July 21, 2020
Too much lead found in several hemp oil products
Several hemp oil products sold across the nation contain an amount of lead that exceeds federal guidelines and, if consumed, can cause health complications. Contact the manufacturer for a free replacement by calling 844-300-5673 if you’ve purchased any of the products belowThe excess lead comes from droppers provided by a third-party packaging supplier, a Food and Drug Administration announcement says. Lead is a toxic substance that can cause adverse health issues when ingested, especially by young children. Louisiana health officials say most children who have been exposed to lead do not present with any symptoms. However, at increased lead levels, lead poisoning can present in the following ways: Fussiness, Loss of appetite, Weight loss, Loss of energy, Abdominal pain, Vomiting, Constipation, Seizures, Coma. Long-term exposure to excessive levels of lead is associated with growth delays, learning disabilities, attention disorders, and behavioral problems
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July 21, 2020
USDA Approves Minnesota Hemp Program
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved Minnesota’s hemp cultivation program, which has expanded from just six licensed growers and processors in the state in 2016 to 511. The approved program is the same as the state’s pilot program enacted in 2016. Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen called the approval “a major step forward” but said, “there are still concerns over some of the regulations imposed on states and tribal governments, such as testing requirements.”
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A highly regarded British think tank focused on reforming drug laws thinks Canada’s legalization and regulation of cannabis has gone well. Transform has been monitoring Canadian reform efforts for some time. Its positive views of Canada’s initiatives is a significant contribution in assessing our journey away from criminalization of simple possession and use of recreational drugs. There have been a number of efforts at assessing our first year of legalization and beyond. Not all of them have been as positive as Transform’s evaluations. The think tank’s accounting is sophisticated but also provides a primer of Canada’s experiences with legal cannabis, the provision of which was deemed an essential service in Ontario during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Transform’s assessment delves into the fundamentals — growing, processing and producing. The diverse ways the drug is sold to consumers in the provinces and territories is summarized succinctly and clearly. The report also wades into contentious issues, including impaired driving, protecting youth and confronting the illicit market. Let’s look at the social justice issues implicated in the shift away from criminalization. Social equity issues: As it became clear that change would happen and the necessary federal and provincial/territorial legislation would be enacted, issues affecting marginalized groups came to the fore. Transform looked at governments’ failure to adequately address them. The first issue involves social equity measures. These proposed initiatives aim to compensate, to some degree, the harms suffered by members of groups because of criminalization and enforcement measures, and penalties that disproportionately affected them.
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July 21, 2020
State-level marijuana decriminalization is not enough
State-level marijuana policies are rapidly evolving. A majority of the public now believes that marijuana prohibition must come to an end, and a growing number of politicians are similarly calling for alternatives to criminalization. The two most commonly debated policy alternatives are decriminalization or legalization. To date, 27 states and the District of Columbia have moved to either legalize or decriminalize cannabis — with Illinois and Virginia being the most recent states to move in this direction. Decriminalization and legalization are two distinct policies. Both are preferable to outright prohibition, but based on the evidence to date, one of these policies clearly emerges as superior to the other. That policy is legalization. Here’s why. Decriminalization is neither a novel nor a particularly progressive alternative to the failed policy of cannabis criminalization. The policy, which replaces criminal penalties for low-level personal possession offenses with civil sanctions, was initially recommended by former President Richard Nixon’s Shafer Commission in 1972. At that time, The Commission concluded: “Neither the marihuana user nor the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety. Therefore, the Commission recommends ... [the] possession of marijuana for personal use no longer be an offense, [and that the] casual distribution of small amounts of marihuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration no longer be an offense.” In the ensuing 48 years, several states — including Connecticut, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, and Virginia — have adopted policies of either partial or full decriminalization. While marijuana decriminalization holds many advantages over a policy of strict criminal prohibition, it does little to either address or sufficiently mitigates many of the systemic problems caused by the plant’s decades-long criminalization.
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A new amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act could allow members of the Armed Forces to use CBD and other derivatives from Cannabis sativa hemp.
