Pot farm owner Joy Hollingsworth is 100 percent behind the proposed law. courtesy of Hollingsworth Cannabis company

The United States has a cruel relationship with weed. When pot was illegal everywhere, African Americans were arrested for pot crimes at far higher rates than white people. Now white people are raking in billions of dollars in weed revenue while Black people are largely shut out of the legal pot system.

Nowhere is this cruel reality more true than in Washington State, where Black people were 280 percent more likely to get arrested for pot than a white person during the war on drugs. Black people currently own only 4 percent of the state's weed retailers and 1 percent of the state's pot farms, according to data from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB).

Our state has never tried to tackle this disparity. Rick Garza, director of the WSLCB, recently told a legislative hearing that our state "missed an opportunity to focus on social equity" when we legalized pot.

Now Garza wants to change that. The WSLCB proposed a law that would allow the agency to give its unused retail pot licenses to people who were previously convicted of a misdemeanor pot offense or who come from neighborhoods that were over-policed during the war on drugs. (The agency would not confirm how many licenses are available but estimates range from 13 to less than 40.) The proposed law cannot rely only on the race of the applicants to allocate the retail licenses, because affirmative action is illegal in Washington State.

Garza explicitly said that he wants social equity to help repair some of the harm of the war on drugs.

"By social equity, I mean two things," Garza said. "One, that the new cannabis industry should reflect the diverse population of our state. Second, it challenges us to create economic opportunity in the cannabis industry for people in communities that have been disproportionately harmed by cannabis prohibition."

The proposed law would also fund a new grant program and create a new task force that can recommend further programs. The grant programfunded with $1 million of pot-tax revenue a yearwould provide money for social equity license holders to navigate the bureaucratic nightmare of keeping pot licenses in compliance.

The task force would be composed of 12 members drawn from various boards and commissions, including organizations representing the African American and Latinx communities, which would be charged with making further social equity recommendations by the end of this year. Those recommendations could include calls for more pot licenses.

Joy Hollingsworth, who is Black and owns the pot farm Hollingsworth Cannabis Company with her family, said the task force was one of the reasons she is "fully, 100 percent supporting the bill."

"I have trust that they have the best intentions for the minority community and trying to get more people of color in the industry," Hollingsworth said. "That's why I really like this bill, because it's not just narrowing it down to one thing."

But not everyone is happy. Aaron Bossett, of the Black Cannabis Commission, said that any attempt to fix the harm of the war on drugs needs to include more than just pot licenses.

"For me, it's still a no. It's just not broad enough," Bossett said. "There needs to be more programs outside of just cannabis, because cannabis was used as a weapon. At least allow some of that tax money to go into community development and other programs."

The proposed law passed the state house of representatives on February 16 and is now awaiting a vote in the senate. If it passes, all it will need is a signature from Governor Jay Inslee before the state can start at least trying to use pot legalization to repair the harm of the war on drugs.

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The Latest Move to Repair the Racist War on Drugs - TheStranger.com

The governments failure to address the most fundamental issues about the drug abuse, including the availability of drugs and treatment of addicts and large-scale anti-drug awareness programmes, has made little impact on the countrywide anti-drug drive over nearly two years in the country.

Experts and rights activists said that arresting drug peddlers and addicts, recovering drugs and frequent killing of peddlers in gunfights would bring no result in curbing the drug use and distribution from the society until the government gave a major focus on stopping the demand-side problem to save the countrys young people.

Otherwise, the addicts would continue to find drugs and the supply would remain plenty, though the prices might go up, they said.

They also stressed the need for an effective and functional criminal justice system, increasing low-cost or free treatment and rehabilitation opportunities for the addicts, and strict law enforcement to contain the menace.

The home ministry on February 23 informed a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry informed that a total of 26,678 prisoners, or 30 per cent of the total inmates in the countrys jails, were arrested for their alleged involvement in drug-related cases until February 9.

At the meeting, the ministry disclosed that 1,30,681 cases were filed against 1,71,752 drug peddlers by the Department of Narcotics Control in 2019.

The ministry said that the government took an initiative to make the DNC of global standard that would ensure a modern interrogation unit, criminal data management system, detective equipment, mobile tracking, narcotics detecting device and digital forensic lab.

The meeting sources said that Myanmar was using Bangladesh as a route for drug smuggling.

Though there is no survey carried out on the number of drug addicts, the Department of Narcotics Control assumes that there are over 60 lakh addicts in the country.

Officials and activists speak of an acute shortage of treatment facilities for drug addicts, both at government and non-government levels, while the treatment cost at private treatment centres is so high that a lower middle-class family cannot venture to go there.

The countrys four government drug addiction treatment centres have the capacity of providing residential treatment only to 115 people a month while 262 private facilities can treat 3,110 addicts each month, DNC officials said.

A drug addict requires a long-time residential treatment and follow-up and at government treatment centres, where the course of residential treatment is 28 days.

On the other hand, private hospitals provide residential treatment for four to six months.

The government hospitals provide treatment almost for free while private treatment centres charge Tk 30,000 to Tk 60,000 a month in Dhaka, Tk 18,000 to Tk 30,000 a month in Sylhet and Chittagong and Tk 10,000 to Tk 20,000 a month in Khulna and Sylhet.

Neither the government treatment centres nor the private ones have any mechanism to follow up the patients and the follow-up treatment absolutely depends on the patients family, officials at DNC and private treatment centres said.

Rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra data show that a total of 479 people were killed in gunfights in the anti-drug drive until December 2019. The drive began in May 2018.

Police and RAB officials said that drugs were coming in from different places as the peddlers were changing their strategies against the backdrop of the drive.

But, they claimed, they had been detecting them, seizing drugs and arresting the peddlers.

They said that the government was launching programmes to create peoples awareness against drug abuse.

Merely a drive of seizing drugs, arresting and killing peddlers will bring no positive result if the demand side is not addressed right now. The government should begin a large-scale campaign encompassing schools, colleges and society in general and take the addicts to rehabilitation centres, said Dhaka University criminology assistant professor Umme Wara.

Besides, she said, the government should take initiatives to stop drug smuggling through borders.

DU Psychology associate professor Akib Ul Huque said that the issue should be seen holistically and we needed to start a social movement to address the demand-side of the problem first.

A campaign should be launched to inform the people about the role of individuals, families, peer groups, local communities and teachers of schools and colleges to face the problem and to identify the reasons at the personal level.

He also stressed the need to engage the children in games and sports as well as cultural activities to make them socilise and to prepare them for checking mental pressure and remove undue curiosity.

The situation of drug abuse is not changing as the whole criminal justice system, law enforcement and the anti-drug campaign have become dysfunctional, rights organisation Odhikar secretary Adilur Rahman Khan told New Age.

He said that the government was not able to involve the common people in the anti-drug campaign as they were unelected one and that is why they were not getting any good result.

ASK executive secretary Sheepa Hafiza also stressed the need for enhancing low-cost or free treatment and the rehabilitation opportunities for drug addicts and strict law enforcement to curb the menace.

On February 10, the cabinet approved in principle a draft of the Narcotics Control (Amendment) Bill 2020 as the government backtracked on implementing a provision of the Narcotics Control Act 2018 that required creation of separate tribunals at the district level to deal with drug-related cases with speed and efficiency.

Originally posted here:

Unaddressed demand upsets war on supply - newagebd.net

Norman Birenbaum, New York's new cannabis director, says legal recreational marijuana is the responsible public health and safety choice. Here's why.

Norman Birenbaum, the new cannabis policy guru for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, described legalizing recreational marijuana in New York as a moral imperative.

This is the right thing to do for public health and public safety, Birenbaum said in a USA TODAY Network New York interview.

The reality of the situation is we have adult-use cannabis today," he added. "The problem is its not regulated, and it is provided through the illicit market.

