CAR INSURANCE RATES TO INCREASE IN STATES WITH LEGAL MARIJUANA

NOVEMBER 2018

Vermont Voters Warned A Vote for Legal Pot is a Vote for Higher Insurance Rates

Reprinted with permission from Statehouse Headliners By Guy Page
October 25, 2018 — Car insurance rates are likely to increase 4-6% in states with legal marijuana, a leading insurance industry actuary says.

“You’re looking at an increase of around 4 to 6 percent in overall coverage,” James Lynch, chief actuary of the Insurance Information Institute told the Boston Herald October 24, 2018. Even if drivers don’t smoke pot themselves, their insurance rates will increase regardless, Lynch said.

A 6 percent increase in insurance premiums on all 615,950 registered vehicles in Vermont would cost about $28.3 million. The average Vermont car insurance premium is $764, according to Reviews.com. A 6% increase would add $46 in annual premiums, for a total of $810.

The rate hike would result from the increase in car crashes in pot-legal states, Lynch said. In Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, crashes in pot-legal states are up about 6 percent compared to neighboring states.

“We want to make people aware that there is a social cost involved,” Lynch told the Herald. In Vermont, Vermont Democrat legislators and an increasing number of Republicans favor a “tax and regulate” form of commercial, legalized sale of marijuana. Gov. Phil Scott says he still opposes further legalization of marijuana and is waiting for the Vermont Marijuana Commission to issue its final report, which is due in December. A preliminary draft is scheduled to be ready in November.

But wait — couldn’t the Vermont Legislature just raise marijuana taxes and send out a rebate check for $46 per vehicle owner? It’s possible, but highly unlikely because state officials rightly fear that every tax hike will perpetuate the established black market. Drug dealers don’t pay taxes or fees. They already enjoy a significant competitive advantage over “taxed and regulated” marijuana sales. A “car insurance rebate tax” would just reduce legal sales revenue while rewarding the black market.

For complete article http://www.stoppot.org/2018/11/05/car-insurance-rates-to-increase-in-states-with-legal-marijuana/

3 Asian nations warn citizens not to use marijuana in Canada

Ken Moritsugu

BEIJING – Marijuana may be legal now in Canada but at least three Asian governments are warning their citizens to avoid it, including the spectre of possible arrest for Japanese and South Koreans.

China, the latest to weigh in, didn\’t go that far. Its consulate in Toronto issued a statement dated Friday reminding Chinese in its jurisdiction – and students in particular – \”to avoid contact with and use of marijuana for the sake of ensuring your own physical and mental health.\”

Canada legalized the sale of recreational marijuana on Oct. 17.

The Chinese statement, posted on the consulate\’s website, included a long explanation of the Canadian and provincial laws, advising them to read it carefully to avoid running afoul of the new regulations.

Both Japan and South Korea warned their citizens in Canada ahead of the legalization.

The Japanese consulate in Vancouver warned on its website that Japanese laws outlawing the possession and sale of marijuana may be applied to actions taken abroad.

\”Japanese residents and travellers should take ample care to stay away from marijuana, including food and beverages that include marijuana,\” the statement read in part.

South Korea held information sessions in Canada and used a government website and TV broadcasts to lay down the law for its citizens.

\”Even in a place where marijuana is legalized, if our citizens smoke, purchase, possess or deliver marijuana, it\’s a criminal act, so they will be punished,\” the embassy in Canada tweeted. \”Please be careful.\”

Neither statement from Japan and South Korea explained how they might attempt to enforce their laws against smoking marijuana while abroad. Police and customs officials in South Korea did not answer calls seeking comment.

For complete article Smart Nations Hold Line on Weed!

NO! that won\’t happen, not like in every other jurisdiction where pot has been permitted???? Again, now we have 2 to 3 markets, not just one!

