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HHS pick is about repealing Obamacare not weed
Meet Tom Price, the man who could reshape Obamacare under President Trump
He's one of the sharpest critics of Obamacare: He's known in Washington as a reliable critic of Obamacare. Most recently he declared "Obamacare is failing," in a Nov. 1 op-ed on the conservative website Townhall. That op-ed was written shortly after the administration announced that some Obamacare premiums would be rising next year.
(Price campaigned for Trump in part because Trump said he'd repeal Obamacare.)
Paranoia may destroya
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/29/meet-tom-price-the-man-who-could-reshape-obamacare-under-president-trump/
This feller has some real bad pr issues
Sessions confirmation could be a long shot
noun \long-shät\
Simple Definition of long shot
: an attempt or effort that is not likely to be successful
: a person or thing that is not likely to win something (such as a contest or race)
Source: Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary
He's been rejected for a federal judge position by congress.
Jeff Sessions Was Deemed Too Racist To Be A Federal Judge. He’ll Now Be Trump’s Attorney General.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-attorney-general-jeff-sessions-racist-remarks_us_582cd73ae4b099512f80c0c2
Few California dispensaries may have started selling rec mj
ARE CALIFORNIA MMJ DISPENSARIES ALREADY SELLING RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA?
By Mike Adams November 28, 2016
California’s newfound cannabis trade is not supposed to be up and running until sometime around 2018, but allegedly, that hasn’t prevented some dispensaries from selling recreational reefer in the same manner as they have been slinging the “medical” stuff for the past two decades.
A recent report from the California Weed Blog indicates that ever since the voters approved Proposition 64, an initiative that fully legalized marijuana throughout the state, there has been at least three medical marijuana dispensaries that have jettisoned the concept of a patient needing a doctor’s recommendation and are now selling weed to every adult 21 and over who comes in looking to get stoned.
HIGH TIMES, however, could not confirm all of the report—and found some discrepancies, too.
The website suggests that Green Light District in Van Nuys, Mr. Nice Guy in downtown Los Angeles and Cannaclub 30 in Compton have all posted on Weed Maps announcing that they are now selling marijuana to customers who have not been approved by a licensed physician to participate in the state’s medical marijuana program.
An article from the LAist quotes Mr. Nice Guy as saying, “21 years and older may enter with no doctors recommendation, however those 21 and under are still required to have a rec.”
While the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana is now completely legal in California for adults 21 and over, it remains against the law for a medical-marijuana dispensary to sell to a person who is not holding a legitimate medical-marijuana recommendation.
When HIGH TIMES looked into the situation, we found that the Weed Maps post from Mr. Nice Guy does not say the dispensary is Proposition 64 friendly, but rather it reiterates the necessity of having a “Doctors Recommendation with the California Seal” and a “valid California I.D” to purchase marijuana.
“ANNOUNCEMENT!! Prop 64 is not in effect,” the dispensary posted. “As a result, all patients must provide these documents in order to enter.”
Nevertheless, the LAist claims to have talked to a Mr. Nice Guy employee, who “confirmed that the dispensary was currently selling to everyone 21 and over, regardless of whether or not they were in possession of a medical marijuana card.”
Interestingly, the other two dispensaries (Green Light District and Cannaclub 30) appear to be open to selling to marijuana to those without permission to use medical marijuana.
Green Light District claims it “is now Prop 64 friendly! 21+ Just ID Required, 18-20 Needs ID + Rec!” while Cannaclub 30’s post says the same.
So far, HIGH TIMES has been unable to reach either dispensary to verify exactly how they are selling recreational marijuana without the proper license to conduct such business in the state of California.
As it stands, the regulatory guts of Proposition 64 are currently being hashed out by the state. And, whether they like it or not, California’s medical marijuana dispensaries will be forced to apply for the same licenses to deal in recreational marijuana as any of the newcomers. But those licenses are not expected to be issued until January 2018 – putting the proprietors of pot shops already engaged in the sale of recreational weed at risk of incurring penalties and even jail time.
According to the language of Proposition 64, selling marijuana without a license is punishable by up to six months in jail and fines reaching $500.
http://hightimes.com/news/are-california-mmj-dispensaries-already-selling-recreational-marijuana/
https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/cloud-9-collective-2-2#/details
https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/cannaclub-30-2#/details
https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/mr-nice-guy-collective#/details
Oregon let medical dispensaries sell rec mj early
Allowing medical marijuana dispensaries to sell the recreational product was a stop-gap measure to have recreational pot on the market to discourage the black market, after recreational sales were in approved by voters in 2014.
http://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-marijuana-edibles-recreational-sales-rules-oha/
Nevada lawmakers head to Oregon
Nevada Lawmakers Head to Oregon – Cannabis Fact-Finding
by Brian Bahouth Cannabis Public Media (@MJ_public_media)
November 26, 2016 — Following the passage of a ballot initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol in Nevada, a delegation of state lawmakers, lawyers and lobbyists is headed to Oregon on a cannabis fact-finding mission, November 28 and 29.
Oregon voters passed an initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol in November, 2014, and on July 1, 2015 the initiative went into effect, which allowed adults to legally possess and use cannabis within the limits of the referendum, but a system of regulated adult-use retail stores and associated companies would not be in place for another year or more.
Nevada is in the same situation. On January 1, 2017, adults in Nevada will able to legally possess and privately consume up to 1 ounce of cannabis flower or 1/8th an ounce of cannabis concentrates, but a system of regulated adult-use retail stores will not, at very best temporary rule-making speed, begin issuing adult-use retail, cultivation or processing licenses until the summer of 2017.
Like Oregon, Nevada has a strong and well established medical cannabis program. Oregon has had an exemplary medical system since 1998, the nation’s second oldest. Senate Bill 460 is an outcome of Oregon’s 2015 legislature and authorized 400 participating medical cannabis dispensaries to sell limited products in limited amounts to people 21 and older beginning January 4, 2016. A 25% tax was added for adult-use purchases, and medical patients continue to buy tax free.
The move was intended to undermine the formation of illegal markets and raise tax revenue, and as of September 30, 2016, the Oregon Department of Revenue has collected $40.2 million dollars in marijuana tax payments, an unexpectedly large amount.
Nevada state Senator Tick Segerblom is Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and leading the delegation to Oregon along with fellow Democrat, Assemblyman Steve Yeager. Segerblom says a bill is planned for the upcoming legislative session that begins in February that would, like Oregon, allow Nevada’s system of roughly 50 medical dispensaries to open to those 21 and older while the new adult-use system is fully implemented.
The language of Oregon’s SB 460 is short and uncomplicated and a good model for Nevada. Silver State lawmakers will undoubtedly benefit from Oregon’s hindsight as they craft legislation.
On February 6, 2016, Nevada lawmakers begin their biennial 120 days of lawmaking $400 million dollars in debt, so a bill that prevents illegal markets and raises tax revenue will likely win favor in both houses of the legislature. Democrats control both the Senate and Assembly, but the bill would also require the signature of Republican Governor Brian Sandoval. Sandoval opposed the legalization initiative.
If such a bill were signed into law at the end of the next session, the added regulatory burden of such a change would be light considering medical dispensaries in Nevada already collect 7% sales tax, so conceivably, existing dispensaries could more broadly serve the adult public as early as summer 2017.
The Nevada delegation will meet with Oregon’s legislative leadership, cannabis regulators and dispensary owners on their 2 day trip … for details, I spoke with Nevada state Senator Tick Segerblom …
http://www.occnewspaper.com/nevada-lawmakers-head-to-oregon-cannabis-fact-finding/
NFL suspends Bills player for medical mj treatment
By: Robyn Mundy | 2 hours ago
The news didn’t get any better for Buffalo Bills offensive tackle Seantrel Henderson on Sunday. Ian Rappaport of nfl.com reported that Henderson is possibly facing a 10 game suspension for violating the NFL’s Policy and Program for Substances of Abuse.
However, the situation is complicated. Although the substance in question has yet to be identified publicly, Henderson has a chronic medical condition (Crohn’s disease) and the use of medical marijuana may have been recommended as a means for helping control symptoms of the disease.
