Cannabis News

[His_Highness]

Since coming out of the MJ closet I've opened the eyes of my grown children to what a lifetime of MJ use really looks like so I'm looking forward to their voting this year for legalization.

When I mentioned this to a friend he asked if my kids have seen the anti-MJ commercial that's been coming on more and more here in Florida. That's when it dawned on me.....I believe I have provided a counterpoint to the Reefer Madness stereotype but I'm an adult and these new commercials say "It will be marketed to kids and they look like candy and cookies. They will be sold right next to your child's school." Living my MJ life out in the open isn't enough......I'm going to have debunk those f'n commercials too.

 

[His_Highness]

WESH Poll - Florida Amendment 2. Not exactly a big, actuarial based, scientific based poll but I'll take it!

http://www.wesh.com/article/wesh-poll-florida-voters-favor-approving-medical-marijuana/6119407

When asked whether they would support Florida’s proposed Constitutional Amendment 2, 69 percent said they would, while 24 percent said they would oppose it.

Florida’s proposed Amendment 2 would broaden the spectrum of patients who would be eligible for marijuana as a medical treatment. Some of those patients include those living with HIV/AIDS, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, Crohn’s disease and Parkinson’s, to name a few. When asked whether they considered marijuana “medicine” when it comes to treating these conditions, 70 percent said they do, while 23 percent said they do not.

When voters were asked what gave them more concern – the potential for opiod abuse, or the potential for marijuana abuse – 67 percent said the potential for opiod abuse gave them more concern, while 16 percent said marijuana gives them more concern and 18 percent said they were not sure.

The reason I love these results is that for the Amendment to pass Florida's constitution requires a 60% super majority vote and in 2014 we only got 57.62%. I repeat ONLY 57.62% at the last attempt?!?!?!

 

[Baron23]

Here’s what America would be like with legal pot

Carl Sagan was famous for intoning about “billions and billions” when describing how many stars, galaxies and planets existed in the cosmos. That mantra should be chanted by anyone trying to understand marijuana use and policy in the United States. In the aggregate, Americans report smoking pot about 4 billion days a year (totaling up all the days each individual reported pot use for that year). But under the assumptions that some people understate their marijuana use on government surveys and that some users smoke more than once a day, the true annual total of use episodes could easily exceed 10 billion. These almost inconceivably large numbers lead us to three important realities about pot use.


WikiLeaks Hack Reveals Clinton Campaign’s Plan on Marijuana

WikiLeaks’ latest exposure of political emails shows the staff behind Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign made it a point to brief her on the issue of marijuana prior to a debate. It also shows that a Clinton administration is not likely to make any significant changes to marijuana policy at the federal level.

A preparatory document found in the hacked emails of Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, details exactly what Hillary was advised to say if asked whether she would legalize marijuana as the next leader of the free world.

 

[BD9]

Oregon takes in $40.2 million in taxes on retail marijuana sales in the first 9 months of 2016

Click 'Here' for story.



A Tax Foundation study released in May 2016 estimates states are missing out on billions in potential tax revenue from legal marijuana.

 

[Gunky]

-snip-


WikiLeaks Hack Reveals Clinton Campaign’s Plan on Marijuana

WikiLeaks’ latest exposure of political emails shows the staff behind Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign made it a point to brief her on the issue of marijuana prior to a debate. It also shows that a Clinton administration is not likely to make any significant changes to marijuana policy at the federal level.

A preparatory document found in the hacked emails of Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, details exactly what Hillary was advised to say if asked whether she would legalize marijuana as the next leader of the free world.

To be fair, wikileaks published some policy papers found in Podesta's email account. It is not clear if we are seeing an exhaustive list of the policy options presented nor do we have any indication of how the candidate reacted to the proposals.

