It sounds like a plot we’ve heard before: An unassuming high school teacher built a massive drug empire while eluding the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Except this isn’t the plot to “Breaking Bad.” It’s a real-life crime story out of Buffalo, New York.
Michael Masecchia was an English teacher at Grover Cleveland High School, a father of two, and a football, softball, and soccer coach. He worked in the public school system for more than 30 years. In August 2019, he was arrested – to the surprise of the community.
The Daily Beast <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-michael-masecchia-a-buffalo-high-school-teacher-with-mob-ties-allegedly-bribed-a-dea-agent">reported</a> that Masecchia was arrested “on federal drug charges—after authorities raided his two-story Williamsville home to find a large cache of guns, several homemade explosives, and drugs.” Masecchia, the Beast reported, “was accused of growing and selling marijuana for more than 20 years.”
U.S. Attorney James Kennedy, Jr. announced the charges during an August 29, 2019 press conference, saying, “When one is involved in drug trafficking and has a cache of weapons at their ready access including explosive devices—certainly if I’m a parent, I don’t want my kid to be taught by that person.” He then added that the charges against Masecchia were “part of a much larger and ongoing organized crime and public corruption investigation, so stay tuned.”
Flash forward to last week, when the Buffalo community Masecchia called home finally learned what Kennedy meant. Masecchia, the Beast reported, was allegedly working with the mafia and bribed a DEA agent to look the other way while he built his drug empire.
“In a twist worthy of The Sopranos, prosecutors allege former DEA Agent Joseph Bongiovanni blocked several investigations into Masecchia, provided him with information on drug investigations and cooperating sources—and even at times using and selling cocaine—after receiving at least $250,000 in bribes,” the Beast reported.
A <a href="https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&amp;jsonp=vglnk_159336318274213&amp;key=b106209c81edb797b7a7b374fa254731&amp;libId=kbz9fyzy0101k4gp000DA22787sht&amp;loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fhow-michael-masecchia-a-buffalo-high-school-teacher-with-mob-ties-allegedly-bribed-a-dea-agent&amp;v=1&amp;out=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.documentcloud.org%2Fdocuments%2F6953827%2FUSA-v-Bongiovanni-NEW-Indictment.pdf&amp;ref=https%3A%2F%2Ffeedly.com%2Fi%2Fentry%2FZOqkVHSLZOC9Lu12%2FFVYoJMvRzDe7zCYvJ91pXfSyMY%3D_172fab4a2a8%3A700cf6%3A893158ab&amp;title=How%20Michael%20Masecchia%2C%20a%20Buffalo%20High%20School%20Teacher%20With%20Mob%20Ties%2C%20Allegedly%20Bribed%20a%20DEA%20Agent&amp;txt=37-page%20indictment">37-page indictment</a> filed earlier this month explained that “Masecchia had been a target or subject of several DEA cases during&#8230; Bongiovanni’s venture as a DEA special agent,” but that the teacher was “never arrested or charged in any DEA cases or investigations.”
Bongiovanni was charged last November with accepting bribes to ignore organized crime activity. As the Beast reported, the filing earlier this month was the first he was linked to Masecchia.
The men were allegedly connected to La Cosa Nostra, a Sicilian Mafia that has operated in the U.S. for the past century.
Masecchia’s attorney, Terrence M. Connors, told the Beast that his client “is not now nor has he ever been, as the government alleges, a member of ‘Italian Organized Crime’ if, in fact, that designation even exists.”
Bongiovanni’s attorney <a href="https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&amp;jsonp=vglnk_159336344152716&amp;key=b106209c81edb797b7a7b374fa254731&amp;libId=kbz9fyzy0101k4gp000DA22787sht&amp;loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fhow-michael-masecchia-a-buffalo-high-school-teacher-with-mob-ties-allegedly-bribed-a-dea-agent&amp;v=1&amp;out=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wkbw.com%2Fnews%2Flocal-news%2Findictment-links-alleged-drug-dealer-dea-agent-accused-of-taking-bribes&amp;ref=https%3A%2F%2Ffeedly.com%2Fi%2Fentry%2FZOqkVHSLZOC9Lu12%2FFVYoJMvRzDe7zCYvJ91pXfSyMY%3D_172fab4a2a8%3A700cf6%3A893158ab&amp;title=How%20Michael%20Masecchia%2C%20a%20Buffalo%20High%20School%20Teacher%20With%20Mob%20Ties%2C%20Allegedly%20Bribed%20a%20DEA%20Agent&amp;txt=told%20WHBW">told</a> WHBW that the latest indictment “doesn’t change much as far as we’re concerned,” and that his client “still professes his innocence and we look forward to defending him at trial.”
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Marijuana cultivation

High School Teacher Worked With Mafia, Bribed DEA For Decades In Drug Trafficking Scheme

Crime

Drugs

Mafia

Marijuana

New York

Socialist Bernie Sanders, the front runner in the race for the Democratic nomination for president, said on Tuesday night that he wants to help minorities start businesses to sell drugs.
&#8220;And I&#8217;ll tell you what else we&#8217;re going to do, we&#8217;re going to provide help to the African-American, Latino, Native American community to start businesses to sell legal marijuana rather than let a few corporations control the legalized marijuana market,&#8221; Sanders said.
WATCH:
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Socialist Bernie Sanders says he wants to help minorities start businesses to sell drugs <a href="https://t.co/C4dVQ3lCAH">pic.twitter.com/C4dVQ3lCAH</a>
&mdash; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1232514755199262722?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-bernie-sanders-stand-issues-heres-josh-hammer">highlighted</a> Bernie Sanders&#8217; stances on key policy issues in an in-depth profile piece last year:
On The Issues: Sanders calls himself a <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-socialism-_b_7210120">“democratic socialist”</a> who, while <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/bernie-sanders-makes-his-pitch-for-socialism/416913/">disavowing</a> whole-hearted socialist theory with respect to government ownership of the means of production, nonetheless has consistently advocated for economic class warfare that pits the lower and middle classes against the wealthy. He has routinely supported anti-capitalistic and anti-growth economic policies, heavy-handed government regulation over the private economy, robust labor unions, and the Nordic model of a sprawling welfare state. On foreign policy, he has frequently mollycoddled communist dictatorships and has often been hostile toward America’s closest geopolitical allies. Overall, he is a far-left progressive who has long defined the leftward flank of what it means to be a progressive in America.
Constitution: Sanders supports a “living Constitution” interpretive methodology that effectively empowers unelected federal judges to determine large swaths of the laws that govern Americans’ lives. He is hostile to the First Amendment’s protection of free speech and has supported a constitutional amendment to overturn the political speech-affirming 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Citizens United v. F.E.C. He has generally supported a more robust role for Congress and a more diminished role for the presidency in the context of foreign policy and the conduct of overseas military operations. He takes an expansive view of the Fourth Amendment and has even praised disgruntled NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
Economy: Sanders holds far-left views on economics that place him barely, if at all, to the right of an authentic European-style socialist. He supports punitive taxation and massive redistribution to mollify the purported scourge of wealth and income inequality in America. He has consistently supported substantial tax hikes on income, capital gains, and estates alike. Sanders supports substantial regulation of the financial services sector and large-scale government spending on infrastructure programs. He has generally opposed free trade due to reasons of labor protectionism. He has been critical of the Federal Reserve for allegedly empowering the wealthy. Sanders supports increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15. He has taken a heavy-handed view of antitrust enforcement.
Health Care: Sanders is a longtime support of single-payer socialized medicine, and in many ways is the intellectual progenitor for the current Democratic Party candidate trend of favoring “Medicare for All.” He has often been critical of Obamacare for not going far enough with respect to health care coverage for all uncovered Americans. Sanders has never indicated any willingness to structurally reform fiscally ruinous health care-related entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Immigration: Although Sanders once was sympathetic to restrictive immigration measures due to reasons of labor protectionism, he has emerged over the past decade as a reliable vote in favor of pro-amnesty, pro-illegal immigration policies. He supports a pathway to citizenship for large swaths of illegal aliens. He has often been very critical of the Trump administration’s efforts at border security and immigration law enforcement.
Foreign Policy: Sanders has consistently opposed an aggressive overseas posture for U.S. foreign policy, and has routinely opposed large-scale U.S. military deployments overseas. He has been skeptical of or outright opposed to U.S. foreign policy missions against a wide variety of hostile actors — both state and non-state actors — across the Middle East. Sanders has long been deeply sympathetic toward communist Cuba — including the open <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/politics/heres-the-full-1985-interview-where-bernie-sanders-praised-castro-slammed-reagan-and-more/">praising of Fidel Castro</a> — and applauded the Obama administration’s efforts at détente with Cuba. He supported President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal and has usually been more sympathetic to the Iranians and the Palestinian-Arabs than he has been to the Saudis and Israelis, respectively. He supports a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has often been very hostile to Israel’s defensive measures against the radical Islamic terrorism that engulfs the Jewish state on all sides. While running for president in 2016, Sanders <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-Jewish-group-slams-Bernie-Sanders-for-misstatements-on-2014-Gaza-war-450507">cited a blatantly false number</a> of Palestinian-Arab deaths that had allegedly resulted from the 2014 Gaza Strip war between the two sides.
Abortion: Sanders is fully pro-abortion, has never voted in favor of any piece of legislation that would restrict abortion, and has recently refused to identify any piece of legislation that he might support that would restrict abortion in any conceivable way. He supports <a href="https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1136285225632370688">ending the Hyde Amendment</a>, which has historically banned taxpayer funding of abortion, and has vowed to never nominate anyone to the U.S. Supreme Court who is not adamantly in favor of Roe v. Wade.
Guns: Although Sanders’ tenure in the House was marked by his opposition to various gun control measures, his tenure in the Senate has been marked by consistent support for gun control policies. Sanders supports a federal ban on “assault weapons,” supports “universal background checks” (i.e., background checks even for private firearms transfers), and has often criticized Republicans’ purported fealty to the National Rifle Association. Sanders supports a ban on the undefinable sub-class of firearms referred to as so-called “assault weapons” — a line of thought that, if taken to its logical conclusion, could <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42837/hammer-kamala-harriss-flirtation-banning-all-semi-josh-hammer">lead to the banning of all semi-automatic firearms in America</a>.

Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate In Charleston Ahead Of SC Primary

Bernie: We’re Going To Help Minorities Start Businesses To Sell Drugs

2020 Election

Bernie Sanders

Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, a Democrat who is up for re-election on March 3, recently expunged nearly 66,000 marijuana convictions, in part, to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-13/la-district-attorney-clear-marijuana-convictions">correct</a> historical inequities she says have negatively affected black and brown families.
Lacey, a two-term incumbent, announced the move last Thursday along with officials from a non-profit tech company called Code for America. The D.A.’s office partnered with the group last year to create a computer algorithm that would identify convictions eligible for dismissal under Proposition 64 – the 2016 referendum that legalized the recreational use of pot in California.
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When Prop. 64 passed, voters asked CA prosecutors to review/reduce felony convictions for the cultivation, sales, transport &amp; possession for sale of cannabis to misdemeanors. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LADAOffice?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LADAOffice</a> went beyond that call &amp; asked the court to dismiss all eligible cannabis-related convictions. <a href="https://t.co/jm3YSPcTOn">pic.twitter.com/jm3YSPcTOn</a>
&mdash; Jackie Lacey (@LADAOffice) <a href="https://twitter.com/LADAOffice/status/1228020490133889024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Code for America’s “Clear My Record” <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48072164">tool</a> is designed to analyze the text in court documents, helping to alleviate the lengthy bureaucratic process of manually reviewing criminal records to determine which convictions are eligible to be cleared. The technology saves time, resources, and money, with the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-13/la-district-attorney-clear-marijuana-convictions">ability</a> to scan the files of thousands of people in a matter of seconds, a company official said. It <a href="http://da.lacounty.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/CODEFORAMERICAPDF.pdf">allows</a> a D.A.’s office to dismiss or resentence convictions proactively and automatically.
“The dismissal of tens of thousands of old cannabis-related convictions in Los Angeles County will bring much-needed relief to communities of color that disproportionately suffered the unjust consequences of our nation’s drug laws,” D.A. Lacey said. “I am privileged to be part of a system dedicated to finding innovative solutions and implementing meaningful criminal justice reform that gives all people the support they need to build the life they deserve.”
Last Tuesday, an L.A. Superior Court judge granted Lacey’s request to clear 62,000 cannabis felony convictions dating back to 1961. Prosecutors also sought the dismissal of approximately 4,000 misdemeanor possession cases in several L.A. County cities, including L.A., Pasadena, Inglewood, and Santa Monica.
<a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-13/la-district-attorney-clear-marijuana-convictions">According</a> to the L.A. Times, “that means 22,000 people no longer have felonies on their record in California, and 15,000 no longer have a criminal record at all.”  A total of 53,000 people were deemed eligible to have their pre-legalization pot convictions erased, of which 77% are Latino or black.
Lacey’s detractors, such as the L.A. chapter of Black Lives Matter, questioned the timing of the dismissals, <a href="https://twitter.com/blmla/status/1228409912327200769">speculating</a> she took action now “because she’s about to be voted out of office.”
Former San Francisco D.A. George Gascón, another Democrat who has emerged as Lacey’s most formidable challenger in next month’s election, <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeGascon/status/1228061688814899200">noted</a> her decision comes “prior to state law forcing her hand,” referencing a July 1 <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-13/la-district-attorney-clear-marijuana-convictions">deadline</a> for California prosecutors to dismiss eligible marijuana-related convictions.
Gascón, who established a reputation as one of the nation’s most progressive prosecutors while serving in S.F., was the first D.A. in the state to partner with Code for America, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48072164">enlisting</a> the group’s services in 2018. He helped <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-francisco-marijuana-20180514-story.html">create</a> a program that his campaign spokesman says has been duplicated in L.A. County.
“For years, and in spite of legalization, individuals were denied employment and housing opportunities because of old marijuana convictions,” Gascón <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeGascon/status/1228061688814899200">said</a> in a statement. “Lack of access to a job and housing are primary factors that drive recidivism, and that’s why I took this action two years ago; it enhanced community safety and equity. That’s also why it sparked a national movement.”
The S.F. District Attorney’s Office became the first to complete the automated marijuana record clearance process, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/02/26/698045482/san-francisco-to-expunge-thousands-of-marijuana-convictions">announcing</a> last February it had automatically cleared 8,132 felony and misdemeanor convictions. At the time, then-D.A. Gascón <a href="https://www.sfdistrictattorney.org/district-attorney-george-gasc%C3%B3n-and-code-america-complete-first-its-kind-automatic-record-clearance">called on</a> other prosecutors to “address the inherent unfairness of penalizing people for activity that is no longer illegal.”
Lacey <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-county-marijuana-convictions-20190401-story.html">announced</a> a partnership with Code for America five weeks later, in April.
Former public defender Rachel Rossi is also in the D.A. race, which L.A. County residents could decide on Super Tuesday when California holds its presidential primary. If none of the candidates receive more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will compete in a November runoff.
D.A. Lacey has been endorsed by police unions, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, and U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff.
The L.A. County Democratic Party, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters are backing Mr. Gascón.
L.A. County is home to the nation’s largest local prosecutors office, along with the world’s biggest jail system.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lapd-union-accused-of-racism-after-releasing-ad-targeting-latino-d-a-candidate">RELATED:LAPD Union Accused of ‘Racism’ After Releasing Ad Targeting Latino D.A. Candidate</a> 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wife-of-netflix-ceo-pumps-1-million-into-l-a-county-d-a-race">RELATED: Wife Of Netflix CEO Pumps $1 Million Into L.A. County D.A. Race</a>
Follow Jeffrey Cawood on Twitter<a href="https://twitter.com/jeffreycawood">@JeffreyCawood</a>.
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19th Annual Slavery To Freedom Gala &#8211; Arrivals

As Election Nears, Los Angeles County D.A. Dismisses 66,000 Pot Convictions

Los Angeles

Twitter is going wild for one pot-smoking couple who named their daughters after two marijuana plants – SaTiva and Indica.
On Thursday, Twitter user Freed Lee posted that his brother and partner had chosen marijuana-themed names for their children. The post has since earned 18k retweets and 95k likes, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/couple-names-daughters-weed">Fox News</a>.
&#8220;UPDATE: My brother is excited to announce the birth of his 2nd daughter! …and before you ask, yes, her name is exactly what you think it is,&#8221; Lee wrote.
The uncle included a tweet from October 2018 announcing the birth of his first niece named SaTiva, a play on the Sativa plant, known for its &#8220;head high&#8221; as opposed to the &#8220;body high&#8221; associated with the indica plant.
“My first niece is named SaTiva…I just…” he posted.
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UPDATE: My brother is excited to announce the birth of his 2nd daughter!
&#8230;.and before you ask, yes, her name is exactly what you think it is. 😭 <a href="https://t.co/gjeND7xijL">https://t.co/gjeND7xijL</a>
&mdash; sincerely yours. (@iFredLee) <a href="https://twitter.com/iFredLee/status/1227053768858009601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Twitter users were enthusiastic over the announcement, praising the pot-smoking couple for giving their daughters such &#8220;beautiful&#8221; names.
&#8220;Weed is a beautiful thing after all. Congrats to the new addition to your family and a beautiful healthy baby girl,&#8221; commented one user.
&#8220;That&#8217;s amazing,&#8221; commented another user. &#8220;I met a girl called Indica a while ago and it actually suited her really well! It was only later that I thought &#8216;hang on a sec&#8230; Indica?'&#8221;
&#8220;Call me crazy but those are beautiful names,&#8221; commented another
Others were a bit more cautious, fearing that the children could be subject to ridicule.
&#8220;So as not to be mistaken for being hateful, I say only this; before naming a child parents should give thought to how that name will affect the child later in life. Take, for instance, the parents who named their child Adolf Hitler. A name is a gift from the parents&#8230;&#8221; said one Twitter user.
&#8220;This is cute but kids are cruel. The kids named Margarita and Champagne definitely got bullied and teased when I was growing up. I&#8217;d be scared to put mine out there like that. But I&#8217;m sure as adults their names will stand out,&#8221; said another.
While cannabis enthusiasts assert that weed is harmless, according to a recent study, the legalization of marijuana in Colorado has led to an increase in emergency room visits.
“Recreational cannabis went on sale in 2014 and it has led to an increase in emergency department visits, according to a new study,” reported <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/25/health/edible-cannabis-emergency-visit-study/index.html">CNN in 2019.</a> “Although inhaled cannabis leads to more visits overall, new research says, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/faqs/edibles.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">edibles</a> — foods containing cannabis extract — account for more visits for psychiatric and cardiovascular symptoms.”
Colorado legalized cannabis for recreational use in 2014 after allowing it for medicinal purposes in 2009. Between 2012 and 2016, UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital saw a “threefold increase” in ER visits related to cannabis use — 9,973 cases. Dr. Andrew A. Monte, an emergency medicine physician at the hospital, said the research stemmed from his colleagues witnessing a high number of cannabis-related visits without any data to back up the spotted pattern.
Colorado is one of <a href="https://www.governing.com/gov-data/safety-justice/state-marijuana-laws-map-medical-recreational.html">many states</a> increasingly embracing marijuana. Since California legalized marijuana in 2017, the move to make a social scene out of the recreational drug has been ongoing in certain parts of the state, primarily in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
The marijuana industry has also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/26066/marijuana-industry-stop-using-word-pot-because-it-paul-bois">launched a campaign of political correctness</a> to clear up the stigma associated with the drug, advising people to stop using the word “pot” because it’s an offensive term. According to <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-marijuana/2018/01/17/marijuana-industry-gets-blunt-stop-using-the-word-pot/">Anchorage Daily News</a>, the marijuana industry has grown very self-conscious of the stereotypical image of “the stoner” and wants to clean up the stigma.
“Marijuana still carries a stigma that surfaces with the use of old slang like pot and weed,” reported ADN in 2018. “For many, the words evoke an image of lazy, not-so-bright people who puff their lives away.”
The industry wishes people would start using the more scientifically-minded name “cannabis” instead.

Daily Life In Krakow, Poland

Pot-Smoking Parents Name Children After Marijuana Plants. Internet Applauds It.

