Cannabis News

[macbill]

These 10 States Are Most Likely To Pass Marijuana Legalization Bills In 2019

The number of states with legal marijuana is expected to jump significantly in 2019, and a slew of already-filed bills offers a look at what those new legal cannabis systems might look like.

While marijuana legalization legislation has already been introduced in at least 17 states—including several traditionally conservative ones—there are 10 that seem to hold the most promise of passage at this point. See next image below.

 

[cybrguy]

Can't hotlink that image, @macbill. Might want to copy it and put it up on tiny or somewhere...

Here ya go, assuming this is what you linked...

 

[macbill]

@cybrguy I don't understand, but I seldom understand things: I can see the image I posted. I suspect you can't, is that right?

EDIT:
I loaded a different browser, and now I understand - thanks.

 

[macbill]

This rejected Super Bowl ad highlights America’s complicated relationship with marijuana

During this year’s Super Bowl, you can expect to see expensive and flashy ads from all the usual suspects: car companies like Kia and Audi, junk food and soda brands like Pepsi and Frito-Lay, and classic drugstore brands such as Procter & Gamble’s Olay and Colgate. What you won’t see advertised during the big game, though, is cannabis.

 

[macbill]

The Trump administration’s crackdown on marijuana legalization might end under Bill Barr

Trump’s nominee to replace Sessions as attorney general, William Barr, confirmed in written responses to questions from US senators that he won’t be continuing that push to crack down on legal pot if he is confirmed by the Senate.

 

[cybrguy]

The map and detail in that article better tells the story of the current state of legalization in the US than the map above. Trying to figure out how to post it...

https://apps.voxmedia.com/at/vox-marijuana-laws-in-the-us-2/?initialWidth=740&childId=vox-marijuana-laws-in-the-us-2__graphic&parentTitle=The Trump administration’s war on marijuana legalization may soon end - Vox&parentUrl=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/28/18200982/marijuana-legalization-trump-jeff-sessions-william-barr

 

[Tranquility]

I won't open a new thread for South Carolina as I think movement on The Movement there will be slow. Why? Because their attorney general says cannabis is "The most dangerous drug" in America.

https://www.postandcourier.com/busi...cle_a47ce730-1f3f-11e9-b0f8-7324237272cc.html

COLUMBIA — Flanked by lawmakers, law enforcement officials and doctors in white lab coats, S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson called marijuana “the most dangerous drug” in America while denouncing legislation Wednesday that would allow patients to obtain it with a doctor’s prescription.

Various speakers, which included State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel and leaders from the S.C. Medical Association, suggested the use of medical marijuana would cause a litany of problems in South Carolina: addiction, increased traffic accidents and — without specifically citing any peer-reviewed research — an increase in the number of overdose deaths.

While standing in the center of the Statehouse lobby, Wilson rattled off slang describing the high from marijuana.

“They use words like stoned, high, wasted, baked, fried, cooked, chonged, cheeched, dope-faced, blazed, blitzed, blunted, blasted, danked, stupid, wrecked — and that’s only half the words they use,” Wilson said. “Are these consistent with something that describes a medicine?”

Wilson classified marijuana as the most dangerous drug because he said it was “the most misunderstood drug.”

Dr. March Seabrook, the S.C. Medical Association president, focused his opposition on the lack of medical and regulatory oversight of marijuana. The trade group for doctors, he said, supports more research on marijuana and the use of cannabis oil for childhood seizures, a treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year.

After the news conference, the Medical Association said it disagreed with Wilson’s assessment that marijuana is “the most dangerous drug” in the country. Still, Seabrook argued the new legislation “will not improve the health of South Carolina.”

Medical marijuana supporters at the Statehouse said Wilson’s comments and the overall tone at the news conference played on the public’s fears.

“This is just hysteria,” said state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Columbia Democrat and former prosecutor.

Nationwide, 33 states have set up regulations to allow for the legal use of marijuana for medical purposes. So far this year, 15 S.C. lawmakers, including many of Charleston County’s legislative delegation, sponsored a bill to add South Carolina to that growing list.

