Tag: marijuana

Consumers want more for le$$

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Even as Americans fork out more cash for upscale forms of caffeine and alcohol, there’s one thing they increasingly want in bulk, for cheap: marijuana.

In Tilray’s fourth-quarter call last week, Chief Executive Officer Irwin Simon said that Covid-19 prompted more people to shop for marijuana online, and that worked against premium brands. That contrasts with the “premiumization” trend of consumers trading up to higher-priced products that companies including Molson Coors and Starbucks talked about in earnings calls last week.

Tilray isn’t the only one noticing: A Stifel survey of almost 500 marijuana users across the U.S. and Canada came to the same conclusion.

Gotta save on household expenses, somehow, eh?

Happy Weed Day!

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Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham

I was deeply proud to sign this bill into law because I know it will open up so many opportunities for New Mexico. Opportunities for workers and entrepreneurs to build prosperous careers. Opportunities to generate more revenue for state and local governments. And opportunities to mend the harm done by the failed war on drugs – which has taken a disproportionate toll on communities of color.

This is the kind of change I’m dreaming of when I talk about building a brighter future for New Mexico – a win-win that allows both individuals and communities to thrive. Together, we’ll keep fighting to make our bold agenda a reality. This session, we’ve proven that it’s possible.

If you search around the Web, no doubt you’ll find the occasional nod to the new law here in New Mexico. We’re all proud of the law and the governor who got it through the Roundhouse. I’ve already rec’d happy notes from friends back East who are ready to visit at the drop of a joint.

Funny thing is … I haven’t smoked ANYTHING since about 1960. Decided it wasn’t a healthy habit and quit. Probably got a bit of a contact high now and then the years I was singing. I really haven’t yet researched quite how I might introduce some flavor or other of New Mexico Home Grown into my daily calorie intake.

Probably try a brownie recipe or something like that … some Friday, my bread-baking day. 🙂

State revenue from marijuana is hazy at best

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…Now that 10 states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana, officials are grappling with projecting collections from a new sin tax. Forecasting revenue from a product that was illegal just a few years ago, and remains so under federal law and in most states, presents a unique challenge for state budget planning. For example, in Nevada’s first six months of collecting marijuana taxes, revenue came in 40 percent higher than budget officials expected, but in neighboring California revenue was 45 percent below projections in the first six months of collecting marijuana taxes.

And with more states considering legalizing marijuana, forecasting and budgeting difficulties for revenue from recreational marijuana taxes are likely to become widespread. These challenges have consequences: If tax collections come in below forecasted amounts, for example, programs that are funded by these dollars could suffer.

The Yellow Brick Road may be paved with nothing more than yellow bricks instead of the gold forecast by libertarian optimism. Don’t spend it before you get it, folks!

Canada’s legalization of cannabis is a success story

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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, and advised the Canadian government and some provinces on how to develop regulations prior to legalization. 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…

Transform also raised the need for amnesty for those convicted of simple possession and use when cannabis was illegal.

Criminal records dog these individuals, affecting everything from employment opportunities to travel to foreign countries.

While there have been some few pardons, the process is erratic, bureaucratic and doesn’t erase records causing follow-on negatives. Amnesty across the board would erase a problem past it’s sell-by date.

Democratic candidates roll up to support legal weed

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Kamala Harris, asked whether she had ever smoked pot: ‘Half my family’s from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?’


Brian Cahn/Shutterstock

❝ Among 2020 candidates, marijuana legalisation is a mainstream issue. Among Democrats, nearly all have expressed at least some degree of support. Even Donald Trump’s lone Republican challenger, the former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, supports it. Advocates are optimistic that the 2020 election could help bring an end to the federal prohibition of the drug.

“The support for marijuana legalisation has quickly become a litmus test in the 2020 Democratic primary,” said Erik Altieri, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Norml). “With the upcoming primary, it is also clear that support for prohibition is ultimately disqualifying with the Democratic electorate – and with the American electorate generally.”

