Tag: marijuana legalization

Germany’s Top Health Official Defends Marijuana Legalization Bill Against Critics Ahead Of Next Week’s Vote

As German lawmaker prepare to vote on a revised marijuana legalization bill next week, the country’s health minister defended the reform against critics in the legislature, while briefly outlining next steps for a commercial sales pilot program. Meanwhile, one German state is signaling that it will pursue legal action to block the reform from taking effect within its borders.

At a meeting before the Bundestag on Wednesday, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach took a series of questions from members, some of whom oppose legalization and others who expressed interest in expeditiously enacting the reform.

At several points, he pushed back against lawmakers who suggested that legalization would send the wrong message to youth and lead to increased underage consumption, saying their arguments “misrepresented” the legislation, according to a translation.

“The fact remains that child and youth protection is carried out through education, and sales to children and young people remain prohibited,” Lauterbach said. “That is the only change we have made in this area: a tightening.”

“As part of this legalization, we are pushing back the black market,” he said. “The less of the black market there is, the lower the risk that our children will be brought into consumption through the black market.”

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Lawmakers still divided over marijuana legalization

As almost half of all states allow recreational marijuana, it sometimes feels inevitable that Pennsylvania will follow the lead of their neighbors.

During a committee hearing, though, opposition remains significant.

The House Health Subcommittee on Health Care heard testimony on Wednesday, with Democrats more supportive of recreational use and Republicans more wary of its dangers.

“We want to right some of the wrongs of the past by ensuring that those who have been the target of cannabis criminalization don’t continue to carry the stigma,” Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Pittsburgh, said. “We’d like to see our economy benefit from legal sales rather than illegal sales … and think about how we might mitigate (concerns) through appropriate regulation and oversight. Fundamentally, any proposal that we put forward must prioritize the health of Pennsylvanians.”

Legalizing marijuana would, if nothing else, give more control of the market to legislators, experts argued.

“There’s a very common fallacy … that drug prohibition equals drug control,” Amanda Reiman, chief knowledge officer of New Frontier Data, which focuses on the marijuana industry, said. “In prohibition, you don’t get to control anything.”

What brings control, she said, is regulation.

“The only way to trump that illicit market is to continue to allow adult-use regulation,” Reiman said.

Without a legal market, legislators argued the demand wouldn’t dissipate.

“Whether marijuana’s legal or illegal, folks who are dealing with trauma and finding ways to manage that without access to care are gonna find it wherever they’re gonna find it,” Rep. Danielle Friel Otten, D-Exton, said.

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Ohio Governor Attacks Marijuana Legalization Ballot Measure, Downplaying Polls Showing Broad Voter Support

Less than two weeks ahead of Election Day, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is talking to local TV stations about his opposition to Issue 2, a ballot initiative that would legalize adult-use marijuana in the state. But newly released state data on campaign fundraising indicate that supporters have an edge, having raised nearly four times what opponents have collected.

DeWine said voters are confused about both the cannabis measure and a separate initiative, Issue 1, which would protect access to contraception, fertility treatment and abortion. He downplayed polls showing popular support for both proposals.

“These are gonna go right down to the wire,” DeWine told WLWT news, a local NBC affiliate. “I think there’s still confusion about both of them, and I think that both of these will be close.”

Asked about polls showing strong support for legalizing marijuana, the governor was dismissive.

“The old saying is, ‘the only poll that really counts is the one on Election Day,’” he said.

A recent survey of likely voters found that 57 percent supported the legalization measure, including a slim majority of Republicans. Another survey of state lawmakers found that majorities of both Democrats (63 percent) and Republicans (52 percent) expected voters to approve the measure.

DeWine’s opposition to legalizing marijuana is not new, but in the past week he’s spoken out against Issue 2 in a number of interviews.

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Newly Elected GOP House Speaker Voted Against Numerous Marijuana Measures, Including Banking, Research And Legalization

The U.S. House of Representatives officially has a new speaker: Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA). A review of his marijuana-related votes reveals a new leader who has consistently opposed reform, including on incremental issues like cannabis banking and making it easier to conduct scientific research on the plant.

It took the Republican majority about three weeks to elect a speaker after multiple GOP conference nominees failed to amass the required votes to ascend to the position. Johnson was nominated just hours after House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), who has backed cannabis banking and other reforms, was selected and then dropped out on Tuesday following pushback from former President Donald Trump and his allies. Then, on Wednesday, the lesser-known Johnson secured 220 votes on the House floor to become the next speaker.

The congressman entered Congress in 2017, though sizing up his record is more difficult in light of his atypically high absence during roll call votes. But for the votes that he did cast on cannabis issues, there is a clear pattern: he’s again even modest, bipartisan reform proposals.

Importantly, Johnson, who serves as vice chair of the Republican conference, voted against bills to safeguard banks that work with state-licensed marijuana businesses in 2019 and 2021. That could come into play sooner than later, as Senate leadership works to advance the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act that cleared committee last month to the floor before potentially transmitting it to the House.

