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Law The Cannabis Chronicles - Misc Cannabis News

Study: Medical Marijuana Could Save Medicaid $1 Billion

Marijuana is a drug. This nobody can deny. Look: there it is—marijuana!—on the country’s Controlled Substances Act, the list of America’s most dangerous drugs.

But when they’re not being bad, drugs are also medicine. And, in the 28 states where medical cannabis is legal, so is marijuana. In those 28 states, something interesting happened over the past decade: sick people on Medicaid filled fewer prescriptions—so fewer prescriptions, that if medical marijuana were available in all 50 states, Americans would save more than $1 billion on Medicaid costs, according to a new study.

By now, it’s no secret that cannabis is useful for many of the ailments associated with aging and accompanying serious diseases including chronic pain and cancer (two common ailments for which the typical pharmaceutical cocktail prescribed by a doctor will include some kind of opiate).

Seeking to quantify the extent to which cannabis flower, CBD oil and other medical marijuana preparations may be supplementing or replacing outright prescription pharmaceuticals, researchers from Health Affairs studied prescription data from Medicaid programs in states between 2007 and 2014. And, in five out of the nine clinical categories examined, the authors found fewer prescriptions filled where cannabis was available. Far, far fewer prescriptions.

Specifically, the authors found “a 13 percent reduction for drugs used to treat depression, a 17 percent reduction for those used to treat nausea, 12 percent reductions for those used to treat psychosis and those used to treat seizure disorders, and an 11 percent reduction for drugs used to treat pain.”

“If all states had had a medical marijuana law in 2014, we estimated that total savings for fee-for-service Medicaid could have been $1.01 billion,” the authors wrote. “Our findings suggest that patients and physicians in the community are reacting to the availability of medical marijuana as if it were medicine.” (cont)
 
little miss deadly said:
A new feature length documentary from Australia.A story of optimism and hope.:popcorn:

A life of its own: The truth about Medical Marijuana.



:hug:
Click to expand...

Oh my, its an hour and 25 minutes long. I really would love to watch it, but will have to make time. Thanks for posting.
 
Pot Smokers Wanted! Researchers Seek 25,000 Cannabis Users for Study
With fake weed news all over the place these days, one should not make any significant life style changes or travel plans without doing some due diligence.

Having said that, it appears to be true that Berlin’s Research Initiative on Cannabis Consumption is seeking government approval to analyze recreational weed smokers in order to better understand the effects of pot after a period of several years of use.

How many smokers will they need?

According to German publication the Local—25,000!

The Research Initiative submitted its application entitled “Scientific Study on Cannabis Sequences for Mentally Healthy Adult Consumers” to the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) in early April.

Although recreational weed is not yet legal in Germany—medical marijuana was legalized in January of this year, and people are already applying to light up and be analyzed.

As part of the study, those selected would be permitted to pick up 30 grams of pharmaceutical cannabis, usually reserved for MMJ patients, on a monthly basis.

There are a few restrictions on potential participants: candidates must be over 18, they must NOT be first-time weed smokers and they cannot have high-risk of addiction or psychiatric problems. (cont).

Ok, any one here up for lessons in German?
 
Colorado governor talks pot with Sessions.

Governor John Hickenlooper had a meeting with Jeff Sessions, and said the attorney general is "very concerned" about drug consumption and "feels strongly" that increased marijuana use is unhealthy for the country. Hickenlooper said Sessions didn't give him "any reason to think that he's going to come down and suddenly try to put everyone out of business." Sessions spoke of having other drug enforcement priorities like heroin and methamphetamine. "But [that] doesn't mean that he feels in any way that he should be cutting some slack to marijuana," said Hickenlooper.

http://www.msnbc.com/mtp-daily/watch/full-interview-hickenlooper-makes-the-case-for-large-tent-democrats-930257475804
 
New cannabis banking bill.

House rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) introduced the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act (SAFE Banking Act) on Thursday. The legislation would allow financial institutions to serve the cannabis industry without fearing federal regulators. Currently, cannabis companies have difficulties accessing financial services and conduct their business in cash. "There’s just too much danger in the buildup of cash," said Perlmutter. "We’ve got to get the federal laws and the state laws to align and not be in conflict with one another." The Cannabist


I don't think any of these legalization or industry protection bills will pass this year, but this is progress. Who would have ever thought that there would be multiple MJ legalization bills floating around in the Federal Congress. But I hope I'm wrong.
 
Federal Government Admits Marijuana Legalization Doesn’t Lead to Teen Use

Baron23: Long article but particularly see the highlighted part down about 2/3's

On April 20, as more Americans than ever before celebrated the right to use cannabis with more freedom than ever before, the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) released a long-awaited policy paper on marijuana in America.

The NDAA, which so far has reacted to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s old-school, hard-line approach to law-and-order in America with a welcome embrace, called for the federal Justice Department to enforce federal drug laws “consistently” across the country (a not-so-coded way of calling for a crackdown).

One reason why federal law needs strict enforcing, the prosecutors argued, is the children—who also have greater access to marijuana than ever before, they claimed.

“Legalization of marijuana for purported medicinal and recreational purposes has increased access by children,” the NDAA wrote. “For all of these reasons, it is vitally important to do all we can to prevent access to marijuana by youth in America. Their health, safety and welfare demand no less.”

To support its claim that marijuana legalization leads to increased teen use, the NDAA cited a report from “Rethinking Access to Marijuana,” a “group of community-based organizations” located in Los Angeles briefly active during the lead-up to California’s successful legalization initiative.

“The greater the number of marijuana outlets in your city, the more youth will have access to it (usually by way of an adult), and with more access, use rates among youth under 21 will go up,” an unsigned report posted on RAM’s website reads. “….[T]he research is mounting showing that youth marijuana use is a much bigger deal than previously thought.”

You’d certainly be led to think so, if all you listened to were certain law-enforcement sources. According to the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area—one of the many multi-jurisdictional anti-drug efforts overseen by the White House drug czar—youth marijuana use increased 20 percent after Colorado legalized the drug.

The “legalization leads to kids getting stoned” argument is so compelling, it’s made its way from cops to politicians like Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who also claims that legalization leads to “more kids using marijuana.”

It’s currently one of the central pillars of what is possibly the nation’s most prominent anti-legalization group, Project SAM—whose leader, former White House anti-drug staffer Kevin Sabet, gave a speech arguing for continued marijuana prohibition at a drug and opiate-abuse summit on April 20.

Project SAM has spent the past few months calling out Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper—who opposed marijuana legalization from the start—for publicly contradicting these key arguments.

Hickenlooper is repeating what state public officials have said, citing state data that shows no rise in teen use. It’s inconvenient for the cops, district attorneys and the Kevin Sabets of the world, but federal public health officials—you know, the people whose official line is that cannabis is highly addictive and has no medical value—are with Hickenlooper.

Earlier this week, a report co-authored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse chief Nora Volkow was published in JAMA Psychiatry. (NIDA was the organization that recently and quietly updated its website to admit that, yes, just as a majority of American scientists say, medical marijuana is real.)

Volkow and her co-authors directly address this issue. For reasons that will become obvious, Project SAM likely won’t cite this report.

“Primary attention has been on rates of use among youth, as early adolescent use has been linked to an increased risk for addiction to cannabis and other drugs,” Volkow’s report, entitled “Medical Marijuana Laws and Cannabis Use,” reads. “To our knowledge, research to date has not documented an increase in cannabis use by adolescents in the United States overall or in those states that enacted new marijuana laws.”
 
