Canadian Elections: Good News for MJ

If you missed the recent elections in Canada, you aren’t alone. It was the longest campaign season in the nation’s history, yet Americans paid it scant attention.

That’s probably in part because “the longest campaign season” translated to just 78 days, almost nothing by the standard of America’s two-year election process. But it’s also because the United States tends to view politics north of the border as unimportant.

They’re not – not this time around, anyway. The October elections did more than put a new, dramatically more progressive government in power. They also opened the door to legal marijuana nationwide.

Conservative PM ousted

On Canadian Election Day, Oct. 19, voters ousted the decade-old government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The outcome was widely viewed as further evidence of a liberal wave sweeping North America’s political institutions.

The new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is a dyed-in-the-wool Canadian progressive and son of another famously progressive prime minister. Trudeau led the Liberal Party to a surprisingly strong victory, taking a majority of the seats in Parliament.

Canadians don’t elect prime ministers directly. All government ministers are appointed to office by the party with the most seats in Parliament, or by a coalition of parties that together hold a majority of seats. The prime minister is typically also the leader of his or her party.

Trudeau promised to push for legalization

Trudeau made waves in recent months by promising to push for legalization of marijuana once in office. It remains to be seen whether he will make good on that promise, but all indications are that legalization is on its way.

If that happens, Canada will join Uruguay as one of the only countries where the recreational use of marijuana is legal. Cannabis has been legalized in four U.S. states and the District of Columbia, but it remains prohibited under federal law.

Expectations are high among Canada’s stoners. Trudeau has positioned himself as a decided radical, a reformer who will use deficit spending, lift restrictions on immigrants, and legalize marijuana from coast to coast.

Harper staunchly opposed all these things, to the point that he was viewed as a racist obstructionist by many on the left. Election Day was a stinging defeat for Conservatives, who had managed to hold power for a decade by exploiting divisions among liberals.

Improved chances of marijuana legalization

The strong Liberal showing means marijuana legalization is all the more likely. Observers had predicted that neither of the three main parties (the other is the ultra-liberal NDP) would win a majority of Parliament. Had the Liberals come in first with less than 50 percent of seats, they likely would have been forced to form a coalition government with the NDP.

Instead, the Liberals will have total control of the national government. What’s more, support for cannabis reform is very high in Canada, with a growing segment of society complaining that the Conservatives were blocking progress.

Canada, like the United States, has moved sharply to the left in recent years. The country is famously liberal, yet the Conservatives managed to install a right-wing government. The outcome of Election Day means the leftward trend is likely to continue for some time.

And that is good news for reformers, marijuana smokers, and civil libertarians everywhere. The ball is rolling downhill now, and it doesn’t look like it will stop anytime soon.

Canadian Elections: Good News for MJ

Legalization: A State-by-State Comparison

Marijuana is currently legal in four states and the District of Columbia, and three of those states – Oregon, Washington, and Colorado – already allow open retail sale of the drug for personal use.

Cannabis shops opened across Colorado and Washington State last year, and Oregon started selling recreational marijuana Oct. 1. Alaska, the fourth state to legalize, won’t allow retail sales until next year, while the future of reform in Washington, D.C., remains unclear.

Marijuana may be legal in all these places, but their laws are not the same. Following is a comparison of cannabis statutes in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon, the three states where customers can buy marijuana on the legal market.

Oregon

Oregon’s rules are the most relaxed of any state with legalization. Possession limits are unusually high, up to eight ounces at home and up to one ounce in public. And while cultivation limits fall somewhere in the middle, home growers can still cultivate a substantial supply.

The Beaver State allows adults over 21 to grow up to four plants at a time. But all four may be mature, meaning a decent harvest after a few months of cultivation.

Oregon allows both retail and wholesale transactions, meaning dispensaries may buy their product from independent farmers and processors rather than growing it themselves. The state levies a $35 tax on each ounce, and the drug typically costs less at retail than it would in Washington or Colorado.

