International
The cannabis business continues its battle with the law in New York
In recent years, cannabis has become one of the hallmarks of the State of New York, where the legalization of this drug led to its massive commercialization and the development of a policy closely related to the social reintegration of disadvantaged groups.
Since March 2021, cannabis use is allowed for adults over 21 years of age, and therefore having a store is also legal, as long as the necessary requirements to obtain a license are met.
The prices – which always include a non-refundable fee of $1,000 – vary depending on the type of license (for example, opening a retail dispensary costs $7,000) and the approval of the permit takes longer than it might seem
Before its legalization, the people who were most affected by having or selling marijuana were black and Hispanic: “(These people) bought and consumed cannabis as much as the white communities, but they were not arrested in the same proportion,” a spokeswoman for the State Cannabis Office (OCM) who prefers not to give her name, explains to EFE.
In this sense, of the 1,485 arrests made in 2020 for possession or sale of cannabis, 898 were to black people, 467 Hispanic, 64 Asian, 49 white and 7 of other ethnic groups, according to official data.
Therefore, the New York State government, through the CAURD program, granted the first 463 provisional retail licenses to entities run by people with previous convictions related to this drug.
“One thing that New York was not going to do was start a billion-dollar industry and not have these people directing it,” says the CMO representative.
In this way, a few years after being arrested for possession of this drug, José Polanco, from the Dominican Republic, fulfilled his dream and opened ‘Polanco Brothers’, a cannabis store located in front of Bryant Park, in the heart of Manhattan.
“For the Hispanic community this store is something important, because we show that we can do great business away from crime,” one of the partners, Pedro Antonio, tells EFE, who receives surrounded by showcases full of gummies, creams, cannabis with cranberry flavor and even tea.
In contrast to the old tobacco shop that he now replaces and that brew together the elites of New York inside – it was often attended by celebrities such as Robert Downey Jr. – Antonio expresses his desire for ‘Polanco Brothers’ to become a place of reference for the popular classes.
The slow licensing process has led many sellers to dodge the law: it is estimated that more than 2,000 premises in the State are illegal, compared to the 180 stores that are regulated by the New York Government.
The clerg of a small store in Manhattan, which does not appear in the catalog of dispensaries published by the government – although she assures that it is fully legal – explains that the place was forced to open without a license due to the delay in processing her permit.
The woman mentions the closure of illegal premises that has been taking place in the city for a few weeks, where the Mayor’s Office of New York began an operation on May 7 to end them: since then a total of 75 have been closed.
In a recent report, the New York Government harshly criticized the ineffectiveness of the Cannabis Office and pointed out that, in April, more than 1,200 people who applied for a license in November were still waiting to be examined.
Cannabis has strongly adhered to the culture of the city and is already part of the daily life of New Yorkers, who are usually seen with a butt between their fingers it rains, thunders or shines, and whether during the day, at night or first thing in the morning.
Its consumption is so widespread that the same mayor of New York, asked one day about the persistent smell of garbage in the summer months, denied it and said: “The first thing I smell right now is marijuana. It seems like everyone is smoking a joint,” and he laughed.
International
China shows at the UN its “condemnation” of Israel for the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty”
The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, showed the “condemnation” of his country against the “violation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Iran” after the air attack launched by Israel against multiple targets in that country, the official newspaper Diario del Pueblo reports this Saturday.
That media echoes Fu’s speech to the UN Security Council on Friday, in which he demanded that Israel “immediately stop all its military actions.”
“China (…) opposes the expansion of conflicts, and is deeply concerned about the serious consequences that may arise from Israel’s actions. The intensification of regional tensions does not interest any of the parties involved,” said the Chinese emissary.
Beijing called on Tel Aviv and Tehran to “resolve their disputes through political and diplomatic means, and maintain peace and stability at the regional level jointly.”
In Fu’s view, the Israeli attack will have a “negative impact” on the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program: “China has always been committed to the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and consultations, and opposes the use of force, illegal unilateral sanctions and armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities.”
This Friday, China had already expressed its willingness to “play a constructive role” to curb the escalation of tensions and facilitate conciliation, in line with its traditional position of active neutrality in the region’s conflicts.
The Israeli attack, which according to Tehran caused dozens of deaths, including senior military commanders and at least six nuclear scientists, targeted key facilities such as the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Numerous civilian casualties were also reported.
Israel justified the offensive by claiming that the Iranian regime is secretly developing a program to manufacture nuclear weapons.
For his part, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, promised a “severe response” and assured that the attack would reveal the “evil nature” of Israel.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern about the bombing, at a time when Iran and the US The United States is holding talks about the Iranian nuclear program.
International
Donald Trump’s government pauses its program of indiscriminate raides against migrants
The government of US President Donald Trump has decided to pause its campaign of discretionary roundings against migrants in certain areas due to its apparent concern about the growing unpopularity of these methods, according to The New York Times newspaper on Friday.
According to an email to which the newspaper has had access and the confirmation of US officials, the Executive has ordered the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) to pause the beatings that affect the agricultural industry and the hospitality industry.
The spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed in a statement that “the president’s instructions” will be obeyed and the portfolio will also continue to “work to get the worst illegal foreign criminals out of the streets of the United States.”
The decision points out that this campaign of discretionary arrests to try to deport large-scale immigrants is harming industries and electoral constituencies whose support Trump wants to retain for next year’s legislative elections.
The new instructions were transmitted to ICE in an email sent last Thursday asking that “all investigations/law enforcement operations be suspended in work centers in the agricultural sector (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and hotels.”
These new guidelines come in turn after more than a week of intense protests in Los Angeles against this immigration policy and that Trump himself admitted that the raids seem to be affecting the agricultural sector, which in states like California, where beatings have intensified, depend almost exclusively on immigrant labor.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has implemented an aggressive policy of hard hand against immigration and as a sample of his Cabinet officials recently held a meeting with the ICE leadership to order them to carry out 3,000 arrests a day, a mandate that seems to be behind the intensification of the raids.
International
Trump says he knew “everything” about the attack on Iran and assures that the dialogue remains open
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “known everything” about the Israeli attack on Iran and that the dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program “is not dead.”
“We knew everything and I tried to avoid Iran all this humiliation and death. I tried hard to avoid it because I would have loved to see an agreement,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.
The US president insisted on what he wrote today about the attack on social networks, where he said he gave an ultimatum of 60 days to Tehran to reach an agreement.
“We knew practically everything. We knew enough to give Iran 60 days to reach an agreement and today it is already 61 days,” he explained in the interview, in which he said he did not know what the current situation of the Iranian nuclear program is after the attack launched by Israel, which also ended the lives of key military leaders of the Persian country.
Regarding the dialogue between the US and Iran about the nuclear program of the ayatollahs, Trump assured that “he is not dead”, that “an agreement is still possible” and also recalled that on Sunday a sixth round of dialogue is scheduled in Muscat (Oman) that they consider is now in the air.
“We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I’m not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday,” he said.
The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks on the Iranian nuclear program since April, with Washington demanding that Tehran discard its capabilities both to manufacture an atomic bomb and to enrich uranium, something that the ayatollahs considered unacceptable.
Both Israel and Trump himself had warned of possible preventive attacks on the Persian country due to this refusal by Iran.
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