Carson City is working on a policy for hemp growing as it continues to fight a lawsuit brought by a cultivator who wants to grow it on city open space land. The suit involves Tahoe Hemp LLC’s plans to grow hemp on city-owned open space known as Buzzy’s Ranch. The city purchased the land from the Jarrad family in 2010 with a $2.8 million grant from the state lands division. As part of the purchase and sale agreement, the Jarrad family has the right to continue to use it or lease it for ranching and agricultural purposes as long as it is “preserved and managed in a near natural condition,” according to Carson City municipal code. Last year, Tahoe Hemp applied for a permit to grow hemp on the property from the Nevada Department of Agriculture, which required authorization from the city. The city, concerned the crop would jeopardize its state lands grant, declined to provide authorization and in January Tahoe Hemp sued. The Nevada Appeal reports the city recently responded to an amended complaint. The city’s latest claim says the Jarrad family breached the purchase and sale agreement by inviting Tahoe Hemp to cultivate hemp on the property and requests the court enjoin Tahoe Hemp from growing there. It’s seeking damages in excess of $15,000. At the same time, the Board of Supervisors have imposed a moratorium on hemp growing in the city. Hemp is a legal crop and under current city code would be allowed to grow on land zoned agriculture or indoors on land zoned general industrial. It comes from the same plant as marijuana but the plant must contain less than .3% of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana. The Planning Commission last week began discussing a hemp policy, according to the Appeal. “I think it could be handled on a case-by-case basis with a special use permit,” said Commissioner Jay Wiggins. “I would recommend going the special use permit route similar to marijuana.” Another commissioner raised concerns about water.
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The Oneida Nation’s experiment with hemp farming last year didn’t produce a bumper crop, or really anything of significant material worth, but tribal officials are still optimistic about the crop’s potential. “I wouldn’t say it was unsuccessful,” said Tribal Councilman Ernie Stevens III about last year’s venture. He said the Nation’s hemp production is still in its experimental phase and hopes it could eventually become a lucrative product that can help the tribe to help diversify its revenue. The coronavirus outbreak has highlighted tribes' overdependence on gaming as revenue tumbled this year due to casinos shutting down and only partially reopening because of social distancing requirement, according to the National Indian Gaming Association. The association reported that tribal casinos across the country could lose about $22.4 billion this year, or about half their projected annual revenue. Oneida officials saw an opportunity in hemp after former Gov. Scott Walker approved a pilot program for Wisconsin farmers to produce it in 2017. Hemp is a cousin of marijuana, but it’s required to contain very little of the mind-altering drug THC. Last year, the Oneida Nation set aside about 32 acres of tribal land in Oconto County to plant different varieties of hemp. Stevens III said a hemp used for grain, such as for animal feed or protein bars for people, was planted on about 20 acres. A fiber hemp, used for construction, was planted on about 10 acres and a cannabidiol hemp used for CBD oil was planted in about 1 acre. “The CBD (hemp) did well but it went hot,” said Marcus Gregnon, a member of the Menominee Nation Tribe who is a project partner with the College of Menominee Nation. He means that the hemp tested with more than .3% THC, making it illegal in Wisconsin. Stevens III said outside law enforcement oversaw the destruction of the hemp.
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July 7, 2020
Is prosecuting minor cannabis charges worth it?