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U.S. Marijuana Czar: Cannabis “Most Dangerous Drug on the Market”

On marijuana policy, the big-talking, fast-moving, ultimately self-defeating Trump administration is currently frozen in stasis.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has yet to back up any of his tough talk on marijuana with action—this week, appearing to inch even closer to maintaining the current uneasy truce—and pharmaceutical industry-backed Rep. Tom Marino, the president’s thoroughly awful choice for drug czar, has yet to be confirmed.

In the meantime, Ed Shemelya, the country’s “marijuana czar,” is making the rounds, going to places like Wisconsin—where he recently declared cannabis “a generational nightmare,” and “the most misunderstood and dangerous drug on the market,” the Janesville Gazette reported.

Shemelya, a former Kentucky state trooper, is director of the National Marijuana Initiative. The NMI is one of several nationwide drug-education and drug-interdiction efforts that fall under the purview of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (which Marino will soon lead).

So, when Shemelya says something, he says it with the full weight and gravitas of the federal government behind him.

On Thursday, he spoke to a local anti-drug group in Beloit, Wisconsin, a small city on the state’s border with Iowa, and to a group of 35 people gathered at a local church, Shemelya expounded “on marijuana myths.”

Here’s the Gazette’s reporter on scene (warning: paywall):

“Today, marijuana isn’t what it was 10 years ago,” Shemelya said. He noted that the drug is more potent now than it once was.

Twenty-nine states have legalized some form of marijuana for medicinal use, and eight states and Washington, D.C., have legalized it for recreational use. Still, Shemelya said, it’s the most misunderstood and dangerous drug on the market…

He called marijuana a “generational nightmare” because children and teenagers think the drug is safe.

Not far away from Beloit is the city of Milwaukee, a place surely known to lawmen like Shemelya, if for no other reason than its colorful, cowboy hat-wearing, TCOT-approved sheriff. In Milwaukee last year, 343 people died from drug overdoses, the Journal-Sentinel reported.

Through mid-April, 72 people had died—meaning the city is on pace for a record 400 drug overdoses in 2017. And here’s the predictable reveal: Not a single fatal overdose has been attributed to cannabis.

Just to review: In the middle of a worldwide opiate crisis, with scores of people dropping dead from synthetic opiates (bought online and shipped via the mails from overseas) across the country—a situation so pernicious that “normal,” poppy-derived heroin is safer than the current drug supply—one of the White House’s leaders on marijuana policy is calling cannabis the country’s most dangerous drug.

A medical doctor was also present at Shemelya’s intimate talk to the local anti-legalization set. True to his profession, James MacNeal offered that “describing [marijuana] as the most dangerous drug on the market might not be a fair assessment.” He might be right, but then offered his own bizarre view on the drug, which is not the drug responsible for hundreds of drug overdose deaths in his state.

“It’s not a respiratory depressant, but that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous,” MacNeal said. “You can hallucinate and walk out in front of a car, and that can kill you just as much as not breathing from a heroin overdose.”

(In case you were curious, because we were: We have never heard of someone intoxicated on cannabis wandering in front of a car. Not to say it has never, ever happened during the march of human history—but you can guarantee that you’d hear about it ad nauseam if it had.)

To his credit, Shemelya did briefly extol the value of medical cannabis, for which some lawmakers in Wisconsin are advocating.

“To tell you there is nothing medically valuable about this plant would be telling you a lie,” he said, according to the paper.

That’s nice of him.

At the same time, to say that youth usage rates are increasing—as his Marijuana Initiative does—would also be telling a lie, as researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse confirmed earlier this week.

To sit in a meeting room at a church in Wisconsin, a few miles up the road from where the victim of a fatal opiate overdose is currently lying on a slab in a coroner’s office, and offer a narrative that features marijuana as the country’s most dangerous drug is cartoonishly vile—and proof positive that more people are doomed to die before drug cops let go of generations’ worth of baseless, propaganda-based reefer madness.

This guy redefines the word "MORON". sigh
 
Why Donald Trump’s Drug Czar Is Very Bad

Aside from some of the gratuitous and snarky broad comment about the current administration, this is a good article, IMO and this guy Morino is not a good guy.

