One Key Congressman's Bold Plan to End Federal Marijuana Prohibition Next Year [FEATURE]

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Last week, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) unveiled a plan for a Democratically-led House to push through federal marijuana legalization by the end of 2019. In an eight-page memo to the House Democratic leadership laid out his roadmap to ending Reefer Madness.

[image:1 align:left caption:true]Blumenauer isn't just any old congressman. The longtime stalwart marijuana reformer is the founder of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus and a leading voice in the fight to bring marijuana out of the shadows.  And he's ready to do it once Congress gets back to work in January.

"Congress is out of step with the American people and the states on cannabis," Blumenauer wrote in the memo, citing polling showing 69% of registered voters support legalizing marijuana. "We have an opportunity to correct course if Democrats win big in November. There's no question: cannabis prohibition will end."

Most projections have the Democrats taking back control of the House in November.  The Senate is a different story, with the odds against the party being able to overcome Republican control this year.

Winning the House is critical. During the current Congress, progress has been stymied by House Republican leaders, who have blocked floor votes on dozens of cannabis-related amendments. Not one marijuana reform bill has gotten a House floor vote in the past two years.

If the House goes Democratic and the party can push a legalization bill through that chamber, Blumenauer argues, then pressure will mount on even a GOP-controlled Senate, where there is already growing bipartisan support for reform.

But Senate Republicans aren't the only potential obstacle. The current House Democratic leadership hasn't exactly been chomping at the bit to make freeing the weed a priority next year.

But while there is majority support for ending marijuana prohibition among House Democrats, the party's leadership has so far appeared lukewarm to the idea of prioritizing the issue in 2019.

When Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) was asked about pushing cannabis reform next year, he replied that top Democrats "haven't talked about that," and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the frontrunner for House Speaker if the Democrats win, seems willing to defer to President Trump on the matter.

"I don’t know where the president is on any of this," she said. "So any decision about how we go forward would have to reflect where we can get the result."

But despite his notoriously pot prohibitionist attorney general, President Trump may not get in the way of marijuana legalization. As a candidate in 2016, he pledged to respect state marijuana laws, and earlier this year, as part of a deal with pot state Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), he told Gardner he would back "a federalism-based legislative solution to fix this states' rights issue once and for allDemocrats need to be prepared to act when Congress reconvenes next year or risk giving Trump a freebie, Blumenauer warned.

"Democrats should lead the way," he wrote. "If we fail to act swiftly, I fear as the 2020 election campaign approaches, Donald Trump will claim credit for our work in an effort to shore up support—especially from young voters. Democrats must seize the moment."

Beginning in January, the Democrats need to get moving, Blumenauer counseled.

"For too long, under Republican leadership, these issues have not been allowed to be fully debated. We must change that approach. Almost every standing House committee has jurisdiction over some aspects of marijuana policy. Within the first six months, these committees should hold hearings, bring in experts, and discuss possible policy fixes," he wrote.

Blumenauer is calling for the numerous hearings by March, including:

• A House Judiciary Committee hearing on descheduling marijuana;
• A House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on safe and equal access to medical marijuana for veterans;
• A House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on marijuana research;
• A House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the unequal and unfair taxation of marijuana businesses; and
• A House Administration Committee hearing on access to financial services for candidates who support marijuana legalization.

From April to June, Blumenauer wants relevant committees to "start marking up bills in their jurisdiction to responsibly narrow the marijuana policy gap—the gap between federal and state marijuana laws—before the end of the year." 

Those issues would include addressing the racial injustices of the unequal application of federal marijuana laws, protection of state marijuana laws, removal of barriers to marijuana research, civil asset forfeiture protections, job protections, access to financial services, and equal taxation for marijuana businesses, among others.

Blumenauer wants to see bills addressing these issues passed by August, and then movement to get a legalization bill through the Congress by year's end.

"With the marijuana policy gap diminished, after months of hearings and markups, the House should pass a full descheduling bill and work with Senate allies to guide the bill through Senate passage," he wrote. "Our chances in the Senate depend both on the November elections and increased public pressure following House passage. While the Senate has been slower on marijuana policy reform than the House and the American people, it now has almost 20 introduced bills in an effort to catch up with the House. We must build on this momentum."

