Thursday January 14, 2021
In todays report:
Rhode Island’s Likely Next Governor Backs Private Legal Marijuana Model Over State-Run Market
click here for the link to the video on youtube.
It appears increasingly likely that Rhode Island will pursue a standard system of marijuana legalization with licensed private businesses instead of a unique state-run model, with the likely next governor announcing on Thursday for the first time that he supports ending prohibition and that he favors an “entrepreneurial strategy.”
That’s a departure from current Gov. Gina Raimondo (D), who has pushed for the state itself to run a legal cannabis market.
Lt. Gov. Daniel McKee (D), who as recently as 2019 said he did not favor legalization, will replace Raimondo if she’s confirmed as President-elect Joe Biden’s commerce secretary. Asked about legalization at a news conference on Thursday, McKee said, “I think it’s time that that happens.”
“It’s got to be regulated, but I think it’s time that that happens,” he said.
When pressed on whether he backs Raimondo’s #state-run approach for cannabis, McKee replied that he’s “more leaning towards an entrepreneurial #strategy there to let that roll that way.”
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U.S. Census Bureau Wants To Collect Marijuana Tax Revenue Data From States
“Tax collection data are used to measure economic activity for the Nation as a whole, as well as for comparison among the various states,” it said. “We plan to add the collection of cannabis and sports betting sales taxes.”
The Bureau said the new additions will “modernize the survey’s content to maintain the relevancy and sustainability of these data.”
“The information contained in this survey is the most current information available on a nationwide basis for state and local government tax collections,” it said. “The Census Bureau needs state and local tax data to publish benchmark statistics on taxes, to provide data to the Bureau of Economic Analysis for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) calculations and other economic indicators, and to provide data for economic research and comparative studies of governmental finances.”
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California Cannabis Executive Petitions Trump To Release Nonviolent Cannabis Offender
“As the American public strongly supports #legalizing, decriminalizing, and expunging marijuana convictions (one of the very few things that the U.S. populace is in significant agreement with), it boggles the mind that Mr. Coleman is serving a 60-year sentence,” he wrote.
Kazan, who is a retired law enforcement officer, noted that Coleman’s case illustrates the disparate impact the failed War on Drugs has had on people of color.