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Governor signs legal cannabis bill in US territory (Newsletter: Sep. 21, 2018)
FDA head: marijuana more dangerous than nicotine; NY lawmakers schedule legalization hearing; NJ sheriff’s racist legalization comments caught on tape
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/ TOP THINGS TO KNOW
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Gov. Ralph Torres (R) signed a marijuana legalization bill into law, making the territory the first place in the U.S. to end prohibition without first having a medical cannabis program.
U.S. Food and Drug Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said that we should be more worried about teens using marijuana than nicotine.
The sheriff of New Jersey’s most populous county was caught on tape making racist comments about marijuana legalization:
- “Christ almighty, in other words let the blacks come in, do whatever the fuck they want, smoke their marijuana, do this do that, and don’t worry about it. You know, we’ll tie the hands of cops.”
Four New York Assembly committees scheduled the first of what will be four separate joint hearings on marijuana legalization this fall.
/ FEDERAL
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is facing a potential lawsuit over its role in an investigation into a California marijuana distribution company.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Chicago office tweeted, “IS EATING MARIJUANA MORE DANGEROUS THAN SMOKING MARIJUANA? YES! There is high potential for overdose from #marijuana #edibles. #DontDoDrugs”
Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said, “We just have to be not so stupid as to impair our own progress. There is no reason for us to be creating wealth in Canada for cannabis companies by importing Canadian weed.”
- Gaetz also tweeted, “Last week, the @HouseJudiciary passed my bill, the Medical Cannabis Research Act, which will help scientists and researchers study #cannabis and #unlock its medical potential. Congress must continue working across party lines to pass meaningful #CannabisReform”
West Virginia Democratic congressional candidate Richard Ojeda defended himself from attacks by the state’s Republican Party for meeting with Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), tweeting, “Yep. I was out there with a congressman who wants to work together to create legislation to protect 2nd Amendment Rights for those who receive a medical cannabis card. Are you guys pro 2nd???”
- Ojeda also tweeted, “Hemp and medical cannabis combined with the jobs those industries create would be a game changer for our state.”
/ STATES
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill preventing marijuana businesses from sharing consumers’ information for commercial purposes.
New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro said the state should not legalize marijuana but instead expand access to medical cannabis.
Massachusetts recreational marijuana stores are unlikely to open until late October at the earliest after regulators failed to issue any final licenses at its Thursday meeting.
Florida regulators are asking an appeals court to overturn a judge’s ruling allowing a man to grow his own medical cannabis.
West Virginia lawmakers are asking the state attorney general for an update on his legal opinion about providing banking services to medical cannabis businesses.
A Utah billboard urging people to support the state’s medical cannabis ballot measure is being temporarily taken down while the advertising company reviews election laws concerning anonymous political ads.
A Missouri medical cannabis ballot initiative campaign is raising money to place its first ad on TV.
Maryland regulators have been forced to repeatedly override medical cannabis rules in recent weeks due to problems with the state’s track-and-trace software.
Alaska regulators will meet on October 16 and 17 to consider marijuana establishment license applications and related rules.
Arkansas’s hemp research program is experiencing delays.
/ LOCAL
Manhattan’s district attorney tweeted a video of a talk he gave at a marijuana event.
/ INTERNATIONAL
Mexico’s incoming government will approve medical cannabis regulations, a top health official said.
/ ADVOCACY
A report from the Southern Poverty Law Center found that “black people were 2.9 times as likely as white people to be arrested for marijuana possession in Louisiana,11 despite evidence that black people and white people use marijuana at similar rates.”
The Marijuana Policy Project published a voter guide for New Hampshire’s general election.
/ SCIENCE & HEALTH
A federal survey found that Americans aged 55 to 64 are now slightly more likely to smoke marijuana on a monthly basis than teens aged 12 to 17.
A review concluded that “cannabinoid drugs were associated with modest increases in experimental pain threshold and tolerance, no reduction in the intensity of ongoing experimental pain, reduced perceived unpleasantness of painful stimuli, and no reduction of mechanical hyperalgesia.”
