CRomnibus, the moniker of the ’15 appropriations bill, bars the D.C. Council from spending the time and money necessary to initialize Initiative 71. Medical dispensaries and the decriminalization of marijuana in D.C. remain unaffected; it was the probable legalization of marijuana sales following Initiative 71 that CRomnibus puts on hold.
Read more →Policy on pot from a practical point of view. Mark Kleiman tells Damian Christie for the New Zealand Drug Foundation how he became a drug policy analyst, and how he approaches the drug problem from a dispassionate perspective. For him, it’s all about asking practical questions instead of pushing principled answers.
Read more →How feasible is global branding within the marijuana market, especially a U.S. based one skirting federal prohibition? Such is the undertaking of Privateer Holdings, the name behind such subsidiaries as Leafy, a popular website catologing cannabis strains, and Tilray, Canada’s largest marijuana growing facility. Just what hurdles Privateer must overcome, including product safety concerns, are discussed in the following...
Read more →Marijuana legalization is inevitable, as is the industry to follow. However, there are voices cautioning to learn lessons from the ending of alcohol prohibition and the establishment of Big Alcohol, as Mark Kleiman has long pointed out.
Read more →Diverse party guests are needed at the table when discussing the marijuana industry’s impact on society as a whole. Voices outside of the industry are needed, writes Rachel O’Bryan. Voices from the medical and mental health professions to scholars, such as UCLA’s Mark Kleiman, must be heard from in order to craft policy that...
Read more →Drug Policy expert of the RAND corporation, Beau Kilmer, shared a preliminary report for VT with Vermont legislators this month. Sections include VT’s current marijuana market landscape, health and safety issues, various potential regulatory models, and projections of the expected impacts of reform, including tax revenue.
Read more →Convenience over criminality: Mark Kleiman lays out why he thinks Washington D.C.’s “grow and give” program is a better option to outright commercialization in the recent push to end marijuana prohibition. Kleiman points out that legalization shouldn’t necessarily lead to cannabis becoming an everyday commodity.
Read more →Vermont Lawmakers await the conclusions of a study by RAND Corporation’s Drug Policy Research Center when considering legalizing marijuana in the state. Beau Kilmer, co-director of the Drug Policy Research Center, says the study looks to survey the intricacies of marijuana markets in order take the smoothest road in supplanting the black market trade...
Read more →Rather than shy away or from the attendant harms of marijuana legalization, theses authors urge opponents and proponents to face them head-on. The article presents a case for harm-reduction; for instance, how to keep cannabis out of the hands of minors, in light of it’s increased availability for those states that choose to legalize.
Read more →The following audio clip hails from public input from a statewide hearing which went live in Vermont last week. Vermont lawmakers hosted this virtual forum while the Rand corporation finalizes a report on the effects marijuana legalization will have on the state. RAND will submit their report to VT early next year.
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