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Cannabis News

cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
It's not like there is anything wrong in principle in growing hundreds of plants. There probably are commercial enterprises in Colorado licensed by the state that have similar numbers of plants. So they are going to spend two or three years in jail for what amounts to not having the right permits... harrumph. Why not just fine the shit out of them, take away their plants and tell them to do it the right way? I suppose because it's the feds, for whom there is no right way, even though they are not going after licensed commercial growers in Colorado, mostly.
I imagine they want the public punishment to provide an example. If they were to only fine people it might be a gamble that more people were willing to take, but sending folks to jail will likely be a better (more effective) threat.
 

Gunky

Well-Known Member
I dunno, it bothers me that one person could be left alone to make a tidy profit for more or less the same thing that gets another carted off to jail. Does not seem like equal application of justice. Conflicting state and federal laws, selective application of the federal rules... shee-it! Healthy looking plants they had. What a waste. And those stupid guys in their haz-mat suits! Cheese louise touching raw weed isn't going to have any effect. At some point maybe the federal government will actually bother to learn something about this plant...
 
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Gunky

Well-Known Member
I haven't kept up on this but it's possible Colorado canna-biz is still staying below the 100-plant limit (per site) that the feds used to impose for medical - above a hundred they raided. So in that case maybe this couple really were doing something a bit out of the ordinary. I'm still trying to figure out how they had eight or nine hundred inside a residence. Typically a plant takes a space at least 2' x 2' and those plants in the picture were not small. Possibly they were doing some sort of sea of green and had a bunch of tiny plants in some rooms?
 
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Ramahs

Fucking Combustion (mostly) Since February 2017
Oh the horror...

Couple gets 2-3 years in prison for growing enough weed to roll 150k joints in south Aurora home
DEA.Pot.Bust_.10.18.jpg

Marijuana plants line a driveway outside a home in southeast Aurora after a massive DEA raid on homes across the city in Oct. 10, 2018 PHOTO BY QUINCY SNOWDON
AURORA | A husband and wife from Aurora have each been sentenced to several years in federal prison for growing hundreds of marijuana plants in their south Aurora home.

A federal judge on Monday sentenced Huanyu Yan, 54 and You Lan Xiang, 50, to three years and two and a half years, respectively, in federal prison for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, possessing more than 100 marijuana plants and maintaining a drug-involved premises, according to the local U.S. Attorney’s Office. Yan and Xiang were found guilty following a four-day trial late last year.

Federal authorities and investigators with the Aurora Police Department recovered 878 marijuana plants and almost 10 pounds of cured weed in the basement of the couple’s home at 20050 E. Doane Drive after executing a search warrant there Oct. 10, 2018.

The plants would have yielded enough product to roll approximately 150,000 joints, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“These defendants turned their family home into a full-scale drug manufacturing facility,” U.S. Attorney for Colorado Jason Dunn said in a statement.

Per state law, Colorado residents are permitted to grow up to 12 marijuana plants per residence, barring special circumstances. The prior household limit had been six plants per resident over the age of 21, although a new state law caps the number of plants per home at a dozen, regardless of how many people are living in the dwelling.

Yan and Xiang were among dozens of black market marijuana cultivators implicated in widespread illegal distribution after federal agents raided dozens of homes in late 2018. More than 250 homes across the metroplex were ultimately searched, with more than 80,000 marijuana plants and 4,500 pounds of finished weed recovered.

“This federal and state joint investigation targeted individuals seeking to profit from the illicit production and distribution of marijuana,” Deanne Reuter, Special Agent in Charge of the Denver Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said in a statement. “This conviction serves as a message to all individuals who are seeking to profit from the illicit sale of marijuana; they can and will be held accountable for their actions.”

Even in a legal state.
Piece of shit fucking pigs they are. :goon:

Maybe if we started doxing all the pigs who take part in this type of shit, some would eventually start disobeying orders out of fear?

I'm normally against doxing...but we have to defend ourselves somehow, right?
It's not like we can just take out their families like the old days. That would be wrong and immoral. We really shouldn't have to go beyond the law at all just to protect the business anymore. But they are always trying to force us to take it to that level.

Don't let them have their way. They can't make us cross that boundary. Al they want to do is force us to do something to get us locked up. We can't let them win that way. We're better than that these days.

I know I'm not the person anymore that I was back in those days. I don't even own a gun anymore. I'm just sayin'.
 
