February 24, 2020
From ‘bigger tractors’ to trade aid 3.0
The FDA missed a deadline to send Congress a report on its policy for regulating cannabidiol. Manufacturers and hemp growers are anxious for federal guidance as they try to tap into booming demand for CBD goods. Our Pro Cannabis colleagues have more.
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February 24, 2020
Elizabeth Warren wants to legalize marijuana nationwide. Here’s where she would start.
Over the past decade, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has evolved into a vocal supporter of legalizing marijuana. And in a new plan rolled out Sunday by her 2020 presidential campaign, the Massachusetts senator laid out how she would work to put an end to the current “broken system.” “We’ll regulate the industry so it’s safe and legal,” she wrote on Medium. “And by reinvesting the tax revenue earned from marijuana sales, we’ll begin to rebuild communities devastated by the policies of the failed War on Drugs, and ensure that those communities are equally able to participate in the budding cannabis industry.” Warren’s plan acknowledged the potential political roadblocks to marijuana reform; the Republican-controlled Senate has repeatedly blocked recent proposals, even as cannabis is increasingly legalized at the state level. While calling for “full legalization, as quickly as possible,” Warren said she would start by working to pass a bill introduced by Sen. Kamala Harris, a former fellow Democratic primary candidate, that would effectively decriminalize marijuana at the federal level by removing the drug from the government’s list of banned substances. Named the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement [MORE] Act, the bill leaves the decision to fully legalize the substance to the states. So far, 11 states (including Massachusetts) and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational use and possession of small amounts of marijuana, while another 15 states have decriminalized the drug, meaning that individuals can still be fined for possession but won’t be arrested or imprisoned for small amounts. The MORE Act would also create a process for those with prior marijuana convictions to get their records expunged, as well as require courts to grant resentencing hearings for people still serving time. The legislation would prohibit the denial of federal benefits, such as housing, because of one’s past marijuana use or convictions.
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February 24, 2020
Baltimore County neighbors want restrictions on industrial hemp farming
Some Baltimore County residents have complained for months of an overpowering stench coming from an industrial hemp farm. They said the odor would cling to their clothes, cause headaches and drift through open windows. The farm, tucked off Broadway Road between Greenspring Avenue and Falls Road, reeked from late July or early August until early November, when the plant was harvested, and now nearby residents say they’re worried about the next growing season. Besides the smell, several neighbors said they worry about the possible health effects of inhaling the fumes from hemp, a variety of the cannabis plant, but without the active ingredient of marijuana, that can be used in an array of commercial products, including clothing fibers and CBD oil. The neighbors who asked to remain anonymous said they were not opposed to industrial hemp. Rather, the group wants the county or the state to impose restrictions that would prohibit industrial hemp farming within two miles of a residential area. The Broadway farm is surrounded by suburban homes, just north of Stevenson, between Lutherville-Timonium and Owings Mills. The odor is “kind of a skunky marijuana smell,” said Mark Holland, a professor of biological sciences at Salisbury University. Holland and a colleague have partnered with more than 20 farms across the state to grow industrial hemp — growers during the pilot program needed to link with a university conducting research to qualify to grow the crop. “[Hemp] has a distinctive odor,” Holland said. “So does chicken manure on the Eastern Shore, by the way.” Vincent Piccinini, the farmer whose name is listed on the state registration for the Broadway hemp farm, declined to comment for this article. The property is identified as a landscaping company, and the address is registered in Maryland as being a plant nursery.
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February 23, 2020
Marijuana Could Be Legalized In New York Within Weeks
Cuomo announced he would be taking trips to California, Colorado, Illinois and Massachusetts, all states where cannabis is legal for recreational use, to educate himself as he pushes for legalization. The governor said he will meet with officials in those states to discuss what worked and what didn’t work during the lead up to the legalization of marijuana. Cuomo has previously stated he wants legalization passed by state officials before April 1, when the state budget must be approved. Cuomo had previously held a joint summit on the controversial topic with governors in New Jersey and Connecticut, who are also pushing for legal marijuana in their states. "I also want to make sure that it is done correctly, and you look at states that have legalized marijuana, many of them have generated more questions,” Cuomo stated. “One of those issues that everybody has goals, we want a goal of social equity, we want to make sure young people can't get it, et cetera. We want to make sure there are advantages to communities that have been oppressed.”