A study found that MDMA “enhances acute prosocial behaviors” in octopuses.
/ OPINION & ANALYSIS
A poll found that New Mexico voters support legalizing marijuana, 60%-32%.
/ BUSINESS
Bloom Automation is building robots to harvest marijuana.
The Associated Press looks at growing interest in marijuana stocks on Wall Street.
/ CULTURE
Actor Dax Shepard defended his wife Kristen Bell’s marijuana use.
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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
VA gov cites marijuana decrim as racial justice move; USVI gov touts legal cannabis revenue; VT activist seeks high bailiff office
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/ TOP THINGS TO KNOW
House Transportation Committee leaders filed a bill requiring legal marijuana states—and only those states—to consider creating programs to “educate drivers on the risks associated with marijuana-impaired driving and to reduce injuries and deaths resulting from individuals driving motor vehicles while impaired by marijuana.”
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) cited a marijuana decriminalization bill he recently signed as an example of how the state is addressing racial inequities that have inspired recent protests of police violence against black Americans.
U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. (D) touted marijuana legalization’s economic impact at a conference focused on boosting revenue for the territory. Cruise passengers and hotel guests would buy an estimated $43 million worth of cannabis every year, according to a projection commissioned by his office.
- “We need to get this measure done as quickly as possible in order to start impacting our economy in a very positive way.”
Dave Silberman is a Vermont marijuana legalization advocate who is running for a county elected office actually called “high bailiff.” It might sound funny, but he’s using his campaign to highlight a serious drug policy reform platform.
/ FEDERAL
The U.S. Department of Agriculture posted an updated list of approved hemp testing laboratories.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy designated 12 additional areas as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas.
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) said that the Senate Banking Committee is not a particularly favorable place to have marijuana legislation referred to.
/ STATES
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) budget is projecting declining marijuana sales due to the coronavirus pandemic. Separately, regulators are holding a cannabis business payroll tax compliance webinar on Thursday.
Louisiana lawmakers sent Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) a bill to regulate hemp and CBD.
Iowa lawmakers sent Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) a bill to set a per-person medical cannabis THC limit of 4.5 grams in 90 days.
The North Carolina House of Representatives approved a revised agriculture bill with controversial smokable hemp ban language removed.
Washington State regulators posted an overview of coronavirus-related policies for marijuana businesses.
Michigan regulators released a bulletin outlining the requirements for annual financial statements for medical cannabis businesses.
Oregon regulators approved marijuana violation stipulated settlement agreements.
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/ LOCAL
A Myrtle Beach, South Carolina City Council member said he would consider supporting a marijuana decriminalization proposal.
A security guard was shot and killed at an unlicensed Spring Valley, California marijuana dispensary.
/ SCIENCE & HEALTH
A study found that “data support the safety and effectiveness of [medical cannabis] as a complementary option for improving pain control, appetite and quality of life in [supportive cancer care].”
A study found that cannabis consumers “generally had low accuracy in identifying effective harm reduction techniques and low rates of utilizing effective harm reduction techniques, using them at the same rate overall as techniques without empirical support.”
/ ADVOCACY, OPINION & ANALYSIS
The National Cannabis Industry Association filed an amicus brief in a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit case in which Harborside Health Center is challenging the 280E tax penalty on marijuana businesses.
The National Cannabis Roundtable released a statement about its member businesses’ efforts to combat injustice and inequality.
/ BUSINESS
Sundial Herbal Products has been ordered by a federal judge to stop distributing unapproved new drugs and misbranded drugs, including a hemp seed oil it claimed “suppresses the growth of cancer.”
FSD Pharma Inc. received Food and Drug Administration approval to submit an Investigational New Drug Application for the use of a substance to increase endogenous levels of endocannabinoids to treat patients with coronavirus.
Michigan dispensaries Pharmhouse Wellness,, The Botanical Co. and Om of Medicine are offering a 10 percent discount to customers convicted of marijuana-related felonies and a 5 percent discount to those convicted of marijuana-related misdemeanors.
Aurora Cannabis Inc. is selling its shares in Alcanna Inc.
