Tag: legalized marijuana

Maryland Senators Take Up Bills To Let Police Search Vehicles Based On Marijuana Odor And Protect Gun Rights For Cannabis Patients

Maryland senators took up two GOP-led marijuana bills on Friday: one that would let police search vehicles based on the smell of cannabis and another that’s meant to protect gun rights for medical marijuana patients.

Members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee discussed the legislation during a hearing, listening to testimony in support and opposition, but did not vote on the proposals.

Sen. William Folden (R) is sponsoring the bill to authorize law enforcement searches based on marijuana odor, a measure he said attempts to “correct a wrong, an error, that the legislature made” when it passed reform legislation that was enacted last year to specifically prevent such searches given that the state has legalized marijuana.

If the smell of cannabis is emitted from a car, that’s a “strong indicator that person is in violation of law and potentially impaired at the time,” Folden said, adding that “this strong odor is definitely discernible by law enforcement and those in the community.”

Two county prosecutors also testified in favor of the measure. But drug policy reform advocates, including ACLU of Maryland Public Policy Director Yanet Amanuel, defended the current policy that bars police from conducting cannabis odor-based searches.

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UFC Warns Fighters To Stop Using Marijuana ‘Immediately’ So They Aren’t Punished Under California Athletics Rules

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) might have removed marijuana from its banned substances list for professional fighters—but a California athletics commission says they could still face penalties under state rules for testing positive for THC over a certain limit ahead of an upcoming event.

UFC, which formally amended its cannabis drug testing policy last month, reportedly advised fighters that they could be subject to a $100 fine by the California State Athletic Commission if they test over 150 nanograms of THC per milliliter ahead of the UFC 298 event that is set to take place on February 17 in Anaheim.

An email from UFC that was obtained by the trade publication MMA Fighting cautioned fighters to “discontinue use immediately to ensure you don’t exceed” the THC threshold.

The policy from the California commission, which falls under the state Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), might seem misplaced in light of UFC’s own recent reform, as well as the fact that marijuana is legal for adults in California.

Marijuana Moment reached out to DCA for comment, but a representative was not immediately available.

UFC itself said last month that while it models its list of prohibited drugs after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)—which has controversially maintained cannabis as a banned substance—it decided to make amendments “based on historical findings (i.e. marijuana removed from the prohibited list).”

Professional fighters were already largely protected from being penalized over testing positive for THC under a policy change that UFC adopted in 2021, but it has since removed cannabis as a banned drug altogether. The reform took effect on December 31, 2023.

Multiple sports organizations have moved to amend their marijuana testing policies for athletes amid the state legalization movement.

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Biden Falsely Suggests Marijuana Pardons ‘Expunged’ Records And Released Prisoners While Campaigning On ‘Promises Kept’

President Joe Biden is again inflating the impact of his pardons for marijuana offenses, falsely suggesting that his act of clemency “expunged” records and that people were released from prison.

“A promise made and a promise kept,” he said during a campaign speech in South Carolina on Saturday.

“I keep my promises when I said no one—no one—should be in prison for merely possessing marijuana or using it, and their records should be expunged,” Biden said.

The president has routinely framed the mass cannabis pardon as an example of him fulfilling campaign pledges, but he’s also frequently misstated the practical effects of the action. A presidential pardon represents formal forgiveness from the government, but it does not expunge the record.

Several thousands of people have received the pardon for federal marijuana possession offenses under a pair of proclamations issued in 2022 and last month. The Justice Department has been distributing certificates to eligible people who apply for the largely symbolic document.

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Federal E-Cigarette Ruling Highlights Danger Of Not Preparing For Sensible Cannabis Regulations

A recent Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion on vaping sheds light on why federal cannabis legalization must be accompanied by a sensible regulatory framework that is administered and enforced by the right agency.

The court’s opinion in Wages and White Lion Investment LLC v. Food and Drug Administration excoriates the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its handling of flavored e-cigarettes and underscores the dangers to the public and industry that result from ideological, rather than logical, regulation.

The threat of not plotting out a viable federal regulatory landscape—we know the feds already have their eye on this space—is worrisome for all cannabis businesses and consumers, and particularly the vape sector, which now makes up nearly 25 percent of the market. And the need to set the cannabis industry on a sensible federal regulatory path has only grown more urgent in light of the recent Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommendation to move marijuana to Schedule III, a move that increases the likelihood of new federal oversight.

