originating in china according to the world intellectual property organization chinese firms have filed three hundred nine of the six hundred six patents relating to the drug so apparently one hundred forty seven million people they claim around the world do smoke marijuana that's about two point five percent of the world's population i'm sure it's much higher but here there there is not only demand for recreational use but there's a huge demand in medical terms which has gone unfilled because apparently americans prefer opium well i think this is interesting and if china tries to claim copyright or trademark or patent protection the cannabis seeds that they are growing i mean this would be a very big reversal on what we've seen in the last twenty years what china is basically a patent pilfering you know and they've been stealing patents and intellectual property and trademarks for decades down ali what's been fighting them and and the drug companies have been fighting them so it's interesting now that they're saying well we've got half the pounds or more on. cannabis and then we're going to exploit

this distance electoral property monopoly and we're going to make sure that when everyone gets high in the world that they see a big frickin chinese flag that's going to be bioengineered into the gun is that whenever you smoke chinese dope you're going to see him out so you don't go over there with a big bald head smoking a spliff you know there's a thing called traditional chinese medicine and it's all herbal based or i think in the u.k. they say herbal but you know it's all in their research and that and one of the things they specialize in in terms of the cannabis cannabinoids cannibal oids cannabis in the medical term and we can share ability to articulate is severely impaired. one of them that they're really focusing on is constipation which americans might need some relief from constipation if all those munchies food is not quite good for you so that process will not only understand why there was an urgency to. you know our twinkies only went bankrupt and they were bought by

private equity fund twenty is of course the classic month you food post month you food get a big you know box of twinkies and it does cause constipation so i guess they're going to try to both. going in and coming out market over there. peter reynolds who's the leader of the cannabis lot of reform here in the u.k. says quote that the chinese are smarter and they are on to all the good ideas the potential for cannabis as a medicine is monumental but you know we've missed out on that here we've missed out on the u.k. apparent in the u.s. and apparently china has all the patents well i think out of playing boris johnson's trip recently when he was up in that helicopter flying over various chinese cities and what they did see in that photo was a big bag of ganja and she was obviously taking copious quantities up there in the helicopter while he's getting blasted during various chinese cities saying you know what we're going to have a big field back in number ten downing street of some of the finest dope possible

in the u.k. actually to smoke it recreationally in china is against the law you face very long prison sentences however they are the world's leader in industrial hemp so they grow that industrial a for traditional chinese medicine they've always use it medicinally which the u.s. has that's how they enter the markets in new york for example is allowing medicinal marijuana not recreational marijuana but this is the first move chinese seem only confused about medicinal and what's not and was available in the pharmaceutical section of your supermarket i mean i've got my agra and yet they still go after you know a rhino horn for a reptile dysfunction driving the rhino to extinction when all they do to get that little blue pill mr chinese man ok you don't need to go kill a rhino to you know get a spliff and get a little blue pill and yourself for the weekend don't go kill a rhino you don't need to be killed rhinos anymore. could you. wake up to the

twenty first century so there you have a china will rule the world in terms of cannabis production and it's a great way because of course you know you smoke one spliff and you need another within half an hour oh my god the connection with chinese food well i'll be buying . i'm going. but i wanted to neighboring state of wyoming there troopers already warned people not to drive into their state carrying cannabis that they bought legally in colorado so i wanted to turn to another story an interesting story out of wyoming that is a real tale for what the u.k. which is going to allow fracking what to look for here because of course they won't allow recreational use of marijuana but they'll allow fracking fracking wells abandoned and boom bust cycle who will pay to cap them the companies that once operated the wells in wyoming have all but vanished into the prairie many seeking

bankruptcy protection and able to pay the cost of reclaiming the land they leased recent estimates put the number of abandoned drilling operations in wyoming out more than twelve hundred and state officials said several thousand more might soon be orphaned by their operations so here is wyoming ground zero for fracking they were one of the first to introduce this because of course dick cheney was the former senator there he's from wyoming and from the photo here you can see fracking with those or abandoned fracking wells thousands of them across wyoming the companies who left them who abandon these wells have declared bankruptcy so they don't have to clean up the cost all the farmers are complaining because their land is being toxic it is toxic and so the state the taxpayer is having to clean it up they reckon eight million dollars just for this twelve hundred abandoned wells there's thousands more to come right where this is a classic corporate predatory behavior they knew going into the whole industry that they would. they declined bankruptcy once they frakt and they exist and they

