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Although cannabis advocates predict that Illinois will be one of the next states to legalize recreational marijuana, the problem of an Illinois governor not likely to allow marijuana legalization puts a giant snag in the legislative grind. This will probably prevent pot reform from happening in 2018 in Illinois.

The head honcho with the power to sign a bill into law or bury it is Governor Bruce Rauner. He recently told a Marion television station that pulling Illinois out of the pits of prohibition would be a “mistake.”

Instead of taking a leap toward a legitimate market, the governor says he would like to see officials conduct additional research to pinpoint any consequences that may come from passing a law of this magnitude.

“I do not support legalizing marijuana. I think that’s a mistake. You know there’s a massive, human experiment going on in Colorado, and California, other places. We should see how that’s impacted lives and addiction and hurt young people before we make any decision about it here,” Rauner told ABC-affiliate WSIL-TV. “I do not support legalizing marijuana.”

Read More:https://hightimes.com/news/illinois-governor-not-likely-allow-marijuana-legalization/

SALEM, Ore. — Federal officials are investigating a marijuana-processing facility in Oregon after an explosion there injured a man who was previously convicted in a money-laundering operation linked to pot-trafficking.

The probe is a fairly rare instance in which U.S. officials are investigating a marijuana case in a state where pot is legal. Federal enforcement of U.S. laws that ban possession and distribution of marijuana is restricted by the U.S. Justice Department, but is permitted when marijuana is being distributed to other states and in a few other situations.

Police in Cottage Grove, a town of 10,000, called on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for help after fire officials found hundreds of marijuana plants growing inside the building where the explosion occurred on Nov. 16. The explosion burned a man who was on parole after serving a 90-day sentence in the money-laundering operation, The Register-Guard reported.

Read More:https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/marijuana/u-s-officials-investigating-oregon-marijuana-operation/

Smarter approaches to cannabis seem to be in vogue right now, but a small town in Texas is ramping up the war on marijuana. The town in question is Mart, and the chief of police seems to have a vendetta against weed. And the people who consume it. Here’s what’s happening:

In Texas, police have considerable discretion with how they deal with people who are caught with small amounts of marijuana. They can, under a 2007 law, issue that person a citation.

This is what police will be doing in Dallas, where possession of less than four ounces of cannabis will result in entry into a “cite-and-release” program. Similar efforts are underway in San Antonio, Austin, and Houston. Ramping up the war on marijuana is seemingly not on the agenda in these cities.

Read More:https://hightimes.com/news/tiny-texas-town-ramping-war-marijuana/

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women march in Nicaragua’s capital on November 25 was ironically set upon by the riot police, with several women being detained. The Managua march was emotionally charged, as it was led by Elea Valle—a Campesina woman whose husband and two young sons were killed two weeks earlier in a raid by army troops on their home in the country’s eastern rainforest.

The army is portraying the Nov. 12 massacre at the village of La Cruz del Río Grande as a drug raid, saying the slain were “delinquents” and that 20 pounds of marijuana were found in the homestead.

“This is a total lie,” Valle told Nicaraguan daily La Prensa. She says her sons—12- and 16-years-old, and among the six slain in the incident—were gunned down unarmed and that the cannabis was planted by the soldiers.

Read More:https://hightimes.com/news/nicaragua-army-assassination-disguised-marijuana-raid/

Amy Shemberger and her boyfriend, Peter Kucinski, were together for 18 years. They had a five-year-old son together. They also had a heroin habit.

On August 10, 2014, Shemberger went out to pick up $20 worth, the couples’ daily opiate dose. She snorted her $10 bag on her way home. Upon returning, she handed Kucinski his share. He snorted his and stopped breathing.

Shemberger did what anyone should do when their partner is having a health crisis—she called 911. This is also what landed her in prison for seven years. Two months after Kucinski fatally overdosed, Shemberger was charged with murder.

She’d handed her lover drugs—an act that qualified as a “delivery,” which in turn made her eligible for prosecution as a “drug dealer” under Illinois’s “drug-induced homicide” laws, a method of waging the drug war that’s becoming increasingly popular in recent years, despite little evidence that it works—and plenty of evidence that it makes things worse.

Read More:https://hightimes.com/news/america-start-executing-drug-dealers-spoiler-no/