Tag: legalized marijuana

Alaska House Passes Marijuana Tax Reform Bill

A decade after Alaska voters legalized recreational marijuana, the Alaska Legislature is advancing the first major change to the law that opened commercial sales here.

On Friday, the Alaska House of Representatives voted to change the state’s $50 per ounce marijuana tax to a 7 percent sales tax.

If House Bill 119 is accepted by the Senate and Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R), it would impose Alaska’s first statewide sales tax. That pioneering concept troubled some legislators, but the bill still passed the House by a 36-3 vote.

The tax change was recommended by the state’s recreational marijuana task force, which Dunleavy convened in 2022 to analyze the marijuana industry and determine whether aspects of the industry’s enabling law—passed by voters in 2014—should be changed.

Ten years ago, Alaska joined Oregon as the third and fourth states to legalize recreational marijuana use. Since then, many other states have followed suit, but Alaska’s marijuana tax—levied at the wholesale level—is the highest in the country.

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Virginia Officials Launch ‘Surveillance System’ To Track Cannabis-Related ‘Adverse Events’ Among Children

Virginia officials are instructing health care providers to start keeping track of “adverse events” involving children and teens being exposed to cannabis products.

In an April 24 letter to clinicians, State Health Commissioner Karen Shelton said her agency had received enough reports of minors getting sick from products containing CBD and THC, chemical compounds found in cannabis, that the state was establishing a “special surveillance system” to keep tabs on the issue.

“Reported symptoms for these adverse events have included vomiting, hallucinations, low blood pressure, low blood sugar, altered mental status and anxiety,” Shelton wrote, adding that “some hospitalizations have occurred” as a result of minors consuming cannabis products.

The letter specifically asks that local health departments be made aware of any cannabis-related hospitalizations in patients under 18 years old and any “clusters of adverse events” affecting multiple minors.

“After a hospitalization or cluster is reported, VDH staff will collect information about the illness(es), possible exposures, and laboratory results,” the letter says.

The Health Department provided data showing an increase in emergency room visits involving minors being exposed to cannabis, and said the new surveillance system will help bolster those tracking efforts. In 2019, there were 52 ER visits. By 2023, the number had grown to 377.

That data only covers emergency room visits and doesn’t reflect every incident reported to health officials.

“As a result of these data, the special surveillance system was established in order for VDH to receive these reports directly and better assess the impact of adverse events related to consumption of products containing THC or CBD among children in the Commonwealth,” said Health Department spokesperson Cheryle Rodriguez.

The letter also points to an online portal allowing anyone who had an adverse experience with cannabis products to submit a report to the Health Department with information about what happened, where the product was obtained and how it was labeled. The agency also noted that lab testing is available to “support patient and product testing.”

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Marijuana Seizures At U.S.–Mexico Border Continue To Fall As More States Legalize, Federal Data Shows

As the state marijuana legalization movement continues to expand, seizures of cannabis at southern border declined again in 2023, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The latest figures show agents intercepted roughly 61,000 pounds of cannabis in the region—a 29 percent drop from the year before.

The new numbers represent an ongoing decline in illicit marijuana seizures by border agents as more U.S. state legalization laws come online. In 2022, CBP authorities seized 154,797 pounds of cannabis nationwide—about half of the 319,447 pounds that were seized the year before.

Advocates for legalization say the data from the southern border is further evidence that state-regulated markets are shrinking demand for imported Mexican marijuana.

“When it comes to cannabis, the prevailing attitude is ‘Buy American,’” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said in a statement about the trend. “The rise of the regulated state-legal cannabis market has not only supplanted Americans’ demand for Mexican cannabis, but in many places it has also disrupted the unregulated domestic marketplace.”

NORML noted that the 2023 figures mark a 98 percent decline in seized cannabis at the U.S.–Mexico border since 2013, when more than 2.4 million pounds were intercepted.

