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Oct 05
502

‘Marijuana Justice Act’ Would End Weed Prohibition Throughout The Land

By | Marijuana Latest News | No Comments

Presented today, a new congressional bill aims to get government and cannabis on the same side of the law by ending a decades-long federal ban on the plant.

Introduced by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, the ‘Marijuana Justice Act of 2017‘ seeks to end federal prohibition of cannabis and address the impacts that such prohibition continues to have on both government and individuals. In an announcement on Facebook Live, Booker said he believes the federal government “should get out of the illegal marijuana business,” and hopes to allow law enforcement to focus their time and spending on more serious matters.

“You see what’s happening around this country right now. Eights states and the District of Columbia have moved to legalize marijuana. And these states are seeing decreases in violent crime in their states,” Booker commented. “They’re seeing increases in revenue to their states. They’re seeing their police forces being able to focus on serious crime. They’re seeing positive things come out of that experience.”

In order to lift the federal ban on cannabis, Booker’s bill seeks to remove it from the group of drugs included in the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, where it is currently listed as a Schedule I drug alongside heroin and LSD. As the longtime drug-reform nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance explained in a release, the bill additionally seeks to:

  • Cut federal funding for state law enforcement and prison construction if a state disproportionately arrests and/or incarcerates low-income individuals and/or people of color for marijuana offenses
  • Allow entities to sue states that disproportionately arrest and/or incarcerate low-income individuals and/or people of color for marijuana offenses
  • Prevent deportations of individuals for marijuana offenses
  • Provide for a process of expungement for marijuana offenses at the federal level
  • Provide for a process of re-sentencing for marijuana offenses at the federal level
  • Create a “Community Reinvestment Fund” of $500 million to invest in communities most impacted by the war on drugs, for programs such as job training, reentry, community centers, and more. Part of the funding will come from the aforementioned cuts to state law enforcement and prison construction.

“These marijuana arrests are targeting poor and minority communities, [and] targeting our veterans. We see the injustice of it all,” Booker continued. “I have seen young teenagers getting arrested, saddled with criminal convictions for the rest of their lives.”

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) kneels near four-year-old Morgan Hintz, who suffers from a rare form of epilepsy, during a news conference on medical marijuana, on Capitol Hill, March 10, 2015 in Washington, DC. Her mother has been advocating the use of cannbidiol for her treatment.

Booker also noted that a felony marijuana conviction means “[having] to deal with about 40,000 collateral consequences” down the line for most people. “They can’t get business licenses, Pell Grants, public housing, food stamps.”

In a statement, the Drug Policy Alliance praised the bill’s attempts to address the harms that cannabis prohibition has caused, and to create a path forward for U.S. treatment of the drug.

“The question is no longer ‘should we legalize marijuana?’; it is ‘how do we legalize marijuana?’ We must do so in a way that recognizes that the people who suffered most under prohibition are the same people who should benefit most under legalization,” said Queen Adesuyi, policy associate for Drug Policy Alliance. “From disparate marijuana-related arrests and incarceration rates to deportations and justifications for police brutality – the war on drugs has had disparate harm on low-income communities and communities of color. It’s time to rectify that.”

John Malanca, co-founder of United Patients Group, believes the bill’s proposed changes to federal treatment of cannabis would be a step in the right direction, but one that’s taken far too long. “We work with thousands of patients across the country who use medical cannabis to address serious conditions and alleviate needless suffering. Even though a grassroots movement has led to medical access in 29 states, federal recognition is key, and Sen. Booker’s legislation is long overdue,” he commented by email.

He also pointed out that federal cannabis legalization would allow universities and other medical research groups to conduct needed cannabis research “without fear,” or perhaps the bushels of red tape they currently face.

According to Malanca, that will effectively mean “opening the floodgates of investment for entrepreneurs to innovate and bring to the market safer, more effective treatment options, [that] rigorous and standardized testing can be conducted at the federal level, and that marketers of cannabis products will have to validate their claims.” He added, “For patients and their families, that can only be good news.”

In the past several months, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has indicated repeatedly that he hopes to lead the Justice Department toward stricter treatment of marijuana and other drug crimes. In April, Sessions announced the department would be re-evaluating its stance on cannabis, and instructed federal prosecutors to seek the most severe penalties possible for drug offenders in May.

Late last month, however, a Congressional committee “rebuked” one of Sessions’ strongest gestures toward a cannabis-crackdown to date. As MassRoots reported, Sessions asked his former colleagues in the Senate earlier this year to forgo federal protections on states’ management and implementation of marijuana laws, as enacted under President Obama in 2014.

Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee rejected Sessions’ request to drop the provision protecting states from federal interference over marijuana laws, adding a rider to this effect to legislation funding the Justice Department’s 2018 budget through a voice vote.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who sponsored the amendment, commented before the vote, “It is more humane to regulate medical marijuana than to criminalize it, [and] I don’t want [the Justice Department] spending money pursuing medical marijuana patients who are following state law … We have more important things for [it] to do than tracking down doctors or others, epileptics, who are using medical marijuana legally in their state.”

According to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in April, 94% of Americans support allowing the use of medical marijuana, and 60% favor full marijuana legalization.

Oct 05
502

THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY IS A MAGNET FOR FEMALES EXECUTIVES

By | MMJ Business Oppurtunities | No Comments

Move over, lads, women want a piece of the green action—and they’re taking it.