Under former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), leadership wasn’t an especially significant concern for advocates and stakeholders, even under the GOP-controlled chamber. McCarthy had voted in favor of marijuana banking reform, so it was expected that he would not stand in the way of its advancement. How Johnson might approach the issue is less certain.

While he did cosponsor a coronavirus relief bill in 2020 that included the text of the SAFE Banking Act, he was among the chorus of Republican members who blasted Democrats for attaching the cannabis language to the broader legislation.

“The bill mentions the word ‘jobs’ only 52 times—but listen, it mentions ‘cannabis’ 68 times,” he said in 2020. “I’m not being flippant here, but we’re wondering if the staff that wrote this might have been high when they put the pen to paper.”

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Ohio Ballot Measure To Legalize Marijuana Won’t Automatically Expunge Prior Convictions

Legalizing marijuana in Ohio under Issue 2 would not lead to the automatic expungement for those charged with cannabis offenses.

But the tax revenue from legalizing cannabis could address some criminal justice reform through the social equity and jobs program fund, said Tom Haren, spokesperson for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol.

“That fund—in addition to the direct investment to disproportionately impacted communities—is designed to fund and steady criminal justice reform efforts including sentencing reform, bail reform, parole reform, record-sealing and expungement efforts,” he said.

Issue 2 is a citizen-initiative that would legalize and regulate the cultivation, manufacturing, testing and the sale of marijuana to Ohioans 21 and up.

“Citizen initiatives are limited to a single subject which makes it difficult to address lots of different things,” Haren said. “We had to be really careful around how Issue 2 was tailored.”

Under Issue 2, Ohioans could buy and possess 2.5 ounces of cannabis flower, which is slightly more than 70 grams. Currently, possessing up to 100 grams of marijuana is a minor misdemeanor that comes with a fine up to $150.

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Here’s Where All Nine House Speaker Candidates Stand On Marijuana

As the U.S. House of Representatives enters its third week without a speaker, more GOP lawmakers with varying records on marijuana policy are making their bids for the nomination—including a member who has been arrested for cannabis and another who co-chairs a congressional psychedelics caucus.

Most of the candidates in the leadership race have voted in favor of cannabis banking reform, even if they’ve been unsupportive of broader legalization.

After Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted as speaker in a historic motion to vacate earlier this month—and the former conference nominees for the position, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), bowed out after failing to win a majority of votes on the House floor—the current cast of candidates includes nine Republican members who hope to receive their party’s nod before a potential floor vote this week.

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GOP Congressman’s Bill Would Cut Federal Funding For States And Tribes That Legalize Marijuana

Legislation introduced on Friday by a North Carolina congressman seeks to slash a portion of federal funding to individual U.S. states as well as Native tribes that legalize marijuana.

The so-called Stop Pot Act, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), would withhold 10 percent of federal highway funding to jurisdictions “in which the purchase or public possession of marijuana for recreational purposes is lawful.” Introduction of the bill comes less than a week before a tribe in Edwards’s home state votes on an adult-use marijuana legalization referendum.

Edwards argues that state and tribal laws allowing cannabis use by adults are an affront to U.S. law.

“The laws of any government should not infringe on the overall laws of our nation, and federal funds should not be awarded to jurisdictions that willfully ignore federal law,” he said in a press release. “During a time when our communities are seeing unprecedented crime, drug addiction, and mental illness, the Stop Pot Act will help prevent even greater access to drugs and ease the strain placed on our local law enforcement and mental health professionals who are already stretched thin.”

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Bipartisan Senators Say Marijuana Legalization Disrupts Cartels In Letter Challenging Proposed Menthol Cigarette Ban

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators are acknowledging that state-level marijuana legalization has disrupted the operations of international drug cartels as they raise concerns with the State Department over plans to ban menthol cigarettes and cap nicotine content.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week, Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Bob Casey (D-PA), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said that prohibitionist policies for certain tobacco products would benefit the illicit market, which is continually evolving in response to new regulatory policies.

The lawmakers used cannabis as an example of how cartel operations shift depending on whether certain substances are prohibited or regulated. Legalization at the state level, they argued, has reduced demand for illicit marijuana.

“As it has become easier to sell marijuana products in the U.S., Mexican TCOs [transnational criminal organizations] have prioritized trafficking fentanyl and other synthetic drugs that are cheaper to manufacture, easier to transport, and generate more profit,” the senators—none of whom are vocal cannabis legalization advocates—said.

Republican senators, including Cassidy, Rubio and Hagerty, made the same point in a letter to the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month, imploring the agency to reconsider its plans to ban menthol cigarettes and cap nicotine content.

“TCOs have expanded their operations to include the production and distribution of cigarettes,” the bipartisan group wrote in the new letter to Blinken. “TCOs more generally have taken advantage of drug smuggling routes to import illegal cigarettes into the U.S., contributing to the significant use of smuggled cigarettes.”

