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.
All eyes were on Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, when she took the position of witness on Tuesday, May 13, in a federal loud case of sexual trade against her ex -boyfriend, Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The 38-year-old singer R&B came to court Daniel Patrick Moynihan of the United States in Lower Manhattan in New York, with a wonderful tumor for teenagers, and testified with regard to the controversial relationship through which she was involved with Didda for about a decade, which began when she was 19 and newly signed his bad files for 10-lib, which was his bad concluded for a 10-album offer, 10-colbum offer, every 10-colbum, 10-lb contract, CNNIN NBCAND CBS Reported.
During her testimony, the singer described the years of alleged physical, emotional and sexual use at Diddy’s hands. She accused the disgraced rap rap of controlling each aspect of her life, from her funds to her musical occupation to the place where she lived, to what she would wear, and ultimately her sexual exploits.
She shed even more light on notorious drugs powered by drugs called “Freak-Offs”, through which alleged Diddy would force Ventura and others to perform sexual activities with men’s sexual employees. In vivid detail she described some acts to which she and others were forced, including he and other sexual employees urine throughout the mouth. The topic of infant oil appeared when she claimed that they’d be forced to devour oil for command and use Diddy, on average to 10 bottles for “freak-off”. According to her, recovering from the parties would take several days, which could last days.
“(Freak-Offs) became a job in which there was no place to do anything other than to recover and attempt to feel normal again,” she said: NPR.
Pasitals reported that she broke up in tears when she asked what she likes to participate in “Freak-offs” and didn’t answer practically anything.
“I felt quite terrible. I felt disgusting. I felt humiliated,” she said, consistent with CNN. “I had no words to show how terrible I felt. I couldn’t talk about it.”
Ventura claims that, allowing for one of the precise ways wherein wherein during which during which young she was, when she first entered the rapper’s orbit, she was completely inexperienced in navigating his demanding, brutal nature. She also admitted that at first she really fell in love with rapper and desperately wants his approval.
“I was so young and I didn’t have a vocabulary for some things we talked about. I just tried to understand it, just completely inexperienced,” she said, at NBC.
He also claims that Diddy directly thwarted her musical occupation during her relationship with the music director. Of the ten albums to which it was initially signed, despite the recording of a whole lot of songs, only one ever reached.
Although she settled a civil lawsuit outside the court inside a few hours after she had filed it almost two years ago, her testimony might need been provided by a broader context of claims that Diddy was racketing or conducted a criminal company to take care of up his sexual abuse. Ventura claims that she was intensively handled with members of Diddy’s staff, who handled many things, including funds, destroyed hotel rooms, and even monitored their injuries after many cases of physical abuse.
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Crime
Diddy allegedly tried to kill a former boyfriend Cassie, prosecutors say in the sexual trade process
The sexual trade process for Sean “Diddy” Combs, 55, founding father of Bad Boy Records and the music mogel began on Monday morning in New York with statements opening each the defense team and the defense of COMPS. The trial has already began with unimaginable claims.
According to New York Daily News, In his comments opening US prosecutor Emily Johnson, he shared with the jury that the anger with the former Girl Cassie and the lack of control over her caused him to consider murder. Apparently, trying out that Cassie was dating one other person, Johnson claimed that Diddy called one in all his bodyguards and went to seek for a boy Cassie (at the moment), with a weapon, intending to kill a man.
“He took the weapon and took his bodyguard – one of his most loyal lieutenants – to wake up one of the employees of the accused in the middle of the night. The accused shouted that he was going to kill a man with whom she was Cassie,” said Johnson. Unable to find a man, Diddy set his view on a brutally assault on Cassa.
“He did what he did countless times earlier. He beat her brutally. Kicking her in the back and throwing her like Ragdoll. All this violence was not enough, but the accused had to make sure that he would have control over Cassie again. So he threatened her,” the accused told Cassie that he would supply you with the option to publicly release sex with sex when he kept her. Nights of her life. ”
Johnson’s opening remarks developed her plan to share twenty years of violence and abuse of each Cassie (Ventura) and other women who allegedly forced sex against their will, and ruthlessly defeated after they didn’t follow, amongst many other crimes. She also claimed that he had a tight ring of fogeys that were aware and complicity in Diddy’s crimes committee.
Diddy’s lawyer, Teny Geragos, said that Combs had committed domestic violence, but he was not at the trial for it, and the movies and data they receive would show consensual, intimate private relations, but no orders of any crimes.
“We accept the full responsibility that in this case there has been domestic violence. Domestic violence is not sexual trade. I want to say it again: domestic violence is not sexual trade. If he was accused of domestic violence, if he was accused of assaulting, he will not be here now,” said Geragos.
She added: “sexual trade, prostitution, tribute, these are federal crimes. Fees for various elements. He is simply not guilty of these crimes.”
