March 24, 2020
Marijuana Businesses Are Ineligible For Coronavirus Disaster Relief, Federal Agency Confirms
The federal Small Business Administration (SBA) reiterated on Monday that marijuana companies are not eligible for disaster relief loans to lessen the blow of the coronavirus outbreak. Because cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, the marijuana industry is being denied access to these aid opportunities, including programs administered by SBA. The agency’s Northwest branch confirmed that in a response to a tweet from a cannabis business owner who inquired about eligibility. “With the exception of businesses that produce or sell hemp and hemp-derived products [that were federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill], marijuana-related businesses are not eligible for SBA-funded services,” the post states. Greg Hubly, the Washington State-based business owner expressed frustration and said there are “10 families I’m responsible for and know all this talk about business relief is just more bullshit messaging for my industry.” SBA recommended that he explore relief options provided by state or local agencies.Greg Hubly, the Washington State-based business owner expressed frustration and said there are “10 families I’m responsible for and know all this talk about business relief is just more bullshit messaging for my industry.” Last week, an SBA spokesperson similarly clarified that marijuana companies aren’t getting a cut of the federal dollars being appropriated for business disaster relief. “Because federal law prohibits the sale and distribution of cannabis, the SBA does not provide financial assistance to businesses that are illegal under federal law,” SBA’s Carol Chastang told Cannabis Business Times. “Businesses that aren’t eligible include marijuana growers and dispensers, businesses that sell cannabis products, etc., even if the business is legal under local or state law.” This barrier to aid access for what’s becoming a massive industry in states across the U.S. has elicited strong pushback from reform advocates and stakeholders. A coalition of marijuana industry trade groups—including the National Cannabis Industry Association, National Cannabis Roundtable, Minority Cannabis Business Association and Cannabis Trade Federation—signed a joint letter last week, urging congressional leaders to lift restrictions and allow cannabis businesses to obtain the same relief as any other legitimate market. “The ineligibility of cannabis businesses for disaster assistance loans is especially inequitable given that these same cannabis businesses are required to comply with other coronavirus-related measures, such as paid sick leave coverage,” the letter said. “We are not seeking special treatment for state-legal cannabis businesses. We only seek to have them treated on an equal level as all other job-generating, tax-paying companies in this country.” There have been some legislative attempts to address the problem. A bill filed last year by the chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee included provisions that would enable marijuana businesses to access SBA services, and language from that legislation was later inserted in another comprehensive reform bill that cleared the House Judiciary Committee. NORML, meanwhile, is reaching out to lawmakers asking them to ensure that marijuana industry workers are not discriminated against when it comes to unemployment benefits amid the pandemic.
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A campaign working to pass separate measures to legalize marijuana for medical and recreational purposes in South Dakota announced on Sunday that it will be shifting its strategy in the weeks ahead due to the coronavirus outbreak. And it is urging voters to consider absentee ballot options as a way to make sure their voices can be heard in case the COVID-19 pandemic prevents people from going to their polling places come November. In a Facebook post, New Approach South Dakota said it had planned to do in-person outreach and host events to spread the word about the two initiatives, which qualified for the November ballot earlier this year. But now, activists have “set that on the back burner for now & are focusing on reaching you all through social media.” The group said it will host virtual town hall events, remotely broadcast guest speakers and create more editorial content. They’ll also hold weekly Q&A sessions every Monday. Further, New Approach South Dakota said it is encouraging voters to look into absentee voting options to ensure that they can support both the proposed measure to implement a medical cannabis program and the constitutional amendment to legalize for adult use in case coronavirus concerns continue to hamper in-person gatherings by Election Day. “We strongly urge everyone to sign up and go vote as soon as absentee voting opens up,” the post states. “This process ensures democracy doesn’t fall wayside due to COVID-19.” “We still have a very important job to do for the patients in SD & that requires that we all plan to vote Yes for IM26 & Amendment A on the 2020 ballot,” it continues. “Victory is possible & access for patients is possible if we all make a plan to vote early.” A separate organization focused on the recreational cannabis measure, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, doesn’t appear to have made an announcement about any altered campaign plans amid the coronavirus outbreak. While it remains to be seen whether the pandemic will negatively impact turnout in the November election, the South Dakota advocates benefit from the fact that both initiatives have already qualified for the ballot. Drug policy reform campaigns in other states across the U.S. are facing a different problem: getting the signatures to make it on the ballot in the first place. From California to Nebraska to Washington, D.C., activists are scrambling to succeed in an increasingly volatile environment. With businesses shuttering and governments asking residents to stay at home and avoid close contact with one another, signature gathering efforts have been suspended for campaigns to amend reform state marijuana laws, legalize psilocybin mushrooms and decriminalize psychedelics. Several campaigns are asking officials to allow online signature collection. In New York, plans to legalize cannabis through the budget appears to have been derailed as the state prioritizes a coronavirus response. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) hinted on Monday that the reform move may prove too complicated an issue for lawmakers to reach an agreement ahead of an April 1 budget deadline.