exhausted all the gas that they could through the fracking and they declare bankruptcy and therefore they're not responsible for the cleanup they know that going in and that's what they tell investors on the private memo that says look we're never going to ever clean up i know we signed contracts saying we will clean up or we're going to declare bankruptcy well before we need to clean up we won't spend a penny cleaning up this is actually the unintended consequences of artificially low interest rates because the return to these investors when it all works out after tax and after cost they're making about a five percent return on investment and why do they even bother with a five percent return on investment because the federal reserve bank keeps rates at near zero the bank of england keeps rates near zero so let's flash forward to the ghost of christmas future here in the u.k. you've got to rates near zero you've got people with a lot of money thanks to artificially pumping it with money printing like chinese investors were looking to make five percent of their money because they can't get five percent of government bond like they would it less if the bank of england was artificially keeping rates low so they put money into

a fracking rig and they signed bogus contracts that say yes we'll be doing the clean up they won't yes it's environmentally sound it isn't yes it's economically viable it's not and yes it will supply energy for x. number of years in the future that's a lie it's a pure twenty four to thirty six month scam to make five percent on money that was gifted to them from the corrupt marconi the bank of england to begin with and it will result in ecological holcroft who cares more debt to the u.k. economy hole so what and other and consequences that will result in lifestyle being degraded more cancer you've got a lot of cancer go along cancer u.k. because you're about to get a whole bunch of it because these fracking rates too low artificially interest rates yeah you love cancer your kids go look you know a lot of it don't you think you're making five percent what a bunch of losers well actually there's one u.k. medical marijuana company and they deal with a drug for it's. pacifically designed for cancer so they could work hand in hand

now these people that push still this toxic sort of fracking which has no economic sense is for example in wyoming this guy state senator john j. hines a republican who represents mineral rights campbell and congress counties said it was vital for lawmakers to take up the issue swiftly because natural gas was so important to wyoming as economy he himself has forty abandoned rigs on his own property which the company went bankrupt patriot resource company they went bankrupt and left these forty right so he's looking for states fun to clean up his toxic mess on his own but he's like hi he still doesn't see that as a problem he's like we need more of this right dick cheney is a socialist his daughter led i believe her name is she's run dropped out of the senate race in wyoming because she's got it out open up a socialist you know osh ramos is going to pray to the god of socialism which she clearly is inherent to they don't work for

a living they extract wealth why there is from the bank where they drain money freely. or from the earth using fracking and they don't pay for the fracking they don't pay for the rigs they don't pay for the land and they never pay for the cleanup they're just extracting the ecological resources to the point of economic suicide there's like shopping you know cheney and his daughter are they like having charles manson run your energy policy in your economy in your country of what their suicide their nightmarish. kleptocrats dressed up as politicians that are unfortunately the face of a near liberal model that has driven american comers to the point of only thing having left is smoking dope all day one thing just rename the country the united states of jamaica. and finally here you know all these cleanup costs that the government promises margaret thatcher speaking of neoliberalism brought in this nuclear energy promise that the clean up costs would either be well. private

companies would do it but then the state took over and now the state is paying more more more sellafield cleanup costs reaches sixty seven point five billion pounds report that was earlier in the year it's now seventy billion already this is the taxpayer paying for the cleanup of nuclear waste with no sign of when the costs will stop rising according to the report you know in fukushima one hundred fifty billion so far they have nuclear gypsies that go in there and clean up is there certain to be dead soon well once again it's the economics of suicide brought to you by the leaders of japan u.k. united states who all have the same economic policy of zero percent interest rates to fund the kleptocracy and cancer provocation through fracking and the u.k. public in the japanese public and american public can't wait to get cancer that's their goal in life most will golf. who. states epicycle have a whole lot more. millions

around the globe struggle with hunger each good. what if someone offers a lifetime food supply no charge. against g.m.o. and we think that's. pretty cool. there is no. evidence that there is any problem with genetic engineering when you make. or is free cheese always. i don't. know if. this profit. these golden rice.

economic downturns in the final month the deal sank i and the rest. will be briefly on. some of the sixteen percent imports came from illegal fishing. the european union is ironically taking fish from some of the poorest nations on earth so this is a very serious and very urgent problem that needs immediate international action. territorial waters they fish they load the fish into the ships and leave for europe

. to day illegal fishing is taking the bread out of our mouths. cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want.

right. first trip. and i think you're. on a reporter's. instrument. if you. need to. start to construct your i'm. going to be a bit give don't want to be gangstas you don't want to be. they don't want to blow the time that the kid came to be we can see.

