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MA Natural Psychedelic Bills Get Hearing, Big Rise in Psychedelic Use in Young Adults, More... (5/14/23)

Alabama issues its first medical marijuana licenses, the British Home Office is messing with festival drug checking, and more.

Magic mushrooms -- objects of medical, legislative, and recreational interest. (Creative Commons)
Medical Marijuana

Alabama Awards First Medical Marijuana Licenses. The state Medical Cannabis Commission on Monday awarded 16 licenses for the cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana, leaving four out of five applicants out of luck. But there are more licenses to come.

The commission can grant up to 12 licenses for cultivation, four for processing, and four for retail sales. It can also grant up to five licenses for integrated facilities (combined cultivation, processing, and distribution operations), each of which can operate up to five dispensaries.

"To the recipients, let me say that we look forward to working with you in a partnership manner in which all you know what lies ahead," said John McMillan, the Commission's director.

The legislature approved medical marijuana in 2021, but a bill authorizing the program did not allow for licenses to be issued until September 2022. But the Medical Cannabis Commission only began accepting applications late last year.

Psychedelics

Massachusetts Psychedelic Reform Bills Get Hearing. The Joint Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing Tuesday on several psychedelic reform bills.

House Bill 3589, from Rep. Nicholas Boldyga (R), would legalize plant medicines for people 21 and over, while House Bill 1754 and Senate Bill 1009, from Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa (D) and Sen. Pat Jehlen (D), respectively, would expand the use of plant medicines to people 18 and over.

"Massachusetts has the opportunity to lead the way in the mental health revolution," Boldyga said. "It's been said an idea whose time has arrived cannot be stopped... I believe that time is now for these life-saving plant medicines as a new paradigm in how we view, and understand, and treat mental health is upon us."

No votes were taken.

Dramatic Rise in Hallucinogen Use Among Young Adults. Based on the results of the annual Monitoring the Future survey of young adults, researchers are reporting that the use of psychedelics other than LSD had nearly doubled between 2018 and 2021. Past-year use of psychedelics was 3.4 percent in 2018, jumping to 6.6 percent in 2021. During the same period, LSD use was fairly stable, rising from 3.7 percent in 2018 to 4.2 percent in 2021.

"While non-LSD hallucinogen use remains substantially less prevalent than use of substances such as alcohol and cannabis, a doubling of prevalence in just three years is a dramatic increase and raises possible public health concerns," coauthor Megan Patrick, PhD, with the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, said in a news release.

International

British Home Office Blocked Festival Drug Checking Last Weekend. British festival organizers are raising cries of alarm after the Home Office blocked drug checking at the Parklife festival in Manchester last weekend because it said festival organizers needed to apply for a special license to provide drug checking services, a proven harm reduction intervention.

It was the first time drug checking did not take place at the festival since 2014 and it happened because the Home Office suddenly introduced the separate licensing requirement.

"Events at this year's Parklife are extremely worrying for everyone in the industry, and even more importantly festivalgoers," said Melvin Benn, the managing director of Festival Republic, which runs Leeds and Reading festivals. "If festival organizers fear their safeguarding measures will be pulled at the 11th hour, then how can we guarantee the wellbeing of our guests?"

In a terse response to criticism, the Home Office said: "Anyone interested in undertaking lawful activities involving the possession, supply or production of controlled drugs, including those who wish to provide drug testing services, need to apply for a Home Office license. Festival organizers in consultation with local partners are responsible for decisions relating to drug testing at festivals. We will continue an open dialogue with prospective licensees throughout the festival season."

But festival organizers say it can take more than three months and more than $3,000 to get a Home Office license.

PA Makes Xylazine a Controlled Substance, Swiss Capital Wants Pilot Cocaine Sales Program, More... (6/5/23)

A Louisiana pot poll shows strong support for legalization, a California bill to allow pot shops to sell food and drink as well is moving in the Assembly, and more.

The Swiss capital, Bern, wants to start a pilot program of supervised cocaine sales. (Pixabay)
Marijuana Policy

California Assembly Approves Bill to Allow Marijuana Cafes. The Assembly last week approved Assembly Bill 374, which would allow weed retailers to offer food and drinks if they receive local approval. Alcohol sales and tobacco smoking would continue to be prohibited. The bill from Assemblymember Matt Haney (D) passes overwhelmingly on a 59-9 vote and now heads to the Senate.

