Queensland will become the first Australian state to okay pill-testing, Vancouver magic mushrooms shops are not illegal but thriving anyway, and more.

A fentanyl test strip. South Dakota just legalized them, and a bill to do the same is advancing in Kansas. (Creative Commons)

Kansas Bill to Legalize Fentanyl Test Strips Passes House. In a bid to reduce overdose deaths in the state, the House voted last Thursday for a bill that would clarify that fentanyl test strips are not drug paraphernalia, House Bill 2390. A similar measure passed the House last year, only to die in the Senate. The House also passed a bill that would stiffen penalties for fentanyl manufacturing, House Bill 2398. That bill doubles the existing sentence under state law and includes a mandatory prison sentence.

South Dakota Governor Signs Bill Decriminalizing Fentanyl Test Strips. In an effort to reduce overdose deaths, Gov. Kristi Noem (R) has signed into law a bill that clarifies that fentanyl test strips are not drug paraphernalia, House Bill 1041. "We're trying to prevent overdoses for those people that are at high risk populations," said bill sponsor Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt (R).

International

Queensland Becomes First Australian State to Introduce Pill Testing. State Health Minister Yvette D'Ath announced Saturday that Queensland will introduce pill testing at mobile and fixed sites, making it the first Australian state to do so. "Pill testing is all about harm minimization," she said. "We don’t want people ending up in our emergency departments or worse losing their life. It is important to note that pill-testing services do not promote that drugs are safe, however they are among a suite of options that can positively affect outcomes regarding illicit drug use." The move follows two pill-testing trials at Canberra’s Groovin’ the Moo festival in 2018 and 2019, and an ongoing trial at a fixed site. Queensland may be the first state to embrace the harm reduction measure, but the Australian Capitol Territory began a trial last year.

Vancouver Magic Mushroom Shops Operating Openly. Canada's West Coast metropolis now boasts at least nine shops that sell magic mushrooms and other psychedelic substances even though such shops are not legal. The owners of the shops say they are employing many of the same tactics used by marijuana shops that sold the drug before it was legal. They argue that they are providing patients with crucial access to a drug that is nearly impossible to obtain despite Health Canada approving it for some uses. Police, focused on harder drugs, appear indifferent. Now, similar stores have sprung up in Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton. 

They're trying again in North Caroliina, a Florida group wants to put a home grow initiative on the ballot, and more.

Colorado Legislative Committee Kills Medical Marijuana Expansion. A bill to expand access to medical marijuana was shot down by the first committee to consider it on Thursday. The measure, Senate Bill 81, sought to increase the amount of medical marijuana concentrate a patient can buy per day and allow doctors to recommend medical marijuana via virtual telehealth appointments for some patients, among other changes. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee killed the bill at the request of bill sponsor Sen. Kevin Van Winkle (R), who said he was not able to reach agreement with opponents to move the measure forward. Van Winkle said he would be back to try again.

Florida

Florida Campaign Seeks to Put Medical Marijuana Home Grow Initiative on 2024 Ballot. A group calling itself the WISE and Free Florida Committee is getting a campaign underway for a constitutional amendment initiative that would allow "caregivers and adult qualifying patients 21 years or older to cultivate marijuana for medical use" and would note that cultivation would be "limited to the cultivator’s home." To clear the first hurdle on its path, the campaign must come up with more than 291,000 valid voter signatures, which would then trigger a review by the state Supreme Court. If okayed to move forward by the court, the campaign would then have to come up with an additional 891,589 valid voter signatures to meet the next hurdle. A separate campaign committee calling itself Smart and Safe Florida, which wants to get a marijuana legalization amendment on the ballot, has already met that first signature goal.

North Carolina

North Carolina Medical Marijuana Bill Advances in Senate. A year after the Senate approved a medical marijuana bill only to see it die in the House, the bill, Senate Bill 3, is back and moving again. The measure passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The bill now heads to two more committees, the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Rules and Operations Committee before heading for a Senate floor vote. Although the House last year declined to take up the measure, the Republican House Speaker, Rep. Tim Moore, has suggested that the bill could pass with "the right restrictions." The bill would allow medical marijuana for a list of specified medical conditions and an advisory board could expand that list.  

