California
California’s overtaxing, overregulation of marijuana should be a lesson for Congress
In the course of the subsequent 12 months, California officers mentioned final week, the state expects to grab “greater than $1 billion price of unlawful hashish merchandise.” That announcement got here just a few weeks after the U.S. Justice Division bragged about responsible pleas by 11 unlicensed California marijuana retailers who had been nabbed with assist from state and native legislation enforcement businesses.
The persevering with warfare on weed in California, which supposedly legalized marijuana in 2016, displays the putting failure to exchange black-market sellers with state-licensed distributors, a plan that has been doomed by excessive taxes, native bans and overregulation. Judging from the marijuana legalization invoice he launched final week, Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-New York, has discovered nothing from that have.
Six years after California voters permitted leisure marijuana, unauthorized suppliers nonetheless account for someplace between two-thirds and three-quarters of gross sales. A current report from the Purpose Basis (my employer) highlights one main purpose why licensed companies have had a lot hassle competing with unlawful suppliers: Taxes are too excessive.
Geoff Lawrence, the muse’s managing director of drug coverage, discovered that California’s efficient tax charge ranged from $42 to $90 per ounce, relying on the jurisdiction, in comparison with an estimated wholesale manufacturing price of $35 per ounce. The corresponding charges in Colorado and Oregon, each of which have been extra profitable at displacing the black market, are about $33 and $21, respectively.
Regardless of modest tax reduction permitted this 12 months, authorized marijuana stays overpriced in California. It’s also inconvenient to purchase in a lot of the state, Lawrence notes, because of native gross sales bans which have created “huge hashish deserts” the place “customers don’t have any entry to a authorized retailer inside an inexpensive distance of their dwelling.”
Authorized sellers additionally should deal with burdensome licensing necessities and laws. Dale Gieringer, California director of the Nationwide Group for the Reform of Marijuana Legal guidelines, says these guidelines assist clarify why authorized marijuana costs are a lot greater than he anticipated.
“It turned out that I had vastly underestimated the price of the laws imposed by the brand new legislation,” Gieringer writes in an introduction to the Purpose Basis report. “Along with state and native licensing charges, there have been elaborate guidelines on cultivation, retailing, transportation, manufacture, testing, facility siting, possession, safety, storage, on-site consumption, wholesale distribution, seed-to-sale monitoring, waste disposal, labeling, packaging, environmental compliance, water utilization, and so on. advert nauseam.”
Regardless of years of complaints about these obstacles, Schumer determined that the hashish business wants extra taxes and laws. His 296-page Hashish Administration and Alternative Act, which is cosponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, contains 52 pages coping with taxation and 71 pages prescribing new laws for marijuana companies.
Schumer’s invoice requires a federal excise tax beginning at 10% and rising to 25% by the fifth 12 months, which might be along with regularly hefty state and native taxes. Implicitly acknowledging the counterproductive affect of these levies, the invoice would lower the charges in half for companies with proceeds beneath specified ranges.
Schumer needs to cost the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) with registering marijuana companies, setting product requirements, establishing labeling necessities, policing “adulterated” and “misbranded” merchandise, regulating promoting and promotion and imposing “restrictions on sale and distribution.” Along with mandating particular guidelines, comparable to a nationwide minimal buy age of 21 and a ban on including flavors to hashish vaping merchandise, the invoice would authorize the FDA to impose any restrictions it deems “acceptable for the safety of the general public well being.”
Given the FDA’s doubtful sense of what defending public well being means in different areas, comparable to regulation of tobacco and nicotine vaping merchandise, that may be a fairly scary clause. As in these contexts, no matter arbitrary guidelines the company comes up with are certain to limit shopper selection and assist perpetuate the black market.
“By failing to behave,” Wyden says, “the federal authorities is empowering the illicit hashish market.” That’s precisely what this invoice’s taxes and laws would do.
Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Purpose journal. Comply with him on Twitter: @JacobSullum.
California
California Gov. Gavin Newsom says state will provide rebates if Trump removes tax credit for electric vehicles
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will provide rebates to residents if President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration does away with a federal tax credit for electric vehicles.
In a news release issued Monday, Newsom said he would restart the state’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program, which provided financial incentives on more than 590,000 vehicles before it was phased out late 2023.
“We will intervene if the Trump Administration eliminates the federal tax credit, doubling down on our commitment to clean air and green jobs in California,” Newsom said. “We’re not turning back on a clean transportation future — we’re going to make it more affordable for people to drive vehicles that don’t pollute.”
The federal rebates on new and used electric vehicles were implemented in the Inflation Reduction Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. When Trump’s second term in office begins next year, he could work with Congress to change the rules around those rebates. Those potential changes could limit the federal rebates, including by reducing the amount of money available or limiting who is eligible.
