Category: Cannabis

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CAL AMSTERDAM – Political consultant Melahat Rafiei pleads guilty to attempted wire fraud – Retail License “Cannabis Fixer” says she Agreed to Bribe Irvine Politicians FBI Looking for Others

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A former executive director of the Democratic Party of Orange County pleaded guilty today to a felony charge for attempting to defraud one of her political consultancy firm’s clients.

Melahat Rafiei, 45, of Anaheim, entered her plea to attempted wire fraud in Los Angeles federal court. Sentencing was set for Oct. 13, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“Ms. Rafiei appeared in court today and per her plea agreement entered her plea before the judge. She is proud that the work she has done was instrumental in bringing down the Anaheim cabal,” said Alaleh Kamran, Rafiei’s attorney. “It is worth noting that her plea was not to bribery charges, but to attempted wire fraud.”

Rafiei, the principal and founder of Progressive Solutions Consulting, a Long Beach-based political consulting firm, admitted that she agreed to bribe two members of the Irvine City Council — both on cannabis-related matters, court papers show.

The two councilmembers were not named in the plea agreement, nor were any allegations against any councilmembers documented in the agreement. No current councilmembers were serving at that time.

Rafiei was a longtime leader in Orange County’s Democratic Party and formerly served as secretary of the California Democratic Party and state representative to the Democratic National Committee.

According to her plea agreement, from April to June 2018, Rafiei agreed to give at least $225,000 in bribes to Irvine City Council members in exchange for their introducing a city ordinance that would allow Rafiei’s clients to open a retail cannabis store in Irvine.

In April 2018, Rafiei presented a business opportunity to an individual who was then employed in the medical cannabis industry and offered to introduce the person to an Irvine politician, who was not identified in court papers, prosecutors said.

The next month, Rafiei met with the unnamed elected official to discuss introducing an ordinance in Irvine that would legalize retail medical cannabis and ultimately benefit the individual’s business, court papers state.

Following the meeting, Rafiei asked the person’s business partner to pay her between $350,000 and $400,000 in exchange for getting the cannabis ordinance introduced, according to her plea agreement.

Irvine only allows marijuana testing laboratories in industrial, medical and science districts. No other type of commercial cannabis business is permitted.

In September and October of 2019, Rafiei falsely represented to a commercial cannabis company owner that, in exchange for a payment of at least $300,000, she would work to pass a cannabis-related ordinance in Anaheim that would benefit and be specifically tailored for the company owner’s business, her plea agreement says.

However, Rafiei already had been working on such an ordinance for other paying clients, court papers show.

Rafiei then falsely represented to the victim that she would keep only $10,000 of the payment in exchange for her purported work. In fact, Rafiei intended to keep $100,000 of the payment, prosecutors said.

Rafiei faces a possible sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors noted.

Political consultant Melahat Rafiei pleads guilty to attempted wire fraud

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CAL AMSTERDAM – California Sees Mass Legal Cannabis Exodus – Jerry Garcia’s Grateful Dead cannabis brand is leaving California

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Jerry Garcia is one of the most iconic pot smokers in California history. Born in San Francisco, Garcia led the Grateful Dead for 30 years as the city became an international beacon of counterculture, and he did it all while casually and openly smoking weed. His pot pipe is considered an artifact of California cannabis history.

But even the iconic Jerry Garcia name couldn’t survive California’s turbulent legal pot market.

The Garcia Hand Picked brand, launched by the deceased musician’s family in 2020, has pulled out of the state, a spokesperson confirmed to SFGATE. Garcia’s exit comes as cannabis insiders predict a “mass extinction event” for California’s pot industry, with thousands of companies expected to go out of business this year.

Andrew DeAngelo, a cannabis consultant and former owner of Harborside, one of the state’s pioneering medical cannabis dispensaries, said the Garcia brand probably learned the same thing that all of California’s pot companies have realized: “You can’t make any money in this market.”

“Not only is Garcia leaving, a lot of people are leaving,” DeAngelo told SFGATE. “It’s a real shame that California is losing out. We’re losing out on jobs and economic activity and other places are benefiting from that.”

Garcia Hand Picked, like most celebrity brands, contracted out its cannabis growing and manufacturing to partner companies and then stamped Jerry Garcia’s face on the packaging. The company said they are looking for a new cannabis supplier, but declined to be interviewed for this story and did not elaborate on how long the brand would be on hiatus in California. Garcia Hand Picked is still available in five other states.

“We’re taking a pause in California. We want to ensure CA consumers have the highest quality flower for the long term, so we are in the process of choosing a new local partner for cultivation, production, sales and distribution of Garcia Hand Picked in CA,” a spokesperson from Holistic Industries, the brand’s parent company, said in an email to SFGATE.

California’s cannabis industry has faced huge economic hurdles in its first four years of legal sales. The state’s complicated cannabis regulations and high taxes add costs to legal operators, while widespread illegal farms and retailers undercuts legitimate companies. Limited access to banking means these companies pay exorbitant fees for simple banking services and have almost no access to loans. Federal law blocks pot companies from deducting most business taxes from their federal taxes, making pot businesses pay an effective federal tax rate as high as 80%.

