Proposition EE would increase the tax on cigarettes and all other nicotine and tobacco products incrementally over the next seven years, providing funding for a universal preschool program that would also target resources toward families whose children would benefit most.
Learn more
October 12, 2020
Backers Of A Tobacco Tax And Three Other Oregon Ballot Measures Are Vastly Outraising Their Foes
Last year, Oregon lawmakers referred a $2-a-pack increase in Oregon's cigarette tax to the November 2020 ballot—and backers of the tax hike started amassing a war chest to fight off the deep-pocketed tobacco industry. Yes for a Healthy Future remains the statewide campaign with the most money.
Learn more
October 12, 2020
Group Calls On New York To Raise Tobacco Tax
The New York State Department of Health has released new statistics showing a large percentage of cancer survivors continue to smoke, putting their lives and health at further risk.
Learn more
Backers of Measure 108 hope broad, bipartisan support and a well-funded campaign will push the effort to increase taxes on cigarettes and create a tax on vapes to victory in November.
Learn more
October 12, 2020
Taxation Of Tobacco And Vapor Products On The Ballot In Oregon
Oregon voters will weigh in on taxation of tobacco and nicotine products next month. If voters pass Measure 108, the Tobacco and E-Cigarette Tax Increase for Health Programs Measure, it would increase taxes on cigarettes and cigars and introduce a new tax on vapor products beginning January 2021.
Learn more
The Amherst County Board of Supervisors discussed the possibility of a 27 cent tax to a pack of cigarettes. "Every penny counts," Paul Chona, a local business owner. Chona owns Campbell Food Store in Elon and for him, a tax increase on cigarettes would result in a hit for his entire business.
Learn more
October 9, 2020
Vermont legalizes marijuana sales
Vermont is legalizing marijuana sales. Gov. Phil Scott (R) on Wednesday announced he’ll allow a marijuana sales legalization bill passed by the legislature to take effect. Vermont previously legalized marijuana possession and growing. The latest bill allows and builds a commercialized, tax-and-regulate system, similar to other legalization states’. The legislation is set to take effect this month, but state regulators will have until October 2022 to start issuing licenses for retailers — meaning legal sales could still be as much as two years away. Separately, Scott signed another bill into law that seeks to automate the expungement process for past marijuana convictions, freeing people from their criminal records for marijuana. People who get expungements will receive a notification by mail. The governor’s decision makes Vermont the 11th state to legalize marijuana sales for recreational purposes. A decade ago, zero states had done so. Several other states, including New Jersey and Arizona, will vote on marijuana legalization this November.
Learn more
October 9, 2020
NJ governor who is aggressively pushing for the legalization of marijuana steps up efforts to battle opioid addiction
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy plans to make a virtual appearance on Thursday with an organization looking to end the prohibition of marijuana within the state, for those who are 21 or older. Local officials have fallen short of the necessary votes to pass a legalization bill in the House and Senate several times. Lawmakers have now turned the matter over to voters with a ballot amendment that will be decided this November. New Jersey has been one of the hardest-hit states with regard to the opioid/heroin epidemic. Many cannabis activists have argued marijuana is a useful alternative to powerful narcotics like OxyContin, Percocet, or Fentanyl. It is also said to have less physical side effects and can be less physically addictive than painkillers. "NJ CAN 2020," is a statewide coalition of weed advocates that includes doctors, attorneys, and cannabis business owners who will host the virtual forum at 4:30 p.m., to lobby for the Constitutional amendment, according to NJ.com.
Learn more
October 9, 2020
Chaos and Cannabis: A Hemp Empire Brings Trouble to Navajo Land
In the fertile northeast corner of the Navajo Nation, fields that only months ago were traditional open-air corn farms are now stuffed with hundreds of industrial-size greenhouses, each glowing with artificial lights and brimming with emerald cannabis plants. Security cameras ring the perimeters and hired guards in flak jackets patrol the public roads alongside the farms. Every weekday throughout the summer, a group of local kids woke at sunrise and arrived at the farm by 7:30, ready for a 10-hour shift of hard labor under the high desert sun. Many were teenagers, 13- and 14-year-olds lured by offers of quick cash. A few were as young as 10. Joining them were scores of foreign workers — an estimated 1,000 people, many of them Chinese immigrants brought to New Mexico from Los Angeles, according to Navajo Nation Police Chief Phillip Francisco. Seven-foot-tall black fencing shields the activities inside these greenhouses, but farmworkers, neighbors, and law enforcement officers have provided an inside view. Chinese managers oversee the day-to-day logistics, they say, bringing in diesel generators on freight trucks to power the greenhouses, installing dozens of cheaply built trailers to house the immigrant workers, and drilling unpermitted wells to irrigate thousands of thirsty cannabis plants.
Learn more
The adult-use marijuana club of the United States just grew to 11 with the addition of Vermont on Wednesday.
Learn more