But if the embattled legal weed push succeeds this year, Birenbaum envisions replacing black-market pot with a tightly regulated marijuana industry that helps offset the racially biased war on drugs.

It is a stance in part forged during his last job leading Rhode Islands medical marijuana program. He joined Cuomo's administration in December.

His job will be to oversee the state Office of Cannabis Management that would issue licenses for producers, distributors and retailers. It would also oversee the state's medical marijuana and hemp industries.

Birenbaum's role will be to implement whatever law is passed by the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The sides are hopeful to have a deal as part of the state budget due by April 1.

So Birenbaum's viewpoint is insightful for a Cuomo administration that has increasingly become more comfortable with legalizing marijuana. When Cuomo took office in 2011, he did not support it, but in recent years has changed his stance as other states have made pot legal, including neighboring Massachusetts.

In the interview, Birenbaum, 32, who holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Boston College, addressed the generational implications of the debate and opposition from some health officials, parents and law enforcement.

Birenbaum also disputed some dire warnings from both sides of the legal weed divide, citing examples from the 11 states that already allow recreational sales to adults over 21. Cuomo said he plans to visit some of those states next month.

You get people saying, This is a plant that is a gift from above and there is absolutely no harm whatsoever and it should not be regulated, Birenbaum said.

Thats not necessarily right because there are real public health and safety concerns.

And the other people say It will be the downfall of modern civilization, and we have just not seen that happen in these other states, he added.

The discussion spanned plans for protecting workers from secondhand legal weed smoke and limiting accidental pot-edible overdoses to keeping drugs away from kids and spending cannabis tax revenues on social equity.

It has been edited for space and clarity.

What do you say to opposition concerns about legal marijuana health risks?

To think that legalizing adult use will suddenly flip a switch that hasnt been flipped for the last 30 or 40 years I think is short sighted. I think its a bit ignorant.

We need to reconcile with the fact that prohibition does not work. It never has worked.

And there have been very, very large externalities that have come from prohibition when it comes to how it was enforced, and there were communities that were destroyed.

And from a strictly public health and public safety standpoint, if consumer behavior is not changing we need to do everything we can to understand it and study it and make sure that were mitigating against the public-health risk.

How does legalization address vaping-related illnesses linked to marijuana?

The overwhelming majority of those products which were contributing to and causing (vaping-related illness) were illicit THC products.

What we can do is say If youre going to use these products, we can makes sure they dont contain vitamin E acetateor a flavorant which may be fine to consume if youre eating it, but when it goes through vaporization or aerosolization can be potentially dangerous.

Taking a head in the sand if we pretend its not there, its not there approach does not work.

Its also clear through the recent nicotine-vaping crisis youre now seeing a rash of laws and seeing a regulated framework coming into place.

We havent had a regulated framework for cannabis in this state ever, and mostly across the country.

And its time that we do that because its the responsible thing to do to safeguard public health and safety.

How do neighboring states marijuana laws impact the debate?

Right over the border in New Jersey they will be voting on this in November.

All indications show that vote will pass, it will be legalized. When you look at how its polling, and look at where it is in the country, these ballot initiatives are overwhelmingly popular.

Only two have failed. One by a very thin margin in Arizona, which is a pretty red state. And another in Ohio that was largely because it was drafted in a way that it would have only benefited a small handful of businesses.

Understanding that it is a virtual foregone conclusion that this will be right over the border, I think we need to ask ourselves: Do we want New York residents going to a neighboring jurisdiction?

What are other legal weed states seeing in terms of health concerns?

Because of early missteps in other states, we now have packaging and labeling standardsso that people have an understanding of what theyre putting into their bodies.

What weve seen in other states is actually positive indicators, especially around youth use and public education campaigns.

We have the healthiest generation of kids in this nations history when it comes to alcohol and tobacco consumption, but when you look at cannabis use it has stayed the same when alcohol and tobacco use is dropping.

So, we dont have the same type of regulated framework to make sure were educating kids about cannabis, and to make sure that the people who are operating in the industry arent targeting them and are acting responsibly.

How does New York make social equity work after other states failed?

A lot of early states would acknowledge the political atmosphere around this issue was just pass legalization and pass it by any and all means necessary.

That led to a disregard for communities that have been disproportionately harmed by prohibition and the war on drugs.

And so, the governor has been very, very clear that this is a foundational component of legalization in New York.

How do social equity applicants compete with big cannabis companies?

Its about tools in (Cuomos bill) to give geographic preference to social and economic equity licenses, because we understand the market in Rochester is different than the market in Manhattan.

We understand there is inherent value in certain places, and we want that value and that stability that comes with that to go to social and economic equity applicants.

Being able to issue zero- to low-interest loans to social equity applicants is something we kept in there from last year.

We understand that access to a license is nothing if you dont have access to the capital required to build it, and implement it, and run it in a way that is going to be prosperous.

What about calls for spending specific percentages of tax revenue on social equity?

Adequate resources are important, so is flexibility.

Local community impact grants in Cuomos plan, for example, is restorative justice, and it is being able to make investment in the communities that exist outside of the cannabis industry.

Because these communities need help and investment and resources, and not all of them want to engage in the cannabis industry and it can be a volatile industry.

But we also need to have the flexibility to be able to use the information that we gather to be able to work with community partners and stakeholders to help inform how the spending should be allocated.

How does New Yorks approach to marijuana taxes compare to other states?

Other states had a value-based tax that was either put on at whole sale or retail, but you didnt have any weight-based or potency or THC-based tax rate.

There were no price mechanisms in terms of ensuring of minimum value and stability of market. And thats really important because this is an agricultural commodity.

In states like Oregon you had over supply and dramatic price decreases to a point where you had businesses going out of business and you had large incentives for them to divert out of state.

How does New York prevent black-market pot from undercutting legal weed?

Our illicit market is not one based off growing and production. Its more based on distribution and delivery service.

So, we can fulfill that need by having locally grown and locally produced products that are safe and regulated to fulfill that market demand.

Other states have other reasons.

California, for example, has seen over a half century of just large scale, unregulated growing and supply to the point where they export to the rest of the country.

In Oregon, its that they produced so much more cannabis than they need. They could stop producing it right now and still have enough cannabis to provide every man, woman and child with, I think, six pounds.

But thats a function of not having the foresight of putting in market-based limitation on production.

What will stop the out-of-state smuggling of illicit pot into New York?

People now obtain from the illicit market because we dont have a regulated market for them, but weve seen this transition in legal states.

So, if you have someone who is engaged in a large-scale sophisticated (illicit marijuana) delivery service here now, its making sure that they have an opportunity to come in and do it the right way that is regulated and taxed by the state.

Its not just about displacing the illicit market. Its also about absorbing these entrepreneurs that have small businesses, be it operating illegally, and that is part of the social justice initiative of this bill.

What can New Yorkers expect if legal marijuana use cafes are approved?

This is not yet established in other states. Were starting to see it in Alaska and Massachusetts, and municipalities like Denver and others in California.

We need to create a safe space where consumers can use products when the alternative would be on the street, which is something we dont want to see, or putting their housing in jeopardy, particularly looking at federally subsidized housing.

We need it to be a controlled atmosphere where were able to educate consumers to make sure the products are safe, the environment is safe.

Whats your response to the new AAA report raising concerns that more Americans are getting high before driving?

The governor has a comprehensive road safety approach to make sure that we can, as best as we can, create parity between enforcement of impaired driving, whether thats under the use of alcohol, opioids, cannabis or other substances.

For example, right now if you refuse to undergo a breathalyzer test for alcohol impairment theres an automatic administrative suspension of your drivers licenses.

We proposed the same thing for cannabis if you refuse to undergo an evaluation from a drug recognition expert.

