Rolling Cannabis Politics Thread

I thought there was a case in OR where it was bought from a legit dispensary. In any case, I think all the cartridges tied to deaths/illnesses contained additives and yeah just tell budtender you want one w/o any.

A tiny not-quite-state that exists only to house the capital of Australia just went "yeah, fuck it" and legalised possession & home growth yesterday, following no campaigning or debate

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/25/cannabis-set-to-be-legalised-in-australian-capital-territory-for-personal-use

xpost FWIW, this is how (for example) Cresco responded to the illnesses:

A MESSAGE TO OUR COMMUNITY ABOUT OUR VAPE PRODUCTS
We are deeply concerned by the recent news reports surrounding certain vape products and their alleged connection to detrimental health outcomes.

At Cresco Labs, we do not use vitamin E acetate as an additive in any vape products, nor do we use cutting agents such as polyethylene glycol (PEG), propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG) or medium chain triglycerides (MCT) which are used by many vape manufacturers.

Our vaping hardware is produced by vendors that maintain the highest quality standards, and we operate with the highest-level manufacturing processes in the most regulated cannabis programs in the country. All products are third-party tested for any outside contaminants to ensure compliance with all applicable state laws.

Please contact feedb✧✧✧@crescol✧✧✧.c✧✧ with any questions, and share this post with those who might be concerned with their vape products.

We will continue to regulate ourselves to a higher standard because it’s the right thing to do. In everything we do, we are not just growing, we are growing for you.

I think the sudden jump in cases must have something to do with bad or bootleg carts, THC or no, but of course I think the science is still out on the longterm safety of oils. I mean, I don't think any of it is "good" for you, per se, but if anyone was nervous, probably better to stick with edibles or dry-herb vaporizing or combustion, whose safety or lack thereof at least seems a little better understood.

That's kinda my read on it too, people have been vaping for years and this just sorta came out of nowhere. But it's premature to say it's just bootlegs or shady THC carts, some of the people hospitalized weren't using them and not all the carts tested had the vitamin E acetate in them. The correlation definitely seems to be there but I feel like it's best to wait a month or two until they know more.

it's Massachusetts that doesn't regulate additives I believe. Here's a couple of detailed links:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/marijuana/2019/09/06/are-marijuana-vapes-from-licensed-stores-safe-massachusetts-lacks-regulations-additives/Iy6UVy5yYSUGMwavXNZdkJ/story.html

https://www.leafly.com/news/health/vape-pen-lung-disease-thc-oil-additive-investigation

iirc I'm not sure California, of all states, does either?

I'm also curious as to why there are so many isolated cases nationwide - you'd think if it was *just* a bad batch of carts you'd see a bunch of them localized in a certain region.

Could be people under reporting. There also really is not that much public info available, and what little there is is short on specifics and long on conflating products. Not all "Vapes" are the same.

especially since there isn't a lot of info as to how much exactly these folks are smoking. I'd imagine you can hit a tainted vape a few times before ending up in the emergency room.

i blame dr. luther san

maybe you just didn't follow his system properly. you have to execute all the purification steps.

could be certain ppl are predisposed to have this happen and it's a fairly small % of gen population. while the rest of us can vape with impunity.

And not every smoker gets cancer, etc.

https://www.thecut.com/2019/09/are-weed-pens-as-dangerous-as-vaping-nicotine.html

Too many lives were ruined due to the disastrous criminalization of marijuana. Today I am releasing my plan to:

✅ Legalize marijuana with executive action
✅ Expunge past marijuana convictions
✅ Invest in communities most affected by the War on Drugs https://t.co/0xQSHn6F3U

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 24, 2019

Am I crazy or is this potentially a very big deal? Talk about something to galvanize non voters

Ridiculous that every Democratic contender hasn't had this as a plank already.

4:20 West Coast time there? nice touch if so

21+ and $$$ will get you legal cannabis in IL starting today.

And waiting in long lines I assume. Happy for all my IL people tho!

https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/first-day-of-legal-weed-sales-in-photos/793faa6a-0b13-426d-b146-c6539f1a3d83

For posterity, lines won’t always be this long

Yeah, first they have to run out.