Lawmakers have yet to pass effective cannabis DUI laws in Oregon, but the rules and penalties will likely be relatively moderate. It isn’t clear whether the state will adopt a “zero tolerance” approach, a “per se” limit, or a simple impairment test.

Zero tolerance laws punish drivers with any amount of THC in their blood; per se laws penalize motorists with more than a minimal amount; and the impairment standard targets only people who actually drive erratically. Oregon could go with any of these approaches, but a per se law is most likely. That’s both good and bad news for marijuana users, as per se is worse than impairment but better than zero tolerance.

Unlike Colorado or Washington, Oregon doesn’t enforce a cap on the number of retail cannabis licenses. This means the state will likely have more stores, but it could also cause a glut of product and a collapse of the legal market in a worst-case scenario.

Finally, Oregon doesn’t let local governments ban marijuana stores unless approved by voters in a general election. That makes the state the friendliest of the three when it comes to welcoming dispensaries and the customers who use them.

Washington

Washington State allows possession of up to one ounce by all adults over 21. But home cultivation is prohibited, and that alone makes this the most stringent of the three states.

Taxes are higher in Washington than anywhere else: A 25 percent sales tax is levied on each point of sale – grower to processor, processor to retailer, and retailer to customer. This has proved problematic, as it initially drove the price of legal cannabis well above black market rates.

Washington bans wholesale cannabis transactions, leaving dispensaries to grown their own product. And the state uses a per se driving law: Anything over 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood is considered conclusive evidence of stoned driving.

Unlike Oregon, the Evergreen State places a cap on the number of retail licenses and allows its municipal governments to ban all dispensaries within their borders. The state’s most conservative communities have already done so, leaving many shoppers to travel long distances for their cannabis.

Colorado

Possession caps are lower in Colorado than elsewhere, with residents allowed to buy no more than one ounce at a time and out-of-staters limited to a quarter ounce. But residents may cultivate up to six plants and keep what they grow, so the practical limit remains fairly high.

Taxes are moderate in Colorado, with a total levy of 25 percent on each sale. Most of that comes from a 15 percent excise tax, while the rest comes from the state’s standard sales tax. Compared to Washington and Oregon, Colorado’s marijuana tax falls in the middle.

The Centennial State initially barred wholesale transactions, but that provision has expired, so dispensaries can get their supply from other providers. Laws governing high driving are the same as they are in Washington, tough but not unreasonably so.

Local governments are allowed to prohibit retail stores in Colorado, and many have done so. But the state doesn’t restrict the number of store licenses, meaning there is room for growth and new business opportunities; what’s more, some communities may eventually lift their bans.

Legalization: A State-by-State Comparison

Trump Reconsiders Legalization

With 2016 fast approaching, all eyes in the marijuana community are on former Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and his call to legalize cannabis nationwide. But he isn’t the only presidential candidate who has moved toward full reform.

Republican billionaire Donald Trump, who until recently led the GOP field, talked back previous comments that implied he would fight legalization if elected. Now he says the issue should be left to the states. That puts him closer to reform than all but one fellow Republican.

“In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state,” Trump said at a political rally in Nevada Oct. 29.

Trump’s new remarks followed promises by Sanders to pursue legalization of marijuana for all uses. Trump didn’t go so far, but his comments mark a turnaround from earlier statements about legalization. Earlier this year, he told a gathering of conservative donors that he opposed legalizing cannabis for recreation. He has repeatedly said he supports medical marijuana.

Contradicting previous comments

It’s hard to say exactly where Trump stands on cannabis or what policies he would prefer. He tends to change positions to match the mood of the moment, so saying he backs reform today doesn’t mean he will tomorrow.

Still, his recent remarks suggest he’s moving away from his earlier opposition. That may be in part because he has dropped in the polls in recent weeks, falling behind surgeon Ben Carson in the GOP primary race. He still maintains a commanding lead over the rest of the Republican field, but his stock has dropped.