First, it is important to note that possessing marijuana in the state of Georgia is still a crime. Throughout the United States, marijuana is legal in some form or another in 33 states, but still illegal on the federal level. Hundreds of thousands are still arrested for possession every year. However, over the past two years, major cities and counties across the nation have decided to not prosecute minor marijuana-related offenses. It is estimated that two-thirds of Americans of all backgrounds and political persuasions support legalization on the federal level. In fact, there are some people that are in jail for violent nonviolent marijuana-related offenses that watched marijuana dispensaries in legal states be classified as an “essential business” during the COVID-19 pandemic. This hardly seems fair. Recently, the Nashville District Attorney’s office announced it will no longer prosecute for possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana. District Attorney Glenn Funk said that “Marijuana charges do little to promote public health, and even less to promote public safety.” D.A. Funk continued, “Demographic statistics indicate that these charges impact minorities in a disproportionate manner. This will eliminate this area of disproportionate results in the justice system. The District Attorney’s office said that this elimination will lower costs for jail housing, courts and clerk’s offices. Closer to home in the state of Georgia, Cobb County, DeKalb County, Fulton County and Gwinnett County have stopped the prosecution of all misdemeanor marijuana possession cases. Gwinnett County Solicitor Brian Whiteside is quoted: “I think ethically and morally we can’t go forward.” Georgia lawmakers made hemp legal in 2019. The legalization of hemp has led to a struggle in the prosecution of possession cases, as hemp looks and smells the same as marijuana. THC is the chemical that produces a “high” after the ingestion of marijuana. Hemp does not contain THC. Thus, neither trained police officers nor dogs can tell the difference between hemp or marijuana, and so far, there is no test readily available to test whether the green plant contains THC. Since there is no way to tell the difference between marijuana and hemp, an officer of the law arguably has no probable cause to search a vehicle based on sight and smell alone. While there have been bills in the Georgia legislature to try and fix this unexpected disparity, nothing concrete has passed. Whether you are for or against the legalization of marijuana, it is factual that minorities are disproportionately arrested for possession of marijuana. It does not stop there. In states where marijuana is legal, 81 percent of cannabis business owners are white and only 4.3 percent are black. ACLU studies show that black people are 264 percent MORE likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession, even though they use at similar rates. Overall, there were about 693,000 cannabis arrests in 2018, with 90 percent of them being for possession, according to the ACLU. Perhaps Georgia should consider the social and economic benefits of legalization in the interest of justice and public safety.
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July 6, 2020
Mississippi Medical Marijuana Activists Relieved After Controversial Legalization Resolution Stalls Out
Mississippi lawmakers recently introduced a new medical marijuana resolution that would’ve represented another threat to an activist-driven reform initiative that will appear on the November ballot. But, to advocates’ relief, the legislation didn’t advance before lawmakers went home for the summer. The resolution, introduced by Sen. Kevin Blackwell (R), called for the suspension of legislative rules so that lawmakers could draft and file a bill to legalize cannabis for therapeutic purposes. It advanced through the Senate Rules Committee last week, but it did not make it onto the floor. The legislature could technically be called back by the lieutenant governor, who presides over the Senate, before October 10—but insiders expect that if that were to happen, the purpose would be to approve emergency legislation related to the coronavirus pandemic. Lawmakers already approved an alternative medical marijuana resolution in March. That one will appear alongside the activist-backed initiative on the ballot, and advocates have argued that the only reason lawmakers passed it was to undermine them by confusing residents and splitting votes. The legislature-approved measure is less specific than the one placed on the ballot with voters’ signatures, leaving room for interpretation and giving lawmakers the opportunity to enact a more restrictive program should it pass. It is also includes a ban on smoking medical cannabis for patients who are not terminally ill. Legislators also introduced another resolution last month that would have suspended legislative rules so that they could craft legislation in accordance with the legislature-approved constitutional amendment on the ballot, presumably so voters would have a better idea of what lawmakers have in mind with their alternative to activists’ measure. It too cleared the Rules Committee but never came to the floor.
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July 6, 2020
The Marijuana Superweapon Biden Refuses to Use
Democratic political consultants dream of issues like marijuana legalization. Democrats are overwhelmingly in favor of it, polls show. So are independents. A majority of Republicans favor it now too. It motivates progressives, young people, and Black Americans to vote. Put it on the ballot, and it’s proved a sure way to boost turnout for supportive politicians. It’s popular in key presidential-election states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Florida, Arizona, and Virginia. There’s no clear political downside—although marijuana legalization motivates its supporters, it doesn’t motivate its opponents. For the Democratic presidential nominee, the upsides of supporting it would include energizing a very committed group of single-issue voters and making a major move toward criminal-justice reform and the Bernie Sanders agenda. Joe Biden won’t inhale. Democrats eager for Biden to support legalization have theories about why he won’t. His aides insist they’re all wrong. It’s not, they say, because he’s from a generation scared by Reefer Madness. It’s not, they say, because he spent a career in Washington pushing for mandatory minimum sentencing and other changes to drug laws. It’s definitely not, according to people who have discussed the policy with him, because he’s a teetotaler whose father battled alcoholism and whose son has fought addiction, and who’s had gateway-drug anxieties drilled into him.
