New Zealand’s government has revealed the final details of a marijuana legalization proposal that will appear on the September general election ballot. Voters will decide on the policy change through a referendum, where they will be asked “yes” or “no” to approving the “Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill.” Early details about the measure were released in December. And on Friday, the government shared the full proposal, which would make it legal for adults 20 and older to purchase and possess cannabis, cultivate two plants for personal use and visit marijuana “coffee shops” where on-site consumption would be allowed. Individuals would be able to purchase up to 14 grams of cannabis from licensed retailers and also gift up to 14 grams to another adult. At the beginning of implementation if voters approve the measure, retailers could only sell cannabis plants and seeds. But a regulatory body established under the bill called the Cannabis Regulatory Authority would later be able to approve “the introduction of other licensed products for sale, including concentrates and cannabis edibles, through regulations,” according to a summary. “Medicinal cannabis and hemp will not be affected by the outcome of the referendum,” a summary says. “Medicinal use of cannabis will still be allowed if prescribed by a doctor, and hemp will still be legal.” The government explained that the purpose of the legislation is to mitigate the illicit market, promote public health and ensure quality control on marijuana products. Cannabis businesses would be banned from advertising under the measure. If more than 50 percent of voters approve the ballot question, cannabis wouldn’t be immediately legalized. Rather, it would then be incumbent on the legislature to pass the bill that is the subject of the referendum, which would come after legislators gathered public input on the reform move. While some wanted the referendum to be self-executing, meaning the law would take effect as soon as it was approved by voters, this version is “binding” in the sense that lawmakers are effectively required to pass the bill—but it could still be amended, and it’s not clear how significant those changes could end up being. According to a report released this week by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, the country stands to generate $490 million in tax revenue annually from legal cannabis sales—though that projection is dependent on illicit sales being largely replaced by the regulated market.
Learn more
Starting May 1, cannabis dispensaries will be allowed to begin curbside pickup due to Governor Steve Sisolak loosening restrictions on the industry. “I think as everybody moves into this new phase, if we continue to be responsible operators and abide by the rules – making sure safety is the top priority – that we will be able to move to the next phase more comfortably and gradually and hopefully get things back to normal very soon," Cultivate Dispensary COO Matt McClure said. McClure is eager to see how this will help out his dispensary's bottom line, as the coronavirus pandemic has created serious challenges for his industry. One of those challenges: having to change up business on the fly, in order to stay in business per the Governor's directives. “A lot of were, not forced, but made the decision to in-house our delivery services, which meant developing, essentially, a new business," he said. “It’ll be a wait and see approach. We’ll staff up as needed to be ready for any level of demand, but we’ll adjust accordingly.”
Learn more
Backers are circulating a petition to put a measure on the November ballot allowing limited indoor commercial production of marijuana in unincorporated areas of Ventura County. The petition containing 30,912 valid signatures must be turned in by May 15 to be placed on the ballot, county elections officials said. Passage would require a simple majority from voters countywide although the areas where production would be allowed lie in agricultural and certain industrial zones in the unincorporated territory. Growers could produce the cannabis for both medical and recreational adult use. Spokeswoman Jeanette Lombardo said polling indicates voters will support what's being called the Ventura County Pilot Cannabis Cultivation Program. "I think it's time," Lombardo said this week. Commercial production of marijuana in the unincorporated area has repeatedly been rebuffed by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, but the initiative would allow voters to make the decision. If approved, the initiative would allow up to 500 acres of plants to be cultivated in existing permanent greenhouses or other indoor facilities in the unincorporated area. No planting would be allowed outdoors or in hoop houses, the tent-like plastic structures used to cover raspberries. Another 100 acres of nursery cultivation would be allowed in the same type of facilities for propagation of seedlings. The seedlings would have to be non-flowering and cannot emit odors, according to the text of the initiative. The acreage figures are totals countywide, not for each greenhouse, Lombardo said. Also permitted would be commercial processing and distribution of the products. No sales will be made to the general public from the facilities, Lombardo said. A political committee called Ventura County Citizens for Responsible Cannabis — which is generally composed of owners of glass greenhouses — is sponsoring the initiative. Lombardo said the main purpose of the pilot project is to help the county's struggling agricultural industry.
