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Boston Leads the Way on Bringing Social Equity to the Legal Marijuana Industry [FEATURE]

Massachusetts voters legalized marijuana in November 2016, and since then, the city of Boston has become a national leader in attempting to insert a measure of social justice into the nascent legal marijuana industry. That takes the form of social equity programs: A deliberate effort to redress the harm done predominantly to communities of color in the prosecution of the war on drugs, by ensuring community members an opportunity to participate in the legal marketplace.

Shekia Scott, Cannabis Business Manager for the city of Boston (Boston.gov)
In Boston, social equity programs were instituted by the passage of the 2019 "Ordinance Establishing Equitable Regulation of the Cannabis Industry in the City of Boston," which created the Boston Cannabis Board (BCB)and the Boston Cannabis Equity Program. That made Boston "the first US city to prioritize cannabis industry diversity," as journalist John Jordan wrote at the time.

"Our statewide equity program was also the first in the nation," said Shekia Scott, who as Cannabis Business Manager for the Mayor's Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion runs the Equity Program. "Before this, I was director of communications outreach for the state Cannabis Control Commission, and after coordinating that, Commissioner Shaleen Title and I got Boston Councilor Kim Janey to continue an ordinance first introduced by then-Councilor [now US representative] Ayana Pressley. Working with her and her staff, Shaleen and I contributed language to the ordinance, broadening the scope of what the state was doing," she told the Chronicle.

The city program was initially funded with one million dollars -- more than the state's equity program -- and now relies on a percentage of proceeds from marijuana taxes to fund its operations.

Under the ordinance, the BCB handles licensing of marijuana businesses, while the Equity Program sets out criteria for licensees to become Certified Boston Equity Applicants, which provides them with access to financial and technical assistance.

To qualify as an equity applicant, someone must meet at least three of eight criteria based on race, income, residency, veteran status, and having a past arrest or conviction for marijuana or being the child of someone busted for weed.

Being black or brown with a marijuana arrest record and having lived in Boston for at least three years would qualify you; so would being a white veteran and city resident who doesn't make a lot of money.

"Equity applicant status gets you unlimited access to technical assistance and a knowledge base," Scott explained. "If you need a website or help with an app, we connect you to contracted technical assistance partners who can complete those projects or help you complete them. You also have unlimited access to grants of up to $49,999. You also have access to conversations with investors, and it gives you a 1:1 priority in licensing. The BCB will always approve licenses on a 1:1 basis."

The city is nearly but not quite there, though. Of the 26 marijuana businesses currently operating in the city, 12 belong to equity applicants.

"There is no cap on licenses, but the city is shooting to have about 52 retail licenses," said Scott. "Half of them will be equity applicants."

Or maybe even more. There is some talk about changing the 1:1 ration to 2:1 in favor of equity applicants, but economic conditions are not currently very conducive for making that move.

"We would have to amend the ordinance and get city council approval, so we will start a community process with testimony from all stakeholders, but it's a bit of a hard sell right now because we're seeing a slowing down of applications for licenses," Scott said. "We're not receiving a massive number of applications, equity or not. If we had an overwhelming backlog, that would be a better selling point."

One of the eligibility criteria for the Boston equity program is participation in one of two state equity programs, Scott explained.

"One is economic empowerment, but that ended in 2018 with a number of applications accepted," she said. "And there is also a social equity program, which is now on its first cohort. The state's program is purely educational and technical assistance, with one track for entrepreneurs and two tracks for workforce development. And if you're interested in opening an ancillary business, such as an architect, a law firm, point-of-sale systems, website development, general business consulting and the like, there is a track for that."

The state social equity program also provides benefits for equity applicants, such as the waiving of application fees and seed-to-sale processing system fees, and the halving of annual renewal fees.

Scott is proud of the way her city and her state have been in the vanguard in the realm of repairing the damage done by drug prohibition.

"Boston and Massachusetts have a number of things that make us leaders in the space," she said. "We were one of the first cities in the country to have an equity ordinance and the state is the first in the country to have an equity program. "We see a lot of states just take our regulations and our statutes word-for-word," she said.

"The continued reinvestment of tax funding helps keep the program alive, and we have the only technical assistance program in the country that is not just education-based but project-based. If you need an architect, I can pair you with an architect, and the program pays for it. It's important not to just have equity language, but to make sure it is enacted and to have accountability," she said.