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March 23, 2020
New York Governor Says State Will Still Pursue Marijuana Legalization Despite Coronavirus
The governor of New York said on Monday that he expects lawmakers to push ahead with plans to legalize marijuana even as the state works to address the coronavirus pandemic. During a briefing on the public health crisis, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) was asked about his legislative priorities for the budget, which is facing an April 1 deadline to get passed. While he recognized that there are certain policy items he included in his proposal to lawmakers that are more complicated and may have to be delayed, he said the legislature should still pursue cannabis legalization. “We will pass a budget and address the policy items that we laid out and we discussed because it’s not just about passing a budget and the numbers,” Cuomo said. “There are many policy initiatives that I laid out back in January, and we’re going to pursue all of them.” “The only caveat was if you have a really complex issue that normally would require weeks of nuanced, detailed negotiation to do it right, that we won’t do. Because I don’t want to pass any bills that are not really intelligent that I then have to come back and deal with again next year,” he said. “If it’s a highly complex issue, I get it and then let’s put it off because we don’t want to do something sloppy.” While the governor didn’t explicitly state that marijuana reform represented one of those complex issues that needs more time, past experience in the legislature indicates it may be. Cuomo included legalization in his budget last year, but that didn’t pan out as negotiations failed to produce passable legislation as disagreements persisted on issues such as how to allocate tax revenue. Cuomo has repeatedly insisted that the reform move should be advanced through the budget, raising doubts about the legislature’s ability to enact legalization in a timely fashion otherwise. Earlier this month, he told reporters that “without the budget, the easiest thing for a legislative body to do is to do nothing.”
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As the coronavirus crisis continues to rage in New York, state lawmakers have returned to Abany intent on passing a budget, which is due April 1. Given the pandemic, many lawmakers are hoping to reach a deal sooner rather than later. But despite calls from numerous sources that the state pass a bare-bones budget – devoid of the usual big-ticket legislative items that find their way into the spending bill – Gov. Andrew Cuomo has remained adamant that whatever passes should include some key pieces of legislation. One of his priorities remains legalizing recreational marijuana, a massive agenda item that failed to pass last year. “I would like to do legalized marijuana,” Cuomo said at a press conference on Monday when asked about his legislative budget priorities. It was the latest sign that the current health crisis has not swayed him from pursuing the measure. Unless the governor plans to use his influence to force it through, there has still apparently been no compromise between himself and state lawmakers on the biggest outstanding issue on pot legalization: what to do with the tax revenues. State Sen. Liz Krueger and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes introduced an amended version of their Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act in mid-March. It reflected a number of key changes that brought it closer in line with Cuomo’s most recent executive budget proposal, following negotiations between the Cuomo administration and lawmakers. One modification the lawmakers made was including a cannabis control board within a proposed Office of Cannabis Management, which was Cuomo’s preferred regulatory framework. While there are differences in the two proposals about the makeup of that board, as well as how appointments are made, the key similarity is that it would have the greatest control over the rulemaking authority of the new agency, rather than being run by an executive director.
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March 23, 2020
Hemp must go on: UMaine to teach growers home cultivation
The University of Maine Cooperative Extension is going to help the state’s gardeners and home growers learn how to cultivate hemp at home. Maine's hemp business has been growing in recent years as federal restrictions have eased. The cooperative extension said it would use an online workshop on April 2 to teach residents how to grow at home. The workshop will include advice from John Jemison, an extension professor of soil and water quality. He will talk about best practices for growing hemp as well as offer instructions about how to harvest, dry, cure, and prepare it for personal use, the extension said.
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March 22, 2020
San Diego’s Cannabis Dispensaries Open for Business
Governor Newsom’s stay-at-home order has forced many businesses to shut down, but San Diego's cannabis dispensaries are all open for business as they have been deemed essential. The city's cannabis dispensaries are taking extra steps to keep their stores clean. “We are all wearing gloves around here. We're handling the cash. You have TVs everywhere telling you to stay 6 feet away from everybody,” said Christian Greenwood, a dispensary worker. “We are also doing routine with sanitary cleanings around the store.” On Thursday, the governor laid out specific rules on who is part of the essential workforce. Under the healthcare sector, cannabis retailers are on the list. “Right now, in a situation like this, a lot of people are using CBD for a release of anxiety, inflammation,” Greenwood said. “For the past few days, we've been getting a lot of business.” Over the last two years, the state of California has collected a billion dollars in cannabis tax revenue. Last fiscal year, San Diego collected more than $8 million in cannabis taxes, according to the Union-Tribune.