 

[looney2nz]

Here’s what America would be like with legal pot

Carl Sagan was famous for intoning about “billions and billions” when describing how many stars, galaxies and planets existed in the cosmos. That mantra should be chanted by anyone trying to understand marijuana use and policy in the United States. In the aggregate, Americans report smoking pot about 4 billion days a year (totaling up all the days each individual reported pot use for that year). But under the assumptions that some people understate their marijuana use on government surveys and that some users smoke more than once a day, the true annual total of use episodes could easily exceed 10 billion. These almost inconceivably large numbers lead us to three important realities about pot use.


WikiLeaks Hack Reveals Clinton Campaign’s Plan on Marijuana

WikiLeaks’ latest exposure of political emails shows the staff behind Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign made it a point to brief her on the issue of marijuana prior to a debate. It also shows that a Clinton administration is not likely to make any significant changes to marijuana policy at the federal level.

A preparatory document found in the hacked emails of Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, details exactly what Hillary was advised to say if asked whether she would legalize marijuana as the next leader of the free world.

WikiLeaks is now a big question mark for me.

The foreign government intelligence influence in hacking the materials in the first place, and then some apparent 'editing' of documents that are being leaked.

What agenda is afoot here?

At the very least they are meddling with our election process!!!

That said, Hillary (like Dianne Feinstein) is an odd throw-back to the late 50's, early 60's Dragnet mentality in regards to cannabis Their heads filled with all this fear-mongering BS, their relationships to BigPharma... and a chorus of folks with vested interests in keeping the status quo

I was a Bernie supporter, and the prospect of a deeply crazy loose cannon like Trump makes this all the more difficult... I don't find Johnson or Stein any better.

We're in quite a pickle

 

[GetLeft]

NJ in 2018 ????

NJ legislators get a whiff of Colorado's pot industry: 'We want to do it right.'

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20161018_NJ_legislators_get_a_whiff_of_Colorado_s_pot_industry___quot_We_want_to_do_it_right__.html

 

[Baron23]

The Presidential Candidates… on Weed

"You know we’ve come a long way when all of the major presidential candidates support state-level medical marijuana programs. There are many issues on which to judge these candidates, and many perspectives on current events and policies—however, if cannabis-law reform were the sole deciding factor, which one would get your vote?" (cont)

 

[Baron23]

Utah governor hopeful says medical pot helps wife, others

SALT LAKE CITY — Hours after his wife pleaded guilty to misdemeanor pot-possession charges connected with two pounds of the drug found at their house, Utah’s Democratic candidate for governor pushed Tuesday for the legalization of medical marijuana.

Mike Weinholtz said during an emotional news conference that current laws leave doctors with little choice but to prescribe powerful painkillers with a risk of addiction that have made opioid drugs an epidemic in Utah and elsewhere. Pot reduced Donna Weinholtz’s pain so she could do things like ride bikes with her son and plant tulip bulbs, the couple said. (cont)

 

[macbill]

The alcohol industry is bankrolling ads to scare you about legal pot
https://thinkprogress.org/a-deeply-...tion-in-massachusetts-b0e1b0189d7a#.4sjosvqhh
The alcohol industry has been bankrolling campaigns against marijuana legalization, fearing that recreational weed may pose unwanted competition for their products.

 

[Baron23]

Gallup: Record high 60 percent of Americans back legal pot

By David Crary | AP October 19 at 1:07 PM

NEW YORK — A record high 60 percent of American adults support legalization of marijuana, according to a new Gallup poll released three weeks before voters in nine states decide whether to expand legal access to pot.

Business owners replace idealists in legal-pot movement

By Kristen Wyatt | AP October 19 at 1:34 PM

DENVER — Business owners are replacing idealists in the pot-legalization movement as the nascent marijuana industry creates a broad base of new donors, many of them entrepreneurs willing to spend to change drug policy.


Unlike in the past, these supporters are not limited to a few wealthy people seeking change for personal reasons. They constitute a bigger coalition of business interests. And their support provides a significant financial advantage for pro-legalization campaigns.

 

[macbill]

Marijuana Lights Up State Ballots

States are driving the change in marijuana policy because they see the damage created by draconian drug laws on communities, families and state budgets. It’s time the federal government acknowledged these costs and got out of the way of states adopting more rational laws.

