Tag: legalized marijuana

Interstate Marijuana Commerce Could Put California At ‘Significant Legal Risk’ Of Federal Action, Attorney General Says

The attorney general of California has determined that the state could put itself and its employees at “significant legal risk” of federal enforcement action if it were to authorize interstate marijuana commerce.

In a legal opinion sent to state cannabis regulators on Tuesday, Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said there are “strong arguments” that state officials could be federally prosecuted for implementing a law that permits cannabis imports and exports between consenting legal states.

The opinion comes in response to a request earlier this year from the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC), seeking the attorney general’s assessment of potential liability for permitting interstate commerce under a law Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed last year.

While DCC argued in its request that the state would not find itself at substantial legal risk for allowing the activity, the attorney general’s opinion says it cannot rule out that possibility given the threat of federal preemption under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) that strictly prohibits cannabis.

The law Newsom signed stipulated that the governor would be authorized to enter into interstate commerce agreements with other legal states if federal law or guidance changed, or if the state attorney general ruled out the possibility of “significant legal risk.”

“We appreciate the Attorney General’s conclusion that the arguments supporting interstate agreements are ‘strong,’” a DCC spokesperson said in a statement shared with Marijuana Moment on Wednesday. “Unfortunately, even strong arguments cannot put novel questions beyond all debate. If you are looking for certainty, you will not find it in cannabis.”

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Marijuana Will Gain Millions Of Consumers Over Alcohol, With Sales Hitting $37 Billion By 2027, Investment Bank Projects

A multinational investment bank says that marijuana has become a “formidable competitor” to alcohol, projecting that nearly 20 million more people will regularly consume cannabis over the next five years as booze loses a couple million drinkers. It also says marijuana sales are estimated to reach $37 billion in 2027 as more state markets come online.

An analysis from the firm TD Cowen says marijuana sales reached $29 billion in 2023, which is approximately 11 percent of what the alcohol industry brought it. That’s up from four percent just five years ago, and marijuana is expected to grow by another seven percent annually over the next five years.

“As such, we believe that over the next 5 years, the cannabis category will add 18 million past-month consumers, while alcohol will lose 2 million past-month consumers, as consumers increasingly embrace cannabis and temper their alcohol consumption,” the report, titled “Cannabis Beats Booze,” says.

Vivien Azer, team lead on the analysis, told Marijuana Moment that the report bolsters a growing body of market research.

“We’ve been calling for seven years now for cannabis to increasingly prove as a dislocator to alcohol sales—and, really, it’s just a matter of time,” she said. However, she said it was “a little surprising” to see data projecting an even greater underperformance for alcohol sales in legal marijuana states.

While marijuana sales are still just a fraction of the dominant alcohol market, analysts say that there’s reason to believe that booze could be “at risk” of declining because of increased substitution among consumers, particularly young people. The TD Cowen report cited a proprietary survey that found more than two-thirds of cannabis users report reducing alcohol consumption.

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People With Past Convictions Shouldn’t Be Blocked From Marijuana Industry Work, Massachusetts Regulators Say

This fall, the Cannabis Control Commission’s regulations to implement Massachusetts’s equity reform law became official, representing the most wide-ranging changes to the Commonwealth’s regulated marijuana marketplace in six years and a historic accomplishment for advocates, operators, regulators and the legislature. As a result, our agency is now entrusted with oversight of local contracts between host communities and licensees, as well as efforts at the municipal level to increase inclusivity in the industry. However, a single legislative update may provide the greatest opportunity for individuals directly impacted by the war on drugs.

The marijuana employment amendment—passed unanimously by the state Senate before being adopted in the House and then signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker (R) in August 2022—now bans all prior criminal convictions, including marijuana offense-related dispositions, from automatically disqualifying individuals from working for most cannabis licensees unless the offense involved distribution of a controlled substance to a minor. In doing so, the Commonwealth has cleared the way for gainful employment in the legal industry by the communities most impacted by drug policies that disproportionately incarcerated people of color, and eliminated a blanket regulatory ban that previously prevented employers from even considering their hire.

