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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August 31, 2020
New Bill Would Give Hemp Businesses A Boost And Require Studies Into Alternative Uses For The Crop
A congressman introduced a bill on Friday that would create a variety of programs and grants to help people enter the hemp industry and build their businesses. It would also require a federal study into potential alternative uses for the crop as well as challenges faced by the market. Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA) filed the Hemp Opportunity Zone Act. As the title implies, the main component of the legislation clarifies that farmers who cultivate the crop can receive tax benefits if they operate in an area designated as an “opportunity zone” by the Treasury Department. Opportunity zones are census-designated low-income areas that are considered economically distressed. The governor of a state can make the designation, and Treasury then decides whether to certify it. The program is designed to promote investments in communities that might typically be overlooked by allowing investors to defer capital gains taxes if they put money into an opportunity zone business. “We are reviewing the legislation now, but if it indeed serves to open up investment in hard-hit farming and small business communities, it would be welcome relief for an industry that has been struggling through the COVID pandemic and federal burdens imposed by FDA, USDA and now the DEA,” Jonathan Miller, general counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, told Marijuana Moment. Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchin earlier this year weighed in on eligibility for the opportunity zone program with respect to the marijuana industry and said “it is not the intent of the opportunity zones that if there is this conflict [between state and federal marijuana laws] that has not been cleared that, for now, we should not have those businesses in the opportunity zones.” In addition to clarifying eligibility for hemp-focused businesses, Riggleman’s new bill would also create a “hemp farmer start-up tax credit” equal to 10 percent of the cash rent paid for land used for production or 15 percent of the “crop share rent so paid by the taxpayer.” To be eligible, farmers would need to have less than $25 million in gross receipts for the last taxable year.The legislation would further establish a “small hemp farmer credit” that would enable businesses with less than $250,000 in gross receipts for the previous taxable year to obtain a credit “equal to 30 percent of the basis of hemp farming property placed in service.” “Hemp farming is a new and thriving industry,” Riggleman, who lost his primary renomination bid this year and only has a few months left in Congress, said. “By providing these tax incentives hemp growers in Virginia and the 5th District are primed to lead based on their historic production of tobacco.”
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August 31, 2020
Pandemic renews calls for marijuana legalization in Hawaii
This week, Hawaii took a step forward in legalizing industrial hemp, something the agricultural committee says would be a big boost to the state's economy. But while 11 other states, including all of the West Coast have legalized recreational marijuana, Hawaii has still been hesitant to take that step, despite our status as a strongly blue state. "Law enforcement has been against it, conservative groups have been against it," explains former State Senator Will Espero. But he says the pandemic has changed the game. With record unemployment and calls to diversity our tourism-heavy economy, Espero says he believes lawmakers will be more willing to take another look next session. In other states like Nevada for example, marijuana tax revenue brought in $70 million the first year alone. Espero says if legalization were to pass, Hawaii would already have the infrastructure in place to support the industry. "We have people already growing, and who know to grow," he says. He says while other states may have been first, Hawaii could easily position itself as the best in the industry. "There's no reason Hawaii couldn't market itself as having the best product in the world," he says.
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August 30, 2020
House to vote on removing the federal ban on marijuana
Legislation removing the federal prohibition on marijuana, taxing the drug to provide to communities hardest hit by the war on drugs, and expunging cannabis-related convictions will come before the U.S. House when it returns from its August recess. The bill passed the House Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan vote in November, and had been waiting action by the full House. The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or More Act, would remove the federal ban on marijuana, currently scheduled as a Class 1 controlled substance. That would give states carte blanche to legalize it, give banks the ability to offer credit cards and checking accounts to legal cannabis businesses, and make it easier to study any medicinal benefits of pot. The legislation also would require federal courts to expunge prior marijuana convictions, tax marijuana to fund job training and other programs and loans to minority-owned small businesses wanting to enter the cannabis industry, and provide aid to communities hardest hit by the war on drugs as so many residents were arrested and jailed for possessing weed. The announcement by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., was welcomed by proponents of legalizing cannabis. “After many months of hard work and collaboration, we finally have a chance to end the failed policy of prohibition that has resulted in a long and shameful period of selective enforcement against people of color, especially Black men,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.
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After failing to convince Nebraska’s secretary of state to keep a medical marijuana initiative off the state’s ballot, a local police official is now going to court to try to prevent voters from getting a chance to decide on the measure. Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner filed the case on Friday, just one day after Secretary of State Bob Evnen rejected his arguments that the ballot proposal “cases confusion,” “creates doubt about what will be authorized after the election” and violates the state’s single-subject rule for initiatives. That filing was made by a law firm that refused to disclose the sheriff as its client. Now the top county cop has revealed himself in the new lawsuit filing, and the state Supreme Court will take up the dispute, with arguments expected on Thursday. A decision will need to be made in the case by September 11, which is the deadline to certify items for November ballots. Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana submitted nearly 200,000 signatures last month, well beyond the 121,669 required to qualify for the ballot. Under the proposal, physicians could recommend cannabis to patients suffering from debilitating medical conditions, and those patients would then be allowed to possess, purchase and “discreetly” cultivate marijuana for personal use. Sens. Anna Wishart Adam Morfeld, cochairs of the legalization campaign, and other legislators have tried for years to pass medical cannabis bills in the legislature only to be blocked by opposition from leadership. But with help from the Marijuana Policy Project and other advocacy groups, they decided to put the issue directly to voters. On Saturday, Morfeld recalled pressing Wagner about the relative dangers of marijuana, alcohol and other drugs during a Judiciary Committee hearing. “I asked Sheriff Wagner how many people had died from drug and alcohol overdoses in his career?” the senator tweeted. “He said too many to count. How many from marijuana? Zero.”
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In September, the House will vote on removing cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act as well as erasing some marijuana criminal records, The Hill reports. The bill would not legalize cannabis. That choice would still be left up to states. Even though the vote will not legalize the drug, it will still be a historic step to reduce legal penalties related to cannabis. Marijuana is currently legal in 11 states. The September vote is set to be the first taken by either chamber of Congress to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act. As of right now, cannabis is listed as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act. This means there is no benefit to medical use and a high chance for abuse of the drug. If the drug were removed from the act, federal prohibition of the drug would be eliminated, but state laws that make it illegal would remain in place.It would also remove criminal records and give grant funding to people negatively affected by the enforcement of marijuana laws. House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler first introduced the bill last year which passed the panel by a 24-10 vote in November. With the votes of GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and Tom McClintock (Calif.), it passed the committee. It is unlikely that the bill will pass the Republican-controlled Senate. The vote will happen during a time of national reckoning over systemic racism and police brutality, with racial justice advocates calling to attention the disproportionate enforcement of marijuana laws against people of color in the US.
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