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Election could determine future of pot in America
Nearly 20 percent of states will make a decision about marijuana policy on Election Day
By Madison Margolin RollingStone Magazine
The future of pot policy in America hinges heavily on the election this year. Marijuana law reform is on the ballot in nine states, and has momentum at the federal level in the form of several bills pending in Congress, including ones to deschedule cannabis, reschedule cannabis, legalize hemp and prioritize research trials.
California, Arizona, Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts will vote on adult-use pot legalization on Election Day, while North Dakota, Arkansas, Montana and Florida are considering medical marijuana. Combined, these states comprise about a quarter of the country's population. With widespread support across the nation – 57 percent of U.S. adults say weed should be legal – the issue of marijuana policy reform has achieved bipartisan regard, prompting active discussion among both laymen and legislators.
Nearly 20 percent of states will be deciding on drug policy this election – "a reflection of the fact that we've long passed the tipping point [and] that marijuana advocacy has evolved and matured in the past few years," says Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. But on the flip side, he says, it also represents a failure of the democratic process, since elected (federal) officials have yet to enact marijuana policy reform comporting with what polling indicates are their constituents' increasingly progressive views.
"If an overwhelming number of states that have marijuana-specific initiatives on the ballot pass those measures, that could be interpreted by federal lawmakers as a mandate," says Armentano. "But if several of them do not pass, then it is likely that lawmakers will continue to be reluctant to address marijuana law reform at the federal level."
Experts, including Drug Policy Action's Michael Collins and Marijuana Majority's Tom Angell, agree that California and Florida may be the two most critical states voting on cannabis. They think the initiatives in those states have a decent chance of passing.
America, marijuana, policy, Election Day
California's size, economy, cultural influence and political gravitas – the state commands 55 seats in Congress – makes its approach to marijuana legalization an example for other states and federal legislators. With provisions dictating cannabis tax revenue allocation, environmental protection, community assessment, monopoly offsets, juvenile drug education and the cleansing of criminal records for marijuana convicts, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, or Proposition 64, which would legalize weed for adults over 21, has been called the gold standard for legalization. Despite opposition from law enforcement, pot growers against over-regulation and those fearful of Big Marijuana, Prop 64 is expected to pass, polling between 51 and 71 percent with California voters.
Florida's Amendment 2 is the state's second attempt at legalizing medical marijuana. As an amendment to Florida's constitution, it requires a 60 percent majority to pass; it's currently polling over 70 percent. If Amendment 2 passes, qualifying patients with "debilitating medical conditions," such as cancer or epilepsy, would be allowed to purchase medical marijuana from licensed "medical marijuana treatment centers," each responsible for all steps from seed to sale: cultivation, transportation, distribution, retail and so on.
Florida already has a very limited medical marijuana law, allowing only a tiny fraction of patients access to medicine in pill, injection or vaporized form. Under the state's CBD-only law, medical marijuana can have no more than 0.8 percent THC, though a few patients can get strains with slightly higher levels from state-licensed dispensaries. In 2014, an amendment similar to Amendment 2, aiming to expand the state's medical marijuana program, had failed.
If Amendment 2 passes, Florida would become the first Southern state to have a comprehensive medical marijuana program, says Tom Angell. Florida is also significant because it has a large population and is a critical presidential swing state.
The rest of the adult-use legalization initiatives on the ballot November 8th – Arizona's Prop 205 , Maine's Question 1, Massachusetts' Question 4 and Nevada's Question 2 – would tax retail sales of pot to adults 21 and over. In Arizona and Nevada, the polling is virtually even between support and opposition, while the measures in Maine and Massachusetts are polling between 55 and 40 percent, and 53 and 38 percent, respectively, according to Armentano. (Massachusetts opponents concerned about the 3.75 percent excise tax on sales, atop the 6.25 percent state sales tax, have taken to calling the state "Taxachusetts.")
"It's important for at least one of the Northeastern states, if not both, to be successful," says Armentano. "The Northeast has been fairly progressive with regard to marijuana policy." Every state in the region has an active medical marijuana program and, except for New Hampshire, has also decriminalized cannabis. So not taking action would be regressive.
The four medical marijuana initiatives on the ballot vary in lenience and the limitations they'd impose on patients, but each is more restrictive than loose medical programs such as California's. Florida aside, the states considering medical marijuana are heavily Republican. If they pass medical marijuana, that bodes will for medical marijuana reform at the federal level, says Michael Collins.
"The end game in terms of medical marijuana prohibition is very much in sight," says Collins. Congressional leadership will determine how far cannabis legislation can get, with the worst-case scenario being no movement on pending bills, and the best case being to deschedule medical marijuana, he says. The chances of a best-case scenario are better if Democrats dominate the Senate, though there's energy among Republicans, as well.
For instance, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is up for re-election. While he's voted against marijuana-related reforms, Grassley has spoken up in support of states' rights to do as they please with regard to pot. Other notables up for re-election include Sen. Marco Rubio in Florida, who's stated support for enforcing federal law in marijuana-legal states, and Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk who's up against Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth. Kirk has spoken out against cannabis and its use among veterans, while Duckworth is a veteran and supportive of marijuana law reform.
As for the presidential race, frontrunner Hillary Clinton has promised to make marijuana a Schedule II drug. Rescheduling would acknowledge pot's "accepted medical use" and clear up issues with regard to federal banking and tax deductions for cannabis businesses. In concordance with Clinton's position, pending federal legislation such as the CARERS Act aims to reschedule cannabis, facilitate research, protect patient access in green states, alleviate federal banking issues and allow access to medical marijuana for veterans in any green state.
But drug policy reformers would much prefer to see cannabis descheduled, rather than rescheduled. "Rescheduling cannabis does little to significantly loosen the grasp of federal prohibition or to make herbal cannabis readily accessible for clinical study," says Armentano. Federal prohibition burdens taxpayers, encroaches on civil liberties, disproportionately affects people of color and engenders disrespect for the law, he says.
He has hope that descheduling is in our future. "Momentum is at our backs," he says.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/this-election-could-determine-the-future-of-pot-in-america-w446612
Marijuana measures get surprising endorsements
BY TOM ANGELL ON OCTOBER 27TH, 2016 AT 11:49 AM
The largest newspaper in Massachusetts and the third-largest paper in California urged voters to approve the marijuana legalization measures being considered in their respective states on Thursday.
The endorsements from the editorial boards of the Boston Globe and the San Diego Union-Tribune come as somewhat of a surprise to close observers of the cannabis debate, as both papers have long opposed efforts to reform marijuana laws.
“Using marijuana isn’t completely safe, and it isn’t completely harmless to others when users drive,” the Globe’s editorial board wrote. “But a social consensus is clearly emerging that pot’s real dangers just aren’t great enough to merit outlawing it anymore. While the authors of Question 4 could have written a much better law, they at least got the big picture right. Legal marijuana is coming. Let’s get on with it.”
In 2012, the paper opposed a medical cannabis initiative, and in 2008 it urged rejection of a marijuana decriminalization ballot measure. Voters went on to enact both initiatives by two-to-one margins.
The endorsement, while helpful to the legalization effort, wasn’t exactly glowing in its praise of the specific measure voters are being asked to approve.
“If the political leaders of the Commonwealth showed even the slightest interest in legalization, it would probably make sense to wait for lawmakers to produce a better-crafted proposal than the current ballot measure,” they wrote, calling out policymakers for continually refusing to take the issue up in a serious way. “But Question 4 is all we’ve got. The Globe endorses the yes campaign, despite the proposal’s many flaws, because the harm stemming from continued inaction on marijuana would be even greater.”
Over on the West Coast, the historically prohibitionist Union-Tribune editorial board issued a surprisingly strong endorsement of Proposition 64, which would legalize marijuana in California.
“We get why many worry about giving a de facto seal of acceptability to casual drug use,” they wrote. “But the state already is inundated with pot use because of Proposition 215, a lax 1996 medical marijuana law used by tens of thousands of Californians and sometimes gamed. The argument that it makes sense to regulate and tax the drug rather than accept a status quo of little regulation and taxation is powerful and persuasive.”
The editorial board’s endorsement follows those from several other major daily newspapers in California, including the first- and second-largest papers, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.
In 2010, when Golden State voters considered a separate marijuana legalization initiative, all three editorial boards urged no votes. The measure was narrowly defeated.
In addition to the new Globe and Union-Tribune endorsements, legalizers got other relatively news on Thursday in the form of polls showing the California and Massachusetts ballot measures ahead.
The Public Policy Institute of California issued a survey showing that state’s legalization question leading among likely voters by a margin of 55 percent to 38 percent. Separately, Stanford University’s Hoover Institution found it leading 54 percent to 36 percent.
In Massachusetts, the legalization measure is ahead, but polling under 50 percent, a precarious place to be less than two weeks ahead of Election Day. A poll from Suffolk University and the Boston Globe showed Question 4 leading among likely voters by a margin of 49 percent to 42 percent.
http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2016/10/marijuana-measures-get-surprising-endorsements/
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FDA says monkeys like to get high
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will not allow the American population to use marijuana for its therapeutic benefits because it says the herb is addictive to monkeys, according to a recent analysis by Vice News.
In a series of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, federal health officials tell exactly why the FDA did not provide the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with a recommendation to remove marijuana from its Schedule I classification.
The majority of the agency’s rationale, which is utterly ridiculous, suggests marijuana should remain labeled one of the most dangerous drugs in the world because pot “is popular,” and research shows that “monkeys like to get high.”
The report illustrates how the FDA leaned on a controversial study, paid for by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, to draw some of its conclusion. The study from 2003 concluded that since squirrel monkeys really seem to enjoy the stoned effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabis should be considered a real threat to the grand scheme of drug addiction in the United States. The FDA said these types of studies are “often useful in predicting rewarding effects in humans, and is indicative of abuse liability.”
It also appears the FDA is not at all keen on calling marijuana medicine because it can get the user stoned, hungry, and even make them more creative. Documents show the agency expressed some concern over the concept of weed causing “increased merriment and appetite,” as well as “heightened imagination.”
The overall popularity of marijuana, too, may have played a role in the FDA’s apprehensiveness to giving the DEA the green light to downgrade the cannabis plant under the Controlled Substances Act. In the report, the agency pointed out that almost half the American population has admitted to using marijuana at least once in their life. It made mention, as well, to there currently being nearly 8 million “daily or almost daily” users.
But FDA spokesperson Michael Felberbaum told Vice that although the agency recommended marijuana remain a Schedule I dangerous drug, it has “an interest in developing therapies from marijuana.”
“We continue to encourage work to assess whether there are appropriate and effective therapeutic uses of marijuana and its components and believe the drug-approval process using scientifically valid and well-controlled clinical trials is the most appropriate way for this to occur,” Felberbaum told the news source in a statement.
Interestingly, a report published earlier this month found the FDA really had no choice but to recommend marijuana remain a Schedule I drug. A letter written by the agency’s Acting Commissioner, Stephen Ostroff, suggests the agency may have delivered a different verdict had the rescheduling process been a little less restrictive. The letter said the Department of Justice should consider reevaluating “the legal and regulatory framework” it uses to determine where marijuana should continue to reside in the same ranking as heroin.
The latest documents suggest this desire for the DEA to modify its rescheduling procedure is due to a number of FDA findings, including “marijuana not being a gateway drug,” and the fact that it does not appear to cause health issues, like “cancer or mental illness.”
In August, the DEA denied two petitions to reschedule the cannabis plant, saying the decision was based on the FDA’s inability to prove the herb is “safe and effective” medicine.
For all HIGH TIMES’ news coverage, click here.
http://hightimes.com/news/monkeys-like-to-get-high-fda/
Florida medical marijuana ballot is back
ELECTION 2016: IN FLORIDA, MEDICAL MARIJUANA GETS ITS REVENGE
By Francisco Alvarado October 19, 2016
The You Tube video begins with footage of a man and woman in white lab coats behind a pharmacy counter. An ominous male voiceover says, “This is a pharmacist. Qualifications: 4 years of medical training and 2,000 hours of clinical hours.”
The 30-second spot then cuts to a heavy-set dude with a ponytail handling hefty-sized buds of marijuana from a glass jar. The same voice warns, “This is a budtender. Qualifications: No medical training and no clinical experience. But knows a lot about pot firsthand!”
The propaganda piece ends with the narrator nailing the point home: Medical marijuana in Florida will be dispensed by budtenders in pot shops instead of pharmacists in pharmacies.
“That’s not medicine,” the man says. “It’s dope dealers with store fronts. Vote no on Amendment 2.”
For the second time in two years, a coalition of drug warriors bankrolled by the nation’s richest gambling peddler aims to derail an overwhelmingly popular ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana in Florida. In 2014, advocates in the Sunshine State came within three percentage points of legalizing cannabis use for sick people. In fact, more people voted for medical marijuana (57.6 percent) than folks who voted to keep Gov. Rick Scott in office (48 percent).
But because Florida has a draconian law requiring that constitutional amendments pass by 60.1 percent of the vote, the campaign to make medical marijuana legal in the Sunshine State fell just short. But this time around, organizers are feeling confident about winning—even in the face of a negative barrage of television ads and campaign mailers being concocted by the Drug Free Florida Committee, which has received a total $6.5 million from billionaire Las Vegas casino developer Sheldon Adelson over both campaigns.
“We have to be more competitive on television,” says Ben Pollara, campaign manager for the pro-medical marijuana committee United For Care. “That was the big lesson from the last campaign. We don’t need to match them dollar for dollar. But we have to communicate our message that marijuana is a safe, effective treatment that helps people who are sick and suffering.”
The ads produced by Drug Free Florida hammer the misconception that the ballot language would allow a freewheeling unregulated medical marijuana market like in California, Pollara says. In reality, Florida health officials will likely create a system more restrictive than regulated markets in Colorado and Washington, the two states that have pioneered marijuana legalization in recent years.
It would be modeled after the low-THC, high-CBD medical-marijuana program enacted by the state legislature in 2014, Pollara explains. The program limited production of cannabidiol to five companies selected by the state after meeting a strict set of requirements, including being in business in Florida for at least 30 years.
“I don’t think that kind of free market in Colorado and Washington will happen in Florida,” Pollara says. “The inclination on the part of state government is to make any medical-marijuana system restrictive and create gigantic barriers to entry on the business side.”
However, the amendment will certainly protect sick people like Bridget Kirouac, a 54-year-old Martin County woman who suffers from plethora of ailments including bone spurs, fibromyalgia and gastritis, Pollara said. On September 16, a jury found Kirouac not guilty of marijuana cultivation after she used Florida’s medical necessity law as a defense.
In May 2014, police arrested and charged Kirouac, who had been a medical marijuana patient in Maine, after finding 20 pot plants in her home, as well as harvested cannabis and tincture. “Without Amendment 2, patients in our state are still subject to arrest and lengthy, costly legal battles, which they have no guarantee of winning,” Pollara says. “And as the judge in Bridget’s case pointed out, her acquittal does not mean she is free to continue to use medical marijuana.”
But Drug Free Florida is determined to prevent Kirouac and others like her from accessing medical marijuana. The committee was founded by St. Petersburg real-estate developer Mel Sembler, who has kicked in $1 million of his own money to fight United For Care. Sembler, a former U.S. ambassador, is also close buddies with Adelson, whose reported net worth of $31 billion is derived from casinos in Las Vegas and Maca—the profits, that is to say, of a vice that afflicts some six million adults, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. Adelson gave $1 million to Drug Free Florida in September after donating $5.5 million to Sembler’s effort in 2014. Other medical marijuana opponents include the 20,000-member Florida Medical Association.