Learn more
While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the economy, small businesses are paying a heavy price. A record number of unemployment applications and bankruptcies are being filed weekly, and officials say the worse is yet to come. With so many industries absorbing the shock and strain of the financial crisis, public officials and leaders should seek every solution to help protect and lift business owners. For hemp farmers and small business owners in Kentucky and across the land, one simple solution exists, and it costs nothing. What the industry needs is for the FDA to take action and classify cannabidiol, better known as CBD derived from hemp, as a food additive or supplement enabling it to be included in food, beverages and supplements. The market for oils, capsules, body lotions and other products containing CBD has been rapidly growing, but there’s room for further expansion with ingestibles. Downstream demand is strong but the only ingestible products sold are outside the regulated system. Last year across America the number of acres of hemp quadrupled to more than 500,000, and the number of licenses issued grew by 476% to nearly 17,000. The growth trajectory remains strong long term including here in Kentucky, where the industry already employs hundreds of workers. Yet it could be even greater if CBD ingestibles were allowed to be sold in mainstream retailers and online stores. This would allow companies like Walmart, Target and Kroger to get fully behind CBD products. Industry experts estimate the potential associated market with CBD edibles, beverages and other products could exceed $23 billion by 2023. There’s already support from several members of Congress including many in the Kentucky delegation. Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota has also introduced a bipartisan Bill HR 5587, co-sponsored by both Reps. James Comer and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, that would allow FDA-regulated, hemp-derived CBD to be marketed in dietary supplements and as food and beverage additives. It would provide a boost to the multi-billion-dollar industry and help keep current hemp businesses thriving. If the FDA had taken action several companies here in Kentucky, like Atalo Holdings and GenCanna, and elsewhere in America might have avoided declaring bankruptcy. Those companies, at least in part, blamed the FDA’s inaction on ingestibles for their decline. This one policy change would have saved hundreds of jobs and kept revenue streaming into local restaurants, shops, stores and communities.
Learn more
House Democrats' latest round of legislation for economic relief from the coronavirus pandemic released on Tuesday included a provision that would allow the financial sector to serve cannabis businesses. The House is expected to pass the $3 trillion bill Friday and it includes the House-passed Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which would allow banks and financial institutions to work with cannabis businesses. Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), a group opposing marijuana legalization, said in response that including this provision “makes no sense.” “Numerous industries have been forced to completely shut down and have made great sacrifices to comply with shutdowns and limitations on their business operations. The marijuana industry has been a painfully obvious exception to this. This industry has used its lobbying arm to force state officials to keep their storefronts open, sued leaders who shut them down, and bragged incessantly about their revenues,” CEO Kevin Sabet said in a statement. Twenty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are allowing medical cannabis dispensaries to remain open during the pandemic, and several allow both licensed recreational and medical cannabis dispensaries to operate. Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office in a statement to The Hill responded to SAM by noting that the SAFE Banking Act already passed the House overwhelmingly in September. The bill, however, faces an uphill battle in the GOP-controlled Senate. The provision in the coronavirus relief package stated, “the purpose of this section is to increase public safety by ensuring access to financial services to cannabis-related legitimate businesses and service providers and reducing the amount of cash at such businesses.” Sabet said that coronavirus relief should be for those suffering during the pandemic, not industries making money.
Learn more
May 1, 2020
Top Vermont Lawmaker Says Legal Marijuana Sales Bill Will Be Taken Up After Coronavirus Response
A top lawmaker in Vermont says the legislature will reconsider a bill to legalize marijuana sales later this year, though she feels lawmakers and the administration are appropriately focused on responding to the coronavirus pandemic for now. House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D) was pressed on Thursday about why leaders aren’t giving more attention to the pending tax-and-regulate legislation given the revenue the state could derive and the jobs that could be created from legal cannabis sales. The speaker told Vermont Public Radio that after both chambers approved a bill to provide for retail sales this session, one of her last acts before leaving the State House to work remotely was appointing members of a conference committee to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions. That said, “our attention, I believe rightly, has been entirely on the COVID crisis and making sure that we get Vermonters through this very intense desperate period,” she stated. “This issue is still before us. We will be talking about it before the year ends,” Johnson said of the marijuana bill. “But I think our energy has been where it needs to be, which is getting Vermonters through this crisis.”
Learn more
House leadership unveiled a coronavirus relief bill Tuesday that includes legislation to protect banks that service marijuana businesses from being penalized by federal regulators. Advocates, stakeholders, and lawmakers have been pushing for some form of cannabis reform to be inserted into COVID-19 legislation. And this round, they were successful, with the language of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act making the cut. US Representative Ed Perlmutter, chief sponsor of the standalone bill that is being included in the new broad package, previously raised the issue in a Democratic Caucus meeting. “The purpose of this section is to increase public safety by ensuring access to financial services to cannabis-related legitimate businesses and service providers and reducing the amount of cash at such businesses,” states the text of the provision, which is attached to the 1,815-page coronavirus relief package. The House passed the SAFE Banking Act last year, and it’s since sat in limbo in the Senate Banking Committee. Negotiations over the bill have been ongoing, with Chairman Mike Crapo recommending a series of changes, but US Senator Cory Gardner saying a deal was “close.” A House floor vote on the COVID-19 package is expected as early as Friday. It remains to be seen whether the Senate will go along with the banking provision’s inclusion. Advocates have also been asking lawmakers to add language extending access to federal Small Business Administration relief programs to cannabis businesses in coronavirus legislation. That didn’t pan out in this package, however.