The Republican-led Virginia House kills another drug reform bill, Iowa House Democrats roll out a marijuana legalization bill, and more.

Genaro Garcia Luna. The former Mexican top cop found guilty in federal court in of taking bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel (CC)

Iowa House Democrats File Marijuana Legalization Bill. House Democrats introduced a marijuana legalization bill Tuesday, part of a broader "People over politics" agenda that also includes lowering taxes, protecting abortion rights, and supporting public over private education. The bill, which is not yet available on the legislative website, would legalize marijuana for adult recreational use and "use new tax revenue to invest in education and local communities." But Republicans control both houses of the legislature and there is as yet no indication they will be willing to advance the bill.

Virginia House Kills Marijuana Business Tax Relief Bill. A bill to provide tax relief for marijuana businesses by allowing them to claim exemptions at the state level they are barred from claiming at the federal level under an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as 280E has died in the Republican-controlled House of Delegates. Senate Bill 1095 had already cleared the Senate, only to be killed on a 4-2 party line vote in a House Finance subcommittee. The House this year has been where drug reforms go to die. Earlier last week, it killed a bill to start adult-use marijuana sales and a measure to reschedule psilocybin and create a therapeutic use advisory board.

Virginia Poll Has Solid Majority Support for Retail Marijuana Sales. When House Republicans last week killed a bill to allow adult-use retail marijuana sales, they were going against the will of the voters, according to a new poll. The survey from Christopher Newport University had support for legalizing the retail sale of marijuana products at 60 percent, with only 34 percent opposed. But in killing the bill, the House Republicans were enacting the will of Republican voters, who narrowly opposed allowing retail sales by a margin of 47 percent to 44 percent.

Harm Reduction

New Mexico Safe Injection Site Bill Wins Committee Vote. A bill to provide for the creation of state-funded "overdose prevention centers," House Bill 263, is advancing, having won its first committee vote Monday. The bill passed the House Health and Human Services Committee on a 5-3 party line vote. The vote came after Republican Rep. Harlan Vincent called safe injection sites "drug dens." The measure would protect participants and workers from criminal liability "for any action or conduct that occurs on the site of a harm reduction program or overdose prevention program," but expressly bars drugs from being sold, purchased, traded, or "otherwise provided" to program users. After the vote, the House Republican Campaign Committee echoed Rep. Vincent, saying in a tweet that the Democrats "passed legalized drug dens."

Law Enforcement

Mexico's Former Top Cop Found Guilty of Drug Trafficking in NYC Trial. Genaro Garcia Luna, who acted as head of Mexico's equivalent of the FBI and was Public Security Minister under former President Felipe Calderon, was found guilty Tuesday of taking millions of dollars from the Sinaloa Cartel in a trial in federal court in Brooklyn. It was Calderon and Garcia Luna who launched the modern era of Mexico's drug war by sending in the armed forces, unleashing more than a decade of deadly violence as drug cartels fought each other and various law enforcement and military formations allied with those factions. Garcia Luna is the highest-ranking Mexican official ever to be tried for drug offenses. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison.

International

Australia's Queensland Moves to Depenalize Drug Possession. The government of the state of Queensland told the state parliament Tuesday that it will amend its drug laws so that people caught carrying small quantities of any illicit substances will not be subject to criminal charges until a fourth offense. A first offense would merit a warning, while second and third offenses would see police offering up drug diversionary programs. This is the same approach that the state uses for small-time marijuana possession and that most other states already use for all illicit substances. Only the Australian Capital Territory has formally decriminalized drug possession. 

Marijuana legalization bills advance in Hawaii and Minnesota, a Virginia psilocybin reform bill dies, and more.

The Vancouver safe injection site. Could one be coming to Denver? (vch.ca)

Twitter Becomes First Social Media Platform to Allow Marijuana Ads. As of Wednesday, Twitter is allowing marijuana companies to market their brands and products in the United States. It is the first social media platform to take that step. Previously, Twitter had only allowed ads for hemp-derived CBD prices. Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok continue to follow a "no cannabis advertising policy" based on the fact that marijuana remains illegal on the federal level. Twitter announced restrictions on marijuana advertising: Companies must be properly licensed, not target people under 21, and only target states where they are licensed to operate.  