"The legal cannabis industry is struggling," Haney said on the floor. "Issues like an over-saturation, high taxes and thriving black market are hurting cannabis businesses who follow the rules and pay taxes. AB 374 allows local governments to authorize the preparation and sale of non-cannabis foods and soft drinks at licensed cannabis consumption lounges," he said. "To be clear this does not allow coffee shops to sell cannabis. It allows cannabis shops to sell coffee with pre-approval from local governments. It shouldn’t be illegal for an existing cannabis business to move away from only selling marijuana and instead have the opportunity to grow, thrive and create jobs by offering coffee or live jazz. Ironically, how the law is written now, we require cannabis shops to only sell drugs," Haney said. "We believe that if these businesses want to move away from that model and sell muffins and coffee, they should be able to do that. This will support our small businesses, with local government autonomy."

Louisiana Poll Has Strong Support for Marijuana Legalization. A new poll from Louisiana State University has 70 percent of respondents saying they support legalizing the possession of "small amounts" of marijuana and 90 percent saying they support medical marijuana. Pollsters said the poll revealed a "substantial increase over the past decade in support for legalizing marijuana for recreational use."

The state has a limited medical marijuana program and decriminalized the possession of up to a half ounce in 2021, but efforts to move forward with legalization have gone nowhere in the legislature so far.

Psychedelics

Nevada Assembly Committee Approves Psychedelic Working Group Bill. A bill to create a working group to study psychedelics and develop plans to allow for regulated access for therapeutic purposes that has already passed the Senate, Senate Bill 242, passed is first Assembly hurtle last Friday, winning approval from the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee. It now heads for an Assembly floor vote.

When introduced, the bill had language legalizing psilocybin and promoting research into the psychedelic, but it was amended in the Senate to now have only the working group, which would examine the use of psychedelics "in medicinal, therapeutic, and improved wellness."

Drug Policy

Pennsylvania Temporarily Makes "Tranq" Drug Xylazine a Controlled Substance. Responding to the spread of the veterinary tranquillizer xylazine into the illicit street drug market, along with the lesions it creates on users and its danger (it is often mixed with opioids but does not respond to naloxone), the Department of Health has moved to limit access to the drug by temporarily listing it as a Schedule III substance. Placing xylazine on Schedule III—as opposed to just banning it—preserves legitimate use by veterinarians and farmers.

"This action will protect veterinarians and other legitimate users and manufacturers of xylazine, which is an important medication for animal sedation, while also creating penalties for people who add illicit xylazine to the drug supply that is harming people in our communities," said Acting Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen . "Our focus remains on developing strategies that help connect people with substance use disorder to treatment and other resources." 

International

Swiss Capital City Wants Pilot Program for Cocaine Sales. The city parliament has voted 43-18 to approve a motion from the Alternative Left to extend a pilot program with marijuana sales to include cocaine sales. The marijuana pilot program is set to begin this fall. City parliamentarians said supervised sales could lead to better control of the stimulant drug.

A similar proposal was narrowly rejected by the Bern parliament in 2019, but this year's version was more restrictive, winning enough support from the Social Democrats to get the measure passed—and send a strong signal to the federal government about where the capital city wants to go. 

NH Marijuana Legalization Measure Deferred, NV Psychedelic Working Group Bill Advances, More... (5/31/23)

Health experts are speaking out about the dangers of criminalizing drug use during pregnancy, a North Carolina medical marijuana bill gets a hearing, and more.

Magic mushrooms. They could be on the agenda of a proposed Nevada psychedelic working group. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

New Hampshire Lawmakers Defer Action on Proposal for State-Run Marijuana Legalization. An effort to move forward on marijuana legalization via an amendment that would create a system of state-run pot shops in eventual combination with existing medical marijuana dispensaires has run out of steam—for now.

The House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee on Tuesday declined to act on that amendment, which came from Chairman John Hunt (R). Instead, the committee plans to continue working on the proposal and will create a separate, stand-alone bill, but with legislative deadlines looming, the issue will be bumped to the fall, when the legislature reconvenes, with possible floor action early in 2024.

Medical Marijuana

North Carolina Medical Marijuana Bill Gets Hearing but No Vote. The North Carolina Compassionate Care Act, Senate Bill 3, has already passed the Senate and got a hearing in the House Health Committee on Tuesday. No vote was taken. If the bill eventually passes out of the Health Committee, it then faces a trek through the Finance and  Rules committees before heading for a House floor vote.

