Ted Cruz and several other Republican right-wingers have regrettably challenged recent encouraging signs of congressional change in criminal justice, incarceration, and scheduling of cannabis.

Incentives have been building in recent years to make changes to America’s bloated criminal justice, drug war, and prison systems. The realities and downsides of now generations of drug war clearly show their damage:

• The “land of the free” has become instead “incarceration nation,” by quintupling the number and percentages of its own citizens held in cages. No country jails a higher number nor percentage of its people. Senator Jim Webb asked if we are home to the most evil people on earth? He called our incarceration shame “vastly counterproductive.“
• The nation’s police have been deterred from their oath to “protect and serve” by drug war mentality and  malignant incentives, including civil asset forfeiture. Instead, the fellow American citizens became the enemy of the police and also a grand opportunity to police for profit.
• Prosecutors have been incentivized to focus on victim-less drug “crimes,” rather than violent crimes. Rape kits went untested while DAs and US Attorneys profited from pointless, shooting-fish-in-a-barrel marijuana prosecutions.
• People getting hooked on heroin became more of a middle class problem, stemming clearly from the gateway pharmaceutical drugs such as Oxycontin. This change in those facing heroin addiction is brinimg with it a more compassionate, treatment-oriented emphasis and willingness to look at addiction as as public health matter, rather than the main focus for police and prosecution.
• Dozens of other good reasons remain for ending the damaging decades of the police-prosecution-prison model of the war on drugs.

Political change, even bipartisan agreement(!) has surfaced in the last few years. Strong sentiment exists in both sides of the aisle of Congress to address the mistakes of the war on drugs and its warping of the justice and prison systems.

Several Congressional bills in 2015 addressed these issues. One of the most important is the S. 2123: Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015. This bill was sponsored by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa), a long time drug war hawk. Sponsoring this bill represents a change of heart of this hardliner; in the previous session he had opposed similar legislation introduced by Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill). Grassley called the earlier, bipartisan bill “lenient” and “dangerous.” Grassley, however, is single-handedly blocking the marijuana rescheduling CARERs act.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) backed the earlier bill, as did Republican Rand Paul, Democrat Cory Booker and several more senators from both parties. The bill made it out of committee but died on the floor.

Ted Cruz Switches Sides

Now the same Ted Cruz who backed the earlier bill has come out attacking the 2015 version, calling it “dangerously lenient.” Apparently running for president has changed Cruz’s small government views on punishment and incarceration. Reason.com’s Jacob Sullum describes how “the Texas senator, once a leading Republican critic of disproportionate punishment, seems to have switched sides.”

Apparently this switch blindsided Cruz ally and bill sponsor Mike Lee, the Utah senator who sponsored the previous version. Lee had no idea Cruz would now be attacking his common sense bill as “dangerous and politically poisonous.”

Tom Cotton on the Attack

Tom Cotton, Arkansas Junior Senator and arch-neocon is pictured with Cruz above. His hawkish world view is mirrored by his old fashioned authoritarian, law-and-order, hard on drugs conservationism, nearly the opposite of libertarian Rand Paul. Cotton’s first act as US Senator was to try to scuttle the Iran nuclear negotiations. His radical conservationism is reflected in his current attempts to sabotage the sentencing reform act including lobbying his fellow senators, as reported by Politico‘s Seung Min Kim.

Ed Kilgore, writing in the New York Mag, brings up the specter of a future Tom Cotton presidency. I had this same chilling thought when he successfully ran for the senate. Be afraid, America, be very afraid of Tom Cotton. Other Republican right-wingers seeking to reestablish their law-and-order cred by opposing the sentencing act are are Jim Risch, (R-Idaho) and David Perdue, (R-Georgia).

The efforts by Cruz and Cotton and these conservatives may well cause Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to resist further action on the bill. And after all, passage of a bi-partisan bill might be seen a victory for Barack Obama, something McConnell pledged never to allow.

Sadly, exactly zero colleagues have cosponsored Senator Bernie Sanders’ smart proposal to de-schedule marijuana.

The Vermont Senator’s bill, S. 2237: Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2015, was introduced in early November. Going beyond the timid rescheduling out of draconian Schedule I, a common sense move somehow refused by President Barack Obama and supported only tepidly by Hillary Clinton, Sander’s legislation takes a vital step. Bernie’s bill, as explained in a blog here at MarijuanaPolitics.com, “would effectively end federal marijuana prohibition, treating cannabis similar to alcohol.” Senator Sanders is exactly correct in terms of handle cannabis legally, i.e. de-scheduling or delisting instead of merely rescheduling. See De-scheduling is the new Rescheduling: Moving the Cannabis Reform Goalposts.

Sadly, Bernie’s superb bill is going nowhere. Unfortunately, the Vermont Senator’s signature languishes in loneliness, shunned by senate colleagues who should be sympathetic. No other senators have joined Bernie’s common sense bill.

The GovTrack website tracks all federal legislation. S. 2237 can be tracked there.

The news there is not good, showing no cosponsors, and remaining at the first stage (Introduction) of implementation. The next step would be going committee (Judiciary) for hopeful passage onto the full Senate. Unfortunately, the Judiciary Committee is filled with long-time cannabis prohibitionists, like Jeff Sessions and Chairman Chuck Grassley. So good luck. The GovTrack website rates Sanders’ bill chances for approval and signing by the president at 1%.

Still, the absence of support by other senators for cannabis de-scheduling is ominous. The other major pending cannabis legislation, S. 683, the CARERS Act gained 15 cosponsors in the Senate. Tragically, GovTrack also gives this bill on a 1% chance of getting past committee and 0% chance of implementation

Original sponsoring senators of the CARERS Act, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Rand Paul have been joined by 12 other, mostly democratic senators, including both Oregonians Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden. The entire list is:

Gillibrand, Kirsten [D-NY] (joined Mar 10, 2015)

Paul, Rand [R-KY] (joined Mar 10, 2015)

Heller, Dean [R-NV] (joined Mar 11, 2015)

Boxer, Barbara [D-CA] (joined Mar 17, 2015)

Baldwin, Tammy [D-WI] (joined May 13, 2015)

Bennet, Michael [D-CO] (joined May 13, 2015)

Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] (joined May 13, 2015)

Wyden, Ron [D-OR] (joined May 13, 2015)

Schatz, Brian [D-HI] (joined Jun 1, 2015)

Udall, Tom [D-NM] (joined Jun 1, 2015)

Heinrich, Martin [D-NM] (joined Jun 15, 2015)

King, Angus [I-ME] (joined Jul 8, 2015)

Hirono, Mazie [D-HI] (joined Jul 21, 2015)

Schumer, Charles “Chuck” [D-NY] (joined Jul 27, 2015)

Mikulski, Barbara [D-MD] (joined Jul 28, 2015)

President Obama has appointed Joe Biden, who recently lost his son Beau to brain cancer, to head a “moonshot” to cure cancer. It turns out that cannabis may well be a key to fighting cancer; it is  likely that the VP’s drug war blinders will cause him to ignore marijuana’s anti-tumor powers.

