Dozens of local doctors and scientists criticized the state’s marijuana regulatory system Thursday, saying the current rules don’t adequately protect public health from high-potency cannabis products now sold legally at 19 stores around Massachusetts.
Consumers of THC, marijuana’s main psychoactive compound, are at risk of becoming addicted, and face increased risk of “serious mental health problems including acute psychosis paranoia, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, and suicide,” the statement said.
“When public health is not prioritized in the regulation of addictive substances, the public and our young people are put at risk,” the group said, comparing the burgeoning marijuana industry to the tobacco and opioid crises.
The 16-page “statement of concern,” sent to state lawmakers last week, was organized by the Massachusetts Prevention Alliance, which opposed marijuana legalization. It was signed by more than 40 clinicians and researchers with institutions such as Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Boston Children’s Hospital.
The statement called for the Cannabis Control Commission to halt all new business licensing to conduct a public health assessment of its social equity program, remove industry representatives from advisory boards, and “indefinitely delay” cannabis cafes and home delivery.
The group also said the state should adopt a “public health framework,” selling marijuana only in government-run stores, having health officials regulate cannabis, and banning flavored products that appeal to youths.
In a state with a large medical community, the statement marked one of the most prominent public messages by physicians since cannabis stores started opening in November.
Marijuana advocates questioned why the group had waited to speak up until now.
One of the signatories, Dr. Sharon Levy, director of Boston Children’s Hospital’s adolescent substance use program and a cannabis advisory board member, said the hospital has seen “a lot more psychosis” related to marijuana use since pot was legalized, as well as long-term mental issues associated with newer high-potency cannabis products such as vape cartridges, edibles, dabs, and oils.
Just don't let them in the pantry.
Just don't let them in the pantry.
She worries that the government will repeat past mistakes by being slow to rein in potentially addictive products until long-term studies have confirmed their harms. With cannabis, that could take even longer, she said, because it largely causes mental health effects that can be difficult to study.
“Unlike lung cancer, which is a very objective diagnosis, a lot of the harms that we’re seeing are in the mental health realm, which are a little bit harder to objectify,” Levy said. “In the not-too-distant future, people will be looking at this and saying, ‘How did anyone think that this would be OK?’ ”
The public-health regulatory framework has been proven to work with tobacco, so the state wouldn’t have to reinvent a system for pot, said another signatory, Dr. Eden Evins, director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Addiction Medicine and a psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School.
“Permitting cannabis use is one thing we’re all in favor of, but promoting it is another thing,” Evins said. “We’d like the regulators to protect public health rather than see their role as promoting cannabis use and cannabis markets.”
Dr. Jordan Tishler, who teaches at Harvard Medical School and treats medical cannabis patients at his private practice, InhaleMD, said the statement makes some good points but ignores the potential benefits of cannabis for the common afflictions of chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Many doctors are interested in these benefits, he said, but the statement was largely signed by addiction specialists, who make up a fraction of physicians and are only focused on harms.
Oh, they are trying to protect their turf!
Oh, they are trying to protect their turf!
“What we’re looking at here is a very strongly worded PR piece that looks like it’s got a lot of buy-in, but frankly is only a very small group of people,” Tishler said. “I’m not saying there aren’t harms, but the harms are a minor facet of a vast world of benefits, like the tip of the iceberg.”
The group’s relatively minor engagement in the regulatory public-comment process since last year has angered at least one marijuana regulator and some advocates who worked to mold regulations to balance public health, safety, and consumer access.
Then have a toke and chill!
Then have a toke and chill!
“If any of the clinicians or scientists asking for ‘indefinite delays’ would like to move from their goal of reversing the will of voters, legislators, and regulators to actually influencing the policy that is being made as we speak, they are welcome to,” cannabis Commissioner Shaleen Title said.
The group behind the statement said it wanted to bring together clinicians’ voices for policy makers to hear arguments that oppose those of the well-financed industry.
“We’re up against a giant lobby that wants to advance sales and promotion of a dangerous, potentially addictive drug that’s incredibly harmful to people under the age of 25,” said Heidi Heilman, president of the Massachusetts Prevention Alliance.
The group accused the state’s social equity program of unfairly targeting minority neighborhoods for more pot shops, but cities and towns determine where stores are allowed to open — not the state. The social equity program aims to redress the harms of the war on drugs by helping people from areas with high rates of marijuana arrests start their own pot businesses.
What are those docs smoking?
Commissioner Jennifer Flanagan, the public health appointee, said she agreed with the group’s concerns about potency levels and serving sizes. The statement, she said, seemed to validate the state’s work, as many actions it called for are already in place, such as tracking public health outcomes, launching awareness campaigns, and not allowing cannabis companies to use cartoon character images or sponsor sports events.
“This industry and the way we came about was a ballot question, so we have to work with that,” Flanagan said. “Simply opening dispensaries doesn’t coincide with public health initiatives, but we’re mandated to do that, so it’s a balancing act.”
The group also called for combining the medical and recreational marijuana programs unless medical marijuana is “regulated like medicine,” though it doesn’t specify what that means.
Eliminating the medical program would greatly hurt patients, said Nichole Snow, executive director of the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance.
PFFFFFFFT!
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"Marijuana in Mass. should come with warnings about psychosis, group says" by Naomi Martin Globe Staff, June 5, 2019
As Massachusetts continues to open marijuana stores, the government should do more to mitigate health risks associated with increased availability of the drug, a group of public health advocates said Wednesday.
Speaking at an event held by the Massachusetts Prevention Alliance, a nonprofit that opposed legalization, researchers and advocates suggested a number of policy changes, including requiring product labels that warn of marijuana’s potential to increase consumers’ risk for severe mental illness; restricting cannabis companies from advertising on billboards and in other ways; and increasing public awareness about marijuana’s risks.
Thanks for keeping the stereotypes and stigmatization going.
“We need to contain the damage,” said Dr. Eden Evins, director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Addiction Medicine and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Cannabis use, she said, “is one of the few preventable causes of psychosis.”
The event at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum included former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson, whose book, “Tell Your Children,” warns that marijuana leads to psychosis and violence.
OMFG!
Help 'em push any wars based on lies lately?
Berenson praised Canada’s labeling requirements for cannabis products that warn of an increased risk for psychosis and schizophrenia.
“We’re not at 100 percent certainty, but we’re pretty close,” Berenson said. “We should be telling people this and we should be telling them loudly.”
Massachusetts’ labels warn against intoxicated driving and pregnant women consuming the drug, and note that “there may be associated health risks.”
Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said it’s hard to combat the public perception that marijuana is harmless because its consequences are less visible.
“Yes, tobacco is more harmful for cancer, but marijuana is more harmful as it disrupts who you are as a person,” she said. “We have 480,000 people dying from tobacco and none have died from marijuana, but it’s a distorted argument because marijuana harms your humanity, your brain.”
What is distorted is the laughable contortions and sophistries they are presenting.
Will Jones, with the national antilegalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said the government should do more to protect black neighborhoods, which are already targeted by tobacco and alcohol advertising.
Maybe the cops could quit blowing them away first?
“We can create a better future than replicating what we’ve done with alcohol,” said Jones, who is black and lives in Washington, D.C. “Advertisements and promotion of a new addiction-for-profit industry — that is another extreme that will disproportionately impact our communities.”
They just opened the casino.
The Massachusetts Prevention Alliance released a statement last week signed by 40 doctors and researchers who called for the state’s cannabis regulations to focus more on public health. In response, regulators noted that the state was already doing a lot of the requested actions — such as launching public awareness campaigns and banning cartoon imagery that could appeal to youths — and said the statement badly mischaracterized the state’s social equity program.
The nonprofit has also drawn fire from marijuana advocates who say it doesn’t seriously engage in policy-making.
“This group was nowhere to be found when we wrote the adult use” regulations, Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commissioner Shaleen Title tweeted this week.
Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital who specializes in cannabis and teaches at Harvard Medical School, criticized the event as one-sided. The participants’ arguments, he said, overstated the harms of cannabis and ignored the benefits patients have found in treating pain, insomnia, and other life-altering conditions.
The group’s stance “is not representative of what doctors think,” Grinspoon said. “This is in the realm of drug war ideology — not the realm of science-based discussion.”
That's because they are $elf-$erving $cienti$ts.
Berenson’s book has made him a controversial figure in the marijuana debate. Critics say he exaggerates the harms of cannabis, which muddies efforts to educate the public.
Or propagandize them, the former NYT flak!
Scientists widely accept that marijuana use is correlated with chronic mental illness, specifically schizophrenia, but they disagree about causality.
Berenson’s assertion was based in part on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study in 2017 that found that “cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses; the higher the use, the greater the risk.”
One of the study authors, however, rebutted Berenson’s characterization on Twitter in January, saying that her team only “found an association between cannabis use and schizophrenia.”
“Since the report, we now know that genetic risk for schizophrenia predicts cannabis use, shedding some light on the potential direction of the association between cannabis use and schizophrenia,” wrote Ziva Cooper, director of the Cannabis Research Initiative at the University of California Los Angeles.
In a study published in March in Lancet Psychiatry, researchers examining 17 sites across Europe found that daily cannabis use and high-potency cannabis use were correlated with psychosis. While just 7 percent of the control group of healthy people used cannabis daily, 30 percent of people experiencing first-time psychosis did. The authors acknowledged they established correlation, not causation, but said the findings were significant for public health.
Dr. David Nathan, founder of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation and a psychiatrist in Princeton, N.J., said that people with family or personal histories of psychotic disorders should stay away from cannabis, but the vast majority of consumers don’t experience such issues.
“What we cannot say is whether cannabis will cause psychosis in individuals who are not otherwise predisposed to it,” Nathan said. “The problem with Berenson’s book is that he goes far beyond what the evidence tells us.”