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The Drug Warrior takeover of the Trump administration now seems complete with the ban on CBD use by the military because it might interfere with marijuana testing. The MarijuanaMoment.net website reported the new policy calling it “little-noticed,” which is an accurate but ironic description of what should have been widely announced, if it was meant to inform members of both the active duty and reserve military about something so important. The Department of Defense (DOD) announced the new policy in February, banning all active and reserve service members from using hemp products, including CBD. Ironically, it comes at the same time the NBA says it won’t be testing for marijuana, which is technically still banned, while the teams are “locked down” in Disney World. NBC News reported in February that between 50% and 85% of NBA players use cannabis products. The DoD is concerned about the military using a substance used by more than half of America’s greatest athletes, while Military.com reports that the U.S. is having a hard time finding physically fit recruits. The DoD’s policy banning all “hemp products” is supposedly aimed at protecting “drug testing” for marijuana. Marijuana prohibition seems to cause long-term memory loss, so the DoD may have forgotten that until 2004 the DEA was trying to block even hempseed oil from the U.S. because it might interfere with drug testing. It even opposed use of hemp seed oil in soap and skin care products. The absurdity of the prohibitionist ideology was (and apparently still is) such that in 2004, the Air Force had to issue a press release saying “that hemp skin care products are ‘not prohibited’ under a policy dating back to 2001 that bans ingestion of hemp foods by Air Force personnel.” Of course, alcohol use is not prohibited in the military even though it is a serious problem:
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Georgia’s old voting computers will be moved to a government warehouse at the Port of Savannah, saving taxpayers about $432,000 a year in storage costs. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg recently approved the agreement, which resolves concerns about the expense of preserving 30,000 voting touchscreens for an election security lawsuit. Plaintiffs in the case want to inspect the computers to find out whether they were infected by viruses or malware.The 18-year-old computers, which recorded votes electronically, were replaced this year by a voting system that uses new touchscreens and also prints out paper ballots.The Georgia Ports Authority will store the obsolete equipment, which would fill 48 semi-trailers, at no ongoing cost to the state. The government will pay to transport the computers from rented warehouses to the port.The secretary of state’s office had sought to destroy the computers as state agencies had to reduce spending by 10% in the current fiscal year, which began last week. But the June 25 court order denied the state’s request and required continued storage of the voting computers.Totenberg ordered state and county election officials to collect memory cards and work toward identifying a sample of voting machines for further examination.
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Los Angeles is revamping its rules for handing out licenses to cannabis businesses, amid anger and disappointment over the tumultuous rollout of a program meant to address the damage done by criminalizing marijuana. The rules passed unanimously Wednesday by the Los Angeles City Council tighten the criteria for new applicants seeking to qualify for the “social equity” program, which is supposed to ensure that people from communities hit hardest by the war on drugs benefit from marijuana legalization.
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Delta Cannabis opened in West Memphis, Ark. Wednesday. FOX13 was there as the first customers went through the door. It’s been nearly four years since Arkansas’ legislature passed the Medical Marijuana Amendment. West Memphians FOX13 spoke with said they are excited to have the medicine they need only a short drive from home.
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The House of Representatives approved legislation on Wednesday aimed at finally letting researchers study marijuana purchased from businesses in state-legal markets instead of only letting them use government-grown cannabis, as is the case under current law. The intent of the provision, tucked into a 2,000-plus-page infrastructure bill, is to allow the interstate distribution of such products even to scientists in jurisdictions that have not yet legalized marijuana.
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