If all goes well, Blumenauer predicts, "By the end of 2019, marijuana will be legal at the federal level, and states allowed to responsibly regulate its use. The federal government will not interfere in state efforts to responsibly regulate marijuana use within their borders."

All of this, though, starts with winning the House in November. As Blumenauer notes, with even Donald Trump having signaled support for a state-regulated approach to marijuana, "the only obstacle standing in our way is the Republican leadership in Congress."

This article was produced by Drug Reporter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

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Chronicle AM: OH Dem Governor Candidate Resorts to Drug War Rhetoric, More... (10/19/18)

O Canada! Marijuana Is Now Legal in the Great White North [FEATURE]

Chronicle AM: Blumenauer Prods Dem Leaders With Marijuana Memo, INCB Slams Canada, More... (10/18/18)

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The founder of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus has a plan to move legalization forward next year, Canadians are buying marijuana online like crazy, the INCB isn't happy about it, and more.

[image:1 align:left caption:true]Marijuana Policy

Earl Blumenauer Sends Marijuana Legalization Blueprint Memo to Democratic Leadership. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), founder of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, sent a memo Wednesday to the Democratic leadership laying out the steps Congress should take to legalize marijuana. "Congress is out of step with the American people and the states on cannabis," Blumenauer. "We have an opportunity to correct course if Democrats win big in November. If we fail to act swiftly, I fear as the 2020 election approaches, Donald Trump will claim credit for our work in an effort to shore up support -- especially from young voters," Blumenauer said. "Democrats must seize the moment."

Medical Marijuana

Missouri Medical Marijuana Initiatives Raised Big Bucks. Two of the three medical marijuana initiatives appearing on the November ballot have successfully raised large amounts of money for their campaigns. New Approach Missouri, the group behind Amendment 2, has raised more than $1.3 million, including $285,000 from Drug Policy Action, the advocacy arm of the Drug Policy Alliance. Amendment 2 would impose a 4% on medical marijuana sales. Find the Cures, the group behind Amendment 3, which would impose a 15% tax, has raised more than $1.7 million, with $1 million coming from Springfield lawyer and physician Brad Bradshaw, who heads a board that would license medical marijuana businesses.

International

Canadians Bought Pot Online 100 Times a Minute on First Day of Legalization. Canadian online cannabis shops powered by Shopify's e-commerce software processed more than 100 orders a minute on Wednesday, the first day of legalization north of the border. Shopify said it processed "hundreds of thousands" or orders Wednesday and the online stores had seen "millions of visitors."

International Narcotics Control Board Slams Canada Legalization. The Vienna-based INCB has released a statement calling Canada's legalization of marijuana incompatible with UN international drug treaties. "The legalization by Canada of cannabis for non-medical purposes is incompatible with the legal obligations incumbent on states parties under the international drug control framework," the INCB said. INCB President Viroj Sumyai also said the body is "deeply concerned about the public health impact of these policy choices on the health and welfare of Canadians, particularly youth." The INCB said it would remain engaged with Canada and would examine the issue at its next session, set for the first half of November.

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Chronicle AM: Canada's Era of Legal Weed Begins, VT Council Rejects Safe Injection Sites, More... (10/17/18)

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Marijuana is now legal in Canada, the Canadian government moves to allow pardons for people busted with small amounts of pot, a Vermont governor's council rejects safe injection sites, and more.

[image:1 align:left]Marijuana Policy

North Dakota Legalization Opponents Get Big Out-of-State Bucks. Opponents of the Measure 3 legalization initiative are far out-fundraising proponents, thanks almost entirely to an out-of-state anti-marijuana group and in-state business groups. The anti-legalization SAM (Smart About Marijuana) has provided 100% of the funding for Healthy and Productive North Dakota, giving more than $50,000 in cash and more than $100,000 in in-kind donations, while a second anti-pot political action committee, North Dakotans Against the Legalization of Recreational Marijuana, has raised more than $116,000 from in-state business groups and political figures. Pro-legalization PACS have received only about $10,000 in cash and $14,000 in in-kind donations, with over half the cash coming from donations of under $100.

