Tag: legalized marijuana

Minnesota Adults Can Now Legally Possess And Grow Marijuana, With Indian Tribes Launching Early Sales

Adults 21 and older in Minnesota can now possess and grow marijuana for personal use under a legalization law that was passed by lawmakers earlier this year and took effect on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the process of automatically expunging prior cannabis records is also being implemented by state officials.

While traditional recreational cannabis retailers are not expected to open until at least next year, other key components of the legalization law that Gov. Tim Walz (D) enacted in May have now gone into effect. Meanwhile, two Indian tribes have been preparing to get a head start on adult-use cannabis sales, with plans to open up shops as early as Tuesday.

Possession of up to two ounces of marijuana—and cultivation of up to eight plants, four of which may be mature at a time—is now legal. In a household, adults can possess a maximum of two pounds of cannabis.

Additionally, gifting up to two ounces of marijuana between adults without remuneration is now a legal activity.

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Washington Launches Online Portal To Reimburse People Criminalized By Unconstitutional Marijuana/Drug Convictions

Washington State has officially launched an online portal that people can use to request reimbursement of their legal fees if they were prosecuted under drug criminalization laws that the state Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional in 2021.

The state Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) launched the Blake Refund Bureau website on Saturday to facilitate the relief in coordination with courts, county clerks, public defenders, prosecutors, advocates and other stakeholders.

“If you have a Blake-impacted criminal record, you must first have your Blake-related convictions vacated and refund eligibility determined by the court or courts where your convictions were issued,” AOC said. “Once your convictions have been vacated, you can apply for reimbursements on your paid Blake-related [legal financial obligations].”

The novel reimbursement fund is being created following the state Supreme Court’s landmark 2021 ruling in Washington v. Blake that found the state’s criminal code for drug possession crimes was unconstitutionally flawed because it didn’t take require proof that a person “knowingly” committed the offense—creating a situation where people could be criminalized for inadvertent possession.

The ruling effectively nullified the state’s drug possession criminalization law, though the governor has since signed a bill passed by the legislature that reinstates prohibition, with statutory language fixes to pass constitutional muster and lower penalties for possession compared to the previous law.

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Mastercard moves to ban cannabis purchases on its debit cards

Mastercard (MA.N) has told financial institutions to stop allowing marijuana transactions on its debit cards, dealing a blow to an industry already on the fringes of the financial system in the United States.

Most banks in the country do not service cannabis companies as marijuana remains illegal at the federal level despite several states legalizing its medicinal and recreational use.

“As we were made aware of this matter, we quickly investigated it. In accordance with our policies, we instructed the financial institutions that offer payment services to cannabis merchants and connects them to Mastercard to terminate the activity,” a spokesperson for the company said on Wednesday.

“The federal government considers cannabis sales illegal, so these purchases are not allowed on our systems,” the spokesperson added.

Sunburn Cannabis CEO Brady Cobb said in a statement that “this move is another blow to the state-legal cannabis industry and patients/consumers who want to access this budding category.”

Pot firm Verano’s (VRNO.CD) President, Darren Weiss, said “We will continue to advocate for cannabis reform in Washington through further dialogue with elected officials and stakeholders to advance conversations supporting the growth of safe, legal cannabis across the U.S.”

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Colombian Lawmakers Introduce New Marijuana Legalization Bill One Month After Prior Version Stalled

Colombian lawmakers have reintroduced a bill to legalize marijuana nationwide for the upcoming legislative session.

Just one month after the previous version stalled out in the Senate at the final stage of an eight-step legislative process, Rep. Juan Carlos Losada and Sen. María José Pizarro announced on Monday that they’re trying again to enact the reform.

The legislation was previously approved in the both chambers last year as part of the two-year process that constitutional amendments must undergo. It then passed the Chamber of Deputies again in May and advanced through a Senate committee last month. But while it received a majority of the votes on the floor, it came up short of the 54-vote threshold it needs for passage.

