Tag: marijuana policy

New Jersey Marijuana Cases Temporarily Halted By Attorney General

The AG’s announcement, which will affect thousands, comes at a turning point for marijuana policy in New Jersey.

On Tuesday, New Jersey’s attorney general ordered the immediate adjournment of all municipal marijuana cases until September or later.

In a letter to prosecutors, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal wrote, “In the interim, I ask that all municipal prosecutors in New Jersey seek an adjournment until September 4, 2018, or later, of any matter involving a marijuana-related offense pending in municipal court. The adjournment will give my office sufficient time to develop appropriate guidance for prosecutors.”

The announcement, which according to Politico will affect thousands, comes at a turning point for marijuana policy in New Jersey.

Jersey City, the state’s second-most-populous city, was on track to decriminalize marijuana until Grewal voided the attempt last Friday.

Mayor Steve Fulop argued that the city had the right to “amend or dismiss charges as they see fit and decriminalization is the right thing to do as we shouldn’t continue a policy of creating records and ruining a person’s future over small quantities of marijuana.”

But Grewal disagreed, saying the city did not have “the legal authority” to decriminalize marijuana “or otherwise refuse to criminally prosecute all marijuana-related offenses in the municipal courts of Jersey City.”

But despite Grewal’s opposition to Jersey City’s effort, his decision to suspend municipal marijuana cases is regarded as a step toward decriminalization in the long run, according to Politico.

Governor Phil Murphy, who is known for his support of marijuana legalization, said while decriminalization is “intoxicating,” there are more benefits to full legalization. “You think it’s a step in the right direction [but] it actually leaves the business in the hands of the bad guys,” said the governor. “Your kids are exposed, it’s not regulated, it’s not taxed. So I’ll leave the specifics of that to the attorney general, but that’s a conceptual answer.”

On Monday, Senate President Steve Sweeney said he would add on efforts to legalize marijuana for adult use to efforts to expand New Jersey’s medical marijuana program, according to Politico.

After meeting with Jersey City officials on Monday, Grewal announced that he will establish a working group to develop guidance for prosecutors by September on how they should proceed with marijuana cases.

View the original article at thefix.com

25 July 2018
Massachusetts Could Become Marijuana Research Hub

“My vision is Massachusetts could be the number one leading cannabis research state in the world,” said one public health official.

After Massachusetts voterslegalized marijuana for adult use in 2016, sales of the drug are slated to start this July, leaving many Bay State businesses scrambling to position the state as a leader for marijuana research.

“My vision is Massachusetts could be the number one leading cannabis research state in the world,” Marion McNabb, a doctor of public health and former global health worker who co-founded the Cannabis Community Care and Research Network in January 2017, told MassLive.

The law that legalized cannabis in Massachusetts contains a research clause, which allows institutions like colleges, nonprofits and even corporations to buy or grow marijuana for research.

This isn’t wholly unique—other states including Colorado and Pennsylvania have similar provisions—but with many biomedical and academic establishments in Massachusetts, people in the industry are hopeful that this will open the door to more research.

“Given the investment in technology, the staggering array of biotech and scientific expertise, it virtually ensures Massachusetts will be an important player,” said Staci Gruber, director of MIND (Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery) at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.

However, while marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I drug under federal law, researching it will remain difficult even in states that have legalized the drug. Funding is one of the biggest challenges for marijuana research.

It is very rare to get federal funding for marijuana research. And institutions like universities and medical schools are hesitant to fund research because they could risk losing their federal funding, especially under an administration that has been vocal in its opposition to marijuana.

Currently, the only way to study marijuana with federal approval is to obtain samples that are specifically grown for research. However, Gruber said that these samples are different from what is being used by the vast majority of people who consume marijuana.

“The products the government grows and oversees for research may not have any bearing on products patients are using in the real world,” said Gruber, who has been researching marijuana for 25 years.

Even without a change in federal policy, the Massachusetts legalization of recreational pot will open new research opportunities, she said. For example, she can ask questions of people who buy cannabis at dispensaries and consume it, without providing the drug herself.

