420 Policies and Laws

[Crow]

Haha! Sure mate! I'll make sure to keep the vaporiser warm

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[Crow]

[Joe234]

Mexico's new gov to review pot fight after US vote

Nov. 7, 2012 8:35 PM ET

Mexico's new gov to review pot fight after US vote

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN and E. EDUARDO CASTILLO, Associated Press


MEXICO CITY (AP) — The legalization of recreational marijuana in the U.S. states of Washington and Colorado will force Mexico to rethink its efforts to halt marijuana smuggling across the border, the main adviser to Mexico's president-elect said Wednesday.

Luis Videgaray, head of incoming President Enrique Pena Nieto's transition team, told Radio Formula that the Mexican administration taking power in three weeks remains opposed to drug legalization. But he said the votes in the two states complicate his country's commitment to quashing the growing and smuggling of a plant now seen by many as legal in part of the U.S.

"Obviously we can't handle a product that is illegal in Mexico, trying to stop its transfer to the United States, when in the United States, at least in part of the United States, it now has a different status," Videgaray said. "I believe this obliges us to think the relationship in regards to security ... This is an unforeseen element."

Videgaray stopped short of threatening to curtail Mexican enforcement of marijuana laws, but his comments, less than three weeks before Pena Nieto travels to the White House days before taking office, appeared likely to increase pressure on the Obama administration to strictly enforce U.S. federal law, which still forbids recreational pot use.

"These important modifications change somewhat the rules of the game in the relationship with the United States," Videgaray said. "I think that we have to carry out a review of our joint policies in regards to drug trafficking and security in general."
Videgaray will almost certainly be one of the most important figures in Mexico's new administration and he has been central to the planning of the U.S. trip by Pena Nieto planned for Nov. 27. Videgaray said security would obviously be discussed during that trip and he indicated that marijuana legalization would be an important topic.

The Obama administration has said little about how it will handle pot legalization in two states and U.S. officials offered no comment on Videgaray's remarks.

The current Mexican administration has been vehemently opposed to pro-marijuana measures in the U.S., and President Felipe Calderon spoke out against a similar legalization move in California two years ago. Calderon and members of his Cabinet remained silent Wednesday on the U.S. votes.

In other Latin American countries, where cocaine production is dominant, some officials, ordinary citizens and independent experts said they expected little immediate change in U.S. drug policy, but expressed hope that the marijuana votes were the start of a softening in U.S. attitudes toward drug production. Officials with governments in the region that back U.S. policy offered little comment on the Colorado and Washington ballots.

"The fact that two states in the United States have recognized the recreational use of marijuana makes us encouraged about possible changes," said Dionisio Nunez, vice minister of coca in Bolivia, where cultivation of the coca plant — commonly used as a stimulant by local people — is legal but production of cocaine is not.

Government officials in other countries who back U.S. policy offered little comment on the Colorado and Washington ballots.
A former high-ranking official in Mexico's internal intelligence service who has studied the potential effects of legalization measures told The Associated Press that he was optimistic legalization in the two states would damage Mexican drug cartels.
However, the former official, Alejandro Hope, now an analyst at the Mexican Competitiveness Institute, added that a key factor would be the reaction by the U.S. federal government to the votes. A strong federal crackdown on legalized pot could negate all but the smallest effects on Mexico's cartels, he said.

Hope said a flourishing legal pot market in Colorado could reduce Mexican cartels' estimated annual income from roughly $6 billion to about $4.6 billion.

If U.S. states start developing a marijuana industry, "This will not be a super-lucrative business proposition for a criminal enterprise," Hope said. "This will not be a cash cow."

The loss of income to cartels might lead them to branch into other criminal activities at home like kidnapping, Hope said, but he said such crimes were much more difficult to carry out than marijuana smuggling, so he considered that relatively unlikely.
He said he believed it was more likely the loss of income would force cartels to shrink and even cut into their smuggling of other drugs, because they have been using income from marijuana smuggling to pay the costs of other illegal operations, such as bribes to officials.

"It might produce a reduction in cocaine and heroin smuggling if the effect was large enough," Hope said. "... How much, and in what directions, beats me at this point."
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Associated Press writers Isaac Garrido in Mexico City and Carlos Valdez in La Paz, Bolivia, contributed to this report.

[Joe234]

Do you know who the main opponent to this was/is............it’s not conservatives.........not the religious right..............instead it is.............wait for it............wait for it..............the medical marijuana industry

It's snus all over again............no promises = we'll get back to you after we talk to the pharmaceutical companies

I heard some were opposing it for driving regulations. I haven't read it myself.
Does anyone have a copy of the driving rules?