People lined up for hours and paid outrageous taxes on cannabis products on the first day of legal weed in the state of Illinois.
The state&#8217;s lieutenant governor was among the first people to purchase legal, recreational cannabis products in Illinois, beating crowds that lined up as early as 2am on the morning of January 1, 2020.
Illinois is now the tenth state to allow for recreational cannabis sales. &#8220;[A]dults 21 and older [can] visit licensed dealers and buy up to 30 grams of flower, 5 grams of concentrate or 500 milligrams of infused products such as edibles,&#8221; the Chicago Tribune reports.
<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/marijuana/illinois/ct-legal-weed-first-day-recreational-sales-20200101-fhtdvp4j6naphff6jmnnh6fkqy-story.html">According to the Tribune</a>, as well, the first day of recreational cannabis sales went off (mostly) without a hitch: &#8220;The mood was festive Wednesday as customers queued up — some overnight — to buy cannabis flower, gummies, chocolates and other products from the Chicago-area dispensaries among 37 state-sanctioned stores in Illinois that were ready to open. There were foreseen hiccups as the stores started selling a substance generally barred since the 1930s, but no serious incidents were reported as of late afternoon in the crowds that huddled on sidewalks and in parking lots on a bright, relatively temperate New Year’s Day.&#8221;
The state is taking incremental steps in pursuit of full legalization. There are only a few dozen recreational cannabis retailers in the state, and the vast majority of those retailers were licensed under a previous law legalizing medicinal marijuana. The state is still exploring the possibility of expanding the number of retailer licenses available, and many Illinois cities are struggling with whether to allow sales within city limits. Chicago, the state&#8217;s largest city, allows recreational cannabis sales, but most of the surrounding suburban cities have opted out.
Ahead of Wednesday&#8217;s recreational marijuana sales, the state&#8217;s governor, Democrat J.B. Pritzker, issued pardons to around 11,000 Illinoisans convicted of possessing small amounts of marijuana.
But if Illinoisans are excited about the possibility of consuming marijuana products legally, they were quickly brought back to earth by the actual price of legal weed. Retailers across the city of Chicago report an average price of between $13 and $18 for a single, pre-rolled joint. Raw products can run you up to $60 per gram &#8212; and that&#8217;s not including Illinois&#8217; hefty 33% cannabis tax.
<a href="https://reason.com/2019/12/27/marijuana-edible-buyers-in-illinois-will-pay-more-than-twice-the-taxes-charged-in-michigan/">Reason Magazine</a> reports that recreational pot users in Illinois will be paying what amounts to a luxury tax for their products. The state &#8220;will be <a href="https://www.civicfed.org/iifs/blog/how-will-illinois-tax-recreational-cannabis">collecting</a> a 7 percent tax from growers and various excise taxes (10 percent on buds, 20 percent on infused products, and 25 percent on products containing more than 35 percent THC) in addition to the general state sales tax of 6.25 percent and local sales taxes as high as 4.75 percent. The combined sales tax in Chicago is 10.25 percent, making the total retail levy there more than 30 percent for edibles, in addition to the impact of the cultivation tax.&#8221;
And that&#8217;s just the tax on consumers. Cannabis retailers will face their own &#8220;occupancy&#8221; tax hike of at least 3% in Cook County.
Shocked purchasers posted photos of their incredible (but unverified) receipts on social media. In some cases, users paid up to $300 for a few grams of legal cannabis.
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PSA ~ The tax on cannabis in IL is hefty.
It’s based on being over or under 35% THC
Tax is either 20% or 25%
Trinity in Peoria charged $60 per g of hash which had $15 of tax on it.
The black market will continue to thrive if they gouge the price of the goods &amp; the tax rates. <a href="https://t.co/DUdRjnkTqI">pic.twitter.com/DUdRjnkTqI</a>
&mdash; Easy Going Plant Based (@JoEzIcH) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoEzIcH/status/1212518866468913152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 1, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Someone&#39;s Cannabis purchase. Well there you have it folks&#8230; Taxes Taxes Taxes, the very reason 150,000 citizens left Illinois last year. <a href="https://t.co/mHU7GqVU7m">pic.twitter.com/mHU7GqVU7m</a>
&mdash; Ms. Ezell (@ms_ezell) <a href="https://twitter.com/ms_ezell/status/1212501054388092928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 1, 2020</a></blockquote>
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That&#8217;s not great for users but could be very good for the state, which is still billions in the red and nearing complete bankruptcy.
&nbsp;

Cannabis

People Line Up For Hours, Pay Nearly 33% Tax On First Day Of Legal Cannabis Sales In Illinois

Get ready for a host of new laws across the country coming this year – some good, some stupid. Of course, even the good ones will have downsides and unforeseen consequences, but for now we’ll just talk about what the laws are supposed to do.
CNN <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/01/01/us/new-laws-coming-in-2020-trnd/index.html">rounded up</a> the most interesting laws coming to the country in the coming month, including 72 jurisdictions that are increasing minimum wage despite the numerous studies that show people end up getting their hours cut or lose their jobs entirely when wages are increased by force. Cities that have increased minimum wage have seen businesses close and people lose their jobs.
“Twenty-one states and 26 cities and counties, mostly in California, will raise the minimum wage on New Year&#8217;s Day. In 17 of those jurisdictions, the new rate will reach or exceed $15 an hour,” CNN reported. “Four more states and 23 more cities and counties will join later in the year, with 15 of them raising wages to $15 an hour or more. Illinois and St. Paul, Minnesota, will raise their minimum wages twice in 2020.”
Here are some of the other new laws coming this year:
More Data Privacy
Or so we’re promised. The California Consumer Privacy Act claims it will allow residents in the Golden State “to demand that companies disclose what data they have collected on them,” CNN reported. “And if users want that data deleted, companies will have to comply.”
Middle Schooler Booster Seats
Washington State has decided that while your kid can come to school without being vaccinated, it is too unsafe for them to travel without a booster seat – even if they’ve started middle school. A new law requires children under 4’9” to use booster seats until they turn 13. Trying to be cool in middle school was already hard enough!
Cyclists Will Be Able To Legally Flout Common Sense
Cyclists in Oregon will be allowed to just blow through stop signs instead of stopping at them like cars and sane people do. The law will let cyclists “treat stop signs and blinking red lights as yields,” CNN reported, and merely slow down instead of stopping. Sounds totally safe.
No Texting While Driving
Florida and Massachusetts will start issuing tickets to drivers who text and drive. You’ll get a $30 ticket for a non-moving violation (sending a text while stopped at a red light) and $60 for a moving violation.
Hair Freedom
Employers and schools in California will no longer be able to ban common African-American hairstyles like braids, afros, twists, and locks as part of their dress codes.
It’s amazing that it took until 2020 for these hairstyles to be allowed.
Plastic Bag Bans
Oregon and Albuquerque, New Mexico, will ban plastic bags at grocery stores. People will either have to pay for paper bags or bring their own filthy reusable bag from home. The problem with reusable bags is that people don’t clean them often enough, meaning germs from homes are being brought into the grocery store and festering in uncleaned cloth. So healthy.
Illinois Pot
Weed will be legal in the Prairie State for people 21 and over.
“Under the law, Illinois residents will be able to purchase and possess 30 grams of cannabis, five grams of cannabis concentrate and cannbis-infused products containing no more than 500 milligrams of THC. People who don&#8217;t live in Illinois can buy half of each of those amounts,” CNN reported. “Medical patients can buy marijuana seeds and grow up to five plants at home, as long as the plants are kept out of public view. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/31/us/illinois-governor-marijuana-conviction-pardons/index.html">The law also pardons individuals </a>with nonviolent convictions for amounts of cannabis up to 30 grams.”
Expanded Sexual Abuse Laws
California and Illinois are extending the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims, meaning someone can wait until someone is famous or successful to bring decades old allegations that are nearly impossible to prove and destroy someone’s life.
Gun Laws
Colorado is restricting gun rights by enacting dangerous “red flag” laws that are ripe for abuse. Family and friends can claim someone is unstable and have that person’s guns taken away from them without that person being able to defend themselves in court.
Tennessee, on the other hand, is going to make it easy for people to obtain a concealed carry handgun permit.

Minimum wage strike

New 2020 Laws Increase Minimum Wage, Let Cyclists Ignore Stop Signs, Keep Pre-Teens In Booster Seats

Minimum Wage

Evanston, Illinois, a wealthy suburb of Chicago and home to Northwestern University, recently voted to allow legal cannabis dispensaries to open within the city limits, but instead of collecting on the profits, Evanston will put the money cannabis dispensaries eventually pay the city into a fund that will disperse reparations to the city&#8217;s black residents.
<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/evanston/ct-evr-evanston-reparations-marijuana-tax-tl-1205-20191126-g3ifwaikrjfmrillfv6ytvwgii-story.html">The Chicago Tribune reports</a> that Evanston is hoping the measure will halt gentrification and keep the city &#8220;diverse,&#8221; though the city council did not go so far as to admit that the program could, essentially, pay minority residents to stay within the city limits. Instead, the city council claims that it merely wants to rectify past wrongs using a new, controversial source of city revenue.
&#8220;Evanston leaders say they see the dispensaries as an opportunity to pay for a local reparations program that would address the lingering institutional effects of slavery and discrimination,&#8221; the Tribune says.
&#8220;The tax on marijuana will &#8216;be invested in the community it unfairly policed and damaged,'&#8221; according to one supporter of the measure. &#8220;The plan stems from the idea that African Americans should disproportionately benefit from the sale of cannabis &#8230; because they have been disproportionately affected by the policing of marijuana — both nationally and locally.&#8221;
Evanston is no exception. The Tribune says that &#8220;three-quarters&#8221; of marijuana-related arrests in Evanston were of minorities.
The city, which has a reputation as a haven for so-called &#8220;limousine liberals,&#8221; isn&#8217;t new to the idea of reparations, though, just this particular program.
<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/evanston/ct-evr-evanston-local-reperations-study-tl-0919-20190913-tojzvl4idndjlarufzyaxiqwmi-story.html">The Tribune reported last year that Evanston convened a committee</a> to investigate the possibility of starting a reparations program after the city&#8217;s black population dropped, partly due to ongoing gentrification efforts and an ever-expanding Big Ten university in the city&#8217;s center. The Equity and Empowerment Commission came up with the plan to issue reparations before they came up with a source of funding for the program. Luckily for them, Illinois legalized recreational marijuana last summer; the two puzzle pieces fit neatly.
It&#8217;s especially convenient because the issue of dispensaries is deeply dividing suburban Chicagoans who were supportive of legalization but who have not been quite so supportive of cannabis dispensaries in their midst. Several suburbs have already voted to ban dispensaries within city limits and it&#8217;s possible Evanston would have been among them if not for the added detail of reparations.
But while they may know what they want to do with the money, Evanston officials don&#8217;t yet know how to make a reparations program happen. Evanston won&#8217;t be simply sending checks to the city&#8217;s black residents because, it seems, they&#8217;re concerned with what individuals might do with the money. In a paternalistic move, Evanston will instead &#8220;provide reparations in the form of assistance&#8221; by shuttling the money into a &#8220;fund&#8221; that they will use to support various &#8220;community programs&#8221; designed to help minorities, even if that&#8217;s not exactly what minorities who live in Evanston need.
&#8220;A committee of residents is currently examining ways to spend the money and how to best support the black community through housing, education and economic incentives. The fund will be capped at $10 million, according to city of Evanston staff reports. City estimates project the marijuana tax could generate $500,000 to $750,000 per year,&#8221; according to the Tribune.
There&#8217;s one big problem with Evanston&#8217;s plan, though: it&#8217;s not clear that the Constitution allows for money, gathered through taxation, to be put to use benefitting only a single race.

