Plug music results from Atlanta street tapes bootlegged on peer-to-peer sharing sites like Limewire and Frostwire and hosting sites like Datpiff and LiveMixtapes. “It was built on traditional Atlanta. It was mixing traditional Atlanta with the internet age,” Benny adds. Taking inspiration from the elegance of Zaytoven’s piano work, Plug adds a pop spin jam-packed with explosive digitized synths and video game sound bites. 

Plug Motivation is Tony’s new project, 24-tracks of money hustling, designer flexing, and drugs come entirely produced by the most prolific producers of the plug sub-genre: Big Emm, Cashcache, DJ YoungKash, Fashion Kor, GameBoomin, IceWater Black, JBand$, Mexikodro, Polo Boy Shawty, Popstar Benny, StoopidXool, and Youngstill. Plug Motivation is hosted by DJ Yung Rell, returning the days of vintage Gucci Mane in ‘08. Tony carries the spirit of old Atlanta with tracks like “Dats Me” and “Work Like This.” Flutes and snares come together with dreamy synths on the latter, with Tony showing pride in his swag and coming clean about his “bad bitch problem.” The entirety of Plug Motivation was recorded in Tony’s kitchen, no fancy studio equipment required. Tony takes inspiration from Gucci Mane’s Bird Flu 2, Lil Wayne’s No Ceilings and Carter III projects, as well as Zelda: Breath of the Wild while making the tape.

He seems excited to talk about the making of Plug Motivation over our Zoom call. For High Times, Tony discusses plug music, its purpose, the songs of his new project, and the difference between mixtapes and albums in 2022. Throughout the call, he smokes Real1 & Metro Bloomin branded flower in a blunt, puffing between responses. 

High Times: Last week you just dropped Plug Motivation. When did you start recording that?

Tony Shhnow: I started recording what I felt as soon as I got off tour. Because Reflextions was damn near done when I got off tour. So Plug Motivation was definitely music I had fresh off tour trying to go into transition to the next project.

HT: Plug Motivation is a play on Jeezy’s Thug Motivation. What made you want to use that as the theme?

Tony Shhnow: Well, Mexikodro came up with the title. I got to attest that to him. I just applied my own style to it. I applied the theme to it. He picked the title and I just made it, I brought it to life.

HT: What I like about the tape a lot is that it brings back that old ATL mixtape aesthetic. What’s the difference now between a mixtape and an album? And I feel like Plug Motivation distinguishes that.

Tony Shhnow: For sure. I feel like a mixtape is raw music. It’s raw. It’s not really looking to be polished type shit. It can be, it’s music recorded in a kitchen or it can be in the trap. It could be, it’s something that it’s not meant to be pop or be on the billboards, necessarily. I’m not looking to be on the radio. I’m looking to be in the trap. I’m looking to be in the streets. It’s not a project aimed to please the average listener. Mixtapes aren’t aimed to please your fans. That’s what I feel like the major difference is.

HT: You also dropped the ShadowBanned mixtape before Plug Motivation. Rappers don’t do that anymore where they rap on each other’s beats for a whole project. It’s a lost art. 

Tony Shhnow: Yeah. That’s why… It’s hip hop to me though. That’s why I did the BBC project. I ain’t going to lie to you. I’ve been one to do the rapping on other people’s beats that were my peers. But I felt like I had to wait a second until it was the right moment. And right now I feel like it was definitely a good moment to do it.

HT: Do you think this whole streaming era ruined the identity of mixtapes nowadays?

Tony Shhnow: Yeah. It did a little bit. It did a little bit. But I still feel like there’s a space for it. I feel like just people have to, we got to adapt to it type shit. You don’t really see the premier artists doing that. People, the rap game normally imitates whatever the premier artist is doing at the time type shit. At the time when Lil Wayne did that, Tyga was doing that or Jacquees was doing that or Young Dro was doing that. It was multiple artists doing that at a time. But you don’t see the premier artists, which is Drake or Kendrick or J. Cole, you don’t see them doing that. They’re not going to imitate it.

HT: What is the big significance of having someone host your mixtapes? Because DJ Yung Rell hosted a few of your tapes.

Tony Shhnow: Yeah. I feel like that role is a lost art form in hip hop. So it’s important to me to keep pushing him or keep pushing that narrative type shit because I feel like hip hop needs that. That’s what I grew up on. That’s what a lot of these kids don’t get to see. You know what I mean? It’s almost like a narrator.

