Tag: marijuana legalization

Marijuana Social Equity Programs Should Be Redesigned To Directly Support People Harmed By Criminalization 

Ohio voters recently legalized the recreational use of marijuana by adults. In total, 24 states have legalized recreational marijuana use, and Florida, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin may all soon join these ranks. This metaphorical genie is not going back in the bottle, nor should it because drug prohibition breeds violence and has ruined many lives.

As part of the growing bipartisan recognition that cannabis should be legal and the failed war on drugs has wrongly imprisoned many Americans, social equity programs are increasingly included in marijuana legalization efforts. Social equity programs are intended to deliver restorative justice to persons who were imprisoned or otherwise impacted through the enforcement of drug prohibition policies. Ohio’s marijuana initiative makes it the 17th state to create a statewide social equity program. 

Most states, including California, New York, Arizona and Michigan, and cities, like New York City and Oakland, have implemented social equity programs in two ways. First, they reserve a subset of available cannabis business licenses for individuals who meet the legal definition of a “qualified social equity applicant.” These definitions vary, but no jurisdiction identifies them solely as individuals who were arrested or incarcerated for a marijuana-related offense. 

Instead, individuals typically qualify for licenses that allow them to enter the legal cannabis industry because they lived in a neighborhood that had disproportionately high arrest rates or below-average income. Persons never directly affected by the drug war can frequently access these benefits on equal terms with those affected. Often, large corporate interests have hired or partnered with individuals who meet social equity criteria to act (often unwittingly) as mere figureheads on license applications.

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West Virginia Senate President Says Marijuana Could Be Legalized To Help Curb Fentanyl Epidemic, ‘Sooner Than Later’

West Virginia’s Republican Senate president says that legalizing marijuana could help ease the state’s crush of fatal fentanyl overdoses, predicting that the policy change will come “sooner than later” but probably not in the new legislative session.

“My gut tells me it might not happen this year,” Senate President Craig Blair (R) said at a media event last week, according to West Virginia Public Broadcasting. “But you’re going to see it sooner than later, because that is a way to combat the issue.”

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that West Virginia had more fatal fentanyl overdoses per capital in 2022 than any other state in the nation.

The Senate president also noted that he sees a lot of West Virginia license plates at marijuana dispensaries when he’s visiting other states, according to West Virginia watch.

Speaking to the fentanyl problem, Blair also claimed at the event that “there is a problem in the state of West Virginia when marijuana, over 70 percent of it that gets tested, has fentanyl on it.” He is supporting legislaiton that would apply the death penalty to people who sell fentanyl.

It’s not clear what data, if any, Blair was referencing with that assertion. The organization Partnership to End Addiction says there’s “no solid evidence that marijuana is being laced with fentanyl.”

House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle (D) also discussed his own party’s support for legalization in West Virginia.

“We’re a believer in adult-use cannabis,” he said, pointing out that policy change “polls well into the 60s” in terms of percent of voter support.

“That is something that we can have in our toolkit that can help pay for items,” he told the event’s attendees.

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DeSantis Says He Would ‘Respect The Decisions That States Make’ On Marijuana Legalization, Despite Personal Opposition

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) says he would “respect the decisions that states make” on marijuana legalization if he’s elected president, despite his personal view that the reform has a “negative impact.”

At a campaign event in Iowa on Saturday, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate briefly shared how he would navigate the growing state legalization movement from the White House, pledging to adopt a hands-off approach like that of prior administrations from both parties.

DeSantis started by noting that Florida voters enacted medical cannabis legalization as a constitutional amendment at the ballot, and then he criticized what he views as shortcomings of broader adult-use legalization before explaining how he’d address it as president.

“I think the places that have done it for recreational use like Colorado, I don’t think it’s worked well,” he said in comments first noted by Florida Politics. “I think it’s caused problems in the cities. I think it’s created a black market.”

“We’ll respect the decisions that the states make on that,” the governor said. “But I do think some of these places like California and Colorado—I don’t know what they did with it, but, I mean, it has definitely caused a negative impact on their workforce.”

Colorado has been a frequent target of DeSantis’s criticism, with the candidate also claiming recently that the state’s illicit cannabis market is “bigger” today than it was prior to voters approving legalization in 2012.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’s (D) office pushed back against that position in a statement to Marijuana Moment last week, asserting that the reform is “curbing the illicit market, getting dealers off the streets, reducing youth use, funding school construction, supporting jobs and Colorado’s economy.”

“Colorado is happy to provide the Florida governor advice on how to increase economic and personal freedom like we have in the free state of Colorado,” a spokesperson said.