Henderson has Crohn’s disease and uses marijuana to deal with the pain resulting from the illness and two intestinal surgeries. As his agent Brian Fettner said after his first suspension, “There is zero allowable medical exemption for this per the NFL; however, there clearly should be.”
Henderson was already suspended for the first four games of the season for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy. The issue is clouded by the fact that marijuana is legal for medical and recreational use in an increasing number of states at this time.
However, the federal government’s Food and Drug Administration still lists marijuana as a Schedule I drug with drugs like heroin that have no medical benefit. It is expected that this classification will continue to be questioned as more states legalize marijuana for both medical and recreational purposes.
If Henderson is suspended as expected perhaps as early as this week, Rappaport indicated that he may opt to litigate the issue in court.
http://billswire.usatoday.com/2016/11/27/bills-ot-seantrel-henderson-facing-possible-10-game-suspension-may-sue-nfl/
http://billswire.usatoday.com/2016/09/06/seantrel-henderson-buffalo-bills-crohns/
California Prop 64 creates mmj tax holiday
California (Accidentally) Creates a Marijuana Tax Holiday
By Tiffany Wu on November 23, 2016
California officially legalized recreational cannabis on November 8, 2016 through Proposition 64, and the next day several provisions under the initiative went into effect. Cannabis users in California over the age of 21 now have new freedoms to possess, use and even cultivate cannabis for their personal use. In contrast, marijuana businesses will have to wait until January 1, 2018 to receive their state licenses to cultivate, manufacture, and sell recreational cannabis in California. Prop 64 also applies new state level marijuana taxes to licensed businesses. A cultivation tax will be assessed on all harvested marijuana that enters the commercial market and collected from commercial cultivators. In addition, a 15% marijuana excise tax will be assessed on any retail sales of cannabis and collected by dispensaries. However, for qualified patients or caregivers who provide dispensaries with a Medical Marijuana Identification Card, Prop 64 exempts them from having to pay additional sales and use tax on top of the 15% excise tax.
The provisions of Prop 64 for both the cultivation tax and excise tax specifically state that they are “[e]ffective January 1, 2018,” but this language is not included in the subsection regarding the sales and use tax exemption for medical marijuana patients. While the authors of Prop 64 state that this was an unintentional error in drafting, the California Board of Equalization (BOE) has ruled that under the language of Prop 64, medical marijuana patients are immediately exempt from any sales tax. The BOE even went so far as to send letters to dispensaries across the state advising them to stop collecting sales and use tax as of November 9th.
What all this means is as of now through the end of 2017, medical marijuana patients in California who have or obtain a state-issued ID card can take advantage of this unintended tax break. California reportedly brings in around $50 million in annual tax revenue from sales of medical marijuana and some are worried that the state could miss out on millions in tax revenue through 2017. However, others claim that the effects will not be so great as currently only about 6,000 patients in California have the state-issued ID cards necessary to claim the exemption. The impact of the error may depend on how many California patients actually take the time (and the $100) it takes to register with the state as well as whether dispensaries will check for ID cards or simply offer their customers an unlawful discount. Considering most dispensaries do not bother to collect and pay sales tax at all, it’s hard to tell what effect this could have on California’s tax revenue next year.
The supporters of Prop 64 are also looking for a way to correct the problem if the BOE does not change its interpretation. One solution would be for two-thirds of the state legislature to amend the language, as is required under Prop 64, but this would not occur until the next legislative session begins in January. Alternatively, if California’s newly elected Attorney General Kamala Harris decides to weigh in with a more definitive ruling, we could see a swift end to this unintentional tax break. For now, cannabis consumers in California can enjoy a marijuana tax holiday, just in time for the holiday season.
http://www.cannalawblog.com/
California dreaming
DP provides company and industry update
Derek Peterson audio interview
Terra Tech Corp. CEO, Derek Peterson, Provides Company and Industry Update in a New Audio Interview at SmallCapVoice.com
Download as PDF November 23, 2016
NEWPORT BEACH, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/23/16 -- Terra Tech Corp. (OTCQX: TRTC) ("Terra Tech" or the "Company"), a vertically integrated cannabis-focused agriculture company, today announced that Derek Peterson, CEO of Terra Tech, has provided a company and industry update in an audio interview on SmallCapVoice.com.
Derek Peterson discusses the recent U.S. election and the President-elect's cabinet appointments, as well as the outlook for the Company. Other topics covered in the interview include; the current and future state of the cannabis industry, California and Nevada legalization and much more.
Derek Peterson, Chairman and CEO of Terra Tech commented, "Following the recent election, we remain confident the incoming administration will respect states' rights to autonomous decision-making, thereby allowing the cannabis industry to continue its rapid expansion. President-Elect Trump has stated his opinion in favor of allowing cannabis regulations to be decided on a state-by-state basis and we believe he understands the clear economic and social benefits surrounding our industry. Over half of the states in the U.S. have legalized some form of cannabis, whether medical or recreational, which has sent an overwhelmingly positive message from the electorate in support of the industry. We are already seeing significant tax revenues generated by medical and recreational cannabis, as well as the creation of thousands of jobs, across the country. With the overwhelmingly positive response received on Election Day from the voting public, we believe that public sentiment is in our favor, and that core decision makers will be reluctant to stifle a flourishing industry that has the support of large swathes of the voting public."
An audio recording of the interview can be accessed by clicking on the following link: http://bit.ly/2gBO2x9 or through the Company's website at www.terratechcorp.com.
http://www.terratechcorp.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/170/terra-tech-corp-ceo-derek-peterson-provides-company-and
Mj industry and White House turkey pardoned
Have a happy Thanksgiving !
Pardoning the Thanksgiving Turkey
President John F. Kennedy pardoned a turkey on November 19, 1963, stating "Let's Keep him going."
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library/NARA
The official "pardoning" of White House turkeys is an interesting White House tradition that has captured the imagination of the public in recent years. It is often stated that President Lincoln's 1863 clemency to a turkey recorded in an 1865 dispatch by White House reporter Noah Brooks was the origin for the pardoning ceremony.
Recently White House mythmakers have claimed that President Harry S. Truman began this amusing holiday tradition. However, the Truman Library & Museum disputes the notion that Truman was the first president to pardon the holiday bird. Reports of turkeys as gifts to American presidents can be traced to the 1870s, when Rhode Island poultry dealer Horace Vose began sending well fed birds to the White House. The First Families did not always feast upon Vose's turkeys, but the yearly offering gained his farm widespread publicity and became a veritable institution at the White House. At Thanksgiving 1913, a turkey-come-lately from Kentucky shared a few minutes of fame with the fine-feathered Rhode Islander. Soon after, in December, Horace Vose died, thus ending an era.
The 2016 White House Christmas Ornament On Sale Now
By 1914, the opportunity to give a president a turkey was open to all comers, and poultry gifts were frequently touched with patriotism, partisanship, and glee. In 1921, an American Legion post furnished bunting for the crate of a gobbler en route from Mississippi to Washington, while a Harding Girls Club in Chicago outfitted a turkey as a flying ace, complete with goggles. First Lady Grace Coolidge accepted a turkey from a Vermont Girl Scout in 1925. The turkey gifts had become established as a national symbol of good cheer.
The focus on Harry Truman as the originator of the turkey pardon stems from his being the first president to receive a turkey from the poultry and egg board. From September to November 1947, announcements that the government was encouraging "poultryless Thursdays" grabbed national headlines. Homemakers, restaurant owners, and the poultry industry deflated the effort in time for Thanksgiving, but not before poultry growers had sent crates of live chickens— "Hens for Harry"— to the White House in protest. The turkey they presented to President Truman that December promoted the poultry industry and established an annual news niche that endures today.
In December 1948, Truman accepted two turkeys and remarked that they would "come in handy" for Christmas dinner. There was clearly no plan for these birds to receive a presidential pardon. The Washington Post used both "pardon" and "reprieve" in a 1963 article in which President Kennedy said of the turkey, "Let's keep him going." The formalities of pardoning a turkey gelled by 1989, when George H. W. Bush, with animal rights activists picketing nearby, quipped, "Reprieve," "keep him going," or "pardon": it's all the same for the turkey, as long as he doesn't end up on the president's holiday table.