/ CULTURE
Pornstar Nacho Vidal was arrested on manslaughter charges after another man died during a ritual involving psychedelic toad venom.
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Trump campaign attacks Biden’s drug war record. Poll: 2/3 AZ voters back legal marijuana; Booker calls out cannabis arrest disparity
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/ TOP THINGS TO KNOW
The White House Office of Management and Budget is reviewing draft Food and Drug Administration guidance on marijuana and CBD research.
President Trump’s reelection campaign is attacking presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as “the chief architect of mass incarceration and the War on Drugs, which targeted Black Americans.”
- “Joe Biden’s policies destroyed millions of black lives. Joe Biden may not remember. But we do.”
A poll found that two-thirds of Arizona likely voters support a marijuana legalization measure that is on track to qualify for the November ballot.
- “All signs point to 2020 being the year that recreational marijuana finally becomes legal in Arizona.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) cited racial disparities in marijuana enforcement as an example of what’s motivating police accountability protests.
- People “can’t get a job, can’t get a loan from the bank for doing things that two of the last three presidents have admitted to doing.”
In an op-ed, NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri makes the case for how legalizing marijuana is just one part of the broader fight for racial justice, but an important one.
- “Of course, marijuana prohibition isn’t the sole cause of America’s racial inequities, nor is it the sole reason why certain members of the police continue to engage in racially-aggressive policing and misconduct. But its criminalization is one of the tools commonly used to justify and perpetuate these injustices.”
/ FEDERAL
The Drug Enforcement Administration has been given temporary authority to “enforce any federal crime committed as a result of protests over the death of George Floyd” and to “conduct covert surveillance” on protestors.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) spoke during a Judiciary Committee hearing about a man who died of coronavirus while serving a federal prison sentence for marijuana.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said, “We hold more prisoners, by far, than any other country in the world. This is largely due to the failed war on drugs, which disproportionately and unjustly targeted people of color.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said that “too often marijuana arrests and prosecutions are a gateway to criminalizing the minority population.”
/ STATES
U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. (D) reiterated his call for lawmakers to pass marijuana legalization legislation and celebrated federal approval of the territory’s hemp program.
Maine regulators are being sued over a decision not to enforce a state residency requirement for marijuana business licensees.
California regulators are seeking funding to hire 87 officers to enforce marijuana rules.
The Connecticut legislature’s Regulations Review Committee approved adding Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and certain instances of chronic pain as medical cannabis qualifying conditions.
Massachusetts regulators are investigating the looting of multiple marijuana dispensaries.
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Marijuana Moment is already tracking more than 1,500 cannabis bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.
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/ INTERNATIONAL
The UK secretary of state for health and social care pledged to look into medical cannabis access delays.
/ SCIENCE & HEALTH
A review concluded that “there is substantial evidence for the effectiveness of cannabis and cannabinoids in treating cancer-related pain; specifically, oromucosal THC/CBD spray” and that “there is conclusive evidence for the effectiveness of cannabis and cannabinoids in relieving chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting; specifically, oral THC.”
A study found that hemp protein products “may improve chronic inflammatory states and promote regenerative processes.”
/ ADVOCACY, OPINION & ANALYSIS
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights led more than 400 organizations in calling on Congress to enact policing reforms, including legislation to “prohibit the use of no-knock warrants, especially for drug searches.”
Students for Sensible Drug Policy is organizing a virtual lobby day next week.
/ BUSINESS
Hightimes Holding Corp. plans to launch a marijuana delivery service in California next month.
PetSmart is being sued for allegedly using false and deceptive practices to sell hemp products for pets.
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MI lawmakers vote on letting their spouses get marijuana licenses; MedMen closes all stores; Study discovers cannabis use at ancient biblical site
Subscribe to receive Marijuana Moment’s newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. It’s the best way to make sure you know which cannabis stories are shaping the day.
Your support makes Marijuana Moment possible…
There are now 1,506 cannabis-related bills moving through state legislatures and Congress for 2020 sessions.
