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National Cannabis Awareness Month, indeed — the last week has been a banner moment for cannabis legalization, with New Mexico becoming the third state in mere days to legalize the use of recreational cannabis for adults 21 years and older. It is the 18th US state to do so. 

“New Mexico can ‘finally exhale,’” trumpeted the state’s largest newspaper, the Albuquerque Journal.

“Legalized adult-use cannabis is going to change the way we think about New Mexico for the better – our workforce, our economy, our future,” tweeted Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham after signing the bill on Monday. Lujan is a major advocate for the positive benefits legalization could have for the state’s oil and gas-dependent economy, even calling a special legislative session in March to get the bill passed. 

New Mexico voters also had to work to make this moment happen. Last year, they voted out two anti-legalization Democrat state Senate leaders in their primary elections.

Two other states have legalized recreational cannabis during the last few days. At the end of March, New York managed to pass legislation after years of lawmaker debate over Drug War restitution and appropriate use of cannabis tax dollars. Virginia became the first Southern state to do so, with its law taking effect on July 1st. 

Financial estimates for the plant’s sale in New Mexico are rosy, with some public finance experts predicting the state could rake in $318 million in just the first year of sales. That would result in $20 million from excise taxes — set at 12 percent of retail sales, set to rise over the next few years to 18 percent, in addition to 5 to 9 percent local and state taxes — in the first fiscal year alone, and 11,000 jobs. 

The law takes effect — guaranteeing the right to possess cannabis for state residents — on June 29, though retail sales may not take place until April 1, 2022. Many finer points of the state’s new regulatory system need to be locked down by the beginning of the next, from product safety rules to requirements for cannabis business licenses.

New Mexicans will be able to grow six cannabis plants per person and up to 12 plants per household — important, given the lag likely to occur with retail sales. The legal possession limit outside one’s home is two ounces, or 28 grams. Police will no longer be able to use the scent of marijuana as justification for searches, and cannabis-related offenses that are no longer illegal under the new law will be expunged from individuals’ criminal records. 

Towns and cities will not be allowed to ban cannabis businesses from their jurisdictions, but they will have the final say when it comes to hours and location density. There are special allowances to facilitate the participation of Native communities in the new industry.

Governor Lujan has even suggested that cannabis legalization could help her state bounce back from an emotionally challenging year. 

“We’re all still feeling like we’ve been shell-shocked,” she told the Albuquerque Journal. “People need something to hang on to and believe in.”

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Many were hoping for a historic 4/20 celebration in Mexico, where legislators seemed to be on the brink of legalizing recreational cannabis. But word that the party may have gone up in smoke — in a bad way — broke Wednesday, when Senator Ricardo Monreal said that his peers are considering asking for yet another extension on the April 30th deadline the Supreme Court set for lawmakers to make weed legal across the country. 

“It’s not easy, and the Senate has a big dilemma; to accept the lower house’s bill so that it can take effect and comply with the judicial mandate, or ask for another deadline extension,” Monreal said, as reported by El Universal. 

Monreal, who’s also the president of ruling party Morena’s Senate political coordination board, warned of the problems that may arise by asking for an extension, including the possibility that the Court will declare the current prohibition of adult-use cannabis unconstitutional, “which could create chaos,” he said. 

The Mexican Senate approved a version of the legalization bill back in November, but it was modified by the lower legislative house, a.k.a. the Chamber of Deputies. But now, the Senate’s displeased about the changes made by the deputies, particularly regarding the removal of social justice-oriented requirements, such as quotas for cannabis business permits intended to prioritize individuals from Indigenous communities.  

In fact, legislators have voiced concern over a variety of topics included in the legislation, from a registry that would be required for those growing cannabis in their home, to what some see as extreme limitations on cannabis clubs, to the ability to consume cannabis in public areas.

The deputies’ version of the bill has already been approved by the Senate’s justice and second legislative studies committees. It only lacks the go-ahead from the health committee to be eligible for a Senate floor vote. If approved by the Senate, the legislation would head to the desk of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has indicated in the past that he is inclined to sign the bill. 

Over the two years since Mexico’s Supreme Court declared the prohibition on cannabis unconstitutional, there have been several deadline extensions granted to legislators to work out the drug’s regulation. The most recent extension, which was announced in December, allowed for four extra months of deliberations.

