September 3, 2020
Virginia, just legalize marijuana already
Virginia Democrats are making headway in the efforts to reform the commonwealth’s criminal justice system, even if, on issues such as qualified immunity for police officers, it takes a couple of tries to get moving in the right direction. But they are still not ready to fully embrace one issue: marijuana legalization. Virginia did enact marijuana decriminalization. While possession and consumption remain illegal, getting caught now merits a $25 civil fine. Not everyone was pleased with the move. The Virginia ACLU led a coalition opposed to decriminalization. In a letter to Gov. Ralph Northam (D), the groups said decriminalization “does nothing to end racist pretextual stops by police.” Instead, the coalition urged an end to marijuana prohibition. The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus put legalizing marijuana on its list of priorities for the special session. And there’s even a bill to achieve part of that goal. Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy (D-Prince William), who is running for governor, is the chief patron of HB 5141, a measure that would legalize “simple possession of marijuana.” While it does away with the civil penalty, prevents law enforcement from using the hint or suspicion of marijuana use to conduct searches and seizures and more, it doesn’t end prohibition. That step would allow adults to buy and consume the product legally and companies to grow and process it. Full legalization would also require governments to regulate and tax marijuana. Eleven states have legalized recreational marijuana use. Twenty-two have legalized it for medical use. More states will decide the issue this November. Carroll Foy’s bill won’t add Virginia to those lists. Instead, it’s a bow to political reality: Prohibition may be bad, but Virginia just isn’t ready to give in that sort of sin and debauchery. Never mind the state-sanctioned gambling and lottery. Or the state-owned liquor monopoly. Or centuries of tobacco farming. In its letter to Northam, the ACLU and others said, “study is needed before Virginia can consider or implement an equitable system to regulate the legal sale of marijuana.” If we do a little homework, we quickly discover legalization is no panacea. Yes, the tax revenue can be very good — but it takes time to reach scale. Then there are the health issues. As the New York Times’s Jack Healy reported on Colorado’s experience, “More people here are visiting emergency rooms for marijuana-related problems.” At the same time, “state surveys do not show an increase in young people smoking pot.” A Washington State University study showed officers surveyed did not want to recriminalize marijuana. But they said states considering the idea should first conduct “broad public educational programs, emphasizing juveniles and drivers, and how the law affects them,” and, “expanded officer training, especially on the regulatory rules governing growing cannabis.”
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September 3, 2020
GOP Congressman Will Vote Yes On Marijuana Legalization Bill Despite ‘Reparations’ Concerns
A Republican congressman says he will be a “yes” vote on a bill to federally legalize marijuana that the House of Representatives is set to take up this month. But he also argued that certain social equity provisions—which he described as “reparations”—go too far and will make the legislation unpalatable to the GOP-controlled Senate. Advocates celebrated the recent announcement from House leadership that the chamber will vote on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is the sole GOP cosponsor on the bill, and he said in a podcast released on Tuesday that while he supports the proposal in principle, a component that would distribute a portion of cannabis tax revenue to communities most impacted by the war on drugs amounts to “reparations,” and he views that as untenable. “I believe in cannabis reform in this country. The federal government has lied to the American people for a generation about cannabis,” the congressman said on the latest episode of the “Hot Takes with Matt Gaetz” podcast. “What are we going to do about it? The MORE Act.” Gaetz applauded the main provisions of the bill, namely removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and ending federal prohibition. He said he’s also in support of a proposal to provide expungements for prior cannabis convictions, recognizing racial disparities in marijuana-related arrests. “I think the war on drugs was uniquely harmful to urban communities, to communities of color, and I think that some restorative justice for people that saw just extended convictions or that are currently serving extended time in prison ought to be visited through legislation, so I support that,” the congressman said.
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September 3, 2020
Opinion: Opportunities lost amid OLCC’s cannabis license backlog
When Oregon voters legalized recreational cannabis in 2014, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission was given the responsibility for the licensing and regulation of cannabis businesses. Unlike other states, Oregon was meant to have a non-competitive licensing system with no limit on the total number of licenses issued. This approach was intended to encourage existing medical cannabis growers and dispensaries to enter into the regulated market and allow women, minorities and other entrepreneurs the opportunity to participate in the new cannabis economy. While the licensing system initially worked well, the system has essentially ground to a halt. According to the OLCC’s website, the agency is just now processing applications to grow recreational cannabis that were filed in February 2018. It’s not much better for those seeking licenses to process, sell or distribute cannabis. The agency is just now getting to applications filed in June 2018. That means the OLCC is more than two years behind in issuing licenses and there is no point in filing a new application for eligible business types. As a lawyer in this space since before legalization, I know that those waiting for licenses include small businesses that have been stretched thin by the delays. They have built out facilities to comply with regulations, paid rent each month, accepted money from investors and now have little hope that they will ever be able to operate. One client, Adam Dunn, filed for a processor’s license two years ago, spent $300,000 on security and construction and has been paying rent since 2018. With the current backlog, he will likely still wait years to receive approval. This is the same story I hear over and over as desperate applicants find themselves in permanent limbo. The OLCC is not even able to provide any timeline to applicants, denying them the ability to make informed decisions about crucial issues such as whether to keep a lease or buy equipment. As the agency communicated to me in a recent email, “We do not have a way of giving any sort of accurate estimate as to when a certain new application may receive an assessment of its readiness to be assigned.” At the same time, the OLCC has prioritized change-of-ownership applications, which favor large businesses that can afford to buy an established operation – and its license. This prioritization has created a secondary market for licenses ensuring that large, and often multi-state operators can grow their companies while others lose months, years, and in some cases, everything they have while they wait. In contrast to the backlog on new licenses, the OLCC is working on change of ownership applications submitted in 2020 with the average wait time being 157 days, according to a public records request. It is time for the OLCC to turn all its attention and resources to addressing this crisis. The agency does not have the statutory authority to unilaterally stop issuing new licenses that were lawfully applied for. If the OLCC cannot or will not turn their attention to this enormous and years long backlog, the governor’s office should immediately intervene. The Legislature also should mandate strict timelines for the issuance of licenses as well as make sure that the commission is sufficiently funded to provide rapid licensing services for all applicants.
