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Safer Injection Sites

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Chronicle AM: Yang on Safe Injection Sites, Bloomberg on Marijuana, More... (12/5/19)

Michigan pot shops see high demand on opening day, Democratic contenders stake out drug policy positions, Maine finally has all pot business applications ready, and more.

Andrew Yang wants to decriminalize opiates and fund safe injection sites like this one in Vancouver. (vch.ca)

Marijuana Policy

Michael Bloomberg Backs Decriminalization as Marijuana Views Evolve Amid Presidential Run. Faced with criticism over his past positions on marijuana, former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg has now come out in support of decriminalization, which still leaves him lagging behind most of the Democratic pack. "He believes no one should have their life ruined by getting arrested for possession, and, as a part of his reform efforts that drove incarceration down by 40 percent, he worked to get New York State laws changed to end low-level possession arrests," a spokesman said. "He believes in decriminalization and doesn’t believe the federal government should interfere with states that have already legalized."

Maine Says All Marijuana Licenses are Now Available. More than three years after voters legalized marijuana, the state has finally made available all applications for marijuana cultivation, products manufacturing and retail facilities. That means the state could see pot shops open by the spring.

Michigan Pot Shops Forced to Impose Purchase Limits as Demand Overwhelms. High customer volume is forcing marijuana retailers to limit purchases so there will be enough weed to go around. The four shops that opened Sunday saw combined sales of $221,000 that first day. Each of the four shops has had to turn customers away, too. Some customers waited as long as four hours to get inside.

Medical Marijuana

Florida Senator Introduces Bill Providing Broad Employment Protections to Medical Marijuana Users. A bill recently introduced by state Sen. Lori Berman (D) Would provide various protections to job applicants and employees who use medical marijuana. The measure is Senate Bill 962.

Harm Reduction

Andrew Yang Calls for Investments in Safe Injection Sites. Entrepreneur and Democratic presidential contender Andrew Yang says he supports government funding for safe injections sites as part of an effort to counter the country's overdose epidemic. "I would not only decriminalize opiates for personal use but I would also invest in safe consumption sites around the country," Yang said Thursday.

(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.)

Former Mexico Top Cop Found Guilty of Drug Trafficking, NM Safe Injection Site Bill Moves, More... (2/21/23)

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)
Marijuana Policy

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. 

CO Safe Injection Site Bill Filed, Twitter Okays Marijuana Ads, More... (2/17/23)

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)
Marijuana Policy

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.

VA Lawmakers Nix Medical Psilocybin, SC MedMJ Bills Filed, More... (1/20/23)

A Montana bill would block child welfare workers from removing children simply because of a parent's drug use, San Francisco is ready to move forward on safe injection sites, and more.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed is now pushing for safe injection sites. (Creative Commons)
Medical Marijuana

South Carolina Sees Second Medical Marijuana Bill Filed. A bipartisan medical marijuana bill, the Compassionate Care Act (HB 3486/SB 423), has been filed in both houses this week. It would allow physicians to recommend marijuana to patients with debilitating medical conditions and have them purchase it from state-licensed and -regulated businesses. This is the second medical marijuana bill filed this year. The first, the No Patient Left Alone Act (HB 3215) is similar, but would allow dispensaries to grow their own product. The Compassionate Care Act got through the House last year only to die in the Senate.

Psychedelics

Virginia GOP Lawmakers Block Bill Legalizing Magic Mushrooms for Medical Use. A bill that would allow the use of magic mushrooms for medical purposes, House Bill 1513, has been killed by a subcommittee vote of the House Committee for the Courts of Justice. The bill would have allowed doctors to prescribe the drug for the treatment of depression, PTSD, or end of life anxiety. A bill that would direct Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) to create a psilocybin study committee remains alive, however.

