That's because I can't get any air....
"Federal officials set policy on states’ marijuana laws; Will not target recreational use if rules followed" by Pete Yost and Gene Johnson | Associated Press, August 30, 2013
WASHINGTON — Despite 75 years of federal marijuana prohibition, the Justice Department said Thursday that states can let people use the drug, license people to grow it, and even allow adults to stroll into stores and buy it — as long as pot is kept away from kids, the black market, and federal property.
In a sweeping new policy statement prompted by marijuana legalization votes in Washington and Colorado last fall, the department gave the green light to states to adopt tight regulatory schemes to oversee the medical and recreational marijuana industries burgeoning across the country.
The action, welcomed by supporters of legalization, could set the stage for more states to legalize marijuana. Alaska could vote on the question next year, and a few other states plan similar votes in 2016.
The policy change embraces what Justice Department officials called a ‘‘trust but verify’’ approach between the federal government and states that enact recreational drug use.
You are an enemy, citizen of the state of (your state's name here).
I guess missiles made out of marijuana are as dangerous as Soviet nuclear arms.
I will say one thing; both will fry you.
Now, what about HSBC and the drug-laundering banks, Eric?
"Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the nation’s banks had become too big to jail. “The size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them,” Holder said at a hearing Wednesday. “If we do prosecute — if we do bring a criminal charges — it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.”
Oh.
Just tru$t, huh?
In a memo to all 94 US attorneys’ offices across the country, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the federal government expects states and local governments authorizing ‘‘marijuana-related conduct’’ will implement strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems that address the threat those state laws could pose to public health and safety.
‘‘If state enforcement efforts are not sufficiently robust . . . the federal government may seek to challenge the regulatory structure itself,’’ the memo stated. States must ensure ‘‘that they do not undermine federal enforcement priorities,’’ it added.
So the change in policy is basically an affirmation of the federal government as arbiter.
Wow, we really do have a fa$ci$t government in all its forms. A true fa$ci$t government, not the nationalist Nazis that were mislabeled by the Jewish narrative of history.
Hell, even Hitler liked a good beer hall party and here we have a government that wants to put the joint out.
The US attorney in Colorado, John Walsh, said he will continue to focus on whether Colorado’s system has the resources and tools necessary to protect key federal public safety interests.
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper said the state is working to improve education and prevention efforts directed at young people and on enforcement tools to prevent access to marijuana by those under age 21. Colorado also is determined to keep marijuana businesses from being fronts for criminal enterprises or other illegal activity, he said, and the state is committed to preventing export of marijuana while also taking more steps to keep state roads safe from impaired drivers.
Yeah, just ignore the money-laundering banks and CIA front companies transporting the stuff.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee also laid out guidelines for marijuana entrepreneurs.
‘‘If you don’t sell this product to children, if you keep violent crime away from your business, if you pay your taxes and you don’t use this as a front for illicit activity, we’re going to be able to move forward,’’ Inslee said.
Well, statistics show there is is no increase and often a decrease.
So what do you say to that?
Hey?
Hey! You stoned?
--more--"
Related:
Mandatory drug term critics hail new US policy
Holder’s move on sentences gets a duly respectful hearing
This looks like a good place to light up:
"US still cites marijuana users in parks" by Gene Johnson | Associated Press, September 17, 2013
TACOMA — Karen Strand didn’t think she'd get in trouble for having a small container of medical marijuana when she went hiking in Olympic National Park this summer.
President Obama, she remembered, had said the federal government had ‘‘bigger fish to fry’’ than people who follow state marijuana laws, and Washington state had just legalized marijuana.
Yeah, I am feeling kind of hungry.
But a ranger pulled her over and Strand wound up as one of at least 27,700 people cited for having marijuana on federal land since 2009, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal court data. The number of citations is small compared to the hundreds of millions of visitors to national parks, forests, and monuments each year.