Before making money as a builder, Sembler and his wife ran a juvenile drug rehab company, STRAIGHT, Inc., which closed in 1993 after 16 years in business following a criminal investigation that documented sexual abuse, beatings, and torture committed by staff against patients. The probe also found financial irregularities like commingling of federal grant funds. However, the Semblers were never criminally charged.
To beat Drug Free Florida’s tactics, United For Care has to raise between $2.5 million to $3 million for television and radio ads, Pollara says. “We will be competitive to win this thing,” he boasts. “It was an uphill battle for the opposition in 2014 despite them outspending us by an outrageous amount.”
This year, voter sentiment seems to be on Pollara’s side. Frank Orlando, a political science professor and director of the Saint Leo University Polling Institute, said support for the medical marijuana amendment has been growing over the last four months. A poll he took in September showed 68.8 percent of Florida voters were in favor, a four point bump from a survey he took in June.
And the latest polls suggest Amendment 2 would get a solid 70 percent of the vote were balloting held today.
Orlando also said presidential elections in Florida tend to draw out more younger voters, who are more likely to cast a ballot for medical marijuana.
“It appears as though medical marijuana supporters will get the victory they were denied by voters in 2014,” Orlando said. “The higher the turnout among young voters, the better the chance that this amendment passes.”
http://hightimes.com/news/election-2016-in-florida-medical-marijuana-gets-its-revenge/
Medical Marijuana Debate
Updated: 7:41 PM EDT Oct 18, 2016
http://www.wesh.com/article/medical-marijuana-debate/6854590
http://www.wmfe.org/fact-check-floridas-medical-marijuana-debate/65617
Read all of HIGH TIMES’ election coverage here.
And check out: The Mother of All Marijuana Votes! The Ultimate High Times Election Guide and Election 2016: Can Marijuana Sweep in All Nine States?
NEWS ELECTION 2016 FLORIDA MEDICAL
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Marijuana On The Ballot
Forbes.com : State-By-State Opportunities For Entrepreneurs
Julie Weed - FORBES MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTOR
OCT 17, 2016 @ 09:15 AM
Voters could legalize recreational marijuana in five states this November and medical marijuana in three more. This record number of state ballot measures promise to be a great boon for the cannabusiness industry. With national prohibitions against interstate cannabis commerce, as well as current federal banking and drug laws, large companies have been kept out of the industry, so the market is still primarily comprised of small businesses.
California, Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada will consider legalizing the recreational use of cannabis while Florida, Arkansas and North Dakota will decide on marijuana for medical purposes.
What’s going on state by state?
California, Prop 64
California is the biggest potential market in the country and the passage of Prop 64 “will create an explosion in the value of compliant medical marijuana dispensary and cultivation licenses in good standing,“ said Steve Gormley, CEO of Seventh Point LLC a private equity fund acquiring those kinds of assets throughout Los Angeles, California. “That’s the precedent we’ve seen in Colorado, Oregon, Washington State, Alaska and DC.,” he said, “ I have no reason to believe California will be any different.”
Proposition 64 would legalize marijuana for “adult use,” (the new term for recreational/non-medical use.) A set of rules would govern marketing and other business functions, and allow local governments to levy their own additional taxes or ban related activities in their area.
Nevada, Question 2
Entrepreneurs in Nevada see marijuana legalization as a way to further enhance the state’s role as a preferred vacation spot for adults to come enjoy activities they might not participate in at home. “The black market has thrived in Nevada for decades, and this is the surest way we have ever seen to break its back,” said Leslie Bocskor, President of Electrum Partners, a Nevada-based advisory services firm specializing in medical and recreational cannabis and ancillary businesses. “The passage of Question 2 will also provide tax revenues to improve the educational system in Nevada, one of the lowest ranked in the country,” he said.
Nevada will vote to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana, and if it passes, use the tax revenues for K-12 education. Medical marijuana has been legal in the state since 2000.
Maine, Question 1
The campaign language “Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol” has helped polling in Maine to get to 54% of those in favor of legalization. Entrepreneurs expect pot taxes to help the state and the industry to provide jobs ranging from agriculture and retail to software engineering and financial services, according to Mike Bologna, CEO of Green Lion Partners, a Denver-based business strategy firm focused on early stage development and entrepreneurship
Maine is voting to legalize recreational marijuana use. If the measure passes, adults in Maine could legally possess more pot than residents of California and Nevada (2.5 oz vs 1 oz) Municipalities can limit or ban retail pot shops.
Arizona
Entrepreneurs like Megan Stone who designs interiors for medical marijuana dispensaries will be able to expand their businesses if recreational use is legalized in Arizona. Examining retail data in other states, “you can see the entrepreneurial dreamland take shape,” said Stone.
Cannabusiness people like Ms. Stone who operate in states where recreational use is being added to medical use, have a head start on serving the new market because they are used to working under marketing, packaging and other marijuana-specific regulations.
Proposition 205 would allow adult recreational use of marijuana in non-public spaces. People could carry up to an ounce and grow six plants. There will be a 15% tax on retail marijuana sales.
Massachusetts, Question 4
Massachusetts has 1.4 million more residents than Colorado, so canna-business people expect sales totals to exceed those of Colorado. “These sales will also have a massive impact on the state as 3.75% of the total sales, in addition to the standard sales tax, will be paid on every dollar spent at the register,” said Rob Hunt, President of Teewinot Life Sciences, a company focused on the biosynthetic production of pure pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids.
Medical marijuana has been legal since 2012 in Massachusetts and with this measure the state could also legalize and regulate recreational marijuana. Residents would be able to carry one ounce of pot, and would be allowed to possess larger amounts (10 ounces) if it is locked up in an enclosed place in their residence. Municipalities would be able to impose restrictions or bans on commercial activities.
Medical Marijuana Opportunities in Florida, Arkansas and North Dakota:
States voting on allowing medical sales, especially Florida with its population of about 20 million people, offer a vast array of new jobs, “at least half of which are in ancillary areas like packaging, engineering, lighting design, branding and professional services like legal and accounting,” according to Alex Halperin, who writes a weekly aggregated marijuana newsletter called Weed Week. While the regulations in each state might be different, what they have in common is opportunity he said, for entrepreneurs interested in agriculture, manufacturing, retail, security, marketing and transportation.
What’s on the ballot?
Florida
Florida is voting to make medical marijuana legal, allowing doctors to decide when it should be prescribed. This type of measure was narrowly defeated previously.
Arkansas
Two competing marijuana ballots aim to allow medical marijuana for a few specified conditions.
North Dakota
While they fell short of signatures required to put recreational legalization on the ballot, North Dakota will vote to allow medical marijuana to be used for a dozen medical conditions.
Julie Weed wrote the best-selling All I Really Need to Know in Business I Learned at Microsoft. Follow her on Twitter @julie_weed and at www.julieweed.net
http://www.forbes.com/sites/julieweed/2016/10/17/marijuana-on-the-ballot-state-by-state-opportunities-for-entrepreneurs/#63e8b8635551
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California legalization has big money supporters
ELECTION 2016: HOW LEGALIZATION BECAME A SURE THING IN CALIFORNIA
By Chris Roberts October 14, 2016
In America, it’s generally unwise to bet against the billionaires. And in California, the billionaires are behind legalization—in a big way.
The rich and powerful are pouring money into Prop. 64, the ballot measure that would legalize small amounts of cannabis for adults 21 and over in the nation’s most populous state—the home of the biggest and most sophisticated cannabis industry on the planet.
With just over a month to go before Election Day, pro-legalization forces had recorded more than $18 million in campaign contributions, according to the most recent campaign finance records, swamping the paltry $2.4 million raised by the prohibition set.
The Prop. 64 campaign is led by tech billionaire Sean Parker, but also has been getting cash from a nonprofit controlled by billionaire liberal benefactor George Soros. It’s got the money to buy all the airtime it needs to swing undecided voters—of which there aren’t many left.
Sixty percent of likely voters say they’ll vote to legalize, according to recent polling conducted by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, compared to 36 percent who said they prefer prohibition.
Legalization has support from prominent politicians like Gavin Newsom, California’s telegenic lieutenant governor. The state’s two biggest newspapers—the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle—have both told their dwindling readerships to support the measure. Even most of the cranky pot growers in the state’s rural pot-producing regions are on board.
In all, October is looking like a victory lap rather than a desperate dash to the finish for legalization. That’s not a shock, as the state has likely been ready for quite some time.
A legalization effort with a fraction of the funding and near-total opposition from politicians was actually leading in the polls back in 2010 before a series of calamitous events—including an October surprise from the federal Justice Department, which threatened to enforce the Controlled Substances Act “vigorously” if legalization passed, will of the voters be damned—sent it down in defeat, but then only by five percentage points. (Proponents might have waited for the more liberal voting base in the presidential election two years later, when Colorado and Washington both legalized recreational cannabis.)
In the interim, four states and the District of Columbia have legalized small amounts of cannabis for adults. This year, five more states will decide the question. But of them—Arizona, Nevada, Massachusetts, and Maine are the others—California is by far the biggest prize. If California goes legal, more than 10 percent of Americans would live in a place were commercial sales and personal use of cannabis is allowed—more people than the current four legal states combined.
So is it time to celebrate? Is this the end of the beginning of the end of the war on weed in America? The campaign won’t say so, but all signs point to yes.
Speaking of signs, thus far Prop. 64 itself has been remarkably and almost eerily quiet. To date, there have been no big media buys, no campaign rallies, no campaign signs. They haven’t needed to make noise—like with human 4chan thread Donald Trump, the media has been doing legalization’s marketing job on its behalf. And notably, the anti-legalization’s set main arguments—more kids will use pot; controls aren’t tight enough; TV will be flooded with weed ads—aren’t getting any media traction.
Right now, the best metaphor for the pro-Prop. 64 campaign at this point is that it’s a well-conditioned sports car, crawling around a school zone in low gear, its engine ready to rev and snarl like a pack of wildcats in heat—but content instead to obey the speed limit while rolling to Trader Joe’s after picking up the kids at soccer practice.
A billionaire’s plaything at rest… which is by design.
THE BASICS
Prop. 64 would allow adults 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of cannabis at any time—for the dabbers, four grams of concentrates – and grow up to six plants in their homes. Commercial sales and production are allowed, as long as state and local licenses are obtained. Sales will be taxed at 15 percent, plus an $9.25 per ounce excise tax on production—plus any local taxes levied by cities and counties.
Cities and counties can ban commercial cultivation and sales, but everybody is guaranteed their six plants and their ounce, provided the six plants are out of public view. Six different state agencies would be responsible for overseeing and regulating every stage of the cannabis supply chain, from ensuring water quality and preventing environmental damage to inspecting testing labs and ensuring quality control for edibles.
Medical marijuana would still exist, and holders of a state-issued medical cannabis patient ID would be exempted from the 15 percent sales tax—which means, in theory, if you must possess more than an ounce and grow more than six plants, you would still be able to do so as a medical cannabis patient.
(Currently, exact possession limits vary from county to county, but the generally understood statewide minimum is up to eight ounces and six plants, with more allowed for caregivers.)
The measure could raise more than $1 billion in sales taxes, according to a state analysis—which means more than $10 billion in sales. Billion. That’s a lot of weed—but considering California supplies as much as 70 percent of the country’s cannabis, according to some estimates, the weed is certainly here and going somewhere. Why not steer it towards licensed businesses who pay taxes?
Prop. 64 does add some new penalties. It would be illegal to provide pot to a minor—including someone aged 19 to 20. And you can only smoke in private homes or areas with a consumption license—you can’t smoke anywhere tobacco smoking is illegal, and in antismoking-happy California, that means a lot of places.
But penalties for possession and sales would all be reduced—currently a felony, sales of cannabis would be a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of six months in jail and a $500 fine. For perspective, the current penalty for marijuana sales is a felony punishable by up to four years in jail—and there were 13,300 felony marijuana arrests in California in 2014 alone, according to state Department of Justice data. Most penalties under Prop. 64 amount to little more than a traffic ticket.
All this makes Prop. 64 easily “the most conservative” of any of the legalization ballot measures seen in the last four years, says Nate Bradley, executive director of the California Cannabis Industry Association, a marijuana business trade group—and an early endorser of AUMA.
And that’s the idea.
California may have a national reputation as the wacked-out land of fruit and nuts, but the truth is much more boring. Forget Hollywood and forget whatever ridiculous Haight-Ashbury-era vision of San Francisco is dancing in your head.
In reality, California is family sedans and soccer practice, with families fretting about school districts, rent payments, and home values. There are flag-waving, Trump-supporting conservatives in California, but for every pot smoking hipster pedaling a single-speed bicycle to fetch single-origin coffee flying a rainbow flag, there’s a good old boy from Bakersfield wearing a cowboy hat in his pickup truck, so the fringe elements cancel each other out.
Thus, legalization is a battle over the middle, and the middle is leaning towards ending the drug war and emptying overcrowded prisons—even if there aren’t very many people left doing time in state prison for pot.
There are a few things Prop. 64 leaves decided until later. It does not set a threshold for “stoned driving,” setting aside money for the California Highway Patrol to figure that out later.
And while there are still concerns about what increased availability of marijuana will do to society—especially the kids—we’ve already seen what happens in states that have legalized. “The sky hasn’t fallen,” says Nick Smilgys, a Mendocino County-based cannabis entrepreneur.
One of the chief arguments peddled by Prop. 64’s opponents, the most famous of whom is Sen. Dianne Feinstein, is that the airwaves would be full of ads promoting marijuana smoking, like the cigarette smoking ads banned for decades. That appears to be a bunk claim, but it does contain a kernel of truth.
BIG WEED IS COMING–BUT WHOSE BIG WEED?
Current state law is shaped against cannabis conglomerates. Under medical cannabis regulations passed last year, no one single company can own all steps of the supply chain. Under Prop. 64, however, monopolies are allowed…eventually.
For the first few years, priority for state commercial licenses to grow, manufacture, distribute and sell will go to current operators and California residents, but beginning in 2020, it will be open season. And if a single entity wants to do it all—such as newly merged Bayer-Monsanto, for example—there’s nothing to stop them.
“It does great things for criminal and social justice but misses the point on economic justice,” says Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association, which represents the state’s cannabis growers—most of whom, he says, are on board.
That’s a fight for another day.
But a month out, the biggest question mark left is the why—not why cannabis should be legalized, not why the drug war should end, and not why putting America’s favorite illicit substance in the hands of businesspeople and the taxman rather than cartels is a good idea, but why Sean Parker and his merry band of billionaires are here doing it for us.
The motives of everyone else involved are obvious. George Soros and the Drug Policy Alliance have been doing this for decades. It’s Marijuana Policy Project’s literal mission—and the owners of “Google maps for pot” WeedMaps have been up front about why they’re in the game—for money.
But Parker has famously not uttered a single word in public since becoming the main bankroller of what could effectively be the end of the beginning of the end of drug prohibition in America.
So: Weed will be freed by billionaires making it rain, for reasons still unclear but, quite possibly, blatantly commercial. It’s about as grassroots as a private plane—but this appears the only way that it will ever be done.
“I think everyone is a bit frustrated that this is being done to us, instead of by us,” says Allen, “but it is what it is.”
A billionaire’s baby—but one that at least some of us can live with.
– – – –
http://hightimes.com/news/election-2016-how-legalization-became-a-sure-thing-in-california/
For all of HIGH TIMES’ Election 2016 coverage, click here.
Our report on the legalization fight in Arizona: Election 2016: In Arizona, the Anti-Pot Forces Strike Back!
And check out:
The Mother of All Marijuana Votes! The Ultimate High Times Election Guide
Election 2016: Can Marijuana Sweep in All Nine States?
