The CNBC financial network banner summed it up: “Potphoria on Wall Street.” Investable cannabis stocks, especially Canada’s Tilray (symbol TLRY) and Canopy Growth Corporation (symbol CGC) are seeing wild jumps in value in a frenzy compared to 2017’s Bitcoin tumult. Such action is big news on Wall Street and in the financial networks. Hopefully, such normalization and enthusiasm will boost the on-going efforts of many American congresspeople to free cannabis enterprise of noxious business and legal hurdles. Currently, in the USA, cannabis is classified as one of the most dangerous substances on the planet and suffers from ruinous tax and banking obstacles.

President Trump and the Republicans brag about ending regulations that restrict American business and employment. Trump’s first deregulatory triumph took place soon after his inauguration: his action removed Obama-era restrictions on dumping coal mining wastes into waterways. Trump has since freed-up increased emissions from coal power plants and allowed more release of greenhouse gas methane in fracking operations.

Although Trump has gone all out to save a few thousand dying coal mining jobs, he has done nothing to aid the hindered, but nonetheless thriving cannabis industry from crippling and totally unnecessary restrictions. Hopefully, validation will be given to cannabis businesses by the current well-publicized stock frenzy. The eagerness of investors in this sector should help the President and laggard members of Congress to end idiotic rules hampering American cannabis enterprise.

The basic business problem from American cannabis entrepreneurs is cannabis’ Schedule I status on the Controlled Substances Act. Lowering this scheduling would be helpful, but other CSA schedules present their own problems.

The real solution is removal of cannabis from federal control by removing it totally from the CSA, where it should never have been in the first place. Legislation to do just that awaits further congressional action. The Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act was introduced in June 2018 as Senate Bill 3174. It removes cannabis from the federal schedules and allows the states to legislate cannabis as they see fit. Unfortunately, Govtrack gives it “3% chance of being enacted according to Skopos Labs (details).”

Until that cannabis is descheduled, business involving the plant face crushing tax problems. A 1986 provision of the IRS Code, 280E disallows common business expenses in cannabis enterprises, leaving them with ruinous taxation. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden’s bill S. 776: Marijuana Revenue and Regulation Act would remove this business-crippling provision. Unfortunately, it is given a mere 2% chance of becoming law at Govtrack.

A second baffling barrier to common business practices faces by American cannabis entrepreneurs is a nearly total lack of banking services. Because of cannabis’ Schedule I status, it is treated as a pariah by banks. Bizarrely, American cannabis businesses must operate on a nearly cash-only basis. This outrageously anti-business regulation is also addressed in current legislation.

Unfortunately, none of the bills below are given more than a 3% chance of passage into law by Govtrack.

Bills and Resolutions

• H.R. 6495: Marijuana Data Collection Act
• S. 3174: Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act
• H.R. 1823: Marijuana Revenue and Regulation Act
• S. 776: Marijuana Revenue and Regulation Act
• S. 1689: Marijuana Justice Act of 2017
• H.R. 4815: Marijuana Justice Act of 2018
• H.R. 331: States’ Medical Marijuana Property Rights Protection Act
• S. 3409: Veterans Medical Marijuana Safe Harbor Act
• H.R. 3391: Medical Marijuana Research Act of 2017

Perhaps the excitement and validation of Wall Street “Potphoria” will shame more American congresspeople, and just maybe the President himself, to see the ludicrous foolishness of current cannabis laws and schedules. These restrictions are anti-business, anti-freedom, anti-health and blatantly anti-American.

Bizarrely, Tilray’s giant leap came as a response to a DEA decision allowing the University of California San Diego to import Canadian cannabis from Tilray for a medical study on a movement disorder at Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR). Like, there is no cannabis in California?

It is 2018 and the Secretary of Health and Human Services is saying,

“There really is no such thing as medical marijuana.”

Alex Azar, the new Secretary (previously held by Tom Price who resigned in disgrace for improper spending) formerly served as a pharmaceutical exec and a pharma lobbyist. He joins a cabinet with, to a person, an abiding hatred of marijuana.

Bizarrely, Azar made his comments slighting medical cannabis when speaking about the government’s response to the opioid crisis.

We are devoting hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of research at our National Institutes of Health as part of the historic $13 billion opioid and serious mental illness program that the President and Congress are funding.

Over $750 million just in 2019 alone is going to be dedicated towards the National Institutes of Health working in public-private partnership to try and develop the next generation of pain therapies that are not opioids.

But that next generation of pain therapies will not be cannabis, elaborated the health secretary.

There is no FDA-approved use of marijuana, a botanical plant. I just want to be very clear about that.

As Azar well knows, the FDA is not set up to deal with a healing plant such as marijuana. The problem is not in the drug’s effectiveness nor safety; the problem is the FDA’s lack of desire and ability to study cannabis, which research around the planet has shown to be a powerful preventive, palliative, and even curative drug for a score of maladies and diseases.

In reality, medical marijuana is highly effective in relieving many types of pain. It acts well as an adjunct to opioids, reducing the amounts needed of these dangerous narcotics. Powerful evidence exists showing that cannabis use is an effective way of reducing, even ending, use of addictive and often lethal opioids. Medical marijuana may well indeed be Azar’s “next generation of pain therapies that are not opioids.”

As if ignorance and resistance to all things medical marijuana were not bad enough, Azar recently began claiming that marijuana might be tainted with fentanyl, the hyper-opioid now contributing to many of US opioid deaths. The claim appears to be a self-invented myth, without rhyme nor reason. Nick Wing investigated the bogus claim in a Huff Post article, HHS Secretary Pushes New Weed Scare Tactic: ‘Marijuana Laced With Fentanyl’

Donald Trump told the country that he would “drain the swamp.” He also promised to reduce soaring drug prices, declaring that big pharma companies “are getting away with murder,” and offering hope that tax-payers and patients might find relief from drug price inflation.

Instead, the swamp apparently added an alligator named Alex Azar.