just me as i was when i was in the hood. thirty round clip. i said. i don't want to die i just really do not want to die young young. welcome back to the kaiser report by max kaiser time now to go to colorado and speak with the don draper of pot mason to work their actor of communications for the marijuana policy project what helps pass the colorado's recent marijuana legislation welcome to the show. thanks remy all right mason tell us about colorado's new marijuana law what is actually allowed under the law well amendment sixty four which about fifty five percent of voters adopted back in november two

thousand and twelve allows adults twenty one and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to six plants in their homes and also establish a state regulated system of. marijuana licensed marijuana businesses that cultivates distribute marijuana and produce products and test marijuana so essentially it's a system very similar to alcohol in which adults can legally purchase marijuana with a driver's license or other government issued id and not fear arrest all right so now there are already reports of shortages of marijuana and so prices rising to four hundred dollars an ounce where is supply coming from who is allowed to grow clearly there's a market inefficiency there or not to talk about that a little bit you know i don't think that there's necessarily a market efficiency quite yet you know a limited number of these businesses have opened only about thirty five to thirty

seven businesses around the state open we're expecting to see anywhere from one hundred fifty or up also a lot of people to him and over these businesses are yet so the competition is going to grow as more of these businesses open and more people are able to access more businesses in the competition sets in also a lot of these businesses are still covering the overhead costs associated with licensing fees and complying with all of these new rules and regulations so you know right now the prices are generally right around where they would be in the underground market in a lot of states but most adults would prefer to buy marijuana in a legal safe place instead of in the underground market and i think that it's not going to be very long before we eliminate that underground market all right now mason only a decade ago two thirds of americans were against legalizing marijuana ten years later the numbers are completely reversed largely due to your efforts how did you

do it. well you know i think a big part of changing marijuana laws has been changing public attitudes and ultimately what that comes down to is getting people to understand that marijuana is just not as harmful as they were once i do believe you know our federal government and others have exaggerated the harms of marijuana for years to keep it illegal but the fact is marijuana subjectively less harmful than alcohol it's less toxic it's less addictive and it doesn't contribute to violence and aggressive behavior like alcohol does and as more and more people come to recognize that fact they simply don't think it's a good idea to prohibit it it's just as foolish as alcohol prohibition was right now let's talk about some of these other numbers here in colorado what is the tax rate on marijuana how much do you expect to sell in twenty fourteen and what sort of revenue does the state expect the tax rate was seventy five voters here in colorado there's a fifteen percent excise tax on wholesale sales so that would be between a cultivation facility and

a retail store for example the first forty million dollars from that each year goes towards the state's public school construction program there's also a ten percent special sales tax on at the point of sale which is really there to ensure that enough money is being generated to cover the costs of them forcing the regulatory system and funding that that section of the department of revenue and then their standard state and local sales taxes and any other local taxes that might apply so for example in colorado you're sexually paying about twenty percent at the register and the state has projected we will generate about seventy million dollars annually in the first year based on the sales that's in tax revenue loan we expect to see about four hundred million dollars and retail sales about six hundred or seven hundred million dollars overall including wholesale sales so it's going to be a big market it's going to generate a whole lot of a lot of revenue now i do you have any idea how much of the cost savings there will be once. the middle inforce ment is no longer

a requirement so that's another huge economic piece of the puzzle here the criminal and the enforcement on the criminal side is no longer required to some degree so what are the cost savings there according the karo center on law and policy which didn't analysis tryer to this initiative passing about twelve million dollars in savings would be accrued each year to me the most important thing is that law enforcement officials will be able to focus their time on you know more serious crimes as opposed to arresting adults and prosecuting them simply for possessing marijuana about anywhere from seven to ten thousand adults each year in colorado were being arrested simply for marijuana possession that number is completely twinned although most to nothing so you know alternately this is going to be a huge benefit simply the fact that we can redirect our law enforcement efforts toward other things right and so the trend seems to be growing i just saw the new york is now talking about medicinal marijuana which seems to be kind of the gateway

into more more of a legalized structure so is this now going to be going to other states i would imagine if colorado is going to be raising a lot of revenue here and saving money and law enforcement other states going to look at this quite enviously and this could be a way of going coast to coast when you think. oh absolutely and i think lawmakers and voters in states around the country are watching what's happening in colorado they're seeing that regulating marijuana works and scott a lot of benefits certainly preferable to alcohol prohibition and you know as you alluded to earlier in the program about fifty eight percent of americans now think marijuana should be legal so we expect to see a number of states pass these laws of the next few years several of which will be through ballot initiatives we also expect to start seeing some through state legislatures as a law makers increasingly recognize that this is not a taboo subject it once was and that their constituents want to see these changes

and we need. interesting how this is going to play into i guess was called the culture wars in america you've got certainly on the right conservative side of the political spectrum a certain vested interest in keeping certain elements of this from getting more popular what what are we going to see going forward there is there going to be basically a triumph if you will of this type of thinking and disappearing of some of these entrenched culture warriors who have been very anti marijuana for years if that question makes sense i hope it does what do you think you know i mean ultimately i think it comes out of this you know marijuana is something that's been used by people from all walks of life for years and years there are a lot of people who you know use there are a lot of who would follow and so the subculture of marijuana enthusiasts come to mind when people many people think of

