#drug enforcement agency

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A group of bipartisan lawmakers reintroduced the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act in the House and Senate on Wednesday, after the legislation designed to free up banking services for the cannabis industry stalled in last year's Congress.

The bill, which has been tweaked since last session, was introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.

If the critical banking and financial protections advance through committees, they could see a vote on the Senate floor for the first time. The bill, which has always had strong bipartisan support, passed in the House seven times previously.

"For the first time, we have a path for SAFE Banking to move through the Senate Banking Committee and get a vote on the floor of the Senate," Merkley said in a statement. "Let's make 2023 the year that we get this bill signed into law so we can ensure that all legal cannabis businesses have access to the financial services they need to help keep their employees, their businesses, and their communities safe."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., expressed his support for the legislation on Thursday and said he would work to make sure the legislation includes criminal justice provisions when it reaches the floor.

Cannabis stocks Curaleaf Holdings, Trulieve Cannabis Corp, and Terrascend Corp all rose by double-digit percentages on Thursday. The bipartisan nature of the SAFE Banking Act's reintroduction appeared to boost hopes of more relief to come in the industry.

"The SAFE Banking Act will provide urgently needed relief to cannabis businesses of all sizes and act as a stepping stone to broader reforms," said Matt Darin, CEO of multistate cannabis operator Curaleaf, in a statement after the bill's reintroduction.

Under current federal law, banks and credit unions face federal prosecution and penalties if they provide services to legal cannabis businesses because cannabis is still a Schedule I substance, the same classification as heroin and LSD. Schedule I substances are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

Without access to financial services, state legal cannabis businesses are forced to operate their businesses solely using cash, which can result in robbery, money laundering, and organized crime.

"This legislation will save lives and livelihoods. It is past time that Congress addresses the irrational, unfair, and unsafe prohibition of basic banking services to state-legal cannabis businesses," said Blumenauer, founder and co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.

Key components of the bill protect banks that work with state-legal cannabis businesses from being penalized by federal regulators.

Under SAFE Banking, federal regulators are barred from taking several punitive steps against banks, according to the legislation:

• Prohibit, penalize or discourage a bank from providing financial services to legal cannabis businesses • End or limit a bank's federal deposit insurance if the bank provides those services • Recommend or incentivize a bank to halt or downgrade providing banking services to cannabis businesses • Take any action on a loan to an owner or operator of a cannabis business

The legislation also creates a safe harbor from criminal prosecution, liability and asset forfeiture for banks, their officers or employees. Moreover, a new component includes the safe harbor statute extended for underserved communities who face challenges in accessing capital and provide affordable access to financial services.

EXECUTIVES SOUND OFF

SAFE Banking, which has 38 additional cosponsors in the Senate and eight additional cosponsors in the House, will be a boon for an industry that has seen a downturn. Top cannabis executives have pushed Congress for years to take action on banking and other federal reforms needed to fortify their businesses.

Brady Cobb, the CEO of Sunburn Cannabis, a leading Florida dispensary chain, said in a statement, "All eyes should be on the Senate Banking Committee to call the measure up for its first hearing in the Senate."

"SAFE will serve as a springboard for the US banking and financial sectors to meaningfully participate in this budding industry, and most importantly it will significantly reduce the safety risks faced by the thousands of employees of this all cash business," he said.

Morgan Paxhia, co-founder and managing director at Poseidon, a cannabis investment firm, called the measure's reintroduction a major advancement for the industry.

"We have seen many firsts in legal cannabis and that now includes the scheduling of a hearing of cannabis banking reform in the Senate," added Paxhia. "This is an historic step for the Senate."

[jc-lambert]

To Lady Officer, Grimes

Trina...

Do you want to rob a few liquor and reefer stores with me, and call it "Vigilantism"? I am low on funds, seem to be deresourced, and need to make some money. So, may I rent or barrow your pistol? May I also barrow your badge?

Would you want to watch me work perhaps drive me to in a test driven car? Know anyone who's been laid off work as a police officer who would want to party it up? Neither reefer or liquor are legal on the reservation or in Kansas. Technically speaking, neither are lotto tickets.

I mean, there are mortgages that need paid. I mean, there are cop babies that need to be fed.

Bezos is the italian-portuguese mafia and everyone has been had for all their credit who worked as a cop and shopped on Amazon.

