Politics The Shake: Next President Urged to Give Cannabis a Fair Shake Lisa Rough May 20, 2016 Share Twitter Facebook Share Print

“Marijuana will impact almost every corner of your administration” says a new memo to the presidential candidates. The Brookings Institute published an open letter to the presumptive presidential nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Drumpf, earlier today. John Hudak, a Brookings fellow and Deputy Director for the Center for Public Management, makes a case for the importance of cannabis-policy reform in the new administration. Hudak warns: “A laissez-faire approach to cannabis is a dangerous stance that creates a bevy of policy problems at the federal, state and local levels.” Hudak urges the incoming president to carefully choose members of the administration who will directly affect drug policy—the drug czar, Attorney General, leaders of the FBI, the DEA, and Congress. A White House Summit on National Cannabis Policy would “elevate the conversation and signal a presidential commitment to better policy.” Hint, hint.

Anti-cannabis campaign claims Florida’s Amendment 2 will establish “more pot shops than Walmart and Walgreens combined.” While there are estimates that there could be as many as 440,552 patients in Florida who qualify for medical cannabis, which could lead to establishing 1,993 registered treatment centers, ultimately it would be up to the Department of Health and the Legislature. Nice try, fear-mongers.

So you’re saying cannabis is wholesome as pie? Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner will probably sign a recently passed bill that decriminalizes cannabis possession, but says he’s got more important things to do. “We get caught up in what our state pie is going to be, and how much marijuana is going to get sold,” Rauner said on Thursday. (Legislators gave pumpkin the nod last year.)

Growing pains in Denver’s light industrial neighborhoods. “The biggest fears that once preoccupied Denver city officials,” like crime, teen use, and dampened tourism “have not come to pass,” reports Politico. The problem now is that people living in light industrial neighborhoods don’t like so many grow operations moving into those warehouses.

Toronto tables dispensary crackdown until late June. Mayor John Tory asked the city’s licensing department to come up with ideas to regulate the medical-marijuana access points. That report is due by June 27.

A “suspicious odor” leads New Orleans police to Wheetos, Froot Poofs and Cannamon Toast Crunch. After noticing excessive traffic to a La Place hotel room, as well as a familiar scent permeating the air, deputies found the cannabis-infused snacks labeled for medical use as well as a large amount of cannabis. As Toucan Sam would say, “Follow your nose!"

NORML’s 2016 Congressional Lobby Day is May 23-24 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. If you want to do your part to end federal cannabis prohibition, join the CARE postcard campaign at No Prohibition to flood the mailbox of the Senate Judiciary Committee with postcards asking for action on S.2237 to deschedule cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act.

“Wash your weed,” says the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department. Law enforcement removed some 20,000 cannabis plants that were growing in an area of the California county that's contaminated with toxic chemicals, insecticides and pesticides. The boys in blue are now urging locals not to ingest the contaminated flower or to “please, at least wash the marijuana before using it.”

Who got into your stash? It was Grandma. More and more seniors are picking up their medicine from the pot shop. Cannabis use is up 53 percent among the 55-and-over crowd and it’s the fastest growing demographic of cannabis consumers in the country.

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Lisa Rough Lisa is a former associate editor at Leafly, where she specialized in legislative cannabis policy and industry topics. View Lisa Rough's articles