Monthly Archives: August 2014

Red-light cameras under scrutiny in state legislatures

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“The South Dakota state House passed a bill that would ban both red-light cameras and speeding cameras by a whopping 69-1 margin. A Missouri state House panel on Monday heard testimony on a similar bill.  A measure has been proposed in Iowa to require cities to justify their need for photo enforcement cameras, and a 2013 bill to ban them outright is still pending in Ohio. Opponents of the red-light cameras span the partisan divide, complaining of invasions of privacy or back-door tax increases — even that the red-light cameras result in more fender-benders at intersections. In some states, the ACLU is a prime driver behind camera-banning legislation; in others, it’s the tea party.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/02/07/red-light-cameras-under-scrutiny-in-state-legislatures/

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SS agents camp outside woman’s house after dispute with neighbor

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“Members of a Secret Service special unit responsible for patrolling near the White House were pulled off that assignment over at least two months in 2011 to protect the assistant of the agency’s director while she was engaged in a dispute with a neighbor, according to a report in The Washington Post.  Agents were told that the Secret Service director at the time, Mark Sullivan, was concerned that his assistant was being harassed by her neighbor.  The agents were pulled from a surveillance team that patrols the outskirts of the White House compound and monitors the southern side of the executive mansion whenever crowds gather to watch the president and first family travel.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2625372/Govt-agents-protected-directors-aide.html

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Russell Simmons: Prisons profiting from putting kids in jail

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“American business magnate, Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam Recordings and founder of the pre-paid card company, RushCard, is attempting to do something about it through his ‘Keep the Peace’ initiative. ‘We’re going to fund [successful] anti-violence programs in communities, which I think is very important.’  ‘When we talk about the mass incarceration of young people,’ says Simmons, ‘and we think about the number of non-violent, first-time offenders who are in jail for drug offenses… that’s a different subject. We’re talking about the cost to the consumer or the taxpayer, but we’re not talking about the profit to the prison industrial complex.'”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/youth-violence-costs-americans–6-6-billion-annually-150106804.html

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Rising Hops Prices Make Craft Brewers Jumpy

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“The popularity of hopped-up beers has led to a serious hops shortage in the U.S. That shortage drove the average price for all hops to $3.59 a pound in 2013, up from $1.88 in 2004.  Craft beer’s market share cracked 5% in 2011, and by 2012 it hit 7.8%.  The greater demand for hops has come amid a decline in supply from Oregon, Washington and Idaho, the nation’s top hop-growing states. This was thanks to a global hops glut a few years ago that spurred growers to pull back at what turned out to be exactly the wrong time.  Other states could fill this vacuum.  New York, for instance, led the U.S. in hop cultivation until a 19th-century blight and Prohibition killed the industry.”

http://online.wsj.com/articles/tom-acitelli-rising-hops-prices-make-craft-brewers-jumpy-1403737009

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Directed History and the Promise of Cannabis in the 21st Century

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“The evolution of decriminalization is not merely an elite-driven sociopolitical movement; it is surely a purposeful effort to reset how the world responds to drugs.  But such a reset will tie to globalist ambitions to address drug issues on an international basis.  In this way, the cessation of the drug war would benefit proponents of internationalism.  Entrepreneurs can draw numerous conclusions from this emerging social theme.  Not only will other opportunities become apparent, but they will likely be long-lived.  At the same time, there will be increased multi-national regulation, legislation and interference. Businesspeople will be able to take advantage of the trend if they understand why it is occurring.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/public/files/Institutional-Reports/cannabis-whitepaper-June2014.pdf

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Meet the Financier Behind a Hot Pot Stock

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“There are now at least 130 public companies that claim to be in the pot business, and most of them are so-called penny stocks, defined by the SEC as stocks trading for less than $5 a share.  ‘They’re full of shenanigans and charlatans,’ says Brendan Kennedy, chief executive officer of Privateer Holdings, a firm that invests in the marijuana industry. ‘Most of them will revert to zero.’  On some days, cannabis-related stocks account for 15% or more of all penny-stock trading, according to OTC Markets Group Inc., which runs the trading venue once known as the pink sheets. Since 2012, the market capitalization of those stocks has soared from $500 million to more than $7 billion.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-18/legal-pot-sets-off-penny-stock-frenzy.html

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High Times Starts $300M Marijuana Industry Investment Fund

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“When a pot smuggler named Tom Forcade approached Michael Kennedy in 1974 with his plan for a magazine devoted to helping Americans grow weed, Kennedy asked, what’s the point?  The magazine, High Times, has survived as an icon of dope culture, and Kennedy, a criminal defense lawyer, has improbably ended up as its controlling owner. Now, with marijuana legal in some form in 22 states, the counterculture institution is aiming to raise $300 million for the High Times Growth Fund, which will make private equity investments in the marijuana business.  Privateer Holdings, another private equity fund focusing on the industry, raised $15 million in February.”

http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/208445-high-times-on-wall-street

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Help Albania, Legalize Pot

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“In its quest to join the EU, Albania is trying to destroy a large chunk of its economy: About 800 police officers have been deployed to seize bags filled with marijuana and burn plantations around the village of Lazarat, which has been producing about 900 metric tons of the stuff a year, according to one estimate.  The socialist government of Prime Minister Edi Rama apparently hopes that the destruction of the pot will help win over EU officials.  At prevailing prices in Colorado, which recently legalized recreational use of marijuana, the annual output of Lazarat would be worth about $7.6 billion, equivalent to almost a third of Albania’s gross domestic product at purchasing power parity. ”

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-06-18/help-albania-legalize-pot

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Brookings Institution on Colorado Pot Legalization: ‘Resounding Success’

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“Author John Hudak calls the implementation of the new Colorado law ‘a resounding success.’ He continues, ‘My research shows that regardless of the merits of the policy itself, Colorado has created a smart regulatory system that balances safety and security with access to legal marijuana.’  The report’s conclusion: ‘Among the many successful pieces of Colorado’s regulatory system are effective seed-to-sale product tracking, a vertically integrated market, and strict limits on purchase quantity’. Despite a largely successful rollout of the policy, however, the report details a few trouble spots, including ‘homegrown’ plants and the different tax rates between retail and medical marijuana.”

http://norml.org/news/2014/08/08/brookings-institution-on-colorado-s-legalization-of-marijuana-resounding-success

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Up in Smoke

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“Americans have changed their minds about pot. In less than a generation, public opinion has turned against the drug laws that banned marijuana, a historic shift in attitudes away from prohibition and penalties. In two U.S. states — Washington and Colorado — pot is now legal for recreational use, driving the debate about how it should best be regulated, consumed and taxed as it gains acceptance across the U.S. and in other countries.  Voters in Alaska and Oregon will weigh ballot measures this year. Arizona, Nevada, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana and California — the largest state by population — may consider the next wave of pot referendums in 2016.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/marijuana-laws-go-up-in-smoke/

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