Colorado: Legalizing Pot Punishes Profits!

For Immediate Release: November 19, 2018

Contact: Pat Brogan [email protected]

720-401-5500

New Report: Cost of Marijuana Legalization Far Outweighs Tax Revenues

(Denver, CO) – Today, a new study on the impact of marijuana legalization in Colorado conducted by the Centennial Institute found that for every one dollar in tax revenue from marijuana, the state spends $4.50 as a result of the effects of the consequences of legalization.

This study used all available data from the state on hospitalizations, treatment for Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD), impaired driving, black market activity, and other parameters to determine the cost of legalization. Of course, calculating the human cost of addiction is nearly impossible, we can assume the cost estimated for treating CUD is a gross underestimate due to the fact that it is widely believed among health officials that CUD goes largely untreated…yet rates have been increasing significantly in the past decade.

That, in conjunction with the fact that there is no way of quantifying the environmental impact the proliferation of single use plastic packaging common within the marijuana industry, leads us to believe this is indeed a very conservative estimate.

\”Studies such as this show that the only people making money off the commercialization of marijuana are those in the industry who profit at the expense of public health and safety,\” said Dr. Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). \”The wealthy men in suits behind Big Marijuana will laugh all the way to the bank while minority communities continue to suffer, black markets continue to thrive, and taxpayers are left to foot the bill.\”

\”The data collected in this study, as in similar studies before it, continues to show the scope of the cost of commercialization. The effects of legalization are far and wide, and affect just about every resident in the state directly and indirectly,\” said Jeff Hunt, Vice President of Public Policy for Colorado Christian University.

\”The pot industry doesn\’t want this dirty truth to be seen by law makers and the taxpayers, who were promised a windfall in tax revenue,\” said Justin Luke Riley, president of the Marijuana Accountability Coalition. \”The MAC will continue to shine a light on the industry and urge our lawmakers to reign in Big Pot before it brings more harm on Coloradans.\”

www.MarijuanaAccountability.co

www.learnaboutsam.org

MAC, a project of SAM Action, 400 N. Columbus Street, Suite 202, Alexandria, VA 22314

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Canada: Black Market will ALWAYS continue… Still NO surprise there!!

Cannabis users and growers still turning to black market

November 16, 2018 By DATAC

As the legalization of cannabis settles in, coming up on the one month mark, there are many challenges which have arisen in the legal sales arena. There have been issues across the country with the legal dispensaries, either online (ON) or store fronts (NB, QC) running out of product and experiencing website glitches. These bumps in the road for legal sales have meant that many recreational and medicinal users are turning to the black market to obtain their products.

Black market filling the holes

The black market for cannabis sales obviously existed prior to the legalization of cannabis last month, and just this fact alone means that they have a head start in sales. Many users, medicinal and recreational, are going to be hard to bring around to purchasing from legal sources. There are two main reasons for this, the first being that the legal sites (storefronts or online stores) have been running out since they opened their doors. Some have completely run out of all products, and have had to close their doors, while others are simply at very low stock and/or long wait times to obtain the product as things are on backorder.

As well as running out of products there are numerous products which will not be available legally until next year, such as edibles, which includes such things as cannabis-infused foods (from cakes to candies) as well as drinks. Cannabis concentrates are another product which will not be available via legal dispensaries until next year. The black market will have a stronghold on all of these, still not purchasable cannabis products, for at least a year, which also means buyers keeping their relationships with their illegal dispensers.

The second reason for a user choosing the black market is price. Particularly for those users who were already set up with a place to purchase, prior to legalization, deciding now to pay much more for the same thing they can already get, is a hard sell. There is variation from province to province with the cost of product from stores versus street, but the prices in stores can be up to $15 a gram with the average price on the street ranging from about $5 (Alberta) to around $7 (Ontario). It also seems that because the prices are high on the legal market it may have led to a drop in prices in the black market.

For complete article https://datac.ca/cannabis-users-and-growers-still-turning-to-black-market/

Michigan: Conned Into Cannabis with Corrupt Censorship?

LEGALIZATION WINS IN MICHIGAN; QUESTIONABLE ETHICS

NOVEMBER 15, 2018 EDITOR

TV stations pulled anti-legalization ads ahead of
midterm marijuana votes, advocates say

This headline, and the story it describes in Michigan, raises two questions:

Is it ethical for TV stations to pull political ads off the air?
Is it ethical for the ads’ opponents to set up their own “fact-checking” committee as the basis for complaining that the ads are inaccurate?

Will Common Cause intervene?

Marijuana Moment said the ad was pulled for “incorrectly claiming that the initiative would allow for ‘unlimited potency’ cannabis products.” If that is not true, than the industry will allow regulators to cap the potency at 16% THC, something that hasn’t been allowed in other states. When Coloradans supported a cap, the marijuana companies bought off the authorized to petition in 2016. Good luck Michigan.

The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol created a ballot initiative in Michigan to legalize marijuana for “recreational” use. Marijuana Policy Project, New Approach PAC, and the Drug Policy Alliance, all national organizations, make up the coalition. The out-of-state groups sponsored every single initiative to legalize marijuana for either medical or “recreational” use. Backed by billionaires, they raise lots of money to legalize pot, and leave each state’s taxpayers to clean up their mess.

They have succeeded in convincing Americans that marijuana is a “medicine” that cures or relieves some 65 different conditions. They tell teens it is “not addictive,” is “safer than alcohol,” along other of “facts” that are lies.

So, it is no small irony that the Coalition has set itself up as a reliable “fact” checker to attack Michigan citizens. The opposition was only trying to prevent the legalization of an addictive, harmful drug in their state.