HT: I think it definitely is a lost art form because you don’t hear DJ Scream or Evil Empire as often anymore.

Tony Shhnow: Because a lot of them guys that’s older, they’re successful as fuck now, they not doing it no more, they just successful as fuck. So they don’t have time to do it. They changed ventures. They might have a label now or they might have a clothing line now. They just aren’t into it. Because like I said before to go back into the main, nobody’s calling them to come do something. You feel me? Tyler was the last big dude I saw doing it.

HT: On Plug Motivation, you kept the sound with strictly plug producers. So why’d you keep it so inclusive? What inspired that?

Tony Shhnow: I was already planning on making a plug project. Nah. When ‘Dro gave me that title, I feel like I had to keep it true to being plug. I had to keep it true to that. I feel like it’s a misconception about plug music. I just made the project to clarify what it is. I even used the old plug. I tried to show y’all exactly what plug was and what plug is now.

HT: How important was it to get everyone’s contributions for this project?

Tony Shhnow: I feel like it was very important on the producer end to make sure I tapped in what each producer that was a part of the Beats Plugs type shit and as far as the new culture. I feel like I can do the rapping. So I leave everything else to them, I try to make sure I work with the best producers, or the best DJ, the best director.

HT: One of my favorite songs is “Hell’s Hot” because I never heard you so angry before. Why were you so mad?

Tony Shhnow: I was dealing with this girl and really, it was a response to her. She just text me, “Hell is hot. I hope you burn, nigga.” I was like, “All right. Bitch, fuck you.

HT: That’s a mean text.

Tony Shhnow: On God. So I responded. I just use music as my therapy sometimes. So that’s just what that was. I honestly didn’t even know I was going to keep that song. People just started liking it.

HT: Based off the few drill songs you have on the ShadowBanned mixtape, how do you feel about drill music and how do you feel about the culture?

Tony Shhnow: It’s cool. I like it a little bit. I ain’t going to lie to you like I’m a super big fan of it because I’m not really into rap that talks too much about guns or violence type shit. I’m just super not heavy on it. The drill wave in Chicago was cool to me but I didn’t look at it that much. I just ain’t, I’m more of a fan of just player music. Talking about getting money or smoking weed. I like Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y or Lil Wayne. I like Gucci but I don’t like his songs when he talking about just shooting shit up all the time.

HT: That’s understandable. I can tell you’re on the fence with drill music.

Tony Shhnow: Yeah. I’m like, eh. Like I said I want to do it but just a little more player. I really fuck with, I fuck with, what’s that dude name? Damn, what’s that dude name? They dropped the Too Slizzy Too Sexy tape.

HT: Cash Cobain and Chow Lee.

Tony Shhnow: Yeah, bro. I’m fucking with them. Something that make the hoes move. Don’t get me wrong. The drill shit is cool. But I like the songs that the hoes get to moving with the girls. You know what I mean? I want girls to dance. I don’t want to shoot; I don’t have a stand-off [laughs].

The post Tony Shhnow Makes Getting Money Music appeared first on High Times.

The ordinance, which was approved unanimously by the committee last week, “would reduce the penalties for possession of misdemeanor amounts of marijuana (defined as less than 28 grams) by making such infractions a 1$ fine,” according to Students for Sensible Drug Policy, which highlighted some of its advocacy efforts in Athens-Clarkes County in a blog post on Thursday.

The group says it has been “lobbying Athens Clarke county to reduce penalties for cannabis possession” since 2017, and that it was ultimately “able to bring together community stakeholders and local officials before the legislative review committee to hatch out a plan of attack.”

Once implemented, the ordinance would make “possessing under 28 grams of any marijuana product a civil infraction,” according to Students for Sensible Drug Policy, while also enshrining the “already common practices by the District Attorney and Athens Clarke County Police not to prosecute or arrest citizens; 19 other municipalities across Georgia have already passed similar ordinances.

The ordinance will help Athens, the home of the University of Georgia, stand apart in a state that has been slow to embrace cannabis reform.

After the vote by the committee last week, Raiden Washington, the University of Georgia Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapter president said, that drug policy “that provides equitable access and harm reduction resources is a non-partisan issue.”

“The Drug War has affected all communities across identity and political lines, whether that’s due to losing loved ones to overdoses or incarceration. It’s time we stand together for our entire community’s betterment,” Washington said. “The tools of the masters have been used by those who are oppressed.”

