MY BROTHER AND I MET UP AGAIN AND HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED
By H. Swan, co-author, A Night in Jail Part 2 of a 3-Part Series. Read Part 1, Originally published on Momsstrong.org
As per the agreement with the intervention, we cut off contact with him. Tough love they call it. We didn’t know what else to do. K’s brain was obviously fried from all the drugs. Surely, he would die doing drugs and we couldn’t be part of it. We couldn’t have our own lives ruined because of his choices.
Looking back, he tells me he didn’t feel like anything was wrong with him. He was just a guy who chose to live the party life. He wasn’t going to be confined by “the nine-to-five job with a wife and kids.” He was born in the 60’s and wanted to live the footloose and fancy-free life.
Several years later, I was married and had a family. He called me from out of the blue. He was in transitional housing in a rehabilitation program, after having been in jail for the eighteenth time. I was the only one in the family with whom he hadn’t burned his bridges. His housing was coming to an end and he needed help getting a phone so he could look for work. My husband and I agreed to help him, as did our dad. After that, K and I spoke on the phone regularly. He seemed to really want to change his life.
Getting a job
As the months passed, and his time in government housing was coming to an end, I was becoming increasingly concerned because he still had no job, no place to live, and no money to get anything. It seemed obvious he would wind up homeless and doing drugs again very soon. Eventually, he’d be sent to prison if not dead somewhere. After much calling around, I managed to find him a job opportunity which would include his own apartment. He got it together, he interviewed and he got the job! What a relief!
Then after 3 months, he walked out of his job and his apartment and went back to living in the blackberry bushes. He called me from underneath the freeway and told me he was glad his old camp was still there. He was obviously high. He told me recently that when he had his first hit of crack after being clean for fourteen months, he laughed and laughed like a maniac. I was so angry with him. How could he throw it all away? Did he not care about the time and effort I put out to help him live a respectable, decent life? What about the rest of the family who was willing to accept him again? Was he the only person who mattered?
It took several months, but after I calmed down, we started talking again. I asked a dear friend of mine whose husband owned a company in the northwest to help K get a job. She generously agreed. Following her instructions, I told K to write out a resume and to be honest about his life and what he wanted to do now that he was out of jail.
“I’m the CEO of successful drug empire”
For rest of story got to Weed Wasted
New York City Lawmakers Ban Pre-Employment Drug Testing for Marijuana
Many employers in New York City will no longer be able to test job applicants for marijuana or THC–the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis–under a rule that was just adopted in the Big Apple. The new mandate will take effect in 2020.
\”Prospective employers don\’t test for alcohol, so marijuana should be no different. But in no way does this bill justify individuals going to work under the influence,\” said Jumaane Williams, New York City\’s public advocate and the legislation\’s sponsor.
We\’ve rounded up the latest news on this topic. Here are SHRM Online resources and news articles from other trusted media outlets.
More Workers Are Testing Positive
More U.S. workers are testing positive for marijuana, according to the annual Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index. The number of workers and job applicants who tested positive for marijuana climbed 10 percent last year to 2.3 percent. Positive test results for urine testing of marijuana, the most common type of testing done, continue to rise both for the general U.S. workforce and in regulated, safety-sensitive industries. Positive test results rose 8 percent for the general workforce to 2.8 percent and increased 5 percent for those in safety-sensitive jobs to 0.88 percent.
For complete story go to and the workplace safety insanity grows!
California lawmakers already want to roll back a key promise of marijuana legalization
Los Angeles Times May 2019
A view of an illegal marijuana dispensary after the Department of Water & Power shut off its utilities in Wilmington, Calif. on May 14. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
A view of an illegal marijuana dispensary after the Department of Water & Power shut off its utilities in Wilmington, Calif. on May 14. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
When advocates for legalizing marijuana in California drafted Proposition 64, they made an important concession to win the support – or at least minimize the opposition – of local government and law enforcement groups: Cities and counties, they said, would be allowed to ban marijuana-related businesses entirely if they chose to.
That guarantee of local control was a central promise of the proposition. But now, some legislators want to reverse it and force local governments to accept pot stores against their will. It’s an unfair bait-and-switch tactic that should not be approved.
Under Proposition 64, which was approved less than three years ago, local governments may not prohibit adults from growing, using or transporting marijuana for personal use, but they can refuse to license cannabis companies in their jurisdiction.
