Kennedy, 41, is the former chief operating officer of SVB Analytics, an offshoot of Silicon Valley Bank. Blue, 35, learned his trade at the investment-banking firm de Visscher & Co. in Greenwich, Conn. Two years ago they quit comfortable posts to form Privateer Holdings, a firm that operates on the Kohlberg Kravis Roberts model: they buy companies using other people’s money and try to increase their value. What sets them apart is the industry in which they invest. Privateer Holdings is the first private-equity firm to openly risk capital in the world of weed. Or as the Privateer partners prefer to call it, “the cannabis space” (@NYTimes).
We're VC's on Dope: How to Invest in Dope, er, the "Cannabis Space" @NYTimes
How to Invest in Dope:
Vermont Marijuana Decriminalization Signed Into Law, Reduces Penalties For Possession Up To An Ounce
Huffington Post:
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) signed a bill on Thursday decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana. The new law, which goes into effect on July 1, will remove criminal penalties on possession of up to an ounce of cannabis and replace them with civil fines. “I applaud the Legislature’s action to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana," Shumlin said last month, announcing his support for the bill. "Vermonters support sensible drug policies. This legislation allows our courts and law enforcement to focus their limited resources more effectively to fight highly addictive opiates such as heroin and prescription drugs that are tearing apart families and communities." According to the new measure, first-time offenders will not get more than a $200 fine for possession. The fine will increase for repeat offenders. Under the law, marijuana possession will no longer result in the creation of a criminal record.
Have We Lost the War on Drugs? by @WSJ #tcot Stop this insane wasteful government #deficit #spending
Wall Street Journal:
"After more than four decades of a failed experiment, the human cost has become too high. It is time to consider the decriminalization of drug use and the drug market. President Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs" in 1971. The expectation then was that drug trafficking in the United States could be greatly reduced in a short time through federal policing—and yet the war on drugs continues to this day. Total current spending is estimated at over $40 billion a year."
Stigma Fading, Marijuana Common
New York Times:
“It’s shocking, from my perspective, the number of people that we all know who are recreational marijuana users,” said Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor. “These are incredibly upstanding citizens: Leaders in our community, and exceptional people. Increasingly, people are willing to share how they use it and not be ashamed of it.”
Google This: The War On Drugs Has Failed
Via Big Think:
"Consider the example of Baltimore, one of the cities mentioned in Jarecki’s film, thanks to the participation of "The Wire" creator David Simon, himself a veteran of the War on Drugs. After years on the Baltimore drug beat, Simon found that all of the tactics used so far – such as Three Strikes and You’re Out and minimum sentencing laws – lead to only one outcome: an all-out war on our city’s poorest communities and the demonization of individuals from lower-income brackets. As Simon pointed out in an interview with NPR earlier this year:" "We are the jailingest country on the planet, beyond Saudi Arabia, North Korea and China. Nobody jails the population like we do. And yet, drugs are pure than ever before. They're more available. There are younger and younger kids willing to sell them. It'd be one thing if it's draconian and it worked. But it's draconian, and it doesn't work, and it just leads to war" (BigThink).
“It goes in the category of parking tickets; not even a petty offense" - Criminal Court Judge Bolan
Rahm says pot plan isn’t ‘decriminalization’ — ex-federal drug czar disagrees - Chicago Sun-Times
Former Criminal Court Judge Michael Bolan said he used to have to waste too much time and resources on cases involving small amounts of drugs and the cases often were tossed. “This is an absolute waste of our taxpayers’ money: You criminalize a whole segment of our society unnecessarily, same as at the turn of the century for alcohol,” Bolan said. “It goes in the category of parking tickets. It’s quasi-criminal. This is not even a petty offense. He doesn’t want that word [decriminalize] attached to it. He’s looking to save money and make money.”
G.O.P. Senators in New York Oppose Cuomo’s Marijuana Plan
Senator Dean G. Skelos, who is the majority leader, suggested that the proposal, which would reduce the open possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana to a violation from a misdemeanor, was overly broad and would effectively condone the practice of carrying around marijuana.Acts 9:3-6 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Gen 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Hence, thou shalt obey the Lord your God and immediately cease arresting His people for communing with Him, opening their hearts, minds, and souls to His Spirit, His Word, and His Way through His herb yielding seed.
