Incarceration & Cannabis : A Closer Look

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by Kit Ryn Foreman

The United States leads the world in cannabis-related incarceration, with an estimated 40,000 people behind bars. The federal government has stepped back and allowed states to legalize or decriminalize cannabis. Arrest numbers have fallen drastically in legalized states. Numbers have also fallen (if more modestly) in decriminalized states. However, arrests are still occurring in legalized and decriminalized states. These numbers continue to reveal a significant racial disparity, as the ACLU says in their research report:

“Marijuana legalization should be — and indeed is — a racial justice issue. But thus far, racial justice has largely been a peripheral or incidental goal of legalization, resulting in continued racist enforcement of marijuana laws, the exclusion of people of color from participating in, leading, and building wealth from the marijuana industry, and the failure to repair the harms done to communities of color by the drug war.”

In the nine years between 2001 and 2010, there were 8.2 million cannabis-related arrests in the United States; according to the ACLU, 88% of these arrests were for possession of cannabis. Black people were 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis than white people.

Between 2010 and 2018, there were over six million cannabis-related arrests. These arrests were more likely to involve a Black person. The ACLU states in their research report, that “Black people are still more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people in every state, including those that have legalized marijuana.” Nine out of every ten arrests, according to the report, were related to possession of cannabis.

The battle doesn’t end when someone’s sentence has been served to completion. According to Richard Bronson, founder of 70 Million Jobs (a staffing agency serving formerly incarcerated people): 70 million US residents have extreme difficulty finding employment due to previous incarceration and people of color bear the brunt.

Currently, eleven states and Washington D.C. have legalized recreational cannabis. Fifteen states have reduced legal consequences for cannabis-related activity. The state-by-state solution becomes complicated when viewing cannabis through a medical lens. People who rely heavily on cannabis to treat a variety of symptoms (from PTSD to chronic pain) cannot bring their medicine with them when they fly because it remains federally illegal. They also cannot bring cannabis across state lines without breaking federal law. They must purchase new cannabis products when they arrive (if they travel to a legal state) or go without entirely.

Substance is proud to be a founding member of the Oregon Retailers of Cannabis Association (ORCA) — ORCA’s mission is to “represent and advocate for the unique needs of cannabis businesses and consumers in our region.” In 2020, Substance joined the ORCA Board of Directors in order to have a bigger hand in their strategic focus and legislative priorities and helped create ORCA’s Comittee for Social Equity & Racial Justice, to build political and economic power for communities of color.

Substance is also currently contributing to fundraising efforts to establish scholarships for BIPOC individuals working towards a career in cannabis. These scholarships cover the costs of cannabis worker permits and support ongoing professional development. Additionally, Substance has recently joined an advocacy group called the Cannabis Workers Coalition. The CWC is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization that actively lobbies for policy change and is heavily focused on community, advocacy, and education.

Substance is dedicated to using our agency and power to represent under-served, criminalized, and stigmatized populations. We remain dedicated, as ever, to helping to establish cannabis policies that are, in the ACLU’s words, “equitable, smart, [and] reparative.”

Resources:

“A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform.” American Civil Liberties Union, 20 Apr. 2020, www.aclu.org/report/tale-two-countries-racially-targeted-arrests-era-marijuana-reform.

“Marijuana Arrests by the Numbers.” American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org/gallery/marijuana-arrests-numbers.

Oleck, Joan. “With 40,000 Americans Incarcerated For Marijuana Offenses, The Cannabis Industry Needs To Step Up, Activists Said This Week.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 26 June 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/joanoleck/2020/06/26/with-40000-americans-incarcerated-for-marijuana-offenses-the-cannabis-industry-needs-to-step-up-activists-said-this-week/.

Oregon Cannabis 101

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Categories: CultureLearningPoliticsProducts

Are you new to the state of Oregon? Maybe you’re just passing through or visiting family and you want to stop at a local dispensary. Whatever it is, you probably have some questions regarding recreational cannabis laws. Whatever the reason, you’re in the right place. Here is your 101 guide to recreational cannabis in Oregon.

Legal Age

If you are 21 years of age and older you can consume recreational marijuana in Oregon. The use or possession of marijuana by anyone under the age of 21 is illegal, including home consumption.

When & Where

Adults 21 and older can use recreational marijuana at home or on private property. You may not smoke or use recreational marijuana in a public place. A public space is “a place to which the general public has access and includes, but is not limited to, hallways, lobbies, and other parts of apartment houses and hotels not constituting rooms or apartments designed for actual residence, and highways, streets, schools, places of amusement, parks, playgrounds and premises used in connection with public passenger transportation.” Also, remember it is at a landlord’s discretion to allow or deny the use of marijuana on their property so, be sure to ask before using it on their property.

