Many would argue that the legalization of recreational cannabis across all 50 states is essentially inevitable at this rate. Some states without recreational cannabis laws in place are practically surrounded by others that have introduced reform. 

Pennsylvania, for example, just saw Gov. Josh Shapiro calling on state legislators to get a move on and legalize. “It’s time to catch up,” Shapiro said earlier this month, arguing that the longer the state goes without legalizing adult-use cannabis, the more Pennsylvania will miss out on revenue and economic opportunities.

Idaho is also mostly surrounded by states that have legalized cannabis in some form — Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Montana have all legalized cannabis for medical and recreational use, while Utah has legalized for medical use. Wyoming, like Idaho, has yet to legalize cannabis for medical or recreational use.

Though, unlike Pennsylvania, Idaho lawmakers are taking a different approach. Instead of working toward cannabis reform, a newly introduced bill would create a mandatory minimum $420 fine for possession of less than three ounces of cannabis, the Idaho Capital Sun reports.

Further Potential Penalties for Cannabis Possession in Idaho

Rep. Bruce Skaug introduced the legislation, HB 606, as his second attempt to pass a bill creating a minimum fine for cannabis possession of less than three ounces. He previously introduced HB 559 on Feb. 13, though this new bill is meant to replace the former and makes a technical correction. 

HB 606 adds language noting that any other penalties specified in state law can also be applied alongside the $420 fine.

Current Idaho law specifies that possession of less than three ounces of cannabis is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $1,000. Anyone possessing more than three ounces of cannabis can be sentenced to up to five years in prison and/or pay a fine of up to $10,000.

Skaug (R-Nampa) introduced HB 606 on Tuesday to members of the House State Affairs Committee, additionally dropping a number of weed-related puns as he told the committee he had “smoked out” the issue from the last bill and ran the updates by his assistant, “Mary Jane.” The fine amount of course is a nod to 420 — a nickname for weed and a reference to the widely celebrated cannabis holiday of April 20.

The Tuesday hearing was introductory, so the next step for HB 606 is to return to the House State Affairs Committee for a full public hearing.

Idaho’s Ongoing Push for Cannabis Reform

For those keeping up with Idaho’s track record on cannabis, it’s not surprising that the state has taken a less than progressive approach as surrounding states move ahead with reform measures.

Gov. Brad Little has been vocal about his anti-cannabis reform stance, including measures surrounding medicinal cannabis access and industrial hemp production. Shortly after he was elected in 2019, he said if Idahoans want legal cannabis, “they elected the wrong guy as governor.”

Little was re-elected in 2022, and Idaho does not have term limits for governor.

Though, it does appear that residents are open to the idea of medicinal cannabis reform. A 2022 SurveyUSA poll found that 68% of Idaho adults believe that medical cannabis should be legal in the state. And a citizen-led statute to legalize medical cannabis could potentially make it to the Idaho ballot later this year.

The Idaho Medical Marijauna Act 2024 is sponsored by nonprofit Kind Idaho and first received clearance in April 2023 to begin signature gathering. The campaign has until April 14, 2024 to collect approximately 63,000 valid signatures, or roughly 6% of registered voters from the most recent general election.

The post Idaho Bill Would Create Minimum $420 Fine for Possessing Small Amounts of Weed appeared first on High Times.

The post Idaho Bill Would Create Minimum $420 Fine for Possessing Small Amounts of Weed appeared first on Paradise Found.

Cannabis might be illegal again in Sarasota, Florida. As twenty-four states, along with Washington, D.C., and Guam, have legalized herb, as the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports, attitudes are becoming more regressive in some places. As absolutely frustrating as it is to pay fines for cannabis, what’s happening in Sarasota, unfortunately, proves that the government can always make things worse if people don’t follow the rules. 

On Monday, the Sarasota City Commission started the process of repealing its marijuana civil citation program. Cops made their case by first presenting a recommendation in what sounds like watching a PowerPoint program from hell. Much of their argument is based on the fact that there is currently a 90% noncompliance with the program’s fines. 

