Public Safety – MJ Shareholders

Albert Appointed to Board of Managers of LBS

MJ Shareholders — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 19:19:53 +0000

Ryan Allway

July 20th, 2022

News, Top News

Lighthouse Biz Solutions, LLC (LBS), a wholly owned subsidiary of GFA Federal Credit Union is pleased to announce Salvatore (Sam) Albert has been elected to its Board of Managers.

The Board of Managers establishes the strategic direction of this subsidiary and ensures it operates in compliance with a host of regulatory requirements. Given that LBS serves a high-risk industry that is rapidly growing and evolving, Albert’s expertise will be an asset to the organization.

Salvatore’s experience within public safety and security as well as risk management will prove valuable to the LBS Board of Managers. We look forward to having his knowledge and leadership on our team,” said Tina M. Sbrega, President of Lighthouse Biz Solutions, LLC.

Mr. Albert serves as the Director of Security for Green Thumb Industries. His extensive experience in public safety, cannabis control regulations and his proven leadership will serve Lighthouse Biz Solutions well. Albert is a resident of Westminster, MA, obtained his Master of Art, in Criminal Justice from Anna Maria College, as well as being a graduate of the FBI National Academy.

“I am proud to join the Lighthouse Biz Solutions Board of Managers, said Albert,” I am passionate about public safety and that is what Lighthouse Biz Solutions stands for – educating and supporting the cannabis industry with a passion for positive change.”

Mr. Albert will be replacing Charles Bowles, who has served on the Board of Managers since its inception. The Board of Managers and President, Tina M. Sbrega wishes to thank Mr. Bowles for his dedication and guidance to Lighthouse Biz Solutions, LLC.

Members of Lighthouse Biz Solutions LLC, Board of Managers include:

Mark P. Hawke, Chairman, Gerald L. Bankowski, Adam P. Duggan, Neil Erickson, Liam Rafferty, Tina Santos

About Lighthouse Biz Solutions

Lighthouse Biz Solutions, LLC. (LBS), a wholly owned subsidiary of GFA Federal Credit Union provides financial services to legal, licensed Marijuana Related Businesses (MRBs) in compliance with guidance issued by the United States Department of Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”). No information provided by LBS constitutes legal advice and LBS encourages you to work closely with your legal advisors to evaluate all information provided.

Media Contact: Tina M. Sbrega

Lighthouse Biz Solutions LLC

Main: 1-978-632-2542

[email protected]

This article was published by CFN Enterprises Inc. (OTCQB: CNFN), owner and operator of CFN Media, the industry’s leading agency and digital financial media network dedicated to the burgeoning CBD and legal cannabis industries. Call +1 (833) 420-CNFN for more information.

About Ryan Allway

Mr. Allway has over a decade of experience in the financial markets as both a private investor and financial journalist. He has been actively involved in the cannabis industry since its inception, covering public and private companies.

Crash that killed pregnant teacher shows potentially deadly consequences of driving while high

MJ Shareholders — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 20:45:52 +0000

While alcohol-related DUIs remain far more common, last week a case involving a motorist prosecutors say was solely under the influence of marijuana provided a stark example of the danger of driving while stoned.

Prosecutors say John Sebastian Hernandez, 23, smoked pot before getting behind the wheel in June of last year. He veered into the opposite lane on Santa Fe Way and struck a vehicle head-on driven by 40-year-old Gabriela Soto, who was pregnant.

Both Soto and her 28-week-old fetus died. Hernandez, who had no prior record, was convicted of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and sentenced to two years in prison.

The case is just the second marijuana-only fatal wreck prosecuted in the county, Deputy District Attorney Kim Richardson said. But with the legalization of marijuana in California this year, law enforcement may be handling more such cases.

And, with the way society currently views marijuana, the cases are difficult to prosecute, Richardson said.

“Society looks at drugs like methamphetamine and PCP as the ‘bad’ drugs,” she said. “But now you have this more widely accepted view of marijuana as being less dangerous. The perception is different.”

Hernandez admitted to being addicted to smoking marijuana, but claimed he hadn’t smoked that day.

Nevertheless, an analysis of blood drawn from Hernandez after the crash turned up a high amount of THC — the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana — enough that Richardson says it’s impossible that he didn’t smoke that day because marijuana is quickly metabolized by the body.

Hernandez had 14 nanograms of active THC per milliliter of blood. In Colorado and Washington state, it is illegal to drive under the influence of marijuana if you have more than 5 nanograms of active THC per milliliter of blood.

But in California, a measurement alone isn’t enough to guarantee a DUI conviction because the state, unlike Washington, Colorado and some others, has no “per se” legal limit in which a driver is presumed to be impaired.

Instead, as with alcohol-related arrests, officers conduct field sobriety tests such as walking in a straight line or standing on one leg for a certain amount of time to determine if someone is impaired. Without an impairment standard, the officer must find other evidence — such as failing those tests or driving behavior — to determine the person is impaired.