During Tuesday's hearing, Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick) told lawmakers about how he used marijuana to help him get through chemotherapy. "That’s the only reason I’m alive today," said Rabon. "I know that tens of thousands of people in the state could benefit just as I did."

Psychedelics

Nevada Senate Approves Psychedelic Working Group Bill. The Senate on Monday approved a bill to create a new working group to study psychedelics and develop a plan for regulated access for therapeutic uses, Senate Bill 242. The bill originally would have legalized psilocybin and promoted research into it and MDMA but was pared back in committee before passing on a 16-4 vote. The bill now heads to the Assembly.

Pregnancy

Health Experts Call for Changes to Laws Around Drug Use and Pregnancy. Laws criminalizing drug use during pregnancy are deterring pregnant women from seeking help and need to be changed, health experts say. They also keep expecting mothers from using medication-assisted treatment for fear of losing custody of their newborns.

"We should remove criminalization of women who are pregnant and taking drugs," Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), said in an interview. "That needs to stop."

Substance use disorder "does not diagnose anyone's ability to parent," said Dr. Hendrée Jones, executive director of the University of North Carolina’s Horizons Program, a drug treatment program. "I have a woman getting ready to deliver, and she is terrified that somehow they're going to find drugs in her system and Child Protective Services is going to be called and her baby's going to be snatched away," Jones said.

Dr. Davida Schiff, addiction medicined specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and author of a new study on the use of medication-assisted treatment (opioid maintenance) by pregnant women said their decisions were "entirely wrapped up in what happened with respect to mandated reporting to Child Protective Services at the time of delivery. This has led to many women either deciding to not start life-saving medication during pregnancy or to wean off of that life-saving medication during pregnancy and really risk poor outcomes for themselves and their babies," Schiff said. 

House Passage of HALT Fentanyl Act Slammed, DEA Jerks Opioid Distributor's License, More... (5/26/23)

The Louisiana House votes to radically quicken expungements for pot possession offenses, a Texas medical marijuana bill is dead in the water in the state Senate, and more.

Yet another drug distributor gets punished for its role in the opioid crisis. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

Louisiana House Approves Bill Streamlining Marijuana Expungements. The House on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to approve House Bill 286, which would streamline the expungement process for people with first-offense marijuana possession convictions. Under the bill, people convicted of possessing less than 15 grams of marijuana can petition the courts to expunge their records after 90 days from the date of conviction. Under current state law, people must wait at least five years before seeking expungement. The bill sponsored by Rep. Delisha Boyd (D) now goes to the Senate.

Massachusetts Shelves Pilot Program for Social Consumption Spaces. The state Cannabis Control Commission has scrapped a pilot program to allow on-site marijuana consumption shops in 12 municipalities, saying it will instead focus on developing broader regulations for onsite consumption and how to license such businesses. That means the Bay State is unlikely to see any consumption spaces open this year. A state law allowing limited consumption areas in existing pot shops went into effect nine months ago. Commissioner Nurys Camargo said dropping the pilot program would encourage municipalities to decide whether or not they want to allow on-site consumption.

Medical Marijuana

Texas Medical Marijuana Expansion Bill Appears Dead. A bill from Rep. Stephanie Klick (R-Fort Worth) that would have expanded the state's low-THC Compassionate Use Program to include chronic pain patients who otherwise would be prescribed opioids, House Bill 1805, appears dead in the Senate after passing the House. The bill was referred to the Senate Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee but did not get a committee hearing.

Opioids and Opiates

House Slammed for Passing HALT Fentanyl Act in Rerun of "Failed Drug War." The House's passage Thursday of HR 467, the Halt All Lethal Trafficking (HALT) of Fentanyl Act generated strong condemnation from drug reform, civil and human rights groups as well as pleas for the Senate to kill it. The bill would classify all fentanyl analogues as Schedule I drugs and resort to mandatory minimum sentences for those found guilty of their distribution. The bill passed with near-unanimous GOP support (only Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) voted "no"), but also with the "yes" votes of 70 House Democrats.

"It's sad to see lawmakers revert to over-criminalization once again when we have 50 years of evidence that the war on drugs has been an abject failure," said Laura Pitter of Human Rights Watch, one of nearly 160 advocacy groups that signed a letter earlier this week imploring Congress to reject the HALT Fentanyl Act.