A sad time for Michigan

Did the subterfuge work? Yep. Michigan passed legalization by a vote of 2,346,713 to 1,851,679 (55.9% vs 44.1%).

Michigan already has a stoned driver problem, more than most states. Since law enforcement does not have good detection methods, this problem will only get worse with legalization.

Read Marijuana Moment article here.
For an in-depth report on how the legalization movement has unfolded, read “Tracking the Money That’s Legalizing Marijuana and Why It Matters” here:

Colorado: Cannabis Edible Carnage!

RICHARD KIRK INTERVIEW CONFIRMS MARIJUANA AS UNSAFE SWAP FOR OPIATES

NOVEMBER 15, 2018 Bottom of Form

Three months after Colorado opened marijuana stores, Richard Kirk shot and killed his wife while she was on the phone with 911. On November 12, Lori Gliha, an investigative journalist from the news magazine program Insight with John Ferruggia interviewed him on Rocky Mountain PBS. Most viewers who watched the jailhouse interview agree that he wouldn’t have killed his wife had he not eaten the marijuana edible.

The State of Colorado deserves a good portion of the blame for the death of Kristine Kirk.

The program revealed Richard Kirk’s chronic back pain and addiction to opiate pain pills. One day, out of opioids, he stopped at the marijuana dispensary near his home. When the edible containing 100 mg THC didn’t resolve the pain within an hour, he tried more. Then Kristine Kirk called 911 to report his hallucinations and threat of violence in response to marijuana edibles. It was only 3-1/2 months after dispensaries opened in Colorado, and regulations were inadequate at the time.

A few weeks earlier, Levy Thamba, an exchange student from the Democratic Republic of Congo, became psychotic from a marijuana cookie, jumped off of a hotel balcony and died. After these two deaths, Colorado made the regulations tougher. The following year, another young man, Luke Goodman, shot himself after eating marijuana edibles.

It’s shocking that Kirk wasn’t given an involuntary manslaughter sentence instead of a murder conviction. Kirk knows he was psychotic and never would have done it had he not used the marijuana. There is a wealth of scientific data supporting what happened to him. A jury convicted him and he was sentenced to 30 years in jail.

Insights from the Investigation on PBS

Watch the entire Rocky Mountain PBS interview here.

The two scientists interviewed made key statements towards the end of what they had to say: Dr. Kari Franson, the clinical pharmacologist, maintained that we might have to accept that THC and the gastrointestinal system just don’t belong together and that interaction is too variable to be able to predict what will happen.

Dr. Andrew Monte stated that edibles should not be on the recreational market. He reported 2,600 ER visits connected to marijuana at UC Health University of Colorado Hospital over the past 5 years. Most of these hospital visits involve edibles. However, marijuana proponents have a view of self-entitlement which allow them to rationalize that if they don’t have these bad reactions, then why should it matter if others do? For complete story Cannabis-Edibles-Carnage

USA: Big Pharma Arrest Over Opioid Crisis – CANNABIS WILL BE THE NEXT CRISIS IF WE DONT STOP IT NOW!

The tide is turning: Big Pharma billionaire arrested, charged with conspiracy and bribery of doctors

By Dr. Cheryl Strayed October 28, 2018

I almost never thought I’d see the day when a Big Pharma founder and owner was finally arrested for running a criminal drug cartel, but that day has arrived.

“Federal authorities arrested the billionaire founder and owner of Insys Therapeutics Thursday on charges of bribing doctors and pain clinics into prescribing the company’s fentanyl product to their patients,” reports the Daily Caller News Foundation, one of the best sources of real journalism in America today.

Addictive drugs that include opioids, we now know, are claiming over 64,000 lives a year in the United States alone.

From the DCNF:

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged John Kapoor, 74, and seven other current and former executives at the pharmaceutical company with racketeering for a leading a national conspiracy through bribery and fraud to coerce the illegal distribution of the company’s fentanyl spray, which is intended for use as a pain killer by cancer patients. The company’s stock prices fell more than 20 percent following the arrests, according to the New York Post.

Kapoor stepped down as the company’s CEO in January amid ongoing federal probes into their Subsys product, a pain-relieving spray that contains fentanyl, a highly-addictive synthetic opioid. Fentanyl is more than 50 times stronger than morphine, and ingesting just two milligrams is enough to cause an adult to fatally overdose.

The series of arrests came just hours after President Donald Trump officially declared the country’s opioid epidemic a national emergency. Drug overdoses led to 64,070 deaths in 2016, which is more than the amount of American lives lost in the entire Vietnam War.

As the opioid crisis has developed, more and more states have begun holding doctors and opioid manufacturers accountable for over-prescribing and over-producing the highly-addictive painkillers.

“We will be bringing some major lawsuits against people and companies that are hurting our people,” Trump said Thursday. He also spoke about a program similar to Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” initiative.

“More than 20,000 Americans died of synthetic opioid overdoses last year, and millions are addicted to opioids. And yet some medical professionals would rather take advantage of the addicts than try to help them,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “This Justice Department will not tolerate this. We will hold accountable anyone — from street dealers to corporate executives – who illegally contributes to this nationwide epidemic. And under the leadership of President Trump, we are fully committed to defeating this threat to the American people.

For complete article http://urhealthinfo.com/2018/10/28/the-tide-is-turning-big-pharma-billionaire-arrested-charged-with-conspiracy-and-bribery-of-doctors/

USA: Legal Weed! Get \’HIGHer\’ on Car Insurance Rate Rises!

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/

Global: Smart Asian Nations Warn on Weed!

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!