According to a survey of 632 cannabis executives and professionals, women are in leadership positions in 63 percent of potency and safety testing labs and in nearly half of companies that make and sell edibles and other products. And this is just a start.

How does this compare with the gender ratio in other industries? Let us count the ways:

In tech startups, only nine percent are led by women; women fill 22 percent of senior management positions in mid-size U.S. companies; and only 5.4 percent of CEO jobs at Fortune 1000 companies, according to a 2015 Pew Research report.

So, why are women shattering the glass ceiling in the cannabis industry?

For starters, women’s ability to multitask and their tendency to be flexible come in handy in an industry where the rules and regulations are constantly changing, from state-to-state and from one election cycle to another.

Long before states began legalizing medical and recreational weed, studies suggested that men were more likely than women to consume cannabis. A study published by Columbia University confirmed that this is still true.

However, that and other studies have also shown women’s willingness to openly discuss marijuana has had a major impact on legalization.

Once marijuana’s medicinal powers for children began to gain international attention, women stepped up to the plate and demanded MMJ when they saw a need.

Kyndra Miller, a founding member of NORML’s Women’s Alliance, compared pot legalization to the 1920s when women banded together to end alcohol prohibition.

Neither alcohol, nor weed legalization, could be done without the full support of women, who make up slightly more than 50 percent of the voting population.

And now, with a new industry still in the making, women are taking the opportunity to break old traditions and work out the gender roles before their male counterparts pick up bad habits.

So far, women fill 36 percent of executive positions in U.S. cannabis companies that grow, test, sell and market pot products in this booming business, which is among the fastest growing in the country.

“It’s a new chance for many women who have been in the corporate world who couldn’t get to the next level,” said Becca Foster, an independent consultant with Healthy Headie.

“It’s not often that entire industries are born,” said Crystal Huish, an accountant and business consultant in the weed industry. “It’s an opportunity to break old traditions.”

And an opportunity for women to create more equitable rules.

Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, notes that the industry is still new enough to not yet be influenced by insider, male-dominated networks.

“In long-established industries, you have generations of business that has been dominated by men, and that creates structures of advancement that are dominated by men,” West said in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor.

However, there’s still a ways to go.

In other areas of the cannabis industry, particularly cultivation and investment, women leaders are still in the minority. Despite data on female executives, some say there is still a glass ceiling.

“I don’t want to give the country a fallacy that there’s not a glass ceiling in the industry because there is,” said Greta Carter, an investor in 10 companies in Nevada and California that grow, process and sell cannabis.

She explained that women’s involvement in leadership positions tend to be in ancillary businesses, such as growing, packaging, marketing, advertising, design, law and accounting—rather than wholesale cultivation, which requires heavy capital investment and more risk tolerance.

Nevertheless, women’s involvement in ancillary businesses and testing labs is major progress—with the added benefit that these areas are the most profitable sectors in the industry. So, women are definitely well positioned.

Article by HIGH TIMES’ marijuana news right here.

Oct 02
3075

Support for Marijuana Legalization Is Higher Than Ever. So Is the Number of People Getting Arrested.

By | Marijuana Latest News | No Comments

Though marijuana is now legal in 29 states for either medical or recreational use, the number of arrests involving marijuana have actually increased across the country.

Those numbers come from the Uniformed Crime Report compiled by the FBI from data sent to the agency from law enforcement operations around the country. The information covers arrests for all of 2016.

The number of people arrested on marijuana-related charges jumped 12 percent from 2015 to 2016, with 75,000 more people arrested. Overall, the number of drug-related arrests reached 1.57 million, about 5.6 percent higher than in 2015.

It would seem endless movies and television shows about the futility of the War on Drugs — not to mention surveys showing Americans are ready to end it — have had little effect on law enforcement itself.

Controversial Numbers

The FBI typically releases arrest numbers in the annual report broken down by the drug involved. However, they did not do so for 2016. Reporters had to return to the FBI and ask for the specific numbers on marijuana.

According to the Marijuana Policy Project, a pro-legalization group, the numbers were as follows:

  • There were 653,249 arrests involving cannabis
  • That’s about one arrest involving marijuana every 48 seconds
  • Marijuana arrests made up more than 41 percent of all drug busts in the U.S. in 2016

No matter how you look at it, those are very strange numbers in a country where marijuana is legal in so many places.

Shameful Waste

Morgan Fox, communications director of the Marijuana Policy Project, said in a prepared statement that the arrest numbers show marijuana users “continue to be treated like criminals across the country.”

He added, “This is a shameful waste of resources and can create lifelong consequences for the people arrested.”

It’s already been reported that marijuana-related arrests in Washington D.C. tripled between 2015 and 2016. They are on pace so far in 2017 to have a similarly high number of arrests. Arrests numbers are also up in many states in the Deep South.

The cost to taxpayers for arresting and processing that many people through the legal system is in the billions, according to Newsweek.

All of this seemingly runs contradictory to public sentiment, not only on the War on Drugs but on marijuana. Support for marijuana legalization reached a new high in a survey released earlier this year by CBS News.

About 61 percent of those surveyed in the poll think marijuana should be legal, while 71 percent opposed federal intervention in states that have made marijuana legal.