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macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member
DEA Admits State-Level Marijuana Legalization Reduces Illegal Market Demand


The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently acknowledged in a report that state-level marijuana legalization reduces instances of illegal interstate trafficking.

========================================================================
Welcome to the world of craft weed
The best-case scenario is a weed industry modeled on the beer or wine industry. In that world, we’d have the weed equivalent of Anheuser-Busch or Marlboro but also a whole host of small farmers growing and selling high-quality craft weed. And this would not only be great for consumers, it would also be an economic boon for rural communities across the country.
 
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macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member
Pot entrepreneurs flocking to the Bible Belt for low taxes
https://apnews.com/58daeb2ed452710e03ea4542976a620a
Though 11 states have fully legalized marijuana for recreational use, Oklahoma’s medical law is the closest thing to it: Anyone with any ailment, real or imagined, who can get a doctor’s approval can get a license to buy. It’s not hard to do. Already, nearly 6% of the state’s 4 million residents have obtained their prescription cards. And people who want to sell pot can do it as easily as opening a taco stand.
 

mitchgo61

I go where the thrills are
Pot entrepreneurs flocking to the Bible Belt for low taxes
Though 11 states have fully legalized marijuana for recreational use, Oklahoma’s medical law is the closest thing to it: Anyone with any ailment, real or imagined, who can get a doctor’s approval can get a license to buy. It’s not hard to do. Already, nearly 6% of the state’s 4 million residents have obtained their prescription cards. And people who want to sell pot can do it as easily as opening a taco stand.
Maine is like this too now, though since recreational is also legal, it’s not as significant. But they did away with the list of “qualifying conditions “ so now any nurse practitioner can issue a card if they want to, for any reason. You can do a phone or video conference and get a card for 50-60 bucks. Combine that with extremely high quality and cheap products (I get great flower for 50 a quarter) delivered to your door, and you have to be nuts not to get a card here. It is truly the golden age of cannibis in this state. We’ve come a long way from crappy commercial weed in the 70s (that you could get arrested for!).
 

cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
Damn, I wish they would do that here. Illinois has some of the strictest qualifications for a med card. Rec is legal now here, but so expensive it is out of range for many. And flower is still mostly just for the med community until the next harvest at least. The black market remains my source (and the source of many) for the near term at least...
 

macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member
Not Cannabis Related
Trump Tells Colombia: Spray Coca Fields With Alleged Carcinogen—or Else

During a meeting with Colombian President Iván Duque at the White House early last week, Donald Trump more or less ordered Colombia to wipe out coca plants—the main ingredient in cocaine—by spraying the controversial herbicide glyphosate from the air.

No, it’s not the infamous chemical Agent Orange used in Vietnam, but it’s bad enough, and likely to poison the people and the land beneath the toxic clouds.


 

Gunky

Well-Known Member
Not Cannabis Related
Trump Tells Colombia: Spray Coca Fields With Alleged Carcinogen—or Else

During a meeting with Colombian President Iván Duque at the White House early last week, Donald Trump more or less ordered Colombia to wipe out coca plants—the main ingredient in cocaine—by spraying the controversial herbicide glyphosate from the air.

No, it’s not the infamous chemical Agent Orange used in Vietnam, but it’s bad enough, and likely to poison the people and the land beneath the toxic clouds.

Remember paraquat?
 

Polarbearboy

Tokin' Away Since 1968
Homegrown Massachusetts Cannabis

Recently bought my first ever concentrates: Rosin, shatter, wax, oil--when I was down in Mass for a week. All bought at two legal adult dispensaries. When I'd bought flower on two previous dispensary visits, I'd noticed that the labeling had said it was grown in Mass. Well all the concentrate products as well were produced in state. It must be a feature of the Mass legalization law, that stuff has to be grown and manufactured in state. I'm impressed with the products, actually very impressed, and impressed with how well this aspect of the Mass law is working to keep Mass residents working.

Re: Concentrates: First time using anything other than flower or hash. I'm having great fun...as being an older guy with lung issues, I voluntarily semi-quarantine at home. Makin' the best of it!
 

cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
I think for the most part federal law prohibits interstate transfer of cannabis products. While there may be some exceptions to that, that is the law. That is why Illinois customers have had to wait for the next harvest for there to be any flower available to non med users. Shouldn't be too long now, but it has been a bitch. And has delayed the pressure on the black market.
 