He's truly my mothers pimp from the sex trafficking ring in the 1970s. He drove through Kansas and had a business confrence in Emporia among all the former exotic dancers and hookers. Our family & IBM is their primary credit.

Nate Schweithale, is still being an egotistical jackass prevert again, encouraging human trafficking, sex trafficking, sodomy and other felonious behavior of the homeless population. Why is Daniel Gilmore not yet dead and why are there gangs of sexual preditors and homosexual rapists "regulating" in the streets of Delano, again and still???

Do remember, I am still in possession of a 3H rod the size of a urethra. It's designed in ways that can be snuck into prison easily, and assembled into a small nuclear bomb with nothing more than mop water and a beer drunk's piss. True, it wouldnt be a good one with mopwater and beer drunk's piss. Such a device would only be good for say, oh I don't know: Hollywood or a school class full of pre-teens. However, I have access to all the chemicals I need and it still remains to be such a hazard, most of my peeps are radioactive and with cancer. Me? Im already dead/undead and my emails are an echo from the future into the past. I've truly hit time sideways by entering into that wonderful dimension where all Romans are to be called Demons, can be slave driven by my family name, and where cocaine and heroin truly get planted regularly in the river and where Texan/Mexican Militants canoe our river and weed out all the heroin and cocaine planted.

Im still kidnapped and held hostage out of state. I am still in Wichita.

I am still very rudely and very racistly being called "dude" by everyone in the area: which means I am more prone to calling small children "nigger" and "spic" and kicking them in the head.

I am still being subjected to the gargoyles of the city. (Lookalike Persons descended of the faces on the Mayor's Office Building, ye olde clocktower courthouse. Bruce Deterding was one of them. We've done our voodoo to make his human form disappear by catching the spirit in a glass jar, a picture was sent to Nate... but another gargoyle in human form has popped up, started squatting in the Delano District, sleeps outside year round and has started winning over the city)

I've found a green wig. I have a fishnet t-shirt.

I think it would be cute and funny to wear a badge that says "Grimes" while I do the nasty on the bodies of dead cunt clerks in clothes that I have worn for a year without taking off or taking a bath.

Do you want to visit each of the dispensaries and head shops in town...

Dressed like militant slut walkers (gender impersonation + military garb + leave the radio car keys stolen from the dope scene = everyone gets away with it)

and rob them with me?

I think I would rather put a bullet in a few Oregonians and Washingtonese: and sort of just kill them and walk away with whatever inventory.

Most of them, are from out of town.

Most of them, are identity theives from Oregon & Washington alluding authorities.

Most of them, are born in Canada.

Some of them, are using my social security number to pay taxes.

All of them, believe marijuana and cocaine to be legal.

All of them, forget that this is a Kiowa Reservation, not a human or mohawk squat.

All of them, have fake felony officers from their areas on speed dial, in case they have trouble with the local indigenous cops.

I would only need 5 thou myself. (that's me being greedy) We could hit each store, most of which are using perfectly counterfeit notes & buy giftcards for internet websites.

Each store would be expected to have about a thousand to four thousand in the store... Each store at any given time has about 30,000 dollars worth of reefer, nicotine vape, and cocaine in the back.

I would give you a 70% cut of the money...

I would keep a 90% cut of the dope, as I am sure officer Nate Schweithale would probably want his share of the cocaine, roids, and penis pills he's obviously been taking behind his wife's back. She's not been putting out. he's been watching porn and jerking off with his kid.

Since I would be killing people and most likely urinating and defecating on their dead bodies...

I would prefer we target stores that employ homosexuals as well as persons and non-persons from the states of Oregon and Washington.

Have you ever seen a transvestite with a beard crap on a dead body while wearing a green wig and military cammo in a fishnet tank with CC sized boobs, then board the greyhound looking presentable and respectable?

Want to?

[nationallawreview]

Supreme Court Decision Overturns Chevron: Impact on Cannabis Industry

Last month, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision and opinion in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, significantly overruling the nearly 40-year-old precedent set by Chevron. The Chevron decision required federal courts to defer to a government agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous statute unless that interpretation was “arbitrary, capricious, or manifestly contrary” to the…

[generallemarc]

Fuck you Brandon. Fuck you.

