Posted on 01/03/2009 6:54:45 PM PST by Bill Dupray
Of course they did. It's Massachusetts. The voters passed a ballot initiative that made possession of less than an ounce marijuana a civil violation with no criminal consequences. And since Massachusetts is run by libtards, the law has shockingly caused a whole lot of problems. For starters, the police have given up - they won't even bother to write the ticket.
More . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at patriotroom.com ...
In this instant gratification society? I have to LOL at the thought that most pot smokers will become master horticulturists and invest a couple of thousand dollars in growing equipment to grow in 90 days time what they can get at the store all packaged up.
I just read the new law and I think it probably does decriminalize hash and hash oil as well. The relevant part says: “As used herein, “possession of one ounce or less of marihuana” includes possession of one ounce or less of marihuana or tetrahydrocannabinol and having cannabinoids or cannibinoid metabolites in the urine, blood, saliva, sweat, hair, fingernails, toe nails or other tissue or fluid of the human body. Nothing contained herein shall be construed to repeal or modify existing laws, ordinances or bylaws, regulations, personnel practices or policies concerning the operation of motor vehicles or other actions taken while under the influence of marihuana or tetrahydrocannabinol, laws concerning the unlawful possession of prescription forms of marihuana or tetrahydrocannabinol such as Marinol, possession of more than one ounce of marihuana or tetrahydrocannabinol, or selling, manufacturing or trafficking in marihuana or tetrahydrocannabinol. Nothing contained herein shall prohibit a political subdivision of the Commonwealth from enacting ordinances or bylaws regulating or prohibiting the consumption of marihuana or tetrahydrocannabinol in public places and providing for additional penalties for the public use of marihuana or tetrahydrocannabinol.”
“http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/ele08/ballot_questions_08/full_text.htm#2";
So, it looks possession of any form of THC except prescription THC is decriminalized. I would think that would include hash or hash oil. Again though, that's not that big of a deal. Hash is nothing but marijuana resin removed from the plants and pressed into a block. Hash oil is nothing but marijuana resin that has been liquefied with some sort of solvent, like alcohol or butane. Hash and hash oil are rare in the U.S. There really isn't much commercial production of these substances to speak of here because the yield when producing these things is so low that it makes infinitely more sense to just sell raw buds. Like I said before, they only get around two grams of hash from an ounce of pot, and while hash is often more expensive than plain marijuana, they aren't going to be able to get anywhere near the price for two grams of hash that they would get for one ounce of bud, about 28 grams.
Hash does tend to be stronger than the marijuana it is made from, but it's usually not made with the best quality marijuana to begin with. Most of the THC in marijuana is in the resin which exudes out of tiny translucent hair like glands on the buds and the leaves growing within a branch of buds. When they remove the resin, either by passing ground up marijuana over a screen or by a process where they mix it violently with ice water and the resin separates from the plant material and is collected and dried, they get most of the THC contained in the plant material that way. Some of the green plant material inevitably ends up in the resin too, and higher grade hash has lower amounts of these fine bits of leaf in the resin than lower grades. In Morocco they pass their dried plants over a screen or beat them into a screen and the resultant product is graded like olive oil sort of, with what comes through the screen first being the highest grade and that that comes later mixed with more plant material being a lower grade. Whichever method they use, the plant material they have left after removing the resin will have some THC in it, but it's worthless. It's too weak for anyone to want it, so it is just discarded and wasted. There is a lot of waste in the process, so it doesn't make much sense to do it with buds that would sell for several hundred dollars an ounce without being processed into hash.
From what I understand some of these medical marijuana dispensaries in California sell some hash. Growers will make it from the small resinous leaves they trim from the buds. These small leaves that grow from budding branches that look like one giant bud with leaves sticking out don't have as much THC as the actual buds, but they are still a lot stronger than the large leaves that make up the rest of the plant. Those hardly have any resin and hardly any THC so they are discarded. They don't get much “trim” from a plant they can use for hash making, so very little hash actually makes it to market. They charge a small fortune for it and it sells out fast even though it's probably not much better than the buds from the same plants, if it's better at all. People like the novelty of it though.
