System rigged against pot legalization opponents

Schedule 1 (the highest) contains the most tightly regulated substances, because they have a “high potential for abuse” and “no now accepted medical use in treatment in the United States”. Pennsylvania now joins just a handful of states with active marijuana reform at all levels with decriminalization ordinances underway in Erie and Easton, a thriving hemp program, a nascent medical cannabis program, and now members of our Congressional delegation involved with national efforts.

Though state regulators for legal cannabis dispensaries are getting the i’s dotted and t’s crossed on the paperwork, the timeline could still change.

But last year’s Legislature, led by State Sen.

“Banks and other depository institutions are now hindered by federal law from providing financial services to cannabis businesses”.

It will be a good question to ask legislative and gubernatorial candidates in 2018.

Marijuana plants grow under artificial light at the Green Pearl Organics dispensary on the first day of legal recreational marijuana sales in California, January 1, 2018, at the Green Pearl Organics marijuana dispensary in Desert Hot Springs, California.

California Representative Barbara Lee introduced a new bill called the Restraining Excessive Federal Enforcement & Regulations of Cannabis (REFER) Act.

When California pioneered medical marijuana decades ago, a system fell into place allowing any so-called patient to sit in front of a doctor (sometimes, of dubious credibility) for a couple minutes to get a medical rec for any reason, from PMS to AIDS.

The attorneys general from seven of the eight states that have legalized recreational marijuana for adults signed the letter.

California’s top law enforcement official and his counterparts in 18 states and territories say Congress must act to end the banking industry’s prohibition on serving the marijuana industry, calling the current state of affairs a public safety threat and a hindrance for law enforcement. “Voters in OR were clear when they chose for OR to legalize the sale of marijuana and the federal government should not stand in the way of the will of Oregonians”. Things didn’t get any clearer when MA U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling responded to the memo with a comment of his own last week stating that, “Congress has unambiguously made it a federal crime to cultivate, distribute and/or possess marijuana”.

James Neal, a manager of The Joint on Market Street, a marijuana shop in northeast Salem, said he was concerned, adding that there was “a lot of nervousness” in the industry about Sessions. As a result of the huge financial disparity, legalization opponents in initiative campaigns are at a monumental electoral disadvantage- it’s actually a “rigged system”.

A new report from the Justice and Homeland Security Departments said that almost three-fourths of the 549 global terror-related convictions in USA courts since the September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda attack involved foreign-born individuals, including 148 granted citizenship after arriving in the United States. It has six cosponsors (two Republicans and four Democrats).

His comments refer to Attorney General Jeff Sessions who recently rescinded an Obama-era law that allows states to regulate marijuana without federal interference. Though her legislation is not ready, details will emerge in the coming weeks.