President George H.W. Bush Pardons a Turkey in the Rose Garden Show Me
With animal rights activists picketing nearby, President George H.W. Bush quipped "‘Reprieve,’ ‘keep him going,’ or ‘pardon’: it's all the same for the turkey, as long as he doesn't end up on the president's holiday table.”
George Bush Presidential Library and Museum/NARA Show Me More
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/pardoning-the-thanksgiving-turkey
More people in jail is not the plan
Good post !
Chicken Littles won't see the big picture
Chicken Little
noun:
1. someone who makes a big deal out of nothing; a drama queen.
2. A euphemism for doomsday preppers.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Chicken+Little&defid=490305
Ridin' the storm out
Panic selling scam appears to be over
Panic selling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Panic selling is a wide-scale selling of an investment which causes a sharp decline in prices. Specifically, an investor wants to get out of an investment with little regard of the price obtained. The selling activity is problematic because the investor is selling in reaction to emotion and fear, rather than evaluating the fundamentals.[1] Most major stock exchanges use trading curbs to throttle panic selling, providing a cooling period for people to digest information related to the selling and restore some degree of normalcy to the market.
Causes of panic
The panic is typically the “fear that the market for a particular industry, or in general, will decline, causing additional losses.”[2] In event of panic selling, the market is flooded with securities, properties or commodities that are being sold at lower prices, in which further stumbles prices and induces more selling. Common causes of panic selling are:
High speculation in market (e.g. Dubai's Housing Crash in 2009[3])
Economic instability (e.g. The Financial Crisis in 2008)
Political issues
The Stock Market Crash of 1929
Main article: Wall Street Crash of 1929
After World War I, United States experienced significant economic growth that was fueled by new technologies and improved production processes. Industrial production output increased 25% between the years 1927 and 1929. Speculative boom in stock market resulted from the expanding economy and the market indices moved up nearly 400% from 1926 to 1929.[4] In late October 1929, the decline emerged in market and led to panic selling as more investors were unwilling to risk additional losses. The market sharply declined and it was followed by the Great Depression.
The Financial Crisis in 2008
See also: Subprime mortgage crisis
The mortgage crisis led to public concern over the ability of financial institutions to cover their exposures in the subprime loan market and credit default swaps. As more financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers and AIG reported their failures, the market instability deepened and more investors withdrew their investments. In October, the stock market crash occurred. Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,874 points or 18.1% during Black Week which began on October 6.[5] In that same month, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite reached their lowest level since 2003.
Dubai's Housing Crash in 2009
Dubai had a significant financial crisis in which its debt accumulated to $80 billion. The state-owned holding company, Dubai World, had liabilities of $60 billion. Its real estate subsidy was at risk to default on repayment of bonds, yet the Dubai government was unsuccessful to make a rescue package for the company. The debt problem of Dubai World triggered mass speculations in the property market.[6] In the first quarter of 2009, the house prices in Dubai fell 41%.[3]
The Gold Price Plunge
Many people primarily invest in gold as a hedge against inflation in periods of economic uncertainty. During the second quarter of 2011, the gold price hiked 22.69% and reached its highest price at $1907. On September 23, 2011, the gold price plunged $101.90, or 5.9%, in regular trading which was the first $100 daily price drop since January 22, 1980.[7] While the gold price had reached its top, the global economy was declining. The investors had growing concern in the global economic decline and raised fear for potential price fall. The panic selling took place in the gold market and caused the price plunge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_selling
Jeff Sessions vs the 10th Amendment
by Michael Boldin
Sen. Jeff Sessions is Donald Trump’s Attorney General pick. For us, the greatest concern is how Sessions views federal power under the Constitution.
Marijuana provides a really good barometer on how someone views the proper role of the federal government vs the states under the constitution. While more states have defied the feds on weed than on any issue at any time in history, there are some who still want to flex federal muscle and force a one-size-fits-all national decision.
This comes from both sides of the issue.
Some legalization advocates want to use the power of Washington D.C. to force a legalization across the entire country. On the other side, some want to use federal power to shut down whatever the states try to do. Under the Constitution, both are wrong.
President-elect Trump repeatedly pledged to respect state marijuana laws if elected president. But his AG pick, Jeff Sessions, is one of the most hostile voices in Washington against such policies.
Sessions, a former U.S. attorney, criticized President Obama for his administration’s approach to the issue. “His lax treatment and comments on marijuana, it’s been obvious, it reverses 20 years almost of hostility to drugs, begun really, when Nancy Reagan started the ‘Just Say No’ program,” the senator said.
This is bad on two levels.
First of all, Pres. Obama did not give the states “lax treatment” on marijuana. In fact, he was more aggressive and anti-10th Amendment than his two predecessors combined. This statement shows Sessions is either a liar or doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
He clearly opposes choices made by the people of each state, and is hostile to the balance of powers under the Constitution.
Now, as AG, he might have to rein in his own personal views and follow the promised policy goals of his new boss, but there’s no way to know right now because the AG usually has a lot of independent policy authority and prosecutorial discretion.
What is absolutely certain is that Sessions doesn’t respect the 10th Amendment on marijuana. And because of that, he shouldn’t be trusted with power on other issues either.
http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2016/11/jeff-sessions-vs-the-10th-amendment/
Michael Boldin is the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center.He was raised in Milwaukee, WI, and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.Follow him on twitter - @michaelboldin, on LinkedIn, and on Facebook.
Sessions confirmation could be a long shot
Would you bet on this guy?
He's been rejected for a federal judge position by congress.
Jeff Sessions Was Deemed Too Racist To Be A Federal Judge. He’ll Now Be Trump’s Attorney General.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-attorney-general-jeff-sessions-racist-remarks_us_582cd73ae4b099512f80c0c2
noun \long-shät\
Simple Definition of long shot
: an attempt or effort that is not likely to be successful
: a person or thing that is not likely to win something (such as a contest or race)
Source: Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary
Jeff Sessions Fought Against Hate Crime Protections for LGBT Victims
Civil rights groups were horrified last week when Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to be his attorney general. Sessions—who was the first US senator to endorse Trump and advised the president-elect throughout his campaign—is best known in civil rights circles for his aggressive anti-immigration stances and a series of racist comments he allegedly made early in his career. But there's another area where he has staunchly opposed an expansion of civil right protections, and where he could hold outsized power as attorney general: LGBT rights.
Sessions ardently opposed the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The act extended federal hate crime protections to people victimized because of their sexual orientation, gender or gender identity, or disability. (Federal law already covered race, ethnicity, and religion as protected classes.) It also expanded the kinds of crimes that could be federally prosecuted under the hate crime statute, as well as the feds' potential involvement in those prosecutions.
The bill passed over Sessions' objections—but now he could effectively neutralize it as attorney general. The law mandated that the attorney general—or a designee—sign off on all criminal prosecutions brought under the act. Given Sessions' opposition to the bill, some civil rights groups fear that, as attorney general, Sessions would not aggressively enforce the law. "I think it remains a legitimate question as to how vigorous Mr. Sessions will be in prosecuting a statute that he was one of the chief opponents of," says Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University.
The FBI documented a 7 percent increase in hate crimes in 2015. Hate crimes
The FBI documented a 7 percent increase in hate crimes in 2015. Hate crimes against Muslims spiked 67 percent. But members of the LGBT community are more likely to be the victims of hate crimes than any other group. Last week, more than 60 members of Congress wrote to the Department of Justice, urging Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey to take steps to improve hate crime reporting. Around 90 percent of the nation's nearly 18,500 law enforcement agencies did not report hate crimes to the FBI last year or reported that there were zero hate crimes in their jurisdiction.
