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The War Against Special Interest Control of Cannabis Terry Franklin Daily Chronic Tuesday 12 Aug 2014 Now allowed for medicinal purposes, at least somewhat, in half the states; and legal for open sale, again somewhat, in Colorado and Washington since the last election; cannabis is at the center of rapid changes. Legislators in many states are looking at it. Even more pointedly, due to the enduring timidness of legislators, citizens in states with an initiative procedure are taking the lead. In the next few years, legalization is bound to spread, and with it, a new field of business. Not surprisingly, on the part of “crony capitalists” there is a lot of effort afoot at figuring out ways to set up barriers to entry into that new business. Schemes to keep prices high by other means are a top priority as well. In this writer’s home state of Massachusetts, the bureaucrats have gone off the deep end in establishing rules for medical marijuana dispensaries. Half a million dollars is the bare minimum to even engage in an attempt to wangle a license. Massachusetts has long been addicted to over-regulation in every area of governance, Every new situation brings new opportunities for a new bureaucracy and new regulations. A ideology like this inevitably brings new opportunities for corruption. With these licenses for dispensaries, a whole slew of retired politicians are on the gravy train. In one of most sordid and sleazy episodes of Democrat machine politics in recent years, retired Congressman (and former prosecutor) William Delahunt’s company has received three out of 20 licenses issued. The gentleman never had the slightest interest in drug policy reform, until he saw the millions of dollars dancing before his eyes in this quote unquote non-profit enterprise. The cronies want limited numbers of licenses, excessive fees, customer limits on possession limited to small (i.e. high priced ) retail quantities, levels of tracking and containment worthy of plutonium, and ridiculous requirements for testing. (Do you need reports on mold spore levels from specially licensed labs when you buy a tomato at a roadside farm stand?) To divert attention from the oligopoly, such rules are always couched in spurious claims about their benefit to society. It is not just the mom and pop store the big guys want to thwart. Suppressing home grow is their greatest obsession. In Washington State, after legalization, a person can still get ten years in prison for growing a single plant. While those who have used their connections can grow thousands. Proposals in a few states (and the current situation in Colorado) do permit people to grow a very small number, usually six. But even that is too much for the vested interests. The initiative filed this summer in Nevada appears to allow six… but that doesn’t apply if a person lives within 25 miles of an officially licensed shop. The group managing the campaign, the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, no doubt a front for one of the big national players, doesn’t even try to hide their core constituency. The list of stakeholders on their website has business leaders and elected officials as the top two. In Maine a legislative proposal envisions a home grow limit of six, but only after obtaining the go-ahead from local authorities. Now that’s a chilling prospect! Back in Massachusetts, the bureaucrats are still stumbling over their own feet trying to navigate their own unwieldy rules. Due to a provision one foresightful citizen insisted in having added to the initiative, seriously ill people are permitted home grow as a hardship provision while they wait. But that expedient will shortly be taken away, as soon as Mr Delahunt puts seed to soil. “Legalization” of this type does nothing to eliminate arrests or police raids on homes, and may even increase them. A select few can grow pot by the warehouse full, while law enforcement can still waste millions hunting college students. The war on marijuana becomes a war in support of regulatory compliance. The tax man and the business man alike remain intoxicated with the idea — probably illusory — that they are going to be able to make a killing. Is this future inevitable? Things are moving fast, cronyism presses forward, and we all know the power of business / government collusion. There is big money behind the push for monopolistic control. Politicians are not the only people who can be bought. Citizens’ initiatives are hugely expensive. The tide of money has washed aside many a decent reformer. Some long term activists have even sold out. Not everyone is immune to the temptations of our secular devils. Campaign contributors — the idealistic ones not looking for a return on their “investment” — are inadvertently donating to middleman who promise a winning campaign, but whose plans are being held close to the vest, and seem murky enough to give one pause as to which voices they listen. The laws being written now are likely to be set in stone, and to persist for many decades. An opportunity like we have now to head off a new cronyism is rare. It would be a sin to surrender. There are no illusions that this isn’t an uphill battle. But there are still those with integrity who want to end the wars, with a simple straightforward minimally-restrictive regulatory blueprint which is fair to all, and open to those besides the well connected. In a counterpoint to Nevada, this summer there have been other initiatives filed, in Arkansas and the District of Columbia, which have more hopeful visions for the future. A newly formed California committee looks like it has some nice possibilities. In Massachusetts, the Bay State Repeal campaign committee is determined to fight to keep the 2016 initiative out of the hands of the cronies. To keep things positive, and to prevent the situation from repeating the fiasco which has befallen our medical marijuana law. All across the nation, it is going to be an interesting battle over the next few years. http://www.thedailychronic.net/2014/36135/the-war-against-special-interest-control-of-cannabis/
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