Oregon lawmakers are considering a measure that could potentially allow cities and counties to more than triple their marijuana tax.
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June 17, 2021
‘They are trying to kill the hemp industry:’ California’s hemp-versus-marijuana clash intensifies
A California hemp bill that would provide a long-awaited green light for hemp-derived CBD products has cleared the lower chamber – but the progress has set up a cannabis clash in the world’s largest state market.
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The City of East Lansing is directing money made from Michigan's marijuana tax into resources for people struggling with drug abuse.
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Ten states that have legalized the use of marijuana for recreational purposes collected almost $2.7 billion in taxes on pot products last year as sales surged and more regulatory structures came online.
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States that have legalized marijuana for adult use have collectively generated nearly $8 billion in tax revenue from cannabis since legal sales first began in 2014, according to a new report from the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).
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Ken Newburger felt like he’d been blindsided. He knew a legal challenge had been mounted against the medical cannabis ballot initiative he’d worked on last year in Mississippi. He knew the state’s Supreme Court had taken up the case. But the argument against Initiative 65 was so nonsensical that Newburger had zero doubt the court would rule to uphold the measure. He was wrong: The court overturned it, and with it the will of the 74 percent of Mississippi voters who approved it last fall. “It was not how I felt the decision would go,” Newburger says of the May 14th ruling. “I didn’t even conceive of it because after the overwhelming support that we had last year, I didn’t think the court would throw out an election.” Newburger was working as the director of field outreach for Initiative 65 last year when Mary Hawkins Butler, the Republican mayor of Madison, Mississippi, filed a lawsuit arguing the measure was illegal. Hawkins said she opposed Initiative 65, which would have legalized the prescription of cannabis for a variety of conditions, because she didn’t want “pot shops” in Madison. Her lawsuit hinged on the state constitution’s requirement that ballot initiatives be filed with signatures from five congressional districts. It would have been pretty difficult for the Initiative 65 campaign to gather these signatures, though, as the state has only had four such districts since the 2000 Census. The constitution’s language around ballot initiatives, which was written prior to that redistricting, had never been updated. “It was almost surreal, as if it didn’t happen,” Newburger says of learning about the challenge ahead of the election. “A plethora of initiatives had been filed already and never challenged. I thought we had done everything right.”
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May 25, 2021
Mass. ‘A Far Cry From Becoming Amsterdam,’ Says GBH Legal Analyst On Marijuana Industry
Joe Mathieu: Daniel, let’s start with the recent criminal conviction of disgraced former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia, who among other things, was convicted of extorting prospective marijuana business owners in his city. How did those alleged shakedowns work? Daniel Medwed: Correia was charged and convicted of basically demanding cash, often through an intermediary, in return for issuing what’s called a “non-opposition letter” from City Hall. Those letters are essentially required in order for businesses and municipalities to enter a “host community agreement,” and that agreement in turn is required for someone to set up shop within city limits. Massachusetts law gives a tremendous amount of local control in terms of whether a particular city or town wants to welcome the marijuana industry, and arguably that process is open to potential abuse, as we saw with Correia. Mathieu: I imagine that Correia’s behavior is an extreme example of how the process might be abused. Is that case an aberration or is it the tip of the iceberg? Medwed: It’s certainly an egregious example of how one local leader took advantage of the rules to line his own pockets, and I’m not aware of any comparably blatant misconduct. But the rules do allow for municipalities, if not politicians themselves, to extract all sorts of concessions in exchange for a host community agreement. For instance, a study of 460 host community agreements conducted by the Cannabis Business Association and UMass Boston earlier this month found that municipalities collectively received nearly $2.5 million above the legal limits for these agreements, often through local charity donations or reimbursements. On the one hand, many of these concessions are designed to help the communities — a business asked to contribute $5,000 to an American Legion Hall in one instance, and that’s very different from Correia. These officials seem to be helping their towns, not themselves. On the other hand, the effect seems to be that it’s a hard for smaller players to break into the industry — that you have to be somewhat well-heeled to gain entrée — and that seems to aggravate some of the longstanding concerns about equity and, in particular, ensuring that communities of color have a seat at the table.
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Bold white vinyl lettering covers the window of a smoke shop on Albany’s Central Avenue. In all-caps, 51Vape advertises a suite of smoking-related accessories, including “hookah” and “vaping devices.” It also lists both “hemp” and “CBD”. Non-smokers might be surprised at hemp references in head shop windows, as the plant is also gaining prominence in the U.S. as a source of fiber for products like textiles and rope, while its seeds are a protein-rich grain that can be made into cooking oil or eaten in health food snacks. But hemp flower is also a prime source of CBD, or cannabidoil, one of the chemical compounds in cannabis plants and an active ingredient in both drugs and wellness products. Lynn West, a 55-year-old from the Buffalo region, who recently retired from her 32-year career selling office furniture, learned about CBD a few years ago from an older friend who used it to ease his “aches and pains." West appreciates its pain-relief potential, but finds it is most useful to tackle anxiety-related issues – “for stressful situations, I found it knocked me down a notch,” she said.
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May 24, 2021
N.J.’s quality of life back to normal, poll shows. And legal weed doesn’t affect it at all.
Quality of life in New Jersey has returned to pre-pandemic levels as the coronavirus outbreak wanes, according to a new poll. And the legalization of marijuana — an issue that took the state Legislature years to sort out as some argued it would negatively affect children and communities — has had nearly no impact on how residents view quality of life in the state. Released Monday by the Monmouth University Polling Institute, the survey found the quality of life index stands at +25. It can range from minus-100 to 100. The number is down from +37 in April 2020, when the state had come together under strict social distancing measures to fight COVID-19. But it’s in line with a poll conducted in September 2019 and scores from the past decade. About 6 in 10 New Jerseyans said the state is either an excellent or good place to live, while 27% rated it as fair and 14% deemed it a poor place to live. Last year, 68% of people rated New Jersey positively. The quality of life index is lower in urban areas, but up from the past year, the polling institute found. There, the number was +20, similar to +18 score from early 2020. “Perceptions of New Jersey’s quality of life have returned to more normal levels after experiencing a brief rally effect when the pandemic struck last year,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “However, the fact that ratings in urban communities held steady from that spike is worth watching. It may be a blip, but it could also signal increased optimism among these residents,” The index is derived from five questions — overall opinion on the state, on a town or city, local school performance, environmental quality and feeling safe, according to pollsters. The survey also asked respondents if they would visit Jersey Shore this year. Just under 60% of residents surveyed said they planned to travel to the Shore this summer. That’s a number lower than the usual 60 to 70% of people who have planned trips in the past, but higher than the 27% who last year said they would go as the coronavirus crisis continued.
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Multiple sources told Marijuana Moment that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) plans to refile his federal cannabis legalization bill this week. The legislation, which comes as senators are finalizing their own bill, will have changes from the version that passed in 2020. The Texas Senate approved House-passed bills to lower penalties for marijuana concentrates and to require the state to study the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics for military veterans. Because the body adopted amendments to both measures, they must head back to the House for final votes before they can be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott (R). Meanwhile, the fate of a medical cannabis expansion measure hangs in the balance as the end of the session approaches. Ohio activists qualified the first of what they hope will be dozens of local marijuana decriminalization measures on ballots across the state this November. The Illinois House Executive Committee approved a bill aimed at expanding equity in marijuana business licensing, and it now heads to the House floor. Oregon officials are awarding $20 million in grants to support substance misuse treatment, harm reduction, housing and employment programs—all stemming from funds made available under the drug decriminalization measure that voters approved in November.
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