Poll: How Do You Feel About Pot Laws Under Donald Trump’s Administration?

Marijuana law reform is at a remarkable crossroads. The 2016 election resulted in four additional recreational cannabis states and four more medical cannabis states. Currently, more than half the country allows for the use of medical marijuana.

However, in the same election, voters sent Donald Trump to the White House. While no one knows exactly how President-elect Trump will handle cannabis laws, his choice of noted prohibitionist Jeff Sessions for Attorney General has caused concerns. So, we want to know how you feel about marijuana laws under Trump’s administration.

You can keep up with all of HIGH TIMES’ marijuana news right here.

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http://hightimes.com/culture/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-pot-laws-under-donald-trumps-administration/

Congress to Discuss Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition?

Although it remains uncertain whether the Trump Administration will shut down the cannabis industry when it takes over the United States later this month, nothing is stopping one ambitious lawmaker from pushing Congress to legalize the leaf nationwide.

U.S. Representative Jared Polis of Colorado, a man who has led the battle to end prohibition in the U.S. for the past several years, poured his heart out in a recent op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle, calling for congressional leadership to finally cut the prohibitionary shenanigans and make way for an opportunity to legalize marijuana across the entire nation.

In the piece, Polis said he plans to introduce a bill that would allow marijuana to be taxed and regulated similar to alcohol.

“Every Congress since 2013, I have introduced legislation that removes marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and leaves the decision to legalize up to the states, where it belongs,” Polis wrote. “I plan to reintroduce the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act in the next Congress.”

Considering that the language of the measure has not been tweaked, the “Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act” would remove cannabis from the confines of the Controlled Substances Act and allow the in-and-out’s of the cannabis industry to be overseen by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The measure would also put the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in charge of cannabis products in the same way it presently handles alcohol.

Sadly, even if the bill manages to go the distance, it would not necessarily mean that marijuana would be legal in every jurisdiction. The proposal would still give states the right to refuse legalization.

Nevertheless, Polis wants the federal government to respect the latest scientific evidence with respect to the cannabis plant and the more than 60 percent of the American population who believes weed should be made legal in a manner similar to beer.

“It is past time for Congress to acknowledge that there has been a resounding shift in the way Americans think about marijuana, and science supports this shift,” Polis wrote.

Although Polis’s article did not indicate when the bill would be submitted, we anticipate it will happen within the first two months of 2017.

Unfortunately, the bill, which was last introduced in February 2016, has taken it on the chin from congressional leadership in year past. So far, the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act has not even managed to secure a hearing.

But supposing this year is different, and the bill finds success in both chambers of Congress, it is still a long shot as to whether president-elect would support full legalization. As of now, the entire cannabis industry is still waiting to see if Trump’s selection for U.S. attorney general will even allow legal marijuana states to continue operations.

Still, Polis hopes the situation will work out for the best.

“While it’s discouraging to see that the president-elect has picked an attorney general who is hostile to marijuana reforms, it is the president who sets the policies,” Polis wrote. “We must hold Trump accountable to what he has said in the past about marijuana legalization.”

You can keep up with all of HIGH TIMES’ marijuana news right here.

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http://hightimes.com/news/congress-to-discuss-ending-federal-marijuana-prohibition/

U.S. Sen. Warren Seeks to Pull Pot Shops Out of Banking Limbo

BY STEVE LEBLANC
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOSTON (AP) — As marijuana shops sprout in states that have legalized the drug, they face a critical stumbling block – lack of access to the kind of routine banking services other businesses take for granted.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, is leading an effort to make sure vendors working with legal marijuana businesses, from chemists who test marijuana for harmful substances to firms that provide security, don’t have their banking services taken away.

It’s part of a wider effort by Warren and others to bring the burgeoning $7 billion marijuana industry in from a fiscal limbo she said forces many shops to rely solely on cash, making them tempting targets for criminals.

After voters in Warren’s home state approved a November ballot question to legalize the recreational use of pot, she joined nine other senators in sending a letter to a key federal regulator, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, calling on it to issue additional guidance to help banks provide services to marijuana shop vendors.

Twenty-eight states have legalized marijuana for medicinal or recreational use.

Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, said there are benefits to letting marijuana-based businesses move away from a cash-only model.

“You make sure that people are really paying their taxes. You know that the money is not being diverted to some kind of criminal enterprise,” Warren said recently. “And it’s just a plain old safety issue. You don’t want people walking in with guns and masks and saying, ‘Give me all your cash.'”

A spokesman for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said the agency is reviewing the letter.

There has been some movement to accommodate the banking needs of marijuana businesses.

Two years ago, the U.S. Department of the Treasury gave banks permission to do business with legal marijuana entities under some conditions. Since then, the number of banks and credit unions willing to handle pot money rose from 51 in 2014 to 301 in 2016.