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Florida GOP Lawmaker Files Bill To Cap Marijuana At 10% THC If Voters Approve Legalization Ballot Measure

Ahead of a potential Florida marijuana legalization vote on the ballot this November, a Republican lawmaker has preemptively filed a bill that would impose strict limitations on THC potency if the reform is approved by voters.

Rep. Ralph Massullo (R) introduced the legislation on Friday, proposing a THC cap that is significantly lower than what’s available in most state markets. It would take effect 30 days after voters pass any future constitutional amendment to enact legalization.

The bill would set a 10 percent THC limit for cannabis products that are meant for smoking and a 60 percent limit for other forms of marijuana such as extracts. Edibles could not contain more than 200 milligrams of THC, and individual servings could only have up to 10 milligrams.

This would create serious logistical and commercial problems for any adult-use market, and it’d likely be met with significant pushback from consumers, advocates and stakeholders if enacted. Cannabis flower that’s sold at the average recreational retailer or medical dispensary typically hovers around 20-30 percent THC.

That’s true of Florida’s existing medical cannabis market, too. And because Massullo’s bill only addresses “potency limits for adult personal use,” the proposal could create further complications by having two different sets of THC rules for patients and consumers.

Florida’s medical cannabis dosage limits—which were revised under controversial rules adopted in 2022, despite pushback from then-Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D)—are not based on the percentage of THC in a given product.

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New Kentucky Bill Would Legalize Marijuana Use, Possession And Home Cultivation—But Not Sales

As Kentucky works to implement a recently passed medical cannabis policy, a lawmaker filed legislation this week that would end all penalties, including arrest, for simple possession and use of recreational marijuana by adults 21 and older. It would also allow adults to grow a small number of cannabis plants at home for personal use. Commercial sales, however, would remain prohibited.

The limited legalization measure, HB 72, was introduced Tuesday by Rep. Nima Kulkarni (D), who this time last year introduced a measure that would have let voters decide whether to legalize use, possession and home cultivation. The lawmaker previously introduced a similar noncommercial legalization proposal for the 2022 legislative session.

“For decades, the failed and irrational War on Drugs has ensured that we have arrested, prosecuted and jailed millions of Americans for low level nonviolent drug offenses,” Kulkarni said a year ago.

Under the new proposal, adults could possess up to an ounce of marijuana in plant form, five grams of cannabinoids derived from hemp or marijuana, products containing 1,000 milligrams or less of delta-8 and delta-9 THC or five or fewer cannabis plants.

Possession above the personal use limit would be considered a Class B misdemeanor, carrying up to 45 days of jail time plus monetary penalties.

In addition to ending penalties for noncommercial possession and cultivation, the newly filed legislation would also prevent marijuana use from being used as grounds to revoke probation, parole or conditional release.

Trafficking penalties, meanwhile—which state law says someone is guilty of “when he knowingly and unlawfully traffics in marijuana”—would apply to people with more than the personal use quantity and less than eight ounces of cannabis. That would be a Class A misdemeanor on the first offense and a Class D felony on second and subsequent offenses. Higher penalties would apply for greater amounts.

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Florida Officials Arrest Two People Accused Of Falsifying Signatures For Marijuana Legalization Ballot Initiative

Florida officials say they’ve arrested two paid canvassers charged with allegedly falsifying signatures on petitions to put a marijuana legalization initiative on the state’s 2024 ballot.

As the state Supreme Court weighs a legal challenge to the ballot measure that was brought by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R), the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) said in a news release last week that two individuals are facing multiple felony counts of submitting falsified petitions.

FDLE said that three canvassers are being prosecuted on fraud charges, including one person who was involved in petitioning for an unrelated gambling-related initiative. The department said that “circulators submitted dozens of falsified marijuana and gambling initiatives petitions,” without specifying how many signatures may have been impacted.

“The Florida Constitution is a sacred document by which Florida’s government, voters and citizens are adjudicated,” Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd said. “Florida Law lays out a detailed process by which issues can be submitted to Florida’s voters for consideration before they are added to Florida’s Constitution.”

“To fraudulently misappropriate this process for personal gain is not only illegal but also violates the trust of law-abiding Floridians across the state,” he said.

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Ohio Congressman To File Federal Cannabis Legalization Bill

Republican U.S. Representative David Joyce of Ohio will soon introduce a new bill to legalize cannabis at the federal level, according to a report from Forbes published on Wednesday. 

The new legislation is characterized as a “modernized” version of a bill Joyce introduced in 2019 known as the STATES Act. Although the measure has not yet been formally introduced in the House of Representatives, a draft of Joyce’s new bill is titled the STATES 2.0 Act. 

If passed, the legislation would remove cannabis from Schedule l of the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). However, cannabis products that are grown or manufactured outside of a state-regulated market would remain illegal under federal law, allowing states that do not want to legalize marijuana a way to maintain prohibition within their jurisdictions.

