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.

The US-Mexico border. Fentanyl is coming through ports of entry, not in immigrants' backpacks. (Creative Commons)

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. 

The NAACP reiterates its call for marijuana legalization and adds a call for workers' rights, Ron DeSantis doubles down on harsh rhetoric directed at Mexican drug cartels, and more.

OxyContin (Creative Commons)

NAACP Renews Support for Marijuana Legalization, Adds Call to Protect Industry Workers' Rights. That National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has adopted a resolution reiterating its support for federal marijuana legalization and added a new call to protect workers' rights in the fledgling industry. The resolution was adopted late last month at the NAACP's 114th National Convention.

"NAACP calls for the legalization and de-scheduling of cannabis at the federal level and reaffirms its past resolutions on cannabis, the cannabis industries, decriminalization, and equity, and expresses an intent to advocate for federal, state, and local medical and adult-use cannabis legislation that includes labor peace agreements as a condition of licensure," the resolution says.

In the call to protect workers' rights, the resolution points out that "the majority of people in the cannabis industry will be workers rather than owners" and advocates that "the workers who grow, process, test, distribute, and sell cannabis deserve a fair and safe workplace and family-sustaining job like every other worker."

And that means union representation, the resolution said: "Access to union representation, training and apprenticeship will help ensure that a broad range of workers can benefit from the cannabis industry, especially workers from communities that have been disproportionately impacted by cannabis prohibition in the past," it says.

Opiates and Opioids

Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Deal that Protects Sackler Family. The US Supreme Court on Thursday put a hold on a bankruptcy deal with Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, that capped liability for the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma, at $6 billion and would have shielded family members from any further civil lawsuits over the opioid epidemic sparked by the introduction and massive marketing of OxyContin.

The Supreme Court issued the order in response to a Justice Department filing objecting to the settlement. The department argued that it allowed Sackler family members to hide behind legal protections meant for debtors in "financial distress," not billionaires. It said it would hear arguments in December to seek whether the settlement complies with the US bankruptcy code.

Under the deal, the Sacklers had agreed to pay billions in exchange for full immunity from all civil cases. The Supreme Court's order is likely to delay payments to the thousands of plaintiffs who have sued Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers.

Foreign Policy

Ron DeSantis Says He Is Open to Using Drones Against Mexican Drug Cartels. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, has once again identified Mexican drug cartels as one of his favorite targets as he seeks to gain traction against former President Donald Trump. At a campaign event in Iowa Thursday, he said he would be open to using drone strikes against Mexican drug cartels.

"We will absolutely reserve the right if they're invading our country and killing our people," DeSantis said in response to a voter's question. When asked to clarify, he said: "I said I would use whatever force we need to defend the country. We'd be willing to lean in against them, and we reserve the right to defend our country," he added.

Earlier in the campaign, DeSantis called for the use of deadly force against migrants suspected of trafficking drugs, a call he reiterated Thursday. "We're authorizing deadly force. They try to break into our country? They will end up stone-cold dead," he said to a rousing round of applause.

International

Ecuador Presidential Candidate's Assassination Linked to Local Drug Gangs with Ties to International Drug Trafficking Organizations. Anti-corruption crusader, journalist, and former legislator Fernando Villavicencio was shot and killed at a campaign event in Quito Tuesday evening not long after receiving threats from local gangs tied to Albanian, Colombian, and Mexican drug cartels.

The assassination came amid a rising tide of violence linked to conflicts betwee two gangs, Los Choneros and Los Lobos. Los Choneros are linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, while Los Lobos have ties to competing international drug organizations. In recent months, judges, prosecutors, journalists, politicians and political candidates have been killed in gang attacks, with the mayor of the western city of Manta assassinated just two weeks ago. Gang-related violence has also roiled the country's overcrowded prisons, with some 600 inmates killed in three separate bouts of prison rioting.

Ecuador is not a producer of cocaine, but is bordered by leading producer countries Colombia to the north and Peru to the south and is an increasingly important transshipment point for cocaine headed to North America and Western Europe.

"The killing of Fernando Villavicencio is a wake-up call for Ecuador's democracy," said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "The rise of organized crime is putting the lives of Ecuadorians and their institutions at risk. Urgent, rights-respecting security policies are needed to protect them effectively."