The City Commission passed the ordinance that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of cannabis in 2020. Since then, in the three years of decriminalization of weed, the Sarasota police have issued 427 civil citations. Of that figure, police say that only 47 people have paid up. One person opted for community service. As a result, after a May report on the topic from the Independent Police Advisory Panel, the city wants to recriminalize possession of cannabis. 

“The current Cannabis Civil Citation program allows for an individual to receive an unlimited number of civil citations, it does not provide for any consequence if the civil citation is ignored, and it gives the cited individual the ability to refuse to identify themselves rendering the citation useless,” city documents state.

When Sarasota first passed the law, possession of less than 20 grams of cannabis or related paraphernalia landed you a $100 fine or 10 hours of community service. It wasn’t anything cruel or unusual. The person in question had to be over 18 and could not be actively smoking it when they got caught. 

Before the 2020 decriminalization, possessing 20 grams or less could land you in jail for a maximum of a one-year sentence coupled with a one-year driver’s license suspension. The latter has more sweeping implications than one realizes, affecting one’s ability to get to work. The law was passed in an effort to avoid giving people criminal records. According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, they also felt that the police department had “better things to do with their time.” 

In the state of Florida, the recreational use of cannabis remains illegal. Possession of a quantity up to 20 grams (approximately 3⁄4 ounce) is classified as a misdemeanor, and as in Sarasota (unless it’s overturned) is decriminalized in certain cities. However, this is not a united decision. It’s totally illegal in plenty of places, and possibly more, based on Sarasota’s actions. Currently, in Florida, marijuana possession carries potential penalties, including up to one year of imprisonment, a fine not exceeding $1,000, and the possibility of driver’s license suspension. Nevertheless, various cities and counties within Florida have implemented reforms to impose less severe penalties for such offenses.

The medicinal use of cannabis, however, saw legalization in 2016 through a constitutional amendment. Known as Amendment 2, this initiative appeared on the ballot and garnered overwhelming support, with 71% approval from voters.

Should the repeal of the citation program go through and become finalized, the possession of cannabis will revert to being classified as a criminal offense. However, the police officials have indicated that folks who meet specific criteria will be directed to the State Attorney’s Office Adult Pre-arrest Diversion Program. This program will then determine whether to initiate criminal charges against these offenders. So, whether there are criminal consequences for any of this is still to be seen. However, that program is more than twice as expensive as the current $100 fine in the city’s program. 

So people should probably go ahead and just start paying the $100 fine. As annoying as it may be, when the government gets its hands on cannabis, things can always become more annoying. 

The City Commission, in a majority decision of 4-1, has instructed the city attorney to prepare an ordinance for the repealing of the marijuana civil citation program. Erik Arroyo, a member of the City Commission, stood as the sole dissenting voice, opting not to support the motion. Arroyo is an American lawyer and Republican politician, notable for becoming the youngest and first Hispanic Mayor in the history of Sarasota, Florida.

The post Sarasota Moves To Make Cannabis Possession Criminal Again After Few Pay Civil Fines appeared first on High Times.

The post Sarasota Moves To Make Cannabis Possession Criminal Again After Few Pay Civil Fines appeared first on Paradise Found.

It’s time for Big Pharma companies that were caught lying to the public to pay up. 

A new report compiled by ConsumerShield suggests the past decade was defined by record-high settlements and penalties in the pharmaceuticals sector, totalling over $80 billion in fines and penalties.

ConsumerShield’s report, “The Pharmaceutical Industry: Balancing Profits, Penalties, and Public Safety,” was published on Oct. 17, and it shows that the lion’s share of violations involve synthetic opioids that clearly cause dependence and are powerful enough to stop breathing.

London Loves Business reports that the study shows that since 2010, the pharmaceutical industry has incurred $82.8 billion in penalties during over 500 instances of recorded violations due to drug and medical device safety non-observance, unapproved promotion of medical products, breaches of the False Claims Act, and other violations.

