Related: Obama's War on Medical Marijuana Comes to Massachusetts
And it continues:
"US asked to block cannabis clinics near Mass. schools; 6 state sites may be within buffer around schools" by Shelley Murphy, Kay Lazar and Andrew Ba Tran, Globe Staff November 21, 2014
US Attorney Carmen Ortiz is weighing whether to use federal law to shut down medical marijuana dispensaries, including those proposed for Boston and Brookline, if they open within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, or public housing.
Which is fine with me because I'm passing on the whole thing. F*** the sick and suffering.
Under federal law, the 15 dispensaries and additional cultivation sites provisionally approved in Massachusetts could face prosecution and asset forfeiture if they open too close to a school — even if the locations would be allowed under local and state regulations. A Globe review found that at least six of the dispensaries would be within 1,000 feet of schools or playgrounds.
Related: Modern Day Robin Hoods
A critic of the Brookline dispensary has appealed to the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts to intervene, saying it is vital to separate dispensaries from children.
“It raises important questions, and we’re going to have to take them into consideration,” Ortiz’s spokeswoman, Christina DiIorio-Sterling, said. “We are looking into it. We need to assess it and have some internal discussions, and we will have a decision soon.”
The scrutiny by federal prosecutors is the latest wrinkle in a protracted and controversial state licensing process for dispensaries. It comes as the state’s first medical marijuana dispensaries face inspections and local zoning approvals.
As 23 states and the District of Columbia moved to legalize medical marijuana, tensions flared between federal and state officials. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, which calls for increased penalties for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of all schools, including colleges; playgrounds; or public housing.
Last year, the Justice Department advised federal prosecutors that enforcement should generally be left to local authorities in states where marijuana has been legalized in some form. But the Justice Department cautioned that preventing marijuana from getting into the hands of children remains a federal priority.
This from the same government that is the biggest drug-smuggler in the world, so it's black profits can fund black budgets and bolster the bottom lines of money-laundering banks. Forget all the other poisons and chemicals it is allowing into the kids, as well as the regimen of prescription drugs, etc.
Robert Mikos, a professor of law at Vanderbilt University, said most states have taken the Justice Department advisory to heart and incorporated the 1,000-foot setback into their licensing process.
“In most states, it’s a nonissue because part of the licensing agreement is that you don’t operate near a school,” Mikos said. “Most states have figured one way to quell the concerns is to make sure that these dispensaries don’t open near schools.”
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health set significantly less stringent guidelines. After voters in 2012 legalized medical use of marijuana, state health regulators crafted rules that prevented dispensaries from opening within 500 feet of schools, day-care centers, or facilities where children frequently congregate.
But cities and towns can adopt even more lenient rules.
A spokesman for the Department of Public Health declined to comment Thursday.
In a Nov. 7 letter to Ortiz, Elizabeth Childs, a Brookline psychiatrist and former state mental health commissioner, complained that New England Treatment Access’s proposed dispensary at 160 Washington St., in Brookline, sits within 1,000 feet of two schools, three playgrounds, and a public housing development.
“The state regulations are really problematic,” Childs said. “This is a really important step to make sure you separate vulnerable populations from a risky product.”
After a while you wonder who is smoking this stuff.
She urged Ortiz to take action, noting that other prosecutors across the country have sent letters to dispensaries and landlords warning they faced federal action if they located within 1,000 feet of schools. Last year, Washington state revised zoning rules for dispensaries selling marijuana for recreational use after the US attorney in Seattle warned of possible federal prosecution.
Arnon Vered, executive director of New England Treatment Access, sent a letter to Brookline’s zoning bylaw committee in August 2013 saying the company was aware of the US law and would not locate within 1,000 feet of a school.
“Our recommendation is that the buffer zone should be 1,000 feet,” Vered wrote then. “The federal law enforcement community has made it very clear that it will exercise its discretion to enforce federal law regarding cultivation, possession, and sale of marijuana — even medical marijuana — within 1,000 feet of schools.”
On Thursday, Terence Burke, a spokesman for New England Treatment Access, said the company shifted its position after Deputy Attorney General James Cole issued a memo on Aug. 29, 2013, advising federal prosecutors that enforcement would generally be left to local authorities where marijuana had been legalized. But that memo said preventing drug distribution to minors remained a priority of the federal government.
“This is a very new industry and over time we became more confident that the 500-foot buffer zone would be in compliance with the new federal guidelines outlined in the second Cole memo and moved ahead with our current location,” Burke said.