The advocacy group also cited a survey from last year in which 52 percent of U.S. cannabis consumers said they primarily obtain marijuana from brick-and-mortar establishments. The poll found that just 6 percent said they primarily get cannabis from a “dealer.”

As reports in recent years have pointed out, the dynamic has shifted so significantly that, at least in some cases, U.S. marijuana is now being smuggled into Mexico, where it commands premium prices. One vehicle recently stopped by authorities as it traveled from California to Tijuana held 5,600 jars of THC-infused gummies.

NORML said similar dynamics are being observed in Canada. In 2019, the first full year of legalization in that country, just over a third (37 percent) of consumers reported buying marijuana from legal sources. By 2022, that share had nearly doubled, to 69 percent. At that point, only 4 percent of respondents said they still purchased cannabis on the unregulated market.

The CBP data tracks with other indications of declines in illegal marijuana trafficking as a growing number of state laws give American consumers legal places to buy cannabis, including a March report from the U.S. Sentencing Commission that showed federal cases continue to fall.

While that report didn’t cite the specific number of marijuana trafficking cases in 2023, it dipped again compared to the previous 2022 low of 806, according to an included chart. By comparison, there were roughly 5,000 cannabis cases in 2013.

Meanwhile, cases involving fentanyl and powder cocaine increased again last year. Drug cases overall made up 29.9 percent of the federal criminal caseload, the second-largest category after immigration-related offenses.

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Top Ohio GOP Lawmakers Struggle To Reach Consensus On Bill To Amend Marijuana Legalization Law

Top Ohio Republican lawmakers say plans are still in the works to amend the state’s marijuana legalization law, with the Senate president setting a June target as regulators work to develop rules and launch an adult-use market.

It remains unclear what that future cannabis legislation will look like, but leadership has discussed addressing issues such as tax revenue distribution, scaling back home cultivation rules and restricting public smoking.

“I am—I would not say optimistic—but I am reasonably hopeful, if you need words, that we can get something done by June,” Senate President Matt Huffman (R), whose chamber has already passed legislation to amend the voter-approved legalization policy, told WCMH-TV.

“With greater access to marijuana, there will be more visits to poison control centers,” he said, adding that it’s “really important” that lawmakers allocate tax dollars to those centers as part of any amendment package.

The senator additionally said he thinks “what’s most pressing is people smoking marijuana when they’re walking down the street.”

Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has previously pressed the legislature to enact changes to expedite recreational marijuana sales, despite his personal opposition to the ballot initiative that voters passed in November. But he’s indicated that his more immediate concern is regulating the sale of intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC.

“This is time for the legislature to move,” the governor, who also raised the issue during his State of the State address earlier this month, said. “We can’t do it ourselves.”

He also said he’s “not going to get into that” when asked about disagreements within Republican leadership with respect to revising the state’s marijuana law.

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New Jersey Lawmakers And Marijuana Activists Push To Legalize Home Cultivation, Which Is Still A Felony

For the last two years, people have been able to stroll into New Jersey dispensaries to buy weed. But growing your own cannabis plant remains a third-degree felony.

Despite a growing number of nearby states legalizing the growing of marijuana plants at home, bills to do the same in New Jersey have languished every session since cannabis was legalized.

A state senator and chief sponsor of a bill to allow medical marijuana patients to grow cannabis, plus another bill that would expand that to 10 plants for medical patients and six plants for recreational users, said the fight for home grow is “at a standstill.”

“We said we were doing this bill for criminal justice purposes, and to partially correct the very failed multi-billion war on drugs campaign that happened for decades in New Jersey, so this is frustrating. I feel like we’re not headed in the right direction,” said Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth).

Under the state’s cannabis laws, the only people allowed to grow marijuana are those with cultivator licenses. Lawmakers, particularly Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), have previously voiced hesitancy over a home grow program, saying it would stunt the growth of the legal industry and allow the underground market to flourish without regulations. Scutari long pushed to make marijuana legal and sponsored the recreational legalization law.