In a speech on the Senate floor in July 2009 (see the first two videos below), Sessions said that people should not be attacked because of their sexual orientation or gender, but he argued that federal prosecution of such attacks was unnecessary because there was no evidence that they weren't being prosecuted adequately at the state and local levels. He also quoted a letter sent to Congress by the Civil Rights Commission claiming that trying individuals for the same crime at both the state and federal levels—which the law would permit by federalizing certain hate crimes—violated the spirit of the Constitution's ban on double jeopardy, even if it was not technically unconstitutional.
But Sessions also expressed a bizarre fixation on the bill's effect on prosecution of rape cases throughout the country (see the third video below). Sessions cited the Commission letter to argue that the bill's hate crime protections would be triggered not only when the perpetrator of a crime had an animus toward a particular group,
but also whenever the victim happened to be a member of a particular group. "That could give federal jurisdiction, for the first time in history, to every rape that occurs in America," Sessions said—now expressing his own concerns—because rapists often pick their victims because they are women.
He went on to suggest that the bill violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution by imposing different penalties on rapists depending on their motivations. "Is a legitimate justifiable reason to punish one rape differently than another rape, simply because someone decided that the first rape was committed out of hate—or actually, because of the gender of the victim?" he asked. "I think the victims would say the same thing: The criminal should be punished to the fullest extent of the law."
The hate crime law in the state of Alabama does not include sexual orientation or gender identity among its protected classes. Most of the state's police departments also do not report hate crimes to the FBI. In 2015, Alabama, with a population of nearly 4.9 million, reported just 10 hate crimes. Police departments in neighboring Tennessee, with a population of about 6.6 million, reported 221.
Market betting heavily on an AG confirmation
Sessions has some other issues besides his personal views on legal mj
Favoring legal mj won't help much at the AG confirmation hearing.
Market did not crash when the last AG against legal mj was nominated.
Look how that turned out.
Current AG Loretta Lynch is very much not for legalization.
January 28, 20156:47 PM ET
BILL CHAPPELL
During her first day of confirmation hearings for attorney general, nominee Loretta Lynch gave answers that seemed in line with President Obama. But then she was asked about marijuana, and whether she supports legalizing it.
"Senator, I do not," Lynch told Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., when he asked whether she supports making pot legal.
The moment stood in contrast to other exchanges between Lynch and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as she defended Obama's right to take executive action on immigration rules and aligned herself with the president's view on U.S. interrogation programs, saying, "Waterboarding is torture."
Sessions asked Lynch about marijuana during the afternoon portion of her hearing. And he noted that the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency also disagrees with the idea of legalizing marijuana.
The senator then read aloud a quote from Obama from last January, in which he told The New Yorker, "I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol."
When Sessions asked Lynch whether she agreed with that assessment, she said, "Well, senator, I certainly don't hold that view, and don't agree with that view of marijuana as a substance. I certainly think that the president was speaking from his personal experience and personal opinion — neither of which I am able to share."
She added, "Not only do I not support legalization of marijuana — it is not the position of the Department of Justice currently, to support the legalization, nor would it be the position should I become confirmed as attorney general."
As The Hill reports, "Obama said in a YouTube interview last week that the federal government is 'not going to spend a lot of resources' enforcing marijuana laws."
Today, Lynch fielded questions about a range of issues, from America's large prison population and the use of veterans courts, to stalker apps and the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger. Her confirmation hearing will resume Thursday.
As NPR's Ailsa Chang reported this morning, "Republicans expect to go hard at Lynch about the constitutionality of the president's executive action on immigration. They'll also press her about political decision-making at the IRS, and ask her about the limits of prosecutorial discretion."
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/01/28/382235633/ag-nominee-lynch-says-she-differs-from-obama-on-marijuana
Just nominated not confirmed.
An attorney general can only do what the President tells him to do.
An attorney general must treat everyone fairly without personal prejudice.
Sky is not falling.
JMHO
GJ
Derek Peterson post on Facebook today
I understand the political concerns that many stakeholders have in our country on several fronts. Obviously the appointment of Jeff Sessions as AG has the industry rightfully concerned. His commentary and stance on cannabis is not rooted in science nor in the economic best interest of our country. That being said President Elect Donald Trump, regardless of where you stand in his politics, has spoken out in support of states rights on several levels including cannabis regulation. We believe his administration will ultimately honor the will of the voters and allow the industry to progress forward. I am working on a audio interview to discuss this subject in more detail. Please reach out to KCSA, our Investor relations department as they are briefed on our position if you have further questions. I hope to have the interview produced and distributed tomorrow.
Derek Peterson
CEO Terra Tech
https://www.facebook.com/terratechcorp
Buy the fear
Traders: Profit From Other Investors' Fear By Joey Fundora
It can be said that to trade effectively, one has to understand that markets are filled with an extremely large number of market participants, along with their hopes, fears and thoughts - both rational and irrational. As traders, we are ultimately trading people and not stocks. It is people and their thoughts and expectations that push a stock to support and resistance. Fundamentals don't move stocks in the near term, it is people's expectations that do. A stock can have a 3% move in a day without any change in the underlying fundamentals. Money, and the thought of making or losing it, has a way of driving an otherwise rational person to incredibly irrational behavior. Your job as a trader is to capitalize on other traders' irrational behavior with a well thought out plan. We'll show you how to design and implement this plan by using Bollinger Bands®.
Making Sense of Irrational Behavior
Fear is one of the emotions that can be preyed upon by the professional trader. As a stock pulls back in a normal correction, tension builds among the holders of that stock. The further it pulls back, the more a trader is afraid of losing unrealized profits, or worse, the trader is underwater. This fear can turn into pain, and instill irrational thoughts into a holder's mind. Although the stock may be in a strong trend, the fact that a trader is losing hard-earned profits causes the trader to rethink his or her position. The trader will probably reduce his or her position several times, or sell out altogether. Sometimes, the fear spreads to other traders as the stock continues to fall, causing a group of traders to act in cohesive irrationality. While irrationality is subjective, it becomes a trader's job to identify where a group of market participants has let an otherwise healthy stock drop too far. (For more insight, see Understanding Investor Behavior.)
Why Bollinger Bands®
Because we are looking for a case where irrational behavior has caused a stock to move to a price extreme, we need an objective means for measuring fair value. A Bollinger Band® consists of a center line (moving average) combined with a band above and below the center line, measuring standard deviations of the stock's price. The bands will expand and contract depending on the volatility of the stock. The middle band is a moving average of price, which can be considered the mean price, while the upper and lower bands tend to measure price extremes.
Bollinger Bands® can be used as an effective means to gauge what "fair value" is simply by observing how far a stock is from its mean price. By using the thesis that a stock typically reverts to its mean price, a trader can objectively measure how far from fair value a stock is. This will help the trader determine the added risk for a particular trade.
For instance, if a trader is looking to enter a stock, but it is trading well above the upper Bollinger Band®, a trader would know that the odds favor a reversion to the middle band, and would therefore wait for the appropriate entry. While stocks can ride the upper Bollinger Band® in price extremes, at least a trader can objectively measure that extreme value and factor it into the decision making process. (To learn more about how Bollinger Bands® are constructed see, The Basics of Bollinger Bands®.)
Finding Weakness in Strong Stocks
One of the keys to this strategy of buying fear is to find a stock in a longer term uptrend. Stocks in downtrends tend to move down to the lower Bollinger Band® all the time, so looking for stocks at the lower band is not enough. Stocks in a strong uptrend tend to pull back as they consolidate the buying pressure - as it moves higher, traders tend to sell, and as it moves lower, traders tend to buy.
While there many ways to find stocks in a longer term uptrend, one way is to look for stocks in the upper 70% of their 52-week range. Another is to look for a stock with a rising long-term moving average such as a 50- or 100-day. One strategy is to combine the two in order to find stocks within 30% of a new 52-week high, and with a rising 50-day moving average.
A trader can use Bollinger Bands® combined with the screening methods above to find stocks trading at extreme lows, while still exhibiting longer-term strength. This can provide for a low-risk opportunity to enter an uptrend.