Cannabis Shop

Chicago Suburb Votes To Use Profits From Legal Pot Sales To Fund Reparations For Slavery

Chicago

Reparations

Former Vice President Joe Biden has been receiving widespread blowback from his Democratic primary rivals since voicing his support for a federal ban on recreational marijuana.
While speaking at a town hall event on Saturday, Biden said that while he believes that states &#8220;should be able to make a judgment to legalize marijuana&#8221; and even supports the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, his opposition to recreational marijuana use &#8220;hasn&#8217;t changed.&#8221;
&#8220;The truth of the matter is, there&#8217;s not nearly been enough evidence that has been acquired as to whether or not it is a gateway drug. It&#8217;s a debate, and I want a lot more before I legalize it nationally,&#8221; Biden told a crowd of his supporters. &#8220;I want to make sure we know a lot more about the science behind it.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s not irrational to do more scientific investigations to determine, which we have not done significantly enough, whether or not there are any things that relate to whether it&#8217;s a gateway drug or not,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know enough to know whether it is.&#8221;
While the Democratic frontrunner is not the sole presidential hopeful calling to keep marijuana illegal under federal law, he has been receiving criticism from his primary challengers for the position.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who oversaw the prosecution of nearly 2,000 marijuana convictions while serving as San Francisco&#8217;s District Attorney, has recently flipped her stance on legalization of the drug and even joked about smoking while she was a student at Howard University.
&#8220;Let&#8217;s be clear: marijuana isn&#8217;t a gateway drug and should be legalized,&#8221; Harris responded to Biden. &#8220;Glad to see my bill with Rep. [Jerry] Nadler take the next step in the House this week.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Let&#39;s be clear: marijuana isn&#39;t a gateway drug and should be legalized. Glad to see my bill with Rep. Nadler take the next step in the House this week. <a href="https://t.co/d6BcMFlpYT">https://t.co/d6BcMFlpYT</a>
&mdash; Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1196473557833932803?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Accordingly, the California lawmaker <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/2227/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22marijuana%22%5D%7D&amp;r=32&amp;s=1">introduced legislation</a> into the Senate in July which would not only decriminalize and deschedule marijuana, but also provide for reinvestment into certain individuals who have been convicted of drug crimes.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a longtime advocate of marijuana legalization, also scolded Biden for his opposition.
&#8220;The American people are united on issue after issue,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;We must legalize marijuana now &#8212; and expunge all past marijuana convictions as a matter of racial and economic justice.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The American people are united on issue after issue. We must legalize marijuana now—and expunge all past marijuana convictions as a matter of racial and economic justice. <a href="https://t.co/NQjp7WOko3">https://t.co/NQjp7WOko3</a>
&mdash; Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1196196982425038848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Less than a month ago, the self-styled democratic socialist unveiled a sweeping proposal where he would use his executive power as president of the United States to both federally legalize the drug and expunge related criminal convictions. Sanders argues that the law disproportionately targets minorities and &#8220;ruined the lives of millions of Americans,&#8221; as reported by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bernie-sanders-offers-marijuana-legalization-plan/2019/10/24/c44a45ba-f5c4-11e9-ad8b-85e2aa00b5ce_story.html">The Washington Post</a>.
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang also echoed similar sentiments, calling to resolve the ambiguity and legalize marijuana at the federal level.
&#8220;Marijuana should be legal nationwide,&#8221; Yang said. &#8220;It is already legal in several states, it reflects a safer approach to pain relief than opiates, and our administration of drug laws is deeply uneven and racist.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Marijuana should be legal nationwide. It is already legal in several states, it reflects a safer approach to pain relief than opiates, and our administration of drug laws is deeply uneven and racist. <a href="https://t.co/0Uhl17MW98">https://t.co/0Uhl17MW98</a>
&mdash; Andrew Yang🧢 (@AndrewYang) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1196456686875099136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Yang has previously stated that legalization would not only improve safety and social equity, but would also generate tens of billions of dollars in new revenue based on legal cannabis businesses.

Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Files Paperwork For New Hampshire Primary

2020 Democrats Pounce After Joe Biden Pushes Back On Marijuana Legalization

Andrew Yang

Joe Biden

Kamala Harris

California is home to the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-14/californias-biggest-legal-marijuana-market">largest</a> legal marijuana market in the world, but consumers are almost three times more likely to purchase cannabis products from unlicensed dispensaries and delivery services in the state than regulated sellers, resulting in lost tax revenue and a thriving underground pot trade, <a href="https://ucba.com/2019/09/enforce-ab-97/">according</a> to an audit made public last week.
The study was conducted by the United Cannabis Business Association (UCBA), which describes itself as &#8220;the leading voice for legal cannabis&#8221; in the Golden State. The group has <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-11/california-marijuana-black-market-dwarfs-legal-pot-industry">criticized</a> elected officials and law enforcement for failing to shut down shops operating illegally. It claims many consumers are lured to unregulated stores via an online community forum called Weedmaps, where users can discuss the potency of various strains and find recreational and/or medical marijuana dispensaries in their area.
Among the UCBA&#8217;s findings:
An audit of Weedmaps’ platform this week showed a total of 3,757 active dispensaries or delivery services in California, only 922 of which have a potential license listed. This means, using Weedmaps, Californians are almost 3 times more likely to shop at an unlicensed retailer than a licensed one…
The unlicensed operators on Weedmaps do not pay taxes or the cost of compliance with local and state regulations, do not follow required worker or consumer protections and do not allow labor unions to organize workers, in turn allowing them to charge a fraction of the cost. Put simply, these retailers, that are allowed easy access to the public through Weedmaps, profit without contributing to California while risking the health and safety of our state’s residents.
The UCBA estimates there are even more illegal operators in the state than the data shows, noting that many unlicensed shops haven&#8217;t advertised on Weedmaps. <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-11/california-marijuana-black-market-dwarfs-legal-pot-industry">According</a> to the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC), there are just 873 licensed marijuana retailers in the state. Edibles, vaping products, and flower sold in those regulated establishments are subject to state testing, which <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-marijuana-year-anniversary-review-20181227-story.html">drives up costs</a>.
UCBA President Jerred Kiloh sent a <a href="https://ucba.com/2019/09/enforce-ab-97/">letter</a> to Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and the head of the BCC requesting officials &#8220;enforce laws that are already on the books to finally curb Weedmaps&#8217; advertisement of unlicensed retailers here and now.&#8221; The industry group called on authorities to retroactively fine the web platform for each violation posted on the site going back to July 1. Over the summer, Newsom <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-07-19/california-crackdown-illegal-pot-shops-marijuana">approved</a> penalties of up to $30,000 a day against illegal cannabis sellers.
Weedmaps <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190911005541/en/">insists</a> it recently implemented a &#8220;plan to support licensed operators&#8221; and stop non-regulated shops from advertising on the site by requiring a state license number and state identification. The website said it &#8220;is beginning to notify existing California-based advertisers that they must enter their state license number on their account.&#8221;
Chris Beals, CEO of Weedmaps, predicts &#8220;These policy changes will only have a symbolic impact on the size of California&#8217;s unlicensed market.&#8221;
&#8220;The only demonstrated solution to the size of the unlicensed market is for industry and government to come together to ensure sufficient numbers of licenses are issued,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190911005541/en/">added</a>. &#8220;We hope that monopolistic cannabis operators, as well as the lobbying organizations that represent them, will realize that their advocacy for limited license monopolies only hurts the diversity, size and strength of the licensed market.&#8221;
76% of California cities and 69% of its counties have <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-bill-requiring-cities-permit-pot-shops-20190528-story.html">banned</a> marijuana dispensaries, which some lawmakers say has contributed to the booming illicit market. The voter-approved referendum that permitted adults to possess and grow limited amounts of the drug for personal use also gave local jurisdictions the right to prohibit legal sales in their communities.
Industry officials <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-14/californias-biggest-legal-marijuana-market">project</a> $8.7 billion will be spent on unregulated cannabis merchandise in California this year, more than double the estimated $3.1 billion in legal sales.
In the last two years, the BCC has <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-07-19/california-crackdown-illegal-pot-shops-marijuana">seized</a> at least $30 million worth of marijuana products from unregulated sellers doing business in the state.
Follow Jeffrey Cawood on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffreycawood">@JeffreyCawood</a>.

cannabis

AUDIT: California Cannabis Users 3x More Likely To Visit Illegal Pot Shops Than Licensed Dispensaries