The newly proposed legislation would allow patients to obtain up to two ounces of marijuana every two weeks — an amount that Wilson said is too much for a patient to use in that time.
State Sen. Tom Davis, a Beaufort Republican who has championed a medical marijuana bill for several years, said he’s willing to work with Wilson and law enforcement officials to alleviate their concerns about the legislation. Davis said he’s willing to reconsider the amount of marijuana that can be prescribed to people.

He criticized Wednesday’s news conference as being divorced from reality.

“I heard so many absurd statements today that I lost room writing down on here,” Davis said, holding up a legal pad. “It’s like we traveled in a time warp back to the 1950s.”

He also took a direct shot at the Medical Association for citing dangers with marijuana when many of them have prescribed opioid painkillers to their patients. Davis pointed out the bill makes diverting medical marijuana for recreational use a felony.

He tried to refocus the conversation on the people who might benefit from the law including those suffering from chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis or appetite loss from chemotherapy.

Law enforcement leaders are unmoved. Steve Mueller, the Cherokee County Sheriff and president of the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association, pleaded for people not to let supporters of medical marijuana “pull at your heart.”​

 

[C No Ego]

@OldNewbie complete Fear of Reefers ... reefer madness 2019
reefer overdoses everywhere , people going down the plant takes them Down !

 

[hans solo]

Increased overdose deaths duh from zero.

 

[hans solo]

Various speakers, which included State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel and leaders from the S.C. Medical Association, suggested the use of medical marijuana would cause a litany of problems in South Carolina: addiction, increased traffic accidents and — without specifically citing any peer-reviewed research — an increase in the number of overdose deaths.

What planet are these morons from.
Are they paid for this stupidity. As far my limited knowledge is there has never been an overdose death attributed to Cannabis ever.

 

[macbill]

Which Is More Potent, Vaping Cannabis or Smoking a Joint?
According to a recent JAMAstudy that examined cannabis consumption in infrequent consumers, people who vaporized cannabis flower experienced more pronounced effects than those who smoked the same dose. Effects increased along with the dose administered, suggesting that vaporized flower should be approached with a more conservative dosing strategy than smoked flower, especially for infrequent consumers.

 

[cybrguy]

I heard about this study but my own experience is different. The few times I have smoked in the last year I seemed to get a little higher, but it was not anywhere near as clean a high and I suspect some of the buzz was from benzine and carbon monoxide. In other words it was "combustion effects" rather than the substance itself. At least that was my assumption.

When I gave up combustion several year ago it took a little time before I stopped looking for these effects, and was well satisfied without them. I feel like I get higher vaping now, and need less to get similar buzzes, but this study was done on "infrequent consumers", not daily users like myself.

 

[ClearBlueLou]

Various speakers, which included State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel and leaders from the S.C. Medical Association, suggested the use of medical marijuana would cause a litany of problems in South Carolina: addiction, increased traffic accidents and — without specifically citing any peer-reviewed research — an increase in the number of overdose deaths.

What planet are these morons from.
Are they paid for this stupidity. As far my limited knowledge is there has never been an overdose death attributed to Cannabis ever.

As of my most recent search, you are correct. There are no overdoses, or other deaths attributable to physical effects of consumption, ever. At all. Anywhere.

And this is after decades of the full weight the US government was able to bring to bear at home and abroad in the search for a case that could even be twisted out of shape. This is not some old-stoner ‘wives’ tale’. There is genuinely, officially, no ‘there’ there. It’s like the ‘criminal mastermind’, Hillary Clinton; it’s like “Uranium One”, it’s like the women in trunks with duct-tape over their mouths coming over the border: there’s very literally *nothing* to investigate.

Yes, I believe they *are* paid, at least ‘in kind’. It might be no one gets a check specifically for doing that, but they will get more and broader financial support from the community if they keep telling the community there’s reasons to be scared. They get re-elected, they get bigger budgets, they get new equipment, they butch up, because *DANGER*....

Which Is More Potent, Vaping Cannabis or Smoking a Joint?
According to a recent JAMAstudy that examined cannabis consumption in infrequent consumers, people who vaporized cannabis flower experienced more pronounced effects than those who smoked the same dose. Effects increased along with the dose administered, suggesting that vaporized flower should be approached with a more conservative dosing strategy than smoked flower, especially for infrequent consumers.

Honestly, I have to say I’ve never really been a fan of joints.

