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Crosscurrents

Cannabis News Roundup: 03.26.16

Used under license from Creative Commons – CCO
Untitled, by Flores y Plantas (cropped )

NORML supports AUMA… Holder calls for reclassification… Black arrests still out of proportion to population… A look at the future of cannabis clubs… “Taxing cannabis is horrible”… Sing along with Willie & Merle… and more.

LEGALIZATION & LEGISLATION

NORML supports AUMA // SF Gate  The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws endorses the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) , despite reservations. NORML is the oldest marijuana reform organization in the U.S.

Holder now supports reclassification of cannabis // Marijuana.com  Eric Holder was the U.S. attorney general at this time last year. He could have started the process of rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I drug. He didn’t do that. Now, after leaving office, he says that classification “is clearly not appropriate.”

COPS & COURTS

Arrests for marijuana have dropped – unless you’re black // SFWeekly   Over a thousand people were arrested on felony drug charges in San Francisco in 2014; and just over 400 of them were black.

Santa Rosa approves restricted commercial grow sites // Press Democrat   “The City Council’s 6-0 vote … represents a middle ground between the ban on large-scale pot growing city officials originally had proposed in response to new state law and the industry’s interest in establishing legal, permitted operations across a broader swath of the city, including shopping malls.”

L.A. city attorney moves to shut down pot delivery service // L.A. Times   "Marijuana delivery services circumvent the will of the voters who passed Proposition D," city attorney Mike Feuer said. "My office will continue to ensure that only qualified patients, and primary caregivers, can transport medical marijuana."

Hash oil leads to arrests at Anaheim dispensary // Orange County Register  “Hash oil has become more popular because while marijuana has about 15 percent THC, its main intoxicant, hash oil has a THC rating of 30 to 80 percent."

BUSINESS

“The city’s cleanest-smelling club”//7X7 magazine   “The new Harvest is downright magical—a signal of what’s to come from next generation pot clubs,” says David Downs, about this new San Francisco dispensary.

Canadian drug stores eye recreational cannabis market // The Globe and Mail  “The mere entrance of the big pharmacies into the business is a threat to retailers who covet the recreational pot business, since the medical business could serve as a springboard into the eventual recreational market.”

HEALTH

Colorado tourists overdo it with first legal pot experiences // Albuquerque Journal  “The physicians [at a hospital near the airport] found that the rate of emergency-room visits possibly related to marijuana doubled among out-of-state residents in the first year of recreational pot sales. The rate went from 85 per 10,000 visits in 2013 to 168 per 10,000 visits in 2014.  … the increase has two likely explanations: more people using pot, and more patients fessing up about using pot to doctors because it’s legal.”

Canadian court strikes down ban on medical “home grown” // CBC  "[M]edical cannabis can be grown safely, cheaply, effectively, with no risk to anyone … as long as it's done properly and in accordance with municipal bylaws," judge says.

OPINION

Taxing medical marijuana is “a horrible idea” // News & Review, Sacto   Why not tax penicillin or oxycodone, while you’re at it?  That’s simple: because California doesn’t tax medicines.

IN OTHER NEWS….

Willie and Merle – “It’s All Going to Pot” //  YouTube  Join country outlaws Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard in the chorus of this song: “I've got a $100 bill / You can keep your pills / 'Cause it's all going to pot.”  

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