Berenson said the torrent of criticism has been baffling.
“My book has been criticized as racist, alarmist, confusing correlation and causation, and cherrypicking,” Berenson said. “To me these aren’t just lies, they’re stunningly stupid lies.”
Like the Iraq whoppers that blared from his paper's front pages.
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Yes, it is too soon to call marijuana safe, so it should be re-criminalized.
Related:
"An investor in the cannabis industry has donated $9 million to Harvard and MIT to study the drug’s health effects, in what the institutions describe as the largest private gift to support marijuana research in the United States....."
"Ricki Lake to visit Cambridge for local debut of ‘Weed the People’" by Felicia Gans Globe Staff, April 5, 2019
Emmy Award-winning television host Ricki Lake and director Abby Epstein will be in Cambridge on Monday for the local screening of their latest documentary, “Weed the People,” which highlights the use of medical marijuana for children with cancer.
Some would rather they suffer and die lest they get psychotic.
The documentary, which launched in theaters in October 2018, follows five families who have turned to medical marijuana to help their children through cancer treatment, both managing pain levels and easing the symptoms of chemotherapy.
I didn't see any TV ads for it!
“It’s eye-opening for everyone,” Lake told the Globe in an interview. “You can’t help but get sucked in by seeing the plight of these families and their sick children.”
Look at her waving children in front of us.
What are you trying to do, encourage military involvement?
Lake is perhaps most well-known for her decadelong talk show “The Ricki Lake Show.”
Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!
Her late husband, Christian Evans, who died by suicide in 2017, was exploring cannabis to help with both “emotional issues and physical, chronic pain,” she said.
There is your cause and effect.
Shortly after, while Lake was on “Dancing with the Stars,” she met a young girl with cancer who was living in a state without medical marijuana. Lake and her husband moved the girl and her family into their California home for six weeks so she could use cannabis as part of her care.
When Lake called Epstein and told her about the various intersections of medical marijuana in her life, Epstein knew it had to be their next project. The women had previously partnered to create the award-winning documentary “The Business of Being Born,” which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007.
In addition to following each family’s journey, the documentary also dives into the history and research — or lack thereof — of medicinal cannabis. Some of the film was shot at a medical conference at Harvard University.
They get tax loot for that?
“It’s a really big moment because you see people who were literally making this stuff in their kitchen and are now presenting at Harvard,” said Epstein, the film’s director, adding that it “really shows that this is no longer on the fringe.”
Even in the 33 states where medical marijuana is legal, parents can face massive obstacles when deciding whether to get medical marijuana for their child. For one thing, because marijuana is federally illegal, it is not covered by insurance and can be very expensive, but in addition to cost, the stigma of using marijuana, particularly for children, is what keeps many parents from even considering it, Epstein said. For some, fear contributes to that stigma, too.
You can thank the addiction $peciali$ts for that!
The women hope the documentary opens people up to the possibilities of medical marijuana and encourages people around the country to talk to their lawmakers about the possibilities that federal decriminalization could bring to the table, even in states like Massachusetts.
“There’s a huge green rush. Money is moving this train forward, but honestly the medical piece of this is the potential to be life-saving to many people, and it needs development,” Epstein said. “And so I hope that people see how important it is to preserve that with all the hoopla over recreational legalization.”
“Weed the People” will be shown at Landmark’s Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge at 7 p.m. Monday. The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Lake, Epstein, and co-executive producer James Costa, moderated by the Globe’s Meredith Goldstein.....
No wonder Lake put on weight, and I'm sure Goldstein would advise a few hits for the ‘sexual enhancement.’
--more--"
They might even drop it off at your door:
"Home delivery of marijuana could start in Massachusetts this year" by Dan Adams Globe Staff, April 26, 2019
Home delivery of recreational marijuana could debut in Massachusetts later this year, after regulators reached agreement on a program that would increase consumer access to cannabis while also giving a leg up to entrepreneurs affected by the war on drugs.
The state Cannabis Control Commission voted 4-1 at a meeting Friday in favor of a package of policies that, if implemented, would allow delivery to residential properties across the state — except in the dozens of municipalities that have banned retail pot sales.
A final vote on detailed delivery regulations is expected in mid-May; only Commissioner Jennifer Flanagan objected to delivery in concept, citing public safety concerns.
“Delivery is an important thing to do,” commission chairman Steve Hoffman said following the meeting. “I believe we’re ready. This is going to make it more accessible for consumers... and it’s a very important thing from a social equity standpoint, because of the lower barriers to entry in terms of the capital requirements.”
Under the proposed model, developed by Commissioner Britte McBride, marijuana flower, edibles, and other pot products ordered by consumers would come from brick-and-mortar marijuana stores, not cultivators or processors, with any undelivered products being returned to the shop at the end of the day.
That’s a big relief for retailers, who feared being cut out of what will likely be a lucrative delivery market; however, the businesses picking up the products and bringing them to consumers would be independent entities, each of which could contract with multiple stores. To get a license, those companies and their employees would have to clear rigorous background checks and vehicle inspections, plus meet a laundry list of security and inventory-tracking requirements.
Maybe they can drive the Uber up your a$$.
The commission also signaled Friday that it sees the delivery market as a way to help meet its statutory mandate of creating a diverse marijuana industry: For at least two years, delivery licenses under the proposal would only go to participants in the commission’s economic empowerment and social equity programs.
The empowerment program grants faster licensure to companies that are either led by, employ, or benefit members of communities that had high rates of drug arrests; the equity program will provide technical training to those who were arrested for drug crimes or are a close relative of someone who was, or who come from a community with a high rate of arrest for drug crimes.
Under the proposal, consumers would be required to visit a retail marijuana store in person and present a valid ID to register as an eligible delivery customer. Drivers would double-check the ID upon delivery, and require customers to sign a manifest — similar to the state’s requirements for alcohol deliveries.
Delivery vehicles would be tracked in real-time by GPS, while the commission’s existing “seed-to-sale” inventory tracking system would note the movement of individual products as they are transferred in turn from store to vehicle to consumer.
Legalization means more $urveillance $tate.
Initially, customers could pay in cash, but the commission agreed the system should eventually be debit-cards-only — something that the federal prohibition on marijuana and the lack of banking services makes difficult.
That's where they are going to $crew you -- as if you are one big piggy bank.
Two registered workers would have to be present at all times, with one staying in the vehicle while the other brings marijuana to a customer’s door. Workers would also be required to wear body cameras and film every customer interaction, a measure that prompted strong objections from Title.
Smile, you are on Cannabis camera, guffaw, guffaw.
David Torrisi, who leads the Commonwealth Dispensary Association, a group of established medical and recreational operators, said his members can reluctantly live with a period of exclusivity for social equity and empowerment applicants; however, he insisted that window should end after a set amount of time; currently, the commission plans to review its exclusivity policy after 24 months.
“An exclusivity period without a sunset date is exclusivity in perpetuity,” Torrisi said. “That would be problematic for our members.”
Commissioners indicated Friday they had reservations about delivery companies and their retail partners using websites such as Weedmaps and Eaze to handle delivery orders, with several commissioners saying it could give those large firms inappropriate power over small local businesses. They voted unanimously to require delivery firms to disclose any contracts they sign with third-party technology platforms.
“They’d have to satisfy us that the third-party technology company is not controlling them or making it a pseudo-franchise,” commissioner Kay Doyle said. “We want these companies to grow themselves.”
Really into it, huh?
--more--"
Related:
Uxbridge entrepreneur dreams of selling legal marijuana at a drive-through pot shop
Uxbridge marijuana store receives OK to open for recreational sales
Just trying to spread the ‘kind word of cannabis.’
Maybe you are better off growing at home.
"‘It felt wrong and ridiculous’: A caregiver was banned from joining her husband inside a dispensary" by Sean P. Murphy Globe Staff, April 4, 2019
A couple of months ago, friends counseled Don Smith to try marijuana to bring a level of peace and comfort to his final days. To his surprise, it worked, allowing him to eat and easing his pain. “A miracle drug,” he declared.
Luckily for Smith, voters in a ballot referendum in 2012 delivered a clear directive to the state government: make marijuana readily available to folks who medically need it, but what happened at that dispensary on March 23 shows the state still has some serious kinks to work out in the way it oversees medical marijuana.
The Smiths for months had experimented with recreational marijuana, now legally available in Massachusetts.
For years, medical marijuana dispensaries have allowed spouses and other caregivers to enter their premises by simply signing them in, whether they had a state-issued caregiver’s registration card or not, but word recently trickled out from the Cannabis Control Commission that caregivers without a card should be excluded, even though the law gives dispensary operators discretion to admit “visitors.” (Deborah’s caregiver’s application is pending; under state regulations, a caregiver can’t apply for a card until the patient has received his.)
After being turned away, Deborah, his wife of more than four decades, called the Cannabis Control Commission to complain about the way she and Don were treated. The reply was, essentially: “Too bad.”
Don served in Vietnam 50 years ago. Until recently, he supported his family building houses. I didn’t detect a bit of self-pity in him, but I did notice him tearing up when he recalled the moment he first realized that marijuana had relieved his nausea.....
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He's not the only vet who can't get the pain relief he needs:
"Mass. still has no clue how many people’s marijuana records should be cleared" by Naomi Martin Globe Staff, May 3, 2019
With marijuana now legal in Massachusetts, thousands of people convicted of pot possession can have their records cleared, removing roadblocks to jobs, housing, adoption, and loans.
To that end, lawmakers last year created an option, as part of a broad criminal justice overhaul, for people to have their cannabis records expunged as if they never existed.
So how many people have had their records wiped clean? The state can’t exactly say, but the number is clearly very low.
Since the new system started six months ago, only 12 convictions — out of 219 requests — were expunged for all types of crimes.
