Absolutely outstanding response to the Big Marijuana nonsense: Marijuana Legalization: The Big Tobacco Smokescreen by Jon Gettman
Big Marijuana? It’s catchy, but comparing legalized marijuana to the tobacco industry misleads both the public and policymakers about the challenges of regulating this industry. […]
However, marijuana regulations need to be devised on solid information and experience, and not on the basis of superficial analogies, and most certainly not based on hypocrisy. Big Marijuana already exists — it’s also called the Black Market. Public concern over a large, unregulated, socially irresponsible marijuana market is, and should be, argument number one in support of marijuana’s legalization.
Native American reservations now free to legalize marijuana
The Justice Department said Thursday it will no longer prosecute federal laws regulating the growing or selling of marijuana on reservations, even when state law bans the drug.
The government will let tribal governments decide what to do about pot.
So, apparently Congress blocked the implementation of Washington DC’s vote for legalization. Or maybe they didn’t. Depends on who you read and how they interpret the language of the amendment. I’ll wait and see.
However, it’s always interesting to follow the money. Why Is This Maryland Republican Really Trying to Block D.C.’s Pot Legalization?
As for why Harris has made this fight against D.C. democracy his primary cause, the Attn. blog looked into the congressman’s biggest donors and found that a Maryland-based company called Emergent BioSolutions near the top of the list.
Attn.’s Matthew Seagel reports:
One of Emergent’s products is epsil, “a fast-acting treatment that reduces the pain associated with oral mucositis,†which is a common complication of chemotherapy from cancer treatment. According to its website, “by reducing the pain associated with OM, episil® may help you maintain proper nutrition and a level of comfort—and may allow you to continue your cancer therapy uninterrupted.â€
So what does any of this mean?
Marijuana (cannabis) is a huge combatant against many of the deleterious effects of cancer and chemotherapy, and thus a hugely disruptive threat to Emergent’s business model.
No surprise there.
U.S. marijuana foes discuss launching tax-exempt funding body
Marijuana legalization opponents could launch a tax-exempt fundraising body as early as next year that would let them shield donors, part of a broader 2016 election strategy aimed at raising more cash and merging political factions, activists said on Wednesday. […]
Smart Approaches to Marijuana President Kevin Sabet, who said he pushed for the tax-exempt group, said there was a moment of relief over a U.S. spending bill that bars the nation’s capital from using funds to implement legal pot.
Sabet said the group also discussed lobbying 2016 presidential candidates and appealing to wealthy donors like casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who spent some $4 million campaigning against Florida’s medical pot initiative, as well as corporations concerned about stoned workers and liability.
I can’t help but be a bit suspicious about the DOJ out of the clear blue issuing another “Cole memo” aimed specifically at Native American reservations. Based on previous memos, it’s certainly not any kind of guarantee. And wouldn’t the previous memos already apply to reservations? So what gives? Is this some kind of trap? Is the DOJ trying to create new markets for their smash and grabs, aka raids and asset seizures? I doubt very many tribes will be any more reassured by this memo than the banks were by the memo aimed at them. Whatever their motive, this is just another attempt by the administration to appear to be doing something, when it fact they’re doing absolutely nothing with respect to prohibition (unless you count blocking DC legalization). Maybe that’s it, they’re trying to draw attention away from their attempt to negate the votes of DC residents.
Same non binding cole memo of non enforcement of cannabis or hemp. Both still scheduled as a class#1 narcotic. A break in PC areas until the next election. Then the new boss makes the non binding rules or continues the Ganjawar.
The Ganjawar Comes to the The Rez
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/388
Obama Backs DC Vote to Legalize Marijuana – ABC News
http://abcn.ws/1IKvctr via @ABC
Seems like if they can get tax exempt status for opposition to legalisation, then WE could get tax exempt status for supporting legalisation. If they are tax exempt it is illogical that we would not also be exempt. They have bigger donors, but we can do so much with so little that if we just had some resources to spread the truth, the game would truly be over for prohibition.
Depending on how certain drug reform organizations are structured, tax exemption already exists. For example, donations to the Marijuana Policy Project are not tax exempt since they are a lobbying organization. However, donations to the MPP Foundation are tax exempt since that arm is registered as an educational organization. This dual structuring is true of other similar entities.
We’re just going to steal your ancestral land and mine it down to a barren husk. So in exchange, we’ll allow you to be the stewards of our legal cannabis trade, just like you are currently the stewards of our gambling habit.
