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Cannabis

When Will Biden Fulfill His Promise To Free The Pot Prisoners?

Just before he left office, Donald Trump freed more than a dozen federal prisoners who had received sentences ranging from 15 years to life for growing, transporting, or distributing marijuana. Yet President Joe Biden, who during his campaign said "anyone who has a (marijuana) record should be let out of jail" and promised to "broadly use his clemency power for certain nonviolent and drug crimes," is suddenly reticent about following Trump's example.

While Biden has come a long way since his days as an ardent drug warrior who bragged about the draconian sentences he helped enact, he still has not caught up with most Americans on marijuana policy. According to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 69 percent of Americans, including 78 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of Republicans, support legalization.

Biden — unlike most of the Democrats he beat for his party's 2020 presidential nomination, including his vice president — opposes repealing the federal marijuana ban, a position that puts him in the minority even within his age group. Instead, he wants to decriminalize low-level possession, an idea that was at the cutting edge of marijuana reform in the 1970s.

Since the Justice Department rarely prosecutes marijuana users, Biden's proposal would have little impact at the federal level. And it would do nothing to address the untenable conflict between the Controlled Substances Act and the laws that allow medical or recreational use of marijuana in 36 states.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), plans to reintroduce a legalization bill that was approved by the House of Representatives in December but was never considered by the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), says his chamber likewise will soon consider legislation that would "end the federal prohibition on marijuana."

When New York Post reporter Steven Nelson asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki during a press briefing last month whether Biden would sign such a bill, she reiterated his support for reclassifying marijuana "so researchers can study its positive and negative impacts," for allowing medical use, for letting states legalize recreational use, and for "decriminalizing marijuana use and automatically expunging any prior criminal records." Pressed to explicitly say whether Biden would sign a legalization bill, Psaki replied, "I just have outlined what his position is, which isn't the same as what the House and Senate have proposed."

Unlike legalization, freeing marijuana prisoners would not require an act of Congress, and it is consistent with what Biden said on the campaign trail. His promises created a reasonable expectation that he would show mercy for marijuana offenders who continue to languish in federal prison, such as Ismael Lira and Pedro Moreno, who are serving life sentences for distributing cannabis from Mexico.

As Corvain Cooper, one of the marijuana lifers freed by Trump, told Nelson, "No one should be serving a long prison sentence over marijuana when states and big corporations are making billions of dollars off of this plant." Yet, when Nelson asked Psaki about clemency, she irrelevantly cited Biden's support for moving marijuana from Schedule I of the CSA to Schedule II.

Nelson tried again the next day, noting that Biden bears personal responsibility for the lengthy sentences imposed on people for peaceful activities that are now legal in most states, including at least 17 that already or soon will allow recreational sales. "Will President Biden honor his commitment to release everyone imprisoned for marijuana?" he asked.

Psaki did not deny that Biden had made that promise. But she brought up "rescheduling" again and claimed she did not know the answer because it depends on arcane legal knowledge.

"What you're asking me is a legal question," Psaki said. "I'd point you to the Department of Justice."

The "legal question" is not complicated. Biden's commitment to "broadly use his clemency power" has nothing to do with rescheduling marijuana, and he could begin delivering on it today if he were so inclined. Psaki's obfuscation suggests it is not a high priority.

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine. Follow him on Twitter: @JacobSullum. To find out more about Jacob Sullum and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

The Marijuana Economy Comes Out of the Shadows

The Marijuana Economy Comes Out of the Shadows

The convention floor at Denver Airport’s Crowne Plaza on a recent afternoon could have been the trade show for any well-established industry — gray-haired execs in conservative suits mingling with office park dads in polos and fresh-out-of-college types in brand-emblazoned T-shirts. Only this is a new kind of business conference with a special Colorado theme: legal weed.

After Colorado voters legalized marijuana in 2012, more states and cities are considering a similar path for themselves. At the same time, the cannabis market is looking less like a music festival and more like a Silicon Valley confab — upscale, data-driven, and focused on investors.