The senators included a list of questions for the secretary of state about how the department is dealing with issues related to illicit tobacco trafficking. They asked about the status of interagency work to combat the problem, how efforts to limit tobacco use could empower traffickers and engagement with international partners to address the problem, for example.

“It is clear that threat actors—from transnational organized crime entities to terrorist organizations—are employing increasingly creative tools to subvert controls imposed by the U.S. and our international partners,” they said. “We appreciate the work that the men and women of the Department of State do in countering these efforts, and urge continued action to address these threats.”

The senators’ point about shifting trends in marijuana trafficking as states legalize is bolstered by a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report that was released last year, showing how demand for illicit cannabis from Mexico has continued to drop as more states open regulated domestic markets.

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Ohio’s Local Health Departments Join Marijuana Legalization Opposition Campaign Ahead Of November Vote

An association representing Ohio’s 112 local health departments is opposing a marijuana legalization ballot measure set to go to voters in November, claiming the policy change would only contribute to drug-related problems in the state.

“Making marijuana more accessible through legal recreational use and retail sales hurts Ohio, creates serious new risks for children’s health and makes our workplaces and highways less safe,” the Ohio Association of Health Commissioners warned in a statement Tuesday. “With Ohio’s rates of opiate abuse and overdoses still among the highest in the country, we need to be helping Ohio find solutions to addiction, not facilitating it or the interests of an industry that profits from it.”

Ohio’s secretary of state’s office announced last week that advocates for the legalization measure turned in enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, which prompted statements of support—and opposition—from stakeholders across the state. The health commissioners join the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association and Adolescent Health Association, as well as law enforcement and some business groups, in advocating against the change.

Many of the new opposition group‘s claims treat as settled science issues that other say demand further investigation. For example, a recent federal research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that teen marijuana use has actually been in decline since legal retailers began opening. And a number of studies have associated cannabis use and legalization with reductions in the use of unregulated opioids, prescription drugs and other regulated substances.

Ohio currently ranks seventh among all U.S. states in terms of drug overdose death rates, after West Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Kentucky, Delaware and New Mexico.

The campaign backing the measure, the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, told Marijuana Moment on Tuesday that it’s “confident that Ohioans, just like voters in the states that have come before us, will see through these tired, debunked talking points.”

“Ohio’s current system of prohibition does not work,” said campaign spokesman Tom Haren. “We know that there is an adult-use market in Ohio today. It is called the illicit market. It is completely unregulated, products are not tested and products are not taxed. Also, drug dealers in the illicit market are happy to sell to children without ever checking for ID. This is a reality that is bad for the health of Ohioans.”

In states that have legalized, Haren added, “We know that usage among minors and adolescents does not change. We know that regulation does not adversely affect the workforce, and we also know that it is a boon for state tax revenue.” The measure’s 10 percent proposed tax, for example, “will generate more than $100 million every year to fund substance abuse and addiction treatment.”

In fact the state could see between $257 million and more than $400 million annually in tax revenue through legalization, according to a recent analysis from Ohio State University researchers.

Voters, for their part, appear to be leaning in favor of legalization. A USA TODAY Network/Suffolk University poll published in July found that about 59 percent of Ohioans supported legalizing the possession and sale of cannabis for adults 21 and older. Just 35 percent were opposed.

Republicans officials in Ohio remain divided on the issue. Gov. Mike DeWine said last week that he believes “it would be a real mistake for us to have recreational marijuana,” adding that he visited Colorado following its move to legalize in 2012 and saw what he argued is an “unmitigated disaster.”

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GOP Congressman Threatens Indian Tribe With Loss Of Federal Funding Over Marijuana Legalization

A Republican congressman from North Carolina is urging members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) to reject a referendum next month that would legalize marijuana on tribal land, warning that the move would mean a loss of federal funding under a bill he plans to introduce.

In an op-ed published last week in The Cherokee One Feather, Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) acknowledged that Congress cannot stop the EBCI referendum, set for September 7, from going forward. But he appealed to the tribe’s members to vote against it.

“I proudly consider the tribe my friends, and I respect their tribal sovereignty,” the freshman House member wrote. “But there are times when friends disagree, and I must do so regarding this question of legalizing recreational marijuana. The tribe’s rights should not infringe on the overall laws of our nation.”

Passage of the legalization referendum would bring legal cannabis sales within a short drive of many people in North Carolina, where both medical and adult-use marijuana remain illegal under state law. Sales on EBCI land under the proposal would be open to all adults 21 and older, regardless of tribal membership. And as Edwards noted, the tribe has land holdings “all over western North Carolina.”

“To allow our citizens to travel only a few miles to buy and use this common gateway drug,” wrote Edwards, who opposed cannabis reform in North Carolina during his time as a state senator, “would be irresponsible, and I intend to stop it.”

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