“We should not make imperfect laws,” said Monreal. “We should legislate with the utmost coherence and with the aim of solving social problems that are taking place. Neither economic concerns, profit-making, nor fundraising concerns should take priority over social interest.” 

In a country that has been wracked by a bloody War on Drugs, not all anti-prohibition activists are convinced by Monreal’s position. Drug policy coalition Regulación por la Paz tweeted on Wednesday, “We believe that an imperfect law is better than a perpetual prohibition.” 

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California is getting closer to becoming the next state to pass legislation that would loosen the prohibitionist stronghold against psychedelics. State senators on the Golden State’s public safety committee voted to advance a bill that would decriminalize the possession of many mind-expanding substances by 4 to 1 on Tuesday. 

SB 519 would decriminalize both the possession and use of psilocybin, psilocyn, MDMA, LSD, ketamine, DMT, mescaline, and ibogaine. Peyote is not included in the bill, whose text explains that the endangered plant is of too much significance to Native American communities — who are already allowed limited access to the drug under federal law — to open up its scarce supply to the wider market. 

Individuals with prior criminal charges associated with these drugs would have their records expunged. SB 519 also calls for the creation of a Department of Health taskforce to research best practices for a regulatory system and ways to encourage equitable access, to be reported back to the Senate by the beginning of 2024. 

Though the bill decriminalizes all kinds of usages of the substances, its text clearly articulates the medicinal value of the drugs that are included and eschews the notion of prioritizing for-profit psychedelics retail. The bill “does not imagine a ‘cannabis model’ or lay a foundation for retail trade in psychedelics,” according to comments made by the office of the bill’s main sponsor, State Senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco, to Marijuana Moment.

Depending on who you ask, SB 519 could actually be a step towards legalizing the drugs included in its scope. 

“While the bill is being described by lawmakers and advocates as simple ‘decriminalization,’ the official legislative analysis of the proposal states that it would ‘make lawful’ the personal possession and social sharing of these substances,” writes Marijuana Moment’s Kyle Jaeger. 

Regardless of legal interpretation, the Wiener hopes that its passage will spur further dismantling of prohibition. 

“People should not be going to jail for possessing or using drugs,” Wiener told the Guardian upon introducing the legislation in February. “It’s a health issue, not a criminal issue, and I hope that we get all the way there.”

The proposed law is not the only effort underway to expand access to psychedelics in California. Led by Decriminalize California, advocates are gathering signatures to get a ballot measure in front of voters in 2022. (A prior attempt last year was scuttled by COVID-era limitations on face-to-face politicking.)

On Tuesday, the California Senate committee also approved a bill that will enable the implementation of safe consumption sites for users of Schedule I drugs.

Oregon voters approved a pair of ballot measures to legalize medicinal mushrooms and decriminalize the possession of small amounts of all drugs last fall. New Jersey also signed a bill into effect in February that downgraded possession of small amounts of psilocybin to a disorderly person's offense.

Several cities across the US have already decriminalized magic mushrooms and other psychedelics. Denver and Oakland both have rules on the books doing so, and Washington D.C. passed such legislation in the fall elections. Santa Cruz, Ann Arbor, and the Massachusetts towns of Somerville and Cambridge have also passed legislation to reduce criminal penalties associated with the plants. 

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New York’s monumental legalization of adult-use cannabis this week has at least one federal politician thinking about when the United States will regulate the plant. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters on Wednesday that, "I support decriminalization at the federal level, and we'll be introducing legislation with a few of my colleagues shortly." 

With Mexico hovering on the brink of legalization, the United States is close to becoming the only North American country to uphold archaic cannabis prohibition laws. 

The Senate majority leader dodged questions of whether he personally was in favor of federally legalizing the drug. “Decriminalization, legalization,” Schumer said when asked. 

“At the federal level, you call it ‘decriminalization’ because that lets the states legalize,” he followed up. 

Schumer's obviously dodging the question. First of all, decriminalization and legalization mean two very different things to law enforcement — and the DEA — who will still likely arrest someone if they’re caught moving pounds of weed in a decriminalized landscape. We’ve seen this happen throughout recent history (even with psilocybin mushrooms in Denver after the city passed a decriminalization measure), even though “decriminalization” technically implies the removal of jail time. Arrests don’t always translate to jail bookings, however, but it’s never a positive thing when the cops know who you are or what you’re up to. 