And the same penalties for having an open container of alcohol in a moving vehicle have been put in place for open containers and use in a vehicle of cannabis.

Read the original here:

Q&A: NY new cannabis czar calls recreational pot the right thing to do - MPNnow.com

The Dorchester store, Pure Oasis, on Blue Hill Avenue, is finishing staff training and state requirements before its last inspection. Its opening will mark an important milestone as the states first store owned by people in the states economic empowerment program, which is aimed at boosting communities hardest hit by the war on drugs.

We are now very much focused on the opening of this shop," Tkachuk said. It is very exciting for the city of Boston, for the state, for the Eastern Seaboard.

The city also expects three other marijuana stores to not lag too far behind" Pure Oasis, Tkachuk said. She said the next shops to open will likely be Ascend by North Station, Berkshire Roots in East Boston, and Patriot Care, a medical marijuana dispensary already open near Downtown Crossing that wants to sell recreational pot.

Pure Oasis leaders say they will have 40 employees and expect up to 1,000 customers per day which will be a boon for the neighborhood, resulting in more customers for nearby shops. Their security staff will keep sidewalks clear, and the business rented space next door that can fit 100 people waiting in line indoors, said Kobie Evans, a co-owner of Pure Oasis.

We want to be good community partners and make sure Grove Hall is as vibrant and enterprising as possible," Evans said.

Boston is learning from Brookline, whose cannabis store, New England Treatment Access, draws about 2,500 daily customers and has prompted neighbor complaints about parking, traffic, litter, and public pot smoking. Another town, Leicester, near Worcester, also struggled with crowds in November 2018 when its pot shop, Cultivate, became one of the first two cannabis stores to open on the East Coast.

Brookline is more urban than Leicester, but it still has a lot more open space than Dorchester, Tkachuk said.

Many cannabis entrepreneurs in the audience said they were frustrated that Bostons permitting process has appeared stalled for the past year, while they paid thousands of dollars in monthly rent not knowing if they would ever receive city approval.

With the Dorchester opening, Boston is entering a new, faster phase of its cannabis rollout. Mayor Martin J. Walshs administration is expected to soon appoint a five-member cannabis board that will approve businesses. One of the boards first jobs will be to review 28 companies applications for host-community agreements, which are contracts required to apply for a state license.

So far, the city has signed 14 agreements. Three, including Pure Oasis, are economic empowerment applicants.

The city passed an ordinance, proposed by Council President Kim Janey, aimed at boosting cannabis business ownership by equity businesses owned by local entrepreneurs from largely Black, Latino, and low-income areas that were disproportionately affected by drug policing.

Massachusetts was the first state to include that goal in its cannabis legalization law. The ordinance establishes an equity fund for disadvantaged applicants, using money from the city and pot businesses. The ordinance requires an equal ratio of equity businesses to non-equity businesses to move forward in Boston.

Asked whether the equal-ratio requirement could slow the industry if equity businesses struggle with capital, Tkachuk said no. Entrepreneurs can receive money from the equity fund and guidance from the citys economic development staff, she said.

The citys and states efforts are crucial, Janey said, but they wont be enough.

We got here after 400 years of oppression, she said at Thursdays panel discussion. Were not going to solve it with one ordinance or one state law.

Janey said the city should also consider freeing equity businesses from restrictive zoning requirements and implementing an equal ratio requirement in shopping areas like the Back Bay, the Seaport, and Downtown Crossing.

If you look at major cities that have come before us, they have not provided a successful blueprint," Tkachuk said. "Boston is going to lead the way on equity for major cities in the United States.

But Ed Gaskin, executive director of Greater Grove Hall Main Streets, said he felt the city should have required Pure Oasis to provide more benefits to the neighborhood in its agreement.

Were giving up parking, theres more traffic, more congestion what do we get in return? Gaskin said.

The contract requires Pure Oasis to pay 3 percent of its sales revenue to the city, which is the maximum payment state law specifies.

Additional payments in city contracts have emerged as one of the major barriers to small businesses in the industry.

The bigger players can afford to buy a firetruck, said Steven Hoffman, chairman of the Cannabis Control Commission. "The smaller players cant.

Naomi Martin can be reached at naomi.martin@globe.com.

See original here:

Boston prepares for its first marijuana store, and its future pot industry - The Boston Globe

Norman Birenbaum, the new cannabis policy guru for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, described legalizing recreational marijuana in New York as a moral imperative.

This is the right thing to do for public health and public safety, Birenbaum said in a USA TODAY Network New York interview.

The reality of the situation is we have adult-use cannabis today," he added. "The problem is its not regulated, and it is provided through the illicit market.

But if the embattled legal weed push succeeds this year, Birenbaum envisions replacing black-market pot with a tightly regulated marijuana industry that helps offset the racially biased war on drugs.

It is a stance in part forged during his last job leading Rhode Islands medical marijuana program. He joined Cuomo's administration in December.

His job will be to oversee the state Office of Cannabis Management that would issue licenses for producers, distributors and retailers. It would also oversee the state's medical marijuana and hemp industries.

Birenbaum's role will be to implement whatever law is passed by the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The sides are hopeful to have a deal as part of the state budget due by April 1.

Norman Birenbaum is New York's new director of Cannabis Programs. He was appointed in December 2019 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo after holding a similar post in Rhode Island.

So Birenbaum's viewpoint is insightful for a Cuomo administration that has increasingly moved more comfortable with legalizing marijuana. When Cuomo took office in 2011, he did not support it, but in recent years has changed his stance as other states have made pot legal, including neighboring Massachusetts.

In the interview, Birenbaum, 32, who holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Boston College, addressed the generational implications of the debate and opposition from some health officials, parents and law enforcement.

Birenbaum also disputed some dire warnings from both sides of the legal weed divide, citing examples from the 11 states that already allow recreational sales to adults over 21. Cuomo said he plans to visit some of those states next month.

You get people saying, This is a plant that is a gift from above and there is absolutely no harm whatsoever and it should not be regulated, Birenbaum said.

Thats not necessarily right because there are real public health and safety concerns.

And the other people say It will be the downfall of modern civilization, and we have just not seen that happen in these other states, he added.

The discussion spanned plans for protecting workers from secondhand legal weed smoke and limiting accidental pot-edible overdoses to keeping drugs away from kids and spending cannabis tax revenues on social equity.

It has been edited for space and clarity.

What do you say to opposition concerns about legal marijuana health risks?

To think that legalizing adult use will suddenly flip a switch that hasnt been flipped for the last 30 or 40 years I think is short sighted. I think its a bit ignorant.

We need to reconcile with the fact that prohibition does not work. It never has worked.

And there have been very, very large externalities that have come from prohibition when it comes to how it was enforced, and there were communities that were destroyed.

And from a strictly public health and public safety standpoint, if consumer behavior is not changing we need to do everything we can to understand it and study it and make sure that were mitigating against the public-health risk.

How does legalization address vaping-related illnesses linked to marijuana?The overwhelming majority of those products which were contributing to and causing (vaping-related illness) were illicit THC products.

What we can do is say If youre going to use these products, we can make sure they dont contain vitamin E acetateor a flavorant which may be fine to consume if youre eating it, but when it goes through vaporization or aerosolization can be potentially dangerous.

Taking a head in the sand if we pretend its not there, its not there approach does not work.

The state Health Department said its lab results showed very high levels of vitamin E acetate in nearly all cannabis-containing samples that may have been leading to lung illnesses from vaping. It said these were some of the products it found with high levels of vitamin E.

Its also clear through the recent nicotine-vaping crisis youre now seeing a rash of laws and seeing a regulated framework coming into place.

We havent had a regulated framework for cannabis in this state ever, and mostly across the country.

And its time that we do that because its the responsible thing to do to safeguard public health and safety.