But it nevertheless illustrates one of the many issues Washington, Colorado, and other states face in complying with last month’s Justice Department memo that requires them to address eight federal law enforcement priorities if they want to regulate marijuana. Among those priorities is keeping marijuana use and possession off federal property.
State officials have no plans to license marijuana gardens or stores on federal land, but beyond that, they say, it isn’t clear what they can do to discourage backpackers or campers from bringing a few joints into Rocky Mountain or Mount Rainier National Park.
Thousands receive tickets annually charging them with having marijuana on US property, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine. The charges typically don’t result in jail time but often do require at least one court appearance. They are frequently negotiated down to an infraction, akin to a traffic ticket, and a fine of up to a few hundred dollars.
This greedy, money-addicted government seems no better than the drug cartels.
--more--"
Related: Agents raid giant pot farm, officials
The Mexican drug cartels are growing pot on federal land? What f***ing good is all the spying s*** then? They have choppers flying overhead in your neighborhood to spot every stray bush!
Meanwhile, the burning of the home fires:
"More than 100 seek to open medical marijuana shops" by Chelsea Conaboy | Globe Staff, August 22, 2013
More than 100 applicants filed requests Thursday for a license to operate a medical marijuana dispensary in Massachusetts, but nearly two-thirds may ultimately be turned away. Under the state law approved by voters last November, the state may license up to 35 dispensaries this year.
“We’re glad that it was a highly competitive process,” said Cheryl Bartlett, commissioner of the Department of Public Health. “It will ensure patients access to the medical use of marijuana in the Commonwealth.”
Bartlett said the department plans to choose the dispensaries before the end of the year after a careful review, and it could take several more months before the facilities begin operating.
And how many more people will suffer while the state drags its heels?
“Today patients are one step closer to safely accessing their medicine,” Matt Allen, executive director of the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, said in a press release. The alliance advocated for the medical marijuana ballot question.
In the first review phase, applicants are not required to say where they hope to operate. Instead, they must clear a background check and prove their financial viability by showing they have at least $500,000 to get started. The department in mid-September will announce which applicants have cleared those preliminary hurdles.
The second phase will be more detailed, including site reviews and evaluations of dispensaries’ ability to maintain a secure facility and meet people’s health needs. The applicants also must secure local support.
That could prove to be tricky for some. Several Massachusetts towns banned the dispensaries before the attorney general said towns can regulate the facilities but not prohibit them altogether. Some have instead instituted a moratorium while they change health and zoning rules.
“Surely there will be proposals that will be inconsistent with what the community would like, and that will be the challenge throughout this process,” said Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. “We believe that local wishes should be given extraordinary weight.”
On this they care what communities think!
Leaders in some towns have signaled that they are open to hosting a dispensary, adjusting their zoning rules without a moratorium. Among them is Norwell, where organizers of the nonprofit Mass Medi-Spa would like to open a facility to grow, process, and sell medical marijuana products. If their plan is approved, they would also sell at a dispensary on Nantucket.
Chief executive Jeffrey Roos said the group has the $900,000 it needs under state regulations as initial capital for the two locations, more money promised from investors, and board members with experience running dispensaries in New Jersey and Colorado. It also has a license on a technology to collect oil from the marijuana plant that can be used to infuse candies or other food with doses of the plant’s active compounds.
“We’re not a pot shop,” he said. “It’s a different mentality, I think, than a lot of people have. We’re trying to change some attitudes about the industry.”
Roos said he has already begun talking with local officials in Norwell. The opening of a dispensary “affects a lot of people,” he said. “We want to make sure that the community that we operate in, they want us there.”
The list of applications will be posted online Friday at mass.gov/medicalmarijuana.
They posted the names on line? What if an employer wants to start snooping around?
--more--"
I don't think I will be making the li$t.
"181 vie for Mass. medical marijuana dispensary licenses" by Chelsea Conaboy | Globe Staff, August 24, 2013
Leaders of New England Treatment Access are counting on strong finances and industry experience in other states to win state approvals for the medical marijuana dispensaries they are planning in Brookline, Northampton, and New Bedford.