Donald Trump is president at a crucial time in American history (not just because for us Americans living today, it’s our American present). The country’s attitudes on drugs are changing more dramatically and more quickly than at any time over the past 50 years—and at the same time, drug overdoses are claiming more lives more quickly than at any time in our history.

Times like these call for vision, clarity and action. So to whom is Trump turning to steer the country through the opiate crisis and to grapple with the glaring incongruity between federal and state policies on medical cannabis and marijuana legalization—at a time when there is overwhelming consensus from the American public that the current policy is hot garbage?

A gang of neo-Reaganite drug warriors.

This would be the nicest possible way to refer to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The appellation certainly applies to Tom Marino, a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania and Trump’s nomination to become the next director of the Office on National Drug Control Policy, as CBS News first reported earlier this month.

Commonly known as the drug czar, the head of the ONDCP isn’t as powerful or influential as the attorney general. The ONDCP does oversee federally funded drug-war propaganda—much of the PSAs you’ve seen over the past 20 years were funded by the ONDCP—and also oversees the multi-jurisdictional “High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas” across the country.

But, since Donald Trump appears to be content to delegate the shaping of policy to whomever happens to be at hand, it’s safe to assume Marino—like Sessions, an early Trump supporter whose loyalty through thick, thin and boasts of grabbing women’s private parts was rewarded with a plum post—will wield significant influence over the marijuana industry. And it’s also safe to assume his influence will be “terrible,” Oregon marijuana attorney Vince Sliwoski wrote in his Portland Mercury column.

Marino has yet to be confirmed, and for now still holds onto his seat in the House—where he racked up a near-perfect anti-marijuana voting record. Marino voted against the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, the bipartisan addition to the spending bill that keeps the Justice Department away from state-legal medical marijuana. (For context: torture-supporting MAGA hat-wearers whose fans like to sign public statements with #TCOT are in support of this bill.) He also voted against allowing veterans to talk—talk—about medical marijuana with their VA doctors and has voted against expanded access to CBD.

Marino got to where he is thanks to significant help from Big Pharma.

Pharmaceutical and health products companies were Marino’s biggest single sole donator of cash, according to campaign finance records crunched by OpenSecrets. As the Mercury points out, Marino is on record saying that he supports marijuana, but only if it’s in pill form—in other words, only if the sole source for cannabis in America is the pharmaceutical industry.

As the Drug Policy Alliance pointed out shortly after Marino’s nomination went public, Marino has called for imprisoning marijuana users—users—and has been a total cheerleader for Jeff Sessions’s turn towards a hard-line, punitive form of justice in America, at a time when nobody—not voters, not policy experts and not even a majority of Congress members—has an appetite for such a thing.

“There are few hard-core supporters of the failed War on Drugs left, but those that are left seem to all be getting jobs in the administration,” said Bill Piper, DPA senior director for national affairs.

How bad is Marino? Even the Cato Institute, the libertarian think tank funded by the Koch brothers—yes, those Koch brothers—thinks his nomination is a move in the wrong direction.

Like Jeff Sessions, Marino is a former federal prosecutor. Compare his background to the prior two drug czars: Michael Botticelli, a recovering alcoholic who achieved professional success as a public-health expert and is credited with leading Americans to believe, correctly, that drug addiction is a health problem rather than a criminal offense to be punished; and Gil Kerlikowske, the former chief of police of Seattle, Washington. Prosecutors’ jobs is to put people in prison; health experts heal, and cops are supposed to maintain peace.

(Not that Kerlikowske was a gem: in a 2010 interview with the Nation, he called Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign a smashing success, and was a leading voice in opposition to California’s Prop. 19, which would have legalized recreational marijuana that same year.)

There is also reason to assume that Marino will be an accomplice in Trump administration crackdown schemes against sanctuary cities, some of which—Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco, just to name a few—are also centers of legal cannabis commerce.