Now, a growing chorus of progressive prosecutors and civil rights leaders is calling for the government to clear records in bulk for pot possession, a crime that was disproportionately enforced in black and Hispanic communities for decades.
The push has gained momentum nationwide.
A bill recently filed in the Massachusetts House by Representative Chynah Tyler, a Democrat from Roxbury, would require the state to erase all past pot possession cases. That would be a significant change from the current process, in which a person files a court petition, which can require time, persistence, a hearing, and possibly a lawyer’s expertise.
“Many people in my community are still dealing with the impact of the war on drugs,” Tyler said. “Automatic expungement does away with the difficulties anyone might have with the process.”
Critics point to the tiny number of expungements as evidence that the state has failed to inform affected communities about the option to expunge marijuana charges, which started in October. State law requires the governor’s executive office of public safety and security to launch a public awareness campaign educating eligible people about sealing records, but it has yet to do so. A spokesman, Felix Browne, said the office first focused on discouraging stoned driving.
SIGH!
The only one who doesn't have to follow the law is authority!
Law enforcement groups defend the current system. They say judges should consider each person’s distinct circumstances before ruling whether to destroy records, because some marijuana possession convictions were pleaded down from more serious charges.
“It’s legal now — that doesn’t mean that 10 years ago, when they violated the law, that shouldn’t become part of their record,” said Walpole police Chief John Carmichael, a member of the state’s cannabis advisory board.
While criminal records do serve a purpose, former Suffolk County sheriff Andrea Cabral said nonviolent drug crimes should be viewed through the lens of well-documented racial disparities which scarred generations.
“The war on drugs was never more than a war on people who used drugs, particularly people of color,” said Cabral, now CEO of cannabis retailer Ascend Mass. Now that pot is a profit-making industry, Cabral said, the issue of how to repair the damage of criminalization “is a public policy question, not an individual one.”
It wasn't making profits before when it was illegal?
One Middleborough man, 43, was charged in 2015 with growing too many marijuana plants, which he said he used for insomnia and to help cancer patients. The resulting visits from the Department of Children and Families posed a stressful threat, he said, for both him and his young daughter. He wants to apply to clear his record.
“I don’t have anything bad on my record besides this,” said the man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wants to put the case behind him. “It makes me look like a drug dealer.”
People who were convicted of having cannabis when that was a crime have two options: have their cases sealed, which hides the record from the public but not the government, or have them expunged, which destroys the case permanently.
More than 22,250 convictions of all kinds were sealed from public view in the past four years, but the Massachusetts Probation Service doesn’t break down how many of those were for marijuana.
The number of pot possession cases has plummeted since 2008 when it became a civil penalty to have small amounts of marijuana, but hundreds were still convicted later of having more than the permissible amount. Records show that 14,400 people were convicted of possessing a Class D drug, which usually means marijuana, from 2002 through 2013.
Racial disparities have persisted. In the past five years, 50 percent of the people charged in Suffolk County with Class D possession were black, records show, in a county where 22 percent of the population is black.
Anyone ever think that maybe a higher percentage of blacks are using?
Lawyers who work to clear records say there are likely still plenty of people suffering housing or job rejections who are unaware that they’re eligible to have their pot records erased.
“Sometimes it feels like shoveling sand against the tide,” said Pauline Quirion, lead attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services, which helps seal the records of 600 to 800 low-income people each year. She estimated about 30 percent have marijuana records. “It’s the cycle of poverty — you have this record, and you’re trapped in poverty until you can eventually seal it.”
Quirion expected a rush of marijuana expungement requests after the new system began, but that hasn’t happened.
Some affected people may have already sealed their records, she said, so expungement may not feel necessary unless they want to work in law enforcement, banking, education, or the federal government. Another possibility: They were also convicted of more serious crimes, so the pot charge is the least of their worries.
One mother, whose 16-year-old son was convicted of having pot at Newton North High School in 2007, said she wished his charge could have been expunged. All juvenile records are sealed, but that didn’t help. He was rejected from the military, his lifelong dream, leaving him severely depressed.
“It ruined his life,” said the woman, 64, who requested anonymity to protect her son’s career prospects. “All he wanted to do was serve his country.”
Related: Monday's Flop
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced last year that his office would take responsibility to clear people’s pot records. That prompted a technology nonprofit, Code for America, to offer to help automate the process there and in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Joaquin counties.
Evonne Silva, criminal justice director at Code for America, said, “This is really a historic opportunity to turn record clearance and access to relief from a far-off dream, a wishful intent but never-implemented reform, into reality for millions of people across the country.”
Massachusetts law differs. Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins, who has pledged to stop prosecuting drug possession and possession with intent to distribute cases, said she has no legal authority to seek expungements on anyone’s behalf.
“That right lies exclusively with the charged individual,” Rollins said, adding that she commends Tyler’s efforts in the Legislature. The most she can do now, she said, is to keep informing people of their options.....
YUP!
--more--"
Related:
"Town officials in Saugus have sued the Lynn City Council and a prospective recreational marijuana company, claiming the proposed store location will be several inches over the town line in Saugus, where voters have banned recreational marijuana shops. The complaint, which was filed in state Land Court on Monday, alleges that about 10 inches of the building, a third of an outdoor deck, most of the parking spaces, and a dumpster at the site are all located in Saugus. The Saugus selectmen who filed the lawsuit are requesting that the court invalidate the special permit given to the marijuana company....."
As they hand out the liquor licenses:
"A Melrose man was arrested by State Police for his seventh OUI offense Friday evening after his car was spotted idling in the middle of Route 1, officials said. Robert H. Cook, 67, is facing multiple charges....."
If only they closed the bars:
"Baker says a marijuana lounge pilot program would ‘make a lot of sense’" by Felicia Gans Globe Staff, May 14, 2019
Governor Charlie Baker appeared this week to be open-minded to the possibility of a pilot program for marijuana social consumption lounges, ahead of a meeting where cannabis regulators are expected to discuss potential policies for the venues.
Baker said decisions about consumption sites are “up to the [Cannabis Control Commission]” but said on Monday that a pilot program would be a good way to determine the “positives and negatives” of the potential addition to the industry.
“It’s not up to me,” Baker told reporters at the State House. “It’s up to the CCC. What I’ve said many times about most of the issues associated with the roll-out of recreational marijuana is it’s really important that they, the CCC, understand what they’re doing and why they’re doing it as they make these decisions.”
When a reporter asked whether a pilot program for social consumption would be helpful, Baker said he’s a “big believer in doing demonstrations and pilots.”
“I think the issues around, sort of, enforcing the general rules of the game associated with how recreational marijuana is going to work when you get into the social consumption sites, and all that comes with it, are really hard and are really complicated. I think doing it on a pilot basis would make a lot of sense,” he said.
His relatively relaxed attitude on social consumption is a stark turnaround from last year, when his administration sent a series of letters urging cannabis regulators to hold off for now on opening consumption sites.
At the time, members of Baker’s administration had urged cannabis regulators to hit the pause button on their plans for social consumption locations as they focused on licensing traditional retail stores.
The Cannabis Control Commission will discuss social consumption at a public meeting Thursday at 50 Milk St. in Boston. The meeting begins at 10 a.m.
Forgot all about it, tee-hee!
--more--"
"Marijuana in Mass. should come with warnings about psychosis, group says" by Naomi Martin Globe Staff, June 5, 2019
As Massachusetts continues to open marijuana stores, the government should do more to mitigate health risks associated with increased availability of the drug, a group of public health advocates said Wednesday.
Speaking at an event held by the Massachusetts Prevention Alliance, a nonprofit that opposed legalization, researchers and advocates suggested a number of policy changes, including requiring product labels that warn of marijuana’s potential to increase consumers’ risk for severe mental illness; restricting cannabis companies from advertising on billboards and in other ways; and increasing public awareness about marijuana’s risks.
Thanks for keeping the stereotypes and stigmatization going.
“We need to contain the damage,” said Dr. Eden Evins, director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Addiction Medicine and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Cannabis use, she said, “is one of the few preventable causes of psychosis.”
The event at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum included former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson, whose book, “Tell Your Children,” warns that marijuana leads to psychosis and violence.
OMFG!
Help 'em push any wars based on lies lately?
Berenson praised Canada’s labeling requirements for cannabis products that warn of an increased risk for psychosis and schizophrenia.
“We’re not at 100 percent certainty, but we’re pretty close,” Berenson said. “We should be telling people this and we should be telling them loudly.”
Massachusetts’ labels warn against intoxicated driving and pregnant women consuming the drug, and note that “there may be associated health risks.”
Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said it’s hard to combat the public perception that marijuana is harmless because its consequences are less visible.
“Yes, tobacco is more harmful for cancer, but marijuana is more harmful as it disrupts who you are as a person,” she said. “We have 480,000 people dying from tobacco and none have died from marijuana, but it’s a distorted argument because marijuana harms your humanity, your brain.”
What is distorted is the laughable contortions and sophistries they are presenting.
Will Jones, with the national antilegalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said the government should do more to protect black neighborhoods, which are already targeted by tobacco and alcohol advertising.
Maybe the cops could quit blowing them away first?
“We can create a better future than replicating what we’ve done with alcohol,” said Jones, who is black and lives in Washington, D.C. “Advertisements and promotion of a new addiction-for-profit industry — that is another extreme that will disproportionately impact our communities.”
They just opened the casino.
The Massachusetts Prevention Alliance released a statement last week signed by 40 doctors and researchers who called for the state’s cannabis regulations to focus more on public health. In response, regulators noted that the state was already doing a lot of the requested actions — such as launching public awareness campaigns and banning cartoon imagery that could appeal to youths — and said the statement badly mischaracterized the state’s social equity program.
The nonprofit has also drawn fire from marijuana advocates who say it doesn’t seriously engage in policy-making.