Hawaii Marijuana Legalization Bill Wins Committee Votes. A marijuana legalization bill, Senate Bill 375, was approved by Senate Human Services Committee and the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee on Wednesday. The bill is supported by some of the industry's major operators, but small-scale growers and groups supporting them oppose the bill and instead support Senate Bill 669, which has a simpler regulatory scheme. The Senate voted to approve marijuana legalization in 2021, only to see the measure defeated in the House. The Senate is expected to pass some form of marijuana legalization this year as well.

Minnesota Marijuana Legalization Bill Advances Yet Again. The marijuana legalization bill,  House File 100, has won its ninth House committee vote, with the House Education Finance Committee approving it Thursday. The Senate companion bill also cleared its sixth panel this week. With an expected 18 committee votes needed before heading for floor votes, the measure is now most of the way there.

Medical Marijuana

Colorado Legislative Committee Kills Medical Marijuana Expansion. A bill to expand access to medical marijuana was shot down by the first committee to consider it on Thursday. The measure, Senate Bill 81, sought to increase the amount of medical marijuana concentrate a patient can buy per day and allow doctors to recommend medical marijuana via virtual telehealth appointments for some patients, among other changes. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee killed the bill at the request of bill sponsor Sen. Kevin Van Winkle (R), who said he was not able to reach agreement with opponents to move the measure forward. Van Winkle said he would be back to try again.

Psychedelics

Virginia Bill to Reduce Psilocybin Penalties Dies in House. A bill to lower penalties for possessing psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms, as well as psilocybin advisory board to move toward therapeutic access, Senate Bill 932, has died in the House after being approved in the Senate. It was killed in the House Rules Committee on a 13-5 vote, joining two other psilocybin reform bills in the ash heap of history. A 2022 psilocybin decriminalization bill failed, as did a bill earlier this year that would have ended felony possession charges for people 21 and over.

Harm Reduction

. The city of Denver passed a resolution four years ago to allow safe injection sites but has been stymied because they remain illegal under state law. Now, lawmakers hoping to rectify that contradiction have filed a bill, House Bill 23-1202, that would allow the city to move forward with an "overdose prevention center." So far every lawmaker in support of the bill is a Democrat. In addition to allowing drug users to inject under medical supervision, the bill would provide access to sterile equipment, fentanyl testing, counseling, and referrals to treatment. It is now before the Public and Behavioral Health and Human Services Committee. Safe injection sites currently operate in only two states, New York and Rhode Island.

Two Great Plains medical marijuana laggards are seeing efforts to advance.

Kansas Senators File Medical Marijuana Bill. The Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee has filed a medical marijuana bill, Senate Bill 135. The measure would set up a system of licensed dispensaries from which patients could obtain a 30-day supply of marijuana, but only in the form of concentrates, topicals, or edibles—smoking or vaping would not be allowed. Patients suffering from a specified list of 21 medical conditions would be eligible. Patients would have to register with the state, but people who have a doctor's recommendation but have not registered would face only a fine for possession of up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana. Similar legislation passed the House in 2021, only to die in the Senate.

Nebraska

Nebraska Medical Marijuana Bill Gets Hearing. The single-chamber legislature's Judiciary Committee held a hearing on a medical marijuana, bill from Sen. Anna Wishart (D), Legislative Bill 588. The committee heard testimony from experts and advocates who relayed information about the plant's therapeutic value, as well as from Wishart herself, the state's most prominent medical marijuana advocate. Wishart has led so far unsuccessful efforts to put the effort directly before voters as a ballot initiative. "My goal is that no family has to flee our state to get access to medical cannabis for themselves or a loved one," Wishart said in her opening remarks. "This bill is not going to fail because of lack of compromise or thoughtfulness on the part of all of the senators and the stakeholders that have worked on this. If this bill fails, it will fail like it has in the past because of political pressure from a few people in our state who wield their power to stamp out the will of the people."

Senate Majority Leader Schumer is trying to get some movement on marijuana legislation, a psilocybin research bill advances in Arizona, and more.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) looking thoughtful during a January trip to the border. (Sen. Blackburn)

Schumer Meets with Senate Republicans to Discuss Marijuana Legislation. After meeting earlier this month with key Senate Democrats to discuss how to move forward with marijuana legislation, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) met Tuesday with three Republican senators, Steve Daines (R-MT), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) in a bid to find bipartisan consensus. Access to financial services for the industry was a central point of discussion, and advocates are calling for passage of "SAFE Plus," which would include banking reforms as well as some social equity provisions. The Republicans with whom Schumer met were all cosponsors of Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act in the last Congress.

