Week in Weed Update

Hello world of weed.  If you missed the news this week in the realm of cannabis, it was filled with ups and downs and a couple silver linings.  Here’s your briefing and what you need to know from this week.

DEA Just Said “No”

The DEA reaffirmed their stance that cannabis is dangerous and has no medicinal value.   That means that cannabis will remain as a Schedule I drug and is not legal by Fed standards. The decision was based upon there not being the science to back the move from a Schedule I to II or III, which is the wishes of cannabis normalization advocacy groups.  There was a silver lining to this news though.  The federal government did loosen the policies on research for medical cannabis.  That means more research centers will be available to conduct the research that the FDA and DEA require to reschedule cannabis to a more fitting classification.

AZ Just Said “Maybe”

Prop. 205 looks to be on the Arizona ballot this upcoming November.  That would make the use and sale by licensed dispensaries legal to adults 21+.  To boot, residents can grow six plants of their own for their personal use.  The only hurdle is a group is asking a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to throw out the initiative citing that legalization backers of the initiative are deceiving voters.  That case will be heard Friday, August 12, 2016.  That case looks rough so odds are AZ voters will be voting whether to allow recreational marijuana this November.

New Gallup Polls Shows Marijuana Use is Up

A Gallup poll released on August 8th shows that 13% of American adults now say they smoke marijuana.  That is an increase from 7% in 2013.  Why such a big increase?  Experts cite that the removal of the stigma attached to using marijuana may be the reason.  As legalization and normalization spreads, so does people’s awareness of the positive attributes of marijuana and that they can be more open in saying they use on a regular basis.  The poll goes on to cite that 43% of Americans say they have tried it and the use and experimentation differ by religion and age.

NYC Continues to Prosecute Marijuana Users

There’s no question that the waves of change for marijuana are spreading from West coast to the East and this is an illustration.  Despite promises of changes in regards to enforcement, NYC arrests for marijuana possession are up by a third this year.  What is always startling although studies show whites, Hispanics, and blacks marijuana use is the relatively the same, only 9% of those arrests were of white people.  This looks like another slap in the face for a push for equitable treatment by police and to make possession of marijuana the equivalent of a traffic ticket.

Clinton to Reschedule Marijuana if Elected

In an announcement by her campaign August 11th, Hillary Clinton plans to reschedule marijuana if she is elected in this upcoming election.  “Marijuana is already being used for medical purposes in states across the country, and it has the potential for even further medical use,” Maya Harris, a senior policy advisor to Clinton’s campaign, said in a statement, reported by The Denver Post. “As Hillary Clinton has said throughout this campaign, we should make it easier to study marijuana so that we can better understand its potential benefits, as well as its side effects.”

Another reason to rock the vote this upcoming November.

This has been your update in the world of weed.  Thank you and stay safe.

By Zachary Mercier

Zachary Mercier is a regular host on the Disjointed program which airs every Saturday at 9am PST on U.S. Weed Channel’s USWC.Rocks online radio network.  Zachary can be found on Twitter @CTAdvocate

Where Will Pot Be Legal Next? Recreational Marijuana On The Ballot In 5 States On Election Day 2016

Despite Americans’ statistical lack of enthusiasm for both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Green Party still has little chance of getting nominee Jill Stein into the White House. But another kind of green is poised to have a big election day this year: recreational marijuana.

Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington might soon have some company in the ranks of states that have legalized recreational marijuana use. Five states — Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada — will vote on recreationally legalizing pot on ballot measures this year on election day in November. The states would determine individually what the parameters of legalization would be — California has signaled that recreational pot would be legal for adults over 21 and subject to a 15 percent sales tax.

In addition to those states, four other states — Arkansas, Florida, Montana and Missouri — will have ballot measures this year to make marijuana legal for medical use. The eight ballot measures will be the largest swath of voters weighing in on the issue of marijuana legalization in history.

“This is really a watershed year for marijuana legalization, so I’m hoping that we’ll see some big changes in November,” F. Aaron Smith, co-founder and executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, told CNN.

There is more good news for pro-legalization supporters. Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, an avid advocate of marijuana legalization, is getting a lot of attention for a third party presidential candidate thanks to Americans’ dissatisfaction with the major party nominees. Johnson is currently trying to hit the 15-percent mark in the polls to qualify for the presidential debates. Were he to hit that mark, he could champion the cause of legalization on a bigger platform than a full-fledged supporter of legalization has ever been able to do.

As for Johnson himself, the candidate says he has given up marijuana consumption — he says he likes to consume marijuana edibles — to focus on his presidential campaign and would further abstain if elected president.

“Marijuana products, from a medicinal standpoint, directly compete with legal prescription drugs that kill 100,000 people a year. There has not been one documented death due to marijuana. So [it’s] a whole lot safer and arguably as effective,” Johnson told International Business Times in June. “On the recreational side, I have always maintained that legalizing marijuana will lead to less overall substance abuse because people will find marijuana as such a safer alternative than everything else that’s out there — starting with alcohol. The campaign to legalize marijuana in Colorado was a campaign based on: Marijuana is safer than alcohol.”