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Jimi Devine, LA Weekly, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

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The world’s premier outdoor cannabis event is going international. This August, the Emerald Cup will partner with a cannabis education festival in Britain for a cannabis cultivation event on the other side of the Atlantic.

When you think of collaborations in the Emerald Triangle, you tend to think of growers sharing their genetics in hopes of making something awesome — and not Warwickshire, United Kingdom. Nevertheless, times are a changing and the constantly expanding Emerald Cup will now bring the U.K.’s premier hemp and cannabis education event Product Earth Expo-Fest into the fold.

Product Earth Expo-Fest and The Emerald Cup announced their new partnership this week, saying that one of the goals for connecting the two festivals is to introduce some of the finest brands from the Emerald Triangle to the U.K.

The first big event for the new partnership will go down August 23-25 at the National Agricultural & Exhibition Centre with the 2019 edition of Product Earth Expo-Fest taking place over Britain’s August Bank Holiday Weekend.

“It’s interesting because it was one of those situations where we were looking to expand into Europe, then this kind of came right in front of us,” Emerald Cup co-producer Taylor Blake told Cannabis Now. Blake said a member of the team had met Product Earth Expo-Fest founder James Walton and he seemed up their alley. After a conference call with the whole squad, it was pretty evident Walton was their European counterpart.

Walton said in a statement that the partnership with the Emerald Cup was born out of a shared goal to “showcase the future of farming both in Britain and around the world.”

Walton said in a statement that the partnership with the Emerald Cup was born out of a shared goal to “showcase the future of farming both in Britain and around the world.”

Walton has worked in the U.K. cannabis and hemp sectors for over 20 years.

“I felt compelled to organize an exhibition to support this emerging market with a unique concept that combines my deep love of music with knowledge and passion for this amazing plant,” said Walton. “Turns out, Tim [Blake, Taylor’s father and co-founder] and the Emerald Cup are doing the same in the U.S., so why not join forces?”

Blake says one the things that surprised her was just how much name recognition California brands already had in Europe. “I was really surprised that California and the brands from there are kind of global,” she told Cannabis Now. “They set a global precedent and trend. I obviously kind of felt that in my soul, but I didn’t really know it until I got over there.”

A lot of the brands Blake referenced as being big in Europe built their names on The Emerald Cup awards show stage. She said she was excited to give cannabis cultivators new opportunities to get their brand out there.

“I think that’s the best part of the experience I’ve had along the way with The Emerald Cup — just seeing the community that kind of has surrounded itself, whether it’s past cup winners, past vendors, past employee,” said Blake. “ I think it’s really cool to see where we’ve grown together. That’s kind of what we were talking about with Product Earth, we’re really excited to bring a touch of the Emerald Cup.”

Product Earth Expo-Fest takes place annually and doubles as a trade show that’s also an educational experience for the general public. It’s held in partnership with the British Hemp Association.

Some the highlights of the August festival are slated to include genetics panels and Q&As with California’s finest, production and harvest workshops, and a ton of other stuff getting deep into all the particulars about hemp, CBD and full-spectrum cannabis.

In December of this year, the Emerald Cup will still be held in Santa Rosa, California.

TELL US, would you want to smoke an Emerald Cup winning strain?

The post The Emerald Cup Is Expanding to Europe appeared first on Cannabis Now.

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Jimi Devine, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

In its report on 2019’s 420 trends, cannabis industry analysis company Headset’s first and biggest takeaway was that, despite four years of legal marijuana in certain parts of the U.S., the novelty has certainly not worn off.

Headset reported that, this year, 420 saw a sales boost that slightly exceeded predictions. Sales were up 128% around the country, compared to the four previous Saturdays. Headset had originally predicted it would be around 100% and 120%.

The report also found that the night before 420 was popping, too. Headset said Fridays are already the most popular days for legal pot purchasing, but this one saw a sizable boost of 27% over the previous four.