Patriot Care Corp., which won conditional approval for a marijuana dispensary at 21 Milk St. in Boston, and two others in Greenfield and Lowell, appears to have dispensaries within 1,000 feet of schools in Boston and Greenfield, according to the Globe review. Dennis Kunian, a spokesman for Patriot Care, said that while the company has not had contact with federal authorities, “we would cooperate fully if we did.”
Oh, good, even thought the only school near the Greenfield location is the community college that filth will not be opening here at all.
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Related: Hope that a prescription can mimic marijuana’s benefits
Yeah, if the pharmaceuticals can make a buck off it then it's all okay.
"New marijuana shops on the block not always so popular" by Kristen Wyatt | Associated Press November 12, 2014
DENVER — The booming new marijuana industry has an image problem. Not with government officials and the public — but with other businesses.
From crime fears to smell complaints, new marijuana retailers and growers face suspicion and sometimes open antagonism from their commercial neighbors, especially in Denver, which now has 200 marijuana retailers and dozens of pot growing and manufacturing facilities.
Shouldn't have legalized. I mean, look what it did. Made them all vote Republican.
The strife went public last week along a once-forlorn stretch of highway south of downtown Denver that is now sprinkled with marijuana shops.
About two dozen shops along this stretch of Broadway, often dubbed ‘‘Broadsterdam,’’ had a marketing idea for the upcoming holiday shopping season. Why not join forces with neighboring antique shops to market the whole area as ‘‘The Green Mile”?
The marijuana shops called a meeting, expecting an enthusiastic response from neighboring businesses that have seen boarded-up storefronts replaced with bustling pot shops that have lines out the doors. Instead, the suggestion unleashed a torrent of anger from the antique shops.
‘‘We don’t want to work with you,’’ said James Neisler, owner of Heidelberg Antiques. ‘‘Your customers, they’re the long-haired stinky types. They go around touching everything and they don’t buy anything.’’
Antique dealers are the most intolerant assholes in the world.
The meeting went downhill from there. Despite the support of some neighbors — one quipped that stoned shoppers carrying lots of cash have been great for business — the proposal exposed simmering antagonism. The marijuana shops feel they’ve revitalized a blighted neighborhood. Some tenants say marijuana has ruined a neighborhood lined with storefronts that date to the 1940s.
Storefronts that were boarded up, and look at my divisive, agenda-pushing shit-spewer push conflict!!!
It’s a clash that is playing out in other communities in Colorado and Washington that allow marijuana businesses — and could stretch to other states now that Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, D.C., have all legalized recreational pot.
I say PUT 'EM ALL OUT!
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Denver officials say marijuana is to blame for J.C. Penney’s decision in 2012 not to reopen a store on a downtown pedestrian mall. The retailer sought assurances it wouldn’t have to share entrance areas with marijuana dispensaries in a mixed-use development, a guarantee the city couldn’t make.
Yeah, never mind that Penney's is bankrupt.
Jeremy Nemeth, chair of the Department of Planning and Design at the University of Colorado Denver, helped craft Colorado land-use regulations for the marijuana industry. He said it’s too soon for reliable data on whether marijuana shops depress property values. But preliminary studies indicate they don’t attract crime.
There are some signs of a thaw in the business community. The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce now has a handful of cannabis-related members.
That's a very important and influential organization, but I don't want to hear how businesses are getting along with the pot shops. That's hasn't been the scent of this article.
And marijuana’s oldest arch-rival — alcohol — is showing interest.
Are they really rivals? I know they don't mix well together, but... what's with framing everything in the context of conflict and war, you piece of shit paper?
Last summer the Wine & Spirits Daily Summit met in Denver, and the group of several hundred invited an edible marijuana manufacturer and the leader of the legalization campaign to speak....
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Can it be made any clearer?
WE DON'T WANT YOU SCUM HERE!
I mean, I've really hit my limit with these stinky bastards.
Related: E-cigarette firm eyes emerging cannabis oil market
State to hold hearing on marijuana legalization
You don't want to do that.
Police say teens stole medical marijuana
See?
And those legals smokes?
"Raucous hearing on tobacco sales in Westminster halted" by Sean P. Murphy | Globe Staff November 12, 2014
WESTMINSTER — An unruly public hearing on a proposal to prohibit the sale of tobacco products came to a sudden and rowdy halt Wednesday evening after shouting and clapping opponents of the ban repeatedly refused the chairwoman’s request to come to order.
