December 9, 2020
Bill decriminalizing marijuana ‘great step’ but ‘largely symbolic,’ says cannabis COO
The MORE Act would decriminalize cannabis and marks the first time that Congress has ever voted on the issue. The bill would erase non-violent federal marijuana convictions. It stands almost no chance in the Senate, which means it has no chance of becoming law right now. The historic vote reflects public opinion, and a Gallup Poll showed 68% of Americans support the legalization of cannabis. This week became historic for the “legalize marijuana” movement, with the House of Representatives passing the MORE Act by a vote of 228-164 on Friday. The bill would decriminalize cannabis and marks the first time that Congress has ever voted on the issue. The MORE Act would erase non-violent federal marijuana convictions. It stands almost no chance in the Senate, which means no chance of becoming law. Arun Kurichety, the chief operating officer and general counsel for Petalfast, told “The News with Shepard Smith” that the MORE Act is more of a symbolic step in the right direction. Petalfast is a first-of-its-kind full spectrum sales and marketing agency for the cannabis industry. “The passage of the MORE Act is a great step in terms of recognizing the injustices present in the criminal justice system, but unfortunately, this is all largely symbolic as the bill has little chance of passing the Senate - until and unless - the Democrats are able to secure a majority in the Senate,” Kurichety said. “Hopefully, this act will help continue to shed a light on reversing injustices and promote additional growth in the industry as reflected by the public support and passage of various state laws legalizing cannabis.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took a jab at the bill during a floor speech. He said, “the House of Representatives is spending this week on pressing issues like marijuana. You know, serious and important legislation befitting this national crisis.?
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December 7, 2020
House votes to decriminalize marijuana at federal level
The Democratic-controlled House on Friday approved a bill to decriminalize and tax marijuana at the federal level, reversing what supporters called a failed policy of criminalization of pot use and taking steps to address racial disparities in enforcement of federal drug laws. Opponents, mostly Republicans, called the bill a hollow political gesture and mocked Democrats for bringing it up at a time when thousands of Americans are dying from the coronavirus pandemic. “With all the challenges America has right now, (Republicans) think COVID relief should be on the floor, but instead, the Democrats put cats and cannabis” on the House floor, said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “They’re picking weed over the workers. They’re picking marijuana over (providing) the much-needed money we need to go forward? to address the pandemic. McCarthy’s comment about cats referred to a separate bill approved by the House to ban private ownership of big cats such as lions and tigers, a measure boosted by the Netflix series “Tiger King.? That bill, approved by the House on Thursday, would allow most private zoos to keep their tigers and other species but would prohibit most public contact with the animals. Democrats said they can work on COVID-19 relief and marijuana reform at the same time and noted that the House passed a major pandemic relief bill in May that has languished in the Senate. Supporters say the pot bill would help reverse adverse effects of the decades-long “war on drugs” by removing marijuana, or cannabis, from the list of federally controlled substances while allowing states to set their own rules on pot. The bill also would use money from an excise tax on marijuana to address the needs of groups and communities harmed by the drug war and provide for the expungement of federal marijuana convictions and arrests. “For far too long, we have treated marijuana as a criminal justice problem instead of as a matter of personal choice and public health,? said Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a key sponsor of the bill. “Whatever one’s views are on the use of marijuana for recreational or medicinal use, the policy of arrests, prosecution and incarceration at the federal level has proven unwise and unjust.? The vote comes at a time when most Americans live in states where marijuana is legal in some form, and lawmakers from both parties agreed that national cannabis policy has lagged woefully behind changes at the state level. That divide has created a host of problems — loans and other banking services, for example, are hard to get for many marijuana companies because pot remains illegal at the federal level. Four states, including New Jersey and Arizona, passed referendums allowing recreational cannabis. Voters made Oregon the first state in the nation to decriminalize possession of small amounts of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., called the House bill an important racial justice measure. Lee, who is Black, said the bill is the product of years of work by a range of advocates and is long overdue. The bill “is a major step, mind you, a major step toward ending the unjust war on drugs and racial inequities that are central to these laws,? Lee said.