You don't really see hash like that in most parts of the country because there has to be a really big growing operation to produce enough trim for there to be even small scale commercial hash production. If a closet grower is making hash he's smoking that tiny little bit he'll get from his trim.
In a place like Morocco where they grow huge fields of marijuana and focus on quantity rather than quality, where labor costs are super low, making hash makes more sense. They grow mediocre pot, let it go to seed, but by making hash from it they are able to turn a dirt cheap mediocre product into something much better that will command a much higher price and that is much easier to smuggle. A small block of hash is worth more than a big bale of pot and it's much easier to conceal. Morocco is the world's largest hash producer and most of what they sell ends up in Europe. I've seen the potency stats on it and average potency of imported hash they seize in Europe really isn't much higher than the potency of Mexican pot seized here. The last UN reports showed it being less than 9% THC. That's not nearly as potent as the average potency of indoor grown bud. The hash made by growers in places like Holland is much stronger on average than Moroccan or Middle Eastern hash you find in their coffeeshops, because it is made from indoor grown bud leaves, but it is also incredibly expensive and supplies are tight.
Anyway, I went on too long with that, but the point is that hash is rare in this country and most of it that does make it to the market is weaker than a lot of the raw marijuana available on the market. Hash will only account for a tiny percentage of the marijuana on the market in Massachusetts and most of what they do see will be imported stuff that isn't all that potent. The biggest risk to consumers is not that their hash will be too strong, it's that it might be cut with shoe polish or God knows what.
You must eat a lot of vegetables. ;-)
The biggest problem for government would be people growing their own....much harder to tax.
How?
This is hilarious. The law actually says that posession of an ounce or less of THC is OK! There is a little differnce between a couple tablespoons of marijuana and an ounce of THC.
It does not specify what isomer, so I guess they are all OK as long as you have less than an ounce.
The part about metabolites etc seems to say that a positive dope test is now decriminalized, too, which will be fun once lawyers get ahold of a good test case or two.
Thanks for the research, I did not look up the actual law.
That doesn't make sense. Supply and demand laws ensure that the 'better' product sells for more.
Was it a criminal offense before? They're saying a positive drug test for marijuana metabolites is no different than possession of marijuana. It is considered possession of marijuana. That's not the law in my state. I doubt there are many states besides Massachusetts that make that any type of offense. In most states at least it is not an offense. It's something that can get you in trouble with your employer. You might get your kids taken from you or visitation supervised if you are tested in family court. You might get held in contempt or have your probation or parole revoked if you've been ordered not to use any illegal drugs and you violate that court order, but if for someone reason the average Joe is found to have marijuana metabolites in his system there is nothing the law can do about that. It might be evidence that you broke the law, but it is not a violation of the law itself to have THC or marijuana metabolites in your blood or urine. Massachusetts may have just added a new offense. If the cops really wanted to be jerks they could claim that possession of marijuana is enough to give them probable cause to administer a drug test to see if the person committed the additional offense of having THC or marijuana metabolites in his system. I don't know if that would fly, but I could see them trying something like that.
All the more reason to legalize and regulate it like alcohol.
Much how like everyone currently grows their own lettuce, tomatoes, corn, apples, melons, etc.
Hell, many people don’t grow things like basil and mint which are ridiculously easy to grow.
And keep in mind that gardening involves some degree of personal effort, daily attention, and delayed gratification. Not exactly the hallmark traits of marijuana users. :)
Most pot is already cheaper than beer on a per use basis. It should be cheaper than it is today even with taxes when commercial farmers start growing it like they grow other crops and all the risks related to it being illegal are gone. Why would people want to grow their own if they could just walk into a shop and select from a wide variety of quality product for a reasonable price? Look at those medical marijuana dispensaries in California. Those places are doing gangbusters business selling super expensive pot to people who have medical marijuana cards. The state allows these people to grow their own yet they go and buy it from a shop? In the Netherlands they let people grow up to five plants but hardly anyone does it. The fact is that having a garden requires knowledge and special skills. It requires space, time, work, money, and a fair amount of dedication. Most people don't smoke enough to justify all that. Some would grow their own just like some brew their own beer, but just like homebrewers homegrowers would be the tiny minority.
