China Warns Citizens Living In Canada Against Consuming Legal Cannabis

The Chinese government has issued a warning to its citizens living in Canada after the country moved into the second phase of cannabis legalization last Thursday. A statement released by the Chinese consulate in Calgary stopped short of barring Chinese citizens from buying or consuming the drug, but did counsel them to “fully understand the harmfulness of cannabis products.”

They are very aware of the brutality of the Chinese government. Especially the courageous Hong Kong protesters whom I wish the best of luck.

China has seen a wave of Reefer Madness-like anti-cannabis hysteria arise, heightened by fears over the spillover effects of marijuana regulation in parts of the US and Canada.

Ever hear of Maoism? That is some frightening shit. It was so bad that people ate their dead relatives instead of burying them. Cannibalism. That is some psycho shit. I'll take cannabisism over cannibalism any day.

The country has not limited its outrage to foreign nations. A Communist Party-led campaign against the mafia has resulted in the shuttering of Shanghai nightlife venues. In Beijing, foreign bar and restaurant owners report having been surprised with urine tests to prove that they are free of cannabis and other drugs.

It must be quite a unique experience urinating at gunpoint.

The Chinese rejection of marijuana has even reached the ears of the White House. In June, an official from the China National Narcotics Control Commission told reporters that cannabis legalization in the US and Canada has led to a 25 percent spike in marijuana use in China. In that instance, President Donald Trump countered by saying China is responsible for “flooding” the United States with illegal fentanyl.

Hey Chicoms. Did you really think you were going to punk my country,the United States Of America? Guess again, bitches. Go Protesters.

Though Canada legalized marijuana last October, the country has been slowly phasing in the regulation of particular cannabis products. Last week, on the anniversary of that initial legalization legislation, new regulations for certain cannabis derivatives took effect, including those related to edibles, beverages, vapes, dabs, and topical products.

I don't want to sound like someone's dad but be careful with vapes.

Cannabis Consumers Face Harsh Penalties

Anybody that the Chicoms don't like is in deep shit if they are in China's jurisdiction. Captured protesters are not going to fare much better.

This week China cautioned its citizens against THC products in particular and bringing any cannabis back to the country in general. Earlier this summer, a Canadian man was arrested on drug charges in Yantai, the most recent in a string of people from the country who have found themselves in trouble in China for similar offenses.

Chinese citizens have good reason to heed their government when it comes to sending or bringing cannabis back home. The death penalty is the maximum sentence that can be handed down for trafficking illegal substances in China, and the country has not proven reluctant to hand down that harshest punishment of all. In fact, a Canadian citizen is currently facing execution after being convicted of conspiracy to smuggle 489 pounds of meth into the country.

The Chicoms have no problem executing disidents as well.Look at Tiananmen Square.

Should the government make good on that sentence (which is being appealed), it wouldn’t be the first time China executes a foreigner for trafficking illegal drugs. In 2014, the government put a Japanese man to death, as well as a Filipina courier whose family asked that her name stay out of the press in 2013, and Akmal Shaikh from Great Britain in 2009. Last year, a US college student was released after serving eight months in a Chinese prison on cannabis trafficking charges that turned out to be false.

Smart move,Chicoms. As long as that young American comes home in good health we can be reasonable. You don't want to fuck with Trump or the bald eagle will get you.

China’s no tolerance views on marijuana

China has no tolerance views on everything.

are surprising when regarded in the historical context. Earlier this year, researchers discovered ten ritual braziers in a western China tomb which constitute the earliest known evidence of cannabis being smoked. The vessels are thought to date from at least 2,500 years ago.

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Joe Biden Applauds Anti-Marijuana Speech At Opioid Forum

As former Vice President Joe Biden mulls a 2020 presidential run, marijuana reform advocates are following closely to see if the long-running drug warrior is going to change his tune. But at a forum on the opioid epidemic on Thursday, that didn’t seem to be the case.

When the mayor of Philadelphia asked the panel at the University of Pennsylvania event about whether cannabis can be used as an alternative to opioids, psychobiology professor Bertha Madras claimed that patients who consume marijuana experience the same levels of pain and don’t decrease their opioid use, and she also characterized legislative efforts to allow patients with opioid use disorder to access medical marijuana as “disrespectful”—a rant that Biden enthusiastically applauded.

“At this point there are two conclusions. Number one, the data does not show that cannabis is a substitute, because if you actually do longitudinal studies on an individual basis, you find that people are suffering as much pain if they’re taking marijuana, and their opioid use is not decreasing in most cases,” Madras, who served as the deputy director of demand reduction for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, argued. “In fact, they’re getting more and more in trouble, in terms of developing opioid use disorder and they’re misusing opioids.”

“Every single disease that is treated in this country—like diabetes, like infections, like cancer—is evidence-based and undergoes randomized controlled clinical trials,” she continued. “And to say that this is by legislative support or by fiat from a governor’s office, that this is how you can treat opioid use disorder without the clinical trials, without longitudinal studies, to me is purely disrespectful of patients.”

There are numerous studies that raise questions about the doctor’s broad dismissal of the notion that cannabis can substitute opioids, but Biden seemed satisfied. He applauded the doctor and later seemed to tell the guest next to him that “she’s right.”