The timing… A bit obvious, don’t you think?
http://m.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/10/1350793/-John-McCain-and-Congress-helping-mining-company-steal-Apache-land
Nevertheless:
Robert Safer Clark wrote:
Drug courts and coercion in the justice system:
http://nyupress.org/books/9780814784075/#.ULOqCO2RBzY
Introductory chapter:
http://nyupress.org/webchapters/tiger_intro.pdf
“”Sabet said the group also discussed lobbying 2016 presidential candidates and appealing to wealthy donors like casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who spent some $4 million campaigning against Florida’s medical pot initiative, as well as corporations concerned about stoned workers and liability.””
A lot of people,including Sucbet,,don’t know that Adelson is a huge contributor to Israeli MMJ research but happens to be courting the Republican run Florida legislature for licenses for his casinos to move into FLA,,we should be hearing if he won his licenses soon.
The Indian thing really has me baffled,,it has the possibility of putting legal marijuana in nearly every state and waiting for the prohibition bought politicians to start crying is nerve racking,,,don’t you know they must be keeping a microphone away from Grassley.
Mr Kevin Sabet, the existential despair you’re feeling is very common among people who finally realize the utter futility and destructiveness of their entire life’s work. But even in your deepest moments of anguish and utter hopelessness, it is still possible for you to emerge and find a sense of peace and a painless conclusion to your suffering. In this day and age we have great means to alleviate mental or physical pain, even compared to just five years ago —Kevin, we MILDLY implore you to consider a less permanent and devastating solution than the one you must now hopefully be considering.
Kevin Sabet’s decision to seek funding for his anti-marijuana crusade is a bit late. It’s as if the Titanic hit the iceberg and Kevin is saying all that’s needed to save it are empty buckets and a few people to bail the thing out. Lifeboats are a better option. Kevin and the rest of the prohibitionists need to find theirs quickly.
Mr Sabet is the penny on the tracks trying to slow down the unstoppable freight train of legalization.
OT in an open thread… some may remember last winter and spring I had a young housemate, Little Miss Appleseed. Well, we’ve done so much work together that I had to have a site specifically for that work. And it has nothing to do w/ drug policy other than we both are cannabis consumers…
… and while it doesn’t yet, it will contain adult content. If you are so inclined it is here: http://myoregonmuse.blogspot.com/
and it won’t be just nudie pics. Part of my reason for doing this is all of the crappy-ass nude photography that floods the wwweb these days pisses me off. Nasty ain’t beauty. Beauty takes a deeper understanding of life and the threads that connect all things.
And the Koch funded group ALEC, the sponsors of “smoke a bong, lose benefits.” in various states.
Seems odd that the Koch brothers would fund an organization that opposes ending the drug war and promotes drug testing in the workplace and for welfare recipients, since those brothers have a very strong libertarian streak and do not personally oppose cannabis use. Either they do not know that org is promoting that or they changed their stance and are now going against what they’ve previously supported.
Yep, that’s some “streak of Libertarianism” they have there, aka pretending they don’t care about personal vices when it suits them…
I suspect their public stance of – Well, no we “don’t personally oppose cannabis use” is about as sincere and deeply held = at a level somewhere between Ron Paul and Rand Paul.
Somewhere between: I believe “it’s a State’s Rights issue”, and not the Federal Government’s business to decide for us….
And when further pressed said = No, I don’t want to have it be made legal in my district or state – No.
“Why? Well… I just don’t think it would be right for us ~> I don’t believe we should legalize it here – we should decriminalize it, to avoid spending money on police enforcement of those laws. You know to “End the Drug War” – but actually Legalizing all of “The Pot” & harder drugs would send the wrong message to the children, IMO.
And it would upset many of the senior citizen constituents in my district who vote for me. They want me work to end “the welfare state” and stop the handouts to all the minorities -that just create more dependency- and the lazy people who refuse to work 2 or 3 minimum wage service-industry jobs to barely support their families.
Or when they won’t insist that their spouses work as much as they possibly can too, while still taking care of the children.
Unless of course they couldn’t because they’d done like so many of them these days = who’ve been having babies out of wedlock! Something, I saw all too often in my medical practice that increased with each passing year.
And we should do like many have suggested and drug test all those who’re applying for handouts because you never know how many are gonna be coming to work stoned & dangerous…”
And so on, and so forth = with the Elder Paul speaking thoughts that he really should keep between himself and his inner monologue, or maybe his inner dialogue(?) That would explain a few things.
The younger Paul has learned that he MUST stop to making these statements whenever he can manage to avoid doing so.
(He’s apparently been developing a filter for these sort of impolitic, undiplomatic, unwise comments) = That is typically a prerequisite for getting into politics – and running for public office… But, for whatever reason(s), its been much less so in recent years.
