Just Say “No” to Taxpayer Funded Medical Marijuana Raids

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Justin Strekal | April 24, 2017

Since 2014, the Department of Justice has been prohibited from using taxpayers’ funds to enforce federal anti-marijuana laws in states that regulate its medical use.

But that could all change this week as Congress decides how to fund the federal government for the remainder of this fiscal year. 

At issue is a provision known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which maintains that federal funds can not be used to prevent states from “implementing their own state…

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Jared Polis: Leave cannabis regulation to the states, President Trump

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Editor’s note: The Denver Post opinion pages solicited commentary from various marijuana policy and industry leaders, as well as the public, for a special cannabis-themed edition of the Sunday Perspective section the weekend before 4/20. The Cannabist will be presenting these op-eds throughout the week.

It turns out we are more the rule than the exception here in Colorado: A majority of Americans now live in an area that allows legal access to recreational or medical marijuana. You only…

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Trump Should Abolish the Drug Czar’s Office

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Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in February 2016. (Wikimedia/Gage Skidmore)

Erik Altieri | April 14, 2017

The Trump Administration is widely expected to pick Representative Tom Marino for Drug Czar.

Representative Marino is a longtime, rabid drug warrior who has a consistent record of voting against marijuana law reform legislation — a position that runs counter to that of the majority of voters and his own constituents.

His appointment to this office highlights the fact that this…

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Shut down Colorado’s gray marijuana market

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They call themselves refugees, and Colorado — with its permissive rules for growing marijuana in homes and world-renowned industrial strains of low-THC, high-CBD oils — is their haven.

For hours Monday, some of Colorado’s sickest medical marijuana patients, both adults and children, begged state lawmakers not to take away their right to grow as many as 99 plants in their own homes. For them, it’s a matter of life and death.

But there’s a dark side to the rules in Colorado that have…

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The Challenge of Marijuana Legalization in the Trump Era

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Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in February 2016. (Wikimedia/Gage Skidmore)

Terry Franklin | February 12, 2017

Senator Sessions is now the US Attorney General. Activists against Prohibition wait nervously to see what the new Administration will do….

There have been uncertain signals over the past few months from President Trump and a number of his advisers — everything from harsh rhetoric to States’ Rights Libertarianism.

Specific policies may come soon.

As we wait, those of us in…

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In Legal States, Marijuana Regulators Target Home Cultivation

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Two cannabis plants being grown for personal use. (Wikimedia Commons)

Kevin Mahmalji | January 18, 2017

Since its founding, NORML has advocated that statewide legalization efforts – whether through a ballot initiative or using the legislative process – should ideally include provisions that permit and protect the act of home cultivation by marijuana consumers. This advocacy has resulted in more than 16 states now allowing home cultivation, including in six of the eight voter-initiated measures passed in…

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Criticism of Massachusetts Lawmakers Meddling with Marijuana Legalization Initiative

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A supporter holds up a “Yes on 4” sign at the 2016 Boston Freedom Rally (Scott Gacek/The Daily Chronic)

Terry Franklin | January 11, 2017

There has been much talk in the Massachusetts Legislature about making changes to the Question 4 marijuana legalization initiative, which was passed by Bay State voters Nov. 8.

The new law is already filled with restrictions designed to boost profits for the marijuana industry. Further restrictions will benefit the industry even more.

Examples can best be shown by making…

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Sewing the Seeds of Freedom After Marijuana’s Big Election Night Win

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smoking-a-joint

Terry Franklin | November 13, 2016

An upwelling of discontent has swept our nation over what is often referred to as crony capitalism, the corrupt entanglement of the elites of business and politics. Anger cuts across the entire political spectrum.

After the Tea Party, the Occupy Movement, Ron Paul, and the Bernie Sanders Revolution, one would expect the cronies to retreat into the shadows. That is why it is so surprising and disturbing to those in the Cannabis Legalization Movement, to see their accomplishment so…

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Sowing the Seeds of Freedom After Marijuana’s Big Election Night Win

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smoking-a-joint

Terry Franklin | November 13, 2016

An upwelling of discontent has swept our nation over what is often referred to as crony capitalism, the corrupt entanglement of the elites of business and politics. Anger cuts across the entire political spectrum.

