a criminal offense in this state.”

MO resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of a depenalization ballot question

Virginia

SB 726 and HB 1251 are pending, seeking to expand the state’s limited medical CBD law. They both crossed over to the other chamber earlier this month.

Update: HB 1251 was approved by the Senate 40 to zero on 2/19 and is now being transmitted to Governor Northam, who has indicated that he plans on signing the bill. Also, HB 1251 succeeded unanimously in an Adoption Emergency Vote, meaning it will go into effect immediately upon Gov. Northam’s signature.

VA resident? Click here to email your Governor and tell him to sign HB 1251 into law

New York

A.8904 is pending, to permit practitioners’ discretion to recommend medical marijuana, without being limited by the existing list of qualifying conditions.

Update: A Senate companion bill was introduced late last week, S.7755.

NY resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of removing the list of qualifying conditions

Alaska

Legislation is pending, SB 6, to establish an agricultural pilot program to permit the cultivation, production, and sale of industrial hemp by registered providers.

Update: SB 6 was approved by both the House and Senate and now awaits action from Governor Walker.

AK resident? Click here to email your Governor and urge him to sign this bill into law

Kansas

Legislation is pending, SB 263, to establish a state-licensed industrial hemp research program.

Update: SB 263 was approved by the Senate by a 36-3 vote on 2/22, and it now awaits action from the House.

KS resident? Click here to email your representatives in support of hemp research

 

Additional Actions to Take

Arizona

Senate Bill 1420 seeks to enhance quality testing practices for medical marijuana products.

If passed, the bill would improve product testing procedures and requirements. It would also lower the costs of medical marijuana registration cards from $150 to $50 for an initial application, and to $25 for subsequent annual renewals.

Update: SB 1420 was approved by the Senate by a 27-3 vote on 2/22, and is now being transmitted to the House, where a vote is expected in the upcoming weeks.

AZ resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of better testing practices

Indiana

CBD
Legislation is pending, Senate Bill 52, to legalize the possession, use, manufacture, and retail sale of cannabidiol products.

The law defines products containing CBD and no more than 0.3 percent THC as legal to possess and sell. Indiana citizens would no longer need to be a part of a patient registry or to be diagnosed with a qualifying condition in order to legally possess or purchase CBD products. It also provides protections so that employers may not discriminate against anyone using CBD in compliance with the law.

Separate legislation further clarifying the legal status of CBD products in the state of Indiana for specific patients, House Bill 1214, is also pending. Both bills have already crossed over to the other chamber.

Update: SB 52 was heard by the House Courts and Criminal Code Committee on 2/21 and was then approved by a vote of 9 to zero. HB 1214 will be heard by the Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee at 11am on 2/27 in Room 130.

Hemp
Legislation is pending, House Bill 1137 to authorize the Indiana State Department of Agriculture to establish an agricultural pilot program to study the growth, cultivation, and marketing of industrial hemp and industrial hemp products. It was already approved by the House unanimously last month.

Update: HB 1137 was approved by the Senate Committee on Commerce on 2/19.

IN resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of greater CBD access, and click here to email them in support of hemp research.

New Hampshire

Legislation is pending, HB 1477, to permit those convicted of past marijuana convictions to seek expungement.

If passed, HB 1477 would allow individuals to file a petition with the court requesting that the court annul any past marijuana violations involving the possession of up to ¾ of an ounce of marijuana.

Update: HB 1477 was considered on the House floor on 2/22, and was then approved by the House by a 314-24 vote, and will now be transmitted to the Senate.

NH resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of expunging past records

Illinois

Legislation is pending, SB 336, to permit physicians to recommend cannabis therapy as an alternative to opioid treatment.

Update: SB 336 is scheduled to be considered by the full Senate on 2/27.

IL resident? Click here to email your senators in support of this effort

Missouri

Legislation is pending, SB 547 and HB 2034, seeking to modify provisions relating to industrial hemp. SB 547 was approved by the Senate Agriculture, Food Production and Outdoor Resources Committee last month.

If passed, the bills would allow the Department of Agriculture to issue a registration or permit to growers and handlers of agricultural and industrial hemp. It would also create an industrial hemp agricultural pilot program to be implemented by the Department of Agriculture to study the growth, cultivation, and marketing of industrial hemp.

Update: HB 2034 was initially approved by the House on 2/20.

MO resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of modifying industrial hemp provisions

Tennessee

State Representative Jeremy Faison (R) and State Senator Steve Dickerson (R) have introduced legislation, SB 1710 and HB 1749 to establish a limited medical marijuana access program.

The measures permit qualified patients to possess marijuana-infused oil products, as well as other non-herbal forms of cannabis, from state-licensed dispensaries. Both patients and physicians would be required to participate in a state registry.

Update: Both SB 1710 and HB 1749 were placed on the Criminal Justice Subcommittee calendar in their respective chambers for 2/27.