Gunky

Well-Known Member
I think for the most part federal law prohibits interstate transfer of cannabis products. While there may be some exceptions to that, that is the law. That is why Illinois customers have had to wait for the next harvest for there to be any flower available to non med users. Shouldn't be too long now, but it has been a bitch. And has delayed the pressure on the black market.
What, everybody starts a seed on the same day? Shouldn't they be staggering harvests? Next harvest - sounds absurd to me. Nobody grows indoors there?
 

cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
It just became legal here in January and many of the growers didn't get up and running early. They have also intentionally kept the number of growers down to have better control. They knew there would be shortages. It was by design.

Looks like 21 "Cultivation Centers" so far in Illinois.
 

Gunky

Well-Known Member
Well, 'next harvest' is probably a misnomer here. 'Replenishment of a supply which was exhausted' is probably more like it. I doubt if any professional/licensed growers are doing sequential grows - veg, bloom harvest, plant a new seed. You have stuff vegging at the same time other stuff is blooming.

Typically legalization tosses a bone to home growers but allows them so few plants (like four, sigh...) at a time that perpetual grow schemes can be difficult, but a licensed scheme typically wouldn't have those limits and would be planting all the time. I dunno, people do all sorts of dumb things. If I were doing it I would definitely stagger it and have harvests once a month or something. That way you spread out the most intensive labor portion and keep some positions like trimmer constantly employed.
 
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cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
Illinois has a major supply shortage of legal cannabis. Could a pipeline to buy product from other states help?


The limited supply of recreational marijuana at the beginning of Illinois’ adult-use market was expected and anticipated. But it has frustrated consumers, who have voiced their displeasure to local dispensaries where operators' hands are tied by how fast cultivators can grow more product or expand operations.

One idea starting to gain momentum nationwide would help the supply shortage here in Illinois and elsewhere: interstate commerce.

For legal cannabis to move between states, it would either need legislation — bills have been introduced in the U.S. House and Senate — or an official stance from the U.S. Department of Justice to allow states to enter into deals.

In August 2013, then-U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole authored a four-page memo that directed the DOJ and the U.S. Attorneys’ offices to focus their prosecutorial authority in specific areas of marijuana, such as interstate sales, sales to minors, impaired driving and criminal enterprise. It also relied on prosecutorial discretion.

The Cole memo allowed the budding medical marijuana industry to blossom, and while that memo was rescinded by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, the industry continues to operate under its principles.

Proponents of interstate commerce say since federal rails are under federal jurisdiction, product could be transported by railcars through states where recreational cannabis is illegal.

But it may still take years for cannabis to move freely between states.

“That’s not going to happen in the next four years, assuming (U.S. President Donald) Trump wins re-election,” said Matt Stern, owner and CEO of Nature’s Treatment of Illinois in Milan, the lone dispensary in the Quad-Cities that's been authorized to sell recreational cannabis since it was first legalized in Illinois Jan. 1. Illinois was the 11th state in the U.S. to legalize recreational cannabis.

“I would love to get product from any state, but there’s just no way … I would love nothing more, because we can’t get product right now from the 22 cultivators in the state.”


The idea
One of the main proponents of interstate commerce for legal cannabis is Adam Smith, who is starting to take his campaign across the country. Smith is the director of the Alliance for Sensible Markets, and the interstate effort stems from his work in Oregon, where a bill related to interstate commerce passed the state legislature and was signed by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown last year.

Smith advocates looking at the growing cannabis industry, both medical and adult-use recreational, through a rational lens. Instead of investing significant money into having each state grow its own product, what if the region that historically supplied the cannabis black market fueled the legal market?

That would lead to “one functioning U.S. cannabis industry, even if it’s just legal states that get to opt in. Even if we don’t end federal prohibition yet, allowing legal markets to set up a regulatory framework from where there is access capacity and excess demand is why we have markets,” he said.

But for Oregon’s effort to be successful, it needs somewhere to send its marijuana, which is why Smith and others are beginning to campaign in other states. Bills are being drafted in California and Colorado, two early adopters of legal marijuana. Smith recently attended a conference in the northeastern part of the country, where states are grappling with how to legalize.

If states can import legal marijuana, it makes allowing recreational cannabis sales easier, as they would not have to establish rules for growing. It can also help states like Illinois and Michigan, where marijuana was recently legalized but supply shortages have hampered sales.

“We can literally move millions of people in those states out of illicit markets years sooner, and get the industry actually up and running in a real way within a year if we could move product from state to state,” Smith said.