Louisiana Marijuana Legalization Bills Prefiled. Rep. Candace Newell (D) has prefiled a package of bills that would legalize marijuana. House Bill 17would allow the Department of Agriculture to manage and issue 10 cultivation and processing licenses and 40 permits for retail dispensaries. House Bill 24 would decriminalize cannabis possession and distribution. House Bill 12, which has yet to be prefiled, will take on taxation. Newell has filed legalization bills in two previous sessions, but split up the legislation this time around: "I’ve separated the three bills. It’s legalization, regulation, and taxation. So each bill does its own thing," Newell said.

Texas Bill Would Allow Localities to Legalize Marijuana. Rep. Jessica Gonzalez (D) has filed House Bill 1937, which would allow cities and counties to legalize up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana in their jurisdictions and tax marijuana sales at 10 percent. The bill faces cloudy prospects in the Republican-dominated legislature and an almost certain veto by Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

Virginia House Republicans Kill Marijuana Sales Bill. Republican members of the House General Laws Subcommittee voted Tuesday to kill Senate Bill 1133, which would have allowed the state to begin issuing marijuana cultivation licenses this July and  retail licenses in July 2004. The bill had passed the Senate with bipartisan support, but died in the subcommittee on a party line 5-3 vote. In 2021, a then Democratically-controlled legislature legalized marijuana and called for retail sales to begin by January 1, 2024, but the now Republican-dominated House has refused to pass enabling regulatory legislation.

Psychedelics

Arizona Psilocybin Research Bill Wins Committee Vote. The House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee unanimously approved a bill to promote research into the possible medical uses of psilocybin mushrooms, House Bill 2486. The bill would provide $30 million in grants for research to study the effect of psilocybin on 13 specified conditions, including PTSD, depression, anxiety, substance misuse, and long COVID. Researchers would be working with whole psilocybin mushrooms.

Drug Policy                                                                                 

Federal Bill to Punish Accused Border Drug, Human Traffickers Filed. Borrowing a page from the 1980s drug prohibitionist playbook, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is rolling out a bill that would deny accused drug or human traffickers access to welfare, public housing, and other federal benefits. Blackburn's Stop Taxpayer Funding of Traffickers Act would "prohibit anyone charged with drug or human trafficking at our international borders or in our territorial waters from receiving federal government benefits," including Social Security. The bill also contains a provision allowing for people who are found not guilty to receive any back payments that had been blocked.

International

Irish Government Creates Citizens' Assembly on Drugs to Examine Drug Policy. The government has approved a people's consultative body to conduct a thorough examination of Irish drug policies within a nine-month timeframe. "The Citizens’ Assembly will be asked to consider the legislative, policy, and operational changes the State could make to significantly reduce the harmful impacts of illicit drugs on individuals, families, communities, and wider society," the government said. The assembly will examine both Irish and international approaches to drug use and supply, as well as analyzing the operations of state agencies, including health, law enforcement, education, housing, and social welfare.  

The Louisiana legislature sees a marijuana legalization bill for the third year in a row, coca production is expanding in Guatemala but without signs of cocaine production, and more.

Seven cops were ambushed and killed in the heartland of Peruvian cocaine production. (Pixabay)

California Bill Would Allow Cannabis Cafes That Sell Fresh Food. Assemblyman Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) has filed a bill that would allow licensed marijuana retailers to also sell non-intoxicating foods and beverages. The measure, Assembly Bill 374, would  amend state law to allow such sales, as well as allowing shops to put on live musical performances and sell tickets to them. "Many people want to consume cannabis socially while having a sandwich or listening to music," Haney said. "We should allow that." Current state law allows marijuana consumption lounges, but they are not allowed to sell freshly prepared food—only prepackaged food and beverages.