Although Rand Paul got clobbered by much of the Media when he made the very obvious and legitimate argument that Eric Garner wouldn’t be dead if it weren’t for the insane sumptuary tax (aka sin-tax) placed on cigarettes in New York.
It roughly doubles the price creating room for an un-taxed blackmarket for cigarettes, along with the *minimum price for any tobacco product package* tactic that Bloomberg pushed in his attempt to prevent poor folk from bring able to easily purchase them…
Which created the market-space for people to buy single “loosey” cigs, afaik this is NY/NYC thing… that may have existed in the past as a mostly a convenience to poor folks that some store owners/workers(?)
Liberals acted like this was a crass “Anti-Tax” argument that avoided the cops choking a dude to arrest him & believeing the = “if you can talk you can breathe” attitude of the cops – neglecting to check his airway – made no attempt at CPR, Etc.
I automatically got Rand Paul’s point & appreciated the observation, because it was closer to the source of the problem.
Earlier today Joe Scarborough made the statement/observation (?) that had all 5 of those cops had been wearing body cameras Garner would be alive.
That’s probably right, BUT – if cigs still cost $2 or so a pack (maybe $3) if they hadn’t had a “War on Joe Camel” in the 90’s & the insane judgement that the cig makers passed on to the consumer & the general acceptance of artificially inflating tobacco prices… = So people can’t afford as many, and “that’s done outta good intentions so its okay”, then Garner might be alive today as well… But the Nannies, Scolds, & *holier than thou Ex-Smokers* (who seem scared they might start again if they could afford it) – None of them seem to be sble to acknowledge this.
And yet still the liberal Nanny-Staters act like Rand Paul ran up to the camera, unzipped his pants, and slapped them across the face with an evil giant phallus that had “Taxes are Bad” tattooed along the side!
.
.
IMO the Native American thing is not permission to legalize, it’s permission to keep it criminalized. There’s really no controversy among NA authorities. They believe that their people need to be infantilized.
During the Alaska campaign there were quite a few tribal authorities who were upset that despite being able to “opt out” of allowing a regulated retail distribution chain they weren’t going to be able to keep possession criminalized. These communities also criminalize possession of drinking alcohol. A critical reading of the DoJ memo should result in the conclusion that it doesn’t just give authority to legalize, it gives the authority to keep possession criminalized.
It will be a practical impossibility for any tribal sovereignty to set up a for profit business that generates significant gross revenues beyond perhaps a “cannabis tourist” type of business. That’s if they’re even interested. I could be wrong but I don’t think that the fans of cannabis include a lot of gamblers. At least not the type that think that there’s any gambling going on in a casino. Hey, for it to be actual gambling both sides of the bet have to have a reasonable possibility of being the winner or the loser.
There are NA casinos that are dry. I don’t think that anyone should start counting the days before they find cannabis for sale from a NA sovereign. But the Alaska Tribes can still arrest people for possession in their bailiwick. Hey, somebody call Dan Snyder and tell him to get Fed-Ex Field qualified as a Federal government recognized reservation. Maybe then they’ll stop pestering him about the team’s name.
Did I manage to avoid all the PC landmines?
PC wha..? And for those that find Duncan has crossed yet another barrier of social correctivenessity try this: http://massreport.com/9-fart-filled-health-facts/
Duncan,,if you lived in the middle of the Plains Indians instead of the Northern tribes you would know that just a tourist thing is right up their alley,,,every Casino in OKLA with a “Smoke room” and selling nothing but joints will be fine with them.
I have refrained from saying so, but I was thinking the very same thing. The tribes are not pot friendly. I walk off my block to the west, and I’m in the reservation, and the Lummi are already trying to keep legal weed out.
That was before the Federal government offered them a temporary monopoly in a majority of the states where billions can be made until state governments catch up and offer competition for the market dollar,,,I wish we could watch the traffic flow of “advisers” going through every tribe right now.
To top it all off,,the NA”s are state tax exempt,,,which really knocks the hell out of huge tax revenue if you are trying to be competitive.
The neat part about selling joints only is that if they catch anyone carrying a joint off of tribal and it can’t be charged as trafficking and the tribe is seen as actively inhibiting the marijuana sold becoming part of the black market
I agree, DC. The Rez police are of the “drugs are bad” variety and it’s deep. If they only knew the benefits of the medicine, especially in helping people cope with other addictions (esp. alcohol).
The only approach I could see working with tribal leadership would be as for casinos – here’s a way to create employment and profits on the rez exploiting the (non-native) people who frequent the casino.
