Cops search dying man’s hospital room for weed / Boing Boing

From the article:

Cops raided the hospital room of a Missouri man with stage four pancreatic cancer because a concerned citizen suspected he was using marijuana. The patient said he prefers THC capsules to opioids for pain relief. “I should have the right to choose my end of life medications,” said the man in his YouTube description.

Source: Cops search dying man’s hospital room for weed / Boing Boing

Because a man that is literally dying should have his damn room searched by police for what? Some THC capsules? Are there no fucking crimes in Missouri that need dealt with? What assholes.

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A Disabled Senior in Buffalo Was Evicted for Medical Cannabis – Slog – The Stranger

From the article:

Last month, John Flickner, a 78-year-old man in a wheelchair, was evicted from his Buffalo, New York, HUD low-income housing apartment because of cannabis. Not for growing or selling it, but because he was using it to treat chronic pain from a 50-year-old skydiving injury.

Source: A Disabled Senior in Buffalo Was Evicted for Medical Cannabis – Slog – The Stranger

They did eventually reverse the decision, but this is why my disabled father in law, despite living in literal squalor, refused HUD housing. Pot helped his PTSD, and 3 cervical fusions and and kept is bipolar tamped down to functional levels when no other medication could.

Pot is so damn innocuous. It’s stupid that anyone should have to worry about their housing.

Twelve-Year-Olds Shouldn’t Get Felony Charges for Dealing Pot Gummies in Gym Class – Slog – The Stranger

From the article:

Today, a story broke about a 12-year-old boy in Florida who brought “marijuana-laced gummy bears” to school. He handed them out to his peers during gym class. When I read the story, all I could think about was this scene from the most recent season of Big Mouth.

. . .

The boy that brought pot gummies to school in Florida, however, didn’t have the same experience. Since he lives in the backward-ass, DeSantis-voting Sunshine State, this kid is facing several felony charges.

Source: Twelve-Year-Olds Shouldn’t Get Felony Charges for Dealing Pot Gummies in Gym Class – Slog – The Stranger

Felony charges? For pot? Are you fucking kidding me? Jesus Christ.

Alabama Wasted $21,000 to Jail a Man for 15 Months Over $10 of Cannabis | Civilized Life

From the article:

If you needed any more proof that marijuana prohibition is a futile and outright racist public policy, take a look at the situation in Alabama, which wastes approximately $22 million on cannabis enforcement without putting a dent in the supply of or demand for marijuana in the state.

Enforcing cannabis prohibition costs Alabama taxpayers approximately $22 million per year, which would be enough to fund an additional 191 preschool classrooms or pay 571 more K-12 teachers, according to a joint study from the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

But instead of investing in the state’s children, those tax dollars are being used to slap residents with criminal records that severely limit their access to education and diminish their job prospects.

Source: Alabama Wasted $21,000 to Jail a Man for 15 Months Over $10 of Cannabis | Civilized Life

This article also rightly points out that this disproportionately effects people of color. White folks smoke pot pretty openly and do not face the risks that people of color do.

What the fuck Alabama. This is why you have the reputation you do.

Alabama’s ‘war on marijuana’ topic of new report by law centers | AL.com

A new report on Alabama’s ‘War on Marijuana,’ released today by the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice and the Southern Poverty Law Center, calls prosecution of marijuana possession a wasteful use of state law enforcement that discriminates against blacks.

“This war on marijuana is one whose often life-altering consequences fall most heavily on black people,” the report said.

Source: Alabama’s ‘war on marijuana’ topic of new report by law centers | AL.com

The history of criminalizing pot has it’s seeds in racist oppression, so it’s not really s shock that someplace like Alabama continues that tradition today.

Heres’ the nuts and bolts of the issue:

The report studied 2,351 arrests in Alabama for marijuana possession in 2016. Among the findings:

• The overwhelming majority of people arrested for marijuana offenses from 2012 to 2016, nearly 89 percent, were arrested for possession.

• Despite studies showing black and white people use marijuana at the same rates, black people were approximately four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession (both misdemeanors and felonies) in 2016 – and five times as likely to be arrested for felony possession.

• Alabama spent an estimated $22 million to enforce the prohibition against marijuana possession in 2016 – enough to fund 191 additional preschool classrooms, 571 more K-12 teachers or 628 more corrections officers.

• The enforcement of marijuana possession laws has created a crippling backlog at the state agency tasked with analyzing forensic evidence in all criminal cases, including violent crimes.

At this stage of the game, continuing this prohibition is costly, racist, and just pointless.

Canada cannabis entrepreneurs ‘could face US lifetime ban’ – BBC News

From the article:

US border officials can deny entry to people who admit to consuming pot or admit they plan to purchase or use marijuana in the US, even in a state where it is legal. People who have received bans still have the possibility of applying for a waiver from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

In a statement, CBP said that “working in or facilitating the proliferation of the legal marijuana industry in US states where it is deemed legal or Canada may affect a foreign national’s admissibility to the United States”.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government officials have maintained that despite the change in law, there is no indication marijuana legalisation will shift the US approach in how it deals with Canadians crossing the boundary, and confirmed that involvement in the industry could result in denied entry.

Source: Canada cannabis entrepreneurs ‘could face US lifetime ban’ – BBC News

Oh my god! Reefer Madness!

Seriously, I live in a legal border state. Even before pot was legal in both my state and Canada, folks moved back and forth across the wide swath of unprotected border with product. It’s been that way for decades.