Further, legalization bars the possibility of pretty much any penalty, as long as purchases, sales, and cultivation are within the legal limits or done with proper licensing. Legalization also opens the door to a legal commercial industry. So, no — the terms are not interchangeable like that, Schumer.

Despite dancing around the question, Schumer wrote in a March fundraising email that cannabis legalization is a top priority. 

"Voters in four more states this election voted to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana,” he wrote. “And that proves once again it’s past time to work to undo the harm done by misplaced priorities, particularly in Black and brown communities. It’s time to decriminalize marijuana nationally.”

In February, Schumer and Senators Ron Wyden and Cory Booker staged a meeting of cannabis advocates and industry folk to ponder what their federal legalization bill would look like.

The senators would like to avoid a repeat of last year, when the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act failed to gain momentum in the Republican-controlled Senate after being approved by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. 

Despite Democratic control of both houses, it is unclear if cannabis legalization will pass this year. On Tuesday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said that President Joe Biden’s opinion on marijuana legalization “has not changed.” 

In the past, Biden has indicated support for rescheduling of marijuana, and the removal of penalties for the drug’s possession. 

His Vice President Kamala Harris was a co-sponsor of the MORE Act, and in September promised in a town hall meeting that, “Under a Biden-Harris administration, we will decriminalize the use of marijuana and automatically expunge all marijuana-use convictions and end incarceration for drug use alone. This is no time for half-stepping, this is no time for incrementalism. We need to deal with the system.” 

The White House courted ire in March when it announced that five staff members had lost their jobs when they admitted to consuming cannabis in the past. The president has indicated that his administration acted in accordance with policy — one that he’s not inclined to change until federal legalization becomes a fact. 

Schumer’s similar declaration of support for advancing cannabis legalization in February caused cannabis stocks to rise. Analysts said they fell again in March due to apprehension over a legislative process that appeared to be stalling. 

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Seven law enforcement officials have been fired after allegedly killing 26-year-old Texan Marvin Scott III, a Black man whose family said he was likely suffering from a mental health crisis when he was picked up for marijuana possession on March 14. 

"Evidence I have seen confirms that these detention officers violated well-established Sheriff’s Office policies and procedures,” said Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner in a press statement. 

“Everyone in Collin County deserves safe and fair treatment, including those in custody at our jail. I will not tolerate less.”

An eighth officer resigned during an investigation into his conduct. The identities of the officers involved have not been released.

The Texas Rangers are now conducting a criminal investigation of the fired officers’ actions. 

For more than two weeks, Scott’s family has been protesting outside the county jail every evening in pursuit of justice. They want the officers arrested and security footage from the night of their son’s death to be released.

"We want to know, how did my son die?,” asked his mother, LaSandra Scott. “We want answers.” 

Scott was arrested on misdemeanor cannabis possession charges when he was found sitting next to a single joint at the Allen Premium Outlets Mall in Allen, Texas. The cops apparently had received a disturbance call that Scott had been acting irregularly.  

In a 2020 ACLU report, it was found that Black people are 3.64 times more likely to be arrested on marijuana possession charges than white people, and are arrested at higher rates in every state. Legalization has not corrected racial disparities in drug policing, and in some places, has made them worse. 

Some Texas law enforcement agencies have taken steps to divert police resources to such low-level drug arrests. Recently, a Dallas police chief announced that they'd arrest fewer people for possession of small amounts of cannabis.

Scott’s mother says that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia two years ago, but had not had an attack since his diagnosis. She says that he began using marijuana to deal with his symptoms.

Police first took Scott to an emergency room due to erratic behavior, and upon his release, transferred him to the Collin County Jail. 

"Why, why, why was he given medical clearance?” asked Scott’s mother at one of the family’s protests in front of the jail where he eventually died. 

A report states that once he arrived at the jail, Scott began to “exhibit some strange behavior” in the jail’s booking area — strange enough that it led the police to tie him to a bed, pepper spray him (with a substance known as OC spray, or oleoresin capsicum), and cover his face with a spit hood. 