 

[macbill]

Scientists are unlocking the mystery of how marijuana makes us get high
How exactly does marijuana make us high? We’re a little closer to knowing now that scientists have figured out the structure of the brain receptor that interacts with the drug. The discovery will help us understand how to better use marijuana for medical purposes — and solve the mystery of why synthetic marijuana is so dangerous, but nobody dies from the natural stuff.

 

[jojo monkey]

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcom...tical-gets-closer-to-forcing-fda-on-cannabis/

This could do it! Beat the f'ers at their own game.

Too bad it has to be viewed as a medicine for profit before the US gov acknowledges it.

 

[MinnBobber]

This could do it! Beat the f'ers at their own game.

Too bad it has to be viewed as a medicine for profit before the US gov acknowledges it.

............................................................................................

And too bad that move would only force the Feds to reschedule that one DRUG and NOT cannabis

Cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug is truly mind-boggling and that Fed refusal to re-schedule is costing thousands of lives every year
IMO, the Feds responsible for keeping it as Sched 1 should face charges of crimes against humanity and be prosecuted.

 

[macbill]

Testing for marijuana raises medical, legal questions
Alcohol exits the body in a matter of hours. Cocaine can take a couple of days.

Cannabis has no exact timetable.

The cannabis compound detectable in urine samples is evidence of past use, not actual impairment, said Dr. Alan Shackelford, a Harvard Medical School-trained physician who founded Amarimed of Colorado, a clinic in Denver focusing on medical marijuana. He has used cannabis to treat several children with rare seizure disorders who don’t respond to other medication.

 

[Silat]

Be afraid.
Be very scared.
Fear Mongering Anti-Pot Ad From Massachusetts

 

[HighSeasSailor]

Orlando Police Warn of Cannabis in Halloween Candy

Posted here because it's more transparent scare tactics from anti-legalization factions.

Notable excerpt:

"Well, who would put razors in apples? Who would put needles in products? People who are mean," Calvina Fay, with Drug Free America, said.

Practically nobody, actually. According to Snopes, while sharp objects have been documented and found in Halloween giveaways, there have been "about eighty cases of sharp objects in food incidents since 1959, and almost all were hoaxes" and in "those instances where such an insertion could be traced back to a specific person, it was almost always some kid intent on freaking out either his little brother or his parents or getting the community in an uproar as his version of a cute Halloween 'trick'."

The odds seem pretty low to me that Florida pranksters are going to start giving away expensive black market drugs for the sake of a laugh, but I guess when BigPharm and Alcohol are balls deep and giving you a reach around, anything seems plausible. It also seems to me that Ms. Fay highlighted the flaw in this logic - assholes who want to hurt people already have more than sufficient means, and cannabis would be more akin to poisioning - and Snopes categorically debunks the myth of poisoned Halloween treats, so if this does happen it will literally be a first.

Granted, it IS Florida, Home of the Weird™, but I predict fewer pot brownies for kids and more penises bitten off by alligators this Halloween. Seems to be how they roll down there.

 

[macbill]

Medical Marijuana Not a Lure for Kids: Study
Are U.S. kids who live in states with legal medical marijuana more likely to smoke pot?

The answer appears to be no, a new study suggests. However, the study did find that people over 25 were smoking more marijuana after the laws took effect.

 

[HighSeasSailor]

Your Kids will not get High for Free on Halloween

Apologies for double posting on the same subject, evidently it's too late to edit my old post to include the new article I found.

This one is in contrast to the alarmist bullshit above, debunking the tired old lies that have been putting a damper on Halloween fun for decades, now twisted to fuck with cannabis too. This excerpt is illuminating on the subject:

In case you're curious why a medical association would sponsor such a clearly incorrect scare-tactics campaign, consider this: The Florida Medical Association voted to oppose Amendment 2 at a conference sponsored by PhRMA, the nation's largest pharmaceutical industry trade group, earlier this year. Big Pharma companies have spent millions to stop the legalization of weed because doctors in medical-marijuana states prescribe fewer opiate painkillers.

