AP: Marijuana decriminalization bill to be offered in Congress

[TeyshaBlue]

Its too coomnplace an occurrence for gloating. :lmao

[boutons_deux]

Its too coomnplace an occurrence for gloating. :lmao

TB :lol chimes in, crawling out of hiding in the woodwork, with his stalking of The Great Boutons, who has really fucked up TB :lol so many times TB :lol is traumatized, hurtful, resentful. snif snif

[TeyshaBlue]

Whatever gets you through the day litttle fella.

[boutons_deux]

IRS awards tax exempt status to the First Church of Cannabis

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/irs-awards-tax-exempt-status-to-the-first-church-of-cannabis/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[Winehole23]

war on drugs related:


In a significant blow to the United States' decadeslong war on drugs, House lawmakers voted Tuesday to strip $23 million from the embattled Drug Enforcement Administration's budget, diverting the funds toward community outreach programs, fighting police abuse and ending the DEA's controversial bulk data collection programs.

With simple voice votes, lawmakers approved four amendments offered to the fiscal year 2016 Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill that would cut into the DEA's budget.


One amendment offered by Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) would move $10 million from the agency's salaries and expenses to the Department of Justice's body camera program.




"These additional resources will help increase law enforcement accountability, mend police-community relations, and improve the safety of cities and towns across America," Castro said. The pilot version of that program has a budget of $25 million.
An amendment from Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) would move $4 million from the DEA budget to increase funding for rape testing kits. On the House floor, Cohen said trauma inflicted on victims of rape can be "compounded when they know that they're assailants roam free and critical evidence remains untested."


Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) offered an amendment that would shift $9 million earmarked for the DEA's cannabis reduction and eradication program to initiatives aimed at helping victims of domestic abuse, child abuse and sexual assault.


"We need to focus our resources where they are actually needed: standing up for children who have been victims of abuse and assault, not spending taxpayer dollars on going after people who grow marijuana plants in states that have legalized marijuana," Lieu told The Huffington Post.


And an amendment from Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) would prevent the DEA and DOJ from using federal funds to engage in bulk collection of Americans' communications records.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/03/dea-budget-police-reform_n_7503878.html

[Winehole23]

Texas related, so much for Republicans moving in lockstep:

https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-new-front-fight-legalize-marijuana/

[Winehole23]

Congress tells the DOJ to keep its hands off medical weed in states where it is legal:

http://www.laweekly.com/news/congress-moves-to-strangle-feds-anti-weed-crusades-5648137

[boutons_deux]

Texas related, so much for Republicans moving in lockstep:

https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-new-front-fight-legalize-marijuana/

There may be a maverick TX Repug with a brain and humanity, like Simpson, but who still uses "using God and Scripture" bulshit instead of his brain and science, but mj legalization in TX doesn't have a chance.

Abbott just signed a bill allowing an CBD (Abbott pandered to the Bible humpers and puritans than there is no HIGH involved) to be used EXCLUSIVELY for kids with high rates of seizures, and ONLY after time has been wasted trying all other known-unsuccessful drugs, prolonging the victim's + family's pain.

Abbott: "“I remain convinced that Texas should not legalize marijuana,” Abbott said, “nor should Texas open the door for conventional marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes.”"

so "Not on Abbott's watch", another 3 years of no mj decriminalization, which puts TX inbetween bi-annual lege sessions, so maybe 4,5 years at least before the next non-Abbott gov signs mj into law. Or maybe Abbott will reverse course and WALK away from his current STANCE?

So 2 more years waiting doing nothing while The Greatest State In The Nation honors its 150-year, hide-bound tradition from Indian days of bi-annual, too-brief sessions, instead of working every year to actually govern a complex state of 27M people.

[CosmicCowboy]

They need to go all in in 2017 and go for full legalization on the Colorado model.

[boutons_deux]

Congress tells the DOJ to keep its hands off medical weed in states where it is legal:

http://www.laweekly.com/news/congress-moves-to-strangle-feds-anti-weed-crusades-5648137

:lol hilarious. This is equivalent to Congress refusing to vote on declaring war on ISIS.

If Congress, esp Repugs, were really serious, instead of "talk"-ing, they'd "walk" vote to remove mj from DEA's insane Schedule I, and why not completely off-schedule, like alcohol and addictive, toxic, carcinogenic tobacco? and of course, Obama has already instructed DoJ not to go after mj, but DEA didn't get the memo.