"By passing this bill, the House has signaled that Congress is entering a new carceral era," said Liz Komar, sentencing reform counsel for the Sentencing Project. "The federal prison population has been on the rise since the beginning of the Biden administration after seven years of decline," said Komar. "The passage of the HALT Fentanyl Act would deepen that trend by doubling down on failed drug policies that prioritize prisons over drug treatment and overwhelmingly harm Black and Brown communities.

"If mandatory minimums and harsh sentences made communities safer," Komar added, "the overdose crisis would not have occurred. We urge the Senate to reject this bill and all expansions of mandatory minimums and reverse this punitive trend."

"Our communities deserve real health solutions to the overdose crisis, not political grandstanding that is going to cost us more lives," said Maritza Perez Medina, director of the office of federal affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, as she urged the Senate to kill the bill.

Prodded by AP Story, DEA Yanks Drug Distributor's License Over Filling of "Suspicious" Orders During Opioid Crisis. The DEA on Friday revoked the license of one of the country's largest drug distributors to sell opioid pain relievers because it failed to flag thousands of suspicious orders amid the opioid crisis. The move comes nearly four years after a judge recommended the harshest penalty for Morris & Dickson for its "cavalier disregard" of rules aiming at thwarting opioid abuse and two days after the Associated Press reported that the DEA had allowed the company to keep shipping opioids despite the judge's ruling.

In the 68-page order, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said the company did not accept responsibility for its past actions, including shipping 12,000 "unusually large" orders between 2014 and 2018 and only flagging three of them as "suspicious."

The loss of the distribution license could drive the company out of business, but Morris & Dickson said it had spent millions of dollars in recent years to upgrade its compliance systems and looked to be holding out hope of reaching a settlement with DEA.

The company's larger competitors -- AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson -- have already agreed to pay the federal government more than $1 billion in fines and penalties for similar violations, as well as paying out $21 billion to settle claims from a nationwide settlement. The actions of the drug distributors played a contributing role in this century's opioid crisis, but the reaction to that crisis has also contributed to problems for chronic pain patients in obtaining the medicines they need.

Minnesota Set to Become 23rd State to Legalize Marijuana [FEATURE]

With final votes approving the House File 100 marijuana legalization bill in the House and Senate last week, Minnesota is only a governor's signature away from becoming the 23rd state to legalize marijuana and the second, after Delaware to do it this year. And in comments after the legislature sent him the bill, Gov. Tim Walz (D) has made it crystal clear that he will sign the bill into law -- with a "big" ceremony after Memorial Day.

Minnesota State Capitol (Pixabay)
While licensed adult-use legal marijuana sales are months away, marijuana will be legal to possess and home cultivate beginning August 1, and expungement provisions of the law also go into effect then.

"When the bill reaches my desk, Minnesota will become the 23rd state in the nation to legalize adult-use cannabis," Walz said. "It's going to take a while. We have to put the regime into place. We’ll have to make sure the licensing stands up. And what we've said is -- what you're going to have certainty about is -- is that you're going to know what the product you're buying is, there's going to be a regulated, safe environment and we're going to be able to stand that up," he vowed.

As for phased legalization, with the August date for the end of pot prohibition and legal commerce beginning after regulators set up a system, "I think the legislature did a smart thing here," Walz said. "I think this is what Minnesotans expect. We've seen it in other states that it worked. We have the advantage of learning from what they did."

The state is moving quickly. The Office of Cannabis Management, which will be the regulator but which has not even been officially formed yet, already has its own web site. It contains information for recreational marijuana users, medical marijuana patients, people who want to get into the industry, and people seeking information about expungements. "We're going to be working on the expungements to get people back to where they should have been, and then we will set up the infrastructure to make sure that we're licensing and regulating the dispensaries," Walz said.

"We've been working on this for about four years, talking to people in Vermont and Colorado. We want to make it a smooth transition. But I think the biggest thing is that, on August 1, just making sure we're not going to spend precious dollars in our policing focusing on possession of cannabis, rather than looking at other crimes we should be working on," he said. "It just takes a little bit of time. We'll implement it. We'll get it in. And I think this is the direction Minnesota wanted us to go."

Under the bill (about to become law), people 21 and over will be able to possess up to two ounces in public as of August 1. They will also be able to grow up to eight plants at home, four of which can be in flowering, and they can possess up to two pounds of the fruits of their harvest at home. People can also transfer up to two ounces without remuneration to other adults.

