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U.S. legal marijuana sales were $5.4B in 2015, higher than Trump’s net worth and several times the cost of the Space Shuttle

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, February 3, 2016, 9:15 PM
SETH PERLMAN/AP

Marijuana plants are shown at an Illinois medical marijuana cultivation center. Legal weed sales jumped 17% last year.

Americans spent more money on legal marijuana in 2015 than Donald Trump is worth, research revealed Monday.

The $5.4 billion in legal pot sales outpaces the magnate and presidential candidate’s $4.5 billion net worth and dwarfs the $1.7 billion cost of NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour. And weed sales will overtake the price of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in a few years.

Analysts from ArcView Market Research and New Frontier Data unveiled their annual report on the size of the legal pot market Monday, showing a 17% increase over 2014.

The marijuana market researchers predict overall sales will grow to $21.8 billion by 2020 at a compound annual rate of 30%. Voters in at least seven states will consider allowing adults to get high legally this year and 86% of Americans now live in states with some form of legal marijuana use.

Legal pot sales in U.S. outpaced The Donald’s $4.5 billion net worth.

“Many in the business and financial sector have taken a ‘wait and see’ approach to the legal cannabis industry,” the publishers wrote in an introductory letter. “The data in this report confirms what pioneer investors and entrepreneurs suspected: legalization of cannabis is one of greatest business opportunities of our time and it’s still early enough to see huge growth.”

Yet the figures already lend themselves to fun comparisons. They may never add up to the $710 billion Americans spend each year at bars and nightclubs or the $400 billion projected overall cost of the Department of Defense’s most costly and ambitious fighter jet program.

But the 2015 sales would buy 33 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, based on the Government Accountability Office’s estimate. And when legal weed sales grow to $12 billion in 2018, the proceeds would be more than enough to pay for the city-sized USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier currently in the works.

Read Full Article – http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/u-s-legal-marijuana-sales-5-4b-2015-article-1.2519611

Blog, Criminal, Legal News

Bill Cosby Indecent Assault Charge Will Not Be Dismissed, D.A. Will Not Be Disqualified

  • By MICHAEL ROTHMAN

Feb 3, 2016, 6:00 PM ET

The aggravated indecent assault charge against Bill Cosby will not be dismissed, despite his legal team’s efforts to get the case tossed out, and the prosecutor will be allowed to stay on the case.

On Wednesday, a judge shot down the comedian’s motions in the case.

“We will appeal,” Cosby’s lawyer, Monique Pressley told ABC News in the wake of the decision.

Cosby, 78, was charged last December by Montgomery County First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele. A few weeks later, Cosby’s attorneys filed to have the charge dismissed, claiming that Steele brought it “illegally, improperly and unethically.” They also asked that the D.A. be removed from the case.

Yesterday, Bruce Castor, a former Montgomery County District Attorney, told the judge why he never charged the comedian when the alleged incident happened more than a decade ago.

There was never a formal document between the two men in writing, Castor explained, and he decided against drafting a document because he had no plans of prosecuting Cosby.

Castor also said accuser Andrea Constand’s “actions … created a credibility issue for her that could never be improved upon” and that statements from other alleged victims were “very old.”

Castor did say he believed Constand was telling the truth but argued that she had waited too long to come forward. Castor also said Constand contacted a civil lawyer in Philadelphia, weakening the prosecution’s case.

Today, attorney Jack Schmitt, who has been a legal adviser to Cosby since 1983, testified that he would never have let the comedian give his 2005 deposition in the Constand civil suit if he thought there was a chance Cosby would one day be prosecuted, according to the Associated Press.

Constand, a former Temple University employee, claimed the comedian invited her to his Pennsylvania home in 2004 and made two sexual advances despite her rebuffs. She also claimed Cosby gave her pills and wine, which made her unresponsive and unable to move. At that point, she claims Cosby sexually assaulted her.

Cosby gave the deposition in 2005, which was just released last year to the public after U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno unsealed it. In the deposition, Cosby admitted that he gave Quaaludes to one woman in the past.

Schmitt was the second witness the Cosby legal team has called on in the past two days in an effort to get Judge Steven T. O’Neill to throw out the aggravated indecent assault charge.

Constand’s lawyer Dolores Troiani has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

In addition to the deposition released from the Constand civil suit last year, the charge also came after a barrage of women accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, dating back to the 1960s. Cosby fired back in early December, filing a countersuit for defamation against seven women who previously accused him of sexual misconduct.

Read Full Article – http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/bill-cosby-returns-court-assault-case/story?id=36685259

Blog, Criminal, Legal News, Personal Injury

L.A. prosecutors file criminal charges in methane leak near Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES | BY STEVE GORMAN

Los Angeles prosecutors filed criminal charges against the Southern California Gas company on Tuesday over a huge methane leak near the city that has forced thousands of residents from their homes since October.

The four misdemeanor charges accuse SoCalGas, a division of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, of failing to report the release of hazardous materials following the underground pipeline rupture and discharging air contaminants.

“While we recognize that neither the criminal charges nor the civil lawsuits will offer the residents of Los Angeles County a complete solution, it is important that Southern California Gas Co. be held responsible for its criminal actions,” District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a written statement.

Lacey’s move came on the same day that California Attorney General Kamala Harris sued Southern California Gas Co, accusing the utility of violating state health and safety laws by failing to promptly control the escaping gas and report the leak to authorities.

The lawsuit also cites environmental damage caused by the uncontrolled release of 80,000 metric tons of methane, the prime component of natural gas and a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

The leak stems from an underground pipeline rupture at the company’s 3,600-acre (1,457-hectare) Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field. The largest such leak ever in California, at its height it accounted for a fourth of all methane emissions statewide.