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December 7, 2020
House Passes Landmark Bill Decriminalizing Marijuana
The House on Friday passed sweeping legislation that would decriminalize marijuana and expunge nonviolent marijuana-related convictions, as Democrats sought to roll back and compensate for decades of drug policies that have disproportionately affected low-income communities of color. The 228-164 vote to approve the measure was bipartisan, and it was the first time either a chamber of Congress had ever endorsed the legalization of cannabis. The bill would remove the drug from the Controlled Substances Act and authorize a 5 percent tax on marijuana that would fund community and small business grant programs to help those most impacted by the criminalization of marijuana. The legislation is, for now, almost certainly doomed in the Republican-led Senate, where that party’s leaders have derided it as a superficial distraction from the work of passing coronavirus relief, as lawmakers inched toward bipartisan compromise after spending months locked in an impasse. But the bill’s passage in the House amounted to a watershed moment decades in the making for advocates of marijuana legislation, and it laid out an expansive federal framework for redressing the racial disparities in the criminal justice system exacerbated by the war on drugs. “The effects of marijuana prohibition have been particularly felt by communities of color because it has meant that people from the communities couldn’t get jobs,” Representative Jerry Nadler, Democrat of New York and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview. Mr. Nadler, who spearheaded the legislation with Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California and the vice president-elect, described the collateral consequences of a conviction for marijuana possession as creating “an often-permanent second-class status for millions of Americans.” The idea behind the legislation is “you want to make whole these communities, and you want to compensate,” he said. “You want to shed light on what was done.” The legislation intends to give states power and incentives to enact their own reforms, and its passage came as states around the county, including some conservative-leaning ones, have become increasingly open to decriminalizing marijuana amid a growing consensus that the war on drugs has been destructive. Fifteen states have legalized recreational cannabis, and voters in five states last month voted on legalization issues, bringing the number of states where medical marijuana is legal to 35. The law would require federal courts to release those serving sentences for nonviolent, marijuana-related offenses, and set up grant programs focused on providing job training, legal aid and substance use treatment, as well as grants for small businesses in the marijuana industry led by low-income and minority business owners. Physicians with the Department of Veterans Affairs would also be allowed for the first time to recommend medical marijuana to their patients.
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December 7, 2020
Is Mexico Really Going To Legalize Marijuana For Recreational Use?
Mexico is potentially on track to become the third country in the world to legalize recreational-use cannabis. New laws currently under discussion might make Mexico the world’s largest legal market for marijuana. Following the examples set by Uruguay and Canada, Mexico’s Senate has already voted to approve a bill that would start the process for creating a legal framework for a licit market for marijuana. Up until now, the driving force behind the push to legalize marijuana in Mexico has been the Supreme Court, which ruled that marijuana use falls under protected modes of individual self epression. Support from the MORENA party of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was essential for passing a legalization bill in Mexico’s Senate. President Lopez Obrador, a perplexing politician who promotes the values of individual liberty, rails against “conservatives” and yet also promotes traditional, family values and has strong ties to Mexico’s conservative religious groups, has not talked much about the issue of legalization. Up until now he has mostly stayed on the sidelines, letting Mexico’s courts interact with the legislative branch. Overall, the potential opportunity to create a legal market for recreational-use marijuana is an important development in Mexico. Marijuana was once at the center of the business model for many organized crime groups in Mexico. But, with U.S. states such as California and Colorado now operating legal markets for locally-produced marijuana, Mexico’s cartels have already diversified into producing crystal meth and fentanyl and into other rackets such as extortion. It’s still not totally clear what effect marijuana legalization would have on organized crime and violence in Mexico. The U.S. has long backed marijuana eradication efforts in Mexico, but it’s unclear how the incoming Biden administration would react to Mexico creating a legal, nation-wide marketplace for marijuana. The legislation is still be written and debated in Mexico, and lawmakers still have a lot of work to do to create a clear set of rules that will allow companies to invest and start operating cannabis producing operations in Mexico. Provisions requiring market participants to implement rigorous seed-to-sale tracing protocols might create hurdles for small companies and rural growers. But, in the near future it could be possible for cannabis companies operating in Mexico to send legal exports to the U.S. and Canada. While Mexico does appear to be moving towards legalizing marijuana, potential investors in the sector still need to wait to see the details of pending legislation and look at the structure and design of the institutions that will regulate the sector. Investors need a clear regulatory framework in place and will need to do serious due diligence and political risk analysis before financing projects in Mexico’s nascent legal cannabis sector. The details of the pending legislation are very important. Investors need to understand potential risks from any ambiguities in the regulatory code and also need to analyze security issues and political dynamics in the specific areas where they are considering operating. To get a sense of what’s