Bjones2
1 week ago
Cannabis stocks post sharp gains as Trump says he’s starting to ‘agree more’ about reforms
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump said he plans to make a statement about Florida’s upcoming referendum on adult-use cannabis
By
Steve Gelsi
Published: Aug. 8, 2024 at 4:05?p.m. ET
Cannabis stocks rallied Thursday after Donald Trump said he’s starting to agree more with cannabis reform.
Florida voters are preparing to weigh in on legalization for adult use.
-1.71%
CURLF
-2.59%
CGC
-8.06%
AYRWF
-10.05%
VRNOF
-2.28%
CRLBF
-3.71%
TLRY
-1.89%
TCNNF
-1.51%
Cannabis stocks moved sharply higher in late afternoon trading on Thursday after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he’s shifting his position in favor of looser cannabis laws.
At a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Trump said, “as we legalize it, I start to agree a lot more.” He also said he’s readying a statement about an upcoming Florida referendum on adult-use cannabis. The measure, which requires 60% of the vote to pass, is already polling above that support level.
Trump declined to elaborate on his planned statement but said, “As we legalize it throughout the country, whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, it’s awfully hard to have people all over the jails that are in jail right now for something that’s legal.”
He added: “Obviously there’s a lot of sentiment to doing that.”
The Florida vote could go in a more “liberal” way than people expect, he said.
The AdvisorShares Pure U.S. Cannabis exchange-traded fund
MSOS
-1.71%
was up 9.7% Thursday as the closing bell approached.
Curaleaf Holdings Inc.
CURLF
-2.59%
rose 7.3%, Canopy Growth Corp.
CGC
-8.06%
was rallying 10%, Ayr Wellnes Inc.
AYRWF
-10.05%
was up by 17.4%, Verano Holdings Corp.
VRNOF
-2.28%
was up by 12.1% and Cresco Labs Inc.
CRLBF
-3.71%
was rallying by 7.9%. Tilray Brands Inc.
TLRY
-1.89%
rose 5.7% and Trulieve Cannabis Corp.
TCNNF
-1.51%
jumped 10.6%.
Bjones2
1 week ago
Amendment 3: Top Republican backs legal use of recreational marijuana in Florida
Updated: 7:12 PM EDT Aug 8, 2024
Greg Fox
Reporter
Florida voters will decide on Amendment 3 this November, which would legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older.
It's mostly backed by Trulieve, the state's largest medical marijuana dispenser, that's so far raised more than $66 million.
But standing in the way of passage is Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
"So, this is not going to be good. It's not good for law and order," DeSantis said two weeks ago in Orlando at the Florida Sheriff’s Association Conference.
The Florida Sheriff’s Association and the Florida Police Chiefs Association oppose the measure, citing concerns about a growing black market in states like Colorado and California despite legalization.
"Well, what's happened in Colorado is, they have the biggest black market they have ever had. California has a big black market, and so, that has led to way more drugs. It's led to more dangerous drugs coming in," DeSantis said.
The Florida Freedom Fund, a committee set up by the governor's chief of staff, James Uthmeier, has raised nearly $1.8 million to fight Amendment 3 and Amendment 4, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
Proponents of recreational cannabis have gained a new ally: Republican Sarasota state Sen. Joe Gruters.
“With Amendment 3, I think we can take that step, to save lives, decriminalize it, and make sure we put up the guardrails to protect average, everyday Floridians,” Gruters said during an interview with WESH 2 News.
Gruters, who served as chair of the Republican Party of Florida from 2018 to 2022 and has previously served in the state House. He has been a strong conservative voice, proposing restrictions on abortion, banning smoking on beaches, eliminating vote-by-mail drop boxes, and advocating for guns in churches and schools.
He argues that recreational cannabis would be a revenue generator, noting that medical marijuana is currently not taxed.
Gruters also addressed law enforcement concerns about impaired drivers, suggesting that Florida should explore new scientific methods to test for driver impairment to ensure safety.
“At the end of the day, we have the ability to regulate it however we see fit. We can put those guardrails up. We can make sure on the implementation side that it, you know, we can test impairment and put people away for driving under the influence, 100% we should do that," he said.
For Amendment 3 to pass, 60% of voters must vote yes, and current polls indicate it has a strong chance of approval.
Bjones2
1 week ago
Florida To Decide On Legalizing Recreational Marijuana
In November, Florida voters will decide on Amendment 3, a constitutional amendment that would legalize recreational marijuana for adults. If passed, Amendment 3 would legalize the possession and purchase of up to 3 ounces of marijuana and up to five grams of cannabis concentrates. The measure also allows the state’s current medical marijuana licensees to produce and sell cannabis products to adults aged 21 and up.