Students for Sensible Drug Policy noted that Georgia is “one of only 19 states that still imposes jail time for simple possession of marijuana, and one of only 13 that lacks a compassionate medical cannabis law.”

“The criminalization of drug possession fuels the US and Georgian mass criminalization system. GA has 183 jails in 159 counties. Georgia’’s total county jail population in 2019 was 45,340. There were 420,000 people on probation in the state,” Jeremy Sharp, SSDP’s South Eastern Regional Director, wrote in the blog post on Thursday. “There were 54,113 people under the jurisdiction of the GA Dept of Corrections in 34 state and private detention centers. The GA Department of Corrections had a staff of 9,169 employees and a budget of $1,205,012,739. 1 in 20 Georgians are on probation, parole, in Jail, or under some sort of supervision. The national average is 1 and 99. Private probation is an offender-funded system. Private companies with state or local contracts are allowed to charge individuals on probation with all kinds of extra fees and surcharges that far exceed their court fines. Failure to pay these fees can represent a violation of probation and risk re-entry into incarceration. Georgia has a long history of oppressive legal mechanisms used to disenfranchise.”

The lack of access to medicinal cannabis in the state has been particularly frustrating for advocates.

Lawmakers in Georgia legalized the treatment back in 2015 by passing the Haleigh’s Hope Act, which permitted qualifying patients to receive cannabis oil containing no more than 5% THC. But seven years after the bill’s passage, those patients still are unable to legally access the oil.

A bill that sought to change that failed in the Georgia state senate this spring.

The post Athens, Georgia on Cusp of Major Decriminalization Ordinance appeared first on High Times.

“I’m really, really disappointed,” House Speaker David Ralston said after the bill died in the Senate.

In 2015, the Georgia state legislature passed the Haleigh’s Hope Act, a measure that allowed patients with certain medical conditions including seizure disorders and end-stage cancer to use cannabis oil containing no more than 5% THC. However, the legislation did not include provisions for the regulated production and sale of cannabis oil, leaving patients with no legal way to obtain their medicine.

Four years later, lawmakers finally approved a bill to permit medical pot cultivation and cannabis oil production and sales. The same year, Governor Brian Kemp, Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan and Ralston appointed a seven-member commission to draft regulations and license medical cannabis producers.

In 2021, the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission (GMCC) announced that it would award licenses to six companies from a pool of nearly 70 applicants. More than a dozen unsuccessful applicants filed protests challenging the selections. One applicant, Georgia Atlas, filed a lawsuit characterizing the selection process as “lacking in transparency, objectivity and fairness.” The legal action stopped the licensing process in its tracks, leaving Georgia’s 20,000 registered medical pot patients still without access to legal cannabis oil.

“We’ve been trying to get this done here in Georgia for about seven or eight years now, and it’s still not done,”  Ralston said.

Last month, the House and Senate approved separate bills to address the shortcomings and get Georgia’s medical cannabis program up and running. A legislative conference committee drafted the compromise proposal that failed to gain approval in the Senate this week. Under the compromise bill, a state agency would review all of the protests and the original applications to award six medical cannabis licenses by June. The proposal would also have allowed for regulators to award three additional licenses to medical cannabis producers. The compromise measure passed in the House of Representatives on Monday night by a vote of 95-73.

“We’ve finally come up with a plan that is fair to all concerned,” said House Majority Leader Jon Burns after the bill’s approval. “This addresses a need, a desperate need for the citizens of our state to utilize this product that makes a huge difference in the health of the people of this state.”

But in the Senate, Minority Leader Gloria Butler moved to table the legislation. The motion was approved, preventing the bill from coming to vote.

Lawmakers Fail, Patients Lose

The failure of state lawmakers to draft legislation for a working medical cannabis program in Georgia means that patients will continue to go without their medication. State Representative Ben Watson said that the situation is shameful.

“We’ve been working on this for 10 years. We have not gotten this oil to children that they deserve,” Watson said. “That is what the children of the state of Georgia and all those registrants deserve — getting that oil to them.”

Dale Jackson, the father of a medical cannabis patient and a co-applicant who was not approved for a license in the original selection round, was disappointed at the failure of lawmakers to come up with a solution.

“The state of Georgia had three years and accomplished nothing,” said Jackson.

“It’s an abomination to the families of Georgia how messed up this commission is, and how leadership has failed the families of Georgia,” he added.

Cannabis advocates including Jackson were also critical of the medical cannabis commission’s lack of transparency in awarding the licenses. Information on thousands of pages from winning bids was redacted by state law and withheld from the public. The scoring of the winning bids by the commission’s politically appointed members was also kept secret.