[Crow]

Some in the medical cannabis community were opposing the initiative because it contains a provision that sets the DUI limit to 5 nanograms/mL.

This standard is adjustable as further research is conducted (a portion of the revenue will be earmarked for this very purpose).

[Crow]

Pot legal Dec. 6, 'jury is out on what happens' after that

Possession of small amounts of marijuana becomes legal on Dec. 6 in Washington thanks to Initiative 502. But will the feds stop the state from licensing stores to sell it?

By Jonathan Martin, Seattle Times

Washington's grand social experiment with marijuana legalization begins Dec. 6 with a simple step: On that date, it is legal to have an ounce of the stuff, and there is little the federal government can do about it.

But how the state takes the next big step — transforming the marijuana black market into a closed, regulated and taxed marketplace — is unclear. And the federal government didn't help clarify its potential response on Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan, of Seattle, declined to answer questions about the conflict between the federal ban on marijuana and the new state law legalizing it for recreational use. A DOJ statement reminded voters that the federal ban "remains unchanged," and said the agency was reviewing the legalization measures, here and in Colorado.

Even as legalization proponents celebrated the historic confrontation with the federal drug policy, the state began the yearlong job of setting up a marijuana market. Which means within a month, you can possess marijuana and use it in private, but there's no place to legally buy it.

Gov. Chris Gregoire, speaking on KUOW radio on Wednesday morning, said she hoped to work closely with the next governor on Initiative 502 before she leaves office in January.

"The jury is out on what happens," said Gregoire, referring to the federal response. "Meanwhile, my job as governor is to do what the people of the state of Washington have said they want done."

Continued...

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SIDE-NOTE: "These protections in both states, when certified and placed into effect, will apply to anyone physically in the state, no residency required. Public consumption would remain a violation in both states, but a civil, not criminal, one."

[YfirBaggari]

Congratulations on a huge victory, now to globalize it.

[truthwolf1]

If U.S. states start developing a marijuana industry, "This will not be a super-lucrative business proposition for a criminal enterprise," Hope said. "This will not be a cash cow."

The war on drugs has been a absolute failure.

[Snusdog]

From Dog Translate: El Presidente stands to lose mucho dinero

[whalen]

I am investing in Cheetos and Goldfish, maybe a big bag of Oreos! Congrats stoners!

[SnusoMatic]

Legalize all drugs. Rat poison is legal. It's up to the individual to know what is harmful or not.

Why have any laws at all?

[Crow]

From the Office of Financial Management:

[sirloot]

wow im just shocked that one of the counties is .... Skamania

[Crow]

I-502 results

As of 20.00; Wednesday

Yes 55.35% (1,177,706)

No 44.65% - (950,081)

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Key provisions of Initiative 502

Possession: Strips state criminal penalties, starting 6. Dec, for small possession (28,35 g (1 oz) dried form, 2,13 L (72 oz) liquid, 453,6 g (1 pound) solid form) for people 21 and older. Public use becomes a civil infraction. Until 6. Dec, marijuana possession remains a crime.

Sales: By December 2013, state to issue licenses for cannabis retailers, growers and food processors; imposes 25 percent excise tax at each level, funding research, prevention and health care.

Medical marijuana: Does not change state medical-marijuana law; no home grows except for patients.

DUI: Adds new limit for marijuana impairment (5 ng/mL sample; requires reasonable suspicion and failure of FST).

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[Crow]

'Gregoire not joining Colorado’s chat with Justice Department on pot legalization'

Posted by Jonathan Martin, Seattle Times

Gov. Chris Gregoire has not reached out to the Justice Department for clarity on the federal response to marijuana legalization, and does not plan to join Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who has a call scheduled Friday afternoon with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to talk about the legalization measure his state passed.

Gregoire’s staff, along with the state attorney general and the Liquor Control Board, is instead planning to meet internally first regarding Initiative 502, said her spokesman, Cory Curtis. “We obviously have to have the conversation” with the Justice Department, said Curtis. “There’s this cloud hanging over it, no pun intended.”

Although Washington voted to legalize small amounts of marijuana beginning Dec. 6, pot remains illegal under federal law.

Curtis said contact with the Justice Department will likely begin through the state attorney general and the Liquor Control Board, which is the lead agency in setting up I-502′s state-licensed marijuana stores. AG spokeswoman Janelle Guthrie said the agencies have not met to game-plan for I-502.

Continued...