Crime
What marijuana reclassification means for the United States
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. The Justice Department’s proposal would recognize the medical uses of cannabis but wouldn’t legalize it for recreational use.
The proposal would move marijuana from “Schedule I” to the less tightly regulated “Schedule III.”
So what does this mean and what are its consequences?
What actually modified? What happens next?
Technically nothing yet. The proposal should be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget after which subjected to public discussion and review by an administrative judge, a potentially lengthy process.
Still, the shift is taken into account a “paradigm shift and is very exciting,” Vince Sliwoski, a cannabis and psychedelics lawyer in Portland, Oregon, who runs outstanding legal blogs on these topics, told The Associated Press when the federal Health and Wellness Commission Department of Social Services advisable the change.
“I can’t emphasize enough how important this news is,” he said.
This got here after President Joe Biden last 12 months asked each HHS and the attorney general, which oversees the DEA, to review marijuana classification. Schedule Legally, I put it on par with heroin, LSD, quaalude, and ecstasy, amongst others.
Biden, a Democrat, supports legalizing medical marijuana for use “where appropriate, consistent with medical and scientific evidence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday. “That is why it is important that this independent review passes.”
If marijuana is reclassified, will it legalize recreational marijuana nationwide?
NO. Schedule III drugs – which include ketamine, anabolic steroids and a few combos of acetaminophen and codeine – are still controlled substances.
They are subject to varied laws that allow for certain medical uses and federal criminal prosecution of anyone who deals drugs and not using a license.
No changes are expected to medical marijuana programs currently licensed in 38 states or to legal recreational marijuana markets in 23 states, but they’re unlikely to satisfy federal requirements for production, recordkeeping, prescribing and other requirements for Scheduled drugs III.
There have not been many federal prosecutions for easy marijuana possession in recent times, even under marijuana’s current Schedule I status, but the reclassification would don’t have any direct impact on people already involved in the criminal justice system.
“Put simply, this move from Schedule I to Schedule III is not going to get people out of jail,” said David Culver, senior vp of public affairs at the U.S. Cannabis Board.
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However, the rescheduling itself would have some impact, particularly on research and marijuana taxes.
What would this mean for research?
Because marijuana is a Schedule I drug, it has been very difficult to conduct authorized clinical trials involving the administration of the drug. This has created something of a catch-22: requiring further research, but making it harder. (Researchers sometimes depend on people’s own reports of marijuana use.)
Schedule III drugs are easier to check, although changing the classification won’t immediately reverse all barriers to testing, Culver said.
What about taxes (and banking)?
Under the federal tax code, businesses that “trade” marijuana or another Schedule I or II drug cannot deduct rent, payroll, or various other expenses that other businesses can write off. (Yes, a minimum of some cannabis businesses, especially state-licensed ones, pay taxes to the federal government despite its marijuana prohibition). Industry groups say the tax rate often tops out at 70% or higher.
The deduction rule doesn’t apply to Schedule III drugs, so the proposed change would significantly reduce taxes on cannabis firms.
They say it might treat them like other industries and help them compete with illegal competitors that frustrate licensees and officials in places like New York.
“That’s how you strengthen these state legal programs,” says Adam Goers, director of medical and recreational marijuana giant Columbia Care. He co-leads a coalition of corporations and other players that’s pushing for the schedule change.
It could also mean more promotion and promoting of cannabis if those costs could possibly be deducted, based on Beau Kilmer, co-director of the RAND Drug Policy Center.
The rescheduling would don’t have any direct impact on one other marijuana business issue: difficulty accessing banks, particularly for loans, as federally regulated institutions fear the drug’s legal status. Instead, the industry sought a measure called the SAFE Banking Act. It passed the House multiple times but stalled in the Senate.
Are there critics? What are they saying?
They do exist, including the national anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana. President Kevin Sabet, a former Obama administration drug policy official, said the HHS suggestion “contradicts science, reeks of politics” and is a regrettable nod to an industry “desperate for legitimacy.”
Some legalization advocates say the marijuana reschedule is just too gradual. They wish to deal with removing it completely from the list of controlled substances, which doesn’t include items like alcohol or tobacco (they’re regulated, but they usually are not the same).
Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Marijuana Law Reform Organization, said simply reclassifying marijuana would “perpetuate the existing divide between state and federal marijuana policy.” Minority Cannabis Business Association President Kaliko Castille said she would only postpone the “rebranding ban,” relatively than giving full clarity to state licensees and definitively ending a long time of arrests that disproportionately attracted people of color.
“Schedule III will leave it in this amorphous, dirty middle where people won’t understand the danger that it will still be illegal at the federal level,” he said.
Crime
Founder of an AI Tech startup accused of fraud and combining numbers with investors
Joanna Smith-Griffin, 33, CEO of startup AllHere Education, Inc. dealing with AI education accused of defrauding investors.
The Southern District of New York prosecuted Smith-Griffin securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The grand jury indictment alleged that Smith-Griffin lied concerning the education platform’s funds and posed as a financial consultant to supply false information to investors. While acting as a financial consultant for AllHere Education, Smith-Griffin is accused of falsifying the corporate’s financial records mislead potential investors and inflate the worth of her company and its revenues.
AllHere Education is an AI-powered learning platform utilized in primary and secondary schools. Smith-Griffin has had little success integrating the K-12 platform into individual school districts in California and Georgia. However, the principal didn’t secure long-term contracts with school districts. She used these short-term partnerships to misrepresent to investors the reach and financial success of AllHere Education.