Also beginning August 1, certain misdemeanor marijuana records will be automatically expunged. A new bureaucratic entity, the Cannabis Expungement Board, will also consider some marijuana felonies for relief, including potential sentence cuts for those still behind bars.

The legal marijuana commerce is expected to take between a year and 18 months to get up and running with licenses issued and sales underway by then. Existing medical marijuana dispensaries will be able to get combination licenses to compete in the adult use market as of March 1, 2025.

Cities and counties cannot ban legal marijuana businesses, but they can impose "reasonable" regulations. They can also chose to operate their own dispensaries, like a state liquor store.

Retail marijuana sales will be taxed at 16.875 percent, which adds a 10 percent pot tax to the state's 6.875 percent sales tax. Four-fifths of marijuana tax and fee revenue will go to the state's general fund, with some funds earmarked for grants to marijuana businesses and drug treatment efforts. The other 20 percent will go to local governments.

The law will also allow onsite consumption for special events, as well as marijuana delivery services.

The new law will attempt to address equity concerns by scoring applicants higher if they live in low-income neighborhoods, have marijuana convictions or family members with them, or are military veterans with less than an honorable discharge because of a marijuana-related offense.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is liking what it is seeing in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

"The majority of Minnesota voters support repealing marijuana prohibition and replacing this failed policy with legalization and regulation," NORML's Deputy Director Paul Armentano said. "Passage of this legislation is the result of years of grassroots activism by consumers and stakeholders, including Minnesota NORML. In fact, the impetus for the formation of Minnesota NORML was based upon a police raid and resulting marijuana arrest. These sorts of destructive actions are now poised to come to an end in Minnesota."

And perhaps that can be a lesson to the state's prohibitionist neighbors in the Dakotas, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

MN Legal Pot Bill Ready for Final Votes, Singapore Hangs Another Man for Marijuana, More... (5/18/23)

A major civil and human rights group comes out against one federal fentanyl bill, bipartisan senators and representatives file another one, and more.

Fentanyl. The deadly drug continues to generate bills in Congress. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

Minnesota Marijuana Legalization Bill Ready for Final Votes This Week. House and Senate conference committee negotiators have resolved the remaining differences between the House and Senate marijuana legalization bills and ready to send the final bill to floor votes in both chambers this week. The final sticking points were on the marijuana tax rate and appropriating revenue. Negotiators agreed to the 10 percent retail sales tax in the Senate bill (the House had voted for 8 percent to be adjusted every two years) and agreed that 80 percent of marijuana revenues will go to the state and 20 percent to local governments to cover expenses related to implementing legalization.

Medical Marijuana

Nebraska Activists File Papers for 2024 Medical Marijuana Initiative. The group Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana has filed papers to mount petition drives to put a pair of medical marijuana initiatives on the 2024 ballot. One would set up the doctor/patient system, while the other would regulate the industry. Activists have been trying for eight years to get the legislature to pass a medical marijuana bill, to no avail. Last year, a signature-gathering effort for a medical marijuana initiative came up short because financial problems blocked the group from hiring professional petitioners.

"We have no choice but to keep petitioning our government," said group spokeswoman Crist Eggers. "The legislature refuses to act despite the will of over 80% of Nebraskans, from all parties, regions, ages, etc., supporting this."

Asset Forfeiture

New York Senate Committee Passes Bill to End Civil Asset Forfeiture and Opt State Out of Federal Forfeiture Program. The Senate Codes Committee on Monday approved a bill that would end civil asset forfeiture, Senate Bill 2192. Under the bill filed by Sen. Jamaal Bailey (D) forfeiture could only occur if the "prosecuting authority secures a conviction of a crime that authorizes the forfeiture of property and the prosecuting authority establishes by clear and convincing evidence the property is an instrumentality of or proceeds derived directly from the crime for which the state secured a conviction." The bill would also address "policing for profit" by requiring that forfeiture proceeds go to the state general fund. Currently, the seizing agency gets to keep up to 60 percent of the proceeds. And the bill would opt the state out of the federal "equitable sharing" program that allows law enforcement agencies to skirt state asset forfeiture laws by handing cases off to the feds, who then return most of the money to the seizing agency. The bill now heads to the Senate Finance Committee.

Drug Policy

Bipartisan Bill Aims to Counter National Security Threat of Illicit Drug Trafficking. US Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) and Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) are leading a bipartisan effort directing increased federal attention to fentanyl trafficking by utilizing the tools of the Department of Defense (DoD) and involving Mexico as an active partner to combat this crisis and disrupt drug cartel and trafficking activity.

