Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
“States’ efforts to create and then tightly regulate legal markets for pot have, ironically, made the black market for weed bigger than it’s ever been.”
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/379796/marijuana-legalization-black-market-drug-war-raids
“In 2022, for the first time, more Americans were using marijuana daily, or near daily, than consuming alcohol at the same rate, according to a study by Jonathan Caulkins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The number of daily or near daily marijuana users has grown from less than 1 million in 1992 to 17.7 million in 2022; in terms of per capita rate, that’s a 15-fold increase.”
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“Marijuana isn’t benign for everyone, though. Some of the results of the real-time experiment are already becoming apparent, both to regular users and people working in health care.
“It is very desirable to believe that there is a drug that can make you feel good, that can relax you, and has absolutely no negative outcomes,” says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. “But in biology, there are no free lunches.”
Take the emergence of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, a condition marked by intense and prolonged bouts of nausea and vomiting and brought on by regular, long-term marijuana use. While once extremely rare, some doctors are saying they now see patients with symptoms frequently. “It emerged because people were consuming marijuana regularly with high [THC] content,” Volkow says. “And similarly, there is now evidence that consumption in those patterns is associated with higher risk of stroke or cardiovascular disease.”
Maybe the most worrying studies about frequent, heavy marijuana use involve teens and young adults. (While experts say marijuana use appears to be less risky for middle-aged adults, there’s still a lot they don’t know that needs to be researched further. Some note that more research is needed on older adults in particular.) Studies show regular marijuana use among adolescents and teens can predict increased risk of the development of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Others have shown an increased likelihood of depression and suicidal ideation, disrupted dopamine function, and disruptions in the anatomy of the brain.
And marijuana, contrary to popular belief, can be habit forming. It can also increase the risk of dependence on other substances. A recent analysis by Columbia University for the New York Times estimated that as many as 18 million people in the US may have some form of cannabis use disorder, or addiction.
Getting a handle on who might be harming their health is tricky. Even the findings that point to a major rise in daily users leave a lot of questions unanswered, especially around how often they’re smoking, vaping, or ingesting, and how potent the THC is.”
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/379637/marijuana-daily-drug-americans-alcohol
https://reason.com/2024/10/01/8-years-after-legalizing-pot-california-will-finally-allow-cannabis-cafes/
“What once was a success story has now left a trail of failed businesses and cash-strapped entrepreneurs in its wake. Regulatory burdens, an oversaturated market and increasing competition from nearby states have all landed major blows, leaving other states with newer marijuana markets scrambling to avoid the same mistakes.
For years, Colorado’s marijuana market minted successful local entrepreneurs who bootstrapped small businesses into national brands. The market drew aspiring cannabis professionals from across the country, whether ambitious college grads with a business idea or investors looking to get in on the green rush.
In 2020, the market soared to $2.2 billion. But just three years later, sales had plummeted to $1.5 billion, leading to layoffs, closures and downsizing. The market downturn has spelled trouble for state finances too: Colorado took in just $282 million in cannabis tax revenues in the last fiscal year, down more than 30 percent from two years earlier.
A messy assortment of factors has led to the pioneering industry’s struggles. A supply glut caused weed prices to plummet in the wake of the pandemic. The spread of cheap, largely unregulated intoxicating hemp-derived products further heightened competitive pressures. And marijuana remains federally illegal, subjecting operators to sky-high taxes and costly regulations.”
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“more than any other factor, Colorado’s market has been sapped by the rapid spread of legalization across the country. Neighbors New Mexico and Arizona are among the 24 states with their own adult-use legal marijuana markets, wreaking havoc on the business plans of dispensaries on Colorado’s southern border. Tourists who once flooded the state for the opportunity to legally experience Rocky Mountain highs have largely disappeared as the novelty has worn off. Even Texans aren’t driving north to buy weed anymore, satisfied with the proliferation of intoxicating hemp products in their own state.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/colorado-booming-weed-market-went-110000414.html
“The proposed rule, which will be subject to 60 days of public comment before it is finalized, would move marijuana to Schedule III, which includes prescription drugs such as ketamine, Tylenol with codeine, and anabolic steroids. But that does not mean marijuana will be legally available as a medicine, which would require regulatory approval of specific cannabis-based products.
