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A Colorado Supreme Court ruling on the use of dogs in drug searches appears to be a big win for privacy rights. But some are warning that it invites federal action that could threaten cannabis legalization in the Centennial State.

The May 20 ruling found that using police dogs trained to sniff out cannabis itself constitutes a search — and therefore, a dog’s “alert” cannot be used as probable cause for a more extensive search. In fact, the ruling held, the very use of the dog requires probable cause.

“The dog’s sniff arguably intrudes on a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy in lawful activity,” Supreme Court Justice William Hood wrote for the majority in the 4-3 decision. “If so, that intrusion must be justified by some degree of particularized suspicion of criminal activity.”

Privacy Implications of Legal Cannabis

The case stems from a 2015 arrest in Moffat County, in the state’s northwest corner, as the Denver Post relates. A police officer in the town of Craig stopped a truck that was deemed to be suspicious and called in a K-9 unit from the county sheriff’s department for a sniff test. The dog, amusingly named Kilo, alerted for drugs in the truck. Deputies searched the vehicle and uncovered a meth pipe with some residue. The driver, Kevin McKnight, was taken into custody, and later convicted of two drug-possession charges. 

But here’s the catch. Kilo was trained to alert to cannabis as well as methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and so on. So, McKnight’s lawyers appealed, arguing that the deputies’ search was illegal because Kilo could have been alerting to a legal quantity of cannabis. The deputies therefore didn’t have enough evidence to justify a search the truck.

The Colorado Supreme Court agreed, overturning McKnight’s convictions.

“Because there was no way to know whether Kilo was alerting to lawful marijuana or unlawful contraband, Kilo’s sniff violated McKnight’s reasonable expectation of privacy,” the majority opinion stated.

Does the Ruling (Paradoxically) Threaten Colorado Legalization?

But did the court overstep, inviting a federal backlash that could actually threaten Colorado’s cannabis legalization? That’s what the Colorado Sun argues, in an article with the following ominous headline: “Did the Colorado Supreme Court just throw the state’s marijuana-legalization regime into question? The chief justice seems to think so.”

Chief Justice Nathan Coats, in his strongly worded dissent, warned that the ruling had basically thrown down the gauntlet to the feds. “I object specifically to its radical reconstruction, in the wake of our recent marijuana initiative, of the state’s own constitutional Bill of Rights,” he wrote.

The majority in People v. McKnight cited Amendment 64 — the constitutional change approved by the voters to legalize cannabis in 2012 — as extending the privacy protections in the state’s Bill of Rights. But because the substance that was actually found was methamphetamine, Coats argued, the ruling effectively extended privacy protections to that too. It means that “an individual is held to have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the commission of [a] federal crime.” And this invites the federal response that U.S. law “preempts” state law.

“I am particularly concerned that in going to such lengths to craft a rationale for imposing limitations on the use of drug detection dogs, the majority unwittingly exposes not only the marijuana initiative itself but even the state’s constitutional Bill of Rights to a much greater risk of federal preemption than would previously have been the case,” Coats stated.

And while the case did not concern federal law, which could provide a safeguard against the federal courts taking it up, Coats isn’t so sure. “While resting a decision solely on state grounds may generally be an effective technique for insulating state courts from further federal review, that is clearly not the case with regard to the supremacy of federal law,” he wrote.

Favorable precedent from SCOTUS

How realistic a fear is this? While under the current reactionary and erratic administration nothing can be ruled out, the correct answer is probably… Not very.

The U.S. Supreme Court actually issued its own favorable ruling on the use of drug dogs in 2015. In the 6-3 ruling that April, the country’s highest court found that the Constitution forbids police from holding a suspect without probable cause — even for the few extra minutes it takes for a drug dog to arrive. 

Writing for the majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated: “We hold that a police stop exceeding the time needed to handle the matter for which the stop was made violates the Constitution’s shield against unreasonable seizures.”

The case, Rodriguez v. United States, concerned by a man who was pulled over for driving on the shoulder of a Nebraska highway. After the officer issued a warning for bad driving, he asked whether he could walk a drug dog around the vehicle. Motorist Dennys Rodriguez refused. The officer nonetheless detained him for “seven or eight minutes” until a backup unit arrived with the dog — who promptly alerted for drugs. Rodriguez was arrested for methamphetamine possession. The Supreme Court overturned his conviction. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy dissented.

The U.S. Supreme Court has of course tilted further to the right with the ascension of Brett Kavanaugh in October — replacing Kennedy, held to be the swing vote on the court. But in the Rodriguez decision, Kennedy dissented, while conservatives John Roberts and Antonin Scalia sided with the majority. Strictly civil libertarian cases such as these often fail to break down along predictable left-right lines.

Justice Department Weighs in for Colorado Legalization — Really

And within days of the Colorado high court decision came another very favorable sign from the feds — this time from the Justice Department, and directly concerning cannabis in Colorado.

In a brief filed May 22, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. urged the Supreme Court not to hear the case brought by Nebraska and Oklahoma challenging Colorado’s cannabis legalization as contrary to federal law. The case had been brought directly to the high court, as a matter between states, back in 2014. It has since been awaiting a decision from the justices on whether to take it on.

As the Denver Post reports, Verrilli wrote that case “should be denied because this is not an appropriate case for the exercise of this Court’s original jurisdiction. Entertaining the type of dispute at issue here — essentially that one State’s laws make it more likely that third parties will violate federal and state law in another State — would represent a substantial and unwarranted expansion of this Court’s original jurisdiction.”

Failure to hear the case would kill it, and leave Colorado cannabis legalization intact. With favorable signs from both the Supreme Court and the Justice Department, a federal “preemption” action against Amendment 64 is probably a long shot.

TELL US, have you ever had a run-in with a police dog?

The post Colorado Courts Tighten Legal Leash on Drug Dogs, With Contested Implications for Cannabis appeared first on Cannabis Now.

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Bill Weinberg, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#420GrowLife #cannabis #thc #cbd

Hemp and hemp-derived CBD are now legal in the United States, and finally, the national regulatory agencies are starting to bring their guidelines into conformity with the new law.

A significant step was taken with the issuance last week of a memo on CBD products by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) — a move anticipated ever since hemp-derived CBD was legalized by the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill in December. This lag between Congressionally approved legislation and regulations promulgated by the relevant oversight agencies has resulted in persisting legal ambiguities about the status of CBD.

The USPTO’s May 2 memo — officially dubbed an Examination Guide — toes the very thin line laid down in the Farm Bill, distinguishing between hemp-derived and marijuana-derived CBD.

It takes pains to emphasize that no marijuana-derived products have been daylighted: “[T]he USPTO refuses registration when an application identifies goods encompassing CBD or other extracts of marijuana because such goods are unlawful under federal law and do not support valid use of the applied-for mark in commerce.”

However, it recognizes changes to the 1946 Agricultural Marketing Act and 1970 Controlled Substances Act instated by the new Farm Bill, which will affect trademark applications filed after it was signed into law: “For applications filed on or after December 20, 2018 that identify goods encompassing cannabis or CBD, the 2018 Farm Bill potentially removes the CSA as a ground for refusal of registration, but only if the goods are derived from ‘hemp.’ Cannabis and CBD derived from marijuana (i.e., Cannabis sativa L. with more than 0.3% THC on a dry-weight basis) still violate federal law, and applications encompassing such goods will be refused registration regardless of the filing date.”