Child Welfare

Montana Bill Would Block Child Removals Based Solely on Parental Substance Use. An omnibus child protective reforms bill, House Bill 37, aimed at making the removal of children from parental households more difficult includes a provision that bars child welfare workers from removing a child for neglect or abuse based only on "substance use by a parent or guardian, disorderly living conditions, other factors closely related to economic status, or a child's obesity." The GOP-championed bill came after a year of study in the bipartisan Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee. It passed the House Judiciary Committee Friday and now heads for a House floor vote.

Harm Reduction

San Francisco Mayor Looking Again at Safe Injection Sites. Mayor London Breed (D) said Wednesday that she is working with Supervisor Hillary Ronen (D) to undo a city law that is an obstacle to nonprofits setting up safe injection sites in the city. Breed and other city officials say they are ready to move forward with privately-funded sites, but to do so, the Board of Supervisors will have to repeal a 2020 ordinance that prohibits safe injection sites. While city politicians had been fearful of a federal reaction to a safe injection site, they have been impressed by New York City's pair of safe injection sites that have operated for more than a year without federal harassment. "The Biden administration and the Newsom administration… are not going to throw San Franciscans in jail or cut off our federal funding because we're saving lives and stopping open-air drug use," Ronen told city staffers.

Philadelphia Safehouse, DOJ Agree to Mediation on Safe Injection Site [FEATURE]

For nearly four years, the Philadelphia nonprofit Safehouse has seen its effort to open a safe injection site in the city stymied by a federal court case brought against it by the Trump administration Justice Department. And although the Trump administration is now history, the Biden Justice Department has continued to pursue the case even as the number of overdose deaths in the city mounts.

The Insite safe injection site in Vancouver. Philadelphia wants one, too. (vch.ca)
But now, Safehouse and the Justice Department (DOJ) have agreed to move their case about the legality of safe injection sites out of a federal district court and into mediation before a federal magistrate, a maneuver that advocates hope can speed up the resolution of the case and get the sites up and operating.

"We agreed with the Department of Justice to move in this direction to reach a settlement and get the lawsuit resolved," Safehouse vice-president Ronda Goldfein told the Philadelphia Inquirer. While declining to further characterize confidential settlement negotiations, she said the group's goals "have not changed" and that Safehouse seeks "a resolution that all parties can live with that give us the opportunity to save lives."

The move comes as the Biden DOJ has hinted at a possible softer stance toward safe injection sites. DOJ did not go to court to block local officials in New York City from allowing two safe injection sites to open in late 2021 or to block state officials from allowing them in early 2022. And DOJ had indicated it was engaged in settlement talks with Safehouse in February 2022.

At that time, DOJ said that it was "evaluating supervised consumption sites, including discussions with state and local regulators about appropriate guardrails for such sites, as part of an overall approach to harm reduction and public safety."

But that was nearly a year ago, and Safehouse's patience is wearing thin. Just last month, after having repeatedly gone along with DOJ requests for continuances, Safehouse balked. It told the federal district court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania that it would no longer agree to any additional delays, while the DOJ argued that it needed until February to proceed. The court compromised, requiring that DOJ reveal its position in the lawsuit by January 9.

With the mediation agreement between Safehouse and DOJ, that January 9 date is now moot, but Safehouse is convinced the move will result in a speedier resolution of the case and allow it to finally get into the business of saving lives.

"Since the DOJ commenced this litigation in 2019 until the end of 2021, more than 3,600 lives have been lost in Philadelphia to the opioid overdose crisis. Based on 2022 projections, that number will grow to almost 5,000 deaths," Safehouse said. "Safehouse and those that need its life-saving services have waited long enough."

Meanwhile, there are other signs the federal government may be warming to the harm reduction intervention. In a November report, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service highlighted the "uncertainty" of the federal government's position on safe injection sites and suggested blockages could be overcome by approving an amendment to the annual DOJ funding bill precluding it from spending any funds to go after safe injection sites, much as has been successfully done to protect medical marijuana laws in the states.