[santaclaralocalnews]

It was about time. Santa Clara resident Xiaodong Zhang had put off the task for nearly a decade. “It’s been almost ten years since I cleaned out the unused medications,” said Zhang. “When I saw the ‘Rx Take Back’ email from the police department, I decided it was time to do something.” The Santa Clara Police Department (SCPD) was once again participating in a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) National Rx Take Back Day, Oct. 28. SCPD notified residents via an e-blast. For complete news visit svvoice.com.

[garudabluffs]

The DEA turns 50: The story of an agent who battled traffickers and the CIA

In a nationwide address in the 1970s, President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse to be “public enemy No. 1" and stepped up efforts to shut down the global trade. Much of the initial efforts of the DEA were focused on Southeast Asia where US troops in Vietnam were using heroin. The World's Patrick Winn tells the story of an investigator who tried to bust up a heroin ring in Thailand and was stymied by the CIA.

Jun. 29, 2023 LISTEN 10:22 https://theworld.org/media/2023-06-29/dea-turns-50-story-agent-who-battled-traffickers-and-cia

[silkarth]

Here’s the link: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/03/01/2023-04248/telemedicine-prescribing-of-controlled-substances-when-the-practitioner-and-the-patient-have-not-had?s=03

Click on the speech bubble symbol along the left side of the page to add a statement. Here’s the text of my statement expressing my opposition, in which I accidentally used the word “limitations” three times. It’s poorly edited, but my points still stand. A statement doesn’t have to be perfect to get the point across, so go for it!

My statement: “ I am a mental health professional serving the Fort Hood/Central Texas area, and this proposed rule would negatively impact several groups of people among my clientele: active and former military personnel and their families, people with physical disabilities and mobility limitations, trans and nonbinary people, people with travel limitations due to legal limitations, caretaking duties or limited income, and people with mental/emotional issues such as PTSD or social phobia that affect their ability to interact with strangers or crowds. Due to comorbidities, many of these groups overlap within my clientele. These are the people for whom more accessible healthcare is most vital, and for whom limiting telemedicine services would be the most harmful. For the sake of my clients and so many like them, I urge you not to support this proposed change. “

[derekhernandezfuentes]

Florida Republican Conservative-Communist Pedophile Governor Ron DeSantis desires to ban Gay Adults-to-Gay Adults Marriages so that the Gay men are forced to not think of Straight women nor Gay men sexually, but only of little boys and girls against the tax-paying Gay men’s and Gay American Soldiers’ will and consents! Republican Conservative Communists George W Bush and Ron DeSantis are Anti-American by arresting Gay men and attacking Gay men’s Rights to marry Other Adults consensually!

[tennessoui]

would love to write a romance book where the main characters' names are noah and iris and everyone loves it and it gets super popular and people are obsessed and are posting meta about it and someone asks me on twitter (i get a twitter specifically in preparation for this) why i chose the names noah and iris. they have done the research and know that noah means both 'to rest' and 'in motion' which encapsulates his character, while 'iris' means rainbow which could be a nod to her being queercoded, which many readers have picked up on. i reply that noah is NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and iris is IRS, the Internal Revenue Service. i never again answer another question about this

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

President Joe Biden turns the Medical Marijuana Research Bill into law, changing how American scientists can do research on marijuana.

As anticipated by Marijuana Moment last week, the White House announced on Friday that President Biden signed the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act, "which establishes a new registration process for conducting research on marijuana and for manufacturing marijuana products for research purposes and drug development."

The bipartisan bill was introduced in July, quickly passed in the House in the same month, and unanimously approved by the Senate in November.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (Democrat), who sponsored the bill, released a joint press statement along with Cannabis Caucus Co-Chairs Barbara Lee (Democrat), Dave Joyce (Republican), and Brian Mast (Republican) stressing the importance of such achievement.

"For decades, the federal government has stood in the way of science and progress—peddling a misguided and discriminatory approach to cannabis. Today marks a monumental step in remedying our federal cannabis laws. The Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act will make it easier to study the impacts and potential of cannabis," the statement reads.

Furthermore, the Representatives highlighted how fundamental is medical research on marijuana to understand the full medicinal potential of the plant to treat a wide array of medical conditions and pledged to work on ending the war on drugs through a series of upcoming proposals that will reshape the status of marijuana at the federal level.