Headset produced its report from real-time sales data reported by participating cannabis retailers via point-of-sale systems, which are linked up with Headset’s data analytics platform. The numbers in the report are based on data collected from retailers on April 20, 2019 and the four previous Saturdays.

Meanwhile, Flowhub collected data on the holiday from seven states. Their biggest takeaway was that total sales increased by 7%. There was also a 9% increase in both the total number of people coming through the doors of the dispensary from last year and the number of transactions they made.

Consumers in Maryland were hit the hardest in the wallet. There, the average sale amount before taxes was a whopping $105. Meanwhile, in Oregon, people spent an average of only $36 and likely walked away with more than an ounce in plenty of dispensaries. In other developed markets like Nevada and Colorado, prices were in the mid $50s, but prices jumped when you got to the world’s largest legal marketplace in California. The average purchase in the Golden State was $76.

The Demographics of 420 Shoppers in 2019

According to Seed, the folks making their way to dispensaries for 420 were experienced buyers. In the week before the holiday, beginner users made up 40% of the people that made their way into dispensaries. On 420, that number dropped 15%, with only a quarter of customers being new users. The lion’s share of holiday shoppers were intermediate, as they made up nearly half of all customers.

Who were these shoppers? Seed’s data showed 67% of all 420 shoppers were men between the ages of 21 and 34 years old. Senior citizens appeared to want nothing to do with those hyphy whippersnappers, as shoppers over the age of 55 made up only 4% of the people that visited dispensaries on 420. People over the age of 45 only made up 13%.

Another trend according to Seed was that women over the age of 35 showed up less than expected compared to the weeks prior.

What People Bought on 420 in 2019

While the world of cannabis products is expanding fast, flower is still king. While Colorado saw flower make up 8% less of all total purchases this year compared to last, flowers still made of over half of all purchases, according to Flowhub. Concentrates made up a third of all purchases, and basically, everything else was spent on edibles.

Headset said the common thing about the products that saw the most growth this year was they were ready to consume as soon as people walked out. The area that saw the most growth was beverages, which saw 136% sales growth.

Headset said it was also a huge day for moving inventory. The holiday itself moves 12% of all the product sold in April up to 420.

TELL US, what did you buy on 420 this year?

The post 420 Boosts Cannabis Sales Again in 2019, Data Shows appeared first on Cannabis Now.

http://bit.ly/2I68Fi3 May 5, 2019 at 09:54AM, 420GrowLife, KahliBuds

One of the first representatives to champion cannabis in Congress was Dana Rohrabacher, a long-serving Republican representing California’s 48th district in Orange County.

During his tenure, Rohrabacher co-founded the Congressional Cannabis Caucus and co-authored significant cannabis language in Congress. However, when he was unseated by Democrat Harley Rouda in the 2018 midterms, Rohrabacher left behind a mixed legacy, tarnished with an abnormal fondness for Russia and buoyed by his leading work on cannabis reform.

Rohrabacher is most famous in cannabis circles for spending a decade working to block the Department of Justice from spending its resources to go after state-legal medical marijuana patients and dispensaries, in what was first known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment and later became known as the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment. In recent years, he was also a staunch advocate of wider adult-use cannabis legalization. He stood alongside now-California Gov. Gavin Newsom in San Francisco as they announced in spring of 2016 that the Adult Use of Marijuana Act had garnered enough signatures to get on the ballot.

In 2018, Rohrabacher was one of seven representatives in California that Democrats pushed hard to unseat during the midterm elections. They were successful in unseating him from a position he’d held since 1989. Today, Rohrabacher says, “I’m a free man after all these years,” and he tells Cannabis Now that he has spent much of his time preparing his family for a cross-country move to the shores of Maine.

On Monday, we spoke to Rohrabacher over the phone about the future of cannabis policy in Congress, how he thinks cannabis legalization will influence the 2020 presidential elections and why he thinks President Donald Trump hasn’t moved to legalize pot yet.