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Justice Department Issues More Marijuana Pardon Certificates A Month After Biden’s Expanded Clemency Move

The Justice Department has already started issuing pardon certificates for certain marijuana offenses covered under an expanded proclamation that President Joe Biden issued last month.

Chris Goldstein, a cannabis activist who was arrested over possession of marijuana on federal land while protesting for reform in 2014, shared the certification he received from DOJ’s Office of the Pardon Attorney on Tuesday.

Goldstein was among those whose cannabis cases were omitted from Biden’s original mass pardon in October 2022, which only covered statutes related to the general offense of simple cannabis possession under federal or Washington, D.C. law. The president’s newly expanded pardon proclamation issued last month specifically added possession on federal property as an offense eligible for relief.

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NY unveils first rules for growing marijuana at home: How you can cultivate cannabis

This will take home gardens to new highs.

New York State cannabis regulators on Tuesday unveiled the first rules for budding growers to legally plant pot at home.

Stoners with a green thumb — and over the age of 21 — will be able to cultivate a maximum of six mature marijuana plants and posses up to five pounds of flower or concentrate from those buds per household.

The state Cannabis Control Board was scheduled to discuss the rules Wednesday but postponed the vote for a later date.

Following their approval, there would be a 60 day public comment period before the rules can go into effect.

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CDC Finds Youth Marijuana Use Fell In Washington State’s Largest County After Adult-Use Legalization

Marijuana use among teens in Washington State’s most populous county declined after legalization of cannabis for adults, according to a new federal study published on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The prevalence of current and frequent use fell significantly among youth in grades 8, 10 and 12 between 2008 and 2021.

According to the study, published in CDC’s latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, current and frequent use of marijuana among teens in King County has fallen significantly since state voters legalized adult-use cannabis by initiative in November 2012.

Researchers said legalization and related regulations and age controls could have have fueled the trend by making marijuana harder for teens to access, though they also said the COVID pandemic may have contributed to more recent declines.

Between 2008 and 2021, current use—defined as having used marijuana at least once in the past month—fell from highs of 20.4 percent among males (in 2010) and 15.5 percent among females (in 2012) down to 7.7 percent and 9.0 percent, respectively, in 2021.

“The legalization of nonmedical cannabis for adults aged ≥21 years in Washington with licensed dispensaries requiring proof of age might have affected availability of cannabis to younger persons as well as their opportunities to engage in its use,” the CDC report says. “This, in turn, might have had an impact on use prevalence.”

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New York Governor Proposes Repealing Marijuana Potency Tax To Reduce Costs And Combat Illicit Market

The governor of New York is calling for the elimination of a THC potency tax as part of her executive budget, aiming to reduce costs for consumers in a way that could make the regulated market more competitive against illicit operators.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) budget proposal for the 2025 fiscal year would repeal the potency tax and replace it with a wholesale excise tax of 9 percent in a way that “simplifies, streamlines, and reduces the tax collection obligations and burden for cultivators, processors, and distributors.”

Cannabis would also still be subject to the existing 9 percent state retail excise tax and four percent local retail excise tax. The changes are estimated to effectively drive down the total tax rate on marijuana from an average 38 percent to 22 percent.

For vertically-integrated medical cannabis operators and microbusinesses, the new wholesale excise tax would accrue on the final retail sale to consumers and be imposed on 75 percent of the final retail sales price, the governor’s proposal says.

The briefing book for the budget says the tax changes would “promote and support the expansion of the legal adult-use cannabis market” and also result in a “net positive impact” of $6.5 million for localities.

But by reducing costs for consumers and businesses, the tax policy reform could also help the administration and regulators address one of their top priorities: driving out the illicit market.

While licensing of legal marijuana businesses has rolled out slowly amid litigation, New York has been dealing with a proliferation of hundreds of unregulated cannabis shops with prices that are generally lower because the operators don’t concern themselves with excise taxes and abiding by other regulations that increase costs.

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Minnesota Officials Form Interagency Plan To Rein In Sales Of High-THC Marijuana Being Sold As Legal Hemp

Minnesota’s cannabis regulators say they have a plan to fill a gap in state law that could be letting some hemp retailers sell marijuana flower without consequence.

