NC Senate Approves MedMJ, DE House Approves Expedited Adult-Use Sales Bill, More... (6/20/24)

The Colombian Army has raided a coca- and cocaine-processing complex in Norte de Santander just as it has raided countless complexes before in its fruitless quest to repress the cocaine trade, and more.

Colombian troops dismantling the coca and cocaine complex in Norte de Santander. (cgfm.mil.co)

Marijuana Policy

Delaware House Approves Bill to Expedite Adult Use Sales by Allowing Medical Marijuana Dispensaries to Begin Selling to Adult-Use Market. The House on Tuesday approved House Bill 408, which would hasten the advent of the state's adult-use marijuana market by allowing existing medical marijuana dispensaries to apply for "conversion" licenses to sell to any adult.

The state has a target date of April 2025 for the beginning of adult-use sales, and bill sponsor Rep. Ed Osienski (D), a champion of marijuana reform legislation, says the bill will help the state meet that target date by allowing the state's six existing dispensaries to supply the adult-use market.

Before passing the House, the bill was amended twice, once to add more protections for the medical marijuana industry and again to double the cost of a conversion license from $100,000 to $200,000. Those fees will go to assist social equity applicants who hold conditional licenses.

The bill also contains language allowing medical marijuana operators to sell product to adult-use stores once they are licensed. "This will now allow our compassion centers, which already have that infrastructure up and running, to utilize that to sell product to our newly received license holders for retail and manufacture. This will give them a supply," Osienski said.

The bill now heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration.

Medical Marijuana

North Carolina Senate Approves Medical Marijuana. For the third time in the last three years, the Senate has voted to legalize medical marijuana. The Senate voted 33-9 on Thursday to approve a hemp CBD bill to which the Compassionate Care Act (Senate Bill 3) has been added as an amendment.

Although this is the third year in a row the Senate has approved medical marijuana, House leaders have never let it come up for a vote. House Speaker Tim Moore (R) said recently that while he personally supports medical marijuana, most of his fellow Republican lawmakers in the House do not.

But the hemp CBD bill is a top priority for the House leadership.

"The people that need and can benefit from medical-grade cannabis are dying every day. They've died for six years since I started working on this," bill sponsor Rabon said. "I want to know where the compassion in this room is. I want to know because I'm not seeing it. It's ridiculous, people."

International

Colombian Army Dismantles Coca Complex. The Colombian Army announced Thursday that it had dismantled a coca-growing and -processing complex in the department of Norte de Santander that was valued at around half a million dollars and capable of producing a ton of cocaine each month. It said the raid came within the context of trying to disrupt financing sources for illegal armed groups.

Troops also found more than 800 pounds of cocaine on the site, as well as about 1500 gallons and 500 pounds of precursor chemicals.

The leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) operates in the area and is believed to have been running the operation. The ELN remains in armed rebellion against the national government, even though peace talks have been underway for at least two years.

For the past 40 years, Colombia has been waging war on illicit coca cultivation and cocaine production, but for all its efforts and billions of dollars in US assistance, the country remains the number one cocaine producer in the world.