Warren, however, said fewer than 3 percent of the nation’s 11,954 federally regulated banks and credit unions are serving the cannabis industry.

Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, a trade organization for 1,100 marijuana businesses nationwide, said access to banking remains a top concern.

“What the industry needs is a sustainable solution that services the entire industry instead of tinkering around the edges,” Taylor said. “You don’t have to be fully in favor of legalized marijuana to know that it helps no one to force these businesses outside the banking system.”

Sam Kamin, a professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law who studies marijuana regulation, said there’s only so much states can do on their own.

“The stumbling block over and over again is the federal illegality,” he said.

The federal government lumps marijuana into the same class of drugs as heroin, LSD and peyote. Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration has essentially turned a blind eye to state laws legalizing the drug, and supporters of legalizing marijuana hope Republican President-elect Donald Trump will follow suit.

Trump officials did not respond to a request for comment. During the presidential campaign, Trump said states should be allowed to legalize marijuana and has expressed support for medicinal use. But he also has sounded more skeptical about recreational use, and his pick for attorney general, Alabama U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, is a stern critic.

Some people in the marijuana industry say the banking challenges are merely growing pains for an industry evolving from mom-and-pop outlets.

Nicholas Vita, CEO of Columbia Care, one of the nation’s largest providers of medical marijuana products, said it’s up to marijuana businesses to make sure their financial house is in order.

“It’s not just as simple as asking the banks to open their doors,” Vita said. “The industry also needs to develop a set of standards that are acceptable to the banks.”

You can keep up with all of HIGH TIMES’ marijuana news right here.

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http://hightimes.com/news/u-s-sen-warren-seeks-to-pull-pot-shops-out-of-banking-limbo/

Massachusetts to Get Country’s Biggest Legal Grow

Denver-based AmeriCann is planning to develop what will be the United States’ largest medical marijuana facility in Freetown, Massachusetts. The one million-square-foot Massachusetts Medical Cannabis Center is planned for a tract in the Bristol County town formerly slated for a brewery by the Boston Beer Co. 

The Boston Business Journal reported that AmeriCann bought the property this fall for $4.475 million. AmeriCann CEO Tim Keogh said the facility will be “the place in the northeast U.S. for the creation of a wide variety of exciting new advanced products for medical cannabis patients.”

The first phase of the project will include a 130,000-square-foot cultivation and processing area and a separate 30,000-square-foot research and development building, Keogh told the Boston Business Journal. Local contractor Campanelli Construction hopes to break ground in March and wrap up by October 2017. Total costs for the first phase could reach $25 million, Keogh said.

The Coastal Compassion company hopes to have cannabis in production in greenhouses at the site by fall 2017. AmeriCann is also said to be exploring opportunities for development of medical marijuana facilities in California, Pennsylvania and Florida.

The development is part of a growing trend of Colorado canna-businesses setting up shop in Massachusetts, where a legalization initiative was approved by voters in November.

As Quartz noted, the Freetown facility will overtake one currently under construction by GFarmaLabs in Desert Hot Springs, California, which until now, has been the largest in the country. Desert Hot Springs, in Riverside County, declared itself insolvent in 2014 and is now experiencing a real estate boom thanks to the cannabis industry. The three-greenhouse GFarmaLabs facility is to cover 100,000 square feet.

You can keep up with all of HIGH TIMES’ marijuana news right here.

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http://hightimes.com/news/massachusetts-to-get-countrys-biggest-legal-grow/

Stoner Sex: The Club Scene, Oral Passion, Shaving Regrets & Dealing with Abuse

Dear Hyapatia,
I’m in a relationship with a very good-looking guy. He‘s super-hot and I love having sex with him. He’s a real gentleman and when we get high and talk at night, he makes me feel like he really understands me. I’d do just about anything to keep him. He has been wanting me to go with him to a sex club he used to go to with his old girlfriend. I’ve never done anything like that before and am pretty shy about it. Do I really need to do this to keep him interested in me? I would hate to think that if I didn’t have sex with him at this club it might mean the end of our relationship. – Donna

Dear Donna,
If he used to go to this club with his old girlfriend, he might have more on his mind than just sex. He may want to show you off or send a message to his ex that he has a new love interest. Be honest with him about your reservations. If you decide to go, be sure you let him know it does not necessarily mean you are willing to have sex. That’s a separate decision, made well after you’ve seen the place and people involved. If he’s the gentleman you say he is, he won’t pressure you. Knowing that sex is not expected, visiting the club might turn out to be not such a big step out of your comfort zone. But as I always advise, don’t consent to engage in any sexual activity that you’re uncomfortable with.