How do neighboring states marijuana laws impact the debate?Right over the border in New Jersey they will be voting on this in November.

All indications show that vote will pass, it will be legalized. When you look at how its polling, and look at where it is in the country, these ballot initiatives are overwhelmingly popular.

Only two have failed. One by a very thin margin in Arizona, which is a pretty red state. And another in Ohio that was largely because it was drafted in a way that it would have only benefited a small handful of businesses.

Understanding that it is a virtual foregone conclusion that this will be right over the border, I think we need to ask ourselves: Do we want New York residents going to a neighboring jurisdiction?

What are other legal weed states seeing in terms of health concerns?Norman Birenbaum is New York's new director of Cannabis Programs. He was appointed in December 2019 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo after holding a similar post in Rhode Island.

Because of early missteps in other states, we now have packaging and labeling standardsso that people have an understanding of what theyre putting into their bodies.

What weve seen in other states is actually positive indicators, especially around youth use and public education campaigns.

We have the healthiest generation of kids in this nations history when it comes to alcohol and tobacco consumption, but when you look at cannabis use it has stayed the same when alcohol and tobacco use is dropping.

So, we dont have the same type of regulated framework to make sure were educating kids about cannabis, and to make sure that the people who are operating in the industry arent targeting them and are acting responsibly.

How does New York make social equity work after other states failed?A lot of early states would acknowledge the political atmosphere around this issue was just pass legalization and pass it by any and all means necessary.

That led to a disregard for communities that have been disproportionately harmed by prohibition and the war on drugs.

And so, the governor has been very, very clear that this is a foundational component of legalization in New York.

How do social equity applicants compete with big cannabis companies?Assemblyman Walter Mosley, D-Brooklyn, spoke at a rally Jan. 28, 2020, to urge lawmakers to legalize marijuana and return the revenue back into the communities of color who have been hurt by illegal marijuana sales for decades.Its about tools in (Cuomos bill) to give geographic preference to social and economic equity licenses, because we understand the market in Rochester is different than the market in Manhattan.

We understand there is inherent value in certain places, and we want that value and that stability that comes with that to go to social and economic equity applicants.

Being able to issue zero- to low-interest loans to social equity applicants is something we kept in there from last year.

We understand that access to a license is nothing if you dont have access to the capital required to build it, and implement it, and run it in a way that is going to be prosperous.

What about calls for spending specific percentages of tax revenue on social equity?Adequate resources are important, so is flexibility.

Local community impact grants in Cuomos plan, for example, is restorative justice, and it is being able to make investment in the communities that exist outside of the cannabis industry.

Because these communities need help and investment and resources, and not all of them want to engage in the cannabis industry and it can be a volatile industry.

But we also need to have the flexibility to be able to use the information that we gather to be able to work with community partners and stakeholders to help inform how the spending should be allocated.

How does New Yorks approach to marijuana taxes compare to other states?

Other states had a value-based tax that was either put on at whole sale or retail, but you didnt have any weight-based or potency or THC-based tax rate.

There were no price mechanisms in terms of ensuring of minimum value and stability of market. And thats really important because this is an agricultural commodity.

In states like Oregon you had over supply and dramatic price decreases to a point where you had businesses going out of business and you had large incentives for them to divert out of state.

How does New York prevent black-market pot from undercutting legal weed?After executing the search warrant on Riley's Hamilton Place home, they quantities of marihuana, concentrated cannabis oil, concentrated cannabis edibles, cash and ammunition, police said.

Our illicit market is not one based off growing and production. Its more based on distribution and delivery service.

So, we can fulfill that need by having locally grown and locally produced products that are safe and regulated to fulfill that market demand.

Other states have other reasons.

California, for example, has seen over a half century of just large scale, unregulated growing and supply to the point where they export to the rest of the country.

In Oregon, its that they produced so much more cannabis than they need. They could stop producing it right now and still have enough cannabis to provide every man, woman and child with, I think, six pounds.

But thats a function of not having the foresight of putting in market-based limitation on production.

What will stop the out-of-state smuggling of illicit pot into New York?People now obtain from the illicit market because we dont have a regulated market for them, but weve seen this transition in legal states.

So, if you have someone who is engaged in a large-scale sophisticated (illicit marijuana) delivery service here now, its making sure that they have an opportunity to come in and do it the right way that is a regulated and taxed by the state.

Its not just about displacing the illicit market. Its also about absorbing these entrepreneurs that have small businesses, be it operating illegally, and that is part of the social justice initiative of this bill.

What can New Yorkers expect if legal marijuana use cafes are approved?

This is not yet established in other states. Were starting to see it in Alaska and Massachusetts, and municipalities like Denver and others in California.

We need to create a safe space where consumers can use products when the alternative would be on the street, which is something we dont want to see, or putting their housing in jeopardy, particularly looking at federally subsidized housing.

We need it to be a controlled atmosphere where were able to educate consumers to make sure the products are safe, the environment is safe.

Whats your response to the new AAA report raising concerns that more Americans are getting high before driving?The governor has a comprehensive road safety approach to make sure that we can, as best as we can, create parity between enforcement of impaired driving, whether thats under the use of alcohol, opioids, cannabis or other substances.

For example, right now if you refuse to undergo a breathalyzer test for alcohol impairment theres an automatic administrative suspension of your drivers licenses.

We proposed the same thing for cannabis if you refuse to undergo an evaluation from a drug recognition expert.

And the same penalties for having an open container of alcohol in a moving vehicle have been put in place for open containers and use in a vehicle of cannabis.

More: Health experts fear more stoned drivers are taking the wheel following pot legalization

What is the impact of the effort to legalize marijuana at the federal level?The SAFE Act to address (cannabis industry) banking would certainly be more than helpful.

When the cannabis industry is forced to be a cash industry, that just makes it more expensive and more dangerous for both the states that are administering these programs, but also the licensees and the communities where they operate.

Original post:

New Yorks new cannabis czar calls recreational marijuana the right thing to do - Times Herald-Record

The new co-chairman of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) on Saturday vowed to pursue a tougher approach to the administrations anti-narcotics campaign, with an aim to reduce the supply of illegal drugs entering and circulating in the country within President Rodrigo Dutertes term.

PACC Chairman Dante Jimenez

In a phone interview, ICAD co-chairman Dante Jimenez said he wanted a working committee and a tough law enforcement with strategies to further improve the drug demand and supply reduction program of the government.

He added that he would meet with his co-chairman, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Aaron Aquino, as well as the other member-agencies of the committee to discuss his plans.

Definitely dito sa labang ito tough law enforcement ang gagawin (we should have a tough law enforcement in this fight). I will meet with all these member-agencies. Being the co-chairman, mag-usap kami ni Aaron (I will talk to Aaron) and I will make them work. I want a working committee, hindi yung display lang. Hindi pwede yun (not just a display. I will not allow that), Jimenez told The Manila Times.

We have to be tough against these druglords. It (drug war) has to be tough. Tough stance ang gagawin natin diyan (We will pursue a tough stance), more tougher than before, he said.

Jimenez, founding chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption before he assumed leadership of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, believed his experience as anti-crime advocate would be helpful in the governments campaign against illegal drugs.

With my experience in fighting illegal drugs for 29 years since the killing of my brother, my plan is, number one, we should cut the supply because that is the best strategy to cut the demand, he said.

Jimenez also pushed for the amendment of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 to ensure transparency, safety and security in handling illegal drugs seized during operations.

Ang problema ng supply kasi (The problem of the supply) is, one, yung confiscated drugs, minsan nababawasan ng mga confiscator (the confiscated drugs were sometimes recycled by the confiscators). In that way, pagnakakakuha sila ng ilang mga kilos diyan, gagamitin nila sa operations or gagamitin nila sa mga (when they get for instance a few kilos there, they will use it in the operations or they will use it in their) illegal activities . So that is bad, Jimenez said.