The hood was left on Scott’s head for hours. He became unresponsive, and by the time an ambulance arrived, he was dead. 

A spit hood, according to a New York Times article from last year, is “a loose, breathable fabric sack that can be placed over a person’s head to prevent them from biting or spitting.”

The same NYT article, published after the asphyxiation death of Daniel Prude at the hands of Rochester, New York police, mentions that some jurisdictions have rules against putting a spit hood on someone who has been pepper sprayed. That lethal combination has likely claimed many lives, including that of Floridian Lloyd Edwards in 2018.

Results from an independent autopsy by a forensic pathologist hired by Scott’s family show that he probably died from asphyxiation and restraint. His official autopsy from the Collin County medical examiner has yet to be released. 

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A Detroit steakhouse has fired shots against people coming into the eatery smelling... loud. Last week, Caucus Club made a Facebook post that specified that the scent of cannabis is not what it considers “business attire.” 

“Seriously people, hoodies and jerseys are not business attire. Neither are ball caps and sneakers,” the post said, going on to draw blood over the green. “Most importantly, if you smell like marijuana don’t even think of stepping inside the Caucus Club.”

The restaurant describes itself as a “modern take on the classic dining experience perfect for Detroit's revitalization.”

The post went mildly viral, drawing applause from diners who have apparently had a lot of problems with other patrons in the restaurant smelling like weed. Others called out the post for the inconsistency in its messaging and coded racism in the kind of wardrobe it cited as unacceptable.

“The marijuana today .. is not the smell back in the day .. believe me I know,” wrote one Facebook user. 

“What about bad breath from drinking Alcoholic [sic] beverages?” asked another. 

“Could have left it at business attire, ‘cause we all know what the description sounds like or is trying to say lol,” wrote another. 

When interviewed by a local news station, the Caucus Club’s owner George Sboukis said that the restaurant has fielded complaints from customers about people wearing more casual outfits to the steakhouse, and showing up for their porterhouses reeking of bud. 

“We’ve had people celebrating their 50th [anniversary] last week, the week before that,” he said. “They’re getting dressed up, they're putting on an evening gown, their earrings, their best suit. They’re coming out to celebrate and they expect to be surrounded by like-minded guests.”

Apparently, that like-mindedness hinges on fellow diners’ pre-meal consumption habits. 

“It’s so pungent, some of the guests have commented, ‘It smells like you’re seated next to a dead skunk,’” Sboukis said. 

But marijuana consumers failed to see the point in the restaurant being rude to the plant’s users on Facebook. 

“‘Don’t even think about stepping inside’ lmao,” wrote one Facebook user. “Who talks to their clientele this way? You couldn’t have worded it a little more professionally at the very least? For someone that’s trying to ask for more professionalism from their patrons, you sure are doing a poor job of acting that way yourself.”

It’s not entirely clear that the steakhouse owner heard these concerns. 

"It was a reminder with a little bit of sauce just to get people’s attention,” Sboukis said. “I don’t mean any harm by it.” 

Certainly, it seems as though he’s not planning on changing his social media tune anytime soon. Yesterday the Caucus Club Facebook page had a new post, “When you think smelling like skunk is sweet, you’re the one who’s out of touch ...” it said. The rumination was accompanied by a clip of cancelled cartoon star Pepe Le Pew doing his thing and non-consensually kissing Penelope Pussycat. Clearly, they’re not over-concerned with offending everyone at the Caucus Club — just the well-dressed and under-stoned. 

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Cannabis cups have been around in Latin America since the beginning of the century, but rarely do they attract global attention. 

The creators of the Mexican Cannabis Cup (better known as Copa Cannábica Mexicana) are hoping that’s due to change. They recently announced the first Latin American Cannabis Cup (Copa Latinoamericana del Cannabis) will take place on August 7th and 8th in Costa Rica, at an as-yet-unannounced location. 

Organizers are hoping that the event will showcase the talent of Latin American growers and extractors, as legalization is gaining steam in the region. Mexico is inches away from becoming the world’s largest recreational market, Uruguay was the first country to legalize recreational cannabis in the world; while Argentina — where a recent weed expo drew hundreds of thousands of attendees — Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, and Peru have all legalized medicinal cannabis in some capacity. In the Caribbean, Jamaica made key reforms in 2015 decriminalizing cannabis possession, permitting self-cultivation, and legalizing religious and medicinal uses. 