Losada recently told CNN that he faults President Gustavo Petro’s administration for not doing more to advocate for the bill, but “we will come back to it.”

“We have a crucial month ahead of us to understand who we can count on and who can help us achieve our goal,” he said.

In a Twitter post last week, he added that reform supporters “continue the fight to advance in the change of the failed prohibitionist policy against drugs, to advance in a policy guided by the guidelines of public health, the prevention of consumption and the guarantee of consumer care.”

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States With Legal Weed See Drop in Mental Health Treatment

States that have legalized recreational marijuana use for adults have also seen a drop in mental health treatment admissions, according to newly published research.

The findings, which came in a study published last month in the journal Health Economics, were based on data from ten states that have legalized adult-use cannabis. 

“Recreational marijuana laws (RMLs) continue to grow in popularity, but the effects on mental health treatment are unclear,” wrote Alberto Ortega, a professor at O’Neill School of Public Health at Indiana University and the author of the study.

In the abstract, Ortega said that the study “uses an event-study within a difference-in-differences framework to study the short-run impact of state RMLs on admissions into mental health treatment facilities.” 

“The results indicate that shortly after a state adopts an RML, they experience a decrease in the average number of mental health treatment admissions,” Ortega wrote. “The findings are driven by white, Black, and Medicaid-funded admissions and are consistent for both male and female admissions. The results are robust to alternative specifications and sensitivity analysis.”

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New York Republicans want to ban cannabis use in public

Republicans in the state Legislature are calling for a ban on smoking and consuming cannabis in public places in New York as the legal marketplace is taking hold. 

The measure, backed by state Sen. George Borrello and Assemblyman Michael Novakhov, would allow local governments to put local laws in place to ban the public consuming of marijuana. 

“State residents, including children, are now regularly assailed with the pungent odor of marijuana on public sidewalks, in parking lots and other public spaces,” Borrello said. “Many New Yorkers don’t want to be exposed to either the effects of marijuana smoke or its smell and don’t want their children subjected to it.”

New York first legalized cannabis in 2021, though the marketplace for legal retail sales has been slow to build. Lawmakers who supported legalization have framed it around the need to reverse the enforcement of previously harsh marijuana laws that were previously in place. 

State lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this year moved to address the sale of cannabis without a license through civil fines and the potential closure of businesses. 

Regulators are also trying to encourage further legal cannabis sales, including allowing sales at public events.

Republicans want fines of up to $125 for consuming marijuana in a public space. The Clean Air Act, as well as local bans on smoking, already place limits on marijuana smoking in public. 

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New York’s ‘Symbolic’ Failure In Cannabis Regulation

With cannabis legalization sweeping across the United States, state regulatory bodies face pressure and scrutiny in their efforts to build a legal industry from the ground up. When formulating regulations, they balance the needs of public health, public safety and social justice.

Fortunately, industry standards and recommendations from time-tested consensus standard organizations make some of their choices easy. Unfortunately, even when handed a “no-brainer” standard on a silver rolling tray, New York’s Cannabis Control Board (CCB) made an unforced error that will potentially harm children, patients, small business owners and the general public—groups that cannabis regulation is explicitly intended to protect.

CCB has faced extensive criticism for its “bungled rollout” of the adult-use cannabis industry and its failure to deliver on social equity commitments. One founding CCB member recently resigned amidst the controversy.

Regrettably, CCB has now mandated that all regulated cannabis packages bear a perplexing and intricate product symbol, serving as a persistent and highly visible reminder of its unwavering resistance to the unanimous advice of the cannabis policy community.

In March, CCB took less than two minutes to approve a set of labeling regulations, without any mention of a letter from dozens of stakeholder organizations urging them to reject their homemade symbol in favor of a straightforward industry standard. Marijuana Moment and other outlets publicized the letter in advance of the March CCB meeting.

Looking like a parody of “design by committee,” the New York symbol was designed by the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) and features three separate elements enclosed within a black rectangle.

