Category Archives: Drug Policy

Drug Policy, Politics

New York Citizens Sue State over Financing of Pot Shops

A group of New York taxpayers, along with two supporting organizations, filed a lawsuit in the New York Albany County Supreme Court on July 29, 2024.

The Cannabis Impact Prevention Coalition and Cannabis Industry Victims Seeking Justice are the primary plaintiffs.   They list the state cannabis agencies and the state tax commissioner as defendants. The suit is called CIPC, et. al. v. New York State Cannabis Control Board, et. al. Index No. 907269-24.  

The lawsuit claims that the defendants would unlawfully use state funds to finance state marihuana/cannabis retail stores.  (The marijuana industry calls pot stores “dispensaries,” and the lawsuit follows this misleading word.) The defendants are using tax funds to pay for the administration and capitalization of these stores. Low and zero-interest loans will be given to certain licensees chosen by the state.

The tax funds will assist with the manufacture, distribution, and/or sale of federally illegal drugs.

Beset by problems from the start, many lawsuits against the New York program have come and gone.  Much of the bickering came from those not favored by the state.  Disabled veterans complained that ex-convicts were given preference over them.  Most recently, Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul claim success for shutting down 1,000 illegal pot shops.

The New York Cannabis Control Board

The Defendants’ program identifies locations for retail marihuana/cannabis stores and negotiates and signs leases for those locations and designs, renovates, and furnishes ready-to-operate facilities, and pays design/build teams to provide these services to enhance the licensees’ ability to successfully conduct a marihuana trafficking business.

How Expensive is it?

The program will spend as much as $200,000,000 out of which initially will be $50,000,000 in tax funds. The defendants will use these funds to enter into leases, subleases or other arrangements and will furnish construction and construction management services for qualified dispensaries and servicing non-recourse loans.

As a result of spending state funds, participating licensees would receive a turn-key cannabis dispensary in a retail location.  Licensees would be obligated to repay the investment over time, but the costs to them would be minimal.

“We are not aware of any business or industry receiving this kind of preferential state funding, especially one that sells addiction for profit.” stated David G. Evans, spokesperson for Cannabis Industry Victims Seeking Justice. “The cannabis of today is very high in potency and causes mental illness, addiction and a host of other social and medical conditions. Many young people are becoming mentally ill from high potency marihuana/cannabis,” noted Evans.

The Plaintiffs’ Claims


The plaintiffs, New York taxpayers, claim the defendants, by financing and money laundering, engage in a federally illegal activity involving financing and money laundering. These actions imperil public interests by conflicting with and violating federal law.  They usurp powers not granted under the United States Constitution.

Plaintiffs have specifically identified wrongful expenditures and continuing wrongful expenditures of State funds by Defendants to bring them within the New York State Finance Law 123-b

Evans further claimed that: “If any landlords are thinking about renting properties to these stores they had better think twice because they are subject to prosecution. It is unlawful to knowingly open, lease, rent, maintain, or use property for the manufacturing, storing, or distribution of controlled substances such as marihuana under 21 U.S.C. 856. This may also violate landlords’ loan agreements with banks. In addition, income from these stores including employee salaries may be subject to federal money laundering laws.”

The plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunction.   They stand on good ground since the Department of Justice reiterated the fact that cannabis users may not own g

Poppot took the above photo from a seller in New York, probably illegal.  The illegal market, despite efforts to shut it down, is much bigger than the legal market.

 

Drug Policy, Editorial, Environment

Expert Opinions burst stoners’ pipe dream of pot legalization!

Two recent opinion letters in major newspapers should send shock waves to Progressive voters  who value social justice and environmental issues.  They expose that marijuana legalization actually harms the promises of a more just society and a better earth. 