“This group was nowhere to be found when we wrote the adult use” regulations, Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commissioner Shaleen Title tweeted this week.
Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital who specializes in cannabis and teaches at Harvard Medical School, criticized the event as one-sided. The participants’ arguments, he said, overstated the harms of cannabis and ignored the benefits patients have found in treating pain, insomnia, and other life-altering conditions.
The group’s stance “is not representative of what doctors think,” Grinspoon said. “This is in the realm of drug war ideology — not the realm of science-based discussion.”
That's because they are $elf-$erving $cienti$ts.
Berenson’s book has made him a controversial figure in the marijuana debate. Critics say he exaggerates the harms of cannabis, which muddies efforts to educate the public.
Or propagandize them, the former NYT flak!
Scientists widely accept that marijuana use is correlated with chronic mental illness, specifically schizophrenia, but they disagree about causality.
Berenson’s assertion was based in part on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study in 2017 that found that “cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses; the higher the use, the greater the risk.”
One of the study authors, however, rebutted Berenson’s characterization on Twitter in January, saying that her team only “found an association between cannabis use and schizophrenia.”
“Since the report, we now know that genetic risk for schizophrenia predicts cannabis use, shedding some light on the potential direction of the association between cannabis use and schizophrenia,” wrote Ziva Cooper, director of the Cannabis Research Initiative at the University of California Los Angeles.
In a study published in March in Lancet Psychiatry, researchers examining 17 sites across Europe found that daily cannabis use and high-potency cannabis use were correlated with psychosis. While just 7 percent of the control group of healthy people used cannabis daily, 30 percent of people experiencing first-time psychosis did. The authors acknowledged they established correlation, not causation, but said the findings were significant for public health.
Dr. David Nathan, founder of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation and a psychiatrist in Princeton, N.J., said that people with family or personal histories of psychotic disorders should stay away from cannabis, but the vast majority of consumers don’t experience such issues.
“What we cannot say is whether cannabis will cause psychosis in individuals who are not otherwise predisposed to it,” Nathan said. “The problem with Berenson’s book is that he goes far beyond what the evidence tells us.”
Berenson said the torrent of criticism has been baffling.
“My book has been criticized as racist, alarmist, confusing correlation and causation, and cherrypicking,” Berenson said. “To me these aren’t just lies, they’re stunningly stupid lies.”
Like the Iraq whoppers that blared from his paper's front pages.
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Yes, it is too soon to call marijuana safe, so it should be re-criminalized.
Related:
"An investor in the cannabis industry has donated $9 million to Harvard and MIT to study the drug’s health effects, in what the institutions describe as the largest private gift to support marijuana research in the United States....."
"Ricki Lake to visit Cambridge for local debut of ‘Weed the People’" by Felicia Gans Globe Staff, April 5, 2019
Emmy Award-winning television host Ricki Lake and director Abby Epstein will be in Cambridge on Monday for the local screening of their latest documentary, “Weed the People,” which highlights the use of medical marijuana for children with cancer.
Some would rather they suffer and die lest they get psychotic.
The documentary, which launched in theaters in October 2018, follows five families who have turned to medical marijuana to help their children through cancer treatment, both managing pain levels and easing the symptoms of chemotherapy.
I didn't see any TV ads for it!
“It’s eye-opening for everyone,” Lake told the Globe in an interview. “You can’t help but get sucked in by seeing the plight of these families and their sick children.”
Look at her waving children in front of us.
What are you trying to do, encourage military involvement?
Lake is perhaps most well-known for her decadelong talk show “The Ricki Lake Show.”
Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!
Her late husband, Christian Evans, who died by suicide in 2017, was exploring cannabis to help with both “emotional issues and physical, chronic pain,” she said.
There is your cause and effect.
Shortly after, while Lake was on “Dancing with the Stars,” she met a young girl with cancer who was living in a state without medical marijuana. Lake and her husband moved the girl and her family into their California home for six weeks so she could use cannabis as part of her care.
When Lake called Epstein and told her about the various intersections of medical marijuana in her life, Epstein knew it had to be their next project. The women had previously partnered to create the award-winning documentary “The Business of Being Born,” which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007.
In addition to following each family’s journey, the documentary also dives into the history and research — or lack thereof — of medicinal cannabis. Some of the film was shot at a medical conference at Harvard University.
They get tax loot for that?
“It’s a really big moment because you see people who were literally making this stuff in their kitchen and are now presenting at Harvard,” said Epstein, the film’s director, adding that it “really shows that this is no longer on the fringe.”
Even in the 33 states where medical marijuana is legal, parents can face massive obstacles when deciding whether to get medical marijuana for their child. For one thing, because marijuana is federally illegal, it is not covered by insurance and can be very expensive, but in addition to cost, the stigma of using marijuana, particularly for children, is what keeps many parents from even considering it, Epstein said. For some, fear contributes to that stigma, too.
You can thank the addiction $peciali$ts for that!
The women hope the documentary opens people up to the possibilities of medical marijuana and encourages people around the country to talk to their lawmakers about the possibilities that federal decriminalization could bring to the table, even in states like Massachusetts.
“There’s a huge green rush. Money is moving this train forward, but honestly the medical piece of this is the potential to be life-saving to many people, and it needs development,” Epstein said. “And so I hope that people see how important it is to preserve that with all the hoopla over recreational legalization.”
“Weed the People” will be shown at Landmark’s Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge at 7 p.m. Monday. The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Lake, Epstein, and co-executive producer James Costa, moderated by the Globe’s Meredith Goldstein.....
No wonder Lake put on weight, and I'm sure Goldstein would advise a few hits for the ‘sexual enhancement.’
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They might even drop it off at your door:
"Home delivery of marijuana could start in Massachusetts this year" by Dan Adams Globe Staff, April 26, 2019
Home delivery of recreational marijuana could debut in Massachusetts later this year, after regulators reached agreement on a program that would increase consumer access to cannabis while also giving a leg up to entrepreneurs affected by the war on drugs.
The state Cannabis Control Commission voted 4-1 at a meeting Friday in favor of a package of policies that, if implemented, would allow delivery to residential properties across the state — except in the dozens of municipalities that have banned retail pot sales.
A final vote on detailed delivery regulations is expected in mid-May; only Commissioner Jennifer Flanagan objected to delivery in concept, citing public safety concerns.
“Delivery is an important thing to do,” commission chairman Steve Hoffman said following the meeting. “I believe we’re ready. This is going to make it more accessible for consumers... and it’s a very important thing from a social equity standpoint, because of the lower barriers to entry in terms of the capital requirements.”
Under the proposed model, developed by Commissioner Britte McBride, marijuana flower, edibles, and other pot products ordered by consumers would come from brick-and-mortar marijuana stores, not cultivators or processors, with any undelivered products being returned to the shop at the end of the day.
That’s a big relief for retailers, who feared being cut out of what will likely be a lucrative delivery market; however, the businesses picking up the products and bringing them to consumers would be independent entities, each of which could contract with multiple stores. To get a license, those companies and their employees would have to clear rigorous background checks and vehicle inspections, plus meet a laundry list of security and inventory-tracking requirements.
Maybe they can drive the Uber up your a$$.
The commission also signaled Friday that it sees the delivery market as a way to help meet its statutory mandate of creating a diverse marijuana industry: For at least two years, delivery licenses under the proposal would only go to participants in the commission’s economic empowerment and social equity programs.
The empowerment program grants faster licensure to companies that are either led by, employ, or benefit members of communities that had high rates of drug arrests; the equity program will provide technical training to those who were arrested for drug crimes or are a close relative of someone who was, or who come from a community with a high rate of arrest for drug crimes.
Under the proposal, consumers would be required to visit a retail marijuana store in person and present a valid ID to register as an eligible delivery customer. Drivers would double-check the ID upon delivery, and require customers to sign a manifest — similar to the state’s requirements for alcohol deliveries.
Delivery vehicles would be tracked in real-time by GPS, while the commission’s existing “seed-to-sale” inventory tracking system would note the movement of individual products as they are transferred in turn from store to vehicle to consumer.
Legalization means more $urveillance $tate.
Initially, customers could pay in cash, but the commission agreed the system should eventually be debit-cards-only — something that the federal prohibition on marijuana and the lack of banking services makes difficult.
That's where they are going to $crew you -- as if you are one big piggy bank.
Two registered workers would have to be present at all times, with one staying in the vehicle while the other brings marijuana to a customer’s door. Workers would also be required to wear body cameras and film every customer interaction, a measure that prompted strong objections from Title.
Smile, you are on Cannabis camera, guffaw, guffaw.
David Torrisi, who leads the Commonwealth Dispensary Association, a group of established medical and recreational operators, said his members can reluctantly live with a period of exclusivity for social equity and empowerment applicants; however, he insisted that window should end after a set amount of time; currently, the commission plans to review its exclusivity policy after 24 months.
“An exclusivity period without a sunset date is exclusivity in perpetuity,” Torrisi said. “That would be problematic for our members.”
Commissioners indicated Friday they had reservations about delivery companies and their retail partners using websites such as Weedmaps and Eaze to handle delivery orders, with several commissioners saying it could give those large firms inappropriate power over small local businesses. They voted unanimously to require delivery firms to disclose any contracts they sign with third-party technology platforms.
“They’d have to satisfy us that the third-party technology company is not controlling them or making it a pseudo-franchise,” commissioner Kay Doyle said. “We want these companies to grow themselves.”
Really into it, huh?
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Related:
Uxbridge entrepreneur dreams of selling legal marijuana at a drive-through pot shop
Uxbridge marijuana store receives OK to open for recreational sales
Just trying to spread the ‘kind word of cannabis.’
Maybe you are better off growing at home.