“This event is meant to highlight Latin America in the cannabis movement at the global level,” says Alonso Soria, the event’s organizer. “Right now, the culture is very centralized in places like Barcelona, Holland, and the United States. We think this event will deliver a very intense punch for cannabis culture here in Latin America. There are so many countries that are coming up strong here.”

It’s hard to overestimate the role that cannabis cups have played in the development of cannabis quality. The competitions, originally pioneered by High Times Magazine, have offered massive opportunities for cultivators to come together and trade tips on how to coax the finest bud into being.

(Oh, and just FYI: In case you’re ready to book that flight, keep in mind that Costa Rican cannabis laws are vague, but possession of a “small amount” of weed is considered to be decriminalized — not legalized. There is a huge difference between the two.)

Copa Latinoamericana del Cannabis judge Pedro Nicoletti Motta at the 2020 Copa Cannábica Mexicana (Courtesy of Caitlin Donohue)

The cups that have confirmed their participation in the event are; Argentina’s Copa del Plata, Costa Rica Cannabis Cup, Ecuador’s Copa La Perla, Colombia’s Copa Farallones, Copa Cannábica México, Mexico’s Copa del Norte, Chile’s Copa Cannábica de los Andes, and Uruguay’s Copa Cannábica Canguro. 

Names that have so far been confirmed for the cup’s judging panel read like a who’s-who of OG Latin American cannabis activists. The people assessing flower, extract, and edibles at the region’s first cannabis cup include: Juan Vaz, founder of Uruguay’s Cannabis Studies Association and key consultant to the country’s government during its legalization process; Uruguay-based Argentinian cultivator and educator Gastón Durana; Chilean cultivator and founder of cannabis brand Anumka, Carlos “Lechuga” Prado; and the two co-founders of cannabis education platform Cannativa, Brazilian extraction and cannabis lab expert Pedro Nicoletti Motta and Mexican cultivation specialist and co-founder of the Latin American Network of Cannabis Women (RELAMUCA), Polita Pepper. 

For Soria, the event will be a chance for Latin American marijuana to show the world what it’s made of. “We want to show that we can compete with the quality, even in the countries with legal cannabis,” he says.

Follow the cup’s Facebook page for further announcements. 

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On Tuesday, Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced the formation of a 17-member advisory board to guide the state through the implementation of its ground-breaking law to make psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy available to the public.

That’s just one step being taken to prepare the state for the eventual implementation of Measure 109, in which 56 percent of voters approved last fall to legalize psychedelic mushroom therapy. 

And while business applications for mushroom health practitioners won’t be accepted until early 2023, one drug education collective is getting a head start on providing fellow Oregonians with the information they need to enter into this brave new era informed.

Meet Fruiting Bodies, a platform that was launched on March 13 by mushroom cultivator and community educator Elan Hagens (of Temptress Truffles) and Rebecca Martínez, an organizer, author, and event coordinator for the Yes on 109 campaign. 

The two are set on bringing pertinent fungal education to all Oregonians, and in particular the state’s BIPOC, veteran, and LQBTQIA+/gender non-conforming communities. Fruiting Bodies’ literature points out that such marginalized communities often experience higher rates of mental health conditions, and, thus, could benefit from psychedelic therapies. 

When asked about the latest development in the state’s preparations for going live with mushroom health care, Martínez takes a positive outlook.

“The board seems well-balanced, with experts from various disciplines and trusted leadership roles,” Fruiting Bodies’ she told MERRY JANE. “We're very glad to see Dr. Rachel Knox on the board.” 

Knox is an MD who specializes in the endocannabinoid system and who has been vocal on the racially-biased effects of the War on Drugs. 

“Psilocybin has been used in the healing and spiritual practices of Indigenous communities for a long time,” Knox told Marijuana Moment upon her appointment to the board. “Much of what we know about psilocybin comes from Indigenous knowledge, a fact that is too often overlooked.”