On social equity in the legal marijuana sphere, Shekia Scott and the city of Boston are leading the way. Others have already taken note; perhaps more should.

Buckeye Voters Could Make Ohio the 24th Legal Marijuana State on Tuesday [FEATURE]

On Tuesday, Ohioans will head to the polls to address a pair of initiatives, both of which seem set to energize progressive voters in an off-year election and whose synergy should propel both to victory. Issue 1 is an abortion rights initiative, while Issue 2 would legalize marijuana.

Recent polls show both initiatives winning. The abortion rights initiative is polling at 65 percent in an Ohio Northern poll and 58 percent in a Baldwin Wallace University Ohio Pulse poll, while Issue 2 is polling at 65 percent in the Ohio Northern poll and 59 percent in a Public Policy Polling survey.

If approved by voters, the marijuana legalization initiative would allow people 21 and over to possess up to 2 ½ ounces of marijuana and 15 grams of extracts. The initiative also includes a home grow provision allowing for up to six plants, with a limit of 12 per household, but landlords would be allowed to bar home grows in their properties.

The initiative would impose a 10 percent retail sales tax on marijuana purchases above and beyond state and local sales taxes. Marijuana tax revenues would go to public safety, road improvement, drug treatment and prevention, with more than 30 percent reserved for social equity investments for people and communities "disproportionately affected by Ohio's marijuana policy." (That is the only social equity provision in the initiative; it does not include any provisions for expungement of marijuana-related criminal records -- a task presumably to be left to the legislature.)

Issue 2 would create a Division of Marijuana Control inside the state Department of Commerce and would place the state's existing medical marijuana regulators in charge of licensing and setting rules for implementing the new law. Existing medical marijuana operations would be able to obtain new adult-use licenses, and regulators will also have 40 new licenses to hand out for smaller commercial cultivators and 50 licenses for new adult-use retail outlets. No one would be able to hold more than eight retail licenses or one cultivator license, but cultivators would be allowed to expand their size by four- or five-fold to serve a growing customer base.

Where retail or cultivation operations can operate will be up to municipal authorities, who could prohibit them from operating, but who could not force closure or limitation of existing marijuana facilities.

And Issue 2 would allow employers to fire or refuse to hire employees who fail marijuana drug tests.

It has been a long and winding road to Election Day for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which has spent the last several years navigating the state's labyrinthine initiative process. It had to successfully complete two signature-gathering campaigns before taking the issue to the legislature, which could enact the measure but refused to do so, and then undertake another signature-gathering campaign to be able to finally bring the issue directly to the voters.

It's about time, the campaign says in its official argument, which leads with an economic argument: that legal marijuana will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue for the state. The coalition put the figure at $400 million a year, while an Ohio State University study estimated recreational marijuana's annual tax revenue potential at between $276 million and $403 million, after the industry has been operating for five years.

But it is not just an economic issue, the coalition argues. Passing the initiative would be a remedy to the state's "failed marijuana policy," the group said. "Our current marijuana laws can ruin lives based on one mistake. This measure will end unfairly harsh punishments for minor marijuana offenses, freeing local law enforcement to focus on serious, violent and unsolved crimes. Passing this measure will create a legal marijuana market in Ohio with clear, regulated and enforced safety standards, thus drying up the black market."

Because Issue 2 takes the form of a statutory initiative and not a constitutional amendment, the legislature will be able to attempt to revise or reverse it. And the current Republican-dominated legislature is indeed hostile to the initiative. It is up to Ohio voters to show lawmakers just what marijuana policy they want, and the more they can run up the margin, the stronger their statement will be.

Chronicle Book Review: Can Legal Weed Win?

Can Legal Weed Win? The Blunt Realities of Cannabis Economicsby Robin Goldstein and Daniel Sumner (2022, University of California Press, 211 pp., $24.95 HB)

California has the world's largest legal marijuana market -- and it's in trouble. The Prop 64 initiative that legalized weed in the Golden State in 2016 was written without serious input from people already in what was a thriving gray market and, along with a very high tax and regulatory burden and a local opt-out option, its structure wreaked havoc on players in the already-existing industry.

Now, seven years later, the gray market has largely gone away, but the black market still dominates, accounting for 60 to 70 percent of all marijuana sold in the state. Can California's legal marijuana industry survive, let alone thrive? And can the legal market ever drive out the black market?