California

On Friday, businessman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang gave a speech in Concord, New Hampshire. During the speech, Yang stated that if elected president, he would &#8220;pardon everyone who is in jail for nonviolent marijuana-related offenses.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/andrew-yang-vows-to-mass-pardon-all-people-in-prison-for-nonviolent-marijuana-offenses">Fox News</a> reports that Yang also said: &#8220;Americans now recognize just how broken our mass incarceration system is and how much progress we need to make.&#8221;
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On Yang&#8217;s official <a href="https://www.yang2020.com/policies/legalization-of-marijuana/">website</a>, he makes his policy ideas on the legalization of marijuana abundantly clear:
<blockquote>Marijuana is still considered a controlled substance by federal law. Thousands are in jail for marijuana-related offenses, particularly people of color. Yet marijuana is now legal for adult use in 11 states and the District of Columbia, and 33 states have legalized medical marijuana in some form.
We need to resolve the ambiguity and legalize marijuana at the federal level. This would improve safety, social equity, and generate tens of billions of dollars in new revenue based on legal cannabis businesses.</blockquote>
His website further states:
<blockquote>As president, I will &#8230; Support the full legalization of marijuana at the federal level and remove it from the controlled substances list &#8230; Expunge the federal convictions of all marijuana-related use or possession offenses &#8230; Identify non-violent drug offenders for probation and potential early release.</blockquote>
Friday isn&#8217;t the first time Yang has spoken about such a proposal. In April, he stated at the National Action Network (NAN) conference that he plans to legalize marijuana, issue a pardon on April 20, 2021 to those in jail for nonviolent drug-based offenses (4/20 being a reference to weed culture), and give the newly freed individuals a &#8220;high-five &#8230; on the way out of jail.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AndrewYang</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NANconv2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NANconv2019</a>: &#8220;I would legalize marijuana and then I would pardon everyone who&#8217;s in jail for a nonviolent drug-related offense. I would pardon them on April 20, 2021 and I would high-five them on the way out of jail.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/wqELzL9TwO">pic.twitter.com/wqELzL9TwO</a>
— The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1113507708093718529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
While Andrew Yang has been struggling to connect with a larger audience, currently sitting at just 1.5% according to the <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html">RealClearPolitics</a> average of polls, he has an enthusiastic cult following. He was also the ninth candidate to qualify for the next set of Democratic debates in September by reaching the 130,000 unique donor requirement, as well as reaching &#8220;2% or more [support] in at least four separate polls released between June 28 and August 28 and conducted by approved pollsters,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/08/politics/andrew-yang-democratic-debate/index.html">CNN</a>.
Since the legalization of sales of recreational marijuana in Colorado, which began in 2014, the <a href="https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/revenue/colorado-marijuana-tax-data">taxes and fees</a> collected by the state have risen each year. As of July 2019, the state has collected approximately $1.069 billion in taxes and fees on the sale and distribution of marijuana.
According to the <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2019.html">Prison Policy Initiative</a> (PPI), &#8220;451,000 [people] are incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses on any given day,&#8221; approximately 198,000 of whom are in state prisons, 81,000 under the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and 118,000 not convicted in local jails.
The organization notes that in total, there are &#8220;2.3 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 109 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,163 local jails, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S.&#8221;
The Daily Wire reached out to Yang’s team for further comment regarding his position on drug legalization and low-level drug offenders, but as of publication, we have not received a reply.

Dem Candidate Yang: ‘Pardon Everyone Who Is In Jail For Nonviolent Marijuana-Related Offenses’

Democratic Party

While cannabis enthusiasts assert that weed is harmless, according to a new study, the legalization of marijuana in Colorado has led to an increase in emergency room visits.
&#8220;Recreational cannabis went on sale in 2014 and it has led to an increase in emergency department visits, according to a new study,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/25/health/edible-cannabis-emergency-visit-study/index.html">CNN</a>. &#8220;Although inhaled cannabis leads to more visits overall, new research says, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/faqs/edibles.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">edibles</a> &#8212; foods containing cannabis extract &#8212; account for more visits for psychiatric and cardiovascular symptoms.&#8221;
Colorado legalized cannabis for recreational use in 2014 after allowing it for medicinal purposes in 2009. Between 2012 and 2016, UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital saw a &#8220;threefold increase&#8221; in ER visits related to cannabis use &#8212; 9,973 cases. Dr. Andrew A. Monte, an emergency medicine physician at the hospital, said the research stemmed from his colleagues witnessing a high number of cannabis-related visits without any data to back up the spotted pattern.
Published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the <a href="http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M18-2809" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> showed that edible cannabis accounted for 10.7% of emergency room visits despite those being just 0.32% of cannabis sales in the state. In 2015, for instance, one man <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6428a6.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">committed suicide</a> after consuming such a product.
&#8220;We observed a higher number of visits attributable to edibles than expected, and there was no data to determine if this was indeed true,&#8221; said Monte. &#8220;There have been several high-profile deaths due to cannabis edibles but no documented death attributable to inhaled cannabis.&#8221;
Dr. G. Sam Wang, a pediatric emergency medicine physician and toxicologist at Children&#8217;s Hospital Colorado, told CNN that edible cannabis indeed has a different effect on the body, noting that it can last longer due to the body absorbing it more slowly, sometimes prompting users to overuse it for lack of immediate effect. Wang also noted that children have been exposed to edible cannabis accidentally. &#8220;I typically see the kids who unintentionally ingest cannabis, kids who use it medically or teenagers who recreationally use it.&#8221;
Colorado is one of <a href="https://www.governing.com/gov-data/safety-justice/state-marijuana-laws-map-medical-recreational.html">many states</a> increasingly embracing marijuana. Since California legalized marijuana in 2017, the move to make a social scene out of the recreational drug has been ongoing in certain parts of the state, primarily in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. The ultra-liberal town of West Hollywood is vying to become another red light district with Amsterdam-style pot lounges. According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-31/cannabis-lounges-will-soon-light-up-west-hollywood-s-bar-scene">Bloomberg</a>, the city has already begun accepting applications.
The marijuana industry has even <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/26066/marijuana-industry-stop-using-word-pot-because-it-paul-bois">begun</a><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/26066/marijuana-industry-stop-using-word-pot-because-it-paul-bois"> a campaign of political correctness</a> by advising people to stop using the word &#8220;pot&#8221; when referring to the drug because it&#8217;s an offensive term. According to <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-marijuana/2018/01/17/marijuana-industry-gets-blunt-stop-using-the-word-pot/">Anchorage Daily News</a>, the marijuana industry has grown very self-conscious of the stereotypical image of &#8220;the stoner&#8221; and wants to clean up the stigma.

Is Weed ‘Harmless’? Legalized Cannabis Linked To More ER Visits In Colorado.

Health

On Friday, The Texas Tribune featured a <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/01/texas-marijuana-decriminalization/">report</a> on growing support for marijuana decriminalization measures in Texas. Under current Texas law, possession of any amount of marijuana is illegal. But, according to the Tribune, the <a href="http://maristpoll.marist.edu/yahoo-newsmarist-poll/#sthash.3nU5Bnez.hEmfGUbb.dpbs">Texas Department of Public Safety</a> claims that, over the past five years, a whopping 379,000 Texans have been arrested for possessing two ounces or less of marijuana.
The Tribune <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/01/texas-marijuana-decriminalization/">specified the nature</a> of some of the specific legislative proposals that are being debated in the current session of the Texas Legislature:
<blockquote>
Lawmakers this year are pushing a bevy of bills that range from reducing the criminal penalties for those found with small amounts of marijuana to eliminating those criminal penalties altogether. But there remains some lingering political pushback from conservative hardliners and law enforcement groups who fear decriminalizing marijuana will increase crime rates and eventually lead to the legalization of other drugs. &#8230;
[S]tate Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, filed House Bill 63. His bill would replace the criminal penalty for people caught with an ounce or less of marijuana and replace it with a civil fine of up to $250. Only those fined more than three times would face misdemeanor criminal charges.
</blockquote>
Elsewhere in Texas, local district attorneys are engaging in marijuana-driven prosecutorial discretion decisions, notwithstanding any independent actions that the Texas Legislature may or may not take in the current session. For example, the Tribune notes that new Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot has instituted a policy of declining prosecution for first-time marijuana possession offenders.
According to the <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/marijuana-overview.aspx#1">National Conference of State Legislatures</a>, ten states and Washington, D.C. have legalized some amount of marijuana for personal use. California is the largest state to fully legalize some amount of marijuana possession. In total, according to the <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/marijuana-overview.aspx#1">National Conference of State Legislatures</a>, 22 states and Washington, D.C. have all decriminalized some amount of marijuana.
Notwithstanding the opposition from some law enforcement groups, decriminalization measures in Texas, perhaps the nation&#8217;s most iconic red state, could potentially pick up bipartisan momentum. Just last year, the official platform for the Republican Party of Texas <a href="https://reason.com/blog/2018/06/18/texas-gop-endorses-marijuana-decriminali">endorsed</a> marijuana decriminalization. Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomangell/2018/06/17/texas-republican-party-endorses-marijuana-decriminalization/#7bbe3a295236">reported</a> last June:
<blockquote>
Delegates at the Republican Party of Texas convention on Saturday voted to approve platform planks endorsing marijuana decriminalization, medical cannabis and industrial hemp. They are also calling for a change in cannabis&#8217;s classification by the federal government.
&#8220;We support a change in the law to make it a civil, and not a criminal, offense for legal adults only to possess one ounce or less of marijuana for personal use, punishable by a fine of up to $100, but without jail time,&#8221; reads one of the party&#8217;s new positions.
&#8220;Congress should remove cannabis from the list of Schedule 1,&#8221; says another.
</blockquote>
The Texas Legislature meets for 140 calendar days every two years. The Texas <a href="https://lrl.texas.gov/sessions/sessionYears.cfm">86th legislative session</a> began on January 8, 2019 and runs through May 27, 2019. With such bread-and-butter fiscal issues as <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas-legislature/2019/01/18/teacher-raises-property-tax-relief-can-texas-lawmakers-solve-states-school-finance-problem">property tax reform</a> taking up a lot of legislators&#8217; time, it remains to be seen whether legislators might be able to ultimately find the time to legislatively address such secondary issues as marijuana decriminalization.

Weeding Out Misdemeanors? Iconic Red State Texas Considers Marijuana Decriminalization Measures.