After the Tea Party, the Occupy Movement, Ron Paul, and the Bernie Sanders Revolution, one would expect the cronies to retreat into the shadows. That is why it is so surprising and disturbing to those in the Cannabis Legalization Movement, to see their accomplishment so…

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Why pot taxes can’t solve Colorado’s budget problems

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A customer counts out cash for a transaction at the Native Roots pot shop in Boulder County. Marijuana sales in Colorado are subject to the regular state sales tax of 2.9 percent. In addition, recreational sales are subject to a special 15 percent excise tax and a 10 percent sales tax.
A customer counts out cash for a transaction at the Native Roots pot shop in Boulder County. Marijuana sales in Colorado are subject to the regular state sales tax of 2.9 percent. In addition, recreational sales are subject to a special 15 percent excise tax and a 10 percent sales tax.

“What do you mean the state has budget troubles? What about all the tax money from marijuana? Wasn’t that supposed to solve everything?”

As a nonprofit devoted to educating Coloradans on the state’s…

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Ending Prohibition When Only 13% of Adults Are Smoking?

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Ending Prohibition When Only 13% of Adults Are Smoking?

The latest Gallup Poll, based on polling conducted from July 13-17, 2016, reports that 13% of adults in the US are current marijuana smokers, and 43% have smoked marijuana at some point in their lives. According to Gallup, the numbers of adults acknowledging their personal use of marijuana has risen from 7% in 2013 to 11% in 2015; and to 13% in 2016.

This may surprise some marijuana smokers, who tend to choose their friends (at least partially) based on their mutual enjoyment of marijuana, and to whom it may seem as if a majority of Americans…

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Retired NFL player begins writing cannabis column, says “I am worried about my NFL family”

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Editor’s note: Former Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Eugene Monroe made headlines in March 2016 when he became the first active NFL player to advocate for cannabis research. He retired from football in July at age 29 because of concerns about his future health.

Recently retired NFL player Eugene Monroe pens his first column for The Cannabist:

As I make an exit from the world I’ve known for the past 18 years, I’m stepping into another that I had avoided for many more. This new…

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Looking Past the Party Conventions

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Looking Past the Party Conventions

With the country so divided right now along party lines, as well as within each of the two major parties, it would be easy for voters to say “The hell with them all,” and sit this election out. Both of the major party candidates have record-setting voter disapproval ratings, assuring that our next president will be starting off their first term knowing that more than half the country did not like them, and would have preferred someone else for president.

But there really is no other choice this year.

History of Third Party Candidates

The…

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It’s Time To Get It Right in CA! Support AUMA

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It’s Time To Get It Right in CA! Support AUMA

A few days ago the California Secretary of State’s office made it official; proponents of The Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) have handed-in more than 600,000 valid signatures, assuring that full marijuana legalization will appear on the ballot in CA in November.

That’s right; Californians this fall will have yet another chance to end marijuana prohibition and legalize the responsible use of marijuana in the most populous state in the country. Most of us would have predicted California would be the first state to legalize marijuana,…

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No, the DEA will not Legalize Marijuana on August 1

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No, the DEA will not Legalize Marijuana on August 1

A weekly newspaper from Santa Monica, Calif., reported on Saturday that the “US Gov’t Will Legalize Marijuana on August 1,” claiming that “weed will soon be legal in all 50 states, with a prescription.”

According to the Santa Monica Observer, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) intends to reschedule cannabis from it’s current status as a Schedule I drug to that of a Schedule II.

However, the only source of this information is an anonymous lawyer with knowledge of the matter:

The U.S. Drug Enforcement…

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How the DEA should classify marijuana

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This summer may be a big moment in the national conversation about marijuana. With a decision coming by July 1, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency could partially legalize medical marijuana, and the federal government could usher in a new era with a comprehensive and multi-structural approach to pot policy.  Just don’t expect to fill a marijuana brownie prescription at your local drug store any time soon.

Marijuana has been a Schedule I narcotic since 1970.  That means, in the eyes…

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Was Anchoring Medical Marijuana to Recreational in Ohio Bad for Patients?

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Was Anchoring Medical Marijuana to Recreational in Ohio Bad for Patients?

By now, everyone in the medical marijuana reform movement has seen the results in Ohio, where the commingled recreational and medical cannabis voter initiative (Issue 3) put forth by ResponsibleOhio was defeated at the polls by a nearly 2:1 margin.

Aside from sanctimonious hand wringing from recreational proponents treating patient access as a political weapon against those who had concerns with the implications of Issue 3’s licensing structure (which has been talked about ad nauseam and won’t be discussed in detail here), nobody has…

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