Legalization brought a sense of hope, belonging and inspiration for those most impacted by marijuana prohibition; many believed it would address historical injustices, make products safer and bring economic gains to those harmed by previous policies. Fortunately, much of that vision has come to fruition.

Today, Massachusetts’s adult-use cannabis industry has generated more than $5 billion in sales, or roughly $1 billion in tax revenue, and millions more in non-tax revenue through licensing and application fees. More than 570 licensed marijuana establishments have commenced operations, 102 medical marijuana treatment centers are open and nearly 100,000 residents are now registered medical patients. Hundreds of entrepreneurs, and more than 20,0000 employees, benefit from growing, manufacturing and selling the biggest cash crop in our state.

However, over that time, only 67 participants in the commission’s programming to include communities harmed by the war on drugs have opened businesses (158 more are in the licensing pipeline), while less than 15 percent of the current workforce identifies as Black or Latino.

Despite our best efforts, equity is coming slowly. The high cost of compliance, combined with limited access to capital, have kept barriers to entry high. The state’s new cannabis equity law has mandated solutions to many of these problems, including the creation of the Cannabis Social Equity Trust Fund administered by the Executive Office of Economic Development.

But to truly eliminate all collateral consequences of the drug war, it was also important to remove unnecessary blanket prohibitions that prevented people with criminal records from obtaining jobs like the ones they did before legalization. Employment has proven to be one of the most effective tools for reintegration and reducing recidivism.

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29 Former Federal Prosecutors Urge Biden Administration To Leave Marijuana In Schedule I

In a letter sent to the heads of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) this week, 29 former U.S. attorneys are urging the Biden administration to leave cannabis in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), arguing that “marijuana has only become more dangerous, potent, and addictive” since the government last reviewed its scheduling in 2016.

The correspondence comes as DEA continues its review of marijuana’s scheduling after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended in August that the substance be moved, reportedly to Schedule III.

“Almost no one has benefitted from legal weed,” the former federal prosecutors claim in the new letter, “but there is one group coming out on top: drug cartels. Many states have enacted home-grow marijuana laws, which led to cartels growing marijuana in the United States to cut trafficking costs.”

The letter, to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, does not cite a source for that claim. Most states limit legal home cultivation for cannabis to less than a dozen plants and outlaw unlicensed commercial sales.

One of the main reasons for marijuana’s current Schedule I status is the government’s assertion that the plant has no recognized medical use—an issue reform advocates have challenged as more than three-quarters of all U.S. states have adopted medical cannabis laws.

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State Marijuana Legalization Has ‘Not Really Impacted’ Teen Use, Federal Official Says As New Youth Survey Shows Stable Trends

Teen marijuana use has not increased “even as state legalization has proliferated across the country,” a federal health official said on Wednesday in announcing the latest data from an annual survey that again showed prohibitionist concerns about youth cannabis access have “not played out.”

The 2022 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey—which is conducted by the University of Michigan with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)—found that rates of past-year cannabis use “remained stable for all three grades surveyed,” remaining below pre-pandemic usage levels even as more state marijuana markets opened and expanded for adults.

“There have been no substantial increases at all,” Marsha Lopez, chief of NIDA’s epidemiological research branch, said in response to a question from Marijuana Moment during a webinar on Wednesday. “In fact, they have not reported an increase in perceived availability either, which is kind of interesting.”

“So whatever is happening with adult-use [legalization] across the country has not really impacted the younger people according to the data here,” she said.

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Ohio House Lawmakers Take Up GOP Bill To Amend Voter-Approved Marijuana Law As Alternative To Senate Overhaul

Ohio House lawmakers held another committee hearing on a bill to revise the state’s newly enacted marijuana legalization law, hearing additional testimony ahead of an expected vote on Wednesday.