Smith-Griffin told potential AllHere investors that AllHere generated about $3.7 million in revenue in 2020, about $2.5 million in money and has major school district customers similar to New York City Department of Education (“NYC DOE”) and Atlanta Public Schools. In fact, AllHere generated roughly $11,000 in revenue in 2020, had roughly $494,000 in money, and had no contracts with many of the clients it represented, including the NYC DOE and Atlanta Public Schools.
Smith-Griffin continued to boost capital to support the startup, raising one other $10 million in funding. When the corporate collapsed financially, Smith-Griffin allegedly used the money injection to pay for an extravagant three-day wedding in Florida and a residence in North Carolina.
FBI Deputy Director James E. Dennehy commented on Smith-Griffin’s decision to prioritize her personal aspirations over the needs of an educational platform.
“Her alleged actions impacted the potential to improve the learning environment in core school districts by selfishly prioritizing personal expenses,” he said.
Smith-Griffin faces a compulsory two years in prison for the identity theft charge and a maximum of 20 years for every fraud charge. AllHere Education is currently in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Crime
Prosecutors say Sean “Diddy” Combs is trying to obstruct justice by heading to prison
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was trying to reach potential witnesses and influence public opinion while in prison in a bid to influence potential jurors in an upcoming sex trafficking trial, prosecutors said in a court filing during which they urged a judge to deny his latest bail request.
The government charges were filed Friday evening in federal court in Manhattan, which opposed the music mogul’s latest offer of $50 million bail. A bail hearing is scheduled for next week.
Prosecutors wrote that a review of recorded phone calls Combs made while in prison shows that he asked relations to contact potential victims and witnesses and urged them to create a “narrative” to influence the jury pool. They say he also encouraged the use of promoting strategies to influence public opinion.
“The defendant has demonstrated time and time again – even while in custody – that he’ll flagrantly and repeatedly disregard the foundations so as to improperly influence the consequence of his case. In other words, the defendant has demonstrated that he can’t be trusted to abide by the terms and conditions,” prosecutors wrote in a press release containing redactions.
Prosecutors wrote that from his behavior it might be inferred that Combs wanted to blackmail victims and witnesses into remaining silent or providing testimony helpful to his defense.
Combs’ lawyers didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Prosecutors said Combs, 55, began breaking the foundations almost immediately after being taken into custody Metropolitan Prison Center in Brooklyn after his September arrest.
He pleaded not guilty to the costs brought against him he abused and molested women for years with the assistance of a network of collaborators and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Two judges found he was a danger to the community and a flight risk.
His lawyers recently filed a 3rd bail application after rejecting two previous attempts, including a $50 million bail offer.
In their motion, they cited modified circumstances, including latest evidence, that they believed justified Combs’ release so he could higher prepare for his May 5 trial.
However, prosecutors said defense lawyers created the most recent bail proposal based on evidence provided to them by prosecutors, and the brand new material was already known to defense lawyers after they submitted previous bail applications.
In their presentation to the judge, prosecutors said Combs’ behavior in prison shows he must remain locked up.
For example, they said, Combs asked relations to plan and execute a social media campaign around his birthday “with the intent of influencing a potential jury in this criminal proceeding.”
He encouraged his children to post a video on their social media accounts of them gathering to have a good time his birthday, he added.
He then monitored statistics on the jail, including audience engagement, and “explicitly discussed with the family how to ensure the film would have the desired impact on potential jury members in this case,” they said.
The government also alleged that Combs made clear in other conversations that he intended to anonymously publish information that he believed would help him defend against the costs.
“Defendant’s efforts to impede the fairness of these proceedings also include his persistent efforts to contact potential witnesses, including victims of violence, who could provide strong testimony against him,” prosecutors wrote.
Crime
Celebrity chef and former NFL player Tobias Dorzon is recovering from a shooting attack
Celebrity chef and former NFL player Tobias Dorzon is recovering after being shot during an alleged robbery.
The shooting occurred on the evening of Tuesday, November 5 in Hyattsville, Maryland, when multiple suspects attempted to rob a man and woman who had just returned from dinner, based on statement from the Hyattsville Police Department.
Police said the victims were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Although authorities didn’t initially discover the victims, local council member Wanika Fisher revealed that Dorzon was amongst those attacked.
“I am disheartened and saddened by the news that Prince George’s County restaurant owner Tobias Dorzon was one of two people shot during an attempted robbery Tuesday evening in my neighborhood,” Fisher began in a news release.
She added that Dorzon, a Riverdale native, owns two “amazing” restaurants in Hyattsville and is considered a “dear” friend of hers.
“Such a terrible act could not have happened to a better person,” Fisher continued within the statement. “I offer my sincere condolences to him and the other victim, as well as their families and friends, and wish them both a speedy recovery. This type of senseless violence has no place in our county and county.”
According to Fisher, Dorzon is an “extremely talented” chef who has represented Prince George’s County on the national stage and appeared on several Food Network shows. Most recently, the 39-year-old chef participated within the Food Network’s “Last Bite Hotel,” where he made it to the ultimate 4. He also hosts “Time Out with Tobias” on ESPN.
Off-screen, Dorzon currently owns and manages a company Huncho’s house and exclusive 1123 By Chef Tobias. This spring, he was named Maryland Chef of the Year, the primary honor for somebody from Prince George’s County. In 2021 helped James Harden open his restaurant Thirteen in Houston.
Before becoming a master chef, the Maryland native played within the NFL for each the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Tennessee Titans. He also had a stint playing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League.
Every week after the shooting, Dorzon updated followers Instagram on his progress.
“I’m still here, thank you all for your prayers. See you soon…. Huncho,” he wrote within the caption of a post that included a screenshot of a tweet during which he admitted that, all things considered, he should be “God’s favorite.”
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