"‘It felt wrong and ridiculous’: A caregiver was banned from joining her husband inside a dispensary" by Sean P. Murphy Globe Staff, April 4, 2019
A couple of months ago, friends counseled Don Smith to try marijuana to bring a level of peace and comfort to his final days. To his surprise, it worked, allowing him to eat and easing his pain. “A miracle drug,” he declared.
Luckily for Smith, voters in a ballot referendum in 2012 delivered a clear directive to the state government: make marijuana readily available to folks who medically need it, but what happened at that dispensary on March 23 shows the state still has some serious kinks to work out in the way it oversees medical marijuana.
The Smiths for months had experimented with recreational marijuana, now legally available in Massachusetts.
For years, medical marijuana dispensaries have allowed spouses and other caregivers to enter their premises by simply signing them in, whether they had a state-issued caregiver’s registration card or not, but word recently trickled out from the Cannabis Control Commission that caregivers without a card should be excluded, even though the law gives dispensary operators discretion to admit “visitors.” (Deborah’s caregiver’s application is pending; under state regulations, a caregiver can’t apply for a card until the patient has received his.)
After being turned away, Deborah, his wife of more than four decades, called the Cannabis Control Commission to complain about the way she and Don were treated. The reply was, essentially: “Too bad.”
Don served in Vietnam 50 years ago. Until recently, he supported his family building houses. I didn’t detect a bit of self-pity in him, but I did notice him tearing up when he recalled the moment he first realized that marijuana had relieved his nausea.....
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He's not the only vet who can't get the pain relief he needs:
"Mass. still has no clue how many people’s marijuana records should be cleared" by Naomi Martin Globe Staff, May 3, 2019
With marijuana now legal in Massachusetts, thousands of people convicted of pot possession can have their records cleared, removing roadblocks to jobs, housing, adoption, and loans.
To that end, lawmakers last year created an option, as part of a broad criminal justice overhaul, for people to have their cannabis records expunged as if they never existed.
So how many people have had their records wiped clean? The state can’t exactly say, but the number is clearly very low.
Since the new system started six months ago, only 12 convictions — out of 219 requests — were expunged for all types of crimes.
Now, a growing chorus of progressive prosecutors and civil rights leaders is calling for the government to clear records in bulk for pot possession, a crime that was disproportionately enforced in black and Hispanic communities for decades.
The push has gained momentum nationwide.
A bill recently filed in the Massachusetts House by Representative Chynah Tyler, a Democrat from Roxbury, would require the state to erase all past pot possession cases. That would be a significant change from the current process, in which a person files a court petition, which can require time, persistence, a hearing, and possibly a lawyer’s expertise.
“Many people in my community are still dealing with the impact of the war on drugs,” Tyler said. “Automatic expungement does away with the difficulties anyone might have with the process.”
Critics point to the tiny number of expungements as evidence that the state has failed to inform affected communities about the option to expunge marijuana charges, which started in October. State law requires the governor’s executive office of public safety and security to launch a public awareness campaign educating eligible people about sealing records, but it has yet to do so. A spokesman, Felix Browne, said the office first focused on discouraging stoned driving.
SIGH!
The only one who doesn't have to follow the law is authority!
Law enforcement groups defend the current system. They say judges should consider each person’s distinct circumstances before ruling whether to destroy records, because some marijuana possession convictions were pleaded down from more serious charges.
“It’s legal now — that doesn’t mean that 10 years ago, when they violated the law, that shouldn’t become part of their record,” said Walpole police Chief John Carmichael, a member of the state’s cannabis advisory board.
While criminal records do serve a purpose, former Suffolk County sheriff Andrea Cabral said nonviolent drug crimes should be viewed through the lens of well-documented racial disparities which scarred generations.
“The war on drugs was never more than a war on people who used drugs, particularly people of color,” said Cabral, now CEO of cannabis retailer Ascend Mass. Now that pot is a profit-making industry, Cabral said, the issue of how to repair the damage of criminalization “is a public policy question, not an individual one.”
It wasn't making profits before when it was illegal?
One Middleborough man, 43, was charged in 2015 with growing too many marijuana plants, which he said he used for insomnia and to help cancer patients. The resulting visits from the Department of Children and Families posed a stressful threat, he said, for both him and his young daughter. He wants to apply to clear his record.
“I don’t have anything bad on my record besides this,” said the man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wants to put the case behind him. “It makes me look like a drug dealer.”
People who were convicted of having cannabis when that was a crime have two options: have their cases sealed, which hides the record from the public but not the government, or have them expunged, which destroys the case permanently.
More than 22,250 convictions of all kinds were sealed from public view in the past four years, but the Massachusetts Probation Service doesn’t break down how many of those were for marijuana.
The number of pot possession cases has plummeted since 2008 when it became a civil penalty to have small amounts of marijuana, but hundreds were still convicted later of having more than the permissible amount. Records show that 14,400 people were convicted of possessing a Class D drug, which usually means marijuana, from 2002 through 2013.
Racial disparities have persisted. In the past five years, 50 percent of the people charged in Suffolk County with Class D possession were black, records show, in a county where 22 percent of the population is black.
Anyone ever think that maybe a higher percentage of blacks are using?
Lawyers who work to clear records say there are likely still plenty of people suffering housing or job rejections who are unaware that they’re eligible to have their pot records erased.
“Sometimes it feels like shoveling sand against the tide,” said Pauline Quirion, lead attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services, which helps seal the records of 600 to 800 low-income people each year. She estimated about 30 percent have marijuana records. “It’s the cycle of poverty — you have this record, and you’re trapped in poverty until you can eventually seal it.”
Quirion expected a rush of marijuana expungement requests after the new system began, but that hasn’t happened.
Some affected people may have already sealed their records, she said, so expungement may not feel necessary unless they want to work in law enforcement, banking, education, or the federal government. Another possibility: They were also convicted of more serious crimes, so the pot charge is the least of their worries.
One mother, whose 16-year-old son was convicted of having pot at Newton North High School in 2007, said she wished his charge could have been expunged. All juvenile records are sealed, but that didn’t help. He was rejected from the military, his lifelong dream, leaving him severely depressed.
“It ruined his life,” said the woman, 64, who requested anonymity to protect her son’s career prospects. “All he wanted to do was serve his country.”
Related: Monday's Flop
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced last year that his office would take responsibility to clear people’s pot records. That prompted a technology nonprofit, Code for America, to offer to help automate the process there and in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Joaquin counties.
Evonne Silva, criminal justice director at Code for America, said, “This is really a historic opportunity to turn record clearance and access to relief from a far-off dream, a wishful intent but never-implemented reform, into reality for millions of people across the country.”
Massachusetts law differs. Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins, who has pledged to stop prosecuting drug possession and possession with intent to distribute cases, said she has no legal authority to seek expungements on anyone’s behalf.
“That right lies exclusively with the charged individual,” Rollins said, adding that she commends Tyler’s efforts in the Legislature. The most she can do now, she said, is to keep informing people of their options.....
YUP!
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Related:
"Town officials in Saugus have sued the Lynn City Council and a prospective recreational marijuana company, claiming the proposed store location will be several inches over the town line in Saugus, where voters have banned recreational marijuana shops. The complaint, which was filed in state Land Court on Monday, alleges that about 10 inches of the building, a third of an outdoor deck, most of the parking spaces, and a dumpster at the site are all located in Saugus. The Saugus selectmen who filed the lawsuit are requesting that the court invalidate the special permit given to the marijuana company....."
As they hand out the liquor licenses:
"A Melrose man was arrested by State Police for his seventh OUI offense Friday evening after his car was spotted idling in the middle of Route 1, officials said. Robert H. Cook, 67, is facing multiple charges....."
If only they closed the bars:
"Baker says a marijuana lounge pilot program would ‘make a lot of sense’" by Felicia Gans Globe Staff, May 14, 2019
Governor Charlie Baker appeared this week to be open-minded to the possibility of a pilot program for marijuana social consumption lounges, ahead of a meeting where cannabis regulators are expected to discuss potential policies for the venues.
Baker said decisions about consumption sites are “up to the [Cannabis Control Commission]” but said on Monday that a pilot program would be a good way to determine the “positives and negatives” of the potential addition to the industry.
“It’s not up to me,” Baker told reporters at the State House. “It’s up to the CCC. What I’ve said many times about most of the issues associated with the roll-out of recreational marijuana is it’s really important that they, the CCC, understand what they’re doing and why they’re doing it as they make these decisions.”
When a reporter asked whether a pilot program for social consumption would be helpful, Baker said he’s a “big believer in doing demonstrations and pilots.”
“I think the issues around, sort of, enforcing the general rules of the game associated with how recreational marijuana is going to work when you get into the social consumption sites, and all that comes with it, are really hard and are really complicated. I think doing it on a pilot basis would make a lot of sense,” he said.
His relatively relaxed attitude on social consumption is a stark turnaround from last year, when his administration sent a series of letters urging cannabis regulators to hold off for now on opening consumption sites.
At the time, members of Baker’s administration had urged cannabis regulators to hit the pause button on their plans for social consumption locations as they focused on licensing traditional retail stores.
The Cannabis Control Commission will discuss social consumption at a public meeting Thursday at 50 Milk St. in Boston. The meeting begins at 10 a.m.
Forgot all about it, tee-hee!
--more--"
"Massachusetts marijuana cafes get preliminary OK" by Dan Adams Globe Staff, May 16, 2019
Licensed marijuana cafes could eventually open in Massachusetts, after the state Cannabis Control Commission on Thursday voted to approve a “social consumption” pilot program in up to a dozen Massachusetts cities and towns.
Proponents called the commission’s 3-2 vote a historic step toward normalizing marijuana as part of the Massachusetts economy, while making it easier and safer to consume the drug legally. And rolling out the businesses in a limited fashion, they argued, will allow the state to collect data on any problems and adjust its rules accordingly before they’re allowed to proliferate statewide.