Louisiana Marijuana Legalization Bill Filed. For the third year in a row, a marijuana legalization bill has been filed in the state legislatures. House Bill 17, sponsored by Rep. Candace Newell (D), would create a taxed and regulated marijuana industry in the state. Under the bill, 10 licenses would be issued for cultivation, processing, and manufacture of marijuana and 40 for retailers. A separate bill from Newell, House Bill 24, would decriminalize possession and distribution of marijuana upon legislative enactment of a regulatory system and the establishment of a tax on recreational sales. "I separated it because I know what state I live in," Newell said. "It’s been a challenge."

International                 

Guatemala Coca Production Expands, But No Sign of Cocaine Production. The planting of coca leaf appears to be on the rise in the Central American nation, with authorities reporting the destruction of more than 4 million coca plants last year, more than double the 1.7 million eradicated in 2021, and another 1.2 million already this year. Authorities also dismantled five labs for producing coca base, the first stage of cocaine production, but no labs capable of producing cocaine hydrochloride, or powder cocaine. While the number of plants eradicated appears large, it is a tiny fraction of the number of plants grown in major coca producing countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. All the plants eradicated in Guatemala last year amount to about 70 acres, while the amount of coca eradicated in Colombia alone amounted to about 175,000 acres.

Peru Police Ambushed in Cocaine Hotspot, Seven Officers Dead. Seven police officers were shot and killed in an ambush attack in the town of Natividad, deep in the remote Andean region known as the VRAEM (the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene, and Mantaro Rivers), the center of coca and cocaine production in the country. The VRAEM accounts for 75 percent of Peruvian cocaine. While police did not point a finger at any one group for the attack, the region has a strong presence of drug trafficking groups who are allied with remnants of the Shining Path, a Maoist guerrilla army whose rebellion in the 1980s left nearly a hundred thousand dead across the country. 

An Arkansas Republican files a bill to put marijuana legalization before the voters in 2024, harm reductionists and drug reformers criticize the president's call for stronger criminal penalties around fentanyl, and more.

Nebraska and neighboring Kansas are both working to enact medical marijuana laws this year. (Creative Commons)

Arkansas Republican Files Bill to Put Marijuana Legalization on 2024 Ballot. State Sen. Joshua Bryant (R-Rogers) filed a bill Wednesday to put a constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana on the 2024 general election ballot. The bill, SJR13, would legalize marijuana for adults and allow "craft or home growing" of pot plants. The move comes after a 2022 constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana was defeated at the polls by a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent.

Medical Marijuana

Kansas Senators File Medical Marijuana Bill. The Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee has filed a medical marijuana bill, Senate Bill 135. The measure would set up a system of licensed dispensaries from which patients could obtain a 30-day supply of marijuana, but only in the form of concentrates, topicals, or edibles—smoking or vaping would not be allowed. Patients suffering from a specified list of 21 medical conditions would be eligible. Patients would have to register with the state, but people who have a doctor's recommendation but have not registered would face only a fine for possession of up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana. Similar legislation passed the House in 2021, only to die in the Senate.

Nebraska Medical Marijuana Bill Gets Hearing. The single-chamber legislature's Judiciary Committee held a hearing on a medical marijuana, bill from Sen. Anna Wishart (D), Legislative Bill 588. The committee heard testimony from experts and advocates who relayed information about the plant's therapeutic value, as well as from Wishart herself, the state's most prominent medical marijuana advocate. Wishart has led so far unsuccessful efforts to put the effort directly before voters as a ballot initiative. "My goal is that no family has to flee our state to get access to medical cannabis for themselves or a loved one," Wishart said in her opening remarks. "This bill is not going to fail because of lack of compromise or thoughtfulness on the part of all of the senators and the stakeholders that have worked on this. If this bill fails, it will fail like it has in the past because of political pressure from a few people in our state who wield their power to stamp out the will of the people."

Drug Policy

Drug Reformers, Harm Reductionists Criticize Biden's State of the Union Call for Harsher Fentanyl Penalties. Harm reductionists and drug reformers took issue with one part of President Biden's plan to address the fentanyl crisis—his call for "strong penalties to crack down on fentanyl trafficking." Such an approach would only make matters worse, advocates said. "When you criminalize things, you create stigma around substances," said Maritza Perez Medina, director of federal affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance. "If people know they’re going to get in trouble for using substances, they’re going to be reluctant to call for help." Harm reduction advocacy group PAIN organizer Harry Cullen said that efforts to suppress fentanyl have led to the emergence of other dangerous substances in the drug supply, such  as the veterinary drug xylazine. "To double down on criminalization is not the way forward," Cullen said. 