Why Congress Hasn’t Acted More on Cannabis Policy

We asked Rohrabacher why much of Congress has not progressed at the same rate as their constituencies on the cannabis issue, given that recent polling shows 84 percent of Americans support legalizing cannabis.

He was quick to point out that his amendments blocking federal agencies from using funding to target state-legal cannabis businesses used more of a states’ rights approach to garner support, as opposed to how any individual group might be polling.

“That was a huge step forward from nothing to something,” Rohrabacher said. “Now what we need are a bunch of little steps in order to match that giant step we made, in order to make it work, in order to make it practical.”

He pointed to how impractical moves like blocking banking access to the legal market are, saying, “How stupid is that?”

He said he believes there are a lot of issues like cannabis banking that, when rectified, will make the cannabis industry able to function like a real industry. He said the reason that these things haven’t changed at the pace we would hope is a lack of leadership.

“We had almost no leadership during the Obama administration,” he said. “I was expecting after we passed the original Rohrabacher-Farr amendment that, because I was just dealing with Democrats inside the Obama administration, we’d be making a lot of progress. And we did not.”

Rohrabacher said the Attorney General — though he did not specify under Trump or Obama — could have easily taken cannabis off Schedule I “and we could have done a number of things.”

Rohrabacher went on to say, despite former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ prohibitionist ideas and the president not making any concrete moves forward, the Trump administration has been on the right side of the cannabis issue.

“His [Sessions’] presence became a real drag on everything,” Rohrabacher said. “But as I said, I think President Trump has made it real clear he’s on our side. Whether people use medical marijuana… whether personal use by adults should be left up to the states.”

Rohrabacher said he believes one of the reasons there hasn’t been a lot of movement on cannabis legalization under Trump is that the president was “in survival mode” before going into midterms last year. He now believes by the second half of 2019 there will be a federal legalization plan.

Why Rohrabacher Thinks Federal Cannabis Legalization Will Happen By 2020

“By the time we have a presidential election, there will be some more activity on it and the president will be on our side,” Rohrabacher said. “Which will help out tremendously, especially if Biden is the Democratic nominee.”

Rohrabacher added that former Vice President Joe Biden, who declared he was running as a Democratic candidate for president on April 25, was a huge proponent of the War on Drugs and mass incarceration. “Joe Biden is a drug warrior, much more than the President ever was,” Rohrabacher said.

While the cannabis legalization issue has become increasingly bipartisan, Rohrabacher said that if Biden became the Democratic candidate, the president could use it to make cannabis his personal cause.

“I think it will all come down to who the nominee is for the Democratic Party,” he said. “If it’s Biden, and then we have President Trump talking about being the person that wants to liberalize marijuana laws.”

However, Rohrabacher said he expects the primary battle to pull Biden closer to center on the marijuana issue, given that currently, he is the only presidential candidate from either party advocating against marijuana legalization.

“Oh yeah, clearly Biden will be changing his position and altering it trying to pretend what he was doing before he didn’t do,” Rohrabacher alleged. “He’s going to try and create the illusion he wasn’t the ultimate drug warrior before. That’s what he’ll try to do. If anyone buys that from him, they’re fools.”

Rohrabacher believes if Biden were to make it all the way to the Oval Office, he thinks it unlikely that he would act on cannabis legalization. “I’d imagine the best we could get under Biden is no action,” he said.

“He wasn’t just someone that wasn’t going along with the people like myself,” he said. “I believe in freedom, that people have a right to control their own lives — and to consume, especially when it comes to cannabis, the plants God gave us. Biden doesn’t believe that.”

Rohrabacher said he hopes to convince Trump in the coming months to come out with a very strong pro-cannabis legalization position.

TELL US, when do you think cannabis will be federally legal?

The post Exclusive: Dana Rohrabacher Talks Trump & Why He Thinks Cannabis Will Likely Be Legal By 2020 appeared first on Cannabis Now.

http://bit.ly/2I68Fi3 May 1, 2019 at 05:57AM, 420GrowLife, KahliBuds

The Republican leadership of the Wisconsin Statehouse has put a full stop Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’s planned major overhaul of the state’s marijuana law.