NYC to Chill out on Under 25 Grams. After hypocrisy of Oaksterdam raids, will believe it when we see it.
Bloomberg Backs Plan to Limit Arrests for Marijuana - NYTimes.com
The New York Police Department, the mayor and the city’s top prosecutors on Monday endorsed a proposal to decriminalize the open possession of small amounts of marijuana, giving an unexpected lift to an effort by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to cut down on the number of people arrested as a result of police stops.
Decriminalization: A Step in the Right Direction
Decriminalization: A Step in the Right Direction
The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world. -- Carl Sagan
If the words “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” don’t include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn’t worth the hemp it was written on. -- Terence McKenna
It doesn’t take an expert to see that things are very wrong with the current legal status of cannabis. Our government says there is no accepted medical use for it, yet it holds a patent (#6630507) for medicinal use of cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants, and it distributes canisters of rolled joints to a few select patients in the Compassionate Use Program. Sativex, a whole plant extract that is administered sublingually, is being approved in other countries as a prescription drug, but not in the United States. Our government says it needs proof that marijuana is in fact therapeutic, though it makes this impossible to prove, with its monopoly on substandard plant material from the one FDA-approved farm in Mississippi, and the maze of federal approval required for research to proceed. FDA requires NIDA to sign off on cannabis studies, a hoop that no other drug researchers need jump through.
Palo Alto City Council Unanimously Approves Medical Marijuana Dispensaries. Will Voters Agree?
Canna Central reporting:
In a display of democracy at work, voters will soon be able to decide if Palo Alto, California – the home of Stanford University and birthplace of tech giants such as Facebook and Google – will become the first city on the San Francisco Bay Peninsula to allow medical marijuana dispensaries. The city is determining whether to allow 3 dispensaries to operate within its jurisdiction.
Forbes: What The People Want is Marijuana Legalization
From the Not-So Private Parts where technology & privacy collide:
Three weeks into its launch, there are already eight petitions that will warrant a response from the White House per its own rules. The site appears to have attracted civil libertarians, pro-marijuana advocates, and atheists.
The most popular petition with almost 20,000 signatures petitions the gov to “Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol.”
The petitioner writes: “Marijuana prohibition has resulted in the arrest of over 20 million Americans since 1965, countless lives ruined and hundreds of billions of tax dollars squandered and yet this policy has still failed to achieve its stated goals of lowering use rates, limiting the drug’s access, and creating safer communities. Isn’t it time to legalize and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol?”
- Over just two days since the Forbes article, quoted above, the number of petitioners has nearly doubled from 20,000; today approaching 40,000.
- Add your vote NOW, and spread this link far and wide! Now is the time to bring justice, logic, and common sense to marijuana regulation.
- Copy and share this link everywhere: http://j.mp/WhatThePeopleWant
- Retweet!
 |
| 1. Click and sign the petition. 2. Share with all your friends. 3. Let's do this right NOW. |
Prohibition: Ken Burns Documentary on PBS this Fall
Knowledge is Power. Resisting ignorance is never futile.
Watch the full episode. See more Ken Burns.
From the PBS site:
Prohibition turned law-abiding citizens into criminals, made a mockery of the justice system, caused illicit drinking to seem glamorous and fun, encouraged neighborhood gangs to become national crime syndicates, permitted government officials to bend and sometimes even break the law, and fostered cynicism and hypocrisy that corroded the social contract all across the country.
Watch the full episode. See more Ken Burns.
From this clip:
"How the hell did that happen? How does a freedom loving people, a nation that's built on individual rights and liberties decide -- in one kind of, crazed moment it almost seems -- that we can tell people how to live their lives?" Daniel Okrent, author, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.
“This is a story about a single-issue campaign that metastasized.” – Ken Burns
Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning New York Times columnist Timothy Egan adds:
Lynn Novick: "Prohibition didn't happen overnight."The obvious echo will be about drugs. You will hear “if only” in many variants this fall — as in, if only the most popular of illicit substances were brought out of criminal shadows to be legalized and taxed.
But the film and book are much more instructive on the political fevers of the early 21st century, particularly those aroused by monomaniacal anti-tax pressure groups and their foot soldiers, the increasingly unpopular Tea Party.
Watch the full episode. See more Ken Burns.
Ken Burns on the Prohibition Idea:Watch the full episode. See more Ken Burns.
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