Law Enforcement

Texas

Anthony Weiner might be trading politics for a much more lucrative industry &#8212; marijuana &#8212; according to an exclusive report from the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6735613/Anthony-Weiner-ditches-politics-marijuana-business.html">Daily Mail</a>.
Weiner is out on a form of supervised release, a privilege of being on &#8220;good behavior&#8221; for most of the 15 months he served in federal prison for sending lewd photos of himself to a teenager. He&#8217;s serving the remainder of his sentence at a halfway house in Manhattan, and appears to be free to roam the city during the day, so long as he returns to the appropriate building at night.
On Monday, the Mail reports, Weiner took a breakfast meeting with a potential business partner and a source close to the conversaion overheard what was clearly the beginning of marijuana venture. Weiner reportedly referenced &#8220;Colorado&#8221; and &#8220;California,&#8221; and spoke of his lack of experience with &#8220;hydroponics,&#8221; but instructed his potential partner about mentioning his involvement.
It&#8217;s not clear what role in the effort Weiner was reportedly discussing; as a convicted felon, he&#8217;d be barred from participating in legal marijuana production, distribution, or sales in most states and at the federal level, but he could consult or provide investment capital.
Regardless of whether he ends up in the pot business, Weiner will have to find gainful employment as a condition of remaining in the federal halfway house program. Conditional release, like the kind Weiner has been given, requires that former inmates work at least 40 hours per week. Weiner may be an exception to this rule, the Daily Mail claims, because of his notoriety &#8212; and because politics doesn&#8217;t exactly prepare you for the real world of post-incarceration employment.
Weiner&#8217;s troubles started years ago, when he was confronted with evidence that he had &#8220;sexted&#8221; a lewd photo of himself to a woman who was not his wife, using Twitter. After initially denying the photo, Weiner apologized for his behavior and resigned from his position in Congress as a representative from the state of New York.
A short time later, Weiner tried to revive his politial career with an ill-advised campaign for mayor. Again, during that stint, he was revealed to have traded lewd messages, in which he referred to himself by the alias &#8220;Carlos Danger,&#8221; with a Democratic campaign worker from Ohio named Sydney Leathers. Weiner closed his mayoral campaign in disgrace and receded from the public eye.
In early 2017, Weiner was arrested on charges that he&#8217;d engaged in lewd conversation across state lines with a minor &#8212; a fifteen-year-old girl. He was eventually tried and convicted on federal charges and sentenced to a nearly two-year stint in federal prison. He was released late last month after serving just over a year of his sentence. He is expected to officially finish his sentence and be re-released into public in May.

REPORT: Anthony Weiner Might Be Trading Politics For The Weed Industry

Anthony Weiner

As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43304/watch-kamala-harris-talks-about-smoking-marijuana-amanda-prestigiacomo">The Daily Wire</a> has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43361/kamala-harris-says-she-listened-tupac-and-snoop-ashe-schow">reported</a>, 2020 Democratic presidential contender and leftist firebrand Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) recently openly discussed her previous marijuana use in a radio interview. On February 11, The Daily Wire&#8217;s Amanda Prestigiacomo <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43304/watch-kamala-harris-talks-about-smoking-marijuana-amanda-prestigiacomo">noted</a>:
<blockquote>
Harris told [radio] co-host &#8220;Charlemagne tha God&#8221; that she &#8220;broke loose&#8221; and smoked marijuana in college. &#8220;And I did inhale!&#8221; she enthusiastically added.
&#8220;That&#8217;s not true,&#8221; the senator told Charlemagne when he said people think she&#8217;s against marijuana legalization. &#8220;Half my family is from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?&#8221; joked Harris.
&#8220;Have you ever smoked?&#8221; asked the co-host.
&#8220;I have,&#8221; she answered. &#8220;And I did inhale. I did inhale! It was a long time ago, but yes. I just broke loose.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Harris&#8217; comments initially drew some pushback for the contradictory timing that her comments referenced, as The Daily Wire&#8217;s Ashe Schow <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43361/kamala-harris-says-she-listened-tupac-and-snoop-ashe-schow">reported</a>:
<blockquote>
When asked what music she listened to when she smoked, Harris said, &#8220;Oh yeah, definitely Snoop. Tupac for sure.&#8221;
Except, Harris graduated from Howard University in 1986, and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1989. Tupac released his first album, &#8220;2Pacalypse Now,&#8221; on November 12, 1991 &#8212; two years after Harris graduated from law school. Snoop Dogg released his first album, &#8220;Doggystyle,&#8221; on November 23, 1993 &#8212; four years after Harris graduated law school.
By the time Tupac and Snoop began releasing albums, Harris was already working as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, CA. She started that job in 1990 and left in 1998.
</blockquote>
Oops.
But now, the pushback for Harris is getting even more personal &#8212; because it is coming from her proud Jamaican father himself.
As The Washington Times <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/feb/19/kamala-harris-jamaican-father-donald-harris-rips-2">reports</a>, Mr. Donald Harris &#8212; a <a href="https://economics.stanford.edu/people/donald-j-harris">professor of economics</a> at Stanford University &#8212; is none too happy with his daughter&#8217;s casual joking about her Jamaican background in invoking her previous marijuana use.
&#8220;My dear departed grandmother &#8230; as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family&#8217;s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics,&#8221; Mr. Harris <a href="https://www.jamaicaglobalonline.com/donald-harris-slams-his-daughter-senator-kamala-harris-for-fraudulently-stereotyping-jamaicans-and-accusing-her-of-playing-identity-politics/">told</a> Jamaica Global Online. &#8220;[As a family,] we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty,&#8221; he added.
As The Washington Times notes, Jamaica Global Online was itself also worried about possible repercussions from the stereotypes to which Sen. Harris alluded in her radio interview.
&#8220;For some, it is more than mere unease; one Jamaican commenting on social media expressed the concern that &#8216;soon my job will be singling me out to drug test me since I am from Jamaica. What a stereotype.&#8217; Her concern is not unfounded given the experience of Jamaicans travelling to US ports having sniffer dogs around them in customs halls,&#8221; Jamaica Global wrote, according to The Washington Times.
Sen. Harris officially declared for the presidency in late January, as The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42426/watch-kamala-harris-makes-it-official-she-wants-james-barrett">reported</a> at the time. A December <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/14/politics/cnn-poll-2020-democrats-beto-orourke-rising/index.html">poll</a> from CNN showed her with 4% support, far behind then-frontrunner Joe Biden, who had 30% support. The website <a href="https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/3633/Who-will-win-the-2020-Democratic-presidential-nomination">PredictIt</a>, however, instead shows Harris as the Democratic frontrunner.

OUCH: Kamala Harris’s Jamaican Father Blasts His Daughter’s Marijuana Remarks As A ‘Travesty’

Ten states and Washington, D.C., have legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Twenty-two other states, along with U.S. territories Puerto Rico and Guam, allow marijuana to be used for medical purposes. Let&#8217;s examine some hidden issues about marijuana use. Before we start, permit me to state my values about medical or recreational use of any drug. We each own ourselves. If we choose to take chances with substances that can ruin our health, lead to death and otherwise destroy our own lives, that&#8217;s our right. But we do not have a right to harm others in the process of harming ourselves.
Alex Berenson is a graduate of Yale University, with degrees in history and economics. He delivered a <a href="http://tinyurl.com/yd933ocy">speech</a> last month at Hillsdale College&#8217;s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C., on the hidden dangers of marijuana use. He told his audience, &#8220;Almost everything that you think you know about the health effects of cannabis, almost everything that advocates and the media have told you for a generation, is wrong.&#8221;
The active ingredient in marijuana is tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Marijuana is most commonly prescribed for pain, but it&#8217;s rarely tested against other pain relief drugs, such as ibuprofen. Last July, a large four-year study of Australian patients with chronic pain showed that cannabis use was associated with greater pain over time. Marijuana, like alcohol, is too weak as a painkiller for people with terminal cancer. They need opiates. Berenson said, &#8220;Even cannabis advocates, like Rob Kampia, who co-founded the Marijuana Policy Project &#8230; acknowledge that they have always viewed medical marijuana laws mostly as a way to protect recreational users.&#8221;
Marijuana legalization advocates sometimes argue that its use reduces opiate use. That is untrue. Berenson said, &#8220;The United States and Canada, which are the countries that have the most opioid use, also have by far the worst problem with &#8230; cannabis.&#8221; Marijuana carries not only a devastating physical health risk but also mental health dangers. A 2017 National Academy of Medicine study found that &#8220;cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses; the higher the use, the greater the risk. &#8230; Regular cannabis use is likely to increase the risk for developing social anxiety disorder.&#8221; Also, a paper in the American Journal of Psychiatry last year showed that people who used cannabis in 2001 were almost three times as likely to use opiates three years later, even after adjusting for other potential risks.
Something else that&#8217;s not given much attention is that cannabis today is much more potent than it was in the 1970s, when most marijuana contained less than 2 percent THC. Today marijuana routinely contains 20 to 25 percent THC, as a result of sophisticated farming and cloning techniques. As such, it produces a stronger and quicker high. Berenson said that the difference between yesterday&#8217;s marijuana and today&#8217;s is like the difference between &#8220;near beer and a martini.&#8221;
Berenson cited several studies and other findings showing a relationship between marijuana use and violence and crime. According to a 2007 paper in The Medical Journal of Australia on 88 felons who had committed homicide during psychotic episodes, almost two-thirds reported misusing cannabis. A 2012 paper in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence examined a federal survey of more than 9,000 adolescents and found that marijuana use was associated with a doubling of domestic violence. The first four states to legalize marijuana for recreational use were Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon. In 2013, those states combined had about 450 murders and 30,300 aggravated assaults. In 2017, they had almost 620 murders and 38,000 aggravated assaults &#8212; an increase of 37 percent for murders and 25 percent for aggravated assaults, far greater than the national increase, even after accounting for differences in population growth.
One of the problems with legalization of marijuana is that it gives social sanction to its use. A preferable strategy would be simple decriminalization, which does not imply social sanction. Moreover, where there is no criminal activity associated with any drug usage, it should be treated as a medical problem, as opposed to a criminal problem.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