On Thursday, the co-chairs of the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Financial Committee Sen. Alberta Darling and Rep. John Nygren spoke at a luncheon hosted by WisPolitics.com where they quickly snuffed out any hopes of major marijuana policy reform this year.

The conversation started around the general expectations for the budget. Twenty minutes into the panel, after talking about big-ticket items for Wisconsin like Medicaid expansion and K-12 education, the conversation moved on to criminal justice. That was when the Republican leaders began talking about the marijuana reforms that currently placed in the state’s budget.

“Governor Evers ran on reducing the prison population by 50%, I think he made the claim decriminalizing marijuana was enough to do that. It’s not, it’s not even close,” Rep. Nygren told the luncheon. “There is an opportunity for us to find common ground, but it’s not necessarily decriminalizing marijuana or things like that.”

When asked if marijuana decriminalization belonged in the budget, the two representatives responded that they would be cutting it out of the final version.

“It will not be in the budget,” Nygren said.

When pushed about whether there would be revenue implications on the budget for the continued policing of cannabis, Nygren responded again, “It will not be in the final budget passed.” 

Darling elaborated: “If you look at the research on marijuana, decriminalization is one issue. But he [Gov. Evers] is talking about the manufacturing being made legal, and distribution made legal. When you read what he actually has in his budget, it’s really off-the-wall scary.”

But Darling’s interpretation of “off-the-wall scary” has been embraced by the states with the most well-conceived marijuana programs. With no state-to-state cannabis commerce legal under the federal government yet, if medical cannabis were to be legalized in Wisconsin, it must be produced in-state. Furthermore, the distribution system is where many of the checks and balances protecting consumers happen, from lab testing to bulk product being moved to child-resistant packaging.

“Just because it’s fiscal doesn’t mean it’s appropriate to be in the budget,” Nygren said. “So, I’m thinking that’s the substance, in my opinion, no pun intended. It needs a much larger conversation than being stuck into a 2000 page document that a legislature can take a pass and be like ‘I voted for it for all this other stuff.’ I believe if it’s going to happen, I think there are some people that could get there on medical marijuana — if it were a true prescription actually prescribed by a doctor.”

Nygren closed by reemphasizing there are things that could get Republicans to support medical marijuana, just not stuffed in a budget proposal.

“What’s really scary is that there are still high-level officials so committed to depriving sick and dying people of access to medical cannabis.” – Mason Tvert

We asked the Marijuana Policy Project for their take on Darling and Nygren’s statements on marijuana reform in Wisconsin. In regards to Darling’s “off-the-wall scary comment” spokesman Mason Tvert, who led Colorado’s successful effort to legalize marijuana for years, said: “What’s really scary is that there are still high-level officials so committed to depriving sick and dying people of access to medical cannabis. Marijuana is not only less harmful than many prescription drugs, but also alcohol, a substance these state legislators appear to openly embrace.”

Tvert provided Cannabis Now with evidence that both Nygren and Darling take money from the beer, wine and liquor industry. “They should explain why they’re happy to accept campaign contributions from the alcohol industry, but believe adults should face criminal penalties if they make the safer choice to use marijuana instead,” he said.

NORML said it’s clear that the people of Wisconsin overwhelmingly support marijuana law reform, as 16 counties in the state voted in favor of non-binding marijuana-related referendums in the state just last year.

“It’s time for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to work together in a bipartisan manner and take action on this important issue,” said NORML State Policies Coordinator Carly Wolf. “By failing to include Governor Evers’ reform language in the budget proposal, Republican leaders are continuing to perpetuate the arrests of black and brown Wisconsinites at disproportionate rates, and both parties need to take action so that cannabis consumers of all backgrounds are no longer treated like criminals in Wisconsin.”

TELL US, do you think cannabis should be decriminalized?