Trading in Action
Buying fear can be risky, so it is always best to wait for possible confirmation that the downtrend is over. Typically, when a stock makes its first trip to the Bollinger Band®, it bounces back to the mid-line, and then drifts back to the lower band again. While V-bottoms occur, the probabilities are for it to revisit the lower band. If you think of the psychology behind this action, a group of traders were caught in the pullback to a price extreme and, as it moved back to "fair value", some of that group will be anxious to get out at higher prices. Trader emotions typically take time to reach equilibrium.
A trader can use other technical indicators such as MACD or stochastics to measure when short-term momentum is turning. The key is to attempt to recognize when fear is starting to be overwhelmed by greed. Then a trader can employ a tight stop-loss under the recent price extreme. Keep in mind that managing your risk is very important when buying stocks that are pulling back - they don't always bounce higher. (To learn more, read When Fear And Greed Take Over.)
On strategy is to look for a candle pattern to emerge once a stock is starting to turn off the lower band. In the example below, notice how Correction Corp of America pulled back to a rising 50-day moving average and then bounced higher. The first move up was met with sellers, and then it drifted back down. A nice candle pattern emerged as it touched the 50-day moving average again and bounced higher. This was also a double bottom that allowed for an easy place to enter a stop-loss order.
Read more: Traders: Profit From Other Investors' Fear | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/07/buyfear.asp#ixzz4QkvVJQS
Trump interview will calm market down
Buckle up !
President-elect Donald J. Trump vowed in a YouTube video to focus on creating jobs and reducing regulations as soon as he takes office
http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000004781828/trump-announces-policy-plans.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
NY Times interviewing Trump today
NY Times is for legal mj. Should get a statement from Trump about it.
On Tuesday morning President-elect Donald Trump backed out of a meeting he had called with The New York Times. But hours later he changed his mind and decided to visit the newspaper after all.
Trump is heading over to the Times' headquarters now, press secretary Hope Hicks told CNNMoney around 9:45 a.m.
A portion of the meeting will be an on-the-record interview, as the newspaper originally wanted.
"Mr. Trump's staff has told us that the President Elect's meeting with The Times is on again," Eileen Murphy, head of communications for the Times, said in a statement. "He will meet with our publisher off-the-record and that session will be followed by an on-the-record meeting with our journalists and editorial columnists."
The back-and-forth showed Trump's impulsive nature and his combative approach toward top news organizations.
Here's what happened:
Trump originally asked for the meeting with Times executives, and also agreed to meet on the record with reporters and columnists.
The Times announced the meeting on Monday.
But on Tuesday morning, Trump said on Twitter that the "terms and conditions" had changed at the last minute -- a claim The Times denied, saying it was in fact Trump who had tried to alter the conditions.
"Not nice," Trump said in an early morning tweet. He called the newspaper "failing," a favorite insult.
In a second tweet minutes later, the president-elect said: "Perhaps a new meeting will be set up with the @nytimes. In the meantime they continue to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone!"
http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/22/media/trump-new-york-times-meeting/index.html?iid=hp-toplead-dom
Vegas schedules 1st cannabis cup
POT LEGALIZATION IN NEVADA SPARKS FIRST-EVER U.S. CANNABIS CUP IN LAS VEGAS
By HIGH TIMES November 22, 2016
Just days after Nevada voted to legalize marijuana for all adults 21 and over, HIGH TIMES announced plans for the first-ever Las Vegas Cannabis Cup. The iconic magazine’s premiere event and competition will serve as the official kick-off to the 2017 HIGH TIMES Live & Legal Cannabis Experience Tour.
Presented in partnership with Ultra Health, this pioneering celebration of the new and evolving world of legal cannabis will take place March 4 – 5, at the Moapa River Indian Reservation, just a short ride away from the famous Las Vegas Strip.
“We’re so proud of Nevada for continuing our national march towards legalization and showing that this community should be celebrated, not denigrated,” said Mary McEvoy, HIGH TIMES Chief Events Officer. “So naturally, we’re planning one of our biggest and best Cannabis Cups ever to usher in this new era in a style befitting of Las Vegas’s reputation.
By approving Question 2, Nevada voters legalized the creation of a regulated commercial cannabis industry, while allowing all adults 21 and over to legally possess up to one ounce of cannabis or 1/8 of an ounce of concentrated cannabis effective January 1, 2017.
“HIGH TIMES has always been synonymous with cannabis, and Las Vegas with entertainment,” said Duke Rodriguez, CEO and President of Ultra Health. “We are pleased to partner with HIGH TIMES in the ultimate celebration of social and medical cannabis use and setting the standard for future landmark events.”
Since 1987, HIGH TIMES has hosted Cannabis Cups around the world to celebrate cannabis with music, speakers, vendors and interactive cannabis experiences, where attendees can learn hands-on about cultivation, legalization and connoisseurship, while coming together as a community to take part in the world’s premiere cannabis competition.
The HIGH TIMES Las Vegas Cannabis Cup will feature a live cannabis grow room, live trimming, a cannabis chef cooking competition, edibles seminars, product launches and more—like a World’s Fair of Weed. Musical acts and speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.
And of course, HIGH TIMES will crown the top three winners in each of the 13 Cannabis Cup competition categories. The Cannabis Cup is the original and highest honor of independently lab tested and judged cannabis products, and winners represent the best in Nevada and the United States.
Tickets go on sale for the 2017 U.S. Cannabis Cup in Las Vegas beginning Thursday, November 24th, 2016 on CannabisCup.com. Single Day, Weekend and VIP ticket options, complete with transportation to and from the Cup will be made available.
http://hightimes.com/news/pot-legalization-in-nevada-sparks-first-ever-u-s-cannabis-cup-in-las-vegas/
Legal pot brings temporary tax break
BY MICHAEL R. BLOOD
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Some California medical marijuana users are getting a tax break.
State officials announced Thursday that certain purchases of medical cannabis are now exempt from sales taxes, under the law approved by voters this month that legalized recreational pot in California.
Under the new law known as Proposition 64, a 15 percent excise tax will be imposed in January 2018 upon purchasers of all marijuana and marijuana products, including medical cannabis. A tax on cultivators will also be imposed.
Until then, the tax holiday goes to people who make purchases with a medical marijuana identification card from the California Department of Public Health.
That’s a relatively small group in a state of 39 million people. According to government data, California issued about 6,700 of the identification cards in the year that ended in June. However, that number doesn’t capture the entire universe of cardholders. The state has issued 2,200 cards since that time, but many could be renewals.
The tax-collecting Board of Equalization said in a statement that buyers with a paper recommendation from a physician do not qualify for the tax break.
The financial hit on the state was not immediately clear.
Medical dispensaries currently pay 7.5 percent in state sales tax on sales, and local taxes typically add 1 percent to 2 percent.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s office did not immediately comment, while leaders in the state Assembly are monitoring the situation.
“Given the nature of how medical marijuana is typically purchased in California, it’s not clear whether the initiative’s language on sales tax will actually prove to be a significant impact on state revenue,” said Kevin Liao, a spokesman for Speaker Anthony Rendon.
“It does, however, appear to be another indication that complex policies aren’t necessarily best resolved through the initiative process,” Liao added in a statement.
Nate Bradley, executive director of California Cannabis Industry Association, said in an email that policy experts are not in agreement with the board’s interpretation, since the law was intended to generate tax revenue.
The California vote on Nov. 8 represented the legalization movement’s biggest victory to date.
In general, the state will treat cannabis similar to alcohol. Taking effect in 2018, the law allows people 21 and older to legally possess up to an ounce of pot and grow six marijuana plants at home. It also allows cities and counties to impose their own regulations and taxes on recreational marijuana.
http://hightimes.com/news/legal-pot-brings-temporary-tax-break-for-some-medical-users/
Legal mj sales or the black market mj sells
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What is the 'Black Market'
Economic activity that takes place outside government-sanctioned channels. Black market transactions usually occur “under the table” to let participants avoid government price controls or taxes. The black market is also the venue where highly controlled substances or products such as drugs and firearms are illegally traded. Black markets can take a toll on an economy, since they are shadow markets where economic activity is not recorded and taxes are not paid. In the financial context, the biggest black market exists for currencies in nations with strict currency controls. While most consumers may shun the black market because they consider it sleazy, there may be rare occasions when they have no choice but to turn to this necessary evil.