And just days before that report was released, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow tacitly endorsed the idea of authorizing safe consumption sites. Research has found that the intervention "has saved a significant [percentage of] patients from overdosing."

Now, if only the DOJ can find a way to get out of the way. Or if it cannot or will not, it will be time to go back to court.

This Year's Top Ten Domestic Drug Policy Stories [FEATURE]

The good, the bad, and the ugly in US domestic drug policy this year.

Drug overdoses hit a record high in 2022, but may have peaked. (Creative Commons)
1. Overdose Deaths Appear to Have Peaked but Are Still at Horrid Levels

According to Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in December, the nation's fatal drug overdose epidemic has peaked. After reaching a record high of more than 110,000 fatal overdoses in the 12-month period ending in March, that number declined to 107,735 in the 12-month period ending in July, the last month for which data is available. That is a two percent decline from the March high.

While the decline is welcome, drug overdose numbers are still 25 percent higher than they were two years ago and double what they were five years ago. According to the CDC, synthetic opioids, mainly fentanyl, were implicated in more than two-thirds of overdose deaths and stimulants such as methamphetamine and cocaine were involved in nearly one-third. But some fraction of stimulant-implicated overdose deaths are not caused by the stimulants themselves but by stimulant users being exposed to drugs cut with fentanyl.

2. Neither Marijuana Legalization nor Banking Access Pass Congress

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed to make passage of a marijuana legalization bill a priority in this Congress, but it didn't happen. While the House passed a legalization bill, the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act (HR 3617) in April, Schumer and congressional allies didn't even roll out a draft version of their Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act until this July -- 18 months after this Congress began -- and it never exhibited enough bipartisan support to go anywhere in the evenly divided Senate.

Schumer and his Senate allies also repeatedly blocked efforts to get a bill to allow state-legal marijuana businesses access to financial services through the Senate. The Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act (HR 1996) passed the House in April, and Senate allies tried repeatedly to attach it as an amendment to various spending bills, only to be stymied by Schumer and his holdouts for full-blown legalization. At year's end, though, while Schumer was finally ready to move forward with it, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) came out in opposition, helping to scuttle one last effort to tie it to a defense appropriations bill.

3. With Biden's Signature, A Standalone Marijuana Reform Bill Becomes Law for The First Time Ever

For the first time ever, Congress passed and in December the president signed into law a stand-alone marijuana reform bill, the bipartisan Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act (HR 8454). Some marijuana reform measures have been passed before, but only as part of much broader appropriations bills. The aim of the bill is to facilitate research on marijuana and its potential health benefits. The bill will accomplish this by streamlining the application process for scientific marijuana studies and removing existing barriers for research by allowing both private companies and research universities to seek DEA licenses to grow their own marijuana for research purposes.

4. Three More States Legalize Marijuana

In May, Rhode Island became the 19th state to legalize marijuana when the General Assembly passed and Gov. Dan McKee signed into law the Rhode Island Cannabis Act. Sales to any adult over 21 at medical marijuana dispensaries that acquired "hybrid retail licenses" began in December.

And in November, voters in Maryland and Missouri approved marijuana legalization initiatives. Maryland's Question 4 came not from the people but from the legislature and amends the state constitution and mandates that the General Assembly "shall provide for the use, distribution, possession, regulation and taxation of cannabis within the state." Missouri's Amendment 3 overcame multi-sided opposition not only from the usual suspects in law enforcement and the political establishment but also from civil rights groups and marijuana industry insiders to eke out a narrow victory. As of December 8, possession of up to three ounces by adults is no longer a crime, but sales to adults will not begin until next year.

But there were also losses at the ballot box this year. The Arkansas Adult Use Cannabis Amendment garnered only 43.8 percent of the vote, while North Dakota's Initiated Statutory Measure No. 1 managed only 45.1 percent, and South Dakota's Initiated Measure 27 came up short with only 46.6 percent of the vote. The South Dakota defeat was especially bitter, given that just two years ago, voters there approved a broader marijuana legalization initiative with 54 percent of the vote only to see it invalidated by the state Supreme Court.

