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Lots of news:

Politics
 
Speculation continues about what anti-pot U.S. Attorney General nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions could mean for the legal marijuana industry. The Associated Press says cannabis has the upper hand but could still collapse. Fortune says smaller companies, already dealing with larger competitors, can expect more pain.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee say Sessions will get an  contentious confirmation hearing.

An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal says Sessions is not a racist, and in fact championed the end of sentencing discrepancies between cocaine, associated with affluent whites, and crack, which devastated inner cities. President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act into law in 2010. Sessions later said that by granting clemency retroactively to non-violent drug offenders, Obama was abusing the law.

D.C. pot-activists were received warmly at Sessions office but didn’t leave feeling especially reassured. Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D.-N.Y.) aides weren’t as welcoming. "So typical that you are taking this less seriously than Republicans," an activist said. The whole piece, in USNews, is worth a read, and funny too.

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Rep. Tom Price (R- Ga.), is another staunch prohibitionist who, if confirmed, would have the authority to interfere with state-legal MED access.

I wrote a story for California Sunday about efforts in Oakland to create a diverse cannabis industry. The photos are by Pulitzer winner Preston Gannaway.  

Canada’s legalization push is getting complicated. The much-anticipated task force report on legalization has been delayed. Meanwhile activists wonder why shops are getting raided if the government plans to legalize. For more see here.

Bill Blair a Canadian government official overseeing the issue appeared at a “ cash-for-access” fundraiser with cannabiz leaders that may have violated Liberal Party ethics guidelines. Blair defended recent raids saying, "The only system for control is the existing legal regime. And we're a society of laws," he says.

President Obama discussed legalization at length in an interview with Rolling Stone, conducted the day after the election:

            I’ve been very clear about my belief that we should try to discourage substance abuse. And I am not somebody who believes that legalization is a panacea. But I do believe that treating this as a public-health issue, the same way we do with cigarettes or alcohol, is the much smarter way to deal with it. Typically how these classifications are changed are not done by presidential edict but are done either legislatively or through the DEA. As you might imagine, the DEA, whose job it is historically to enforce drug laws, is not always going to be on the cutting edge about these issues.

            [Laughs] What about you? Are you gonna get on the cutting edge?
Look, I am now very much in lame-duck status. And I will have the opportunity as a private citizen to describe where I think we need to go. But in light of these referenda passing, including in California, I've already said, and as I think I mentioned on Bill Maher's show, where he asked me about the same issue, that it is untenable over the long term for the Justice Department or the DEA to be enforcing a patchwork of laws, where something that's legal in one state could get you a 20-year prison sentence in another. So this is a debate that is now ripe, much in the same way that we ended up making progress on same-sex marriage. There's something to this whole states-being-laboratories-of-democracy and an evolutionary approach. You now have about a fifth of the country where this is legal.

Obama added that Trump voters “in large numbers” favor decriminalizing.

RAND Corporation scholar Beau Kilmer editorializes in favor of the state legalization experiments.

Denver’s social use measure may face legal challenges. Juneau, Ak.’s first dispensary opened and sold out in three hours.

Maryland’s pot regulator has hired a diversity consultant, after it failed to award any of its initial 30 licenses to African-Americans. It has also given preliminary approval for 102 MED dispensary licenses. The names will be made public this week.

Florida’s MED community has few friends in Tallahassee. The new law will also undermine the state’s largely disregarded bong ban.

The Cannabist meets Rilie Ray Morgan, the 66-year old man who championed MED in North Dakota.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) is launching a new effort to use pot taxes to build apartments for the chronically homeless.

Massachusetts may delay implementing aspects of its REC law. Maine will recount its REC vote. MED legalization is on the table in Ireland and South Africa.

British politician Nick Clegg called for legalization. Vice sketches out what a legal U.K. market for recreational drugs could look like.
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Business

Canada’s Canopy Growth Corp. will acquire Mettrum Health Corp. for C$430M, creating a dominant Canadian player.

Vice examines 280E, the tax code provision used to tax marijuana businesses more than other businesses.

Warehouse rents are skyrocketing in legal states. But the New York Stock Exchange IPO of cannabis real estate trust Innovative Industrial Properties went nowhere, following the Sessions nomination.

The BBC calls Albania, a small, poor country in southeast Europe, the continent’s “ outdoor cannabis capital.

The industry could create an opportunity for clean energy technologies like “ renewable microgrids.

LAWeekly asks if small cannabis businesses can survive legalization.

Accounting Today says, “ The Cannabis Industry Needs Accountants.” 

Pot was a hot topic at the 2016 Wine Industry Expo. For more see here.

Financial firm Cowen said legalization is bad for beer sales. MarketWatch disagrees.

Dispensaries offered discounts for “ Green Friday.” (The shopping day after Thanksgiving.)

The BBC profiles John Stewart, an executive who was CEO of Purdue Pharma, which sells the opioid Oxycontin and now leads a MED company in Canada.

There’s an incubator that aims to turn formerly-incarcerated drug dealers into legal entrepreneurs.

Century Bank in Massachusetts openly works with pot businesses.

A new site called The Cannifornian will cover legalization in the state.  Parent company Digital First Media also owns The Denver Post and its site The Cannabist. 