Amendment 3 also allows state lawmakers to approve regulations for new businesses to enter the recreational marijuana market, although the initiative does not require the legislature to do so. If approved by voters, the cannabis legalization amendment will take effect six months after election day. Recent polling suggests that the ballot measure has the 60% support needed to pass.
The former president’s potential support for Florida’s Amendment 3 differs significantly from the state’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. At a breakfast meeting during the GOP convention in Milwaukee last month, DeSantis urged the Republican Party of Florida to oppose Amendment 3.
“It gives you a limitless constitutional right to possess and smoke,” DeSantis said about the ballot measure, according to a report from Florida Politics. I think it’s up to like, what, 40 joints, is that the 3 ounces would be 40? More than that, 80 joints. Something like that.”
DeSantis added that he opposes marijuana legalization for several reasons, including the odor of cannabis. During his failed presidential campaign, the governor said that today’s cannabis is “too potent” and repeated the unproven but commonly held assertion that drug dealers “throw fentanyl in.”
Bjones2
1 week ago
Trump Suggests He Supports Decriminalizing Marijuana
A.J. Herrington
Forbes
Aug 8, 2024
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested he supports decriminalizing marijuana, noting that cannabis is “being legalized all over the country.” Trump made the comments during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, adding that he will announce his position on a ballot measure to legalize marijuana in Florida “fairly soon.”
“As we legalize it, I start to agree a lot more because, you know, it’s being legalized all over the country,” Trump said, according to a report from Marijuana Moment. “Florida has something coming up. I’ll be making a statement about that fairly soon.”
Trump made his comments after a reporter asked him about the Biden administration’s efforts to reclassify marijuana under federal drug laws and presumed Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’ repeated assertion that people should not be incarcerated for low-level marijuana offenses.
“As we legalize it throughout the country—whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing—it’s awfully hard to have people all over the jails that are in jail right now for something that’s legal,” Trump replied. “So I think obviously there’s a lot of sentiment to doing that.”
Trump’s apparent willingness to consider the decriminalization of marijuana is a change for the Republican presidential candidate, who has repeatedly called for a hardline on drug policy. When Trump launched his bid for reelection in November 2022, he said he would make securing the southern border and combatting Mexican cartels would a be a priority, calling for the execution of drug dealers.
Bjones2
2 weeks ago
Schumer, Booker And Other Senators Push DEA To ‘Promptly Finalize’ Marijuana Rescheduling
Published on August 3, 2024By Kyle Jaeger
Top Democratic senators, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), are pushing the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to”promptly finalize” a rule to reschedule marijuana.
In a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram on Friday, Schumer and Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and others implored the administration to follow through on a proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), as the Justice Department formally proposed in May.
“The proposed rule to reclassify marijuana to schedule III recognizes the medical benefits of marijuana, will improve access for studying the health effects of short and long-term cannabis use, and will provide relief to cannabis businesses that continue to navigate a patchwork regulatory system to conduct legal business,” they said.
VP Harris Tells Group of Activists: 'We Need to Legalize Marijuana'
A public comment period on the proposed rule closed last week, with more than 40,000 people weighing in on the modest reform. Initial analyses of the comments indicated that the vast majority were in favor of reclassifying cannabis or descheduling it altogether.
The senators said they “urge DEA to promptly finalize this proposed rule to reschedule.”
“Rescheduling presents significant benefits to public health, research, business, and Americans harmed by the lasting effects of our punitive drug policies,” the letter says. “It will also bolster cannabis related businesses, many of which are owned by people criminalized for marijuana offenses, opening them up to critical investment opportunities.”
While rescheduling would remove certain research barriers and free up state-licensed cannabis business to take federal tax deductions under the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as 280E, it would not federally legalize marijuana, as the Congressional Research Service (CRS) has made known in multiple recent reports.
The senators said rescheduling could additionally prompt the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “to generate and update technical information on cannabis to clarify its regulatory approach to relevant stakeholders” and “create broader availability of supply for studies, while allowing researchers to avoid the stringent and costly DEA administrative review process.”
“Better study of marijuana will make its use safer for users and communities,” they said, while adding that existing federally approved studies “do not reflect the full range of products consumed by customers,” as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) separately explained in a report to Congress in June.
“Reclassification is a long overdue step toward the end of prohibition, which has disproportionately impacted young people and people of color for decades,” the letter says, noting that the issue could be more comprehensively addressed if Congress enacted legislation to end federal marijuana prohibition, such as the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA) that Schumer, Booker and Wyden have sponsored.
“The bill would create a federal regulatory framework to protect public health and prioritize restorative justice to undo the decades of harm caused by the failed War on Drugs,” they said. “This legislation was heavily informed by states’ laws creating legal adult-use cannabis markets.”