The Disrupt Fentanyl Trafficking Act of 2023 would attempt to address cross-border drug trafficking by:

  • Declaring fentanyl trafficking a national security threat stemming from drug cartels and smugglers,
  • Directing the Pentagon to develop a fentanyl-specific counter-drug strategy, including enhanced cooperation with foreign nations,
  • Requiring the Secretary of Defense to increase security cooperation with the Mexican military, and
  • Addressing coordination efforts between the military and federal law .enforcement agencies.

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Opposes HALT Fentanyl Act. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights on Wednesday sent a letter to the House leadership to express its "strong opposition" to H.R. 467, the HALT Fentanyl Act.

"This bill permanently schedules fentanyl-related substances (FRS) on schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) based on a flawed class definition," the letter says. "Additionally, it imposes mandatory minimums and fails to provide an offramp for removing inert or harmless substances from the drug schedule. The class wide scheduling that this bill would impose would exacerbate pretrial detention, mass incarceration, and racial disparities in the prison system, doubling down on a fear-based, enforcement-first response to a public health challenge. Under the class wide control, any offense involving a "fentanyl-related substance" is subject to federal criminal prosecution, even if the substance in question is helpful or has no potential for abuse."

The Leadership Conference represents more than 230 national organizations.

International

Singapore Executes Marijuana Offender for Second Time in Three Weeks. For the second time in three weeks, Singapore has hung a man for trafficking marijuana. The unnamed 37-year-old Malay Singaporean was executed at dawn Wednesday at Changi Prison for trafficking about 3.3 pounds of pot. On April 26, Singapore executed Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, for trafficking 2.2 pounds of pot despite an international outcry. Under Singapore law, trafficking more than 1.1 pounds of pot can garner a death sentence. The city-state halted all executions during the coronavirus pandemic, but hanged 11 people last year -- all for drug offenses.

"If we don't come together to stop it, we fear that this killing spree will continue in the weeks and months to come," said Kokila Annamalai of the Transformative Justice Collective, which campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty in Singapore.

Amsterdam Bans Outdoor Pot Smoking in Red Light District, AK Drug Sentencing Bill Advances, More... (5/15/23)

The House passes a bill to fund research into the veterinary-drug-turned-fentanyl-supplement Xylazine, a former Filipina president introduces a medical marijuana bill, and more.

You're going to have to go inside if you want to smoke pot in Amsterdam's Red Light District. (Creative Commons)
Drug Policy

House Passes Bill to Fund Research into Xylazine. The veterinary drug Xylazine, also known as Tranq, has entered illicit drug markets, leaving behind a toll of disease, amputations, and overdoses. Now, the House has responded by passing H.R. 1374, the Tranq Research Act. The bill would fund research into the drug at the National Institute of Science and Technology. Companion legislation in the Senate, S.1280, is currently before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Meanwhile, another effort to address Xylazine by making it a Schedule III controlled substance, S.993, is before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Alaska House Approves Bill to Increase Drug Distribution Sentences. The House last Thursday approved House Bill 66, which would increase penalties for people who distribute fentanyl, other opioids, and methamphetamine. The bill would allow for second degree murder charges for people who distribute those drugs if someone suffers a fatal overdose on them. Previously, people only faced a manslaughter charge. A second degree murder conviction has a maximum 99-year prison sentence. The bill also increases penalties for people who distribute a broad class of drugs, including Adderall and psychedelic mushroom, to people under 19 and incapacitated people. The bill is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee and must pass the full Senate this week because the session ends at the end of this week.

International

Amsterdam Bans Outdoor Pot Smoking in Red Light District. The city council has announced that as of mid-May, the city's famous Red Light District, home to legal prostitution and numerous cannabis coffeeshops, is going smoke-free when it comes to marijuana. That means pot smoking will be restricted to the cannabis cafes, but the council also said he could extend the ban to outdoor seating areas of the cannabis cafes if necessary. The move is part of the city's effort to create a more calm and comfortable environment for residents, who have been complaining for years about the high volume of tourists in the city center -- about 18 million annually. The council also mandated that sex workers shut down by 3:00am instead of 6:00am and that bars and restaurants will have to close at 2:00am on weekdays and 4:00am on weekends. Also, liquor outlets in the central city will be barring from selling alcohol from 4:00pm Thursday through Sunday.