Maybe not, the authors Can Legal Weed Win? argue in a brisk and cheeky tome that throws gallons of cold water on projections that legal marijuana is going to be a gold mine, either in California or nationally. Economists Robin Goldstein, director of the UC Davis Cannabis Economics Group and Daniel Sumner, a Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics apply the cold, hard principles of the dismal science to the effervescent economics of marijuana market prognostication, and the results are sobering indeed.

Using a multitude of data points from the Weedmaps dispensary and product tracker to great effect, the pair of pot economists are able to come up with figures on nationwide average retail prices ($40 an eighth ounce before taxes), the cheapest retail states (Washington, Oregon, Colorado) and a panoply of other fascinating figures. They also examine costs of doing business, such as complying with regulatory requirements and the cost of energy (especially relevant for indoor and greenhouse operations that account for the majority of legal weed).

It's bad news for the California legal marijuana industry, especially once federal legalization occurs and, presumably, a national marijuana market emerges. That is because California has high regulatory and energy costs, making it uncompetitive with lower-cost states, such as Oklahoma and, once legalization arrives in them, other Plains States.

Where there may be a place for California weed is in the high-end, location-driven market, where labels like Humboldt-grown or Sonoma sun-grown can provide the cachet to hold onto some premium market share. But if you're going to go boutique, you've got to have some mystique. Kern County Colas probably are not going to cut it.

Goldstein and Sumner also share some deflationary thoughts about the potential size of a legal national market -- especially the amount of dollars it can generate. In contrast to industry touts and giddy prognosticators who have projected that the current national legal market of about $20 billion a year will grow to $85 billion or even $130 billion by 2030, the pot economists look further out -- to 2050 -- and project that the dollar size of the market then will most likely be smaller than it is now.

That is because even though the size of the consumer market will dramatically increase, the price of weed will even more dramatically decrease. They attribute that prediction to four factors: the impact of national legalization, a legal national and even international weed trade, technical innovation, and the application of agribusiness techniques (scale, specialization, financing, and management improvements). Trade and efficiency are going to drive prices into the ground, maybe not as low as the $20 a pound producers can get for dried organic parsley or the $10 a pound that fancy tea fetches but much closer to $100 a pound than the much higher pound prices used to make those rosy projections.

As Goldstein and Sumner sum up: "Prices will fall. Be ready."

As for winning over the black market, that may be the only way to do it -- with prices so low there is not enough profit for black marketeers to compete. Because otherwise, if legal prices remain higher than black market prices (as they are now), most consumers are going to stick with that guy they've been getting weed from for years.

This is a fun book. It is irreverent and breezy but based on hard numbers and the laws of economics, and it is full of strategems to try to survive what is going to be a turbulent industry. If you are interested in how legal marijuana works, you want to read this book; if you are in the marijuana business or thinking about investing in it, you need to read this book.

Washington State Makes Drug Possession a Gross Misdemeanor [FEATURE]

Washington state is bordered on the north by British Columbia, which has decriminalized drug possession (at least for the next five years) under a federal waiver in January, and on the south by Oregon, which decriminalized drug possession by popular vote in 2020. But Washington state lawmakers this week made it clear that they would not be following their neighbors down the decriminalization path.

Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signs the "Blake fix" drug sentencing bill. (wa.gov)
There has been an opening for drug decriminalization in the Washington ever since the state Supreme Court threw out the state's felony drug possession statute in 2021 in Washington v. Blake because it did not require the defendant to knowingly possess forbidden drugs. Rather than have no drug possession statute at all, the legislature that year produced a bill to make it a misdemeanor. That bill was set to expire on July 1.

This year, as the clocked ticked down, lawmakers debated a variety of possibilities from decriminalization to re-felonization, and at the session, a conference committee produced a version of the drug possession law, Senate Bill 5536, that called for making possession a gross misdemeanor (punishable by up to 364 days in jail, as opposed to 90 for a misdemeanor) and skimped on funding for treatment. No Republicans voted for the final version of the bill, saying it was soft on crime.

Democrats and progressives were angered by the imposition of the gross misdemeanor penalties and the levels of treatment funding. Enough disaffected Democrats voted no to kill it.