WILLIAMS: Marijuana, Mental Illness And Violence

Did Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) smoke marijuana in college, or while she was arresting people for minor drug offenses?
That was the question circulating social media Monday evening, after Harris said she smoked a &#8220;joint&#8221; in college <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43304/watch-kamala-harris-talks-about-smoking-marijuana-amanda-prestigiacomo">during an interview</a> with the radio show, &#8220;The Breakfast Club.&#8221; Co-host &#8220;Charlemagne tha God&#8221; asked Harris if she had ever smoked marijuana, to which the California senator replied: &#8220;I have.&#8221;
&#8220;And I did inhale. I did inhale! It was a long time ago, but yes. I just broke loose,&#8221; Harris added. She then claimed she smoke a &#8220;joint&#8221; while in college and remembered being high.
&#8220;I think [marijuana] gives a lot of people joy,&#8221; Harris said. &#8220;And we need more joy in the world.&#8221;
When asked what music she listened to when she smoked, Harris said, &#8220;Oh yeah, definitely Snoop. Tupac for sure.&#8221;
Except, Harris graduated from Howard University in 1986, and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1989. Tupac released his first album, &#8220;2Pacalypse Now,&#8221; on November 12, 1991 &#8212; two years after Harris graduated from law school. Snoop Dogg released his first album, &#8220;Doggystyle,&#8221; on November 23, 1993 &#8212; four years after Harris graduated law school.
By the time Tupac and Snoop began releasing albums, Harris was already working as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, CA. She started that job in 1990 and left in 1998.
So, either Harris lied about who she listened to while smoking (or, more charitably, doesn&#8217;t remember who she listened to and named the first artists she thought of), or she actually had her one &#8220;joint&#8221; while she worked as a deputy district attorney putting people away for smoking marijuana.
In her book, &#8220;The Truths We Hold,&#8221; Harris talks about her newfound support for decriminalizing marijuana.
&#8220;We need to expunge nonviolent marijuana-related offenses from the records of millions of people who have been arrested and incarcerated so they can get on with their lives,&#8221; Harris wrote.
Harris hasn&#8217;t always supported marijuana legalization. As CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/11/politics/kamala-harris-record-on-marijuana-legalization/index.html">details</a>, as recently as 2010, when Harris was San Francisco&#8217;s district attorney, she opposed legislation that would legalized marijuana in the Golden State. Her then-campaign manager, Brian Brokaw, <a href="http://capitolweekly.net/leading-democrats-opposed-to-prop-19/">told Capitol Weekly</a> that Harris &#8220;believes that drug selling harms communities,&#8221; but did support the use of medical marijuana.
She continued this belief through 2015, when she spoke at the Democratic State Convention.
Earlier in her career, she worked to put nonviolent marijuana users <a href="https://reason.com/blog/2018/01/12/kamala-harris-is-not-smart-on-crime">behind bars</a>, according to Reason&#8217;s Ed Krayewski.
&#8220;As San Francisco D.A. she opposed a measure to legalize marijuana, and when she ran for attorney general she argued that legalization would encourage people to work and drive while high. As attorney general, she called for an expansion of the state&#8217;s efforts to track prescription drug users. She also opposed cuts to drug enforcement programs that often targeted drug dealers for nonviolent offenses,&#8221; Krayewski wrote.
CNN doesn&#8217;t look further back than 2010, but dismisses Harris&#8217; change in the politest terms possible.
&#8220;Perhaps it&#8217;s a story of gradual realization of the need for legalization, or maybe it&#8217;s just a story of one politician adapting to public opinion,&#8221; CNN reported.
Harris&#8217; office did not respond to a press inquiry prior to publication.

Kamala Harris Says She Listened To Tupac And Snoop While Smoking Weed In College. There’s Just One Problem.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) talked about her personal experience with smoking weed in college and seemingly backed the legalization of marijuana during a Monday morning radio interview on the New York City-based syndicated radio show, &#8220;The Breakfast Club.&#8221;
Harris told co-host &#8220;Charlemagne tha God&#8221; that she &#8220;broke loose&#8221; and smoked marijuana in college. &#8220;And I did inhale!&#8221; she enthusiastically added.
&#8220;That&#8217;s not true,&#8221; the senator told Charlemagne when he said people think she&#8217;s against marijuana legalization. &#8220;Half my family is from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?&#8221; joked Harris.
&#8220;Have you ever smoked?&#8221; asked the co-host.
&#8220;I have,&#8221; she answered. &#8220;And I did inhale. I did inhale! It was a long time ago, but yes. I just broke loose.&#8221;
Harris added that she smoked a &#8220;joint&#8221; in college and remembers the high.
&#8220;I think [marijuana] gives a lot of people joy,&#8221; the 2020 hopeful continued. &#8220;And we need more joy in the world.&#8221;
&#8220;We need to expunge nonviolent marijuana-related offenses from the records of millions of people who have been arrested and incarcerated so they can get on with their lives,&#8221; wrote Harris in her latest book, The Truths We Hold, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/kamala-harris-says-she-smoked-weed-in-college-and-i-did-inhale">according</a> to The Daily Beast.
Harris&#8217; remark about &#8220;inhaling&#8221; was a reference to then-presidential hopeful Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. &#8220;When I was in England,&#8221; Clinton <a href="https://www.chron.com/news/strange-weird/article/Bill-Clinton-11035674.php">said</a> during a 1992 interview, &#8220;I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and didn&#8217;t like it. I didn&#8217;t inhale and I didn&#8217;t try it again.&#8221;
Former President Barack Obama similarly poked fun at Clinton&#8217;s I-didn&#8217;t-inhale comment. &#8220;When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently. That was the point,&#8221; <a href="https://www.chron.com/news/strange-weird/article/Bill-Clinton-11035674.php">joked</a> Obama, then a U.S. Senator for Illinois.
The American people have been trending in favor of marijuana legalization. <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/08/americans-support-marijuana-legalization/">According</a> to Pew Research published in October, 62% of Americans support legalization, divided most by generation and then party:
<blockquote>
About six-in-ten Americans (62%) say the use of marijuana should be legalized, reflecting a steady increase over the past decade, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The share of U.S. adults who support marijuana legalization is little changed from about a year ago &#8211; when 61% favored it &#8212; but it is double what it was in 2000 (31%).
As in the past, there are wide generational and partisan differences in views of marijuana legalization. Majorities of Millennials (74%), Gen Xers (63%) and Baby Boomers (54%) say the use of marijuana should be legal. Members of the Silent Generation continue to be the least supportive of legalization (39%), but they have become more supportive in the past year.
Nearly seven-in-ten Democrats (69%) say marijuana use should be legal, as do 75% of independents who lean toward the Democratic Party.
Republicans are divided, with 45% in favor of legalizing marijuana and 51% opposed. Still, the share of Republicans saying marijuana should be legal has increased from 39% in 2015. Independents who lean toward the Republican Party are far more likely than Republicans to favor marijuana legalization (59% vs. 45%). 
</blockquote>
Harris, 54, announced her bid for 2020 last week on ABC&#8217;s Good Morning America. &#8220;I love my country, and this is a moment in time that I feel a sense of responsibility to fight for the best of who we are,&#8221; said Harris.
And the Democrat is polling rather well with those who are familiar with her: &#8220;A recent NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist Poll found that a majority of Americans &#8212; 54 percent &#8212; have not yet formed an opinion of Harris. But those who have a positive opinion of the California Democrat outnumbered those with a negative opinion by more than 3 to 1,&#8221; <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/21/677834764/sen-kamala-harris-announces-2020-presidential-candidacy">reported</a> NPR.
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Hear what <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KamalaHarris?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KamalaHarris</a> thinks about legalizing marijuana <a href="https://t.co/YGZlCAKUZ0">pic.twitter.com/YGZlCAKUZ0</a>
&#8212; The Breakfast Club (@breakfastclubam) <a href="https://twitter.com/breakfastclubam/status/1094953059334176770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

WATCH: Kamala Harris Talks About Smoking Marijuana In Radio Interview: ‘I Did Inhale!’

Leftism

Progressivism

A California doctor has been stripped of his license after giving a four-year-old boy some marijuana cookies in order to control the child&#8217;s temper tantrums. According to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47039911">BBC</a>, Dr. William Eidelman, a natural medicine physician, misdiagnosed the boy with having bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder (ADD).
&#8220;The Medical Board of California ruled to revoke the doctor&#8217;s license <a href="http://4patientsafety.org/documents/Eidelman,%20William%20S%202019-01-03%20Lawsuit.pdf">but he has launched an appeal</a>,&#8221; reports the outlet.
However, Dr. Eidelman did not have his license revoked due to giving the four-year-old boy marijuana, which is legal in California for medicinal purposes. It was instead due to his being &#8220;negligent in his care and treatment&#8221; for not consulting a psychiatrist or communicating with the boy&#8217;s school.
Dr. Eidelman&#8217;s &#8220;treatment&#8221; of the boy began at the request of his father in 2012, who suffered from ADHD and bipolar disorder himself as a child.
&#8220;The boy&#8217;s father consulted Dr. Eidelman in September 2012 because his son was misbehaving at school,&#8221; reports BBC. &#8220;As a child, the boy&#8217;s father had ADHD and bipolar disorder himself and had a negative experience with prescribed medications at the time, saying he felt like a &#8216;human guinea pig.&#8217; He started using marijuana later in life, saying it helped &#8216;calm him&#8217; and changed his behavior towards his wife, towards whom he had previously &#8216;exhibited anger.'&#8221;
The father had administered marijuana to his older son who was also struggling with ADHD and bipolar disorder. He claims the drug had a &#8220;positive effect&#8221; on both his children.
Dr. Eidelman prescribed tiny amounts of cannabis to the boy via weed cookies. A school nurse later discovered the secret ingredient when she was asked to administer it to the boy at lunchtime.
According to the <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article225213600.html">Sacramento Bee</a>, the board&#8217;s decision said that &#8220;tantrums alone &#8230; do not support&#8221; the doctor&#8217;s diagnosis, adding that Eidelman&#8217;s notes from the 2012 visit do not fit the diagnosis of ADHD and bipolar disorder.
&#8220;&#8216;Being agitated&#8217; and &#8216;having trouble sitting still&#8217; hint at ADHD, but could simply hint at a preschooler not happy to have driven many miles to a doctor&#8217;s appointment,&#8221; said the board. &#8220;Although he did not outright suggest a diagnosis &#8230; he all but made one up out of whole cloth.&#8221;
Marijuana has become an increasingly popular recreational item in California since being legalized in 2017. This past Christmas, several dispensaries reported a record number of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39693/marijuana-becomes-most-popular-christmas-gift-paul-bois">customers buying gifts</a>. The move to make a social scene out of the recreational drug has been ongoing in certain parts of the state, primarily in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. The ultra-liberal town of West Hollywood is vying to become another red light district with Amsterdam-style pot lounges. According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-31/cannabis-lounges-will-soon-light-up-west-hollywood-s-bar-scene">Bloomberg</a>, the city has already begun accepting applications.
Currently, only eight licenses are available for lounges that offer edible cannabis (pot brownies, cookies). Another eight will go to lounges where people can smoke and vape alongside food and drink. Similar proposals have popped up in San Francisco and Oakland. Since much of the state prohibits pot smoking in public places, the lounges would be an alternative social space.

