Sky “High” Sales | Unfilter 80

Posted on: January 8, 2014

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Sky “High” Sales | Unfilter 80

A lot’s happened over our holiday break, we’ll round up the critical revelations in the NSA spying programs, and the major legal challenges the NSA is facing.

Then: On January 1st 2014 recreational cannabis stores open their doors in Colorado, and sparked interest around the world. We’ll check in on the first few days of making history.

Now the national debate has started, and the pundits take to the air to weigh in, but their analysis misses the target.

Plus live calls, our follow up, and much much more.

On this week’s Unfilter.

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— Show Notes —

NSA is CRAZY

Sanders, in a letter dated 3 January, defined “spying” as “gathering metadata on calls made from official or personal phones, content from websites visited or emails sent, or collecting any other data from a third party not made available to the general public in the regular course of business”.

The NSA’s director, Gen. Keith Alexander, told the advisory panel, the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, that the “NSA itself has seriously considered moving to a model in which the data are held by the private sector.” But, according to a review group member, Alexander told the group that “no one else wanted it — especially not the phone companies.” Alexander, the member said, “described it as a ‘bit of a hot potato.’ ”

As expected, on Thursday the ACLU filed notice that it will appeal Pauley’s decision before the second circuit court of appeals. The civil liberties group said in a statement that it anticipates making its case before the appellate court in the spring.

“The government has a legitimate interest in tracking the associations of suspected terrorists, but tracking those associations does not require the government to subject every citizen to permanent surveillance,” deputy ACLU legal director Jameel Jaffer said in the statement.

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Devil Weed Takes Root in America

Owners of the 37 new dispensaries around the state reported first week retail sales to The Huffington Post that, when added together, were roughly $5 million.

Prices also were boosted by the state’s 25 percent tax on retail purchases, including a 15 percent excise tax and a 10 percent sales tax. Voters approved the levy in November. Local taxes can add more to what customers pay.

Six days after sales became legal, stores are rationing how much they sell, and a company that makes cannabis-infused sparkling fruit drinks, chocolates, mints and more ran out of supplies in just three days, Denver’s local ABC affiliate reported. Among retailers, Lodo Wellness Center in downtown Denver, for example, is limiting customers to an eighth of an ounce, or one-eighth of what they can legally buy, it said.

The ArcView Group, which matches marijuana entrepreneurs and investors, has estimated the legalized pot market in the U.S. could reach $10.2 billion over the next five years, from $1.44 billion last year, as other states join Colorado and Washington in legalizing recreational marijuana use.

The Money Problem

Still, the federal prohibition means banks won’t accept marijuana businesses for traditional bank accounts, and retailers said they can’t take advantage of traditional business tax writeoffs.

Financial institutions don’t want to run afoul of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, which can charge fines of up to $500,000 per transaction for working with companies who sell illegal products. Though Colorado and Washington have been cleared for adult recreational use sales, and 21 states (plus the District of Columbia) have legalized pot for medicinal use, marijuana remains illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act. Even a state-owned bank, which one Washington lawmaker has proposed, would have to abide by federal banking laws. The discrepancy between state and federal law puts financial institutions at risk of money laundering prosecution, and they want precise assurances before assuming that risk. “They want the safe harbor to be so abundantly clear,” said Rep. Heck.

The irony here is rich. A year ago, British-based bank HSBC was fined $1.9 billion for actual money laundering for Mexican drug cartels, suspected of killing thousands of innocent civilians. HSBC had no problem doing very profitable business with the illegal drug trade, and they basically got away with it, with no criminal prosecution and a paltry fine. But in Washington and Colorado, you have legal businesses operating within state law, and no bank will touch them. “I guess they don’t think we’re big enough dollar-wise for them to risk it,” said Alex Cooley of Solstice. “But it’s crazy, in Washington, Bank of America is the state bank. They’ll take our tax revenue from the state but they won’t take our money.”

The Legalization Trend

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