5. The Year of Fentanyl Test Strip Decriminalization

Fentanyl test strips, which detect the presence of the powerful synthetic opioid in all different kinds of drugs (cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, etc.) and formulations (pills, powders, and injectables) are recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a valuable harm reduction strategy and are increasingly seen by the states as a crucial tool in the fight to reduce drug overdose deaths. When the Biden White House first endorsed their use in 2021, they were considered illegal drug paraphernalia in a majority of states.

Not anymore. As of the end of 2022, 31 states have now legalized or decriminalized fentanyl test strips, with Alabama, Georgia, New Mexico, Tennessee, and Wisconsin doing so this year alone. But that leaves 19 states, mostly in the South and including Florida and Texas where they remain banned.

6. Colorado Becomes Second State to Approve Natural Psychedelic Reforms

Three years after voters in Denver opened the door to psychedelic reform by approving a municipal initiative that made possession of psilocybin mushrooms the lowest law enforcement priority, voters statewide have approved an initiative that decriminalizes plant- and fungi-derived psychedelics and creates a program for the therapeutic administration of such substances. On Election Day, voters approved Proposition 122, the Natural Medicine Health Act, with 53.55 percent of the vote. The victory makes Colorado the second state to enact reforms decriminalizing a natural psychedelic and setting up a program for therapeutic use. Oregon voters led the way on that by approving Measure 109 in 2020.

Proposition 122 has two main prongs: First, it decriminalizes the personal use, possession, and cultivation by people 21 and over of dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ibogaine, mescaline (not derived from peyote), psilocybin, and psilocyn, as well as providing for the sealing of conviction records of people who have completed sentences for the use or possession of those substances. The measure sets no personal possession limits. Second, it creates a "natural medicine services" program for the therapeutic administration of the specified psychedelics and creates a rubric for regulated growth, distribution, and sales of those substances to entities within the program. Only psilocybin and psilocin would be okayed for therapeutic use until 2026. Then regulators could decide on whether to allow the therapeutic use of DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline.

7. Marijuana Social Consumption Lounges Spread

Ever since the first states legalized marijuana a decade ago, one question for users was where to go to smoke their newly legal product. Most states ban smoking outdoors in public or indoors pretty much anywhere except one's home -- and even that can be an issue if your landlord isn't down with it. One solution is allowing places for marijuana users to toke up in a convivial setting, the marijuana social consumption lounge, whether as part of a retail shop or as a standalone business.

Social consumption lounges are now legal in 11 states -- Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Nevada -- although they are not actually up and running yet in some of them. Massachusetts has two lounges now operating; in New Jersey, regulators just approved rules for them; in Nevada, regulators just issued 20 provisional licenses; in New York, they're still waiting for regulators to act; and in California, the state's dozen or so lounges are set to double in number as more localities okay them. Meanwhile, the nation's capital could be next: In the District of Columbia, the city council just approved a bill allowing them.

8. Safe Injection Sites Are Operating in the United States

Safe injection sites, the harm reduction intervention proven to save lives after years of operation in more than a hundred cities in Australia, Canada, and Europe, are finally getting a toehold in the US. New York City's two safe injection sites have just celebrated their first birthdays after opening in late 2021, and in Rhode Island, a two-year pilot program is underway.

But there will be no safe injection sites in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) vetoed a bill that would have allowed pilot programs in major cities across the state. And the fate of a proposed Philadelphia safe injection site -- and the Biden administration's attitude toward them -- remains in doubt. That facility was initially blocked by the Trump Justice Department, and two years later, the Biden Justice Department has yet to substantively respond to lawsuit from the site's would-be operators. Just this month, a federal judge gave DOJ just 30 more days to respond. A positive response would remove the obstacle to further expansion of such sites that fear of federal prosecution brings. Meanwhile, the Congressional Research Service has thoughtfully released a report about other options for getting them up and running, such as passing budget amendments similar to those blocking the Justice Department from interfering in marijuana laws.