The lawsuit amends a civil complaint brought in December by the Los Angeles city attorney and later joined by Los Angeles County. It seeks civil penalties and court orders requiring the utility to immediately take all steps necessary to mitigate the leak, repair the damage and prevent future discharges.

Several attempts to halt the methane release have failed, but the company said it hopes to plug the leak by the end of the month through a relief well.

Read Full – http://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-methane-lawsuit-idUSKCN0VB25M

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Italian police arrest 2 fugitive Mafia bosses in underground bunker

By Faith Karimi, CNN

Updated 9:31 AM ET, Sat January 30, 2016

(CNN) After eluding capture for years, two Mafia bosses have been arrested in an underground bunker in southern Italy.

Police seized mobsters Giuseppe Ferraro, 47, and Giuseppe Crea, 37, in Calabria region Friday, according to Italian news agency Ansa.

Ferraro was found guilty of murder and Mafia association decades ago, and had been a fugitive since 1998.

Crea was convicted of Mafia association and had been on the run for nine years, according to the news agency.

Their hideout had an array of weapons, including rifles, pistols and machine guns.

“Today is another great day for everyone and for the country because justice has won,” Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said after their arrest.

Beyond Italian borders

The two men are part of ‘Ndrangheta, a dangerous criminal organization that has tentacles worldwide. The group is based in Calabria, where the two men were arrested.

‘Ndrangheta’s power has grown beyond Italian borders.

Two years ago, Italian officials said the group is linked to drug trafficking in South and Central America, Canada and the United States.

The ‘Ndrangheta was formed in the 1860s, and is involved in kidnappings, corruption, drug trafficking, gambling and murders, according to the FBI.

It has between 100-200 members in the United States, mostly in New York and Florida.

Full Article – http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/30/europe/italy-mafia-arrests/

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How Misguided Drug Policies Are Failing the EDM Community

The legal crackdown on ecstasy has only made dance music more dangerous for everyone

BY
ON JANUARY 27, 2016, 9:00AM
 In 2002, a bipartisan group of three Republicans and four Democrats led by then-Senator Joe Biden responded to growing public concern about MDMA use. A flurry of legal pressure had risen from the drug-related death of 17-year-old Jillian Kirkland, who passed away after an evening at New Orleans’ State Palace Theatre in 1998. Nearly four years later, the Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act, aka the R.A.V.E. Act, was referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
The loosely worded act was an extension of the 1986 “Crack House Statute,” under which promoters and event organizers could be charged with “maintain[ing] a drug-involved” premise. Wondering what that phrase actually means? So have US promoters, venue owners, advocates, artists, and fans since a slightly augmented act — the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act — was tacked onto a 2003 Amber Alert bill, which passed without a vote or much debate. Like most US drug policies, the act has hindered true harm reduction within club and festival culture.
During what has been reported as the plateau of MDMA use and resultant hospitalizations in the US, the DEA sent baby-faced undercover agent Michael Templeton to the site of Kirkland’s death to acquire a firsthand account of the environment and the interactions between club owners, drug dealers, and revelers. During a six-month period in early 2000, Templeton and a fellow DEA agent were able to, according to a Time report, purchase 45 hits of ecstasy. Instead of arresting any of their dealers, the DEA and the New Orleans Police Department gathered info to prosecute State Palace managers Robert and Brian Bruner, as well as promoter Donnie Estopinal, aka Disco Donnie.
The feds weren’t just building their case on the ecstasy hits, but the culture itself: uptempo beats, touching and massaging, glow sticks, availability of free water, and even the energetic style of dancing. “The country was a lot more conservative and much less open-minded,” remarks Estopinal via telephone about the era. “Scary times in this industry … [we] didn’t know who would be next.”
Unable to convict any party under the Crack House laws, the government pushed for new regulations that would allow for easier prosecution. By naming easy access to free water and “chill rooms” as indicators of drug-involved premises, authorities eliminated two primary harm reducers in order to make their next arrests. While the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act has yet to be used to successfully prosecute a single promoter or venue owner, the lack of those harm-reduction essentials has itself claimed multiple lives.
After heading to D.C.’s Echostage with some of her fellow University of Virginia Alpha Phi sorority sisters on August 30th, 2013, Shelley Goldsmith consumed unadulterated MDMA as many of her classmates had done since heading off to university. Later, she would succumb to hyperthermia, possibly to do excessive dehydration, and eventually die of cardiac arrest at the age of 19.
Eight months later, Shelley’s mother, Dede Goldsmith, would lead the collective efforts to Amend the R.A.V.E. Act. “In this situation, it became very clear that there is a problem with the law, but also a problem on college campuses in terms of identifying and supplying harm-reduction techniques for these substances just like there already is with alcohol,” says Goldsmith via phone.

Misinformation about MDMA is rampant. In contrast to underage drinking, little has been done at universities and colleges to properly educate young adults on the risks associated with club drugs. As Goldsmith points out, “[There are] organizations like SSDP (Students for Sensible Drug Policy) that work with more of an alternative crowd, but no one that really reaches out to Greek Life.” Given the increased risk of drug use within the US Greek system, that’s one communication gap that needs to be bridged.

 

“Everyone feels safe to come together around the drug war. ‘Those evil drugs, we gotta get ‘em,’” quips Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies’ (MAPS) Policy and Advocacy Manager Natalie Ginsberg.

Even though we are nearly 50 years removed from the cultural renaissance that was 1968, politicians are still wary of the PR associated with progressive drug reform policies. While Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) has assisted Goldsmith in officially connecting with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), and Goldsmith herself has been appointed to the Virginia Commission on Youth, no legislator has officially supported or introduced an amendment initiative. And Goldsmith doesn’t envision any campaigning politician to support the policy shift in the foreseeable future.

 

Full Article – http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/01/how-misguided-drug-policies-are-failing-the-edm-community/