“The way in which this new agency was rolled out. It was so egregious. It was horrible,” said Jackson.

After the bill was tabled in the Senate, Ralston said the move was a disappointment for the state’s medical cannabis patients.

“I’m at a loss on that,” Ralston told reporters. “How long are these people going to have to wait? I’m really, really disappointed. We worked, we couldn’t get the Senate to engage very much on the conference committee. We thought we had them engaged, they came back with a conference committee report, and they put it up and it gets beat. I hope the families of Georgia know that we gave it our best shot. The blame is over there, as far as I’m concerned.”

The post Georgia Medical Cannabis Bill Dies in State Senate appeared first on High Times.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the details on an amusing story out of the Peach State General Assembly, where cannabis reform has been a hot topic during this year’s legislative session.

It all started with a bipartisan bill designed to “help cannabis farmers with a bill allowing more hemp products in a state where marijuana remains illegal” brought by what the newspaper described as an “unlikely Senate duo — a conservative South Georgia farmer running for higher office and a liberal Atlanta preacher”: Republican state Sen. Tyler Harper and his Democratic colleague, state Sen. Kim Jackson.

The bill, per the Journal-Constitution, “started as a proposal to allow hemp farming by Georgians who are currently barred because they had been convicted of a felony,” and would have “allowed hemp farming licenses to be issued to individuals as long as they haven’t been convicted of a felony related to a federally controlled substance within the previous 10 years.”

But after that bill cleared a state Senate committee, Harper brought forward a substitute bill that included the following language: “Hemp products shall not be considered controlled substances due to the presence of hemp or hemp derived cannabinoids.”

That, as the newspaper put it, would have effectively legalized Delta-8 THC, a compound that gives some users a high similar to standard cannabis and has risen in popularity in the United States after Congress legalized industrial hemp in the 2018 Farm Bill.

The bill made it out of committee and onto the floor of the Georgia state Senate earlier this month before some concerned lawmakers wised up to what was in play and returned the legislation to the committee.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that “Agriculture Chairman Larry Walker said he had voted for it in the Rules Committee ‘not understanding everything that’s in the bill.’”

“That’s on me. It slipped by me,” said Walker, as quoted by the newspaper.

What the mishap does underscore is just how focused Georgia lawmakers have been on cannabis-related bills as of late –– specifically the state’s troubled medical cannabis program.

Georgia legalized medical cannabis treatment in 2015, but only in the form of THC oil. Worse yet, as the Journal-Constitution put it last month, “state law has allowed registered patients in Georgia to use medical marijuana oil, but they still have no legal way to buy it here.” That’s been a massive source of frustration for the roughly thousands of patients currently registered in the program, who have been forced to obtain cannabis products in other states or via the illicit market.

A bill brought forward in February seeks to significantly open up the program, including upping the number of medical cannabis licenses in the state from six to 22. After awarding the licenses by late June, the bill would also set off a countdown of sorts, giving the newly licensed businesses one year to start.

The first six companies were only selected last July, six years after medical cannabis was legalized in the state. And the state first started accepting applications from would-be cannabis manufacturers in late 2020.

This month, lawmakers in the Georgia state Senate and House have considered a series of bills that would give a shot in the arm to the oft-delayed program, including legislation intended to re-start the licensing process.

“The sole purpose of the bill is to move the ball forward on getting medical cannabis to the folks on the registry,” state Sen. Dean Burke said regarding the bills. “The process, most people would say, has been flawed.”

The post Oops! Georgia Lawmakers Almost Voted on Delta-8 Bill by Accident appeared first on High Times.

The Georgia state legislature passed the Haleigh’s Hope Act, a measure that allowed patients with certain medical conditions including seizure disorders and end-stage cancer to use cannabis oil containing no more than 5 percent THC, in 2015. But lawmakers failed to pass legislation allowing the regulated production and sale of cannabis oil, leaving patients with no legal way to obtain their medicine.

In 2019, lawmakers finally approved a bill to permit medical pot cultivation and cannabis oil production and sales. The same year, Governor Brian Kemp, Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan and House Speaker David Ralston appointed a seven-member commission to draft regulations and license medical cannabis producers.