The post Wisconsin Republicans Kill Decrim and Medical Marijuana Reforms Attached to Budget appeared first on Cannabis Now.

http://bit.ly/2I68Fi3 April 27, 2019 at 05:20AM, 420GrowLife, KahliBuds

Sometimes in this fast-paced world of changing cannabis laws, we lose track of how many people are still entering the criminal justice system because of crimes related to cannabis possession.

While much of the talk around cannabis currently is about improving bank accounts, efforts like the one just announced by Ben & Jerry’s and California cannabis company Caliva is more about improving lives. In a very cool move, the Vermont ice cream titan will be adding a free pint of ice cream to every order placed on Caliva on April 19 and April 20 — and Caliva has pledged to donate 4.20% of its total sales on 420 to the non-profit Code for America in support of the Clear My Record program.

“What could be better to celebrate 420 than Caliva’s products and Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked ice cream?” said Dennis O’Malley, CEO of Caliva in a statement announcing the campaign this weekend. He noted that Clear My Record is “dedicated to giving people a second chance to get jobs and housing by clearing cannabis records.”

The Clear My Record program is based around an algorithm that has already cleared the records of thousands of California residents since Code for America started it in 2016. The recent automation of the process in certain municipalities has been major, most notably in Los Angeles, where it expunged 54,000 records earlier this month. Previously, people who qualified for getting their record cleared had a few hoops to jump through, but the program has streamlined this process.

“This is not the first time Ben & Jerry’s have used the holiday to push for reform.”

According to Ben & Jerry’s, Caliva’s support for Code for America is the reason why they are going so big on 420 this year.

“Knowing that Caliva is challenging the status quo of bogarting human rights of non-violent offenders — and providing these communities a second chance — is exactly the 420 effort we want to support,” said Ben & Jerry’s Marketing Manager Justin Gural. “We want to have some fun with fans on the holiday with the delivery surprises, and supporting Clear My Record is no doubt the cherry on top.”

This is not the first time Ben & Jerry’s have used the holiday to push for reform. Last year, they kicked off a campaign to get their army of ice cream enthusiasts to get in touch with their c to push to reform cannabis laws.

Last April, both Ben and Jerry (Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield) spoke at A.C.T. to End Racism in Washington, D.C. They spoke of how they were two successful businessmen, partially thanks to the way law enforcement handled an encounter where Cohen was in possession of cannabis.

Cohen asked the crowd to imagine he had not walked away with a ticket for littering from that encounter and ended up in jail with a record for a joint. He would not have qualified for the Small Business Administration loan that was critical to getting their first shop in Burlington, Vermont open.

“If Jerry and I had been black, there never would have been a Ben & Jerry’s,” Cohen told the crowd.

TELL US, what cause are you supporting this 420?

The post Ben & Jerry’s Backs Cannabis Record Expungement Program for 420 appeared first on Cannabis Now.

http://bit.ly/2I68Fi3 April 17, 2019 at 10:10PM, 420GrowLife, KahliBuds

As California’s cannabis market continues to develop slower than many anticipated, 24 cities and one county in the state have moved to sue the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control over new rules that allow cannabis delivery to be conducted anywhere in California, regardless of local rules.

The plaintiffs are attempting to halt a regulation that would allow any legally licensed California cannabis delivery service to serve customers anywhere in the state, regardless if they have received local permitting. This is because the local jurisdictions believe aspects of the state’s cannabis regulations — Adult Use of Marijuana Act — give them the ability to control how cannabis businesses operate in the city.

The League of California Cities is backing the effort, led by Sacramento law firm Churchwell White LLP.

“Californians voted to allow recreational and commercial cannabis with the specific promise that each community would be able to regulate or even ban it within their community,” said Covina City Councilmember Walter Allen III in a statement released by the league. “The BCC’s actions in adopting this regulation burden local governments in jurisdictions that have regulated or banned commercial cannabis deliveries.”

However, advocates for allowing cannabis delivery across the state say that the rule helps ensure people with disabilities have access to medical cannabis — no matter the local rules — and that banning delivery would only further encourage people to turn to the illicit market.

