Memphis cops really like seizing people's cars, the Swiss will have a summer of marijuana legalization pilot projects, and more.
Therapeutic psilocybin is coming to Oregon. The first license has just been issued. (Pixabay)
Arizona Nonprofits Can Now Apply for Justice Reinvestment Grants Funded by Marijuana Taxes. Nonprofit groups that run justice reinvestment programs—helping incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people—are now eligible to apply for the first round of state marijuana funds for those programs. When voters legalized marijuana in 2020, they initiative they approved included a Justice Reinvestment Fund, setting aside 10 percent of marijuana taxes and fees to fund it. Most of that money is set aside for state and county public health departments, but nonprofits are eligible for the remainder. According to the Department of Health Services, $5.9 million will be available to the nonprofits during this grant round.
Psychedelics
Oregon Issues State's (and Nation's) First Psilocybin License. The Oregon Health Authority on Wednesday issued the state's first psilocybin license as part of the nation's first regulatory framework for therapeutic psilocybin services. The license was for producing psilocybin and was issued to Satori Farms PDX LLC in Portland. Meanwhile, in southern Oregon, the city of Medford has received its first two applications for psilocybin-related licenses, one for production and one for a service center where the drug would be administered to clients. The Oregon Psilocybin Services team started taking applications for four license types in January, and more licenses to laboratories, service centers, and facilitators are expected in the coming months.
Asset Forfeiture
Memphis Police Had Practice of Seizing Vehicles for Minor Offenses, Including Drug Offenses. Seizing the vehicles of minor offenders, including drug offenders, has become a favored policing tactic in the city, where the elite anti-crime Scorpion unit, the unit responsible for the beating death of Tyre Nichols in January, was only one of several police teams in the city making widespread use of vehicle seizures. Tennessee has some of the loosest asset forfeiture laws in the nation, and many people whose vehicles were seized were never convicted of a crime. Even those who were not convicted of a crime were forced to pay large fees to recover their vehicles. The Scorpion unit, now disbanded, was especially prolific in seizing vehicles, seizing 270 of them in its first few months of operation. Shawn Douglas Jr. was one of the victims. He was stopped by police who found two clear bags of marijuana in his backpack. He was arrested and his car impounded. The charges were later dropped, but Douglas had to pay $925 in fees.
International
Swiss Pilot Projects on Marijuana Set for This Summer. The city of Zurich is among several Swiss jurisdictions that will launch pilot project studies of the regulated sale and consumption of marijuana this summer. Other studies with universities are also set for Basel, Bern, Lausanne, Geneva, Biel, Thun, Olten, and Winterthur. The country has allowed for the use of low-THC medical marijuana since 2011 and decriminalized pot possession in 2013, but people still face fines if caught and there is no legal source of supply. These pilot projects are expected to lay the groundwork for eventual legalization.
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