Two years later, the GA Access to Medical Cannabis Commission (GMCC) announced that it would award licenses to six companies from the pool of nearly 70 applicants. Nearly two dozen of the unsuccessful applicants filed protests, and one prospective cannabis operator, Georgia Atlas, filed a lawsuit characterizing the state’s selection process as “lacking in transparency, objectivity and fairness.” The legal action has stalled the licensing process, leaving Georgia’s 20,000 registered medical weed patients still without access to legal cannabis oil.

Two Separate Bills Approved

To rectify the situation, Georgia lawmakers approved two bills on Tuesday to restart the licensing process. Senate Bill 609 from Senator Jeff Mullis would direct the GMCC to re-evaluate the application proposals already submitted and select the six “highest qualified applicants” to receive licenses. The legislation was approved in the Senate with a unanimous vote of 52-0.

“The sole purpose of the bill is to move the ball forward on getting medical cannabis to the folks on the registry,” said state Senator Dean Burke, as quoted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The process, most people would say, has been flawed.”

A separate measure, House Bill 1425 from Representative Bill Werkheiser would effectively cancel the progress on medical cannabis program licensing made to date and restart the process with the Department of Administrative Services overseeing the new application and selection process. The competitive bidding process would be graded by an independent third-party, rather than the politically appointed GMCC. The legislation does not set a date by which the licenses would be awarded.

“We don’t know if it’s perfect but if we don’t do anything we’re in a very bad place,” Werkheiser said. “We’ve got to do something. We’ve got to get the medicine into the patients’ hands.”

House Bill 1425 would also expand the number of medical pot licenses as more patients register for the program.

“It grows as the number of licenses grow,” Werkheiser said. “Every 10,000 additional patients, we’ll add one more large license and small license and we’ll keep doing that.”

Lawmakers in the House passed Werkheiser’s bill on Tuesday with a vote of 169-5. State Representative Ed Setzler voted for the bill, noting that it retains the strict limits approved by lawmakers in previous legislation. But he is concerned that the bill’s approval could bolster efforts to legalize recreational cannabis.

“There’s a movement behind the scenes, and it’s very soon going to be out in the open, that’s going to be monetizing this process to push for full-on what you would call medical/recreational marijuana and making Georgia a recreational state,” Setzler told his colleagues in the House. “That’s coming. The money behind this, that’s protecting these (requests for proposals), is driving this, it’s a nationwide movement, it is coming to Georgia. And they see this process as just a step in that direction.”

However, Representative Micah Gravley said that Setzler’s worries are unfounded, citing the tight regulatory controls included in the measure.

“We have not become a recreational state, we have not implemented medical smoking or anything like that,” he said. “Matter of fact, we have a very strict law, you can’t even advertise with the color green in our law. There are no edibles in our law. You can’t even have a standalone education center in our laws for our patients seeking this, who has been recommended by their physician, who’s wanting education on this particular subject, you can’t even have a standalone Education Center.”

Georgia Patients Left in the Lurch

House Bill 1425 will now be considered by the Georgia Senate and Senate Bill 609 has similarly crossed over to the House of Representatives. But both measures, if one is finally approved and passed into law, are likely to face additional legal challenges, particularly if one or more of the six companies previously approved fail to gain a license. It’s a situation that continues to frustrate patients and their families, including Sebastian Cotte, the father of 11-year-od Jagger Cotte, who has a rare neurological condition known as Leigh syndrome.

“He is nonverbal, never spoke in his life, he cannot hold his head up, he cannot walk, he is 100% handicapped,” Cotte told local media about his son’s disability.

In 2014, the Cottes moved to Colorado so that Jagger could be treated with medical marijuana. Sebastian Cotte said that his son quickly made progress with high-CBD, low-THC cannabis oil.

“Right away, we saw some changes,” he said, “but the one thing I will never forget– Jagger had not smiled for a year before that. After two or three days on CBD, Jagger smiled again.”

With cannabis oil legal now, the father and son are back in Georgia. But Sebastian Cotte is still forced to obtain the medicine his son needs from out of state. He hopes that Georgia’s lawmakers will soon make that unnecessary.

“We are not asking for the moon,” Cotte said. “We are asking for access like so many other states have.”

The post Georgia Lawmakers Consider Separate Medical Cannabis Production Bills appeared first on High Times.

The decision means that thousands of patients in the Peach State will now finally be able to obtain medical marijuana oil, which has long been unavailable under the state’s medical marijuana law. This will be a significant and positive change for a state that has gone too long without a true medical program.

The move was greenlit by Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission, which “voted unanimously to select the six companies from 69 that had applied for licenses,” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “State law limits the number of medical marijuana producers to six. Each licensee will be authorized to open five dispensaries,” the newspaper reported. 

Those businesses are now permitted to sell medical marijuana oil, so long as it contains no more than five percent THC. 

For Georgia’s medical cannabis patients who prefer oil consumption, it has been a long time coming. In 2019, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, signed Georgia’s Hope Act, or HB 324, into law.

The legislation cleared the way for “the production, manufacturing, and dispensing of low THC oil in [the] state,” and provided for “an exception to possession of certain quantities of low THC oil.” 

Georgia’s Program Has Been Lagging

Overall, implementation of Georgia’s medical marijuana law has continued to lag. As the Marijuana Policy Project noted, the “Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission accepted applications for producers in late 2020,” but did not issue the six licenses until Saturday. 

The commission chose the six companies before a “packed room of about 200 people,” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The newspaper said that those six companies “will have one year to begin operations after contracts are signed following potential protests from losing bidders, providing for patients suffering from conditions including seizures, terminal cancers and Parkinson’s disease.” Two companies “won licenses to cultivate medical marijuana oil on 100,000 square feet of indoor growing space,” while the other four “will be licensed to operate smaller production facilities with 50,000 square feet of growing room.”

Georgia lawmakers first passed a bill legalizing medical marijuana in 2015, but the rollout has come at a glacial pace. By late 2019, the state still hadn’t appointed any members to the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that, before now, “patients have obtained low THC oil illegally, either through an informal network of patients or by traveling to other states to buy it.”

The law passed six years ago allows “patients to register to possess up to 20 fluid ounces of medical cannabis oil with up to 5 percent THC,” according to the Marijuana Policy Project. The Marijuana Policy Project has expressed disappointment at the five percent cap, saying that Georgia’s statute “does not meet MPP’s definition of an effective medical cannabis law.”

Around 15,000 patients have signed up for the medical marijuana program in the state, and on the heels of this weekend’s vote, they are one step closer to finally getting their hands on the medicine. Sales for medical marijuana have been expected to begin sometime this year.

Georgia officials have continued to expand the program even during the slow implementation period. In May, Kemp signed a bill into law that will allow as many as 30 state-licensed medical cannabis businesses to to sell high CBD-cannabis.

But the unanimous vote by the commission over the weekend means that the state will, at long last, “have a functioning marijuana program,” as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution put it.

The post Georgia Medical Cannabis Program Finally Revamps and Expands appeared first on High Times.

“Fentanyl-related overdoses are increasing across the state,” the officials wrote. “Now, state health officials are asking that people carry naloxone if they plan on consuming any drug not purchased at a pharmacy or cannabis dispensary or have friends and family that do.”

Buzzfeed called the fentanyl-laced cannabis myth “the hardiest urban legend of the U.S. overdose crisis,” and it sure is hard to tell, when the myth is routinely perpetuated by state and federal officials, and shared constantly by law enforcement. Seasoned cannabis consumers are baffled as to why anyone would lace weed with an hard-to-obtain, deadly drug that is more expensive than cannabis, per gram. The officials did not stop there, however.

“Assume that any substance that you do not purchase at a pharmacy or cannabis dispensary contains fentanyl.”

The release indicated that preliminary data shows 418 overdose deaths in the first three months of 2021—compared to 378 overdose deaths in the first three months of 2020. Of the 418 overdose deaths in 2021, 46 percent (191) of those deaths are linked to fentanyl. Many of those deaths, tragically, involved people under 30 years of age—with their whole life in front of them. It proves the point that people who use fentanyl and other opioids should carry naloxone nearby.

Just last month, Georgia officials issued a warning for fentanyl overdoses—again, trying to blame it on marijuana. “At this time, ALL recreational use narcotics, including marijuana, should be considered a serious threat to life safety,” the Camden County Emergency Management Agency wrote in a Saturday Facebook post. Police departments in Kingsland and St. Mary’s, two neighboring local cities, issued similar warnings.

Fentanyl itself is amazingly effective at stopping breathing in individuals: “Two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal depending on a person’s body size, tolerance and past usage,” the DEA says, but the organization also says that “no deaths from overdose of marijuana have been reported.” Even the DEA admits it.

But are there any verified instances of fentanyl-laced weed? Or is it just another reason for misplaced hysteria—like the “Great Vape Scare,” or the annual warnings about so-called people handing out edibles during Halloween?

Are People Just Making Up Stories About Fentanyl-Laced Weed?

