New Jersey politicians are squabbling -- again -- over how to tax legal marijuana, Tucson joins Phoenix in walking away from marijuana prosecutions, the Mexican Senate moves toward a vote on marijuana legalization, and more.

Marijuana Policy

America's Longest-Serving Marijuana Prisoner Will Go Free Next Month. Richard DeLisi, 71, was sentenced to 90 years in prison for marijuana trafficking by a Florida judge in 1989. He's been behind bars ever since, making him the country's longest-serving marijuana prisoner, but now he's about to be released early because of coronavirus concerns. He should walk out of prison next month, a year and a half ahead of his scheduled release date.

Arizona's Second Most Populous County to Drop Pending Marijuana Possession Cases. Following in the footsteps of Maricopa County (Phoenix), Pima County (Tucson) announced it will begin dismissing minor marijuana possession charges once the election results are certified on November 30. "Pima County has been the most progressive county in Arizona," said Amelia Cramer, the Chief Deputy Pima County Attorney. "Law enforcement agencies exercise discretion and [do not] make physical arrests for possession of marijuana, but issue paper citations. If the individual who is issued the citation attends the class and provides a certificate, the charges dismissed."

New Jersey Politicians Split Over Legal Marijuana Taxes. The state's leading Democrats all say they want to move marijuana legalization enabling legislation as quickly as possible, but Gov. Phil Murphy (D), Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D) and Senate President Steve Sweeney (D) aren't on the same page when it comes to cannabis tax policy. Coughlin is calling for "an additional user fee on cannabis consumers," which would violate the constitutional amendment, which sets a ceiling of 6.625% on retail marijuana sales. Murphy praised Coughlin's position Monday, but Sweeney and legalization sponsor Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D) issued a joint statement disagreeing: "We should not impose any additional taxes that will put the cost of legally purchasing marijuana out of reach for the communities that have been impacted the most," they said. Stay tuned.

Drug Testing

Massachusetts Appeals Court Rules Boston Must Pay Millions to Police Fired Over Faulty Drug Tests. The state Appeals Court ruled Tuesday that the city of Boston must pay millions in back pay to six police officers, mostly Black, who were wrongly fired in the early 2000s because of unreliable drug tests. The six were accused of using cocaine due to a now discarded hair-testing technology that returned disproportionally more false positives for Black officers because of their different hair texture.

International

Israeli Marijuana Legalization Could Occur Within Next Nine Months. The inter-ministerial committee charged with coming up for a plan to regulate the country's marijuana market turned its conclusions over to the Justice Ministry Thursday. The ministry will then draft a legal memo for government approval, which will form the basis of a legalization bill that come could for an initial reading in the Knesset before year's end. The entire legislative process is expected to take around nine months.

Mexican Senators Will Vote on Revised Marijuana Legalization Bill Next Week. A revised draft marijuana legalization bill is now circulating among senators, with several committees set to hold a joint hearing on the bill Friday. The legislation would then go the Senate floor as early as next Tuesday. The bill would allow adults 18 and over to buy and possess up to an ounce of weed and grow up to four plants, but would also require users to obtain a license from regulators in order to legally consume marijuana.

Two Native American nations take different paths on marijuana and hemp, Virginia's governor signs Breonna's Law into effect, and more.

Navajo Nation Sues Farmers for Growing Marijuana, Hemp. The Navajo Nation is suing 33 farmers for allegedly violating tribal law by growing marijuana and/or hemp in the Shiprock area of the reservation. The move comes after tribal officials earlier this month amended the tribe's criminal code to define all parts of the cannabis plant as marijuana and make possession or distribution of the plant a criminal offense. This is the second lawsuit the tribe has filed over hemp operations that were established this summer in Shiprock and nearby communities, which became a contentious issue between residents.

Oglala Nation Passes Ordinance Legalizing Marijuana Use on Tribal Lands. The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council voted this week to approve a new ordinance legalizing and regulating the possession and use of marijuana on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation. The move comes after tribal members passed a referendum in March in support of changing the laws. The ordinance permits the use of marijuana for both patients and adults (non-patients age 21 or older). It permits tribal members to cultivate and dispense marijuana and also allows for the establishment of social consumption facilities – which may be accessed by both tribal members and non-members.

Law Enforcement

Virginia Governor Signs Bill Banning Police No-Knock Search Warrants. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) has signed into law House Bill 5099, which bars police from breaking into a home or business to conduct a raid without first announcing their presence. The state becomes the third to pass such a bill since Kentucky resident Breonna Taylor was gunned down by Louisville police in a misbegotten no-knock drug raid in March. The laws are known colloquially as "Breonna's law." The bill and other police reform measures "represent a tremendous step forward in rebuilding trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve," Northam said in a signing statement.

International

Bahamas Committee Recommends Legalizing Marijuana, Hemp. The island nation's Economic Recovery Committee, which is charged with laying out a plan for economic recovery in the wake of the coronavirus, has recommended legalizing both recreational marijuana and industrial hemp. After receiving the report, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis called the country's marijuana laws "outdate" and said they need to change.