Democrats from all corners should oppose him—as should the Trump Republicans who are pushing marijuana reform, if they’re serious about any progress at all on the issue in the next for years
 
Chris Christie, Opiate Czar: Treat Addiction “Like AIDS” (But Don’t Legalize Marijuana)

For helping elect President Donald Trump, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s reward is solving the nation’s opiate crisis.

Christie is chair of a national commission on opiate abuse. Trump saw fit to form the Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis quickly, putting it together in March, even before he named a new White House-level drug czar.

As fast as Trump moved, the crisis worsened even more quickly.

Deaths from opiate overdoses are skyrocketing across the country—particularly in areas that voted heavily for Trump. Among Trump’s campaign promises was a pledge to reverse or at least slow down this trend. With drug overdoses outpacing car accidents as the most common cause of accidental death, this is one area where Trump’s most strident critics should wish him success.

At first, selecting Christie seemed like a recipe for failure.

As New Jersey governor, Christie made a name for himself as a retrograde drug warrior on issues like medical marijuana, the availability of which has been shown to cut down prescription pill use, including opiates—and as a presidential candidate, Christie adopted an even harder line.

But for some reason—perhaps because he’s no longer running for office and is in his last year as governor—Christie has discovered reason. Visiting a police department in Tom’s River, New Jersey, Christie exhorted the public to start treating opiate abuse like the AIDS crisis.

In 1995, the year rapper Eazy-E and writer Paul Monette succumbed to the disease, nearly 50,000 Americans died from AIDS. AIDS was the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 25 and 44, the New York Times reported that year.

Over the next few years, unprecedented resources were devoted towards fighting the disease. Almost immediately, researchers discovered new drugs, and doctors devised new drug “cocktails.” By 1997, AIDS deaths had dropped 42 percent.

Christie drew a direct comparison.

“Think about what the response of America was in 1995,” he said, according to the Asbury Park Press. “We had national institutes of health and every private pharmaceutical company with the government’s support struggling to get treatments—not cures—treatments to extend the lives of people who suffered from HIV and AIDS. I don’t get, feel the same sense of urgency in this country about this problem.”

“People considered AIDS, if you remember, at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic as something people did to themselves,” Christie added. “We have the same feeling today about drug abuse—If you never tried it in the first place, you wouldn’t have these problems. We rejected that approach with HIV/AIDS, and we need today to reject that approach on the treatment of drug abuse.”

Good. Good! This is Chris Christie, Trump appointee, speaking sense. He should be applauded.

At the same time, he should not be given a pass for speaking the official White House line—that marijuana has no place in the conversation about opiates.

According to the Press, Christie repeated his earlier opposition to marijuana legalization, using the many times debunked gateway theory as his reasoning. This would put him in line with other Trump administration officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other mainstream Republicans like Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who recently offered that marijuana has “no place” in stopping the opiate crisis.

Christie’s record on the opiate crisis as governor is still questionable.

According to STATNews, there are more than 70,000 people seeking treatment for substance abuse in the state, where Christie has provided funding for no more than 6,000 beds. It’s unfair to blame it all or even partially on Christie, but the record does show that during his term, deaths from overdoses continue to rise. Maybe whatever he’s tried isn’t working. Whatever the exact cause, he’s in no position to dismiss anything out of hand.
 