And that’s exactly what many have done. Roughly 75% of local governments have outlawed pot shops.
That, however, has created a problem, in the eyes of some Proposition 64 supporters. One of the measure’s goals was to transform the marijuana industry from a largely uncontrolled, unchecked, underground operation into a highly regulated marketplace served by legitimate, taxpaying companies. But because of the local bans on retail pot shops, there are still many eager cannabis customers living in places where legal marijuana is not easily available – and many sellers are therefore continuing to operate illegally in the shadows.
Proposition 64 promised local control, and many of the people who voted for it may have thought that was a critical part of the proposition.
In other words, the local bans are seen by some people as encouraging black market operators who don’t pay taxes or necessarily follow the new law’s regulations, such as those on pesticides and packaging. The state has sent more than 3,000 cease-and-desist letters to illegal pot businesses.
For complete story go to WE SAW THIS FIASCO COMING — Now You Have THREE Marijuana Markets!
The Need for Federal Regulation of Marijuana Marketing
John W. Ayers, PhD, MA1; Theodore Caputi, MPH1; Eric C. Leas, PhD, MPH2
JAMA. Published online May 16, 2019. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.4432
Anational for-profit marijuana industry is expanding substantially in the United States. Thirty-three states have legalized medical marijuana, 10 of which (where 1 in 4 individuals reside) have also legalized recreational marijuana. Sales of marijuana are projected to increase from $8.5 billion to $75 billion by 2030, rivaling current tobacco sales ($125 billion).1 The initial marijuana marketplace was limited to a few states, but emerging brands have developed sophisticated national marketing campaigns that could potentially have an effect across state lines. This marketplace expansion, along with questionable marketing practices, introduces a need for federal action.
An Emerging Marijuana Brand: MedMen
An example of a major, emerging national marijuana brand, MedMen, is helpful to illustrate the challenges ahead as more national brands emerge. MedMen is a US-based, publicly traded company that owns and operates licensed cannabis facilities involved with the cultivation, manufacture, and retail distribution of marijuana. The self-proclaimed “Apple Store of Weed,” MedMen is a lifestyle marijuana brand that operates under its newest slogan: “Welcome to the new normal” and has locations in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, and New York (including a flagship on Fifth Avenue). This past year, MedMen initiated a well-funded national advertising campaign, including advertising buys on The Howard Stern Show (with a potential audience of 100 million since Sirius XM’s acquisition of Pandora) and The Adam Carolla Show (which holds the Guinness World Record for most downloaded podcast).2 Sleek, bright red billboards, YouTube videos, and social media advertisements coordinate both with the company’s yoga and apparel line that are sold in all 50 states. With MedMen’s product offerings, consumers can integrate marijuana into almost every aspect of their life, including bath soaps and bombs, candy, cosmetics, drink mixers or tincture, food, medicinal products (eg, pain pills or sleep aids), pet products, sex lubricants, and vaporizers.
Health Claims, but No Health Warnings: Health and medicine are implied in the name of this company, even though a majority of MedMen’s stores sell recreational marijuana. Billboards read, “Heal. It’s Legal.” The company’s blog Ember: A Journal of Cannabis and Culture has an entire section dedicated to health, including a claim that marijuana “can reduce anxiety, pain, and so much more,”3 a physician’s recommended list of marijuana products for menstrual cramps,4 and promotion of marijuana as a safe, natural, and nonaddictive alternative to prescription medications, even implying that marijuana can treat opioid addiction, an opinion with which experts disagree.5 The first national radio—podcast advertisements in 2018 did not mention marijuana, but advertised unnamed wellness treatments. A planned collaboration with Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, which was recently fined for misleading health claims,6 has been announced. A short film to promote MedMen starred actor Jesse Williams, who portrays a surgeon in the hit ABC 1-hour medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. Despite all of these nationally broadcasted health claims, MedMen’s products do not carry any national health warnings about the potential adverse effects of marijuana use. The only health warnings included on the MedMen website are “marijuana products impairs your ability to drive and operate machinery” and that MedMen “cannot guarantee the accuracy of any marijuana information provided” on its website.