ahead, I reached out to Elias Lisbona Jassan, a lawyer at Perez Ferrer Abogados, who works advising companies and investors interested in Mexico’s fledgling legal cannabis market. Nathaniel Parish Flannery: What's the current status of the push to legalize marijuana in Mexico? Elias Lisbona Jassan: Right now, Mexico’s Senate has approved a bill that permits industrial, own- use and cultivation, investigation and adult use sales of cannabis. Support from President Lopez Obrador’s MORENA party was key to passing the bill in the Senate. Now we’ll see if they can replicate the outcome in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies. There’s still a long process to approve the bill and legislators are under pressure because of a Supreme Court deadline, which is on December 15. Overall, there's still a lot to be discussed and codified into clear policy proposals in order for Mexico to have a truly functional marijuana legalization bill. But, we are making progress towards building a legal marketplace for cannabis, and that’s an important achievement for Mexico. Parish Flannery: How likely is it that Mexico will introduce a functioning legal market for cannabis by the end of 2021? Lisbona Jassan: It’s quite possible that we will have some kind of basic medical marijuana market in the near future. We have pending regulations that will not take long to be implemented. Medical regulations are set to be published by the end of 2020 after being put on hold since 2017. But, lawmakers in Mexico still have a lot of work to do. They need to develop the Mexican Institute for Cannabis Regulation and Control, which is expected to start operating just six months after the law is enacted. We need to train public servants on how to regulate the sector. It's a huge task. I think that in a best-case scenario for harvesting and processing non psychoactive marijuana will be legal in Mexico by August or September of 2021. For adult use, the current draft of the legalization bill foresees an 18-month period to approve the licenses after the institute is created and the Law has full effect, so I wouldn’t bet on having an adult use legal market before 2022. I don’t think it’s likely that a legal market for recreational-use marijuana will exist in Mexico before the end of 2021. People can consume the day after the legalization law is passed, but we won’t have clear guidelines for the market for several more months. Right now, Mexico’s legislature has to work to develop a clear regulatory pathway for marijuana to be produced, sold, and consumed legally.
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December 7, 2020
Four more states just legalized recreational weed. Here's how long you'll have to wait to buy it
In a matter of hours on election night, recreational cannabis measures got the go-ahead in four more states: Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota. That doesn't mean that people in those locations can legally buy weed for non-medical use just yet. Although the moves at the ballot box further bolster the $19 billion US cannabis industry, the passages are early steps in an often complex and lengthy process. History shows that it could take months or, in some cases, years for the first regulated sales to take place. It takes time to develop regulatory programs; establish testing, tracking and safety protocols; build supply chains; license operators; and, of course, grow the plants. And in two states, legal challenges have been filed against the ballot initiatives, meaning legalization efforts there could be potentially overturned. Here's a look at where things stand in the latest adult-use states -- and when people might be able to purchase cannabis there. The Garden State is garnering the lion's share of attention among the newly legal states. The market size could be fairly significant. It's the first of the Mid-Atlantic states to legalize recreational cannabis, establishing a potentially large regional canna-tourism hub, given its proximity to Philadelphia and New York City. New Jersey is also viewed as a catalyst for other neighboring states to push through legalization plans. The new law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2021, and if the legislative and regulatory efforts move expeditiously, adult-use sales could start by the end of next year, said Steven Hawkins, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a legalization advocacy organization, told CNN Business.
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December 7, 2020
House of Representatives passes marijuana legalization bill
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed legislation legalizing marijuana at the federal level Friday, the first time either chamber of Congress has voted on the matter. The bill, the MORE Act, passed by a mostly party-line 228-164 vote. The Republican-controlled Senate is unlikely to take up the legislation. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., would remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances and expunge some marijuana-related criminal records. It would still be up to states to pass their own regulations on the sale of marijuana. Nadler said in a statement the legislation would help address the "mistake" of marijuana's criminalization and its "racially disparate enforcement." "This long-overdue legislation would reverse the failed policy of criminalizing marijuana on the federal level and would take steps to address the heavy toll this policy has taken across the country, particularly on communities of color," he said. Trump's pardons:Could Trump pardon family members and other close associates? His prior pardons may set the stage for more. Nadler has highlighted provisions in the MORE Act that fund community programs to benefit people previously convicted of marijuana-related offenses. He told USA TODAY in September the provisions were about "making people whole from harms suffered directly as a result of the marijuana ban," which he said disproportionately affected racial minorities. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., one of a handful of Republicans to vote for the legislation and the only Republican cosponsor of the legislation, said on the House floor the bill was necessary because current federal prohibitions on marijuana "constrains" the states. "If we were measuring the success in the 'war on drugs,' it would be hard to conclude anything other than the fact that drugs have won" because Americans no longer supported harsh laws on drugs, Gaetz said. Advocates see the vote as a part of a move toward "justice." "With this vote, Congress is recognizing the disproportionate impact enforcement has had on our communities and calling for the unjust status quo to be disrupted," said Maritza Perez, director of the office of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, a group advocating for the decriminalization of drugs. An ACLU report analyzing marijuana-related arrests from 2010 to 2018 found that Black people were 3.64 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession. The bill's likely passage comes as more states have legalized marijuana and public opinions on the topic have shifted. Four more states passed marijuana legalization measures in the November elections, bringing the total number of states with legal marijuana use for adults to 15. Medical marijuana is legal in 36 states. President-elect Joe Biden has called for the decriminalization of marijuana and the expunging of convictions for marijuana use, though he expressed skepticism about the legalization of the drug during the Democratic presidential primary. Biden's campaign website said he supported the legalization of medical marijuana and would leave decisions on recreational use up to the states. A planned vote on the legislation was shelved in October following backlash from moderate Democrats, who had expressed concern about the effort to pass the marijuana legalization bill before the election and amid the impasse on COVID-19 stimulus negotiations.Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., a moderate Democrat who faced a close reelection race this year, voiced a similar concern Tuesday, as Congress remains deadlocked over a stimulus bill. He wrote on Twitter that while marijuana decriminalization was important, House Democrats' focus should be on "nothing else" besides COVID-19 relief. Republicans have also criticized Democrats for moving on marijuana legalization despite other major concerns before Congress. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters Thursday that Democrats were "focused on cats and cannabis instead of COVID." And Senate Republicans quipped Democrats had decided to "'puff, puff, pass' on job-saving PPP and COVID relief." More:Vice President Pence remains silent on election outcome while campaigning for Georgia runoff.
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December 7, 2020
Indiana Lawmakers Consider Cigarette Tax Increase
Cigarette smokers in Indiana may be asked to pay a 200 percent higher state excise tax on their cigarettes if lawmakers move ahead with a recent proposal from legislative leaders. The current state tax rate is 99.5 cents per pack but the proposal would increase this rate to $3 per pack.
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December 7, 2020
A New Cigarette Tax Needs A New Plan
If a cigarette tax increase is going to happen, there must be a plan in place, according to state legislators who support such an increase. Some state legislative leaders who support the idea of raising cigarette taxes say the plan needs to detail how the tax revenue gained will be used.
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December 7, 2020
Legislators’ Focus On Health Revives Debate Over Cigarette Tax
House and Senate leaders are noncommittal about whether you might pay more for cigarettes next year. Business and health groups have argued for years the state could cut smoking rates by raising the tax. The tax of just under a dollar a pack is the 12th-lowest in the country, and hasn’t gone up in 13 years.
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December 4, 2020
Inside the Weed Legalization Bill Congress Is Voting on This Week
It was 2018, Democrats were about to gain control of the House of Representatives, and cannabis justice advocates knew they needed to get to work. Every two years, a handful of new states were joining those that had already legalized cannabis, either recreationally or medicinally. Federal decriminalization was inevitable. If advocates wanted to have any say in what legislation would look like, the first Democratic House majority since 2011 was their best chance to make inroads. “Anybody who’s doing work on drug policy and criminal justice could see that it was only a matter of time before the federal government legalized [cannabis],” says Martiza Perez, national affairs director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “We wanted to make certain that when they did it they did it right.” The result, two years later, is the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which the House will vote on this week. It’s the first time either chamber of Congress will take up a bill to legalize cannabis, but the MORE Act goes far beyond simply decriminalizing it. Included in the bill are several social and criminal justice measures that would help lift up the communities of color ravaged by the War on Drugs, while helping build an equitable cannabis industry in which the people of color disproportionately impacted by prohibition have a seat at the table. “I’ve been working on this issue longer than any politician in America and can confidently say that the MORE Act is the most comprehensive federal cannabis reform legislation in U.S. history,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), founder of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, said in a statement. “Congress must capitalize on this momentum and do our part to end the failed policy of prohibition that has resulted in a long and shameful period of selective enforcement against communities of color.” Federal cannabis legalization has been a long time coming. A Pew Research Center study published in November of 2019 found that 67 percent of the nation supports legalization, including a majority of Republicans. As of this November, 15 states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation or voter initiatives to legalize recreational cannabis, while 38 states and D.C. allow some form of it for medicinal purposes. Every cannabis measure up for a vote last month passed convincingly. One in three Americans now live in states that have legalized recreational use.
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