In an interview last April, he said discussions had started about “perhaps allowing for a very, very slim amount of home grow applicants, some of the more significant or medical patients.”

Scutari did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

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Maine Governor Signs Bill Allowing Marijuana Convictions To Be Sealed Upon Application

The Maine Legislature passed two bills that would expand eligibility for sealing criminal records, one that drops the age requirements for record sealing and another that allows for sealing now-legal marijuana crimes.

While these plans require people to apply to have records sealed, another proposal that would have automated the process failed after criticism that doing so would violate the First Amendment. That bill specifically applied to criminal records for marijuana possession and cultivation that’s since been legalized in Maine.

The Legislature signaled that Maine’s reconciliation with when it may be appropriate to seal criminal records is far from over, as it also passed a bill to make permanent a commission to continue to study the issue.

Unfinished work on this matter was made clear during floor speeches on these bills, as well, from lawmakers who voted both for and against the range of measures.

The bill that removed the age-related prerequisite for sealing criminal history, LD 2188, passed the House 87–59 and the Senate 25–9. Ahead of the Senate vote, Sen. Lisa Keim (R-Oxford), who voted against the bill, argued record sealing is the incorrect means to give people a fresh start.

“I’m very in favor of second changes and letting people rebuild their lives after making mistakes,” Keim said. “My problem with this legislation, and similar legislation, is the false sense of security.”

Rather than shielding the records from public view, Keim said Maine should instead develop a more robust pardon process.

While legislators agreed to provide a way for people to apply to have certain criminal histories sealed, the majority of the House and Senate did not go so far as to make record-sealing the default.

The bill the Legislature killed, LD 2269, would have tasked state agencies with reviewing criminal record information on a monthly basis and then sealing records for crimes that are no longer considered illegal under Maine’s adult use cannabis law, which was enacted in 2017.

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Ohio Recreational Marijuana Sales Could Launch In June Under Regulators’ Expedited Plan, Lawmaker Says

Ohio marijuana sales could launch as soon as June under a regulatory plan that a legislative rulemaking committee is set to approve as lawmakers’ plans to revise the voter-approved legalization law continue to stall out.

Regulators have until September to start issuing cannabis business licenses under the ballot initiative that was approved last November, but the Division of Cannabis Control (DCC) has devised a plan to start granting dual licenses to existing medical marijuana operators to begin serving adult consumers early this summer.

Rep. Jamie Callender (R), a proponent of cannabis reform in the legislature, told News 5 Cleveland that members of the Joint Committee On Agency Rule Review (JCARR), which he chairs, are positioned to accept the proposed regulations at a meeting on May 13.

“We could have retailers—recreational licensed retailers—in Ohio by mid-June,” he said. “We should begin to see legal recreational sales of marijuana in Ohio certainly before July 4th weekend.”

“The distribution of retail sites—they are already in existence for medical—will be able to get a dual license,” he said. “The application will be available, absent a problem in JCARR, which I don’t anticipate, prior to June 7.”

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Record Number Of Truck Drivers Refuse To Take Drug Tests As More States Legalize Marijuana

As more states legalize marijuana, a new federal report shows that the number of positive drug tests among commercial drivers fell last year compared to the year before, dropping from 57,597 in 2022 to 54,464 in 2023. At the same time, however, the number of drivers who refused to be screened at all also increased by 39 percent.

The record-high number of refusals comes as the transportation industry faces a nationwide shortage of drivers, which some trade groups have said has only been made worse by drug testing policies that risk flagging drivers even when they’re not impaired on the job.

The rise in refusals meant that even though there were fewer positive tests overall in 2023, the total number of recorded drug violations among truckers actually rose slightly—to 68,229 in 2023 compared to 67,775 a year earlier.

“The overall rise in drug violations in 2023, even though there are fewer positive tests, is attributed to a nearly 40% increase in reported drug test refusals—9,214 in 2022 versus 12,804 in 2023,” the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which produced the new report, told the trade publication Transport Topics.