Funding Congress, protecting medical marijuana.
Both chambers approved legislation to keep the government funded until May 5, giving lawmakers time to reach longer-term deal. The bill passed just hours before a government shutdown on Friday. USA Today The stopgap bill includes protections for state medical marijuana programs, known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment. "I’m going to do everything I can to make sure this provision remains law," said House rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.). Blumenauer is the new co-sponsor of the amendment after House rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) retired in January. Marijuana Business Daily Lawmakers have reached a deal that would extend those protections through the rest of the fiscal year, until September 30. But the medical cannabis rider fails to include North Dakota (which legalized medical marijuana in a ballot initiative last November) and Indiana (which recently legalized medical CBD oil). "As currently drafted, people abiding by those two state laws would not be protected by the rider." MassRoots

Nevada governor talks weed with Sessions.
On the heels of the Colorado governor's meeting with Jeff Sessions, Nevada governor Brian Sandoval also discussed state-legal cannabis with the attorney general. "I can't speak for the attorney general, but I advised him that it's in our state law now," said Sandoval. "I don't think the attorney general needed an education, but I told him that it's in our constitution and it's going to be tightly regulated."
 
Congress Gives Jeff Sessions $0 To Go After Medical Marijuana Laws
It’s the latest sign that a major federal crackdown on state pot laws isn’t likely.

WASHINGTON ― Congress, once again, is blocking the Justice Department from spending any money that interferes with state medical marijuana laws.

In their newly unveiled budget bill, lawmakers included a provision, known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, that allows states to carry on with crafting their own medical marijuana policies without fear of federal intervention. The bill, which funds the government through the end of September, is expected to pass this week.

Here’s the full text of the marijuana provision:

None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to any of the States of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, or with respect to the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico, to prevent any of them from implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.​

It’s not unusual to find this tucked into a budget bill; lawmakers have been renewing the medical marijuana provision in every consecutive budget since it first passed in 2014. But what it shows is that Congress isn’t interested in stepping up federal oversight of state pot laws under the Trump administration, even as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions hints that he wants a crackdown.

He issued an ominous warning in February to states with legalized marijuana. “States, they can pass the laws they choose,” Sessions said at a Justice Department press briefing. “I would just say it does remain a violation of federal law to distribute marijuana throughout any place in the United States, whether a state legalizes it or not.”

He has also said that “good people don’t smoke marijuana” and that pot is only “slightly less awful” than heroin. Last year, heroin killed nearly 13,000 people. Nobody has ever died from a marijuana overdose.

Baron23: Edited this a bit (follow link for whole article) but wanted to include this paragraph.

In theory, Sessions could still take action against states that have legalized recreational marijuana. Eight states and the District of Columbia have laws like this, and they are not shielded by the language in the budget bill.
 
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Another article on the same subject, but its such a terribly important subject that I thought to include it also:

Federal Medical Marijuana Protections Extended Through September 2017

The Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which prevents the U.S. Department of Justice from spending funds to interfere with state medical marijuana laws, was included in the budget resolution that was released last night.

The amendment renewal extends protections until September, 2017 and also includes language that supports industrial hemp research as well, which is allowed under Section 7606 of the 2014 Farm Bill.

The Rohrabacher-Farr amendment was first passed in 2014, by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who introduced this legislation in 2003, along with colleagues Sam Farr & Maurice Hinchey. Their intention was to prohibit the use of state resources to prosecute legal businesses that were passed on the state level.

During the Obama administration in 2013, former U.S. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, issued the Cole Memo. His memo stated in part that, outside of the federal government’s top enforcement priorities, they have “traditionally relied on state and local law enforcement agencies to address marijuana activity through enforcement of their own narcotics laws.”

Basically, while the federal government would not recognize marijuana as a legal substance, they would also not use federal funds to prosecute low level and singular use violations of a personal nature. The Obama administration took a “hands off” approach to enforcement. The Cole Memo survived through the Obama era.

The Congressional Cannabis Caucus is pushing to have this measure continually extended.

The Rohrabacher-Farr amendment has been renewed in each consecutive budget, which is undoubtedly some relief to medical marijuana patients and providers, who have wondered how the Trump administration would approach medical marijuana policy.

There has been a lot of speculation and trepidation regarding the anti-marijuana stance of current Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The Rohrabacher-Farr extension is a short-term win, in the current climate.

Congressman Earl Blumenauer, co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus and Representative of the third district of Oregon, welcomed the extension of critical marijuana policy provisions through September 30 in the fiscal year 2017 omnibus funding legislation.