"The notion that this bill is soft on crime is ridiculous. The House caved to pressure to escalate the penalty back up from a misdemeanor to a gross misdemeanor, with diversions allowed only with the consent of the prosecutor," said Allison Holcomb, director of political strategies for the ACLU of Washington. "A gross misdemeanor carrying a penalty of up to 364 days and a $5,000 fine is harsher than the felony penalty that applied before the Blake decision. The standard range for a felony [drug possession] offense was 0-60 days for the first three offenses, lower even than a misdemeanor -- 90 days."

The session ended last month without a new drug law and that left open the possibility that the state would soon have no drug possession law at all. Gov. Jay Inslee (D) then called a special session to meet this week with the drug possession law as its sole agenda item.

On Tuesday, the legislature passed a revised version of SB 5536, and Gov. Inslee signed it into law that night.

The bill signed into law maintains drug possession as a gross misdemeanor, but limits jail terms to 180 days -- not the 364-day term typical for that level offense. And it creates a new offense of public drug use with the same penalties. For both offenses, the maximum fine was lowered to $1,000.

It also includes $44 million to expand treatment and recovery efforts, more than double the $20 million allocated in the original bill.

But to appeal to conservatives, it also allows localities to continue to prohibit harm reduction services, including needle exchanges and safe injection sites, and it continues to give courts and prosecutors some discretion in a new pretrial diversion program, including jailing defendants who repeatedly reject drug treatment.

"This bill is not designed to fill our jails, it's designed to fill our treatment centers," said Inslee as he signed the bill. "And the investments we're making will create treatment resources in small townships and big cities. This is a statewide solution to a statewide problem."

Some progressives who voted for the bill still had concerns. State Sen. Yasmin Trudeau (D-Tacoma) said the state was still relying on the criminal justice system to bully people into treatment that too often isn't there.

"We don't have the infrastructure to offer services to everyone who will need it, and that gives me great pause," Trudeau said.

But veteran drug reformer state Rep. Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland) called it "a fair compromise that addresses urgent concerns about public disorder but follows evidence-based practices in helping people in need."

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.

MN Marijuana Legalization Bill Advances, VA Psilocybin Rescheduling Bill Advances, More... (1/31/23)

The White House punts on marijuana banking reform, Virginia bills to provide tax breaks to the marijuana industry and gear up for legal sales advance, and more.

The psilocybin molecule. A Virginia bill would reschedule it, making possession a misdemeanor instead of a felony. (CC)
Marijuana Policy

White House Defers to Congress on Marijuana Banking Reform. The Biden administration has no plans to announce any executive action on marijuana banking reforms and says that Congress is leading the way on the issue. When queried about it last week at a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "I don’t have any new policy announcements to make from here. As you know, this is something that Congress is working on. We understand that there’s interest in legislation and action—but I would refer you to Congress because, again, this is again what they’re working on." That's what Congresswas working on up until the end of the last session, but now Republicans control the House, potentially complicating prospects for reform.

Minnesota Marijuana Legalization Bill Wins Yet Another Committee Vote. The bill to legalize marijuana,  House File 100, has passed one more committee hurdle, being approved by the Senate Jobs and Economic Development Committee on a 5-3 vote. That's the third Senate committee to approve the bill so far, and the bill is also moving in the House. Lawmakers said it could take up to a dozen committee votes before the measure heads for House and Senate floor votes.

Virginia Bills to Start Adult Sales, Reform Taxes Advance. Two marijuana reform bills from state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D) advanced last Friday. Senate Bill 1095, which would decouple the state's marijuana industry from the federal tax code and take state tax deductions it is currently barred from, passed the Senate unanimously, while the House version of the bill passed the House Appropriations Committee on a 7-1 vote. Senate Bill 1133, which would clear the way for retail marijuana sales, is also moving, passing out of the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee to the Finance and Appropriations Committee.

Psychedelics

Virginia Bill to Reschedule Psilocybin, Establish Advisory Board Advances. After House lawmakers bottled up a bill that would have allowed for the medicinal use of psilocybin in severe mental health cases, reform-minded colleagues approved a bill, Senate Bill 392, that would simply move psilocybin from Schedule I to Schedule III and create an advisory board to plan how to set up access to psilocybin services. Rescheduling psilocybin would make possession a misdemeanor offense; it is a felony under current law. It won a committee vote in the Senate Education Committee's Health Professions Subcommittee. 