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Among the Los Angeles businesses deemed essential and urged to remain open are those with city permits to sell cannabis, authorities said Saturday. "Under the Mayor's 'Safer-at-Home' Order cannabis businesses are deemed essential and those with temporary approval are authorized to stay open in the City of Los Angeles," the city's Department of Cannabis Regulation said in a COVID-19 update. That means even cannabis dispensaries with temporary approval may have employees working at their facilities, the update said.
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New York lawmakers will likely have to take up marijuana legalization after the coronavirus threat it neutralized, a key senator told Marijuana Moment on Friday. While Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has urged legislators to include legalization language in the annual budget, the pandemic has shifted legislative priorities. Sen. Liz Krueger (D), the sponsor of a recently revised reform bill, signaled earlier this week that the state’s need to respond to the public health crisis would mean that advancing legalization through the budget ahead of an April 1 deadline would not be achievable. In a new statement to Marijuana Moment, she said the legislature and governor “are deeply engaged in ensuring we quickly pass a budget that meets the immediate needs of our state as we face this crisis,” but cannabis reform may not make the cut. “Assembly [Majority Leader] Peoples-Stokes and I have put forward what I believe to be the best proposal to achieve marijuana legalization, and I would be happy to see the Governor include it in his budget,” she said. “However, while it is important that we end marijuana prohibition as soon as possible, it is also important that it be done the right way.” “If that cannot be achieved in the midst of a public health crisis, then we will all be better off waiting. There is no reason we cannot negotiate and pass a nation-leading legalization model when the crisis is over,” Krueger said. Cuomo, who has said the budget is the best vehicle to achieve legalization, also included the proposal in his spending plan last year. However, lawmakers could not agree on the specifics, with the question of how cannabis revenue would be spent being a key issue of contention. Drug policy reform efforts are taking a major hit amid the coronavirus outbreak. From California to Washington, D.C., activists are scrambling as they temporarily suspend traditional campaign activities while still hoping to collect enough signatures to qualify measures for the ballot. Psilocybin legalization activists in California are asking the government to allow electronic signatures for their initiative. Psychedelics decriminalization advocates in D.C. made a similar request. A campaign to legalize medical cannabis in Nebraska said on Thursday that the group is also pausing its efforts.
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The Maryland legislature approved a bill on Tuesday that would prevent almost 200,000 prior marijuana convictions from being viewed on a public database. The legislation, introduced by Del. David Moon (D), now heads to Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) desk. If enacted, the bill would make it so convictions for cannabis possession that occurred prior to October 1, 2014 would not be viewable on the Maryland Judiciary Case Search. The proposal originally included a provision providing for automatic expungements, but that was removed in committee. Still, reform advocates celebrated the development and said expungements would be included in marijuana legalization legislation they will be pushing for in the next session. Separately, a bill to expand the state’s current decriminalization policy by increasing the possession threshold from 10 grams to one ounce is facing a time crunch. While the House of Delegates passed the measure last week, the coronavirus outbreak is prompting the legislature to adjourn on Wednesday. Advocates are imploring lawmakers to take it up before then. Otherwise, lawmakers are currently set to reconvene for a special session during the last week of May. On legalization, legislators have heard testimony on various bills to achieve comprehensive reform in the state for several sessions, but none have advanced to the House or Senate floor for votes. It’s not clear where the governor will come down on any of these various proposals. However, he has voiced support for medical cannabis legalization and said that adult-use reform is “worth taking a look at.”
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Cannabis may be legal in Vancouver but visitors looking to score are likely to run into a seemingly counterintuitive suggestion: try the black market. Recreational marijuana was legalised across Canada in October 2018. And yet on Reddit, the specialist forum website used by millions every day, many of Vancouver’s cannabis connoisseurs still swear by their underground supply. This is one of the major issues facing North America’s marijuana companies, which experts say are in the midst of a dotcom-style market crash. Canada and 11 US states have legalised recreational use of the drug, and a little over a year ago companies that cultivate and sell cannabis were seen by investors as one of the hottest tickets in town. Now billions of dollars have been wiped off the market values of the industry’s largest companies. The North American Marijuana Index, which tracks listed firms in the sector, has plummeted about 80% in the last year and is at its lowest value since 2016, before much legalisation had taken place.
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