The ban, proposed by the Board of Health in this Central Massachusetts town, would be the first of its kind in the state. It has led to angry reactions from residents who worry that it will hurt the local economy and allow government too much discretion in controlling private conduct.
“This is about freedom; it’s my body and it’s my choice to smoke,” said Nate Johnson, 32, a Westminster farmer and auto body worker. He was puffing on a cigarette at a rally before the hearing where opponents held signs saying “It’s not about tobacco — it’s about control” and “Smoke ’em if you got them.”
Emotions flared at the hearing, where about 500 people crowded into an elementary school gym. When one resident loudly pronounced himself “disgusted” that the board would make a proposal that infringed on personal choice, the crowd roared with approval.
After several failed attempts to bring the hearing to order, chairwoman Andrea Crete gaveled the session to an end. As police shadowed Crete out of the building, many in the audience broke out in a verse of “God Bless America.” Opponents also collected signatures on a petition to recall the three elected board members.
“It was going to get out of control,” Crete said later. “We don’t need any riots.”
That's what you get when you screw with people's addictions. They don't care so much about being looted or led to war based on lies, but try taking away their smokes and drinks....
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Related: Westminster drops proposal to ban tobacco sales
Smoke 'em If You Got 'em in Westminster
Like trying to ban booze.
"Facing a steady stream of severe motor vehicle crashes and deaths from overdoses, Norfolk County public safety officials on Monday launched campaigns to convince bar owners to shut off drunken patrons and pharmacists to report suspicious customers."
Bartender doubling as Gestapo.
I'll tell you what: you want to solve the problem? Ban booze. Period.
It will also take care of the corruption:
"State investigates brewers, others on pay-to-play allegations" by Dan Adams | Globe Correspondent November 14, 2014
Massachusetts regulators have launched an investigation into whether beer distributors, brewers, and retailers are violating state law by agreeing to promote certain beers at bars and liquor stores in exchange for payments that freeze out competitors.
The practice, known as pay-to-play, is illegal under state and federal liquor control laws, primarily to keep large national breweries from dominating beer markets. Though dating to the end of Prohibition, small breweries say the laws are especially relevant today because the surging popularity of craft beer has little and big companies alike competing for limited space at retailers.
Pay-to-play can take different forms:
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Related: Last call looms for Daisy Buchanan’s
Saying goodbye to iconic Daisy Buchanan’s
Let's romanticize the bar scene, yeah. It's the rich man's drug, after all.
More oversight of beer industry urged amid pay-to-play allegations
Pay-to-play allegations hold lessons for pot advocates
Look at the Globe mixing the two! Bad idea!
"Belchertown man faces heroin charges after traffic stop, foot chase" by Trisha Thadani | Globe Correspondent November 12, 2014
A Belchertown man fleeing from state troopers in Granby on Monday tripped over a fallen tree and was captured, and now faces charges of possessing of 40 small bags of heroin, State Police said.
A trooper stopped a car on Carver Street in the Western Massachusetts town at about 1:20 p.m. for a motor vehicle violation, State Police said in a blog posting.
The passenger in the car, Eric Bressette, 28, got out of the vehicle and allegedly fled into a heavily wooded, marshy area. The trooper chased him on foot, State Police said.
After running about 150 yards, Bressette tripped on a fallen tree, and was seen discarding bags of heroin, State Police said.
Bressette was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute heroin, resisting arrest, and being a disorderly person. He will be held in the Hampshire County House of Correction, pending his arraignment in Eastern Hampshire District Court.
The driver of the vehicle was issued a verbal warning for motor vehicle violations.
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"Police seize kilo of cocaine and $87,000 in cash, arrest Conn. man in Lowell traffic stop
Police said they recovered over a kilogram of cocaine and more than $87,000 in cash from a car during a traffic stop on Tuesday. Authorities were tipped off about a possible drug deal at 99 W. Sixth St. through the Crime Stoppers Tip Line, Lowell police said in a statement. A Toyota was stopped just before noon, and a Billerica police K-9 unit found two “sophisticated hides” — or hiding places — in the car containing the drugs and cash. Elias Escarraman, 31, of Connecticut, was arrested and arraigned on charges of trafficking cocaine in Lowell District Court, according to the office of Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan. No plea was entered."
Also see:
Drugs, cash seized in Dorchester raid, police say
7 arrested, 5 sought in drug sweep
Marshfield father arrested after 7-year-old son calls 911
Hull firefighter tried to use fake prescription while using town fire truck
Time for a smoke break.
