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The rank hypocrisy of marijuana prohibition advocates’ taxpayer funding
Kevin Sabet continues to fail to disclose SAM’s funding and the incestuous financial connections behind efforts to maintain the status quo
Filter (US)
Monday, September 9, 2019
The New York Chapter of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), the prohibitionist organization led by Kevin Sabet, has submitted a request “to keep its funding sources confidential,” as reported in a September 5 Times Union article. As justification, the group cited fears that its donors would be harassed. SAM’s request for donor anonymity claims “that it doesn’t receive funding from “faceless deep-pocketed corporate interests” in the “alcohol, tobacco, opioid, or the prison industries…” Yet the organization’s attempt to avoid transparency is ironic, when SAM has just announced its intention to release a report on industry donations to the marijuana legalization movement. (See also: Marijuana legalization opponent directed to identify donors) -
Colombia is turning into a major medical marijuana producer
Due to government bureaucracy in Colombia, it can take months or years for startups to secure the proper permits and licenses
NPR (US)
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Other countries are passing laws to permit the production, import and export of medical marijuana but Colombia has a leg up because it did so three years ago, says Rodrigo Arcila, president of the Colombian Cannabis Industry Association. He said the group's 29 member companies have invested more than $600 million in building medical marijuana facilities. Arcila maintains that Colombia can produce cannabis products at lower prices than competitors due to affordable land, relatively low wages and an abundance of skilled farm hands who cut their teeth in Colombia's booming flower business. As an emerging venture it's unclear how the medical marijuana business will play out. -
Marijuana Commission holds first meeting
Marijuana Commission mandated to “consult and provide advice on the design of a legislative and regulatory framework for cannabis”
The Star (St. Lucia)
Saturday, September 7, 2019
The newly formed Marijuana Commission held its first meeting to plan the way forward for activities. In a March interview, Prime Minister Allen Chastanet announced a decision had been reached to decriminalize cannabis, following which commercial opportunities would be looked into. Then last month Commerce Minister Bradley Felix, the government’s point man on cannabis, announced the formation of a Marijuana Commission mandated to “consult and provide advice on the design of a legislative and regulatory framework for cannabis”. The Commission is expected to engage in public consultation over a three-month period before reporting to Cabinet. -
Black market pot entered CannTrust facility, flowed into legal market last year: Sources
Some cannabis producers may face pressure to tap the black market to acquire new strains in order to differentiate their products from competitors
BNN Bloomberg (Canada)
Friday, September 6, 2019
Senior operating staff working at CannTrust Holdings Inc.’s Pelham, Ont. facility late last year brought cannabis seeds from the black market into production rooms, leading to some illicitly-grown pot flowing into the legal market. In an apparent effort to conceal the black market cannabis seeds from regulatory inspections and other staff members, some CannTrust employees changed the names of as many as 20 strains to those which the company was licensed to sell in the legal medical and recreational markets. Adding cannabis seeds obtained through the black market would have allowed CannTrust to significantly bolster its production at a time when it had overcommitted itself with supply contracts with provinces and other licensed marijuana producers. -
Fate of Philly safe consumption site now hinges on judge’s ruling
Safehouse has long maintained that drug use at its site would be incidental to its primary goal — which is to save lives
Filter (US)
Friday, September 6, 2019
Nearly two years after Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said his office would not stand in the way of a safe consumption site (SCS) to help cut the city’s record overdose levels, the fate of Safehouse, which would be America’s first officially sanctioned SCS, is now in the hands of a federal judge. On September 5, for the second time in as many weeks, US Attorney Bill McSwain of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania argued in Philadelphia’s Federal Courthouse for the judge to rule in favor of an injunction filed by McSwain’s office to prevent Safehouse from opening in the overdose-ravaged neighborhood of Kensington. -
Maroc : la question de la légalisation de la production de cannabis de nouveau à l’ordre du jour
Le conseil de la région du Nord a donné cet été son aval au lancement d'une nouvelle étude sur l'opportunité de légaliser la culture du cannabis