In his former Ely Lilly incarnation as head of Lilly USA, Azar oversaw a three-fold increase in the cost of the company’s insulin product, Humalog. This for essentially a nearly one-hundred-year-old medicine, and taking place during a veritable diabetes epidemic. Business Insider tackled the economics and the ethics of this appalling rip-off in a well-titled article, .A 93-year-old drug that can cost more than a mortgage payment tells us everything that’s wrong with American healthcare. Humalog and its competitors have seen nearly simultaneous price hikes.

2018 marks 30 years since the 1988 landmark declaration by DEA law judge the Honorable Francis Young. Three decades ago Judge Young correctly noted, “Marijuana is the safest therapeutically active substance known to man…  The evidence clearly shows that marijuana is capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision.”

Three decades later, the American government is still acting in an “unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious” manner, still lying about and rejecting medical cannabis, with new lies now by the 2018 Secretary of Health and Human Services. Sad.

In a troubling move, US President Donald Trump has nixed Israel’s medical cannabis export hopes.

Israel has long been a leader in medical cannabis research and now stands poised to serve a huge export market. Yet this market will remain unserved and global medical cannabis production discouraged, as Prime Minister Netanyahu has caved to pressure from Donald Trump to quash a lucrative and health-promoting trade. As reported by The Jewish Telegraph Agency,

The prime minister made it clear that he did not want Israel to be a pioneer in the export of medical marijuana in order not to anger the U.S. president, according to the report.

While commonly ignoring any American request to stop building settlements on Palestine land, in this case, the Israeli Prime Minister was quick to comply.

Netanyahu told the heads of the ministries he ordered the freeze after receiving a call about the issue of exporting marijuana from Trump, who is against its legalization.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this development is Trump’s apparent active opposition to medical cannabis. Of course, Attorney General Jeff Sessions nourishes a great hatred for all things marijuana and the others in Trump’s cabinet are extreme in opposition to cannabis, the President himself has said little about the plant. During his campaign, Trump expressed support for medical marijuana and for the rights of states to choose. His comments about the drug war have been extreme, even praising the homicidal actions of foreign leaders, but has so far not demonized cannabis.

How did the notion come into Trump’s mind to request that Netanyahu stifle shipments of medical cannabis? It seems unlikely that he came up with the idea himself.

The fact that Trump apparently personally made a phone “call about the issue” would seem to indicate its importance to the President. Unfortunately. In any case, Trump’s actions, far more than any that have come before, show him to be actively opposed to cannabis, its medical uses, and its value to commerce. 

Image: Commons.Wikimedia.Org

The state of Oregon has been producing high-quality cannabis for decades. The climate, especially in the southwest corner of the state, is nearly perfect for the plant’s needs and the state’s progressive cultural climate supported people experimenting with marijuana cultivation. Now, with full adult use legalization, prices have dropped substantially. The drop in price per pound has caused havoc for growers, but now Oregon’s US Attorney is poised to provide price support.

For many decades, Oregon has been a leader in cannabis interest, use, legislation, and cultivation. As an agricultural crop, cannabis has long reigned as the state’s leading earner. When most old growth forests disappeared, logging waned as a prosperous industry and was partially replaced by cannabis. Oregon was the first state to decriminalize possession of small amounts. Then, 20 years ago, the state’s voters legalized medical cannabis, creating retail markets and allowing legal home growing by those with a medical card. Finally, in 2014 Oregon voters chose to legalize all cannabis adult use and allowed for four plant cultivation and state-licensed adult use grows. The state does produce a lot of cannabis.

Enter Billy J. Williams, US Attorney for Oregon. Newly encouraged to prosecute pot by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Williams is about to do just that. Of all the 94 US Attorneys responding to Session’s ending the protective Cole Memo, the Oregon US Attorney seems the most hawkish. He invoked a widely publicized “marijuana summit,” whined about Oregon’s overproduction of cannabis, and vowed, “Make no mistake. We are going to do something about it.”

Presumably, the Oregon US Attorney’s statement means some Oregonians will soon be charged with federal marijuana crimes. Current law makes possession of non-trivial amounts of cannabis one of the gravest federal crimes, punishable by the most severe penalties. Reversing a small measure of sanity from the previous administration, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has instructed his 94 US Attorneys, including Oregon’s Williams, to seek maximum harm against those charged with drug crimes. Sessions cheers mandatory minimums and asset forfeiture. Some Oregon entrepreneurs are likely soon to suffer both.

For the last half-century, Oregon has likely always produced more cannabis than it consumed. Doubtless, some was distributed to eager markets in other states. With nearly a thousand recreational grow licenses already awarded by the state, and hundreds more on the way, combined with the right to grow 4 plants by all Oregonians and 12 medical plants per household, it is difficult to see how legal Oregon production will not continue to outpace in-state consumption. And this is before considering production by non-legal growers. Oregon Governor Kate Brown, a great friend to the Oregon cannabis industry, somehow assures that legal grows will not be federally prosecuted.

So, what will be the effect of aggressive federal marijuana law enforcement by the US Attorney for Oregon?

• Some Oregonians will have their lives ruined by federal prosecution. Mandatory minimums will be served, property will be seized.
• US Attorney Billy J. Williams will get a pat on the back from marijuana-crazed Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
• Oregon will continue to produce more cannabis than it consumes.
• The price per pound of Oregon cannabis will stabilize, even rise as it has always done during periods of coercive federal enforcement.

The irony of any federal enforcement action by Williams against Oregonian growers will only serve to provide needed price support for others. The Oregon grow rush is already abating, discouraged by an ever-dropping the price per pound. Federal prosecutions will artificially prop up prices, encouraging increased production.

The true problem, of course, is not over-production of marijuana in Oregon. The problem is the idiotic federal inclusion of cannabis in the Controlled Substances Act, especially its bogus classification as a Schedule I drug. Delisting cannabis from the CSA would allow states their rightful role in marijuana policy and would allow Oregonians to sell their valuable cash crop in other states, just as is done now with wine and timber.

One set of true harms associated with a small percentage of Oregon marijuana grows are environmental crimes. Some pirate growers in woodlands divert streams, poison with pesticides, spew trash, and otherwise degrade the environment. If US Attorney Williams really wants to help his state with marijuana enforcement, this is where he should start. And end.