Appeals to Youth: MedMen uses advertising techniques that could appeal to teenagers and perhaps even to children. MedMen makes use of models with youthful appearances. The MedMen clothing line features a high school varsity jacket emblazoned with a marijuana leaf. One celebrity spokesperson, Lake Bell, is known among teen audiences for her role in the 2016 animated film The Secret Life of Pets. A blog post entitled “How CBD Can Help With Breakouts”7offers a dermatologist’s endorsement of products for treating acne, a condition affecting nearly all teenagers. Highly sexualized imagery and promises to improve a user’s sexual experience are often used by MedMen, including T-shirts that pair the word cannabis with unrelated images of women’s bodies and a recent promotion featuring a salivating fruit placed over a woman’s genitalia with the caption “Get High Down Low.” Taffy, gummies, and gingerbread house kits are among many additional MedMen products that may appeal to youth. Regardless of intent, these marketing strategies might indeed attract youth.
The Need for Regulation
For complete article https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2734209
YEARS OF POT, DRUG ADDICTION AND HOMELESSNESS
MAY 15, 2019 EDITOR By H. Swan, co-author, A Night in Jail
Part 1 of a 3 Part Series. This article first appeared on MomsStrong.org
K started getting high at a young age. He smoked just a little bit, almost every day, through junior high, high school, college and graduate school. To him, it seemed like harmless fun. But within a few years after completing his higher education, he became a homeless drug addict and dealer with schizophrenia. He went to jail eighteen times. Relative to so many others, K’s story ends well. He is alive, out of jail, off the streets, and is sober. He is receiving psychiatric care. He lives in a group home where his meals and transportation are provided, and his psychiatric medications are dispensed. He is alive to tell his harrowing story. To warn teenagers that what seems like harmless fun can actually ruin their lives, K and I wrote a book which is inspired by his experiences.
K is 4 yrs older than me. Growing up, he was a vivacious, bright kid who laughed a lot. He got good grades and had friends and girlfriends. A lot of kids in the Pacific Northwest were smoking pot. I was twelve when I started. One time when I was getting high, I had an experience where I didn’t know where I was (in our family’s laundry room). I also couldn’t figure out who the “stranger” was that was getting high with me (my best friend). And this was when the THC content was several times lower than it is today.
Pot was not my favorite thing to do. But it was my brother’s favorite thing. K got through high school, graduated from college with decent grades, not great, but good enough to get into a good graduate school. However, once there, he didn’t perform well in his classes or on his exams. Once he was finished with school, K found he had no job prospects in his field.
Instead, K could only get low-wage, unskilled work. It was impossible to meet his monthly expenses, which included a student loan he took out in graduate school. Then, a woman K knew felt sorry for him and let him live in the attic of her home. This was the 80’s and coke was on the scene. After a decade-plus of devotion to marijuana, K tossed his bong to the curb for the status and thrill of cocaine. He snorted it, he mainlined it, and then smoked it. In short order, he was broker than ever, defaulted on his student loan, and settled in with the love of his life, crack cocaine. Our family knew little of what was going on. We knew drugs were taking over his life, but we didn’t understand the full picture.
(Only now, years later, am I able to flesh this out because of extensive conversations I’ve had with K).
For complete Story go to Drug Use & Broken Lives
Where’s the pot? California tracking system unlikely to know
By MICHAEL R. BLOODMay 9, 2019
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LOS ANGELES (AP) – When California voters broadly legalized marijuana, they were promised that a vast computer platform would closely monitor products moving through the new market. But 16 months after sales kicked in, the system known as track-and-trace isn’t doing much of either.
As of last month, just nine retail outlets were entering data into the network established under an estimated $60 million state contract, even though 627 shops are licensed to sell pot in California.
The rate of participation is similarly slim for other sectors in the emerging industry.
Only 93 of more than 1,000 licensed manufacturing companies producing extracts, oils and other products were documenting their activities in the network in April. And of the nearly 4,000 licensed growers, only about 7 percent, or 254, are using the high-tech system, according to a review of state data.
How are state officials watching over the nation’s largest legal pot market ? For now, it’s essentially a paper trail.
Most California companies are required to document their business on paper sales invoices and shipping manifests. But experts say that can be a doorway for criminal traffic.
With paper records, regulators are relying on an honor system, said Patrick Vo, CEO of BioTrackTHC, which provides seed-to-sale cannabis tracking in eight states, including New York and Illinois.