The law significantly eases the lives of scientists who wish to study marijuana for medical purposes, as they had to follow strict regulations that could delay their research.

The new legislation removes federal restrictions in order to ease research from studying the plant and speeds up the application process to approve marijuana-related scientific studies.

Under the new law, the federal government has to ensure an adequate, uninterrupted supply of marijuana available to scientists for studies on medical marijuana.

Therefore, researchers will be able to learn more about the plant's medical properties and request large amounts of marijuana to use for research.

In fact, the legislation now requires that within 60 days of receiving a researcher's application, the U.S. Attorney General has to approve it, request more information, or deny it specifying the reasons. If researchers submit more information upon request, the Attorney General has 30 days to decide.

Universities and research institutions will now be able to acquire U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) license to grow, manufacture, distribute, dispense and possess marijuana for research purposes, with guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Food And Drug Administration.

Scientists who wish to do marijuana research may update their protocol without informing the DEA if the quantity and form of marijuana, the source, and the storage conditions of the material won't change.

The legislation also encourages the FDA to develop marijuana-derived medicines and addresses the HHS to determine the potential medical benefits of marijuana or cannabidiol (or CBD) as a drug.

The Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act also intervenes in the doctor-patient relationship by allowing physicians to discuss the currently known potential harms and benefits of marijuana cannabinoids, such as CBD, as a treatment or the known possible damages and benefits of marijuana and its compounds.

Nevertheless, the legislation doesn't allow scientists to obtain marijuana from state-run dispensaries and won't reschedule marijuana at the federal level.

In fact, marijuana will remain illegal at the federal level under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.

However, the legislation represents a significant step forward for medical research on marijuana in the U.S.

Before the new law, doing research on marijuana was very difficult in the U.S. as scientists needed approval from multiple agencies to conduct studies, which could sometimes take years.

Furthermore, scientists were only allowed to use marijuana grown by the University of Mississippi, although the DEA has recently awarded six other marijuana cultivation licenses for research to U.S. companies.

Biden's signature of The Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act follows the executive order in October pardoning about 6,500 individuals convicted for marijuana possession at the federal level.

On that occasion, he also asked the Secretary of the HHS and the Attorney General to "initiate the process of reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law."

Although the new law doesn't implement more reform at the federal level, it may pave the way for new federal legislation on marijuana, such as the SAFE Banking Act, that may ease the federal restrictions on the marijuana industry.

[geezliberia]

President Joseph Boakai Dismisses Three Suspended LDEA Officials; Appoints New Director

President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr. has nominated Mr. Anthony Suoh as the new Director General of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA). This nomination follows the recent investigation into the “acts of disorder and chaos” that shook the LDEA headquarters in June, casting a shadow on an agency meant to be a pillar of public safety and order. While Suoh’s appointment awaits confirmation by…

[nationallawreview]

The FDA Wants To Reschedule Cannabis. Does That Mean All Employees Can Soon Legally Use It?

On May 21, 2024, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking indicating that the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) intends to transfer marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This notice is consistent with opinions from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acknowledging that marijuana has currently accepted…

[projectchampionz]

THE USE OF POLICE INTELLIGENCE IN DRUG TRAFFICKING CASES

THE USE OF POLICE INTELLIGENCE IN DRUG TRAFFICKING CASES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY 1.1 Introduction Drug trafficking remains a significant global issue, posing threats to public safety, economic stability, and national security. Law enforcement agencies rely heavily on intelligence gathering to combat drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). Police intelligence plays a critical role in identifying…

[saynaija]

NDLEA Intercepts Multiple Drug Consignments In Baby Food Tins, Cloths Going To US, UK

NDLEA Intercepts Multiple Drug Consignments In Baby Food Tins, Cloths Going To US, UK Multiple consignments of illicit drugs concealed in tins of Cerelac baby food and cloths going to the United States and United Kingdom have been intercepted by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, and a courier firm in Lagos. No…

[touchaheartnews]

GMD UBA’s Oliver Alawuba named the 2023 Champion Man of the Year.

  Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of United Bank for Africa, UBA Plc, Oliver Alawuba, has been named Champion Newspapers Man of the Year for 2023. Oliver, who is making history as the first CEO of any financial institution in the country to clinch the prestigious award, beat top contenders during a rigorous process by the top echelon of the media organization after…