Trump addressed the issue just hours after the third GOP debate Oct. 28. His performance in that event was lackluster, and he may be looking to shore up support on an increasingly popular issue. But his record on the subject is complicated, to say the least.

In a speech at a luncheon twenty-five years ago, Trump said the federal government should legalize all drugs and use the savings to pay for educational campaigns aimed at preventing drug abuse.

“We’re losing badly the war on drugs,” he said at the time. “You have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars.”

Full support for medical marijuana

Trump has rarely if ever wavered in his support for medical cannabis, but his stance on recreational marijuana has see-sawed over the years. In June, he told a conservative political conference the country should reject full legalization.

“I say it’s bad,” he said about Colorado’s legal cannabis program. “Medical marijuana is another thing, but I think it’s bad, and I feel strongly about it.”

But asked whether voters should be allowed to legalize as a matter of states’ rights, Trump suggested he might leave the federal government out of it.

Trump would leave legalization to the states

“If they vote for it, they vote for it,” he said. “But you know, they have got a lot of problems going on right now in Colorado, some big problems.”

Trump moved further in that direction at the Nevada rally. He was asked what he thought of legalization and replied that states should be able to decide for themselves. Medical marijuana is legal in the state, and next year’s ballot will ask voters whether they want to legalize recreational cannabis.

“Marijuana is such a big thing,” Trump said. “I think medical should happen, right? Don’t we agree? I think so. And then I really believe we should leave it up to the states.”

But he stopped short of supporting legalization himself. All evidence shows reform has worked remarkably well in Colorado, Washington, and Colorado, but Trump insisted that isn’t so.

“And of course you have Colorado,” he said. “And I love Colorado and the people are great, but there’s a question as to how it’s all working out there, you know? That’s not going exactly trouble-free. So I really think that we should study Colorado, see what’s happening.”

Trump Reconsiders Legalization

Candidates Stake Ground on MJ

The 2016 election is almost exactly one year away, and marijuana has already become a major topic in the campaign. Now, at least one candidate is throwing his weight behind full legalization.

Former Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said at a Democratic Party primary debate in October that he would probably vote “yes” if he lived in Nevada and had a chance to cast a ballot for statewide legalization next year. Later that month, he announced plans to reschedule cannabis under the Controlled Substances Act, a huge step toward legalization at the federal level.

CNN debate moderator Anderson Cooper pointedly asked Sanders whether he would vote for the legalization initiative in Nevada, the site of the debate. Sanders said he would.

“I suspect I would vote yes,” he said. “And I would vote yes because I am seeing in this country too many lives being destroyed for non-violent offenses. We have a criminal justice system that lets CEOs on Wall Street walk away, and yet we are imprisoning or giving jail sentences to young people who are smoking marijuana. I think we have to think through this war on drugs.”

That stance has set the liberal senator apart from other candidates. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, has come the closest to supporting full reform, but even he has held back from endorsing legalization for personal use. He also has no chance of winning. Sanders’ main Democratic competitor, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, said during the debate that she doesn’t support full reform, at least not yet.

That left Sanders with a great chance to stake new ground, and he took it. At a speech in late October, Sanders said he would like to reschedule cannabis under the CSA.

That 1970 law lists marijuana under “schedule 1,” the category reserved for drugs considered especially dangerous, especially addictive, and medically useless. Cannabis has been on this list since it was written, alongside heroin, LSD, and other hard drugs. For decades advocates have pushed in vain to reschedule it.

Sanders’ strong support is a sign that could happen. Only Congress or the DEA – or both – could relist a controlled substance. President Barack Obama has begged off the issue, saying it is better left to Congress than the executive branch.

