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.”
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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A cannabis legalization bill proposed in Mexico would permit possession and cultivation for people aged 18-and-older, tax sales at 12 percent, allow public consumption, cap personal possession at 1 ounce, and decriminalize possession up to 200 grams, according to a Bezinga report. The bill allows personal cultivation up to 20 plants – which must be registered with the government – as long as the total yield doesn’t exceed 480 grams per year. Medical patients would be allowed to grow an additional 20 plants. Hemp and CBD would be exempt from regulations that apply to THC products. Sen. Julio Ramón Menchaca Salaza of the ruling Morena party said the measure would allow cannabis to play a role in the nation’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. In 2015, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that citizens should be allowed to grow and consume the plant freely, and 2018, the court took the ruling a step further, declaring that cannabis prohibition in the nation was unconstitutional. Both decisions set the stage for broad legalization and draft legislation was unveiled last October. That bill did not allow public use, capped personal cultivation at four plants, and did not outline a tax structure. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said following his election in 2018 that he would not interfere with the Supreme Court decisions and expressed support for broad legalization on the campaign trail. The 2018 Supreme Court ruling set a deadline for Congress to enact the reforms but it has been delayed several times, according to Benzinga. If the law is approved – as is eventually required under the Supreme Court ruling – Mexico would be the third country, joining Canada and Uruguay, to allow cannabis possession, use, and sales.
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If CBD companies want to keep the FDA and the FTC off their backs, they should not make any medical claims, expressed or implied, at least until the FDA forges a legal regulatory path for the sale and marketing of CBD products. Until then, CBD companies should (1) consult with an attorney if they are unsure as to whether their marketing materials contain statements that could be construed as medical claims and (2) keep in mind Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Andrew Smith’s words:
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April 29, 2020
Kansas Governor Says Medical Marijuana Still On The Table In 2020 Despite Coronavirus
The governor of Kansas says that medical cannabis legalization remains a legislative possibility this session despite lawmakers temporarily disbanding amid the coronavirus pandemic. In an interview published by KSNT on Wednesday, Gov. Laura Kelly (D) was asked about various policy proposals and noted that there’s “been some discussion about legalizing medical marijuana.” “I think that discussion continues and I think if it actually was able to come to a vote, I think that it probably would pass the legislature,” she said, adding that “I think the issue of recreational marijuana is still not on the table.” According to a writeup by the local news outlet, Kelly also said that the “possibility of medicaid expansion still exists this session as well as legalizing medical marijuana in Kansas.” The governor said earlier this year that legalizing marijuana for medical use is a priority, but she also said she’d be inclined to sign a bill to legalize recreational cannabis in the event lawmakers sent one to her desk. According to a poll released late last year, Kelly would have the support of a majority of residents (63 percent) if she enacted that broad policy change. Last year, a special legislative commission issued recommendations in support of establishing a limited medical marijuana program that would allow patients to access products, though they advised that patients shouldn’t be able access smokable products. If the legislature were to take up medical cannabis legalization this year, that would mark a notable victory for the reform movement at a time when campaigns are shutting down or suspending signature gathering due to stay-at-home orders and social distancing requirements. It’s not clear at this point when lawmakers would be able to reconvene to take up legislation, though the governor said they will have to come back “in the near future.” Meanwhile, the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands is pushing for legalization during the health crisis, announcing that he would be introducing a revised reform bill this week. He argued that the territory could benefit from tax revenue from legal cannabis sales, offsetting economic challenges resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak.
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April 29, 2020
Cannabis During COVID: Essential, Yet Ineligible
Every sector of the economy is being disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and cannabis is no exception. However, the cannabis industry is uniquely positioned to weather the current crisis and has the potential to kick-start economic growth when state legislators return to work. Since its inception, the cannabis industry has faced its fair share of challenges: an evolving regulatory landscape, limited access to banking services, a vaping crisis, and – most recently – a credit crunch. This has forced businesses to be responsive and nimble, preparing them for yet another crisis: COVID-19. And as 29 states plus the District of Columbia have deemed marijuana businesses to be essential during shelter-at-home orders, those businesses have been quick to adapt to new rules and regulations. In response to these orders, cannabis delivery and curbside pick-up have emerged as easier ways to retrieve products. Medical dispensaries have adopted remote phone-in registration portals. Additionally, states such as Arkansas, Minnesota, and Nevada are allowing patients to renew medical marijuana cards online. But these businesses are now faced with a cruel irony: while they are recognized as essential by state governments, they are nonetheless deemed ineligible for federal stimulus funds. The Small Business Association (SBA) manages funds put aside for small businesses in the CARES Act stimulus package, and the CARES Act stipulates that the SBA cannot provide funds to any company directly or indirectly involved with cannabis. So, while these businesses are charged with continuing their essential services to the American public, they must do so without any emergency support from the American government.
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