Journalist and paramedic Claire Zagorski, MSc, LP from Filter magazine slammed sensationalist journalism—including a questionable article from the Washington Post—about fentanyl-laced marijuana. Kellyanne Conway, the White House’s former opioid crisis czar, was one of the myth’s biggest spreaders. “People are unwittingly ingesting it,” Conway said. “It’s laced into heroin, marijuana, meth, cocaine and it’s also just being distributed by itself.”

So where did the fentanyl-laced weed myth begin?

The fentanyl-laced weed myth picked up steam in 2017, when Hamilton County, Ohio coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco said in a press conference that “we have seen fentanyl mixed with cocaine, we have also seen fentanyl mixed with marijuana.”

But after follow-up scrutiny in a Vice piece, Sammarco was forced to admit that she had not seen evidence of fentanyl-laced cannabis, just parroting what her co-presenter, U.S. Senator Rob Portman, had told her. And this was said without any reliable sources. Further reporting in the Cincinnati Inquirer found no solid evidence of fentanyl-laced cannabis—just wild speculations, and they cited several sources including various coroner’s offices and a DEA spokesperson.

Most likely, fentanyl-laced weed stories are more fiction than fact, and there is little, if any evidence to back up stories. In most cases, police departments surmise different ways that fentanyl could be disguised and distributed.

The post Officials Warn About Fentanyl-Laced Weed—the Myth that Refuses to Die appeared first on High Times.

Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 195 into law last week, and now, up to 30 state-licensed businesses can become sellers of high-CBD cannabis, as long as they keep the THC to a minimum. SB 195 will officially go into effect July 1. 

While medical cannabis first got passed in Georgia in 2015, it just exempted patients from criminal prosecution as long as they needed the cannabis for verified medical reasons, and as long as the cannabis possessed was in the form of oil extracts at 5 percent or less THC. Effectively, all it did was decriminalize possession. Without crossing state lines, there was no legal way for medical patients to obtain cannabis oil. 

And there is already a customer base in place. As of now, about 15,000 residents are registered to qualify for the use of high-CBD, low-THC oils, and are just waiting for a legal way to purchase cannabis in their home state. 

The Road Leading To SB 195

In 2019, House Bill 325, also known as the Georgia’s Hope Act, came up with a regulatory commission that would oversee the industry when it did finally get off the ground. However, while putting that framework in place was a big step, it still didn’t take things far enough and create a legal industry.

Now, there is finally an official state industry to begin serving patients. SB 195 finally takes things a step further and allows those who have production licenses to also possess up to five licenses for dispensaries. There are about 70 applicants so far, and in total, only six companies will be chosen to start manufacturing so far.

These applicants will be reviewed by the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission, who will decide who gets these coveted licenses by late spring or early summer. Then, the companies who are chosen will be given one year to open for business and begin providing cannabis to the thousands or registered patients who are waiting for product.  

“The goal is to ensure that patients have access to the highest-quality medicine that we can arrive at in our state with these production facilities,” said Andrew Turnage, the commission’s executive director. “I’m very impressed with the quality and caliber of applicants.”

The companies that applied back in 2019, when the commission was created, also submitted business plans that included strategies for seed-to-sale tracking, production and business operations. It is up to the commission to decide which ones make the cut.

Those who do get licensed will then have to follow strict guidelines in order to be compliant. Cannabis legally sold in Georgia can’t have any more than 5 percent THC, and a total of 400,000 indoor growing space will be allowed throughout the entire state. There is much competition as to who will get the licenses, but the biggest focus right now is on compliance.

“The only thing we should be thinking about is how we can get the safest oil and the best medicine to Georgia patients,” said state Rep. Micah Gravley, a Republican from Douglasville who sponsored legislation starting the program. “The licensees should be the six companies who are capable of creating a lab-tested, trusted, safe oil, and have a tested and proven product in other states.”

The limited number of licenses is a compromise that was originally reached between the House and the Senate when cannabis was legalized. The idea is to make sure that patient care is top priority and that medical cannabis is made available, but also to prevent the illegal distribution of cannabis.

The post Georgia Governor Signs SB 195 To Expand Medical Cannabis Program appeared first on High Times.

That is thanks to an executive order issued earlier this month by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms that suspended physical examinations and drug screenings “prospective employees who are not applying for employment in safety sensitive positions.” 