Never let a marijuana bill catch you by surprise with exclusive access to Marijuana Moment’s custom-built cannabis legislation tracker for just $25/month.
https://www.patreon.com/marijuanamoment
/ TOP THINGS TO KNOW
Louisiana lawmakers sent Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) a bill to let doctors recommend medical cannabis for any debilitating condition they see fit. They also approved legislation on marijuana business banking access, legal immunity for doctors and a study on the cannabis industry workforce.
The Michigan House of Representatives is set to vote Tuesday on a bill to let elected officials’ spouses get medical cannabis business licenses. Meanwhile, many people with past drug convictions remain ineligible.
Researchers discovered evidence of marijuana use at an ancient biblical site in Israel.
- “It seems likely that cannabis was used at Arad as a deliberate psychoactive, to stimulate ecstasy as part of cultic ceremonies.”
MedMen has closed all of its marijuana stores nationwide following the looting of several locations over the weekend.
/ FEDERAL
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), in a letter to Attorney General William Barr about transferring incarcerated people to home confinement, cited the case of a man who died from coronavirus while serving a marijuana sentence.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) said in a press release that “the history and trauma of racism and Jim Crow is not a memory of the past, but is a reality still today, exacerbated by the fact that Black Americans are disproportionately the targets of injustices ranging from mass incarceration and police brutality, to the War on Drugs and COVID-19.”
Virginia Democratic congressional candidate Qasim Rashid tweeted, “We must decriminalize & stop the drug war, invest in treatment, invest in training officers, stop militarization of police, and divert those resources to education & healthcare.”
New York Democratic congressional candidate Suraj Patel tweeted, “Sentencing disparities, selective enforcement of the law, and police brutality disproportionately harm Black Americans. We must legalize marijuana and retroactively expunge all marijuana related records.”
/ STATES
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed a bill tying state approval of cannabis-based medicines to federal law.
West Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stephen Smith tweeted, “We’re the only leading campaign that supports full cannabis legalization. With that extra $194mil/year, what would you fix first?”
The Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit from a medical cannabis patient who was fired by his employer for refusing to take a drug test.
The Virginia State Police reported that marijuana arrests declined more than eight percent from 2018 to 2019.
Missouri regulators have approved more than 50,000 medical cannabis patients and caregivers.
Ohio regulators sent reminders about medical cannabis vaporizer requirements and the issue of dispensaries permitting entry to non-patient juveniles.
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Marijuana Moment is already tracking more than 1,500 cannabis bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.
Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
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/ LOCAL
A majority of Baltimore, Maryland mayoral and City Council candidates said in a survey that they would “actively support establishing overdose prevention sites.”
/ INTERNATIONAL
A former New Zealand prime minister is part of a campaign urging voters to approve a marijuana legalization referendum.
Maltese regulators said they are weighing five applications to cultivate cannabis for medical and research purposes.
Colombian regulators touted a new digital tool they are using for medical cannabis licensing.
/ SCIENCE & HEALTH
A study found that “inhaled cannabis acutely reduced PTSD symptoms by more than 50%” and “higher doses of cannabis predicted larger reductions in anxiety and intrusions,” but “cannabis did not appear to improve or worsen PTSD symptoms in the long-term.”
A study concluded that “hemp supplementation improved HDL cholesterol, tended to support psychometric measures of perceived sleep, stress response, and perceived life pleasure and was well tolerated with no clinically relevant safety concerns.”
/ ADVOCACY, OPINION & ANALYSIS
The Minority Cannabis Business Association issued a statement of solidarity with people protesting police violence.
/ BUSINESS
PAX Labs launched a web-based desktop app to control its vaporization devices after Apple removed its former product from the App Store.
Acreage Holdings, Inc. announced it entered into two agreements worth up to $60 million in gross proceeds.
Leafs by Snoop is the most recognizable cannabis brand, according to a survey conducted by Green Horizons.
Oklahoma dispensaries sold more than $73 million worth of medical cannabis products in May.
/ CULTURE
A survey found that 49.5% of MMA fighters currently use marijuana, and 76.5% say they have used CBD products.
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