NEWS CALIFORNIA ELECTION 2016
Las Vegas legal weed and pro football
Nevada Senate approves Raiders' $1.9 billion Las Vegas stadium deal
The Raiders are another step closer to moving
By Nunzio Ingrassia
Oct 11, 2016 at 10:08p ET
The Nevada Senate approved the Las Vegas stadium deal by a vote of 16-5 on Tuesday, taking another step toward luring the Raiders out of Oakland.
The next step for the proposed stadium to become a reality is for the State General Assembly, which reconvenes Thursday, to pass the measure. The $1.9 billion stadium project hinges on the approval of public funding. A two-thirds vote is needed in the General Assembly to push the project forward.
“If the NFL and the Raiders come because we build the stadium, and we won’t build the stadium unless they’re coming, for the first time in modern history the National Football League has signaled a willingness to allow the team to transfer,” Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, told the Las Vegas Review Journal on Monday.
If the stadium measure passes, the league would have to approve the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas. Three-quarters of NFL owners would need to give their blessing before the move can become official.
http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/nevada-senate-approves-raiders-1-9-billion-las-vegas-stadium-deal-101116
http://www.letsblum.com/yes-on-2
Mj supporters tv ad campaign should help
$800,000 in Nevada ads planned for legal mj vote
A local political action committee, the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, reserved more than $800,000 worth of advertising time slots across the major news stations in Las Vegas, according to recent Federal Communications Commission filings.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/politics/election-2016/800000-nevada-ads-planned-legalized-recreational-marijuana-measure
In California, proponents of legalization measure Proposition 64 rolled out two television spots on Tuesday, both focused on the public health and safety protections embedded in the initiative.
Prop 64 - "Safeguards"
Prop 64 - "Revenue"
http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2016/10/the-marijuana-election-ad-war-begins/
California Papers Support Legalizing Marijuana This Time
A spokesman for the Proposition 64 campaign said it was the first time in history that the influential papers had endorsed a legalization measure.
http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2016/09/california-papers-support-legalizing-marijuana-this-time/
Sean Parker donates another $1.25 million to pot legalization campaign
Former Facebook President Sean Parker has put another $1.25 million into the campaign for Proposition 64, the initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in California, bringing his total contributions so far to $2.5 million,
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-essential-politics-updates-ex-facebook-president-sean-parker-1467917815-htmlstory.html
All 5 state polls favor legalization
Trending: All state recreational marijuana measures polling in favor of legalization
AZ: 50%
CA: 60%
MA: 53%
ME: 53%
NV: 57%
PUBLISHED: OCT 4, 2016, 11:03 AM • UPDATED: ABOUT 20 HOURS AGO COMMENTS (7)
By Alicia Wallace, The Cannabist Staff
Just weeks before Election Day, recreational marijuana initiatives appear to be trending favorably in the latest polls.
“Marijuana legalization is leading in every state it’s on the ballot this November,” Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post marijuana policy reporter tweeted Tuesday.
The latest approval percentages he referenced — Arizona at 50 percent, California at 60 percent, Maine and Massachusetts at 53 percent, and Nevada at 57 percent — aligned with poll data published in a rundown published Tuesday by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a pro-marijuana lobbying organization.
Below are quick snapshots of how the statewide recreational marijuana initiatives are polling in their respective states, according to information published by news outlets and pollsters, and compiled by NORML and Ballotpedia.
Arizona: An Arizona Republic/Morrison/Cronkite News poll showed that 50 percent of voters surveyed in late August were in favor of recreational measure Proposition 205, 40 percent opposed and 10 percent were undecided. (Sample size: 784, margin of error plus or minus 3.4 percentage points, according to Ballotpedia, which also references other previously published polls).
California: The Public Policy Institute of California’s September 2016 survey showed that 60 percent of roughly 1,700 voters polled would vote for Proposition 64. Of those surveyed, 36 percent were opposed and 4 percent were undecided. (Sample size: 1,702, margin of error plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, according to Ballotpedia, which also references other previously published polls).
Maine: The Portland Press Herald reported last week that 53 percent of surveyed voters would vote for recreational marijuana in the state, another 38 percent would vote against Question 1 and close to 10 percent were undecided in the poll published in conjunction with the University of New Hampshire. (Sample size: 505, margin of error plus or minus 4.3 percentage points, according to Ballotpedia, which also references other previously published polls).
Massachusetts: Marijuana-legalizing Question 4 was favored by 53 percent of likely voters in Massachusetts, according to a poll conducted and released last week by WBZ-TV, WBZ NewsRadio and UMass Amherst. Of the 700 voters surveyed, 40 percent said they would vote against the measure and another 7 percent were unsure. (Sample size: 700, margin of error plus or minus 4.3 percentage points, according to the pollsters. Ballotpedia, which does not reference last week’s poll, has a selection of other polls for the measure recorded this spring and summer).
Nevada: Question 2, the recreational marijuana measure is favored by 57 percent of voters in last week’s poll by Suffolk University. The poll found that 33 percent opposed the measure and 10 percent were unsure. (Sample size: 500, margin of error plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, according to Ballotpedia, which references other previously published polls).
http://www.thecannabist.co/2016/10/04/recreational-marijuana-polls-election-2016/64599/
The Marijuana Election Ad War Begins
BY TOM ANGELL ON OCTOBER 4TH, 2016 AT 12:50 PM | UPDATED: OCTOBER 4TH, 2016 AT 1:26 PM LAW & POLITICS
You know how Election Day is getting close? Watch TV.
Marijuana law reform campaigns in at least five states went up on the air with new advertisements this week.
In California, proponents of legalization measure Proposition 64 rolled out two television spots on Tuesday, both focused on the public health and safety protections embedded in the initiative.
Prop 64 - "Safeguards"
Prop 64 - "Revenue"
http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2016/10/the-marijuana-election-ad-war-begins/
Mother of all marijuana votes !
THE MOTHER OF ALL MARIJUANA VOTES!
THE ULTIMATE HIGH TIMES ELECTION GUIDE
By Madison Margolin October 01, 2016
All eyes may be on the Clinton versus Trump circus this election, but November 8 will also be the most important moment yet for marijuana in the United States.
Nine states are voting on marijuana reform.
Five—California, Arizona, Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts, totaling about fifteen percent of the country’s population—are considering adult-use legalization.
Four more—North Dakota, Arkansas, Montana and Florida, another ten percent of the US population—have medical marijuana on the ballot.
With weed already legal to some degree in 25 states, and polls showing wide support in the biggest races next month, it seems clear that the story after November will turn to when, not if, prohibitions on the federal level are revisited.
Indeed, support is only growing. A majority of Americans (58 percent) favor legal marijuana use. And for the first time in history, the presidential candidates from both parties have also stated support for states to do as they please with pot legalization. Nonetheless, despite Clinton or Trump’s support for states’ rights, the leadership in Congress will determine whether federal marijuana bills can arrive at a vote, while the incoming attorney general will guide law enforcement and the Department of Justice.
Hillary Clinton has proposed to reschedule cannabis, though not to deschedule it. After the DEA’s decision this summer not to reschedule, Clinton’s team reaffirmed her commitment to rescheduling if elected. “As Hillary Clinton has said throughout this campaign, we should make it easier to study marijuana so that we can better understand its potential benefits, as well as its side effects,” said Maya Harris, senior policy advisor to Clinton’s campaign. “As president, Hillary will build on the important steps announced today by rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II substance. She will also ensure Colorado, and other states that have enacted marijuana laws, can continue to serve as laboratories of democracy.” According to Clinton, the four states to have already legalized weed are important examples for other states considering legalization, as well as for the federal government. Clinton has also said she would continue to enforce marijuana laws along the same moderately hands-off guidelines as the Obama administration.
While once Donald Trump had stated support for legalizing all drugs, during a Miami Herald luncheon in 1990, he’s since scaled back his position. He’s called for more research on cannabis, though doesn’t support legalization outright. When asked about Colorado’s legal adult use program, Trump at one point called it “bad,” but does recognize the validity in medical laws. “I think medical should happen — right?” Trump said during a Nevada rally last fall. “I really believe we should leave it up to the states.”
With that said, Trump’s top candidates for attorney general are New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Alabama senator Jeff Sessions. Both would be disastrous for marijuana law reform. Christie has indicated he would enforce federal law even in green states, while according to Sessions, “good people don’t smoke marijuana.”
Sessions also believes that marijuana is not safer than alcohol because Lady Gaga has claimed to be addicted to pot.
If either of these choices were to become attorney general, state pot legislation would need the protection of marijuana law reform on the federal level.
Still overall, common opinion on pot law is “loosening up,” says Michael Collins, deputy director at Drug Policy Action, the political arm of the Drug Policy Alliance. Every year, the marijuana law reform movement gains momentum, in public conversation and at the ballot box. “There’s a sense of inevitability, the question is more when, not if,” he says. As more and more states that already have medical laws consider full-scale legalization, Collins predicts a similar eventual outcome on the national level. To eradicate the conflict between state and federal law, we need a president committed to ending federal prohibition, he says.
It will also be interesting to compare how many votes the marijuana initiatives get, versus how many votes state senators get. In 2012, for example, Colorado’s legalization initiative garnered more votes than President Obama did, notes Tom Angell, project oversight and communications manager at Marijuana Majority. “Will legal marijuana get more votes than the winning Senate candidates?”
Here’s an overview of what voters across the country will be considering on Nov. 8.
Arizona: Prop 205 — Arizona Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act
Arizona’s Prop 205 aims to regulate marijuana like alcohol. This full legalization initiative would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of weed, up to five grams of concentrate, and to grow up to six plants. They would be allowed to consume their pot only in private, with no more than 12 plants allowed in a single residence.
The law would also establish a Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control, regulating cultivation, manufacturing, transportation, testing, and sale. Pot would be sold out of licensed businesses, regulated and limited by local governments. Pot dispensaries would be capped at 10 percent of the total number of liquor store licenses, of which there are fewer than 180.
Pot retail sales would be subject to a 15 percent excise tax, which would go toward implementation and enforcement of the new policy regulations. Other tax revenue would go to the Department of Education (80 percent) for constructing, maintaining, and operating schools, as well as full-day kindergarten programs, and to the Department of Health Services (20 percent) for public drug and alcohol education.
In Arizona currently, unless you’re a qualified patient, possessing any amount of weed is a felony. Between 2005 and 2014, the state saw 138,000 arrests for simple marijuana possession.
Blacks in Arizona are 2.4 times more likely than whites to be arrested for possession, despite fairly equal use rates among the two demographics.
From both within and outside Arizona, Prop 205 faces considerable opposition. In August, the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit brought by Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, which sought to block Prop 205 from the ballot. A lower court judge said that they had no right to sue and rejected all reasons the proposition’s opponents tried to keep it off the ballot, including that it has a misleading title and didn’t identify where its revenue came from. Meanwhile, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers urges opposition to the bill, citing that more children will smoke weed than before — which is what he says has happened in Colorado. Research, however, suggests otherwise.
According to survey data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Colorado teens smoke about as much weed as they did back in 2012, when the state voted to legalize. In fact, though 21 percent of Colorado teens had used marijuana within the past 30 days, according to 2015 data, that’s four percent lower than the national average.
Arkansas: Issue 7 — The Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act
Arkansas’s medical marijuana law would establish a program for licensing, testing, and distributing medical cannabis. Patients who suffer from one of a list of over 50 qualifying conditions would be able to obtain a doctor’s recommendation and buy marijuana from one of the 38 non-profit dispensaries that would be licensed under the new law. Patients with a “hardship certificate” who live too far from a dispensary would be able to cultivate their own plants.
Issue 7 has support from 68 percent of the voters polled by Public Opinion Strategies, though opponents are have appealed to the Arkansas State Supreme Court to block it. Arkansans Against Legalized Marijuana says Issue 7 is misleading about its consequences, claiming that it “omits material information that is essential for a fair understanding of the act.” The group also complained that the ballot title wasn’t explicit enough about the measure allowing dispensaries to sell cannabis-infused food and drink, and its potential effect on employers, landlords, schools, and churches.
Issue 7 also must compete against Issue 6, the Arkansas Marijuana Amendment (an amendment to the state constitution, rather than an act), which forbids home grow and provides for fewer qualifying conditions that allow patients to get recommendations. Unlike Issue 7, Issue 6 puts no limit on the fees required for patient recommendation cards. And while Issue 7 requires that all sales tax revenue go back into the medical marijuana program, Issue 6 requires that it be divided amongst the medical program (10 percent), the Skills Development Fund (10 percent), the state’s General Fund (30 percent), and the state’s Vocational and Technical Training Special Revenue Fund (50 percent). Arkansans Against Legalized Medical Marijuana also filed a Supreme Court suit against Issue 6’s ballot title. If both Issue 7 and Issue 6 are on the ballot and each receives majority approval, the one with more “yes” votes will win out over the other.
Currently, Arkansas’s marijuana laws are among the harshest in the nation. Possession of less than four ounces of weed is a misdemeanor with up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. Third strike possession of more than an ounce is a felony, punishable of up six years in prison and a $6,000 fine. Of 2012’s 5,718 marijuana arrests in Arkansas, over 90 percent were for possession.
Meanwhile, 91 percent of reported burglaries and car thefts went unsolved, as law enforcement wasted its resources on weed.
According to a poll of 751 likely voters, 58 percent were in favor of Issue 7 while 34 percent opposed it.
California: Prop 64 — Adult Use of Marijuana Act
Prop 64 is among the most significant legalization measures in the nation, with ramifications far outside California’s borders. As the sixth largest economy in the world, California could serve as an example to other states, the federal government, and even other nations looking to make pot legal. Prop 64 has been called the “gold standard” for legalization by Lynne Lyman, California state director for the Drug Policy Alliance.
Prop 64 would allow adults 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of weed and eight grams of concentrates, and to grow up to six plants at home. Retail weed would be subject to a 15 percent sales tax, in addition to state and local taxes. Legalization in California is projected to generate up to $1 billion and $100 million in annual saves. The money would fund public university research on legalization ($10 million), medical cannabis research ($2 million) DUI protocols ($3 million), and rebuilding communities victimized by the Drug War ($50 million over five years). The remaining revenue would fund environmental cleanup from pre-existing or illegal grow operations (20 percent), youth drug use prevention and law enforcement (20 percent), and treatment and education (60 percent).
Prop 64 also accounts for 19 different kinds of licenses, for different sized grow facilities, retailers, and vertically integrated micro-businesses, such as a “bud-and-breakfast.” And to initially offset large scale monopoly interests, licenses for the largest scale industrial-size grow operations would be banned for the first five years of the adult use program.
The initiative also has a strong social justice component. If passed, the bill would allow marijuana convictions to be reduced or expunged upon request. This applies to anyone who is imprisoned, has completed their sentence, or is on probation or parole. However, people with prior felony convictions for violations like embezzlement, fraud, and drug trafficking would not be able to be licensed to run marijuana businesses under Prop 64.
However, while Prop 64 is likely to pass, with endorsement from major publications such as the Los Angeles Times and polling around 60 percent in support, the initiative is controversial even within California’s cannabis community. Cultivators who have grown comfortable and accustomed to the state’s 20-year-old hazy gray market fear over-regulation and eventually being overrun by mega marijuana companies. Meanwhile, those in the medical marijuana industry are only now just starting to figure out new regulations put forth by the MCRA (Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act). Prop 64’s supporters must also fight misconceptions conflating MCRSA with AUMA. Moreover, anti-pot mogul Kevin Sabet and his group SAM, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, have put forth $2 million to fight legalization.