9. In DC and New York City, Gray Market Weed Finds a Way

In both the nation's capital and the nation's largest city, unregulated marijuana vendors have popped up to supply pent up demand as both cities endure legalization without legal marijuana sales. In New York City, it's only a matter of time before taxed, licensed, and regulators marijuana retailers are able to open, but in the interregnum between legalization and legal access, the pot scene has gone hog wild with marijuana being sold everywhere -- head shops, bodegas, even from folding tables on street corners -- with one particularly hysterical estimate putting the number at "likely tens of thousands of illicit cannabis businesses." The market isn't waiting for the regulators, and its emergence could undercut the legal businesses waiting in the wings. The city has undertaken limited enforcement efforts, but to little effect so far.

In Washington, DC, a congressional rider barring taxed and regulated marijuana sales has seen something similar, but with a DC twist: a multitude of shops that will "gift" you marijuana when you purchase some other item. The stores call themselves I-71 shops, after the 2014 initiative that legalized marijuana in the city and they even have their own industry association, which estimates there are a hundred or so of them. The city vowed a crackdown in August, but put that on hold the following month.

10. For the First Time, SAMSHA Funds Harm Reduction

In December 2021, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced that it would for the first time ever make grants available to harm reduction groups to "help increase access to a range of community harm reduction services and support harm reduction service providers as they work to help prevent overdose deaths and reduce health risks often associated with drug use." SAMSHA would make available $10 million a year in grants for the next three years.

And this year, the first tranche went out. Some 25 different programs from the Lost Dreams Awakening Center in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, to the Mile High Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in Denver, to the Los Angeles County Health Department got grants this year, almost all of them for $398,960. It's a drop in the bucket compared to federal spending on prohibition -- and compared to harm reduction's full funding needs -- but it's a start.

Fed Judge Gives DOJ Only One-Month Extension in Safe Injection Site Case, More... (12/8/22)

Moves are afoot to rein in Oregon's underground marijuana production, an Iowa law is blocking health authorities from including fentanyl test strips in harm reduction boxes, and more.

Illegal marijuana grow in Jackson County, Oregon. (Jackson County SO)
Marijuana Policy

Oregon 1Bill Would Double Penalties for Illicit Marijuana Grows. Faced with massive unpermitted marijuana growing—police have seized 105 tons of weed this year—and a rising chorus of complaints from police, legal growers, and neighbors, lawmakers have prepared a draft bill that would double maximum prison sentences and fines for unlawful manufacture of more than 100 plants and possession of more than two pounds in public or eight pounds at home. Under the proposed bill, the maximum sentence would jump from five years to 10 and the maximum fine  would jump to $250,000. The bill would also punish property owners for environmental damage and prohibit the use of water (which is owned by the state) for unlicensed marijuana grows. Voters approved legalization in 2014, at least partly on the grounds it would reduce illegal grows, but legalization proponents now say illicit grows will be a problem until the plant is legalized nationwide.

Harm Reduction

Federal Court Gives Justice Department One Month to Respond in Philadelphia Safe Injection Site Case. A federal judge has given the Justice Department just a one-month extension before it has to respond in a lawsuit about the legality of a proposed Philadelphia safe injection site. The Trump administration Justice Department sued to block Safehouse from opening in 2019, and the Biden Justice Department has continued the case while seeking repeated extensions as it talked with Safehouse But when Justice asked for another extension, Safehouse balked at the requested two-month delay, and the judge subsequently cut that request in half. Once it comes, the Justice Department's response should shed some light on whether the agency will or will not continue to challenge the legality of safe injection sites. The department said in February it was evaluating the sites, including discussions about appropriate "guardrails" for them, but with yet another extension request this month, Safehouse's patience is growing thin. "Safehouse did not consent to today’s DOJ request for more time," the group said the day of the filing, noting that the case "has been pending for almost four years." As the group noted, "more than 3,600 lives have been lost in Philadelphia to the opioid overdose crisis" while the case has been ongoing.