Despite the promising make-up of the advisory board, Fruiting Bodies hopes the government will take further steps to make sure all Oregonians are being taken into account by the state’s new industry. (BIPOC representation in Oregon’s mental health industry is a topic of much discussion — recently proposed legislation will hopefully increase racial diversity among mental health professionals, however.)

“We are hoping to see the formation of a subcommittee specifically focused on equity and access, featuring equally qualified leaders,” says Martínez. 

For their part, Hagens and Martínez have launched a $20,000 crowd-raising campaign to make sure their communities are being primed for the reality of legal magic mushroom therapy. They plan on developing educational podcasts — check out the first episode, which is already available on Anchor FM — e-books, and other forms of fungal teachings. They’ve even made well-organized infographics available on their social media pages in hopes to demystify the system that Measure 109 creates.

For Hagens and Martínez, their newly-born organization is a way to make sure the therapies they’ve come to respect are made available to those who need them.

“I’m a Black woman and I care about making these treatments relevant to my community,” Hagens said in a press statement. “I want to change the face of psychedelics so people from my neighborhood, people from my family’s church, can see that this medicine is safe and can improve our quality of life.” 

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While people across the world sport shamrocks and otherwise celebrate their Irish heritage today, it should be known that the prohibition of cannabis is alive and kicking in the island nation. Data from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office shows that seizures of marijuana have soared during the pandemic. 

In the first 11 months of 2020, the Garda (Irish for “Police”) Drugs and Organized Crime Bureau reportedly confiscated €36 million (approximately $42.8 million USD) worth of cannabis. That’s a 69 percent increase over the amount seized during the entire year of 2019, during which officers of the law nabbed €21.3 million (approximately $25.3 million USD) worth of marijuana. 

Cannabis accounted for half of the total monetary value of drugs Irish cops seized in 2020. The bureau also says it seized 209kg of cocaine (reported retail value €14.6 million), 24kg of heroin (€3.3 million), and 15kg of ketamine (€900,000.) 

The institution of police checkpoints, and pub and club shutdowns have led to a disruption of some cannabis sales. Overall, however, the drug trade has remained robust. 

According to police data, dealers have turned to different methodologies to unload their stock, like relying more on the postal service to move product.

Record seizures of cash by the Garda were reported as well, which law enforcement attributes to the difficulty of laundering money through businesses, like nightclubs and certain food businesses, during the pandemic. 

On December 18, 2020 alone, €117,000 worth of drugs including cannabis flower and gummies, psychedelic mushrooms, and liquid amphetamines were seized at Dublin Mail Centre. 

An unidentified detective told Irish publication The Journal that cannabis providers have also begun utilizing more rental cars to transport their supply, in order to dodge police interference with vehicles they know belong to people in the unlicensed drug market.

News of heightened police seizures comes at a time when Irish cannabis advocates are attempting to push back against conservative postures towards the drug. 

The People Before Profit political party has announced its plans to introduce recreational cannabis legislation in 2021, though political opponents claim the country is “not ready” for such a step. 

Medical cannabis regulation was approved in 2019, but implementation has been slow. Under pressure from advocates like People Before Profit legislator Gino Kelly, the government announced in January that cannabis treatment will finally be made available for individuals with multiple sclerosis muscle spasms, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, or severe epilepsy. 

In October, news emerged that the country’s minister of health Simon Harris — who has been outspoken on his support for Irish cannabis legalization for years — had attempted to broker a plan with a semi-public company that oversees Ireland’s famous bogs to grow cannabis on the island’s storied peatlands. 

Meanwhile, even purveyors of cannabis products that are technically legal under some European Union agreements have been persecuted by the Garda. Owners of small stores selling CBD products have vehemently protested raids by police officers on their businesses, while larger chain stores like those of Holland & Barrett, one of the UK and Ireland’s largest health and wellbeing companies, have been allowed to sell CBD items without interference. 

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You may know him by his outlandish statements such as “marijuana causes psychosis” and “there is no such thing as medical marijuana,” but Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts has taken his advocacy for prohibition to a new level. And this time, it’s to protect the children. 

"This is a dangerous drug that will impact our kids," Ricketts told the press last week. "If you legalize marijuana, you're gonna kill your kids. That's what the data shows from around the country.”

He cites studies that show an elevated incidence of cannabis in the system of kids who committed suicide as proof. 