Florida: Amendment 2 — Use of Marijuana for Debilitating Conditions
On its second try at medical marijuana, Florida seems poised for victory. Seventy percent of voters in the state support Amendment 2, which would allow qualifying patients to possess and purchase medical marijuana from licensed dispensaries, called “Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers.” These MMTCs would be responsible for acquiring, cultivating, possessing, processing, transferring, transporting, selling, distributing, dispensing, or administering pot and pot products.
Under Amendment 2, only patients with “debilitating medical conditions” would be eligible to obtain cannabis medicine. These conditions include cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, post-traumatic stress disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. The recommending physician must also believe that using medical marijuana would outweigh potential health risks to the patient. (Luckily, pot bears little physical risk to the user and has never, ever, caused any fatalities.)
Seventy percent seems like a huge margin of support, but under Florida law the amendment needs 60 percent of the vote to pass. In 2014, a similar amendment failed by just two percent of the vote. The No on 2 campaign has secured more than $1 million in TV reservations to advertise against it. The amendment’s proponents, United For Care, have also secured $1 million to film TV advertisements urging voters to finally pass a medical marijuana law.
Amendment 2 must also overcome the hump of gross misconceptions about it. Some people falsely believe that the majority of Florida’s patients with debilitating medical conditions already have access to medical marijuana. In fact, only a tiny fraction have access. Additionally, many people don’t realize that local municipalities will be able to limit the number and locations of medical marijuana businesses.
Under Florida’s already-existing, limited medical marijuana law only very few terminally ill patients are exempt from criminal sanctions and allowed to consume cannabis oil in the form of a pill, injection, or vapor. They also need the approval of not one, but two doctors.
Florida’s CBD-only law covers only patients who suffer from cancer, muscle spasms, seizures, or who have less than a year left to live. They’re allowed to have cannabis with no more than .8 percent THC, though some terminally ill patients can access higher THC strains from state-licensed dispensaries. Florida’s first dispensary opened this past summer in Tallahassee.
Proponents are optimistic. The millennial vote plus weed’s increasing normalization, especially in the Miami area, where 20 grams of weed or less has been decriminalized, bode well for medical legalization.
Maine: Question 1 — Marijuana Legalization Act
If Maine voters pass Question 1, adults 21 and older would be allowed to possess up to 2.5 ounces of weed and cultivate up to six plants for personal use. Retail cannabis would be subject to a 10 percent sales tax, while non-commercial transactions and medical marijuana would remain tax-free. Smoking in public would remain illegal. Local jurisdictions would also have the authority to prohibit marijuana retail stores, cultivation facilities, product-manufacturing facilities, and testing facilities.
Because Maine’s Marijuana Legalization Act occupies the first place on the ballot, it may have a better chance of passing, according to court-qualified marijuana expert Chris Conrad, since historically first measures on the ballot get more votes.
The legalization measure made it to the ballot this past April only after a court-ordered review of petition signatures that had previously been invalidated by the Maine Secretary of State’s Office. The measure received more than the required 61,123 signatures to qualify.
According to an April poll conducted by the Maine’s People’s Resource Center, more than half the state’s voters support the initiative; 42 percent oppose it. Travel writer Rick Steves, a board member of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) offered to match every donation up to $500,000 in support of the initiative.
Voters aren’t quite sure, however, where the tax revenue from legal marijuana would go in Maine. “It would be great if some of the revenue that’s generated from this legalization could stay in the community where it’s having the most impact,” said Ethan Strimling, mayor of Portland, Maine. That would mean funding substance abuse programs to counter any negative consequences from legalization. Others say it should help fund child foster care programs.
Retail weed would be subject to a ten percent sales tax, on top of Maine’s 5.5 percent sales tax. The initial $30 million in tax revenue would go to school construction, while the remainder would be go to the General Fund.
One group opposing the initiative are the Maine police chiefs. They say Question 1 is poorly written and would have a negative effect on communities. “We do value the will of the voter, but we have this extreme sense of responsibility on what is safe and healthy for our communities,” said Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry, president of the Maine Sheriffs’ Association.
Their concenrs include driving under the influence of marijuana, youth consumption, and edible overdoses. In regard to youth access, advocates for the initiative say teen use could drop because dispensaries, unlike dealers, check identification. The initiative’s opponents, however, say that normalizing weed would encourage more teens to try it.
Massachusetts: Question 4 — The Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act
Massachusetts’ legalization initiative would allow adults 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of weed in public (but not consume it publically) and up to 10 ounces in an enclosed space at home. They can also grow up to six plants and possess the bud and other products cultivated from those plants, in the same location where they were grown.
Under the new law, a commission similar to the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission would oversee a tightly regulated system of licensed dispensaries, cultivation facilities, testing facilities, and manufacturing facilities. Driving under the influence of marijuana would remain illegal, while all drug policies in the workplace would be allowed to remain as is.
Retail weed would be subject to a 3.75 percent excise tax on sales, in addition to a 6.25 percent Massachusetts sales tax. Cities and towns would also be able to tax up to 2 percent, and have the power to limit or ban marijuana businesses.
Some have objected to the initiative’s high taxes on legal marijuana, referring to the state as “Taxachusetts.” Arguments against the high taxes say they could encourage consumers to stay in the underground, tax-free black market. “We want the tax to be low enough to be able to fund the regulation and the administration of the initiative, but also to undercut the illicit market,” said Jim Borghesani, spokesman for Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which sponsors Question 4.
But even Colorado has a 10 percent tax on retail weed, while Washington has a 37 percent excise tax and Oregon a 25 percent sales tax.
Others think Massachusetts’ marijuana tax is too low. “Any claims that this ballot question would be a revenue generator for the Commonwealth would be fool’s gold,” said State Senator Jason Lewis. “At this tax rate it may not even cover the full cost of regulating the industry.”
Similar to his effort in Maine, Rick Steves is touring Massachusetts in support of Question 4. He’s also offered to match donations up to $100,000. “There are so many reasons to end the prohibition of marijuana,” Steves said. “Whether you’re concerned about the wellbeing of children, fairness for our minority communities, redirecting money away from criminals and into our state’s coffers, stemming the horrific bloodshed in Mexico, or civil liberties, it is clearly time for a new approach.”
Montana: I-182 — Montana Medical Marijuana Initiative
Montana’s medical marijuana initiative improves the state’s already existing medical legislation. It would remove the limit that each licensed provider only cover three patients, while allowing providers to hire employees to cultivate, dispense, and transport medical cannabis. The law also repeals the current requirement that any doctor who wrote 25 or more recommendations be referred to the board of medical examiners. Moreover, I-182 bans law enforcement from conducting unannounced inspections of medical marijuana facilities. Instead the new law would require the state to make annual inspections.
In 2004, Montana had already passed I-148 by 64 percent of the vote, which created a medical marijuana program. The Montana Legislature later repealed that program in 2011 and replaced it with Senate Bill 423, a new law that has failed to effectively cover patients. I-182 aims to remedy SB 423’s restrictions.
“It’s a much more comprehensive bill that’s actually designed to work for the people,” said U.S. Marine Corps Combat Veteran Talyn Lang, who medicates with cannabis. The new law would also allow veterans and other patients with post-traumatic stress disorder to access medical marijuana, while making it easier for patients with chronic pain to obtain cannabis medicine, as well.
Safe Montana, an anti-marijuana group, has raised $105,000, 98 percent of which comes from Stephen Zabawa, who owns car dealerships around Billings. “We know there’s nothing good about federally illegal Schedule I drugs,” Zabawa said.
Safe Montana originally campaigned for I-176, which would have repealed Montana’s medical marijuana program. When that initiative failed to garner enough signatures, Safe Montana focused its efforts on opposing I-182.
Medical marijuana proponents have raised money against Zabawa. “This is wrong. We must remedy this,” says the Montana Cannabis Industry Association. Medical marijuana supporters, Montana Citizens for I-182, have also filed a complaint against Safe Montana: They claim that Safe Montana’s finances reports were late, vague, and didn’t disclose purchases of billboards that went up in September. “Vote No I-182. No Pot Shops,” the billboards read.
Zabawa denied these allegations, and went on Facebook asking people to give the I-182 page a one-star review. “If that’s the best they got, they’r’e in trouble,” said Zabawa. “They’re running scared right now.”
Nevada: Question 2 — Nevada Marijuana Legalization Initiative
Nevada’s legalization measure would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of weed and grow up to six plants non-commercially. Wholesale marijuana sales would be subject to a 15 percent excise tax, imposed on licensed cultivators, while retail marijuana sales would be subject state and local taxes. The taxes would support regulating and enforcing the program, with the remainder of the revenue would going to education.
According to a report from the Las Vegas-based RCG Economics and the Marijuana Policy Group, legalization would bring in $393 million in annual sales in Nevada in 2018. By 2024, sales would increase to $485 million, and more than $1.1 billion overall, regarding everything related to the legal adult-use weed industry. The excise and sales taxes alone would garner more than $60 million in annual revenue, $20 million of which would benefit the state’s schools. The measure would also create 3,300 jobs directly related to the cannabis industry, and 6,200 jobs overall.
The measure would have a significant impact on social justice, too: Blacks in Nevada are 4.5 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession, despite comparable rates of use, according to a 2010 ACLU report.
Many groups however are concerned the bill would bring about more harm than good. “We believe when voters of Nevada are educated on this issue, they are going to reject legalizing and commercializing a retail drug,” Pat Hickey, spokesman for the “No on 2” campaign, said. “Legalizing pot in Nevada would mass-market child-friendly, edible pot products, putting them within easy reach of our kids,” proclaims the anti-legalization campaign, which is organizing a number of spots for TV ads and mailers, leading up to the election.
Another anti-legalization campaign put forth by a group called Protecting Nevada’s Children, also has “heavy-hitter” support from Governor Brian Sandoval and the casino industry. Lobbyists from the casino industry fear that those going for casino licenses may face extra scrutiny from Nevada gambling regulators were they also to become involved in the weed industry.
Still, supporters of Question 2, including Nevada State Senator Tick Segerblom, are optimistic it will pass. “Let’s bring it out in the open. Let’s tax it and let’s test it,” said Segerblom. “Let’s regulate.” He’s currently working on a bill to address issues with edibles, to ensure they won’t look like candy that would be attractive to kids.
Nevada already legalized medical marijuana in 2000, but it took 13 years for the legislature to finally allow dispensaries. By the July 2016, about 18,600 patients had recommendations. Nevada’s dispensaries also accept recommendations from other states to accommodate the state’s tourists.
North Dakota: The North Dakota Compassionate Care Act 2016
North Dakota’s medical marijuana program would allow eligible patients to have up to three ounces of medical cannabis preparations with a doctor’s recommendation. About 20 conditions are covered under the law, including HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, epilepsy, chronic back pain, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The program would also set up a system regulating the state’s dispensaries, which the state calls “compassionate care centers.” Patients and caregivers who live more than 40 miles from one of these “compassionate care centers” would be allowed to cultivate up to eight plants at home.
Passing medical marijuana would be a significant step in the state’s road to marijuana law reform, as North Dakota has among the harshest marijuana laws in the country, according to the Marijuana Policy Project. A first-time bust for even one joint is punishable by a $2,000 fine and a year in prison. Non-whites are also disproportionately affected: The American Civil Liberties Union reported in 2013 that blacks are 4.4 times more likely to be arrested for weed possession in North Dakota.
In 2014, polling indicated that 47 percent of North Dakota voters supported medical marijuana, while 41 percent opposed it. However, the state is particularly conservative, with authorities already cautioning the public about the high cost to implementing a medical program, and it’s hard to tell what effect the unusual Trump-Clinton match-up will have on the character of the voting population this year. According to the North Dakota Health Department, regulating the program would cost more than $3.5 million. The state treasury already falls short $310 million, while officials consider cuts to the Health Department and other state agencies. Supporters of the bill, however, dispute the Health Department’s official cost predictions.
The bill also faces opposition from the North Dakota Medical Association. “The proposed petition would be very difficult to implement in a safe and cost-effective manner,” according to the NDMA. “Furthermore, medical marijuana has not been tested or vetted through the Federal Drug Administration’s protocols…Therefore, dosage, side effects, and contraindications of medical marijuana are not fully known. As an organization that holds evidence-based medicine in the highest regard, the North Dakota Medical Association cannot endorse medical marijuana.”
Despite the state’s conservative reputation, supporters are optimistic. “Even though we are a conservative state, I think most of the voters in this state would view this as an alternative to prescription drugs that we know are harmful,” said Rilie Ray Morgan, who sponsors the initiative.
Oklahoma: State Question 788
Oklahoma’s medical marijuana act would establish a licensing system to allow eligible patients to possess up to three ounces of cannabis on their person in public, one ounce of concentrate, 72 ounces of edibles, eight ounces of weed at home, and to grow up to six plants. Local jurisdictions would have the power to limit marijuana establishments within their borders.
It’s unlikely, however, for the bill to make the ballot. Although medical marijuana proponents collected enough signatures for the measure to qualify for the ballot, they are challenging the attorney general’s rewording of the measure’s title on the ballot. This issue pending, it may be that Oklahoma decides on medical marijuana in a special election after Nov. 8.
Attorney General Scott Pruitt said the bill’s proponents didn’t submit the petition’s signatures early enough to account for any legal challenges before the state’s Election Board needing to print and send out ballots.
However, a special election after Nov. 8 could cost $1.2 million, which the state is unlikely to spend, amidst its pre-existing financial woes. Hence, the measure may instead appear on the 2018 ballot.
There’s a sideshow here as well. The attorney general rewrote the official description of the law on the ballot, playing up the “legalizing marijuana” aspect and downplaying the “medical” part, presumably to make the law seem more radical to the state’s conservative voters. Pruitt, however, calls his rewrite “succinct and objective.”
Currently, Oklahoma has a high-CBD law that offers limited protection to patients who use low-THC, high-CBD cannabis oil for specific medications. However, the law provides no way for patients to actually get access to the CBD cannabis oil within Oklahoma. It also excludes patients who would benefit from higher THC strains of cannabis.
In regard to the state’s marijuana law overall, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed a bill in April that reduces the mandatory minimum sentences for second marijuana possession convictions by half. That new law goes into effect Nov. 1. Regardless, Oklahoma still has some of the harshest marijuana penalties in the nation: up to one year in jail and a $1000 fine for a first offense, and a mandatory minimum of one year in jail, and up to five, and a fine of $5000 for a second offense. Blacks are also 2.9 times more likely than whites to get busted for simple possession in Oklahoma.
Key Races
At the Congressional level, a few key races in the Senate and House can have a great influence on whether marijuana legislation can make it to the floor and to a vote. One of the major pending bills right now is the CARERS Act, which would classify marijuana as Schedule II, while seeking to protect patient access to marijuana in states that have already passed their own medical legislation. In addition to facilitating research, the bill also clears up federal banking issues currently plaguing marijuana businesses, and would allow VA doctors in any green state to recommend marijuana to veterans.
To ensure that legislation like the CARERS Act and other marijuana bills have a chance at passing through Congress, a couple key races are worth paying attention to.
Incumbent Republican senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa and chairman of the Judiciary Committee is running for re-election against Democrat Patty Judge. It’s been difficult to move anything marijuana related passed Grassley, says Collins of Drug Policy Action.
In Florida, incumbent Republican Senator Marco Rubio is also up for reelection, running against Democrat Patrick Murphy. During his now-defunct presidential campaign, Rubio had pushed for enforcing federal marijuana laws in legal green states.
In Illinois, incumbent Republican Senator Mark Kirk, who has consistently voted against marijuana law reform, is running against Democrat Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth. She has voted in favor of House amendments protecting medical marijuana laws from federal interference. Polling shows that Duckworth is in the lead.