“There is a strong desire to have this,” commission chairman Steve Hoffman told reporters following the vote. “I believe it’s the will of the people,” but any cannabis lounge ribbon-cuttings are likely a long way off.
Massachusetts legislators would have to tweak state law for the pilot to move forward, and marijuana officials must write and approve detailed rules with requirements for ventilation systems, dosing, and preventing stoned driving. A commission vote on those regulations could happen by the end of the month, but the timeline for legislative action is uncertain.
I wouldn't hold my hit if I were you.
Still, for tourists, renters, and those who live in public housing, such facilities could, for the first time, provide a legal place to consume a legal product — hotels and apartments typically ban smoking, and public consumption of marijuana is illegal.
In addition to cannabis cafes, the new policy would also permit event organizers to apply for one-day licenses allowing them to serve pot to adult guests for on-site consumption, opening the door to cannabis-enhanced concerts, weddings, and more. Such events could not also serve alcohol.
To address concerns about impaired driving, the proposal approved Thursday would limit the quantity of marijuana each patron could consume and mandate that servers at social consumption businesses and events be trained on detecting impairment.....
Because “right now... they don’t have a place to go, or they’re going to unregulated events that are happening all around the state.”
--more--"
Time for a Wake and Bake:
This new website tells you exactly when to drink coffee if you want to stay sharp
After your hit:
"Cannabis advocates rally in rebuttal to ‘Prohibition 2.0’" by Naomi Martin Globe Staff, June 12, 2019
Dozens of cannabis advocates rallied at the Massachusetts State House on Wednesday to refute a public health group’s criticisms of the state’s newly regulated marijuana industry.
The crowd held signs that read: “Weed’s not new,” “Empower our communities,” and “Cannabis equity is non-negotiable.” The audience cheered as researchers, clinicians, a state regulator, and people harmed by the war on drugs spoke in support of the current regulations and new ones they hope will be approved this summer, such as the creation of cannabis cafe licenses.
“If we had social consumption lounges, I wouldn’t have to do this,” advocate Peter Bernard said as he lifted a joint to his lips with a showman’s flair, sparked it, and inhaled. “Damn, that’s good.”
The rally was organized by the Cannabis Community Care and Research Network in response to a statement issued recently by the Massachusetts Prevention Alliance, which was signed by 40 local doctors and scientists. The letter said marijuana is far more harmful than many people believe and can increase consumers’ risks for psychosis, schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses. It called for an indefinite delay to social consumption and home delivery — two license types that state regulators are considering adding.
The statement also called for a pause of licensing new pot stores to review the state’s social equity program, which the group described as targeting minority neighborhoods for pot shops, but, as regulators replied, the program aims to help entrepreneurs from communities with high rates of marijuana arrests start their own businesses anywhere in the state.
Cannabis Control Commissioner Shaleen Title thanked the crowd for showing “when prohibitionists try and have a big publicity stunt, that it doesn’t work.”
“Everything is going to be evidence-based,” Title said, of the commission’s approach to regulating cannabis. She said she has consulted with faculty at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital who aren’t interested in publicity or “Prohibition 2.0,” and who “want patients and consumers to be treated like the legal, normal people that we are.”
Doctors who have found cannabis helpful for their patients criticized the prevention alliance’s narrow stance on the drug, which they said can pose risks to people with family histories of mental illness, but offers far more people life-changing benefits.
Dr. Eric Ruby, a Taunton pediatrician, said he has recommended cannabis — and seen positive results — for more than 300 children since 2014 for conditions such as anxiety, pain, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, nausea, anorexia, and muscle spasticity. One boy with autism, he said, finally enjoys going outdoors. (Minors in Massachusetts can only obtain medical marijuana if two doctors, including a pediatrician, recommend it.)
Ruby’s interest in cannabis grew after his son found relief from severe neuropathic pain resulting from a car accident. He had previously been on opioids and suicidal.
“Cannabis saved my son’s life,” Ruby said. Doctors on both sides want public health improvements and should unite to pressure the federal government to fund research, he said.....
--more--"
Where did they come from anyway?
"Take a look at the origins of ‘420’ on the unofficial marijuana holiday" by Felicia Gans Globe Staff, April 18, 2019
It’s cannabis consumers’ favorite time of year: April 20.
The unofficial marijuana holiday has been around for decades — an annual celebration for consumers and a chance for activists to push for marijuana legalization in their respective states, but this year’s holiday in Massachusetts is taking on new levels of sophistication because it’s the first 4/20 holiday with an operating recreational marijuana market.
Organizations across the city are hosting events to bring the marijuana community together, including brunches, cannabis-infused dinners, and music festivals. People also traditionally gather on the Boston Common for celebrations.
“The residents of Massachusetts have a lot to celebrate this 4/20,” said Erik Altieri, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “The significance of April 20 has really evolved over time,” he said.
The origins of 420 itself have been shrouded in myth over the years. Some have tried to attach the numbers to state penal codes, police scanner lingo, or the birthdays of historically marijuana-loving singers and artists. (None of these theories check out.)
Perhaps the most plausible theory is the story of a high school clique called “The Waldos” in suburban San Francisco who ventured off one afternoon in 1971 to find a rumored marijuana garden nearby.
The time they decided to meet for the adventure? You guessed it — 4:20 p.m.
“It was straight [out] of a Cheech and Chong movie,” Larry Schwartz, one of the Waldos, told the Associated Press last year.
The teens — now middle-aged — never did find that garden, but the code word stuck.
The lingo didn’t take off until the Grateful Dead got involved.
Nowadays, 4/20 celebrations have taken on a life of their own, and as the recreational marijuana market expands in Massachusetts, more businesses and hospitality firms are jumping on board.
Licensed adult-use dispensaries are limited to the deals and specials they can offer for marijuana products. State regulations prohibit advertising, marketing, or branding through promotional items like “gifts, giveaways, coupons, or ‘free’ or ‘donated’ marijuana,” but dispensaries that sell medical marijuana can offer special deals to their patients, and many are taking that opportunity.
At New England Treatment Access in Brookline and Northampton, the company has collaborated with a variety of local restaurants and vendors, who will be outside the dispensaries on Saturday handing out samples.
Sam Kanter, a local event planning and food hospitality consultant with her own self-named firm, recently launched a series of cannabis-infused dinners called “Dinner at Mary’s.” The first dinner was in March, and the second is on Saturday.
Saturday’s program will be held in downtown Boston — the exact location is announced to guests shortly before the event — and requires attendees to apply for membership to the group before signing up.
To stay within the legal guidelines of state regulations, the ticket price is simply a suggested donation, and the cannabis-infused foods are entirely gifted. All dishes can also be made without the THC-infused toppings, which can make you high. There will also be CBD-only infused dishes available, which use the non-psychoactive compound of marijuana.
Kanter said the event will show “the public that these can be high-end dining experiences that can be enhanced by cannabis. These are not pot dinners. These are not stoner shindigs.”
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Yes, growth is the focu$:
“For kids my age, there’s not a lot out there where you can go in and say there’s a lot of new opportunity,” said Sam Barber, the 26-year-old president of Cultivate Holdings LLC. Barber was attracted to the marijuana field by the difference that he sees it making in people’s lives. His father’s uncle used cannabis to treat pain as he battled cancer; Barber himself used cannabis to ease discomfort after a series of knee injuries. Barber, a Portland, Maine, native who now lives in Boston with his girlfriend, raised money from friends and family — his business partners are Robert Lally, co-owner of the Mt. Abram ski area in Maine, and his father, Steve Barber, but he faced skepticism in some corners for trying to launch his own marijuana business. “We wanted to do it because we saw it as a positive impact for everybody involved,” Barber said....."
Seven weeks later, he was busted!
Marijuana company fined $75,000 by state commission over labeling violations
Chairman Hoffman vowed that the commission would continue conducting unannounced inspections of licensed marijuana facilities.
Federal officials investigating alleged marijuana delivery service in Hyde Park\
I thought they were suppose to be laying off?
US attorney alleges Milton pot seller ran illegal business worth $14m
That i$ what caught their attention, and it looks to be a ‘huge case of bitter grapes.’
"Taunton smoke shop owner, four employees arrested for allegedly selling marijuana products to high schoolers" by Felicia Gans Globe Staff, March 4, 2019
The owner and four employees of a Taunton smoke shop are facing charges for allegedly selling marijuana products to minors, including many “high school-aged students.”
Detectives from the Taunton Police Department searched Kloudy Visionz on Old Colony Avenue last week after a weeks-long investigation into the sale of marijuana and marijuana-infused products at the smoke shop.
Not the feds, not the state, but the city!
During the investigation, police observed “several high school-aged children” going in and out of the store. Many people didn’t go to the cash register, but “went off to the side of the store and still came out with products in hand,” police said in a statement.
They didn't have to show ID?
Detectives searched the store Friday afternoon and found 12 ounces of marijuana, several marijuana edibles and chocolate bars, $5,000 in cash, and several cartridges of vape liquid containing THC, the psychoactive compound of marijuana.
Wouldn't that stuff be at a pot shop?
Police also arrested the four employees working at the store at the time — Kody Braese, 23, of Dighton; Victor Burgos, 22, of Taunton; Alexander T. Lucia, 22, of Taunton; and Juan A. Padua, 27, of Taunton.
All four men are being charged with possession with intent to distribute a Class D drug — marijuana for all four men, and THC-based products for Burgos — and conspiracy to violate the drug law.
!!!!!!!
Padua also faces one count of possession with intent to distribute a Class B drug (cocaine).
The owner of the smoke shop, Jason Correia, 25, of Taunton, was not at the store when detectives arrived, and he was issued a summons to appear in court.
That's stunning! He was such a rising star!
I guess he wasn't what he seemed, and he says he is innocent.