Patent Office Catches Up with Federal Law — But the FDA Lags Behind

The memo contains a caveat noting the certain CBD products (specifically foods and medicinal preparations) remain officially illegal until the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) updates its own regulations: “Applicants should be aware that even if the identified goods are legal under the CSA, not all goods for CBD or hemp-derived products are lawful following the 2018 Farm Bill. Such goods may also raise lawful-use issues under the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act.” 

The memo also walks a fine line concerning whether applications were filed before or after the Farm Bill took effect.

While acknowledging that those filed before must be rejected, it basically invites applicants to re-file: “For applications filed before December 20, 2018 that identify goods encompassing CBD or other cannabis products, registration will be refused due to the unlawful use or lack of bona fide intent to use in lawful commerce under the CSA… However, because of the enactment of the 2018 Farm Bill, the goods are now potentially lawful… Therefore, the examining attorney will provide such applicants the option of amending the filing date and filing basis of the application to overcome the CSA as a ground of refusal.”

The Arbitrary Hemp-Marijuana Border

Evoke Law, a blog that has been keeping a close eye on branding issues concerning cannabis, anticipates a controversy not explicitly addressed in the USTPO memo — that concerning the somewhat arbitrary border between “marijuana” and “hemp.” 

“While we support the Trademarks Office’s position that the scope of resulting registrations should be limited to goods compliant with federal law, we foresee problems tying the identification language to the current federal law,” Evoke writes. “The laws surrounding cannabis, hemp and CBD are anything but well-established and while 0.3% is the current THC limit for cannabis to be considered ‘hemp,’ it is not unthinkable that Congress may raise or lower this number given that new research into the plant that will occur as a result of the 2018 Farm Bill.”

This is mostly an issue if the THC limit is dropped: “[I]f an applicant amends its identification to state that the CBD is derived from hemp with not more than 0.3% THC, and the lawful limit is subsequently lowered to 0.2% THC, this legislative shift would unexpectedly make the identified goods and services unlawful.”

But realistically, pressure from the industry is likely to go in the other direction — toward raising the limit, which would certainly unleash a flood of new trademark applications.

Agriculture Department Catching Up Too

A similar significant step was taken last month, when the US Department of Agriculture’s Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO) announced that it will “start accepting applications of seed-propagated hemp for plant variety protection.”

The PVPO provides intellectual property protection to breeders of new varieties of seeds and tubers. Under the Plant Variety Protection Act of 1970, the PVPO has authority to grant certificates that protect varieties for 20 years (or 25 years for vines and trees). Certificate holders have rights to bar others from marketing their varieties, to manage the use of their varieties by other breeders and to “enjoy legal protection of their work.”

The PVPO statement of April 24 that these protections will be extended to some cannabis varieties will certainly be noted by the industry and advocacy groups alike. 

Of particular note in the latter category is the Open Source Seed Initiative, which is seeking to establish various cannabis strains as part of the intellectual commons and keep them “copyleft” — preventing them from being patented by agbiz as the legal industry takes off.

TELL US, will you be filing a CBD-related patent?

The post U.S. Patent Office Issues CBD Trademark Guidelines appeared first on Cannabis Now.

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Bill Weinberg, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

It won lurid headlines when three Illinois residents were arrested by the FBI in Humboldt County last month in an alleged plot to rip off a local cannabis grower to the tune of $3 million. The case goes to trial in federal court in San Francisco this month. 

Although none of the three have actually been charged with kidnapping, that is word being bandied about in reportage — based on the claims of an informant. The accused co-consiprators allegedly discussed plans to abduct a courier for the target and “make him suffer” until he gave up the location of his boss’ stash of cash and cannabis. As you might expect, attorneys for the accused tell a very different story.

Intrigue at Arcata Airport

Federal agents intercepted two of the men, Emanoel Borisov and Paul Brooks, as they arrived at Arcata’s airport on a flight from San Francisco on April 3. The third, Evgeni Kopankov, was apprehended on the road to the airport, where he was apparently headed to pick up the other two. All are charged with attempting to commit “Interference with Commerce by Threats or Violence,” and could face up to 20 years in prison.

An affidavit presented by a Eureka-based FBI agent, quoted in the local news site Redheaded Blackbelt, states that “a [sic] FBI Confidential Human Source (CHS) in Illinois told FBI agents that Borisov approached him about committing a robbery.” In the affidavit, Borisov is described as “a large Bulgarian male with numerous tattoos, who previously worked security for strip clubs and marijuana properties in California.” Borisov reportedly “told CHS that there was an imminent arrival of approximately $2.3 million in cash to a home in California belonging to a Bulgarian… involved in the cultivation and trafficking of marijuana.”

Brooks is described as an ex-Marine and Iraq war veteran who knew Borisov from working at strip clubs in the Chicago area. 

Kopankov had apparently already come to the attention of the feds. In December he’d been a passenger on a private plane that flew into Arcata from Georgia with $2 million in cash that was uncovered when a drug-sniffing dog “alerted” to the presence of controlled substances. The cash was seized by the DEA as drug proceeds, although no arrests were made. 

The other passenger on the plane in the December incident was identified as Edgar Garcia, who was said to be in a property dispute with Humboldt resident Ivan Iliev — another man of Bulgarian origin later named as the intended victim in the robbery conspiracy. Kopankov allegedly told the informant they intended to spread false rumors in hopes that Iliev would blame “the Mexicans” for the robbery.

The San Jose Mercury News cited the feds as saying that Borisov had worked in “marijuana fields” in the area, and that Kopankov was “affiliated with growers who cultivate weed by the ton.” However, the same Mercury News article incorrectly reports that the men were arrested at San Francisco airport while attempting to get on a flight to Eureka. In fact, they were arrested at Arcata airport after arriving from San Francisco. The article also badly mis-spells Kopankov’s name, rendering it “Kpokankov.”

‘No Evidence Against My Client’

Attorney David Michael of the San Francisco law firm Michael & Burch is representing Kopankov in the case. Contacted by Cannabis Now, he said his own investigations had revealed that the informant in the case is under indictment himself for fraud, which may explain his cooperation with the feds. 

Michael says Kopankov lives in the Chicago area and his only involvement in the cannabis business is renting a piece of land in Humboldt to a grower who is licensed by state and local authorities and operates entirely within the law. (Media accounts place the land in the town of Whitethorn, outside Garberville.)

He also asserts that Kopankov only had $7,000 on his person in the December incident at the Arcata airport—  and had paperwork showing it was earned legally in Illinois. He says Kopankov has filed a claim to get that money returned.

As for the supposed robbery and “kidnapping” conspiracy, Michael utterly rejects the accusations against Kopankov. “There is no evidence against my client. It is all a fantasy by this informant. And there is no recorded conversation of him with my guy, only the other two. My client’s clean. He came over here from Bulgaria and worked hard and became a citizen. He lives a clean life and is happily married. He’s never been in trouble.” 

Michael says Kopankov made his money running a trucking company in Chicago before purchasing his land on Humboldt. He was bringing furniture out to his Humboldt property when he was busted, Michael says. “Why would he want to do this if he was successful? He’s got property and legal businesses going on—why would he plan a crime?”

Michael also notes that the guns and ski-masks supposedly referenced by the informant were never produced.