Possession Limits

The PUBLIC possession limits for recreational users are:

  • 1 oz. usable marijuana (dried leaves & flower)
  • 1 oz. cannabinoid extracts or concentrates
  • 16 oz. cannabinoid product in solid form
  • 72 oz. cannabinoid product in liquid form
  • 4 immature marijuana plants
  • 10 marijuana seeds

Private possession limits are the same as public but, you can have up to 8 ounces of usable marijuana at a residence or on private property.

Oregonians can grow up to four plants per residence. No, that does not mean four adults can have 16 plants. Four plants per residence, regardless of how many people live there.

Where to Purchase Cannabis

You can purchase marijuana items at any OLCC licensed retail location, but we prefer you come visit us here at Substance Market or check out our Bend Oregon Dispensary Menu.

Driving & Travel

Current DUII laws have not changed. That means no driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII), including impairment from the use of marijuana. You also cannot take marijuana across state lines even if it’s legal in the state you are traveling too. That means you cannot travel to Washington with marijuana even though it’s legal. It is a federal offense.

Gifting & Giveaways

Gifting & giveaways between individuals who are 21 years of age and older is allowed but may not have any financial consideration.

Financial consideration includes:

  • Cover charges
  • Admission
  • Donations
  • Tip jars
  • Raffles
  • Fundraiser events
  • purchase required
  • Barter
  • Sales

Well, enjoy, be safe, and remember to follow the Oregon Cannabis 101 guide and laws for use of cannabis in the state of Oregon.

Download the Oregon Cannabis 101 Guide Here or for more information please visit oregon.gov.

Tom Marino

Tom Marino Back in Running to Be Trump’s ‘Drug Czar’

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Categories: Politics
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Federal Policy Update

Tom Marino: Our Best Hope?

Our friends over at Leafly have done a wonderful job explaining how Tom Marino’s expected appointment could shield the cannabis industry form federal meddling. Marino has a long history of focusing on the opioid epidemic while in Congress. Marino’s opioid focus will, hopefully, take some wind (smoke?) out of Attorney General Sessions’ sails when it comes to prosecuting the cannabis industry.

From Leafly

The White House has announced that President Donald Trump intends to nominate US Rep. Tom Marino to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

Marino, an early supporter of then-candidate Trump, has been a candidate for the role—commonly known as White House “drug czar”—since at least April, when the president first said he intended to appoint the Pennsylvania Republican to the post. But Marino withdrew himself from consideration in May citing a critical illness in his family.

In the position, Marino would steer the administration’s policies on drug control. And as Leafly Deputy Editor Bruce Barcott reported in April, his record indicates he’s far more concerned with the country’s ongoing opioid epidemic than with regulated cannabis markets.

During his time in Congress, Marino has worked to expand access to treatment for individuals struggling with opioid addiction. He also led a successful legislative effort to address cross-border drug trafficking.  If those past examples are any indication, Marino would likely direct most of his attention as drug czar to America’s opioid crisis. A White House panel in July urged the president to declare a national emergency around opioid overdoses, which are estimated to have killed roughly 60,000 people in 2016.

Marino’s position on opioids, however, could raise concerns within the cannabis industry. He seems to favor tougher criminal enforcement on the ground and more leniency for drug manufacturers, an approach that echoes that of US Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In May 2016, for example, Marino suggested that authorities lock up nonviolent drug offenders in a “hospital-slash-prison,” with release dependent upon the treatment program’s approval. If, like Sessions, Marino sees cannabis as a contributor to America’s overdose epidemic—just last week, Sessions said the idea of legalizing cannabis “makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck”—he may be resistant to the growing body of evidence that medical cannabis can help combat the opioid crisis.

If confirmed by the Senate (which reconvened today), Marino would replace Richard Baum, the ONDCP’s acting head. His Congressional seat would need to be filled via a special election.

See more here.

Jess Sessions

Jeff Sessions and the CSA

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In our last post, we discussed how Attorney General Jeff Sessions has reignited the war on drugs. On May 12, Attorney General Sessions directed his federal prosecutors to pursue the most severe penalties possible for drug-related offenders, including mandatory minimum sentences, a penalty largely seen as responsible for the disproportionately high incarceration rates for ethnic minorities in the United States. This came as a blow to recent bipartisan efforts to enact criminal sentencing reform legislation, and spread uncertainty as to the future of legalization.