Lastly, among significant federal races, Republican congressman John Fleming of Louisiana, who has been notoriously vocal against marijuana law reform, is up for re-election. “There are only a handful of old-school reefer madness legislators willing to fight left in Congress,” said Bill Piper, senior director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, and Fleming is one of them. If no candidate wins in the Nov. 8 “jungle primary,” the top two will face off in a Dec. 3 re-election.
http://hightimes.com/news/the-mother-of-all-marijuana-votes-the-ultimate-high-times-election-guide/
INTL
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Cannabidiol trial reports positive results
GW Pharmaceuticals Announces Second Positive Phase 3 Pivotal Trial for Epidiolex® (cannabidiol) in the Treatment of Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome
- Primary endpoint achieved in both Epidiolex doses with high statistical significance compared to placebo -
- Today’s data represents the third positive Phase 3 pivotal trial for Epidiolex reported in 2016 -
- Data reinforce the potential of Epidiolex to be an important new medicine for patients who suffer from this treatment-resistant childhood-onset epilepsy -
- Company to hold investor conference call today at 8:00 a.m. EDT/13:00 BST
LONDON, Sept. 26, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GW Pharmaceuticals plc (Nasdaq:GWPH) (AIM:GWP) (“GW,” “the Company” or “the Group”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel therapeutics from its proprietary cannabinoid product platform, announces positive results of the second randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 clinical trial of its investigational medicine Epidiolex® (cannabidiol or CBD) for the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), a rare and severe form of childhood-onset epilepsy. In this trial, Epidiolex, when added to the patient’s current treatment, achieved the primary endpoint for both dose levels with high statistical significance. During the treatment period, patients taking Epidiolex 20mg/kg/day achieved a median reduction in monthly drop seizures of 42 percent compared with a reduction of 17 percent in patients taking placebo (p=0.0047), and patients taking Epidiolex 10mg/kg/day achieved a median reduction in monthly drop seizures of 37 percent compared with a reduction of 17 percent in patients taking placebo (p=0.0016).
This trial follows the announcement in June 2016 of positive results in the first pivotal Phase 3 trial of Epidiolex for the treatment of seizures associated with LGS, and the March 2016 announcement of positive results in the treatment of seizures associated with Dravet syndrome. GW expects to submit a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in the first half of 2017.
“The positive outcome in this second trial of Epidiolex in patients with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome demonstrates the effectiveness of this product in this particularly difficult to treat, childhood-onset epilepsy,” stated Orrin Devinsky, M.D., of New York University Langone Medical Center’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and principal investigator in the trial. “The data from the Epidiolex Dravet and LGS studies offers the prospect of an FDA-approved CBD medicine that shows both clinically meaningful seizure reduction and a consistent safety and tolerability profile. I believe Epidiolex has the potential to become an important new option within the field of treatment-resistant epilepsy.”
“Today brings great news for the Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome community,” said Christina SanInocencio, Executive Director of the Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome Foundation. “The announcement of a second set of positive results with Epidiolex is exciting as they offer much needed hope for patients and their families living with this debilitating condition where new treatment options are desperately needed.”
“The Epilepsy Foundation is thrilled to learn about the recent preliminary results for an innovative new therapy from GW for LGS. LGS in so many cases is extremely difficult to treat, and is an incredible challenge for children and families. We feel a tremendous sense of urgency to stop seizures, and believe that the pursuit of new therapies offers hope to individuals who have no currently available therapy to effectively stop their seizures. The Epilepsy Foundation will continue to be a champion for GW’s efforts to pursue this innovative new therapy as studies progress. We thank GW and all our partners who invest in a better tomorrow for people with epilepsy,” stated Philip Gattone, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Epilepsy Foundation.
“We are very pleased to report this second positive Phase 3 trial in seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome. This is the third positive Phase 3 trial for Epidiolex reported in 2016. All three trials provide GW with robust evidence to support the efficacy and safety of Epidiolex. This latest trial also shows that Epidiolex likely has an effective dose range, allowing for dose flexibility to address individual patient needs. These compelling results make us more determined than ever to make this important new medicine available to patients who suffer from these treatment-resistant childhood-onset epilepsies,” stated Justin Gover, GW’s Chief Executive Officer.
Trial Overview and Result
Patients aged 2-55 years with a confirmed diagnosis of drug-resistant LGS currently uncontrolled on one or more concomitant anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) were eligible to participate in this Phase 3, randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial. The trial randomized 225 patients into three arms, where Epidiolex 20mg/kg/day (n=76), Epidiolex 10mg/kg/day (n=73) or placebo (n=76) was added to current AED treatment. On average, patients were taking approximately three AEDs, having previously tried and discontinued an average of seven other AEDs. The average age of trial participants was 16 years (30 percent were 18 years or older). The median drop seizure frequency over the 4 week baseline period was 85.
The primary efficacy endpoint of this trial was a comparison between Epidiolex and placebo in the percentage change in the monthly frequency of drop seizures during the 14 week treatment period (two week dose escalation period followed by 12 weeks of maintenance) compared to the 4 week baseline period before randomization. Drop seizures were defined as atonic, tonic or tonic-clonic seizures involving the entire body, trunk or head that led or could have led to a fall, injury, slumping in a chair or hitting the patient’s head on a surface.
During the treatment period, patients taking Epidiolex 20mg/kg/day achieved a median reduction in monthly drop seizures of 42 percent compared with a reduction of 17 percent in patients taking placebo (p=0.0047), and patients taking Epidiolex 10mg/kg/day achieved a median reduction in monthly drop seizures of 37 percent compared with a reduction of 17 percent in patients taking placebo (p=0.0016).
A series of sensitivity analyses of the primary endpoint for both dose groups confirmed the robustness of these results. In both dose groups, the difference between Epidiolex and placebo emerged during the first month of treatment and was sustained during the entire treatment period. Results from secondary efficacy endpoints in both dose groups reinforced the overall effectiveness observed with Epidiolex.
Epidiolex was generally well tolerated in this trial. The pattern of adverse events was consistent with that reported in the previous two Phase 3 studies. One patient on 10mg/kg Epidiolex discontinued treatment due to an adverse event compared with six patients on 20mg/kg and one patient on placebo.
Of the 84 percent of 10mg/kg patients who experienced an adverse event, 89 percent of them deemed it to be mild or moderate. Of the 94 percent of 20mg/kg patients who experienced an adverse event, 88 percent of them reported it to be mild or moderate. 72 percent of patients on placebo experienced an adverse event.
The most common adverse events (occurring in greater than 10 percent of Epidiolex-treated patients) in the 10mg/kg group were: somnolence, decreased appetite, upper respiratory infection, diarrhea, and status epilepticus. None of the cases of status epilepticus in the 10mg/kg group was deemed treatment-related. The most common adverse events (occurring in greater than 10 percent of Epidiolex-treated patients) in the 20mg/kg group were: somnolence, decreased appetite, diarrhea, upper respiratory infection, pyrexia, vomiting, and nasopharyngitis.
Thirteen patients on Epidiolex 10mg/kg experienced a serious adverse event (two of which were deemed treatment-related) compared with thirteen patients on 20mg/kg (five of which were deemed treatment-related) and eight patients on placebo (none of which were deemed treatment-related).
There were no deaths in this trial.
Of the patients who completed this trial, 99 percent have opted to continue into an open-label extension trial.
Further data will be presented in future publications and medical meetings.
Epidiolex New Drug Application (NDA)
Following the success of the first Dravet syndrome Phase 3 trial earlier this year, GW requested a pre-NDA meeting with the FDA to discuss a proposed Dravet syndrome NDA. This meeting took place in July 2016 and also included some discussion of data from the first Phase 3 LGS trial. As a result of this constructive meeting, GW believes the guidance received enables the Company’s proposed filing strategy to submit a single NDA that includes Phase 3 data from one Dravet trial and two LGS trials, and which remains on track for a submission in the first half of 2017. Subject to satisfactory review, GW now anticipates a simultaneous decision on both indications and does not expect to wait for results from the second trial in Dravet syndrome prior to this submission.
In order to support GW’s NDA, the Company expects to provide the FDA with data from ten Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies, as well as safety data in over 1,800 patients from both the expanded access program and pivotal programs, including over 450 patients with one year or more of Epidiolex continuous exposure. This data is in addition to the pivotal efficacy data.
Epidiolex has Orphan Drug Designation from the FDA for the treatment of LGS, Dravet syndrome, Tuberous Sclerosis Complex and Infantile Spasms.
GW Clinical Trial Programs in Dravet Syndrome, Tuberous Sclerosis Complex and Infantile Spasms
In March 2016, GW announced positive results of the first pivotal Phase 3 trial of Epidiolex in Dravet syndrome. GW continues to enroll a second Phase 3 trial of Epidiolex in Dravet syndrome and will report these results upon completion. GW has commenced a Phase 3 trial of Epidiolex in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex and expects to initiate a Phase 3 trial of Epidiolex in Infantile Spasms in the fourth quarter of this year.
Investor Conference Call and Webcast Information
GW Pharmaceuticals will host a conference call and webcast for analysts and investors to discuss the results from this initial Phase 3 trial today at 8:00 a.m. EDT /13:00 BST. To participate in the conference call, please dial 877-407-8133 (toll free from the U.S. and Canada), or 0800-756-3429 (toll free from the UK) or 201-689-8040 (international). Investors may also access a live audio webcast of the call via the investor relations section of the Company’s website at http://www.gwpharm.com. A replay of the call will also be available through the GW website shortly after the call and will remain available for 90 days. Replay Numbers: (toll free): 1-877-660-6853, (international): 1-201-612-7415. For both dial-in numbers please use conference ID # 13646262.
About Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome
The peak onset of LGS typically occurs between ages of 3 to 5 years and can be caused by a number of conditions, including brain malformations, severe head injuries, central nervous system infections, and inherited degenerative or metabolic conditions. In up to 30 percent of patients, no cause can be found. Patients with LGS commonly have multiple seizure types including non-convulsive, convulsive and drop seizures, which frequently lead to falls and injuries. Drug resistance is one of the main features of LGS. Most children with LGS experience some degree of impaired intellectual functioning, as well as developmental delays and behavioral disturbances. Latest estimates are that there are more than 30,000 patients with LGS in the United States.
About Epidiolex
Epidiolex, GW’s lead cannabinoid product candidate, is an oral pharmaceutical formulation of CBD, which is in development for the treatment of a number of rare childhood-onset epilepsy disorders. GW has conducted extensive pre-clinical research of CBD in epilepsy since 2007. This research has shown that CBD has significant anti-epileptiform and anticonvulsant activity using a variety of in vitro and in vivo models and reduced seizures in various acute animal models of epilepsy. To date, GW has received Orphan Drug Designation from the FDA for Epidiolex for the treatment of Dravet syndrome, LGS, Tuberous Sclerosis Complex and Infantile Spasms. Additionally, GW has received Fast Track Designation from the FDA and Orphan Designation from the European Medicines Agency for Epidiolex for the treatment of Dravet syndrome. GW is currently evaluating additional clinical development programs in other orphan seizure disorders.
http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2016/09/26/874464/0/en/GW-Pharmaceuticals-Announces-Second-Positive-Phase-3-Pivotal-Trial-for-Epidiolex-cannabidiol-in-the-Treatment-of-Lennox-Gastaut-Syndrome.html
Big new California poll shows massive support for legalization
A new poll from California’s Public Policy Institute puts support for Proposition 64 at a solid 60 percent.
That’s from a poll of 1700 likely voters in the state. Opposition votes trailed, at 36 percent.
That’s right on the mark of previous poll tracking; with less than 50 days to go to the election, legalization seems assured in a state with an economy that on it’s own would make it the sixth largest in the world.
Here’s one of the breakdowns from the survey:
http://hightimes.com/news/big-new-california-poll-shows-massive-support-for-legalization/
Mexican police find bazooka shooting pot over border
By Mike Adams September 20, 2016
If Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump really wants a wall to prevent illegal drugs from being smuggled into the United States, he’s going to have to build the damn thing pretty tall.
Over the weekend, Mexico’s Policía Federal stumbled onto a panel van modified to haul a massive homemade cannon that they believe was used had been used to catapult illicit substances across the U.S./Mexico border. The van was discovered in the city of Agu Prieta, Sonora, just over the border from southeast Arizona. It was was found with its doors wipe open and without licenses plates.
A press release issued by federal authorities said the nearly ten foot long “homemade bazooka” was equipped with a small gasoline engine and an air compressor that was likely used in conjunction to blast drug shipments across the border.
This is the second time such a contraption had been discovered, police said.
Drug traffickers have been using this kind of equipment for years to get shipments of dope into the United States. The Mexican newspaper Reforma said earlier this summer that several packages of marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine have been found along the U.S. border, perhaps the result of similar efforts.
Some reports have suggested that Mexico is finished distributing marijuana in the United States because the quality simply cannot compete with what is being produced in legal states like Colorado. Nevertheless, the abandoned packets of cannabis still being found along the U.S./Mexico border is evidence that these dope slinging thugs are not yet ready to give up on the illicit pot market.
But U.S. legalization efforts are certainly making a dent in cartel profits.
Data released earlier this year by the U.S Border Patrol indicates that police seized less marijuana along the Mexican border in 2015 than they have in any of the past ten years. The report shows that drug agents got their hands on around four million pounds of illegal weed in 2009, but only confiscated somewhere around 1.5 million pounds last year.
The United States is poised to legalize marijuana in several more jurisdictions this November – perhaps crippling the Mexican marijuana sector enough to finally get the cartels to abandon this product forever.
http://hightimes.com/news/mexican-police-find-bazooka-shooting-pot-over-the-border/
California Papers Support Legalizing Marijuana This Time
BY TOM ANGELL ON SEPTEMBER 19TH, 2016 AT 9:19 AM
The last time California voters considered legalizing marijuana, nearly every major daily newspaper editorial board in the state came out in opposition.
That’s not the case with Proposition 64, this year’s measure to end cannabis prohibition in the Golden State.
Late last week, the largest newspaper in Southern California and the largest newspaper in Northern California both issued editorials in favor of the ballot initiative.
The Los Angeles Times argued:
On balance, the proposition deserves a “yes” vote. It is ultimately better for public health, for law and order and for society if marijuana is a legal, regulated and controlled product for adults. Proposition 64 — while not perfect — offers a logical, pragmatic approach to legalization that also would give lawmakers and regulators the flexibility to change the law to address the inevitable unintended consequences…
By sending mixed messages, the federal government has effectively ceded its role and left it to states to create a new national marijuana policy that legalizes marijuana with minimal harm and meaningful protections. Proposition 64 is California’s attempt to do just that. The Times urges a “yes” vote.
And the San Francisco Chronicle said:
Any serious discussion of marijuana legalization must begin with the acknowledgment of reality: Prohibition is not working. The drug is popular and readily available for recreational use, either through medical marijuana dispensaries, where 18-year-olds can purchase cannabis with a doctor’s recommendation, often after a nudge-and-a-wink; or a black market that continues to thrive. As with the era of alcohol Prohibition until its repeal in 1933, criminal enterprises have exploited the outlawing of a popular product. In the case of cannabis, Prohibition also has wreaked significant environmental damage from clandestine operations that divert water from streams, use chemicals and otherwise tamper with the ecosystem away from regulators’ scrutiny…
Prop. 64 would bring discipline and oversight to an industry that is operating in the shadows, to the detriment of public health, the environment and public safety. Vote yes on 64.