I never learned to roll a decent one, though I’ve been handed a bunch (and always toked, if I hadn’t had enough). Preferred pipes, and had a beautiful round-bowl briar with a looong stem that was my go-to for 30 years. I only recently have taken vaping seriously, it I have to say I like it better. My vapcaps have shown their worth over time, and my experience with MV1, while brief has been excellent in terms of delivered effect. Going forward, I expect to be vaping almost exclusively.

 

[C No Ego]

@ClearBlueLou $heeple of the world look at your post like

 

[macbill]

The Most Interesting 2019 Marijuana Bills That You Might Have Missed

Here’s a look at some of the most interesting cannabis legislation filed this year that you might have missed:

=======================================================================
History Of Alcohol Prohibition Suggests Advantage For States That Legalize Marijuana Early

If the end of alcohol prohibition is any indication, the states that are first to legalize marijuana will have a long-term advantage over late adopters. That’s the key conclusion of a new study published this week.

 

[ClearBlueLou]

https://www.marijuanamoment.net/congressional-committee-could-take-up-marijuana-reform-fairly-soon-chairman-says/

Nadler says committee could take up cannabis reform “soon”, so it’s time to let him and his committee know how we feel about growers’ rights, we need a grass-roots swelling of support for personal grow and use, and we need to keep showing up. There’s big money drawn to it these days, and we know they work, so they need to know we’re watching and that it matters.

A study finds that CBD can *ENHANCE* the ‘high’ of cannabis (surprise!)
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/mar...ce-rather-than-counteract-high-caused-by-thc/thc/

If you’ve been part of the cannabis conversation since the old days, the ‘scientific insistence’ that THC was the demon culprit in our weed may never have really made much sense to you: from my earliest days of learning about cannabis in the 60s, I marveled at the dizzying array of the cannabinoids - so many of them, we’re still discovering them, and so many conditions/ailments served by them. For me, the identification of THC as chemical crime boss, responsible for all the most obvious physical ‘symptoms’ of use, *and* for all the highest, brilliant effects, just seemed odd: *all* those other, unique compounds, enzymes, hormones, etc. (now “handled” as a composite character called CBD) contributed nothing?

IMO this has led to a an overestimation of the role and importance of THC; where CBD was once waved aside as a bit player, it is now recognized as having value - in fact it seems to be eclipsing THC in the shifting opinion of the moment, but this is still a sort of Hegelian reductionism in which ‘conclusions’ are drawn to push support for unexamined theories.

Am I getting too wild here? Consider this: THC came into prominence for one significant reason - THC left traceable metabolites in the urine for up to a month, and voila! The piss-test industry was born, and Dr. Carlton Turner, head scientist at the federal pot farm in Mississippi, was first on the market (imagine!) and became a rich man.

That was mostly THE story until researchers into CBD began to show evidence of medicinal efficacy, and now we have a stable but still misunderstood dichotomy of CBD and THC, and the vice and the versa between them: this article, and the study it’s based upon, challenges the easy assumptions that such dichotomies breed. It underscores the reality that we’re only just beginning to figure out *how* to figure it it cannabis.

 

[Magic9]

World Health Organization recommends rescheduling cannabis, provides clarity on CBD

https://mjbizdaily.com/world-health-organization-rescheduling-cannabis-clarity-cbd/

 

[Tranquility]

I assume the news would have broken without the admission from the Credit Union, but, wow. Putting the bank at risk by making such a statement would make me reconsider the employment of whoever approved the message. We will see if the Trump Administration is serious of leaving the states alone in regards to state-legal cannabis or not. It is not like such a pronouncement can be ignored and governments LOVE to control money supply. (Which is why there is a push for a cashless society.)

https://mjbizdaily.com/california-credit-union-banking-services-cannabis-businesses/

A California credit union said it has been providing banking services to licensed marijuana businesses for roughly a year, the North Bay Business Journal reported.

North Bay Credit Union in Santa Rosa is currently handling financial transactions for cannabis companies in areas north of San Francisco, such as Sonoma County, though CEO Chris Call declined to identify the institution’s clients, the Business Journal reported.

The credit union is limiting the size of the deposits made by cannabis businesses so the institution can manage its capital ratios, Call noted, and it’s risking federal prosecution and investigations for handling financial transactions for those companies, he told the publication.

