Tag: legalized marijuana

Ohio GOP Senate President Outlines Plan To Amend Voter-Approved Marijuana Law Next Week, Days Before Legalization Takes Effect

Ohio’s Republican Senate president says his chamber will take the first step toward amending a voter-approved marijuana legalization law at the beginning of next week, with just days left before key provisions of the initiated statute take effect. But the House speaker, for his part, still says he doesn’t necessarily see the urgency.

GOP legislative leaders and Gov. Mike DeWine (R) have been discussing revisions to the cannabis statute ever since voters passed the reform at the ballot last month, with the main focus being on possible changes to provisions concerning tax revenue,  youth prevention and impaired driving.

Two Republican-led bills to amend the legalization law have been introduced so far, but Senate President Matt Huffman (R) said the plan is to take up separate, unrelated House-passed legislation in the Senate General Government Committee on Monday, attach yet-to-be-seen cannabis amendments as an emergency clause and advance the proposal on the floor on Wednesday. The House would then need to concur with the changes.

An emergency clause would mean the bill would require a two-thirds vote instead of a simple majority to pass, but it’d mean the legislation would take effect immediately rather than after a standard 90-day period following signature by the governor. That seems to be the only option if lawmakers want to revise the marijuana law before possession and cultivation become legal on Thursday.

“It would be better for people going forward to know what the law is than people begin spending money or taking actions and then the law changes six months from now or 90 days, you know, a year from now,” Huffman told WCMH.

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California Opens Applications For $15 Million Marijuana Equity Grant Round To Local Jurisdictions

California officials have begun accepting applications for the Cannabis Equity Grants Program for Local Jurisdictions for the coming fiscal year. The grants are part of the state’s effort to use cannabis tax revenue to fund equity programs for people disproportionately impacted by the drug war.

The purpose of the program is “to advance economic justice for populations and communities impacted by cannabis prohibition and the War on Drugs by providing support to local jurisdictions as they promote equity in California and eliminate barriers to enter the newly regulated cannabis industry for equity program applicants and licensees,” a description says.

The funding round is open to any local California jurisdiction “that demonstrates an intent to develop a cannabis equity program or that has adopted or operates a cannabis equity program.”

Applications for the grants program will be accepted through December 14, with awards expected to be announced in January. The online application is available through the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) website.

Money from the program funds local programs offering technical support, regulatory compliance and assistance with securing startup capital to equity applicants and licensees. The grants “will further the stated intent of the AUMA by reducing barriers to licensure and employment in the regulated industry,” according to a description posted on the California Grants Portal. “Offering these types of support will also aid the state in its goal of eliminating or reducing the illicit cannabis market by bringing more people into the legal marketplace.”

Grants for last fiscal year, announced this past February, went to 16 cities and counties across the state, ranging from $350,000 for San Diego County to nearly $2 million for Oakland.

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New York Marijuana Lawsuit Settlement Could Let Hundreds Of Dispensaries Open Soon, But Some Operators Are Wary

Hundreds of people impacted by cannabis-related criminal charges will finally be allowed to move forward with the pot-shops they had already been granted licenses for—if the terms of a settlement agreement filed Tuesday are approved.

With marijuana legalization in 2021, the state created a special class of license called the Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary licenses (CAURD). The aim was to reward those most harmed by decades of harsh drugs laws with the first opportunity to enter the legal market.

That goal stalled in August, when a group of veterans sued the state, arguing that the CAURD program violated the law by not offering licenses to other social equity groups like women and veterans at the same time. An injunction preventing any new stores from opening has been in place since then.

At the time of the injunction, the state had already awarded 463 CAURD licenses, but just 23 dispensaries had opened. Thirty other licensees were close to opening dispensaries when the injunction halted their plans. Meanwhile, more and more illegal storefronts were popping up to fill the demand, as many as 8,000 by some estimates.

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St. Louis Will Lose A Half-Million Dollars In Marijuana Tax Revenue After Failing To Submit Documents To Missouri Officials

The city of St. Louis will lose approximately $500,000 in tax revenue after it failed to submit documents with the Missouri Department of Revenue to collect a voter-approved recreational marijuana tax.

City voters approved a 3 percent tax on recreational marijuana in April. State law would have allowed the city to begin collecting the tax on October 1 if paperwork was filed by June 30.

Bill 139 was passed unanimously by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen last December to ask voters for permission to tax recreational marijuana by 3 percent. The state tax on recreational marijuana was set at 6 percent when Missouri voters approved the initiative last November.

