Author: Brandon Soderberg
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The Outlaw Report Podcast Episode 04: Weed Smell in Maryland and the Limits of the DNC Cannabis Reform
In the latest episode of The Outlaw Report podcast, Scott Cecil and Brandon Soderberg discuss the new cannabis ruling in Maryland’s Court of Appeals related to smell and searching people, the politics of cannabis at the federal level and the Democratic National Committee’s decision to leave weed legalization off its 2020 platform. You can listen…
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Quick Hit: In Preparation For D.C.’s Initiative 81, a Psychedelics Reading List
On August 5, as expected, the Washington D.C. Board of Elections announced that Initiative 81—the “Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act of 2020”—covered extensively by The Outlaw Report, will be on the November ballot putting the decriminalization of psychedelics up for vote. Melissa Lavasani of Decriminalize Nature D.C. released a statement celebrating the confirmation that…
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Commercial Cannabis and Decriminalized Psychedelics in Washington D.C. More Likely
Last week, The Outlaw Report discussed The Blumenauer-McClintock-Norton Amendment which would prevent interference from the federal government in states where cannabis is legal expanding the protections already given to states with medicinal cannabis programs. On Thursday July 30, the House of Representatives voted on The Blumenauer-McClintock-Norton Amendment which passed with a vote of 254-163 (222…
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Quick Hit: On Netflix’s ‘The Business Of Drugs’
Maybe it’s because of the mind-expanding, harm reductionist cartoon spectacle The Midnight Gospel and the goofy The Goop Lab With Gwyneth Paltrow which really veers into pseudo-science, but Netflix’s latest drug show The Business Of Drugs plays it straight—a little too straight. Across six episodes (“Cocaine,” “Synthetics,” “Heroin,” “Meth,” “Cannabis,” and “Heroin”) The Business Of…
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Maryland’s Highest Court Rules Cops Can’t Search You Based On Cannabis Smell
Last week, Maryland’s Court of Appeals issued an important ruling for cannabis advocates and fourth amendment warriors: A police officer in Maryland can no longer use the smell of cannabis as a reason to search and arrest someone. “The mere odor of marijuana emanating from a person, without more, does not provide the police with…
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Racial Equity in Maryland’s Cannabis Industry Get More Complicated: Glenn Sentenced, MMCC Ponders Diversity
Last week’s sentencing of former delegate Cheryl Glenn—indicted at the end of 2019 for taking bribes tied to the medicinal cannabis industry—and the Maryland Medicinal Cannabis Commission committee meeting, which took public comment on increasing diversity within the industry, illustrate just how much more work is to be done for there to be a racially…
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Virginia Hemp Business Expands—and Includes Teenaged Cannabis Gamechanger Rylie Maedler
Rylie Maedler and her mother Janie have a hemp farm in Birdsnest, Virginia cultivating 25 acres of hemp. “This month, they oversaw the planting of Rylie’s first full field of hemp,” Salisbury Times’ Julie Rentsch reported. “The 4,884 plants that went in the ground on July 3 were donated by Front Range Biosciences, a Colorado…
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Quick Hit: Weed Smell Not Enough For Cops To Search You, Says Maryland Court Of Appeals
Big cannabis news coming in on a Monday right as The Outlaw Report newsletter is wrapping up means we’ll have to unpack this more next week but we’d be remiss if we didn’t briefly mention that the smell of cannabis is no longer probable cause for police to search someone. The case, Rasherd Lewis v.…
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Prosecutors Call Delegate Cheryl Glenn “Arrogant,” Request Three Years in Jail
A sentencing memorandum was filed last week for former delegate Cheryl Glenn, who was charged and pleaded guilty to accepting over $30,000 in bribes related in part, to medicinal cannabis companies, shows that prosecutors are asking for three years in federal prison. Glenn, who is 69 years old, is asking for home detention instead, with…
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Congress To Vote On Bill Protecting States With Legal Cannabis; Democrats Reject Legalization As Part of 2020 Platform
This week, Congress is expected to vote on an amendment that would prevent interference from the federal government in states where cannabis is legal. Referred to as the Blumenauer-McClintock-Norton Amendment, after Earl Blumenauer (founding member of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus), Tom McClintock, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, the amendment expands the protections already given to states…
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Violent Arrest in Virginia on 4/20 Last Year Involving Cannabis Smell Being Investigated
The violent arrest of a Black man named Derrick Thompson by Virginia State Police is being investigated after Thompson’s lawyer, Joshua Ehrlich, released video of the arrest to the public and contacted Virginia’s Attorney General Mark Herring about the incident. The arrest, which took place on April 20, 2019 (the unofficial international cannabis holiday) began…
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Cannabis and Shrooms Enemy Andy Harris Backs Down—For Now
Standing before the House Appropriations Committee, Maryland Congressional Representative Andy Harris, wearing a mask, hunched forward to speak into the microphone and announced he would withdraw his amendment opposing Initiative 81 (the Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act of 2020), which would decriminalize psychedelics in the District of Columbia. Harris began by arguing for his…