“From the standpoint of ‘justice,’ the eventual reversal of tens of thousands of marijuana cases in the US can be seen as bolstering civil society. But it also raises serious questions and will have serious ramifications. Chief among these ramifications will be additional questioning about why marijuana was banned in the first place, and why people received prison sentences that blighted their lives – and the lives of their families. There was no Internet at the time to provoke a sustained debate about Prohibition – nor to examine the political realities behind the 1920s ban. Over time this examination will likely provoke a more intensive argument over the West’s state-oriented judicial system.”
Tag Archives: Ash Heap Of History
DEA Agent Joins Marijuana Industry

“While Washington State is still adjusting to many changes since legalizing recreational marijuana—from growing space size to the number of licenses to give out—one of the biggest changes may be Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) employees going to work in the private sector. Reason TV sat down with Patrick Moen, a former supervisory special agent with the DEA, who now works as compliance director and senior counsel at Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm that invests in cannabis.”
http://reason.com/blog/2014/03/01/former-dea-agent-becomes-senior-counsel
It’s Getting Harder For The Feds To Lie About Marijuana

“Publicly lying about pot isn’t as easy as it used to be. That’s the lesson White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (aka the Drug Czar’s office) Deputy Director Michael Botticelli learned earlier this week when he testified before U.S. House Subcommittee on Government Relations. Armed with what appeared to be crib notes from the days of Reefer Madness, Botticelli’s spurious anti-pot testimony immediately became the subject of Internet video fodder and mainstream mediacriticism
Visa CEO Says Traditional Payment Networks Trump Bitcoin
“Visa Inc. Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf said he’s more confident in traditional payment networks than in virtual currencies like Bitcoin. ‘There are certainly some interesting things about Bitcoin and other things like it, but there are also a great deal of complexities,’ Scharf said today on a conference call to discuss quarterly results. Payments networks such as Foster City, California-based Visa are safer for consumers because of ‘the established network rules we have, the understanding of how things operate, understanding who the participants are, the fact that the business that we do has financial institutions on either side of the transaction.'”
Why Bitcoin Terrifies Big Banks: Andreas Antonopoulos

“Abby Martin speaks with Andreas Antonopoulos, founder of Root Eleven and co-host of let’s Talk Bitcoin, discussing how Bitcoin works, and why it’s so important to have a decentralized system of money.”
Bitcoin Targets Payments Business of Giants Visa to JPMorgan

“Already, some retailers are paying 1 percent to process transactions in Bitcoin, improving profit margins. Taking debit or credit cards, they may pay more than 3 percent to issuing banks. Bitcoin transactions log immediately, and are confirmed in as little as five minutes. A lower-cost virtual currency-driven payment system could take business from companies like Western Union that specialize in foreign remittances, as well as Visa and MasterCard Inc. Businesses paying suppliers through the automated clearing system to which all U.S. banks belong have no guarantee that payments will clear the same day, and the process uses a 40-year-old software protocol.”
http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/664579?type=bloomberg
Tech Innovation Outstrips Government Obstructionism

“One recurring theme in successful startups is the ability to get around the regulations created by politicians like Obama. Companies are using technology to create a free market. The foremost example of this is Uber, with its UberX service that turns ordinary drivers in their own cars into taxi drivers. Sidecar and Lyft operate on a similar model. The government-imposed licenses, medallions, inspections, minimum wages, regulated fares, and ‘consumer protections’ turn out to be replaceable, more or less, by an Amazon-style star-rating system and the incentives of independent drivers and ride-provider networks that want repeat business. And it’s not just taxis.”
http://reason.com/archives/2014/01/20/tech-innovation-outstrips-government-obs
U.S. ex-DEA agent in unlikely new role with pot investment firm
“In a decade with the DEA, Patrick Moen rose to supervise a team of agents busting methamphetamine and heroin rings in Oregon – before giving it all up to join the nascent legal marijuana industry in nearby Washington state. In November, the former federal drug agent quit his post to work for a marijuana industry investment firm, and says he relishes getting in on the ground floor of a burgeoning industry he was once sworn to annihilate. As managing director of compliance and senior counsel for Seattle-based Privateer Holdings, Moen has added his name to a small but growing list of individuals with unlikely backgrounds who have joined state-sanctioned marijuana enterprises.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/20/us-usa-dea-marijuana-idUSBREA0J0PM20140120
Banking will be transformed – by technology, not politics

“When did you hear of Bitcoin? The first transaction involving the digital currency was just four years ago – believed to be a Briton paying a programmer in Florida for a pizza. But Americans are embracing this form of computer-generated money so fast you can now use it to buy a ticket to the ball game – as well as a flight into space with Virgin Galactic. What new financial instrument will we be writing about come 2020? We just don’t know – and it is this hectic pace of change in finance that poses the greatest challenge to Labour‘s proposals to break up the banks.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/19/online-banking-high-street-labour-reforms
New Hampshire General Assembly Approves Marijuana Legalization
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“After a heated and lengthy debate on the floor of the New Hampshire General Assembly, the lower chamber of New Hampshire’s legislature today voted 170 to 162 in favor of House Bill 492, which seeks to legalize under state law the personal use and home cultivation of marijuana by persons 21 years of age or older and establish regulations for the retail production and sale of cannabis. The historic vote makes the New Hampshire House the first state legislative chamber to ever vote in favor of regulating cannabis.”