Many people are unaware that Joe Biden was a prime culprit in instigating and promoting the disastrous war on drugs, especially marijuana. As documented by MarijuanaPolitics.com, Joe Biden helped establish the White House office of the drug czar (NODCP), and its mandate to oppose medical marijuana. His zero-tolerance, tough-on-drugs cannabigotry exceeded that of all but the most right-wing, reactionary, authoritarian Republicans.

His entire career in congress consisted of passing one excessive drug war legislation after another, creating mandatory minimums, civil asset forfeiture, and militarized police incentivized to enforce drug violations instead of actual crimes.

Now Joe Biden is saying “politics” is in the way of a cancer cure.  His statement is powerfully ironic. In good part because of Joe Biden’s anti-marijuana politics, cannabis remains a Schedule I drug, declared to be of no medical value and highly dangerous, not available for medical research. Both these criteria are, of course, false. Not only is cannabis one of the very safest of all drugs (it cannot kill), it promises dozens of beneficial medical uses, including hope for those with cancer.

Remarkably, cannabis offers now one of the areas of greatest excitement in the search for a cancer cure.

Cannabis has long been known to be a powerful palliative in the treatment of cancer, easing pain, stopping nausea, and allowing sleep are among these benefits, although still not available to sufferers, except in states with medical legalization, due to marijuana’s Schedule I status.

Many areas of research now point to the anti-tumor powers of cannabis. As such research is not legal in the USA, most of these discoveries come from other continents.  Spain’s Complutense University in Madrid has been a leader.

Physiologically, several of key processes show that cannabis fights cancer. One is apoptosis, sometimes called “programmed cell death” or “cell suicide” is a natural process that cleanly removes useless cells on a daily basis.

“Apoptosis is a way to remove unwanted cells. During apoptosis, cellular contents are not released and inflammation does not occur. The apoptotic cells are rapidly engulfed by their neighbors and removed.“

Cancer cells are definitely unwanted and their ideal removal would be through the non-toxic process of apoptosis. The other main type of cell death is necrosis, a highly toxic and inflammatory death that often damages surrounding cells. Necrosis usually stems from cell damage, such as burns, poison, and blunt trauma, characteristics of the radiation, chemotherapy and surgery that define modern cancer treatment.

Amazingly, THC and other cannabinoids seem to attack cancer cells (while not damaging healthy cells), and causing their death through this ideal process of apoptosis! One study found,

THC inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion, and induced cell apoptosis.

The inhibition of cell proliferation prevents cancer cells from multiplying and moving invasively. THC  and other cannabinoids also contribute to anti-angiogenesis.

Anti-angiogenesis is the denial of new blood supply to tumors and is in  the forefront of modern cancer research. Astoundingly, cannabinoids from marijuana seem to help prevent tumors from developing the new blood vessels they need to grow:

Because active angiogenesis is causally involved in the progression of the majority of solid tumors, considerable effort is being made in developing effective anti-angiogenic drugs to treat cancer. In the context of the renaissance in the study of the therapeutic effects of cannabinoids, our findings show that these compounds may be considered promising anti-tumoral agents as they inhibit tumor angiogenesis and growth in vivo with no significant side effects.

There are several other key ways cannabinoids fight cancer. Obviously, cannabis must be considered, discussed, and researched in any moonshot for cancer cure.

The “politics” that separate the now frequent discoveries off cannabis anti-tumor properties from sufferers of cancer has nothing the do with the office politics “stove-piping” mentioned by Joe Biden. The real stifling “politics” have every thing to do the drug war political correctness that disallows any mention of marijuana benefits.

The irony of Joe Biden calling out politics for lack of cancer research progress would be less poignant had not the VP lost a son to brain cancer. As this writer mentioned in an earlier post, I send condolences to Joe Biden and take no pleasure in pointing out the grim truth that medical cannabis may have helped his son. Brain tumors, gliomas, like the kind that stole Beau Biden’s life may well be treatable with medical cannabis. The reader can confirm this with a Google search; Joe Biden would have seen the same results.

Cancer sufferers, all Americans, indeed all humans need to know of the anti-cancer properties of cannabis. The terrible truth remains: if Joe Biden could not allow any acceptance of cannabis as a cancer fighter when his own son lay dying, there is little hope that he will give it any consideration in his moonshot for cancer cure.

President Obama gave Joe Biden an extraordinary opportunity; the Vice President must overcome his own cannabigotry to fulfil this important mission of such huge importance to so many people.

Debbie Does Malice, Again: DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz just reaffirmed her support for continued cannabis criminalization.

As chair of the Democratic National Committee, the Florida congresswoman has shown herself to be inept, biased, and unfair. She is especially ignorant regarding cannabis prohibition. Schultz has been a divisive disaster for Democrats and must be replaced to save the presidency in 2016.

MarijuanaPolitics.com reported on her bizarre anti-cannabis position. In a new interview with the New York Times, Schultz reaffirmed her decidedly non-progressive stance on marijuana. Interviewer Ana Marie Cox asked an excellent question:

You’re one of a dwindling number of progressive politicians who oppose legalization of even the medical use of marijuana. Where does that come from?

The Florida representatives first lied in responding “I don’t oppose the use of medical marijuana,” and then went on with very muddled reasoning about why she opposes cannabis.

