Mar 06 2024

US Senate Seat From California to Shift to Pro-Marijuana Legalization if Adam Schiff Wins General Election, As Now Expected

Congressmember Adam Schiff had a conclusive victory in yesterday’s primary election, and is now poised for victory in November.

(Photo credit: Andrew Harnik / Associated Press).

In the race to replace the late Dianne Feinstein, Congressmember Adam Schiff is now the clear favorite after coming first in the primary with 33% support. Republican Steve Garvey beat out Congressmembers Katie Porter and Barbara Lee (who got 14% and 7% respectively) to come second and advance to the general election. Given Democrats outnumber Republicans roughly two to one, it’s now all but certain that Adam Schiff will become the next US Senator from California.

For marijuana reform advocates, this will be a welcome change. Despite being a Democrat and considered a progressive on many issues, former Senator Feinstein remained opposed to legalizing or even decriminalizing marijuana nationwide throughout her full career, despite her state legalizing marijuana in 2016. Feinstein was in the US Senate from 1993 to 2023.
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Mar 06 2024

US House of Representatives: Federal Bill to Deschedule Marijuana Gains 87th Sponsor

A US House bill to deschedule marijuana and allow expungements has gained its 87 sponsor.

The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act would remove marijuana as a federal controlled substance, decriminalizing it nationwide. Yesterday, Congressmembers Steve Jorsford (D-NV)  joined as a sponsor for the MORE Act, bringing the total to 87. When the measure was filed it had 34 sponsors.

The only other marijuana-related bill in US Congress with more sponsors is the SAFE Banking Act with 104.
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Mar 05 2024

South Carolina: Senate-Approved Bill to Legalize Medical Marijuana Receives Committee Assignment in House

In South Carolina, legislation to legalize medical marijuana is under consideration by a key House Committee.

Senate Bill 423 has been assigned to and is being considered by the House Committee on Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs, weeks after it was passed by the full Senate in a 26 to 17 vote. Filed by Senator Thomas Davis with a bipartisan coalition of 11 cosponsors, the measure would establish the South Carolina Medical Cannabis Program, creating “a seed-to-sale system to provide for the sale of medical cannabis to treat a qualifying patient’s debilitating medical condition or to alleviate symptoms.”

The law would allow patients to possess an “Allowable amount of medical cannabis” or “allowable amount of cannabis products”, defined as:
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Mar 05 2024

US Congress: The Six Marijuana and Kratom Bills With the Highest Chance of Being Enacted Into Law

There are a handful of measures in the United States Congress that would address marijuana and kratom that have a legitimate chance of being enacted into law over the next 12 months.

In the US Congress, there has never been a bill passed into law that addresses kratom. The only standalone marijuana-related bill to ever be signed into law was the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act, signed by President Biden in late 2022.

Despite this relative lack of progress, advocates are hopeful congress is closer than ever to passing both federal kratom and marijuana legislation, with some measures seeing significant support int he House and Senate.
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Mar 05 2024

New Kentucky Bill Would Make Over 430,000 More People Eligible to Become Medical Marijuana Patients

Legislation filed in Kentucky would greatly expand the list of qualifying medical marijuana conditions.

Senate Bill 337 was filed last week by Senator Steve West (R), who was the lead sponsor for the medical marijuana legalization bill that was enacted in 2023. Senate Bill 337 was assigned to the Committee on Committees the same day, and assigned to the Health Services Committee on March 1.

Under the proposed law, the number of qualifying medical marijuana conditions would expand from six, to 21. New qualifying conditions would include arthritis, HIV, AIDS,  fibromyalgia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, irritable bowel disease, sickle cell disease, cachexia or wasting syndrome, neuropathies, muscular dystrophy, Huntington’s disease, glaucoma and all terminal illnesses.
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Mar 05 2024

Hawaii Senate Votes 19 to 6 to Legalize Recreational Marijuana, Votes 24 to 1 to Decriminalize Marijuana

Hawaii’s full Senate passed two marijuana-related bills today, one to decriminalize the substance and one to legalize it entirely.