TN resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of medical marijuana extract access

Michigan

Republican State Representative Peter Lucido introduced House Bill 4606, seeking to amend the Michigan Penal Code by removing the crime of registered medical patients traveling with marijuana. HB 4606 was already approved by the House last year.

If passed, the bill would repeal a 2012 law that makes it illegal to transport or possess marijuana unless it’s in a container secured in the trunk of a vehicle. If the vehicle does not have a trunk, the marijuana has to be in a case that is not readily accessible from the interior of the vehicle. Violators face up to 93 days in jail and a fine of up to $500.

Update: HB 4606 was approved by a Senate committee on 2/22.

MI resident? Click here to email your senators in support of removing travel restrictions for patients

Check back next Friday for more legislative updates!

Source: http://blog.norml.org/2018/02/23/weekly-legislative-roundup-2-23-18/

Weekly Legislative Roundup 2/23/18 was first seen on https://gigglesndimples.com

source https://gigglesndimples.com/2018/02/23/weekly-legislative-roundup-2-23-18/

The Other Sessions Rants About Pot at Opioid Summit

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) took a page out of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ handbook when he made derisive comments about marijuana at an opioid summit at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas on Feb. 20. He focused on extreme cannabis potency and the debunked gateway theory, two common targets of drug warriors.

“I refer to marijuana as merchants, this is a merchants of addiction. They are making it more powerful and more powerful and more powerful,” Sessions stressed. “I graduated high school in 1973. Marijuana, on average, is 300 times more powerful [than it was then]. That becomes an addictive element for a child to then go to the next thing.”

He related a story about “a dear friend of mine, David Siegel, a wealthy man, one of the wealthiest men in America. He had an 18-year-old daughter who was in treatment, I believe for marijuana and maybe cocaine. She met a boy there and within three weeks after being out she was dead. She came back and did what she had been doing after being off it.”

Victoria Siegel died in 2015 from an overdose of methadone and sertraline; she reportedly used the drugs to control her seizures.

RELATED: Fentanyl Maker Hit with Major Indictments

In another personal account, Sessions mentioned a Boy Scout who went to Texas A&M, where he became a drug user. Of course, it started with marijuana. “At the end of the first year, he was well into it,” the Congressman spun his yarn. “By the second year, he was into heroin. The drive for addictions with some of our children is insatiable. You just never know when you’re looking at a kid what drives them.”

Sessions, who chairs the House Rules Committee, was the only speaker at the event to claim marijuana use leads to opioid addiction. “Where do they start?” he asked at one point. “If it’s marijuana, we ought to stand up and be brave in the medical community to say this political direction is not right. If addiction is the problem and we have marketers of addiction that include marijuana—because all you have to do is go to any of the stores in Colorado and they can give you high to low to medium to chocolate—we ought to call for it what it is. If it were nicotine, it would have been handled differently. But this is a political issue.”

Exactly. Rep. Sessions, whose district is an oddly shaped chunk of north Dallas and its northeastern suburbs, is up for re-election in 2018. NORML has given him an F grade for voting against the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, among other things. Hopefully, groups like Dallas Fort Worth NORML will lead the charge to unseat Texas’ Reefer Madness spouting representative.

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The post The Other Sessions Rants About Pot at Opioid Summit appeared first on Freedom Leaf.

Source: https://www.freedomleaf.com/pete-sessions-marijuana/

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Meta-Analysis: Studies Refute Claims That Medical Cannabis Access Encourages Teen Use

The enactment of statewide laws regulating the use and distribution of cannabis for medical purposes is not associated with increased marijuana use among young people, according to a review of relevant studies published online ahead of print in the journal Addiction.

Investigators from Columbia University, the RAND Corporation, the University of California at Davis, and the Boston School of Public Health reviewed 11 studies developed from four ongoing national surveys. The studies were published between the years 1991 and 2014. None of the studies identified any significant changes in youth use patterns that could be attributable to changes in marijuana’s legal status.

Authors concluded: “[A]ll estimates of pre–post changes in past-month marijuana use within MML (medical marijuana law) states from these studies were non-significant. … In summary, current evidence does not support the hypothesis that MML passage is associated with increased marijuana use prevalence among adolescents in states that have passed such laws.”

One of the study’s senior authors, Dr. Deborah Hasin, further stated in an accompanying press release, “For now, there appears to be no basis for the argument that legalizing medical marijuana has increased teens’ use of the drug.”

The findings are consistent with those of numerous prior studies, including a federally funded 2015 study published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry that assessed marijuana use patterns of over one-million adolescents in 48 states. That paper concluded, [C]oncerns that increased marijuana use is an unintended effect of state marijuana laws seem unfounded.”

Separate studies report that teens’ use of marijuana and access to cannabis have declined significantly over the better part of the past two decades – during the same time that the majority of states enacted medical marijuana access programs. Data from states that regulate the adult use and sale of cannabis similarly fail to report any associated uptick in either youth use or marijuana access.

Text of the study, “Medical marijuana laws and adolescent marijuana use in the United States: A systematic review and meta-analysis,” is not yet available online.