Regarding her stance on medical marijuana, she is in fact a big part of the reason Floridians in need of cannabis do not have access. She famously opposed the state’s 2014 medical marijuana initiative, and it failed to achieve the required 60% majority. Her actions not only served to deny the benefits of medical cannabis to Florida citizens, but also to spur continued arrest and prosecution of Floridians whose medical choice is to ignore cruel and ignorant cannabis laws.

Politically, Shultz’s opposition to the medical marijuana initiative was costly. She alienated top Florida democratic fundraiser and former ally, John Morgan. He has now vowed to help oppose he candidacy for continued Florida office, including her primary should she run again in 2016. The bad news, if she gets booted from her congressional office, she would likely find employment in a Clinton administration.

In the NYT interview, Schultz continued:

I just don’t think we should legalize more mind-altering substances if we want to make it less likely that people travel down the path toward using drugs. We have had a resurgence of drug use instead of a decline. There is a huge heroin epidemic.

That’s right, she conflated legalization of marijuana with the pain-killing pharmaceutical induced heroin epidemic. In reality, medical marijuana may well offer a way to prevent and reduce addiction to opiates; states offering medical access to cannabis suffer from less addiction and fewer drug-related deaths. Opiates and alcohol can kill, and do so daily. Cannabis cannot kill, and never has.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz understands none of this.

Like Republican candidates Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, and John Kasich, Debbie accuses cannabis of being a “gateway drug”. This prohibitionist talking point was discredited nearly 20 years ago in the major Institute of Health study on marijuana. As it turns out, alcohol is the true gateway drug.

Indeed, a troubling aspect of Schultz’s opposition to cannabis is her close relationship with the alcohol industry. Purveyors of the truly dangerous drugs alcohol and tobacco have always been in the forefront of  anti-cannabis propaganda. “Booze PACs” are major supporters of her campaign; they may well now warp her votes on marijuana.

NORML assigned her a -10, strong supporter of the war on drugs, right in there with the right wing of the Republican party. Why do some call her “progressive?”

The 2014 election was Debbie’s debacle.

In the last election, Democrats lost 9 senate seats, 13 house seats, several governor’s offices and got mauled in state and local elections across the country.

Overall, the elections resulted in the largest Republican majority in the entire country in nearly a century, with 54 seats in the Senate, 247 (56.78%) in the House, 31 governorships (62%), and 68 state legislative chambers. Moreover, Republicans gained their largest majority in the House since 1928, the largest majority in Congress overall since 1928, and the largest majority of state legislatures since 1928.

The DNC failed to get out democratic voters in an election with the lowest turnout since 1942.  The DNC chair totally failed to rally young voters, who did vote slightly democratic, but only 13% of them voted!

Schultz did win her own reelection in Florida. She was criticized for running away from her boss, President Barack Obama. Turnout in her district was tepid. Certainly, she should have been fired from the DNC chair after the 2014 electoral disaster.

Many believe as DNC chair she has acted to promote Clinton’s candidacy over Bernie Sanders.

The Vermont Senator Sanders offers far better positions on a range of criminal justice and drug law issue, especially marijuana reform. A Clinton nomination over Bernie Sanders would be a set back for cannabis legalization. Hillary could be expected to be even more tepid than Barack Obama has been on cannabis and drug law matters.

A special danger of a Clinton administration would be the likelihood that Debbie Wasserman Schultz would serve an important role, to the detriment of cannabis liberation. She could be expected to carry her right wing cannabis agenda into a  Clinton presidency.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz must not lead the Democratic Party during the 2016 election.

Calls for her resignation or firing are coming in from all directions. The best case for those of us working to end cannabis prohibition would be the firing and permanent exit from political power of Debbie Wasserman Schulz.

Oregon’s two senators, joined by six democratic colleagues, are demanding anew medical marijuana research answers, solutions,  and actions from obstructive federal agencies.

Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, led by Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and along with Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.),  Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) sent queries to several federal agencies that failed to explain their inaction on cannabis research.

Medical marijuana has been called “a wonder drug” because of its low toxicity (there is no lethal dose) and high effectiveness in dozens of medical and health conditions. Remarkably, cannabis is an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-glaucoma, anti-dementia, anti-diabetes, anti-depressant, and anti-tumor agent. Yet federal restriction have allowed almost no study. The little research that was allowed was directed by political correctness and cannabigotry to try to find negative effects.

The action by these senators is actually followup to Senate action last summer demanding that the agencies stop stalling cannabis research. In July, the DEA administrator, ONDCP ‘drug czar’, and HHS head all received from these eight senators a request to work together to end the stifling medical marijuana research roadblocks. Now, these bureaucrats just received fresh inquiries from the Senate due to the inadequate responses to the July request. Senator Warren wrote:

“There are currently numerous federal and state regulatory barriers to researching marijuana.  This regulatory scheme which limits medical marijuana research is outdated and in desperate need of serious and immediate review, and these problems are exacerbated by a lack of coordination between the agencies and states.”

The senators demanded action on several fronts:

• The supply of marijuana for research purposes.
• Assessment of marijuana rescheduling.
• Interagency coordination and research applications.
• Surveillance and epidemiological studies. 
• Coordination with states and inter-agency cooperation.

Unfortunately, this Senate prodding of these obstructive bureaucracies was not bipartisan. Surely, at least one Republican could sign on; Rand Paul where are you? Paul, the Kentucky Republican is one of the Senate’s best in terms of criminal justice reform and marijuana policy. He is cosponsor of the ground breaking CARERS Act, which is unfortunately languishing under the repressive thumb of Senate Judiciary Chairman, Chuck Grassley.

Still, this forceful followup by eight powerful senators should show these drug war bureaucrats that the time of unquestioned delays in changing marijuana policy are over.

Iowa’s GOP senior Senator Chuck Grassley is stifling cannabis reform.

His inaction as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee is all that is needed to stop the CARERS Act. The historic, bipartisan Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States Act is Senate legislation that would reschedule cannabis off its current draconian Schedule I, and ease other marijuana policies and restrictions on research. It now seems unlikely it will make it to full Senate Judiciary Committee for hearing or vote, because of one senator’s misguided mission.

Cannabis rescheduling, especially away from the current (since 1970) draconian Schedule I, is a hugely needed reform. Down scheduling, even to Schedule II, wouldn’t solve all important human rights and criminal justice travesties, but it could help open up cannabis medical research, and eventually move us towards fixing cannabis industry banking problems and tax problems.