In less than a month, voters in Oklahoma will be deciding if it will become the 22nd state to legalize marijuana. In a special election set for March 7, a marijuana legalization initiative, State Question 820 will be the only item on the ballot.

The initiative should have been on last November's general election ballot. The group behind the measure, Oklahomans for Sensible Marijuana Laws, turned in 69,000 more signatures than needed in a timely fashion, but private contractors hired by the Secretary of State's office took an excessive amount of time to verify the signatures.

Between that and questionable legal challenges from opponents, approval of the measure was so delayed that the state Supreme Court ruled weeks before the election that the measure would have to wait for the 2024 general election or until the governor or legislature calls a special election. Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) then announced the March 7 date.

If approved by voters, SQ 820 would allow people 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and eight grams of marijuana concentrates and grow up to six plants and six seedlings at home. It also protects parents from losing custody or visitation rights solely because of marijuana use and states that parolees and probationers cannot be punished for marijuana use. Nor could the odor of marijuana or burnt marijuana be used as probable cause for police to infer that a crime had been committed. And it includes a provision for the expungement of some past marijuana offenses.

SQ 820 gives employers the right to ban marijuana use or fire marijuana-using workers, and it would allow private property owners to ban marijuana use (unless it is not smoked). Likewise, the state or local governments could ban marijuana use in public buildings.

The measure sets up a system of taxed, licensed, and regulated marijuana commerce, but for the first two years, marijuana business licenses would go only to existing medical marijuana businesses that have been operating for at least a year. The state is now also under a moratorium on new grower, processor and dispensary licenses until August 2024, meaning any potential new pot business operators may have to wait awhile to get in the game.

SQ 820 sets a 15 percent excise tax on retail marijuana sales, with revenues going to public schools, drug treatment programs, the courts, local governments, and the state's general fund.

And, of course, it is drawing opposition from the usual suspects. A coalition of community, business, and law enforcement leaders led by former Republican Gov. Frank Keating have organized as Protect Our Kids No 820.

"We simply must protect our children, " Keating warned. "This state question goes well beyond the ballot summary voters will see. Just one example is that hidden inside this question is a clause that expressly lowers the legal threshold for child endangerment. It includes a prohibition on our court system from considering marijuana usage in child custody and visitation cases. These are just a few of the problems."

SQ 820 campaign director Michelle Tilley was unfazed. "We think State Question 820 is actually a positive step in protecting our children. Every, every product has to safety tested, it is regulated," she said.

"Other states had these same scare tactics, and they have legalized," she added. "They have not seen an increase in any underage marijuana use or any negative consequences, like we anticipate the opposition is going to throw out there."

Whether SQ 820 can win at the polls next month is an open question. The most recent poll on the topic, from November, had support at 49 percent, with 38 percent opposed and 13 percent undecided. While initiative campaigns typically want to see a nice 10-point lead to cushion any votes peeled off by late opposition efforts, these numbers suggest that all it needs is a tiny portion of the undecided voters to get on board to get it over the top. Stay tuned. 

Adult-use marijuana sales got off to a hot start in Missouri, the Virginia Senate approves a bil lto allow adult-use marijuana sales, and more.

Psilocybin would be rescheduled under a bill just passed by the Virginia Senate. (Creative Commons)

Minnesota Marijuana Legalization Bill Wins Fourth Senate Committee Vote. The Senate version of the marijuana legalization bill, Senate File 73, has won a fourth committee vote as it moves down the path to passage. The Senate Agriculture, Broadband, and Rural Development Committee approved the bill Sen. Lindsey Port (D) in a 5-4 vote. The bill could see up to an additional 14 committee votes before going to a Senate floor vote. The House version of the bill is proceeding down a similar path, having won six committee votes, with another half-dozen to come. With the Democratic Farm Labor Party in control of both chambers and DFL Gov. Tim Walz behind it as well, the bills are expected to become law this summer.