Finally, Michael says he believes there is xenophobia and ethnic bias at work in the case. “I think the federal government has a built-in antagonism to foreigners who come to this country and take advantage of the cannabis laws in various states. It’s especially easy to stereotype Bulgarians as people with no respect for the law. It’s easy for the feds to believe claims about guns and masks.”

Ethnic Stigma and Cannabis Stigma

The press coverage has been pretty blatant in playing up the salacious aspect of the case. “It was a plot that reads something like a villainous heist if the FBI’s contentions are true,” the Mercury News wrote in its lede.

The North Coast Journal opted for: “The story is cut from a Hollywood script, with characters straight from central casting…”  The piece also notes that the plot was supposedly hatched in conversations at “Polekatz, a sprawling 18,000-square-foot bar about 15 miles outside of Chicago with all nude, full-contact lap dances, poor Yelp reviews a shady reputation.”

There is a sense of life imitating art here, given the current popularity of the fictional “Murder Mountain” TV series concerning violent crime set against the backdrop of the Humboldt cannabis industry. The series was blasted by the Humboldt Sheriff’s Office earlier this year as “highly sensationalized.”

Northern California in recent years has seen a few actual cases of violence concerning “trimmigrants” — the unflattering nickname for seasonal workers who trim the buds of newly harvested cannabis. As is often the case, those stigmatized as violent rabble are often themselves victimized by poor labor practices. There was local outrage in 2011 after a Humboldt grower of Bulgarian origin, Taco Nikolov Budnakov, copped a plea to avoid prison time after his operation was raided, spending only two nights in jail. But his four trimmers — three Bulgarians and a Ukrainian — couldn’t afford bail and spent almost two months in jail before they were allowed to plead “no contest” to misdemeanor charges.

It’s particularly telling that in the current case, Bulgarians, themselves members of a stigmatized group in the area, are accused of seeking to scapegoat Mexicans — another stigmatized group.  media hype about Mexican cartels and even Chinese crime networks moving into the Emerald Triangle’s illicit cannabis sector has fueled an atmosphere ripe for such intrigues. In a kind of cultural hangover from cannabis prohibition, there seems to be a continued convergence of the drug stigma and xenophobia. 

Following claims of ethnic bias in local cannabis raids last year, community leaders in the Triangle acknowledged that many growers had been left behind in the transition to a legal market by social marginalization. Terra Carver, executive director of the Humboldt County Growers Alliance, admitted: “What we’ve seen across the board with the Hmong, Bulgarian and Latino populations is there hasn’t been a lot of outreach.” 

Legal cannabis was supposed to de-escalate the wild west atmosphere in the Emerald Triangle. The convoluted case of Borisov, Brooks and Kopankov reveals just how far there is still to go.

TELL US, where else have you noticed prejudice in the cannabis industry?

The post Cannabis-Linked ‘Kidnapping’ Case Reflects Emerald Triangle Ethnic Tensions appeared first on Cannabis Now.

http://bit.ly/2I68Fi3 May 11, 2019 at 09:09PM, 420GrowLife, KahliBuds

Things have moved fast this month in U.S. relations with Albania, Europe’s poorest nation, and cannabis is at the center of the flurry.

At the start of April, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau for International Narcotics & Law Enforcement Affairs issued its annual report with harsh words for Albania. The report stated: “Albania is both a source country of cannabis and, increasingly, a transit country for cocaine and heroin commanded largely by organized crime elements moving illicit drugs from source countries into European markets.”

Even while luridly warning that Albania is emerging as a trafficking hub for deadly white powders, the report admitted that “Albania’s role as source or market for illicit drugs beyond cannabis is minor.” What is centrally at issue here is cannabis. “Efforts to eradicate and prosecute cannabis growers have been extensive but uneven,” the report complained.

Stern Warnings from Abroad

The report acknowledged that “the volume of drug seizures and number of drug-related arrests in 2018 was significant, driven largely by Albanian law enforcement cooperation with international partners, increased international pressure and Albania’s efforts to accede to the European Union.”

However, this summation was followed up with an unsubtle lecture: “Albania’s institutions are moderately equipped to fight drug crimes, but corruption at every level of government limits their overall effectiveness. Official corruption is pervasive and fosters an environment in which drug traffickers are largely able to operate with impunity.” 

Though the report did note the social roots of Albania’s endemic narco-economy (“a high rate of unemployment and weak rule of law”), it only called for “justice reform” and efforts to “erode the influence of organized crime” as solutions. It declined to address the endemic unemployment that has plagued the country since the end of communist rule more than a generation ago. Cannabis has filled the economic vacuum left by the communist collapse, which does not bode well for eradication efforts.

The European Union is also making it clear that it has had enough. The first week of April saw coordinated police raids across five European countries against what was said to be a single network of Albanian traffickers, based around “clans” from the south of the country. A total of 67 arrests were made, most of them in Belgium — where 8,000 cannabis plants were reported seized. 

“This investigation targeted an Albanian criminal organization involved in multiple crimes, including the large-scale traffic in cannabis, cocaine, prostitution, human trafficking and money laundering,” a spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office stated. The report seemed to indicate that the Albanian network had established grow operations within Belgium. Arrests were also reported in the Netherlands, Italy, France and the United Kingdom.

After the raids, the Dutch Justice Minister read the riot act to Albania, lecturing, “Criminal groups with a link to Albania play a big role in organized crime in the Netherlands.”

There is a grim sense of deja vu to all this. Under pressure from D.C. and the European Union, Prime Minister Edi Rama has pledged a new campaign against corruption, trafficking and cannabis cultivation. Albania launches such renewed efforts regularly — yet remains Europe’s top producer of illicit cannabis.

Corruption, Crackdown, Unrest

The crackdown in 2014 started to look like a real war. In June of that year, hundreds of troops backed up by armored vehicles were sent into the village of Lazarat, known as Albania’s “Marijuana Mountain.” The local growers resisted with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, leaving casualties on both sides. When the village was finally subdued, authorities reported that 102 tons of harvested cannabis and 530,000 plants had been destroyed. 

A year later, hundreds of troops, this time backed up by two army helicopters, returned to Lazarat in what seems to have been a mopping-up operation against the armed growers. The raid was supposedly sparked by a deadly attack on a solider patrolling the area.

In 2015, the government announced that Albania was now “marijuana-free” following the aggressive eradication campaign. But that really seems to have meant that big, open plantations like those in Lazarat had been cleared out. Cultivation was now spread out in small, clandestine plots — and Albania retained its spot on top of the continent’s illicit cannabis market.

Aid — Or Enabling?

On April 22,  Albania’s Defense Ministry announced that the United States had provided three Black Hawk helicopters to the nation’s military. Defense Minister Olta Xhacka signed the deal while visiting a New Jersey National Guard base. The choppers are part of a U.S. support package for Albania, which joined NATO in 2009 and has been upgrading its military equipment to bring it into conformity with alliance standards. But there is little doubt the choppers are intended for cannabis enforcement.

A renewed eradication campaign may be tempting further violent confrontations, especially as Albania already shows signs of mounting social discontent. And there is the possibility, seen in so many places around the world, that military hardware supplied to fight the narco trade could be used in political repression.

Since December, Albania has seen a mounting wave of protests by students and the political opposition, demanding early elections amid discontent over official corruption. These climaxed last month, when protesters repeatedly attempted to storm the parliament building in the capital Tirana, and were dispersed by riot police with tear-gas and water-cannons. 

