(Reuters) // We’ve mention here that cannabis legalization faces more than federal resistance; there are also United Nations treaties to consider. And now the International Narcotics Control Board is reminding the US that it is “obliged to ensure nationwide implementation” of drug laws "to which the United States is party." And that includes preventing recreational use of marijuana.
(DenverPost) // But Senator Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader, said this week that the federal government shouldn’t provide money for federal enforcement of drug laws in states that have their own regulations in place.
(EastBayExpress) // Closer to home, Gavin Newsom, who has said he doesn’t know what the Lieutenant Governor does, is currently using his high profile title to support cannabis legalization.
(NPR) // “The medically interesting issue [about marijuana] is the individual chemicals in marijuana, not the plant itself… I'm in favor of that, and the people who are supporting medical marijuana are against it because all they want is to smoke dope."
That’s one of the comments by Dr. Robert DuPont heard Tuesday on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” program. Dr. DuPont is a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School. He previously served at director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
(EpochNews) // Our neighbor to the north plans to make major changes in its Marijuana Medical Access Program in an attempt to curb abuse.
(InSightCrime) // Our neighbor to the South still has major drug cartels operating, but no one will be reading about them any longer in the local newspapers of northern Mexico. An editorial published this week by the Zocalo newspaper group explains “all information related to organized crime” has been suspended after viable threats against the publisher.
(SafeAccessNow) // Launder money from drug cartels, and you’ll have fewer legal hassles than if you open a legal cannabis dispensary. That’s Kris Hermes’s opinion in a commentary about “Too Big to Jail,” an expose of the banking industry that appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.
(Toke of the Town) // If you’re going to be a drug smuggler, don’t use one of the world’s most secure military bases as your drop location. This was the take-away message last week from Vandenberg Air Force Base, a missile testing range on the California coast, where bales of marijuana were found hidden on the beach. No one has come forward to claim the stash.
[A Note to Readers: Cannabis news never takes a holiday, but your aggregator-in-chief does, so next week’s Roundup will be posted on Wednesday, instead of Friday. And there will be no Roundup the following week, April 5. The Cannabis News Roundup will return on April 12. Thank you for reading.]