A spokesman for the Proposition 64 campaign said it was the first time in history that the influential papers had endorsed a legalization measure.
http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2016/09/california-papers-support-legalizing-marijuana-this-time/
Mj stocks rally after GW surges
Market Chatter: GW Pharma Jumps 20% Off Halt - Hires Adviser Following Approaches From Drugmakers
MIDNIGHT TRADER 3:12 PM ET 9/7/2016
03:12 PM EDT, 09/07/2016 (MT Newswires) -- Shares of GW Pharmaceuticals(GWPH) were surging 20% after resuming trade on Wednesday afternoon after Reuters said the company hired Morgan Stanley(MS) following approaches from several unnamed drug makers.
Sources cited in the report said the developer of cannabis-based pain killers is currently not exploring a sale and that there are no guarantees a deal will materialize.
America, meet your new #1 cash crop…
By MONEY MORNING STAFF REPORTS
What do Colorado, Washington State, Alaska and Washington, D.C. have in common? They've all been making huge money off of this controversial cash crop…
And while money may not grow on trees, it certainly grows out of this plant…
Thanks to several pieces of controversial legislation, a new commodity has emerged thats making tidal waves all over America.
This year it’s expected to create $6.7 billion of new wealth.
By 2020, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch estimate that will grow to $35 billion a year.
And many experts believe it could eventually become a $150-$200 billion industry.
The New York Times describes what’s taking place as a “gold rush.”
And now, one event is going to trigger an explosion for this commodity.
The economic impact is what makes the presentation below a must-see for all Americans.
Take a few moments to watch it, and decide for yourself…
http://pro.moneymappress.com/NVXMJ39/PNVXS918/?iris=551332&ad=zc1a-ahn1cc-pc1&_ga=1.103912066.325171984.1473101024&h=true
Cannabis reduces short-term motivation to work for money: study
September 1, 2016
Smoking the equivalent of a single 'spliff' of cannabis makes people less willing to work for money while 'high', finds a new UCL study.
The research, published in Psychopharmacology, is the first to reliably demonstrate the short-term effects of cannabis on motivation in humans. The researchers also tested motivation in people who were addicted to cannabis but not high during the test, and found that their motivation levels were no different to volunteers in the control group.
"Although cannabis is commonly thought to reduce motivation, this is the first time it has been reliably tested and quantified using an appropriate sample size and methodology," says lead author Dr Will Lawn (UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology). "It has also been proposed that long-term cannabis users might also have problems with motivation even when they are not high. However, we compared people dependent on cannabis to similar controls, when neither group was intoxicated, and did not find a difference in motivation. This tentatively suggests that long-term cannabis use may not result in residual motivation problems when people stop using it. However, longitudinal research is needed to provide more conclusive evidence."
57 volunteers were involved in the research, which consisted of two separate studies. The first involved 17 adult volunteers who all used cannabis occasionally. Through a balloon, they inhaled cannabis vapour on one occasion and cannabis-placebo vapour on separate occasion. Straight after, they completed a task designed to measure their motivation for earning money. This was a real-life task as the volunteers were given money they had earned at the end of the experiment.
In each trial of the task, volunteers could choose whether to complete low- or high-effort tasks to win varying sums of money. The low-effort option involved pressing the spacebar key with the little finger of their non-dominant hand 30 times in 7 seconds to win 50p. The high-effort option involved 100 space bar presses in 21 seconds, for rewards varying from 80p to £2.
"Repeatedly pressing keys with a single finger isn't difficult but it takes a reasonable amount of effort, making it a useful test of motivation," explains senior author Professor Val Curran (UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology). "We found that people on cannabis were significantly less likely to choose the high-effort option. On average, volunteers on placebo chose the high-effort option 50% of the time for a £2 reward, whereas volunteers on cannabis only chose the high-effort option 42% of the time."
In the second study, 20 people addicted to cannabis were matched with 20 control participants who reported the same levels of non-cannabis drug use. Participants were not allowed to consume alcohol or drugs, other than tobacco or coffee, for 12 hours before the study. They were then asked to perform the same motivation task as participants in the first study. The results showed that cannabis-dependent volunteers were no less motivated than the control group. However, much more research is needed to fully understand the relationship between long-term cannabis use and possible amotivational deficits.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-09-cannabis-short-term-money.html
Grand Opening Blum Decatur Blvd today
The 4,800 square foot facility is located on Decatur Boulevard, on the west side of the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Decatur Boulevard Blüm Dispensary will offer the Company's proprietary IVXX™ brand of premium medical cannabis, flowers, shatters, waxes and oils, among other high-quality cannabis products from a range of reputable providers of superior grade medical cannabis.
http://www.terratechcorp.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/160/terra-tech-announces-grand-opening-date-of-second
$800,000 in Nevada ads planned for legal mj vote
$800,000 in Nevada ads planned for legalized recreational marijuana measure
By COLTON LOCHHEAD
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Don’t be surprised to see a slew of television ads touting a measure to legalize recreational marijuana use during the weeks leading up to the general election in November.
A local political action committee, the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, reserved more than $800,000 worth of advertising time slots across the major news stations in Las Vegas, according to recent Federal Communications Commission filings.
The ads are scheduled to start in early October and run until Election Day on Nov. 8 when Nevadans will vote on Question 2, which will decide whether to legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults in the state.
The content of the ads hasn’t been finalized, according to coalition spokesman Joe Brezny.
With three months until Election Day, proponents of legalization indicate momentum is on their side.
The group raised $285,000 this year as of the last reporting deadline on June 11. The group raised $125,000 for the effort in 2015. Most of the funding has come from Nevada marijuana companies like The Grove Wellness Center, The Source, Silver State Relief and the Nevada Dispensary Association. Other big contributions have come from individuals such as casino developer Gary Primm and his son Roger Primm. Each has given $25,000 to the group this year.
Last month, a KTNV-TV Channel 13/Rasmussen Reports poll of 750 likely Nevada voters found that 50 percent supported the legalization effort, 41 percent opposed, and 9 percent were undecided.
Brezny said both the funding and the poll signal a shift in the public’s view on marijuana.
“Marijuana prohibition has been a failure and people see that there is a better way to go about this,” Brezny said.
Groups formed to oppose the bill, such as the Coalition Against Legalizing Marijuana, have not reported any contributions this year. The next reporting deadline for local PACs is Oct. 18.
A political nonprofit organization, Nevadans for Responsible Drug Policy, is also in the mix opposing Question 2, but is not required to disclose its donors and has aired no ads.
Assemblyman Pat Hickey, R-Reno, co-chairman of Nevadans for Responsible Drug Policy, said Friday that he also found the poll numbers encouraging. According to Hickey, the nonprofit group conducted its own poll in April that showed that 57 percent of voters supported the measure.
Seeing that number drop to 50 percent in the Rasmussen poll indicates that Nevadans are becoming increasingly worried about the measure, Hickey added.
Hickey expects to see several business sectors, especially Nevada’s gaming industry, begin airing their own opposition ads to the measure.
Contact reporter Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/politics/election-2016/800000-nevada-ads-planned-legalized-recreational-marijuana-measure
Have You Ever Assembled Ikea Furniture…On Weed?!
By Jon Hiltz on AUGUST 12, 2016
A new Youtube channel is receiving a massive amount of attention because it features videos of people taking “illicit substances” and then trying to assemble Ikea furniture.
The series has two episodes thus far and is the brainchild of veteran copywriters, Hunter Fine and Alex Taylor. One day they were discussing how complicated it is to put together items from the furniture giant when a friend of theirs added that it would be particularly difficult while high. With that, the concept for Hikea was born.
The two creators solicited for participants by putting up an ad on Craigslist, which turned out to be quite popular. After they had sifted through potential applicants to determine who was cool and who might kill them, they picked their subjects and filmed the episodes at the homes of the cast.
In the first episode, willing test subjects Giancarlo and Nicole take LSD and then attempt to assemble desks and drawers, with a downward spiral of progress as the substance takes its full effects.
The second episode features Keith, who eats a bunch of shrooms before putting together a desk that had a quarter of its parts remaining on the floor. This episode is significantly funnier and more interesting than their first and has more added effects and comedic cutaways.
The two creators are filming new episodes based on the incredible response, but agree that there are only so many places they can go with this concept. In an interview with Adweek, they said, “We don’t want to repeat ourselves, there are only so many drugs that people would be willing to do.”
There has been no response from Ikea but it will be interesting to see if they are more offended by the drugs or the suggestion that putting together their products is like solving a Rubik’s Cube.
We’ll leave that for the copyright infringement lawyers to decide.
HIKEA EPISODE 1: GIANCARLO & NICOLE + LSD
The Rhode Island ‘Church’ Taking on the Law to Smoke Pot
One Rhode Island group claims that when they're lighting up a joint, it's for religious reasons. Are they genuinely devout, or just want to get high without the consequences?
Abby Haglage HIGHER POWER08.07.16 12:15 AM ET
When Rhode Island State Police arrived to arrest 46-year-old Alan Gordon for growing pot, he was on the toilet. The armed officers, startled, subbed out the typical “put your hands above your head” for a more relevant directive: “wash them.”
According to Anne Armstrong, the 56-year-old co-founder of their marijuana “Healing Church,” Gordon asked if he could finish.
Armstrong herself would be arrested soon after, pulled over on the way to watch her 12-year-old son play the violin. Not far from the toilet, police uncovered 12 pounds of cannabis, 10 pounds of hash oil, and 57 marijuana plants, a “large marijuana cultivation operation” for which Armstrong and Gordon were charged with possession and intent to manufacture/deliver.
The two were shuffled off to prison where they were held for two weeks.
Now back at home, they’re prepping to represent themselves on a potentially historic case, one in which they’ll argue that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects their freedom to grow and use cannabis. Doing so will require convincing a judge that the Controlled Substances Act places an undue burden on their religious freedom.
It will be a tough battle—most likely, a losing one. But Armstrong, a hippie with a cause, is determined to win. “My religion is cannabis,” she tells me on a phone interview one day after she’s been released. “They’re not carding people coming to get wine if they're not 21. Why would they interfere with our adult communion of God, when it’s been proven to be safer?”
Her statement makes up the central argument of their case, and the main belief of The Healing Church—that cannabis is the giver of life. Formed just over a year ago, Armstrong and Gordon’s congregation is essentially a small collection of followers who believe, like they do, that marijuana is holy (or, some may argue, want to smoke it for free).
In a video of the group holding a public ceremony last year, a young guy wearing a flat-brimmed hat that reads “high on life” lights up a joint while others look on. "We're supposed to have religious freedom," he tells the local news anchor. "We believe that this was in the Bible and that we need to do this as a sacrifice."
The scene doesn’t exactly appear religious in nature, but The Healing Church insists it is.
Armstrong—who refers to herself as the “deaconess”—and Gordon— her “canon”—have outlined what they consider the “evidence” of their beliefs in a 37-page document titled A Bible Full of Cannabis. Peppered with pictures of stained glass windows that they argue depict the cannabis leaf, it invokes specific passages from the Bible and ties them to cannabis.
Among its most salient claims is the “recipe” outlined in Exodus 30:23 for the oft-cited “holy anointing oil” which they say contains cannabis. This means, in their eyes, that everyone from Jesus to Pope John XXI used marijuana-infused oil to heal the sick, and that they should do the same. Another bold claim, that the “Tree of Life”—a theme in many religious texts—is the cannabis plant itself.
“As St. John prophesied, the Tree of Life would one day grow in cities with glass streets and glowing multicolored gems,” the two write. “This sounds startlingly like an ancient mystic’s frantic attempt to describe his vision of a future greenhouse supplemented by LED grow lights, in the era before glass windows or electricity by which he could have understood what he saw.”
Together with their followers they worship cannabis as a plant capable of “the healing of nations,” according the site’s mission statement. “Her flowering tops are sacred to the LORD and must never be an item for trade,” it continues. “They are to be shared the way a mother shares food among her children.”
The outdoor ceremonies like the one depicted by local news mostly involve smoking joints and talking about love. To some, a Friday night—to them, a “burnt offering.” In May last year, the group was interrupted by cops while trying to host such a ceremony on a fountain dedicated to Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island and an advocate for religious tolerance.
Afterwards, the two filed a lawsuit claiming that the charges ($100 fine for each) represented religious discrimination. The case was dismissed in December. Their most recent run-in with the law began late June, when police appeared with a search warrant to raid their cannabis grows. The two responded by filing another suit, this time asking the court to define “indoor” plants.
The lockable dog pen they were growing in, apparently, doesn’t qualify. A spokesperson for Rhode Island State Police confirmed this to The Daily Beast, as well as the arrest of both Gordon and Armstrong (when asked about the toilet, the spokesperson let out a laugh saying “the reports don’t get that specific”).
The Healing Church, while more serious than the others, is not the first of its kind. Indiana’s First Church of Cannabis made waves last year when its founder Bill Levin released a humorous mission statement called the “Deity Dozen,” the first provision of which reads “Don’t be an asshole. Treat everyone with Love as an equal.”
Levin too has decided to challenge the legality of his cannabis use based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which there is a version of in 21 states. The law itself dates back to 1993 and aims to prevent existing laws from infringing on the rights to exercise religious freedom. The first federal RFRA case revolved around drugs—Native Americans and peyote.
But proving that peyote, used by hundreds of thousands of Native Americans for centuries, is central to their religion is one thing; proving that 20 people in Rhode Island should be allowed to smoke pot on public property is entirely another. As David Orentlicher, a law professor at Indiana University, told the Huffington Post during Levin’s suit, winning such a case is unlikely.
“First, the church has to show that it’s a genuine church,” Orentlichter said. “While courts are reluctant to question the sincerity of religious beliefs, religious claimants must get past the threshold question of whether there really is a religion involved rather than religion being used as pretext for other purposes, in this case, the use of marijuana.”
Scheduled to appear in court this fall, Armstrong and Gordon are both representing themselves, banking on the idea that the “good people of Rhode Island” will come to their defense. In the meantime, the two are still committed to spreading the word about marijuana’s healing powers, launching a campaign asking to be “infected with Zika” so they can prove the drug can cure it. For non-pregnant women, Zika more or less cures itself, disappearing in about a week.
But their main focus has and will be the law—which Armstrong predicted they’d be fighting in an interview with local news a year ago. “This [marijuana] is a very important constitutional issue,” she said. “If can’t be decided here, I don’t think there is any hope for America.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/07/jesus-wants-me-to-smoke-this-joint.html
DEA claims rescheduling decision is close
By Mike Adams August 03, 2016
Although the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced earlier this year that it would reveal its decision on whether to downgrade the Schedule I listing of cannabis within the first half of 2016, it appears that Uncle Sam’s leading dope henchmen are still at the drawing board—reportedly dissecting the plant in an attempt to determine which compounds may be important for medical use and which ones must remain classified as a public menace.
On Tuesday, DEA spokesperson Russ Baer told the Cannabist that while the agency was not yet prepared to make a determination on rescheduling cannabis, it was in the “final stages” of its eight-factor evaluation process, suggesting that a decision, whatever that might be, is well within reach. However, Baer refused to say when the cannabis community could expect the news.
“I can’t give you a time frame as to when we may announce a decision,” he said. “We’re closer than we were a month ago. It’s a very deliberate process.”
What is known is that the DEA has received “scientific and medical evaluations” along with a scheduling recommendation from the Department of Health and Human Services. A letter dated April 4, 2016 indicates that the agency has met with officials with the U.S Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse to assist in the rescheduling debate.
Yet, Baer would not give any indication as to whether those recommendations were in favor of a reschedule or if all of the noise we’ve been hearing on this issue is simply the product of a long con.
All of the wild-eyed hope for a marijuana reschedule really heated up this year when the DEA fired off a letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren in April, suggesting that the agency’s plan was to make a rescheduling announcement “in the first half of 2016.” Of course, confusion surrounding the implications of the DEA’s agenda quickly produced a number of ridiculous reports implying that marijuana was soon to be made legal in every state across the nation. This is far from true.