Looks like the laugh is on him!
Police said the smoke shop, which has been open for about a year, had a license to sell tobacco and nicotine products in 2018, but not in 2019.
“What these men were doing was just wrong, especially selling it to children. Chief Edward Walsh said in a statement.
Burgos, Braese, and Lucia were arraigned on Monday in Taunton District Court and pleaded not guilty. All three were released on personal recognizance. Padua’s bail was set at $1,000, according to a spokesman for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.
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Going to throw the book at them.
"Calif. company offers answers to impaired driving with marijuana breathalyzer" by Felicia Gans Globe Staff, April 26, 2019
As more states legalize marijuana, the concerns about impaired driving — and how to prove it — continue to grow. Now a California-based company says it might have the answer to identifying drivers impaired by the drug.
The issue has been a public safety roadblock for some officials who fought marijuana legalization in Massachusetts on the premise there was no on-the-spot test to keep marijuana-impaired drivers off the roads.
Enter Hound Labs.
The Oakland, Calif., company, whose ranks include former Massachusetts senator and representative Warren Tolman, has created a breathalyzer for marijuana impairment, and Hound Labs representatives say it could be ready by the end of the year.
OMG!
He is supposed to be a good labor Democrat!
“What’s clear is police officers, law enforcement, as well as lawyers, are all looking for a tool that balances . . . safety while making sure that we get it right, that we’re not falsely accusing people,” said Tolman, who is the director of business development for the company.
RIGHT!
The device works much like a breathalyzer for alcohol, but Hound Labs’ devices are unique in that they determine whether there is THC, marijuana’s main psychoactive compound, in a person’s breath, according to Hound Labs CEO and cofounder Mike Lynn. The devices all include sensors for alcohol impairment, too. Each unit would cost $5,000.
Unlike biological tests that can show cannabis in a person’s blood or urine for several weeks after using a marijuana product, the active THC compound found in a person’s breath lasts for only a few hours, the “peak impairment times,” according to Lynn, who is also an emergency room doctor.
Hound Labs has tested its device in the laboratory, in the field, and in clinical trials through the University of California San Francisco. The paper on the team’s recent clinical trial with the university is under peer review.
“It’s taken us a long period of time to develop the instruments that are sensitive enough to measure THC in breath,” Lynn said. “What we have compared to an alcohol breathalyzer is literally a billion times more sensitive. . . . That’s the issue and that’s why it hasn’t been done before.”
The issue of identifying impaired drivers on the road — and also having proper evidence to prove that a driver is impaired by marijuana — has confounded state leaders and law enforcement officials for years, even in the lead-up to marijuana legalization in Massachusetts.
It is confounded because they can't tell!
In the months since recreational marijuana stores began opening in the state, Governor Charlie Baker, who fought the 2016 legalization ballot initiative, has filed legislation to crack down on impaired drivers. The bill includes a number of proposals that originated from the state’s commission on operating under the influence, including an increase in police training for drug impairment and the punishment of suspected impaired drivers who refuse a biological test for marijuana.
Walpole police Chief John Carmichael, who is on the state commission, had expected a test for detecting marijuana impairment to be years off but is not particularly surprised that concern over the issue has been “snowballing” and inspiring researchers to find a solution.
They are $nowballing to a $olution, if you get my drift.
Carmichael said Tolman spoke with the commission about the device several months ago, but the commission hasn’t seen the research on it since. Even if the device works, Carmichael said it won’t be the only tool officers use.
“I would assume that that would be a confirmation to validate what the officer observed on the street,” Carmichael said. “This is a follow-up test, a supportive test, that could show that the things that the officer saw are validated by the test result.”
Depending on the needs of a law enforcement agency, Hound Labs’ software can either simply indicate whether THC is present or measure the amount of THC present in a person’s breath. That latter measurement could be interesting, but won’t necessarily indicate whether someone is impaired, Carmichael said.
Unlike a blood alcohol concentration, which can give law enforcement officials information about a person’s level of impairment, there isn’t a straightforward way to correlate the amount of marijuana in a person’s system with the level to which they are impaired.
“We confuse alcohol and drugs and think we’re going to have the silver bullet that takes care of both, and we don’t,” he said. “We don’t have that.”
In addition to identifying impaired drivers, the test could also help suspected impaired drivers who are not guilty, too. With the breathalyzer, an officer will be able to determine if a suspected impaired driver is not under the influence.
Tolman hopes the ability to test for marijuana on the spot will deter drivers from getting behind the wheel while stoned in the first place.
“I would’ve liked for us to have developed products and tools like this before we legalized,” he said.
What an a$$hole!
--more--"
Now blow:
"The state’s Secretary of Public Safety has launched an investigation into the office responsible for ensuring the accuracy of police breathalyzers, amid accusations that the office withheld evidence that the machines may have provided hundreds of flawed results over a two-year period. The investigation follows allegations from defense attorneys that the Office of Alcohol Testing, which is overseen by the State Police, failed to turn over documents that could have shown what the lawyers say are faulty results. The attorneys, who represent 750 drunken driving defendants, have said that failure ultimately could affect 58,000 drunken driving cases since 2011, when the state first began using the machines......"
Again:
Report finds state lab withheld breathalyzer test results
Again:
Thousands convicted of OUI could seek new trials under tentative deal on breathalyzers
Again:
A Breathalyzer Ban in Mass. Courtrooms Is in Effect, for Now
The state lab must show progress for breath tests to be used in certain OUI cases, says the judge, and he has given them 10 months to end the long reach of tobacco.
"Smoking pot vs. tobacco: What science says about lighting up" by Jennifer Peltz Associated Press, April 7, 2019
NEW YORK — As more states make it legal to smoke marijuana, some government officials, researchers, and others worry what that might mean for one of the country’s biggest public health successes: curbing cigarette smoking.
Though there are notable differences in health research findings on tobacco and marijuana, the juxtaposition strikes some as jarring after generations of Americans have gotten the message that smoking endangers their health.
‘‘We’re trying to stop people from smoking all kinds of things. Why do you want to legalize marijuana?’’ a New York City councilman, Republican Peter Koo, asked at a recent city hearing about the state’s potential legalization of so-called recreational pot use.
One gue$$.
Marijuana advocates say there’s no comparison between joints and tobacco cigarettes. A sweeping federal assessment of marijuana research found the lung-health risks of smoking weed appear ‘‘relatively small’’ and ‘‘far lower than those of smoking tobacco,’’ the top cause of preventable death in the United States.
Unlike for cigarettes, there’s evidence of certain health benefits from marijuana, such as easing chronic pain, and marijuana can be used without smoking it.
At the same time, studies have shown crossover between marijuana and tobacco use, and while smoking cannabis may be less dangerous than tobacco to lung health, pot doesn’t get an entirely clean slate.
Some health officials and anti-smoking activists also worry about inserting legal marijuana into the growing world of vaping, given uncertainties about the smoking alternative’s long-term effects.
While cigarette smoking is the top risk factor for lung cancer, some of scientific evidence suggests there’s no link between marijuana smoking and lung cancer. That’s according to a 2017 federal report that rounded up nearly two decades of studies on marijuana, research that’s been limited by the federal government’s classification of marijuana as a controlled substance like heroin.
While cigarette smoking is a major cause of heart disease, the report concluded it’s unclear whether marijuana use is associated with heart attacks or strokes, but there’s strong evidence linking long-term cannabis smoking to worse coughs and more frequent bouts of chronic bronchitis, according to the report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
The report also looked at other effects, finding a mix of possible risks, upsides and unknowns. For example, the report said marijuana can ease chemotherapy-related nausea and adults’ chronic pain but also found evidence the drug is linked to developing schizophrenia and getting in traffic crashes.
C'MON, HEY!
In recent weeks, studies have echoed concerns about high-potency pot and psychosis and documented a rise in marijuana-related emergency room visits after legalization in Colorado.
YUH-HUH!
Is that Colorado's experience?
Tobacco and marijuana use can also go together. Blunts — marijuana in a cigar wrapper that includes tobacco leaves — have gained popularity, and studies have found more cigarette smokers have used pot, and the other way around, compared to nonsmokers.
The land of the free was founded on hemp and tobacco farming.
‘‘One substance reinforces the use of the other, and vice versa, which can escalate a path to addiction,’’ said Dr. Sterling McPherson, a University of Washington medical professor studying marijuana and tobacco use among teens.
The National Academies report found pot use likely increases the risk of dependence on other substances, including tobacco.
To some public health officials, it makes sense to legalize marijuana and put some guardrails around it.
That is where my print paper snuffed the joint.
‘‘For tobacco, we know that it’s inherently dangerous and that there is no safe amount of tobacco to use,’’ said New York City Health Department drug policy analyst Rebecca Giglio. Whereas with marijuana, ‘‘we see this as an opportunity to address the harms of criminalization while also regulating cannabis,’’ but health department opinions vary, even within the same state: New York’s Association of County Health Officials opposes legalizing recreational weed.
Vaping — heating a solution into a vapor and inhaling it — has been pitched as a safer alternative to smoking.
Experts have said vaping pot is probably less harmful to the lungs than smoking it, though there’s little research on the health effects over time, and they worry about its potency when vaped.
The American Lung Association is concerned that vaping will ultimately prove damaging to lung health and is alarmed about a surge in underage e-cigarette use, and adding legal marijuana to the picture ‘‘only makes it a more complicated issue,’’ said Erika Sward, an assistant vice president.
Others, though, think policy makers should view vaping as a relatively safe way to use pot.
‘‘I would say the risks are going to be less with that form of consumption,’’ said Rebecca Haffajee, a University of Michigan health policy professor who cowrote a 2017 piece calling for recreational marijuana programs to allow only nonsmokable forms of the drug.