Iowa Law Blocks Fentanyl Test Strips from Being Included in Harm Reduction Boxes. The Polk County (Des Moines) Health Department is adding harm reduction boxes at its office and urgent care locations around the city. The boxes will include tourniquets, cotton filters, and needle disposal containers, but not fentanyl test strips, which are considered drug paraphernalia under state law. The Health Department said it supports changing that law, but that has not happened yet. Lawmakers in at least five other states—Alabama, Georgia, New Mexico, Tennessee, and Wisconsin—have taken that action this year.  

Colombia Senate Approves Weed Legalization, DOJ Seeks Delay in Philly Safe Injection Site Case, More... (12/6/22)

An Ohio marijuana legalization bill gets a hearing, a Filipino father wins a small measure of justice for his young son killed in Rodrigo Duterte's drug war, and more.

Legal marijuana is one vote away in the Colombian legislature.
Marijuana Policy

Ohio Marijuana Legalization Bill Gets House Hearing. A pair of legislators, Reps. Casey Weinstein (D-Hudson) and Terrence Upchurch (D-Cleveland) have sponsored a marijuana legalization bill,  House Bill 382, which got a hearing in the House Finance Committee Monday, but no vote. The bill would legalize the possession of up to 5 ounces by people 21 and over, as well a authorizing a marijuana regulatory agency within the Commerce Department to oversee licensing and regulation of marijuana production and sales. There are only a few weeks left in the legislative session, so the bill's prospects are clouded, but the p.air are also supporting a ballot initiative from the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol. That initiative is currently before the legislature. If lawmakers fail to pass it, it would then go to the voters provided campaigners gather a second set of signatures.

Harm Reduction

Justice Department Asks Court for More Time in "Complex" Safe Injection Site Case. In a case where the Trump Justice Department sought (so far, successfully) block a Philadelphia safe injection site from operating, the Biden Justice Department is now asking a federal court for more time to respond in a lawsuit aimed at settling the legality of such sites in the United States. The group behind the safe injection site, Safehouse, had agreed to earlier delay requests but said it "did not consent" to this one and planned to file an opposition motion Tuesday. Justice said Monday that it "believes an additional two months are necessary to permit careful consideration of the government’s harm reduction and public safety goals.The discussions to date, which have involved coordination among multiple constituencies addressing a novel and complex subject matter, have been and continue to be productive,"it said, noting that DOJ had a status conference with Safehouse attorneys last month and "provided an update"to the court. Safehouse argued that Justice has had enough time and that people are dying of overdoses every day while the department dithers. While the Philadelphia site remains blocked for now, authorities in New York City opened the first officially sanctioned safe injection sites in the country last year. The Biden Justice Department did not seek to shut it down.

International

Colombian Senate Approves Marijuana Legalization Bill. The Senate on Tuesday approved a marijuana legalization bill on a 56-3 vote. The measure has already won initial approval in the Chamber of Representatives, but more votes are still required before it becomes law. Under the bill, authorities would have six months to set rules for the legal marijuana market. The bill would amend the constitution to support "the right of the free development of the personality, allowing citizens to decide on the consumption of cannabis in a regulated legal framework"and would mitigate "arbitrary discriminatory or unequal treatment in front of the population that consumes." The bill has won seven legislative votes, but because it is a constitutional amendment, it must be debated and voted on eight times over two calendar years. The next calendar year starts in less than a month.