“States and [Native American] tribes have had enough with the federal government’s half-in-half-out approach that is applied without rhyme or reason,” Joyce, the co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, told Forbes in an interview. “Numerous tribes and over 40 states now, including my own, have made it clear that the federal government needs to support their cannabis laws. I’m hopeful this legislation will do just that.”

Despite the popularity of cannabis legalization, political leaders in many states would prefer to keep recreational marijuana illegal. With provisions that maintain the federal illegality of marijuana produced outside of a regulated market, Joyce’s bill allows states to take the lead on cannabis policy.

“This legislation would make it the federal government’s policy to recognize and legitimize the decisions of each state,” said a spokesperson for the congressman. “If the state decides they want to remain prohibitory, the federal government will provide enforcement, if a state decides they want to legalize, the federal government will provide regulation.”

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Ohio Senate Marijuana Bill Keeps Criminalization And Undermines Equity, Despite Expungements And Home Grow, Advocates Warn

Ohio’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law took effect on Thursday—but as lawmakers continue to push changes, advocates are calling attention to key provisions of a Senate-passed proposal that they say threatens to perpetuate criminalization and undermine social equity even while it walks back other significant alterations that were initially proposed such as a removal home cultivation rights.

At the same time, House lawmakers held a second hearing on Thursday about a separate measure to amend the legalization law.

After weeks of discussing revisions to the initiated statute, Republicans first unveiled legislation this week that would have done away with home grow, hiked marijuana taxes and re-criminalized possession of cannabis that wasn’t obtained from licensed retailers, which couldn’t open for at least one year. Some advocates were tentatively encouraged, therefore, when a significantly revised version with seeming improvements, including the restoration of home grow rights and addition of expungements provisions, was released and quickly advanced through the Senate with near-unanimous support on Wednesday.

But the brief discussion of the bill in committee prior to the full chamber vote—which also came amid House consideration of a separate GOP-led measure—did not adequately reflect the substantive changes that would be made to the law voters passed with 57 percent support, equity advocates say.

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Florida Medical Marijuana Company Asks Court To Block Legalization Initiative That Would ‘Significantly Impact’ Its Business And Patients

A Florida medical marijuana certification company is seeking to block an adult-use cannabis legalization ballot initiative in the state Supreme Court, arguing that the reform “disproportionately prioritizes” profits from recreational sales and that it would “significantly impact our business operations and the well-being of our clients.”

My Florida Green, a service that connects patients seeking medical cannabis cards to doctors who can certify them, is asking the court to allow it to submit an amicus curiae brief in the case contesting the Smart & Safe Florida legalization measure that was brought by state Attorney General Ashley Moody (R).

The company says that it’s not opposed to adult-use legalization in principle, but it’s arguing that there are “potential consequences” of the 2024 constitutional amendment that could impact “patient care and public health.”

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Ohio Senate Committee Advances Bill To Eliminate Marijuana Home Grow, Reduce Possession Limits And Raise Taxes—Days Before Legalization Takes Effect

An Ohio Senate committee has given initial approval to a newly unveiled proposal to fundamentally alter the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law that’s set to take effect later this week.

The legislation being advanced in the GOP-controlled chamber would eliminate a home grow option for adults, reduce the possession limit, raise the sales tax on cannabis and steer funding away from social equity programs and toward law enforcement—along with other amendments concerning THC limits, public consumption and changes to hemp-related rules that stakeholders say would “devastate” the market.

During a 30-minute hearing on Monday, the Senate General Government Committee voted 4-1 to attach the cannabis legislation to an unrelated House-passed bill on alcohol regulations. As revised, the legislation contains several provisions that Republican leaders have previewed in recent weeks since voters approved legalization at the ballot last month, but it also goes further, for example, by proposing to criminalize people who grow their own cannabis at home.

Senate President Matt Huffman (R) said he’s aiming to pass it on the floor as early as Wednesday before it’s potentially sent over to the House for concurrence. The plan is to get the changes enacted on an emergency before the legalization of possession and home cultivation becomes legal on Thursday.

Advocates and Democratic lawmakers have already expressed frustration with the leaderships push to revise the voter-initiated statute. Republicans, including Gov. Mike DeWine (R), have insisted that voters were only supportive of the fundamental principle of legalizing marijuana without necessarily backing specific policies around issues such as tax revenue.

But while they’ve made that argument in the context of more incremental changes, the idea of eliminating home grow is likely to generate sizable pushback given its centrality to Issue 2. That could complicate its path to being enacted. An emergency clause would mean the bill would require a two-thirds vote instead of a simple majority to pass.

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