July 10, 2020
Idaho Medical Marijuana Activists Ask State For Electronic Signature Gathering Option Following Court Ruling
Idaho activists have formally requested that the state allow them to collect signatures electronically for a medical cannabis legalization initiative following a series of federal court rulings on the issue in a case filed by a separate campaign. While the signature submission deadline passed in May, advocates for an education funding campaign filed a suit against the secretary of state, arguing that social distancing restrictions that were put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic meant the state should give them more time to digitally petition. The judge agreed and ordered the state to allow them to do so for 48 days starting Thursday.
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Both President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden appear to be out of step with the American public when it comes to their opposition to legalizing marijuana, as two-thirds of Americans support legalization. A Democratic unity task force involving both Biden and former presidential contender Bernie Sanders released on Wednesday its recommendations on how to combat the climate crisis and pursue environmental justice. Although the document called for decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level, it stopped short of endorsing recreational legalization.
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July 9, 2020
Pennsylvania Senate Democrats Push For Marijuana Legalization To Boost Revenue Amid Coronavirus
A majority of Pennsylvania Senate Democrats sent a letter to the governor and legislative leaders on Thursday, arguing that lawmakers should pursue adult-use marijuana legalization in order to generate revenue to make up for losses resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. The letter, led by Sen. Sharif Street (D), stresses that the state’s economic situation is “dire” and that the government “should do absolutely everything we can to raise revenue.”
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) submitted a report to Congress on the state of the CBD marketplace on Wednesday, and the document outlines studies the agency has performed on the contents and quality of cannabis-derived products that it has tested over the past six years. The report, which is responsive to a mandate attached to congressional appropriations legislation last year, shows significant inconsistencies between cannabinoids concentrations that are listed on labels and what the products actually contain.
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July 8, 2020
Missouri Should Raise Cigarette Tax
Missouri, like other states, has had the fiscal wind knocked out of it by the pandemic. Looking ahead at the tough financial decisions facing the state in the future, there’s one that should be easy: Raise Missouri’s lowest-in-the-nation tobacco tax. It should have been done even before there was a budget crisis. To fail to do it now would be governmental malpractice.
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July 8, 2020
An Act That Increases the Excise Tax on Cigarettes, Vapor Products and Other Tobacco Products
Colorado Governor signed a ballot measure into law that will increase the excise tax on cigarettes, vapor products, and other tobacco products.
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July 8, 2020
Colorado’s Marijuana Legalization Law Decreases Crime In Neighboring States, Study Finds
Law enforcement and other opponents of marijuana legalization have long warned that ending prohibition would lead to surges in crime, wreaking havoc on neighborhoods that hosted retail stores and spilling into neighboring states that wanted nothing to do with the drug. But as researchers crunch the data since Colorado and Washington State because the first two states to pass adult-use marijuana laws in 2012, they’re finding scant evidence to support the dire warnings. One of the latest studies to examine before-and-after crime data, which looked at how legalization in Washington and Colorado affected crime rates in neighboring states, finds that passage of adult-use cannabis laws may have actually reduced certain major crimes in nearby jurisdictions. “We did not detect any increases in the rates of multiple types of crimes in border counties of the nonlegalized states bordering Colorado and Washington,” wrote the authors of the new study, published in the Journal of Drug Issues. Moreover, “we observed a substantial reduction in certain types of crimes, namely, property crime, larceny, and simple assault, in border counties in the Colorado region.” “This finding,” the authors add, “challenges the argument made by the opponents of legalization that marijuana legalization would increase crime.” The research was conducted by Guangzhen Wu of the University of Utah, Francis D. Boateng of the University of Mississippi and Texas-based economic and statistical consultant Thomas Roney. Existing research on how cannabis affects crime is limited and largely mixed, the authors write. On one hand, there exists what researchers called “substantial evidence” suggesting that legalizing cannabis increases certain criminal activities. Some studies, for example, have found that neighborhoods with a higher rate of retail marijuana outlets experienced higher rates of crime. Another found that both medical and adult-use marijuana retailers were linked to increases in certain crimes.
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The military makes no confusion about its views on marijuana. Despite widespread legalization and rising positive marijuana drug tests for Army soldiers, military service members who confess to consuming cannabis just once are barred from re-enlisting under current law. But late last Thursday the House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to its $740.5 billion defense policy bill that could grant a second chance to those troops. Rep. Ruben Gallego submitted a proposal alongside the bill that would create a one-time reenlistment waiver for former service members who admitted marijuana use. Approval would be granted on a case-by-case basis under the provision. "Smoking pot just once shouldn't prevent a patriotic American from fighting for our country," Gallego said in a release. "We need to finally exercise some common sense when it comes to our marijuana policies, and I'm glad my amendment will lead us in that direction." Gallego, a Marine Corps combat veteran who served in Iraq, has submitted this proposal for the past couple years. The rider was approved in the 2019 defense spending House bill, but was removed in reconciliation with Senate defense bill. At the time, Gallego said a conversation with a constituent inspired the provision. After studying in law school, the constituent went to reenlist in the Marine Corps and admitted to using cannabis. The recruiter told him to either lie about smoking marijuana or else forget being reenlisted.