The first shoe to drop was the announcement that, as predicted here, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ripped up the Cole Memo protecting state legal marijuana operations. The second shoe dropped when asked about this radical change, White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders asserted, “We have to enforce federal law.”

The readiness by the White House spokesperson for the question and her quick answer are ominous. There was no mention of state’s rights or medical benefits, just the stark statement:

President Trump “strongly believes” in enforcing federal law.

Such a quick and powerful endorsement of Jeff Session’s actions seem to indicate support by the president, a big negative for those who believed Trump’s support for medical cannabis and state’s rights during the campaign. The AG’s green light to his 94 federal prosecutors and their 5,000 assistant prosecutors threatens the lives, livelihoods, and freedoms of millions of Americans citizens.

Oregon Congressperson Earl Blumenauer spoke on the Attorney General’s dissolving the protections that have helped innovative and prosperous cannabis business flourish in legal states:

Mr. Sessions is out of touch. I think he is trapped in time.

Such negative sentiments were the rule following Session’s announcement. Democrats, Republicans, Senators, Representatives, Governors, right-wing interest groups, and state Attorney Generals were quick to deplore Session’s unwanted actions.

The only exceptions to the negative reaction came from some police groups and anti-marijuana organizations such as SAM. Ominously, some (though not all) US Attorneys to whom the new policy was directed who are now freed and incentivized for marijuana prosecutions, were big supporters of the DOJ change.

Another worry is the recent stuffing of 17 vacant US Attorneys by Jeff Sessions. Trump fired 46 US Attorneys in March and has not acted on replacing many of them. Jeff Sessions has just stepped in and appointed 17 of these prosectors on an interim basis, free to choose those who echo his bias against marijuana.

The Los Angeles Times just analyzed many of these prosecutors for hints about possible marijuana enforcement.

The President actually tripled down on marijuana enforcement with his statement from Camp David. Although he did not mention cannabis specifically, he lumped in in with “traditional drugs” which he contrasted from opioids. Bizarrely, Trump seemed to downplay the fact that most of the deaths he refers to come from the new, pharma-driven opioid epidemic. Remember, sir, you created a commission, headed by Chris Christie.

Standing in front of a group of hard-core marijuana haters, also known as the 2018 Republican Agenda planning group, Trump expounded,

Whether it is opioid or traditional drugs. It’s never been like it is.

As Sarah Mezah reported in Newsweek, President Trump Says Countries That Had Success Dealing With Drugs Chose To Be ‘Very Harsh.’ Trump’s tone, expounding harshess, is omious and chilling.  More on this soon.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/01/06/trump-camp-david-remarks-full-nr.cnn

Tulsi Gabbard legislates for Hawaii’s 2nd District in the House of Representatives. In Congress, she has proven to be an outspoken supporter of cannabis rights on all fronts and introduced a current proposal to completely deschedule marijuana. She will be speaking at the upcoming International Cannabis Business Conference in Kauai, December 2017.

Earlier in 2017 Tulsi introduced house bill HR 1227, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, with cosponsor Congressman Tom Garret, R-Virginia.

Tutsi has written thoughtfully on the issue. Her November 2017 statement, Tulsi Gabbard on Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition, should be required reading by all politicians. She makes great sense, mentioning the Schedule I stifling of research, dangerous cash practices with current banking restrictions, and the disastrous War on Drugs damages to the lives of tens of millions of Americans. She states,

Whether an individual chooses to use marijuana or not should be treated the same as whether they choose to use alcohol or tobacco.

The higher the elected office Tulsi attains, the better off America will be. She is an attractive candidate with her progressive views and veteran’s perspective. She served honorably in the Army National Guard, including a tour of duty in Iraq. She has strong and thoughtful opinions and actions to many of the country’s and planet’s key problems. Many of us would like to see her as President.

Hear Representative Tulsi Gabbard in Kauai December 1-3 at the ICBC conference. Support her political career at this link.

Congressman Earl Blumenauer’s Cannabis Fund political action committee is up and accepting donations. This is a great opportunity to directly fund messages and candidates against cannabigots and marijuana prohibitionists. The photo shows an early project targeting anti-marijuana, anti-veteran congressman Pete Sessions. Such messages should appear on a massive scale. But, up until now, no link for donating existed.

Earl Blumenauer is perhaps the greatest friend in congress of medical cannabis users, marijuana entrepreneurs, and all freedom fighters. He is a founding member of the congressional Cannabis Caucus and a frequent speaker at cannabis business and health conferences.

The Oregon congressman’s recent announcement of the PAC was widely publicised. Portland’s KOIN television announced,

Blumenauer to use PAC to target anti-pot legislators
Cannabis Fund to target those who oppose reforming marijuana laws

Nowhere in any announcement, though, was a link to actually donate money to the PAC.  This link is now available:

The Cannabis Fund PAC home is here and the donation page here.

The Cannabis Fund can become a powerful voice for everyone fighting for cannabis rights. Please contribute.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions remains a sworn enemy of all things marijuana. Alarmingly, a half-century-old law may now give him the power to soon devastate medical marijuana and thriving American marijuana businesses. The 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was designed to attack organized crime, the mafia. Since then vaguely written act has metastasized into any easy,  too easy, way for prosecutors to score wins, with horrendous punishment inflicted upon the prosecuted. Now the RICO law gives Jeff Sessions an easy, too easy, way to bust the robust American cannabis industry.

Even without RICO, Jeff Sessions has, as attorney general, a range of powerful prosecutor tools for his vendetta against cannabis.

Foremost is marijuana’s misplaced but long-standing status as a Schedule I drug, highly dangerous and without medical use, the most restrictive and punitive classification. This horrendous legal blunder has lasted decades. The best hope for change was under the last presidency, but it did not happen. Please see Obama Leaves Behind a Marijuana Nightmare. Marijuana as Schedule I gives Jeff Sessions enormous powers to destroy the lives of Americans involved with cannabis medically or as entrepreneurs.

• Schedule I confers strict mandatory minimum sentencing, often decades of prison time, along with enormous fines.
• Schedule I makes cannabis business people pariahs to the banking system, forcing risky, cash-based business practices.
• Schedule I triggers nightmare IRS 280e tax treatment, disallowing common business deductions.