In response to the violence, President Guillermo Lasso has declared a range of localized states of emergencies, suspending constitutional rights. The government has also deployed the military and conducted prison raids. After the killing of Villavicencio, Lasso expanded the state of emergency across the entire country.

But Human Rights Watch said what the country needs is to address the root causes of criminality, including high levels of poverty and social exclusion. The authorities should seek to permanently reduce the power of organized crime groups, including by considering alternative approaches to drug policy that would reduce the profitability of the illegal drug trade, the group said.

"The ongoing states of emergency have not made Ecuadorians safer," Goebertus said. "The government needs to put in place an effective and legitimate security policy that protects them and seeks to dismantle organized crime groups.

(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.)

A British festival organizer is reaming the Home Office over its sudden requirement that pill testing efforts be licensed, another Republican politician wants to use the US military to fight Mexican drug cartels, and more.

morphine prescription bottle (Creative Commons)

Florida Governor Signs Bill Barring Medical Marijuana at Sober Living Facilities. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has signed into law Senate Bill 210, which bars sober living facilities from allowing residents to use or possess medical marijuana, even if that use is medically authorized. The law does not apply to any other doctor-approved drugs. Now, people seeking licenses to run recovery residences will need to certify that they don't allow the use of marijuana, "which includes marijuana that has been certified by a qualified physician for medical use."

He also signed Senate Bill 1676, which bars the sale of smokeless hemp products such as "snuff, chewing gum, and other smokeless products" to people under 21. Previously, hemp regulations only barred the sale of smokable hemp products to people under 21.

Foreign Policy

Senator JD Vance Endorses Use of Military Against Mexican Drug Cartels. Freshman Senator JD Vance (R-OH), an acolyte of former President Donald Trump, has suggested giving American presidents the power to use the US military to go after drug trafficking organizations in Latin America.

"I want to empower the president of the United States, whether that's a Democrat or Republican, to use the power of the US military to go after these drug cartels," Vance said on Meet the Press on Sunday. "We have to recognize the Mexican government is being, in a lot of ways, destabilized by the constant flow of fentanyl," Vance added.

Vance is only the latest Republican office holder to call for the US military to be deployed against the cartels. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, said last week that he supported using "deadly force" to fight them, and fellow Republican presidential contender Sen. Tim Scott (SC) said he would dispatch US special forces to fight the cartels.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is having none of it. "We are not going to permit any foreign government to intervene in our territory, much less that a government's armed forces intervene," he said at a news conference in March.

International

WHO Report Calls Out Global Disparities in Use of Morphine to Relieve Pain. The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a report saying the use of morphine to treat pain, ease end-of-life experiences, and helping people get through medical emergencies is vital but suffers from great disparities. "Millions of people continue to suffer preventable pain," the report notes.

In the Western Hemisphere, for example, the US utilizes nearly 80 percent of the supply, leaving Latin America in the lurch. More broadly, wealthy countries consumed an estimated 125.9 does per million people a day in 2021, compared with just two doses per million people in low-income countries.

The report's authors recommend establishing affordable pricing policies worldwide, expanding access to people beyond those suffering from cancer and HIV/AIDS, and setting up distribution hubs.

"Leaving people in pain when effective medicines are available for pain management, especially in the context of end-of-life care, should be a cause of serious concern for policymakers," said Yukiko Nakatani, WHO assistant director general for medicines and health products.

British Festival Head Threatens Legal Action over Ban on Pill Checking. Sacha Lord, founder of the Parklife music festival, has formally threatened legal action against the government over its moves against checking pills and powders that attendees turn it at festivals and other events. The Home Office recently barred other festivals from doing pill checking, saying they needed licenses to do so, even though pill checking has gone on at festivals for the past 10 years.

Large festivals, such as Glastonbury and Reading, have used private companies to do the pill checking, while smaller festivals have relied on charities such as The Loop, which has agreements with local police and governments to be able to test at events.