TELL US, why do you think the United States would intervene in the illicit cannabis market overseas?

The post Why Is the U.S. Providing Aid to Albania’s Cannabis Eradication Campaign? appeared first on Cannabis Now.

http://bit.ly/2I68Fi3 April 25, 2019 at 01:52PM, 420GrowLife, KahliBuds

On April 17, Georgia’s Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a bill allowing cultivation of cannabis for production and sale of CBD oil in the Peach State. The law is a breakthrough for patients who had previously been “allowed” to use cannabis oil, but had no way to buy it. 

Kemp, a generally conservative Republican, said he was swayed after speaking with parents whose children depend on access to the cannabis oil for their health. “All they simply want is to be able to help their kids get well,” he said upon signing the bill, according to the Atlanta . “We’re ensuring these families can purchase what works for their loved ones without creating a slippery slope that undermines our values.” 

The new law will allow for cannabis industry, with a total of nine acres of indoor cultivation space statewide. Low-THC (and high-CBD) cannabis oil will be sold to legally registered users in the system established by the 2015 law — 9,500 so far. Ailments such as PTSD, Parkinson’s disease and cancer are approved for the program. Herbaceous cannabis, high-THC products and either smoking or vaping will all remain illegal.

A seven member dubbed the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission, will be created to oversee the nascent industry, with commissioners to be appointed by Gov. Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and the speaker of the state House of Representatives, David Ralston. Licenses are to be awarded competitively, with only two “Class 1” licenses available to cultivate on an industrial scale out of six total cultivation licenses. Dispensaries are also to be licensed. It is expected to be a year before Georgia-produced cannabis oil actually reaches consumers.

But the program is expected to grow, with the new Commission empowered to make recommendations to the legislature for additional medical conditions that can be treated with cannabis oil.

Putting Patients First

Kemp signed the bill into law after it passed the state Senate 34-to-20, with bipartisan support. Some conservatives raised fears of a slippery slope to general legalization, per Atlanta’s Saporta Report. But Kemp and supportive lawmakers stressed the unfairness of the 2015 law, which forced patients and their families to either purchase cannabis oil through the mail or to drive to other states.  

“Families have had to go underground to get this oil. Now they’ll be able to get it legally in the state of Georgia,” state Rep. Calvin Smyre, a Democrat from Columbus, told the Journal Constitution. “The key is getting the commission appointed and up and running.”

The paper also quoted Katie Harrison of Gainesville, mother of a six-year-old son who uses cannabis oil to control his seizures. She called the new law a “huge deal” for patients and their loved ones. “It won’t be illegal to get our medicine anymore,” Harrison said. “It’s the only thing that’s really made a difference. We’ve seen all the other pharmaceuticals fail.”

Breaking the Federal Stranglehold on Cannabis Research

The new law also allows for cannabis research at two designated universities: the University of Georgia and Fort Valley State University. Rep. Smyre sits on the board of the latter. The schools will be empowered by the state to apply for federal licenses to conduct such research, according to the Macon Telegraph. Greenhouses and new laboratories are anticipated on the campuses.

Since the 1960s, the University of Mississippi has been the country’s only educational institution with federal approval to carry out cannabis research. However, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced in August 2016 it would support the extension of this research opportunity to other qualified institutions around the country. The Georgia law could now put the DEA’s word to the test. 

TELL US, does your state have laws that make medical marijuana accessible?

The post Georgia Passes Law to Allow Medical Marijuana Cultivation appeared first on Cannabis Now.

http://bit.ly/2I68Fi3 April 24, 2019 at 04:27AM, 420GrowLife, KahliBuds

A policy summit in Washington D.C. one day before 420 will feature discussions on a range of issues concerning cannabis that demand greater public attention — from the importance of veterans’ access to medical marijuana, to the need for environmental oversight in the emerging legal industry, to the role of the media in “reshaping the narrative” of the war on drugs.  

The April 19 National Cannabis Policy Summit is to take place at D.C.’s Newseum, and will bring together leaders in both cannabis advocacy and the cannabis industry. Capitol Hill politicians are also lined up for the event. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) will deliver the keynote address, with video link-ups from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) and Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA).

This should be an opportunity to bring the concerns of grassroots activists to those who habituate the corridors of power. Queen Adesuyi, policy coordinator of Drug Policy Alliance, will lead a discussion on the potential for legalization to serve as a path to social justice, titled “Leveling the Playing Field: Is the Cannabis Industry a Second Chance for Victims of the Failed War on Drugs?”

The panel organizers note that since cannabis was added to the federal list of controlled substances in 1970, the incarcerated population in the United States has increased by 700 percent. And while cannabis use across racial groups is virtually equal, people of color remain overrepresented in the prison population — while underrepresented in leadership roles in the emerging legal cannabis industry. 

“Cannabis is growing into a billion-dollar industry, but for many looking to enter the legal cannabis industry, the bar for entry remains nearly unattainable, resulting in an industry that does not reflect the makeup of its audience,” the panel description states. “How do we reconcile capitalism, equity and incarceration? How can the cannabis industry move past the damage caused by the failed War on Drugs and become a viable opportunity for all Americans?”

Second Summit, Fourth Festival

The Summit will be part of the National Cannabis Festival, which is to highlight with a 420 concert at RFK Stadium featuring Ludacris and Action Bronson. At the adjacent RFK Festival Grounds, there will be educational pavilions focusing on the intersection of cannabis policy and culture, cultivation, health and wellness and other, related topics. 

This will be second National Cannabis Policy Summit, while the Festival was first held in 2016. 

Festival founder Caroline Phillips, a public relations and events strategist of progressive bent, tells Cannabis Now the event will “convene unlikely allies around cannabis legalization. People of different political ideologies and backgrounds — Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, independents and the unaffiliated, who agree that it’s time to make progress on our cannabis laws. When it comes to cannabis, we all find overlap and places where there can be improvement on the laws.”

Recalling the first National Cannabis Policy Summit last year, Phillips says, “The goal was to create a platform for people from different political parties to convene around conversations about cannabis policy reform. In year one we welcomed speakers like [longtime conservative activist] Grover Norquist and D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine,” who is famously progressive. 

“This year we have experts from a variety of think-tanks, business leaders and members of Congress addressing our audience,” Phillips adds.

Phillips sees the nation’s capital as in ideal setting for the event. “D.C. is a diverse community with a lot of universities and a high concentration of think-tanks and people working to push policies at federal level,” she says. “For example, veterans’ groups that all agree that there should be alternatives to opioids for vets, criminal justice groups who agree we should stop arresting for cannabis, industry focus groups who agree we should stop treating business owners in the cannabis industry like criminals. And there’s something powerful about having all these people in same room. When we come together to demand cannabis legalization in the United States, it makes our voices stronger.”

And Phillips stresses that legal cannabis is just the first demand, a place where the conversation begins rather than where it ends: “When this industry comes to full legalization, it’s not going to be just another industry, but a better industry.”

TELL US, will you be attending this year’s National Cannabis Policy Summit?

The post National Cannabis Policy Summit Looks to Define the Future of Cannabis appeared first on Cannabis Now.

http://bit.ly/2I68Fi3 April 15, 2019 at 05:02PM, 420GrowLife, KahliBuds

New York state’s second city of Buffalo has long been a national symbol of rust-belt economic and infrastructural decay. A century ago, Western New York’s Buffalo was the seat of booming industry, but the city suffered a long slide downhill after World War II.