So thats why this is the job of the law enforcement, yun ang nakikita ko so far how to ensure na ma-destroy yan (thats I think the best way to ensure that all confiscated drugs will be destroyed). Thats the ultimate way, he added.

Jimenez also proposed a close coordination with the so-called Golden Triangle region, which borders the countries of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, to address the drug problem in the region.

Question, can it be done in two and a half years? Perhaps, we could start the structure, he said.

Aquino, who also serves as Jimenezs co-chairman in the ICAD, earlier said most of the shabu shipped to the Philippines came from the Golden Triangle region, not from China as earlier claimed by Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo.

The main source of course depends on the illegal drugs. Meth or shabu in the past are mostly coming from China, but not now most are coming from the Golden Triangle region that borders Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, Aquino has said.

Robredo, who held the post as drug czar for only 19 days, had said she has received reports that the illegal drugs that enter the country are from China.

She added that most of the big-time drug suspects were either Chinese or from the Filipino-Chinese community, saying the issue needed to be looked into.

Duterte earlier named Robredo as co-chairman of ICAD on October 31, 2019, after the latter claimed that the governments crackdown on illegal drugs was obviously not working.

Robredo was supposed to help her ICAD co-chairman, Aquino, in addressing the drug menace in the country until June 30, 2022.

She was, however, fired as drug czar on November 24 last year for failing to present new measures to improve the governments fight against illegal drugs.

WITH REPORT FROM DARWIN PESCO

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Jimenez: Tougher stance on drug war The Manila Times - The Manila Times

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) unveiled a plan for federal marijuana reform on Sunday, calling for legalization as well as a series of policies aimed at righting the wrongs of the drug war and promoting involvement in the legal industry by communities harmed by prohibition.

In the Just and Equitable Cannabis Industry plan, which Warren's campaign shared with Marijuana Moment ahead of a town hall event in Colorado, the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate slams the racist 'War on Drugs' policy perpetuated during the Nixon administration and the mass incarceration that has followed.

She also introduces noteworthy ideas, such as using her executive authority to begin the federal legalization process within 100 days of taking office, respecting the sovereignty of other nations to legalize marijuana, protecting immigrants who participate in the legal industry, empowering veterans to access medical cannabis and ensuring that corporations aren't able to monopolize the market.

Further, the Warren plan promotes unionization in the marijuana industry, protecting Indian tribes' authority to enact their own reform programs and lifting a current ban so that Washington, D.C. can use its local monies to implement legal marijuana sales

Even as the federal government has held fast to its outdated marijuana policy, states have led the charge in adopting thoughtful, evidenced-based marijuana policy, the six-page document says. And what have we learned in the eight years since the first states legalized marijuana? Legalization works.

The senator details the progress of the legalization movement and the economic potential of the industry, and she argues that access to cannabis has been shown to play a role in mitigating the opioid epidemic. All that said, she notes that marijuana arrests have continued to increase nationally and they continue to be carried out on racially disproportionate basis and so comprehensive reform at the federal level is a goal she is pledging to pursue starting day one if elected president.

It's not justice when we lock up kids caught with an ounce of pot, while hedge fund managers make millions off of the legal sale of marijuana. My administration will put an end to that broken system.

Legalizing marijuana is about more than just allowing recreational use, or the potential medicinal benefit, or the money that can be made from this new market, the Warren plan says. It's about undoing a century of racist policy that disproportionately targeted Black and Latinx communities. It's about rebuilding the communities that have suffered the most harm. And it's about ensuring that everyone has access to the opportunities that the new cannabis market provides.

Warren's proposal is two-pronged. The first objective is to address the disproportionate enforcement of our drug laws. Here's how she plans to accomplish that:

Warren's second broad objective as described in the plan is to prioritize opportunities in the cannabis industry for communities of color and others who were harmed by the failed policies of the past. That will involve:

For four decades, we've subscribed to a 'War on Drugs' theory of crime, which has criminalized addiction, ripped apart families and failed to curb drug use, the plan states. Legalizing marijuana and erasing past convictions won't fully end the War on Drugs or address its painful legacy, but it's a needed step in the right direction.

As we move to harness the economic potential of a legalized cannabis industry, we must ensure that the communities that were harmed by the War on Drugs disproportionately communities of color are fully included in the opportunity and prosperity that legalization will create. I support investing federal and state revenue from the cannabis industry into communities that have been disproportionately impacted by enforcement of our existing marijuana laws.

Legalizing marijuana gives us an opportunity to repair some of the damage caused by our current criminal justice system, to invest in the communities that have suffered the most harm, and to ensure that everyone can participate in the growing cannabis industry. We have an opportunity now to get this right, and I'll fight to make that happen.

Warren also calls out former House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) in her proposal, stating that the country cannot allow affluent and predominantly white hedge-funders and capital investors to hoard the profits from the same behavior that led to the incarceration of generations of Black and Latino youth.

Boehner, who declared that he was 'unalterably opposed' to legalization while in Congress, now profits handsomely as a lobbyist for legalization even as others continue to live with the consequences of a prohibition he defended, she points out, referencing the former speaker's role as a board member at the cannabis firm Acreage Holdings.

While Warren's plan repeatedly cites the need to broadly address the harms of the broader drug war, her proposals are exclusively focused on cannabis policy changes. While she and Sanders have been strong champions of marijuana reform, drug policy advocates have emphasized the need to expand reform to other illicit substances, as former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) have by proposing decriminalization and legalization of all illegal drugs, respectively.

In terms of her marijuana reform agenda, however, experts who spoke to Marijuana Moment recently have indicated that Warren's 100-day plan would probably be legally and practically more realistic that Sanders's most recent proposal to use an executive order to legalize marijuana in all 50 states on day one of his presidency.

While Sanders initially proposed something similar to Warren appointing key officials within his administration who would pursue legalization during his first 100 days in office he shifted gears last month and pledged to deschedule cannabis on his first day in the White House.

Last year, Warren laid out a criminal justice reform plan that called for marijuana reform, as well as the legalization of safe injection sites where individuals could use illicit substances under medical supervision a move also backed by Sanders.

Warren and Sanders might have differing approaches to marijuana legalization, but what's clear is they stand in stark contrast to former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and former Vice President Joe Biden, both of whom are the only contenders in the Democratic race who remain opposed to ending cannabis prohibition.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

This article has been republished from Marijuana Moment under a content-sharing agreement. Read the original article here.

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Elizabeth Warren Might Have the Best Marijuana Legalization Plan Yet. - Weedmaps News

Around 3 a.m. on September 18, 2010, Noemi Martinez Martagon discovered that her son, Luis Alberto Calleja, was gone. He had been out with his wife and two other couples in Poza Rica, Veracruz, a small city close to Mexico's gulf coast. On the Avenue 20 de Noviembre, a thoroughfare busy with bars, clubs and restaurants, federal police took him away, along with the two other men. That night, Martinez Martagon left her house to look for her son in hospitals, police stations and prisons.

Nearly a decade later, Martinez Martagon continues to search for her son, one of the thousands of reported missing victims in the state of Veracruz. This past month, nearly 300 other Mexicans joined families like Martinez Martagon's in Poza Rica as part of the Fifth National Search Brigade for Disappeared Persons.

The group, organized by the Mexico City-based Red de Enlaces Nacionales (Network of National Links), brought together participants from 74 collectives of relatives of disappeared persons across 21 Mexican states. In addition to hopes of finding their loved ones, they came together from February 7 to 22 to break the silence around forced disappearance in Mexico.

Read more:Mexico: 'Journalism is the only source of truth'

Luz Elba Hernandez was among those holding a photo of a disappeared son in a march through Poza Rica, Veracruz

More than 61,000 missing

The searchers make up but a tiny fraction of Mexico's indirect victims of forced disappearance. As of early January 2020, the Mexican government puts the number of disappeared people at 61,637.

