Saturday is April 20, or 4/20, a time (4:20 p.m.) associated with smoking marijuana which evolved into an unofficial holiday in which to do so. (There’s even a cannabis smoking lounge in California with that name.)
April 20, however, is also a day to see what the laws are in New York regarding marijuana.
About the day
HPC, a California-based cannabis dispensary, citing a Time article, says “420” refers to a time of day when in 1971, a group of San Rafael High School teens would congregate to smoke pot. At 4:20 p.m., school was over for the day and afterschool activities would be done. The teens would say “420” to each other as a code for marijuana.
One of the teens in that group, Dave Reddix, later worked as a roadie for the Grateful Dead band. In 1990, a group of Deadheads in Oakland, California handed out flyers inviting people to smoke “420” the following April 20 at 4:20 p.m.
One of those flyers wound up with High Times magazine, which not only reprinted it, but continued the use of the number as a reference to pot.
“They wanted people all over the world to get together on one day each year and collectively smoke pot at the same time,” said Steve Bloom, a former High Times reporter, in a blog post crediting the unknown people who wrote the flyer. “They birthed the idea of a stoner holiday, which April 20 has become.”
DAYTONA BEACH — Hinson Middle School students recently learned about the dangers of tobacco and vaping during an anti-tobacco pep rally April 1.
Hosted by the school’s Parent Teacher Student Association, the goal was to educate students and their parents about the harmful effects of smoking and vaping while empowering them to stay tobacco free.
At the assembly, school board member Carl Persis noted just how “popular” vaping is in Volusia County Schools, telling the audience that the district has sent at least one person to the hospital each week this school year for vaping.
“I know it sounds like, ‘Oh, that could never happen to me,’” Persis said. “Well, the person that went to the hospital thought it could never happen to him or her either. So take it seriously. And, of course, watch out for yourselves, but I’m asking you, as middle school students, to watch out for your friends.”
Radio station HOT 94.1’s DJ Jay Love emceed the event and students listened to guest speakers and participated in basketball scrimmages with players from Bethune-Cookman University’s women’s basketball team.
Hinson Middle’s PTSA funded this event with grant money awarded from the National PTA.
“Vaping has become very popular with the middle school and high school age groups and we want to use this opportunity to not only educate on the dangers to our parents and students, but also to as many as we can,” said Amy Annon, Hinson Middle PTSA board member, in an email.
Guest speaker Walker McKnight echoed Persis’ advice and shared how vaping as a teen landed him in the hospital in need of three organ transplants.
McKnight, now 24, said he started vaping in high school as an 18-year-old. Within three months, he said, he was on life support.
After graduating from Winter Park High School, McKnight went to Florida Atlantic University to compete as a cheerleader and volleyball player at the collegiate level. However, at the start of his first year, he came home sick, visited the doctor, and learned he had an infection in his left lung.
McKnight’s dad, David McKnight, said that if his son didn’t have a double lung and kidney transplant, he would not have survived.
“My hope and prayer for all of you is that you realize that there’s dangers involved with doing drugs at all times, especially ones that have not been thoroughly tested and approved,” David McKnight said at the pep rally. “And your body is precious. Your mind is sensitive. And your heart is fragile, so take care of it. Good health is better than all the riches and fame the world has to offer because without your good health, you guys risk losing the life that is yours right now.”
McKnight reinforced his father’s message, assuring students that “vaping really is just no joke.”
“There’s no get back, and … the most important thing is you want to have a healthy body,” he said. “The only reason I survived is because of how healthy I was.”
Local stakeholders also weigh in about the dangers of smoking, vaping
Ormond Beach Mayor Bill Partington referred to smoking as a “dirty habit” and told students that “it’s not cool,” that “it’s one of the worst things you can possibly do,” and that people who smoke generally do not perform as well in the corporate world.
“One of the leading things that smoking causes: you can’t perform well,” Partington said. “We need you to perform well and stay healthy.”
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood warned students of the “unseen dangers” of vaping and said it can lead to drug addiction and impaired decision-making.
“You really, really have to think about what you’re doing,” Chitwood said. “Is it really, really worth it destroying your future for that? … Just say no. You don’t need it, you don’t need the effects that come with it later in life.”
DeLand is considering whether to ban smoking and vaping in public parks, but unfiltered cigars, thanks to state law, will still be permitted.
The DeLand City Commission will consider an ordinance that would prohibit smoking and vaping in nearly all public parks owned by the city. The item already passed a first reading and is expected to have a final hearing before the City Commission on Monday. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m.