BREAKING DOWN 'Black Market'
The black market's many drawbacks include the risk of fraud, the possibility of violence, being saddled with counterfeit goods or adulterated products (which is especially dangerous in the case of medications), and the fact that the buyer has no recourse.
As for currency black markets, they exist primarily in nations that – apart from currency controls – have weak economic fundamentals (such as a high inflation rate and low currency reserves) and a fixed exchange rate where the domestic currency is pegged at an unrealistically high level to the US dollar or other currency. As a result, the currency black market is flourishing in nations like Argentina, Iran, and Venezuela.
Participating in the black market is not always a black and white matter. Suppose you are on vacation with your family in an exotic location and run out of formula for your baby? If there is nothing available in local stores and the only way to acquire baby formula is through a black market transaction, few people would hesitate to make the purchase.
What about paying three times the face value of a ticket to a scalper to see your favorite band or football team? This is also a black market transaction that most people may find justifiable. Further, in a number of developing nations, life-saving medicines are in short supply and often, the only alternative is to procure them through the black market. While critics may carp that this only serves to perpetuate the illegal and unethical practice of profiteering from someone else’s misfortune, participating in the black market is a relatively easy decision to make when someone’s life is at stake.
Read more: Black Market Definition | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blackmarket.asp#ixzz4QbpDL6qF
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Clark County DA to halt pot prosecutions
Clark County DA to halt prosecutions for possession of less than an ounce of pot
By COLTON LOCHHEAD and DAVID FERRARA
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
The Clark County District Attorney’s office is putting a hold on prosecuting some marijuana cases after Question 2 passed last week, District Attorney Steve Wolfson said Tuesday.
The decision comes just a week after Nevadans voted in favor of the ballot measure, which will legalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana for adults 21 and older starting Jan. 1. Current law criminalizes the possession of any amount of the drug. Punishments for possession of less than an ounce currently range from a misdemeanor and a fine up to $600 fine for a first offense to a felony and up to four years in prison for a fourth.
Wolfson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that starting Tuesday his office will suspend prosecution of cases that would fall under the new law. The hold will apply to pending cases in which adults 21 or older have been charged with possessing less than an ounce of marijuana as well as to any such cases that come to the district attorney’s office before the end of the year, he said.
Metro made 146 arrests for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana in 2015 and 177 as of Oct. 23 of this year, according to statistics from the department. The department said arrests for marijuana possession are usually associated with another crime or arrest.
The Metropolitan, North Las Vegas and Henderson police departments all said Tuesday that they would continue to enforce the current laws, however.
Wolfson said he will discuss the decision with Metro on Wednesday.
Wolfson’s decision might not come as a surprise, given his previous comments on prosecuting minor marijuana offenses that seemed to anticipate the potential legalization of the drug.
“It’s still against the law, and we’re still prosecuting folks,” Wolfson said in August 2014. “But generally if people have small amounts and/or have medical marijuana cards for legitimate medical purposes, we recognize what’s coming, so we’re going to be a little bit more flexible in our dealings with these folks.”
Under current state law, most first-time offenders for simple marijuana possession receive a citation, which is processed and prosecuted by city attorney’s offices rather than the district attorney.
Brad Jerbic, city attorney for Las Vegas, said through a city spokesman that his office will also hold off on prosecuting current pending cases. As long as the defendents “stay out of trouble,” the city will drop the cases at the beginning of 2017, he said.
Former Assemblyman Pat Hickey, a vocal opponent of Question 2, said the move “shouldn’t be a surprise” after the measure passed.
Hickey said he had no issue with the prosecutors choosing not to move forward with the cases that would fall under the new law, but he still worries about the gap in time from when possession becomes legal and when stores will be allowed to sell to the general adult public.
The law says that it could take until Jan. 1, 2018, before recreational marijuana becomes available for sale, but several involved in the process are hoping to see that rollout hastened.
“Legalization will soon be the law of the land in the Silver State,” Hickey said. “My concern is about the one-year period where it’s legal to possess but not yet legally sold. What’s going to happen in that interim period and the possible intrusion of illicit drug sales?”
State Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, was elated to hear of Wolfson’s decision.
“We’ve taken marijuana out of the criminal justice system,” said Segerblom, an ardent supporter of the ballot measure. “I think it proves our point that elections make consequences.”
http://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/courts/clark-county-da-halt-prosecutions-possession-less-ounce-pot
Favoring legal mj won't help at AG confirmation
Current AG Loretta Lynch is not for legalization.
AG Nominee Lynch Says She Differs From Obama On Marijuana
January 28, 20156:47 PM ET
BILL CHAPPELL
During her first day of confirmation hearings for attorney general, nominee Loretta Lynch gave answers that seemed in line with President Obama. But then she was asked about marijuana, and whether she supports legalizing it.
"Senator, I do not," Lynch told Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., when he asked whether she supports making pot legal.
The moment stood in contrast to other exchanges between Lynch and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as she defended Obama's right to take executive action on immigration rules and aligned herself with the president's view on U.S. interrogation programs, saying, "Waterboarding is torture."
Sessions asked Lynch about marijuana during the afternoon portion of her hearing. And he noted that the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency also disagrees with the idea of legalizing marijuana.
The senator then read aloud a quote from Obama from last January, in which he told The New Yorker, "I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol."
When Sessions asked Lynch whether she agreed with that assessment, she said, "Well, senator, I certainly don't hold that view, and don't agree with that view of marijuana as a substance. I certainly think that the president was speaking from his personal experience and personal opinion — neither of which I am able to share."
She added, "Not only do I not support legalization of marijuana — it is not the position of the Department of Justice currently, to support the legalization, nor would it be the position should I become confirmed as attorney general."
As The Hill reports, "Obama said in a YouTube interview last week that the federal government is 'not going to spend a lot of resources' enforcing marijuana laws."
Today, Lynch fielded questions about a range of issues, from America's large prison population and the use of veterans courts, to stalker apps and the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger. Her confirmation hearing will resume Thursday.
As NPR's Ailsa Chang reported this morning, "Republicans expect to go hard at Lynch about the constitutionality of the president's executive action on immigration. They'll also press her about political decision-making at the IRS, and ask her about the limits of prosecutorial discretion."
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/01/28/382235633/ag-nominee-lynch-says-she-differs-from-obama-on-marijuana
AG has to be confirmed by US senate
The United States Attorney General (A.G.) is the head of the United States Department of Justice per 28 U.S.C. § 503, concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer and chief lawyer of the United States government. The attorney general serves as a member of the cabinet of the President of the United States, and is the only cabinet officer who does not have the title of secretary.
The Attorney General is appointed by the President and takes office after confirmation by the United States Senate. He or she serves at the pleasure of the president and can be removed by the president at any time; the attorney general is also subject to impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial in the Senate for "treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Attorney_General
Nevada gets jobs, tourism and tax revenue
• $1.7 billion: Total wages and business owner income that would be generated in the first seven years after legalization.
• $464 million: Total tax revenue that would be generated in the first seven years after legalization. That breaks down to $257.4 million in sales and use tax, $147.1 million in excise tax, $47.2 million in license fees, $3.5 million in application fees, $521,000 in Nevada Commerce Tax and $8.3 million in payroll tax.
• 40,975: Total number of full-time jobs that would be added to the economy in the first seven years after legalization.
• 6,200: By 2024, the number of jobs that would be supported per year by regulation of the drug.
• $1.1 billion: Also by 2024, the annual economic activity related to regulation.
• $224.2 million: Estimated amount that Clark County visitors would spend on marijuana in 2018. That’s based on a price of $11 per gram, $2 more per gram than the projected price that locals would pay. As with most goods and services, marijuana would be more expensive on (or near) the Strip. The equation also is based on statistics-based projections on the number of annual visitors who would use marijuana (6.1 million), the average duration of their stay (3.4 nights) and their average daily consumption (0.98 grams).