Philippines Medical Marijuana Bill Filed. Former president and current Senior Deputy House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez have joined forces to file House Bill 7187, which would legalize marijuana for medical purposes. The measure is identical to a medical marijuana bill she filed in the previous congress. That bill never got a House floor vote.

"I really believe in medical cannabis. As you know I have my problem here (cervical spine) and when I'm in a country that allows it, I put on a pain patch, but here in the Philippines I cannot do it," Maccapagal-Arroyo said. "I authored that bill because I believe that it can help me and many other people, but there was a lot of objection to the bill from the House and from the Senate. That's why we are just letting the legislative process take its course," she explained.

NIDA Issues $5 Million Grant to Study Safe Injection Sites, Massive Honduras Coca Plantation, More... (5/8/23)

A New York bill increasing civil penalties for illicit pot shops is signed into law, Oregon regulators approve the nation's first licensee for therapeutic psilocybin services, and more.

Fentanyl test strips. The Florida legislature has become the latest to decriminalize them. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

New York Governor Signs Bill to Increase Civil Penalties for Illicit Pot Shops. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) last Wednesday signed into law Assembly Bill 3281, which increases civil and tax penalties for unlicensed marijuana retailers, including fines of up to $20,000 a day. The move is aimed at reigning in an illicit marijuana market in the state that exploded in the months-long gap between marijuana being legalized and licensed retail sales that only recently began. At this point, there are only a handful of licensed marijuana outlets in the state compared to more than a thousand unlicensed outlets in New York City alone.

"As New York State continues to roll out a nation-leading model to establish its cannabis industry, these critical enforcement measures will protect New Yorkers from illicit, unregulated" Hochul said. "Unlicensed dispensaries violate our laws put public health at risk and undermine the legal cannabis market. With these enforcement tools, we're paving the way for safer products, reinvestment in communities that endured years of disproportionate enforcement, and greater opportunities for New Yorkers."

Medical Marijuana

Florida Lawmakers Approve Bill to Allow Telehealth Renewals for Medical Marijuana, Help Black Farmers Get Grow Licenses. With a final vote in the Senate last Wednesday, the legislature approved House Bill 387. The measure allows doctors to renew approvals for medical marijuana patients via telehealth. New patients will still require an in-patient exam. The measure could also help Black farmers get medical marijuana grow licenses after years of delays. Only one license has been issued to a Black farmer, and this bill could lead to the Department of Health issuing additional licenses to Black farmers.

Psychedelics

Oregon Regulators Approve Nation's First Psilocybin Service Center. The Oregon Health Authority has awarded a license to EPIC Healing in Eugene to provide therapeutic psilocybin services, where people can use the psychedelic in a supervised and facilitated environment. This is a national first and comes after state voters approved therapeutic psilocybin services in 2020. Now, the state has issued at least one license in all four licensing categories -- facilitators, testing labs, psilocybin manufacturing, and therapeutic services.

"This is such a historic moment as psilocybin services will soon become available in Oregon, and we appreciate the strong commitment to client safety and access as service center doors prepare to open," Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) Section Manager Angie Allbee said in a press release.

Harm Reduction

Federal Government Provides Grant to Study Safe Injection Sites. New York University and Brown University announced Monday that they had received a four-year, $5 million grant to study whether safe injection sites can prevent drug overdoses, estimate their costs, and weigh potential savings for health care and criminal justice systems. This marks the first time the federal government has paid for such a study. The study will focus on two safe injection sites already operating in New York City and one set to open next year in Rhode Island and hopes to enroll a thousand adult drug users. The grant comes from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Studies from the 14 countries that currently allow safe injection sites have found they radically reduce drug overdose deaths.

"There is a lot of discussion about overdose prevention centers, but ultimately, we need data to see if they are working or not, and what impact they may have on the community," said NIDA director Dr. Nora Volkow.

Florida Lawmakers Pass Bill to Decriminalize Fentanyl Test Strips. The House last Wednesday gave final, unanimous approval to a bill that decriminalizes fentanyl test strips by removing them from the state's list of drug paraphernalia, Senate Bill 164. More than 6,000 Floridians died in drug overdoses implicating fentanyl in 2020. A similar bill failed last year after some critics claimed that legalizing the test strips would incentive drug use.

