When Oregon voters approved Measure 91 in November 2014, legalizing recreational marijuana possession, they left the job of writing rules for pot shops to the Legislature and the state liquor control agency, which so far haven’t gotten it all figured out.  So come July 1, users won’t have a legal way to buy what they can use legally.

In 1973 Oregon was the first state to impose lighter sanctions for small amounts of marijuana, what many refer to as “decriminalizing” it.  By 1998 Medical Marijuana was legal in the state.  Then, in November 2014, voters approved Measure 91 by 12 percentage points, 56-44.  This was a measure legalizing recreation marijuana

SO WHEN THE HELL ARE THEY GOING TO MAKE IT LEGAL TO SELL WHAT IS ALREADY LEGAL?

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission is writing rules for growing and selling legal pot. It plans to accept applications from prospective farmers January 1, 2016. Retail sales could start in early fall. Last week, the Legislature’s joint marijuana committee voted to start retail sales sooner, by Oct. 1 this year, by going through the existing medical marijuana dispensaries, now more than 300 strong. Legislators say it will take a few months to write rules for the medical dispensaries to sell to non-patients, but the fall crop should be in by Oct. 1, ensuring enough for recreational and medical customers alike.

SO WHO IS NEXT?

A legal pot measure will be on the ballot next year in Nevada.  The national advocacy organization NORML reports there are plans or hopes for 2016 initiatives in four to six more states. In California proponents hope that shifting opinion and the presidential election will attract young voters. Votes are also possible in 2016: Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Arizona, and Missouri.

Many people may not realize this because it snuck under the radar, but so is the case in our nations capital, Washington DC.  You can possess it, but you can’t sell it.  So in theory, the politicians that rail against legalizing marijuana could step outside the doors of congress and blaze up a fatty on their way home.  Hypocrisy much?

POT IS STILL ILLEGAL IN TEXAS

IF YOU ARE CAUGHT WITH POT – CALL LEGRANDE LAW!

If you’ve been accused of an offense involving Marijuana (possession of Marijuana)

or any drug crime,  contact attorney Tristan LeGrande by calling 281-684-3500.

http://www.legrandelaw.com

http://www.houstondrugattorney.net

Houston Drug Attorney Tristan LeGrande

At the same time, illicit drug use had began to increase, reaching an apex around the time the drug war began in 1971 when President Nixon named it public enemy #1.  I will get back to the drug war later, but suffice to say, once it reached its appex, drug use has continued at almost the same level ever since, despite billions of dollars and millions of lives being wasted in its wake.

This staple of american culture continued to be prevalent into the 1980’s.  In the 1980’s smoking was still allowed almost everywhere, including airplanes, and I am told law students in Texas taking the bar exam could even smoke DURING the exam in a designated smoking exam room.

But something happened with tobacco use.  Did the reduction in tobacco use come from making it illegal?  Hardly.  It went down and has continued to go down steadily for two reasons:

1. Education     &     2. Regulation

Tobacco use declined primarily because of regulation of its sale and distribution, as well as educating the public on the health risks associated with tobacco use.  Use declined steadily as regulations increased and public education campaigns began to permeate american society.  These regulations included where it could be marketed, where it could be sold, how it could be sold (and penalties for sale to minors), and taxes on tobacco companies.  Use experienced a momentary spike in 1989 among high school students, but smarter regulation and education brought use back in a decline around 1995.

There is no debate now over whether smoking has adverse health consequences.  It is essentially public knowledge that diseases and early death rates have a direct connection with smoking.  However, the government did not respond by making it illegal.  Government recognized that it was impossible to remove from the fabric of our society and used what they could utilize to bring usage rates down.  No more smoking on airplanes, most bars and restaurants, and in some large cities (Like New York City) you can be ticketed for smoking in a public place.

We have taught kids about the dangers of smoking without insulting their intelligence.  This actually means a lot.  We didn;t tell kids: JUST DON’T SMOKE.  We told kids WHY.

Spending on the drug war has ballooned over the last 50 years, but the usage of drugs has not.  More troubling, the incidence of drug induced deaths has increased every year until 2006, when it plateau.  The vast majority of the drug induced deaths don’t come from heroin, cocaine, or hallucinogens like ecstasy, but from pharmaceuticals.