A Federal Bill to Help Small Pot Growers Survive Is Filed [FEATURE]

It is tough times for the West Coast's small-time legal marijuana growers. In California, they are being battered by low prices, a tax and regulatory environment that favors larger operations, and a thriving black market. Next door in Oregon, small marijuana farmers are facing similar issues and are especially buffeted by falling wholesale prices. The pound of weed that earned an Oregon farmer $1,470 two years ago was going for $696 last month, a more than 50 percent decline since 2020.

paired small scale cannabis and commercial vegetable farm, Humboldt County, CA (https://calag.ucanr.edu)
Another obstacle small operators in both states face is being unable to sell their products outside of their own states. Since marijuana remains illegal under federal law, such sales are prohibited. But now, a pair of congressmen representing the two states have filed legislation that seeks to provide some help for beleaguered small growers by removing barriers to interstate sales.

On Wednesday, Reps. Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), founder and chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, filed the Small and Homestead Independent Producers (SHIP) Act to allow small farmers and producers to operate across state lines -- once the end of federal marijuana prohibition is achieved. The bill specifically aims to support the smallest family farmers.

The bill says: "A small cultivator of marijuana and a small manufacturer of a marijuana product may ship and sell marijuana or a marijuana product to an individual located in that State or another State in which possession of marijuana or the marijuana product is lawful by that individual, using the Postal Service or any private or commercial 10 interstate carrier."

It defines "small cultivators of marijuana" as those growing less than one acre outdoors, 22,000 square feet of canopy in greenhouse operations, or 5,000 square feet of indoor canopy. "Small manufacturers of marijuana" are defined as those producers of edibles, tinctures, salves, or concentrates who gross less than $5 million per year.

"Too often, the federal government falls behind, and the gears of Congress work too slowly to keep up with the pace of a changing economy," said Representative Huffman in a press release announcing the bill. "Under my bill, folks in our state will be able to ship their products straight to consumers when the antiquated federal prohibition on cannabis is finally repealed. As large, commercial cannabis operations squeeze out local producers from the market, this legislation is critical for farmers to survive and expand their small businesses. We cannot leave our smallest family-farmers behind under full legalization."

Representatives of small growers said being able to sell direct to consumers would be a major benefit for them. The Origins Council, founded in 2019 to promote sustainable development within California's "legacy" marijuana growing regions and to promote appellations for such areas much like the ones adopted by the international wine industry, is on board.

"The direct-to-consumer model is a necessary resource for any small-scale craft-producing community that is deeply tied to the land on which it creates -- whether it produces wine, whiskey, cheese, beer, cannabis, or honey," said Genine Coleman, Executive Director of Origins Council. "The legacy cannabis community that has worked so long in the shadows should have the opportunity to join the ranks of other artisan producers across the United States and enjoy the privilege of connecting personally with their adult customers. As is always true with each step cannabis takes towards legality, the greater community stands to reap enormous benefit in the process."

So are groups representing small marijuana farms in Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity counties, California's original Golden Triangle.

"For small craft producers in nearly any context, direct-to-consumer shipping is the critical tool that enables a diversified market to survive and thrive. Cannabis is no different," said Ross Gordon, Policy Director of Humboldt County Growers Alliance (HCGA) and Policy Chair of The Origins Council. "The SHIP Act moves the conversation beyond the question of who can get a license to cultivate cannabis and addresses the practical reality of building an equitable and accessible market for small cannabis producers."

"As a legacy cannabis producer and family farmer located in the heart of the Emerald Triangle, I see the direct-to-consumer retail pathway as the only future of my small farm, and indeed -- of all rural communities like my own whose cultural heritage is rooted in craft cannabis cultivation and artisanal medicine making," said Karla Avila, owner and operator of Flowerdaze Farm in Trinity County and Executive Director of the Trinity County Agriculture Alliance.

The bill is also being endorsed in California by the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, the Nevada County Cannabis Alliance, the Sonoma County Growers Alliance, and the Big Sur Farmers Association. Outside of California, it's supporters include the Massachusetts' Farm Bug Co-op, the Maine Craft Cannabis Association, the Vermont Growers Association, and the Washington Sun & Craft Growers Association.

But it is not going to happen until marijuana is legalized at the federal level, a prospect looking increasingly dim in this Congress. Whether progress comes in the next Congress will depend to a large degree on the results on November's mid-term elections. If the Democrats can hold the House and increase their numbers in the Senate, the odds are good. If not, not so much.

Medical Marijuana Update

A Nebraska initiative campaign hands in signatures, no more medical marijuana sales tax in the Garden State, and more.