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September 3, 2020
DEA: Someone Smuggled Marijuana ‘Crude Oil’ From Mexico Into California—Judge Orders State To Tell Feds Who
A federal judge on Monday ordered California state cannabis regulators to turn over to to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) records related to an alleged international marijuana-oil trafficking scheme, according to court records. Since August 2019, the DEA has been hounding the state Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) for records related to three individuals and three businesses that hold BCC licenses, which are required to sell recreational cannabis products in the state.After first requesting the records via email—a request that was refused—the DEA issued the BCC a subpoena in January, which up until now the state has fought in court. According to the DEA’s filing, the BCC has records related to “possible importation/transportation of a controlled substance (marijuana ‘crude oil;) from Mexico” by three state-licensed cannabis companies and three individuals who owned or worked for these companies.News of the subpoena first became widespread in July, after the DEA asked a judge to force the BCC to comply. And on Monday, after some back-and-forth in court, federal judge Linda Lopez did just that and issued a order that the BCC must comply with the subpoena, as legal newspaper The Recorder first reported. Whether the BCC will cough up the records remains to be seen. Alex Traverso, a spokesman for the agency, said the BCC would have no comment. But at this point, the BCC has only two options: appeal the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal (and, eventually, the Supreme Court), or continue to defy the DEA and risk serious consequences.
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September 1, 2020
US House will vote on decriminalizing marijuana at federal level
The U.S. House of Representatives will vote this month on legislation that would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and expunge some criminal records. The Hill reports the MORE Act would not legalize the drug, but would still be a “historic step” in reducing legal penalties for the drug. Legalizing the drug for recreational use would be left up to individual states.
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September 1, 2020
HOUSE WILL VOTE ON MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION BILL NEXT MONTH
A chamber of Congress will vote to remove cannabis from the federal list of controlled substance for the first time in the nation’s history. The U.S. House of Representative confirmed its historic vote will occur next month and would effectively decriminalize cannabis nationwide. The legislation in question, known as the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement Act (MORE Act), would not legalize marijuana at the federal level. Instead it would remove cannabis from its Schedule I drug classification, which the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) defines as “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
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September 1, 2020
Sen. Gillibrand: Hemp Legalization Has Bipartisan Support
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said she expects federal agriculture officials to work with hemp farmers and possibly even delay new regulations that New York says are “unreasonable.” State regulators say they won’t try to regulate hemp production themselves because of the new federal rules. Farmers say that leaves them unprotected from strict regulations that could make them criminals for a bad batch of hemp. But Gillibrand says she has bipartisan support, including from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to protect the hemp industry.
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September 1, 2020
The Hemp Industry's 'American Dream' Is Getting Nipped In The Bud
The Colorado hemp harvest began last week. After 80 years of prohibition, building an industry from the ground up is anything but the “American dream” for hemp farmers, and last year it came to a disastrous crash. It turns out supply and demand rely on a supply chain – which doesn’t exist yet for hemp. And demand? No one knew the demand of a product that had been illegal for decades. Hemp is the less potent cousin of marijuana. Both come from the cannabis plant. And even without THC — the legally restricted compound in marijuana — hemp has a variety of potential.
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A landmark bill that would decriminalize marijuana use at the federal level is up for vote soon. The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on the legislation in September, according to an email sent out on Friday by Majority Whip James Clyburn. Politico first reported on the pending vote. The "Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019" -- also called the MORE Act -- would officially remove cannabis from the list of federally controlled substances. It would also expunge federal marijuana convictions and arrests, and approve the allocation of resources for communities affected by the war on drugs, according to the bill's text. "A floor vote on the bill would be the greatest federal cannabis reform accomplishment in over 80 years," the Global Alliance for Cannabis Commerce said in a statement Friday. The House Judiciary Committee passed the bill, introduced by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and co-sponsored by more than 50 lawmakers, by a vote of 24-10 in November. "These steps are long overdue. For far too long, we have treated marijuana as a criminal justice problem instead of a matter of personal choice and public health," Nadler, the committee's chairman, said in a statement at the time. "Whatever one's views on the use of marijuana for recreational or medicinal purposes, arresting, prosecuting, and incarcerating users at the federal level is unwise and unjust." The MORE Act would remove marijuana as a Schedule I substance, a category that also features other drugs, such as heroin, LSD, ecstasy and peyote, and leave states to regulate it. Eleven states and the District of Columbia have already legalized cannabis for adult recreational use, and 33 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical cannabis. "States have led the way -- and continue to lead the way -- but our federal laws have not kept pace with the obvious need for change," Nadler said. "We need to catch up because of public support and because it is the right thing to do." Pew Research Center and Gallup polls last year both found that about two-thirds of Americans support legalizing marijuana, with Democrats more supportive of the move than Republicans. The issue has gotten "greater urgency," one Democratic lawmaker said, amid calls for social justice reform during the recent Black Lives Matter protests. "As people across the country protest racial injustices, there's even greater urgency for Congress to seize this historic opportunity and finally align our cannabis laws with what the majority of Americans support, while ensuring restorative justice," Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said in a social media post Friday sharing news on the upcoming vote.
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