Missouri Sees More Than $12 Million in Opening Weekend Adult Marijuana Sales. The Missouri Cannabis Trade Association reported that medical marijuana dispensaries now allowed to sell to any adults registered sales of more than $12.6 million in the first weekend of adult-use marijuana sales, with $5 million coming last Friday, the first day of such sales. Of all dispensary sales over the weekend, roughly two-thirds were purchased by adult-use customers. The state Department of Health and Senior Services Division of Cannabis Regulation issued 207 comprehensive retail licenses last Friday and sales commenced right away.

Virginia Senate Approves Bill to Start Adult-Use Marijuana Sales. The Senate on Tuesday approved Senate Bill 1133, which clears the way for the start of adult-use marijuana sales, on a 24-16 vote. The bill would create a regulatory framework for sales to begin by January 1, 2024 and would allow sales both at existing medical marijuana dispensaries and new stores operated by people who live in "historically economically disadvantaged communities." Marijuana products would be taxed at a rate of 21 percent, with localities allowed to add up to an additional 3 percent. The bill's prospects in the Republican-led House, however, are unclear. The House recently defeated its own version of a marijuana sales bill. The legislature approved marijuana legalization last year, but not sales.

Psychedelics

Virginia Senate Approves Psilocybin Rescheduling Bill. The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill to reschedule psilocybin and create an advisory board to make recommendations for further actions. Senate Bill 932, filed by Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D), would move psilocybin from Schedule I to Schedule III under state law. Hashmi last year filed a psilocybin decriminalization bill that went nowhere last year, and the GOP-controlled House this year rejected a bill to legalize psilocybin for therapeutic use. Now, the House will have a chance to weigh in on this more incremental bill, which would not allow legal therapeutic psilocybin use but would reduce criminal penalties for the substance. Instead, the advisory board would be tasked to "develop a long-term strategic plan for establishing therapeutic access to psilocybin services and monitor and study federal laws, regulations, and policies regarding psilocybin."

A Florida marijuana legalization initiative has passed its first hurdle on the way to the ballot, a new Texas poll shows very strong support for marijuana reforms, and more.

Luke Scarmazzo. Freed after 14 years for running a California medical marijuana dispensary. (Mission Green)

Florida Marijuana Legalization Initiative Passes Initial Hurdle. A proposed constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana has passed the first hurdle on the way to the ballot. The Smart & Safe Florida initiative first challenge was to come up with 222,298 valid voter signatures to trigger a judicial and financial impact review. On Thursday, it reported that it had 294,000 valid signatures. If the measure now gets through the reviews, organizers would then have to gather an additional 891,589 valid signatures to get the issue to ballot position. And if it manages to qualify for the ballot, it will need 60 percent of the vote to be approved.

Minnesota Marijuana Legalization Bill Wins Another Committee Vote. The marijuana legalization bill, House File 100, continues to advance. On Thursday, it was approved by the House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee, the sixth House committee to advance it. That puts the bill at the half-way point in the chamber, where another six committee votes are anticipated. Companion legislation has also been moving in the Senate, although a Senate committee hearing set for Thursday was postponed. Gov. Tim Walz (D) has called on supporters to join lawmakers and the administration in their push legalize marijuana this session.

Texas Poll Finds Supermajority for Medical Marijuana and Decriminalization, Two-Thirds for Legalization. A new YouGov/University of Houston poll has support for legalizing medical marijuana at 82 percent, support for decriminalization at 81 percent, and support for legalization at 67 percent. On medical marijuana, 93 percent of Democrats, 79 percent of independents, and even 73 percent of Republicans were in favor. Similarly, one legalization, 80 of Democrats, 66 percent of independents, and 55 percent of Republicans were on board. The Republican-dominated state legislature, however, has balked at advancing reform legislation.

Medical Marijuana

Medical Marijuana POW Luke Scarmazzo Freed After 14 Years in Federal Prison. Luke Scarmazzo, sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for operating a California medical marijuana dispensary is scheduled to walk free today after winning a case for compassionate relief in federal court in the Eastern District of California. He was most recently imprisoned at the federal prison in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Scarmazzo and business partner Ricardo Montes opened California Healthcare Collective in Modesto in 2004, operating a business legal under state law. But the DEA raided his operation in 2006, arresting the pair, and they were charged with manufacture of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute, and operating a continuing criminal enterprise, which carries a mandatory minimum of 20 years. Scarmazzo is believed to be the last California medical marijuana provider to be held in federal prison. 