Without a digital crumb trail in place, “there are so many areas where things can go wrong,” Vo said. “Things can be intentionally altered.”
Track-and-trace sometimes is referred to as seed-to-sale to reflect the goal of tracking marijuana plants every step, from the time they are planted until products are purchased by consumers. The goal is to keep illegal cannabis from store shelves while making sure legally produced products don’t drift into the underground market.
According to state law, the tracking system is required to provide “data points for the different stages of commercial activity, including, but not limited to, cultivation, harvest, processing, distribution, inventory and sale.” It’s also intended to help the state keep track of taxes.
But for now, California’s electronic monitoring system is seeing just fragments of the legal market – not the rigorous seed-to-sale oversight envisioned when voters approved Proposition 64, the law that opened the way for broad legal sales.
Alex Traverso, a spokesman for the state Bureau of Cannabis Control, said the agency was unaware of any enforcement cases triggered by fraudulent or altered paper records. To date, it has received more than 50,000 manifests.
According to the state, the California tracking network created by Florida-based Franwell Inc. has been functional since Jan. 2, 2018, the day after broad legal sales began.
So why are so few licensees using it? In short, time and bureaucracy.
It goes back to state regulators’ decision to first issue only temporary cannabis licenses, as California faced a tight legal deadline to begin sales on Jan. 1, 2018.
It wasn’t possible to train thousands of temporary license holders to use the tracking system “without causing significant disruption” to the new, regulated marijuana market, said Rebecca Foree, spokeswoman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture.
Instead, the state decided only annual license-holders would use the track-and-trace system. But the first annual license wasn’t issued until November, and only a relatively small number have been issued since.
Meanwhile, scores of temporary licenses have expired, leaving companies in a kind of legal limbo, technically unable to do business in the state market.
For complete Account of the Stoner Stuff UP!
INJECTION ROOMS ARE NOT PERMITTED UNDER UN DRUG CONVENTIONS –
Injection rooms planned for Dublin defeated. Front page Irish Mail on Sunday.
Under instruction from Irish Drugs Ministerm Catherine Byrne, the government agency, HSE (Health Service Executive) were the chief protagonists for this UN banned and ill conceived \’HR\’ measure.
Merchants Quay is the main HR Centre here working closely with the International Harm Reduction Agency. It has been a long drawn out battle. In the end best practice won out and they had no choice.
One Irish Drug Policy commentator said … \”It\’s a pity this Administration does not put the same effort and money into providing detox facilities and treatment to families affected by our drug culture. This Drugs Minister has failed in her duty of care to such families.\”
Read the \”Planning Objections\” they are very informative. Great journalism on the part of the Irish Mail newspaper group.
Australia is the best market in the world for cocaine and meth and is being targeted by El Chapo\’s Mexican cartel, warn American police
- Australia is being targeted by Mexican cartels as the best market for drugs
- The country\’s ties to cartels were exposed after 1.7 tonnes of ice were seized
- Record-breaking drug haul were concealed in loudspeakers from United States
- Detectives found links to the cartels and Australian bikie gangs after the bust
\’If you were to ask any significant trafficker what is the best market for meth and coke in the world, they would say Australia and New Zealand,\’ DEA Pacific attache Kevin Merkel told NZME.
\’The same people that are pumping drugs out to the United States are the same ones pumping out drugs here.
\’If they see potential to make more money, they\’re going to do it.\’
Australia\’s ties to Mexican cartels were exposed after 1.7 tonnes of ice with a street value of $1.3 billion were bound to the country from the US in February.
The record-breaking drug haul was concealed in metal boxes labelled as loudspeakers – and six people were arrested after it was found.
The tsunami of ice was initially seized at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex in mid-January, along with 55.9 pounds of cocaine and 11.5 pounds of heroin.
Australian Federal Police (AFP), the US Department of Homeland Security and the DEA found links between Mexican cartels and Australian bikie gangs.
For complete story https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7017627/Australia-best-market-world-drugs-targeted-El-Chapos-Mexican-cartel.html
(Defacto Decriminalisation – Drug use normalisation mantras and hijacking of Harm Reduction mechanisms to sustain and even promote drug use, all add to the demand! It’s what happens when drug users dictate drug policy interpretation!)