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Alarmed that unlicensed cannabis sellers continue to dominate California’s pot market, state lawmakers are moving toward imposing steep new fines on businesses that provide building space, advertising platforms and other aid to illicit operations. Those who provide assistance to illegal pot sellers would face civil fines of up to $30,000 per day under legislation approved unanimously by the state Assembly that is now pending in the Senate. A final vote on the proposal is expected sometime after lawmakers return to Sacramento this month. Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) said she introduced the bill out of concern that as much as 80% of the cannabis sold in California comes from the illicit market, despite voters approving legal and licensed sales that began in 2018. “Despite some success during the first two years of legalized cannabis sales, the illicit market has flourished,” Rubio said. “In addition to dwindling tax revenues, the underground market presents public safety and health threats to California.” But the proposal has divided advocates for legal marijuana. The United Cannabis Business Assn., which represents licensed firms, asked Rubio to introduce Assembly Bill 2122, saying it “brings much-needed support in enforcement.” Licensed retailers have struggled as many Californians continue to buy from the illicit market sellers, who charge lower prices because they do not pay state taxes or abide by costly state regulations, including testing and security requirements. “The illicit cannabis market must be shut down to ensure that legal operators can see an increase of patients and consumers which creates union jobs while we contribute to local and the State of California’s tax revenues,” the UCBA said in a letter to legislators. However, the measure is opposed by the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, also known as NORML, which argues the bill is overbroad and heavy-handed. “In general we would rather see ‘carrots’ to assist people in securing commercial licenses by lowering the barriers to entry, rather than ‘sticks,’ be they criminal or civil,” said Ellen Komp, deputy director of California NORML. The group supports an existing law requiring advertising for cannabis businesses to include a state license number. NORML officials said many illicit operators display fake licenses to fool those they do business with, so it is not always easy to ascertain whether a cannabis business has a license. Komp suggested the state can help licensed businesses by addressing the fact that two-thirds of the cities in California do not allow licensing of cannabis businesses. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the leading supporter of the legalization initiative Proposition 64 in 2016, has said enforcement is an important part of building a legal industry.
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July 20, 2020
Third Party Presidential Candidates Push For Marijuana Legalization And Drug Decriminalization
The presidential nominees for the Libertarian and Green Parties both support bolder drug policy proposals, including marijuana legalization, than presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden or President Trump. Libertarian pick Jo Jorgensen and Green nominee Howie Hawkins recently discussed their views on the issue and backed legalizing cannabis for adult use and more broadly ending the criminalization of other currently illicit substances. “The biggest problem we have right now is not the drugs, it’s the drug prohibition,” Jorgensen said during an interview with C-SPAN this month. “Now, do drugs and alcohol cause problems? Of course they do. However, they’d be much more manageable if it were legal.” “What’s the difference between me drinking bourbon in my home and somebody else smoking marijuana in their own home?” she said. “If there is no victim, there is no crime.” The Libertarian candidate later described the drug war as an example of how “racial injustice” is “built into our our laws.” Hawkins also recently talked about drug policy reform as a tool to combat mass incarceration during a remotely delivered speech for the Green Party National Convention. “We’ve got to treat drug abuse as a health problem. You should legalize marijuana and decriminalize the hard drugs like Portugal,” he said. “Instead of just throwing people in prison and building the biggest prison industrial system in the world—which Joe Biden had a lot to do [with], he wrote the legislative architecture for that as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee—we should be treating drug addiction as a health problem, not a criminal problem.”
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Maybe it’s the boredom. Maybe it’s the mental health benefits. Maybe it’s the preliminary research that cannabis could prevent COVID-19 infections. But several data agencies and state reports indicate marijuana sales have continued to rise during the global pandemic. Multiple states, including Florida and Arizona, have hit new records for monthly medical marijuana sales in the past few months. Even original cannabis states in adult use markets have seen historic sales amid the pandemic.
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A congresswoman who’s reportedly being considered as a vice presidential pick for Joe Biden said on Thursday that she doesn’t feel the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee needs to back marijuana legalization despite widespread calls from advocates and majority support among voters. Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), who herself has cosponsored federal legalization legislation and other reform bills, was asked about Biden’s position during an interview with members of the Sacramento Press Club.
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Just west of Starved Rock, under 80 acres of glass, one of the largest greenhouses in North America once produced orchids and poinsettias for big-box stores. Now, that production capacity has been converted to growing hemp — billed as the largest such greenhouse in the country. Hemp — grown from the same species of cannabis plant that produces marijuana, but without the high — produces CBD oil, a product that has taken off as a popular mainstream supplement, and smokable hemp flower, the latest niche market for the plant.
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