The biggest culprit—Johnson & Johnson—clocked in with over 45 violation records during the study period, leading to a total of  $24.5 billion in penalties. Johnson & Johnson paid $18 billion USD in penalties over the past five years in opioid and talc cases alone. Next is Teva Pharmaceuticals with penalties of $8.5 billion, AbbVie with penalties of $7.1 billion, GSK plc with penalties of $5.6 billion, and Pfizer with penalties of $3.2 billion.

The report also lists significant settlements, with one case standing out: the Purdue Pharma case, resulting in an order to pay $8.3 billion. On Oct. 21, 2020, the Department of Justice announced a massive fine culminating its criminal and civil investigations into the opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma, and a civil resolution of its civil investigation into individual shareholders from the Sackler family.  

Purdue and the Sacklers continued to market OxyContin and opioid products to over 100 health care providers despite the company knowing there was good reason to believe they were diverting opioids and reporting misleading information to the DEA to boost Purdue’s manufacturing quotas. 

Hundreds of thousands of people overdosed and died in the process. Nearly 88% of opioid-involved overdose deaths involved synthetic opioids, and opioids were the cause of 80,411 overdose deaths in 2021—75.4% of all drug overdose deaths, the CDC reported in 2021 when overdoses peaked. Compare that to heroin overdoses, which caused just 9,000 overdoses in 2021 unless they were mixed with opioids. Almost ten times more OD’d on synthetic opioids.

“The abuse and diversion of prescription opioids has contributed to a national tragedy of addiction and deaths, in addition to those caused by illicit street opioids,” said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen.  “With criminal guilty pleas, a federal settlement of more than $8 billion, and the dissolution of a company and repurposing its assets entirely for the public’s benefit, the resolution in today’s announcement re-affirms that the Department of Justice will not relent in its multi-pronged efforts to combat the opioids crisis.”

Most of us know about the ravages of the opioid epidemic, but what’s the deal with talc? Pharmaceuticals can kill you in other ways. Talcum powder lawsuits claim consumers were diagnosed with cancer after using talc-based Johnson & Johnson baby powder.

A Solemn Warning

The ConsumerShield report kicks off with a solemn warning:

“It is with a sense of urgency and responsibility that we delve deep into the prevailing paradigms of the pharma industry,” the report reads. “Our investigation is geared towards understanding whether the soaring profits are inadvertently overshadowing the paramount need for consumer safety, ethical promotions, and pioneering research initiatives.

“The stark discrepancy between R&D investments and marketing expenditures, coupled with the persistence of unethical practices despite soaring penalties, necessitates a comprehensive examination of the industry’s commitment to ethical practices and consumer well-being.”

ConsumerShield representatives say that what the data shows is disturbing.

“The juxtaposition of soaring revenues and escalating penalties is alarming,” ConsumerShield Senior Analyst Jane Doe told London Loves Business. “But what’s even more disturbing is the obvious disparity between companies’ spending on research and development (R&D) and their enormous marketing budgets.”

The False Claims Act is the federal government’s primary litigation tool in combating fraud against the government, and part of that includes consumer protections.

“Pharmaceutical companies that have engaged in illegal off-label marketing or promotion of their drugs have paid the Government hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of Federal False Claims Act cases, often times brought by pharmaceutical sales representatives, sales managers, compliance officers, other pharmaceutical company employees, physicians, nurses and/or employees of hospitals or physician practices,” the False Claims Act Pharmaceutical Fraud summary reads.

The report shows the repercussions of marketing opioids despite receiving warnings about its enormous deadly impact, notwithstanding the people who actually need opioids to deal with high levels of pain.

The post Big Pharma Drug Makers Fined Over $82B in Violations Last Decade, Report Shows appeared first on High Times.

The post Big Pharma Drug Makers Fined Over $82B in Violations Last Decade, Report Shows appeared first on Paradise Found.

More than 150 Oklahoma medical marijuana dispensaries have received letters from state regulators notifying owners that they owe thousands of dollars in fines for transactions that do not comply with the state’s medical cannabis regulations. Some providers could also lose their licenses for selling too much medical marijuana in a single transaction, according to a spokesperson for the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA).