Philippine Family Allowed to Correct Death Certificate Killed in Duterte's Drug War. An appeals court has granted Rodrigo Baylon's petition to modify the death certificate for his nine-year-old son, Lenin, who was killed by stray bullets in an operation where police in Caloocan City killed two women drug suspects. Lenin's official death certificate falsely claimed that he died from bronchopneumonia. The Reuters news agency has identified at least 14 other cases of drug war victims deaths' being falsely attributed to natural causes. Baylon's effort to correct his son's death certificate was rejected by a lower court in 2019, but the Court of Appeals agreed with him and ordered the cause of death changed to "gunshot wound," a ruling Baylon called "a small victory." Tens of thousands of people were killed in the bloody drug unleashed by then-President Rodrigo Duterte after he took office in 2016. 

Report on Options for Safe Injection Sites, Berkeley Could Decriminalize LSD, More... (11/28/22)

Irish opposition parties are talking drug reform, the Congressional Research Service issues a report on how to get around legal proscriptions on safe injection sites, and more.

LSD in blotter acid form. There is a proposal in Berkeley to decriminalize it. (Creative Commons)
Psychedelics

Berkeley Ponders Becoming First City to Decriminalize Not Just Natural Psychedelics But LSD, Too. A proposed ordinance to decriminalize natural psychedelic drugs such as magic mushrooms that has been under study in the city for the past three years may be expanded to include the synthetic hallucinogen LSD as well. A pair of Berkeley community health commissioners are promoting the move, saying that LSD meets the definition of a psychedelic and that "nobody deserves to go to jail for having a psychedelic experience." They have now rewritten the 2019 proposed ordinance to include LSD, prompting Decriminalize Nature, the original sponsors o the ordinance to now oppose it. The Community Health Commission is set to vote Tuesday on whether to refer the rewritten ordinance to the city council. At least 15 towns or cities across the US have passed natural psychedelic decriminalization or lowest priority ordinances, but Berkeley's would be the first to include LSD.

Harm Reduction

Congressional Research Service Provide Options for Allowing Safe Injection Sites The service, a nonpartisan agency that provides information on all kinds of issues to Congress, has issued a report highlighting the "uncertainty" of the federal government's position on safe injection sites, but also pointing out that the facilities could operate securely if Congress passed legislation barring the Justice Department from interfering with them, similar to actions it has taken to allow state medical marijuana laws to be implemented. The Trump administration Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block a Philadelphia safe injection site from opening, and the Biden Justice Department has so far shown much less enthusiasm for attacking the harm reduction facilities, but their fate remains uncertain. While the Biden administration is evaluating the legality of the facilities, CRS said: "Congress could resolve that uncertainty by enacting legislation. If Congress decided to allow supervised consumption sites to operate, it could consider the breadth of such authorization. One option would be to exempt supervised consumption sites from CSA control entirely" Or Congress could approve a temporary spending bill rider "to exempt from federal prosecution facilities operating in compliance with state and local law, as it has done with state-sanctioned medical marijuana activities." A third option "would be for Congress to impose specific registration requirements for supervised consumption sites under the CSA, as it has done for entities that administer medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction," CRS continued. The report is Recent Developments in Opioid Regulation Under the Controlled Substances Act.

International

.Two opposition parties are championing major reforms in drug policy, albeit with two distinct proposals. People Before Profit's Gino Kenny has filed a private members' bill to decriminalize the possession of up to seven grams of marijuana, while the Labor Party is proposing a broader drug decriminalization bill. Kenny said marijuana prohibition is "a waste of time and resources" and that "there is a groundswell of opinion for a different narrative and a different status quo." The Labor Party, meanwhile is set to file its drug decriminalization bill Wednesday, with proponents arguing again that persecuting drug users was a waste of the police and the courts' time. But Minister of State at the Department of Health Frank Feighan said that the current government follows a drug strategy that embodies a "health-led rather than a criminal justice approach to drug use," it has no plans to decriminalize any drugs. 