International

Honduran Police Seize a Million Coca Plants, Rustic Labs. The Honduran National Police announced that a raid last Friday in a protected forest reserve in the eastern part of the country resulted in the seizure of more than one million coca plants, two million seedlings, and "four rustic structures" used to extract alkaloids from the coca leaf and store chemicals used in the process. While coca has traditionally been grown almost exclusively in its native Andean region of South America, Honduran authorities have been encountering small coca plantations on their soil since 2017, but never one approaching this size.

Maryland Governor Signs Legal Marijuana Commerce Bill Into Law [FEATURE]

Last November, Maryland voters made it abundantly clear that they wanted marijuana legalization by approving a referendum to that effect. On Wednesday, with the signing of enabling legislation by Gov. Wes Moore (D), the legislature and the executive branch have enacted the expressed will of the voters, laying the groundwork for a state system of taxed and regulated marijuana sales.

They had to hustle to get something in place before the legalization of marijuana possession goes into effect in July, and with the passage of Senate Bill 516/House Bill 556, they have done so. It did not happen without a bunch of wrangling at state house, as the House and Senate modified the bills and then had to compromise to reach agreement, but now it has happened.

"The criminalization of marijuana harmed low-income communities and communities of color in a profound way," Moore said at a signing ceremony Wednesday. "We want to make sure that the legalization of marijuana lifts those communities now in a profound way." The new law will "ensure that the rollout of recreational cannabis in our state drives opportunity in an equitable way," he added.

Here are key provisions of the new law:

  • A new, independent Maryland Cannabis Administration will be responsible for regulating the program.
  • Sales will begin on July1, with existing medical marijuana dispensaries being licensed to sell to the adult recreational market. Licensing of additional marijuana businesses will come no later than July 1, 2024.
  • Licenses will be capped at 300 retail shops, 100 processors, and 75 growers. Additionally, there will be 10 retail, 100 processor, and 100 grower licenses for "microbusinesses."
  • Retail marijuana sales will be taxed at 9 percent, with 35 percent of those revenues going to a community reinvestment fund. Counties, the Cannabis Public Health Fund and the Cannabis Business Assistance Fund will each get five percent of revenues. Localities cannot impose additional taxes.
  • Applicants claiming social equity status will have to have 65 percent ownership by people who lived at least half of the last decade in disproportionately impacted areas or who attended public school in one of those areas for at least five years. Social equity applicants will be eligible for a Capital Access Program to provide low interest loans and promote industry opportunities. Additionally, beginning in 2025, existing medical marijuana dispensaries that form "meaningful partnerships" with social equity applicants will be eligible for grants for which $5 million will be appropriated each year.
  • Delta-8 hemp products will no longer be sold in the open market, but will have to be sold through licensed marijuana businesses.
  • Medical marijuana patients will see the number of plants they can grow double from two to four, but only patients will be able to grow their own.
  • New marijuana retailers will face geographic restrictions. They will have to be at least 1,000 feet apart from each other and cannot be within 500 feet of a school, childcare facility, playground, recreational center, library or public park.
  • To avoid monopolization, a single business will not be able to operate more than four retail shops.
  • Marijuana smoking will not be allowed indoors at consumption lounges, but only outdoors.
  • Smoking will not be permitted indoors at on-site consumption facilities, but people could do so on outdoor patios at licensed facilities.

And Maryland now hops with both feet on the legal marijuana bandwagon.

Medical Marijuana Update

Senate Republicans play politics with a veterans' medical marijuana bill, and more.

National

Senate Republicans Block Veterans' Medical Marijuana Bill from Advancing. After a "spirited debate" in the Senate Republican policy lunch shortly before a vote to advance S. 326 -- a bipartisan bill that would have the Veterans Affairs Department do studies and clinical trials on the use of medical marijuana to treat veterans' chronic pain and PTSD -- a group of those Republican senators voted against allowing the bill to move forward, at least for now. The bill needed 60 votes to advance, but with the Republican defections, it failed 57-42.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Governor Signs into Law Bill Cracking Down on Illegal Medical Marijuana Grows. Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) on Wednesday signed into law House Bill 2095, which puts the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control, and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation full enforcement authority over the state's medical marijuana laws. The bill is aimed at cracking down on a plethora of illegal marijuana grow operations and says that authorities can seize and destroy marijuana that was "not properly logged in inventory records or untraceable product not required to be in the system." The bill also makes it a misdemeanor for a licensed medical marijuana commercial grower to hire undocumented immigrants to work anywhere on the property where medical marijuana is grown.

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