Juan Carlos Trujillo, a brother of four disappearance victims and one of the founders of the Red de Enlaces Nacionales, describes Mexico's crisis as a lottery. "Twelve tickets a day are chosen," he said, referring to an estimate that puts the average number of forced disappearances in Mexico at a dozen a day. "The tickets are free. As Mexicans, we all have them."

Activists suspect the real number could be dozens of times the official count. Many disappearances go unreported, whether due to social stigma or the fear of retaliation by authorities or organized crime.

Disappearances began to increase after former President Felipe Calderon declared a war on drugs in 2006. Many disappearances, like that of Luis Alberto Calleja, have been tied directly to Mexican security forces. Police forces, particularly in the state of Veracruz, were notorious for working hand-in-hand with the Zetas drug cartel.

In the face of historic government collusion and negligence around disappearance, family members of disappearance victims have taken up shovels and picks to search for their loved ones. Amid a rising wave of violence 2019 was one of the most violent years in the country's history this year's search brigade brought together the largest contingent yet.

Read more:Mexico: When drug violence 'turns into terrorism'

Photos of the disappeared are last reminders of their loved ones

Government pledge

Earlier this year, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who campaigned in 2018 on a platform of anti-corruption and ending the drug war, publicly promised unlimited government resources to aid in the search for disappeared people. But collectives of disappearance victims have said the federal government has failed to back up its pledge with action. According to coordinators, last year's brigade received significantly more support from government institutions. The National Registry for Victims (RENAVI) had previously covered the full costs for all family members' transportation to the brigade. This year, many participantsreceived partial or no coverageof their travel costs, resulting in nearly a third of registrants being unable to attend.

Juan Carlos Trujillo describes the mission of the search brigade as far more than simply excavating potential burial sites. "These people are taking 15 days out of their life to reconstruct a country," Trujillo said at a press conference to this year's search. "They are taking two weeks to bring a message of peace to Mexico."

This year, that message of peace took many different forms. Some brigade members spent each day searching fields, hills and creeks for human remains, following anonymous tips from residents of the region. Others visited prisons, rehab centers and local coroners' offices to seek out any information about their family members. Still others gave talks and led workshops on forced disappearance in churches, schools and government institutions, including municipal authorities and police forces.

Read more:Against the current: Femicide in Mexico on the rise and growing more brutal

Victims are 'erased'

At the outset of the brigade, Mario Vergara and Miguel Angel Trujillo, who are both searching for their brothers and have specialized in uncovering clandestine graves throughout Mexico, warned the rest of the group that they didn't expect to find many bodies in Veracruz.

Brigade member Mario Vergara (far left) joined state forensic experts to examine bone fragments

In Veracruz, unlike in other sites where the two men have conducted searches, the bodies of the disappeared are rarely found. A practice of destroying the bodies with acid, erasing all traces of DNA, has been common for about a decade. The brigade found evidence of sites where criminal groups had systematically burned bodies in acid or ovens. In other regions, finding the sites of former extermination camps known in the region as "kitchens" would be a step toward finding some sort of identifiable human remains, however small, but here the climate and the chemicals used have devoured many of the traces.

"These aren't graves like we're used to," said Vergara, referring to the clandestine graves common in his home state of Guerrero. "Here we aren't going to find people. There are people who were erased. Our question is, how are we going to make the government accept that there were disappearances?"

During the search, the brigade uncovered 12 sites where bodies may have been burned with acid. Members also found dozens of possible burned human bone fragments on a property that state and federal authorities had previously examined four times. The site, known as La Gallera, gave an indication of the chilling brutality that some disappearance victims may have experienced, as well as the negligence with which the state has historically treated disappearance investigations.

Among the brigade's discoveries at the La Gallera property was a huge oven and piles of ash that may hold human remains

On the final day of the brigade's activities, despite a persistent cold rain falling over the city, family members marched through Poza Rica with photos of their disappeared loved ones. They installed a plaque of remembrance, and in the city's Civic Square Noe Amezcua, one of the members of the coordinating team, read out a bulletin presenting their findings.

"We call for the implementation of a holistic search policy in the region," he said. "The state of emergency that this region is experiencing can only be overcome hand-in-hand with the families."

Read more:Mexico's children and youths face monstrous violence

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Mexico: National brigade searches for thousands of disappeared persons - DW (English)

Morrisons, the fourth-largest supermarket chain in the country, earned 17.6 billion in revenue in 2018.

That same year more than 9 billion was spent on illegal drugs in the UK.

According to Dame Carol Blacks report on drugs published this week, the total cost to society by drug misuse in terms of health, crime and other problems is 20 billion.

The drug trade is, in fact, an industry and the collateral cost the thousands of lives lost each year up and down the United Kingdom is simply the price of doing business.

So, for two days this week, the great and the good met in Glasgow to discuss how best to tackle the drugs problem.

Both events the first organised by the Scottish Government, the second by the UK Government started from different places. Both were wrong.

Tuesdays event, at least, recognised that the drug epidemic cannot be curtailed by law enforcement and that, at best, all we can do is try to minimise the harm caused by drugs.

The first couple of hours were given over to various people from Glasgow arguing for the UK Government to give them the power to create a safe injecting room.

There are, we were told, around 500 hardcore drug users in Glasgow city centre, where such a facility would be based and where, in recent years, an outbreak of HIV has occurred due to users sharing their works.

Businesses and residents alike believe the safe consumption room would save lives and help stop the proliferation of drug paraphernalia littering their streets.

They are plausible, convincing arguments. But wrong.

The Scottish Government should not be calling for power to open a safe consumption room, it should be calling for drug laws to be completely devolved.

Because on Wednesday, the UK Government not only ruled out a safe consumption room, policing minister Kit Malthouse made clear UK drugs policy will remain on the same, doomed track it has been on for decades.

Mr Malthouse said he maintains an open mind but believes focusing on disrupting the organised crime networks that push drugs into our communities will, with improvement treatment, save lives.

There is no evidence to suggest enforcement, the war on drugs, is winnable, if it ever was.

Drugs have been in our communities for decades.

Everyone is familiar with the Trainspotting-generation, the so-called older generation of heroin users whose decades of addiction is now costing them their lives. Yet more than half of Scotlands 1,187 drug-related deaths in 2018 were people under the age of 44.

Thats to say, people who were not yet 16 when the 1980s ended. It is a growing problem, not a historical one.

We need to be honest rather than falling back on tough guy talk about cracking down on dealers.

Drugs are a 9 billion industry and those who make money through it from the Afghan and Pakistani farmers with their poppy crops to the Liverpudlian gangs sending couriers to Dundee will find a way to keep making profit.

Drugs can be harmful, we know that. The cost to society from crime as people steal to pay for their habits is huge, the violence that is carried out by drug gangs is horrific.

The harm users inflict on themselves Tuesdays summit heard of maggot-infested wounds being relatively common is terrifying but the stigma of criminality stops many people seeking help until it is too late.

To solve the drug problem we need to stop worrying about the drugs and let capitalism carry the load.

If we want to protect people, lets protect them from the pushers and the squalor that comes with addiction rather than the substances themselves, at least initially.

Lets decriminalise drugs like heroin and wipe out the black market that way, then funnel those users to help they need to get clean.

Because two days of talking wont help, and neither is expecting the same old strategies to produce different results.

Life after death

The generosity of Dundonians knows no bounds. It emerged this week a disproportionately high number of people donate their bodies to Dundee University for medical science.

The university has been gifted 465 cadavers since 2014. Only Glasgow home of an anatomy museum that can genuinely be called Scotlands ickiest museum received more.