The closing of the Bethlehem Steel plant in 1982, with some 20,000 jobs lost, left the city groping for a new economic future. Development in the financial and medical sectors has helped, but the quest for a post-industrial recovery is ongoing. Now Buffalo’s boosters are banking on a new boom: legal cannabis.

Urban planners have approved a massive cannabis facility backed by California capital for the city’s long-inactive waterfront — and Buffalo’s boosters say the project could turn the Great Lakes region into a leading global hub of cannabis output.

The Greening of the Waterfront

The firm Flora Buffalo is now preparing to open its “high-tech campus” on the city’s Lake Erie waterfront. Local website Buffalo Rising, a kind of semi-official organ of the urban recovery effort, says the sprawling new cannabis cultivation facility “will assuredly position this city as a driving force in the industry, not just statewide, but worldwide.”  

Flora Buffalo, a project of San Diego-based Flora California Prime Inc, has won approval to acquire 72 acres of waterfront in a zone re-designated for such uses by the Buffalo Urban Development Corporation (BUDC). The BUDC, an agency created to buy up abandoned properties and sell them off to new economic interests, voted up the project unanimously in January. As the Buffalo News reported, the purchase price was $1.9 million. That comes to $42,500 per usable acre, as the property includes wetlands.

The $200 million project foresees hiring up to 1,000 employees for a facility that will eventually cover 1.2 million square feet, including greenhouses, an extraction laboratory and corporate offices. The site mostly covers what the BUDC has dubbed the Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park, but it will extend into the Union Ship Canal area, designated a “brownfield,” by New York state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

Much of the money for the project is coming from Zephyr Investors, a San Diego real estate development company led by Buffalo native Brad Termini, who also sits on the board of Flora. 

Flora plans to conduct medical research in cooperation with Buffalo’s Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Institute and SUNY Erie Community College. 

An account on Buffalo Rising enthuses: “With the addition of the facility, the Great Lakes region, including southern Ontario, will become the largest producing region of cannabis in the world. Across the lake in Ontario there are [six] publicly traded companies with valuations in excess of $1 billion that didn’t [exist] three years ago. This is an important milestone that Buffalo will be able to participate in this rapidly growing industry, creating jobs and economic impact for the region, and eventually cross border trade when the state and federal conflict eases.”  

The Political Equation

As that statement makes clear, the project is predicated on political changes — it takes for granted that cannabis legalization is coming to New York state, and anticipates that the federal government will eventually follow.  In fact, under terms of the deal, construction is not to begin and the BUDC’s sale of the property to Flora is not be finalized unless a legalization bill passes in Albany by year’s end.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown is enthusiastically on board with the project and strikes confident tones about the political prospects. “The sale of this land positions the City of Buffalo to be on the leading edge of the potential passage of recreational marijuana in New York State,” Brown told the Buffalo News. “We don’t think it’s premature… We think it’s wise.”

Brown emphasized that Flora and Zephyr have agreed to a “community benefits” package, including a commitment that at least 25 percent of the contractors on the construction will be minority-owned. The same 25 percent of the construction workers are to from minority communities, and at least 5 percent will be women. Flora has also agreed to a target of 75 percent local workers, with a preference for city residents, and all are to receive a “living wage.” The project will also include an “incubator” space for Buffalo entrepreneurs and a vocational job-training center.

But at the end of March, the New York state budget was approved by lawmakers in Albany without the legalization measure that Gov. Andrew Cuomo wanted to be included. “In concept, we have ,” Cuomo said upon passage of the budget bill. “But that is all about the devil is in the details. And that is going to take more time to work out.”

Some lawmakers — and many legalization advocates — felt that Cuomo’s measure was too conservative, and  pushing a more far-reaching bill, the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA). 

Negotiations are expected to resume later this month, but sticking points include how the state would apportion the tax revenue from cannabis sales, whether the governor or lawmakers would have more control over the licensing process and just how much cannabis would actually be legalized. Cuomo’s version would legalize up to an ounce — the same quantity already decriminalized in New York since 1977. Under MRTA, the threshold is to be two pounds. MRTA would also address the olfactory dilemma in law enforcement, prohibiting police from considering the scent of cannabis as to conduct a search.

TELL US, where would you like to see the cannabis industry plant its next outpost?

The post Buffalo, NY Turns to Cannabis for Post-Industrial Renaissance appeared first on Cannabis Now.

http://bit.ly/2uEgYtD April 12, 2019 at 06:48PM Bill Weinberg, KahliBuds

Bob and Teresa Almond lived in their home in the Alabama town of Woodland for 27 years, raising children and running a business there. Their modest dream of comfortable retirement in the house, supplemented by money from chickens they raised on the property, came crashing down on Jan. 31, 2018. That day, Randolph County Drug Task Force raided their home — supposedly on the basis of smelling cannabis.

A poignant profile of their case appears on the website of a Montgomery-based social advocacy organization, the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice. As Appleseed researcher Leah Nelson relates, Teresa Almond, a 49-year-old grandmother, is still traumatized. She now spends at least part of her days sitting under the shelter of a relative’s garage, armed with a gun and afraid that the deputies will return.

Lives Upended

The raid came after a sheriff’s deputy said he detected the smell of cannabis coming from the house. On no notice, the task force broke down the door, set off a flashbang grenade and ordered the Almonds to the floor at gunpoint. Then, they ransacked the house. In addition to the estimated $50 worth of cannabis, the task force found a single pill of Lunesta, a prescription sleep aid. This was deemed illegal because the pill was not inside the bottle that was printed with Greg’s name, clearly indicating it was his prescription.

Deputies handcuffed the Almonds and booked them into the Randolph County jail, where they were charged with second-degree marijuana possession, a misdemeanor, and felony possession of a controlled because the Lunesta pill was not in its original packaging. The couple spent the night in jail, despite the fact that neither of them had even been arrested before.

While the Almonds spent the night in jail, law enforcement began to seize the couple’s property: Greg’s gun collection, a chainsaw, antique guitars, a coin collection, Teresa’s wedding rings, and about $8,000 in cash the couple kept in safes in the back of the house, according to the Appleseed Center. They also lost their dog when officers left their doors unsecured, allowing the pet to escape.

Ultimately, the felony charge was rejected by a grand jury. The misdemeanor cannabis charge is still pending. The Almonds say their adult son, who was living in the house at the time, told officers that he owned the cannabis and his parents didn’t know it was there. The couple , in turn, filed a case against county authorities which asserts that their civil rights were and that authorities failed to demonstrate how the seized property had any connection to criminal activity.

The case has sparked outrage locally, even if it has failed to win much national attention. Alabama Political Reporter editorializes: “Civil asset forfeiture destroyed the Almonds. Specifically, Alabama’s ridiculously broad and downright unconstitutional civil asset forfeiture laws, which allow Alabama cops to seize property even though citizens are never convicted of a crime and then forces people to prove their innocence.”

The Forfeiture Machine

As the Appleseed Center states, civil asset forfeiture can mean big bucks for local police forces. Alabama does not track or made public its income from forfeitures — although prosecutors have pledged to create a public database in response to activist pressure.