Perhaps now would be a good time for a brief review of how science works. Statistical association does not prove causation. In other words, the fact that kids who took their lives had cannabis in their systems may actually indicate that they were attempting to medicate (consciously or not) with the drug to feel better, rather than the plant motivating their decision to die. 

In fact, the Mayo Clinic suggests that though we don’t fully understand the link between cannabis and depression, depressed people, “may use marijuana as a way to detach from their depressive symptoms.” 

At any rate, Ricketts made these remarks while Nebraska legislators determine whether they’re going to pass a bill that would legalize certain forms of medical marijuana, which would regulate the use of topical products, ointments, oils, pills, or tinctures. Patients would need to be under the supervision of a medical professional to access the treatment. 

After a similar bill was defeated in the Nebraska legislature last year, advocate group Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana mounted a campaign to let the state’s voters decide whether they could have access to medical cannabis. A ballot initiative gathered 196,000 signatures before a state Supreme Court judge struck it down, saying its scope was too large for a single ballot measure. 

That decision was not necessarily a win for democracy. At the time, a full 77 percent of Nebraskans were shown to support doctors prescribing cannabis for serious illnesses or conditions. 

In addition to the governor’s somewhat histrionic opposition to all forms of legal cannabis, another influential Nebraskan, former University of Nebraska football coach Tom Osbourne, has gone on the record saying that medical legalization would lead to widespread social and mental health problems. 

However, at the bill’s judiciary committee hearing last week, another famous Huskers hero, former All-American Grant Wistrom, said his life “dramatically improved” after using it to treat his aches and pains and regularize his sleep schedule. That’s kind of a big deal, given that the NFL only started liberalizing its zero tolerance THC testing policy last year. Prior to that decision, league officials had no problem in halting the careers of players who tested positive for cannabis. 

"This bill is not going to fail because of a lack of compromise," commented Senator Anna Wishart, who sponsored the initiative. "If this bill fails to pass, it is because of political pressure from a few who wield their power to stamp out the will of the people.”

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As of Wednesday afternoon, Mexico is one step closer to becoming the world’s largest licensed cannabis economy. The country’s lower legislative house, also known as the Chamber of Deputies, approved legislation to regulate recreational marijuana by a healthy margin of 316 to 129 votes, with 23 abstentions. 

The bill was already approved by the Senate, but underwent modifications leading up to the lower house’s vote, with amendments being discussed into the night on Wednesday. 

The legislation will now return to the Senate where it will likely be approved, according to representatives from President AMLO’s Morena Party, which holds the majority in both legislative chambers. 

The bill will allow individuals over the age of 18 to possess up to 28 grams of flower, and cultivate up to six plants (or eight per household) for personal use. Conviction of the possession of over 200 grams could still result in jail time, however. Cannabis clubs will be limited to 20 members, and there will be strict restrictions on how many plants can be grown in one facility.

More than two years have passed since the Mexican Supreme Court declared that it was everyones’ constitutional right to consume and cultivate cannabis. 

That decision made no mention of a commercial industry. it focused entirely on individual liberties as the basis for cannabis legalization. But there’s reasonable suspicion to believe the government has veered from its original intent. Many advocacy groups fear that foreign corporations have already lined legislators’ pockets to ensure they can easily do business in the country, ultimately changing how legalization will impact consumer rights and rural and indigenous communities. 

Among the bill’s modifications were the streamlining of business licenses, which is essentially designed to help larger (read: better funded) cannabis companies; and the elimination of affirmative action measures meant to benefit communities that have been impacted by Mexico’s bloody War on Drugs. 

The Chamber of Deputies’ bill also institutes a mandatory permit for those wishing to grow their own marijuana — one that will need to be renewed annually. The Senate’s proposal of a stand-alone federal agency dedicated to cannabis regulation was rejected.

Some politicians hope that cannabis legalization will help reduce Drug War-driven violence in the country — though, the bill’s recent modifications deprioritizing the communities most vulnerable to cartel control has somewhat dampened their enthusiasm.

Lucía Riojas Martínez is the legislator who famously passed a joint to Olga Sánchez Cordero, Mexico’s first woman Secretary of the Interior, on the Congress floor in 2019. Riojas told the New York Times that legalization “is an important step toward building peace in a country like ours, where for at least a decade or more, we’ve been immersed in an absurd war. But this bill falls short of achieving that.”