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House And Senate Both Move To Keep Blocking D.C. Marijuana Sales But Protecting State Medical Cannabis Laws

House and Senate appropriators have approved large-scale annual spending bills that once again include language to protect state medical cannabis programs, as well as a controversial rider to block Washington, D.C. from implementing a system of regulated marijuana sales.

The Senate and House Appropriations Committee both held markups of Fiscal Year 2024 spending legislation for Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) on Thursday. And the Senate panel, as well as a House subcommittee, have also advanced their appropriations measures for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS).

Aside from the state medical cannabis and D.C. marijuana sales provisions, House lawmakers rejected a GOP-led amendment to the chamber’s FSGG report that would have called on the federal government to take steps to study other state cannabis regulatory models and develop a national legalization framework.

Lawmakers have consistently attempted to use appropriations measures as vehicles for cannabis reform, with mixed results. Even with Democrats in control of both chambers last session, efforts to expand marijuana protections to all legal states and enact limited cannabis banking reform stalled out following bicameral negotiations.

A rider to protect state medical cannabis programs from federal intervention, meanwhile, has been annually renewed each year since 2014—and appropriators in both chambers agreed again this Congress to keep that language intact in their respective base bills as they advance.

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Chicago suburb starts disbursing $10 million reparations package to black residents

A Chicago suburb has become the first city in the nation to begin disbursing reparations payments to black residents over discrimination and limited access to housing, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Approximately 140 residents in Evanston, Illinois, will receive $25,000 from the city by the end of the year, according to the outlet.

In 2019, the city of roughly 75,000 residents approved a $10 million reparations package to be distributed over 10 years. So far, the city has already disbursed reparations payments to sixteen qualified residents, the Evanston Round Table reported.

Individuals must have been at least 18 years old and resided in the city between 1919 and 1969 to qualify for the payments.

The city is providing reparations in cash or vouchers, which are supposed to come from marijuana and real-estate transfer taxes.

However, the Evanston Round Table noted that the marijuana sales tax revenue slowed after the opening of a second dispensary in the city was delayed. Another location is scheduled to open in September, which will help cover the reparations program.

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Colorado’s marijuana industry calls this year’s 4/20 sales “the worst” in recent years

Colorado’s marijuana industry dubbed weed sales for this year’s 4/20 “the worst” in five years.

The Marijuana Industry Group, a Denver-based trade association, is sounding the alarm bells for the state’s “struggling” industry, as falling sales compound with business closures and layoffs. This year, the market’s entrepreneurs are contending with too much supply, not enough demand, increased competition in other states, dropping prices, a dearth of cannabis tourism, the draw of black market weed and more.

April’s marijuana sales – medical and retail combined – stood at close to $132 million, which counts as the lowest number in five years, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. In April 2018, the number was about $124 million.

This year, total medical marijuana sales looked especially dismal in April at almost $17 million. That’s the lowest amount ever recorded for that month since sales first started in January 2014.

Meanwhile, total retail marijuana sales in Colorado amounted to almost $115 million in April – the lowest number of sales since April 2020 at $112 million. Comparatively, retail sales jumped in 2021 to close to $167 million before plunging to $132 million that month of the next year.

“Colorado cannabis small business owners count on the weeks leading up to the 4/20 holiday to be some of the strongest sales of the year,” said Truman Bradley, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group.

His association estimates that “2023 sales are on track to be down even further than 2022.”

In Denver, the number of medical marijuana store licenses has fallen 27% over the past five years, to 144 licenses this year, according to its annual marijuana report. In 2014, that number was 255.

“As medical marijuana sales decline, some medical marijuana businesses have surrendered their licenses or let them expire,” the report said.

The drop in licenses parallels the decline in the number of registered medical marijuana patients since that year.

But some silver linings still persist for Denver’s cannabis industry. In 2023, the number of retail marijuana store licenses has jumped to 188 – a 13% increase over the past five years. That’s a rise from 109 licenses in 2014.

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