Dear Hyapatia,
You ran a recent letter from a woman who said she felt like she could almost climax just from giving her man head. I understand that entirely, because I feel the same way. When I’m down between my lady’s legs giving her pleasure with my mouth, it turns me on so much that I could almost be satisfied just from pleasing her in this way. The smell and taste turns me on so much, and knowing how it makes her feel makes me so excited that I could do it for hours! I get good and high off of sticky, dank weed. But nothing compares to the high I get when I’m going down on my sexy gal. – Rick

Dear Rick,
I’m sure your lover appreciates your enthusiasm. Many women are particularly turned on by oral sex. It sounds like you’re just what they’re looking for! Enjoy what sounds like a very active and fulfilling sex life.

Dear Hyapatia,
My boyfriend and I decided it would be exciting if I shaved my pussy. For the first few times, it was really great. But then I noticed he didn’t seem to want to have sex with me. After awhile, he admitted that he didn’t like it shaved, so I’m growing it back. In the meantime, I still want to have sex, but he says it turns him off. I don’t want to wait until I have a full bush again to have sex! What can I do? – Kim

Dear Kim,
Hmm … sounds a little selfish on his part. Wasn’t he part of the decision? Anyway, the good news is that it will grow back quickly. There are several things you can do while you’re waiting for it to grow back. Get high before sex, as that always enhances the experience. It will help get his mind off of the obvious. You could keep yourself covered during foreplay or try positions where he can’t see your missing bush. Doggy and reverse-cowgirl are great positions for sex. You can also take extra doses of Vitamin D to speed up hair growth.

Dear Hyapatia,
My boyfriend is really good to me and I love him very much. He’s very sweet and understanding, so I’ve felt comfortable sharing things with him that I haven’t shared with some of my other boyfriends. One of the things we’ve been talking about is the sexual abuse I went through as a young adult. At first, he was very supportive and helpful, but now he says he feels uncomfortable discussing it. When we get high and get to talking, and it’s getting close to time for bed, it just naturally comes up for me. What can I do to help him feel more comfortable talking about it? – Gina

Dear Gina,
A boyfriend isn’t the best person to discuss past sexual abuse with. While there can be times when it’s beneficial for them to know what you’ve been through, few people are equipped to help you heal or process the experience. Think of it this way: if he had been beaten and abused in the past, would you be the best person to help him through the residual trauma? While you’d be sympathetic and supportive, would you know what to say if the topic came up repeatedly? Keep in mind, sex is a vehicle for him to show his love for you. You can see how it might make him feel awkward. It’s certainly understandable that you may need to talk about the trauma, but a therapist is better equipped to help you than your boyfriend. Smoke some nice weed with him and leave the past in the past, knowing that you can discuss it later with someone trained to help you. Allow yourself to enjoy the way he loves you.

Ask Hyapatia all of your questions regarding stoner sexuality. Email her at hya@hightimes.com.

Last Week’s Stoner Sex: Oral Joy, Resolutions, Infectious Cheaters & Throwin’ a New Year’s Bash

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http://hightimes.com/culture/stoner-sex-the-club-scene-oral-passion-shaving-regrets-dealing-with-abuse/

Vandalized Hollywood Sign Briefly Reads ‘Hollyweed’

BY CHRISTOPHER WEBER
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES (AP) — No, Los Angeles residents, it wasn’t your hangovers playing tricks on you. The Hollywood sign really did read “HOLLYWeeD” for a few hours on New Year’s Day.

Police were investigating Sunday after a prankster used giant tarps to turn two of the iconic sign’s white Os into Es sometime overnight.

The vandal, dressed in all black, was recorded by security cameras and could face a misdemeanor trespassing charge, said Sgt. Robert Payan.

The person scaled a protective fence surrounding the sign above Griffith Park and then clambered up each giant letter to drape the coverings, Payan said.

The prank may be a nod to California voters’ approval in November of Proposition 64, which legalized the recreational use of marijuana, beginning in 2018.

Hikers and tourists in the hills spent the morning snapping photos of themselves in front of the altered sign before park rangers began removing the tarps.

“It’s kind of cool being here at the moment,” Bruce Quinn told KABC-TV. “I thought we came to see the Hollywood sign, not the’ Hollyweed’ sign. But hey it’s OK with me!”

While attention-grabbing, the prank was not exactly original. Forty-one years ago to the day – Jan. 1, 1976 – a college student similarly altered the sign, using curtains to make it read “HOLLYWEED.”

You can keep up with all of HIGH TIMES’ marijuana news right here.

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http://hightimes.com/news/vandalized-hollywood-sign-briefly-reads-hollyweed/

STRAIN OF THE DAY 01/02/2017: CHEESE QUAKE (INDICA)

CANNABIS STRAIN OF THE DAY 01/02/2017: CHEESE QUAKE (INDICA)

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https://www.potbox.com/database/indica/cheese-quake/