DeLand Mayor Chris Cloudman and Parks and Recreation Director Rick Hall said the city sometimes has problems with people smoking at parks, including during Little League events. They said the city wants to keep children and other people from being exposed to smoke.
Just asking people to stop smoking hasn’t been effective.
“It’s kind of amazing to me in 2024 that we’re having to, you know, put teeth behind asking people not to smoke around other families,” Cloudman said.
Hall said if the ordinance is enacted the city will post signs at parks to warn people of the change. Cloudman said the city’s intent isn’t to start “fining people left and right” but to educate them.
The city plans to craft penalties once the ordinance is adopted, city spokesman Chris Graham said.
The law won’t apply to unfiltered cigars because that is preempted by state law, officials said.
The city’s parks include, among other sites, the Chipper Jones Family Little League Complex at 260 West Walts Ave., Bill Dreggors Park at 230 N. Stone St., Earl Brown Park in the 600 Block of S. Alabama Ave. and Painter’s Pond at the corner of South Alabama and East Wisconsin avenues.
Pioneer Park, which is in the heart of downtown near bars, would not be included.
Peggy Whitmore said she is opposed to the proposed ban. Whitemore owns the E-Cig Source vape shop at the Walmart plaza at 955 S. Woodland Blvd.
She said she believes the ban would hurt business and would lead to more restrictions. She said her business only sells vapes, and she said vapes help people quit smoking and are much safer than regular cigarettes.
“People should have choices,” she said. “Adults have choices.”
“E-cigarette aerosol generally contains fewer toxic chemicals than the deadly mix of 7,000 chemicals in smoke from regular cigarettes,’ according to the CDC. “However, e-cigarette aerosol is not harmless. It can contain harmful and potentially harmful substances, including nicotine, heavy metals like lead, volatile organic compounds, and cancer-causing agents.
Studies on whether e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking have had mixed results, according to the CDC. The studies didn’t provide enough evidence to recommend using e-cigarettes as a tool to quit smoking.
― Reporter Brenno Carillo contributed to this report.
A recent settlement that has the town of Uxbridge returning $1.17 million to Caroline Frankel, owner of Caroline’s Cannabis, could usher in a sea change in how community host agreements are made, O’Brien said in a phone call Monday.
Under current state law, marijuana establishments must pay a community impact fee to the town they’re located in. Those fees can range up to 3% of gross sales.
But the fees were intended to offset the costs to the towns in police security, traffic control or educational programs related to dispensaries. The catch is that towns must use that money to pay for those impacts — and show proof.
‘Give it back’
Which is why Frankel wanted her money back. The costs to the town did not add up to $1.17 million, she claimed.Frankel’s complaint in Worcester Superior Court alleged she asked for documented costs and Uxbridge failed to provide relevant documents as required by state law. The town and Frankel settled on the $1.17 million refund.
“That’s our latest campaign,” O’Brien said in a telephone call Monday. “If you collected money that you shouldn’t have collected because you didn’t have legitimate, reasonably related expenses — you know it and we know it. Give it back.”
SOUTH MILWAUKEE – Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Monday announced a bill creating a medical marijuana program and state-run dispensaries in Wisconsin, marking the first time an effort to legalize cannabis has been pushed by at least one leader of the Republican-controlled state Legislature.
Wisconsin is one of 12 states where recreational or medical marijuana is not available. Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers have for years called for the legalization of marijuana for recreational and medical use but have been blocked so far by GOP legislative leaders.
Now, Republican lawmakers are growing warmer to the idea of allowing marijuana use for medicinal purposes, but the bill released Monday would not allow users to smoke cannabis, nor would it pave the way for private dispensaries in Wisconsin.
“The people of Wisconsin have said they want us to try to find solutions for the problems that vex our society,” Vos said. “There are very few Republicans that I know, and I would say most employers and even an awful lot of citizens, that do not want to see this become an end-around to get us toward recreational marijuana.”
Evers told reporters last week he would sign a bill that creates a medical marijuana program, even if it is restrictive — unless Republicans include a “poison pill” like cuts to taxes or diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that he opposes.
Vos said the bill has the support of at least 50 Republicans in the Assembly, which would be enough to pass the…
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com
The circus – doing business as the Ohio General Assembly – left the Statehouse last week, aiming to stay home until sometime in 2024. Given that Ohio’s primary election will he held March 19 – two-and-a-half months into the New Year – don’t expect Capitol Square boat-rocking before then.
