WA Governor Candidates Spar over Fentanyl, UT Poll Shows Half Ready for Legal Weed, More... (10/23/24)

Just announced California marijuana seizures show the black market remains alive and well, and more.

California's state government touts its efforts to suppress the marijuana black market. (ca.gov)

Marijuana Policy

California Marijuana Seizures Show Continuing Strength of Black Market. With this year's outdoor pot crop now being harvested, state Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) announced on Tuesday that law enforcement across the state had eradicated nearly 775,000 illicit marijuana plants and seized more than 106,000 pounds of processed weed so far this year. Those figures demonstrate that the state's marijuana black market remains alive and well.

"California has the largest legal cannabis market in the world, but unfortunately, illegal and unlicensed grows are still a big problem," Bonta said in a statement. "EPIC [the Eradication and Prevention of Illicit Cannabis program] was created to tackle not just the illegal cultivation but also the environmental damage, economic fallout, and labor issues that come with it."

EPIC teams raided 665 grow sites around the state and seized more than 200 firearms as well as weed. Those teams also destroyed water lines, makeshift dams, and other illicit grow infrastructure.

"California cannabis enforcement has a long way to go to ensure that the illicit cannabis doesn't make it into the legal market," said San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus. "Partnerships like EPIC are a major step forward in tackling this problem."

The EPIC program gets support from the US Forest Service, California State Parks, the DEA, and other agencies.

"California has the largest state park system in the country with 1.59 million acres of parkland to protect," said California State Parks Law Enforcement Assistant Chief Jeremy Stinson. "Unfortunately, illegal cannabis cultivation is a serious threat to that land with more than 400 sites documented."

While voters approved marijuana legalization in 2016, legal markets have faced several obstacles, from high tax rates to local bans to onerous licensing requirements. In a state of nearly 40 million people, there are only 1,244 licensed pot shops. By contrast, neighboring Oregon, with less than one-tenth of the California population, has 800 licensed pot shops.

Utah Poll Has Half of Voters Ready to Legalize Marijuana. A new poll from Noble Predictive Insights and commissioned by the Utah Patients Coalition has 50 of state voters in favor of adult-use marijuana legalization. At the same time, another 38 percent supported medical marijuana only, and a meager nine percent believed marijuana should remain illegal for any purpose. Three percent were "not sure."

Some 60 percent of voters under 35 supported full legalization, as did 49 percent of the 35-to-54-year-olds, but only 29 percent of those 55 and older did.

"We did this just to see where we were," said Desiree Hennessy, the executive director of the Utah Patients Coalition. "We're not even just talking patients. We're talking Utahns who are up for a recreational or adult-use market in Utah," Hennessy said. "That is surprising, but it's not surprising after you've watched what's happened with the program."

Voters approved a medical marijuana program in 2018, only to see the state legislature override it and create its own, highly-regulated program.

"The question then becomes, why are we seeing so many Utah license plates in dispensaries out of state? Why are -- by the Department of Health's own data -- why are we still seeing about 60% of even medical cannabis patients shopping on the illicit market or out of state? That comes down to cost almost every single time," Hennessy said.

Adult use marijuana is legal in the neighboring states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico.

"We have been suspecting that this has been slowly increasing over the years and with this new poll, we show that 50% of Utahns now support adult-use or recreational market," Hennessey said. "While Utah Patients Coalition doesn't feel like that's the next best step for Utah, what it would do is it would drive down cost."

Drug Policy

Washington Gubernatorial Candidates Offer Sharply Different Approaches to Fentanyl. With more than a thousand fatal drug overdoses in King County (Seattle) alone last year, fentanyl is an issue in the race for governor, which pits Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson against Republican Dave Reichert.

Reichert has repeatedly called Ferguson "pro-fentanyl" for once supporting drug decriminalization, while Ferguson is pointing to money his office won in lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies and distributors, which has been used for drug treatment and harm reduction services.

Ferguson is calling for more walk-in crisis centers, more funding for police and other first responders, opioid disorder screening in more of the state's jails, more funding for law enforcement drug and gang task forces, and an interagency "crisis response unit" to respond to fentanyl.

"There's only one candidate in this race who's currently fighting the fentanyl epidemic" and only one with a detailed plan, Ferguson said in a statement.

Reichert, for his part, has not presented a plan aimed at fentanyl but has instead wrapped his views on drugs within an attack on homelessness and public disorder.

"You can't separate the substance abuse issue from homelessness or mental illness, in my opinion. They're connected," he said last week.

He advocated for 30 percent of the state's spending on housing for the homeless to be linked to drug treatment.

"What we've been doing is just providing housing," he said, arguing there should be "a responsibility placed upon the person who's going to be housed -- to be clean and sober, to go through therapy and drug programs."

"You're going to have a bunch of empty beds," retorted Joe Barsana, a housing case manager at the King County Drug Diversion Court who serves as president of the Washington State Therapeutic Court Alumni Association.

Reichert said he would seek more funding for anti-drug task forces, and that he opposes safe injection sites and even harm reduction "survival kits" containing clean needles, pipes, and overdose medications.

"They're really suicide kits," he said.

But Reichert's hardline rhetoric has not proven popular with voters. A recent poll had him losing to Ferguson, 34 percent to 50 percent.

(This article was prepared by StoptheDrugWar.org's 501(c)(4) lobbying nonprofit, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also pays the cost of maintaining this website. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)