Vancouver, Canada’s Marijuana Capital, Struggles to Tame the Black Market

People smoking pot at a store in Vancouver.CreditCreditAlana Paterson for The New York Times

By Dan Bilefsky Oct. 29, 2018

VANCOUVER – In the pot-friendly city of Vancouver, illegal marijuana dispensaries outnumber Starbucks outlets, and among the most popular is Weeds, Glass and Gifts. There, in a relaxed space reminiscent of the coffee chain, jovial “budtenders” sell coconut chocolate bars infused with marijuana and customers smoke powerful pot concentrates at a sleek dab bar.

When Canada legalized recreational marijuana, on Oct. 17, one of the central aims was to shut down the thousands of illegal dispensaries and black market growers dotting the country. But taming an illegal trade estimated at 5.3 billion Canadian dollars is proving to be daunting.

“We’ll keep selling what we are selling,” said Mr. Briere, who in 2001 was sentenced to four years in prison for being one of British Columbia’s most prolific pot producers.

The Canadian government faces many challenges in stamping out the illegal marijuana industry. For one, there are too many black market shops like Mr. Briere’s for the government to keep track of.

And as sluggish provincial bureaucracies struggle to manage a new regulatory system, licenses to operate legally are hard to come by, giving illegal sellers added impetus to defy the law.

At the same time, the police and the public have little appetite for a national crackdown.

“The government taking over the cannabis trade is like asking a farmer to build airplanes,” Mr. Briere added.

Canadian policymakers say legalization is a giant national undertaking that will take years to be enforced. Mike Farnworth, British Columbia’s minister of public safety, argued that civic pressure and market forces would help gradually diminish the illegal trade.

“It’s a very Canadian way of doing things,” he said. “It won’t happen overnight.” There will, he added, be no mass raids, “guns and head-bashing.”

Nevertheless, he noted, newly created “community safety units” in British Columbia, staffed by 44 unarmed inspectors, have been given the power to raid dispensaries without a search warrant, seize illegal products and shut them down.

In Toronto, police raided five illegal pot retailers, two days after the law went into effect. Dozens of others in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa have voluntarily closed their doors to avoid being shut out of the legal market.

Yet hundreds of black market pot outlets remain defiantly open, abetted by provincial governments slow to implement the new law.

On Oct. 17, only one legal government pot retailer opened in British Columbia, in the city of Kamloops, nearly a four-hour drive from Vancouver. That assured that Vancouver’s illicit trade would continue to thrive.

And that day, none of the roughly 100 illegal pot dispensaries in the city had the provincial licenses they needed to operate legally, even those that had applied for one.

Investigating whether British Columbia residents are violating the law by growing more than four pot plants per household is not a priority, he said.

The legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado, Washington State and Uruguay, he added, has shown that “it is naïve to think that just because cannabis is legalized, the criminal will walk away from a highly lucrative industry.”

Follow Dan Bilefsky on Twitter: @DanBilefsky.

For complete article https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/world/canada/marijuana-cannabis-vancouver-legalization.html?rr

Lawsuits

• Jury finds in favor of Colorado marijuana grow in closely watched federal lawsuit

Research and Media articles

• First FDA-approved cannabis-based drug now available in the US
• Marijuana in babies? Colo. researchers find new evidence
• One Month of Cannabis Abstinence in Adolescents and Young Adults Is Associated With Improved Memory
• Medical cannabis will fuel addiction crisis, say doctors

Outside the US

• Thailand Mulls Becoming the First Country in Asia to Legalize Medical Marijuana
• Mexico Supreme Court says ban on recreational marijuana unconstitutional
• Vancouver, Canada’s Marijuana Capital, Struggles to Tame the Black Market

Licensed cannabis growers have ties to organized crime, Enquête investigation finds

Despite security checks by Health Canada, investors with Mafia connections involved in legal production

Marie-Maude Denis · CBC News · Posted: Nov 01, 2018

An investigation by Radio-Canada\’s Enquête shows Health Canada has granted production licences to companies with individuals with links to the criminal underworld. (Tijana Martin/Canadian Press)

An investor in a major Canadian cannabis company has had longstanding ties, including business dealings, with influential Mafia members and drug traffickers, Radio-Canada has learned.