These factors have come together to make California a painful place to run a legal pot business. The majority of small legacy cannabis farms are on their way out of business and even the country’s biggest cannabis companies are leaving the state.

Nearly a dozen states had legalized cannabis by the time Jerry Garcia’s surviving family members decided to start a pot brand built around the Grateful Dead frontman, who died of a heart attack in 1995. But the Garcias chose to launch their brand in California, the same place that Jerry was born, spearheaded an artistic movement, and died.

The Golden State featured prominently in that initial launch. An airstream painted with swirling psychedelic colors crisscrossed the state in late 2020 announcing the new brand. Esquire profiled the family as they smoked a bong in Oakland and asked, “If Jerry Garcia were a kind of weed, what would the high feel like?” The family told Esquire they were planning on opening a Jerry Garcia-themed cannabis consumption lounge at a dispensary in San Francisco, which never materialized.

Nearly a dozen states had legalized cannabis by the time Jerry Garcia’s surviving family members decided to start a pot brand built around the Grateful Dead frontman, who died of a heart attack in 1995. But the Garcias chose to launch their brand in California, the same place that Jerry was born, spearheaded an artistic movement, and died.

The Golden State featured prominently in that initial launch. An airstream painted with swirling psychedelic colors crisscrossed the state in late 2020 announcing the new brand. Esquire profiled the family as they smoked a bong in Oakland and asked, “If Jerry Garcia were a kind of weed, what would the high feel like?” The family told Esquire they were planning on opening a Jerry Garcia-themed cannabis consumption lounge at a dispensary in San Francisco, which never materialized.

The Garcia brand’s departure is also a sign that customers could be getting tired of celebrity pot brands. There are so many famous people selling weed that even the rock stars are noticing that it might not be an easy business to get into: David Crosby told the Los Angeles Times last year that he wanted to start his own pot brand but said, “Celebrity brands didn’t turn out to work nearly as well as anyone thought they were gunna.”

Indeed, Garcia Hand Picked isn’t even the first Grateful Dead pot brand. Drummer Mickey Hart launched his own pre-rolled joint brand called Mind your Head in 2019, although that brand also appears to be on hiatus. Its website is down and a brand representative could be contacted for this story.

Garcia Hand Picked and Mind Your Head could come back to the state, but for now, Deadheads in California will have to get by without smoking any cannabis blessed by the legendary band.

https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/jerry-garcia-cannabis-leaving-california-17741843.php

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CAL AMSTERDAM – Smoking marijuana may be more harmful to lungs than smoking cigarettes, study finds

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As recreational pot has gained traction in states all across the country, more research has been focusing on its health effects. One argument marijuana supporters have stood by for years – that weed is healthier than cigarettes – is now coming under fire.

A new study has found that smoking marijuana may be more likely to cause certain health problems than tobacco.

“Perhaps it’s time to just pause and think about what you’re doing to yourself until we get more information,” said Dr. Scott Brandman, a thoracic radiologist, in reference to the new study published in the Radiological Society of North America.

That study reviewed lung scans of smokers and found that rates of emphysema, airway inflammation and enlarged breast tissue were higher in marijuana smokers than tobacco smokers. Emphysema is already the third leading cause of death in America.

“Marijuana smoke not only damages the airways in the lung… but it’s actually making holes in it,” Brandman explained. “We’re seeing for the first time these holes being created in the lung. That is going to be irreversible damage for these people.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say about 20% of all Americans have tried pot. It’s also the most commonly used drug in America that is still illegal at the federal level.

Brandman says one factor that may affect weed smokers is how they inhale: deeper, holding the smoke in their lungs longer.

“It’s going deeper into the lung and its having an opportunity to stay there for a longer time during that deeper, longer breath hold,” he said.

And researchers are also looking at something within pot.

“There’s a carcinogen or chemical that we haven’t yet identified in marijuana smoke, that we’re theorizing is damaging the lung and creating these holes,” Brandman added.

If you’re using marijuana for medical reasons, Brandman suggests talking to your doctor about edibles or ways other than smoking to use marijuana.

Some health effects of marijuana, such as brain development issues, high blood pressure, and increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, have been studied. However, according to Dr. Albert Rizzo, lung doctor and chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, “We don’t know the long-term effects of marijuana as we do for the long-term effects of tobacco.”

Tobacco smoke is also filtered, but marijuana smoke is not. All of these factors contribute to inflammation and irreversible damage, doctors say.

“Anything you inhale that could irritate the lungs would not be advisable, so I would recommend they stop,” Rizzo said. However, he recognizes that some users have medical necessity.

“There is a public perception that marijuana is safe. This study signals that marijuana could be more harmful than people realize,” said Dr. Giselle Revah, study co-author and cardiothoracic radiologist.

https://abc7.com/marijuana-smoke-lungs-study-cigarette/12457031/

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