Democratic Party Primary Debate, Oct. 13, 2015

No other candidate has gone as far as Sanders, though former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, also a Democrat, has proposed moving marijuana to schedule 2, alongside cocaine, methamphetamines, and other tightly regulated prescription drugs. Clinton says she wants to wait to see how reform plays out in the four states that have legalized.

During a speech at George Mason University Oct. 28, Sanders told students legalization is a matter of civil rights. Like many other politicians, he has complained that the nation’s criminal justice system is run amok. A recent FBI report concluded that an American is arrested on marijuana charges every minute.

“Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records as a result of marijuana use,” he said. “That’s wrong. That has got to change.”

Candidates Stake Ground on MJ

Brookings Institution: MJ Policy Is All Wrong

The world’s most influential think tank issued a report in October that casts strong doubt on drug policy in the United States.

The report was published by the Brookings Institution, a non-partisan think tank that has repeatedly been ranked as the world’s most important. Titled “Ending the U.S. Government’s War on Medical Marijuana research,” the document criticizes the effectiveness of the entire war on drugs.

Among other complaints, the institution criticizes the federal government’s many attempts to block research into medical marijuana. Though hardly the first group to criticize this obstructionist approach, Brookings has offered some of the most detailed evidence to support its case.

Thirty-eight states now allow some form of medicinal cannabis, including four that have legalized all marijuana use. The Brookings report notes that federal drug policy has been stuck in the same place since President Richard Nixon launched the drug war nearly 50 years ago.

The effectiveness of MMJ is indisputable

“The elderly, veterans, children, and people from every demographic group in the nation claim that the use of cannabis assists in the treatment of their medical conditions,” the authors wrote. “However, the U.S. government has held back the medical community’s ability to conduct the type of research that the scientific community considers the experimental gold standard in guiding medical practice.”

The authors, Grace Wallack and John Hudak, Ph.D., focus much of their criticism on the history of the drug war. They also detail historical attempts to move marijuana from schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970; doing so would be the first step toward legalizing at the federal level.

Wallack and Hudak note that the evidence behind MMJ is very strong. They examine the history of a federal program that still delivers cannabis to at least one patient who enrolled in the 1980s.

Doctors, not bureaucrats, should make decisions about MMJ

It is the only federally approved MMJ program in history, and it offers lessons for the future of drug policy, Wallack and Hudak said. The program was stalled by overly restrictive rules and a government that turned against patients during the AIDS crisis of the ’80s and ’90s.

This, the authors wrote, argues against a similar approach in the future. Doctors, not bureaucrats, should decide which patients may use medical marijuana, the authors said.

“Reopening the Compassionate Use Program may offer a middle ground between full rescheduling and the status quo,” Wallack and Hudak wrote. “Respectfully this author disagrees. The closure of the Compassionate Use Program in 1992 unleashed a pent-up frustration with federal cannabis control that is still evolving. Returning to the days in which federal bureaucrats decide, rather than a personal physician, who can and cannot have medical cannabis borders on lunacy.”

Brookings Institution: MJ Policy Is All Wrong

Students Overdose on MJ Brownies

Five California high school students fell sick after eating marijuana-laced brownies in October, police said.

The teens, all studying at Crawford High School in San Diego, were treated at a local hospital and were listed in stable condition as of late October. The incident happened Oct. 23, when each of the youths ate a cannabis brownie, school officials said.

The students reportedly ate the brownies at about noon, became sick, and told school staff what they had done. They were then transported to Rady Children’s Hospital, also located in San Diego. Linda Zintz, spokeswoman for the San Diego Unified School District, told reporters staff called for emergency assistance at 12:30 p.m. and sent the students to the hospital with paramedics.

U.S. schools are designated drug-free zones

Zintz said the district didn’t know yet where the brownies came from or whether they were consumed on campus. Public schools in the United States are designated as “drug-free zones,” meaning the source of the brownies could face especially harsh penalties for poisoning the teens.

Crawford Principal Richard Lawrence contacted parents after the incident, using a voice message to tell them that the five students were sent to the hospital as a precaution after eating marijuana edibles, and that they were in stable condition.