Jonathan Napoli, owner of a Roxbury gardening store and founder of The Hempest clothing shops, is hoping meanwhile that his record as a local businessman will help his team secure licenses to operate in Boston, Dennis, and Salem under the name Planting Hope.
The two groups’ proposals are among 181 applications competing for up to 35 dispensary licenses the state may issue under the medical marijuana law approved by voters in November.
The Department of Public Health released a list of applicants Friday. The pool is varied, including smaller entrepreneurs, some with backing from Massachusetts physicians, and larger-scale operators looking to bring what they have learned in Colorado or New Jersey to the industry in Massachusetts.
The size of the applicant pool “exceeded most people’s expectations,” said Scott Hawkins, who has consulted on medical marijuana around the country and is working with several Massachusetts applicants, including New England Treatment Access.
Several would-be operators said they expect as many as 2 percent of people in Massachusetts to register for access to medical marijuana, a figure loosely based on the number of customers in Colorado.
That may be an overestimate. Recreational use in Colorado has historically been more common, and Massachusetts officials have pledged tighter regulation of the industry.
******************************
The dispensaries must follow a seed-to-sale model, growing the large majority of the marijuana products they sell to customers, who must have doctor approvals to use the drug and must register with the state.
How come we can't have that for the food?
In addition to selling the plant, dispensaries must sell devices allowing people to ingest the drug as vapor rather than by smoking.
The shops can also sell edible forms. Napoli, for example, plans to juice raw cannabis, a form he said provides medicinal benefits without the psychoactive effects.
Government always has to take the fun out of things when they legalize.
Why are they even involved in a plant that will grow outside your door on your own land? What business is it of theirs anyway?
Applicants interviewed Friday were confident that they can prevail in a crowded field.
**************************
Kevin Fisher, president of New England Treatment Access and an owner of Rocky Mountain Remedies in Colorado, was recruited to the project by a team led by Arnon Vered, who works for the Kessler Group, a financial services company, and is chief executive of the new nonprofit. Kessler family members have a history of philanthropy in the Massachusetts health care industry, and medical marijuana “is just a new area for the family to be involved in,” Vered said.
His group has the $1.3 million that the state requires for start-up capital.
You have a spare million-three lying around, reader, or did it go up in smoke?
The voters vote for medical marijuana, and the state sets it up so those that benefit are the $ame old financial intere$ts?
You better pass me that joint because I'm getting kinda angry!
Now that I'm all mellowed out, maybe you could crowdfund from the couch at home.
**************************
Applicants are not required to provide the state with detailed information about their plans just yet. The first phase of vetting includes a criminal background check and a financial review.
Do banker's undergo such a rigorous review?
In mid-September, the state will announce which applicants have been cleared for a more detailed review of proposed locations and operations. The applicants must then prove that they have local support.
******************************
A panel of Boston public health officials, police, and representatives from other city agencies has been meeting to discuss how to balance the medical marijuana program with neighborhood concerns.
********************************
Michael Weisser, a businessman, leads another of the applicants. In Colorado, his dispensaries go by the name Rocky Mountain High. For its Massachusetts proposal, his group chose a more conservative moniker: Massachusetts Compassionate Care Corp.
“We bring a professionalism to this business,” said Weisser, who has developed shopping plazas and other commercial real estate in several states and has one of just six dispensary licenses issued in New Jersey. “We operate strictly within the law.”
Weisser’s nonprofit proposed sites in Worcester and Suffolk counties, though he would not say where exactly. Plans can change, he said....
Weisser said he has hired the Dewey Square Group to push the proposal and manage local planning. The public affairs firm also lobbied on behalf of the ballot question that created the Massachusetts medical marijuana program.
--more--"
Also see: 158 applicants to vie for 35 marijuana licenses
I hope you understand if I forget to post anything the rest of this evening.