Ironically and tragically, of over 200 million adult Americans, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is perhaps the least qualified all to be “the decider” concerning federal marijuana regulation. His drug war zealotry and cannabigotry stretch for decades. He has always supported the worst excesses of the war on drugs, including mandatory minimums, civil forfeiture, and harm maximization to cannabis users and their families. He has always fought any loosening of federal marijuana laws. And yet Chuck Grassley is the person who lets live or die the CARERs Act and with it marijuana rescheduling. It looks like he intends to let it die. Back when the bill was introduced he said:

I oppose moving marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II drug, based on the current science on the risks and benefits.

At the same time, he says forms of medical marijuana should be studied more, knowing full well that Schedule I status makes research nearly impossible. By the way, Grassley is also chairman of the US Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, a post from which he struggles to maintain hardline conventions, a half century old, against marijuana and other drugs.

Should Grassley move the bipartisan CARERS legislation to committee, it may receive a frosty reception from such members as Jeff “I am a big fan of the DEA” Sessions, a former prosecutor who, like all prosecutors, benefited greatly from easy, shooting-fish-in-a-barrel marijuana and drug cases. Orwellian drug laws passed in the 80’s and 90’s made prosecutions ever easier, and district attorneys, attorneys general, and federal prosecutors were quick to build resumes by quintupling America’s prison population. Other drug war dinosaurs populate the committee, but some support CARERS. The legislation deserves a hearing and vote.

If not now, when?

If the CARERS Act is smothered by Grassley or killed in committee, it is difficult to see how cannabis will ever be rescheduled. All the Republican presidential candidates, with the exception of Rand Paul, oppose cannabis law reform. Some, like Chris Christie, want to reinvigorate the federal war on marijuana. The probable Democratic Party candidate, Hilary Clinton, has expressed only tepid interest in cannabis or drug war reform.

In congress, some senators and representatives fully see how continued prohibition, and especially Schedule I persecution of cannabis is counterproductive and fundamentally un-American, but the Republican-controlled congress is still authoritarian and supports the war on drugs.

Finally, the US Supreme Court has been complicit, over the past four decades, in creating a variety of drug war exemptions to the Bill of Rights.  SCOTUS, especially the far right wing of Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito will always decide in favor of cannabis prohibition.

Incredibly and tragically, marijuana has been falsely scheduled for 45 years. Will it still so be 45 years hence?

The key drug war country of Colombia is legalizing cannabis for medical use.

Colombia’s history and American drug war involvement and coercion make this a gigantic change. The new Colombian move adds to quickening world wide momentum to remove cannabis from the war on drugs, as country after country rethinks hard line prohibition of cannabis.

The bold move begins with an executive decree by President Juan Manuel Santos. The Colombian leader will soon sign the decree into law, regulating the production and distribution of medical marijuana. Still under the thumb of the USA, Colombian officials were quick to note that this does not legalize growing or selling cannabis.

Small amounts of marijuana (and other drugs) are already decriminalized in Colombia. In a move the US Supreme Court would do well to emulate, the Colombian Constitution Court has decreed that personal use of cannabis and other substances is up the the individual and the “free development of one’s personality.” Contrast this with America’s drug war motto, “Zero Tolerance.” I always thought “Zero Tolerance” was a lousy motto for the United States of America.

With Compassion Comes Legalization

The Colombian medical marijuana push comes with the recognition of the huge medical value of cannabis. “It has already been scientifically proven that marijuana has many medicinal attributes”, said President Santos. The condition named in proposed legislation is epilepsy. The efficacy of cannabinoids in cannabis to treat epilepsy is also a major reason for the movement of “marijuana refugees” in the US to legal states such as Colorado where afflicted children can finally receive these anti-seizure effects. And just recently in Mexico, it was the case of a child tormented by epilepsy that caused the Mexican Supreme Court to rule that she (and others) have a right to marijuana medication. Of course, epilepsy is just one of dozens of conditions that medical cannabis can help prevent, treat, and alieve.

Prohibition Falling Across Latin America

Colombia’s actions are just the latest in a tide of sentiments, legislations, decrees, and rulings across Latin America chipping away at the USA-led cannabis prohibition. Chile just harvested Latin America’s first legal medical marijuana crop. Mexico and Argentina have decriminalized small amounts. Uruguay is becoming the first South American country to legalize personal use. Ecuador and Costa Rica are experimenting with decriminalization.

The USA, which led the hemisphere into failed drug war policies, now follows its Latin American neighbors in reducing the many harms of the war on drugs. Colombia’s president has issued a thoughtful and compassionate decree;  too bad American President Barack Obama lacks the will and compassion to do the same.

Americans now favor marijuana legalization by a healthy margin, as proven in a new Gallup Poll.

This realization is now influencing the 2016 Presidential election. Candidates supporting continued criminal prohibition of cannabis now face strong headwind of American public opinion. The Gallup pollsters concluded:

Americans’ support for legalizing marijuana is the highest Gallup has measured to date, at 58%. Given the patterns of support by age, that percentage should continue to grow in the future. Younger generations of Americans have been increasingly likely to favor legal use of marijuana as they entered adulthood compared with older generations of Americans when they were the same age decades ago. Now, more than seven in 10 of today’s young adults support legalization. But Americans today — particularly those between 35 and 64 — are more supportive of legal marijuana than members of their same birth cohort were in the past.

About the only group still opposed to legalizing marijuana consists of older, white Americans.

The poll found that, “now senior citizens are alone among age groups in opposing pot legalization.” But even this group has mellowed considerably on cannabis legalization, with 35% now supporting. This is up from a meager 4% in 1969! This aged anti-legalization segment is, of course, shrinking and acceptance of cannabis by older Americans can be expected to grow as the profound medical and health benefits to seniors become better known.

This shift in American attitude should influence the 2016 election.

Regarding the impact the poll should have, NORML’s Paul Armentano is spot on:

“Supporting the status quo — the notion that marijuana and those adults who consume it responsibly ought to be criminalized — is now a fringe position in America. These results ought to embolden campaigning politicians, as well as elected officials, to take a more pronounced stance in favor of legalizing and regulating cannabis in a manner that is consistent with the desires of the majority of their constituents.”