A recent DEA report suggests that cannabis trafficking by Mexican cartels has fallen dramatically as state-by-state legalization progresses in the US. Mexican drug justice groups like Regulación por la Paz now call for the decriminalization of all drugs, particularly the poppy used by cartels to manufacture heroin and other opioids for US and other foreign consumers. 

International cannabis firms are titillated over the prospect of accessing the 126 million-person Mexican market. Reuters reported that Colombian-Canadian company Khiron Life Sciences, Canada’s Canopy Growth, The Green Organic Dutchman, and California’s Medical Marijuana, Inc. are some of the businesses salivating to penetrate the still-gestating industry.

There will most certainly be a steep learning curve about cannabis issues in Mexico, where recent polls put resistance to legalization at 58 percent. 

Wednesday’s debate in the Chamber of Deputies made it clear that even the country’s political leaders have a lot to learn when it comes to cannabis use. 

“After just three bites of a chocolate cake with 550mg of THC, a person can trip for four days,” one legislator said in her comments to the general assembly. “That’s what they want! That’s what they want!” 

The video of her remarks was quickly recycled by an enterprising Mexican cannabis community that learned long ago to temper its expectations regarding how much politicians actually know about drug issues. Cannativa, a cultivation and extraction teaching platform, employed the clip for social media promotion of its upcoming clinical dosing course. 

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

Caitlin Donohue, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC

How on earth did legal offenses related to two versions of the same drug come to have such different punishments? That’s the situation in the United States with crack and cocaine. And the short answer to that question is: Racism. Of course. 

The problem began with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, inspired by University of Maryland star basketball player Len Bias, who overdosed the same night that the Boston Celtics picked him in the NBA draft. 

Under these laws, the possession of five grams of crack had a minimum penalty of five years in federal prison — the same sentence one received for the possession of 500 grams of cocaine. (Yes, you read that correctly!) The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 brought that disparity down from a 100-to-1 differential to an 18-to-1 ratio, which is still obviously imbalanced and thus unfair.

Thankfully, this past Tuesday, a group US Congress members introduced a bill that will begin to correct this 35-year-old law. The Eliminating Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law Act, also known as the EQUAL Act, would reduce sentencing for crack-related offenses to that of cocaine in its non-base form. 

A bill by the same name was introduced by Senators Corey Booker and Dick Durbin, which has been sitting in the judiciary committee’s docket since late January. 

Both pieces of legislation would retroactively apply to past offenses. 

An ACLU report released on the 20th anniversary of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act states, “it has become clear that there is no scientific or penological justification” for the differences in penalties for crack and cocaine-related crimes. The report found that the US Sentencing Commission has “concluded that crack is not appreciably different from powder cocaine in either its chemical composition or the physical reaction of its users.” 

One difference between the two drugs are their price points. Crack’s vastly lower street value means that it’s more readily available in poorer urban neighborhoods, which tend to be populated by Black and Latino communities — or at least, that’s where law enforcement has historically gone fishing for arrests. 

That type of policing is abusive because drug use rates have been statistically proven to be consistent across race and ethnicity, and studies have shown that people tend to buy drugs from dealers of their own race. And yet, a 2016 study showed that over half of the people imprisoned in the United States for drug-related offenses were Black or Latino — groups that comprise only 32 percent of the population. 

Hopefully, the EQUAL Act will help change this gross inequity. The bill was introduced by a bipartisan coalition of Democrat Representatives Hakeem Jeffries and Bobby Scott, and Republicans Kelly Armstrong and Don Bacon.

“These laws did nothing to change behaviors and only wasted taxpayer money and discriminated against minorities,” said Scott in a press statement. 

“The EQUAL Act will help reverse engineer the tragic legacy of the failed war on drugs which has devastated lives, families and communities,” stated Jeffries, who also authored the First Step Act, which former President Trump signed into effect in 2018 and which looks to reduce the country’s vast federal prison population. 

Jeffries continued, “Crack cocaine has historically been used in inner-city communities and powder cocaine in affluent neighborhoods and the suburbs. Put simply, the dividing line is race and geography.” 

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

Caitlin Donohue, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife