Cannabis News

[Baron23]

@turk didn't mention discrimination, nor social injustice, just that there is a problem, and there certainly appears to be.

Did you even read my post? I will repeat it...just because a group is under represented in an activity (and in particular, a volunteer activity) does NOT mean that there is a problem with 'problem' most often being defined as discrimination. This is just complete and utter horse pucky.

This under representation MAY have resulted from discrimination (active or unconscious and passive) or it MAY NOT. The simple statistic of representation in an activity tells you NOTHING about why.

Is there justification for whites(or any exclusive group) monopolizing any industry?

Here for example, you immediately are presuming that because some groups are under represented in this activity compared to their proportion in our population as a whole, that there must be some active attempts by some other groups to exclude others and monopolize the industry. Absolutely rubbish and indefensible logic but it tends to make the bleeding hearts feel good about themselves as they tilt at windmills that may or may not actually exist.

it's certainly a possibility that the problem stems from the systemic racism

Yes, its a possibility. Its also possibly alien intervention. The point is, we don't know and until we do we do not know that there is a problem.

I again give you Maryland where the license applications and proposals were completely scrubbed of all personal information including race, gender, age, etc. The results were based on a merit only evaluation. This is the fact of the situation. Now comes the MD LBC who looks at the results and claims discrimination raising to the level requiring goverment intervention. Complete and utter BS.

I again give you my area. DC is predominantly black as are many of the local power brokers and people of wealth. I don't think past historic systematic discrimination has anything to do with the result of the Maryland licenses.

Cheers mate

 

[Tranquility]

Is there justification for whites(or any exclusive group) monopolizing any industry?

If there is a reason why they do it better, sure.

Go to a doughnut shop in California and you will find a Cambodian owner. Go to a nail salon, you will see someone who is Vietnamese. There are actual reasons for this.

Is such monopolizing justified? Should the government step in and try to get more Hispanic ownership?

Now, the term monopoly has specific legal meanings and the above assumes they don't apply to our discussion. If one has an actual illegal monopoly, it is appropriate for the government to step in.

 

[jirodreamsofbooty]

The difference in those situations is that there has not been centuries-long systemic discrimination that led to certain immigrant cultures owning certain small businesses.

 

[thisperson]

That so few blacks were represented probably also has something to do with capital requirements I'm sure. Sure there are affluent blacks few and far inbetween (Cough, Oprah) but I remember reading some statistic about American families broken down by race and income. There were trends that suggests something is going on. What, I don't know, but something.

I'm assuming that of those who had all the checkboxes they were things that whites are more likely to have. Possibly a business degree or startup capital. Things that I'm sure we'd like the owners to have if they are to make a good showing of it.

Just doesn't change that there were so few blacks. It's a trend of society as a whole for who has the means and who doesn't. This didn't really surprise me.

 

[Tranquility]

That so few blacks were represented probably also has something to do with capital requirements I'm sure. Sure there are affluent blacks few and far inbetween (Cough, Oprah) but I remember reading some statistic about American families broken down by race and income. There were trends that suggests something is going on. What, I don't know, but something.

I'm assuming that of those who had all the checkboxes they were things that whites are more likely to have. Possibly a business degree or startup capital. Things that I'm sure we'd like the owners to have if they are to make a good showing of it.

Just doesn't change that there were so few blacks. It's a trend of society as a whole for who has the means and who doesn't. This didn't really surprise me.

Most licensing schemes I've seen requires the/an applicant to not have been convicted of a drug-related offense as well.

 

[grokit]

We may not get snoop, but he sure gets us

Snoop = african
Cheech = latino
Chong = asain

 

[Baron23]

Sorry for the wall of text, but I thought this article would be of sufficient interest to the board to post pretty much all of it, intact.

Cheers

Obama says marijuana should be treated like ‘cigarettes or alcohol’


By Christopher Ingraham November 30 at 12:33 PM
an “exit interview” with Rolling Stone magazine, President Obama said that marijuana use should be treated as a public-health issue similar to tobacco or alcohol and called the current patchwork of state and federal laws regarding the drug “untenable.”

“Look, I’ve been very clear about my belief that we should try to discourage substance abuse,” Obama said. “And I am not somebody who believes that legalization is a panacea. But I do believe that treating this as a public-health issue, the same way we do with cigarettes or alcohol, is the much smarter way to deal with it.”

Obama has made comments to this effect before. In a 2014 interview with the New Yorker magazine he said that marijuana was less dangerous than alcohol “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.” More recently, he told TV host Bill Maher, “I think we're going to have to have a more serious conversation about how we are treating marijuana and our drug laws generally.”

In the Rolling Stone interview published this week, Obama also reiterated his long-standing position that changing federal marijuana laws is not something the president can do unilaterally. “Typically how these classifications are changed are not done by presidential edict,” he said, “but are done either legislatively or through the DEA. As you might imagine, the DEA, whose job it is historically to enforce drug laws, is not always going to be on the cutting edge about these issues.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration recently turned down a petition to lessen federal restrictions on marijuana, citing the drug's lack of “accepted medical use” and its “high potential for abuse.” Congress could resolve the conflict between state and federal marijuana laws by amending the federal Controlled Substances Act, but it has declined to do so.

Marijuana legalization advocates have been frustrated at what they see as Obama's unwillingness to use his bully pulpit to advocate for their cause. “It would have been very helpful if he had taken more concrete positive action on this issue before it was almost time to vacate the Oval Office,” Tom Angell of the pro-legalization group Marijuana Majority said in a statement. “That this president didn’t apply pressure on the DEA to reschedule marijuana this year will likely go down as one of the biggest disappointments of the Obama era.”

Obama has been hesitant throughout his second term to push for one approach or the other. His Justice Department has created a policy explicitly allowing states to legalize marijuana as they see fit, but he has made no effort to alter the strict federal prohibition on marijuana that complicates any effort to create a legal nationwide marijuana industry.

 

[turk]

...typical democrat bullshit...he's been president for 8 years , now he mumbles this on his exit...thanks democrats..great job.

 

[MinnBobber]

“It would have been very helpful if he had taken more concrete positive action on this issue before it was almost time to vacate the Oval Office,” Tom Angell of the pro-legalization group Marijuana Majority said in a statement. “That this president didn’t apply pressure on the DEA to reschedule marijuana this year will likely go down as one of the biggest disappointments of the Obama era.”

........................................
X 16,000 (number of prescription painkiller deaths in US EVERY YEAR)
X (22 X 365) = times 8,030 for number of vet suicides every year
X etc etc

Huge huge disappointment that Obama didn't lean on the DEA to get cannabis off schedule 1 drug list

 

[FlyingLow]

Turk- do you feel cannabis will have a better shot with a Republican in office? trumps first appointees do not have a favorable view of mj and most of them deny cannabis has any medicinal benefit.

in the last 8 years, look how far legalization, decriminalization and medicinal mj have come! colorado, cali, Washington, etc. it has all been under democratic leadership.

 

[BD9]

...typical democrat bullshit...he's been president for 8 years , now he mumbles this on his exit...thanks democrats..great job.

........................................
X 16,000 (number of prescription painkiller deaths in US EVERY YEAR
X (22 X 365) = times 8,030 for number of vet suicides every year
X etc etc

Huge huge disappointment that Obama didn't lean on the DEA to get cannabis off schedule 1 drug list

Turk- do you feel cannabis will have a better shot with a Republican in office? trumps first appointees do not have a favorable view of mj and most of them deny cannabis has any medicinal benefit.

in the last 8 years, look how far legalization, decriminalization and medicinal mj have come! colorado, cali, Washington, etc. it has all been under democratic leadership.

@FlyingLow beat me to it.

There have been great gains for our little movement. Very positive things are happening for us and these have come under a democrat administration. Cannabis is in the news almost daily and usually it's something positive. Yes we have a long way to go but we have made and are making progress.
Have you guys written, called, or emailed your elected officials? We can't just sit and bitch we need be active and keep pressure on those elected to get the changes we want.

 

[turk]

....no both parties suck..on ALL issues..dems give us lip service...nothing else.

 

[BD9]

....no both parties suck..on ALL issues..dems give us lip service...nothing else.

You just wait til I............. ........ Yeah, I got nothin'.

I still feel like I've tried when I write, email or call. If nothing else their intern has to interrupt their pandering to say some slob constituent wants a reply.

 

[Tranquility]

........................................
X 16,000 (number of prescription painkiller deaths in US EVERY YEAR)
X (22 X 365) = times 8,030 for number of vet suicides every year
X etc etc

Huge huge disappointment that Obama didn't lean on the DEA to get cannabis off schedule 1 drug list

 

[Baron23]

The tax man cometh: California ponders legal pot, paying up

LOS ANGELES — California’s legal marijuana industry is expected to involve everything from backyard growers to sprawling fields in the farm belt, storefront sellers along rural roads to chain-store like outlets in Los Angeles.

State tax collectors are taking initial steps to get a hand into that vast, emerging economy, with billions of dollars at stake in the future for the state treasury. State analysts have estimated that state and local governments could eventually collect over $1 billion annually from the production and sale of legal pot.

Just how big a job that will be, no one knows.

The state has no reliable way to predict how many new retailers will enter the marketplace when marijuana becomes legal in 2018. It’s estimated there could be 25,000 cultivators who will have to register and begin paying taxes.

But it’s only a guess how many operations making money off the fragrant, sticky buds will try to remain hidden in the black market.

“It’s just going to be the wild, wild West out there,” predicted Jerome Horton, who sits on the state’s tax-collecting Board of Equalization.

The panel on Tuesday started framing its job, approving on a divided vote a proposal to request funds to begin gradually adding staff in anticipation of collecting taxes from the legal sale and cultivation of marijuana (cont)

Q&A: Can my employer fire me for legally using marijuana?

BOSTON — Changing marijuana laws aren’t necessarily making weed more welcome in the workplace.

For now, many employers appear to be sticking with their drug testing and personal conduct policies, even in states where recreational marijuana use is now permitted. Others are keeping a close eye on the still evolving legal, regulatory and political environment.

Voters in California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada voted Nov. 8 to approve the use of recreational marijuana, joining Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, where it had previously been legalized. (A recount of Maine’s close result is scheduled.) More than two dozen states have medical marijuana programs.

But the drug is still against federal law.

A closer look at what it all means for workers and businesses: (cont)

Well, with respect to the above, apparently so:

Dolphins player Leon Orr cut after arrest on drug charges

 

[u bwade wunner]

Irish Government passes medicinal cannabis bill without vote <link

 

[Baron23]

Irish Government passes medicinal cannabis bill without vote <link

He got life without parole for pot. And he was just denied clemency.

Ferrell Scott was sentenced to life in prison for possession and conspiracy to distribute marijuana, a drug that’s now legal in many states and turning a handsome profit for the (primarily white) pot industry. Scott, like many nonviolent drug offenders serving long sentences, is black. Without any chance at parole, despite an exemplary behavior record, he appealed to President Obama for clemency. He found out that his bid for clemency had been denied when he got an email about “bad news” from a friend. Thinking something bad had happened to his 93-year-old mother, he called home. His daughter answered, crying, and told him the news. (cont)

California treasurer asks Trump for guidance on pot, banking

LOS ANGELES — California Treasurer John Chiang on Friday appealed to President-elect Donald Trump for guidance on how the state’s projected $7 billion marijuana industry can participate in the nation’s banking system while pot remains illegal under U.S. law.

California voters last month approved Proposition 64, which legalized the recreational use of marijuana, beginning in 2018. Largely at issue is how the state will collect an estimated $1 billion in annual taxes from legal pot sales and cultivation, when cannabis businesses can face obstacles opening bank accounts, getting loans or obtaining insurance.

The “conflict between federal and state rules creates a number of difficulties for states that have legalized cannabis use, including collecting taxes, increased risk of serious crime and the inability of a legal industry under state law to engage in banking and commerce,” Chiang wrote to Trump.

“We have a year to develop a system that works in California and which addresses the many issues that exist as a result of the federal-state legal conflict,” he added. “Uncertainty about the position of your administration creates even more of a challenge.” (cont)

Kerr tells Comcast SportsNet Bay Area he smoked pot for pain

OAKLAND, Calif. — Steve Kerr, the reigning NBA Coach of the Year with the Golden State Warriors, acknowledged he tried marijuana twice in the past 18 months while dealing with debilitating back pain.

Kerr told Comcast SportsNet Bay Area’s Warriors Insider Podcast with Monte Poole on Friday that he used medicinal marijuana but it didn’t help — but painkillers have been worse.

“I have no idea if I would, maybe I would have failed a drug test, I don’t even know if I’m subject to a drug test or any laws from the NBA,” Kerr said. “I tried it and it didn’t help at all.” (cont)

 

[CuckFumbustion]

New York Adds Chronic Pain as Qualifying Condition for Medical Marijuana Program
Possibly as a tool to fight opiod dependency.

Christie is still as clueless as ever. Goes to the old chestnut about mj being a gateway drug.
http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/...alls-marijuana-tax-revenue-blood-money-again/

 

[cybrguy]

This is OUTSTANDOING news for New York. We can only hope this will help drive other states into doing the right think and make MM available for pain. I could only ask that they include stress as well, but pain will be a HUGE help for many.

 

[cybrguy]

Jeff Sessions’ Coming War on Legal Marijuana - POLITICO Magazine
politico.com • December 05, 2016

On Election Day, eight states voted to legalize recreational or medical marijuana, bringing the nationwide total of medical states to 29. In Florida, medical marijuana won nearly 2 million more votes than Donald Trump. Added up, 65 million people now live in states that authorize adult recreational use; more than half of all Americans have access to medical marijuana; and almost everyone else lives in a state that permits CBD, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis that helps treatment of juvenile epilepsy. It’s easier now to identify the six states that have done nothing to end the prohibition on marijuana than the ones that are breaking away from the federal law that treats marijuana the same as heroin.

There was another winner on November 8, however, and he has thrown up a serious challenge to the seemingly inexorable march of legal marijuana. By nominating Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III for attorney general, President-elect Donald J. Trump is about to put into the nation’s top law enforcement job a man with a long and antagonistic attitude toward marijuana. As a U.S. Attorney in Alabama in the 1980s, Sessions said he thought the KKK "were OK until I found out they smoked pot.” In April, he said, “Good people don't smoke marijuana,” and that it was a "very real danger" that is “not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized.” Sessions, who turns 70 on Christmas Eve, has called marijuana reform a "tragic mistake" and criticized FBI Director James Comey and Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch for not vigorously enforcing a the federal prohibition that President Obama has called “untenable over the long term.” In a floor speech earlier this year, Senator Sessions said: "You can’t have the President of the United States of America talking about marijuana like it is no different than taking a drink… It is different….It is already causing a disturbance in the states that have made it legal.”

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/jeff-sessions-coming-war-on-legal-marijuana-214501

 

[FlyingLow]

What a shit eating cumdick

 

[Receptor]

No one is ever going to stand between me and my EARTHLY HERB.........PERIOD
EVER!! I will un-leash THE BEAST within me....

CANNABIS......Cluster Headache.....ReNew....Mission....Good to-Go!

 

[grokit]

It's a Brave New World

 

[Tranquility]

Session's state is not on board:

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/12/alabama_researchers_announce_p.html

About two-thirds of patients enrolled in a UAB study of marijuana-derived Cannabidiol oil for seizure treatment experienced major improvements in symptoms, according to a presentation this weekend at the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society.

The study included 81 patients, 42 children and 39 adults, who have four seizures or more a month. UAB started the study in April 2015. The state legislature passed Carly's Law, authorizing the research, a year earlier.

After one month of treatment with the oil, which contains traces of THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana, 68 percent of patients experienced a 25 percent reduction in the frequency of seizures, according to a press release. More than half of them experienced more than a 50 percent reduction in the number of seizures and 9 percent became seizure free over the course of the study.

More than two-thirds of treated patients experienced a decrease of more than 50 percent in seizure severity, according to the release.​

 

[macbill]

Willie Nelson Reserve Marijuana Commands 50% Price Premium

Star power. There’s nothing like it. It’s the reason we see star athletes promoting footwear and other athletic gear and movie stars promoting just about anything. That star power is now being felt in one of the country’s newest industries: legal sales of marijuana.