Last year, the Appleseed Center joined with the Southern Poverty Law Center to review some 70 percent of civil asset forfeiture cases filed by the state in 2015. The resulting report revealed that Alabama netted nearly $2.2 million in 827 cases that year. Also that year, courts awarded law enforcement agencies 406 seized weapons, 119 vehicles, 95 electronic items and 274 other miscellaneous items, including power tools, houses and mobile homes.

In 18 percent of the reviewed 2015 cases in which criminal charges were filed, the charge was simple possession of cannabis and/or paraphernalia. As the Appleseed Center points out, these are “crimes that by definition do not enrich the people who commit them.”

The Appleseed report details how the episode has devastated the Almonds. They had recently mortgaged their property to upgrade their chicken coops. With bitter irony, they were scheduled to sign paperwork restructuring their loans on Feb. 1, 2018. They missed that appointment because they were in jail, and the house was repossessed by the bank. The couple is now living in a storage shed on the property — with a propane heater for warmth, and just a trickle of electricity from a solar panel they’ve installed.

“I’m not right,” Teresa Almond admitted to reporter Nelson. “I have not been right since the day it happened,” she said. “That was my home. I raised all my babies in there. And my grandbabies. If my grandbabies would have been there that day, they would have hurt my grandbabies. I have nowhere to bring my babies to spend time with them. ‘Cause this is not [an atmosphere] that I want my grandbabies in, and them remembering that we lived in a shack because of cops.”

Federal Forfeiture and the STATES Act 

While it would have no impact on local police forces in places like Alabama, a bill pending on Capitol Hill does acknowledge that forfeiture abuse is a concern and would impose limits on the practice by federal authorities. The Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States Act (STATES Act), which was recently reintroduced, would bar federal forfeiture of any assets derived from state-legal cannabis enterprises. It would also exempt state-legal cannabis businesses from the definition of “specified proceeds of illegal activity” under the federal money laundering statutes. 

As National Law Review notes, the STATES Act would make clear that federal asset forfeiture and money laundering laws are inapplicable to funds derived from state-legal cannabis activities. But, apart from drawing some attention to the issue of forfeiture abuse, this would mean little for states like Alabama — which has some of the harshest cannabis laws in the country, and not even a medical marijuana program.

Oooh, That Smell

Another question raised by the egregious Almond case is whether the mere smell of cannabis can justify search and seizure. In a win both for cannabis freedom and racial justice, Vermont’s top court this January ruled in favor of a motorist whose car was searched and seized on the ostensible basis that a state trooper smelled pot — and the probable basis that he was African American. Gregory Zullo prevailed in state Supreme Court, which found that the “faint” smell of cannabis was not enough to justify seizure of his vehicle. The case was sent back to the lower court in Rutland, where the ACLU can now argue that the police acted in “bad faith” and that the stop was racially motivated.

Unfortunately, just weeks earlier the Kansas high court ruled for the police in a similar case. A divided Kansas Supreme Court upheld a cannabis conviction in a case that similarly relied on supposed olfactory evidence to justify a search. Worse, this case extended to a private home the accepted police practice in Kansas that a whiff of pot can justify the search of a vehicle. Douglas County resident Lawrence Hubbard’s cannabis conviction will stand.

TELL US, have you ever had assets seized by law enforcement?

The post Alabama Couple Lose Longtime Home Over $50 Worth of Cannabis appeared first on Cannabis Now.

http://bit.ly/2uEgYtD April 11, 2019 at 08:41PM Bill Weinberg, KahliBuds

Twelve years after the Land of Enchantment instated a medical marijuana law, New Mexico’s governor has signed a bill that finally begins to lift the pressure on non-medical users of cannabis. The new law drops cannabis possession down to a petty misdemeanor and does the same for possession of drug “paraphernalia.” 

Senate Bill 323, signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on April 3, eliminates criminal penalties for possession of up to a half-ounce (12 grams), imposing a $50 fine on first offense. Possession of larger amounts may still result in a felony charge. The penalty for paraphernalia possession is similarly reduced to $50 fine for a first offense. The provisions are set to take July 1.

Legislators cited the impacts of having served prison time on future access to fundamental rights such as housing and employment as reasons behind the penalty reduction. The statehouse Legislative Finance Committee additionally carried out a Fiscal Impact Report on the reduced penalties, finding that they “could have a positive fiscal impact on the courts, prosecutors, and public defenders.” 

The report found: “SB 323 would reduce the number of criminal cases that the courts would need to process. For example, in 2018 there 2,165 possession of marijuana (one ounce or less) cases filed in the magistrate and metropolitan courts, which were not related to any DWI, domestic violence, or felony charges. There were 3,312 cases of use or possession of drug paraphernalia, which were not attached to DWI, domestic violence, or felony charges. These numbers reflect that a reduction in these types of criminal charges would have a significant impact on the workload of the justice system.” 

Medical Marijuana Program Loosens Up

Gov. Lujan Grisham also signed into law Senate Bill 406, marking the first major statutory change to the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act, which established New Mexico’s medical marijuana program in 2007.

Most significantly, following the recent example of California, SB 406 will allow medical cannabis use on public school campuses under defined circumstances. School districts will be able to opt out if they determine that complying with the law could jeopardize their federal funding, but the law says that schools may not deny students access to education because they use medical cannabis.

The new law also allows registered medical marijuana patients from other states to participate in New Mexico’s Medical Cannabis Program.  Addressing another area of increasing concern for users nationwide, the law additionally extends the renewal period for registration in the program, from one year to three. And in perhaps its most courageous move, the law will allow for licensed establishments to create “consumption areas,” subject to approval by the Department of Health.

New Mexicans will have to wait for full legalization, however. A proposal to legalize “recreational” cannabis sales and use in New Mexico passed the Legislature’s House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate without a floor vote.

Industry Optimistic

Just two days after the new legislation was enacted, the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque hosted a career fair thrown by the company Cannabis NM Staffing. The idea was openly to build on the current atmosphere of liberalization and break the stigma associated with cannabis.

“What really makes a good candidate is someone who wants to be educated in the industry and be an advocate because there’s such a stigma in the industry, and that’s what we’re trying to do as a company is break the stigma of cannabis through education,” Cannabis NM Staffing marketing director Evan Wrons told local news source KRQE. “We’re looking for someone who wants to do that.”

He noted a recent dramatic jump in the number of plants legally cultivated in the state, according to a count by the Department of Health.

“The cannabis industry is booming,” Wrons told KRQE. “They did project that if it was legalized, that would’ve been 11,000 new jobs, but also, without legalization, the Department of Health recently increased the plant count from 450 to 2,500 plants, so it’s a 500 percent increase. Right now… medical cannabis companies are looking to expand. The time is now to grow.”

TELL US, what changes in your state’s medical marijuana program would you like to see?

The post New Mexico Decriminalizes Cannabis, Updates Medical Program appeared first on Cannabis Now.

http://bit.ly/2uEgYtD April 9, 2019 at 07:36PM Bill Weinberg, KahliBuds

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Idaho remains the final state in the U.S. devoid of any medical marijuana policy, and if conservatives in the state have their say, it’ll stay that way for the foreseeable future.

Idaho cannabis crusaders were looking to the 2020 election as an opportunity to finally open a crack in the state’s prohibitionist edifice, with a ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana and industrial hemp. But now, the state’s cowboy conservatives are trying to head ’em off at the pass — that is, at the statehouse in Boise.