With marijuana in Schedule III, state-licensed cannabis suppliers will remain criminal enterprises under federal law, albeit subject to less severe penalties. Although an annually renewed congressional spending rider bars the DOJ from interfering with state medical marijuana programs, prosecutorial discretion is the only protection for businesses that serve recreational consumers.
The federally illegal status of state-approved marijuana businesses discourages financial institutions from serving them, since doing so could invite potentially devastating criminal, civil, and regulatory consequences. Moving marijuana to Schedule III will not solve that problem either.”
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“The president, citing old-timey “gateway drug” concerns, has steadfastly resisted attempts to resolve this conflict by repealing the federal ban on marijuana. Even while condemning the injustice inflicted by a “failed approach to marijuana,” he is sticking with it.”
https://reason.com/2024/05/22/biden-decries-a-failed-approach-to-marijuana-but-sticks-with-it/
“Drug cartels and human traffickers aren’t the only people dodging border patrol officers these days in southern New Mexico. The state’s cannabis businesses — which operate legally under state law — are also desperately trying to evade border checkpoints.
That’s because U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have seized more than $300,000 of state-licensed cannabis in New Mexico in the last two months. These seizures occurred at border patrol checkpoints, some of which lie as far as 80 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The crackdown has created tension between the Biden administration and Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham — who championed marijuana legalization and touted it as an economic boon for the state. The enforcement actions are occurring as the Justice Department is preparing to loosen federal restrictions on marijuana, which would mark the biggest liberalization of drug policy in more than half a century.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/01/federal-crackdown-new-mexico-weed-farmers-00155624
“New York’s rollout of marijuana legalization has been a “disaster,” as Hochul conceded in January. “Every other storefront” is an unlicensed pot shop, she told The Buffalo News. “It’s insane.”
That disaster has frustrated would-be retailers, left farmers in the lurch, played havoc with tax revenue projections, and made a joke out of any expectation that New York, by learning from the experience of states that legalized marijuana earlier, would do a better job of displacing the black market. The insanity that Hochul perceives is a product of bad decisions by politicians who should have known better and obstruction by regulators who sacrificed efficiency on the altar of diversity.
Unlike states such as New Jersey, where voters approved legalization in 2020, and Maryland, where a similar ballot initiative passed two years later, New York did not initially allow existing medical dispensaries to start serving the recreational market. Its slow and complicated licensing process, which was skewed by an “equity” program that prioritized approval of applicants with marijuana-related criminal records or their relatives, is maddeningly hard to navigate.
Those preferences invited lawsuits by people who were excluded, which further delayed approval of licenses. Guidance and financial help for people struggling to jump through the state’s hoops never materialized. And as in other states, high taxes and burdensome regulations have made it hard for licensed businesses to compete with unauthorized dealers.”
https://reason.com/2024/03/22/political-stupidity-and-bureaucratic-bungling-created-new-yorks-pot-legalization-disaster/
“it was clear that Biden did not expect HHS to confirm its previous position that marijuana belongs in Schedule I. He expected HHS to recommend that marijuana be moved to a lower schedule, which is what it ultimately did. As the details of the HHS recommendation clarify, that decision was not based on new scientific evidence. It was based on a reinterpretation of the criteria for Schedule I that could have been implemented much sooner if HHS and the DEA had been open to it, or if a previous president had encouraged it.”
https://reason.com/2024/01/15/the-newly-unveiled-hhs-rationale-for-rescheduling-marijuana-underlines-drug-warriors-dishonesty/
“President Joe Biden expanded a categorical pardon..for low-level marijuana offenders convicted on federal lands and in the District of Columbia”
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“Biden also commuted the sentences of 11 nonviolent drug offenders serving sentences that were much longer than they would have been if the prisoners had been sentenced today. They were convicted of cocaine and methamphetamine offenses.”
https://reason.com/2023/12/22/biden-expands-pardons-for-low-level-federal-marijuana-offenders/
“The new law allows adults over 21 to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and grow up to six plants. The measure creates a Division of Cannabis Control, which is responsible for setting up and regulating the adult-use cannabis market.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/07/ohio-marijuana-legalization-vote-results-00125991