People are fearful that de-criminalizing illicit drugs would lead to a kind of anarchy of sorts.  Use would spiral out of control.  But it would not if we invested enough in its regulation, education, and rehabilitation programs.

Now how about the billion dollar black market.  Criminal organizations control drugs right now and they do a pretty good job of distributing their product despite how much money we throw at fighting them.  Cartel profits are up, and they ruthlessly murder to maintain control over their market share.

Just using marijuana as an example,

countries that have more liberal laws concerning its use have a lower percentage of youth that use it.  When looking at the percentage of kids 11, 13, and 15 that report using marijuana within the last year, the United States leads the pack with 22%, when compared to Portugal, 10% (broad decriminalization of all drugs) and the Netherlands 17% (legalized marijuana use).

I remember when I was in high school it was much easier to acquire marijuan than it was to acquire alcohol, or even cigarrettes.  This may be an annectdotal example, but it is telling.  The reason?  If I wanted to get a hold of the legal and regulated substances, I had to go through the normal channels.  This meant a baby faced kid trying to either pass off a fake ID and risk arrest or convincing some dim-wited adult to buy it for me and my friends. Not so for marijuana.  It was un-regulated – or put another way, it was regulated by those that did not care who was buying it, and supply was aplenty.

One remaining catastrophic consequence of our current drug policy is the human cost.  Families have been destroyed.  Mothers and fathers are ripped out of their homes.  A generation of youth at or below the poverty line grows up with a fractured family.  You see, because although the drug war has not led to a reduction in drug USE, it has led to an increase in drug CONVICTIONS.

Of that bloated prison population the percentage of people in prison for non-violent drug offenses is staggering.

Isn’t it about time we started considering other options?  We have spent almost 45 years fighting the drug war to no avail, use is unchanged.  Criminal organizations are growing increasingly powerful and well funded.  Families are paying the price of the drug war with more and more people incarcerated on drug crimes every year.

Let’s get smart on drugs – the tough on crime approach to drug policy is a failure.

Currently, Possession of a usable amount of marijuana less than 2 ounces is a Class B Misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail time and a $2,000 fine. The new proposal would mean being issued a $100 ticket, similar to a parking violation.  However, possession of larger amounts would still lead to criminal penalties. The measure would make Texas the 20th state plus the District of Columbia to remove the threat of jail time for the possession of small amounts of weed.

The bill is backed by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the pro-legalization group that spearheaded the passage of Colorado’s historic legalization measure. The bill is also the first in a series that the MPP expects to be introduced in Texas this year, the next attempting to legalize medical marijuana and the third attempting to legalize recreational marijuana.

The subsequent legislation is highly unlikely to be passed, not with the staunch old-school Republican-controlled legislature. Texas Governor Rick Perry has gone on record with an erroneous commentary with regard to decriminalization of marijuana: the state has “kind of done that.” In 2007, Texas passed a measure giving local governments the power to respond to marijuana possession with a summons rather than an arrest, but few counties have adopted it and someone issued a summons may still end up in jail.

I admire the ambitiousness of the legislation, but sadly, it is probably just for show.  As I have said before, there simply is not widespread legislative support for legislation such as this.  Movement in this area of the law (at least in this state) will be slow.  I am not discounting that this is a positive step – I am merely asserting skepticism at the likelihood of its success.  Medical Marijuana…RECREATIONAL marijuana…in TEXAS?  Not likely.  Not anytime in the near future anyway.  Texans will still have to take a roadtrip to Colorado to get stoned without the man being there as a buzzkill.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, another pro-legalization group, says that Texas is in a tier of states that are the least likely to ease marijuana restrictions. These “third tier” states, he says, are ones in which “the legislature has never shown any want to move in this direction and/or there is an executive at the top who is going to oppose and veto any reforms.”

What about popular support…? Well, 61% of Texas residents would support a penalty reduction like the one Moody is proposing, while 58% would support the legalization of medical and recreational weed.

At a press conference on Monday, Moody was joined by representatives from other groups who support the bill, such as the ACLU of Texas and Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition. Support from such libertarian-leaning conservatives will be crucial in the heavily Republican state.

“Texas doesn’t seem to be ready for a full legal market,” acknowledges Heather Fazio, a representative for MPP in Texas. “That doesn’t mean that the conversation shouldn’t be happening.”