As long as mj is Sched I, DEA and friends will go after mj sellers and possessors, because the War on Drugs is a business and job,pension creator.

[Winehole23]

boutons, the drug war is dying and you don't even know it.

[boutons_deux]

boutons, the drug war is dying and you don't even know it.

:lol link? evidence? have the drug cartels agreed to be killed?

[admiralsnackbar]

:lol link? evidence? have the drug cartels agreed to be killed? It's more of a surrender on our part, not any sort of victory over the cartels. Too much money to be saved/earned by legalization. The cartels will move into other rackets, but they will have trouble earning what they do now. The cartel bubble is beginning to burst, and the pharma companies will be there to greedily pick up the slack and grease the political wheels.

[boutons_deux]

Too much money to be saved/earned by legalization.

one doesn't need to pay a doc for a presciption for alcohol or tobacco, only a driver's license.

money by whom? Somehow, BigPharma, already researching mj analogues, extracts, BigMed, police, govt, will stand between mj and users.

[admiralsnackbar]

one doesn't need to pay a doc for a presciption for alcohol or tobacco, only a driver's license. money by whom? Somehow, BigPharma, already researching mj analogues, extracts, BigMed, police, govt, will stand between mj and users. Booze is heavily taxed. Tobacco is heavily taxed. Recreational drugs are/will be heavily taxed. Pharma drugs are expensive, thus heavily sales-taxed. Compared to flushing money down the toilet with the DEA and the penal system, you're talking about a huge windfall for state and federal coffers. The pilot programs are working just fine so far, so it's only a matter of time before other states decide they want some of that money, too.

[admiralsnackbar]

As for it being free to grow weed, or cheap to brew beer... it's also incredibly inconvenient and time-consuming. Smokers could grow tobacco, but they smoke too much to make it feasible/desirable to do it. Companies will step in to offer simpler alternatives, and they will be taxed. Vigorously.

[boutons_deux]

Booze is heavily taxed. Tobacco is heavily taxed. Recreational drugs are/will be heavily taxed.

mj will probably be taxed PUNITIVELY, not just heavily. WA, OR, CO prices are still over $200/oz for a fucking weed.

Key Findings

Because marijuana can be purchased as a cigarette, an edible, a liquid, or vapor, all with a wide variety of concentrations, a specific excise tax is untenable.
Colorado collects tax revenue from marijuana sales through a 15 percent excise based tax on the average wholesale market rate; a 10 percent state tax on retail marijuana sales; a state sales tax of 2.9 percent; varied local sales taxes; and local marijuana taxes such as a 3.5 percent tax in Denver.
Washington State collects tax revenue from marijuana sales through a 25 percent tax on producer sales to processors; a 25 percent tax on processor sales to retailers; a 25 percent tax on retailer sales to customers; a state Business & Occupation (B&O) gross receipts tax; a state sales tax of 6.5 percent; and varied local sales taxes. The total effective tax rate to be about 44 percent.

http://taxfoundation.org/article/taxing-marijuana-washington-and-colorado-experience

Booze and tobacco are not taxed so heavily to be out of reach.

[admiralsnackbar]

mj will probably be taxed PUNITIVELY, not just heavily. WA, OR, CO prices are still over $200/oz for a fucking weed. Key Findings

Because marijuana can be purchased as a cigarette, an edible, a liquid, or vapor, all with a wide variety of concentrations, a specific excise tax is untenable.
Colorado collects tax revenue from marijuana sales through a 15 percent excise based tax on the average wholesale market rate; a 10 percent state tax on retail marijuana sales; a state sales tax of 2.9 percent; varied local sales taxes; and local marijuana taxes such as a 3.5 percent tax in Denver.
Washington State collects tax revenue from marijuana sales through a 25 percent tax on producer sales to processors; a 25 percent tax on processor sales to retailers; a 25 percent tax on retailer sales to customers; a state Business & Occupation (B&O) gross receipts tax; a state sales tax of 6.5 percent; and varied local sales taxes. The total effective tax rate to be about 44 percent.