• 53.5 million: Projected number of Clark County visitors in 2033. In 2015, Las Vegas drew 42.3 million.
The report will serve as a centerpiece of efforts by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, a coalition of 30 state and local leaders who said legalization would also benefit Nevada by eliminating the black market and steering money away from criminal dealers. In addition, proponents of the ballot measure say it will close the books on decades of drug policies that resulted in billions of dollars being misspent to catch, prosecute and jail nonviolent recreational marijuana users.
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2016/jul/15/how-much-would-legal-pot-do-for-nevadas-economy-ta/
Dr. Sanjay Gupta says denying weed immoral
Dr. Sanjay Gupta Explains Why Denying Weed to People Would Be Immoral
He told Seth Meyers what made him change his mind about legal marijuana.
Voters got people out of trouble
Denver passes 1st US social marijuana measure
It’s all but official: Denver’s social marijuana use ballot measure passes
Initiative 300 allows businesses to seek pot-use permits if neighborhood or business group signs off
By JON MURRAY | jmurray@denverpost.com
PUBLISHED: November 14, 2016 at 7:34 pm | UPDATED: November 15, 2016 at 5:53 pm
Denver’s ballot measure allowing social marijuana use at some businesses has passed, with updated results Tuesday morning leaving too few uncounted ballots to flip the result.
Supporters immediately pivoted to discussing how implementation of Initiative 300 might look — a question that city officials will need to address in coming months. City attorneys also will be tasked with addressing legalities under state law involving the consumption of marijuana in some publicly accessible places.
Initiative 300 has received support from 53.3 percent of the 302,505 Denver voters who weighed in on the issue, according to a results update that reflected 19,657 more ballots counted late Monday. Roughly 10,000 to 12,000 ballots remained to be counted in the main processing of the Nov. 8 election, Denver Elections spokesman Alton Dillard estimated.
That is less than Initiative 300’s current winning margin of 20,055 votes, or 6.6 percentage points.
The measure — which calls for the creation of a four-year pilot program — would allow businesses, from bars to cafes and even yoga studios, to seek city-issued permits to create “consumption areas.” They first would need to obtain backing from a single local neighborhood or business group.
The Denver Department of Excise and Licenses is now charged with developing rules and regulations for that permitting system.
The only deadline officials face is that they have 60 days after the election results’ certification on Nov. 22 to make a permit application available. That means interested businesses could begin applying in late January — but it’s unclear when the city would issue the first permits.
Licensing spokesman Dan Rowland said the close vote underscored the need to be diligent in implementing Initiative 300, taking into account competing interests.
“I think this is really going to set an example” nationally, predicted Mason Tvert, a marijuana activist, during an afternoon news conference held by proponents outside the City and County Building.
“And this is a pilot program,” he added. “This is something the city can experiment with for the next couple of years — and either adopt it permanently or make tweaks to it or decide to take a different approach.”
One motivation behind the initiative was to provide more places for tourists to smoke or consume marijuana, as well as for residents whose landlords forbid it.
“We are truly grateful to the people of Denver for approving this sensible measure to allow social cannabis use in the city,” lead backer Kayvan Khalatbari, co-owner of Denver Relief Consulting, said in a statement issued Monday evening, when Initiative 300’s backers declared victory. “This is a victory for cannabis consumers who, like alcohol consumers, simply want the option to enjoy cannabis in social settings.”
The ballot measure has performed well among voters in central and north Denver. Opposition to it has led in large pockets of southwest, southeast and northeast neighborhoods, which tend to be more suburban in character.
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/11/14/denver-social-marijuana-use-measure-wide-lead-updated-results/
Shark tank gig 8k ? Scary run fast !
Terra Tech CEO, Derek Peterson, Named "Shark" at the Arcview Investor Forum, Las Vegas
On November 14, 2016, Terra Tech Corp. (the “Company”) issued a press release announcing that its Chief Executive Officer, Derek Peterson, has been named one of the Q&A panelist “sharks” at the Arcview Investor Forum, Las Vegas, Nevada on November 15, 2016. A copy of the press release is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.1 and is incorporated herein by reference.
http://www.terratechcorp.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/169/terra-tech-ceo-derek-peterson-named-shark-at-the
Marijuana more popular than politicians
BY TOM ANGELL NOVEMBER 14TH, 2016 AT 10:52 AM
While many politicians continue to treat marijuana law reform as an issue that’s not important enough to include near the top of their agendas, they might want to take a look at the results from Election Day.
Eight out of nine statewide marijuana initiatives were approved last week, and in several places they outperformed politicians at the polls.
Florida’s medical marijuana measure, for example, got supermajority support in every single county across the state, strongly outperforming President-Elect Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio:
Medical marijuana: 6,515,964
Trump: 4,615,910
Rubio: 4,833,429
In Nevada, a successful measure to legalize marijuana for adults over 21 years of age bested the performances of Trump and U.S. Senate race winner Catherine Cortez Masto:
Legal marijuana: 602,400
Trump: 511,319
Cortez Masto: 520,658
Maine’s marijuana legalization measure, although it barely won, still did better than Trump did:
Legal marijuana: 378,288
Trump: 334,838
In California, a measure to legalize marijuana outperformed incoming U.S. Senator Kamala Harris:
Legal marijuana: 5,366,521
Harris: 5,264,471
In Montana, a measure to restore the state’s medical marijuana law after politicians tried to scale it back got more votes than Trump or Gov. Steve Bullock did:
Medical marijuana: 284,530
Trump: 274,119
Bullock: 250,845
Of course, marijuana measures also got way more votes than the Republican president-elect did in heavily Democratic states like California and Massachusetts.
And even in places where marijuana law reform measures didn’t outperform the candidates, they still did very well, often coming close to the vote totals for elected officials. In North Dakota, for example, the successful medical cannabis measure got just 714 fewer votes than Trump did:
Medical marijuana: 215,486
Trump: 216,200
And in Arizona, the only state to defeat a marijuana ballot measure this year, U.S. Sen. John McCain only did slightly better than ending prohibition did:
Legal marijuana: 1,117,858
McCain: 1,241,083
National polls show that a growing majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana outright and that a supermajority of voters support medical cannabis. In many cases, cannabis is much more popular with voters than elected officials are. That’s something politicians might want to keep in mind when deciding how to vote on the increasing number of marijuana law reform proposals that are being introduced in federal, state and local legislative bodies.
http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2016/11/marijuana-is-more-popular-than-politicians-are/
That's how they roll in Jersey
Boys from Oklahaoma
Christie dumped over Bridge-gate fiasco
Trump Dumps Christie Over Bridge-gate: 'Stupid Thug Had to Go'
Sunday, 13 Nov 2016 08:42 AM
President-elect Donald Trump is finished with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as news continues to come out about his handling of the Bridge-gate scandal, according to The New York Post.
The Post reports that Trump is so "disgusted" with Christie’s management style as revealed in a recent court case that he’s "kicking" the governor out of his inner circle.
Some Trump aides regard the New Jersey governor as "a stupid thug who really needed to go," a transition-team source told The Post.
"Trump thought it was shameful that Christie didn’t take the fall for [convicted aide] Bridget Kelly," a source close to the transition team told the Post. "Trump is really angry that Christie is sending a soccer mom to jail. He believes 100 percent that Christie was behind it all."
Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, was convicted in federal court earlier this month along with former Port Authority executive Bill Baroni. They deliberately caused dangerous traffic tie-ups on the George Washington Bridge in September 2013 as political payback for Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich not endorsing Christie, a jury determined.
"Trump really doesn’t like it when married women with kids get hurt in politics," the source told the Post. "Trump was pretty disgusted with Christie."
Simply put, Trump felt that Christie did not man up and take responsibility for Bridge-gate.
Christie has insisted that he knew nothing about Bridge-gate despite frequent testimony that he was fully briefed. Tensions only grew after a Charlie Rose interview in which Christie continued to insist he wasn’t responsible.
"She (Kelly) was a factor in the decision because Trump didn’t like seeing her crying," the source said.