The order “also grants the Commissioner of the Department of Human Resources the authority to administratively establish requirements for pre-employment physical examinations and drug testing for safety sensitive positions and may designate certain employment classifications which affect safety and /or security as safety sensitive positions.”

“The current pre-employment testing requirements for those seeking jobs, not related to safety and security, are outdated and costly barriers to onboarding new talent in the City of Atlanta,” Bottoms said in a press release earlier this month. “As we continue to reform our employment process, creating a positive employee experience is key to attracting and maintaining a top-tier workforce, while ensuring opportunities are accessible to all.”

The “safety sensitive” designation means the order will not extend to “police officers or people who drive sanitation trucks, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Another Step To Eliminate Discriminatory Hiring Practices

Bottoms’ office noted that the executive order is “another step toward achieving Mayor Bottoms’ vision for the city as One Atlanta and the Administration’s equity agenda,” saying that the effort also included the “establishment of the first-ever Mayor’s Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.”

“Previously, Mayor Bottoms removed the salary history question on employment applications in an effort to ensure fair hiring practices. Studies have shown that on average, women earn 80 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earn. For women of color, the wage gap is even more disparate,” Bottoms’ office said in a statement. “Black women on average earn 62 cents for every dollar their white male counterpart earns. For Latinas, the gap is 53 cents for every dollar—or 47 percent less. Mayor Bottoms’ move to revise pre-employment screenings and salary history questions from the City’s hiring practices builds upon Atlanta’s decision in 2014 to ban a requirement for people with criminal convictions to disclose that information on job applications.”

The move comes amid a wave of legalization throughout the country, which has forced state and local governments to reconsider its treatment of marijuana. Other cities have also considered doing away with employment drug screenings, a move advocates have long called for.

“The abolishment of this discriminatory policy is long overdue,” NORML’s deputy director Paul Armentano said in response to the executive order in Atlanta. “The use of cannabis during one’s off hours poses no legitimate workplace safety threat and the tens of millions of Americans who engage in this behavior should no longer be stigmatized or denied employment because of it.”

Along with the ever-changing laws surrounding marijuana—and its growing acceptance among the population at large—there is also evidence to support doing away with pre-employment drug screenings. 

A study published last year by researchers from the University of Toronto found “no evidence that cannabis users experienced higher rates of work-related injuries,” but the authors of the study said that “occupational medicine practitioners should take a risk-based approach to drafting workplace cannabis policies.”

The post City of Atlanta Eliminates Pre-Employment Drug Testing For Certain Occupations appeared first on High Times.

This move is a long time coming, as it has been five years since treatment with medical cannabis oil was legalized in the state by the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission. 

As of now, there are about 14,000 registered patients in the state hoping to use medical cannabis oil as treatment, but until now, they had to go out of state to do it. While medical cannabis use in certain cases was made legal in 2015, sale of legal cannabis was only legalized last year, and due to COVID delays, the industry is only now getting started. 

As of now, those interested in being manufacturers have through December 28 to apply for one of the first licenses in the Georgia cannabis industry. Licenses will be issued in March if all goes according to plan, but it could still take six months to a year from that time before cannabis is actually available to patients.

“I do think this is the first step in a really great economic development opportunity with an emphasis on Georgia business and small business development,” said Andrew Turnage, the commission’s executive director. “The commission works very hard to keep this process moving forward every single day.”

Since the sale and production of cannabis was legalized a year ago, the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission has been meeting and coming up with a plan for distribution, testing, oversight, and giving licenses to the businesses who want to join the industry and sell cannabis oil. 

The Fine Print

As of now, the licensing process is extremely complex and competitive, as only six companies will be licensed to join the industry. The oil they create cannot have more than 5 percent THC, and can still only be prescribed in specific, medical circumstances. Furthermore, facilities must either be 100,000 square feet or 50,000 square feet, and only two of the businesses licensed can be the larger side. 

Any licensed facilities will have to hire security and install cameras to keep things safe and secure. A seed-to-sale tracking system will keep track of product at all times so that the industry meets strict guidelines and stays compliant. 

The next step after establishing those who will grow cannabis and extract oil will be to grant licenses to the oil dispensaries that will be selling product. Once those businesses are up and running, patients will actually be able to get the help they need in-state.

“We just want to keep the patients in the forefront,” Commission Chairman Dr. Christopher Edwards said. “And the longer this process goes on, the longer the time it takes for patients to receive help.”

The medical cannabis industry in Georgia is just in its beginning stages, but it’s shaping up to be running strong in the coming years.

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