Legislation just introduced by Republican State Sen. C. Scott Grow would boost the number of signatures needed to get an initiative on the ballot from 6 percent of voters in 18 of the state’s 35 legislative districts, to 10 percent of voters in 32 districts. The bill narrowly passed the Idaho Senate on March 22, and now moves on the lower House of Representatives. 

Grow denies the move was made in response to any particular ballot effort, but the 2018 election saw approval of Proposition 2, which expands Medicaid in the state. This means the current cannabis campaign could result in a second such blow to the state’s conservative establishment. 

‘Clear Tyranny’

The legislation would apply to all future ballot measures, even if the petition was filed before the bill was even introduced, as is the case with the medical marijuana effort. If the bill passes, it will retroactively raise the bar on signature-gatherers.

Idaho Cannabis Coalition spokesman Bill Esbensen told the Idaho Post Register the new law would be “clear tyranny.”

The Spokane, Washington-based weekly newspaper Inlander notes how Idaho is polarizing around the cannabis question. The state is considering legislation to legalize industrial hemp now that the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill has removed the federal stricture on it. The hemp bill passed the House on March 18, but the bill’s sponsor, Republican state representative Caroline Nilsson Troy, said she didn’t see any interest in marijuana this legislative session. 

In contrast, when Idaho Moms for Marijuana kicked off 2019 with a New Year’s Day rally in front of the state capitol, activist Serra Frank told Boise’s KTVB: “The people of Idaho want it, the politicians might not, we don’t care what they say. We are the people, this is our Capitol building, we are going to make this happen.”

And when the initiative was filed with state authorities on March 8, Esbensen of the Idaho Cannabis Coalition expressed confidence. “This time we have some money behind us,” he told the Post Register. “People with voices, future stakeholders.”

But then, Grow pulled his fast one.

Regionally Out of Step

A sign of how far out of step prohibitionist Idaho is with its increasingly libertarian neighbors came in February, when a federal judge in Boise heard arguments from attorneys for a Colorado-based CBD supplier suing the state police to get back 7,000 pounds of hemp that was seized by Idaho troopers at the port of entry during an inspection.  

As Boise’s IdahoNews 2 reports, Big Sky Scientific is demanding that the court order the shipment released and allow it to proceed on to the company’s plant in Aurora, Colo. The Idaho State Police are arguing that any substance containing any amount of THC s illegal under Idaho law, even if it is less than the 0.3 percent which is the threshold for industrial hemp under federal law.

Spokane’s Spokesman-Review notes Idaho’s regional isolation on the question. Nevada voted to legalize cannabis in 2016, and Utah just approved medical marijuana last November. This leaves Idaho “fully bordered by pot-friendlier states,” with the sole exception of Wyoming. But in the Gem State, possession of more than three ounces remains a felony.

It has been a long haul for the state’s cannabis advocates. Medical marijuana initiatives in 2012 and 2014 failed to win enough signatures. A poorly worded 2016 initiative was withdrawn from the ballot before signatures could be counted. Paulette Jordan, who would have been Idaho’s first Native American and first woman governor, called for reviewing the state marijuana laws in her 2018 campaign, and even broached full legalization. But she lost the race to Republican Brad Little. 

Yet Idaho activists are by no means throwing in the towel. As the Inlander reports, the group Legalize Idaho is to host a meet-and-greet for cannabis advocates at 4:20 PM on April 6 at the Idaho Pizza Company in Boise. The Idaho Cannabis Coalition will also be out in force to collect signatures for the ballot effort at the fourth annual Boise Hempfest on April 20. 

TELL US, where does your state stand on pro-pot initiatives?

The post Idaho Prohibitionists Block Cannabis Ballot Initiative appeared first on Cannabis Now.

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http://bit.ly/2I68Fi3 April 3, 2019 at 03:03PM WEED.NEWS, Bill Weinberg April 3, 2019 at 06:55PM

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Maryland has not legalized cannabis, but now allows cultivation for the medical market. This very limited medical marijuana law, adopted in 2013, is bringing a burgeoning cannabis industry to the state.

And Baltimore has been moving towards the kind of de facto decriminalization now being instated in other eastern cities such as New York, with state attorneys declining to prosecute for low-level cannabis offenses.

However, political obstacles — from state law enforcement and a certain slice of its population — continue to roadblock these attempts at progress in the Chesapeake Bay State.

Baltimore Police Play ‘Catch and Release’ With People Who Possess Cannabis

Back in January, the State’s Attorney in Baltimore, Marilyn Mosby, announced that her office would no longer prosecute for cannabis possession — regardless of the quantity or the arrestee’s criminal history. The famously progressive Mosby cited the “disproportionate impact that the war on drugs has had on communities of color.” She stated flatly: “There is no public safety value in prosecuting marijuana possession.”

But Baltimore’s police have resisted the change, openly asserting they will continue arresting those caught with more than 10 grams of weed, even if prosecutors will not press the charges. The stalemate has resulted in what urban affairs website CityLab terms a “catch-and-release” situation. Cops continue to arrest for cannabis possession, only to have the arrestees freed when prosecutors drop the charges.

“Arresting people for marijuana possession is an infrequently used, but sometimes important, law enforcement tool as we focus on violent crime and violent criminals in Baltimore,” a police department spokesperson told CityLab in an emailed statement. 

Community activists are upset at the absence of a clear policy from the authorities. “The prosecutor and the commissioner, the police department, they need to come together, they need to converge and be on the same page,” Walker Gladden, a youth coordinator at East Baltimore’s Rose Street Community Center, told CityLab.

And the stubbornness comes from the city’s already scandal-plagued police force that is concurrently pursuing an aggressive crackdown on gangs and the trade in hard drugs. Federally coordinated raids on “violent fugitives” have nabbed 264 this month, per a Baltimore Sun report, with 140 grams of heroin and 106 grams of cocaine seized. There was no mention of cannabis seized in these raids, but gang crackdowns elsewhere on the East Coast have resulted in cannabis convictions, even if pot isn’t what made the headlines at the time of the arrests.

Backlash to Equity?

One roadblock on Maryland’s march toward cannabis equity was removed March 29, when a medical marijuana company agreed to drop its lawsuit against state authorities following a vociferous outcry.

As the Baltimore Sun earlier reported, the Maryland cannabis company Curio filed its lawsuit just four days earlier in Baltimore County Circuit Court, charging that the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission was in violation of its own regulations by seeking applications for more growing licenses without completing a supply-and-demand analysis.

“It’s simply not true this lawsuit was intended to challenge the effort to improve diversity in our industry,” Curio Wellness founder and CEO Michael Bronfein told the Baltimore Sun. “In fact, Curio has always supported this effort and will continue to do so.”

The report noted that Bronfein is a prominent donor to the Democratic Party. But certainly the company’s suit had been perceived by many as part of a backlash to Maryland’s equity policy.

Regulations governing the state’s medical cannabis industry say the commission may seek to license more marijuana growing companies than the original 15 that were approved “to meet the demand for medical cannabis by qualifying patients in an affordable, accessible, secure and efficient manner.”

Curio stated in the suit that it had spent more than $10 million to build its cultivation business based on regulations that promised a “strictly limited number” of such licenses. To grant more licenses would jeopardize the investments of Curio and 13 other companies already approved to cultivate in the state, the case charged.

