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Numerous anonymous tips have been submitted from straight inside the House of Representatives Visit the Rumours page for new info on an upcoming Executive Order from the president!
December 5, 2018
Numerous anonymous tips have been submitted from straight inside the House of Representatives Visit the Links page for many NEW links to outside sources on highly requested topics! Read a new audio interview
December 3, 2018
Numerous anonymous tips have been submitted from straight inside the House of Representatives Visit the Links page for many new links to outside sources on highly requested topics!
November 29, 2018
A new interview with President Andrew Cannon is now available in INTRA-VIEWS Visit the Links page for pertinent info on each House Commitee
November 27, 2018
Tip #4 on 12/03/2018
"I see a lot of overlapping plans for taxes, and if combined I feel that thsi will create a federal tax of such a large scale, when combined with state taxes, that will stagnate the legal marijuana industry."
Tip #3 on 12/03/2018
"Taxes on recreational marijuana should not be at 40%"
Tip #2 on 12/03/2018
"The fine for underage use and illegal selling should be higher than $150. There are speeding tickets that cost more!"
Tip #1 on 12/03/2018
"The suggested rule is that medical marijuana should be legal for all ages. We should add a restriction where, for those under 18, one should require both a prescription and parental permission. If old than 18, one would only need a prescription from a certified doctor."
Tip #5 on 11/29/2018
"The people in the house are UNINFORMED, UNEDUCATED, and obviously CONFUSED. I can't beliedve that I work with these people. As underage use of marijuana is on the rise, don't we want to make sure that our teens are staying safe?! If they wanna get high, let them get high. We need to inform the youth, and make sure they're getting the best weed in the market."
Tip #4 on 11/29/2018
"If we are to legalize this substance, it should be done strictly. I believe that it can be used for medical reasons, but we must limit its accessibility to our youth. Stdies have shown that the drug changes the structure of the teenage brain, specifically in areas relating to memory and problem solving; they have also shown that children may lose IQ points, and that the drug poses a risk to addiction. By limiting access to weed in youth, we will protect the minds of our future."
Tip #3 on 11/29/2018
"If anything, it is clear that the impact of marijuana on the body is comparable with that of alcohol, which is currently prevalent in our society. We should treat it as such, making it available for commercial use over the age of 21. The bare minimum that the federal government should address is the issue of decriminalizing the substance and setting some cautious restrictions, while allowing states to make their own adjustments to these rules."
Tip #2 on 11/29/2018
"Marijauna shold definitely be funded for medical use. Otherwise, I do not care much one way or the other, but I think as something medical it has great potential as has already been shown before."
Tip #1 on 11/29/2018
"The legal age limit should be 18. Adults have the right to make their own choices, so they should be able to choose to use recreational marijuana if they so wish."
Tip #6 on 11/27/2018
"Let us not forget the autonomy of the states; they, and their local municipalities, should be able to set their own tax rates alongside the federal government's rates. Likewise, the federal government should focus on a high, 25% tax rate for retail sale of marijuana, and I refuse to support anything less than 15%. I also believe that medical marijuana should be available strictly upon prescription with a lower rate of 10%, and that recreational marijuana must only be allowed for those who aren't minors, over the age of 21, following previous standards set for alcohol consumption."
Tip #5 on 11/27/2018
"People are going too far with this legalization business. I agree that it should be decriminalized, but some of my fellow representatives have truly jumped the gun. Allowing minors, under 21, to use it unsupervised? Seriously, that is a proposition I've heard. No way. Then there are people who want the dirty pot companies to be able to advertise in HIGH SCHOOLS! We need to make sure that all advertising is fully honest, completely out of sight of minors, and highly monitored. Anything else would endanger the moral sanctity of our country and its safety, and ruin the lives of our children."
Tip #4 on 11/27/2018
"Let us all be honest here; the war on drugs has been motivated entirely by race. It is the clearest demonstration of discrimination in law enforcement, where there has always been increased patrol near low-income, primarily black neighborhoods, simply on the idea that they use marijuana more. By legalizing and decriminalizing this substance, we are doing a great service to all those immorally targeted and punished by an immoral law."
Tip #3 on 11/27/2018
"There is no doubt to me that marijuana possession should not be a felony. Why was it even in the first place? Additionally, I think it should be totally legalized for all people over 18 recreationally, and medically for anyone, even those under 18. If you need it for epilepsy or other illnesses, why should you have to wait until you are 18? The medical variety of marijuana doesn't even get you high!"
Tip #2 on 11/27/2018
"I am surprised at how much our sub-committee is getting along. Even with our different political ideologies, we can still get along just fine and work together to solve problems."