Charlene Briner, the interim director of the new Office of Cannabis Management, said Thursday that she is working with other agencies to provide a temporary method to inspect and test raw cannabis flower to make sure it does not violate current law.

She said the agency will look into using inspectors from the Office of Medical Cannabis and the Department of Agriculture to exercise the Office of Cannabis Management’s authority to stop the sale of cannabis flower that is illegal marijuana masquerading as legal hemp.

“OCM is evaluating how to leverage existing enforcement capacity at the Office of Medical Cannabis to act on OCM’s behalf and how we can develop capacity to test raw cannabis flower,” Briner said.

“We’ll be sharing more about those plans as we put them in place,” she said.

To be legal to sell now, hemp flower must contain only 0.3 percent delta-9 THC or less. Such hemp plants do not have enough THC to be intoxicating when eaten or smoked. But by processing the hemp for edibles and beverages, the THC content can be enhanced to produce an intoxicating effect.

Some hemp retailers and smoke shops have been selling raw cannabis flower that might or might not exceed those legal limits. Hemp inspectors have not acted against such sales—or even to test the flower—because while the Office of Medical Cannabis regulates hemp sales, the law doesn’t give it any authority over unprocessed flower.

The loophole became public late last year when former Office of Medical Cannabis director Chris Tholkes discussed it on the national podcast Weed Wonks. She said her inspectors have seen sales of raw cannabis flower that the stores claim is legal hemp but that the inspectors suspect is not.

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Illinois Supreme Court To Rule On Whether Smell Of Marijuana Alone Is Cause To Search A Vehicle

“Even the claim of smelling cannabis can be discretionary. Honestly, it can be made up sometimes when officers are being less than honest because there’s no way to challenge it.”

The Illinois Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday as to whether the smell of cannabis alone is grounds for police officers to search a vehicle, marking a test of the state’s 2020 recreational marijuana legalization law.

The court heard two consolidated cases of individuals who were in vehicles that were searched after an officer used the smell of cannabis as probable cause.

In People v. Redmond, defendant Ryan Redmond was pulled over by Illinois State Police for an unsecure license plate and driving three miles per hour over the speed limit, court records show. Upon smelling cannabis, the officer searched the vehicle and found about one gram of cannabis in the center console. He later charged Redmond with a misdemeanor for failure to transport cannabis in an odor-proof container, according to court documents.

The other case, People v. Molina, involved defendant Vincent Molina, who was a passenger in the vehicle when an Illinois State Police trooper smelled cannabis and searched the car, finding a small box of rolled joints, according to court records. Molina told the trooper he had a medical marijuana card prior to the search, the records state. Molina was charged with unlawful possession of cannabis by a passenger in a motor vehicle for not storing the cannabis in an odor-proof container.

Lawyers for Molina and Redmond argued the smell of cannabis alone should not be probable cause to search a vehicle given that the substance is no longer illegal in Illinois.

But Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office argued the law requires drivers to transport cannabis in an odor-proof container. Thus, the presence of cannabis odor is grounds for a search, even if the passenger is possessing an amount under the legal limit or has a medical marijuana card.

“It remains illegal to use cannabis in a vehicle and to transport cannabis in a vehicle in a container that is not odor-proof,” a November brief filed by Raoul reads. Thus, “the odor of cannabis—whether in raw or burnt form—continues to provide police with probable cause to search.”

Mitchell Ness, assistant attorney general, continued the argument before the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

“Cannabis is no longer contraband in every circumstance, but that doesn’t absolve the person from following the laws that are in place,” he said.

Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis said the central matter of the cases was roadway safety.

“The concern here is the safety of the public driving down the highway and impaired drivers,” Theis said at the oral arguments. “We’re concerned about drunk drivers, and we’re concerned about high drivers.”

Nationwide and state-level chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed a brief in support of Molina and Redmond, writing that allowing the odor of cannabis as cause for searching a vehicle will lead to biased enforcement against Black and Latino Illinoisans.

“There is a decades-long pattern of police in this state using pretext like cannabis odor to disproportionately stop and search Black and Latino drivers,” the brief reads. Illinois’ stop and search policy “unfairly subjects (Black and Latino drivers) to at-will intrusions of their privacy and relegates them to second-class citizenry.”

The organizations argued the legalization of cannabis means its presence is not indicative of contraband or crime.

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