Vendors and potential financiers at last month’s Marijuana Investor Summit here in the Mile High City say the current market for legal cannabis is more than $3 billion in the 23 states that have already legalized the drug for medicinal or recreational use. Expanding that market, they say, will require not just drug reform legislation, but also a consistent infusion of capital at a time when the marijuana economy still exists in a legal gray area — one where the drug is permitted in some states, but still outlawed at the federal level.

“It’s going to take time, but it’s a great opportunity,” said Chris Rentner of Akouba Credit, a Chicago small-business lender exploring the possibility of working with marijuana businesses. “For people that think everyone is a stoner lying on the sidewalk passed out, it’s going to take time for them to get comfortable with it. But there’s too much money in it. We just need to figure out the risk associated with it, but if we can find a way where it makes sense legally, then why wouldn’t we try to be in this market?”

If Akouba jumps into the marijuana market, the company would be trying to address one of the biggest obstacles to the industry’s growth: access to financial services. Because marijuana is still prohibited under federal law, cannabis grow houses and dispensaries have trouble finding traditional banking partners, leaving much of their business to be conducted in cash.

That not only presents a risk of robbery, it also can limit the industry’s access to the kinds of lending and accounting services that are typically involved in small business development.

Like Akouba, many of the 78 exhibitors and nearly 1,000 attendees at the conference are not in the business of actually harvesting cannabis. Instead, they aim to provide support services for cultivators and distributors.

“The majority of these companies aren’t actually touching the plant,” said John Downs of the Marijuana Investment Company. “There’s a green line: You are either in the ancillary and tertiary services, or you are digging in and growing.”

That term — “touching the plant” — is a term of art that distinguishes businesses that provide support services from those that actually grow cannabis. It’s not a minor semantic difference. “Touching the plant” can bring greater regulatory scrutiny and threats of federal action, thereby putting investors’ capital at risk.

That, though, may start to change. In January, the SEC for the first time allowed a company that deals with marijuana cultivation to sell shares of stock. Meanwhile, the legal situation is becoming clearer in Colorado.

Andreas Nilsson of iComply — a firm that helps marijuana business follow the law — says that while there remains political opposition to weed from leaders like Colorado Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, the state’s officials put together “very well-developed and clear” regulations and “decided to go in and create a system that is not designed to fail.”

Is it a perfect system? Hardly. But has the sky fallen, as drug warriors once predicted? No — and it probably will not in other states that follow Colorado’s lead.

David Sirota is a senior writer at the International Business Times and the best-selling author of the books Hostile Takeover, The Uprising, and Back to Our Future. Email him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com. 

Photo: Brett Levin via Flickr

Let The States Make Drug Law

Let The States Make Drug Law

WASHINGTON — Howard Wooldridge, a Washington lobbyist, is a former detective and forever Texan on an important mission — trying to persuade the 535 members of Congress to end the federal war on marijuana.

Liberals tend to be an easier sell than conservatives. With liberals, Wooldridge dwells on the grossly racist way the war on drugs has been prosecuted.

“The war on drugs,” he tells them, “has been the most immoral policy since slavery and Jim Crow.”

Conservatives hear a different argument, but one that Wooldridge holds every bit as dear: “Give it back to the states.”

This is a case for states’ rights, a doctrine to which conservatives habitually declare their loyalty. It is based on the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says that powers not delegated to the federal government are given to the states or to the people. In fact, states had jurisdiction over marijuana until 1937.

Co-founder of a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Wooldridge leaves no doubt where he stands on the war on drugs. End it all. That means no more U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. No more federal SWAT teams invading suburban backyards. No more DEA agents shooting from helicopters.

Today the war on drugs costs taxpayers $12 billion a year just for the enforcement part. Meanwhile, the loss of income for the millions of ordinary Americans made nearly unemployable after being caught with a joint can’t be counted.

“You could close half the prisons in the country if you ended prohibition,” Wooldridge says.

He now focuses only on marijuana, which he dismisses as “little green plants.” And he doesn’t use the L-word — that is, legalization.

If Washington state and Colorado legalize marijuana for recreational use (and they have), that’s fine with him. If 21 other states, from Maine to Hawaii, choose to allow marijuana only for medicinal use, that’s also OK. And if Alabama and South Dakota want all marijuana kept illegal, again, fine.

“For sure, Utah is smokeless,” he added, “and I say God bless.”