Nebraska

Nebraska Medical Marijuana Initiative Campaign Turns in Signatures. Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana has handed in some 90,000 raw signatures to try to put its a pair of linked medical marijuana initiatives on the November ballot. It needs roughly 87,000 valid voter signatures to qualify, leaving the campaign with a very slim buffer to account for any invalidated signatures. But after a court ruling this week, the campaign may need to have the support of five percent of voters in 38 of the state's 93 counties. That issue is currently being litigated, but as things stand, the requirement is still in effect.

New Jersey

New Jersey Ends Sales Tax on Medical Marijuana Products. Beginning July 1, medical marijuana patients no longer have to pay a state sales tax on their purchases. New Jersey had been one of the few states that imposed the sales tax on medical marijuana but passed legislation in 2019 to begin phasing it out. Now it is gone. "Removing state sales tax on medicinal cannabis is consistent with Governor Murphy and the legislature's intent to prioritize patients and improve affordability," said Jeff Brown, Executive Director of the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission. "As the sales tax has been phased out… patients have been able to spend less on their medicine, further ensuring patients are prioritized over recreational consumers."

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Governor Signs Marijuana Banking and Insurance Reform Bill into Law. Gov. Tom Wolf (D) on Monday signed into law House Bill 311, which includes provisions to protect banks and insurers who work with state-legal medical marijuana businesses. The measure does not protect banks and insurers from any federal repercussions but sends a signal to the financial services industry that it won't face repercussions under state law. The new law says that a "financial institution authorized to engage in business in this Commonwealth may provide financial services to or for the benefit of a legitimate cannabis-related business and the business associates of a legitimate cannabis-related business." And ditto for insurance companies.

White House Drug Strategy Embraces Harm Reduction, But Prohibitionist Impulse Remains Strong [FEATURE]

The Biden White House sent its first National Drug Control Strategy to Congress on April 21. It breaks positive new ground by explicitly acknowledging harm reduction measures to prevent overdose and blood-borne diseases among drug users. At at the same time, though, it also relies heavily on the destructive and counterproductive pursuit of failed prohibitionist drug policies -- and funds more law enforcement much more heavily than harm reduction.

The strategy comes out just weeks after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that drug overdose deaths hit an all-time high of 106,000 in the year ending last November. The administration is responding with what it calls a "whole of government" approach to the crisis.

"The strategy focuses on two critical drivers of the epidemic: untreated addiction and drug trafficking," the White House said. "It instructs federal agencies to prioritize actions that will save lives, get people the care they need, go after drug traffickers' profits, and make better use of data to guide all these efforts. Saving lives is our North Star, and the 2022 National Drug Control Strategy calls for immediate actions that will save lives in the short term and outlines long-term solutions to reduce drug use and its associated harms, including overdose."

While the strategy includes long-familiar categories such as drug treatment, prevention, supply reduction, and criminal justice and public safety, it also emphasizes an evidence-based approach, "building a recovery-ready nation," and for the first time, harm reduction.

"The Biden-Harris Administration's efforts focus on meeting people where they are and building trust and engagement with them to provide care and services," the White House said. "Specifically, the strategy calls for greater access to harm reduction interventions including naloxone, drug test strips, and syringe services programs. It directs federal agencies to integrate harm reduction into the US system of care to save lives and increase access to treatment. It also calls for collaboration on harm reduction between public health and public safety officials, and changes in state laws and policies to support the expansion of harm reduction efforts across the country."

The strategy calls for "the coordinated use of federal grant funds for harm reduction," and the administration last year broke new ground with a $30 million grant program for harm reduction providers. But in a sign of continued reliance on traditional law enforcement priorities, the strategy also envisions a $300 million increase for Customs and Border Patrol and another $300 million increase for the DEA. Those figures were released as part of the White House's FY 2023 budget released last month.

"Responding effectively to the illicit production, trafficking, and distribution methods of domestic criminal organizations and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) is a significant challenge and remains a Biden-Harris Administration priority," the White House said.

That kind of talk suited mainstream Democrats just fine.

"Illicit drugs cause immeasurable pain and loss in our communities. As the Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, I've pressed for an updated federal plan to tackle them," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). I've been clear that the plan must include a more coordinated approach to cracking down on drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations, especially the ways in which they launder and protect their ill-gotten gains using US rule of law and financial networks; and more and better cooperation with our international partners to reduce the supply of precursor chemicals used to manufacture illicit drugs and to levy tougher sanctions against transnational drug syndicates. I'm pleased to see my priorities reflected in this new strategy, and I look forward to working with the Biden administration to deliver on those priorities."