Pot smuggling arrests at LAX have surged 166% since marijuana legalization
Los Angeles Times May 2019
Waiting to board his Philadelphia-bound flight with his dog Odie, Vechell had sparked concern when he sidled up to another passenger and asked if she wanted to join his “drug smuggling ring,” authorities say.
Although Vechell told LAX police it was just a misunderstanding, officers demanded to see his checked baggage. Inside, they found nearly 70 pounds of vacuum-sealed marijuana bundled into packages labeled “T-shirts,” “cold weather” and “sexy pants.”
More than a year after California legalized the recreational use of cannabis, trafficking arrests like Vechell’s have surged 166% at LAX, according to arrest records obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Emboldened by legalization and facing only light punishment if captured, more and more smugglers are taking to the friendly skies in an effort to escape California’s glutted cannabis market, according to authorities, marijuana industry experts and a lawyer who represents accused smugglers. As a result, the world’s fourth-busiest airport is now an expanding hub in the illegal export of marijuana, they say.
The sudden increase in airport smuggling is largely the result of legalization and a saturated market. California grows far more marijuana than its residents consume – up to five times more by some accounts – and cannabis users in other states will pay a much higher price.
“Since pot’s been legalized in California, there’s no money to be made because everyone got involved in it,” Kroger said. “They’ve got these big 50,000-square-foot [grow] houses, and they’re flooding the market. The money is outside of California.”
… the number of traffickers using commercial airlines appears to be growing.
Kroger said the consequences for getting stopped at a California airport with two checked bags of marijuana were relatively minor: a misdemeanor charge for someone without a history of drug or violent offenses.
In the eyes of the federal government, the surge in smuggling is a clear case of “I told you so.”
“I don’t think we’re surprised by the numbers. These are things we foresaw and we’ve warned folks about,” said Kyle Mori of the DEA’s Los Angeles office. “When states legalize it, you give folks a false sense of security that they can come through TSA checkpoints…. They believe what they’re doing is legal.”
Last year at LAX, there were 503 reports of marijuana discovered in bags, and only one-fifth of them involved trafficking suspects. In comparison, there were 400 reports of marijuana in 2017 and 282 reports in 2016.
Hundreds of passengers now regularly pack personal amounts of marijuana, cannabis oil or edibles in their carry-on or checked baggage assuming it’s legal to fly with, forgetting that the federal government has dominion over the skies.
Among those stopped was a UCLA student-athlete on scholarship who was carrying 34 grams of marijuana – nearly 6 grams more than the state permits one person to carry – and a pipe in her purse. The woman “spontaneously said that the marijuana was hers and she was sorry for having it.” Officers let her off with a warning, and she continued on her flight without the marijuana.
Traffickers, however, will put more effort into concealing large amounts of cannabis and its derivatives, either by wrapping the contraband in things like wax paper, tinfoil or gift wrapping or disguising their products as candy or other foods.
Such was the case Nov. 14 when TSA employees scanning checked luggage opened five suitcases that had failed to produce a scanned image on their monitors.
The luggage belonged to two men on a Newark-bound flight and contained more than 100 pounds of cannabis products, according to arrest reports.
In December, police arrested a man carrying 3 pounds of edibles and cannabis oil in his luggage. The suspect said he was struck by how low the prices were at the Inglewood dispensary he was visiting compared with prices he found at home in Hagerstown, Md.
In numerous arrest reports reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, trafficking suspects told police they flew to California to purchase better and cheaper cannabis products to sell for a profit back home.
When some states legalize marijuana but others do not, suppliers will move in to fill that void even if it’s through black market channels, said California Cannabis Industry Assn. spokesman Josh Drayton. A pound of marijuana flower that costs $600 to $800 in California can be resold for $4,000 in the Midwest, he said.
Despite the increase in commercial aviation trafficking incidents, marijuana remains a low enforcement priority, police say. The DEA’s stance is that the drug has no medical benefit and that legalizing it increases DUI-related arrests, crashes and helps fund Mexican cartels. But beyond that, their immediate focus is elsewhere.
“Heroin trafficking,” Mori said, “and the diversion of chemicals and pharmaceuticals into the hands of gang members and violent criminals – those are certainly our priority.”
For complete article go to Cannabis Chaos
