August 23, 2020
Illicit Pot Still Dominates After Two Legal Years
It’s been nearly two years since Canada became the first G20 country to legalize cannabis for recreational purposes. However, the majority of customers are still getting their pot from the illicit market -- with a lot of ground left to cover. In the fourth quarter of 2018, legal marijuana represented only 21% of total consumption in Canada, despite weed becoming lawful on Oct. 17 of that year. Fast-forward to the first quarter of 2020 and cannabis is now a C$2.2 billion ($1.7 billion) retail industry, yet legal consumption is still just 46% of the total, according to data from Statistics Canada.
Learn more
August 21, 2020
New Jersey Voters Want Legal Marijuana And Favor Higher Taxes On Sales, New Poll Shows
New Jersey voters are strongly in favor of a referendum to legalize marijuana that’s on their ballots this November—and most support of setting a tax rate for cannabis that’s higher than the standard sales tax—according to a new survey. The poll, commissioned by Brach Eichler LLC, showed that 66 percent of likely voters back the legalization measure, which was placed before voters by the legislature. That’s about five percentage points higher than when residents were surveyed on the issue in April.
Learn more
August 21, 2020
Mexican President Says Marijuana Legalization Will Advance Through Congress As Session Approaches
The president of Mexico says that marijuana legalization will advance through Congress when it reconvenes next month—and he won’t stand in the way. During a press conference on Wednesday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was asked about a recent meeting with a key senator who is championing the cannabis reform legislation and whether he’s supportive of the proposal. He emphasized that “it must be taken into account that we are respectful of the division and balance between powers” when it comes to the executive and legislative branches of government, according to a translation, adding that the marijuana proposal has “been around for a long time.”
Learn more
August 19, 2020
As Texas Hemp Farmers Prepare For Their First-Ever Harvest, Cannabis Regulation Remains Complicated
In Bergheim, Texas, just north of San Antonio, there’s a skunky smell in the air. “You know, that’s a really good description. Skunky is a very typical terpene that is in most of these plants,” Austin Ruple said. He’s the president and co-owner of Pur IsoLabs – a hemp and cannabidiol, or CBD company that grows hemp and manufactures retail CBD products. Ruple stood next to a field of more than 300 hemp plants – a type of cannabis that’s rich in CBD, a legal compound that does not get users high.
Learn more
A key panel of lawmakers in Vermont will meet on Wednesday to discuss a bill to tax and regulate marijuana that has already passed both the House and Senate in differing forms. The bicameral conference committee is one of the final steps in the process for the legislation, which has seen months of delays due to the coronavirus outbreak. While Vermont legalized the possession of up to one ounce of cannabis and cultivation of two plants in 2018, there is currently no regulatory system in place that allows for retail sales. A bill to establish such a program, S. 54, cleared both the House and Senate this session.
Learn more
Six states that submitted hemp regulatory plans to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are being asked to make revisions and resubmit before they’re approved. For reasons that aren’t immediately clear, the federal agency did not accept proposed rules for the newly legal crop from California, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Utah. Industry advocates suspect that the states are pushing for additional flexibility in USDA’s interim final rule.
Learn more
August 18, 2020
The Cannabis Industry Needs Banking Now
The notion that cannabis may cure, treat or prevent COVID-19 makes some people roll their eyes. But the scientific uses of the cannabis plant do not surprise those of us who’ve worked in this industry for many years. And the scientific community appears to be gathering data supporting the notion that cannabis may be beneficial in preventing COVID-19. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell falls within the category of people who classify cannabis as therapeutic, if not preventative, for COVID-19. In fact, on August 10, 2020, Sen. McConnell and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi did what modern day politicians do – engage in less-than-informed Twitter wars. This came against the backdrop of Congress attempting to find a consensus on its second round of federal Coronavirus relief.
Learn more
Though Texas lawmakers legalized the production and sale of hemp in its last legislative session, the state has now created a framework that essentially bans the sale of “smokable” products. Edible goods, tinctures and topicals remain okay under the new program. But farmers and cannabis activists alike have voiced concern that lawmakers violated the scope of the original legislation. Hemp manufacturers and retailers recently filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of State Health Services over a new administrative rule that took effect Aug. The lawsuit “seeks a declaration that the Legislative Ban contained in Texas Agriculture Code 122.301(b) and Texas Health & Safety Code 443.204(4), which bans the processing and manufacture of hemp products for smoking in Texas, is unconstitutional,” it notes. “This ban is a punitive kick in the teeth to Texas’ small businesses and enterprising farmers,” said Zachary Maxwell, president of Texas Hemp Growers Association.
Learn more
Apparently, when the U.S. repealed prohibition at the end of 1933, advertising campaigns for the now-legalized adult beverages were slow getting to the party. In fact, the liquor industry placed a self-imposed adverting ban to lower any risk of the return of Prohibition, while some media companies chose not to air alcohol advertisements at all. Here we are now, nearly 90 years later, and we’re seeing something similar. This time, though, it is the marketing agencies that are late to the party.
Learn more
August 17, 2020
ACLU, NAACP And Other Groups Push Congress To Pass Marijuana Legalization Bill By Next Month
A coalition of major drug policy and civil rights organization is urging congressional leadership to hold a House floor vote on a comprehensive marijuana legalization bill by the end of next month. In a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), more than 120 groups—including the American Civil Liberties Union, NAACP, Human Rights Watch, Drug Policy Alliance and Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights—said it’s imperative to hold the vote on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act.
Learn more
