The Initial decisions on opt-in and opt-out have been made by NY state’s local governments. Many decided to opt out because there were no clear regulations yet, and may decide to opt-in in the future. So please keep reaching out to your government officials if they opted out, encouraging them to opt-in soon!

Action ALERT!!!!


https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/calls-for-all-long-island-towns-to-opt-out-of-selling-marijuana/2977975/

Stop Prohibition on Long Island!

Stand up for Your Rights!

Cannabis Users are not Second Class Citizens!

Call Your Local Supervisor and Legislators and demand fair treatment under the law!

www.stashmaven.com

 

Richard Schaffer is currently leading a reactionary, misinformed,  and misguided policy effort to turn back the clock on our hard earned rights to use cannabis!   Call your local government supervisor and legislators TODAY to block a harmful policy from being implemented. He seeks to  convince all of Long Island’s political establishment to re-establish severe restrictions on cannabis and its users by blocking legal sales and consumption.  If it is implemented the illegal market will continue to thrive and pose a health and crime risk to individuals and society putting all Long Islanders at risk.

 

We the people of Long Island hold these rights to be inviolate:

 

1.     We have the right to patronize a retail cannabis location within a 15 minute drive radius from our homes or places of work on Long Island.

2.     We have the right to select from at least three cannabis delivery services authorized to  operate in our local area of home or work, one of which must be a locally owned small business that sells locally grown and manufactured products.

3.     We have the right to sell our legally home grown produce or products to licensed and permitted retail/delivery businesses,  as long as taxes are paid and the cannabis passes required safety testing and analysis.

4.     We have the right to consume cannabis in nearby designated locations and venues. Cannabis consumption lounges and facilities should be regulated like bars,  as it has been categorically proven that cannabis is far less dangerous to individual’s health and society than alcohol. Most towns have bars,  most towns should have a cannabis consumption location.

 

This is URGENT. Call and email your local town officials and fight back today!   

 

www.stashmaven.com

 

Policy Discussions: www.stashforum.com

 The UN and U.S. House of Representatives voted to change Cannabis law for the better recently. And NY State took a big step towards ending prohibition by passing the MRTA. Now we need the SAFE act for cannabis business banking reform — so businesses can get normal treatment at banks, not be so cash intensive, and allow the use of regular credit cards for purchasing. We need to speed up licensing and permiting, and reduce the cost of these requirements to allow small and microbusinesses to thrive in a fair playing field despite the current dominance of industrial big cannabis (wall street / tobacco / alcohol backed multimillion or billion dollar cannabis operations, often multi-state and multinational, not local or artisan.)

Firstly, Medical Cannabis needs to come down in price. It’s way too expensive. That’s why people Homegrow.

- that doesn’t seem to be a government priority.

Finally they have agreed to sell Whole Flower in NY dispensaries. For the longest time you could only get ground up flower.

They care instead about this for example:

There was an embarassingly ridiculous event in Medical Marijuana History recently.

Perfectly fine Marijuana was pulled off the shelves because the crumbled pieces of flower were too big. Who complained about Curaleaf? Columbia Care?

?!

When it comes to cannabis flower — THE BIGGER THE BETTER!!!

This whole Curaleaf ground flower fiasco has me fuming instead of vaping or smoking.

NYS recalled the Curaleaf ground marijuana flower because the pieces were too big (?!?).

I totally see this as a non - issue since most people have a bud grinder (or can buy one for under $20) or can break up a bud with their fingers if need be. There can be an option for finely ground herb, but it doesn’t need to be mandatory. The less you chop up the bud the fresher and more potent it will stay.

So I say let dipsensaries sell whole cannabis flower! Or chunks! Or dust?! Whatever the customer wants!!! This is an embarrassing non-issue and we need to tell Albany to lighten up about selling larger portions of flower. Let the market decide and not rules and regulations as to the size of the flower parts we buy. Flower by the way is the most economical option, since after vaping your nugs you can reuse the vaped flower in cannabis cuisine and double your value!

