Massachusetts pot regulators release draft rules for social consumption licenses, comedian Eric Andre scores a victory in a legal fight against Atlanta airport detentions and searches, and more.

Marijuana Policy

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Federal Judge Gives Florida Marijuana Legalization Campaign A Win Over State's Ballot Initiative Restriction Law. A US District Court judge in the Northern District of Florida last Thursday granted relief to a marijuana legalization initiative campaign that, with other groups, had challenged a new state law making it more difficult to place initiatives on the state ballot.

Smart & Safe Florida had sought a preliminary injunction against provisions of the new law that barred non-residents and non-citizens from collecting signatures for ballot measures. But ruling that the state's law forces plaintiffs to "choose between curtailing their First Amendment rights" or "risking invalidation of verified petitions, crippling civil penalties, and further enforcement actions," US District Judge Mark Walker granted "complete relief" from those provisions.

Walker had earlier upheld most of the new law, but he held that barring signature-gathering by non-residents created an unacceptably "severe burden on political expression."

The campaign "demonstrated that it is substantially likely to succeed on the merits of its First Amendment claim challenging the State Attorneys' role in enforcing the residency requirement," Walker held.

"The challenged provisions work an unconstitutional restriction as applied to Plaintiffs' speech by prohibiting non-citizen and non-residents from gathering signed petitions by silencing the individual non-citizen petition circulators who are Plaintiffs in this case, and by preventing the organizational Plaintiffs' members or employees who are non-residents or non-citizens from engaging in the core political speech of petition circulation."

The campaign appears on track to qualify for the ballot later this year if it withstands a state Supreme Court challenge. It has already gathered more than three-quarters of the signatures needed to make the ballot next November.

Massachusetts Marijuana Regulators Issues Draft Rules for Social Use. The Bay State appears to be moving toward allowing on-site marijuana use at some businesses. The state Cannabis Control Commission has released draft rules for social consumption licenses and is currently accepting public comment on the proposed regulations.

The Commission envisions three types of licenses for social consumption, two for on-site use at businesses and one for on-site use at one-time events.

"It has the potential to provide spaces like yoga studios or coffee cafes that allow for consumption," said Payton Shubrick, CEO and founder of 6 Brick's.

Ten other legal marijuana states already allow for social consumption in some form or another.

Medical Marijuana

Another Federal Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Medical Marijuana Patients Who Want to Possess Guns. A three-judge panel of the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of medical marijuana patients who want to exercise their right to bear firearms. That is only the latest federal court to cast doubt on the federal government's assertion that marijuana users, including medical marijuana patients, are too uniquely dangerous to be allowed to own guns.

The Trump administration recently asked the US Supreme Court to take up one of the at least five cases tackling the issue of marijuana use and gun ownership after lower court have split on the issue. The court has not yet decided whether it will do so.

In an opinion from Judge Elizabeth Branch, the 11th Circuit panel held that the government's "allegations in the operative complaint do not lead to the inference that the plaintiffs are comparatively similar to either felons or dangerous individuals."

Branch added that "nothing in the [complaint] indicates that [plaintiffs] have committed any felony or been convicted of any crime (felony or misdemeanor), let alone that their medical marijuana use makes them dangerous."

"Thus, the government failed to meet its burden -- at the motion to dismiss stage -- to establish that disarming medical marijuana users is consistent with this Nation’s history and tradition of firearm regulation," the opinion says.

"Nothing in the [complaint] indicates that Cooper and Hansell are engaged in any drug market aside from the Florida medical marijuana market, which is highly regulated and requires dispensaries to comply with State law as enforced by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Nor is there any indication in the [complaint] that Cooper and Hansell 'pose a credible threat' to the public safety of others based solely on their use of medical marijuana."

The wall separating medical marijuana users from gun ownership appears to be crumbling. But it will take a Supreme Court decision to bring some clarity and finality to the issue.

 Search and Seizure

Pair of Comedians Sue over Atlanta Airport Searches. Comedians Eric André and Clayton English have won the right to pursue a lawsuit against Clayton County Police after they were detained and searched at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as they attempted to board a flight for Los Angeles.

In separate incidents, both comics were questioned about drugs and had their identification and boarding passes seized without probable cause. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that their claims of unlawful searches and seizures were valid and allowed the case to move forward.

Attorneys for the pair produced evidence showing that Clayton County officers who stopped passengers disproportionately targeted people of color, with minorities accounting for 68 percent of more than 400 stops in a one-year period in 2020-2021. Fewer than one percent of those stops resulted in drug seizures. But cops did manage to seize more than $1 million from 25 different passengers, almost always without any criminal charges being filed.

The appeals court held that there was not sufficient evidence to back the comics' claim of racial discrimination, but allowed the case to move forward based on the claims of unlawful search and seizure.

The case has shown a spotlight on the drug interdiction program at the Atlanta airport, as celebrities, civil rights groups and policy institutes have rallied to the cause.