“The City wishes to impose an additional sales tax to support efforts for the residents of the City of St. Louis to address historic inequalities,” the bill stated. “These efforts may include but are not limited to funding access to education, workforce opportunities, and youth engagement.”

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Legalize Public Cannabis Consumption

“Smells good.”

If you smoke weed outside, especially in a city, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard that statement of fact from a stranger. It happens to me at least once a week, usually a lot more. 

Look in the pages of the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic, watch local news, or listen to politicians, though, and you might be fooled into thinking that weed does not, in fact, smell good. Wild, right? 

Under titles like “I Don’t Want To See You Get High” and “NYC’s Disgusting Pot Stench Is Keeping Tourists Away,” those loud voices fed up with loud smells are the last gasps of prohibition’s fading foghorns. Weed won and the world hasn’t fallen into disarray (well… at least not because of weed), so cannabis critics are reaching for anything they can to push back against its growing role in American life. These smell sheriffs might even support legalization, just as long as they can’t see or smell it. 

But legalization without the guarantee of safe, free, and open consumption is not legalization at all, and while much of the discussion from inside and outside of the weed industry is about, well, industry, New York has quickly shown us that the right to public consumption should be one of the most important facets of any and every legalization law. 

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California And New York State Officials Tell People To Buy Marijuana On Black Friday

Marijuana regulators in California and New York are encouraging people to take advantage of Black Friday deals and support small businesses by shopping for cannabis at licensed retailers.

As companies promote savings on the post-Thanksgiving sales occasion, both the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) and the New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) shared posts on Friday to help people find marijuana from authorized venders.

“Don’t follow the hordes of shoppers today!” California’s DCC said. “This Friday shop smart, shop licensed cannabis.”

The New York OCM, meanwhile, shared a video of Empire State Development Commissioner Hope Knight, who also serves on the state Cannabis Control Board (CCB), urging consumers to support small and local businesses this weekend to “sustain jobs and generate regional economic growth.” That same sentiment applies to the marijuana market, regulators said.

“While you grab some #BlackFriday deals, take a note from #NYCCB member, Hope Knight and support #SmallBusinessSaturdays at one of your local dispensaries,” they said.

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Hawaii Attorney General’s Office Defends Marijuana Legalization Proposal From Law Enforcement Attacks

The office of Hawaii’s attorney general is pushing back against criticism of the official’s recently released marijuana legalization plan, defending its public health and safety provisions as members of the law enforcement community voice opposition to the reform.

After announcing in April that her office would support efforts to enact legalization, Attorney General Anne Lopez (D) unveiled a comprehensive cannabis bill last week, earning praise from supporters in the legislature and mixed reactions from advocates who want to see it revised to more aggressively address equity issues and reduce criminalization.

On the other side of the debate, however, Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm says representatives of law enforcement are firmly against legalizing marijuana in general and the attorney general’s plan specifically, arguing that the current system of prohibition is “not broken,” and regulating adult-use cannabis would lead to increased hospitalizations without mitigating the illicit market.

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Ohioans Arrested For Marijuana Must Be Involved In Talks About Changing Legalization Law, Not Just ‘Anti-Cannabis’ Republicans, Lawmaker Says

An Ohio Democratic lawmaker wants to see people who’ve been criminalized over marijuana, as well as those with industry experience, involved in any efforts to amend the state’s voter-approved legalization law, arguing that it shouldn’t be left up to “anti-cannabis” legislators alone to revise the statute.

Ohio Senate and House GOP leaders have already previewed plans to pass a package of changes to the law before possession and cultivation becomes legal next month, with a focus on potential revisions affecting tax revenue distribution, public consumption and law enforcement, for example.

But Rep. Juanita Brent (D) says it’s important that people who have been directly impacted by prohibition and who may participate in the legal marketplace have seats at the table as leadership moves ahead with possible amendments.

“If you’ve been criminalized by cannabis, the best thing you can do is come back into the field,” Brent told The Statehouse News Bureau.

“Ohioans have to remember that the people who are trying to be the loudest at the Statehouse are people who were anti-cannabis,” she said. “We cannot have anti-cannabis people leading on what’s going to happen with cannabis. We need people who are involved. We need people who have been doing the work. We need people who have been advocating.”