Another key weapon treasured by Jeff Sessions is asset forfeiture, the taking of citizen’s cash and property of the police and prosecutors. Asset forfeiture allows the DEA and other police to easily take money and property without even making an arrest, simply by declaring the cash to be drug-related. Sharing schemes with the feds allow local and state police to send such lucre to the DEA whereby most of it is returned to the agency who took it, allowing them to spend it as they please while avoiding any state laws restricting asset forfeiture.

Another discretionary tool available to the attorney general is the direction given to 93 US attorneys and their 5,000 assistant attorneys. As one of his first acts in office Sessions mandated his attorney army to always pursue the harshest charges for all drug defendants.

Potent as these weapons are, RICO adds a dangerous legal opportunity for Sessions to harm the lives of those he chooses. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was written to powerfully assist the prosecution of people working together in anything the goverment considers crimes.

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt recently chided Jeff Sessions for his lack of aggressiveness regarding the rapid spread of marijuana legalization. Perhaps unaware of the banking restrictions in place, Hewitt asked,

A lot of states are just simply breaking the law. And a lot of money is being made and banked. One RICO prosecution of one producer and the banks that service them would shut this all down. Is such a prosecution going to happen?

But one prosecution that invokes a supremacy clause against one large dope manufacturing concern, and follows the money as it normally would in any drug operation and seizes it, would shut, would chill all of this. But I haven’t seen on in nine months, yet. Is one coming?

Supposedly a conservative, Hewitt should be ashamed of himself for such anti-Federalist, anti-states rights, anti-business, and anti-freedom remarks.

L. Gordon Crovitz, writing for Reason.com explains some of the prosecutorial advantages of RICO:

With the vague crime of RICO, prosecutors have enormous power to bring cases against targets simply because they are in some way unpopular.

The act is prized by prosecutors and mourned by civil libertarians. It allows the addition of federal crimes on top state charges for ‘predicate acts.’ Growing or transporting marijuana is such a predicate act. The addition of these federal RICO charges add long prison terms, tripled fines, and other crippling punishments.

As scary as Session’s ability to use RICO as a club is the fact that states, even individuals, can use RICO to attack activities they dislike, activities including growing marijuana. The Cannabist documents a recent case where horse farm neighbors complained, and sued through RICO, that the smell of marijuana reduced their property value. A 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruling may present big RICO problems. Alicia Wallace reports,

In remanding that case to district court, the judges left the door open for something that legal experts and case attorneys say could rattle the legal marijuana industry: that private-property owners could potentially bring federal racketeering claims against neighboring marijuana grows and dispensaries.

Whatever their form, RICO laws are a danger to cannabis entrepreneurs. Stay tuned to see how Jeff Sessions and perhaps anti-cannabis citizen groups put them to evil use. 

The Marijuana Justice Act of 2017, introduced by New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker, is exactly the criminal justice and health legislation this country so needs. Much like Bernie Sander’s bill in the last Congress, this act would not reschedule, but actually deschedule cannabis out of the Controlled Substance Act altogether. As its name implies, the passage of this act, S. 1689, would provide true marijuana justice in the USA. Tragically, it has received zero cosponsors in the Senate. An analysis by Skopos Lab artificial intelligence gives it only a 1% chance of being enacted.

The similar bill by Senator Bernie Sanders (D – Ver) in the last Congress likewise got no cosponsors, not even Cory Booker, and died. Similarly, neither Bernie Sanders nor any other senator has cosponsored the 2017 bill. A portion of GovTrack’s summary of S. 1689 follows:

The Marijuana Justice Act, introduced by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), would end the federal prohibition on marijuana once and for all, by removing the drug from the DEA’s list of controlled substances entirely.

It would also apply retroactively, allowing for judicial review of anybody serving a prison sentence for drug possession. (Although virtually nobody in America goes to jail just for marijuana possession or use, the charge is often used to add time to a jail sentence primarily handed down for conviction of another drug-related crime such as selling or trafficking.)

Lastly, the bill would use federal expenditures to incentive states to legalize the drug “if those laws were shown to have a disproportionate effect on low-income individuals and/or people of color.” As Vox points out, that designation applies to almost every state. Therefore, this bill would effectively authorize federal expenditures to support nationwide legalization at the state level as well.

It was introduced as Senate bill number S. 1689. (Unfortunately, S. 420 was already taken.)

A version of the bill introduced into the House of Representative by Thomas Garrett (R-Vir) is doing better. With 15 House cosponsors, H.R. 1227: Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2017 is given a 9% chance of passage by Skopos Labs. The 15 cosponsors are cannabis freedom fighters. They are:

Pete Sessions, chair of the hugely powerful Rules Committee of the US House of Representatives, committed a highly immoral act.

This Congressman, along with others in the committee, blocked several pro-cannabis amendments from full House votes, killing them. For years, medical marijuana users and their industry have been protected from federal persecution by amendments penned by Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and other freedom loving members of the House, such as Oregon’s Earl Blumenauer and Colorado’s Jared Polis.

Such protections were the product of years of struggle and state votes for medical legalization going back to California’s landmark passage of medical marijuana in 1996. For three years now, the Department of Justice, including the DEA, have been prevented from spending any money to crush these state legalizations. Each congress saw ever-increasing votes of members of the House of Representatives securing these vital protections. Now all these years of progress and state votes for medical legalization are jeopardized by the real possibility of renewed raids by federal jackboot thugs.

Pete Sessions’ enormous power, as chair of the Rules Committee, to ignore arbitrarily the will and well-being of Americans citizens is nauseating. The Texas (surprise) Republican (surprise) appears to be granting the wish of Attorney General Jeff Sessions who recently demanded these protections be dropped.