Tip #1 on 11/27/2018
"If alcohol is legal, then weed should be too; about 88,000 people a year die from drinking, so maybe even ban it instead? Meanwhile, not one single person has ever died from taking marijuana, but instead people's lives have been ruined due to charges of illegal substance. Besides, legalizing it will provide more than 1.1 million new jobs across the country. It is the clearest answer."
President Andrew CannonHead of House Commitee Emily MeiHead of House Commitee Other Emily
November 16, 2018VIDEO INTERVIEWWith Andrew CannonslashGOV was recently given the privilege to have an interview with the President Elect at the time, Andrew Cannon, and we were able to discuss numerous policy issues concerning the recent legalization of marijuana. Read below for an official transcript of the interview or watch the embedded video.
REPORTER: Just to get started... I have to ask, how happy are you that you [the president] won this election?
CANNON: Well it's always a pleasure to be here, talking to people, talking to you [the media]. As far as winning the election, it's going to be a bit of a mixed feelings from here on in. Of course I'm very excited, it's an amazing opportunity and I thank everyone for it, but it's also going to be a lot of work for me and I signed up for that, but that always dulls the happiness a little bit.
REPORTER: Getting right to the issues, recently there has been a momentous push to legalize marijuana and it appears to have succeeded. There are many propositions in Congress relating to this. First of all, what is your opinion on the issue?
CANNON: I do support the issue of marijuana legalization, I won't say quite wholeheartedly because I do support it but I also support regulating it as well; I don't think it should be instantly out there for everybody, but age limits and taxation, things like that, should be implemented to saveguard the nation.
REPORTER: Now, about some of those policies, you mentioned restrictions. What priority should we have with regulating marijuana? Should we prioritize making sure to not let it get into the hands of minors?
CANNON: A lot of that comes with education; younger people tend to be less educated on drugs, and so making sure that everyone is of an age where they know what a drug is, what it does to them, so that they can make an informed decision before they affect their lives. Along those lines, it should be kept outside of the hands of minors like with tobacco, and again pinpointing that age is always going to be a bit of an issue. The dispensaries themselves, we should make sure that they know that there is going to be strict punishment for those who give it out more freely.
REPORTER: How hard do you think it should be to get a license? How long should they last for, and what impact do you think that will have on new small businesses?
CANNON: As far as getting a license, I think there should be very strict policies. Of course states have their own standards, but because it is something new, I believe it should be very strictly regulated so that we don't have a lot of local illegal product or people that don't educate or screen that customers. We should have regulations and make it, not exactly difficult, but make it a strict process so that only people that really know what they're doing can get a license.
REPORTER: As you know, tobacco has warning labels on it to ensure that everyone knows what is in it. What about marijuana? What do you think is important to prioritize on these warning labels?
CANNON: Real estate there is a bit limited there but we should definitely give a synopsis over various general carcinogens, or cancer causing products, that do exist in the smoke there, which is existance in marijuana as well as tobacco which is one of the main health concerns there. One of the other concerns, of course the main things about marijuana, the THC as well as other canabinals, should be included on there as well as how if you have too much of this, it has been linked to signs of anxiety, just to have very strong caution against people having too much.
REPORTER: As for those people who maybe have too much, or that take it under the legal age limit, do you think we should focus more on education or punishment?
CANNON: As for that, I do believe that both are very important. Definitely punishing people that let their licenses get too far, letting people under the age, whether they are distributors that didn't take the license well enough, or parents that let it get out of their hands, I do think there should be punishments like revoking the license or keeping them from the product for a certain amount of time.
REPORTER: We still don't know the full story; we need more research, and the government is looking into providing this research with funds that they have, and I'm wondering, do you think it is even the government's responsbility? Which government, the federal, state, or local governments?
CANNON: As always I am a very strong proponent of the government protecting its people, it is one of the base things that I want to do this term. Now, along with that, that comes with researching such drugs as marijuana. It should be funded partially by tax revenue from the marijuana, and as it has been shown in Colorado where it has been legalized, that market is massive, and I believe that some of that should go towards researching marijuana to make sure it has been a good choice. I think it will be, I don't think there will be too dangerous effects there, but of course changing dosage amounts will also be something with that. In terms of research, I believe that private companies and distributors of marijuana will also want to help in that to make sure it is the fastest process possible because the faster that we can research marijuana, the faster it can be fully legalized and more open to everybody and that's just more profit for them.
REPORTER: I'm wondering, do you think its more the responsbility of the federal government, or the state governments, or even the local governments to tax it, and what do you think the tax rates should be, high or low?
CANNON: So with that I do believe there should be something more akin to tobacco with that where we see with tobacco that there is a federal tax, a state tax, and in some cases a local tax. You get some people paying as much as $7 on the pack just in taxes. Whether that is ridiculous or not, I can't really say. In terms of state and local taxes, it is of course up to state and local jurisdiction, but I do believe that it should air on the higher side.