“Drug test refusals include employer reported refusals like failing to show up for a random test, or leaving a test collection facility after a test has begun but before it’s complete,” added FMCSA, an arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

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Missouri Warns Marijuana License Applicants Of ‘Predatory Practices’ Around Social Equity Status

Veterans John and Kara Grady received a Facebook message last week from a man who was “looking for a female veteran to be part of our dispensary license.”

Being a veteran is one of the seven categories that makes people eligible to win one of the state’s social-equity marijuana licenses, called “microbusiness licenses.” The other categories range from having a lower income or living in an area considered impoverished to having past arrests or incarcerations related to marijuana offenses.

When the Gradys—who run Slaphappy Beverage Co., which sells hemp-derived THC drinks—turned him down, the man began attacking them on their social media pages.

“I was like, ‘What kind of tactics are these?’” John Grady said in an interview with The Independent. “You have to ask yourself—if it’s that competitive on the microbusiness licenses, then really what’s going on?”

Just hours before Grady received that message, the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation issued a warning about “predatory practices” in social-equity marijuana licensing throughout the country.

And those tactics are likely escalating, with the next round of applications running April 15 to 29.

“[The Division of Cannabis Regulation] has become aware of solicitation efforts by companies to apply for microbusiness licenses on behalf of qualified individuals with promises of future ownership in the license,” the agency said in a press release last week.

The division warned that some groups are scamming eligible people by giving them, “no agreements in place that would actually result in the eligible individuals being the owners of the license.”

The division recently revoked nine of the 48 social-equity cannabis licenses issued in October—following an investigation by The Independent that found some applicants thought they were partnering with the Michigan investor but in reality signed agreements requiring them to relinquish all control and profits of the business.

The revocations came just as the division was gearing up for the second round of microbusiness applications, and now the state is urging applicants to be extra careful regarding whom they partner with.

“Eligible individuals should exercise caution in accepting such arrangements as some of the solicitations may be predatory in nature,” the division’s Thursday press release states.

Because only 39 of the 48 microbusiness licenses were ultimately issued from the first round, the division will award one additional wholesale license and eight additional dispensary licenses in the upcoming round.

The owners of the revoked licenses have vowed to appeal, though nothing has been filed as of yet.

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Federal Officials Are Suddenly Seizing Marijuana From State-Licensed Businesses, Leaving Industry Perplexed

Federal officials have been seizing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of marijuana from state-licensed cannabis businesses in New Mexico in recent weeks—detaining industry workers in what appears to be a localized escalation of national prohibition enforcement even as the federal government has largely refrained from interfering with the implementation of state legalization laws in recent years.

New Mexico marijuana businesses report that the more than dozen U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seizures, particularly at interior checkpoints around the Las Cruces area, are a relatively new phenomenon. Since adult-use marijuana sales launched in the state in 2022, the operators say they’ve generally been able to transport their products to testing facilities and retailers without incident.

Starting around two months ago, however, the agency has evidently taken a more proactive approach to enforcing federal prohibition, taking hundreds of pounds of cannabis at the checkpoints inside the state. CBP is able to carry out its activities within 100 miles of the U.S. border.

“There’s a lot of really successful important cannabis producers and cannabis manufacturers operating south of those checkpoints,” Ben Lewinger, executive director of the New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, told Marijuana Moment. “Basically, every road that you could take from the southern to the northern part of the state, you have to go through one of these checkpoints—and it’s just bifurcating the industry and making it impossible for people in the southern part of the state to get their products to anywhere in the central or northern part of the state.”

CBP has made at least 13 stops and seizures of state-legal marijuana products since February, Lewinger, said adding that he “wouldn’t be surprised if it’s twice that number.”

“I’m certain that it’s underreported,” he said. “I think there’s lots of people who still have that fear and the stigma, and they don’t want to rattle cages.”

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