“Medical marijuana patients and the businesses that support them now have a measure of certainty,” said Blumenauer. “But this annual challenge must end. We need permanent protections for state-legal medical marijuana programs, as well as adult-use.”

Mitchell Kulick, partner at the law firm Feuerstein Kulick LLP, which works with the cannabis industry, said, “We are happy to see common sense prevail and for Congress to continue to respect states’ rights as it relates to medical marijuana. We believe that the extension of the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment will allow medical marijuana businesses to continue to serve patients in a responsible manner.”

“Hopefully, this is a sign that Congress will likewise pass other measures that are teed up for its consideration,” Kulick said, that would “resolve some of the challenges and inequities that compliant marijuana businesses face such as limited access to traditional banking and penal tax laws. It is high time that Congress acknowledges the will of the people who overwhelmingly support states’ rights to legalize, appropriately regulate and tax marijuana within their borders.”

David Holland, Esq., of the Law Offices of David Clifford Holland, P.C., is the executive and legal director of Empire State NORML (National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws). Holland said, “Extension of the Rohrbacher-Farr Amendment, which permits state medical marijuana programs to continue to operate unhindered by federal intervention, is significant for two reasons. Firstly, it demonstrates Congress’ recognition that marijuana is legitimate medicine and demonstrates their continued deference to the 28 States and the District of Columbia which have each determined that medical marijuana is a valid form of medical treatment. Secondly, the extension demonstrates that Congress believes that the states have, and continue to be, capable of maintaining well regulated economies to ensure that marijuana is provided in a safe and controlled manner, and without a high risk of abuse.”

Holland continued, “The import of the reasons stated above is that Congress has taken affirmative action to avoid enforcement of marijuana’s Schedule I designation under the federal Controlled Substances Act, which prohibits any usage of it on the now abandoned conclusion that marijuana has no medical validity and no regulatory scheme could adequately administer it as medicine while preventing its abuse. This cannabis conundrum is significant because Congress is having a difficult time enforcing its own federal law over the 28 states and the District of Columbia because the rationale for its continued prohibition cannot be seriously contended anymore.”

“Congress still has a long way to go to improve the efficiency of the medical marijuana markets, such as providing greater clarification and direction in the banking industry, but those improvements cannot be far behind now that Congress has stated its preference to allow the proliferation of medical programs in those states that maintain tight control over these flourishing new economies” Holland added.

Jeffrey Zucker, president of the cannabis business strategy firm Green Lion Partners, said, “We are very pleased to see that congress is maintaining the status quo with the Rohrbacher-Farr amendment. Medical cannabis patients in the U.S. can rest easy knowing they won’t have to return to the black market to acquire their medicine, and operators can relax a bit knowing their hard work isn’t for naught and their employees’ jobs are safe.”

“While this is great as a continuing step, it’s important for activists and the industry to remain vigilant and getting cannabis federally unscheduled and truly ending the prohibition of this medicinal plant,” Zucker added.

Derek Peterson, CEO of publicly traded cannabis company Terra Tech, said, “Stopping federal agencies from interrupting voter approved state medical marijuana laws is the first step in ending the prohibition of Cannabis. Without this provision, the industry could potentially be exposed to the risk of federal raids. This gives Congress the breathing room to effect additional changes to how cannabis is handled from a federal standpoint. Voters have spoken clearly all over the country, and we have seen positive economics as well as social benefits from taxing and regulating cannabis.”

Neil Demers, CEO of Diego Pellicer a dispensary in Colorado said, “I’m very happy that congress is including the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment in its spending packaging. This will offer protections to the continually developing medical marijuana industry, which is desperately looking for stability in an unstable political climate. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer protections to adult-use, recreational cannabis like we were hoping for. Rohrabacher-Farr amendment is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, Attorney General Sessions and the Department of Justice can still interfere with state’s rights, and any states that have implemented, or will be implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of adult-use recreational marijuana.
 