Health and Science

Israel’s Teva Pharmaceuticals will start to distribute a medical cannabis inhaler developed by Syqe, an Israeli start-up that raised money from tobacco giant Philip Morris. The inhaler may also be tested with opiates.

An editorial in The Scientist says its unacceptable that the World Health Organization has not developed positions on legalization.

Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children will begin a clinical trial of cannabis extracts containing CBD and THC for children with severe epilepsy.

A new study from Steep Hill Labs found that 83 percent of California weed wouldn’t pass Oregon’s testing standards. An industry report says Oregon’s strict regulations are crushing the state industry. Willamette Week reports that business conditions are pushing some entrepreneurs back to the underground market.

Rehab provider Spectrum Health Systems said a doctor was not to blame for revealing to a patient’s employer that she uses MED.

A survey of cannabis researchers finds out what they want from the government in order to pursue their work.

A Reason investigation finds that conservative authorities in Idaho “conspired to restrict a promising cannabis-derived seizure treatment.”

The National Fire Protection Association is developing fire safety standards for cannabis businesses.

The FDA will allow a late stage clinical trial for ecstasy as a treatment for PTSD.

Minnessota approved PTSD as a MED qualifying condition. New York approved chronic pain.
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After some tough decisions, I'm thrilled to introduce Carolyn Lipka:
    
Hi! My name is Carolyn Lipka and I’m a writer and comedian living in Los Angeles. My work has been in Noisey, Interview and Paper Magazine. I’ve been a medical cannabis patient since moving to LA in 2014 and a recreational user since 2008; I’ve smoked it all from extremely dirt weed in the suburbs of New Jersey to Wifi OG from an upscale dispensary in Los Angeles. The comedy and cannabis community have significant overlap (from Getting Doug With High to Broad City) and I’m happy to continue the trend. My interests include any edible that features dark chocolate and a dense indica heavy hybrid. I love testing out new weed products and my proximity to a huge sector of the industry has afforded me the opportunity to really plunge into trying every vape, bong, grinder and elaborate dab blow torch I can get my hands on.  I graduated from Yale University in 2014 where I did extensive research on the cold war making me the world’s dorkiest weed critic.  Follow me on twitter for humor @clipka_, on instagram for selfies @clipka or snapchat for high thoughts @carolynlipka

Carolyn will be reviewing accessories and other lifestyle products that may appeal to WeedWeek readers. She will not review submitted cannabis products. 

Got anything you think Carolyn should try? Send it to:
 
Carolyn Lipka
WeedWeek
3154 Glendale Blvd #122
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Criminal Justice

Singapore executed Chijioke Stephen Obioha by hanging. A Nigerian national and football player, Obioha was found with 2.5 kg (5.5 pounds) of marijuana in 2007. According to Singapore law, anyone with more than 500 g is presumed to be trafficking.

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, known as “The Punisher” for his advocacy of vigilante murders, threatened his human rights activist critics.

A Florida county sheriff’s office may have trained drug sniffing dogs with material other than drugs, according to ProPublica. Another ProPublica report led Portland, Ore. to change its policy for the drug tests used in many arrests.

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t take up the case of a Native American church in Hawaii that wants to be exempt for marijuana laws.

A college student who had $11,000 confiscated at the Cincinnati airport after his checked bag smelled of pot, challenged the forfeiture and got his money back.

Culture
Seantrel Henderson, a Buffalo Bills offensive lineman, may sue the NFL over his second cannabis suspension of the season. Henderson’s Crohn’s disease forced him to have two and a half feet of his colon removed.

The Bay Area has the country’s highest concentration of cannabis users in the country.

My friend Reilly Capps wrote a story for The Rooster about “ Stoners anonymous.

A survey found that cannabis is attracting an increasingly upscale clientele.

Anita Thompson, widow of Hunter S. Thompson, wants to market the gonzo journalist’s personal cannabis strains. Skepticism abounds.

The founder of Healing Church, a Catholicism-inflected pot “ministry” in Rhode Island, is involved in a bizarre legal situation. If I’m reading this correctly, Anne Armstrong had a vision of cannabis leaves on a six-foot replica of the Virgin of Guadeloupe – an image said to have appeared on a Mexican peasant’s poncho in 1531. Armstrong later obtained and then lost custody of the replica. She also faces a possession charge.

The Stranger put together a cannabis gift guide. It includes weed filled advent calendars and Christmas ornaments. The piece also cites scripture to prove Jesus was a stoner.  

Country music legend Loretta Lynn smoked pot for the first time at 84, for her glaucoma. She didn’t like it, but defended Willie Nelson and the right to do it.

A woman in Greensboro, N.C., was “shocked,” in a bad way, when someone mistakenly mailed her four pounds of weed.

Here's the WeedWeek list of pot journalists on Twitter and the new list of cannabusiness people on Twitter. Both are works in progress. Recommendations welcome.

Want to reach a devoted audience of top cannabis professionals? Advertise in WeedWeek. Contact Adrienne Nascimento at  weedweekads@gmail.com  for details. There's a 40% discount on ads placed by Friday November 4.

Bye,

Alex 

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