Oregon To Begin Recreational Marijuana Sales Early

Oregon adults will be able to legally purchase recreational marijuana beginning Oct. 1, about a year earlier than had been expected.

Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed a law on Tuesday allowing the sale of recreational marijuana in existing medical marijuana dispensaries, starting just three months after Oregon’s reformed marijuana law went into effect.

The measure “is a smart solution to a short-term logistical problem,” Kristen Grainger, Brown’s spokeswoman, told The Huffington Post. “Oregon’s new recreational marijuana law went into effect in July 2015, but Oregonians couldn’t lawfully buy it anywhere for another year or more. If marijuana is legal to use, it shouldn’t be illegal to buy.”

The new marijuana law allows adults 21 and older to buy up to one-fourth ounce of recreational marijuana per day at medical marijuana shops. Consumers also may buy seeds and up to four non-flowering cannabis plants. The 25 percent state tax on marijuana sales won’t begin until Jan. 4, so early shoppers can buy their newly legal weed tax-free for a few months.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission, charged with regulating and monitoring the industry, will issue licenses to new recreational marijuana retailers later. Those shops, which will be allowed to sell up to one ounce per transaction, are likely to open before the end of 2016.

State voters in November approved Measure 91, which legalized the possession, use and sale of recreational marijuana for adults. The law took effect July 1, but sales hadn’t been expected to begin until late 2016, giving state authorities time to establish a regulatory framework and issue licenses to retailers.

“I think this is a step forward,” U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D) told HuffPost of the new law. “The state is doing a careful job of rolling this out in a thoughtful way, working to keep with the intent of the ballot measure.”

Blumenauer has been a vocal supporter of ending marijuana prohibition-style policies, offering several congressional bills aimed at reforming marijuana policy.

To date, four states, and the District of Columbia, have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes. Colorado and Washington state were the first to legalize the substance for adult use in 2012, with the first shops opening in both states in 2014. Twenty-three states, including Oregon in 1998, have legalized medical marijuana.

Despite more than half of all states forging their own way on marijuana policy, the federal government continues to ban the plant, classifying it as one of the “most dangerous” drugs alongside heroin and LSD.

Multiple recent polls have illustrated the dramatic shift in public opinion on the issue, finding record high percentages of Americans in support of legalization for recreational purposes.

In April, CBS News found 53 percent in support of legalization, the most since CBS began asking the question in 1979. That same month, Fox News found a record 51 percent in favor of legalization. In March, General Social Survey, widely regarded as the most authoritative source on public opinion research, found 52 percent in favor.

Source: Huffington Post

Parma in Movimento risponde

ITALY VS USA

HERE IN ITALY

CANNABIS IN COLORDO ... SEE THE DIFFERENCES

Lettera aperta ai consiglieri comunali Marco Bosi e Patrizia Ageno

Caro Marco e Cara Patrizia

Considerata l'apertura della giunta a parlare di cannabis, considerato soprattutto l' impegno nazionale di Vittorio Ferraresi e l'importante contributo che il m5s sta portando nel discutere un progetto di legge sulla cannabis, è giunta l' ora che la maggioranza del consiglio 5 stelle di Parma faccia qualche cosa per sostenere il movimento a livello nazionale.

E' stata presentata, ieri, a Varese, una mozione dei consiglieri 5 stelle per spingere il Comune a cercare terreni adatti per la coltivazione della cannabis.

Un singolo cittadino, come tu ben sai, può ben poco. Se i sondaggi dell' intergruppo sulla cannabis danno il 70% degli italiani favorevoli a sperimentare una qualche forma di regolamentazione della produzione e della vendita, ora è il momento di intraprendere scelte di buon senso, che catturino l'opinone pubblica e portino un concreto e sensibile miglioramento della vita dei cittadini.

A Parma, l'impegno antiproibizionista è forte ed è giusto che il comune inizi a supportare attivamente progetti "imprenditoriali" a supporto di questo tipo di cultura e coltura, senza pregiudizio e in linea con quanto il m5s sta facendo a livello nazionale.

Sono interessato a sviluppare con il Comune un progetto e di dare e trovare supporto al Comune per una iniziativa condivisa a supporto di realtà imprenditoriali che possono anche rilanciare l'occupazione.

Cosa può fare il comune?

Coltiviamola!

Coltiviamola from Giorgio

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom releases report on guidelines for marijuana legalization

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom addresses the California Democratic Party Convention on May 16, 2015. A group led by Newsom hopes to lay out 58 recommendations and goals for implementing general legalization of pot -- an issue expected to go before state voters next year.

 (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

By MELANIE MASON contact the reporter

A panel chaired by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom hopes to guide the debate on the legalization of marijuana in California with an emphasis on limiting children’s access to cannabis, reducing illegal activity and tightly regulating the drug's growth and sales.