I, however, will not be donating my body to medical science, having already offered it to be stuffed and put on permanent display in the McManus once I pop my clogs. I could even be dressed in amusing costumes when the occasion demands it, like a Dundonian Manneken Pis.

For some reason, the museum has not responded to any of my calls.

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Saturday Journal: If we do the same old things, we'll get the same old results - The Courier

Tuesday night's Democratic forum on CBS wasn't the final primary debate of this season, but it's likely the last one that will matter. Between now and the next debate, a total of 21 states -- and that includes the biggest ones, California and Texas -- will hold their primaries. By then, it will almost certainly be over.

So you think the candidates would use the time to talk about things that voters cared deeply about. And for a brief moment, one of them actually did that. In his first answer, Bernie Sanders brought up wages. He said they ought to rise faster, which is true.

TRUMP CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCES 'COMMUNITY CENTERS' INITIATIVE TO ATTRACT BLACK VOTERS

Now, how could wages possibly go up with the open borders Sanders is demanding? That's an unanswerable question. But at least he mentioned it and that's exactly why he is the front-runner. When you talk about things people care about, they respond.

Michael Bloomberg is not the front-runner; he'd like to be. When given his chance to speak, Bloomberg went right to the issue he believes voters care about most -- the fact that Bernie Sanders is a secret Russian agent.

Mike Bloomberg: Vladimir Putinthinks that Donald Trump should be president of the United States and that's why Russia is helping you get elected so you'll lose to him.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.: Oh, Mr. Bloomberg --

So that's what Bloomberg's consultants told him to say. The lesson here is obvious: Go into political consulting -- even dumb people get rich.

At least one audience in America was powerfully moved by Bloomberg's attack -- the other candidates. At the very mention of Vladimir Putin, the stage erupted. Suddenly the debate sounded like a radical book club from the 1970s, old people yelling about the Cold War. "Russia! Russia! Russia!"

Pete Buttigieg, who is 38 but seems at least a century older, jumped in with his theory. What Trump and his paymaster Vladimir Putin actually wants, explained the tiny robot from South Bend, is political chaos. Buttigieg seemed totally convinced that no one had ever said that before.

At this point, the moderators at CBS just gave up. The chaos Putin is hoping for descended on the debate stage. Sanders decided it was a perfect opportunity to indulge his real passion, which is attacking America, a country he clearly hates.

Here he is explaining that the American criminal justice system is actually more repressive than communist China's.

Sanders: We have a criminal justice system today that is not only broken, it is racist. It got more people in jail than any other country on Earth, including China. One of the reasons for that is a horrific war on drugs.

Oh, the war on drugs. Bernie Sanders talks about that in every speech he gives. A declining country with a sad underemployed middle class obviously needs to smoke a ton more weed. That's Bernie's solution to the malaise --fire up a bowl, numb out, maybe you won't notice.

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So where's all this weed going to come from? Well, Bernie has got a plan for that, too. Black people are going to sell it to you. No kidding.

Sanders: And I'll tell you what else we're going to do. We're going to provide help to the African-American, Latino and Native-American community to start businesses to sell legal marijuana rather than let a few corporations control the legalized marijuana market.

That's a real clip, by the way. So first, they fill black neighborhoods with abortion clinics. Now, their front-runner is encouraging more black kids to sell drugs. But somehow this is the party that loves black America. It doesn't sound like it.

But whatever. Joe Biden soon changed the subject by making very loud noises. Biden has lost his ability to speak clearly, and that's got to be frustrating for anyone. In Biden's case, it's led to a series of rage eruptions.

Joe Biden, former vice president: You talk about -- whether we're talking about with Bernie. Bernie, in fact, hasn't passed much of anything. The fact of the matter is --

Tom Steyer, billionaire hedge fund manager and activist: I get to answer that.

Biden: Look, the fact is --

Steyer: You're out of time.

Biden: I'm not out of time. You spoke overtime, and I am going to talk. Here's the deal. Here is the deal. The fact of the matter is, look at what's happening here. Look at what's happening here --

At the very mention of Vladimir Putin, the stage erupted. Suddenly the debate sounded like a radical book club from the 1970s, old people yelling about the Cold War. "Russia! Russia! Russia!"

The crowd roared, because screaming always elicits roars from crowds. Our animal brains at work. But for those who are trying to follow what Biden was actually saying -- deaf people, for example, reading it at home on closed caption -- it was a profoundly confusing moment.

By the end, Biden's train of thought didn't simply get lost. It hopped the tracks and became a fiery derailment plunging off the bridge into the gorge below.

Biden: I would make it clear ... I'd make it clear to China. We are going to continue to move closer to make sure that we can,in fact, prevent China -- prevent North Korea -- from launching missiles to take them down. And if we don't -- why am I stopping? No one else stops.

"Why am I stopping," he asked.Well, because disjointed sentence fragments are counterproductive in a presidential campaign.

The good news is, at least Biden still knows a verbal cul de sac when he hits one. A few months from now, he'll be reciting Allen Ginsberg poems to strangers at bus stops. He's going fast.

Elizabeth Warren was there, too. Warren is not going to be president. That's a good thing. She's awful, maybe the most unpleasant human being ever to run for president in this country. You'd be in Paraguay by the end of the first Elizabeth Warren administration just to stop the noise.

Warren seems to know this. She can tell that she is doomed. If nothing else, she's not stupid. And she's decided to spend her remaining time destroying Michael Bloomberg.

And really that's a nice way to go out if you think about it. It's a service to the country. But, unfortunately on Tuesday night, it didn't work. Instead, Warren just humiliated herself.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.: I was visibly pregnant. The principal wished me luck and gave my job to someone else. Pregnancy discrimination?You bet.

But I was 21 years old. I didn't have a union to protect me. I didn't have any federal law on my side. So I packed up my stuff, and I went home.

At least I didn't have a boss who said to me kill it that way that Mayor Bloomberg is said to have said to one of his pregnant employees.

Bloomberg: I never said that. Oh, come on!

Whoa, whoa, wait a second! We have news emerging. Did you notice here Elizabeth Warren say there are circumstances in which encouraging abortion might be wrong? Oh, don't tell Planned Parenthood -- she'll lose her funding.

Meanwhile, Warren's story about her own pregnancy could have been the most depressing moment of the night. The story is a lie. Everyone knows it is. It has been conclusively debunked by her on tape.

But Warren keeps telling the story anyway, with exactly the same inflections and pauses and hand gestures. Keep in mind, this is a person who was once a tenured Harvard law professor. She wrote a genuinely good book at one point. People respected her.

Now? Well, now, Warren's up there degrading herself with some transparent whopperdesigned to show you how oppressed she is.

By her time is over. Warren will be Hillary Clinton pacing her backyard with a bottle of wine and sending bitter tweets about Trump at midnight. No normal person will have lunch with her after this. It's pathetic and sad.

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But it's not just her -- it's universal this year. Everyone in the Democratic field has been greatly diminished by this, and it's not because they're all bad people. Not all of them are bad people. It's because their ideas are absurd.

Adapted from Tucker Carlson's monologue from "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Feb. 26, 2020.

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Tucker Carlson: Everyone in the 2020 Democratic field has been diminished. Their ideas are absurd - Fox News

Narcos: Mexico, despite being as intense and violent as its predecessor (and high on its own supply), is becoming masterful at setting up quietly resonant closing moments while not taking the cliffhanger route. And I can appreciate that. In the streaming era, when entire seasons drop at once, cliffhangers are almost cruel when an audience must wait over a year to find out what happened. Lets get real, too: Narcos franchise fans tend to binge hard and fast. Cliffhangers are not needed here to stoke ongoing interest. Closing a season with understated moments is also practical because the War on Drugs wont ever end. It could be exhausting to keep watching finales like the ones from the Escobar years (him refusing to surrender and later going down on a rooftop) that dont work well with recent history. If that pattern continued, wed eventually see El Chapo pop into a tunnel and wave goodbye for a year. It would be beyond parody. I do hope the show sticks with reflective resolutions that suggest whats to come.

