Clergy for a New Drug Policy in Connecticut
Religious leaders located from Connecticut have recently gathered at the State Capitol with something other than religion they are battling for. These members have created the group Clergy United To Regulate Marijuana with hopes that marijuana will be recreational, bringing in tax dollars and allowing the police to allocate their resources into other more serious crimes.
They bring many arguments in support for the legalization and creating a recreational market, such as how students in Illinois are already taking marijuana cultivation courses at community colleges.
“It’s providing opportunities for kids that were very recently in back alleys selling unregulated marijuana to people,” says Rev. Alexander Sharp, a minister who worked on the Illinois bill last year. “One of the key features of the regulated system being discussed by lawmakers is that cannabis will be produced and sold by legitimate taxpaying businesses, instead of drug cartels and criminals,” said the Rev. Charlie L. Stallworth of the East End Baptist Tabernacle Church in Bridgeport. “Instead of continuing to fuel organized crime, the money spent on cannabis in our state can and should be used to help revitalize communities that have been disproportionately harmed by the enforcement of laws against cannabis.”
Dispensary Dumpster Diving Reported Nationwide
Provisioning centers around the country are reporting cases where their dumpsters have been scavenged through and left in shambles in purported attempts to hopefully score disposed cannabis products. These unfortunate attempts are costing store owners quite a bit in damages and some even resorting to putting their garbage bins under lock and key.
Oklahoma’s News 4 reported that one dispensary left food available near one of the dumpsters located at their building, not knowing that hunger wasn’t the reason they were getting broken into. Each state has their own set of regulations on how to properly dispose of cannabis products. In Michigan, Rule 36 as posted by LARA Marijuana Regulatory Agency states that “Marihuana product that is to be destroyed or is considered waste must be rendered into an unusable and unrecognizable form and recorded in the statewide monitoring system.” It also details that “A licensee shall dispose of marihuana product in a secured waste receptacle using 1 or more of the following: (a) A manned and permitted solid waste landfill, (b) A manned compostable materials operation or facility, (c) an in-vessel digester, (d) In a manner in compliance with applicable state and local laws and regulations.”
Provisioning centers around the country are reporting cases where their dumpsters have been scavenged through and left in shambles in purported attempts to hopefully score disposed cannabis products. These unfortunate attempts are costing store owners quite a bit in damages and some even resorting to putting their garbage bins under lock and key. Oklahoma’s News 4 reported that one dispensary left food available near one of the dumpsters located at their building, not knowing that hunger wasn’t the reason they were getting broken into. Each state has their own set of regulations on how to properly dispose of cannabis products. In Michigan, Rule 36 as posted by LARA Marijuana Regulatory Agency states that “Marihuana product that is to be destroyed or is considered waste must be rendered into an unusable and unrecognizable form and recorded in the statewide monitoring system.” It also details that “A licensee shall dispose of marihuana product in a secured waste receptacle using 1 or more of the following: (a) A manned and permitted solid waste landfill, (b) A manned compostable materials operation or facility, (c) an in-vessel digester, (d) In a manner in compliance with applicable state and local laws and regulations.”
Massachusetts Gets New Board, Rec Opening Soon
Boston is getting ready to open its doors to it’s first recreational marijuana store, Pure Oasis. Ahead of its opening, Mayor Martin J. Walsh has appointed five members to sit on a board panel, issuing licenses as well as advising his office regarding cannabis policies and regulations. The panel was created in November with hopes that The Cannabis Board would improve the process of licensing.
Massachusetts first decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana in 2008, approving medical marijuana in 2012 making it the 18th state in the U.S. to approve of medical marijuana, eventually leading to the legalization of recreational marijuana in Massachusetts as of 2016.
Boston is getting ready to open its doors to it’s first recreational marijuana store, Pure Oasis. Ahead of its opening, Mayor Martin J. Walsh has appointed five members to sit on a board panel, issuing licenses as well as advising his office regarding cannabis policies and regulations. The panel was created in November with hopes that The Cannabis Board would improve the process of licensing.
Massachusetts first decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana in 2008, approving medical marijuana in 2012 making it the 18th state in the U.S. to approve of medical marijuana, eventually leading to the legalization of recreational marijuana in Massachusetts as of 2016.
Feds Play Budget Games, More Drug Enforcement
The Trump administration has proposed ending the existing policy that protects states as far as creating marijuana legalization efforts. A rider on the annual budget, renewed every year since 2014, prevents the Federal Justice Department from using funds to stop territories and states “from implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
The Trump administration has proposed ending the existing policy that protects states as far as creating marijuana legalization efforts. A rider on the annual budget, renewed every year since 2014, prevents the Federal Justice Department from using funds to stop territories and states “from implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
Trumps budget plan also calls for a 90% cut in funding for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), taking them from $425 million in 2020 to $29 million in 2021. A portion of the funds would be transferred to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for the purpose of impoving “coordination of drug enforcement efforts among Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies in the U.S.” with a new effort called the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program. ONDCP, an office of the white house, were thrilled about the Presidents request for $35.7 billion to go toward counter drug efforts. According to director Jim Carroll, “President Trump has brought a relentless, whole-of-government approach to combating the crisis of addiction in our country.”
The budget does promote hemp, calling for the comparatively tiny sum of $17 million in 2021 to create a national program for the now legal product. Some point out it also calls for the removal of hemp protections at the state level, however, others point out that the rider is redundant now that hemp is federally legal.
While the Obama administration also called for the states marijuana protection rider to be removed from the budget, Trumps anti-drug stance makes this move one to watch.
