Newsletter
Sessions rescinds old guidance — Cole memo safe for now (Newsletter (Dec. 22, 2017)
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NY legalization hearing scheduled for Jan.; Congress extends state protection deadline; Former CA AG starts marijuana businesses
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/ TOP THINGS TO KNOW
Congress approved a short-term extension of federal funding levels — and policy riders like state medical cannabis protections — through January 19. It still hasn’t been determined whether the marijuana provision will be included in full Fiscal Year 2018 legislation. President Trump is expected to sign the continuing resolution on Friday, along with separate tax reform legislation.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded 25 previous federal guidance documents. Not among them is the Cole Memo, which lays out guidelines for states to avoid federal interference with their marijuana laws.
Three New York Assembly committees will hold a joint hearing on marijuana legalization on January 11.
/ FEDERAL
Rolling Stone spoke to a number of members of Congress about federal drug policy reform in 2017 and 2018:
- Congressman Andy Harris (R-MD): “If you look at medical marijuana, it’s still in a grey zone about on whether or not there’s going to be very strict enforcement. I think this Department of Justice is not going to take it lightly, when states have recreational use of marijuana legalized.”
- Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA): “I don’t think they have actually established their marijuana policy yet. I think the president needs to pay personal attention to it, because he made commitments during the election that he would support the legalizing medical marijuana, it should be left to the states, to legalize it that way as well as personal use, adult use…. It’s a total waste of money. The states – the people across this country – are voting for it, and for [Sessions] to think that he can superimpose his control over what adults will consume is contrary to our Constitution and a violation of individual freedom.”
- Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR): “This next year there will be more expressions of that support as it builds around the country – more markets open up and more and more people take a stand in support of it. I mean, the train’s left the station.”
A bipartisan group of 17 members of Congress wrote a letter to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb pushing back on the agency’s threats on kratom. In a related press release, Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) said, “Like cannabis, it should be legal and available.”
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) decried congressional interference in Washington, DC’s marijuana laws in a House floor speech.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions created a new Department of Justice Director of Opioid Enforcement and Prevention Efforts role.
ProPublica looks at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s role in keeping silent the reasons for kidnappings conducted by a Mexican drug cartel.
/ STATES
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) tweeted, “Legalizing marijuana is, at its core, about criminal justice reform. It’s about ending the failed war on drugs and fixing a broken system that has disproportionately affected low-income and minority communities.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) appears in an ad touting the state’s program to drug test food stamp recipients.
Massachusetts regulators unanimously voted to approve draft marijuana legalization implementation rules.
A Missouri representative prefiled a marijuana legalization bill.
Florida lawmakers filed legislation to expand medical cannabis retail licensing.
New Ohio legislation to increase penalties for drug trafficking exempts marijuana.Here’s a look at states’ efforts to test marijuana products.
The Associated Press looks at how people in legalized states are taking advantage of marijuana gifting provisions in laws during the holiday season.
/ LOCAL
Los Angeles County, California health officials will conduct inspections of marijuana businesses.
/ INTERNATIONAL
The Australian government is launching an online medical cannabis information portal for doctors.
/ ADVOCACY
The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia successfully pressured a Georgia sheriff over his deleting marijuana comments from his Facebook page.
Cannabis Wire noticed that Marijuana Policy Project Founder Rob Kampia is no longer listed as a member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s Advisory Council.
/ SCIENCE & HEALTH
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than 63,600 people died of drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2016, the highest annual toll on record. More than 42,200 were linked to opioids.
A study of medical cannabis dispensaries in Colorado and Washington found that those in areas of that voted against recreational legalization ballot measures subsequently “accentuated the medical orientation of their identities,” whereas there was a “blurring of medical/recreational identity in communities where voters demonstrated support for recreational-use legalization in the state-level ballot.”
A study suggested that “cannabis use relates to reduced neural activity underlying attention to motion stimuli.”
/ OPINION & ANALYSIS
The Los Angeles Times editorial board wants California and federal officials to solve the marijuana industry’s banking access issues.
/ BUSINESS
Former California Attorney General Bill Lockyer (D) co-founded a marijuana concentrates and edibles company.
Jack In The Box and Merry Jane are partnering on a “Merry Munchie Meal” to celebrate California’s legalization of marijuana.
/ CULTURE
Country musician Michael Ray was arrested for possession of cannabis oil.