For the first time in a presidential race, “campaigning politicians” have taken notice, and even been questioned on marijuana policy during the debates. But support for marijuana legalization seems to lag far behind among the candidates as opposed to the American public. Of course, these oldest Americans least likely to support legalization is the group most consistent to vote. As such, they carry inordinate political power, and dominate early contests such as the Iowa caucus.

Pursuing the Democratic Party nomination,

Senator Bernie Sanders favors legalization. This view endears him especially to younger potential voters, who agree better than two to one.

Hillary Clinton now expresses support for medical cannabis and for legalization experiments in states, but does not support ending federal prohibition.

The other Democratic Party candidates express similar views, both quite reasonable.

In the race for Republican Party nomination, things are different.

The supposed party of small government and states’ rights seems to spawn candidates who support neither. Their prohibitionist views depart radically from the American mainstream revealed in the new Gallup poll.

Chris Christie promises to bring the federal hammer down on legal states and cannabis users if he becomes president. Perhaps his dismal popularity ratings reflect the American public’s disgust with continued harsh prohibition.

John Kasich, who appears reasonable and has some good policy positions, unfortunately espouses idiotically regressive views on marijuana. He calls cannabis a scourge comparable to heroin.  Nonetheless, he supports states rights sufficiently to allow states to legalize without federal intervention.

Marco Rubio, currently an alarmingly strong candidate, supports the anti-marijuana views of his mega-donor (and puppeteer) gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson. Like Chris Christie, he would “enforce federal law” and unleash the dogs of drug war on legalized states.

Carly Fiorina is somewhat better, but did express the backward opinion that alcohol is safer than marijuana.

Dr. Ben Carson calls marijuana a gateway drug and finds its use, “hedonistic.”

Rick Santorum, oh, who cares?

Donald Trump looks ever more likely as the Republican candidate. He has made several inconsistent statements (surprise) about medical use and state legalization. Hopefully he will soon clarify his views.

Rand Paul, of all the Republicans, is the only candidate who seemingly supports personal rights and as well as states’ rights. His actions in congress have been exemplary, leading the assault on cannabis prohibition. The Marijuana Policy Project declared him the best candidate among the Republicans. Unfortunately, his poll numbers still lag, at least among the older Republicans. But his views are much more in line with the 72% of young adults who may give him the presidency if he can secure the nomination.

Hopefully the 2016 elections will elect a new President, along with politicians for office big and small, who reflect the views of the majority of Americans who support legalizing marijuana.

Possible Democratic presidential nominee for 2016, Joe Biden, was the principal architect of America’s horribly failed war on drugs, especially marijuana.

His drug warrior, anti-marijuana zealotry in devising ever harsher governmental punishments, including prison mandatory minimums, nearly guaranteed prosecutions, and asset forfeitures exceeded even the most authoritarian Republican fanatics, with whom he enthusiastically worked.

A bigot is defined as “a person who hates or refuses to accept the members of a particular group (such as a racial or religious group).” Oregon cannabis attorney Leland Berger uses the term “cannabigotry” to recognize the bigotry inflicted on that massive group of people who share the choice to use cannabis. Former Oregon news anchor Cyd Maurer describes how she lost her job to cannabigotry, in a legal state, no less.

Harms often including, but also often far more wounding than loss of job befall those 700,000 Americans who are STILL arrested each year for possession of cannabis. These cruel and unjust drug war damages to our fellow citizens and society are the product of one man, more than any other: Joe Biden. His grandfatherly, sometime goofy persona hides a calculating Torquemada who has inflicted incalculable damage to individual Americans, their families, and their neighborhoods. NORML’s Allen St. Pierre observed,

As former chairman for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden is the person most responsible for passing a package of laws in the mid-80s that we think of as today’s drug war.

Interestingly, the term “liberal” is an antonym for bigot.

Many democrats and mainstream news reporters call Biden liberal, even “unabashed liberal”. Seemingly unaware of Biden’s drug war evil, many democrats who think of themselves as liberal seem to like him and back his candidacy. Back in the ’90s when Republicans and Democrats competed to be tough on crime and zero tolerant to drugs, Biden defined liberal to big government Republican Senator Warren Hatch, R-Utah:

“The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is now for 60 new death penalties … the liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 100,000 cops. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 125,000 new state prison cells.”

Joe Biden has backed up this lock-em-up swagger with decades of ever more punitive legislation. What we got was not so much 100,000 cops on the beat, but 5,000, 20-man SWAT squads bedecked in the latest military costumes and driving tanks to bust pot farmers. What we got was far more than 125,000 new jail cells, we ended up with over two million caged Americans, far more than any other nation.

Biden played the central role in creating the office of drug czar, and his cannabigotry is clearly shown by his eagerness to force the drug czar to lie about cannabis and its medical value. The drug czar is restricted from any positive discussion of cannabis and commanded to resist any move towards legalization, at the specific behest of Joe Biden. His entire career in congress consisted of passing one excessive drug war legislation after another, creating mandatory minimums, civil asset forfeiture, and militarized police incentivized to enforce drug violations instead of actual crimes. He told ABC news, ” I still believe it’s a gateway drug. I’ve spent a lot of my life as chairman of the Judiciary Committee dealing with this. I think it would be a mistake to legalize.”

Lee Rosenberg, asked of Biden in 2009,

Will he be the devil on Barack Obama’s shoulder about the drug war in the same way that Dick Cheney was the devil on George Bush’s shoulder about the war on terror?

The answer, apparent by Obama’s reform timidity and refusal to reschedule cannabis, is

“Yes, Joe Biden has been Barack Obama’s drug war Dick Cheney.”

Biden likes to say that he has just been carrying out Obama’s drug policy, but really it has been the other way around.  Obama has done little to end the government’s war on cannabis, other than to accept the working of the Cole Memo, a document penned by an deputy attorney general to the former Attorney General Eric Holder. Only this thin restraint holds back massive federal bureaucracies like the DEA and federal prosecutors from again descending like harpies on medical and adult-use legalizations recently authorized by voters in many states.