Many if not most contests for (gerrymandered) state Senate and Ohio House of Representatives seats are filled in the primary. The last things any incumbent General Assembly member wants just before a primary election are tough Statehouse votes on controversial statewide issues.
Will Ohio’s marijuana law change before 2024?
For those Ohioans who keep an eye on the Statehouse, many are interested in how and when the legislature will mess with Issue 2, the November ballot measure in which 57% of the Ohioans voting voted to legalize adult-use recreational marijuana.
The law took effect earlier this month – with some ifs and buts. (Ohio had already legalized medical marijuana in 2016 in a bill whose prime sponsor was then-Rep. Steve Huffman, a suburban Dayton Republican, now a senator, who is a physician.)
Voter-passed Issue 2 allows Ohioans to possess up to six marijuana plants per person (and no more than 12 per household). Initially, the Senate’s GOP buzz-killers had the politically suicidal impulse to forbid home-grown plants altogether. The…
Gionna Daddio, known in WWE under the name Liv Morgan, was arrested on a drug possession charge in Florida on Thursday.
A Sumter County Sheriff’s officer observed a vehicle in the city of Bushnell, about 45 miles west of Orlando, driving in and out lanes erratically on Thursday night, according to an arrest report obtained by USA TODAY Sports. The officer conducted a traffic stop and “immediately smelled the odor of marijuana” in the vehicle driven by Morgan.
Morgan was detained after she told officers marijuana was in the vehicle but she did not have a medical marijuana card, according to the report. Officers searched Morgan’s vehicle and found a plastic bag with marijuana and a vape pen with an “oil-like substance.” Morgan was then arrested.
The WWE star was booked into Sumter County jail and charged with possession of a synthetic cannabinoid, a third-degree felony, and a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession not more than 20 grams, according to jail records. Morgan was released after posting a $3,000 bond.
The use of synthetic cannabinoids is prohibited by WWE “even if purchased as an over the counter medication without a prescription” under its substance abuse and drug testing policy. USA TODAY Sports reached out to WWE but the organization had yet to comment.
A former Smackdown women’s and two-time women’s tag team champion, Morgan has been out with an injury for nearly six months. She has made various appearance outside of the ring since then, including taking in…
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com
[Thursday 3:42 PM] Robinson, Amelia
Almost 2.2 million Ohio voters passed a law last month legalizing marijuana in their state — or what’s supposed to be their state. But some of the 26 Republicans in Ohio’s Senate actually considered telling those millions of Ohioans to go pound salt by crimping marijuana legalization.
Still, the underlying theme was that the people can’t be trusted to govern themselves, can they? Better that a mostly white, mostly male, and often small-town clique of Senate Republicans, think for voters, yes?
Ohio votes to legalize recreational marijuana
Ohio voters vote to join 23 other states as the latest to legalize recreational marijuana.
Were there ever a more brazen example of Statehouse arrogance, it’s hard to recall what was, because public opinion is crystal-clear on the subject of marijuana legalization.
Now, in fairness, had the 2.2 million Ohioans who voted for legalization instead sent plump checks to the Statehouse’s caucus campaign committees, and hired properly connected wire-pullers (lobbyists), legalization might not be such a … challenge … for certain legislators.
On Capitol Square, for example, if you spend $60 million to pass House Bill 6, the sweetheart deal for FirstEnergy Corp., you’re talking…
Recreational marijuana is legal in Ohio as of today, but when and where you can buy it remains up in the air.
Voters approved an initiated statute last month, known as Issue 2, that allows adults 21 and older to use and grow cannabis. The measure’s passage made Ohio the 24th state to legalize adult-use marijuana.
The new law takes effect today, but because it is an initiated statute, Ohio lawmakers have spent the last week debating changes to the law approved by voters, so some of these rules may not be final.
Late Wednesday, the Ohio Senate voted to allow existing medical marijuana dispensaries to sell recreational marijuana and lower the number of plants allowed per household. Gov. Mike DeWine asked lawmakers to act quickly on the legislation to regulate the new program. However, the House did not take a vote on the issue.
For now, here’s where things stand with the new law:
Ohioans 21 and older are allowed to possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and 15 grams of extracts or edibles.
Can I buy marijuana in Ohio now?
Not quite.
Unless lawmakers and DeWine approve medical dispensaries to sell recreational marijuana, legal sales likely won’t start until late next summer or fall. That’s because the Division of Cannabis Control has to set rules on licensing,…
The ballot measure, known as Issue 2, passed in the Nov. 7 election with 57% of the vote, according to unofficial results. And Ohio Republicans who oppose marijuana started talking almost immediately about how they want to change it.