After taking public input on the legislation from Rep. Jamie Callender (R) last week, the House Finance Committee met again on Tuesday to hear from additional advocates and stakeholders as Senate Republicans work to advance a separate revision package that’s sparked significant pushback.

The House bill is considered more palatable to reform supporters, as it’d make less sweeping changes to what voters approved on the November ballot—especially compared to the Senate legislation that initially called for the elimination of home cultivation and an indefinite delay on basic legalization provisions. That latter measure was significantly altered amid criticism last week, but it’s still facing sizable opposition.

Senate President Matt Huffman (R) originally aimed to pass the bill under an emergency prior to legalization taking effect last week, but that didn’t happen according to his timeline. House Speaker Jason Stephens (R), meanwhile, has said he doesn’t see the need to rush amending the initiated statute given that sales won’t begin until later in 2024.

The GOP House and Senate leaders have disagreed on certain procedural issues related to amending the marijuana law such as the timeline for enactment, but they’ve both generally expressed support for the idea of making changes such as revising the tax structure, preventing public consumption and deterring impaired driving.

In the House Finance Committee, members took additional public testimony on Tuesday, hearing from interested parties who expressed concern about issues such as the bill’s continued criminalization of sharing marijuana between adults and the redirection of tax revenue away from equity and toward law enforcement.

“My concern is that, through some of the reforms that I’m seeing being introduced in this legislature, we would be moving from puff-puff-pass to puff-puff-police and that is in total contradiction to what Ohio voters voted in support of,” Cat Packer, vice chair of Cannabis Regulators of Color Coalition (CRCC) and director of drug markets and legal regulation at the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), said in testimony to the committee.

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Massachusetts Marijuana Retailer Encourages Package Recycling With Discounted $4 Joint Offer

One of the state’s cannabis retailers is encouraging customers to recycle the plastic that encases certain cannabis products by offering them a $4 pre-rolled joint for every piece of packaging they return.

In the heavily regulated cannabis industry, nearly every product is required to come in child-resistant packaging that is typically made of plastic. Most of that plastic is not recyclable and ends up in the trash or tossed on the ground.

“Living in the city of Boston, I saw these [pre-roll] tubes all over the streets, they’re everywhere,” said Ture Turnbull, who with Wes Ritchie owns Tree House Craft Cannabis dispensaries in Pepperell and Dracut. “So we looked at what needed to be done, what the industry was doing to address this, what the policies around this were, and what opportunity there was for us to do right.”

Tree House’s recycling program incentivizes consumers to bring back their used packaging to the dispensary. Specifically, customers can return the plastic pop-top tubes that hold pre-rolled joints and the square-lidded containers that hold marijuana flower. For each piece of packaging customers return, they can buy a pre-rolled joint for $4—a price that yields savings ranging from $4 to $8 depending on what joint is on offer.

The brand of the pre-roll currently being offered is the company’s own Yellow Brick Road. Since May, when Tree House started the program, customers have returned more than 6,000 pieces of packaging and the company has offered an equivalent number of $4 pre-rolls.

“We literally had to put our money where our mouth is to create this incentive program because it has a monetary hit to us, but a benefit to the consumer, and that’s the only way we could actually see it taking off, to incentivize it,” said Turnbull. “This is the first try at a serious program that says: Let’s take the plastic and recycle it. Let’s take this environmental concern seriously.”

Tree House uses the recycled packaging in two ways. If the packaging is intact, it’s reused to package new products. If not, the company commissions artwork for its dispensaries that incorporates the plastic.

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Advocate Thinks ‘Marijuana Bomb’ Will Hit Ohio Because of Legal Weed

An anti-weed advocate believes a “marijuana bomb” will hit Ohio as the state proceeds with legalizing weed. 

Ohio already has legal medical weed but voters recently passed a measure legalizing possession, growing, and sales for anyone over 21. 

Despite the fact that Ohio is following in the footsteps of nearly two dozen other states, Aubree Adams, director of anti-weed organization Every Brain Matters, had some rather creative doomsday predictions about the impact of the new policy. 