She hopes that this will help advance marijuana policy, and take the nation out of a gridlock where quality research is prevented by the policy toward marijuana research.

“It’s difficult to change laws without empirically sound data, but you can’t do clinical trials that represent what most people are taking,” Gruber said.

View the original article at thefix.com

15 June 2018
Bipartisan Bill To Protect States With Legalized Marijuana Gains Traction

The bill would allow states to determine “the best approach to marijuana within [their own] borders.”

Though Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues to wage war against marijuana, President Donald Trump has said that he is willing to support bipartisan legislation that would allow states to determine their own rules regarding the legalization and regulation of marijuana.

The bill was introduced by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Gardner (R-CO), who, as High Times noted, have taken distinctly opposite stances regarding marijuana in their respective states. But the pair has united over federal cannabis prohibition, which they view as impugning on not only states’ rights to determine their own laws, but also the legal cannabis industry’s ability to access safe banking and insurance.

Their efforts appear to have earned a positive response from Trump, who told reporters that he would “probably” support the bill.

The bill, called the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States, or STATES Act, would allow individual states, Washington, D.C., U.S. territories and federally recognized tribes to determine for themselves “the best approach to marijuana within [their own] borders.”

This would be accomplished by amending the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) so that those states or tribes that comply with basic protection would be considered exempt from federal law regarding the “manufacture, production, possession, dispensation, administration, or delivery of marijuana.”

The STATES Act would also remove industrial hemp from the CSA, and would implement several “common-sense guardrails” to ensure that states continue to regulate marijuana in a “safe and respectful manner” that is compliant with federal standards. These include prohibiting individuals under the age of 18 to work in marijuana operations and preventing sale or distribution of marijuana to individuals under the age of 21 for reasons other than medical purposes.

Additionally, and most crucially for legal cannabis business, the bill would allow federally insured banks to do business with such entities.

In a statement, Senator Warren wrote, “The federal government needs to get out of the business of outlawing marijuana.” She added that current federal laws have negatively impacted the criminal justice system, scientific research and economic development, while states like Massachusetts have implemented commonsense marijuana legislation that has supported these categories. “They have the right to enforce their own marijuana policies,” she wrote.

Senator Gardner took similar aim at government policies in his statement while focusing his argument on states’ rights issues.

“The federal government is closing its eyes and plugging its ears while 46 states have acted,” he wrote. “The bipartisan, commonsense bill ensures the federal government will respect the will of the voters—whether that is legalization or prohibition—and not interfere in an states’ legal marijuana industry.”

At a press conference on June 6, President Trump said that he knew “exactly what [Senator Gardner’s] doing,” and “probably will end up supporting” the STATES Act.

Given Trump’s penchant for spur-of-the-moment decisions that often take his cabinet and party by surprise, it remains unclear whether he will ultimately voice approval for the bill, but the statement flies in the face of Attorney General Sessions’ stance on marijuana, which was crystallized in a January 2018 memo granting federal prosecutors the “necessary tools” to crack down on cannabis.

View the original article at thefix.com

13 June 2018
President Trump Will "Probably" Support Ending Federal Marijuana Ban

Despite what he and Jeff Sessions have said in the past, President Trump has promised to support bipartisan legislation to legalize marijuana.

On Friday, President Donald Trump publicly said that he would be willing to support a bipartisan bill by Congress to lift the federal ban on marijuana.

Historically, marijuana has been subject to a federal ban alongside LSD and heroin. Recently, some states have moved to legalize marijuana, placing the drug in a strange middle ground where it is both legal and illegal depending on the tier of law considered.

The bipartisan proposal would allow each state to decide on its own how to treat marijuana within its borders, while recommending a few federal restrictions such as an age limit set at 21.

“I support Senator Gardner. I know exactly what he’s doing,” Trump told reporters, referring to Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado. “We’re looking at it. But I probably will end up supporting that, yes.”