As it stands, marijuana is classified a Schedule I, dangerous drug under the confines of the Controlled Substances Act. In the eyes of the federal government, this means that anything derived from the cannabis plant has no medicinal value and a high potential for abuse. But a schedule downgrade would make some modest changes to Uncle Sam’s hammer-fisted attitude toward the herb—opening up the plant to be considered as having some worth in the scope of modern medicine.
Yet, unfortunately, it does not sound like the DEA—or the rest of the agencies with their hands in the rescheduling decision—are interested in loosening the restrictions for the entire plant.
Last month, Baer told aNewDomain that the DEA and other governmental agencies were struggling with the cannabis debate because they were still trying to “identify the parts of the plant that might have benefit, and separating out (the beneficial) components and distinguishing which “aren’t beneficial or harmful.”
Therefore, it is conceivable that if and when the DEA’s decision is finally made public, it will be somewhat of a disappointment—possibly only coming with a reschedule for non-intoxicating compounds like cannabidiol (CBD), while leaving our good friend tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in the ranks of killer substances like heroin.
What is important to understand is that even if the DEA unleashes the cannabis plant, in its full form, very little will change for the average stoner or medical marijuana patient. A recent report from the Brookings Institution indicates that a decision to make marijuana a Schedule II drug would not have any impact on the medical marijuana industry, nor would it lead to national drug store chains, like CVS and Walgreens, stocking their shelves with cannabis products.
What’s more, as Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML pointed out in his latest analysis, rescheduling cannabis will not even make the herb that much more “accessible for clinical study.”
“These goals can only be accomplished by federally descheduling cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol and tobacco, thus providing states the power to establish their own marijuana policies free from federal intrusion,” Armentano wrote. “If the DEA fails to take this opportunity to take such action, then it is incumbent that Congress does so posthaste.”
http://hightimes.com/news/dea-claims-marijuana-rescheduling-decision-is-close/
Private equity is 'seeing more excitement than it can handle' in the marijuana industry
By Jeremy Berk http://www.businessinsider.com/private-equity-companies-focus-on-marijuana-2016-7?r=UK&IR=T
The cannabis industry is starting to see some serious investment activity.
Over the last few years, a new wave of cannabis-finance companies have formed to capitalize on the green rush.
Companies like Tuatara Capital, Seventh Point, Poseidon Asset Management, and Privateer Holdings have dived headfirst into the industry.
While the first three are brand new, having been founded in the last few years, Privateer started in 2011. The fund bills itself as the first in the US to focus solely on cannabis-related endeavors.
These private-equity firms invest specifically in companies operating in the legal-cannabis industry,as well as providing capital for new startups to generate returns down the road.
"It's never a dull day," Al Foreman, the CIO of Tuatara and a 16-year veteran of the private-equity industry, told Business Insider. "It's fascinating to be part of a new and emerging industry."
Retail sales of legal cannabis, including both medical and recreational, are projected to hit $4.3 billion in 2016, according to Marijuana Business Daily's 2016 fact book. And sales will likely skyrocket to $11 billion by 2020, with recreational sales representing an ever larger portion of the market.
Some outlets are predicting even higher sales, with estimates ranging as high as $22.8 billion by 2020.
Money's flowing in
So far, the money's pouring in. Forty-seven percent of active investors in the cannabis space plan on sinking $10 million or more into private cannabis companies in the next year, according to the fact book.
On its own, Seventh Point, named for the seven points of a cannabis leaf, is looking at completing $75 million worth of fundraising this year, according to the firm's CEO, Steve Gormley, who has over 15 years of experience in private equity.
"It's like a floodgate," Gormley told Business Insider. "We oversubscribed [raising more money than intended] our first two funds. I haven't seen anything like this in my career."
While most of the money in the industry is still coming from family offices and people's personal bank accounts, 18% of entrepreneurs who have started cannabis companies in the past year have landed funding from venture-capital and private-equity investors, according to the fact book.
"We're getting more excitement than we can handle," Gormley continued. "I cut my teeth in the dot-com era. I lived through the housing bubble. This is something completely unto itself."
Founders Fund, the legendary Silicon Valley venture-capital firm, sank $75 million into Privateer Holdings in 2015, according to PitchBook.
Even Roger Mcnamee, an early Facebook investor, sank a chunk of his personal fortune into a series B round for MJ Freeway, a cannabis software and compliance firm based in Colorado, the company's cofounder, Jessica Billingsley, told Business Insider.
But he industry still faces numerous regulatory challenges.
A fragmented market
Though states like Colorado and Washington have set up markets for recreational marijuana, the plant is still a Schedule I drug at the federal level, and most banks refuse to deal with cannabis companies for fear of federal repercussions.
Firms that invest in the cannabis space need to be particularly careful about where their money goes. They only invest in states that have specific rules allowing for the commercialization of recreational or medicinal marijuana.
Companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission cite ongoing federal prohibition, banking issues, as well as potential civil and criminal penalties as the top risks to investing in the cannabis sector, according to Law360.
But there are ways to get around these risks: Some companies, like Cannakorp, build products used for the consumption of marijuana— but don't actually touch the plant themselves. This exposes investors to far less legal risk as opposed to dealing with, say, a dispensary.
Because of this often confusing regulation, where different rules exist in each state, Foreman says that investing in cannabis requires "professional, full-time focus" to successfully navigate the industry.
"The market is so fragmented," Foreman said. "Each individual state is a separate market. If you're an investor who's accustomed to looking at companies or sectors that are national or global — to retrain that mindset to focus on an individual state market is an obstacle that needs to be overcome."
While neither Gormley nor Foreman could say who specifically invested in their funds, both mentioned that private investors, rather than institutional, provided the bulk of their fundraising.
Foreman added that he thinks institutional investors — who have largely steered clear of the marijuana industry so far — have been warming up to the industry as recently as the past few months as more markets open.
"Every investor who evaluates making an investment in this industry — there's a balance of risk and reward that everyone processes," Foreman said. "Over the last two years, we've seen the interest level on the side of investors increase directly in line with the continued evolution and mainstreaming of the industry."
'Homegrown' interest
Investors, however, aren't waiting around for their firms — they're putting up personal cash.
"Partners at venture-capital or private-equity firms are using their own capital, rather than firm assets," Morgan Paxhia, a partner at Poseidon Asset Management, told Business Insider. "They're not waiting for the federal government. They're participating in any way they can."
Gormley, of Seventh Point, reflected this. He said that compliance is one of the key issues keeping a large chunk of institutional investors out of the industry, but he noted that the times are changing.
"Here's what's interesting," Gormley said. "As recently as a year ago, you saw most of the investment activity happening organically. It was homegrown — pardon the pun — from within the industry itself."
Initially, mostly cultivators and producers who had been successful were taking their profits and reinvesting, according to Gormley. Then, high-net worth individuals, who have a much higher risk tolerance than institutional investors, started getting into the space.
Once these individuals started taking the industry seriously, the basket of investors started to broaden.
Roughly nine months ago, a proliferation of family offices jumped into the space, Gormley found.
"Now, we've got venture capitalists and hedge fund operators and private-equity senior managers coming in as individuals," he said.
'The profile of the cannabis investor is thawing'
These firms, specifically focused on the cannabis industry, are trying to bring a level of financial maturity to a complex industry.
"We launched Tuatara to create an entry point for sophisticated investors," Foreman said. "That's the next phase of evolution for the capital-raising and the capital-accumulation process."
Foreman thinks that because so many new markets are expected to open up as states like California vote on legalization in November, the "argument around market fragmentation" will start to go away, he said.
"The overall landscape will have reached a point of critical mass, and the industry will be too big to ignore," Foreman added.
Gormley, for his part, was much more direct.
"I'm seeing the profile of the cannabis-industry investor thawing," Gormley said. "Whereas it was only cowboys, I'm seeing people who are more traditionally bottom-line driven and conservative coming off the sidelines."
He even likens attitudes he's seen about cannabis in the US to marriage equality.
"When I was growing up, it was inconceivable," Gormley said, regarding marriage equality. "And then it started to happen at the state level, and then there was just this massive cultural shift."
It's certainly an exciting time to be in the cannabis space.
http://www.businessinsider.com/private-equity-companies-focus-on-marijuana-2016-7?r=UK&IR=T
Meet the Marijuana Industry Money-Man, Rob Hunt of Tuatara Capital
ROBERT HUNT, PARTNER, INDUSTRY EXPERT
Mr. Hunt has more than 15 years of experience in the cannabis industry as an attorney, a consultant, and a serial entrepreneur. Rob is currently a Partner, and the Lead Industry Executive of Tuatara Capital. In this role Mr. Hunt is responsible for leading Tuatara’s deal generation efforts, operational due diligence, and execution of new investments.
Robert is an active attorney in the State of Colorado and was also the founder of Consult Canna, a cannabis consulting firm based in Colorado, where he worked as a professional consultant to many dispensary owners and license seekers in multiple jurisdictions to help navigate a rapidly changing legal landscape. Previously, as the owner and CEO of Rocky Mountain Hydroponics in Colorado, and Evergreen Garden Centers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, Rob tailored his company to specialize in Organic and Hydroponic growing methodology to help maximize yields at commercial cultivation centers. Over the course of four years, Mr. Hunt grew his business from one location to five and significantly increased revenue over each year of leadership, building it to four million dollars in annual revenue before selling the business to GrowLife, Inc. where he served as both the President of the retail division and a director until the early part of 2014.
http://www.tuataracapital.com/principals/robert-hunt-partner-lead-industry-executive/
7 Great Stocks That Cost $10 or Less
By Lou Carlozo | Contributor July 25, 2016, at 6:00 a.m.
Terra Tech Corp. 32 cents. Terra Tech is a tiny over-the-counter stock, with a market cap of just $110 million. But it stands on terra firma as more states make recreational and medicinal marijuana legal. "I like Terra Tech as a long-term hold because the management team is solid and they have been proven to be savvy when raising and deploying capital," says Rob Hunt, partner at Tuatara Capital, the largest private equity fund in the U.S. cannabis industry. "Their business model is scalable and they are uniquely positioned to have rapid revenue growth in the Nevada and California markets."
http://money.usnews.com/investing/articles/2016-07-25/7-great-stocks-that-cost-10-or-less
Meet the Marijuana Industry Money-Man, Rob Hunt of Tuatara Capital
Rhonda Schaffler Follow Jun 18, 2016 11:00 AM EDT
Exhibitors showing off hemp oils, vaping devices, edibles and a lot more were on display, but the most popular attendee could have been Rob Hunt, a partner at Tuatara Capital. He's the guy who writes the checks to fund development of cannabis products. Tuatara Capital is a private equity company launched last year to make cannabis-related investments.
"Last year alone there was $5.8 billion in legal cannabis sales in the United States," explained Hunt. "That number is expected to top $10 billion in two years. You're talking about a $75 billion dollar plus industry by 2020."
Tuatara Capital focuses on four main investment areas: cultivation, processing, research and testing, and consumer retail.
"The companies that we think are really exciting are the ones that are thinking about a forward-thinking drug development pipeline that can be acquisition targets for your Mercks (MRK) , your Pfizers (PFE) and Novartis (NVS) ," said Hunt, who added that he doesn't see that happening right away.
Hunt also expects to see the equity markets open up over time for cannabis companies. "Currently we don't look at a lot of companies we're working with as near-term IPOS, but at the same time our expectations are within three or four years this will change drastically," said Hunt. "We think the landscape is evolving quickly."
https://www.thestreet.com/story/13611928/1/meet-the-marijuana-industry-money-man-rob-hunt-of-tuatara-capital.html
Free samples for everyone
Seven Reasons to Invest in Cannabis
Seven Reasons to Invest in Cannabis Stocks Now – And Many More Reasons to Exercise Extreme Caution
By Jeff Bess on July 15, 2016
POSTED IN BUSINESS BASICS, FEDERAL LAW AND POLICY
Cannabis industry
Not everything that glitters is gold….
Money Morning published a piece by associate editor Cameron Saucier with the attention-catching headline “7 Reasons to Invest in Marijuana Stocks Now.” Though we represent many cannabis businesses and investors, we frequently caution against investing in the industry without knowing all the facts. It is an exciting time for the cannabis industry, but for eager investors, it is also a time of exceptional risk. Here is what you need to know before jumping on the bandwagon.
Reason No. 1 to Invest in Marijuana Stocks: Government Shift Toward Legalization
Reason No. 2 to Invest in Marijuana Stocks: Governments Will Say Yes to More Revenue
Public opinion is shifting dramatically in favor of cannabis legalization and if opinion polls told the whole story, the prospects for full cannabis legalization would look bright indeed. Unfortunately, that is not necessarily the case. Even as more and more states consider legalization, Congress rejected moves to increase access to medical marijuana for veterans and ease restrictions on medical marijuana research in the last two months alone. Recent reports also suggest the DEA might not follow-through with its rumored rescheduling of cannabis under the Controlled Substances Act after all. And even if it does, opinions on whether that would benefit the industry range from predictions that it would not change much to that it would be the “nightmare scenario” for state markets. Though we do not agree with the latter characterization, one thing is clear: rescheduling is a poor substitute for federal legislative reform.
Saucier rightly points out that governments are eager to collect the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue generated by the cannabis industry. This can be a double-edged sword, however – after all, they really do want that money. According to a 2015 survey, cannabis businesses are more than three times as likely to be audited by the IRS than other businesses. An audit – even if successful – is expensive, time consuming, and can scare away new investors. The issue is compounded by Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code, which prohibits many standard business deductions for companies trafficking federally controlled substances. Uncertainty as to its scope can attract unwanted attention from the IRS, and its proper application can greatly impact cannabis entrepreneurs’ bottom line. Many cannabis businesses pay an effective tax rate of as much as 70%, a major limit on profitability and the ability to reinvest revenues to fuel growth. 280E will continue to be a hindrance to cannabis business absent federal reform.
Reason No. 3 to Invest in Marijuana Stocks: It’s the Fastest-Growing Industry
It is true: cannabis is among the fastest-growing industries in the United States. But, fast growth is not always sustainable – especially given the sheer quantity of variables facing the cannabis industry. One need only to recall the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and early 2000s to appreciate just how quickly the “sure thing” of rapid growth can collapse. For a more recent example, social commerce start-up Groupon has sputtered over the last several years after once being the fastest growing company in history. Now far from its heyday, founder and former CEO Andrew Mason has been named one of the “14 Most Spectacular Failures” of Silicon Valley by Vanity Fair and Groupon stock has lost over 80% of its value since 2012. Though Groupon inspired numerous competitors, some of which have found success, early investors in Groupon are likely feeling they bet on the wrong horse. Early cannabis investors should beware falling into a similar trap; the companies that dominate today may not even be here tomorrow.
Reason No. 4 to Invest in Marijuana Stocks: Widespread Medical Use
Medical marijuana has been around for twenty years now, and it is still trending up. Nonetheless, investments in medical applications of cannabis are far from guaranteed. Game-changing innovations in medicinal cannabis will require both the end of federal prohibition and approval from the FDA. Obtaining FDA approval is an arduous process that costs millions of dollars and can take years of reviews and clinical trials; even after that, only 8% of drugs are approved. Though the medical properties of cannabis are promising, it is still a risky and long-term investment.