Harm Reduction

Vermont Governor's Opioid Council Rejects Safe Injection Sites. Gov. Phil Scott's (R) Opioid Coordination Council released a report Monday in which it says that the risks of operating a safe injection site outweigh any potential benefits of reducing overdoses and getting more people in treatment. Safe injection sites are "not a viable option for Vermont," the report says. "They are illegal under federal law and highly controversial. Cost-effectiveness and neighborhood impacts are unknown. Most importantly, they have an unproven track record of harm reduction and for providing a pathway to treatment." Some state officials support safe injection sites, but the council concluded that more study on the sites' effectiveness is needed.

International

Canada Legalizes Marijuana Today. Legal marijuana sales and commerce began in Canada today, just four months after the parliament approved marijuana legalization legislation. The first sale was made at 12:01 a.m. in Newfoundland. Canada becomes the second nation to free the weed, after Uruguay, and the largest national legal marijuana market. (It's still smaller than the legal market in the US state of California.)

Canada Will Pardon People Busted With Less Than 30 Grams of Marijuana. As the country enters the era of legal marijuana, the government is moving to pardon people who were arrested for possession of less than 30 grams of weed—the amount now legal for personal possession.  People seeking pardons will have to apply for them. 

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How This Red State's Cruel Meth Laws Are Putting Women Behind Bars in Record Numbers [FEATURE]

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Like other Great Plains states, South Dakota has a methamphetamine problem. But it's becoming increasingly evident that South Dakota also has a problem with the way it deals with meth.

[image:1 align:left caption:true]Because of its strict drug laws, the state is seeing a dramatic spike in women being sent to prison for meth. According to a new report from the non-profit news organization South Dakota News Watch, the number of women in prison in the state has jumped 35 percent since 2013, while the male prison population has increased at only one-quarter of that rate. Nearly two-thirds of all women prisoners in the state are there for non-violent drug offenses. The state now has the fourth-highest incarceration rate for women in the country, trailing only Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Kentucky.

Overall, about one-third of all inmates in the state are doing time for drug-related offenses, the majority of them for simple drug possession. That's a higher percentage than most other states, where drug offenders tend to make up somewhere around 20 to 25 percent of the inmate population.

The high drug-related incarceration overall and for women in particular stems less from the prevalence of drug use than from the conservative, largely rural state's reaction to it. South Dakota has not responded to decades of failed war on drug policies by reforming them, but by doubling down on them.

The state has not moved toward the defelonization of drug possession, as at least have. Instead, it has moved in the opposite direction. South Dakota has mandatory sentencing laws that include prison for not only for the manufacture and distribution of meth but also for simple possession.

State lawmakers and cops have long favored tough drug laws, and they are still at it. This year, state Attorney General Marty Jackley (R) guided bills through the legislature that heighten penalties for meth dealing and increase sentences for dealers whose clients overdose and die.

But the state's most notorious and contentious drug law—one that is sending hundreds of people to prison—is the state's "possession by ingestion" statute. Otherwise known as an "internal possession" law, the statute allows for a felony conviction if a drug test reveals the presence of illicit drugs in a suspect's system. (The law also applies to marijuana, but the penalty for testing positive for pot is only a misdemeanor.)

The strictest in the nation, that law was upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2004. Last year, a bipartisan group of lawmakers filed a measure that would have slightly tweaked the law by removing marijuana, but that bill was killed by a unanimous vote in the first committee that heard it.

As of August, about nine percent of the male prison population and an astonishing 21 percent of the female prison population was doing time for unauthorized ingestion of a controlled substance. That's right: More than one out of five women prisoners in South Dakota is behind prison bars for nothing more than having used drugs.