Kevin Sabet, PhD, President of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) wrote in The Baltimore Sun on June 30, 2024.  Sabet applauded Governor Moore but also said that his pardons prove that marijuana legalization is not about social justice.  (Maryland’s Governor Wes Moore recently issued 175,000 pardons for marijuana convictions, erasing the records. President Biden and other governors made similar moves in recent months.)

Sabet agrees with Moore’s pardons. However, he explains that it would have been possible without allowing the commercial marijuana industry to invade the state. (Nearby Virginia has decriminalization, without legalization.) Continue reading Expert Opinions burst stoners’ pipe dream of pot legalization! →

Drug Policy

National Press Club Event Challenges Current Drug Policy

TAKE BACK AMERICA CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCES 
CONFERENCE TO DISCUSS NATIONAL DRUG POLICY
Monday, May 20, 2024 from 0800 to 1100

Between 700 and 1,100 people die every day on American soil owing to drug-related causes.  No war or acts of terror in history even compares to the human or economic cost, which is estimated to be $3.73 trillion.  While the government has the responsibility to protect the people, they have failed to do so.

During the biggest drug epidemic in our history, the government proposes moving marijuana to a Schedule III status which is counterintuitive.

For the last 15 years “Harm Reduction” has been the national drug strategy, with catastrophic results.  This strategy encourages drug use by downplaying the harms, legalizing some drugs and elimina-ting penalties for criminal activity.  The result has been a 300% increase in overdose deaths, a crisis of mental health and addiction, record levels of suicide, a huge homeless problem, mass shootings and homicides, elevated traffic fatalities and rampant crime. America has become a narco-nation, no longer safe, according to organizer Roger Morgan.  If there is any hope for the future, national drug policy must change, and those responsible to protect this nation must do so.

As a country, we must switch back to a strategy of drug prevention over harm reduction. Between 1979 and 1992, the parents movement provided a prevention framework. As a result, teen drug use went from 39% down to 14%.

Panel of experts

A panel of experts on drugs and policy will candidly discuss the problem, and refute the Administration’s unfounded call to reschedule marijuana.  They will discuss what must be done to return America to the rule of law. 

 The panel consists of Roger Morgan, 30-year drug prevention activist; David Evans, Senior Attorney regarding Cannabis Industry Victims; Robert Charles, Attorney Asst Secretary of State for Colin Powell, White House staff, Naval Intelligence officer and expert on narcotics. 

Special guests and speakers are coming from around the country, including California. These include Heidi Swan and Bryn Spejcher, both of whom have experienced cannabis-induced psychosis from marijuana. In Bryn’s case the results were tragic.  She stabbed her date 108 times, stabbed her dog, and was trying to kill herself when the police arrived.  She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter as she was unaware of her actions and received 100 hours of community service. Spejcher and Swan will be available after the conference for interviews. Spejcher’s case is not unique, as many other violent crimes have been committed under cannabis-induced psychosis.

The conference room holds forty people. To secure a seat and receive a security code required to enter, please email [email protected]. 

Drug Policy, Politics

Keep Cannabis a Schedule I Drug

The Secretary of Health and Human Services has recommended changing the Schedule I classification for marijuana (cannabis).  HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, an attorney from California who made the announcement,  has no background in science or medicine.  It was a political move, rather than scientifically-informed recommendation.

The ultimate decision falls on the DEA and the Department of Justice. If the HHS recommendation is followed, marijuana would be a “Schedule III” drug instead of its current “Schedule I” status.

Pro-cannabis supporters see that possibility as a major victory, because it would pave the way for expanded legalization. We encourage our followers to contact the DEA directly to object to this proposal, and also reach out to your elected officials.

Recent attempts to reschedule marijuana were rejected in 2016, under the Obama administration, and in  2015  by Judge Kimberly Mueller of the Ninth Circuit Court.  It was also dismissed in 2012, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The three judges presiding on that panel included current Attorney General Merrick Garland.  Information about the dangers of marijuana has grown substantially in the last decade. Continue reading Keep Cannabis a Schedule I Drug →