Bill fixing AB 21 goes to Governor… Legal states look to outside investors… Why is wine celebrated and cannabis demonized? … Cops & Courts… Dennis Peron… Driving while paranoid… even a Super Bowl mention!
LEGALIZATION & LEGISLATION
AB 21 goes to the governor // East Bay Express “Assembly Bill 21 passed the full Assembly on a unanimous vote 65-0 and heads to the governor’s desk for his signature.” It’s designed to remove the March 1 regulatory deadline that is causing towns and counties to pass rules banning cultivation of cannabis within their boundaries.
Hearings on new medical cannabis regs underway // East Bay Express “The January 19 meeting kicked off two years of hearings on the creation of new state rules, which will take effect by 2018. These rules will determine winners and losers in the new, 100-percent legal pot economy, so the industry is lobbying like never before.”
Dennis Peron has seen AUMA and he doesn’t like it // SF Weekly And it isn’t just because no one consulted him; Peron has been a force in legalization since the 1970s.
Coming UN drug talks likely to produce… more talks // The Economist A UN General Assembly special session on drug policy is planned in April, the first since 1998. “The last [session] was characterized by denial; 2016’s will be defined by hypocrisy.”
COPS & COURTS
Marijuana arrests drop 90 percent in six years // Orange County Register But the argument that legalization “will clear out California's jails” doesn’t have much merit. “They're pretty clear of pot-related offenses already.” [But see next story.]
16-year sentence for former dispensary operator // L.A. Daily News “Andrew Harrison Kramer, 41, of Granada Hills pleaded guilty in November in Los Angeles federal court to one count of conspiracy to distribute at least 1,000 kilograms of marijuana.” And he promises he “will never offend the law again.”
BUSINESS
Legal states looking for outside investors // Associated Press “California voters could approve recreational pot this fall, giving the nascent pot industries in the other states reason to want to attract investment now, before a giant enters the picture. California has no ban on out-of-state owners, pressuring other pot states to loosen the rules before California opens for business.”
Canadian medical grower drops prices // Marijuana Business Daily Automation makes it possible to lower the average price of a gram from $7.50 to $5.00.
HEALTH
Former Super Bowl QB McMahon just says yes to medical marijuana // Chicago Tribune “Since going public with his health issues, [Jim] McMahon said he has recently been feeling significantly better after chiropractic neck treatments to relieve the pressure.
“But the key to getting off the prescription narcotic painkillers he took throughout his career, he said, was medical marijuana.”
OPINION
Yes, drugs are more powerful today – because of the war on drugs // L.A. Times “As crackdowns … become more harsh, the milder forms of that drug disappear – and the most extreme strains become most widely available.
Wine good; marijuana bad. Why? // The Tribune Like several California cities, Atascadero has banned all marijuana cultivation. Marijuana is illegal, of course, but the author wonders why society “welcomes the booze and not the pot.”
REMEMBRANCE
Michael Kennedy, “crusader for oppressed people” // High Times “ ‘The reason that I’m interested in defending people charged with dope is because I want to undercut the government’s political base and their use of dope as a phony enemy,’ the activist attorney told High Times. “The enemy’s not dope. The enemy’s the goddamn police force’.” Kennedy died earlier this week. He was 79.
IT’S A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE, SO KEEP IT UNDER CONTROL….
Paranoid pot packers call cops for help // SFGate “The paranoid pair — thinking they were being followed — pulled over their car, which was loaded down with 20 bags of marijuana that weighed about a pound each, and called the police to report themselves.” [They should get points for cooperating with the authorities. – Ed.]
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