Maine's congressional delegation is worried about alleged illegal Chinese marijuana grows, US Sentencing Commission statistics show that US citizens--not illegal immigrants--dominate the fentanyl trade, and more.

[image:1 align:left caption:true]Marijuana Policy

Maine Congressional Delegation Asks Attorney General to Shut Down Alleged Chinese Marijuana Grow Operations. Responding to a "federal memo" circulating within the US Border Patrol that alleged there were 270 properties in the state linked to illegal Chinese marijuana grows and that they could generate $4 billion a year in revenue, the Maine congressional delegation on Thursday sent a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland (D) urging the Justice Department to shut down the grows

The "federal memo" is questionable. First released by the conservative media source The Daily Caller, the memo (as characterized by the Daily Caller) does not rely on federal statistics but on reports from state and local law enforcement. It also has some funny numbers, including the claim that a plot with 100 plants could generate $5.4 million over three growth cycles in a year. If you crunch the numbers, the comes out to $17,000 per plant per cycle, which would require multi-pound harvests of each plant every four months. Such yields are typically associated with long-growing outdoor plants harvested once a year, not hothouse plants harvested every four months.

Still, the congressional delegation was concerned: "These illegal growing operations are detrimental to Maine businesses that comply with State laws, and we urge the Department of Justice to shut them down," the Maine delegation wrote in Thursday’s joint letter to the nation’s top law enforcement official.

They also sought answers to several questions, including: who produced the memo, what is the Justice Department doing to tackle illegal grows, how are profits returning to the country of origin, and is Justice aware of alleged Chinese ownership.

Nevada Regulators Approve Three More Marijuana Consumption Lounges. The state's Cannabis Control Board on Tuesday approved three more applications for marijuana consumption lounges, raising the number of licenses issued so far to seven. The board approved licenses for Deep Roots Harvest and Global Harmony, which operate Las Vegas pot shops , as well as KV Group in the southern Nevada town Pahrump.

In June, the board issued the first three licenses, for Cheyenne Medical in unincorporated Clark County, Common Sense Botanicals Nevada in Washoe Valley, and Planet 13 in Las Vegas.

The board also loosened air-ventilation standards for consumption lounges, a move that came after operators complained that the large upfront investment  and ongoing energy costs of operating the ventilation systems were economically not feasible for most operators and near impossible for social equity licensees.

Also Tuesday, regulators loosened air-ventilation standards for marijuana consumption, which provided more clarity for operators to move forward with construction plans in one of the nation’s largest tourism markets.

Despite the licensing actions, the only legal consumption lounge currently open in the state is the NuWu Cannabis Marketplace located on tribal land near downtown Las Vegas.

Opiates and Opioids

Despite Widespread Belief That Migrants Are Smuggling Fentanyl from Mexico, Nine Out of Ten Fentanyl Trafficking Busts Are of US Citizens. A recent NPR-Ipsos poll found that 39 percent of Americans and 60 percent of Republicans believe "Most of the fentanyl entering the US is smuggled in by unauthorized migrants crossing the border illegally," but that belief is mistaken.

According to data from the US Sentencing Commission, US citizens accounted for 89 percent of people convicted of fentanyl trafficking, a number 12 times greater that the number of illegal immigrants convicted on those charges.

Similarly, 93 percent of border fentanyl seizures occurred at legal ports of entry or interior vehicle checkpoints, not on illegal migration routes. That elevates the prospect for US citizens—who are subject to less scrutiny—to be successful fentanyl smugglers. Just 0.009 percent of people arrested by the Border Patrol for illegal border crossings were found with any amount of fentanyl.

This is something for policymakers to ponder when attempting to come up with solutions for the fentanyl problem.