The really good stuff that's on the streets these days isn't easy or cheap to produce. It would be interesting to have a serious analysis of the potential open market and see what it would really be worth.
Maybe, but sure not around here. In "the old days" we used to get whole ounces of the Mexican stuff for anywhere between free and fifteen bucks. Pretty decent homegrown (from outdoors in the woods) was maybe a little bit less. There was stuff in circulation around here back then called "Panama Red" and I think that was better than the indoor/hydro that circulates around here these days. But there's no cheap Mexican option around these parts today, and the going rate for buds of any type is $50 per 1/8.
Leaf and shake can be had for free if it's available, but everyone around here are pretty snobbish about it & won't do anything with it except make green butter or other preparations.
I wish I didn't know all this stuff but, although I grew up a long time ago, my wife hasn't. The last time I got baked was about 10 years ago when she made some Zataran's beans & rice with some of that butter (and didn't tell me). I was wrecked that night and all the next day And it was a work day to boot (can you say paranoid)?
Legalize it, fine. But I’m with RJ there is no good reason to tax it.
The powerful indoor grown stuff is around too though, locally grown mostly by small scale grower types. I know some people who will only buy that stuff. They tell me it's in the $100 to $120 a quarter ounce range. It's hard to say how much of that is out there though. These people I know at least who buy that stuff aren't they types who get in trouble. It's too expensive for most people when they can buy Mexican for almost nothing. The people who can afford it tend to be either rich kids or older folks with good jobs who live in nice neighborhoods and rarely ever attract attention from the police. We don't see people like that in court much. Oh, and certainly not everyone with money buys the expensive stuff either. A lot of people think it's a rip off and some don't care for really strong pot because it is easy for people to go "one toke over the line" with that stuff and have to sit there for a couple of hours wishing they'd come down.
I think our government last estimated that Mexican drug trafficking organizations supply us about 8 thousand metric tons of pot a year. I've also seen government estimates where they say the total supply of marijuana in a given year in this country is somewhere between 12 and 25 thousand metric tons. So Mexicans are either supplying most of our pot, or a large part of it. Canadians supply a much smaller amount, and some will make it in from other countries, but the remainder is grown here and most of it is grown outdoors and isn't that super sticky hydro weed.
Decrimanalize probably yes, but I wouldn’t support legalizing casual use. Too many unintended negative consequences.
This fact seems to be causing deranged responses from the pot smokers here for some reason. I'm not telling ya'll to stop or that you are evil, but I can understand why you may be over sensitive to critique since paranoia is a common side effect.
I'd like to see a credible study that proves pot improves coordination in the average person. HA!
Back in college, I'd shoot my best pool with 2 beers. But, I know my coordination drops off precipitously after a few more (no one who drinks believes this of them self - they're always smarter, funnier, a better driver, etc. after more drink). I could still run the tables since I was quite a bit better then average. That didn't mean my performance was enhanced by booze, it just didn't degrade my level down to average.
As for second hand smoke, if pot was legalized just like cigarettes, of course people would be subjected to it without consent (esp kids of smoking parents). My body can't handle being around smoke anymore and I'm damn glad that the smoking Nazis have made it illegal to light up in most public places. No one has the right to make me sick just because I want to grab a bite to eat somewhere besides my own kitchen.
At little risk because simply growing by a permitee is not a prima facie case for manufacturing/distribution, plus Oregon voters have done away with civil forfeiture absent an underlying conviction, and when there is a conviction and forfeiture, the cops don't get to keep the loot.
So that "like shooting fish in a barrel" sort of thrill is, as the old song goes, gone.
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