http://taxfoundation.org/article/taxing-marijuana-washington-and-colorado-experience Booze and tobacco are not taxed so heavily to be out of reach. Yeah, but the actual cost of production is so low that competition will drive down the cost to the point that the tax is higher than the production. I think pot is currently being sold at vestigial illegal drug prices ($100 for a bag last I checked, to cover the risk, and to make shipping a bulky, inexpensive product worth the effort) by "artisanal" entrepreneurs. What will ultimately happen in the marketplace is that only high-volume producers will be able to profit, and only they will be able to make the product cheaper, more convenient, and better-distributed than illegal pot. Indies will probably be priced out, or aim at a niche segment. ...But just looking at those taxes, can't you see how eager governments are to get the ball rolling? And do you really think they are going to prefer a cautious systematic approach to regulation over their gold-rush fever? As for the excise tax in relation to potency is concerned, I expect the government, producers, and retailers will hammer out a standard over 10-15 years. Retail alcohol has to state its alcohol % by volume and be distilled and sold according to govt standards, for example. And the law uses BAL to determine a citizen's level of sobriety and has a framework of protocols to prevent or punish abuse. It took decades of work to put together those still-in-flux standards, tax structures, regulatory processes, etc. but alcohol was legal through most of them because it was simply too lucrative (and too costly to fight bootleggers). So just because there is no current test to determine how stoned somebody is, for example, doesn't mean there won't ever be. They may also piggyback on precedents put forward by big tobacco to make regulations fall into a grey area. It could go any number of ways, but as long as that tax revenue carrot is dangling, I'd bet the legislative momentum will tend toward legalization.

[admiralsnackbar]

Sorry for block of text... my formatting didn't go through.

[boutons_deux]

I think pot is currently being sold at vestigial illegal drug prices ($100 for a bag last I checked

http://www.forbes.com/sites/frankbi/2015/05/12/the-most-and-least-expensive-states-to-buy-marijuana/

[boutons_deux]

Looks like the pothead n!gg@ communist Muslim non-citizen is using, as promised, his "phone and pen" to make PROGRESSIVE changes

The feds just made it a lot easier to research marijuana



The federal government removed a substantial barrier to conducting scientific and medical research on marijuana (http://www.vox.com/cards/marijuana-legalization).
The government previously required three major approvals for marijuana research not funded by the government: a Food and Drug Administration review, a Public Health Service (PHS) review, and approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Marijuana is the only schedule 1 drug (http://www.vox.com/2014/9/25/6842187/US-drug-schedule-marijuana-Justice-Department-Eric-Holder) that had to go through the special PHS review.
The federal government's decision (https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2015-15479.pdf), which is effective immediately, eliminates the PHS review, which in some cases added months or years to a study's approval.


http://www.vox.com/2015/6/22/8824025/marijuana-public-health-service

Thanks, Obama!

May Harry Anslinger burn in hell.

[Winehole23]

partial legalization in the US is already hurting the cartels:


The latest data from the U.S. Border Patrol (https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USBP%20Stats%20FY2015%20sector%20profile.pdf) shows that last year, marijuana seizures along the southwest border tumbled to their lowest level in at least a decade. Agents snagged roughly 1.5 million pounds of marijuana at the border, down from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 2009.

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2016/03/marijuana_imports1.png&w=1484

The data supports the many stories (http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-marijuana-20151230-story.html) about the difficulties marijuana growers in Mexico face in light of increased competition from the north. As domestic marijuana production has ramped up in places such as California, Colorado and Washington, marijuana prices have fallen, especially at the bulk level.


"Two or three years ago, a kilogram [2.2 pounds] of marijuana was worth $60 to $90," a Mexican marijuana grower told NPR news in December 2014 (http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/12/01/367802425/legal-pot-in-the-u-s-may-be-undercutting-mexican-marijuana). "But now they're paying us $30 to $40 a kilo. It's a big difference. If the U.S. continues to legalize pot, they'll run us into the ground."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/03/legal-marijuana-is-finally-doing-what-the-drug-war-couldnt/

[boutons_deux]

Nixon Aide Reportedly Admitted Drug War Was Meant To Target Black People

“Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Ehrlichman provided some shockingly honest insight into the motives behind the drug war. From Harper’s: (https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/)

“You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect.

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people.

You understand what I’m saying?

We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.

We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.

Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”


In other words, the intense racial targeting that’s become synonymous with the drug war wasn’t an unintended side effect — it was the whole point.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nixon-drug-war-racist_us_56f16a0ae4b03a640a6bbda1

Repugs, The Party of Racists, from top to bottom, for decades...

[140]

Nixon Aide Reportedly Admitted Drug War Was Meant To Target Black People

“Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Ehrlichman provided some shockingly honest insight into the motives behind the drug war. From Harper’s: (https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/)

“You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect.

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people.

You understand what I’m saying?

We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.

We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.

Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”


In other words, the intense racial targeting that’s become synonymous with the drug war wasn’t an unintended side effect — it was the whole point.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nixon-drug-war-racist_us_56f16a0ae4b03a640a6bbda1

Repugs, The Party of Racists, from top to bottom.




The whole piece on Harper's is great stuff. Really worth the read.

https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/

[boutons_deux]

DEA Plans To Decide Whether To Reschedule Marijuana By Mid-Year

The Drug Enforcement Administration plans to decide whether marijuana should reclassified under federal law in “the first half of 2016,” the agency said in a letter to senators. (http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/dearesponse.pdf)

DEA, responding to a 2015 letter (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elizabeth-warren-marijuana-research_us_55a54b99e4b0a47ac15d8762) from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and seven other Democratic senators urging the federal government to facilitate research into marijuana’s medical benefits, doesn’t indicate whether it will reclassify marijuana as less dangerous.

“DEA understands the widespread interest in the prompt resolution to these petitions and hopes to release its determination in the first half of 2016,” DEA said the 25-page letter, obtained by The Huffington Post.

The letter, signed by Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg, explains in great detail the marijuana supply available at the University of Mississippi, the federal government’s only sanctioned marijuana garden.

The Food and Drug Administration has completed a review (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/24/fda-marijuana_n_5526634.html) of the medical evidence surrounding the safety and effectiveness of marijuana and has forwarded its rescheduling recommendation to the DEA, (http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2015/12/fda-issues-marijuana-rescheduling-recommendation-to-dea/) according to the letter. The document didn’t reveal what the FDA recommended.

If demand for research into marijuana’s medical potential were to increase beyond the the University of Mississippi’s supply, DEA said it may consider registering additional growers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dea-marijuana-reschedule_us_5704567de4b0537661881644

Will citizens' petitions and medical science win?

or will BigAlcohol's, BigPharma's, BigPoliceState's $10Ms in lobbying win again?

[boutons_deux]

The DEA Is Dropping Some Big Weed News Tomorrow

So, this is something: The US Drug Enforcement Administration will be "making some important announcements" on "marijuana related topics" tomorrow morning, August 11, according to a statement from DEA spokesperson Russ Baer.

Whatever the announcements are, they will be lodged in the Federal Register. That doesn't happen everyday.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/dea-marijuana-announcement-stay-tuned

[Winehole23]

beginning of the end of prohibition?


U.S. voters next month in five states, including bellwether California, are poised to expand the legal use of recreational marijuana to almost a quarter of the American population, a move that could prove to be one of the most consequential shifts in U.S drug policy since the 1930s.


Passage in California, where polls show it has wide support, would make pot legal along the entire West Coast and give momentum to efforts to lift the ban nationwide. The state, the most populous in the U.S. with 39 million residents, was the first to allow medical marijuana two decades ago. In all, nine states will consider marijuana-related ballot measures on Nov. 8, which could more than double the $7 billion market for pot products by 2020.

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-10-28/marijuana-vote-in-california-may-herald-end-of-prohibition-era

[boutons_deux]

beginning of the end of prohibition?

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-10-28/marijuana-vote-in-california-may-herald-end-of-prohibition-era

... depends on the Feds' laissez-faire

I suppose the usual NOs on CA Prop 64 are the usual, BigPharma, Big Alcohol, Police/Prison Unions

[Winehole23]

after November 8th, pot could be legal for 25% of the US population. it's hard to tell where the tipping point is, but legalization in a big state like Cali brings us closer to it.

[Winehole23]

Seattle may scrub hundreds of pot convictions:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/04/27/seattle-seeks-abolish-hundreds-pot-convictions-light-legal-marijuana/559577002/

[boutons_deux]

This may be why racist JeBo is hanging around and being humiliated.

The War on Drugs was initially and has always been racist war on blacks and "Mexicans",

so it's racist JeBo's wet dream to lock up 100Ks more blacks and browns and for as long as the law permits

Why Is Trump Ramping Up His Unwieldy War on Weed?

Trump’s new “marijuana task force” is a big step backward for America

it was revealed that President Donald Trump has created a Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee (https://www.salon.com/2018/08/29/trumps-marijuana-task-force-ordered-to-ignore-data-that-shows-positive-impacts-report/), one in which various federal agencies that oversee marijuana policy work together to find ways to prevent Americans from having access to the drug.