John McCain and Congress helping mining company steal ancestral, ceremonial Apache land
http://tinyurl.com/po8xj3n
Marijuana is big news. This was parked in a corner of the internet.
Sorry free radical-missed your post above.
Do you agree with the decision of Congress to block D.C. pot legalization? http://tinyurl.com/p3vxz2n
93.34% say no so far. Take that Andy Harris.
I may not have seen the part that blocks “legalization”,,I saw where they blocked funding any kind of legal market but it does not require funding to stop arresting and prosecuting people and unless they plan on charging for a license to grow your own it costs nothing to implement growing your own.
This is why I have been harping about the Hatch Act for years.
When applied as it should be, as it was in Oregon, it stops the prohibs cold from using our tax dollars to politic against us. The Hatch Act denies them the use of the cachet of their offices, implying they know what they are talking about, to promote their hidden corp-rat sponsored agenda by freely disseminating lies cloaked in the raiment of officaldom
We should not have had to ‘re-invent the wheel’, here. It should not have been necessary to make this addition to the legislation and have to waste so much time and energy on getting it passed. As Oregon proved, despite the best efforts of prohibs in the past, the Hatch Act still lives and breathes…and has teeth when acknowledged as being ‘the law of the Land’.
But now the idea of the restriction is out there; a reality…and muzzling the excesses of the prohibs which have led to such spectacles as Ferguson, proven it has the necessary support amongst the electorate. A confluence of forces from different directions is leading to a thrust of change powered by numerous factors but all leading to a major shift in American politics. And it was predicted here that this issue, strange as it seemed at the time, would be the catalyst.
And, also as predicted here, all it has taken was two election cycles. Those more intelligent pols not ideologically with us are shrewd enough to realize the political wind is changing direction rapidly; a point to note when it’s time to relieve one’s self. Those pols not smart enough to drop prohibition like it’s both radioactive and virulent will become political gristle in the new electorate’s social mill. Not bad for a bunch of ‘amotivated’ ‘stoners’, huh?
Next front: linguistics, again. We taught the LameStream Media to say ‘prohibition’; now it’s time to make sure the media understands that since we’ve shown our abilities politically, that the language must once more change.
WE ARE CANNABISTS, ‘Cannabis consumers’, is fine. But we should ‘always and ever’ insist on why we don’t refer to it as ‘marijuana’ (Anslinger, racist, hated Hispanics, used word to denigrate them, etc.) every chance we get…and point out that since it was a racist who dreamed up the word, why do our opponents insist upon using it? Perhaps their obstinence on this issue is betraying another example of dog-whistle politics?
As Ethan Nadelmann proved with Sabet, you go after them hammer-and-tongs, and they wilt like celery in a blowtortch. Sabet was their best, by DuPont’s own admission, and he was bested. Shot down in flames, trailing thick smoke, and too high an angle to survive impact. This is why he’s trying to get cagey with this tax-exempt crap. He’s hoping to sub-contract his BS, I suppose. But after being at ONDCP while it was both wasting a billion dollars on a failed PR campaign, while being taken to the cleaners by the company conducting it, I think it’s reasonable to assume that donors might be leery of him for some time. Especially when it is so easy to ferret out their mercenary corp-rat motives behind their faux moral panicking courtesy of the Internet.
They are so outclassed, technologically as well as intellectually, that they really, really should just give up now. If they slink off the stage, maybe when it’s reckoning time, they might be forgotten. Maybe…
Great comment on that article from scdrake:
Anybody have any input or insight on his interpretation?
We enjoy, cause I discovered what exactly I used to be trying to find. You’ve got wrapped up our three day prolonged search for! Goodness Thank you person. Have a pleasant day time. Ok bye
what a great way to finish my night – spam!
I have to add Rotell,macaroni and cheese to my Spam.
Hey, you know they got new flavors out now, right? They even have Teriyaki Spam!
(Shudders at the thought of Teriyaki Spam) Ugh! Just like those ‘Ham and MFers’ in the old C-rations I used to get. They just don’t know when to stop with the insults to decency, do they?
Goodness Thank You, Person!
Dawn Paley, a Canadian journalist, has a new book out called Drug War Capitalism. In it she says drug enforcement is being used to expand transnational corporate markets:
American Indians can now legally grow marijuana: http://national.suntimes.com/national-world-news/7/72/319893/american-indians-marijuana
Tribes to U.S. Government: Take Your Weed and Shove It
http://thebea.st/12GGo9o via @abbyhaglage
In a strange move, the Justice Department issued a memo allowing Native Americans to grow marijuana on their lands. But after a troubled history with alcohol, some tribes are wary.