Gov. Mike DeWine and legislative leaders aren’t pushing for a repeal, but they do plan to make tweaks − and could do so before the end of the year.
“I can’t believe in 2023 we’re actually talking about elected officials not respecting the will of the voters and not respecting the outcome of an election,” Tom Haren, a spokesman for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, said on election night. “I expect, I think that every single voter in Ohio has a right to expect, that elected officials will implement and respect the will of voters.”
Why can the Ohio Legislature change the marijuana law?
Unlike the abortion rights measure that passed on Nov. 7, Issue 2 was not a constitutional amendment. It was an initiated statute.
This process allows Ohio citizens to propose laws for the Ohio Revised Code. Petitioners gather signatures to place the measure before the Legislature, which then has four months to act. If lawmakers don’t consider it, groups can collect a second round of signatures to put their proposed statute on the ballot.
The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol got Issue 2 on the November ballot after Republican leaders declined to take…
Recreational marijuana is essentially marijuana used for enjoyment, rather than for health benefits. Merriam-Webster says recreational drugs are often “used without medical justification” for their effects.
Recreational marijuana will be sold at dispensaries to adults 21 and older. They will be able to sell an array of products, including but not limited to flower, seeds, edibles, vapes, tinctures, oils, beverages, pills and lotions.
Within nine months the state must issue the first round of licenses to dispensaries, growers and processors. The licenses will go to existing medical pot businesses and those who qualify under a social equity program, which helps business owners who have disproportionately been affected by marijuana laws. That might be due to their race, gender, ethnicity or economic status.
Additionally, adults in that age range can grow up to six plants individually and no more than 12 in a household with multiple adults.
It will be legal to possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and 15 grams of extracts.
Ohio is the 24th state to pass a recreational marijuana law.
Voters across Oakland County will tackle ballot issues from ranked choice voting to recreational marijuana sales while those in Southfield will pick a new clerk to replace the one who resigned over tampering with voting procedures.
Longtime Southfield resident and Medicare agent Gabi Grossbard, 50, is facing Oakland County Commissioner Janet Jackson for the local clerk’s position.
In Royal Oak, voters are set to decide whether they support ranked choice voting, a system in which voters can rank any and all candidates for a given office on their ballot as opposed to selecting only one. Ranked choice voting is also on the ballot Tuesday in East Lansing and Kalamazoo.
Oakland County is piloting the state’s new early voting option this week, which allows residents to cast their ballots in person before Election Day in 26 jurisdictions. The pilot program has already begun and voters can cast their ballot at their designated regional site or the county’s general site through Sunday. Rochester is also participating in the state’s pilot early voting program, separate from the county.
Marijuana is an issue in Rochester, Birmingham and Keego Harbor, where voters will decide whether to permit local marijuana retailers.
In Birmingham, a proposal to lift the ban on marijuana sales and allow one medical marijuana facility and one recreational facility is on the ballot. Another measure in Keego Harbor would allow the City Council to regulate up to one marijuana retailer and prohibit all…
A Detroit woman is accused of having drug-laced gummy bears on school grounds while working as a teacher last summer, officials said.
Darla Spinner, 48, is scheduled to be formally charged Thursday through 31st District Court in Hamtramck with possession of marijuana on school property, a felony, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Officials said police arrested Spinner on Friday. She was given an interim $2,000 bond during a hearing last week.
If convicted, she faces up to four years in prison.
According to authorities, Spinner was working as a teacher at the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility in Hamtramck over the summer.
On July 12, she allegedly brought marijuana gummies with her into the facility at about 8 a.m.
The Prosecutor’s Office authorized an arrest warrant for Spinner and charged her with the crime on July 27, officials said.
But Ohio’s General Assembly, as gerrymandered by the GOP, doesn’t represent voters. Instead, it represents party-line Republicans, some of whom call to mind H.L. Mencken’s definition of Puritanism: “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
And the marijuana ballot issue proposes a state law, not a state constitutional amendment.
Will lawmaker go against the will of Ohioans on marijuana?
Changing a constitutional amendment would require another statewide vote. But the General Assembly, as with any other state law, can change a petition-proposed law — and that’s what the marijuana legislation issue, if OK’d by voters, would be: a law, not a constitutional amendment.
The instinctive response is that it would be politically mad for the GOP-run General Assembly to mess with voters over the marijuana initiative by weakening any pro-user features.
