Is Alex Berenson Just Trolling Us With His Anti-Marijuana Book
From Rolling Stone
A former ‘New York Times’ journalist wrote about a “hidden epidemic” cause by pot — but it seems he got the science wrong
In the past week, there’s been a flurry of media coverage around a new book called Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence. One of the main points is that legalization is a terrible idea, because legal pot is already causing more people to become schizophrenic and psychotic, and people who are schizophrenic and psychotic are more likely to commit violent crimes.
Alex Berenson, the book’s author — a former journalist who spent the past decade or so writing mysteries and thriller novels — landed plum op-eds in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He appeared on Fox and Friends and Tucker Carlson Tonight. And the pop-psych theorist Malcolm Gladwell wrote an entire New Yorker article repeating and promoting the book’s thesis.
And yet, this theory is deeply flawed. After five years of extensive reporting on the cannabis industry, it seems pretty clear that weed itself isn’t that dangerous — sure, it can be abused like any drug, but it’s weed’s illegality, especially the illegality of the supply chain, that poses a far greater public safety threat. So hearing Berenson promote these distorted, dog-whistle conclusions, it left me with one question: is he trolling us? Does he genuinely believe that the full legalization of marijuana is going to cause a significant rise in murders, assaults and mental illness — or is he just assuming a contrarian position to scare people into buying his book?
A really quick peek into the coming 2019 Year of Marijuana and Michigan.
Prop 1, along with the new State and Federal hemp legislation and the MMFLA, will fundamentally reconfigure the police encounter.
The smell or mere presence of cannabis can no longer constitute reasonable suspicion to stop or probable cause to raid.
Previous to Prop 1 of 2018 being enacted, for the past 30 years, 40 % of the criminal call for both district courts and circuit courts throughout the State were for marijuana possession cases.
These cases should dramatically decrease or end, as they have in Colorado , Washington and other legalized states.
Likewise it should follow that the Michigan State Police Forensic Science Department (The State Lab) work load that devours 40 percent of its budget on marijuana should dramatically be reduced and allow that department to focus on the untested rape kits that remain on the shelves all across Michigan.
Opportunities
Prop 1, along with the new hemp legislation should set the stage for the renaissance of an entirely new multi-million dollar industry right here in Michigan.
There is no question that this new law should create opportunities for thousands of jobs that include both farming and manufacturing.
The now:
Currently, prosecutors are continuing to prosecute marijuana crimes that occurred before legalization.
The new law is not retroactive, prosecutors have discretion to proceed or drop cases.
What happens when it comes to sentencing, how would the judge proceed to sentence someone for a crime that is legal now?
Concerns that still remain
With the legislature still made up of older people and prohibitionists, newly crafted prohibitionist bills will be passed by the legislature in 2019.
A Scientific Fact?
Science will continue to show no driving influence with marijuana, but a nanogram limit maybe imposed by the prohibitionists, despite zero science to support such a finding.
The MSP roadside testing pilot program has finished its testing, and a report is due out soon.
The Struggle is Far From Over
Medical marihuana will be under attack in 2019 from the prohibitionists who thought “medical marijuana” was a sham all along.
We must continue to be steadfast in defending the MMMA for both patients and especially for the caregivers. This past year has taught us that the state regulated MMFLA system cannot exist without caregivers.
Case Dismissed…Not Just Yet
In speaking with other attorneys and firms, not a single case has been dismissed due to legalization. The brownie case is still active and is up for a hearing in Oakland County Courts in January 2019.
The butter case is still active, most recently the prosecutor filed an application to appeal the Mich Supreme Court 2017 opinion ruling that 4 am was unconstitutional for a knock and talk.
The Mansour case, where the Court of Appeals opinion declared all unusable (drying) marijuana to be illegal to possess, is pending appeal in the Michigan Supreme Court.
Keep an Eye on History
Our community must observe the history of Colorado and Washington to succeed in 2019. We must study Colorado and Washington’s history so we will not repeat the same mistakes here in Michigan.
We can learn a lot about taxes, delivery services, social use bar type lounges and enforcement policy on state licensed businesses.
Social Clubs
Social Clubs / smoke lounges will be a big topic in 2019, for the people who cannot smoke at home, let’s hope that any confusion on this topic is resolved with civility and not the military type raids that has been the calling card of law of enforcement regarding medical marihuana.