Learn more
April 30, 2020
State postpones approvals for next 75 pot shops: ‘A dream delayed’ for social equity candidates
With the state reeling from the COVID-19 outbreak, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday indefinitely pushed back the date for issuing the next round of cannabis dispensary licenses — the first permits prioritized for social equity candidates in an effort to bolster minority participation in the state’s overwhelmingly white pot industry. Officials were expected to announce the winners of the 75 coveted recreational dispensary licenses on Friday, but Pritzker will instead sign an executive order delaying the move until his coronavirus-related disaster proclamation is lifted or the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation sets a new date. Meanwhile, the deadline to submit applications for new cannabis cultivation, infusion and transportation licenses has also been delayed twice and are now due Thursday. “The Pritzker administration remains committed to creating a legal cannabis industry that reflects the diversity of Illinois residents,” said Toi Hutchinson, Pritzker’s senior adviser for cannabis control. “We recognize that countless entrepreneurs were looking forward to May 1 and the next step it represented for Illinois’ adult use cannabis industry. “However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused delays in the application review process. This executive order will help ensure that we continue to build out this industry in a deliberate and equity-centric manner.”
Learn more
Early in Dr. Sue Sisley’s medical career, military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder told her that smoking marijuana prevented nightmares and helped them sleep. Sisley, a primary care physician and psychiatrist in Scottsdale, Arizona, who has treated vets for two decades, said she was initially skeptical of her patients’ claims, but their families vouched that pot was helping with their symptoms. “Even though I was dubious, they never really gave up,” Sisley said of the patients. “They were so relentless.” About a decade ago, Sisley decided to study pot’s psychiatric effects to see if she could prove what her patients were experiencing. But, because of marijuana’s federal status as an illegal drug, this turned out to be far from a simple task. Since then, Sisley has been fired from her job at the University of Arizona; lost a study partner at another university; and had the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs block her attempts to recruit patients for research. By 2016, her scientific study was underway through the Scottsdale Research Institute, and she finally had federally approved cannabis in hand to provide to 76 military vets. But she was not happy with the weed she received. The marijuana was a “powdery mishmash of stems, sticks and leaves,” Sisley said. The level of tetrahydrocannabinol — or THC, the chemical that gets people high — was around 8 percent, far lower than the smokable products at pot dispensaries that often surpass 20 percent. The research weed also tested positive for yeast and mold, she said. “I’m astonished by that,” Sisley said. “As a physician, how do I hand out moldy weed to study subjects?” Sisley couldn’t shop around, though, because since 1968, the Drug Enforcement Administration has required scientists who want to study cannabis’s effects to use only marijuana from a 12-acre farm at the University of Mississippi. While the director of the farm disputes Sisley’s characterization of the cannabis supplied, Sisley and other scientists argue that government rules forcing them to use only the Mississippi weed have stifled research because it doesn’t match what people are actually using. “We haven't done any research on the stuff that people are buying and consuming today — that’s the problem,” said Cindy Kiel, executive associate vice chancellor for research administration at the University of California, Davis.
Learn more
April 30, 2020
State crime lab can now distinguish between marijuana and hemp, allowing more pot cases in courts
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is ready to start testing cannabis plants and oils in drug cases, thanks to new equipment that will help technicians distinguish between hemp and marijuana. For the past nine months suspected illegal marijuana cases weren’t prosecuted in numerous cities across the state -- such as Columbus and Hunting Valley in Northeast Ohio -- because the Ohio General Assembly legalized hemp and there were no public crime labs in the state that had the testing ability to distinguish between the two plants, which are part of the same cannabis genus. But that has changed, said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who oversees BCI and its crime lab. “BCI’s new ability to differentiate between marijuana and hemp creates a valuable resource for officers who depend on our laboratory services, offered at no cost to them,” Yost said in a statement. Under Ohio’s new hemp law, which went into effect July 30, hemp can have only trace amounts -- no more than 0.3% -- of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical that produces the “high.” Anything above that is illegal in Ohio unless part of the state-regulated medical marijuana program. Before the new equipment, cannabis was identified through chemical color testing and microscopic examination, said Steve Irwin, a BCI spokesman.
Learn more