If you aren’t supporting legalization – for purportedly moral reasons, some particular religious fetish, political dementia which has your brain locked into, say, the 16th Century – then, you might be missing the simple economics of “sin taxes” derived from social use of cannabis just as they are realized from beer and the hard stuff.

States generally include a proviso to spend all or most of those funds on something beneficial like education. Again, another issue which American conservatives seem honor bound to ignore. Hopefully, voters will learn to ignore stupidity as thoroughly as they’re starting to reject incompetence.

WHO Proposes Downgrading Cannabis Under International Law

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❝ The World Health Organization (WHO) is proposing downgrading cannabis under international law for the first time, in light of growing evidence of its legitimate medicinal benefits.

❝ Currently classified by the WHO as schedule IV – the same class as heroin – which is the most strictly controlled category, the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) has proposed to reschedule cannabis, and other cannabis-related products as a schedule I classification. What’s more, they’ve proposed removing non-THC (the psychoactive component of cannabis) cannabis products, such as CBD oil, from international drug controls completely.

WHO spent way too much time paying attention to thugs like Nixon BITD. Overdue at WHO. Overdue in the US of A.

Politics of the War on Drugs Still Targets People of Color

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❝ THE HUGE FAILURE we know as the “war on drugs” is back in full force under the Trump administration, thanks in no small part to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s retrograde tough-on-crime approach to drugs. It’s not hard to understand why someone like Sessions, with a history of racism, would love the war on drugs: In reality, it was always a war on a very particular set of people — and you can probably guess who those people are. And yet despite Sessions’s best efforts, there’s been a lot of progress on legalizing marijuana; opinions are changing and, in a lot of places, so are laws.

❝ At the intersection of these pushes to legalize weed and the so-called war on drugs, there are a bevy of major scandals unfolding, all of which are ravaging communities of color. And here’s the thing about these scandals: They can’t simply be blamed on President Donald Trump and his team. Instead, they’re deeply rooted in a bipartisan type of anti-blackness…

❝ In 2016, more people were arrested for simple marijuana possession in the United States than all violent crimes combined. More than one person is arrested every minute for marijuana possession in this country. An astounding 574,641 people were arrested for simple marijuana possession in the U.S. in 2016 — that’s 89 percent of all marijuana-related arrests. These aren’t dealers, distributors, or kingpins. They are just everyday people with a little bit of weed.

The continuing arrests are part of a long pattern. From 2000 to 2010, an astounding 7,216,000 arrests were made in the U.S. for simple marijuana possession. How many lives were ruined as a result? How many people lost their jobs? Their right to vote? How many of those people lost their college financial aid? How many were jailed or sent to prison? How many of those people were moms or dads that were ripped away from their families?

Cops pick on easy targets, folks who are obviously enemies of the status quo – especially when in America, racism is the status quo. Political scumbags like Sessions and Trump know they needn’t direct coppers to follow racist standards. The practices are still guaranteed. RTFA.

Legalize it! Join Senator Booker

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❝ On January 1, California, Maine, and Massachusetts joined the growing list of states that legalized recreational marijuana.

Yet, Attorney General Jeff Sessions just announced that he will end the current policy of federal non-interference, so that the Justice Department could crack down on marijuana in states where it has been legalized for recreational use.

❝ For decades, the failed war on drugs has locked up millions of nonviolent drug offenders, especially for marijuana-related offenses. This has wasted human potential, torn apart families and communities, and squandered massive sums of taxpayer dollars.

That’s why I introduced the Marijuana Justice Act to call for the legalization of marijuana at the federal level. Will you sign my petition and call on your senators to join me in moving this critical legislation forward?

❝ Add your name to the Marijuana Justice Act, which will remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances and look to reverse the decades of failed policies that disproportionately target communities of color.

Sign Sen. Booker’s petition

If passed into law, the Marijuana Justice Act would have an immediate impact on our criminal justice system, policing, our communities, and even the economy. This legislation would remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances, making it legal at the federal level.

Overdue, folks. Overdue.