So far, the conversation around revising the initiated statute has been top-level, with GOP lawmakers and Gov. Mike DeWine (R) speaking generally about areas that they’re interested in changing. But there’s been a consistent emphasis on revising provisions on how marijuana tax revenue will be divvied up, which may be an issue for advocates who want to see the sizable investment in social equity and community reinvestment that’s prescribed under the measure as approved by voters.

Senate President Matt Huffman (R) said last week that he didn’t think most voters considered the nuances of the cannabis reform proposal when they went to the ballot and instead simply passed it based on the broad belief that marijuana should be legal for adults. He argued, for example, that the majority probably doesn’t support prioritizing cannabis business licensing for people who’ve been disproportionately targeted by criminalization.

The governor made similar remarks after this month’s election, as he expressed his interest in quickly changing various components of the law. However, he’s stressed that voters shouldn’t expect any “surprises,” and the proposed revisions that are being discussed would still honor the “spirit” of the reform.

Rather than introduce new standalone legislation through regular order, the Senate president said the plan is to incorporate cannabis amendments into an unrelated House-passed bill and use that as the vehicle, sending the revised measure back to the House for a simple concurrence vote.

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Teens Are Not More Likely To Use Marijuana After Legalization, Study Finds

A study of high school students in Massachusetts found that youth were no more likely to use marijuana after legalization, though more students perceived their parents as cannabis consumers after the policy change.

“No statistically significant differences were found in the prevalence of past-30 day cannabis use before and after legalization among adolescents,” says the report, published in the journal Clinical Therapeutics. The proportion of students who reported perceiving that a parent uses cannabis, however, rose from 18 percent to 24 percent after legalization.

“Adolescent perceptions of their parents as cannabis users increased after legalization,” the study says, “even before state-regulated retails [sic] sales began.”

The findings stem from the results of two waves of survey data collected from two eastern Massachusetts high schools in 2016 and 2018. The earlier survey took place before legalization, while the later one occurred after legalization went into effect but before retail sales began.

In 2016, 82 percent of respondents reported that their perception was that their parents did not use marijuana. By 2018, that number had fallen slightly, to 76 percent.

When it came to their perception of best friends’ cannabis use, students also reported a slight bump. In 2016, 31 percent of students said they perceived their best friend used marijuana, which climbed to 36 percent in 2018.

One main finding of the study was that the likelihood of marijuana use was significantly higher among adolescents who reported perceiving that a parent, sibling or best friend uses the drug.

“The strongest association with past 30-day use was perceived marijuana use among best friends,” the study says, followed by the perception that a sibling uses cannabis both medicinally and recreationally. Adolescents’ perceptions that a parent uses medical and/or adult-use marijuana was also associated with a higher likelihood of past 30-day use.

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Up In Smoke: California’s Largest Pot Distributor Collapses Amid $17 Million In Unpaid Taxes

In mid-May, as rumors of the company’s dire situation swirled, CEO Mike Beaudry insisted “these rumors are categorically not true.”

HERBL completely collapsed less than a month later, following in the footsteps of other California cannabis startups like Flow Kana and MedMen.

The company leaves behind $17 million in unpaid taxes, while several smaller pot companies which have been left in the lurch, SFGate reports.

“Mike [Beaudry, HERBL’s CEO] and his team did a really good job of hiding that fact from their own brands… that’s how they kept getting our products,” said Ali Jamalian, owner of San Francisco cannabis company Sunset Connect, who claims that HERBL owes him $180,000.

Another CEO, Tyler Kearns of Sacramento-based cannabis company Seven Leaves, said HERBL owes his company $880,000. He says he knew the collapsed distributor was in trouble when he found out in June that they were laying off delivery drivers, and that it was going to be near impossible to get that money back.

“I knew this was going to be the biggest failure in U.S. cannabis history,” he told the outlet.

HERBL’s role in the California cannabis ecosystem was crucial, acting as a middleman between pot producers and retailers. Its downfall isn’t just a bad trip for the company; it’s a red flag for the industry, indicating that even the mightiest can fall due to systemic issues.

“I do feel like we’re going to see a significant and material number of closures, up and down the supply chain,” said Wesley Hein, president of the Cannabis Distribution Association, who attributes HERBL’s failure in part to poor business decisions – particularly its continued reliance on traditional distribution models while pot retailers struggled to pay their bills. He says the collapse also exposes systemic issues in the state’s pot industry that will doom other industries – such as overtaxation, competition from unlicensed businesses, and “very excessive and overly burdensome regulations.”

He compared the collapse of HERBL to Lehman.

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