Another investor in the same company has links with a prominent member of the Rizzutos, the powerful Montreal crime family.

In still another case, an individual managed to sell his cannabis business to one of the big players in the industry, despite his connections to drug traffickers. In return, he received shares in the company and rented out space for a cannabis grow-op.

• Federal ministers defend cannabis rollout after Enquête uncovers ties to organized crime

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\’s legalization plan was supposed to cut out organized crime, but an investigation by Radio-Canada\’s Enquête shows Health Canada has granted production licences to companies with individuals with links to the criminal underworld.

Enquête examined hundreds of documents as part of its investigation, including reviews conducted by Canadian securities oversight bodies. Enquête is not naming the companies or individuals involved.

• Trudeau says Quebec plan to make cannabis legal at 21 leaves opening for organized crime

For its part, Health Canada says it has not seen any cases of organized crime infiltration of more than 130 licensed cannabis producers since 2013.

To produce cannabis, those who hold certain positions in companies must first obtain a permit from Health Canada by taking a security screening.

Any past connections with individuals related to organized crime are part of the analyzed information.

Red flags raised

To secure a licence, Health Canada first checks if the individual has a criminal record.

Second, the RCMP consults police databases to review information that may indicate an applicant\’s links to criminals.

Health Canada makes its final decision with the information provided by the RCMP.

The RCMP says it raised red flags on about 10 per cent of the applicants it was asked to check out in 2016 and 2017.

\”It\’s really criminal associations,\” says Supt. Yves Goupil, who gives the example of a person \”associated with individuals who have criminal records.\”

In a statement, Health Canada said it can \”categorically confirm\” that it didn\’t issue \”security clearance to an individual when the RCMP provided evidence to the department that it was associated with organized crime.\”

\”Health Canada has found no evidence that organized crime has infiltrated one of more than 130 federally registered producers,\” spokesperson Eric Morrissette said in an email.

Security checks only scratch the surface

Throughout the period in which Canada\’s cannabis industry was developing, primarily for medical purposes, only individuals who directly ran the companies were required to obtain a security clearance.

This approach, says Conservative Senator Claude Carignan, demonstrates a naiveté about the workings of high-level organized crime.

\”If there is someone who has a criminal record, it is not that person they will put to apply for the licence,\” Carignan said. \”It would be completely naive to think that.\”

Last spring, Carignan and his Senate colleagues tried, unsuccessfully, to amend Bill C-45 on the legalization of cannabis in order to demand more transparency from companies entering the industry.

Several companies have opaque and complex structures.

\”You never see who the real licence holders are,\” said lawyer and tax expert Marwah Rizqy, who raised the issue before a Senate committee last spring and has since been elected Liberal MNA for the Quebec riding of Saint-Laurent.

The black hole of trusts

It\’s not uncommon for cannabis companies to be funded through family trusts.

Originally designed for estate and tax planning, trusts are an ideal way to hide individuals with interests in a business, said Marie-Pierre Allard, who studies tax policy at the Université de Sherbrooke.

\”The beneficiaries of the trust are not disclosed publicly. It\’s anonymous,\” she said, adding that it is \”one of the great vulnerabilities of the Canadian legal system.\”

• Don\’t count on pot pardons to wipe your record clean, legal experts warn

\”If we want to eliminate the Mafia cannabis market, we cannot allow them to use tax havens or trusts to enter indirectly through the back door,\” Carignan said.

A report by the federal Department of Finance and several international organizations identifies trusts as one of the vehicles most at risk for money-laundering in Canada.

In a Senate appearance last April, Rizqy suggested refusing to grant production licences to companies financed through trusts.

\”Maybe it would be wise to deny the licence outright because you are not able to unequivocally establish that the security clearance is really valid,\” said Rizqy.

The recommendation was not accepted. The federal cannabis legislation adopted this summer, however, did include more extensive background checks into individuals who back cannabis companies.