Iran Drug Executions Surge, Trump Baselessly Accuses Fetterman of Abusing Hard Drugs, More... (9/6/22)

Marijuana legalization initiatives in Arkansas and Missouri face challenges, California's governor signs a pair of medical marijuana bills, and more.

The ex-president baselessly accused Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman of abusing hard drugs. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

Arkansas Marijuana Legalization Initiative Campaign Tells State Supreme Court It Should Be on Ballot and Votes Counted. Responding to the State Board of Election Commissioners' decision to keep a marijuana legalization initiative off the November ballot because the measure's ballot title does not set a limit on THC in marijuana products, the initiative's backers, Responsible Growth Arkansas, told the state Supreme Court last Friday that it not only met but exceeded state requirements about informing voters about the subject of the initiative. After the commissioners initially blocked the measure, Responsible Growth Arkansas won a preliminary injunction keeping it on the ballot until the high court makes a final ruling, but the court also ruled that votes for and against the initiative would not be counted if it rules against the measure.

Missouri Lawmakers, Activists Urge Governor to Add Marijuana Legalization to Special Session, Urge Defeat of Initiative. A bipartisan group of lawmakers and activists called on Gov. Mike Parsons (R) to add marijuana legalization to the agenda of a legislative special session. They also announced the launch of a campaign to defeat a marijuana legalization constitutional amendment (Amendment 3) already approved for the November ballot. "Rather than settle for an ill-suited and monopolistic program shoehorned into our (state) constitution, the Missouri General Assembly has a unique opportunity to consider legislation that would legalize cannabis in a truly free market fashion," said state Rep. Tony Lovasco (R-O'Fallon). Some activists are unhappy with how the initiative would allow the state to continue to cap licenses to grow or sell marijuana and would give current medical marijuana businesses the first shot on the more lucrative recreational licenses. The special session begins next week.

Medical Marijuana

California Governor Signs Bill Protecting Medical Marijuana Patients from Healthcare Discrimination. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed into law Assembly Bill 1954, barring doctors from discriminating against patients based on a positive test for THC if the patient is a registered medical marijuana user. The bill adds that healthcare professionals cannot be punished for treating a patient who uses medical marijuana in compliance with state law. He also signed into law Senate Bill 988, which amends an existing law that permits registered patients to use medical marijuana products at hospitals. It would repeal a provision that currently requires that "health care facilities permitting patient use of medical cannabis comply with other drug and medication requirements."

Drug Policy

Donald Trump Baselessly Accuses Pennsylvania Democratic Senate Candidate of Abusing Hard Drugs. In a "Save America Rally" in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Saturday night, former President Donald Trump accused Democratic senatorial nominee Lt. Gov. John Fetterman of abusing hard drugs without presenting any evidence that backed his claim. "Fetterman supports taxpayer-funded drug dens and the complete decriminalization of illegal drugs, including heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, and ultra-lethal fentanyl," Trump said. "By the way, he takes them himself." Fetterman's campaign responded with a statement that said in part, "more and more lies from Trump and Dr. Oz, another day, but it's the same crap from these two desperate and sad dudes." Fetterman supports marijuana legalization and has spoken in favor of drug decriminalization, as well as safe injection sites, which is what Trump was referring to when he mentioned "taxpayer-funded drug dens," but there is no evidence he is a hard drug user. He is running against Dr. Mehmet Oz, whom Trump was stumping for. 

International

Iran Drug Executions Are on the Rise Again. Human rights groups say that drug executions are on the rise in Iran. Prior to 2017, Iran executed hundreds of drug offenders each year, but that toll dropped dramatically after the Islamic Republic amended its anti-drug law that year. Thirty persons or fewer were executed for drug offenses in 2018, 2019, and 2020, but that number jumped to 126 last year and had already hit 91 so far this year. Iranian human rights groups say the rise in drug executions is part of a broader spike in executions that "represents a rapid escalation in state-sponsored violence, occurring within a context of raising political unrest in the nation."

(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 Foundationtakes 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.)

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