Christie also was viewed as disloyal after he distanced himself from Trump when the campaign was in a major tailspin. He canceled appearances on Sunday shows after the Access Hollywood video of Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women was leaked on Oct. 7. He also failed to attend the second debate.
Christie was officially ousted Friday as chair of Trump’s transition team. The job was given to Vice President-elect Mike Pence.
"They want to drain the swamp, and having Christie there is just plugging it up," the source said. "He was tolerated in the past because he was viewed as a kind of nice Tony Soprano. But now that Trump is the president-elect those days are over."
http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/trump-dumps-christ-post/2016/11/13/id/758606/
Related stories
Could marijuana legalization hit N.J. after 2018?
By Kira Herzog | 11/08/16 10:48pm
During Christie's presidential run he promised that if elected, he would implement federal laws against marijuana to counter legalization of the drug in states like Colorado and Washington.
“Marijuana is against the law in the states and it should be enforced in all 50 states,” Christie said in a television interview in 2015. “That is the law and the Christie administration will support it.”
Christie also rejected a budget reform proposal that proposed using tax revenue from marijuana sales to improve education and infrastructure, according to the Huffington Post. Potential revenue from marijuana taxation would have amounted to roughly $300,000.
Current New Jersey criminal law takes a harsh stance on marijuana, Wollenberg said. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, between 2001 and 2010 the state averaged more than 20,000 marijuana possession arrests per year.
“Possessing even a small amount of marijuana in New Jersey can result in a six-month jail sentence and $1,000 in fines. The penalties stiffen sharply for anything over 50 grams or 1.76 ounces, which is the average weight of a joint,” she said. “Conviction then jumps to a minimum of 18 months in jail and $25,000 in fines.”
http://www.dailytargum.com/article/2016/11/marijuana-legalization-could-hit-n-j-after-2018
Insiders say Donald Trump is ‘disgusted’ by Chris Christie
http://nypost.com/2016/11/13/trump-is-dumping-christie-over-bridgegate-insiders/
Selling the news can turn out to be selling you lose
Definition of Buy the Rumor, Sell the News
What is the meaning of "buy the rumor, sell the news"? What does "buy the rumor, sell the news" mean?
The saying "buy the rumor, sell the news" comes from the phenomenon of stocks trading up into "big" announcements, and then (often) selling off shortly thereafter.
Let's take an example:
1. XYZ Has a "Big" Product Announcement. XYZ has been touting the release of a new product that will dramatically change the cell phone industry.
-- Term definition - Buy the Rumor - Sell the News --Exact details of the product aren't known, but the XYZ hype machine is operating at an extremely high level. The blogosphere is consumed with what this product might be, and investors pile into the stock, sure that the new product will be a big hit.
The stock trends higher for a few weeks, right up until the details of the new product are revealed.
Now, one of three things can happen here, from most likely to least likely:
1. The product is announced, and the reception is great. However, the stock still sells off. Why? Many investors were planning on hitting the exits as soon as details of the product were released, because they know that it's smart to "buy the rumor, sell the news". In addition, it is nearly impossible for this product announcement to live up to the hype, so the stock sells off.
2. The product announcement is very underwhelming. This is the worst case scenario for a company. Short-term traders bail, analysts are nonplussed and perhaps some long-term investors sell as well. Not a good thing.
3. The product unveiling is a MASSIVE hit, and investors pile into the stock because the product is so revolutionary, sending the stock even higher. This is a pretty rare occurrence.
--
That's the basic gist of "buy the rumor, sell the news".
Just another OTC trading scam.
http://www.davemanuel.com/investor-dictionary/buy-the-rumor-sell-the-news/
Legalization will boost Nevada'a economy
How much would legal pot do for Nevada’s economy? Take a look
By legalizing recreational marijuana, Nevada voters would spark $7.5 billion in economic activity in the first seven years of sales.
That’s the biggest number in an extensive report released this week by RCG Economics and the Marijuana Policy Group, but it’s not the only eye-popping figure.
With voters poised to decide a ballot measure on the issue.
Here’s a by-the-numbers look into some of the researchers’ other findings and projections:
• $1.7 billion: Total wages and business owner income that would be generated in the first seven years after legalization.
• $464 million: Total tax revenue that would be generated in the first seven years after legalization. That breaks down to $257.4 million in sales and use tax, $147.1 million in excise tax, $47.2 million in license fees, $3.5 million in application fees, $521,000 in Nevada Commerce Tax and $8.3 million in payroll tax.
• 40,975: Total number of full-time jobs that would be added to the economy in the first seven years after legalization.
• 6,200: By 2024, the number of jobs that would be supported per year by regulation of the drug.
• $1.1 billion: Also by 2024, the annual economic activity related to regulation.
• $224.2 million: Estimated amount that Clark County visitors would spend on marijuana in 2018. That’s based on a price of $11 per gram, $2 more per gram than the projected price that locals would pay. As with most goods and services, marijuana would be more expensive on (or near) the Strip. The equation also is based on statistics-based projections on the number of annual visitors who would use marijuana (6.1 million), the average duration of their stay (3.4 nights) and their average daily consumption (0.98 grams).
• 53.5 million: Projected number of Clark County visitors in 2033. In 2015, Las Vegas drew 42.3 million.
The report will serve as a centerpiece of efforts by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, a coalition of 30 state and local leaders who said legalization would also benefit Nevada by eliminating the black market and steering money away from criminal dealers. In addition, proponents of the ballot measure say it will close the books on decades of drug policies that resulted in billions of dollars being misspent to catch, prosecute and jail nonviolent recreational marijuana users.
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2016/jul/15/how-much-would-legal-pot-do-for-nevadas-economy-ta/
Great news
Maybe someday there will be no more bs like this sad situation in Idaho....
MOM CHARGED FOR TREATING HER DAUGHTER’S SEIZURES WITH MARIJUANA BUTTER
By Maureen Meehan November 11, 2016
Last month, Kelsey Osborne of Gooding, Idaho, had her children taken away from her after she gave her daughter a smoothie with marijuana butter in an attempt to stop her severe seizures.
A month has passed and her two children are still living with their father. Kelsey is is trying to get them back.
“I didn’t ever think it would come down to this, but it did,” Osborne told KTVB. “It tore me apart.”
Her 3-year-old daughter Madyson has a history of seizures, but they became worse than ever in October.
“They would stop and come back, stop and come back with the hallucinations and everything else,” Osborne said.
Madyson was withdrawing from a medication called Risperdal, used to treat schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder. Osborne said when she couldn’t calm Madyson down, she gave her a smoothie with a tablespoon of weed-infused butter.
“Everything stopped 30 minutes later,” Osborne said.
When Osborne took Madyson to the doctor a couple of hours later, the little girl tested positive for pot and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare was called.
Kelsey Osborne was charged with misdemeanor injury to a child. She pleaded not guilty.
“I’ve seen it for my own eyes with people out-of-state who have used it, and it’s helped them or their children,” said Osborne
Tom Shanahan of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said that in any case dealing with marijuana, there is one bottom line.
“Marijuana is illegal, period,” he said.
Nevertheless, Shanahan pointed out that there is a program in Boise through the FDA that uses CBD as an experimental treatment for 34 children with severe epilepsy.
Last year when Idaho governor Butch Otter vetoed a bill that would have legalized CBD for children with severe epilepsy, he set aside state money for some of those children to have access to the experimental drug Epidiolex developed by British biotech company GW Pharmaceuticals.
Unfortunately, the CBD program has strict guidelines to qualify, one being that the child has to have tried several other treatments that have failed to work.
Meanwhile Osborne says she will continue trying to get her children back.
“To me, I felt like it was my last resort,” Osborne said. “I’m not going to stop.
http://hightimes.com/news/mom-charged-for-treating-her-daughters-seizures-with-marijuana-butter/
Sky is not falling. Life goes on ?
God bless America !
God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above
From the mountains to the prairies
To the oceans white with foam
God bless America, my home sweet home
From the mountains to the prairies
To the oceans white with foam
God bless America, my home sweet home
God bless America, my home sweet home
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Bless_America
Buying the panic