The actions by Chairman Pete Sessions to deny congressional input into American medical marijuana policy was immoral for many reasons. The absence of these protections,

• Sets up road blocks to what might just be the best answer to America’s lethal opioid crisis.
• Further challenges the lives and families of medical cannabis refugees who uprooted from ignorant states to those with medical cannabis programs for cannabis treatment of conditions like juvenile epilepsy. Many children have found life-saving relief in medically legal states.
• Denys Americans basic health choices. Instead of a decision between you and your doctor, the end of these protections allows federal police to determine what medications you and your family can access.
• Violates the will of the American voters. By overwhelming numbers, Americans believe state medical legalizations should not be harassed by the feds.
• Infringes state’s rights by allowing federal thugs to mug the will of voters in medically legal states.

Other pro-cannabis amendments were dropped at the same time, including protections for hemp farming, access to banking, and easing restrictions that have stifled cannabis health research for nearly five decades. Fortunately, the current protections got a short reprieve, and the Senate may act to help achieve and restore these human rights.

Congressman Pete Sessions: protecting your gun rights, immorally violating your rights to health, liberty, and a meaningful vote.

The conservative Heritage Foundation has developed a dangerous document to help destroy state legalized cannabis.

The powerful Heritage Foundation has had substantial influence upon Republicans since it helped chaperon Ronald Reagan and is providing major guidance to the Donald Trump administration.  The foundation, abbreviated Heritage, is supposedly conservative, but without the commitment to small government, state’s rights, and individual liberty. Heritage’s brand of authoritarian conservationism emphasizes bigger military, aggressive and preemptive military action around the world, and social conservatism. Apart from gun rights, the foundation rejects the more constitutional and libertarian conservationism that would emphasize smaller government and individual rights.

This devious scheme, How Trump’s DOJ Can Start Enforcing Federal Marijuana Law, was penned by Heritage’s Cully Stimson. The 11-point plan uses government coercion to demolish state medical and adult-use legalizations of marijuana. Michael Roberts wrote of the plan and some of the worried reaction in Westword.com. He quotes Justin Strekal, NORML’s policy director,

I’ve been screaming about this to anyone who will listen, just because of the outsized influence the Heritage Foundation has had over the administration’s policies.

The Heritage Foundation’s 11-point plan is printed below, along with commentary. This insidious scheme is a blue-print for big, coercive government to crush to freedoms, livelihoods, and medical choices of tens of millions of Americans.

1. Reaffirm support for the law. Issue a statement affirming the incoming administration’s commitment to the Controlled Substances Act with the goal of reducing, not expanding, the use of marijuana in the nation.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has repeatedly spoken against marijuana and its legalization. Recently, Session claimed “that this drug is dangerous, you cannot play with it, it is not funny, it’s not something to laugh about . . . and to send that message with clarity that good people don’t smoke marijuana.”

The president has made forceful but vague comments about the evils of drugs in general: “…the criminal cartels that have spread across our nation and are destroying the blood of our youth.” It seems that Trump is content to let Jeff Sessions set policy on drugs, including marijuana, not good for legal marijuana.

2. Coordinate with lower-level officials. Have the new attorney general prioritize reaching out to governors and key law enforcement officials in states that have legalized marijuana to work with them on enforcement of federal marijuana laws.

Jeff Sessions has “reached out” to political leaders in legal states, basically challenging them to confront his accusations that legal marijuana in their state is out of control and somehow a threat to the nation. Governors of four adult-use legal states, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Alaska have given his meddling a cold reception. So far, the Attorney General’s efforts here have been an abysmal failure.

These state governors, their attorneys general, and law enforcement, including state police, have informed Jeff Session’s that his analysis is in error, that they are working hard on successfully regulating state legal marijuana, and by the way, stay out of our state.

One set of “lower-level officials” Sessions may have much more success with is local, county, and regional law enforcement and drug task forces. With this tactic the feds can by-pass newly reluctant state officials, and bring down the drug war hammer to America’s highways. Sessions is pushing asset forfeiture programs where the DEA returns a good portion of seized asset directly back to the police who seized them. This program, if implemented on a massive scale would provide Sessions with an army of drug warriors on the ground and an enormous cash flow free from any congressional restrictions on spending.

3. Reassert America’s drug position on the world stage. The White House should make clear that the United States continues to support the three international drug conventions, and that it intends to change its domestic policy to reflect that support.

“Changes in domestic policy” is code for de-legalize medical and adult use marijuana in all states.  These three treaties, which the US has long used to badger any country wishing to explore any policy other than hard line criminalization, mandate no legal cannabis. Up until now, the administration has made no new assertions of the treaties.

Internationally, President Trump has gone out of his way to praise Philippine president Dutarte in his genocidal war on drugs.

As always, Trump blames Mexico for America’s drug problem and as a way to sell his border wall. He said in a recent press conference,

Tremendous drugs are pouring into the United States at levels that nobody has ever seen before. This happened over the last three to four years in particular. The wall will stop much of the drugs from pouring into this country and poisoning our youth.

4. Up the profile of key drug enforcement personnel. Restore to Cabinet-level status the position of the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and adequately fund the office so that it can be effective.

This has not been done. The drug czar still lacks cabinet status and indeed the position is filled with an interim replacement. Same with DEA, where Obama’s administrator Chuck Rosenberg remains in place. The recent opioid panel chaired by Chris Christie had little involvement with the ONDCP.

5. Rescind and replace the August 2013 memorandum from then-Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole — i.e. the “Cole Memo.” The Department of Justice could do this by reiterating that marijuana cultivation, distribution, and sale are against federal law and that while states may decriminalize possession of marijuana, they may not issue licenses to sell it or commercialize it. Reiterate that the federal government is not locking up people for smoking marijuana, and that state employees are not going to be arrested, but that the Department of Justice fully expects states to not permit commercialized marijuana production and sale.

The Cole memo remains intact. But Sessions and his army of federal prosecutors and thousands of assistant prosecutors could commit havoc in all states by seeking out violators of the memo. If legalized states were compelled by the federal government to end their regulation of marijuana, then all the controls over (and taxes gained) from legalization would vanish, leaving an unregulated marijuana marketplace.

6. Select marijuana businesses to prosecute. Find a handful of cases in which large, well-funded marijuana businesses are in violation of both state and federal marijuana laws and prosecute both their management/operators and financiers. A real threat of prosecution will raise the cost of capital in the industry significantly, and seriously impede any operations above the cottage-level. Moreover, selection of unsympathetic defendants in violation of both state and federal law will (1) minimize political pushback, (2) avoid conflict with congressional appropriations provisions, and (3) clearly demonstrate the failure of the Cole Memo.