Increasingly, credit unions are providing banking services to marijuana businesses, which are often rejected by private banks.

Because marijuana remains a Schedule 1 drug under federal law, many banks are nervous about running afoul of the U.S. government by doing business with the industry, although some do work with cannabis-related companies.

North Bay Credit Union’s announcement comes on the heels of a report commissioned by a working group launched by California Treasurer John Chiang that found the state would likely lose money and face overwhelming federal barriers if it tried to create a state-backed bank to help cannabis businesses navigate banking challenges.​

 

[hans solo]

Fate Winslow’s nightmare began on the streets of Louisiana. He was homeless and struggling to survive. Winslow, an African American male, was approached by a Caucasian stranger on a September evening in 2008. The stranger said he was seeking $20 worth of weed. Hungry and desperate for a meal, Fate agreed to middleman for a measly $5 finders-fee. He delivered two $10 bags of marijuana to the stranger—who Winslow then discovered was an undercover cop.

Winslow was arrested. Astoundingly, the man who sold Winslow the cannabis was never arrested. And as it turns out, he was also Caucasian. But for this insignificant, non-violent crime, Winslow is serving a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole.

“Do I think that racism played a part in my situation,” wrote Winslow in a letter to Deedee Kirkwood (founder of The Pot Fairy) his friend and advocate. “[Yes]…major. Color has played a big part in life and being black has been hard.”

Winslow feels he was singled out by the undercover officer and cannot comprehend how the dealer was never charged. Furthermore, due to a Jim Crow-era law that existed in Louisiana at the time of Winslow’s conviction, juries didn’t have to return a unanimous verdict—and they didn’t. Winslow states his jury consisted of 10 Caucasians who voted guilty and two African Americans who voted not guilty. In most states jury nullification would have saved him. Alas, this is yet another detail that Winslow believes points to race as being a factor in his case.

In November of 2018, the citizens of Louisiana finally voted to abolish the archaic Jim Crow-era law, rendering Oregon the final state needing reform. Starting in 2019, convictions of serious felony crimes will require unanimous verdicts. Unfortunately, the amendment of Louisiana’s law is not retroactive, so Winslow still remains in prison.

 

[grampa_herb]

Canadian Company Soars 90% After Winning "POT" Ticker Symbol Lottery

The company had been listed on the Canadian stock exchange since October 15, two days before the country legalized recreational marijuana. And since these days nobody seems to have an attention span longer than the actual ticker, the comany was previously trading under the ticker "YOLO", an acronym for "you only live once".

Alas, the stock's performance had been downright ugly... up until Friday. YOLO was down by about 57% since its first day of trading, bringing its market cap to C$28.6 million. As for the ticker "POT", it was previously owned by Potash Corporation. When it became available in Canada about a week ago, 40 companies reportedly applied for it.

TMX Group CEO Paul Chu said: “The POT lottery served to raise the profile of Canada’s leadership in legal recreational cannabis and we believe it will also serve to raise Weekend Unlimited’s profile.”

Meanwhile, the AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to take over the "YOLO" symbol that Weekend Unlimited has left behind.

 

[Tranquility]

While I suspect most circuit courts will find the same way, the first domino has fallen in regards to firearm possession.

http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-b...8/C:18-1343:J:Rovner:aut:T:fnOp:N:2284501:S:0

Basically:

Moreover, there is, as we have discussed, a readily appreciable core of conduct that the statute reaches: If one regularly uses marijuana or another controlled substance other than as directed by a physician, he may not possess a firearm so long as the use persists.​

 

[cybrguy]

What stupidity. Not that I am a supporter of most "gun rights", but this is just ridiculous. The idea that cannabis use precludes gun ownership and alcohol use does not is the pinnacle of ignorance.

 

[tepictoton]

So again, we got the flowers, they have got guns?

Legalisation, I just hope it leaves room for small growers, places where growing is done with passion, like an art. Those that have been providing us with a beautiful product, in spite of the law...

Hope enough of us let there voice be heared in these exciting interesting times. Let's keep this plant a thing of the people...

 

[cybrguy]

 

[hans solo]

The need to communicate continues to this day.