Local Control of Cannabis vs. Medical Marijuana Access Rights

“I met a woman in a wheelchair who eases her chronic pain with cannabis. She lives a 90-minute drive from a dispensary. Her tiny town won’t allow any cannabis businesses,” Justin Hall, the founder of delivery service Bud.com, told Cannabis Now. “She described herself living in a ‘weed desert.’ Anyone in a weed desert where delivery is banned would be served only by something outside the system: ensuring no visibility, no quality testing and no tax revenue.”

Hall went onto say cities shouldn’t be filing lawsuits the BCC to prevent regulation-studying, compliance-practicing cannabis companies from offering delivery of stress reduction and pain relief to anyone over the age of 21 in California.

Hezekiah Allen, who previously led the California Growers Association and still keeps a finger on the pulse of the already-dwindling number of small cultivators in California that have been able to transition to the legal market, said that the removal of the delivery rule could impact producers already fighting for shelf space in California’s big markets.

“The lawsuit is going to hit the entire regulated market hard,” Allen told Cannabis Now in an email. “The only people who will benefit from this lawsuit are unlicensed sellers of cannabis. The regulated market can’t succeed if patients and consumers can’t access regulated cannabis from licensed farms. This lawsuit seeks to restrict access to regulated cannabis and will be a big benefit to unregulated cannabis retailers.”

In a move that suggests they are hoping for a bit more of a conservative bench, the plaintiffs filed the case in Fresno Superior Court, where they allege the rule — BCC Regulation 5416(d) — is invalid. According to them, the promises of cities and counties being able to regulate pot locally was one of the major aspects of Proposition 64.

The specific language the plaintiffs point to is in the “Business and Professions Code,” sections 26090 and 26200, which was the main guarantee for cities and counties when it came to regulating or banning the operation of recreational and commercial cannabis deliveries within their communities. They also pointed to Section 26200, which asserted “nothing shall limit the authority of cities and counties to regulate or completely prohibit commercial cannabis activities within their jurisdiction.”

The Cities Behind the Cannabis Delivery Lawsuit

Despite the case being filed in Fresno, the municipalities taking part in the lawsuit are a cross-section of California, from the Bay Area to Beverly Hills. Most surprisingly to some, Santa Cruz County is the lone county taking part, despite marijuana’s long history of being intertwined with the area. “The BCC is fundamentally changing Proposition 64, eroding local control and harming our local cannabis businesses by allowing commercial cannabis deliveries in every jurisdiction in California. This betrays the promise made to the voters in Proposition 64,” said Supervisor Ryan Coonerty, chair of the Board of Supervisors of Santa Cruz County. Coonerty has also previously served as m of Santa Cruz.

Further south in Beverly Hills, Mayor John Mirish was well positioned to make the argument this had nothing to do with being for or against pot in general.

“We are left with no choice but to challenge these regulations because they violate key provisions of local control promised to voters when they passed Proposition 64,” said Mirisch in a statement. “By usurping local ordinances, these regulations interfere with local governments’ ability to enact local regulations that may be necessary to protect the public safety and public health.”

We asked the National Cannabis Industry Association for their take on the kind of impact the law could have on participants in the world’s biggest legal cannabis market in California. They said it isn’t an issue they’re working on directly, given their efforts generally are focused on federal issues — but they said they are keeping an eye on the situation for sure.

“NCIA supports policies that allow for regulated home delivery of cannabis,” NCIA Executive Director Aaron Smith told Cannabis Now. “This is especially important for medical cannabis patients who sometimes have mobility issues that make it difficult to travel to a retail facility, especially if they are living in a city that has banned them. Further, if we can successfully regulate the home delivery of alcohol through apps like Drizly, there’s no reason to prohibit the same type of delivery for cannabis to adults over 21.”

Representatives of the Marijuana Policy Project said Prop. 64 granted local governments the authority to regulate or ban retail cannabis storefronts, but not cannabis deliveries.