The shoe has not dropped on selective federal prosecutions, but probably soon will. Among Session’s army of 94 US Federal Prosecutors, those in adult-legal states are doubtless salivating at the prospect of prosecuting “well-funded marijuana businesses” to satisfy their goals of easy mandatory minimums, asset forfeitures, wide-spread publicity, and, priceless, pleasing their boss Jeff Sessions.

Now anti-marijuana activist (and key Obama drug policy advisor) Kevin Sabat’s SAM organization has come out with recommendations mirroring this tactic, claiming the Cole Memo has failed and that Americans need the “protection” of a reenergized war on marijuana.

7. Rescind the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s guidance for banks and oppose efforts to expand banking services to the marijuana industry. One of the principal brakes on the expansion of the marijuana industry is its lack of access to banking. Once pot businesses have regular, unimpeded access to institutional capital, their ability to scale up will expand significantly—and the financial sector will begin to lobby in favor of expanded sales of the drug.

Also part of Sabet’s anti-legalization tract is the maintenance of the shunning of cannabis businesses by banks. Lack of banking access is indeed a desperate problem for the industry. Federal legislation has been introduced to fix this problem, but will likely fail.

8. Support state attorneys general in nonlegalized states. Nonlegalized states have suffered significantly from illegal diversion of marijuana from legalized states, and from the apparent uptick in sophisticated cartel activity there. Support could include entering as an amicus to support the merits of the suit Nebraska and Oklahoma filed against Colorado.

The suit by Nebraska and Oklahoma against Colorado legalization gained the enmity from many conservatives because of its raw attack on state’s rights. The Oklahoma Attorney General who participated in the suit against the rights of the voters of Colorado was none other than current EPA head Scott Pruitt. The Supreme Court ruled against the case in 2016, but left open that it might be resolved in federal court, so the danger is not over. Anti-marijuana and anti-environment zealot Pruitt said, “The fact remains — Colorado marijuana continues to flow into Oklahoma, in direct violation of federal and state law.”

9. Prosecute those dealing in marijuana — which is illegal under federal law — using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Those who engage in a pattern of racketeering activity through a corporation or other enterprise are liable for three times the economic harm they cause. RICO gives federal courts the power to order racketeering enterprises and their co-conspirators to cease their unlawful operations.

RICO is indeed a scary prospect, and appears to be underway. With 5,000 assistant US Attorneys needing something to do, a flood of RICO lawsuits is a nauseating possibility. The precarious status of cannabis as a Schedule I drug enables the RICO action originally written to attack the mafia. Soon it may be used to legally annihilate even small scale cannabis operation. More on this RICO peril in later posts.

10. Prosecute those who provide financing for marijuana operations. Federal anti-money laundering statutes make it illegal to engage in financial transactions designed to promote illegal activities, including drug trafficking. Start with one major marijuana financier and successfully prosecute it.

Easy prosecutions with possible asset forfeiture and favorable publicity will excite the interest of Session’s US Attorney army. The assumption is probably correct that the destruction of a few industry leaders and financiers could strike damaging blows to the industry.

11. Empower the FDA to take action to regulate marijuana in order to protect patients and the public. Marijuana legalization poses a public health problem, and the FDA should be tasked with investigating marijuana for chemical contamination and pesticides. Marijuana should also be subject to the standards of the rigorous criteria of the FDA approval process, which has been carefully constructed to protect consumer and patient health and safety.

That is, use another US bureaucracy to kill off the powerful new cannabis preventative, palliatives and cures before their momentum and public demand  rise to unstoppable levels.  Many reformers fear an outside FDA influence should cannabis be down-scheduled to Schedule 2. All the more reason cannabis must be removed from the Controlled Substances Act prison altogether.

In sum, these eleven coercive tactics could deliver considerable pain to cannabis consuming Americans, marijuana entrepreneurs and workers, and medical users across the country. They could also deliver political pain to the politicians supporting them as they go against the majority will to legalize marijuana, especially medical.

The American opioid crisis continues to worsen.

After 45 years of drug war failure, drug addiction and death are at all-time, devastating highs. This new opioid epidemic, clearly a function of Big Pharma’s pill milling and marketing, now kills over 100 Americans each day. In response, Chris Christie’s opioid panel has submitted its conclusions to the president. As predicted here, the commission ignored cannabis solutions and focused on finding a pharmaceutical fix. Part of that fix is increased distribution of Narcan and other opioid blockers.

Increases in overdose deaths have increased with the war on drugs.  New York Times graph.

The basic reason opioids, from oxycodone to heroin to fentanyl are so fatal is that they depress respiration. Overdoses can cause people to stop breathing, resulting in their deaths within minutes. Any combination with alcohol makes it even more deadly. Luckily there is an antidote; if delivered soon enough to the overdosed opioid user, the drug naloxone (Narcan) blocks the body’s opioid receptors from activation by opioids (or endorphins), restoring normal breathing.

So, the good news is that many overdose deaths are being prevented by first-responders equipped with Narcan. Obama era federal legislation mandating wide distribution of Narcan (and other opioid blockers) has saved many lives.

The bad news is the makers of naloxone have responded to this national crisis (and the federal mandate) by jacking up the price of their life-saving product to an obnoxious degree. Essentially, they can name their own price for their drug. They have responded by throwing all morals and ethics to the wind, seeking only to profit, seeming standard practice for the pharmaceutical industry.

For example, there is an epidemic of diabetes, so there has been a huge jump in cost of insulin. Now there is an epidemic of opioid addiction and death, so there is a huge jump in the price of the lifesaving antidote. With taxpayers footing the bill, and paying whatever is charged, Big Pharma can and does set its own prices; it sees no need from price moderation.

US Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo expressed the outrage felt by many:

“At the same time this epidemic is killing tens of thousands of Americans a year we’re seeing the price of naloxone go up by 1,000 percent or more.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, D-VT had similar thoughts:

Opioid abuse is an epidemic across our country, yet drug companies continue to rip off the American people by charging the highest prices in the world because they have no shame. The greed of the pharmaceutical industry is killing Americans.