Oh let us stay on welfare and have our land stolen by mining corporations. Poverty is what the Casino Tribes push.
The Ganjawar Comes to the The Rez
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/388
Good seeds + good growers + greenhouse equals appx $2 or less per gram primo.
TeaShops inside casinos limit sales to 2 grams and they avoid any of their products hitting the blackmarket or the local highschool.
OK,AZ,and some other states have casinos all over them,,others have Bingo games,,,as long as they don’t hire Mark Kleiman they can sell grams in their outlets at $5 a gram and bank millions before the state can get into the competition.
With wages, licencing fees, taxes etc. (and you bet the tribal elders will want a taste) the cost will be at least $5 per gram, but even so, $10 grams are very lucrative. In the long run, however, the production of cannabis will go to tropical countries with low labour rates who will be able to produce great product for much less. The PTB will like that, for they can ‘control’ (aka tax) importation. They will also see it as a way to eliminate domestic growing.
The only way to stop domestic growing is prices that make it not worth the effort,,less than $5 a gram,,and I will continue helping my friends and neighbors learn how.
interesting times… good to see this story still getting coverage.
SWAT Team Admits On Website That It Was Formed To Fight Civil Rights Protesters
A recent survey indicates college students who consume synthetic marijuana are partly motivated by curiosity.
Until the drug war ends, and until marijuana is legal enough to displace the synthetics market, various state and municipal governments will focus on new ways using drug consumption to prosecute the curious, or “peer pressured.†It’s the government’s war on the curious, et al., and it’s been fashionable among bureaucrats for decades. While it’s no longer legal for law enforcement to arrest someone in the U.S. for reading a particular book, arresting people for exhibiting curiosity, people who do their own research on the actual effects of a drug: no problem.
More irrelevant nonsense form Kevin Sabet;
“If you live 10 minutes away from a [Native American] reservation, you could be living 10 minutes away from a pot shop.â€
Don’t worry Kevin, as time goes on we’ll try and make sure that distance gets shortened. Trust us, we’re working on it.
via Nora Callahan:
Richard Lake Requiescat In Pace
Freedom Activist Network’s Guide
http://www.freedomactivist.net/personsl.html#la
Richard Lake’s Homepage
http://www.mapinc.org/rlake/
Thank you for all your dedication and hard work, Richard. You did so much.
Thank you so much for helping me learn that I could help, too, and teaching me how.
Thank you. You are missed.
Rest in peace, Richard Lake. You fought hard and well.
Netherlands based Axim Biotechnologies is setting up to market chewing gum containing plant-extracted cannabinoids. The product comes in two forms: CanChew contains CBD, and MedChew contains THC.
The new Dutch product could be serious competition for Sabet’s favorite Gummy Bears. Bubble-hash bubblegum, anyone?
The Care By Design CBD-THC product I’m currently using that mimics Sativex and is available in 40-something California dispensaries DOESN’T CONTAIN ALCOHOL, but instead uses coconut oil.
And, what Kevin Sabet-Sharghi wouldn’t like folks to know is that a Sativex-like product with patient-friendly coconut oil instead of alcohol is FIVE TIMES cheaper!!!!!
A California medicinal patient can dose at 8-sprays-per-day for a cost of approximately $240-to-$260 per month depending on dispensary. Contrast that with the Sativex cost of around $1,200-per-month.
And, as a full-extract those currently using high-THC versions of Rick Simpson oil can switch to the 1:1 ratio with confidence.
The chewing gum sounds like an interesting product and could even be useful for some patients. However, if it’s designed to deliver medicine without an alcohol base, Calfornia Hippie-medicine has already solved that issue.
OT: Folks who are curious about the name Sabet-Sharghi need to visit the library of the Cannabinologist website. Sunil Kumar Aggarwal went to Berkeley with Kevin Sabet-Sharghi and has a lot of info on Kevin’s college years and how he developed quite the following of Sabet-haters based on his drug-war fervor.
Dr. Aggarwal has also commented on this site on a few occasions.
Ann Lee, executive director of the Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition, agreed, arguing that reducing penalties for drug violations is in line with the philosophy of conservatives who “stand for freedom.â€
coalition-unveils-bill-to-reduce-penalties-texas
Unfortunately the drug war is still very active in New Zealand
If anyone is interested, last night’s Coast to Coast AM (first two hours) was all about hemp, you can listen to it from the archives:
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows
Hmm, it seems Mitch McConnell’s family is involved in smuggling cocaine:
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/90-pounds-cocaine-cargo-ship-owned-anti-drug-senators-family/