Liberals have traditionally shunned states’-rights arguments because of their association with the evils of slavery and segregation. So it is notable that the NAACP has endorsed a bill just submitted by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), requiring the federal government to respect state laws on marijuana.

African-Americans do not like the 10th Amendment, Wooldridge notes, “but the racism involved in the prohibition is a billion times worse for black people.”

Republicans once presented a united front in supporting the war on drugs. That wall began to crumble with the rise of the Ron Paul libertarians. When the House voted 219 to 189 last year to stop the federal ban on medical marijuana in states making it legal, 10 Republicans joined the “yes” side.

Pushing the “no” votes were police employed by the war and private businesses running prisons. They have an economic interest in keeping prohibition in place. It’s about “money and money,” Wooldridge says.

But also about “emotion.” Nearly every police officer had a colleague killed in the drug war. They don’t want to think their friends died for nothing.

Example: In the fall of 2012, two deputies flying over southeast Colorado to locate the marijuana harvest died when their light plane crashed. Two months later, Colorado legalized recreational pot.

The war on drugs, especially marijuana, is clearly entering its twilight phase. The question now is, How many million more American lives are going to be ruined and how many billion more dollars will be poured down the drain before we recognize its futility and move on?

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com. 

Photo: Frederic J Brown / AFP

Maligned Hemp Seed Has A Raft Of Health, Environmental Benefits

Maligned Hemp Seed Has A Raft Of Health, Environmental Benefits

By Sharon Palmer, R.D., Environmental Nutrition Newsletter (Tribune Media Services)

In the past, hemp has gotten a bad rap because of its close relative, marijuana. However, while both plants are in the cannabis family, they’re very different. Unlike marijuana, hemp seeds contain only 0.001 percent of the active compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), thus hemp does not cause a psychoactive effect, and is completely safe. In fact, hemp has some distinct health and environmental benefits.

Growing Hemp

Since 1937, growing hemp has been prohibited in the U.S. because of confusion over its relationship to marijuana, although it can be sold here. In fact, hemp is a historic crop, used for a multitude of functions beyond food, such as textiles, paper, building supplies, and rope. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. Today, most hemp is grown in Canada.

Interest in hemp cultivation is rising, partially because it’s very sustainable compared to other seed crops. Hemp is quick-growing, vigorous, and resistant to disease and insects, requiring lower inputs of fertilizers, water, and pesticides. And, unlike many seed crops, the hemp stalk can be used for its rich fiber source in products like textiles and building supplies, such as pressboard.

Concentrated Nutrition

Another reason hemp is on the rise is because of its unique nutrient profile. Hemp seeds provide 10 grams (g) of protein per ounce, as well as 10 g of heart-healthy, plant-based omega-3 and -6 fats, 3 g of fiber, and is a rich source of iron, thiamin, magnesium, zinc, and manganese.

Hemp oil, which is cold-pressed and unrefined, has a fat profile similar to the seed, containing only 1 g of saturated fat per tablespoon; most of the fat content is the healthy kind, such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, with an impressive 2 g of omega-3 fatty acids per serving. When hemp is pressed into oil, powder, or “butter,” a unique emerald green color is released, signaling its rich chlorophyll compounds.

While the research on hemp is still in the early stages, there’s a lot to love about the nutritional value of this plant food. You can purchase hulled hemp seeds (some manufacturers call them hemp hearts), cold-pressed hemp oil, hemp plant-based milk, hemp butter (ground hemp seeds), and hemp powder (the milled protein fraction of hemp seeds) at many natural food stores.

Sprinkle hemp seeds over cereal and yogurt, stir them into home-made granola, toss them into salads, and mix them into baked goods. Use hemp oil in place of extra virgin olive oil in pesto, salad dressings, and pasta as a finishing oil (do not cook with this delicate oil; its smoking point is 350 degrees F.)

Whiz hemp powder and hemp milk into smoothies to increase their protein and nutrient value. And use hemp butter in place of peanut butter on sandwiches, toast, and in baking.

(Reprinted with permission from Environmental Nutrition, a monthly publication of Belvoir Media Group, LLC.)

© 2014 BELVOIR MEDIA GROUP DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Photo: Fluffymuppet / flickr