Source: http://blog.norml.org/2018/02/22/meta-analysis-studies-refute-claims-that-medical-cannabis-access-encourages-teen-use/

The following post Meta-Analysis: Studies Refute Claims That Medical Cannabis Access Encourages Teen Use was first published to The Giggles N Dimples Blog

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Exclusive Book Excerpt: ‘A Brief History of Edibles’

Our ancient ancestors had a far more intimate relationship with food as medicine than most of us do today. Many plants familiar to us—basil, cinnamon, cumin, fennel, mint, oregano, thyme, and cannabis—were intertwined in both kitchen and apothecary throughout history.

Our earliest written references to cannabis appear around the 15th century BCE in China, where it was consumed as a tea. However, scholars agree that surviving ancient medical texts speak of cannabis use in the past tense, giving the impression that it had been a common medical staple long before written texts confirmed the fact.

By 1000 BCE, cannabis (or bhang) was being cultivated in India, where the Vedas, collections of Hindu religious texts, considered it one of five sacred plants. Bhang is also the name of what is arguably the world’s oldest marijuana recipe, an ancient cannabis-laced drink that remains popular in India today.

During the Middle Ages, soldiers customarily consumed bhang for fortification before going into battle. Even though cannabis is technically illegal in India today, bhang is still sold, especially during the Hindu Holi festival. It’s such an essential, traditional part of the celebration that the government has found it easier to turn a blind eye than fight it.

Around 1474, the Italian writer and gastronomist Bartolomeo Platina put the first cannabis recipe into print, in what is considered the world’s oldest known cookbook. Platina advised his readers on making cannabis-infused oil, not unlike what we do today.

Moroccan ancients consumed their cannabis in the form of hashish, as referred to in the original One Thousand and One Nights collection of folk tales (also known as The Arabian Nights). An ancient Middle Eastern marijuana recipe still popular today is majoun. This uncooked jam features dates, nuts, honey, spices and hashish rolled into bite-sized balls—and provides a healthier sweet than most of today’s infused edibles.

RELATED: Five Marijuana Munchies from Brownies to Potcorn

In the 1840s, France’s intellectual, literary and artistic elite gathered in Paris’ Club des Hachischins (Club of the Hashish-Eaters) to consume hash in their coffees and teas and via candy and infused tinctures.

Before cannabis was prohibited in the U.S. in 1937, many American medicine cabinets contained it, usually in the form of tinctures, but edible candies and other foods had been common in the late 19th century. An 1862 issue of Vanity Fair carried an ad touting the Gunjah Wallah Company’s “Hasheesh Candy” as a “medicinal agent for the cure of nervousness, weakness, [and] melancholy.”

Alice B. Toklas, life partner of author Gertrude Stein, ushered in the era of modern edibles while simultaneously resurrecting majoun’s popularity for modern generations when she published her recipe for Haschisch Fudge in The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook (1954). Toklas’ recipe uses ground bud and contains no hash. It resembles neither fudge nor brownies, despite it entering the popular lexicon as “Alice B. Toklas Brownies,” thanks to the 1968 Peter Sellers film I Love You, Alice B. Toklas. In the movie, Sellers’ uptight attorney character consumes a pot brownie that forever alters his world. The movie permanently changed the public’s perception of marijuana edibles, and from that point on the “pot brownie” became embedded in the mainstream consciousness as the most popular way to consume edible cannabis.

EDIBLE CANNABIS TIMELINE

15^th Century BCE: The Chinese consume cannabis tea.

Circa 2000 to 1400 BCE: The India Vedas consider cannabis, or bhang, one of the sacred plants.

Circa 1474 CE: The world’s first cookbook, by Bartolomeo Platina, is released and includes a marijuana recipe.

16^th Century CE: Cannabis is cultivated throughout Morocco.

1839: Researcher William O’Shaughnessy brings quantities of hemp and cannabis from India to Britain, a

Excerpted from “The Easy Cannabis Cookbook” © 2018 by Cheri Sicard. Reprinted by permission of Rockridge Press, Emeryville, Calif. All rights reserved.

nd introduces modern medical cannabis to the Western world.

Circa 1845: France’s intellectual elite indulges in hash eating.

1880-1900: Cannabis edibles and tinctures are common in the United States,

1937: Federal marijuana prohibition begins in the United States.

1954: The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook is published, including a recipe for Haschisch Fudge.

Circa 1990: Mary Jane Rathbun, a.k.a. “Brownie Mary,” illegally bakes and serves brownies to San Francisco AIDS patients.

1996: California becomes the first state to legalize medical marijuana, ushering the era of store-bought, commercially made edibles.

2014: Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational marijuana, imposes a limit of 10 milligrams of THC per serving for edibles.

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The post Exclusive Book Excerpt: ‘A Brief History of Edibles’ appeared first on Freedom Leaf.

Source: https://www.freedomleaf.com/edibles-history/

Exclusive Book Excerpt: ‘A Brief History of Edibles’ was originally seen on https://gigglesndimples.com/

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