President Trump’s remarks greatly deviate from his appointed U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ stance on pot. Sessions has previously reversed the Obama-era hands-off marijuana policy to start cracking down on cannabis again.

“The previous issuance of guidance undermines the rule of law and the ability of our local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement partners to carry out this mission,” Sessions wrote in a memo allowing federal prosecutors to return to “previously established prosecutorial principles that provide them all the necessary tools to disrupt criminal organizations, tackle the growing drug crisis, and thwart violent crime across our country.”

The president himself has been wishy-washy about marijuana. During his campaign, he has at times said he would respect states’ decisions on marijuana, while he would also criticize legalization efforts.

Senator Gardner wants to ensure that no matter what states decide, the federal government will keep its hands off.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is another one of the bipartisan supporters of the measure. She said that Washington “needs to get out of the business of outlawing marijuana.”

With such a change, legal marijuana businesses in states like California would no longer have to worry about the looming threat of federal drug enforcement coming to sweep away their investments. This would also help with the fact that banks hesitate to do business with legal marijuana dispensaries because of fear of being prosecuted by the federal government.

View the original article at thefix.com

11 June 2018
Canada Moves Closer To Legalizing Recreational Marijuana

Canada is taking a countrywide approach to avoid the issues that have unfolded in the United States, according to one Canadian senator.

Canada is one step closer to becoming the first major global economy to legalize recreational marijuana, with the Senate passing a legalization plan on Thursday.

The plan and all its amendments will now move on to the House, according to the BBC. If approved there, legal sales are expected to start within 12 weeks, meaning it could be legal to purchase marijuana in Canada by the end of the summer.

According to one Canadian Senator, Canada is taking a countrywide approach to avoid the issues that have unfolded in the United States, where cannabis is legal in some states but prohibited under federal law.

“We’ve very much learned from the early mistakes made by some U.S. states and other jurisdictions,” Canadian Sen. Tony Dean, an independent who sponsored the bill in the Senate, told USA Today. “We know we have a national challenge with cannabis. We have some of the highest youth consumption rates in the world, an illegal cannabis market worth upward of $6 billion annually, we know it’s harmful for kids, especially younger kids… and we had a government that wanted to tackle those issues.”

Having a national system will allow the Canadian government to address these issues above board, according to Roy Bingham, the CEO and co-founder of cannabis data firm BDS Analytics.

“Canada is creating a normal industry. What we have in the United States is a very abnormal industry,” he said. “In Canada, you see tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical companies, all these mainstream industries interested in getting involved.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ran on a platform of marijuana legalization in 2015. The senate measure will make recreational use and sale of marijuana legal, but it will leave the specifics of the cannabis laws up to each province or state.

Marijuana firms, researchers and public health experts will all be watching Canada closely to see how the market for legalized cannabis unfolds.

“It’s going to be a bit of a science fiction experience for a while,” Benedikt Fischer, an expert on substance use at Toronto’s biggest psychiatric hospital, told The Guardian. “It’s unique in the world, because it’s happening for the first time in a wealthy country. It’s not like in the U.S., where there are these state experiments. Most people kind of ignore Uruguay. And so the world is really looking at this.”

One issue will be setting the price of cannabis high enough to prevent new users from getting started with marijuana, but low enough to discourage black market sales.

“What I am mainly following … is who will be the new legal growers, and whether authorities manage to get some of the illegal growers to become legal growers,” said Tim Boekhout van Solinge, a Dutch criminologist.

Other issues including the impact of legalization on use of other drugs and dealing with impaired drivers, will also be closely monitored by policymakers and researchers from around the globe.

“They’re waiting to see if the sky’s going to fall,” said Jordan Sinclair, company spokesman for Canopy Growth, a medical marijuana grower in Canada. “[Investors] are waiting to see if all the stigma and all the demonization of this product that’s built up in 90 years of prohibition is true. It’s on us to demonstrate that it’s not.”

View the original article at thefix.com

9 June 2018