“The proposed statewide delivery system would enable more California consumers to access cannabis legally from licensed businesses and reduce their reliance on the illegal market,” said MPP spokesman Mason Tvert. “In some parts of the state, delivery would be the only viable way in which many consumers could legally purchase cannabis products.”

TELL US, have you ordered cannabis delivery before?

The post 24 California Cities File Lawsuit To Stop Cannabis Delivery in Their Area appeared first on Cannabis Now.

http://bit.ly/2uEgYtD April 9, 2019 at 09:14PM Jimi Devine, KahliBuds

http://bit.ly/2uEgYtD

While the announcement that the Drug Enforcement Administration was looking for someone to burn the massive amounts of marijuana they need to destroy in Texas is still making laps on the web, not much has been noted about the fact the DEA has now awarded the contract to a Tuscon, Arizona company.

The awarding of the contract was a scoop from KJZZ, Phoenix’s NPR affiliate. They reported that the Houston Division of the DEA had selected Tucson Iron & Metal as the only viable vendor in the area where they need to send the weed.

At the very least, the Arizona company will be destroying four tons of marijuana a day. But that was just the baseline for entry into the running, so who knows what the facility is entirely capable of. When we reached out, Tucson Iron & Metal quickly rejected our queries into how they got the gig and said they had no comment.

The DEA, however, did respond to our inquiries about how the agency made the decision to go with Tucson Iron & Metal as the vendor to burn thousands of pounds of cannabis.

From the Lion’s Mouth

DEA Special Agent Sammy Parks told Cannabis Now that the office wasn’t able to describe the process, mainly because the awarding part is handled by a separate entity. “There is a process for how contracts are awarded government-wide, it’s for everything we do. It doesn’t just stand alone for a vendor looking to dispose of our evidence,” Parks said.

But the DEA will be the one executing the operation. According to the prior notice, agents and armed contractors will be onsite to supervise the burns that will go for a minimum of eight hours at a time.

We asked Parks how large the backlog of marijuana the division needs to destroy is.

“We’re not structured to store thousands and thousands of pounds of drugs. It builds up and it builds up, then we eventually have to dispose of it, right?”

“It varies,” he replied. “This is bulk drugs, significant seizures.” After speaking on the actual size of the area covered by the Houston field office, Parks noted, “There is no set standard to how much drugs we seize per quarter. There is no mechanism in place for that. It varies every time.”

Parks said the DEA works to destroy the cannabis evidence as soon as the cases are adjudicated.

“We’re not structured to store thousands and thousands of pounds of drugs. It builds up and it builds up, then we eventually have to dispose of it, right? Which may sound odd, but it’s a part of our job,” Parks said.

We asked if the Houston Division of the DEA saw more confiscations than other places further west along the border. Parks said he couldn’t speak to those exact kinds of comparisons, but he said they certainly have some of the hot spots for marijuana trafficking on the border where a lot if the seizures are happening on almost a daily basis.

Parks mentioned the ongoing media blitz around the initial announcement they were looking for a vendor. “If you just query ‘DEA burning marijuana,’ there are so many results. We got an influx of calls. There was a lot.”  

According to the DEA’s 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment, despite the tons of weed being taken off the street by the Houston field division, the availability of marijuana remains high locally. The report also noted the scale of the amount of marijuana flowing into Texas. In 2016, the seizures in Laredo were up 22 percent, totaling over 68,000 kilos. Right next door in the Rio Grande Valley district, where Houston is located, they took in over 140,000 kilos.

If the DEA wanted to destroy all that marijuana in one go, given the requirements set forth in the initial announcement, they would have to run the furnace for roughly 458 hours straight, or 19 days.

TELL US, we spoke to the DEA about burning cannabis. What would you ask them about?

The post The DEA Has Found Someone to Burn 1,000 Pounds of Cannabis per Hour appeared first on Cannabis Now.

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http://bit.ly/2I68Fi3 April 3, 2019 at 09:06PM WEED.NEWS, Jimi Devine April 3, 2019 at 09:39PM