The 10 fold price increase for naloxone has not been uncommon. EMS1.com reported several outrageous examples of price gouging on this emergency drug:

• One manufacturer, Kaleo of Richmond, Va., increased the wholesale price of its auto-injector to $4,500 this year for a package of two from $690 in 2014.
• Not long ago, a dose of the decades-old generic drug cost little more than a dollar. Now the lowest available price is nearly 20 times that.

Chris Christie’s opioid panel called for a declaration of national emergency. The panel did call for increased access to naloxone and did address the price increases, ‘by using the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate reduced prices for government units and mandate every member of law enforcement should carry the life-saving drug.” Generally such mandates have resulted in price increases, so here is hoping HHS can get a better deal.

Christie’s opioid panel, manned by cannabis haters, was quick to reject, and indeed, made no mention of the great promise of medical cannabis  in preventing, treating, and avoiding relapse to opioids. The usefulness and effectiveness of medical cannabis for addressing the opioid problem is becoming common knowledge, yet unworthy of mention by Christie’s “experts.” With this kind of misguided guidance it looks like were are going to be using a lot of expensive Narcan for a very long time.

American war hero and US Senator John McCain has brain cancer. His malignancy, a glioblastoma, is often quickly lethal. On the other hand, this exact type of brain cancer shows great promise for treatment by medical cannabis. Marijuana offers John McCain perhaps his best chance at beating the growing mass in his brain. Whether he will be informed of this option, though, is another question.

Cannabis offers an almost bewildering profusion of medical benefits, and its power against cancer came was noted as early as 1974. For political correctness, though, these results were hidden. And being a Schedule I drug marijuana has been defined by congress and the DEA as having no medical value, stifled nearly all research in the USA. Luckily for humankind, medical cannabis has been studied around the globe and Spanish researchers at Madrid’s Complutense University have been investigating its cancer-fighting powers for two decades. Much of their work has focused on gliomas.

Manual Guzman and others from Complutense University in 2006 published in the British Journal Of Cancer the study, A pilot clinical study of Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme. Their rationale was built on several earlier studies of various anti-cancer effects of cannabis:

We have previously shown that cannabinoids inhibit the growth (Galve-Roperh et al, 2000; Sánchez et al, 2001) and angiogenesis (Blázquez et al, 2003, 2004) of gliomas in animal models. Remarkably, this antiproliferative effect seems to be selective for brain-tumour cells as the survival of normal brain cells (astrocytes (Gómez del Pulgar et al, 2002), oligodendrocytes (Molina-Holgado et al, 2002) and neurons (Mechoulam et al, 2002)) is unaffected or even favoured by cannabinoid challenge. On the basis of these preclinical findings, we have conducted a pilot clinical study aimed at assessing cannabinoid antitumoral action in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme.

Cannabis and the cannabinoids THC and CBD exert powerful anti-cancer actions in several ways. One anti-tumor effect is the stifling of the formation of new blood vessels to support the tumors, angiogenesis. As they mention, the selectivity of cannabis is remarkable in that healthy nerve cells and other supportive brain cells are not damaged, just the cancerous cells.

Unfortunately, the stifling of research in the USA and around the planet caused by tragically flawed drug schedules and restrictions, the treatment of brain cancer with medical cannabis is still in its infancy, with key open questions about just how to administer this new medicine. Probably smoking a joint will not turn out to be the optimal medical administration (although it just might, and without doubt would provide beneficial palliative relief from cancer pain and discomfort).

Research in 2014 indicated that a combination of THC and CBD greatly enhanced the anti-tumor effects of radiation. The Medical Daily followed up on this cancer treatment with cannabinoids, interviewing one of the principals:

We think that the cannabinoids are hitting a number of cell signaling pathways, which primes them to the effects of irradiation. Pre-treatment with the cannabinoids seems to interfere with the ability of the tumour cell to repair the DNA-damaging effects of irradiation.

Being a decorated veteran, presumably the Arizona senator could make use of VA medical care to help fight the brain cancer. Idiotically, however, it may be illegal for his doctors to inform him of this powerful medical possibility. VA physicians are prohibited from discussing possible medical benefits of cannabis with their patients.

Even if John McCain became aware of the brain cancer-fighting properties of marijuana, he might refrain in disdain; when asked about marijuana in 1999, McCain’s views were restrictive.

I can’t support the legalization of marijuana. Scientific evidence indicates that the moment that it enters your body, one, it does damage, and second, it can become addictive. It is a gateway drug.

Medical marijuana could quite possibly save John McCain’s life. Sadly, the possibility that he will be aware of that fact and use cannabis is close to zero. In any case, we wish him the best.

After wasting 1,000 billion dollars, 45 years, and tens of millions of arrests the war on drugs has produced as highly lethal opioid epidemic. Having promised as a candidate to “take care” of the problem, President Donald Trump has appointed an opioid panel, AKA Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis. The panel hopes to provide a plan to “take care” of the highly fatal problem by September. Problem is, nearly all panel members are incapacitated by a prejudice against what is likely to be the most useful tool in this fight, medical cannabis.

Leading the president’s panel is New Jersey governor, ex-presidential candidate, and bridge operator Chris Christie. As a former prosecutor, Christie took a law-enforcement heavy approach in his state and focused on a new law monitoring physician pain prescriptions. Still, heroin use, addiction, and death haunt New Jersey.

Opioid addiction is a break down in personal autonomy and self-control. Another disqualification for Christie could be his personal gluttony. As TIME Magazine reported, Chris Christie Racked Up 300k of Food and Alcohol on Expense Account.

Joining Chris Christie on the panel is a range of “experts.”

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law assume a prominent role in the panel. Although he lacks any experience in government, he is tasked with several other important jobs this summer, including reinventing the US government and securing mid-east peace. Apparently though, the Israeli-Palestinian problem is proving difficult, so maybe he will have more time to deal with the opioid epidemic.