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970

 

At the center of this uncertainty is the status of cannabis as a Schedule I drug. Schedule I drugs are deemed by the federal government to have no current medical use and a high addictive potential. This classification came into use with the passage of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) of 1970, which consolidated all previously existing federal drug laws into a single statute. The Nixon administration saw the CSA as a way to defeat the antiwar left and dismantle black communities, according to Nixon’s secretly-recorded Oval Office tapes and statements made by former Nixon aides. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence that cannabis has medical use and has lower addictive potential than alcohol, cannabis remains a Schedule I drug, making it illegal on a federal level.

Sessions and the CSA

How cannabis’ Schedule I status lines up with efforts to legalize cannabis on a state level has long been in question, and Sessions’ appointment as the US Attorney General brought this to the fore. In late May, Sessions authored a letter asking Congress not to renew federal protections in place for medical marijuana since 2014, arguing that they inhibited his ability to enforce the CSA. These protections prohibit the Justice Department from using federal funds to restrict individual states from implementing their own laws concerning medical marijuana. They have been included as an amendment to federal budgets for the previous three years. In a victory for legalization proponents, however, the Senate Appropriations Committee recently approved the amendment once again, ignoring Sessions’ request.

 

Meanwhile, the CSA’s constitutionality has come under attack. Pro-cannabis advocates filed a federal lawsuit on July 24 arguing that the CSA’s classification of cannabis as Schedule I is so irrational that it violates the constitution. The lawsuit also attacks the roots of the CSA, stating that the Nixon administration rushed the bill through Congress and insisted that cannabis be included “so that African Americans and war protesters could be raided, prosecuted and incarcerated without identifying the actual and unconstitutional basis for the government’s actions”. While Sessions’ efforts to roll back the legalization and decriminalization of cannabis continue, it is clear that lawmakers and civil society are actively resisting.

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Jeff Sessions and the War on Drugs

Posted on by Substance
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On May 12, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a sweeping new criminal charging policy. Attorney General Sessions directed his federal prosecutors to pursue the most severe penalties possible, including mandatory minimum sentences. Many credit these and similarly harsh policies of the “War on Drugs” in the 1980s and 1990s for the United States’ role as the world’s leading jailer and the disproportionately high incarceration rates for ethnic minorities.

Sessions and Drug-Related Policing

Towards the end of the Obama administration, a bipartisan consensus had emerged around criminal justice reform. A wide range of political voices, including civil rights groups, Democrat and Republican lawmakers, and even the ultra conservative Koch brothers coalesced around sentencing reform legislation. In the executive branch, former attorney general Eric Holder had instructed prosecutors to avoid charging nonviolent defendants with offenses that would result in long mandatory minimum sentences. Attorney General Sessions’ May 12 announcement decisively reversed these policies.

Jess Sessions

Sessions’ severe record on drug-related policing goes back much further, however. In 2016, while serving as a Republican senator for the state of Alabama, Sessions personally blocked national criminal sentencing reform legislation, despite substantial opposition from within his own party. As the U.S. Attorney General for the Southern District of Alabama, drug convictions made up 40 percent of Sessions’ total convictions, double the rate of other Alabama prosecutors. He has also voiced opposition to federal oversight of non-federal police departments, dismissing previous Justice Department findings on state and local police forces’ systemic targeting of ethnic minorities as “anecdotal”.

Sessions and Cannabis

In addition to his affinity for punitive justice and harsh policing for drug-related charges, Attorney General Sessions has long espoused a virulent hatred for cannabis in particular. He infamously claimed that “good people don’t smoke marijuana”, and has long made his opposition to legalization known.

Meme

It is unclear as of yet, however, what he may or may not do to roll back legalization on a state level. While 26 states now have laws legalizing the use of cannabis in some form, it remains a Schedule I drug on the federal level, putting it in the same category as heroin. This gives the attorney general broad authority to crack down on the rising tide of legalization if he so chooses, although he would likely face a significant popular backlash.

Map indicating states that have decriminalized or legalized some form of cannabis use and purchase.

As uncertainty looms, lawmakers have reacted quickly, moving either to strengthen or to abandon their efforts to decriminalize, legalize, and research cannabis. In non-legal states, many are bracing for a crackdown, particularly communities of color. For all those fighting to normalize cannabis and create a more equitable justice system, Attorney General Sessions’ words and actions have already had a deeply chilling effect.