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February 23, 2020
Elizabeth Warren has a new plan for legalizing marijuana
US Senator Elizabeth Warren unveiled a plan for federal marijuana reform Sunday, calling for legalization as well as a series of policies aimed at righting the wrongs of the drug war and promoting involvement in the legal industry by communities harmed by prohibition. In the “Just and Equitable Cannabis Industry” plan the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate slams the “racist ‘War on Drugs’ policy” perpetuated during the Nixon administration and the mass incarceration that has followed. She also introduces several ideas, such as using her executive authority to begin the federal legalization process within 100 days of taking office, respecting the sovereignty of other nations to legalize marijuana, protecting immigrants who participate in the legal industry, empowering veterans to access medical cannabis, and ensuring that corporations aren’t able to monopolize the market. Further, the Warren plan promotes unionization in the marijuana industry, protects Indian tribes’ authority to enact their own reform programs, and lifts a current ban so that Washington, D.C. can use its local monies to implement legal marijuana sales
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February 22, 2020
NH House Passes Narrower Marijuana Legalization Bill
The New Hampshire House has again voted to legalize recreational marijuana, this time without trying to establish a regulated commercial market for it. The bill sent to the Senate on Thursday would allow adults to possess up to 3/4 of an ounce of marijuana and to grow up to six plants. Last year, the House passed a broader bill that would have created a regulated and taxed retail market, but it died in the Senate. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu opposes such measures. The latest bill passed the House with four votes more than needed to achieve a veto-proof majority.
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February 21, 2020
Slow movement on flavored nicotine ban
— Gov. Andrew Cuomo, joined by his health commissioner and anti-tobacco advocates, called on the Legislature once again to pass a bill that bans flavored nicotine statewide. One way or the other, he said the ban will pass by April 1. — The governor also said he was crossing the state border to wander into the cannabis lands of Massachusetts, Illinois and either California or Colorado and learn more about their programs. — Mayor Bill de Blasio defended his wife Chirlane McCray's new podcast, which is one of two Brooklyn initiatives criticized as a potential conflict of interest should the Manhattan resident run for Brooklyn borough president. CUOMO REVAMPS FLAVOR VAPE FIGHT — POLITICO’s Shannon Young and Amanda Eisenberg: Gov. Andrew Cuomo is renewing his call for Albany lawmakers to outlaw the sale of flavored vape products in New York, a budget proposal which he’s argued has gotten lost in the debate around bail reform and the state’s Medicaid shortfall. … Cuomo, who has pushed for codifying emergency regulations that cracked down on flavored e-cigarettes and e-liquids as part of his 2021 fiscal year budget, joined a panel of state health officials and advocates in pressing the issue at an afternoon event in New York City on Thursday. “One way or the other, by April 1, this has to become law, and there is no excuse for it," he said, arguing that lawmakers should advance the legislation either as part of the budget or by the spending bill’s end-of-March deadline. “This is a scourge, and we have to stop it. It’s not going to stop on its own.” TRAVELING MAN — Shannon reports: Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday that he will travel to three states that have legalized cannabis as New York looks to pass its own adult recreational use measure. Cuomo, who has called for marijuana legalization as part of his fiscal year 2021 budget, said he will visit Massachusetts, Illinois and either California or Colorado to learn more about the issues that have popped up in those states since they began recreational cannabis sales. NOT UNDER QUARANTINE — POLITICO’s Joe Anuta: Mayor Bill de Blasio defended a new podcast hosted by his wife Chirlane McCray, who is partnering with a Brooklyn-based arts organization receiving city funding at the same time she is mulling a run for borough president.… "This is an idea that she had for a long time," the mayor said during an unrelated press conference. "It had nothing to do with the much more recent potential interest in running for something. It is clearly about promoting the work of getting people access to mental health care." — Just a reminder, McCray told The New York Times in 2018 she was interested in running for office. “It could be something in Albany, it could be Brooklyn, local, citywide,” she told the paper.