But the licensing had been extended to address concerns about racial justice in the state’s new cannabis sector. Cheryl Glenn, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates for Baltimore and an advocate for minority participation in the industry, said the state’s medical marijuana law always gave the commission the right to award new licenses as needed. She told the Sun that a “disparity study” conducted by the state to assess the industry found that African American firms had been effectively excluded from the program.

Based on the findings of the disparity study, the General Assembly passed compromise legislation last year to expand cultivation licenses to give Black-owned firms a second chance.

The study was carried out by Jon Wainwright of NERA Economic Consulting, who had earlier undertaken an analysis of the state’s minority contracting system. He wrote that the findings of the disparity study supported “the use of race- and gender-based measures to remediate discrimination affecting minority- and women-owned businesses in the types of industries relevant to the medical cannabis business.”

The study was met with enthusiasm among the Black Caucus in the House of Delegates. “I’m ecstatic Maryland can move forward and be a beacon of light and show it is a serious issue, that everyone should be concerned about having diversity in a multibillion-dollar industry,” Glenn told the Sun last January.

The deal was finalized in the statehouse last April.

Glenn, of course, was vindicated by the dropping of the lawsuit. “No one wants in 2019 to have a trillion dollar industry be controlled by all white men,” she told the Sun on March 29. “We have had widespread support.”

TELL US, how do police where you live treat cannabis smokers?

The post Police Play ‘Catch and Release’ With Cannabis Offenders: Roadblocks to Progress in Maryland appeared first on Cannabis Now.

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http://bit.ly/2I68Fi3 April 1, 2019 at 05:01PM WEED.NEWS, Bill Weinberg April 2, 2019 at 07:40AM

Oregon Ballot Initiative Calls for Justice with Legalization

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When Oregonians voted up legal cannabis in 2014, they were endorsing a broader vision of social freedom for users and producers than state authorities have actually delivered in the ensuing years. So say a group of petitioners who last week filed a ballot measure at the state capitol in Salem, and are seeking enough signatures to place it before voters in 2020.

A new group called the Oregon Justice League asserts that because cannabis legalization in the Beaver State has failed to live up to its promise, they’ve prepared a remedy to place before the voters in the form of a new ballot initiative, the Legalization Justice Act.

Democratizing the Benefits of Legalization

Portland-based writer Angela Bacca is a board member of Oregon NORML (and former editor of Cannabis Now) and one of the chief petitioners who submitted the ballot proposal. She is also a medicinal user, who is living with Crohn’s disease.

“We decided to go big or go home,” Bacca tells Cannabis Now. “The spoils of legalization are going to those who were reaping benefits of prohibition, and this is our effort to fix that.”

The key drafter of the Legalization Justice Act, Bacca says: “We took a lot of language from bills that are pending in the legislature but not moving.” She attributes this lack of motion in part to pressure from forces such as the “public health lobby” — health authorities from conservative jurisdictions around the state and the economic interests aligned with them.

Bacca portrays an atmosphere still unacceptably restrictive for cannabis users.

“I’m a patient with Crohn’s disease, but I’m technically not allowed to possess cannabis in my home, because I signed something in the lease saying I would follow federal law,” she notes. “So even though I have two thirds of my colon left and have a disease that can be treated with cannabis, I can’t possess in my own home — or smoke in the street, because of the ban on public use.”

She also protests the high costs of participating in the state medical marijuana program. “It costs $200 to get approved medical by a doctor for the program — that’s the going rate. And then another [$200] must be paid to the Oregon Health Authority.”

Granted, the fee is lower for veterans and those on disability or social security. But the Legalization Justice Act would go much further. “There is a provision for lifetime cards in the initiative for chronic and incurable illness like the one I have,” Bacca says. “I shouldn’t have to prove each year that I still haven’t cured an incurable disease.”

The initiative also would add physicians’ assistants, nurse practitioners and naturopaths to the list of those qualified to recommend cannabis.

Five Key Provisions

The text of the Legalization Justice Act has five key provisions.

The first concerns tax revenues from legal cannabis, calling for their redistribution to advance “the social justice goals of cannabis legalization.” The LJA would designate 25 percent of such revenues to funding community development and micro-lending initiatives for small businesses in the communities that have been disproportionately impacted by prohibition and “the failed War on Drugs.” An additional 25 percent would be dedicated to subsidize cannabis purchases for low-income patients with qualifying conditions under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, or OMMP.

The text also includes changes to increasingly moribund OMMP such as the “lifetime card” provision, a growing demand of medical users nationwide.

It would also allow “social consumption spaces” such as cannabis cafes and amend the Oregon Indoor Clean Air Act to allow indoor smoking and vaping of cannabis. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission would be charged with regulating these spaces.

The LJA also includes employment protection provisions, to “prevent discriminatory and conceptually flawed drug testing” — another question that is emerging as a focus of concern for the cannabis community nationwide.

Finally, it would seek to protect Oregon’s “craft cannabis community,” directing the state to petition the federal government to allow export of product across state lines.

A National Model

The text of the LJA is still being tweaked, and a new draft is likely to be resubmitted in Salem this week. Bacca has two principal co-petitioners in the effort who are also vanguard figures in Oregon’s cannabis community.

One is Madeline Martinez, the executive director of Oregon NORML, who also happens to be the only Latina member of NORML’s national board. She won headlines in 2009, when she opened the World Famous Cannabis Cafe in Portland — a “consumption lounge” for medical users. In another case of social space for cannabis actually contracting as a paradoxical result of legalization, the cafe was forced to close when the state Indoor Clean Air Act was amended to include cannabis in 2016.

The other is Leia Flynn, a legal assistant at a firm that works with cannabis businesses and the owner of Flight Lounge, a members-only private cafe that still operates under the city of Portland’s “social consumption guidelines.” As a private club with no volunteers or employees, it is not in violation of the Indoor Clean Air Act.

Speaking to Cannabis Now, Flynn emphasizes that strictures on both indoor and outdoor smoking disproportionately impact people of color. “Homeowners are mostly white,” she says. “It’s other folk who can’t smoke at home, and they can’t smoke on the street. People choose to get a citation rather than losing their home. So we really need public spaces where people can use cannabis.”

Bacca believes the LJA could be a “model for rest of country,” as Capitol Hill lawmakers start to take up the cannabis legalization question.

“We are putting into writing what we feel is wrong with legalization as we go into this new federal paradigm,” Bacca says. “We’ve made strides but haven’t achieved social justice goals of legalization. And we can’t forget that, especially now that we’re reaching critical mass on the question nationally.” 

The Oregon Justice League is calling upon the state’s dispensaries to collect signatures to help get the 120,000 needed for ballot placement, and Bacca is optimistic. “We now have an entire consumer network where users interact with people from the industry every day,” she says.

And the cannabis community has a growing political weight that she believes will inevitably at some point counterbalance the power of conservative lobbyists.

“The state has taken in $160 million in cannabis taxes since legalization,” Bacca concludes. “Yet the legislators keep bowing down to the public health lobby. At what point is our money worth it?”

TELL US, what’s in your ideal your version a legalization justice initiative?

The post Oregon Ballot Initiative Calls for Justice with Legalization appeared first on Cannabis Now.

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https://kahlibuds.com March 27, 2019 at 09:04AM