This fragile protection, the Cole Memo, could be easily wiped aside by an anti-cannabis President Chris Christie, or President Marco Rubio, or President Joe Biden. SWAT teams could again prey on dispensaries, asset forfeitures could expand the robbing of families of their property, and prosecutions could target and deny medicine to marijuana refugees, families that have moved to medically legal states for treatments, especially for childhood epilepsy.

Biden’s cannabigotry has prevented life-saving medical cannabis research.

Joe Biden recently suffered the loss of his son Beau to brain cancer. This writer extends his condolences, and dislikes using the Vice President’s misfortune to make a point, but must bring up the glaring fact that gliomas and other brain cancers may well be best treated with marijuana cannabinoids. We don’t know this for sure because American research has been halted, and we must rely on research from Spain and Israel, in good part due to Joe Biden’s cannabigotry and anti-legalization, anti-rescheduling obstinacy. With marijuana at Schedule I, it is defined as having no medical value and is not available for research in in this country. Although it is too late for Beau Biden, other victims and future sufferers of brain cancers deserve unrestricted research into the huge potential for cannabis in finding treatments and cures. Joe Biden should show some compassion and fight to end this Schedule I idiocy and cruelty, so that other fathers may not suffer his profound grief. But there is zero chance he will do so.

From a drug policy and cannabis law reform perspective,  of all the Democratic Party candidates for president, Joe Biden is the worst choice.

Jim Webb, the former Senator from Virginia, may well be the Democratic 2016 candidate of choice for cannabis and drug war reformers.

Webb’s candidacy is currently little know and seldom mentioned. This may change if Hilary Clinton’s campaign continues to melt down.

Hillary Clinton’s marijuana policy is unclear and certainly uninspiring.

Hopefully, she has learned from the disastrous, zero-tolerance policies of her husband Bill. Former President Clinton, especially when working with Joe Biden, bears responsibility for many of the cruel drug war harms still bedeviling this country. Bill Clinton now claims he sees the errors in his actions (“We put “too many people in prison and for too long”).

But Hillary’s campaign does not call for ending the mandatory minimums, asset forfeitures, guaranteed prosecutions, excessive incarcerations, and police militarization masterminded by husband Bill. From all indications, Hillary’s drug and justice reforms, if any, would be more timid than those of Barack Obama.

Bernie Sanders is another great choice for Democratic presidential candidate.

Senator Sanders now ranks as a good drug war reformer. He supports at least medical marijuana legalization and has commendable views on drug war failure and ending private prisons.

“We have far, far, far too many people in jail for nonviolent crimes, and I think in many ways, the war against drugs has not been successful.”

Unfortunately, his success in gaining the nomination, and later winning the election, may suffer from his age and “Socialist” label. Hopefully, not.

Joe Biden may yet enter the race.

As a president, Biden would be a disaster for cannabis and drug war reform. Working lockstep with the most conservative, authoritarian Republicans, he was one of the main proponents and creators of the War On Drugs. Biden may well be responsible for his boss’s disappointing timidity in drug war reform; pathetically, nearing the end of the Obama Presidency, cannabis remains a Schedule I drug.

The other Democratic candidates…wait, who are they again?

Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee. At this point, these candidates are even more poorly known than Jim Webb.

Former Maryland governor O’Malley declared himself “not much in favor” of marijuana reform. Echoing prohibitionist prosecutor Chris Christie, he revived the long disproved gateway theory. “This drug, its use and its abuse can be a gateway.”

Democratic voters looking for cannabis law reform will be “not much in favor” of Martin O’Malley.

Former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee is far better, with a quite admirable history of supporting marijuana law reform. As governor he supported medical marijuana and even petitioned the DEA to down schedule cannabis from its draconian Schedule I.  Chafee, however, is little known and a longer shot than Jim Webb. He would make a great vice-presidential candidate.

Jim Webb was the best criminal justice reform US Senator of all time.

As freshman Virginia Senator, he introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act in 2009. He described American criminal incarceration system as “a deeply corrosive crisis that we have largely been ignoring at our peril.” Ultimately his senatorial commission floundered, crushed by Republicans still enamored with the war on drugs. Regarding the American criminal justice system Webb’s words exude wisdom:

With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different–and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter.

Jim’s openness to fresh drug policy choices is clear:

“I think everything should be on the table, and we specifically say that we want recommendations on how to deal with drug policy in our country. I think they should do a very careful examination of all aspects of drug policy.”

The candidate’s views on marijuana reflect his feelings on criminal justice:

“The time has come to stop locking up people for mere possession and use of marijuana.“

The ex-Senator very intelligently compares drug use to cigarette use, noting that the use of this deadly drug, tobacco, has dropped dramatically in the USA without making anything illegal or locking anyone up. He notes, “there have to be similar approaches when it comes to drug use.”

A Vietnam ground combat veteran, Webb is a highly decorated Marine, and recipient of the Navy Cross and two Silver Stars, along with two Purple Heart. He is an accomplished author of ten books, both fiction and non-fiction. He opposed the Iraq war and pushed legislation in 2007 to help prevent an Executive Office attack on Iran. He would make an excellent President, and one cautious of war. If Hillary or Bernie secure the nomination, Jim Webb would be a perfect vice-presidential candidate. In 2008, though, he declined any interest in that office.

If Hillary flames out and Bernie fades, Jim Webb is the logical and electable marijuana reform-minded Democratic voter’s candidate of choice! Jim Webb’16.

Update: It is looking more and more likely that Joe Biden will enter the 2016 presidential race.

Any presidential ambitions Joe Biden may harbor should remain in port.

During a discussion of Joe Biden’s possible presidential run on CNN the anchor mentioned his “popularity with young people.” Why on earth should this drug war dinosaur be popular with youth? Or with any Democrat?

Quite probably, few know anything about Joe Biden’s huge role in America’s drug war quagmire. He has been perhaps the most active and effective drug war advocate for decades, and has done much damage to democracy. Working and voting closely with the most authoritarian republicans, he played a central role in crafting a dozen draconian laws across the years. Asset forfeitures, mandatory minimums, “conspiracy” prosecutions have since filled newly-built American prisons. In great part due to Joe Biden’s votes and actions, the USA went from land of the free to being the world’s incarceration nation.

Joe Biden was instrumental in creating the office of Drug Czar.