The Riders Come Out at Night: Brutality, Corruption, and Cover-Up in Oaklandby Ali Winston & Darwin Bondgraham (2023, Atria Books, 467 pp., $30 HB)

As the brief list above suggests, and as the massive wave of protests in towns and cities across the land in the wake of the George Floyd killing confirms, thuggish, sometimes murderous cops are not just a Memphis problem. Almost every big city police department has its own legacy of scandalous brutality, much of it linked to the enforcement of drug prohibition. Oakland, California, is no exception.

In the case of the gritty East Bay city, it was the Riders scandal two decades ago that was so outrageous it generated mass protests, a criminal trial of the police involved, and a successful civil lawsuit that resulted in the Oakland Police Department force to operate under the supervision of a federal judge enforcing a consent decree.

In The Riders Come Out at Night, veteran investigative journalists Ali Winston and Darwin Bondgrahm use the Riders scandal as the fulcrum with which they pry open the inner workings of a police department long notorious for corruption and brutality. It's a tale not just of cop acting like criminals but also of a departmental culture more interesting in protecting its own than protecting the citizenry and elected officials more interested in playing "tough on crime" politics than ensuring that the police do not abuse the public.

Like the Memphis SCORPION unit now under the spotlight, the Riders were a specialized crime-fighting unit, celebrated for their aggressive tactics against drug dealers and other scofflaws and held up as an example for incoming rookie officers. A growing pile of police brutality complaints vanished into the police bureaucracy that was supposed to address them, and it took one of those rookie officers, sickened by what he was witnessing from his trainers, to finally bring the scandal into the open.

When it broke, it broke big, with four of the Riders eventually going to trial for the assaults and other crimes they committed (one of them fled and remains a fugitive to this day), only to escape criminal punishment after being vigorously defended by lawyers paid for by the police union. But they and the department could not escape a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of 119 Oakland residents that resulted in a federal consent decree forcing the department into oversight by a federal judge. That was 2003. The department remains under that consent decree to this day because it has been unable or unwilling to make the reforms necessary to satisfy the judge.

Since that 2003 consent decree went into effect, the Oakland PD has suffered renewed scandals on a regular basis, ranging from run of the mill police killings to the killing of four Oakland cops by one man in an incident that laid bare deficiencies in police training to the scandal around Oakland (and other) cops having sex with a troubled teen. And then there was the killing of Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART station—not by an Oakland cop but by a BART officer—and the Oakland Police's thuggish response to protests around that killing. And the spying on and attacks on Occupy protestors in 2011.

And on and on. It's as if the Oakland Police is a recidivist organization. The authors describe a culture within the department that has been historically racist, sexist, and anti-worker, dating back to anti-Chinese policing in the late 1800s, the Ku Klux Klan presence in the force in the 1920s, and the violent suppression of strikes in the 1930s. It bashed hippies in the 1960s and terrorized black Oaklanders in the 1980s and 1990s as it prosecuted the war on drugs.

It also generated a decades-long resistance movement, often led by the families of the people the department killed that has managed to impose reforms. And it eventually inspired the consent decree under which the department still labors, but it's always two steps forward, one step back.

As they examine this sordid history, Winston and Bondgraham concede that the department has changed, become less deadly and more transparent, and even occasionally capable of punishing miscreants within the ranks. But they argue that the transformations necessary to civilize policing in Oakland (and elsewhere) are greater than the institution of the police:

Whether policing in Oakland will ever get to the point where most people can agree it has been fundamentally transformed—no longer anything like the institution the Riders thrived in, no longer the force that terrorized Black Oakland after World War II and well into the 2000s—depends very much on whether there are broader societal shifts. So long as Oakland and the rest of America is riven by extreme race and class inequalities and the power of the federal government is not brought to repair the economies of destitute cities and rural areas, and deal with the intergenerational trauma that leads to despair and hopelessness, then it's very likely the police will continue serving more or less the same function they have for well over half a century: containing and repressing the symptoms of broader social problems through violence.

The Riders Come Out at Nightis thoroughly researched, compellingly written, and eye-opening. It is also an achingly timely examination of the role of police in society and how we figure out who will guard us from the guardians. This is a real contribution to the literature of policing in America, and it does not paint a pretty picture.