Also this gem:

Last year, Denver Police and the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center reported that exactly zero cases of accidental marijuana ingestion were reported in Colorado in 2014. That year, anti-pot groups had taken out billboards across the state warning that sneaky stoners would fill kids' bags with weed goodies, according to the Guardian.

 

[macbill]

Weedkillers: Here's who's bankrolling the fight against legal marijuana

Even by the usual standards of politics, this election’s campaign against marijuana legalization has made strange bedfellows. The largest donors to the various anti-weed political groups around the country include a billionaire casino tycoon, a woman who believes in reefer madness, a drug-crusading former U.S. ambassador, cops, prison guards, booze merchants, and a pharma company that sells the powerful painkiller fentanyl.

 

[Baron23]

Americans are more bullish than ever on legal weed

Just two years ago, the public was evenly divided on marijuana legalization, according to polling from the Public Religion Research Institute: In August 2014, 44 percent of Americans favored it, while 50 percent were opposed.

That 44 percent was on the low end of the support recorded in similar polls taken at the time. That fall, 51 percent of respondents told Gallup they supported legalization. Around the same time, 52 percent said the same to Pew.

But the latest poll from PRRI shows a stunning jump: 63 percent of Americans said they support making marijuana legal. In the September poll, 31 percent of respondents said they “strongly” supported legalization. Just over one-third of Americans — 36 percent — now say they oppose legalization, with only 17 percent opposing “strongly.”

 

[Baron23]

Arkansas court disqualifies 2nd medical marijuana proposal

By Andrew Demillo | AP October 27 at 10:15 AM
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas Supreme Court has disqualified a medical marijuana proposal from the November ballot, but voters will still be able to consider a competing plan.

The split court sided Thursday with opponents of the proposed initiated act that would have allowed patients with certain medical conditions and a doctor’s recommendation to purchase marijuana from dispensaries. The proposal was one of two medical marijuana proposals on the ballot, and justices earlier this month rejected a challenge to a competing measure.

Here’s what occurs if Californians legalize recreational pot

GARBERVILLE, Calif. — Proposition 64 would legalize the recreational use of marijuana starting Jan. 1, 2018. The ballot measure is 62 pages long and aims to regulate the entire cannabis industry, from seeds to pipe. Here are highlights:

Pot farmers worry legalization could end their way of life

By Paul Elias | AP October 27 at 1:19 AM
GARBERVILLE, Calif. — Laura Costa’s son and husband moved quickly with pruning shears as they harvested the family’s fall marijuana crop, racing along with several workers to cut the plants and drop them in plastic bins ahead of an impending storm.

The farm, hidden along a winding mountain road in a remote redwood forest, is just one of many illegal “grows” that make up Northern California’s famous Emerald Triangle, a marijuana-producing mecca at the intersection of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties.

California voters will decide Nov. 8 whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use — an issue that has sown deep division here among longtime growers. The Costas and many fellow pot farmers have yearned for the legitimacy and respectability that could be bestowed by legalization. But they also fear Proposition 64 will bring costly regulations and taxes and could put them out of business if corporate interests and big farms take over.

 

[Tranquility]

We're all gonna die!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/10/27/drugged-driving-dui-nhtsa-auto-safety/92678186/

Look at the media's majesty. The way they generalize some things and make other things more specific in a way that makes it seem like it is talking about the same thing all the way through--even though they are not. See if you can find the basic flaws in the reasoning.

 

[grokit]

We're all gonna die!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/10/27/drugged-driving-dui-nhtsa-auto-safety/92678186/

Look at the media's majesty. The way they generalize some things and make other things more specific in a way that makes it seem like it is talking about the same thing all the way through--even though they are not. See if you can find the basic flaws in the reasoning.

Lol I would say that first off cannabis isn't a drug; they are obviously conflating two unrelated things.

Obvious to me anyways