Now that everything is legalizing, the border patrol is deciding to ban anyone from Canada that has ever smoked pot? Are you kidding me?

This is beyond stupid.

After a Florida Democrat said she’d take donations from the marijuana industry, Wells Fargo closed her bank account – The Washington Post

From the article:

Democratic candidate for Florida agricultural commissioner Nikki Fried said her campaign had been “kicked out of a bank for voicing support of a law that is literally codified in the Florida constitution.”

Source: After a Florida Democrat said she’d take donations from the marijuana industry, Wells Fargo closed her bank account – The Washington Post

This is a definite thing. It’s also why running a perfectly legal pot shop is rife with so much risk. You can’t use a bank. No bank, with I think the exception of some specifically created credit unions, will take money from the pot business.

This means they have a huge pile of attractive cash sitting around, and often do their payrolls in cash. They pay their taxes in cash. Nobody should have that much cash sitting. It’s a risk for armed robbery, which does happen.

Now Wells Fargo here is kind of following that down the food chain to a really stupid degree. The Democratic Candidate was asked about her stance on the medical pot industry, and then closed her account. That’s not the same as refusing legal pot dollars because the whole legality of pot is still not cool on the federal level. This is just a dick move.

This is the first time anyone has received a request of this kind of information from a bank. It’s totally them being dicks.

The actual policy is to not knowingly bank with marijuana businesses or activities related to those businesses. This politician is not in the pot business, she just supports a legally voted on business legislatively. That’s not the same. They’ve decided it’s a risk that the politician might get donations from the pot business. That’s some down the road shit right there.

Banks do this to porn actresses all the time as well. I hazily remember a gal in porn was trying to GoFundMe some medical and could not get it into a bank account because the banks would not open a business account for anyone in porn. There is NOT a federal law against porn, but here we are.

When banks decide to cut people out for their own capricious reasons, they are really making a politically charged statement on who gets to participation in the economy, and who doesn’t.

New Lawsuit Says Utah’s Medical Marijuana Initiative Is a Free Speech Violation – Hit & Run : Reason.com

From the article:

Utah’s medical marijuana ballot initiative might be a First Amendment violation, claims a longtime marijuana opponent in a new lawsuitintended to remove the question from the state’s November ballot.

On Thursday, Salt Lake City-area lawyer Walter J. Plumb III filed a lawsuit against Utah’s Proposition 2, alleging that the measure—which would legalize medical marijuana for patients suffering from certain qualifying medical conditions as well as allow for the plant’s cultivation and sale—would violate First Amendment guarantees to freedom of speech and free exercise of religion.

The sticking point for Plumb is a provision in Prop. 2 that would forbid landlords from discriminating against potential tenants solely because of their status as medical marijuana patients. This would force Plumb—a practicing Mormon and owner of a number of residential properties that he leases out—to associate with people and practices that run counter to his deeply held beliefs, something his lawsuit says is a violation of his religious liberties. The suit also claims that being forced to rent to medical marijuana patients amounts to “compelled speech.”

Source: New Lawsuit Says Utah’s Medical Marijuana Initiative Is a Free Speech Violation – Hit & Run : Reason.com

This dude is a landlord, and wants to be able to throw out anyone with a plant. We are to talking grow operations here. We are talking about a couple tomato-like plants.

This is also not a free speech issue. The conservative religious movement is trying to make discrimination a free speech issue in the US. Don’t want to sell cakes to LGBT folks? Don’t want to give a barbershop haircut to a transgender man? Want to deny a lesbian couple the ability to live together as a married couple in an elderly assisted living facility? These are all apparently free speech issues to the religious.

Boy have we come a long way from the Good Samaritan parable.

After Legalization, Californians Are Still Buying Black-Market Weed – Slog – The Stranger

This is an interesting report discussing that 18% of Californian’s still buy from black market sources. I’m not surprised. I’m in Washington state, and I still know folks that grow their own. Now the folks I know that did that as a profession aren’t, since it was legalized, but the small run growers that did it for themselves still do, and give it out to the folks they are around.

You can’t actually grow yourself with any ease in Washington state because the laws treat it like dangerous radioactive waste is involved. You have to be on a list, be open to having the cops come and search, limited number fo plants. It’s dumb. We have a thriving microbrewery scene, and you can brew beer in your house no problem, but one pot plant and it’s all over.

The article is right, though. The cost is cheaper, and you buddy is open when the shops aren’t. I don’t think they are ever going to wipe it out completely, but they should treat it like brewing. Let folks do it on their own, and just tax the equipment and such. It’s pot, not meth, Jesus.

Source: After Legalization, Californians Are Still Buying Black-Market Weed – Slog – The Stranger

A Michigan Cop Arrested an 80-Year-Old Grandmother for an Expired Medical Marijuana Card

From the article:

Eighty-year-old Delores Saltzman answered her door when Deputy Ashley Gruno came to inquire about her great-granddaughter’s lost phone and ID. The super trooper smelled cannabis, and Saltzman explained that she had been a cardholder in the state’s medical cannabis program for the past four years. She also admitted that she had let her medical card registration expire. Saltzman later said she had been using cannabis as a replacement for pain medication that had left her “vomiting and with stomach pains.”

Source: A Michigan Cop Arrested an 80-Year-Old Grandmother for Medical Cannabis – Slog – The Stranger

They dropped the charges, but probably not until there was a media outrage about arresting an 80 year old medical pot patient. I mean what the hell?