JD Vance on Marijuana Policy, Australia’s Cocaine is Being Cut with Nitazenes, More… (7/16/24)

A brand new Senate invoice would provide protections for previous marijuana customers in search of federal employment, the Bahamas is transferring to legalize medical and non secular marijuana, and extra. 

Marijuana Coverage 

Senate Invoice Filed to Ease Impression of Marijuana Use on Federal Profession Prospects. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), chair of the Senate Homeland Safety and Authorities Affairs Committee, filed a invoice final Thursday to ease the affect of previous marijuana use on federal careers, the Dismantling Outdated Obstacles and Limitations to Particular person Employment, or DOOBIE, Act (S. 4711).

The invoice says that previous use in itself can’t be the premise for damaging selections on the “suitability” for employment or eligibility for safety clearances, wanted for a lot of federal jobs. It’s now earlier than the Homeland Safety and Authorities Affairs Committee.

The same invoice, HR 5040, handed the Home Oversight Accountability Committee final fall, however it has not acquired a Home ground vote. Filed by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the Home invoice goes additional than the Senate invoice, permitting anybody who was rejected for employment or denied a safety clearance since 2007 on suitability grounds to request a evaluation to see whether or not marijuana use was the only real purpose for the denial. If it was, the company can be required to rethink that call.

The payments are the most recent efforts to ease federal restrictions on marijuana hires and are available as two-thirds of the states now permit both medical or adult-use marijuana, or each. Federal office steering on marijuana has modified in recent times, with the Workplace of Personnel Administration telling companies to not routinely disqualify somebody for previous marijuana use. However that’s solely steering that could possibly be reversed. Passage of the payments would make the coverage regulation. 

Trump Vice-Presidential Choose JD Vance Has a Combined File on Marijuana. Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), who was picked Monday to be the Republican vice-presidential candidate alongside Donald Trump, has a combined report with regards to marijuana coverage. On the one hand, he has supported the desire of the voters with regards to legalizing marijuana; then again, he has refused to vote for a invoice that will assist the state-legal marijuana business. 

Ohioans voted final yr to legalize marijuana, and Vance appears okay with that. A month after the vote, because the state Republican Get together did all the pieces it may to annul the desire of the voters, Vance advised an interviewer: “The voters of Ohio have made their selections recognized and we must always respect that and permit it to be an Ohio challenge. Possibly Michigan has a special coverage, and Tennessee desires to have a special coverage. That is nice. It is a good factor our system is about up this manner. I would not need to federalize this challenge. I feel we federalize far too many points, and we should not add to it.”

However his remark means that he would oppose an finish to federal marijuana prohibition, despite the fact that that will ship a powerful sign to the remaining states that proceed to persecute marijuana customers. And it suggests that he’s nice with states persevering with to persecute marijuana customers. 

He additionally refused to vote for a invoice that will permit state-legal marijuana companies to do enterprise with monetary establishments, the Safe and Honest Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act, S. 2860. As a member of the Senate Banking Committee, he voted “no” on the invoice final September. 

Requested about his opposition to the invoice, Vance claimed that “the invoice was crafted in such a manner that truly would have opened up entry to banking assets for fentanyl traffickers and others.”

He added “if the laws is best, I would be extra prone to help it.”

“It’s important to do that in the fitting manner,” he mentioned. “You clearly need individuals to entry monetary companies—however should you do it the fallacious manner, you may truly promote illicit exercise, and that is what I need to forestall.”

That’s Vance on marijuana coverage, at the very least thus far. However he has confirmed a malleable political determine, shifting over time from a extra conventional Republican stance to a full MAGA. And he has come a good distance from the times when he referred to as Trump “America’s Hitler,” “cultural heroin,” and “an fool.”

Worldwide

Australia’s Cocaine Provide is Being Minimize with Nitazenes. Starting this spring, highly effective artificial opioids often called nitazenes started showing within the nation’s illicit cocaine provide. In April, 20 individuals in outer Sydney overdosed on cocaine discovered to be lower with nitazenes; in Might, 4 extra individuals have been hospitalized after taking nitazene-laced cocaine in Sydney; and earlier this month, extra cocaine laced with nitazenes was present in Melbourne. 

Nitazenes are a strong group of artificial opioids that have been developed within the Fifties. They have been deserted for analysis as a result of they have been deemed too harmful and presently don’t have any accepted medical use. Totally different nitazenes have variations in efficiency, however they are often as much as 500 occasions stronger than heroin and 10 occasions stronger than fentanyl. 

As a result of the medicine are so potent, there’s a very nice line between intoxication and overdose. They are often particularly harmful for individuals not accustomed to utilizing opioids, akin to cocaine customers who do not understand what’s of their powder. And they’re fast-acting. When somebody overdoses on heroin, it may be an hour or longer earlier than they cease respiration; with nitazenes, it’s a matter of minutes. 

Drug specialists are recommending that folks utilizing medicine akin to cocaine, MDMA, and ketamine get them checked at drug-checking companies or purchase nitazene check strips and check them themselves if no drug-checking service is accessible close by. Additionally they advocate shopping for from a recognized vendor, starting with a really small quantity, and never utilizing alone. And the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone works with nitazenes. Naloxone is free and out there at pharmacies throughout the nation. 

Bahamas to Legalize Marijuana for Medicinal and Religious Functions, Decriminalize It for Everyone Else. Prime Minister Philip Davis introduced on Monday that he’s supporting a collection of payments that may legalize marijuana for medicinal and non secular functions and decriminalize the possession of small quantities of the herb. 

“For years, Bahamians have referred to as for an administration to have the braveness to step up and take this challenge on in a decisive and accountable method,” Davis acknowledged. “Whereas many different nations, together with nations inside our area like Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, and Barbados, have taken steps towards decriminalization and legalization for medical use, Bahamians have been left questioning when it could be our flip to modernize our native method to hashish.”

The Bahamas has been discussing marijuana reform for practically a decade, and a governmental Marijuana Fee issued a last report in August 2021 indicating widespread public help for legalization.

“It was clear that the occasions had modified, and it was time for our legal guidelines to vary as effectively,” Davis mentioned. “In the present day, the wait is over. We’re taking motion on behalf of all the individuals who merely need the flexibility to legally devour medical hashish to assist them with their medical circumstances. After all, as a part of this reform course of, we’re additionally taking motion to acknowledge the rights and freedoms of Rastafarians to make use of hashish as a sacrament,” Davis added. “It shouldn’t be in opposition to the regulation for our brothers and sisters of the Rastafarian religion to apply their faith.”

The proposed Hashish Invoice (2024) would authorize the manufacturing, analysis, possession, and use of marijuana for medical and non secular functions, set up qc, scale back unlawful hashish actions, management entry to guard public well being, and lift consciousness concerning the well being dangers related to hashish use. The invoice would additionally create the Bahamas Hashish Authority to manage authorized marijuana. And it reserves enterprise licenses for cultivation, transport, and gross sales for Bahamians. For licenses associated to analytical testing, manufacturing, or analysis, entities have to be at the very least 30 p.c Bahamian-owned.

(This text was ready by StoptheDrugWar.org’s 501(c)(4) lobbying nonprofit, the Drug Reform Coordination Community, which additionally pays the price of sustaining this web site. DRCNet Basis takes no positions on candidates for public workplace, in compliance with part 501(c)(3) of the Inside Income Code and doesn’t pay for reporting that could possibly be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)