Officer Robert Rodriguez, spokesman of the Bakersfield office of the California Highway Patrol, said anything that impairs a person’s ability to safely drive a motor vehicle, whether it’s pot, prescription drugs or illegal drugs, poses dangers to both the motorist and others on the roadway. Despite pot’s legality in California, getting behind the wheel after smoking can result in a DUI conviction or, as in Hernandez’s case, something worse.

And those who combine alcohol and marijuana, or other drugs, are at risk for even more severe impairment, he said. Those combinations can “exaggerate the high or the effects of the alcohol produced.”

In 2015, Bakersfield CHP officers arrested 28 drivers under the influence of both alcohol and drugs, and in 2016 made 26 arrests.

The first pot-only fatal DUI conviction occurred in June 2016 when Rodolfo Contreras was convicted of second-degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while impaired by marijuana in a crash at Gosford Road and Stockdale Highway.

He ran a red light, lost control of his Honda, crossed the center divider and struck a Ford Explorer, killing its driver.

Contreras had smoked marijuana the morning of the crash and had 16 nanograms of THC in his blood. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

State controller to cannabis industry: Grow up and deal with stoned drivers

MJ Shareholders — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 22:30:25 +0000

California Controller Betty Yee, injured last month in an auto collision suspected to have been caused by a 25-year-old driver under the influence of marijuana, used sharp language this week to demand that the state’s nascent cannabis industry “step up” and address pot-related traffic accidents.

In an interview with CALmatters, Yee said pot growers and retailers “grousing” about taxes and regulation need to accept that the legalization of recreational weed carries social obligations, including a need to do something about the increased risk to public safety.

“I want to have the industry step up and be responsible,” she said. “They have an adversarial relationship with law enforcement, so it’s not the easiest conversation to have, but people are getting hurt. So deal with it.”

California State Controller Betty T. Yee is seen in a January file photo speaking at a memorial service. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

The controller, a Democrat campaigning for a second term, detailed how she lost consciousness on the afternoon of Friday, July 13, when the state car in which she was riding was rear-ended by a driver allegedly high on marijuana in the Posey Tube connecting Alameda and Oakland. Yee told CALmatters that she, her husband and their driver, a California Highway Patrol security officer, were in standstill traffic when their vehicle was hit by a Nissan sedan moving 40-55 mph.

The CHP later reported that the 3:25 p.m. crash shoved the state vehicle into the back of a nearby Toyota. “The last thing I remember seeing before losing consciousness was the floor of the car as if I were suspended looking down,” said Yee, recalling how the state vehicle was lifted from behind.

The driver, identified as Aaron George, suffered major injuries, and was booked in Alameda County on a charge of driving while intoxicated and causing an injury, the CHP said. He has since bailed out of custody. Yee said that after the initial impact, he tried to maneuver out of the tunnel,only to hit Yee’s vehicle a second time.

“I don’t want to be a poster child,” the controller said, but she noted that one reason she opposed Proposition 64, the 2016 initiative that legalized recreational marijuana, was that she felt the regulatory framework was incomplete and lacked a test to determine whether a user was too stoned to drive.

She said the cannabis industry should work with law enforcement to develop a test for unsafe levels of marijuana for motorists, and wondered whether the hassles of legitimacy were giving the industry second thoughts about legalization: “There might be a move to get this all pushed underground again because they don’t want to deal with it,” she said.

A spokesman for the industry says that’s simply false.

“Our industry wants to be regulated,” said Josh Drayton, communications director at the California Cannabis Industry Association, which represents pot growers and retailers. “There is no desire within the industry to go back underground…The industry wants to be legitimized and regulated across the state, across the country, and around the world.”

The trend in some states toward cannabis legalization has generated national concern about the potential for impaired driving. A study released this year by the Governors Highway Safety Association found that some 44 percent of drivers killed in crashes in 2016 who were tested afterward had drugs in their system, up from 28 percent in 2006.

Yee cited research from other states that showed an uptick in the number of crashes involving drivers who tested positive for marijuana. Colorado reported 51 cannabis-involved fatalities in 2016, up from 19 in 2014 and 2015. However, the reports were only made uniform in 2016.

“It’s like, you know what, this is part of being responsible,” Yee said. “If you’re going to be in this business you have to deal with all the implications of the business, from cultivation on down to public safety issues.”

She said she was badly bruised in the crash and continues to suffer back spasms and headaches has to limit her time in front of computer screens.

While California does not have a defined cutoff level for drugs in a driver’s blood as it does for alcohol, the state does rely on officers to use their observations, perform field sobriety tests and blood tests to prove impairment. The CHP has estimated the Bay Area could see a 70 percent increase in driving under the influence of marijuana if the current rate of DUI arrests continues through the end of the year.

The highway patrol is working with the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California, San Diego, to evaluate the effects of cannabis on drivers. “The CHP hopes this research, and other ongoing research, will provide additional insights into how cannabis impairs driving,” said agency spokeswoman Fran Clader.

There’s no timeframe, however, for finishing that study.

CALmatters reporter Ben Christopher contributed to this report.