REPORTER: Do you think there should any tariffs for transporting marijuana over the border, between states of course, and what do you think about the transportation?
CANNON: As far as transportation it should be something akin to tobacco because the harmful effects has been shown to be rather close to that of tobacco so I think following similar concerns to that should be good. Of course making it hygienic and free of impurities is also a very powerful thing to do, but in terms of interstate tariffs, there should be some tariff that covers the cost and differences between states.
REPORTER: To end it all off, do you have any final words for all the great Representatives of Congress?
CANNON: For the Representatives of Congress, I know it's gonna be a lot of work to get this done and implemented because a lot of states have different varying levels of support for this, but as a nation I think we can come together and get this done as expediently as possible, and I know that they're going to do a great job on these pieces of legislation.
November 29, 2018MARIJUANA: SOME CONCERNSWith Emily Mei
Listen to the audio recoding of slashGOV's conversation with the Head of the House Commitee on Energy and Commerce, Emily Mei.
November 20, 2018OUR GOALS TONITEWith Other Emilyson
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December 3, 2018UPCOMING EXECUTIVE AGREEMENTBy the power vested in the Executive branch of the United States Government, and under the discretion of the Chief Executive, President Cannon, I hereby enact executive order 420. This order pertains strictly to the usage and regulation of various parts of the Marijuana industry.
1. Henceforth, any and all growers of Marijuana must be located no less than 2 miles of nationally protected lands, increased to 5 miles if the plantation lies within 500 feet of a path where water can flow towards such protected sites.
2. Creates the Recently Legalized Substances Bureau (RLSB) underneath the authority of the ATFE to deal with any current and future substances for a minimum of their first year of legalized status (marked from one month after appropriate legislation is signed into law, to allow time for allocation of resources and information).
3. Grants the RLSB the permissions:
i) to set reasonable state limits on licensing and education of such substances under their jurisdiction (henceforth referred to as Recently Legalized Substances, or RLSs).
ii) to allocate reasonable funds from taxes on RLS’s to promote education and additional research into RLS’s.
iii) to suspend the licensing processes of states that do not practice reasonable standards for their licenses. This licensing process is replaced by a strict federal system until such states can replace their system with an appropriate model.
iv) to conduct investigations on licensed producers under court approval.
v) to monitor curriculums on RLS’s to ensure they are up to federal standards.
4. Grants permissions to the ATFE to:
i) reallocate appropriate resources and information from the RLSB in times when no RLS’s are under the jurisdiction of the RLSB.
ii) reallocate appropriate resources and information to the RLSB in times when an RLS is added the the RLSB’s jurisdiction.
5.Additionally, levies an additional federal sales tax on recreational RLS’s for the first year (as defined above) of legalization to be set at 10% with all proceeds going to research and education on the respective RLS.
6.Mandates that every state that chooses to allow dispensaries of RLS’s keeps them a minimum of 1500 feet away from residential areas in which people, under the legal age for the respective RLS, live.
Zoning: Policies must be implemented that restrict where marijuana dispensaries are allowed to operate. The proposed bill calls for restrictions to be placed on areas containing minors, public property, or "heavy traffic" areas. The bill is unclear on how to define these areas, and what types of measures will be included to ensure that these zones will be properly maintained by the various levels of government.
Licensing: Policies must be implemented that license the production and consumption of marijuana across all 50 states. The proposed bill calls for the mandatory purchase of a federal license by individuals 21 and older. The bill is unclear on how much will be charged and how long the license will be valid before renewal is needed.
Advertising: Policies must be implemented that regulate the format, content, and disclaimers contained within marijuana related ads. The bill is unclear on which formats will be allowed, and to whom ads can and cannot be targeted.
Underage Use: Policies must be implemented that both educate and intervene when youth under the age of 21 illegally use marijuana. The bill is unclear as to which level of government will implement this agenda, what specific aspects will be targeted, and what meausures will be used for underage violators.
Long-Term Studies: Policies must be implemented that provide funding for specific studies that will reveal the impact of THC on the human body. The bill is unclear as to which level of government will conduct the studies, where the funding will come from, or the types of reports needed to properly gauge the effects on humans.
Tax Rates: Policies must be implemented that standardize the taxes on marijuana across all 50 states, while at the same time ensuring that the rates are both fair and economically beneficial. The bill is unclear as to which types of taxes will be effected, what rates the taxes will be set at, and whether the state and national governments will share in this responsbility.
Import/Export: Policies must be implemented that regulate the sale of marijuana across state and international borders. The bill is unclear as to tariff or custom duty rates, cargo weight requirements, and acceptable modes of transporation.
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