CAUGHT WITH POT?

If you’ve been accused of an offense involving Marijuana (including possession of Marijuana)

or any drug crime,  contact attorney Tristan LeGrande by calling 281-684-3500.

http://www.legrandelaw.com

http://www.houstondrugattorney.net

Houston Drug Attorney Tristan LeGrande

Ironically, many news reporters today that interviewed those purchasing the marijuana said the reason they were there was to acquire marijuana for purchase.  Many noted that they could already do that – just today they could do it legally.  Another irony of our drug prohibition is that making something prohibited has little to no effect on whether or not it is available for purchase on the black market.  All it does is make criminals out of people for their personal decisions.

This is movement in the right direction.  Regulating peoples personal habits has seen dismal results in the United States.  Take the case study of prohibition.  During prohibition use of alcohol increased.

Possessing marijuana and consuming it at home has been completely legal in Washington for almost two years, since voters passed Initiative 502 in 2012, and local law enforcement agencies had mostly backed off even before that. It has not, however, been legal to sell it for recreational purposes until now.

For now, the illegal market still has most of the benefits, non-licensed marijuana is cheaper and more convenient, and with its high state taxes, 25 percent on every purchase.  But this is just the beginning.  Once the market has stabilized it will become cheaper, just as in Colorado.

So far, the Washington State Liquor Control Board, which regulates recreational marijuana, has said that 24 of the 334 licensed dispenseries have opened so far.

Voters in Colorado approved marijuana legalization at the same time that Washington did in 2012, but then went down a much different regulatory path that moved much faster, with stores open since January.

Colorado also created the first recreational marijuana shops from the medical marijuana dispensaries that were already in business, so many of the first wave of operators were already in the marijuana trade. Washington, by contrast, started from scratch, throwing open the application process and giving medical marijuana dispensary operators no edge in the competition for licenses.

Hopefully this will be the catalyst for a greater movement nationwide.  But tokers be patient, this will likely be a long road.  It will also very likely be a state by state battle unless the Supreme Court takes up the issue.  With the social conservative legislatures in many states, and the social conservative dominance on the Supreme Court, this is likely just to be the starting point that we can look back on way down the road as a day that Americans began the process of getting back the personal freedom to do with their own body and mind as they see fit, so long as they do not hurt someone else.

Arrested for Possession of Marijuana or Driving under the influence of drugs?

If you’ve been accused of any offense involving Marijuana (including possession of Marijuana) or any drug crime,  contact attorney Tristan LeGrande by calling 281-684-3500.

http://www.legrandelaw.com

Houston Criminal Defense Attorney Tristan LeGrande

The article goes on to detail the story of the college student who ate too much pot and fell from a Denver hotel balcony to his death. It told of children winding up in emergency rooms after sneaking into adult supplies of candy and other fun-looking snacks infused with THC. It told of neighboring states overwhelmed by drivers coming to Colorado for pot and returning stoned behind the wheel.

OBJECTION.  The problem with this story is the impression.  Legalization did not cause these problems.  Lack of proper regulation and irresponsible people caused these problems.

And legalization being the cause of the unfortunate murder of the man’s wife discussed earlier is a stretch.  What the story does not tell us is what else was going on this man’s life.  What mental condition was he in before he ate too many cosmic cookies.  Was he mentally ill?  Were there problems with his marriage.

Do we blame Jack Daniels when a man drinks too many shots of Kentucky Bourbon and beats someone to death in a bar fight – likewise, do would we blame the alcohol if that same man drove his car head on into a school bus full of kids?

Don’t blame the “demon weed” for the actions people take when they do not use it responsibly.  Besides, the ONLY HOPE we have at preventing tragedies such as these is by having 1) regulation and 2) education.

The alternative?  Leave it to the black market.  I am sure they will make sure everybody uses with a sense of level headed responsibility.

[The headline from the New York Times printed on June 1st – After Five Months of Sales, Colorado Sees the Downside of a Legal High ]

Arrested for a Possession of Marijuana?

Arrested for a Drug Crime?

If you’ve been accused of any offense involving Marijuana (including possession of Marijuana) or any drug crime,  contact attorney Tristan LeGrande by calling 281-684-3500.