Kellyanne Conway brings to the panel, uh, well, probably a good communication channel to the president, something Christie lacks. However, she recently caused some stir with her remarks about addiction. In referring to those with addiction problems she revealed her recommended solution, “a four-letter word called ‘will’ ”. Senator Ed Markey was quick to respond, “Kellyanne Conway should be ashamed of herself for suggesting that those suffering from substance-use disorders should simply have more ‘will’ ”. If Conway truly views addiction in terms of personal will, perhaps she should consider the will-power of the legendarily gluttonous panel chairman. Chris Christie has spent over $1,000 a week of New Jersey taxpayer money on entertaining, food, and drink.

Patrick Kennedy, ex-congressman and former prescription drug abusing driver, and current Big Pharma flack is next up. Ill deserving of his last name, Kennedy is perhaps best remembered for playing bumper cars in the middle of the night in Washington D.C., under the influence of the psychoactive sleep drug Ambien.  He promised “to seek help for addiction.”  Since then, Kennedy has used his personal addiction issues to become an “expert” in drug abuse, especially focused on the “dangers” of cannabis with his anti-marijuana organization, SAM, Smart About Marijuana.

A couple of governors and treatment industry advocates fill out the commission. Seemingly about the only issue uniting this group is their distaste for medical marijuana. This comes at a time when it is becoming ever more clear that medical cannabis may very well be the best preventative, palliative, and treatment for opioid addiction.

In addition to pure obstinacy and malign neglect of the crucial potential of medical cannabis, the panel’s other big problem is the congressional attack on ObamaCare and medicare. The $800 billion cuts proposed by senate republicans would devastate the already inadequate access to addiction treatment.

So the panel is tasked with solving a quickly growing problem, deadly in its consequences, but with the prospect of far fewer funds for any sort of treatment options.

The only entities getting increased funding under the Trump administration are the traditional profiteers of the war on drugs, prisons, prosecutors, and police, even though our current highly fatal opioid epidemic is tragic proof of the total failure of the trillion dollar war on drugs.

Just last week, the PEW Charitable Trust reported another study showing no relationship between coercive drug laws, robust enforcement and prosecution and the use of drugs and other indicators. The study, like other before it, found:

As Pew’s letter explained, higher rates of drug imprisonment do not translate into lower rates of drug use, fewer drug arrests, or fewer overdose deaths.

An earlier report by PEW found:

Despite substantial expenditures on longer prison terms for drug offenders, taxpayers have not realized a strong public safety return. The self-reported use of illegal drugs has increased over the long term as drug prices have fallen and purity has risen

Drug using behavior is not affected by harsh enforcement. Yet the commission’s proposed solutions are likely more of the same, only with additional harshness, totally deprived of the true healing potential of medical cannabis. The panel is off to a shaky start, already missing its first report deadline.

Dumbed down by cannabigotry and soon to oversee massive treatment defunding, the Trump opioid panel ship of fools may manage little more than their own sinking. Meanwhile over 1,000 Americans a week will breathe their last breath as opioids, especially fentanyl, shut down their respiration.

The new line for federal marijuana prohibitionists seems to be, “I worry that we have gotten away from allowing science to drive our policy when it comes to marijuana.” This doorknob dumb quotation is from someone who should know better, Obama’s former surgeon general, Vivek Murthy.

Clearly, the US has never allowed science to drive marijuana policy, which has been more a witch hunt than a quest for truth.

If science determined US marijuana policy, Congress would have never over-ridden the will of the American Medical Association in 1937 when federal prohibitionist criminalized cannabis. The AMA pleaded, but to no avail:

Since the medicinal use of cannabis has not caused and is not causing addiction, the prevention of the use of the drug for medicinal purposes can accomplish no good end whatsoever. How far it may serve to deprive the public of the benefits of a drug that on further research may prove to be of substantial value, it is impossible to foresee.

If science determined US marijuana policy, Richard Nixon would have accepted in 1972 the scientific findings of his own Shafer Commission (The National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse). To his horror, the commission found marijuana as least no more dangerous than alcohol and recommended it be handled in the same way. Furious, Nixon instead sought to use marijuana laws to punish hippies, the counterculture, and Viet Nam war protesters:

I want a goddamn strong statement on marijuana. Can I get that out of this sonofabitching, uh, domestic council? … I mean one on marijuana that just tears the ass out of them.

If science determined US marijuana policy, the Drug Enforcement Administration would have taken the findings of its own law Judge Francis Young who in 1988, now nearly 30 years ago, clarified the science of marijuana. He found marijuana to be medically useful, remarkably safe and recommended down scheduling off severe Schedule I.

Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care.

In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume.

It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record.

Of course, Judge Young’s findings and recommendations fell on deaf ears of DEA administrators who have continued to be unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious. The latest example was current DEA acting administrator Chuck Rosenberg, pictured above,  who made some equally dumb statements at the same Cleveland Clinic conference on opioids where Dr. Murthy spoke. Doing what DEA administrators do — lying –, he said “marijuana is not medicine.” Rosenberg continued,

If it turns out that there is something in smoked marijuana that helps people, that’s awesome. “I will be the last person to stand in the way of that. … But let’s run it through the Food and Drug Administration process, and let’s stick to the science on it.

Of course, the FDA is totally unable to assess the medical value of cannabis in a fair way, mainly because it is a medicinal plant, not a pharmaceutical drug. The central scientific fact to process is that marijuana kills no one. Marijuana kills zero people. DEA Judge Young marveled at this fact back in 1988.

Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality.

The other pharmaceutical drugs “run through the FDA process” manage to kill over 100,000 Americans each year, making them a leading cause of death in the USA. Cannabis kills no one. If the DEA administrator were at all curious about the medical value of cannabis, he could check out some of the 22,000 published studies and reviews.

If science determined US marijuana policy, marijuana would have never been classified as a Schedule I drug, and would certainly not have been fossilized as such for nearly half a century, halting nearly all medical research and priming 20 million cruel and needless arrests.

The last thing we need worry about is marijuana policies getting ahead of the science. We need marijuana policies that allow science, something Schedule I does not do. From the considerable cannabis science we do have, clearly marijuana prohibition is a medical and moral crime against humanity.