Meanwhile, some local governments have adjusted public smoking bans to cover both vaping and pot. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors tweaked its prohibition just last month.
As a former cigarette smoker, New Yorker Gary Smith is dismayed that his home state might OK smoking pot.
He knows research hasn’t tied smoking marijuana to lung cancer, which killed three cigarette smokers in his family and struck him 20 years after he quit; he’s been treated, but he fears the respiratory risks of marijuana smoking aren’t fully known.
‘‘It’s crazy that the government, in order to raise [revenue from] taxes, they’re permitting people to suck this stuff into your lungs,’’ said Smith, 78, an accountant from Island Park.
They are going to anyway!
Hawaii physician and state Representative Richard Creagan said he feels no less strongly about cigarettes. The ex-smoker and Democrat from Naalehu this year unsuccessfully proposed all but banning them by raising the legal age to 100.
Meanwhile, he’d like Hawaii to legalize recreational marijuana, an idea that fizzled in the state Legislature this year.
Creagan, 73, said he thinks pot benefits people’s well-being more than it risks their health, and he expects nonsmoking alternatives will reduce the risks. Plus, he figures legal marijuana could replace cigarette tax revenue someday.
‘‘That coupling,’’ he said, ‘‘was sort of in my head.’’
--more--"
Have a beer instead:
"Man with loaded gun blew through sobriety checkpoint, police say" by Breanne Kovatch Globe Correspondent, April 1, 2019
A Lawrence man was arrested after he allegedly drove through a sobriety checkpoint early Sunday and police found a loaded gun in the car, officials said.
Good thing he wasn't high.
Twaldo Baez, 36, was also arrested for three default warrants for violation of a 209A order, assault with a dangerous weapon, furnishing a false name, and disorderly conduct, State Police said.
Judith Martinez, 27, a woman who was in the car, is facing a charge of operating under the influence of alcohol, State Police said.
State and Lawrence police were conducting a sobriety checkpoint on Route 114 in Lawrence when at about 1:05 a.m. on Sunday a Honda CR-V did not stop at the checkpoint, State Police said.
As the car went through, the trooper signaling the car to slow down saw the male driver reach under his seat, State Police said.
A Lawrence officer pulled over the Honda after pursuing it for a short distance, State Police said. “Upon approaching the Honda, officers observed that there was now a female driver and the previously observed male driver was in the passenger seat,” they added.
Officers then searched the car and allegedly found a Taurus 9mm semi-automatic handgun.....
Alledgedly? Globe doesn't trust cops now?
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At least he wasn't stoned.
"A California court has ruled that prison inmates are legally allowed to possess marijuana, but that they are not permitted to use it. “I think it’s sort of a novelty decision,” said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which champions fair marijuana laws and regulations in California. “As is well acknowledged, plenty of behaviors and activities may be legal under state law that are not necessarily permissible to those that are incarcerated.” Armentano explained that while marijuana — in small amounts — was legal for adults in California, nothing prevents the state corrections agency from taking its own actions. The thinking behind allowing possession but not consumption was clear to at least one lawyer; however, the court pointed out that smoking or ingesting marijuana remained a felony....."
“The issue is you can’t have a fire,” Michael Kraut, a California criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, said Saturday -- even if the stuff is covered in pesticides.
Also see:
Boston police search for missing Wentworth student
"‘Our hearts are broken’: Parents of Wentworth student mourn loss of son" by Sophia Eppolito and Lucas Phillips Globe Correspondents, April 7, 2019
The body of Maximillian Carbone, a 19-year-old Wentworth Institute of Technology student, was found Sunday morning at the base of a rocky slope in Roxbury, police confirmed.
Carbone, who grew up in Nahant, was reported missing after leaving a Mission Hill party early Saturday morning. Family and friends had searched for the Wentworth sophomore, and many later remembered him as a kind friend and athlete.
Police said Carbone’s death did not occur under suspicious circumstances. He was declared dead on scene after police responded to a report at Diablo Glass School, 123 Terrace St., at about 8:08 a.m.
How can it not be?
Carbone had planned to study biomedical engineering.
On Sunday morning, Boston police cars had cordoned off Terrace Street with yellow caution tape.
Minutes later, officials could be seen leaving the red industrial building carrying a body bag on a stretcher.
Christopher Watts, one of the educational managers at Diablo Glass School, said that, before he arrived, police had to traverse difficult terrain to get to Carbone’s body. There is “so much rubble and brush” there, he said.
The back of the school is enclosed by harsh, hilly terrain on its sides, with a fence running along the top of the slope. The area surrounding the school is littered with plastic and other debris.
A man left a bouquet of pink and yellow flowers near the back of the school. A group of four men, one of whom was wearing a Wentworth sweatshirt, stood in the same spot as they wondered aloud how Carbone could have ended up there, gesturing to the rocky slope.....
C'mon now, that is just conspiracy talk, guys, just accept the report that he killed himself by accident and move on. No booze involved!
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Related:
"As soaring numbers of construction workers battle addiction, building trades leaders in Boston are launching a conference this week intended to show contractors and union members how they can help those who are hooked on drugs and alcohol. The goal of the weeklong conference is to help break down the stigma surrounding substance abuse disorder that discourages people in the industry from seeking help, said ,” said Thomas Gunning III, director of labor relations for the Building Trades Employers’ Association, which is organizing the event....."
That's not the only thing slowing down construction:
"‘I’ve never experienced anything like this’: Haverhill marijuana entrepreneur accuses neighbors of extortion" by Dan Adams Globe Staff, June 17, 2019
A Haverhill marijuana entrepreneur is suing two local businessmen, saying their efforts to block her proposed downtown cannabis shop amount to extortion.
Caroline Pineau, a longtime Haverhill resident who has operated a yoga studio in the city for more than eight years, signed a contract with local officials earlier this year to open a recreational marijuana store dubbed Stem at 124 Washington St., along the Merrimack River, but Stavros Dimakis, the owner of a deli across the street, along with Lloyd Jennings and Brad Brooks, the owners of a building and restaurant adjacent to Pineau’s proposed site, sued Pineau and the city in May. They claimed Haverhill’s decision to change its zoning to allow cannabis facilities in the area was arbitrary, dangerous to children, harmful to the interests of nearby property owners, and detrimental to the city’s character. The suit also contended that Pineau’s business and the local policies permitting it are illegal under federal law, which defines marijuana as a dangerous illicit drug akin to heroin.
Now, Pineau is fighting back with a lawsuit of her own against Jennings and Brooks, who coincidentally lives next door to her home elsewhere in Haverhill. She claims the two men are using threats and intimidation to shake her down for tens of thousands of dollars.
“It’s become clear these opponents are going to do everything they can to stop us from moving forward,” Pineau said in an interview. “I’m feeling bullied and extremely frightened for myself and my family. I’ve never experienced anything like this before in my life — not as a business owner, not as woman, and not as a human being. It’s extremely unsettling.”
Tensions apparently began when Pineau and her family outbid Jennings and Brooks for the 124 Washington St. property, but the current dispute is centered on a deck the men built in 2017 for the previous owners of her property, the Victor Emmanuel Lodge, also known as the Sons of Italy club.
According to Pineau’s lawsuit, Jennings and Brooks agreed to build a deck for the Sons of Italy in exchange for permission to build a separate deck for their restaurant, The Hidden Pig, that protruded 15 feet onto the 124 Washington St. property. After the projects had been completed, the lodge sold the 124 Washington St. building to a company affiliated with Pineau’s project.
Pineau’s suit says Jennings and Brooks promptly demanded $30,000 as compensation for the deck they had built on her property, and that Brooks told her, “you better bet me and my partner are going to get our money back from the deck we built. . . and make sure you go through the same hell with the city that we did.”
The lawsuit also claims Jennings told others that Pineau “doesn’t know who she is dealing with” and “she’ll see how Haverhill works” — statements she claims were meant to intimidate her into paying up.
Jennings and Brooks declined to comment, referring a reporter instead to their lawyer, Scott Schlager.
“These claims are outrageous, meritless, and amount to little more than an attempt to intimidate our clients for challenging a zoning ordinance that would allow a recreational marijuana dispensary in the middle of Haverhill’s central business district, near public parks and playgrounds where children congregate,” Schlager said in a statement.
He added that he was considering seeking sanctions against Pineau under the state’s “anti-SLAPP” statute, a law meant to prevent lawsuits whose fundamental purpose is intimidating defendants into silence.
Kind of a SLAPP in the face, huh?
Asked for comment on the legal challenge by Brooks, Jennings, and Dimakis to Haverhill’s zoning change, Mayor James J. Fiorentini said in a brief statement that “the city is confident that the zoning was legal and will be upheld by the courts.”
The fight has prompted an outpouring of support for Pineau from marijuana advocates and sympathetic Haverhill residents. Earlier this month, a group led by activist Mike Crawford picketed Mark’s Deli, bearing signs that read “drop the lawsuit” and “more weed, less greed.”
In the meantime, Pineau said she’ll keep working to open Stem. The family-funded company is one of three cannabis retailers to sign host community agreements so far with Haverhill, where about 55 percent of voters in 2016 favored legalizing marijuana. Stem will seek a special permit from the city at a June 18 hearing, while its application for a state license is pending before the Cannabis Control Commission.
“I’ve really fallen in love with the Haverhill community,” Pineau said. “I see a tremendous opportunity to help revitalize the downtown.”
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Also see:
"Oregon is awash in pot, glutted with so much legal weed that if growing were to stop today, it could take more than six years by one estimate to smoke or eat it all. Now, the state is looking to curb production. Five years after they legalized recreational marijuana, lawmakers are moving to give the Oregon Liquor Control Commission more leeway to deny new pot-growing licenses based on supply and demand."
Related:
Beyond coal: Imagining Appalachia’s future
It's the $weet $mell off progre$$!