2019 is Here
2019 will be the year of the cannabis green rush. There will be winners and losers, my only hope is that these outcomes are determined from the organic market place ( the best business, the best products, the best operators) and not from the inept licensing board that has interfered with the development of the states regulated system.
In a historic decision that will save Harborside and the legal cannabis industry millions of dollars, the U.S. Tax Court has ruled that the California dispensary is not liable for accuracy-related 280E penalties.
What isHarborside?
Harborside was founded by Steve DeAngelo and dress wedding in 2006, after being awarded one of the first six medical cannabis licenses granted in the United States.
As one of the oldest cannabis retailers in the world, Harborside has played an instrumental role in making cannabis safe and accessible to a broad and diverse community of California consumers.
Today, the Harborside brand is well known throughout California and all around the world, and is in rapid expansion, expecting to grow to six or more locations in 2019.
What is 280E?
280E is a tax code provision that denies all standard business deductions to businesses whose operations “consist” of of activities that violate the Controlled Substances Act.
26 U.S. Code § 280E – Expenditures in connection with the illegal sale of drugs
No deduction or credit shall be allowed for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business (or the activities which comprise such trade or business) consists of trafficking in controlled substances (within the meaning of schedule I and II of the Controlled Substances Act) which is prohibited by Federal law or the law of any State in which such trade or business is conducted.
According to the Opinion issued by the Court, Harborside acted “reasonably and in good faith” when taking its tax positions for the years at issue.
The Court cited Harborside’s timely filing of its tax returns and its maintenance of accurate financial records as a key strength, along with a persuasive argument from Harborside co-founder and Chairman Emeritus, Steve DeAngelo, that he made good-faith efforts to comply with the law, despite a lack of clear legal authority to guide medical marijuana dispensary taxpayers.
The ruling comes just a few weeks after the same Court ruled that 280E itself does apply to Harborside — a ruling Harborside intends to appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“We’re still working on knocking out 280E entirely, but at least for now we have established that cannabis businesses who operate in reasonable, good faith compliance with existing law will not suffer from additional unjust penalties,” said DeAngelo.
Farm Bill Signed-Trump singing the green acres theme
December 20, 2018
Washington, D.C.—President Trump signed H.R. 2, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill) into law. After the signing, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (TX-11) issued the following remarks:
“With President Trump signing the farm bill today, America keeps faith with those hard-working farm and ranch families who put food on our tables and clothes on our backs. Because of the support of the president, Sec. Perdue and a Republican Congress, we were able to deliver a new farm bill in the same year that the legislation was first introduced, which marks a first in nearly 30 years. I’m proud of this bill and I’m honored to have served as chairman throughout this process. I’m thankful to all those who worked to help make today’s enactment of the farm bill possible.”
On Thursday, Trump signed the US Farm Bill into law which legalizes hemp a key source of highly touted wellness ingredient CBD.
American farmers will be able to plant and harvest hemp, a strain of the same plant species from which marijuana originates. The bill passed the House last week in a 369 to 47 vote; it passed the Senate the previous day in an 87 to 13 vote.
The move changes the language of a drug law that had been unchanged for a long time and loosely defined hemp alongside marijuana as a controlled substance.
The new bill exempts hemp from that law and defines it as an agricultural product. That means farmers and researchers of hemp now get some of the same benefits as farmers and researchers of other crops, like the ability to apply for insurance and federal grants.
On Thursday, December 20, 2018 President Trump signed the US Farm Bill into law which legalizes hemp a key source of highly touted wellness ingredient CBD.
“The passage of the 2019 Farm Bill is good news because it provides a strong safety net for farmers and ranchers, who need the dependability and certainty this legislation affords,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement after the bill passed the House.
The final bill does include several new changes to the SNAP program, though none will restrict families’ food stamp benefits, according to congressional aides.
The final farm bill provides permanent funding for a number of programs Congress was funding on a temporary basis, five years at a time.
Some of these include: promotional funds for local farmers markets, research money for organic farming, and funds for organizations working to train the next generation of farmers.
The bill also provides permanent funding for veteran and minority farmers.
Bottom Line…The farm bill legalizes the production of hemp.