Before we dig in here, heres another reason why Narcos beats every other TV franchise when it comes to promo images. This image up there ^^^ of Scoot McNairys mustache? Netflix used that image for months to tease this season, and it illustrated a long-awaited confrontation. When the moment arrived, the showdown didnt go as planned. There wasnt a payoff for the characters, but for the audience? Hell, yeah. It was great to see two lions (mentally) circle each other while conceding that theyve both lost the battle.

Granted, Narcos: Mexicos second season did lead up to its final minutes with a mayhem-filled scene of revenge full of climactic adrenaline. This was both obligatory and necessary, to illuminate the truth of what was soon to be stated by Flix Gallardo. In particular, the shoe literally dropped on the remnants of Gallardos cartel leadership when Clavel gets beaten to death in a shopping mall while a spitting Chapo witnesses.

The franchise has held a lot of moments like these, obviously. Theyre bread and butter and gruesome and all that, but theyre almost operatic in their execution. Theyre also sometimes (disturbingly) funny, as with the bloodbath last season where Don Neto kept wearing his headphones. Yet theres a ton of value in quietly forecasting the fights to come. Moments of conversation allow the corrupted soul of the franchise to flourish. In this universe a very real one, although dramatized by Netflix justice cant win. There wont ever be a happy ending in this saga. To that inevitability, last years finale made a fantastic set-up: Scoots character, who narrated all along, finally comes into view as dogged DEA agent Walt Breslin. The assumption was that wed get to see Scoot kick some ass this season. And he did kick some ass. One and done is how the fledgling DEA wanted to do this thing, but its not quite that simple.

Part of that has to do with that unending reality of the War on Drugs. Also, as we learn by midseason, Walt a composite character based upon an amalgamation of multiple DEA agents wields a dual purpose. Hes damaged, and even more than seeking revenge for Kiki Camerenas death, Walt struggles with immense guilt over not being able to save his brother from ODing. All season, he hunted Flix Gallardo, who screwed himself over in his eternal quest for power. He betrayed too many people and proved that hes not so indispensable in guiding Mexicos drug empire. The final scene of the season shows Flix in jail after Walt felt compelled to visit. Walt finally stares down what hes been chasing, and he expects to find closure. He wants to see some remorse materialize in Flixs face when he holds that photo of Kiki up to the glass.

Not that Flix showed his cards. He showed everyone elses cards and taunted the hell out of Walt, who we saw alternately exude bravado and squirm with discomfort. I love that the show fictionalized this conversation between a real-life drug lord and a made-up character. They took it in one hell of a different direction than what we usually see in the hero-vs-villain dichotomy. And I love that theyre toying with the were not so different, you and I clich without actually saying it. They dont need to say it, since about 800 recent movies and TV shows have articulated that line. But the sentiment is here.

Dont get me wrong, man. I also giggle every time some villain offers up, Were not so different, you and I. Admit it, you get a little giddy when you hear it happen, too. But its rewarding to see such dynamics bypass the standard entry point and dive deeper. Its more personal. Not so black-and-white. That a series did this in the middle of a run is gutsy without a renewal announcement in hand, but Narcos has earned that confidence. Five seasons in, and this franchise has many more stories left to tell.

This is where I can quickly draw attention to a few standout comparisons to this Walt-Flix conversation, including the Heat diner scene. Showrunner Eric Newman told Collider that he drew inspiration from how Heat brought the cop-criminal dichotomy face-to-face. The diner scene between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro is one that people watched on repeat (lets forget that Righteous Kill failed to replicate the effect). Incredibly, it was the first scene that Pacino and De Niro had ever filmed together, and their connection felt organic. The scene made it clear that their characters respected each other despite knowing that, eventually, shots would be fired.

Theres some very reluctant respect on display in the Narcos: Mexico conversation, not on the same level as Heat, but it resonates in a similar way. Two driven, devoted, and brilliant sides of the same coin are butting heads and know theres no compromise to be found. Also, more than a little bit, Im reminded of the final Justified scene here. That one revolved around a very different dynamic and personal history between Raylan and Boyd and their coal-digging unity, but theres still the same magnetic draw here. Raylan felt it necessary to deliver a message to Boyd in person, and we needed to see this Harlan reunion happen, even if these two would never be on the same side of the law.

Again, the dynamic of Walt and Flix is quite different than these other two examples, especially when it comes to Raylan and Boyd, who had some love for each other, even if Raylan would never admit it. Its a conversation thats still regarded fondly, and the Walt-Flix meeting deserves to be remembered for decades to come. The season needed to feature a face-to-face meeting between the pair and the show executed it at the right time. Im glad the moment wasnt squandered during Flixs arrest, for the visitation scene isolates the duo and gives their dueling personalities the appropriate spotlight.

In only a few short minutes, we saw the culmination of what these two men had discovered about themselves. Walt visibly realized that his tireless and obsessive pursuit hadnt yielded the hard-hitting results that he wanted regarding the drug trade. Despite his displays of smugness, he couldnt maintain the facade when Flix began to prophesize the horrors to come. Flix, of course, admitted that his greed caused his downfall. Hes also largely spot-on with his predictions, and we see the new cartel heads boozily meet and call a truce. And Flix lays it all out there to Walt. He predicts who will be running his plazas, which are becoming their own cartels. Tijuana, Juarez, the Gulf, and Sinaloa all get divvied up with Chapo Guzmn positioned for a future Sinaloa takeover. They all agree to respect each other and prosper, but Felix knows thats not going to be how things work out.

Its an interesting thing, the War on Drugs. The winners of wars are the ones customarily entitled to tell the tales as they see fit, but no one wins here. Walt expected to walk into that visitation booth and make Flix feel like utter garbage while thrusting that photo of Kiki in his face. Hes wanted to do this for years. Thats what kept him going on the surface. He also expected to feel less restless after reminding Flix that he got sold out for a trade deal, but Flix knew that Walt held no cards. Theres nothing that Walt can do for him, so Flix isnt going to give him anything tangible. Yet in a way, and even though Flix is presenting the appearance that hes giving nothing to Walt, hes having the most honest onscreen conversation that hes had with anyone.

Flix takes Walt to terrifying places during this relatively short conversation. He digs into the strengths of the various cartels, and outlines their strengths and weaknesses, and their various strategies while striving for dominance. He even gleefully suggests that Walt take out the Juarez head, but more importantly, Flix knew how to get under Walts skin. And to a lesser degree, vice versa. The two of them picked at each other, and neither one of them won the confrontation, much like the War on Drugs. They smirk at each other, almost in the same way that De Niro and Pacino did in Heat only without knowing that their beef wont be resolved with one heist. Instead, this war will rage on indefinitely, and Flix calls it when he tells Walt that youre going to miss me.

Yes, Walt is gonna miss Flix. I mean, the guy motivated years of his existence. The tigers now in the cage, and where does that leave Walt? Ultimately, hes behind a desk now, and all of the other animals are on the loose. Its difficult to envision Netflix continuing this series without putting Walt back into action in some capacity. Obviously, the third season will focus on the unleashed circus of animals that Flix references. Chapo Guzmn should make a lot more progress with his tunneling endeavors, and Amado Carrillo Fuentes is likely going to be a major focus. Walt will be back in some way, but will we see Flix again? Maybe not, and thats only one more reason why this quiet confrontation will resonate for many years to come.

Narcos: Mexicos second season is currently streaming on Netflix.

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'Narcos: Mexico's New Finale Pulled Off A Confrontation That Stands Among The Greats - UPROXX