South Dakota law enforcement and lawmakers may be happy with the status quo, but the man who actually runs the prison system isn't. State Corrections Secretary Denny Kaemingk told South Dakota News Watch that the cops' and courts' proclivity for busting and imprisoning women on drug charges is creating an expensive and ineffective cycle of imprisonment, release, and recidivism.

"We seem to think that locking individuals up is going to solve their addiction problem," said Kaemingk, a former drug officer. "They’re coming to us in corrections and we’re thinking that solves the problem, and I think in many cases it makes the problem worse."

Criminalizing addiction, especially among women who are mothers, Kraemingk said, creates a situation where the children are more likely to end up in prison themselves. He pointed to national studies showing that up to 80 percent of children who have parents behind bars will end up there themselves.

"Imprisonment in South Dakota is generational," Kaemingk said. "The females behind prison walls have experienced that as a child. The generation we have back there now as inmates experienced the same things when they were children."

Kraemingk and other relatively enlightened actors in the state are pushing for enhanced treatment opportunities and expanding drug courts, among other measures, to better deal with the situation, but nobody seems to be talking about not involving these women in the criminal justice system in the first place. A first step would be getting rid of that hideous "possession by ingestion" statute. The next step would be defelonization or outright decriminalization of drug possession in the state. Drug use absent harm to others should not be the state's business.

This article was produced by Drug Reporter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

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Chronicle AM: New DOJ Task Force to Target Cartels, CA Pain Summit Next Month, More... (10/16/18)

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The Justice Department creates a new anti-cartel task force, a California summit will address issues around chronic pain and the war on drugs, the New York Assembly holds a hearing on marijuana legalization, and more.

[image:1 align:right caption:true]Marijuana Policy

New York State Assembly Hold Hearing on Marijuana Legalization. Four legislative committees held a joint hearing on marijuana legalization in Albany Tuesday. The hearing covered how marijuana should be legalized, taxed, and regulated. The hearing comes ahead of next year's legislative session when lawmakers are expected to take up proposals to legalize the herb.

Medical Marijuana

New Jersey Will Let Dispensaries Post Price Information. State officials announced late last week that medical marijuana dispensaries can post their product prices online, so now patients can shop around and be better-informed consumers. "Medical marijuana patients should benefit from online price information just as shoppers do when they buy a car, a plane ticket or any other consumer goods," Department of Health Commissioner Shereef Elnahal said in a statement. Listing prices is not mandatory, however.

Heroin and Prescription Opioids

California Pain Summit Set for Next Month. Over a hundred California physicians, administrators, policymakers, and advocates will be meeting at the For Grace's Change Agent Pain Summit in Los Angeles on November 2. For Grace is a group devoted to dealing with women's issues around pain. The aim of the summit is to create a patient-centered state-level pain policy is to localize key recommendations from the National Institutes of Health’s National Pain Strategy in the Golden State. Among those attending will be Diane Hoffman, director of the Law and Health Care Program and Jacob A. France Professor of Health Care Law at the University of Maryland. "There’s an imbalance in our drug control laws and policies between treating pain and reducing drug diversion and addiction. And it’s hurting pain patients," said Hoffman.  "The efforts to restrict prescribing and eliminate Medicaid coverage of opioids, like what has been proposed in Oregon and the outright abandonment of patients is outrageous. We need more leadership from the medical community," she added.

Law Enforcement

Justice Department Creates New Task Force Targeting Cartels, MS-13. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced at a Washington conference Monday that the Justice Department has created a new task for aimed at breaking three Mexican drug cartels and the MS-13 street gang. Sessions described the groups, along with Hezbollah, as top transnational organized crime threats and said DOJ would "develop a plan to take each of these groups off the streets for good." The three cartels named are the Sinaloa Cartel, the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, and the Gulf Clan. All of this because the last half-century of drug prohibition has worked so well.

New Jersey Legislative Committee Advances Parole System Reform. The Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee voted 4-3 Monday to advance a bill, Assembly Bill 1986, which rewards good behavior and encourages rehabilitation by allowing for the release of low-risk individuals from prison after they have served their basic sentence, provided they commit no serious disciplinary infractions while incarcerated and participate in rehabilitation programs. 

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