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Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

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121–130 of 247 posts

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The DEA can enforce and arrest people tomorrow if they wanted I’m sure it would go down really really well if the DEA started arresting people for simple possession in states where it’s perfectly legal.

Regardless of your perspective on the morality of it, cannabis is still illegal nationally. Which is the point of this thread To say its legal is simply wrong

>To say its legal is simply wrong

To say that is "simply wrong" is to ignore nuance and, in point of fact, is "simply wrong". It is legal at the state level, meaning no state official will punish you for it. It is illegal at the federal level, meaning a federal official could punish you for it.

Isn't nuance fun!? :)

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is effectively legal federally It is not "effectively legal". You cannot do any of these while possessing and/or using marijuana: * Pass federal employment drug tests * ̶F̶l̶y̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶n̶e̶ * Buy a gun etc.

Are you an pedantic absolutist with everything? Or just fun stuff? Nobody here is claiming you could do any of those things. 10 years ago if you told me I could purchase Cannabis in Mississippi of all places I'd laugh in your face. Don't let perfection get in the way of progress, you claim to be pro-legalization but any conversation regarding the progress of it you only bring up the negatives and letter-of-the-law ex…

I celebrate the progress, but I don't think it's pedantic at all to point out the gaps that still exist. Law is a pedantic realm.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#123

Didn't we fight the bloodiest war in the history of this country based on which laws (State or Federal) had primacy? And it's still not settled due to Obama's weed policies.

Federal laws do trump state laws in most cases, it is settled. This case is due to the fed's noninterference policy, which they chose for themselves, it's not being forced on them because of some Civil War-era debate.

> Federal laws do trump state laws in most cases, it is settled.

This simply isn't true. There are areas where federal laws can contravene states laws and areas where they cannot.

Additionally, the federal laws often don't "trump" state laws, but supplement them. Generally speaking (there are exceptions), state law enforcement can only enforce state laws.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the current fillibuster rules require a 60-40 supermajority to get anything done, but the fillubuster rule itself can be changed with a simple majority of 50%+1. But the incentive structure is not there to actually change this rule -- both parties benefit from it.

> both parties benefit from it. Is that really the case? It is a bias towards the status quo. Regardless, IMO the constituents represented by those parties don't benefit from it.

> both parties benefit from it.

> It is a bias towards the status quo.

These are the same thing.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#125
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The overton window has shifted. It is no longer popular for armies of feds to raid businesses acting entirely within state laws and only performing intrastate commerce. The President of the United States, head of Executive branch, directed with enforcement of Federal law has pardoned ALL federal marijuana convictions and doesn't plan to pursue more. It is effectively legal federally, no matter how much that makes you…

> It is effectively legal federally It is not "effectively legal". You cannot do any of these while possessing and/or using marijuana: * Pass federal employment drug tests * ̶F̶l̶y̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶n̶e̶ * Buy a gun etc.

Yes, you absolutely can fly with it. TSA has gone on the record, at least in local newspapers, stating that they defer to local police if they find cannabis. If it's for personal use, local PD won't do anything other than suggest you throw it away or else risk punishment if you're flying somewhere legal. I've researched this extensively before flying out of specific airports in legal states up and down the west coast and the story is always the same.

I've even had a TSA agent rummage through my carry-on in Oakland airport, pull out prerolls and buds, dig further to find the half-full water bottle I forgot I'd had, tell me they have to throw it away, and return my cannabis to me. I've flown with it entirely too many times to count, never attempting to conceal it, and have never had a problem.

The only time you're likely to run into trouble flying out of a legal state is if it looks like you're traveling with the intent to distribute.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#126

The headline isn't true. Cannabis is illegal in all of America, since it's still on Schedule I at the federal level. While some states may have removed their own laws against it, that in itself doesn't make it legal there.

I've started wondering how much my views on civil ethics are influenced by (likely) having Asperger's.

I absolutely hate having a persistent divergence between laws on the books, and what's enforced. In my view, that gap exists only to be exploited by villains: both those who would selfishly break the law, and those who would capriciously enforce it. Policies like this make chumps of anyone who obeys such laws, invites tyranny, and are anti-democratic.

It took me a long time to realize that my views were in the minority. I still struggle to understand how that could be. But I think I see a trend where this correlates with Asperger's. I'm curious if others see this too.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#127

Prediction: Dems will make a move on federal legalization in the months before the 2024 presidential election, or at least make federal legalization a major election issue. A lot of right wing / libertarian adjacent people were hoping Trump would come out in favor of it as a 2020 election issue, to outflank Biden on at least one issue. It didn't happen, but I bet it would have made the election a bit closer -- it wou…

> and force the Republican candidate to come out strongly against it

If the polls are to be believed, this seems an unlikely outcome. I don't see a Republican candidate doing this, but stranger things have happened, I guess.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/11/22/americans-o...

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#128

For these businesses, I'd set up something like a myNode [1] or a RaspiBlitz [2]. This way, all the merchant needs is an internet connection. Granted, customers will need something like BLW [3]. If they've got no other options to pay the merchant, then that should be sufficient. Accept either physical Federal Reserve Notes, or decentralized electronic payments. 1. https://mynodebtc.com/ 2. https://shop.fulmo.org/rasp…

How would you deal with the currency risk inherent in dealing with cryptocurrency? Assume that the landlord, vendors, tax man, and employees all want USD from you, and do not accept cryptocurrency as payment. Please explain how you would protect yourself from adverse price movements in cryptocurrencies as a merchant to ensure you have enough USD to pay all your obligations.

Accept DAI and form a relationship with a crypto-fiat exchange that offers institutional accounts?

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/dai

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#129
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The context is important: southern states were fighting specifically for the right to continue to enslave people. Any argument that doesn't focus on slavery in the context of the civil war we had isn't valid, or at least is incomplete, because it elides the reason for the war in the first place.

So I've been a big fan of studying warfare in all it's dimensions throughout my life, including the causes of various conflicts, one thing I gave come to realize is that we talk about "the reason" for a war or "the cause" but there really isn't a single cause or reason, because for a war to happen you have to have thousands of people willing to march off and die and each of them have their own reasons and their own c…

You're conflating a number of completely unrelated items, at least: individual motivations, catalysts, and the broad-strokes reasons a group fights in a war.

The civil war was fought because the southern states wanted to maintain their slave economy. It is as clear, cut and dried as that. Individual southerners may have fought for glory, for Suzy to love them, for money, or for any other reason, but the prosecutors of the war effort for the south did it because their economy was dependent on slaves and they wanted that to continue. It's not disingenuous to state that.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#130
Is that why at multiple medical dispensaries, they trolled me, an autistic trauma survivor, until I raised my voice then seized the opportunity to act aggrieved? Each of them was allowing cards, and seemed uneasy about it. They seem to relish that the lack of federal recognition combined with being a state program meant that the same type of cop who used to beat down minorities at "Wetback Wednesday" in Oakland could now bring that level of (lack of) customer service to a whole new set of vulnerable people.

Solvevo Wellness, Delta 9, and Maitri Medical should all be raided the by the goddamn DEA, and I say that as someone who had nothing but pleasant experiences in Amsterdam, Denver, Las Vegas, and California when I was purchasing recreationally.

As I said when speaking with the governor's office yesterday, I am not going to renew my card lest I reward extortion and abuse that never seems to cease.

(As they say in Appalachia: fuck around and find out -- sue me for slander if you don't like what I've written, you literal gangsters.)

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