For complete article https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/cannabis-health-canada-enquete-investigation-1.4887997

Medical cannabis products \’will drive patients to addiction and crime\’ and turn doctors into drug dealers, warn experts in scathing letter

• Cannabis oil will become available on the NHS next Thursday, November 1
• A group of 166 pain consultants has written a letter slating the plans
• They say it is being done for political reasons, not based on medical advice
• And patients are already demanding cannabis, losing interest in other treatment

The legalisation of medical cannabis next month will lead to a crisis of addiction and crime, leading experts have warned.

Doctors will be able to dish out cannabis oils and other products as of November 1 in England, Scotland and Wales.

However, in a scathing letter, 166 pain consultants from across the UK claim they risk \’becoming drug dealers inadvertently\’.

They warned people are already asking for cannabis from their doctors, and worry they will be exploited by drug dealing gangs if they\’re turned down by the NHS.

In the letter, they said they support the law change – but wrote: \’We have suffered an opioid crisis and foresee history about to repeat itself.

\’We are concerned that in the interests of political expediency, this mandate to allow routine prescribing of cannabis for pain relief is premature.

\’That cannabis is an effective treatment for chronic pain is not supported by the evidence and may be associated with significant harm.\’

The letter, signed by Dr Rajesh Munglani, a consultant in pain medicine who has a private practice in Cambridge and London, was sent to The Times.

It warned there is not enough evidence cannabis is effective at treating pain and it could put patients at risk of mental health problems.

For complete article https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6319469/Cannabis-oil-drive-people-addiction-crime-experts-warn.html

Weed behind the wheel: stoned drivers more common in US than drunk ones!

After  legalization of cannabis in some states, americans are getting higher than ever before, with an estimated 15 billion hours under the influence of cannabis each year.

Driving While Stoned: Issues and Policy Options by New York University’s Marron Institute reports that the number of people driving while high will increase further.

Mexico to pursue new strategy in \’war on drugs\’

Mexico\’s new president has declared war on the drug mafia — and is putting citizens at the heart of his approach. Drug use will also be regarded not so much as a security problem in future but as more of a health issue.

Peace instead of war, paying closer attention to the social causes of criminality, and a clear commitment from the security forces that they will respect human rights: these are the key points in the security strategy of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office as Mexico\’s new president on December 1. Last week, in Mexico City, Lopez Obrador – who\’s known by the sobriquet AMLO — presented his ideas for ending the bloodshed in his country, caused by a drugs war that has lasted more than a decade. Victims\’ associations and civil society were the main focus of the event. They presented the findings of peace forums held at AMLO\’s instigation all over the country in the past few months.

Change of policy on drugs

Also present at the event in Mexico City were key figures in AMLO\’s future security cabinet, like Interior Minister Olga Sanchez Cordero and Public Security Minister Alfonso Durazo. Falko Ernst from Crisis Group Mexico, who had expected to be presented with a detailed program, had criticisms: \”The plan to demilitarize security policy is praiseworthy, but it doesn\’t elaborate on how that would be implemented without falling back into old patterns.\”

Not all of civil society\’s demands will be met. The call for an official representative for the disappeared fell on sympathetic ears; but the only case for which a truth commission is likely to be established is that of the 43 disappeared student teachers of Ayotzinapa.

There will also be a change of policy on drug use. Bucking the regional trend toward increased repression and controls, Mexico\’s new government will pin its hopes on legalization, and will no longer define drug use as a security issue but as a health problem. Sanchez Cordero, the future interior minister, left no doubt about that. Here too, however, the devil is in the as-yet-unspecified detail: It\’s still not clear which model the government will use, and whether it will apply only to marijuana or also to other drugs like cocaine and opium.

Transparency and accountability

AMLO has clearly moved away from the idea of a general amnesty as announced during the election campaign. In the forums, victims decisively rejected this point; they demanded truth and justice before there could be any talk of forgiveness. Around 234,000 people have died in the Mexico\’s drug wars since 2006; more than 30,000 have disappeared.

For complete story https://www.dw.com/en/mexico-to-pursue-new-strategy-in-war-on-drugs/a-46066964