The tacit endorsement of the panelist’s anti-cannabis speech appears to signal that Biden—who as a senator championed the enactment of harsh, punitive drug laws—remains opposed, or at least skeptical about, changing marijuana policies. That will put him at odds with every other major Democratic candidate currently in the race—all of whom have backed legalization for both medical and adult use.

Also at the forum, Biden commented on the addictiveness of opioid-based painkillers and said that “a little pain is not bad,” a remark that could be interpreted as insulting to pain patients, who have increasingly faced stigmatization and scrutiny as they’ve sought relief amidst the opioid crisis.


Matt Viser
✔
@mviser
Joe Biden, asked what one thing he wishes people knew, says people should recognize how addictive pain killers are. "A little pain is not bad," he says.

It’s unclear how seriously Biden is weighing a 2020 run at this stage, with many speaking out about his history of touching women in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. But if he does take the plunge, drug policy will undoubtedly be a sticking point for many voters.

The current field of Democratic candidates is already competing to go beyond simply supporting legalization and either musing broader decriminalization of other drugs or, in the case of Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), insisting that support for ending prohibition is contingent on the inclusion of social equity provisions to repair the damages of the war on drugs, which has been carried out in a racially disproportionate manner.

As far as Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) is concerned, the U.S. will never have another “anti-cannabis’ president. Asked specifically about Biden’s prospects, the congressman told Marijuana Moment in a recent interview that nobody “is going to survive the nominating process who doesn’t have a reasonable position on cannabis.”

“They will not be nominated. I say that unequivocally,” Blumenauer said.

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Bill Bratton blames drug violence in NYC on pot

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton on Sunday ripped states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use, saying pot is responsible for “the vast majority’’ of violence in the city.

“Here in New York, the violence we see associated with drugs, the vast majority of it, is around the issue of marijuana, which is ironic considering the explosion in use of heroin now in the city,” Bratton said Sunday on John Catsimatidis’s radio show.

“Interestingly enough, here in New York City most of the violence we see – violence around drug trafficking – is involving marijuana and I have to scratch my head as we are seeing many states wanting to legalize marijuana, and more liberalization of policies,” he said.

His comments came two years after Mayor de Blasio introduced an NYPD policy mandating that a person possessing less than 25 grams of marijuana get a ticket instead of being arrested, as long as they have ID and no outstanding warrants.

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First of all the problems associated with marijuana are legal not medical. If New York State legalized marijuana the same as Colorado has they wouldn't have this problem. Take the criminality out of it take the problems out of it. But of course if they did that the cops could no longer make weed busts which pads their resumes. If Bratton is serious about safe streets in New York City then he better tell Albany to legalize it or allow medical marijuana or else nothing is going to change.

Marijuana legalization in 3 states

From NORML:

I hope you'll agree that the momentum in the United States to end cannabis prohibition is now genuinely palpable.

Citizens' votes in Colorado and Washington in 2012 to end their state's cannabis prohibition laws and replace them with 'tax-n-regulate' laws arguably has forever broken the back of the federal government's nearly eighty-year old failed and expensive prohibition.

We can lay more bricks of permanent reforms to this foundation when voters in Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia decide on ballot questions in favor of legally controlling (and benefiting from) cannabis commerce.

Many national polls today indicate nearly 60% support for legalizing the cultivation, sale and use of cannabis. Objective media and think tanks continue to praise the nascent stages of Colorado and Washington's cannabis commerce and taxation.

Both of these factors bode strongly for all three ballot measures this November.

NORML's board of directors endorses these cannabis legalization measures. All three support basic tenets of reform. They differ slightly in scope and implementation based on local considerations of law, customs and polled public sentiment.

The legalization measures in Alaska and Oregon could end cannabis prohibition, allow cultivation for personal use, permit commercial growing for sale in licensed stores, and provide adults with plenty of plants. In the federal city of Washington, D.C., voters could reduce cannabis penalties to zero for possession and personal cultivation--but retail sales must wait.

I hope you'll agree with NORML's board that the passage of these three voter initiatives will greatly advance cannabis law reform in our country.

What can NORML's large network of members and supporters do to help pass these three crucially important cannabis law reforms this fall?

Please make a tax-deductible donation to The NORML Foundation to support a specific state's legalization initiative.

Contact, communicate with and join your local NORML chapter (there are over 150 NORML chapters in the United States)

Organize among your family, friends and co-workers to be supportive of these three initiatives and help spread the word and excitement of citizens in America now taking the opportunity to end a long-failed public policy and replacing it with a new one that is constitutionally-friendly, free- market oriented, fair and rational.

If you're reading this note and reside in Alaska, Oregon or Washington, D.C., your time for participation has arrived. Focus your time, energy and to pass these major reforms. For more information about what residents can do to help pass these initiatives, please contact the national NORML office in Washington, D.C. or your local chapters in these states.

Those of us who live elsewhere can still help. As the repeal of alcohol prohibition taught us, each state that falls makes the next ones topple easier.

Please join my family and me this fall in supporting these cannabis legalization ballot initiatives.

Thanks in advance and warm regards,
Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D
Chair, NORML Board of Directors
Albany, NY