Episode 126 – News in Under 10 Minutes

In this episode, I provide a high-level overview and commentary on cannabis-related stories that caught my attention. Topics include the launch of the Cannabis Research Institute in Chicago, the Illinois dispensary regulations effective as of August 2024, and the recent statements from former President Donald Trump endorsing Florida’s Amendment 3.

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The auto-generated transcript is available below.

hello and welcome in this episode of the Cole memo I’m going to be doing a highlevel overview of several stories that have caught my attention today is September 10th 2024 and since I’m doing a highlevel overview I will encourage you to check out the full stor so that you can gain a better understanding of what is included in the stories the first story that I’m going to be covering today is from the Chicago Tribune the headline is cannabis Research Institute opens in Chicago looking to dig deep into marijuana the article was written by Robert mcen the article starts with nearly a year and a half after it was announced the Cannabis Research Institute is getting operations underway in Chicago with the goal of studying among other things how marijuana could help or harm people the director of the Cannabis Research Institute Reggie guadino and I’m apologize if I mispronounce that name is to be studying among other things whether cannabis can inhibit cancer growth I also found this part of the article notable it says and he will advise on establishing a state Reference Lab that will check the accuracy of private Labs Studies have found discrepancies between lab reports and actual levels of potency in contaminants including mold and legal weed now I’m not I’m not exactly sure what the Chicago Tribune is referencing here but I think I may have written about it in one of my most most recent stories which is headlined Illinois state cannabis lab nears completion now the reason I think that this part is notable because it doesn’t exactly mesh with what I recall being told by several representatives of Illinois state government but again to keep it high level I want to encourage you both I want to encourage you to read both of these stories so that you can get a better understanding and I’m curious if you come away with that same question do you think that this meshes with what some State officials have told me over the years I’m curious what you think please leave your comments below we’re going to move on to the next story which comes from Cannabis industry lawyer Tom Howard who reports that there are new Illinois dispensary regulations hitting Illinois they’re going to be effective August two th uh 20th 2024 here are 106 pages of a PDF document that you comeb through I’ll have this Linked In the show notes we’re going to play a short video from Tom Howard which kind of gives a highlevel overview of what’s covered in this let’s watch the video and here is the video you’re still going to keep selling them maybe because hemp didn’t legalize weed you’re legalizing weed when you vote in Florida or when you voted in Missouri or when we voted here in Illinois and we created one of the best legal marijuana programs in the country let me expand on why I said that and so we are now going to share the new Administrative Code this just came out in Illinois over this past week they have created a comprehensive regulatory scheme that shuts down all the chicanery that happens in the social Equity licensing Lottery process a lot of the predatory practices are now for all intents and purposes gone from these new definitions of financial interest to the ability of a license holder to at any time back out of the sale this is license it’s fascinating how they’ve created these it’s not that I hate hemp okay so speaking of which the folks from River Bluff Collective recently reached out you might remember them cuz I love their Bluff punch pops one of my favorite products from the plant apparently this month they’re running a few different uh you know specials I’m dis playing my screen right now sounds like they’ve got cookie sandwiches crunch balls and hard candy so if you know you want some of those or some drinks you know like I said they’re delicious you just go to riverbluff collective.com it allows you to get these products straight to your door and you support social Equity along the way of course you must be 21 years of age or older to enjoy these products moving on to our next next story you know again today is September 10th 2024 and I think it’s going to be an interesting night in in United States politics because I can almost guarantee there’s going to be some back and forth on cannabis tonight considering the statements that have recently been made by former president Donald Trump now obviously let’s acknowledge on the outset I’m displaying these statements right now it doesn’t even look like I I mean if I have to imagine he probably didn’t write this but let’s just say he did what I appreciated most about his endorsement of voting yes on amendment 3 in Florida which by the way if you don’t know Amendment Three in Florida would basically create a cannabis regulation and Taxation system very similar to what exists in Illinois so it does not completely legalize cannabis um but he endorsed it you know and he preceded that comment by saying it’s time to end needless arrests and incarcerations incarceration ations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use so he says that then he says he’s going to vote Yes on Amendment Three and it’s important to note Amendment Three actually credit where credit is due decriminalizes up to 3 oun excuse me three ounces of marijuana and it’s important to put that into context if Florida legalizations if Florida legalizes possession of up to three ounces in that context it will be more Progressive than Illinois adult use law in in Illinois sorry I can’t speak adults possessing 3 ounces can lead to a misdemeanor a year in jail and fines up to 2,500 $2,500 now that’s on your first offense on your subsequent offense you can get a felony one to three years in prison and fines up to $25,000 now again Florida’s legalization Bill if it’s actually a constitutional amendment that they’re voting on Via ballot measure if it were be if it were to become a part of the Constitution it would not completely legalize cannabis but I still wanted to give credit where credit is due I think Chris Goldstein had the best take on this he recently wrote an oped and marijuana moment he said Trump’s new opinions are more of a say anything and do nothing style now if you don’t know who Chris Goldstein is he’s a cannabis advocate he actually received I believe a pardon or expungement or something like that from President Biden for a federal cannabis offense he had he was also invited to the Cannabis Round Table in VP Harris’s uh they vice president kamla Harris had a marijuana meeting at the White House and uh marijuana moment actually wrote about it I’m displaying it on my screen right now so if you want to read what happened in that meeting they wrote about it I’ll have all of these stories that I’ve mentioned so far Linked In the show notes he recently wrote like I was just mentioning in oped this was on September 9th and he’s saying that KLA Harris holds the trump card on cannabis despite her opponent’s latest comments so I wanted to share those comments and share what I actually liked about him but I also wanted to give kind of a rounded perspective so if you want to kind of you know see the other side um you know a lot of people are saying that Trump has embraced cannabis I say he’s suddenly EMB raced cannabis and so if you want to see what somebody says you know somebody on the opposition side who believes that kamla holds the trump card as they say then you can check out this oped I hope you found value in all that I had to share today again the point was to keep this short this show short and to the point the links for everything I displayed in this episode will be shared and before I go I just wanted to share a preview for my upcoming mini documentary beginning January 1st 2020 the recreational use of cannabis will be legal in the state of Illinois available to stream now my mini do dives into the history of Illinois legalization starting with January 1st what should we expect the biggest thing that we need people to understand is that January 1 in terms of the Criminal Justice System here in this state is the end of prohibition see how Illinois missed its chance at real cannabis reform with key failures in including the fact that the program includes regulation on possession limits so people can still be arrested for a possession and I want to highlight that in its first year of legalized recreational marijuana in the state of Illinois they arrested three times as many black people for possession than any other race we’ve run into so much cannabis we’ve run out of places to put it I have represented people and taken their cases through the court system who got charged with more serious crimes only because the police said that they smelled cannabis and not because the police said you have illegal cannabis or not because you have too much cannabis or not because you’re high on cannabis but because I can smell it and that’s it attorney goes he understands that he can’t be smoking and his cannabis flower shouldn’t be open and I was like I’d like to say a further record that I was not smoking and my flower was not open so uh that’s where we’re at right now in Illinois and I hope it changes start watching now at coal memo.com minoc

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