“Ohio voters were fooled into thinking marijuana was less harmful than alcohol. It’s not. One swallow of alcohol can’t induce psychotic behaviors, but one swallow of a marijuana edible can. One hit off a potent THC vape can. And two hits from a marijuana bong can,” she said, speaking to a Senate General Government Committee meeting earlier this week. 

“Thankfully, members of this committee are the gatekeepers that can lessen the impacts of this marijuana bomb before it’s detonated on Ohio families.” 

While a marijuana bomb sounds scary—or fun, depending on your stance—Adams’ claims are misleading at best. 

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Marijuana Is Now Legal In Ohio As Voter-Approved Law Takes Effect, But Lawmakers Are Considering Some Changes

Ohio’s voter-approved marijuana legalization initiative took effect on Thursday, and despite ongoing wrangling by state lawmakers to modify significant portions of the law, some provisions—including legal use, possession and home cultivation of cannabis—have immediate impacts.

Voters solidly approved the legalization ballot measure, Issue 2, on a 57–42 margin last month. But soon after, Republicans in the state Senate indicated their plans to gut the bill by eliminating home grow, reducing legal possession and allowable THC limits, raising sales tax, criminalizing the use and possession of marijuana obtained outside of a licensed retailer and steering funding away from social equity programs and toward law enforcement. Stakeholders said the overhaul would devastate the market, with ACLU of Ohio calling the measure a “demolition of Issue 2.”

As of Wednesday, however, the GOP-controlled Senate abruptly reversed course, and the full chamber instead approved a revised bill that in some ways would expand the voter-approved law. Among other changes, it would allow all adults 21 and older to buy cannabis from existing medical dispensaries in as soon as 90 days, maintain home cultivation rights and provide for automatic expungements of prior convictions.

The bill now goes to the House, where an alternative measure has been introduced. But regardless of how the proposed changes pan out, some reforms have already taken effect with Issue 2 kicking in on Thursday. Here’s a brief rundown of what’s new and what’s still to come in the months ahead.

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Ohio Senate Committee Approves Bill To Allow Marijuana Sales From Dispensaries ‘Immediately’, Keep Home Grow And Expunge Records

In a stunning reversal, an Ohio GOP-controlled Senate committee has unanimously approved a revised bill that in many ways would expand the voter-approved marijuana legalization law that goes into effect on Thursday— by allowing adults to start buying marijuana from existing medical cannabis dispensaries in as soon as 90 days, maintaining home cultivation rights and providing for automatic expungements of prior marijuana convictions, among other changes.

Just days after the Senate General Government Committee advanced legislation to fundamentally undo key provisions of the cannabis initiative voters passed at the ballot last month—proposing to eliminate the home grow option and delaying legalization for at least one year until adult-use retailers started sales, for example—the panel dramatically walked back the measure and passed it in a unanimous bipartisan voice vote on Wednesday.

It’s now been referred to the Senate Rules and Reference Committee before potentially advancing to the floor as early as Wednesday evening. That said, it is not clear that the House is ready to make any changes on an expedited basis to the legalization measure that’s set to take effect on Thursday.

The overhaul of the measure comes one day after the Senate panel held a hearing and received public testimony on the initial proposal, with many advocates and stakeholders expressing frustration with the seeming undermining of voters’ decision and recommending changes such as freeing up medical cannabis dispensaries to start servicing adult consumers while regulators develop rules to license recreational retailers.

Sen. Rob McColley (R) detailed the latest changes following negotiations during an extensive recess in committee on Wednesday, stating that lawmakers’ focus “needs to be stamping out the black market” and also “protecting the access that the people of Ohioans voted for,” while ensuring that the administrative implementation “runs as efficiently as it possibly can, while protecting opportunities for for Ohioans to engage in this new industry.”

Committee Chairman Michael Rulli (R) said that over “the last three or four days, a lot of the public has reached out to probably every single one of our senators with thousands of emails and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of calls.”

“I think the people have spoken,” he said.

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