“If we don’t do that, and (we) end up with 25 or so state-siloed productions, the minute federal prohibition actually ends, you will no longer be able to discriminate against the products of other states. You can’t keep California oranges out of Florida.

“So when federal prohibition ends, all this West Coast cannabis is going to come into these markets, and if we’ve invested billions of dollars in the Midwest and East Coast on production capacity, virtually none of that is going to be competitive with what’s going to come in from the West Coast.”

For instance, demand is dwarfed by supply in Oregon, where the 2018 harvest netted about 2.3 million pounds of pot.

“Right now we’re looking at yearslong shortages in Illinois and Michigan, but also New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island; it’s going to take years. And so before that gets fully rolling, we need to talk about what’s rational, right? This is the rational path forward.”

Not so easy
Andrew Livingston is the director of economics and research at Vicente Sederberg LLP in Colorado, and also is co-host of the “Weed Wonks” podcast. He has worked in the cannabis industry for several years.

Livingston said interstate commerce for marijuana is likely still a few years out, mostly citing federal government inaction.

“I think we’re still pretty far away from the federal government passing a national cannabis law that essentially sets the U.S. Supreme Court up to strike down prohibitions that are currently preventing the states from selling cannabis to each other,” he said.

Another factor is if a state, such as Illinois, imports cannabis from outside its borders, it would likely mean fewer jobs in Illinois. It would no longer need cultivation centers, which offer jobs including investment and construction.

“I think a lot of business owners would say ‘Why do you want to give up the opportunity for new jobs and new tax revenue and empower another state?’ And if that was the way we thought of all sorts of business, we wouldn’t be the United States; we would be 50 different countries. That’s not how the U.S. works. But with cannabis, it is,” Livingston said.

Importing, Livingston said, could also lead to new jobs. He points to Smith’s proposal to grant social equity applicants preferred access to imported cannabis, which would “empower minorities, low-income operators who might be better realtors and may be able to access cheaper cannabis from the West Coast,” Livingston said.

While supply issues frustrate both dispensaries and consumers, Livingston said the slower rollout means less chaos and more control from a government perspective.

Chris Lindsey is the director of government affairs at the Marijuana Policy Project and has worked in the Illinois market for about seven years.

“Illinois decided to err on the side of caution,” he said. “At this point, there aren’t any glaring problems that would require lawmakers to rush in to make changes.”

Lindsey is familiar with Smith’s advocacy and the concept of interstate commerce for cannabis. He called it inevitable.

“I think it’s a good idea to start to consider the best framework for it. We probably have a little ways to go before we see policies in place that are functional, and it’s just because it’s a whole new area,” he said.

“It’s inevitable and good policy in the long run, but it’s going to take some time to sort through how states are going to regulate it … we really are just starting that conversation.”

Stern’s view
The supply shortage in Illinois is at least partially attributable to how the adult-use market was established. Cultivation centers, such as Green Thumb Industries and Cresco, which have national footprints, were allowed to also operate dispensaries — known in business circles as vertically integrated, where a business creates a product and also has the framework to market it and sell it.

"Independent dispensaries like ours are not getting any product on the adult-use side, and it's a big issue," Stern said.

That problem emerged early. A letter sent from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which oversees licensing in Illinois, said on Jan. 10 it was aware some recreational dispensaries had an inventory from a single cultivator in excess of a 40% limit, against the state law.

The department said an investigation was underway.

Additionally, "it has been reported that many dispensaries are experiencing a shortage of cannabis products, including products for medical cannabis patients," it wrote. "The Department takes seriously the availability of product for medical patients, and dispensaries are required by law to prioritize providing products to medical cannabis patients."

Almost two months after that letter was sent, the issue persists.

"We're trying to resolve it internally within the state" through the cannabis business association, Stern said. "There are multiple (state) senators calling us and talking to the association, and now they're becoming aware of this issue. They believed in the program on the medical side, and they certainly don't want the Illinois program to have any hiccups, so there's a whole lot of people getting behind a legislative process to resolve this."
 

daoist

Well-Known Member
Some vape new from Holland:

In my country (The Netherlands) they closed all the bars, restaurants, etc because of the corona virus. And also closing the coffeeshops that don't even sell coffee if you know what i mean.

It looks like they are doing this for coming 3 weeks. They probably can and will extend this period.

After they announced the temporary closure it this is what happend:

 
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