Marijuana
December 22, 2022 — Scott Johnson
A friend forwards Valley News columnist Jim Kenyon’s report from the frontiers of social equity in Vermont. High times have come in legal form to Vermont. Vermont’s Cannabis Control Board began issuing licenses for cannabis retail stores (a/k/a “recreational dispensaries”) on October 1. Kenyon celebrates the license awarded Miriam Wood to open a store in Hartford, Vermont, up the road a few miles from White River Junction: Wood, who is
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October 11, 2022 — Scott Johnson
On the morning after after President Biden’s proclamation of a pardon for all those convicted of marijuana possession last week I commented in “High on foggy Biden.” In response to the mind-numbing racial disparities shibboleths that Biden cited to support the pardons, I referred to part 4 of my 2015 Deep secrets of racial profiling series. In the linked part 4 I wrote about Michelle Alexander’s noxious The New Jim
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October 7, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday President Biden issued a blanket pardon of all those convicted of marijuana possession under federal law. The White House has posted the text of Biden’s proclamation of pardon is here.The White House has posted Biden’s video statement on the pardon on Twitter (below). Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. Hear from @POTUS on the three steps he is taking to right these
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September 18, 2022 — John Hinderaker
In my opinion, of all the policy disasters to which the Left has subjected us in recent years, the legalization of marijuana is near the top of the list. This is one area where I part company with doctrinaire libertarians. Wherever cannabis has been legalized, the results have been bad, and are getting worse. People are beginning to notice–in this case, the London Times, on California: “The dark side of
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March 5, 2022 — John Hinderaker
How many industries have been damaged or destroyed by high taxes and excessive regulation? A lot. But I have mixed feelings about this one: California cannabis industry on brink as buyers return to dealers. The cannabis industry in California is on the brink of collapse because of high taxes and onerous regulations that have burdened legal operators and allowed illegal growers to flourish, campaigners have warned. *** About 75 per
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April 13, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
A friend from California sent me a document from the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. It’s called “Cannabis Equity Grants Programs For Local Jurisdictions.” As I read the document, California’s program will provide $2 million to help localities establish a “cannabis equity” program. An additional $13 million will be used to help “equity applicants” set up and operate cannabis businesses. “Equity applicants” include (and seem to be limited
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February 18, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The Los Angeles Times reports that California’s updated coronavirus vaccine guidelines place medical marijuana workers ahead of some teachers, bus drivers, and food and agricultural workers. Leaders in the cannabis industry had lobbied Gov. Newsom to include their employees in Phase 1B, Tier 1 of the state’s vaccine plan, which includes food and agriculture workers, law enforcement, teachers and other essential workers. Instead: [T]he California Department of Health inexplicably went
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June 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The returns are in on Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana: (1) Large amounts of money are being made thanks to legalization, privately and by the state; (2) “horrible things are happening to kids.” The quotation is from psychiatrist Libby Stuyt. She treats teens in southwestern Colorado and has studied the health effects of high-potency marijuana. Stuyt says: “I see increased problems with psychosis, with addiction, with suicide, with depression and
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February 26, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Anthony Weiner has always had an eye for the main chance. Now, with his options rather limited, Weiner’s main chance apparently resides in the marijuana business. This, at least, is what the Daily Mail is reporting: Anthony Weiner is swapping politics for the marijuana business and told a potential investor to downplay his ‘sexual stuff’, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively. The convicted sex offender, who pleaded guilty in 2017 to sexting
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February 20, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
It wasn’t so long ago that presidential candidates were well advised to deny that they ever smoked marijuana, or at least that they ever inhaled. Those days apparently are past, at least for Democratic candidates. Kamala Harris appeared on a talk radio show called Breakfast Club. Asked if she opposed the legalization of marijuana, Harris answered: “That’s not true.” To support her denial Harris said “I have [smoked pot], and
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January 10, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
I don’t believe I’ve ever written about an article from Mother Jones before, but this one about the effects of marijuana seems well worth considering. It’s based on a book by Alex Berenson, formerly a reporter for the New York Times, called Tell Your Children. According to Mother Jones’ Stephanie Mencimer, Berensen’s book “takes a sledgehammer to the promised benefits of marijuana legalization, and cannabis enthusiasts are not going to
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