Diddy didn’t plead all allegations against him, including sexual trade allegation, racketeers, transport of victims and sexual employees in terms of prostitution and all other related numbers. If he’s convicted, he’ll face prison with a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very long time.
(Tagstranslat) sean Diddy combs
The federal sexual process of Sean “Diddy” Combs, whose extremely successful occupation was dotted by allegations of violence, began on Monday in New York with the alternative of a jury, which was briefly detained when the hip-hop entrepreneur said he was “a bit nervous” and needed a break in the bathroom.
Three dozen potential jury was questioned by judge Aruna Subramaanian about their response to the questionnaire, which is also to help determine whether or not they is perhaps honest and impartial at the trial through which violent and sexual movies will appear. Opening declarations and the starting of the testimony are scheduled for the next week.
The judge gave a possible sworn to a transient lived description of sexual trade and a conspiracy from tribute to Combs, telling them that he didn’t plead guilty and it was thought that this was not innocent.
At the end of the day, the jury pool was half its size, because some were excluded for personal reasons, resembling the inability to economically endure the process anticipated for two months or because their opinions or previous experience would threaten their objectivity.
The next thirty potential jurors were to be questioned on Tuesday. The jury was not going before Wednesday.
Throughout Monday, Combs, 55 years, sat along together together along together together together along together along together along along together together together together together together along together together along along together along together together together together along along together along along along together along together along along along along together together along together along together together together together together together together along together together together along along together together together together together along together along along together along together along together together together together together along together together together along together along together together together along along along together along along along together along along together along together together together along along along together together along together together together along along along along together together together together together along together along together along together along together along along along along together together together together together together together along along along together together together along together along along along together along together along along together along along together together along together together along together together along along along together together together together along along along together along together together together together along together along along together together along along along together together together together together together along along along along together along together together along along together together along along along together together together along together together together together together along along along along together together together together along together along along together together along together along along along together together together along together together along along together together together along together together along together together along together together along together together together along along together along along together together along along together along along together together together together together together together together together together together along along along along along together together with his lawyers in a sweater above a white shirt with a collar and gray pants that the judge allowed as a alternative of prison clothes. Since his arrest, it took place in a dismal federal blockade in Brooklyn. His hair and goat were almost fully gray because the dye is not allowed in prison.
Unlike the other latest loud celebrity processes, the Combs case won’t be broadcast live, because the federal courtroom doesn’t allow electronic recordings in the middle-what signifies that the artists of the sketch of the courtroom are the eyes of the public in the courtroom.
If he is convicted of all the allegations, he could face the maximum life in prison.
Several potential jury indicated that they saw press reports containing key evidence on this matter: a video with a hip-hop tycoon striking and kicking one amongst his prosecutors in the corridor in the hotel in Los Angeles in 2016. One potential juror described a stationary picture that she saw from the film as “condemning evidence.” This woman was rejected from the consideration.
After releasing one other juror, Combs asked for a break in the bathroom, telling the judge: “I’m sorry your honor, I’m a bit nervous today.”
One potential juror said that she published a “similar” film in social media by a comedian who joked about large amounts of oil for infants found by law enforcement agencies in one amongst the houses of Combs. Has not been released.
The 17-page indictment against Combs-which appears like an accusation document against the mafia leader or the head of the drug gang-he is confirmed that Combs have been involved in twenty years of racketeers of behavior towards women and others, with the help of people in his funeral and employees from his network of corporations.
Combs and his lawyers say he is innocent and every group sex was compatible. They say that there was no effort to force people to do it, and nothing that happened was a criminal rocket.
Prosecutors say that girls were manipulated in sexual ends in sexual results with sexual men, which the Combs called “freaks”. To keep women in a queue, prosecutors say that Combs used a mix of influence and violence: he suggested that he would increase their entertainment occupation in the event that they did what he asked – or breathe or not.
And when he didn’t get what he wanted, the indictment says that Combs and his colleagues resorted to violent deeds, including beating, kidnapping and arson. Once, in accordance with the indictment, he even hung someone from the balcony.
One of the 4 alleged victims of the testimony against Combs may not finally take the position of a witness, on Monday he revealed the assistant to the US prosecutor Maurene Comey. She told Subramanian that a lady’s lawyer had personal problems and it was difficult to get and it was clear if the woman would also appear.
“There is no special number that requires her testimony so that we can bear our burden,” said Comey.
Combs recognized one episode of violence, which is considered a key element of the prosecutor’s case. In 2016, the security camera recorded him that he defeated his ex -girlfriend, R&B Cassie singer, in the corridor of the hotel in Los Angeles. Cassie filed a lawsuit at the end of 2023, saying that Combs gave her years abuse, including beating and rape.
Associated Press normally doesn’t call individuals who claim that they were sexually abused, unless they report in public as Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura.
(Tagstotransate) Diddy