Limiting federal subsidies on electric vehicle purchases would hurt many American automakers, including Ford, General Motors and the EV startup Rivian. Tesla, which also builds its automobiles in the United States, would take a smaller hit since that company currently sells more EVs and has a higher profit margin than any other EV manufacturer.
Newsom also announced earlier this month that he will convene a special session “to protect California values,” including fundamental civil rights and reproductive rights, that he said “are under attack by this incoming administration.”
“Whether it be our fundamental civil rights, reproductive freedom, or climate action — we refuse to turn back the clock and allow our values and laws to be attacked,” Newsom said on X on Nov. 7.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This isn’t the first time California will be taking action against the Trump’s administration concerning clean transportation legislation.
In 2019, California and 22 other states sued his administration for revoking its ability to set standards for greenhouse gas emission and fuel economy standards for vehicles, The Associated Press reported.
California sued the Trump administration over 100 times during his first term, primarily on matters including gun control, health care, education and immigration, the Los Angeles Times reported.
California
45 Years Later, California Murder Mystery Solved Through DNA Evidence
A 45-year-old cold case of a 17-year-old girl brutally raped and murdered has been resolved, bringing closure to the family. On February 9, 1979, Esther Gonzalez walked from her parents’ home to her sister’s in Banning, California, roughly 137 km east of Los Angeles. She never arrived. The next day, her body was discovered in a snowpack near a highway in Riverside County, California. Authorities determined she had been raped and bludgeoned to death, leading to an investigation that spanned decades.
The lab was able to match the DNA to a man named Lewis Randolph “Randy” Williamson, who died in 2014. Williamson, a US Marine Corps veteran, called authorities on the fateful day to report finding Ms Gonzalez’s body. At the time, he claimed he could not identify whether the body was male or female. Described as “argumentative” by deputies, Williamson was asked to take a polygraph test, which he passed, clearing him of suspicion in the pre-DNA era. He had faced assault allegations in the past but was never convicted of any violent crimes, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Despite limited leads, the Riverside County cold case homicide team didn’t give up. A semen sample recovered from Ms Gonzalez’s body in 1979 was preserved but remained unmatched in the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) for decades.
In 2023, forensic technology finally caught up. The homicide team collaborated with a genetic lab in Texas that specialises in forensic genealogy. A sample of Williamson’s blood from his 2014 autopsy provided the DNA match needed to confirm him as the 17-year-old’s rapist and killer.
The Gonzalez family had mixed emotions—relief at finally having answers and sadness knowing Williamson would not face justice, as he died in Florida ten years ago. Ms Gonzalez, remembered by her family as a shy yet funny and mild-mannered young woman, was the fourth of seven children. Her oldest brother, Eddie Gonzalez, wrote on Facebook, “The Gonzalez family would like to thank the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department on a job well done. After 40 years, the Gonzalez family has closure.”
“We are very happy that we finally have closure,” Ms Gonzalez’s sister, Elizabeth, 64, shared with CNN. “We are happy about it but, since the guy has died, a little sad that he won’t spend any time for her murder.”
California
Bird Flu Virus Identified In Raw Milk Sold In California
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has detected the avian influenza or “bird flu” virus in a sample of a raw milk product. The product which was for sale at retailers at the time of the testing has now been recalled by the producer after the state of California requested it’s withdrawal from sale.
The affected product is cream top, whole raw milk produced and packaged by Raw Farm, LLC of Fresno County with lot code 2024110. The best buy date of the batch is 11. Nov, 2024 meaning consumers could still have it in their homes. No illnesses have currently been reported from this batch of milk, but people can take several days to develop bird flu after exposure. According to the World Health Organization, most people develop symptoms within 2-5 days, but can take up to 17 days to develop.
According to the CDC, bird flu symptoms may include fever or feeling feverish or chills, eye redness or irritation, and respiratory symptoms, such as cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches, and tiredness.
Customers should not consume any product matching the description above and should return the product to stores or dispose of it. The CDPH is also in the process of informing re also in the process of informing retailers about the infected product to notify them to remove it from their shelves. The CDPH has since visited both locations of the company’s farms and has found no further evidence of bird flu. The CDPH will continue to test the farm’s milk twice a week.
The CDPH stresses that there is no risk of consuming pasteurized milk as the milk is heated to temperatures which inactivate bacteria and viruses. However raw milk does not go through this process, meaning any bacteria or viruses in the milk can be transferred to the consumer. Public health departments, as well as the CDC have long warned against the dangers of consuming raw milk, which has been responsible for outbreaks of Listeria, E. coli, Campylobacter and Salmonella, among other microbes.
California has been hit with bird flu outbreaks in both dairy cow herds and poultry farms with over 400 dairy herds affected as of 22. November. Twenty-nine human cases have also been recorded in the state, mostly individuals who have had close contact with infected livestock. The numbers of infected individuals are likely to be under reported and very little is known about the severity of disease in humans so far. Just two days ago, the CDC confirmed a case of H5N1 bird flu in a child in California with no known contact with livestock.
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