Tag Archives: New York

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.

 

Mental Health, Violence

Reefer Madness in Massachusetts and New York

Jared Ravizza’s knife attack on four girls, ages 9-17, in a Massachusetts movie theater shocked the nation last weekend.  Three of the girls were sisters and their mother spoke out in an interview.  Another attack occurred an hour later at McDonalds in Plymouth, MA, about 30 miles from the movie theater in Braintree.  (Fortunately, no one died, but these incidents are shocking and scary for the victims.)

As our social media watch dogs found out, Jared Ravizza filled his social media with photos related to smoking and drug paraphernalia. In April, he attacked his father, who claimed his son had a mental break.

Ravizza, 26, is also suspected of a murder in a small Connecticut town earlier that day. More details will emerge after a thorough investigation.  The Boston Globe reported on his colorful past and his more recent mental health episodes. 

Recent knife attacks suggest an increase in violence brought on legalizing pot in many states.  Maybe it’s time for an American to publish about suicides and violent assaults in our country, the same way Ross Grainger did it for Great Britain and Ireland.

Attacker Smoked Cannabis is available on Amazon


What is happening in New York?

A 70-year-old Australian woman was attacked last Thursday, May 30, at a New York subway station. A complete stranger whacked her in the head and yelled profanities. He made a gun gesture and allegedly said he would kill her. Fortunately, the cops came to her rescue and caught the attacker, Ryan Smalls, according to the New York Post.

“He was lighting up a joint in their face while they were arresting him,.” according to the woman’s daughter.  (See the photo in the Post)

Since New York legalized cannabis in 2020, violent incidents have occurred in the subways, some suggestive of cannabis-induced psychosis.  Below is a sampling of some of these incidences:

A man riding the subway with his daughter was threatened with a knife for asking a passenger to stop smoking pot. In fact others have been assaulted for merely asking the perpetrators to stop smoking pot.  A Brooklyn subway rider was assaulted by teen girls waved a boxcutter at a Brooklyn subway rider when he asked them to stop smoking marijuana on the train. There was another scuffle on November 14, 2023.

Government has the duty to protect its citizens, and states that legalize pot aren’t doing it. Cannabis is very idiosyncratic drug. Legalization states should post highly visible warning signs about psychosis. Stores sell high-potency THC products that didn’t exist before legalization.  Cannabis-induced psychosis may come on suddenly, or it may develop over time.   

We’ve written two recent articles on today’s reefer madness, because victims have not survived in Florida or Illinois.  (Read our article on why pot does not need be laced to cause extreme violence.)

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Lawsuits in New York, other states threaten to shut pot legalization

Citizens in New York and Connecticut filed lawsuits against their states.  Among the three in New York:

1. Filed in New York Supreme Court:

It attacks the state rules on medical marijuana, marijuana product labeling and marijuana advertising. It is based on federal preemption as it violates federal law to have marijuana medicine, labeling and advertising. Marijuana is a Schedule I drug and cannot be used as medicine or advertised and labeled as medicine.
2. To be Filed in the New York Supreme Court:  This suit argues preemption in that the state cannot spend state taxes on setting up marijuana stores. This practice involves marijuana trafficking and money laundering.
3. To be Filed in the New York Supreme Court: A third lawsuit will argue that there is a state constitutional right to clean air that is violated by public marijuana smoking. Marijuana smoke is more dangerous than tobacco smoke; it is carcinogenic and causes allergic reactions.  (It’s ironic to think how hard it was to get tobacco smoke out of public places, only to find the smell of marijuana ubiquitous.)

Connecticut

Residents of Stamford, Connecticut filed a lawsuit aiming to shut down pot shops throughout the state.  The Stamford Neighborhoods Coalition is seeking an injunction in Superior Court to prohibit commercial cannabis operations, not just in the city, but in all of Connecticut.     The chief argument supporting the petition is that the 2021 legalization of marijuana in the state violated the federal Controlled Substances Act and should never have happened.The lawsuit also argues that legalization is a public safety issue, saying, “Siting cannabis facilities anywhere in Stamford necessarily increases criminal  activity in Stamford, putting children at greater risk.”

The Massachusetts Lawsuit

In Massachusetts, David Boies filed a lawsuit on behalf of cannabis companies suing Merrick Garland to overturn the federal status of marijuana.    This BIG MARIJUANA case seems frivolous and greedy next to the cases brought by local citizens.

We’ve heard that citizens of other states such as Minnesota may also take action against the pot industry.

The problem is that once a state legalizes, the industry overpowers local citizens and forces pot shops on communities.

In this battle, knowledge is our strongest weapon – science, data, and evidence.

 

Featured, News Articles

New York’s wild weed sales prove “Biggest Fool Theory!”

Fly-by-night pot shops operate everywhere in New York City, with little attempt to stop them. A new state legislature was elected; so can a new crop of legislators put Pandora’s evils back into the box? Can the state admit failure and undo its reckless law which legalized cannabis?

Meanwhile, Canadians who invested in cannabis stocks and companies lost $131 billion dollars.  In Colorado, on November 30, it was reported that the cannabis industry has seen the largest downturn ever.   After three years of cannabis in Illinois, sales are flat, despite the addition of new licenses. 

So why did New York legislators fall for a failed policy?

It’s the Bigger Fool Theory:  If you bought say a gas station on the same corner where 6 other operators had failed, why would you do the same?  They may be fools, but you were the bigger fool.  New York is the biggest fool of all!   Officials should have known that the black market expands and can’t be controlled once you legalize pot.
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