IA Push for Fentanyl Test Strip Legalization, Case of Kidnapped Cartel Leader Grows More Bizarre, More... (8/22/24)

A poll of polls finds strong support for marijuana legalization but less so than two years ago, South Dakota medical marijuana operators are complaining about delta-8 and delta-10 THC products, and more.

Mexican soldiers out fighting the cartels. (Creative Commons)

Marijuana Policy

Poll of Polls Shows Strong Support for Marijuana Legalization but Slight Decline Recently. An analysis of major polls on marijuana legalization over the past decade from CBD Oracle finds that support for legalization climbed from 53 percent in 2015 to 62 percent this year, but peaked at 71 percent in the first half of 2022.

The analysis also confirmed what has been evident for some time: that support for legalization is stronger among Democrats, independents, and adults under 45, and weaker among Republicans and older voters.

The report also had relatively sobering tidings for this year's marijuana legalization initiative campaigns in Florida and North and South Dakota. It found that Florida is likely to be "a close call," that the measure in North Dakota is "not likely to win," and the measure in South Dakota "could go either way."

Drug Policy

Iowa Activists Push for Fentanyl Test Strip Legalization. Iowa is one of only five states that have not legalized the use of fentanyl test strips to detect the presence of the dangerous synthetic opioid -- the others are Idaho, Indiana, North Dakota and Texas -- but after a failed effort to get a bill through the legislature in 2023, activists are gearing up for a renewed push to get the job done.

That 2023 bill, sponsored by Rep. Megan Srivinas (D), gained some bipartisan support in the GOP-dominated legislature, and Srivinas and state activists are preparing to reintroduce legislation to legalize the test strips next session.

"The conversations I've had around it have left me more optimistic for the future," Srinivas said.

Ann Breeding cofounded Steps of Hope after her son died of a fentanyl-involved overdose. She said fentanyl test strips can save lives and should be legalized.

"If it saves one life, it matters," Breeding said.

"There's a lot of stigma," Breeding said. "'They've made their choice, let them die. Oh, it's another one off the streets.' I've heard it all. I think people don't understand because it's never happened to them. But I've got news. It shouldn't have to happen to you. It's time to start listening to everybody who gets it," Breeding said.

The Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition is also pushing for a bill, arguing that not only would it save lives, it would help determine what is actually in the state's drug supply.

"We know fentanyl is in our drug supply. We know it's around," said the group's executive director, Deborah Krauss. "We have to go by overdose data because we just don't have enough data on what the supply is."

Medical Marijuana

South Dakota Lawmakers Hear Medical Marijuana Operators Complaints About Synthetic THC Products Cutting into Their Business. The legislature's Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee held a hearing Monday where medical marijuana operators told them that loosely regulated hemp-derived THC products are cutting into their business.

The synthetic products, sold as delta-8 THC and delta-10 THC, can produce a high similar to marijuana, which contains delta-9 THC. As with medical marijuana, the products can come in the form of smokeable flower, joints, vape oil, and edibles, but they are not required to undergo the same testing, labeling, and security requirements as medical marijuana.

Medical marijuana operators told the lawmakers the synthetic products pose both health risks and dangers to their bottom lines. The legislature last year passed a bill that banned the production or sale of four THC variants, but others remain available.

The number of medical marijuana cardholders has declined this year, which operators blamed in part on the state's lack of regulation over synthetic THC products (but which also could be partially attributable to legalization in neighboring Minnesota).

Those stores are "illegal dispensaries selling cannabis under the guise of hemp," said Dakota Herb CEO Dalton Grimmius.

The committee took no action at the hearing, but members suggested that it should recommend a summer study, which would not take place until 2025. That could all be rendered moot, though, if a marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot wins.

International

Mexico to Charge Son of El Chapo -- Not with Drug Trafficking but with Kidnapping. Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of imprisoned Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and a cartel leader himself as head of the Los Chapitos faction, is facing charges in Mexico or apparently kidnapping rival Sinaloa Cartel faction leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and turning himself and his prisoner in to US authorities at an airstrip near El Paso.

Federal prosecutors said this week that "an arrest warrant has been prepared" against the younger Guzman for kidnapping. But they also cited another portion of the Mexican criminal code that defines his actions as treason, which the law says is committed "by those who illegally abduct a person in Mexico in order to hand them over to authorities of another country."

That section of the Mexican criminal code was a response to the abduction of a Mexican doctor was who wanted by the DEA for alleged involvement in the 1985 kidnapping, torture, and murder of DEA agent Kiki Camerena in Guadalajara.

The federal prosecutors also scoffed at Sinaloa state prosecutors' effort to distance Gov. Ruben Rocha from the kidnapping -- which took place at his residence -- and the killing of his political rival Hector Cuen -- which also took place at his residence. State prosecutors had released a video of an apparent shooting at a local gas station where they claimed Cuen was killed in a robbery attempt, but the federal prosecutors said the video did not match the number of gunshot wounds on Cuen's body and that the video "is unacceptable, nor does it have sufficient value as evidence to be taken into account."