“Please take the time to speak to your son or daughter about ingesting food from other people,” Lawrence said in the message. “Students should not take nor eat food from others regardless of how it may appear. Drugs come in different forms and formats and there’s also concerns about unknown allergens. We must be proactive for the sake and safety of all students. We are following up on this matter and proper actions will be taken as we take seriously the safety and health of all of our students.”

Rules for California MMJ

Marijuana is legal in California, but only for medical use. The state’s voters adopted MMJ at the ballot box in 1996, the first to do so. The program has been loosely regulated since its conception, a fact that made cannabis widely available and easy to get.

Medical cannabis is legally restricted to adults and to children with a short list of serious conditions. But children have little difficulty getting their hands on the drug, whether from shady MMJ providers or via the state’s black market.

All that should change, soon. Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed legislation imposing new rules on MMJ for the first time since it took effect two decades ago. Among other things, the new law will make it harder for teens to obtain marijuana.

Full legalization is also likely to arrive within the next few years, and that, too, could come with new rules preventing youths from buying cannabis. A ballot item is expected on the issue next year, and polls have showed support is strong among voters.

Students Overdose on MJ Brownies

Legal MJ Off to Great Start in Oregon

When voters legalized marijuana in Oregon last year, they didn’t take much of a practical leap. The state already had a strong stoner community, low prices on the drug, and easy access to it.

That may help explain why the move to legal cannabis has gone so swimmingly. News reports suggest money is flowing into state coffers at a steady clip, and sales have already outpaced the first few months of legalization in Colorado and Washington State.

Those are the only other states where legal marijuana is currently selling in retail stores. Colorado and Washington voted to legalize in 2012, and the first stores started selling the drug for recreation in 2014.

That same year, Oregon and Alaska also voted to legalize, as did the District of Columbia. Alaska hasn’t yet licensed its first legal cannabis stores, while the future of legalization in Washington, D.C., is tenuous at best.

Recreational weed went on sale Oct. 1

The first recreational grass went on sale in Oregon Oct. 1. The state allowed about 240 medical marijuana dispensaries to convert to retail sales, and more retail shops will be licensed in coming months.

Opening day went off without any major problems. Southern portions of Oregon saw a steady stream of business out of Northern California, which suggests Californians were driving cannabis across state lines – a federal crime. But there were few other signs of trouble.

Indeed, sales were “brisk” on Day 1, according to The Oregonian of Portland. Lines wrapped around city blocks, and several stores were forced to close early when they ran out of product. The newspaper reported that one store generated $55,000 in business on the first day alone.

Highest first-day sales yet

By the time the first week had ended, analysts estimated stoners spent $11 million on legal marijuana, with more than $3 million spent on opening day. That’s more than double the $5 million haul during Colorado’s first week of legal sales. Washington State earned even less than Colorado in its first week.

Once legalization passed at the ballot last year, Oregon launched an especially fast process to make the drug available. What took two years in Colorado and even longer in Washington was completed in less than a year by officials in Oregon.

That suggests an especially effective state government, something for which Oregon was already known. But it also suggests the state’s marijuana community was well positioned to take quick advantage of the new laws. Dispensaries were able to convert so quickly in large part because the local MMJ program was carefully designed.

What’s more, Oregon has the advantage of following Colorado and Washington. Those states have served as early laboratories testing the viability of legalization. Oregon, on the other hand, has had a front-row seat to those experiments, and its government has learned from initial missteps.

Oregon isn’t done with its job yet. The rules that govern legal marijuana are still temporary, and the Oregon Liquor Control Commission will need months to make the program permanent. In the meantime, marijuana sales are tax free – and that means the boom in sales may drop once taxes are in place next year. As of Jan. 1, a 25 percent sales tax will be levied on all cannabis purchases.

Legal MJ Off to Great Start in Oregon