The Senate voted 19 to 6 today to pass Senate Bill 3335, sending it to the House of Representatives. The proposed law would legalize the possession, personal cultivation and license distribution of recreational marijuana for those 21 and older. The Hawaii Cannabis Authority and Cannabis Control Board would be established within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and tasked with overseeing licensing and regulations for the legal marijuana industry.

The measure would place a 14% tax on recreational marijuana sales, with the tax being 4% for medical marijuana. It would allow those with convictions for marijuana-related crimes that would be legal under the bill to have the charges expunged from their record.
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Mar 04 2024

Virginia Legislature Passes Bill to Double the Maximum Expiration Date for Marijuana Products

Legislation that “increases the maximum expiration date allowable for a cannabis product after registration absent stability testing, from six months to 12 months” has received unanimous approval by Virginia’s House and Senate. Expiration

House Bill 815 was filed last month by Delegate Mike Cherry (R). The measure was approved through the House of Delegates on February 13th; the vote was 99 to 0. Exactly two weeks later the measure was approved by the Senate, also unanimously, 39 to 0. It will now be sent to Governor Glenn Youngkin, who can sign it into law, allow it to become law or veto it, with the latter being at most a political gesture given the measure has well more than the 2/3rds required to override a veto.

According to its official summary, the bill “increases the maximum expiration date allowable for a cannabis product after registration absent stability testing, from six months to 12 months”, and “allows pharmaceutical processors to employ as pharmacy technician trainees individuals who have less than one year of experience and allows pharmaceutical processors to employ persons with less than one year of experience to perform certain other supervised duties for which current law requires two years of experience.”
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Mar 04 2024

Washington Legislature Sends Governor Inslee a Bill to Allow the Sale of Marijuana Waste

Washington’s full legislature has approved a bill to allow licensed cannabis producers and processor “to sell specified solid waste generated during cannabis production or processing”.

Cannabis waste.

Senate Bill 5376 was given final passage today through the Senate in a unanimous 48 to 0 vote. The measure passed the full House of Representatives on February 29 by a vote of 94 to 2. The measure was filed in January, 2023 by Senator Derek Stanford (D) with cosponsors Senators Anna Rivers (R), Karen Keiser (D), Rebecca Saldana (D) and Claire Wilson (D).

The measure states that “A licensed cannabis producer and a licensed cannabis processor may sell cannabis waste to a person not licensed by LCB if:
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Mar 04 2024

Arizona: In February, Marijuana Tax Revenue Passed $25 Million for Just the Fifth Time Ever

In Arizona there was $26 million in taxes made from legal marijuana sales in February, marking just the fifth time marijuana tax revenue in Arizona passed $25 million in a given month.

There was $26,034,924 in taxes made from licensed marijuana sales in February, according to the Arizona Department of Revenue. Revenue comes from a variety of marijuana and marijuana products sold through marijuana retail outlets, including dried marijuana flower, shake, prerolls, marijuana concentrates (oil, wax, live resin, etc.), edibles, tinctures and topicals.

Since recreational marijuana sales began in early 2021, there have been just four other months with marijuana tax revenue above $25 million, all occurring last year in January, May, October and November. Marijuana taxes last February were $23.2 million, 10% lower than this year.
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Mar 04 2024

Study: Beer Sales Declined Following Marijuana Legalization

According to a new study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, retail beer sales declined in Canada following the legalization of recreational marijuana in 2018.

“There is increasing interest in understanding the impact of non-medical cannabis legalization on use of other substances, especially alcohol”, states the study’s abstract “Evidence on whether cannabis is a substitute or complement for alcohol is both mixed and limited.” With that in mind, this study “provides the first quasi-experimental evidence on the impact of Canada’s legalization of non-medical cannabis on beer and spirits sales.”

Researchers used “the interrupted time series design and monthly data on beer sales between January 2012 and February 2020 and spirits sales between January 2016 and February 2020 across Canada to investigate changes in beer and spirits sales following Canada’s cannabis legalization in October 2018. We examined changes in total sales, nationally and in individual provinces, as well as changes in sales of bottled, canned and kegged beer.”
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