NY Crackdown on Unlicensed Weed Sales, Video Captures Mexican Soldiers Killing Drug Suspects, More... (6/9/23)

American truckers are fed up with marijuana prohibition and testing policies, Rhode Island expunges 23,000 pot possession records, and more.

Marijuana Policy

Amid Industry Labor Shortage Worsened by Marijuana Drug Testing, Truckers Say Legalize It. An analysis of marijuana testing policies in the trucking industry conducted by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) finds that a strong majority of truckers say federal marijuana laws need to change and most say that current marijuana testing policies are driving truckers out of the industry.

"More than half of all positive trucking industry drug tests are for marijuana metabolite," which can stay in a person's systems for weeks after consuming, the report, published on Monday, says. Federal prohibition "has been highlighted as a potential disincentive for drivers to stay in the industry, and it has even been argued that loosening the restrictions on marijuana use would make the industry more attractive and widen the potential labor pool."

The report found that 72.4 percent of licensed drivers support "loosening" cannabis laws and testing policies, while another 66.5 percent said that marijuana should be federally legalized. Also, 65.4 percent of motor carriers believe that current marijuana testing procedures should be replaced with methods that measure active impairment -- not the presence of metabolites, which stay in the system long after any impairment has ceased.

New York Attempts Crackdown on Unlicensed Weed Sales. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced Thursday the launch of a multi-agency initiative to stop the sale of marijuana at unlicensed storefronts. They have popped up by the hundreds in the interregnum between the state legalizing weed and the still extremely limited advent of licensed adult use marijuana sales.

The state Office of Cannabis Management and Department of Taxation and Finance conducted inspections of storefront businesses not licensed to sell marijuana and issued notices of violation and orders to cease unlicensed activity.

"New York is proud to have undertaken the most equitable legal cannabis roll-out in the nation and the State will not stand idle as unlicensed operators break the law and sell untested products to underage New Yorkers," Gov. Hochul said. "These enforcement actions are critical steps to protect and help those individuals who were promised a shot to start a legal business and be successful. Additionally, these unlicensed operators undermine the State's efforts to generate substantial funds for a social equity fund that will go into the communities that have been hardest hit by over-prosecution of the cannabis laws in the past."

Hochul signed legislation allowing for these expanded enforcement actions against unlicensed marijuana businesses to take place. The legislation allows the Office of Cannabis Management to give out civil penalties against unlicensed cannabis businesses with fines of up to $20,000 a day. It also makes it a crime to sell cannabis and cannabis products without a license.

Rhode Island Expunges 23,000 Pot Possession Charges. State court officials announced Thursday that they had complied with the state's new marijuana legalization law by expunging more than 23,000 pot possession cases. That law not only legalized marijuana, it provided for the automatic expungement of pot possession charges -- but not charges for growing or selling weed.

"The automatic expungement of marijuana charges has been an organizational feat," said State Court Administrator Julie P. Hamil. "There has been coordination at every level of the Judiciary to execute this process in a timely and holistic fashion."

International

Video of Mexican Army Executing Drug Suspects Sparks Investigation. After a video posted on social media showed a group of soldiers pulling five men from a vehicle in Nuevo Laredo, then beating them before fatally shooting them, and then staging an apparently fake shoot-out and placing weapons near the bodies of the slain men in a bid to cover their tracks, Mexican authorities are now investigating the extrajudicial execution.

The military has been accused in numerous cases of kidnapping, torturing, or killing drug suspects, especially as it plays an ever greater role in prosecuting the country's war against violent drug cartels. But it has also had an aura of impunity, with soldiers rarely facing any consequences for brutal and illegal actions.

Now, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has weighed in, saying: "Apparently, there was an execution, which cannot be allowed. We are not the same as the previous governments. So, when there is abuse, when there is an excess, when human rights are violated, those responsible must be punished. And the process to deepen the investigation has already begun. There is no cover-up because we do not tolerate the violation of human rights."

Time will tell about that.