a marijuana user but there are also millions and millions of people who don't for example our last three presidents that use marijuana one of our supreme court at least one of our supreme court justices use marijuana chalice countless successful people use marijuana there are conservatives there liberals kratz republicans it's really this is a substance that millions of people use both of which for the same reasons that people enjoy having a cocktail or a beer after work it's relaxing or it's just a matter of socializing with friends and of course for many it's a therapeutic thing right met in the last three presidents using marijuana i think the first three presidents were also using marijuana i believe george washington cultivated this crop it at some point why are you in colorado do you only accept cash and i believe also bitcoin in some cases but why only cash. well unfortunately right now this is a largely cash business because these marijuana businesses are not able to get financial services. a lot of banks are very concerned about the prospect of being

prosecuted for gaging and money laundering because marijuana is still illegal this is an issue and it's one that fortunately started to be addressed by our federal government. earlier this past year in august and september the department of justice made it clear during a senate hearing that they are now talking to banking regulators and the treasury department to address this because whether or not you support marijuana being legal the fact is if it is legal we need to ensure that these businesses are not carrying around tens of thousands of dollars at a time they need to be able to pay their bills they need to be able to maintain public safety and that's really what this is about so we expect to see that issue get addressed administratively here in the near future fortunately some of these businesses are able to get banks but far too many of them are not right now so it's really a that's one of the most pressing issues yeah just getting back to the the culture

war aspect of this a little bit so i saw one comment that recently from somebody in washington suggesting that wide scale use of marijuana would would would diminish america's competitiveness against the chinese you know that suggesting that somehow this was going to cut into america's ability to compete with china i think i've got my thoughts on that but what what are your thoughts i think it's completely unfounded again you know millions of americans have been using marijuana for years and years about fifty percent of all americans that's a conservative figure have tried marijuana and ultimately there's no actual evidence that it has any impact on people's motivation or ability to get their jobs done in fact there is a lot of evidence showing the lack of productivity that results from alcohol use obviously anyone who's shown up at work with a hangover dose that they probably get a little bit less done in the day than had they not well marijuana doesn't cause a over so there's one one specific area in which we're. not going to see any sort

of loss of productivity but you know again marijuana is not new it's been used by people in the united states and around the world for a very very long time and there's actually no reason to expect things to change in that manner. on the and commercial side of things what about a company like philip morris or the major tobacco companies are we going to see a day when you walk into your local store and they'll be selling. marijuana cigarettes right alongside their other offerings that the big corporations going to get into this in a big way your thoughts. you know as i think it's unlikely it will happen any time soon if at all you know suggesting that tobacco companies get into this would be no different than suggesting companies that grow oranges get into this i mean that's just not what they do they don't grow marijuana indoors or in greenhouses this is not a product they're familiar with and this is also an interesting business right now

i don't see a lot of interest among massive companies like that wanting to get it so there's also a lot of regulations in place that prohibit out of state businesses from from owning businesses here in colorado you can't transfer money from this industry or products across state lines so you know there's a lot of things that are prevent that were what we are going to see are some of the businesses in both growing much like we have seen companies grow for example in colorado we've got coors we've got new belgium which was a very prominent craft brewing company that is now finally after years expanded its reach out of the states and then we've got small craft breweries and brewpubs and they're all able to be successful we expect to see a similar type of situation with marijuana and quite frankly i don't care i want to doesn't kill people so if tobacco companies did get into this it wouldn't be the end of the world and probably be a net positive all right fair enough mason thanks so much for being on the kaiser.

thank you for having me and that's going to do it for this edition of the kaiser report with me max geyser and stacy herbert i'd like to thank our guests mason tvert of the marijuana policy project if you'd like to get in touch tweet us at kaiser report and so next time. there's a. push and. there's a. no one is a big that. is from. our . you cannot preemptively restrict your freedoms because of the fear of what something or how something might be used everything that has ever been developed

has been used for a bad purpose baseball bats which are fun for you know for baseball players to hit balls you know they've also been used to be people to death i mean we just cannot restrict ourselves because something might be used in the wrong way. he survived war atrocities. to make a final decision. has changed his life and the world around him. by giving. hope. and love to so many children. nikolai the american worker on the ati.

trucks and at least sixteen percent of imports came from illegal fishing. the european union is ironically taking fish from some of the poorest nations on earth so this is a very serious and very urgent problem that needs immediate international action. they enter our territorial waters they fish they load this fish into the ships and leave for europe. to day illegal fishing is taking the bread out of our are mouths .

tribal groups in iraq step up to drive out radical islamist militants while the embattled government in baghdad is offered help by both america and the wrong. air contamination high levels of radiation at record companies no hard sites are dead amid public anger over fracking in the u.s. a new report says there are many more complaints of contamination that authorities and ruling companies are willing to admit. and as e.u. nations deal with debt by joining the great european fire sale we'll look at whether it's actually helping patch up national budget cuts.