FL Legal Pot Campaign Maintains Huge Funding Advantage, Morocco Pardons Pot Farmers, More... (8/21/24)

New York state has now passed half a billion dollars in legal marijuana sales, a factional dispute within the Sinaloa Cartel is heating up and turning deadly, and more.

In the hash fields of Morocco in pre-legalization times. (Cannabis Culture)

Marijuana Policy

Florida Marijuana Legalization Initiative Campaign Maintains Big Funding Lead. Amendment 3, the constitutional amendment for marijuana legalization, maintains a healthy advantage in fundraising over opponents led by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). According to the latest report from the Florida Division of Elections, the pro-legalization forces have amassed nearly $72 million as of mid-month. Meanwhile, two political action committees aligned with DeSantis, Keep Florida Clean and the Florida Freedom Fund, have raised only $14.5 million.

The legalization campaign is benefiting hugely from donations from a single source, the multi-state medical marijuana operator TruLieve, which itself is poised to benefit hugely from a legalization plan positions it to move into the adult-use market immediately. TruLieve is responsible for $65 million of the nearly $72 million raised by the campaign.

The campaign guided by Smart & Safe Florida is now the most well-funded marijuana ballot measure in US history.

It is going to need that money to get over the top in November. Recent polling has the initiative hovering on the cusp of the 60 percent of the vote needed for it to pass, with some polls having it slightly above 60 percent and some having it slightly below.

New York Legal Pot Sales Hit Half a Billion Dollars in Wake of Crackdown on Illicit Pot Shops. John Kagia, the director of policy for the state Office of Cannabis Management, said Tuesday that legal marijuana sales in the state now total more than $500 million -- in less than eight months since the first legal pot shop opened for business.

"The velocity is there," Kagia told the Cannabis Advisory Board, and he attributed the recent rise in sales to Operation Padlock, the law enforcement operation to crackdown on the unlicensed pot shops that proliferated in the three years since legalization became the law. He said that nearly 40 percent of the state's legal marijuana sales have come since mid-May, when the operation began.

"It's a really powerful testament to the outcomes we are able to see based on the state's commitment to padlock these unlicensed dispensaries," Kagia said.

International

Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel Infighting Since Kidnapping of "El Mayo" Sees at Least a Dozen Dead. The apparent kidnapping and delivery to US custody of Sinaloa Cartel faction leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada by Joaquín Guzmán López --- the son of imprisoned cartel leader "El Chapo" Guzman and one of the leaders of the Chapitos faction of the cartel, who also turned himself over to US authorities -- is leading to deadly infighting among cartel members.

Since the pair showed up at a landing strip near El Paso on July 25, at least a dozen murders have been linked to beefs between cartel factions and within the faction led by "El Mayo," with his lieutenants now battling over who will succeed him.

The affair is also implicating high-ranking Mexican officials, including Gov. Ruben Rocha, at whose home Zambada was kidnapped and another Sinaloa state official killed. Analysts say the government does not want to get involved because all sides in the cartel dispute have damaging information on officials that they could release at any time.

On Monday, Rocha acknowledged that four killings on Friday and six murders on Saturday were related to the dispute between warring factions of the cartel.

"These are related to the drug cartels... and they can be linked to the situation that arose after the detentions of July 25," said Gov. Rocha. "What I want is peace, and I have to ask for that from whomever, from the violent ones."

Outgoing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged two more killings were linked to the dispute and called for peace.

"We don't want the situation in Sinaloa to take a turn for the worse," López Obrador said. "It has been stable as far as violence is concerned. That doesn't mean there wasn't violence, but there wasn't confrontation, fighting between groups."

Morocco Pardons Nearly 5,000 Marijuana Farmers. King Mohammed VI has pardoned some 4,800 people convicted or wanted on charges of illegal marijuana cultivation, the justice ministry said Monday.

The move aims to encourage farmers "to engage in the legal process of cannabis cultivation to improve their revenue and living conditions," said Mohammed El Guerrouj, head of the Moroccan cannabis regulator Anrac. "This is an exceptional initiative that will allow these farmers and their families to live in serenity and tranquility, and to participate in the new dynamic of legalization," he added.

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Morocco is the world's leading marijuana producer and has traditionally supplied hashish to European markets. Three years ago, it legalized marijuana cultivation for medicinal and industrial uses.