Four states vote to legalize marijuana and Oregon decriminalizes hard drugs

On election day New Jersey, Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota voted to legalize recreational marijuana. While Oregon voted to improve their state by decriminalizing hard drugs. 

These four states will join the 44 states that allow medical and recreational marijuana use. This will only be for adults who are 21 years and older. 

New Jersey did not decide on how many plants a resident can grow but the state sales tax of 6.625% will apply to recreational marijuana and local governments  and may be able to enact an additional 2% sales tax. Further laws and regulations will be added once the state legislature and five-member Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) makes final decisions.

In Arizona, the passing of this law will also allow people to grow up to six cannabis plants. Sales of cannabis will become legal while incurring a 16 percent sales tax. 

In Montana, residents will be able to grow up to four marijuana plants and four seedlings for personal use and the sales tax for marijuana will be 20 percent. 

South Dakota, passed their Amendment A and Initiated Measure 26. This will permit residents to grow up to three cannabis plants if in an area that doesn’t have any licensed marijuana retailers. The marijuana sales tax will be 15 percent.

While four states went on to legalize marijuana, in a first in the nation, voters in Oregon passed a ballot that decriminalizes possession of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other hard drugs. Passing this law will now change how Oregon’s justice system treats those who are found with personal use amounts of  hard drugs. Instead of going to trial and facing possible jail time, a person would have the option of paying a $100 fine or attending  “addiction recovery centers” funded by millions of dollars of tax revenue from Oregon’s legalized and regulated marijuana industry.

The measure will be effective in 30 days but the punishments will not go into effect until February of 2021. The state is hoping that the initiatives will lead to significant reductions in racial and ethnic disparities in both convictions and arrests.

‘Power Of Hope’ 13-Year Old Breaks Bearers In The Film Industry

Kalia Love Jones is empowering the youth at the young age of 13. She has an animated short film, The Power of Hope, that is inspired by former FLOTUS, Michelle Obama. 

The film is an inspirational story of a young woman with a dream of being an architect who feels helpless when her mother gets sick. She hears the words of Michelle Obama where she eventually has the will to push through in order to execute her dreams.

Kalia Jones further explained to The Santa Clarita Valley Signal, “It’s about a girl who is trying to become an architect, but as she’s trying to reach her goal, a bunch of obstacles are getting in her way, so she tries to overcome those obstacles to reach her goal.”

In the beginning of September 2020, Kalia announced via Instagram that the film would be a part of the selection of LA Shorts International Film Festival. The Power of Hope is preparing to premiere at the Urbanworld Film Festival, as well. Kalia is currently a candidate for Time magazine’s Kid of the Year.

Kalia spends most of her time between school, film-making, playing piano & flute, gymnastics, and as a member of the district honor’s band first chair flute. Kalia is a gymnast who trained with the former U.S. Olympian, Chris Waller. Her free time is spent looking up female figures such as Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and many more while creating inspirational animated films. 

Jones co-wrote her film’s theme song with Ben Franklin and financially provided for her own project by recycling and working as many jobs as she could at the time.

Although it seemed like a wonderful journey she had many closed doors due to her youthful age but Jones didn’t allow that to deter her from achieving her dream to succeed.

Kalia Love Jones is a young woman striving to motivate young Black girls to dream and do anything they want if they put their mind to it. 

Visit ThePowerof Hopefilm.com for more information.

Apple & Google Working Together To Locate Individuals With COVID-19

Apple and Google are expanding their coronavirus warning software so that state health agencies can participate without having to create other applications to locate individuals who have COVID-19.

Apple has updated their products to allow individuals to know if they have been in close contact with anyone with the virus. The testing has been off to a slow start but using Bluetooth will allow people to tell whether someone has spent significant time near one another. Public health agencies around the world wanted to build apps that would help track the spread of the virus. However, due to citing privacy concerns, potential battery drainage , and limitations the two tech giants placed on mobile apps  experiments failed. 

Apple and Google declined to give public health agencies special access for the purpose of contact tracing; if a participant in the exposure notification program tests positive for the coronavirus, that person’s close contacts may get a notification. Apple and Google launched their own software that is built into the operating system where their software does not provide a lot of information to public health agencies.

“It’s still not probably serving all the interests that public health would want, but it’s better than nothing,” says Jeffrey Kahn. It will give a sense of relief if they can distance themselves from someone who has had or has the virus while they go to work or run errands. 

During a Tuesday conference call, the companies explained that they want states to exclusively utilize their system instead of creating customized apps. Residents who live in the state that participates in the software will get pop-up notifications to opt into the program to share their data that will allow others to see their information related to Coronavirus. Now that the process is seemingly easier instead of downloading a new app, if a person tests positive for the virus, participating public health agencies provide the person with a unique number. When entered into the system, other participants who’ve come into contact with that person may be notified.

With the “exposure notifications express” public health agencies will not have the ability to receive personal information, but it will allow agencies to track the virus better.