An actual cabinet post during the craziest days of the drug war, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is now demoted but still actively lying to the American people. By charter, the drug czar is ordered to lie about the medical value of marijuana and insist their is none, even in the face of mountainous evidence to the contrary. For decades it has provided bully pulpit to a succession of, well, bullies. This sorry list includes:

• William Bennett – Moral authority and gambling addict who advocated zero tolerance and harsh punishments for any drug use (excepting cigarettes and alcohol, of course) and, perhaps anticipating ISIS, beheading drug dealers.
• Barry McCaffrey – Bill Clinton’s czar advocated taking prescription rights away from physicians who suggested to patients the medical value of cannabis. Also pioneered adding prohibitionist propaganda to American’s television programming.
• John Walters – George W. Bush’s neocon drug czar fought science and medical marijuana at every opportunity.

Joe Biden created the Rave Act, a low point in American drug war tyranny.

This 2003 legislation violates democratic principles of personal freedom going back to the Magna Carta. The draconian provisions of this horror made event promoters responsible for any consumption of controlled substance at their events, with ruinous penalties and mandatory minimums. Joe Biden seemed with this act, and all his drug war votes, to be totally unconcerned about massive personal rights violations inflicted upon American citizens.

To her shame, the bill was co-sponsored by Hilary Rodham Clinton, along with republican neocons Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, and Strom Thurmond. He also voted with these neocons (as did Hilary) for the disastrous Iraq War. And as it turns out, ecstasy, the drug targeted in the Rave Act (actually titled Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act) turns out to be an excellent psychiatric drug, particularly useful in treating symptoms of PTSD. Perhaps it should have been titled Reducing American’s Vulnerability to Freedom Act.

President Obama’s timid tiptoeing around the whole drug war has been a huge disappointment to millions of Americans.

Nearing the end of his presidency, cannabis is still a Schedule I drug, a federal felony for anyone to possess, and illegal for any researcher to study. Because of his own admitted use of marijuana as a young man, and due to his promises during his first campaign, many of us believed Obama would provide true criminal justice reform, drug war sensibility, and total change to marijuana law. But then he picked drug warrior Joe Biden as his running mate. Many believe Biden’s influence has slowed and stifled the president’s momentum in drug and criminal justice reform.

Watchdog Radley Balko responded to Obama’s poor choice:

Biden has sponsored more damaging drug war legislation than any Democrat in Congress. Hate the way federal prosecutors use RICO laws to take aim at drug offenders? Thank Biden. How about the abomination that is federal asset forfeiture laws? Thank Biden. Think federal prosecutors have too much power in drug cases? Thank Biden. Think the title of a “Drug Czar” is sanctimonious and silly? Thank Biden, who helped create the position (and still considers it an accomplishment worth boasting about).

Writing at reason.com Ed Krayewski noted:

That crime bill that makes Joe Biden so great committed $10 billion in federal spending on prisons and $13 billion on local cops. As a senator, Biden also pushed bills escalating the war on ecstasy and other club drugs, expanding asset-forfeiture laws, and making the drug war more awful in any way he could imagine.

So, if you liked the zero-tolerance War on Drugs, militarized police, and support the continued federal felonization of cannabis, Joe Biden will be your Democratic candidate of choice for 2016.  Joe Biden, for Drug War President 2016!  Not!

Democratic National Committee Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz discredits her party with her malevolent views and actions on cannabis.  The Florida congresswoman’s backwardness and obstruction on one of the 2016 election’s premier issues, cannabis prohibition, may cost the Democrats important votes. Many of us will not vote for the Democratic presidential candidate (unless it is Bernie Sanders) if Schultz has poisoned the platform against expanding cannabis liberties.

It is a time of rapid changes in the American cannabis landscape – states with medical exceptions to cannabis laws, and now outright legalization, increase steadily. Over three in four Americans favor medical marijuana and a majority would now like to see legalization for personal use. Legalized states are benefiting from substantial cannabis tax revenue, reduced crime, and exploding entrepreneurial energies growing newly-freed industries.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, however, stands and votes for cannabis prohibition, and came out against medical marijuana. She opposed a November 2014 ballot initiative to provide for medical exemption for marijuana in her home state of Florida. By doing so, she aided the no vote supported by Republican billionaire Sheldon Adelson, puppeteer to prohibitionist Republican candidate Marco Rubio.  The initiative nonetheless got over half the vote but fell short of the 60% required to pass. Backstabbing all Floridians hoping for medical exemption, her website read:

“My view is that approval of the use of marijuana as a medical treatment should be handled responsibly and in a regulated manner that ensures its approval does not do more harm than good.”

The ballot measure she opposed would have provided this regulation. What harm it might do she does not explain; actually there is none. Expanded medical marijuana is harm reduction in dozens of ways.

Often, she votes in agreement with her right wing Republican colleagues in the US House of Representatives. She even voted against a bipartisan measure (which passed) demanding that the Justice Department stand down on federal prosecution for marijuana activities that are state legal. That a supposedly progressive legislator would harbor such harsh drug war viewpoints is surprising and disappointing, but of course this ignorance is shared by other drug war Democrats such as Joe Biden and Dianne Feinstein.

For a huge number of voters, their freedom of choice to make use of cannabis medically, or simply personally, is the single most important voting issue. The main metric for these Americans on how much freedom they actually enjoy in their lives relate to the only laws they break, those prohibiting their possession and use of cannabis. Otherwise law abiding, many Americans have risked felony arrest over decades for willfully violating unjust marijuana laws. How these laws are treated in the platforms and the candidate’s words are key to winning this huge voting block.

Medical marijuana users will not tolerate anti-cannabis platforms and candidates. This huge group will continue to expand as evidence of medical cannabis effectiveness grows.  Nearly everyone has suffered from some condition probably best treated with medical cannabis. Who has not, for example, suffered from pain? As an adjunct pain medication medical cannabis can allow for lighter treatments with dangerous, addictive, disruptive pharmaceutical pain medications. For many pain conditions, including some types of neuropathic pain, cannabis alone is the most effect treatment.  And, of course, cannabis is by far the safest of all pain medications (including aspirin); unlike all the other pain meds (and most medicines in fact) cannabis cannot kill you. Ever greater numbers of Americans using cannabis for pain, or for glaucoma, or for any of the dozens of conditions it helps prevent, relieve, and cure will demand candidates and political parties expand, not take away, personal rights to their medicine of choice.