Jeune Afrique (France)
Vendredi, 6 septembre 2019
Au début de l’été, le conseil de Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma a voté en faveur de la commande d’une étude sur les opportunités de cultiver du cannabis dans la région. Le rapport serait confié à l’Institut scientifique de l’Université Mohammed V à Rabat, pour un coût avoisinant le million de dirhams (plus de 90 000 euros), mais le ministère de l’Intérieur doit encore donner son feu vert. Abdellatif Adebibe, président d’une association de la région et fervent partisan de la légalisation de la production, met en garde. Une légalisation de la culture ne signifierait pas une amélioration rapide des conditions de vie des paysans. Il plaide pour une culture « restreinte à la région productrice historique, le Rif, où elle s’accorde avec un mode de vie ». -
UK advised to recruit former drug dealers if marijuana is legalised
Commissioner in charge of legal cannabis sales in Massachusetts urges policy
The Guardian (UK)
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Former drug dealers should be recruited and trained to produce safe, legal cannabis if the UK decides to legalise marijuana, the head of an American programme overseeing the sale of the narcotic has urged.The Commissioner in charge of legal cannabis sales in Massachusetts has said Britain should follow her state’s example of recruiting ex-drug dealers and people from communities involved in what was once the underground market for marijuana. Shaleen Title, along with two other US experts on drug liberalisation, revealed that a project is under way in their state – which legalised the drug in 2016 – to retrain former cannabis dealers to enter the now legal marijuana industry. -
Cannabis prohibition doesn't work anywhere. It's New Zealand's turn to legalise it
A ‘yes’ in the referendum is a vote to regulate rather than criminalise a drug that’s widely used and less problematic than alcohol
The Guardian (UK)
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
In New Zealand, cannabis is classified as an illegal drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. Its possession, use and supply are subject variously to penalties ranging in severity from fines to many years of imprisonment. The Helen Clark Foundation released a report which sets out the case for legalising and regulating cannabis. New Zealanders have the opportunity to vote for that in a referendum next year. Evidence from longitudinal studies carried out in New Zealand indicates that by the age of 25, 80% of New Zealanders will have tried cannabis at least once. The time has come to face up to the widespread use and supply of cannabis in the country and to legalise it and regulate it accordingly, writes Helen Clark, a former prime minister of New Zealand and member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. -
Cannabis in the Americas: It’s time to talk about marijuana policy
It is within our power to design a regulatory framework that is mutually beneficial to corporations and small-scale actors
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
There is now a unique moment to build a coherent regulatory framework that would prevent the growing cannabis market from being concentrated in the hands of large for-profit conglomerates, beholden to purely commercial interests, which might well introduce new harms just as those created by prohibition are being mitigated. It is particularly important do so before big actors such as the United States follow and legalize medical cannabis at the federal level. There is first a pressing need to knock down the considerable market barriers that exist for small-scale farmers from traditional producer countries in low- and middle-income countries. These actors have often been those most affected by the so-called “war on drugs”, which has fostered discrimination, poverty, violence, and fear. -
Schneider : «Luxembourg ne sera pas le nouvel Amsterdam»
"Nous serons exigeants sur la vérification du lieu de résidence des clients pour éviter le tourisme du cannabis"
Le Quotidien (Luxembourg)
Monday, September 2, 2019
Health Minister Étienne Schneider hopes that the controlled legalization of recreational cannabis in the Grand Duchy will come into force within two years. For him, the prohibition model in place for 40 years "failed". He is aware that the neighbouring countries - France, Germany and Belgium - are worried, he explains in an interview. "I do not want to risk the day when France, Belgium or Germany reintroduce border controls to prevent cannabis from being exported from Luxembourg to their country. For the moment, we have had some discussions with Germany. France, not yet, but it will come. Currently, we are working on the content of our project. The strategic note will be discussed at the Council of Ministers at the end of the recess." (Lire aussi: Pas de «coffee shop» à venir au Luxembourg)
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