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A Federal Reserve Bank district is making clear that financial institutions no longer have to automatically treat hemp businesses as suspicious under reporting rules. In a post on the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank website, the institution clarified that since hemp was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill, banks no longer have to file suspicious activity reports just because a business transaction involves the crop. “Properly licensed industrial hemp producers can now be treated the same as other bank commercial customers for anti-money-laundering regulatory purposes,” the notice published this month states. However, it reiterated that marijuana transactions will continue to be flagged, as the intoxicating variety of the cannabis plant remains federally prohibited. “Unlike marijuana, hemp contains very low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical that causes an altered state when ingested or smoked. Hemp that contains less than 0.3 percent THC is considered legal,” Carl White, the senior vice president of the Supervision, Credit, Community Development and Learning Innovation Division at the Fed district, wrote. “The legal marijuana business is not affected by the change in status for hemp production, because marijuana is still considered a controlled substance under federal law.” But as others have recognized, the central bank district said that despite “the change in the legal treatment of hemp, many bankers have been reluctant to work with the industry because of regulatory concerns.” To that end, the the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued guidance last year clarifying that “banks are not required to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) on customers solely because they are engaged in the growth or cultivation of hemp in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.” Even so, it is apparent that some financial institutions remain reluctant to bank hemp businesses, and so the Fed is seeking to put them at ease with the new explanatory post. “The main takeaway from the regulators’ statement is that banks no longer need to automatically fill out Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) when working with a hemp producer customer because hemp production has been legalized,” the St. Louis-based bank said in the new post. “They can follow standard procedure and file a SAR if suspicious activity warrants.” “Bankers with questions about the 2018 farm bill and hemp can contact the USDA, state agriculture departments or tribal governments. Because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration retains some regulatory authority over hemp products, banks can contact that agency with questions about hemp-related food, drugs or cosmetics.” The post notes that “banks should be looking out for additional guidance” on federal hemp rules from financial regulators. It’s not clear when that will be issued, however. While marijuana policies remain complicated given federal prohibition, there is significant interest among Federal Reserve Bank districts in ensuring that those rules are clarified as well. The presidents of three such institutions called for guidance on marijuana banking last year. The Federal Reserve Bank Of Kansas City also recently issued a report on Colorado’s cannabis market and determined that it would continue to grow as support for legalization rises, though it may not grow as fast as it initially did immediately following legalization.
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February 21, 2020
USDA Approves Five State and Tribal Hemp Programs
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved five state and tribal hemp production plans as part of its authority oversight of the industry included in the 2018 Farm Bill, the agency announced on Thursday.
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February 20, 2020
Wheatley introduces new bill to legalize recreational marijuana, expunge certain records
A new bill looking to legalize recreational marijuana is on its way to the house. It's the latest string of bills looking to bring legal weed to Pennsylvania. State Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Allegheny, has introduced an updated legislation to legalize recreational marijuana. The legislation would also expunge records for people with non-violent related offenses. House Bill 2050 focuses on the legalization of pot with accompanying social and criminal justice reforms. Last year, over 600,000 Americans were arrested for minor marijuana offenses. Mr. Wheatley said his bill would provide relief on the already over stressed criminal justice system, while eventually strengthening the commonwealth's growth. "We should help provide some relief for those individuals, and potentially hopefully, those individuals will stay here, work here, be productive citizens here," said Mr. Wheatley. In 2018, Mr. Wheatley introduced something similar. However, this bill clears up a lot of uncertainties from the previous piece of legislation. He believes state legislators need to enact popular legislation directed to helping make Pennsylvania a better place. He adds, we can do this by passing cannabis legalization and more. House Bill 2050 would take a portion of marijuana profits to help disadvantaged populations and would go to social programs like student loan forgiveness and affordable housing.
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