Reason No. 5 to Invest in Marijuana Stocks: The Growth in Investment Options
The diversification of investment options in the cannabis industry is certainly good news for investors, but it is not necessarily good for cannabis stocks. The stocks touted in Saucier’s piece are penny stocks, which are notoriously risky. Lack of publicly available information, transparency, company track record, and liquidity are all reasons why penny stocks – cannabis or otherwise – are typically not the best option for most investors. Of course, there may be exceptions to this rule, but we generally advise great caution before investing in publicly traded cannabis stocks.
Those still interested in taking the plunge should learn more about alternative ways to get involved in state-legal markets before deciding to pour money into highly-speculative cannabis stocks.
Reason No. 6 to Invest in Marijuana Stocks: Banks Will Service the Business
Saucier makes reference to an amendment to a June spending bill that would have precluded federally appropriated funds from being used to penalize banks that service the cannabis industry. Unfortunately, that amendment was rejected by the House of Representatives. This failure means that lack of access to banking will remain a significant impediment to cannabis businesses as we have written about extensively. It also demonstrates why a softening stance towards the cannabis industry by the federal government should never be taken for granted. Even in those states with good banking access for cannabis businesses, those banks that take on cannabis customers typically charge them high rates to make up for an increased regulatory and oversight burden.
Reason No. 7 to Invest in Marijuana Stocks: The Rise of Subsectors
Saucier rightly points out that many industries stand to benefit from relaxed regulation of cannabis, such as biotechnology and software development. Cannabis businesses in these sectors ultimately depend on the continued trend towards legalization, however, and cannot completely insulate themselves from a potential federal crackdown or reversal of state-level gains. Similarly, cannabis businesses in these sectors cannot fully insulate themselves from volatility in non-cannabis portions of these sectors. Investors may be better off sticking to traditional blue-chip companies in these sectors for the time being; after all, they may be the first in line to acquire successful niche cannabis businesses if “Big Canna” ever becomes a reality.
In sum, there are many reasons to be optimistic about the future of cannabis legalization and investors can – and are – making money in the industry. Nonetheless, would-be investors should fully appraise the risks and beware that any industry or company that sounds too good to be true usually is.
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http://www.cannalawblog.com/seven-reasons-to-invest-in-cannabis-stocks-now-and-many-more-to-exercise-caution/
Former Facebook President Sean Parker donates $1.25 million
Sean Parker donates another $1.25 million to pot legalization campaign
11:56 A.M. Patrick McGreevy
Former Facebook President Sean Parker has put another $1.25 million into the campaign for Proposition 64, the initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in California, bringing his total contributions so far to $2.5 million, according to records released Thursday.
The latest donation by the billionaire tech titan was reported to the secretary of state by the initiative campaign committee, Californians to Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana While Protecting Children.
If approved by voters Nov. 8, the ballot measure would allow adults 21 and older to possess, transport and use up to an ounce of cannabis for recreational purposes and would allow individuals to grow as many as six plants. The measure would also impose a 15% tax on retail sales of the drug.
Parker has emerged as the biggest donor to the campaign, which has raised $5 million so far, much of it spent on a petition drive to qualify the measure for the ballot.
A controversial figure, Parker left as Facebook's first president in 2005 after a cocaine-related arrest, even though he was not charged with a crime.
The opposition to the measure is led by the Coalition for Responsible Drug Policies, which has raised about $125,000 from groups including the Assn. of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs State PAC and the Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Assn.
Wayne Johnson, the lead strategist for the campaign against Proposition 64, said that supporters including Parker expect to make money if the initiative passes, something a Parker representative denied.
"Sean Parker didn’t make a contribution, he made a business investment that he expects to pay off," Johnson said. "And why shouldn’t it? The initiative practically eliminates his competition by decimating the medical marijuana provider network. This is strictly a big-business monopoly model that permits a single company to control growing, manufacturing and distribution."
Jason Kinney, a spokesman for the pro-legalization campaign, said the criticism is misplaced.
"[Parker] has no investment or interest in the marijuana industry nor any plans to enter it," Kinney said. "He's supportive because he is a social justice advocate. Like pretty much everything the opposition tries to throw at us, this is jello that doesn't stick."
Kinney also disputed that the measure would lead to a monopoly. “This measure was specifically and carefully written to protect small business, especially existing small operators who are abiding by the new regulatory framework created by the Governor and Legislature."
Meanwhile, Proposition 64 was opposed Thursday by the California District Attorneys Assn. in part for failing to “give prosecutors any standard by which to measure and convict drug-impaired drivers,” according to Mark Zahner, the group’s chief executive officer.
UPDATED at 3:10 pm to include opposition from prosecutors group.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-essential-politics-updates-ex-facebook-president-sean-parker-1467917815-htmlstory.html
The NHL is going to Las Vegas
It’s official: The NHL is going to Las Vegas
By Ryan DadounJun 22, 2016, 4:51 PM EDT
Las Vegas is getting its first major North American sports franchise as today NHL commissioner Gary Bettman officially announced the NHL unanimously voted to expand to 31 teams, giving birth to a great experiment and opportunity.
The challenges that this franchise potentially faces are unlike any other. Vegas is known for its entertainment and nightlife, providing this new team with hordes of competition for attention. That reality also leads to many Vegas residents working nights, which was reflected in the former ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers annual “Midnight Roundup” promotion, which was a game played at midnight.
The team might benefit from the constant stream of tourists, some which may even time their vacations to correspond with when their favorite team in visiting Vegas, but the NHL will be counting on the locals to provide the base of support.
Vegas’ metropolitan area is the home to more than 2 million people, but the desert city doesn’t have a major tradition of hockey. As Bettman noted though during Wednesday’s press conference, nontraditional markets have had success in other locations. Just this season two Florida teams led the Atlantic Division while three California teams finished atop the Pacific Division and of course the San Jose Sharks made it to the Stanley Cup Final.
The timing of this announcement also comes just before the 2016 NHL Entry Draft where the projected No. 1 pick is Auston Matthews, who was born in Arizona and exposed to the NHL through the Coyotes. He’s a symbol of how hockey entering nontraditional markets can spread interest in the sport.
“The NHL stands for the proposition that hockey is for everyone,” the new team’s owner, Bill Foley, added.
Vegas also has the potential to surprise people in part because the Vegas outsiders see isn’t the same as the experience of many residents.
“Most people don’t realize there’s life outside the Strip,” said Minnesota Wild forward Jason Zucker, per the National Post. He grew up in Vegas. “They come in, stay in the bubble that’s the Strip and they leave that bubble to go on a plane and go back to where they’re from.”
It’s also worth noting that Vegas is starting with 14,000 season-ticket holders.
“The strength of the Las Vegas bid, the success of the ticket drive and the unique appeal of the market led the executive committee and subsequently the board of governors to determine expansion not only is appropriate, but is important to the league’s continued growth and momentum,” Bettman said.
The league will receive a $500 million expansion fee. This marks the first time since 1997 that the NHL has added a brand new franchise. Las Vegas will start play in 2017-18, which corresponds with the league’s 100th birthday.
http://nhl.nbcsports.com/2016/06/22/its-official-the-nhl-is-going-to-las-vegas/
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FDA Looks to Canada for Marijuana Regulation Advice
By Tom Angell on June 2, 2016 Health & Medicine, Law & Politics
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking interest in how to effectively regulate marijuana.
The agency is cohosting a conference later this month that will include a panel examining Canada’s system of legal medical cannabis, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on Thursday.
The session, led by Chris Rose, director of operations for Canadian government’s Office of Medical Cannabis, “will provide an overview of current regulatory framework for the regulation of marijuana for medical purposes in Canada and include information on the licensing process, compliance and enforcement and market statistics,” the conference’s website says.
The news comes in the wake of reports the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will soon to act on a marijuana rescheduling recommendation it received from FDA. It is not yet publicly known whether the health agency recommended a change in the drug’s classification or if it weighed in for keeping marijuana in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the most restrictive category, which is supposed to be reserved for drugs with no medical value. DEA is expected to rule by the end of this month.
The fact that FDA is taking a close look at how the Canadian federal government legally regulates medical cannabis could be a sign that the Obama administration is preparing to announce a big change in policy soon. But it might also just be the agency doing its due diligence to begin preparing for changes that seem inevitable at some point in the near- to mid-term future.
“It’s possible that this is part of the administration’s slow progress on the issue generally,” Mike Liszewski of Americans for Safe Access told Marijuana.com in an interview. “It makes sense to examine what our allies have done. This could be simply in anticipation that the status quo is not going to be permanent, and that the FDA doesn’t want to be light years behind the curve. If the FDA added this panel to the agenda because they think rescheduling of cannabis is imminent, I’d like to think they would be doing more than this one panel, but I can only speculate on that.”
The FDA session, part of the annual educational conference of the Association of Food and Drug Officials, has been anticipated since at least last December, according to an earlier program draft, which lists it under a slightly different title.
FDA sent its rescheduling recommendation to DEA sometime prior to September 30 of last year, according to Justice Department letter to a member of Congress, as Marijuana.com first reported in December.
Patients in Canada can currently obtain medical cannabis through several licensed producers. There are also a number of unlicensed dispensaries throughout the country, which cities have recently stepped up efforts to crack down on.
Meanwhile, the country is moving to more broadly legalize marijuana for all adults, fulfilling a campaign pledge by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Officials have announced that they will soon impanel a task force to formulate regulations, with the government expected to introduce legalization legislation by next spring.
Photo Courtesy of Wollertz.
http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2016/06/fda-looks-to-canada-for-marijuana-regulation-advice/
FDA Looking to Canada to Learn More About Regulating Medical Marijuana
BY MIKE ADAMS · FRI JUN 03, 2016
While the United States government continues to try to convince the average citizen that marijuana is one of the most dangerous substances in the world, a smoke signal has been seen rising up over the horizon from Washington D.C. that could be an indication that Uncle Sam’s longtime opposition to cannabis may be on the verge of change.
It seems the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is looking to Canada in hopes of learning more about how to regulate a nationwide medical marijuana market. A recent report from Marijuana.com indicates the health agency has assigned a panel that will dissect the current marijuana policies in the northern nation later this month in order to get firm grip on the “regulatory framework for the regulation of marijuana for medicinal purposes,” including “information on the licensing process, compliance and enforcement and market statistics.”
Although no one really seems certain what the FDA’s newfound interest in medical marijuana actually means, there is speculation that it could be, in some way, connected to a rescheduling announcement that is slated to come from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) at the end of the month. Uncle Sam’s leading drug enforcers have said, from the beginning, that they would not consider downgrading the Schedule I classification of the cannabis plant until after the FDA has provided them with a recommendation to move forward. While the outcome of that recommendation remains unknown, it was delivered to the DEA in September of last year.
Drug policy experts seem to think the federal government’s willingness to take a closer look at another country’s medical marijuana policy, while its own suggests that cannabis “has no medicinal value,” could be a sign that total prohibition is now standing at the edge of a very steep cliff, patiently waiting for just the right time to plunge to its death.
“The fact that FDA is taking a close look at how the Canadian federal government legally regulates medical cannabis could be a sign that the Obama administration is preparing to announce a big change in policy soon,” Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, wrote in his analysis of the situation. “But it might also just be the agency doing its due diligence to begin preparing for changes that seem inevitable at some point in the near- to mid-term future.”
While this news could mean the U.S. government is seriously considering loosening its policies on marijuana, it appears the move would most likely result in the nationwide acceptance of medical marijuana rather than the total repeal of prohibition. The problem with this is if the DEA does decided to reschedule marijuana, this year, while the entire scope of the cannabis industry currently chiseling away at legalization on a state-by-state basis would not likely face a vicious uprising of control, it seems possible that once Big Pharma gets the green light to produce a vary of pot products (Schedule II supported by FDA-approval) medical marijuana programs all across the nation could be forced to change or die.
But nothing could be further from the truth, according to a recent report from the Brookings Institution.
“Rescheduling does not automatically create an FDA-approved marijuana pharmaceutical, and does not create any new penalties for state-level marijuana businesses,” the article reads. “State-legal businesses would operate in exactly the same gray area post-rescheduling as they do now.”
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The authors of the report – John Hudak and Grace Wallack – suggest that in the event of FDA-approved pharmaceutical cannabis products, those items would be distributed in drug stores, like CVS and Walgreens, all across the nation, while the dispensaries that traditional patients have come to rely on for the past couple of decades would still be permitted to sell medical marijuana under the guidelines of their respective state.
“Rescheduling won’t shut down dispensaries nationwide, threaten the existing marijuana industry’s dynamics, nor create challenges for patient access,” the report reads. “In fact, while rescheduling will be seen by many in the reform community and among scientific researchers as a resounding victory, the reality is that, day to day, most people will never notice the difference.”
http://www.hightimes.com/read/fda-looking-canada-learn-more-about-regulating-medical-marijuana
Credibility
You have credibility when you seem totally trustworthy or believable. You lose it when you start lying, cheating and acting rather shady.
Credibility is a noun that speaks to plausibility or believableness, so the star witness at your trial or the person writing your recommendation letter should certainly have it. Be careful though, because someone with credibility isn't necessarily telling the truth. As any con man or politician can tell you, credibility can easily come from nothing more than a confident smile.
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/credibility
NFL player donates $80K for MMJ Research to help injured players
Baltimore Ravens' Eugene Monroe Donates $80K to Medical Marijuana Research
By Kristen Gwynne · Fri May 13, 2016
Baltimore Ravens’ Eugene Monroe has donated $80,000 to researchers studying the potential medical benefits of “cannabinoid products” for NFL players, CSN reports. The money backs a “When the Bright Lights Fade” fundraising campaign for University of Pennsylvania and John Hopkins University School of Medicine research into whether cannabinoids like CBD can help treat sports-related injuries including pain, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).
“What we are looking at is a first stab at documenting cannabis use among current and former players, including the types of cannabis being used,” said University of Pennsylvania's Marcel Bonn-Miller, co-lead investigator on the studies told the International Business Times. “We are also going to document the impacts of cannabis use on players' recovery from injury. We know NFL players get banged up a bit, from concussions to chronic pain to inflammation. There is mounting evidence that certain cannabinoids, like cannabidiol, might have some beneficial effects for these conditions.”
Monroe, who has advocated for the NFL to loosen its policies banning marijuana for medical use, says he is the first active NFL player to speak publicly on the topic. On his website, Monroe calls for the NFL to change its policy banning marijuana, even for medical use, writing “It’s time for the NFL to change its archaic standards to better protect its players and set an example for our young athletes (high school athletes are more commonly using drugs than their peers and football players are most likely to use drugs). For too long, I’ve watched my teammates and good friends battle with opioid addiction and leave the game with a long road still ahead; it’s time to make a change.”
“Due to the NFL’s strict anti-cannabis policies, it’s difficult for current players to speak in support of the plant and its potential therapeutic uses,” a press release form The Realm of Caring (a non-profit that advocates for medical marijuana therapy and research) and CW Botanicals (the group behind the famous CBD-rich "Charlotte's Web" strain) reportedly said. “[Monroe] recognizes the benefits of cannabidiol (CBD) for pain management and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and fully supports this research that could help professional and amateur athletes as well as anyone suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. Eugene hopes that his actions will influence the NFL in changing their policy on cannabis and recognize it as a viable treatment option.”
In March, Monroe tweeted that he would be making a donation to the When Bright Lights Fade initiative, writing that, “if 100 players gave 1,000 for research. Or 200 gave 500, We can get Realm of Carings initiative in conjunction with John Hopkins U started.”
Monroe's support comes amid heightened awareness of the adverse health risks of professional football and the potential benefits of medical marijuana in treating symptoms related to injuries. In April, 30 former NFL players joined an effort to study medical marijuana's effect on the physical and mental stress of retired athletes.
http://www.hightimes.com/read/baltimore-ravens-eugene-monroe-donates-80k-medical-marijuana-research