Also this ridiculous three letter code only BS has to looosen up. I don’t know what is causing the problems with branding, packaging, and regulations, but I don’t care if every strain has a bar code SKU and a strong password looking serial number on it as long as our national debt. The consumer doesn’t care, the consumer wants to know if SDI means Sour Diesel or Strategic Defense Initiative. And they want it in plain English on the packaging. Spaced out Dumb and Idiotic is the situation now where in some dispensaries you can’t write out the full name of a strain on a package and you can’t discuss actual strain names in all dispensaries with all staff.

Packaging in general should improve, giving useful information to the user: Brand, strain information, potency, cannabanoid/flavonoid/terpene profile— this will evolve and it should be encouraged. Let consumers decide! I’m more than happy to use this site as a suggestion box so get me your ideas.

The Federal Government needs to Act and end Prohibition Immediately.

I think health insurance should cover all my medical marijuana needs. If a doctor perscribes it and a pharmacist dispenses it, health insurance should cover it. Tolerance increases quickly over time and currently I often spend over $500 a month on cannabis products. So it’s an absolute must that basic no-frills cannabis products be completely covered. Of course some exception can be made for “luxury” or “premium” products where patients have the option of paying above and beyond the basic coverage provided by the health insurance in order to obtain special products. But if a doctor or pharmacist believes a particular premium or luxury product is the best solution for a patient they should be able to appeal for coverage. Or people can find health insurance that will cover all their needs. We need to work this out soon. I personally beleive in Medicare for All, but whatever solution arises it must function well.

Also we need to federally legalize cannabis and marijuana production, trade, and consumption so that the industry has an easier time financing itself, as well as finnally allowing users to use “normal” credit cards instead of debit cards and cash to purchase their medicine.

And allow everyone of legal age to cultivate a victory (pot) garden so that patients can really reduce expenses.

If medical patients were allowed to grow a small indoor, outodoor, or greenhouse plot with several different varieties of Cannabis, it would save patients a great deal of money.

I also think we need to open our minds and step up to the plate by legalizing the medical and recreational use of other drugs. Oregon and the west coast states and provinces of the USA and Canada, and Holland, Uruguay, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, among several other countries around the world, are taking steps in the right direction. On a theraputic level, MDMA, Ketamine, Psilocybin, LSD, Mescaline, DMT (and their natural sources) and many other compounds that have been historically banned, are showing remarkable potential as therapies for many conditions both physical and mental. These too should be reviewed at the Federal, State, and Local level for medicnal uses.

Even Coca use has already been legalized in South America, for indigenous people as well as anyone wanting to combat altitude sickness. The time has come to legalize all drugs and only target and prohibit drugs that are clearly toxic poisons, or create such an extreme effect that they are hazards to others, not only the users.

All drugs should be treated similarly to the way we treat cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, and medicines are, except we should encourage experienced people to train new users how to best use the drugs safely and effectively, training guides or groups, as well as ensuring the proper sets and settings for each experience to more responsibly assist the users of these compounds.

The role of law enforcement should change to reflect the goals of harm reduction. The DEA, FDA, USDA, ATF, and other organs of federal, state, and local governments should police both legal, gray (diverted) and illegal markets for drugs, as they and related criminal activity, or just negligent mistakes creating potential harm, will always exist needing supervision.

Law enforcement’s priority should be targeting mislabeld, substandard, and aldulterated products. NO FALSE ADVERTISNG or MISREPRESENTATION. It should be what it is and it should be what you say it is if you give it or sell it to someone.

Informed Consent:

Also the crime of purposely drugging people, either putting a roofie in their drink, or dosing someone with LSD as a joke, putting CNS stimulants on a cigarette, etc. without their knowledge and consent must be severely punished.

Lastly, Irresponsible drug production, distribution, sale and use that harms others should of course be punished, but only fairly! Our legal system tends to overpunish convicted drug manufacturers/cultivators, dealers, and users compared to other types of criminals.