Younger voters will, for the most part, reject anti-cannabis politicians or stances. This group polls highest for cannabis legalization and fully realizes that cannabis is far safer than alcohol. Certainly they will reject any overtly prohibitionist candidate, such as Republican Chris Christie, who pledged to cure diseased cannabis users with law enforcement.

Debbie Wasserman Shultz, hand picked by Barack Obama, was at the helm of the DNC during the the 2014 elections. This contest was of course, utter disaster for Democrats, costing them the Senate majority two years after they lost the House. Cannabis decriminalization and rescheduling should be centerpieces of the 2016 Democratic Party platform. How disastrous for the party and the country were Debbie to again do malice by slanting the party platform to her stale, drug war prohibitionist views on marijuana!

What do you think? Should the Democratic National Committee find a new chairperson? How can activists get pro-cannabis, anti-prohibition planks into the party’s (and GOP’s) platform?

High Times Magazine was excited to receive a reply from the White House to their appeal to reschedule cannabis. Unfortunately, the response from Obama’s drug czar was stale, obstructive, and generally pathetic.

High Times August 2015 issue comes with the president on the cover with the admonition, “Legalize Marijuana” and “End the war on weed.” The request by Editor-in-chief Dan Skye to President Obama was totally rational and appropriate. It reads in part:

The battle for cannabis legalization has become far more than a fight for our rights as Americans. It’s now a moral issue.

The war that the government has waged on its citizens to forcibly stop them from using marijuana has been tragic and costly: 15 million arrests, a soaring prison population, families destroyed, billions of tax dollars wasted. All this, despite the fact that the history of America—let alone the world—is interwoven with cannabis agriculture and cannabis medicine.

Right now, according to the Controlled Substances Act, cannabis is a Schedule I Drug: one with a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use in the US.

We’re asking you to heed his own moral compass and re-schedule or, better yet, un-schedule cannabis altogether. Use your executive power now and free cannabis. Free us!

The good news is that “The White House” did respond. The bad news is that the stale response sounded like something, literally, so last century. The response mentioned nothing about the main request, rescheduling cannabis, saying only “This Administration opposes marijuana legalization.” Instead the entire reply was lame. The paragraph below (sentences separated for clarity), for example:

Like many people, we are also interested in the potential marijuana components may have in providing relief to individuals diagnosed with certain serious illnesses. 

That is why we support ongoing research into evaluating what components of the marijuana plant may be used as medicine.

To date, though, neither the FDA nor the Institute of Medicine have found smoked marijuana to meet the modern standard for safe or effective medicine for any condition.

The first sentence betrays the use of the tactic to by-pass marijuana as medicine by focusing on components that produce no “high”, such as CBD. This is not going to work, as THC is a powerful medicine on its own and in entourage with CBD and other cannabinoids.

The second sentence repeats this misguided focus on components. It lies directly when it says “we support on-going research.” Research remains nearly impossible in the USA. Easing research would involve rescheduling down from Schedule I, an action President Obama could take on his own, but will not do so. He has not even used his moral authority to advance rescheduling bills now before congress.

In the last sentence, the response turns truly ludicrous.  They dare begin a sentence with “To date” and then refer to the Institute of Medicine 1999 study. Sir, it is now 2015! Furthurmore, they totally misrepresent the findings of that seminal IOM study which found marijuana to be good medicine for many conditions (and NOT a gateway drug), but disqualified it because of the smoking aspect. This at a time when non-smoking means of ingesting medical marijuana were becoming available, especially no-smoke vaporization!

Now, of course, medical marijuana users have a dozen safe ways to ingest their medicine smoke free, including scores of types of vaporizers. The smoking notion that was obsolete in 1999 is ridiculous in 2015.  Regarding the FDA, under heavy pressure from prohibitionist in congress, the agency specifically ignored the IOM report in 2006, much in the way the president’s current statement twists and lies about the actual findings of the report.

The last sentence concludes that marijuana is not a medicine for any condition, disgraceful and morally reprehensible propaganda from “The White House” in 2015.

Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have consistently led in freeing cannabis from its current idiotic persecution. Proving again that Oregon leads, both Beaver State senators were joined by both Colorado senators and Kentucky republican Senator Rand Paul in addressing dismal marijuana industry banking problems. The Marijuana Business Access to Banking Act, outlined in the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) release below, would help plug a huge hole in newly legal American cannabis business enterprises, access to banking.

SENATORS INTRODUCE BIPARTISAN MARIJUANA BANKING BILL

Bill Would Address Largest Logistical Obstacle to Dispensaries, Improve Public Safety

WASHINGTON, DC – Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced the Marijuana Business Access to Banking Act today in a much-needed move to allow legitimate marijuana businesses to conduct legal financial operations. While the move sounds like a minor regulatory matter, the lack of clear financial guidelines represents the single greatest obstacle to state-legal marijuana businesses operating safely and profitably. Currently, dispensaries and other businesses in states that have legalized medical marijuana or that allow adult use must operate cash-only businesses because banking services fall under federal, rather than state law.

“Right now, it’s the Wild West for marijuana businesses,” said Major Neill Franklin (Ret.), executive director of LEAP. “Criminals know where the dispensaries are. They know the businesses are making thousands of dollars a day and that all of those transactions are in cash. It’s led to some horrific incidents, all courtesy of the federal government. They’re setting these businesses up to fail and, worse, they’re endangering people’s lives.”

Most dispensaries have had to hire expensive private security firms to set up elaborate safety systems and to accompany employees as the cash leaves the premises. Because of these precautions, many dispensaries, even those conducting large volume of sales, retain little profit. States are the other major losers in this scenario as the lack of accountability encourages the underreporting of taxes.

In the House, Representatives Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and Denny Heck (D-WA) have  introduced a similar  bill, HR 2076.

LEAP is committed to ending decades of failed policy that have wreaked havoc on public safety, damaged community relations with police, fostered corruption and racism, and largely ignored the public health crisis of addiction. The War on Drugs has cost more than $1 trillion dollars, yielded no positive outcomes, and has ultimately diverted the penal system’s attention away from more important crimes.