By Hosea Rosenberg, Special To The Cannabist

Editor’s note: The Cannabist’s debut video recipe series “Infused” with award-winning chef Hosea Rosenberg is sponsored by Binske, purveyors of marijuana-infused cooking oil, honey and chocolate.

Cannabis-Infused Simple Chocolate Pudding

Serves: 10

“What goes better with marijuana than chocolate? Nothing.”
–Chef Hosea

Ingredients
6 cups whole milk
1 ½ cups sugar
6 tablespoons corn starch
4 ½ tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
6 egg yolks
9 ounces high-quality, regular dark chocolate
1 bar infused chocolate (100mg THC) — Chef Hosea uses Binske 70% Nacional Dark Chocolate
1 ½ tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vanilla

Instructions
1. Reserve 1 cup milk and 1/2 cup sugar.

2. Put rest of milk and sugar in pot and slowly bring to a boil over medium heat.

3. Combine reserved sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, and salt, whisk to combine. Add reserved milk and whisk until smooth. Add egg yolks and whisk until smooth.

4. When milk and sugar come to a boil slowly add 2-3 cups of hot liquid to egg yolk mixture while stirring constantly to temper eggs.

5. Add everything back into milk/sugar pot and bring to boil over medium-high heat, whisking frequently. Once mixture comes to a boil whisk for 1 minute until thick.

6. Pass mixture through mesh strainer and then whisk in butter, chocolate and vanilla extract.

7. Place bowl in water bath to cool.

Chef Hosea Rosenberg prepares a gourmet marijuana-infused pudding. (The Cannabist)

Tips from Chef Hosea
• The best quality chocolate will result in the best pudding – don’t skimp on quality.
• Tempering eggs is a critical step — don’t let the eggs overcook.
• Do not overcook pudding — it will coagulate.
• Chill overnight for best results.
• Garnish with caramel sauce, berries, cookie crumbs, nuts, whipped cream, or anything that you like — this pudding is versatile.
• Put in small mason jar to take on the go.

By Peter W. Stevenson, The Washington Post

On Friday, Politico’s Dan Diamond reported that the White House will gut funding for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the executive branch agency coordinating efforts to fight the opioid epidemic that has swept through rural areas of America over the last few years.

And if you navigate to the Office of National Drug Control Policy website, it’s … not much of a website. The homepage reads: “Check back soon for more information.”

Diamond reports that Trump’s proposed 2018 budget would slash funding for the office by 95 percent, drastically cutting staff and completely eliminating a program that helps communities fight addiction at the local level.

What does that mean for the future of addiction treatment?

There are a few ways the government attempts to fight drug use in the U.S. The most visible way is with law enforcement: Stopping drugs at the border, and arresting and prosecuting dealers and users. But the other side of the addiction fight is a public health approach that focuses on access to treatment facilities, education and support for recovering addicts, and facilities like needle exchanges that lower the transmission of blood-borne diseases.

Those two schools of thought can sometimes be at odds; while some administrations have prioritized law enforcement (think “the war on drugs,” with mandatory sentencing requirements, expanded policing and “three-strikes” laws), others, including the Obama administration, focused on the public health approach.

As a presidential candidate, and again after the election, Trump promised to fight the opioid crisis with a two-pronged strategy: A border wall to stop the flow of drugs into the country, among other things, and localized efforts to fight addiction with clinics and increased access to care. Those promises suggested Trump was interested in at least maintaining the public health programs currently in place.

Does gutting the Office of National Drug Control Policy do that?

Trump did announce the formation of a new drug commission, led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, R, in March. But it’s hard to imagine the new commission would get the kind of funding that went to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Trump says he will “fight to increase access to life-saving treatment,” and that “we have to work with people to get off it.” Trump’s budget is a long way from being approved – remember, Congress holds the power of the purse, and it seems unlikely that Congress would cut funding for anti-drug programs so drastically. But it could be a broader signal that the Trump administration is moving away from treatment programs, and toward more of a law enforcement approach.

By Michael Kunzelman, The Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. — Is 18 years in prison without the possibility of parole too harsh for a man arrested with 18 grams of marijuana? The Louisiana Supreme Court’s chief justice thinks so, and she blasted her colleagues for upholding the punishment.

In a withering dissent Wednesday, Chief Justice Bernette Johnson called it “outrageous” and “ridiculous” that the state’s highest court affirmed the lengthy prison sentence for such a small amount of marijuana — enough for at least 18 marijuana cigarettes.

A jury convicted Gary D. Howard of marijuana possession with intent to distribute and a Caddo Parish judge sentenced him as a habitual offender in 2014. Howard’s previous convictions include possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in 2008.

Johnson questioned whether it was a mere coincidence — or an “arbitrary” decision — that Howard’s sentence amounted to one year per gram of marijuana that police found during a 2013 search of his girlfriend’s home in Shreveport.

“As a practical matter, in light of the inconsequential amount of marijuana found, imprisoning defendant for this extreme length of time at a cost of about $23,000 per year (costing our state over $400,000 in total) provides little societal value and only serves to further burden our financially strapped state and its tax payers,” she wrote.