Whitehouse also lauded the strategy's "tearing down barriers to treatment, including expanding access to life-saving naloxone and medication-assisted treatment; improving our data collection systems to better understand the effects of our intervention efforts."

Reform advocates offered praise -- sometimes lukewarm -- for the administration's tentative embrace of harm reduction, but blasted its reliance on tired, failed drug war paradigms.

In its analysis of the strategy, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) called it "a major step forward" and lauded the administration for "focusing on ensuring access to treatment for substance use disorders and highlighting the crucial role of harm reduction services." But WOLA also noted that, "when measured against the scale of the nation's overdose problems and the urgency of the needs, Biden's new plan appears quite timid."

WOLA also warned that the strategy's "positive innovations regarding investment in treatment and harm reduction strategies risk being undermined by a continued commitment to the kinds of policies that have exacerbated the present crisis and that continue to absorb the lion's share of resources, namely, drug criminalization at home and wildly exaggerated expectations for what can be achieved through supply control efforts abroad."

Similarly, the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute called the attention to harm reduction a "positive," but noted steps that it did not take, such as making the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone available over-the-counter and repealing the so-called Crack House Statute that stands in the way of federal approval of safe injection sites.

"On a negative note," Cato observed, "the remainder of the new report calls for doubling down on interdiction, border control, and other law enforcement measures aimed at curtailing the supply of illicit drugs -- as if repeating the same failed strategies of the past half century, only with more gusto, will somehow work."

So there it is: The Biden administration's first crack at a national drug strategy deserves kudos for its embrace of harm reduction and evidence-based approaches, but beyond that, it is pretty much more of the same old same old.

MD MJ Legalization Referendum Bill Advances, SD Senate Approves Legalization, More... (2/24/22)

A California bill would provide protections to workers for off-duty marijuana use, the New Mexico Supreme Court rules medical marijuana purchases are not subject to a state tax, and more.

(Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

California Bill Would Protect Marijuana Users from Employment Discrimination. Assembly Member Bill Quirk (D) has filed a bill, Assembly Bill 2188, that would bar employers from punishing workers for off-duty marijuana use. The bill would end discrimination against marijuana-using employees based on testing for metabolites, the non-psychoactive substances that can be detected in drug tests for days or weeks after marijuana use. The bill is supported by California NORML, which noted that "testing or threatening to test bodily fluids for cannabis metabolites is the most common way that employers harass and discriminate against employees who lawfully use cannabis in the privacy of their own homes."

Maryland House Gives Initial Approval to Marijuana Legalization Referendum Bill. The House on Wednesday gave initial approval to House Bill 1, which, if passed, would place before voters the following question: "Do you favor the legalization of adult -- use cannabis in the State of Maryland?" If voters approved it, the General Assembly would then be charged with writing the rules covering "use, distribution, possession, regulation, and taxation of cannabis." The House also gave initial approval to House Bill 837, which includes measures to implement legalization if voters approve it. It sets 1.5 ounces as the legal possession limit for adults and decriminalizes between 1.5 and 2.5 ounces, as well as automatic expungement for past conduct made legal by the law. Final House floor votes on the two bills could happen as soon as Friday.

South Dakota Senate Approves Marijuana Legalization Bill. The state Senate on Wednesday approved a marijuana legalization bill, Senate Bill 3, which would let people 21 and over possess up to an ounce purchased from licensed retailers. It does not allow for home cultivation. The bill now heads to the House. South Dakota voters approved a marijuana legalization initiative in 2020, only to have it thrown out by the state Supreme Court. The organizers of that campaign are currently in a signature gathering campaign for a 2022 initiative, which would include home cultivation.

Medical Marijuana

New Mexico Supreme Court Rules Medical Marijuana Purchases Cannot Be Taxed. The state Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed a lower court ruling that marijuana purchases by medical marijuana patients are not subject to the state's gross receipts tax. Producers had sought tax refunds in 2014 and again in 2018, only to be denied by the state Taxation and Revenue Department. In 2020, the state Court of Appeals ruled that medical marijuana should be treated like prescription drugs, which are not taxed. The Supreme Court upheld that ruling.

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