In a report released Wednesday, the group lays out 58 recommendations and goals for implementing general legalization -- an issue expected to go before voters next year.

Newsom said in an interview that he hopes the report offers guidance to proponents of a legalization initiative aimed at the November 2016 ballot, as well as to help lawmakers and officials who would have to implement it if it passed.

However, Newsom said, the drafting of the report “tempered…significantly” his enthusiasm for unfettered legalization.The report does not explicity endorse or oppose legalization of recreational marijuana, although Newsom, who is running for governor in 2018, has been outspoken in support of legalization and is the highest-ranking California official to take that position.

“I’m more cautious as a parent, more cautious as a policymaker," Newsom said. "…We don’t want this to be the next Gold Rush.”

The report calls for strong regulation of the marijuana market from the outset. It suggests establishing licensing and training standards, and designating a central entity to oversee legalization.

“We’re not arguing for a free market. We’re arguing for a very regulated market that has real oversight, that is flexible,” Newsom said.

That regulation should extend to retail stores, the report says, including requiring identification and age limits to enter stores and limitations on what types of products, such as edible forms of marijuana, could be sold.

Taxes on legal marijuana should be used for education, public health programs and public safety, according to the commission. But the report cautions that maximizing revenue—“which would depend on higher levels of consumption,” it notes—should not be the goal of cannabis taxes.

Six different ballot measures to legalize marijuana have been submitted to the California secretary of state. A survey by the Public Policy Institute in California found last month that 54% of residents favor legalization, with 44% against it.

Law enforcement groups oppose legalization, arguing that it would not stamp out illegal sales and would increase risks to public safety.

“If, in fact, we legalize a psychoactive drug, that’s certainly going to increase the number of impaired drivers on the road,” said Chula Vista Police Chief David Bejarano, the president of the California Police Chiefs Assn.

Joining Newsom in crafting the report, called “Pathways Report: Policy Options for Regulating Marijuana in California,” were Abdi Soltani, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, and Keith Humphreys, a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Follow @melmason for more on California government and politics.

Bill in US Senate would open up banks to pot businesses

A bipartisan bill in the U.S. Senate would allow banks to do business with marijuana companies.

Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, and Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, both of Colorado, announced the bill in a joint statement Thursday.

The bill would prevent criminal prosecution as well as liability and asset forfeiture for banks or their officers who do business with a state-sanctioned marijuana business.

Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department said banks could serve the marijuana industry under certain conditions. Many banks call the guidelines too onerous, resulting in a marijuana industry that still relies heavily on cash.

Gov. John Hickenlooper praised the bill, saying the federal government has a duty to ensure the safety of people as the marijuana legalization experiment expands in states across the country.

Bill in US Senate would open up banks to pot businesses

Oregon: With legal pot (but no sales), Washington’s border shops see surge

Now that cannabis is legal to possess and ingest in Oregon, even more locals are heading north to the Washington border

PUBLISHED: JUL 2, 2015, 12:55 PM

By Ricardo Baca, The Cannabist Staff

Marijuana became legal in Oregon on Wednesday — but recreational pot shops won’t open there for three months or longer, and now many Oregonians who are wondering where to obtain this newly legal plant matter are heading north to the Washington border.

Oregonians buying Washington weed in border-town Vancouver, Wash., is nothing new. In May, Vancouver’s Main Street Marijuana sold $1.8 million in marijuana, besting the No. 2 shop Uncle Ike’s in Seattle by around $300,000, according to the Washington Liquor Control Board.

“Probably half of our business is from Oregon,” Main Street owner Ramsey Hamide told The Oregonian in June.

But now that cannabis is legal to possess and ingest in Oregon, even more locals are heading north.

“Monday was the biggest Monday we’ve had, and Tuesday was our biggest Tuesday,” Shon-Lueiss Harris, spokesman for Vancouver pot shop New Vansterdam, told the Seattle Times this week.

From the Times’ report:

Vancouver’s six pot shops saw far more foot traffic than usual Wednesday, a trend that has continued all week leading up to the landmark shift in Oregon’s law. And with recreational sales set to be sidelined in Oregon for at least three months or perhaps even more than another year, store owners in Vancouver are bracing for their biggest sales figures yet.

If you’re reading this and wondering, “But isn’t that illegal?” — yes, it is. From our June 18 report:

The document known in the cannabis industry as “The Cole Memo” outlined eight enforcement priorities as they relate to the federal government’s guidance of individual states’ legal marijuana programs. One of the eight enforcement priorities outlined in the memo: “Preventing the diversion of marijuana from states where it is legal under state law in some form to other states.”

Marijuana crossing the border from one legal state to another doesn’t seem to be too large a concern for Oregon police, but the Oregon Liquor Control Commission is encouraging residents to not do it.

Oregon: With legal pot (but no sales), Washington’s border shops see surge