“Marijuana prohibition has denied scores of Americans from benefiting from the drug’s accepted medical uses and resulted in criminal enforcement that has harmed communities around the nation. Criminal enforcement has contributed to our country’s exorbitant incarceration rates, racial disparities in policing, and immense pain and loss in communities hardest hit by punitive marijuana policies. This is true especially for low-income communities and people of color. From 2010-2018, marijuana related arrests reached 6.1 million, with 700,000 in 2018 alone.”
The senators, who back full legalization, wrote that incremental rescheduling is “not the panacea to undoing the harms caused by decades of marijuana prohibition, but it is a step toward addressing the policies that have devastated communities across the country.”
“Cannabis should be entirely de-scheduled,” the said. “Yet, we recognize and appreciate DEA’s effort to address the flaws in our current marijuana policy by using its authority under the CSA and following the scientific and medical evidence to reschedule marijuana as a schedule III drug. We urge DEA to finalize the rule.”
Other signatories on the letter include Sens. Tina Smith (D-NM), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
Bjones2
2 weeks ago
Kamala Harris Is The First Major Presidential Candidate To Back Marijuana Legalization
Published on August 4, 2024By Marijuana Moment
“Harris’s trajectory from marijuana legalization skeptic to proponent mirrors that of many Americans.”
By Paul Armentano, NORML
Like most Americans, Vice President Kamala Harris has evolved on marijuana.
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In 2010, when she was San Francisco’s district attorney, Harris urged voters to reject a proposed ballot initiative to legalize the adult-use marijuana market. At the time, Harris’s position aligned with that of most California voters, 54 percent of whom ultimately decided against the measure.
But not long after, Harris—and most Americans—changed their stance.
In 2016, Californians reversed course and passed Proposition 64 legalizing marijuana statewide. And in 2019, Harris—then California’s junior U.S. senator—sponsored legislation to end the federal prohibition of cannabis. That same year, Gallup pollsters reported that some two-thirds of Americans believed that “the use of marijuana should be legal”—up from 46 percent in 2010.
Today, public support for legalization stands at 70 percent.
As vice president, Harris has repeatedly stated that Americans should not be incarcerated for marijuana use. She’s championed the Biden administration’s efforts to pardon low-level marijuana offenders and to loosen certain federal cannabis restrictions.
And as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, she’s the first major party candidate to have ever called for the plant’s legalization and regulation.
Harris’s trajectory from marijuana legalization skeptic to proponent mirrors that of many Americans. Like most voters, her views on cannabis softened following the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes. As district attorney of San Francisco, Harris pledged not to prosecute people who either used or sold medical cannabis.
“In my own life, I have had loved ones and close friends who relied on medical marijuana to relieve their suffering and even prolong their lives,” she acknowledged. Many Americans had similar experiences—which is why nearly 20 states approved medical cannabis access between 1996 and 2011, almost all by voter initiative.
But it wasn’t until 2012 that voters gave the green light to outright legalization. That year, voters in Colorado and Washington became the first to approve measures regulating the adult-use cannabis market. By 2016, the total number of legal states had risen to nine.
Today, 24 states—home to more than half of the U.S. population—have legalized marijuana.
How has America reacted to this real-world experiment? For Harris, living in a legal state likely influenced her transition from a one-time critic into a staunch advocate. That’s been the case for many others too. In states like California and Colorado, a greater percentage of voters back legalization now than they did when the laws were initially enacted.
Further, no state has ever repealed its marijuana legalization laws. That’s because these policies are working largely as voters and politicians intended—and because they’re preferable to cannabis criminalization.
State-level legalization has led to a drastic reduction in low-level marijuana arrests and prosecutions. It’s significantly disrupted the illicit marketplace, and it’s led to the creation of over 400,000 full-time jobs. Taxes from regulated cannabis sales have generated over $20 billion in state revenue. And contrary to some critics’ fears, marijuana legalization and regulation has not led to any increase in cannabis use by young people.
But while Americans’ attitudes have shifted over the years, federal marijuana policies have largely remained static.
In Congress, far too many politicians remain wed to the sort of “Reefer Madness” view that most voters have long since abandoned. Like Harris did, they also need to evolve their views on cannabis to more closely align with current scientific and public consensus. Those who refuse to adapt do so at their own political peril.
Shaker777
2 weeks ago
When they mentioned the 3rd quarter to finalize early on January, I expected this:
They will sell shares, collect money, lock all shareholders, and take the price down to .0001
Then by October, they will collect all the shares when people fedup, and fake a run.
Typical Paul Riss scam process. You can make money with him if you know how to trade with a thief
Level up your trading with our powerful tools and real-time insights all in one place.
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