This Bill Could Make Marijuana Cash Deposits Legal

Sponsored by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), this newly proposed legislation seeks to “provide financial services” to America’s lawful marijuana businesses. Perilously profitable, today’s legal marijuana businesses can openly sell their medicinal herb to the public, but they can’t put the cash in the bank.

On Thursday, Rep. Perlmutter presented a legislative solution to the current banking problem in a third iteration of the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act. Rolled out in 2013 and again in 2015, congressional leaders initially lacked the appetite to address the overt conflict between state and federal marijuana laws, which have triggered an unnecessary banking crisis within the industry. With 28 congressional cosponsors now on board, H.R. 2215 is again seeking to provide marijuana-related businesses with legal access to American banks.

“SEC. 2. SAFE HARBOR FOR DEPOSITORY INSTITUTIONS.

A Federal banking regulator may not—

(1) terminate or limit the deposit insurance or share insurance of a depository institution under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1811 et seq.) or the Federal Credit Union Act (12 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) solely be- cause the depository institution provides or has provided financial services to a cannabis-related legitimate business.”​

Hopeful the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2017 will be warmly received among congressional members, Rep. Perlmutter’s legislation must first pass the House Financial Services Committee.
 
Here in WA state early on some Credit Unions agreed to take on cannabis businesses. Not sure if the regular banks are stepping up now. I will need to check on that.
 
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There's only one bank in Michigan, that I know of, that has been allowing any type of mmj related banking; Huntington Bank. I have always liked that chain and it was one more reason.

It's always blown my mind. I realize it's a federal and FICA thing... but the potential for the banks is astronomical. You'd think they'd be putting some pressure on the government.
 
Timberland Bank in WA is helping cannabis businesses it looks like. I couldn't find too much info. Still not enough banks are participating because of the federal law.

All the cannabis shops just deal in cash that I've ever gone to. They have a cash machine on the premises usually.
 
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Fantastic news for MJ advocates and libertarians everywhere. :aaaaa:


Trump Won’t Appoint Tom Marino to Be Drug Czar

President Donald Trump will not appoint Rep. Tom Marino to be the nation’s "drug czar," a White House official tells U.S. News.

The Pennsylvania Republican was widely expected to be named to lead the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

CBS News reported on April 11 that, according to multiple sources, Marino would be nominated to lead the office, a move that requires Senate confirmation.

Marino was undergoing the final stages of completing his paperwork ahead of an official nomination, one source told CBS.

The White House official could not say why Marino is no longer under consideration, or if he failed a background check.

“We have no comment on this topic,” says Marino chief of staff Sara Rogers.

Issues from Marino’s past have surfaced in the press, including an allegation that as an elected county prosecutor he went judge-shopping in 1998 to win a cocaine-dealing expungement for a friend, hand-delivering a request to a jurist after the request was denied by a more senior judge.

In 2006, Marino served as a reference for businessman and convicted felon Louis DeNaples, who sought successfully to open a casino. Marino was a U.S. attorney, and The Associated Press reported his office was investigating DeNaples at the time of the reference.

Marino resigned shortly after the DeNaples reference was reported and earned a roughly $250,000 salary working for DeNaples, according to the AP, before running for Congress.

In the House since 2011, Marino has built a reputation as a legislative drug policy hard-liner. He voted against protecting state medical pot programs from federal authorities and said at a hearing last year that people convicted of drug crimes should be forcibly hospitalized.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy currently is led by an acting director, Richard Baum.

The White House press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This couldn't happen to a nicer complete and utter self-righteous prick than Marino. I am very happy about this one and wonder....really wonder what is on the minds of the PA citizens of his district and the PA Republican party for sending this asshole to Congress. Anyway....ding dong, the witch is dead, the wicked witch, the witch dead. :headbang::clap::cheers:
 
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