California Doctor Gives Weed Cookies To A Hyper Four-Year-Old Boy, Loses License

According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-22/super-bowl-advertisement-touting-medical-marijuana-nixed-by-cbs">Bloomberg News</a>, CBS has nixed a pro-cannabis ad calling for the legalization of medical marijuana from airing during the Super Bowl.
&#8220;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/ACRGF:US" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Acreage Holdings</a>, the multi-state cannabis company backed by John Boehner, says CBS rejected a television advertisement that calls for the legalization of medical marijuana,&#8221; reports the outlet. &#8220;The network, which is airing the game on Feb. 3, nixed the proposed spot after seeing a rough outline, according to the company.&#8221;
Medical marijuana remains legal in 30 states, though proponents say that the federal prohibition on cannabis has made it harder for patients to obtain the drug. Acreage President George Allen told Bloomberg the Super Bowl ad was designed to &#8220;create an advocacy campaign for constituents who are being lost in the dialogue.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s hard to compete with the amount of attention something gets when it airs during the Super Bowl,&#8221; Allen told the outlet. &#8220;We certainly thought there was a chance. You strike when the chance of your strike has the probability of success &#8212; this isn&#8217;t a doomed mission.&#8221;
Speaking with <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/22/media/cannabis-ad-super-bowl-cbs/index.html">CNN Business</a>, Allen said a 60-second version of the spot will be published on its <a href="https://www.acreageholdings.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">website</a>.
&#8220;We&#8217;re disappointed by the news but somewhat unsurprised,&#8221; Allen said, adding that media companies would be afraid to air the ad so long as recreational and medical marijuana remains illegal in certain parts of the country.
&#8220;Still, we developed the ad in the spirit of a public service announcement. We feel it&#8217;s our responsibility to advocate on behalf of our patients,&#8221; Allen said.
CBS has issued no comment on the matter.
Harris Damashek, Acreage&#8217;s chief marketing officer, echoed Allen&#8217;s sentiment that the ad was a public service announcement. &#8220;It&#8217;s a public service announcement really more than it is an advertisement,&#8221; Damashek <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/Ad-Meter/buzz-meter/2019/01/22/super-bowl-cbs-rejects-ad-benefits-medical-marijuana/2639175002/">told USA Today</a>. &#8220;We&#8217;re not marketing any of our products or retail in this spot.&#8221;
As the legalization of marijuana gains steam across the United States, the cannabis industry has been working overtime to remove the stigma associated with the drug, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/26066/marijuana-industry-stop-using-word-pot-because-it-paul-bois">to the point of even </a>advising people to stop using the word &#8220;pot&#8221; because it&#8217;s an offensive term.
&#8220;Marijuana still carries a stigma that surfaces with the use of old slang like pot and weed,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-marijuana/2018/01/17/marijuana-industry-gets-blunt-stop-using-the-word-pot/">Anchorage Daily News</a>,. &#8220;For many, the words evoke an image of lazy, not-so-bright people who puff their lives away.&#8221;
The industry wishes people would start using the more scientifically-minded name &#8220;cannabis&#8221; instead.
&#8220;The image deeply bothers the marijuana industry, which is telling the public &#8212; sometimes gently, sometimes curtly &#8212; that they should use the word cannabis,&#8221; ADN continued. &#8220;That&#8217;s the scientific name for the plant from which marijuana is derived.&#8221;
California legalized marijuana in 2017 and has been slowly building a social scene out of the recreational drug in certain parts of the state. Currently, the ultra-liberal town of West Hollywood is vying to become another red light district with Amsterdam-style pot lounges. According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-31/cannabis-lounges-will-soon-light-up-west-hollywood-s-bar-scene">Bloomberg</a>, the city has already begun accepting applications.
&#8220;West Hollywood is one of the first cities in the country to introduce these kinds of licenses,&#8221; reports Bloomberg, &#8220;and the winners will be allowed to create the equivalent of alcohol-fueled social bars for cannabis users &#8212; sans booze.&#8221;
Similar proposals have popped up in San Francisco and Oakland. Since much of the state prohibits pot smoking in public places, the lounges would be an alternative social space.

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Christmas came to all this year, even to stoners and potheads. In California, where cannabis was recently made legal, the recreational drug made quite a stocking stuffer.
According to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-dispensaries-report-high-numbers-leading-into-christmas">Fox News</a>, &#8220;some California dispensaries have reported high numbers in the days leading up to Christmas as customers have bought pot products as apparent stocking stuffers.&#8221;
On Christmas Eve this week, Kysa Butler, the assistant general manager of the Oakland-based Magnolia shop, told <a href="http://www.fox5ny.com/news/cannabis-is-a-big-hit-for-christmas-gift-giving" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KTVU</a> that the store had lines out the door with people eager to purchase some fresh ganja. &#8220;From the moment we were open at 9 o&#8217;clock we had a line,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve been knocking the lines out quickly but they&#8217;ve been steady, too.&#8221;
Many cannabis dispensaries in California reported having five times as many customers leading up to Christmas.
The reason for this spike in people purchasing marijuana products, Butler said, was a desire to alleviate some of the stress that the Christmas season brings. &#8220;People start stocking up. Sometimes you need a little stress reliever from Christmas shopping or sometimes you need a little something when you meet your family,&#8221; she said.
A 73-year-old woman, identified as Judy, has been smoking grass since the 1960s and wanted to relax on Christmas Eve with a few puffs of the magic dragon. &#8220;I just learned about this place a year ago,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I&#8217;m doing great now.&#8221;
Patrons buy various marijuana-infused products like gummies, chocolates, cartridges, and flowers.
Another customer, identified as Christopher, said he treats pot as a special snack, which inadvertently leads to him craving more special snacks.
&#8220;It&#8217;s definitely unique,&#8221; Christopher said. &#8220;It just feels like you&#8217;re having a snack and then later you want more snacks!&#8221;
Since California legalized marijuana, the move to make a social scene out of the recreational drug has been ongoing in certain parts of the state, primarily in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. The ultra-liberal town of West Hollywood is vying to become another red light district with Amsterdam-style pot lounges. According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-31/cannabis-lounges-will-soon-light-up-west-hollywood-s-bar-scene">Bloomberg</a>, the city has already begun accepting applications.
&#8220;West Hollywood is one of the first cities in the country to introduce these kinds of licenses,&#8221; reports Bloomberg, &#8220;and the winners will be allowed to create the equivalent of alcohol-fueled social bars for cannabis users &#8212; sans booze.&#8221;
Currently, only eight licenses are available for lounges that offer edible cannabis (pot brownies, cookies). Another eight will go to lounges where people can smoke and vape alongside food and drink. As many as 100 applicants are expected, according to Jackie Rocco, business development manager for the city.
Similar proposals have popped up in San Francisco and Oakland. Since much of the state prohibits pot smoking in public places, the lounges would be an alternative social space.
The marijuana industry has even <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/26066/marijuana-industry-stop-using-word-pot-because-it-paul-bois">begun</a><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/26066/marijuana-industry-stop-using-word-pot-because-it-paul-bois"> a campaign of political correctness</a> by advising people to stop using the word &#8220;pot&#8221; when referring to the drug because it&#8217;s an offensive term. According to <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-marijuana/2018/01/17/marijuana-industry-gets-blunt-stop-using-the-word-pot/">Anchorage Daily News</a>, the marijuana industry has grown very self-conscious of the stereotypical image of &#8220;the stoner&#8221; and wants to clean up the stigma.
&#8220;Marijuana still carries a stigma that surfaces with the use of old slang like pot and weed,&#8221; reports ADN. &#8220;For many, the words evoke an image of lazy, not-so-bright people who puff their lives away.&#8221;
The industry wishes people would start using the more scientifically-minded name &#8220;cannabis&#8221; instead.
&#8220;The image deeply bothers the marijuana industry, which is telling the public &#8212; sometimes gently, sometimes curtly &#8212; that they should use the word cannabis,&#8221; ADN continued. &#8220;That&#8217;s the scientific name for the plant from which marijuana is derived.&#8221;

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Marijuana

High School Teacher Worked With Mafia, Bribed DEA For Decades In Drug Trafficking Scheme

Bernie: We’re Going To Help Minorities Start Businesses To Sell Drugs

As Election Nears, Los Angeles County D.A. Dismisses 66,000 Pot Convictions

Pot-Smoking Parents Name Children After Marijuana Plants. Internet Applauds It.

People Line Up For Hours, Pay Nearly 33% Tax On First Day Of Legal Cannabis Sales In Illinois

New 2020 Laws Increase Minimum Wage, Let Cyclists Ignore Stop Signs, Keep Pre-Teens In Booster Seats

Chicago Suburb Votes To Use Profits From Legal Pot Sales To Fund Reparations For Slavery

2020 Democrats Pounce After Joe Biden Pushes Back On Marijuana Legalization

AUDIT: California Cannabis Users 3x More Likely To Visit Illegal Pot Shops Than Licensed Dispensaries

Dem Candidate Yang: ‘Pardon Everyone Who Is In Jail For Nonviolent Marijuana-Related Offenses’

Is Weed ‘Harmless’? Legalized Cannabis Linked To More ER Visits In Colorado.

Weeding Out Misdemeanors? Iconic Red State Texas Considers Marijuana Decriminalization Measures.

REPORT: Anthony Weiner Might Be Trading Politics For The Weed Industry

OUCH: Kamala Harris’s Jamaican Father Blasts His Daughter’s Marijuana Remarks As A ‘Travesty’

WILLIAMS: Marijuana, Mental Illness And Violence

Kamala Harris Says She Listened To Tupac And Snoop While Smoking Weed In College. There’s Just One Problem.

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