The letters, one of which has been shared with High Times, notify owners that the potentially illegal transactions occurred between January and May of this year. The correspondence also informs the businesses that a November court date has been set in relation to the alleged violations. Dispensary owner Rob Speight is one of several business owners who say the letter came as a shock, adding that he is unsure how he will afford to pay the fine.

“It is saying that I’m getting charged $5,000 for a transaction that was over the limit of 84 grams,” Speight, who received the letter from OMMA last week, told local media.

He also adds that the letter is lacking in detail and does not contain basic information such as the date of the flagged transaction.

“We don’t know exactly when it was, I’m not saying it didn’t happen,” said Speight. “We don’t make a habit of ever overweighing the legal limit…it’s simple, you just break it up into a second transaction.”

Under Oklahoma’s medical marijuana laws, purchases by patients are limited to 84.9 grams (about 3 ounces) of cannabis flower, 28.3 grams (one ounce) of cannabis concentrate, 72 ounces of marijuana edibles, six mature cannabis plants and/or six cannabis plant seedlings. Transactions that exceed the stated limits are contrary to the state’s regulations and subject owners to fines.

Jed Green, the director of the medicinal cannabis advocacy group Oklahoman’s for Responsible Cannabis Action, met with OMMA officials last week in an effort to gain more information about the letters and alleged rule infractions.

“It has left some of our business owners scrambling. Especially those who truly are compliant…to go back looking for a needle in a haystack of say one potential violation over 10s of thousands of transactions,” Green said. “OMMA has indicated that they will make those violations known… it would be nice if that might have been more isolated up front.” 

Green added that technical glitches in the OMMA’s tracking system could be responsible for some of the alleged infractions.

“We talked about the way mathematics were being done in conversion of standard American units to metric units,” Green said. “We were discussing that and wanting to ensure that OMMA was being thorough and that in some of these cases there could be some glitches between multiple software systems.”

The letters note that upon the first violation, offenders are subject to a fine of $5,000. Subsequent violations are levied fines of $15,000. The letter shared with High Times, which was sent to a business owner who wishes to remain anonymous, detailed three violations, bringing the total fines assessed to $35,000. Some dispensary owners fear that the penalties could put them out of business.

“It’s also a crisis to the business owners to get fined so much that it’s shutting people’s door is it’s costing them their livelihood,” said Cynthia Myers, the owner of three dispensaries. “I’ve been in this five years and in November….I don’t have $30,000 to pay a fine on top of raising other permits and stuff, too.”

In a statement to local media, OMMA public relations manager Porsha Riley said that some of the dispensaries that received letters also face losing their license to serve patients.

“As the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, we are responsible for regulating the medical cannabis industry in our state. That responsibility includes upholding the highest standard of compliance,” Riley said in a statement. “Our agency recently filed petitions against 161 licensed dispensaries for sales over the legal limit. Of those 161 cases, 39 seek fines and revocation of licenses; 122 seek fines. Enforcing legal limits on sales is essential to maintaining the integrity of our medical market, preventing unauthorized use or distribution, and controlling oversupply.”

Speight said he faces a court date on November 8 to answer for the alleged violation.

“I have to obtain a lawyer, to go to court, to challenge something that I actually have no idea what, where, or when it happened,” he said.

According to the letters, business owners who have their licenses revoked are ineligible to apply for a new license for a period of five years. Bri Padilla, the executive director of the trade group The Chamber of Cannabis, said that some dispensary owners had reached out for help about compliance before the letters were issued but did not receive the support they needed.

“What is particularly concerning, is that operators and lawmakers in Oklahoma have been asking for support as it relates to seed-to-sale tracking options since before January of this year. Now, we are seeing operators fined, shut down, and otherwise threatened due to potential glitches in software. That is unacceptable and merits inspection,” Padilla wrote in a statement to High Times. “As all Cannabis programs roll out and grow, some hiccups are to be expected but issues of this scope simply should not be happening.”

The post More Than 150 Oklahoma Dispensaries Face New State Fines appeared first on High Times.

The post More Than 150 Oklahoma Dispensaries Face New State Fines appeared first on Paradise Found.