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With states like Colorado and Washington legalizing marijuana, the talk among people and speakers at the annual Hash Bash was to push harder to get it legalized in the state of Michigan. Over 4,000 people came to The Diag on Saturday for the event on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. (AP Photo/Detroit Free Press, Eric Seals)
Mexican marijuana growers are adapting to decriminalized pot in parts of the United States by making investments in heroin production.
The Washington Post offer's a grim look at how Mexican drug cartels are shifting their business strategies away from marijuana. The wholesale price of marijuana has plunged, forcing growers to make inroads in other drugs.
Some are cultivating poppy farms; The Post reports seizures of heroin at the U.S.-Mexico border have skyrocketed.
Washington Post staff writer Nick Miroffreports:
Farmers in the storied "Golden Triangle" region of Mexico's Sinaloa state, which has produced the country's most notorious gangsters and biggest marijuana harvests, say they are no longer planting the crop. Its wholesale price has collapsed in the past five years, from $100 per kilogram to less than $25.
"It's not worth it anymore," said Rodrigo Silla, 50, a lifelong cannabis farmer who said he couldn't remember the last time his family and others in their tiny hamlet gave up growing mota. "I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization."
Growers from this area and as far afield as Central America are sowing their plots with opium poppies, and large-scale operations are turning up in places where authorities have never seen them.
The New York Times' Adam Nagourney reports on the disconnect between Democratic governors and voters when it comes to cannabis policy. Governors like California's Jerry Brown are finding themselves at odds with the public, which increasingly supports legalization.
Even with Democrats and younger voters leading the wave of the pro-legalization shift, these governors are standing back, supporting much more limited medical-marijuana proposals or invoking the kind of law-and-order and public-health arguments more commonly heard from Republicans. While 17 more states â most of them leaning Democratic â have seen bills introduced this year to follow Colorado and Washington in approving recreational marijuana, no sitting governor or member of the Senate has offered a full-out endorsement of legalization. Only Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat in Vermont, which is struggling with a heroin problem, said he was open to the idea.
Maryland appears headed toward decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, The Baltimore Sun reports.
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has said he'll keep an open mind when considering whether to sign the bill, the newspaper reports.
If O'Malley signs the measure, Maryland would become the 18th state to stop treating simple possession as a criminal offense, according to the Marijuana Policy Project. Two of them, Colorado and Washington, have legalized the regulated sale of the drug for recreational use.
The Maryland decriminalization legislation defines a small amount as 10 grams, a smaller amount than in most states.
The House acted on marijuana after the Judiciary Committee voted 13-8 earlier in the day to reverse its previous decision to approve only setting up a task force to study changes to marijuana laws.
And finally, The Oregonian editorial board over the weekend weighed in on an upcoming marijuana conference that's closed to the public and the press.
It's a perfect opportunity for Oregonians to learn from those who fear marijuana's legalization the most. And that's why it is flummoxing that the media is barred from the $250-a-ticket event and the nonpaying public unwelcome. Calls by The Oregonian's editorial board to the Mount Hood Coalition and Drug Free America went unreturned.
-- Noelle Crombie
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/04/marijuana_news_legalized_pot_i.html
Mexican marijuana growers are adapting to decriminalized pot in parts of the United States by making investments in heroin production.
The Washington Post offer's a grim look at how Mexican drug cartels are shifting their business strategies away from marijuana. The wholesale price of marijuana has plunged, forcing growers to make inroads in other drugs.
Some are cultivating poppy farms; The Post reports seizures of heroin at the U.S.-Mexico border have skyrocketed.
Washington Post staff writer Nick Miroffreports:
Farmers in the storied "Golden Triangle" region of Mexico's Sinaloa state, which has produced the country's most notorious gangsters and biggest marijuana harvests, say they are no longer planting the crop. Its wholesale price has collapsed in the past five years, from $100 per kilogram to less than $25.
"It's not worth it anymore," said Rodrigo Silla, 50, a lifelong cannabis farmer who said he couldn't remember the last time his family and others in their tiny hamlet gave up growing mota. "I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization."
Growers from this area and as far afield as Central America are sowing their plots with opium poppies, and large-scale operations are turning up in places where authorities have never seen them.
The New York Times' Adam Nagourney reports on the disconnect between Democratic governors and voters when it comes to cannabis policy. Governors like California's Jerry Brown are finding themselves at odds with the public, which increasingly supports legalization.
Even with Democrats and younger voters leading the wave of the pro-legalization shift, these governors are standing back, supporting much more limited medical-marijuana proposals or invoking the kind of law-and-order and public-health arguments more commonly heard from Republicans. While 17 more states â most of them leaning Democratic â have seen bills introduced this year to follow Colorado and Washington in approving recreational marijuana, no sitting governor or member of the Senate has offered a full-out endorsement of legalization. Only Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat in Vermont, which is struggling with a heroin problem, said he was open to the idea.
Maryland appears headed toward decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, The Baltimore Sun reports.
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has said he'll keep an open mind when considering whether to sign the bill, the newspaper reports.
If O'Malley signs the measure, Maryland would become the 18th state to stop treating simple possession as a criminal offense, according to the Marijuana Policy Project. Two of them, Colorado and Washington, have legalized the regulated sale of the drug for recreational use.
The Maryland decriminalization legislation defines a small amount as 10 grams, a smaller amount than in most states.
The House acted on marijuana after the Judiciary Committee voted 13-8 earlier in the day to reverse its previous decision to approve only setting up a task force to study changes to marijuana laws.
And finally, The Oregonian editorial board over the weekend weighed in on an upcoming marijuana conference that's closed to the public and the press.
It's a perfect opportunity for Oregonians to learn from those who fear marijuana's legalization the most. And that's why it is flummoxing that the media is barred from the $250-a-ticket event and the nonpaying public unwelcome. Calls by The Oregonian's editorial board to the Mount Hood Coalition and Drug Free America went unreturned.
-- Noelle Crombie
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/04/marijuana_news_legalized_pot_i.html