"the prevailing marijuana narrative in the U.S. is partial, one-sided, and inaccurate" :lol The Irony! :lol

and needs to be countered with "the most significant data demonstrating negative trends, :lol

with a statement describing the implications of such trends." :lol

"Clearly, under the Department of Justice under the leadership of Jeff Sessions and the Trump administration at large, have

many leaders who are still suffering from 'Reefer Madness' prohibitionist era rhetoric,"

the Heritage Foundation :lol

called for in 2017...

a twelve point plan for how the Trump Department of Justice

can shutdown marijuana in America. :lol

And largely the DOJ has followed many of those steps, and

the biggest enforcement action component of that would be targeted RICO suits against some of the largest companies in the industry.

This is the same tool they use to take down organized crime,

because in the eyes of the federal government,

every single marijuana company — regardless of the fact that it's state legal — is operating in clear violation of federal law."

https://www.alternet.org/why-trump-ramping-his-unwieldy-war-weed

Meanwhile, the Repugs, going back to dubya/dickhead, have totally gutted white-collar crime and civil rights enforcement, and Obama did no better


===================

About six-in-ten Americans support marijuana legalization

http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2018/01/05111201/FT_18.01.05_Marijuana_Line_update.png


http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/05/americans-support-marijuana-legalization/

[Winehole23]

buy pot in a legal dispensary, lose your right to buy a gun in Missouri:


"They came back to Missouri, went to purchase a gun. You have to have a photo ID. When we run your name through the computer, it automatically connects you with buying marijuana in Colorado," Pind said.


That's because dispensaries also check identification for marijuana purchases.
https://www.kmbc.com/article/medical-marijuana-patients-federally-barred-from-buying-firearms/24935498

[Blake]

buy pot in a legal dispensary, lose your right to buy a gun in Missouri:

https://www.kmbc.com/article/medical-marijuana-patients-federally-barred-from-buying-firearms/24935498

But drunks with guns ok

[Winehole23]

San Francisco to dismiss all pot convictions going back to 1975:


The decision stems from a lesser-known provision in California law that legalised recreational marijuana, language that offers a second chance to people convicted of marijuana crimes in the state. The new law allows people with misdemeanour marijuana records to have them expunged and those with felony convictions the opportunity to have them reduced, pending a review.https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/marijuana-san-francisco-cannabis-convictions-wiped-1975-california-drugs-recreational-weed-prejudice-a8188676.html

[baseline bum]

buy pot in a legal dispensary, lose your right to buy a gun in Missouri:

https://www.kmbc.com/article/medical-marijuana-patients-federally-barred-from-buying-firearms/24935498

No way the NRA is going to let this stand. Way too much money to lose if they do.

[Chucho]

No way the NRA is going to let this stand. Way too much money to lose if they do.


Here in Cali during the strictly medical usage days, if you had a Rx card, it was the same story. I'd imagine it's like that with most states that have medical marijuana.

[boutons_deux]

buy pot in a legal dispensary, lose your right to buy a gun in Missouri:


https://www.kmbc.com/article/medical-marijuana-patients-federally-barred-from-buying-firearms/24935498 (https://www.kmbc.com/article/medical-marijuana-patients-federally-barred-from-buying-firearms/24935498)


Canadian Cannabis Investors Could Be Banned From U.S. for Life, Immigration Experts Say

http://fortune.com/2018/09/14/canada-cannabis-ban-us-border/ (http://fortune.com/2018/09/14/canada-cannabis-ban-us-border/)

[Winehole23]

Illinois to become the 11th US state to decriminalize, 770,000 to be eligible to have sentences expunged.

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/illinois-poised-enact-historic-recreational-marijuana-bill-clear/story?id=63449800

[boutons_deux]

Illinois to become the 11th US state to decriminalize, 770,000 to be eligible to have sentences expunged.

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/illinois-poised-enact-historic-recreational-marijuana-bill-clear/story?id=63449800

Oakland decriminalized psilocybin mushrooms, 2nd city to do so.

[CosmicCowboy]

Mushrooms are a nasty freaking high.

[boutons_deux]

in the right dose, psilocybin works wonder for some people, x Mg / Kg body weight. Johns Hopkins used 50 Mg with good results

[CosmicCowboy]

in the right dose, psilocybin works wonder for some people, x Mg / Kg body weight. Johns Hopkins used 50 Mg with good results

In their natural state it's totally impossible to figure out the "right dose" until it's too late.

[leemajors]

Mushrooms are a nasty freaking high.

I've never had a nasty experience on them. Microdosing them is fantastic.