The local place is right around the corner from Trader Joe's, so I was able to see that there was still a pretty substantial line this morning around 9:30am. I'm curious, once the dust settles, what a typical non-holiday adjacent day will look like.

love the smile on the man in that wbez link that caption says had been locked up on weed charges

can non-IL residents purchase it? asking for a friend

Yes there are no restrictions like that with full rec

21+, still cash only, there may be out of state limits?

i predict this summer is going to bring all sorts of new tourism :)

I've heard the prices are quite insane

legal weed prices in bc are nuts. i bought legal weed for the first time ever and the weed was not very good and cost > $40 (canadian obv) for 3.5 grams. i can go to an illegal dispensary with slightly worse weed and pay $5 a gram

with the illegal weed I'm not paying tax and probably funding the hell's angels so it's not like there's no downside obv

wait what's an illegal dispensary?

weed was de facto decriminalized here before it became legal and we had quite a lot of dispensaries. police would occasionally fuck with them but most operated without too many problems. with legality there was heightened pressure on these unregulated dispensaries with most of the existing dispensaries closing down, with only a minority going through the process to become part of the legal weed system. a small minority have not gone down the legal route, and not yet closed down.

jim if it helps either way you are paying significantly less than i am to buy it illegally in new york

3.5 grams is pretty much automatically $50-60 USD here from every dealer and service i've dealt with

ouch!

it's crazy how the 6th and 10th largest US states opened recreational stores in the last month and one of the lieutenant governors even showed up and bought weed at one and it seems barely newsworthy.

is this kind of the end of prohibition in the national consciousness, save for the long dragged out resistance from the puritanical or vindictive who want to keep arresting people? When was the last time the dea raided a shop anywhere?

so an illegal dispensary is like a storefront that sells black market goods? we def do not have those.

I expect the illegal dispensaries are cheaper in large part because they evade the taxes and fees the legal dispensaries must pay. Now that weed is legal, but regulated, in BC I'd expect that the illegal dispensaries will be forced into legality or else shut down. But, if the experience of WA, OR and CA are any guide, then BC will soon have a glut of weed supply and prices will drop.

medical store prices in mi went way up after it was legalized (to 50 for 3.5gm which is insane) and only a few strictly rec stores have opened so it's in weird chaos mode right now

is this kind of the end of prohibition in the national consciousness, save for the long dragged out resistance from the puritanical or vindictive who want to keep arresting people?

That's a pretty significant "save for." There are vast swaths of this country that are still very conservative, from dry counties to conceal carry states to those closing abortion clinics. There are states and places as reactionary as others are progressive. The question I have (for now) is how much police action there will be on the Wisconsin and Indiana borders; I've heard of people getting busted for bringing fireworks here across state lines, I can only imagine WI and IN will be pretty hardcore about catching people trying to bring pot out. Then again, who knows?

Also, recreation and sin taxes are annoying, but IL needs money, badly.

The question I have (for now) is how much police action there will be on the Wisconsin and Indiana borders; I've heard of people getting busted for bringing fireworks here across state lines, I can only imagine WI and IN will be pretty hardcore about catching people trying to bring pot out. Then again, who knows?

I don't think you need to worry about this too much. Some people may get busted if they press their luck but they always will regardless of their contraband.

I've heard of people getting busted for bringing fireworks here across state lines

When you consider the volume of traffic across state lines, the available police resources, and the constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, I can't imagine this happens very often, unless it is concomitant to a routine traffic stop, or else you are caught Driving While Black.

there are still states where you can't buy liquor on sundays. i don't imagine even when it's cleared nationally that every city will be down.

it becomes a localized issue. towns and counties can block dispensaries. see: western colorado, eastern washington. but then as it turns out you can be racist/sexist/reactionary and still be a pothead. so conservative areas eventually realize it's nbd. i'm sure there are some differences in the details but it's been recreationally legal in the west for years and a lot of the what-ifs itt have plenty of precedent at this point.

congrats il!

xpost There are cities and towns here that have said no, iirc. Like ... Naperville? More than a few.

"Consumers are expected to spend $420 million at Illinois dispensaries this year, Brightfield Group predicts."

Well played, Brightfield Group

does any one have a clue why the shares of mary jane shares are not stopping to plunge? the canadian etf has lost more than 60% in the last year or so.

It's a good question. I've heard things have been pretty poorly run up in Canada, but yeah, they've been down pretty much across the board. One theory is that investors have often been working outside the purview of advisors, who I suspect have been pretty hands-off, given its gray area status. So what's been pushing and pulling the market has perhaps been day traders and amateurs, parties that thrive on instability. Let's see how it goes this year.