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Nebraska voters will likely get to weigh in on measures to legalize medical marijuana and casino gambling after advocates for both causes announced Thursday that they have enough signatures to put them on the November ballot. Organizers of the Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana campaign said they've gathered 182,000 signatures. To qualify for the ballot, the campaign needed to turn in more than 121,000 valid signatures, representing more than 10% of the voters in the state. Campaign officials also needed to collect signatures from at least 5% of voters in at least 38 Nebraska counties. "Today represents a huge step forward for thousands of Nebraskans who deserve compassion," said state Sen. Anna Wishart, of Lincoln, who co-chaired the campaign committee. "We are confident that we've met the requirements for ballot qualification, and after seeing the outpouring of support for our petition, we're even more confident that Nebraska's voters will approve this initiative in November." Meanwhile, the pro-gambling group Keep the Money in Nebraska announced that it will submit 475,000 signatures for its three petitions to allow casino gambling at horse-racing tracks. One petition seeks to amend the state constitution to allow gambling, one would change state law to authorize and regulate the casinos, and the third would direct the tax revenue into a property tax credit fund and toward local governments. The constitutional amendment proposal garnered more than 205,000 signatures, while the two other gambling-related measures each received more than 135,000. Supporters argue that Nebraska loses hundreds of millions of dollars a year to Iowa, which has numerous casinos set up along the Nebraska border. "It's time to stop looking foolish and keep the money in Nebraska," said Bob Moser, president of the Nebraska Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, a leading backer of the petition drive. Supporters of medical marijuana launched the campaign after Nebraska lawmakers repeatedly rejected similar measures to legalize and regulate the drug for people with medical conditions. Campaign officials gathered far more signatures than they needed because some are likely to be declared invalid. Barry Rubin, a consultant who led the signature-gathering effort for the marijuana measure, said the petition campaign was a "herculean effort" because the campaign was hindered by the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic led to the cancellation of large public gatherings and prompted several ballot campaigns to temporarily halt their efforts. One petition drive that sought to lower property taxes suspended its campaign in April, blaming the pandemic.
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July 7, 2020
House Includes Marijuana Protections For States, Banks And Universities In Funding Bills
As Congress prepares large-scale legislation to fund federal agencies for the next year, marijuana reform seems to be making progress. House versions of spending bills unveiled this week include provisions to protect medical legalization laws from federal interference, ease marijuana businesses’ access to basic banking services, expand cannabis research, oversee the country’s fledgling hemp and CBD industries and finally grant Washington, D.C. the ability to legalize recreational sales. The specific provisions are still subject to change over the course of the legislative process, but as introduced in subcommittees this week, they signal a meaningful shift by lawmakers: Key cannabis provisions, once relegated to a convoluted amendment process, have been included in the base versions of the new bills. Some activists see the change as a sign that marijuana is no longer an afterthought in Congress. “More and more, cannabis provisions are becoming a normal staple of federal appropriations packages,” Justin Strekal, political director for NORML, told Marijuana Moment on Tuesday. “This bodes well for our opportunity to receive a vote on standalone marijuana legislation in the near future.” Among the most notable inclusions in the new spending bills for Fiscal Year 2021 is a provision that would remove some roadblocks to banking and financial services for state-legal cannabis businesses. Cannabis firms have been pushing lawmakers to allow such access for years. The House has passed standalone banking legislation, later inserted into a recent coronavirus bill and approved again, but so far the matter has stalled in the Senate and is yet to become law. The new spending rider suggests House lawmakers aren’t giving up. As introduced, the spending bill introduced Tuesday to fund fiscal and general government matters restricts Department of Treasury funds from being used “to penalize a financial institution solely because the institution provides financial services to an entity that is a manufacturer, a producer, or a person that participates in any business or organized activity that involves handling hemp, hemp-derived cannabidiol products, other hemp-derived cannabinoid products, marijuana, marijuana products, or marijuana proceeds” that is legal under state or tribal law. Marijuana businesses and some public safety officials have complained that lack of banking services for the cannabis industry leaves businesses vulnerable to robbery and other property crimes. All-cash transactions can make it easier for businesses to engage in unsavory practices, such as money laundering, tax evasion and bribery.
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