In a letter to the Home Office, Lord said the Home Office was "well aware" of those arrangements and that former ministers had publicly stated that they would not interfere with them. He also chided the Home Office for announcing the licensing requirement just two days ahead of the Parklife festival, making it impossible to obtain in time and jeopardizing the health of festival-goers. The letter demands that the government allow testing without a license to proceed or to take steps to ensure festivals have enough time to comply with the license requirement.

(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.)

There are signals that a federal marijuana rescheduling decision will be reached this year, a Senate bill to crack down on drug cartel use of social media wins a committee vote, and more.

Europe is being flooded with cocaine. Spanish authorities caught this batch in 2014. (minisdef.es)

Top Biden Official Says Marijuana Rescheduling Decision Will Go to President This Year. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday that the department is working to present a marijuana rescheduling decision to President Biden "this year." Agencies are working "as quickly as we can" to complete the administrative review, Becerra added.

"What I can tell you is that the president instructed us at HHS -- FDA in particular -- to take a look at how we treat marijuana to see if we can update our review of marijuana as a drug and how we can make sure how we treat it going forward on the federal level," Becerra told Marijuana Moment. "Places like California have already changed the laws, the federal government has not, and so we've been instructed and we're underway with that review as we speak."

The administration is under pressure from lawmakers as well as activists and the industry to get the job done even as Congress works on incremental marijuana law reforms, such as giving marijuana businesses access to the banking history.

Medical Marijuana

Arkansas Judge Throws Out Slew of Laws Modifying Voter-Approved Medical Marijuana Law. Pulaski County Judge Morgan "Chip" Welch on Wednesday threw out 27 laws adopted by the legislature to modify the Amendment 98 medical marijuana initiative approved by voters in 2016. Welch deemed the laws unconstitutional because they made changes to Amendment 98 without letting residents vote on them, which is required by state law.

The voided laws include one barring the use of telemedicine for patients to get a written certification, one prohibiting National Guard members from being caregivers, one that added criminal background checks and changed "excluded felony offenses," one that regulated advertising, one that allowed for the transfer of licenses among dispensaries and cultivation companies, and many, many more.

Drug Policy

Senate Homeland Security Committee Approves Bill to Crack Down on Cartel Recruitment and Smuggling on Social Media. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today approved bipartisan legislation offered by the Border Management Subcommittee Ranking Member Senator James Lankford (R-OK) and Chair Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ). The Combating Cartels on Social Media Act (S. 61) aims to crack down on cartels that recruit teenagers through social media to conduct smuggling and trafficking.

Lankford accused big social media companies of "pick[ing] and choos[ing] which illegal activities they like and which they do not like, and clearly, they like people illegally crossing the US border. Social media companies need to be held accountable for turning their heads to human trafficking at the cost of human lives."

Sinema accused the companies of effectively helping the cartels recruit teenagers on both sides of the border.

The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to analyze cartels' illicit usage of social media and establishes a process for technology companies to voluntarily report cartel recruitment efforts in the US to DHS and state and local partners.

International

European Union Drug Report Finds Continent Exposed to More Drugs Than Ever. In its annual report released Friday, the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) finds that the availability of illicit drugs remains high and that people on the continent are being exposed "to a wider range of psychoactive substances."

The report noted massive increases in drug seizures between 2011 and 2021, led by cocaine (up 416 percent), marijuana (up 260 percent), meth (up 135 percent) and MDMA ( up 123 percent).

The report found that, though there is demand for these drugs within the EU, "it is likely that increases in quantities seized reflect, at least partially, the larger role played by Europe as a place of production, export and transit for these drugs."

"Almost everything with psychoactive properties can appear on the drug market, often mislabeled or in mixtures. This is why illicit drugs can affect everyone, whether directly through use, or indirectly, through their impact on families, communities, institutions and businesses," EMCDDA Director Alexis Goosdeel said in a statement.

"While western and southern Europe remain the main markets for cocaine, there are signs of cocaine consumption becoming increasingly more common in cities in eastern Europe -- indicating that the cocaine retail market is also developing in other regions. In terms of high-risk opioid use, the countries with the highest number of users per 1,000 inhabitants are Italy, Austria, France, Greece, Spain and Germany," wrote Teodora Groshkova, principal scientific analyst at EMCDDA and Gregorio Planchuelo, database management development officer at EMCDDA.