Virginia's governor signs a minor marijuana reform bill into, the Mexican government has captured a major cartel leader, heroin and fentanyl use is up during the pandemic, and more. 

Marijuana Policy

Virginia Governor Signs Marijuana Reform Bill into Law. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) has signed into law a bill, SB 5013, that will allow people to issued summonses for decriminalized marijuana possession to prepay their fines rather than having to show up in court. Other marijuana-related bills are still alive in the session, including one already on the governor's desk that would bar police from conducting searches bases solely on the odor of marijuana and a set of competing expungement proposals that are now in conference committee.

Medical Marijuana

Nebraska Medical Marijuana Legalization Activists Get Working on 2022. After qualifying for the 2020 ballot and then getting stiffed by the state Supreme Court, which held that the initiative embraced more than one subject, the two state senators who lead Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana Anna Wishart and Adam Morfeld, recently filed new petition language with Secretary of State Bob Evnen for voters to consider for the 2022 ballot. The new language is simple and straightforward: "Persons in the State of Nebraska shall have the right to cannabis in all its forms for medical purposes." Now, they will have to recreate the successful 2020 signature-gathering campaign to get back on the ballot in 2022.

Drug Policy

Quest Diagnostics Health Trends Study Finds Fentanyl and Heroin Misuse Skyrockets During COVID-19 Pandemic. A new Quest Diagnostics Health Trends study indicates that misuse of fentanyl, heroin and nonprescribed opioids are on the rise, potentially due to the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on healthcare access and support for individuals most at-risk for substance use disorder. The full study, from researchers at Quest Diagnostics and published online in the peer reviewed journal Population Health Management, can be found here. The researchers compared testing positivity rates for January 1, 2019-March 14, 2020 and March 15-May 16, 2020 (during the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak). Among individuals tested, the drug positivity rate increased 35% for non-prescribed fentanyl and 44% for heroin during the pandemic compared to the period prior to the pandemic. Nonprescribed opioids also increased, by 10%. The study also found a massive surge in the positivity rate of drug combining with non-prescribed fentanyl during the pandemic compared to prior to the pandemic. Positivity for non-prescribed fentanyl increased substantially among specimens that were also positive for amphetamines (by 89%), benzodiazepines (48%), cocaine (34%), and opiates (39%; P <0.01 for all comparisons).

International

Mexico Captures Major Cartel Leader. Mexican security forces have captured the head of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, Guanajuato Gov. Diego Sinhue announced Wednesday night. Adan Ochoa, known as "El Azul," rose to lead the cartel after the capture of its former leader Jose Antonio Yepez, known as "El Marro." The cartel has been involved in violent conflict with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel over which will control the drug trade in the central Mexican state.

Medical marijuana via telemedicine could be coming soon to New Jersey, medical marijuana via the ballot box could be coming to Nebraska in 2022, and more.

Medical Marijuana

Nebraska Medical Marijuana Advocates Submit Language for 2022 Ballot. After the state Supreme Court deprived voters of a chance to choose to legalize medical marijuana this year, the group behind the effort, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, on Monday submitted petition language aimed at getting the issue on the 2022 ballot. Five Supreme Court judges ruled that the 2020 initiative, which had already qualified for the ballot, unconstitutionally dealt with more than one subject. The new language keeps it simple: "Persons in the State of Nebraska shall have the right to cannabis in all its forms for medical purposes," is all it says.

New Jersey Legislature Approves Medical Marijuana Telemedicine Bill. The Assembly last Thursday approved A-1635/S-619, which would allow health care practitioners to remotely authorize the use of medical marijuana via telemedicine. The bill had already passed the Senate and now goes to the desk of Gov. Phil Murphy (D).

Drug Testing

Biden Campaign Scorns Trump Demand for Candidate Drug Test. Suggesting without any evidence that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden uses performance-enhancing drugs, President Trump on Sunday demanded be subjected to a drug test before Tuesday's presidential debate. The Biden campaign was having none of it, responding thusly: "Vice President Biden intends to deliver his debate answers in words. If the president thinks his best case is made in urine he can have at it. We'd expect nothing less from Donald Trump, who pissed away the chance to protect the lives of 200K Americans when he didn't make a plan to stop COVID-19," the campaign said in a press release.

International

Mexico Bar Massacre Leaves 11 Dead. Armed gunmen killed 11 people Sunday in a bar in Jaral del Progreso, Guanajuato. The state has become the scene of recurring violence in recent months as the rival Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel vie for control of the state. Two months ago, 24 people were killed a drug rehab center in the city of Guanajuato, one of the worst mass slayings since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office pledging to reduce record levels of violence.

(This article was prepared by StoptheDrugWar.org's 501(c)(4) lobbying nonprofit, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also pays the cost of maintaining this website. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)