The decision comes as state lawmakers consider an overhaul of criminal sentencing laws aimed at reducing Louisiana’s highest-in-the-nation incarceration rate. Bills that would limit penalties under the state’s habitual offender law are among the package of proposed reforms.

“Louisiana law authorizes these Draconian sentences that would embarrass its other Southern neighbors,” said Rob Smith, director of Harvard Law School’s Fair Punishment Project.

The state Supreme Court’s majority ruled there was sufficient evidence that Howard packaged the marijuana for distribution. Police found the drugs in five baggies when they arrested Howard.

Johnson, however, said a prosecution expert conceded the marijuana could have been for Howard’s personal use. The expert also acknowledged it was possible the marijuana was purchased in the same form that police found it, she noted.

“Legally, the state proved nothing more than simple possession of marijuana in this case,” she wrote.
Johnson speculated that authorities “overreacted” because police found a firearm in a bedroom closet during Howard’s arrest. He was subsequently acquitted of a weapons charge.

By Cindy Boren, The Washington Post

He isn’t exactly echoing his father, but the Dallas Cowboys’ Stephen Jones thinks it’s high time that the NFL take another look at its marijuana policy.

Jerry Jones, the Cowboys’ owner and Stephen’s pop, recently said it was time for the NFL to “drop its prohibition,” but his son, the team’s executive vice president and director of player personnel, was more measured in his comments.

“Well, our system, our testing, has been in place for years and not unlike we do in our organization . . . we always look to see how we can do it better,” Stephen Jones told PFT Live. “I think Jerry’s opinion, my opinion, is this program, this system has been in place for a long time. I think it needs to be heavily scrutinized in terms of its results.

“Is it helping players in terms of their accountability? And, obviously, addiction is a sickness and you want to make sure – obviously, there’s accountability but it’s also a program that helps players get better. . . . Jerry and I think that it might could be done better and we just need to take a look at it. Like I said, it’s been the same program that’s been in place for many, many years and I think all things to do with the NFL, we should all want the very best for our players. We should want the very best for our organizations and we should want the very best for our fans, and that’s anything that has to do with the NFL.

“In my opinion, we should take a long hard look at how we’re doing this and see if there’s a way, a better way to do it. What that is, I don’t have the answer. But we have a lot of smart people that can get in there and analyze something and really make some good decisions and see if there need to be changes.”

Unlike NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, the Joneses seem able to separate recreational and medicinal uses of the plant. “I think you still have to look at a lot of aspects of marijuana use,” Goodell said on ESPN’s “Mike & Mike” show last week. “Is it something that can be negative to the health of our players? Listen, you’re ingesting smoke, so that’s not usually a very positive thing that people would say. It does have addictive nature. There are a lot of compounds in marijuana that may not be healthy for the players long-term. All of those things have to be considered. And it’s not as simple as someone just wants to feel better after a game. We really want to help our players in that circumstance but I want to make sure that the negative consequences aren’t something that is something that we’ll be held accountable for some years down the road.”

Increasingly, active and former players are becoming aware of the relief marijuana can bring and are urging a change in the league’s ban, which would have to be negotiated into the next collective bargaining agreement between the union and players. Already, the NFL Players Association has said it plans to propose changes to the policy and former players are pressing for a change as they seek alternative treatments because of their growing awareness of the dangers of painkillers and anti-inflammatories such as Toradol, which was overprescribed by team physicians. The sport’s overreliance on drugs for pain management is the focus of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and one study showed that retired NFL players use opioids at four times the rate of the general population.

The Post’s Rick Maese accompanied former NFL players recently as they visited CW Hemp, a Colorado company, and listened as representatives explained that its cannabis is rich in cannabidiol (CBD), which acts much differently than the marijuana that most people know. Founded to help cancer patients get through radiation and chemotherapy, the company grows plants that an official told former players used to be called a “hippie’s disappointment” because they are high in CBD and low in THC, the ingredient that supplies a high. Although it remains a Schedule 1 drug deemed by the government to have no medicinal value, the Food and Drug Administration is considering how it classifies CBD, an extract that could be approved for prescription as a medication if the DEA classifies it differently from marijuana.

While the Trump administration may crack down on marijuana, it is legal in 29 states and the District of Columbia, another reason Stephen thinks the NFL’s relationship to marijuana should be re-examined.

“You know, I think it should be a part of what’s looked at,” he said. “When you re-look at the whole program, I think you should take a look at every aspect of it. From the testing to the discipline to the amounts, anything to do with this. At the end of the day our goal should be to help players who have sicknesses and addictions and make them better people off the field, and then how we go about that I think is what needs to be looked at and make sure we’re doing everything the best way we can do it. Obviously, when you look at something like that you have to look at, ‘How do we do it in society right now? How does that affect the way a player sees his situation in that lens?’ And then make decisions based on that.”

Of course, NFL management has another significant reason for taking another look at the ban. It is taking players, such as the Cowboys’ Randy Gregory, off the field. But whatever his motives, Jerry Jones is the most powerful man in the NFL and his position on what has been a controversial topic is significant.