California's governor signs another batch of marijuana bills, a Pennsylvania doctor and medical marijuana patient sues over the ban on medical marijuana patients buying handguns, and more.

Peyote buttons. The Native American Church is asking Congress for help to preserve the psychoactive cactus. (Creative Commons)

California Governor Signs Another Batch of Marijuana Bills. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Sunday signed into law 10 marijuana bills, including a bill to allow interstate marijuana commerce, a bill to provide employment protections for marijuana users, a bill to make it easier to seal records of prior marijuana convictions, and a bill barring localities from banning medical marijuana deliveries. For too many Californians, the promise of cannabis legalization remains out of reach," Newsom said. "These measures build on the important strides our state has made toward this goal, but much work remains to build an equitable, safe and sustainable legal cannabis industry. I look forward to partnering with the legislature and policymakers to fully realize cannabis legalization in communities across California."

Medical Marijuana

Pennsylvania Doctor Who Is Medical Marijuana Patient Sues ATF, FBI After Being Denied Right to Purchase Handgun. Dr. Matthew Roman, a registered medical marijuana patient, was turned down for a handgun purchase after truthfully telling the clerk that he had a medical marijuana card. The clerk, in compliance with federal law, refused to make the sale. Roman has now filed a federal lawsuit against the ATF and the FBI. In 2011, ATF issued a statement clarifying that a 1968 law barring anyone who uses an "unlawful" substance indeed applies to medical marijuana users even in states where it is legal. Roman's suit argues that "this strict, rigid, blanket prohibition violates the fundamental constitutional rights of tens of thousands of non-violent, law-abiding citizens, and thus violates the Second and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution." In 2016, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the plaintiff in a similar case.

Drug Policy

At Ohio Campaign Rally, Trump Again Calls for Death Penalty for Drug Dealers. The defeated former president used a campaign rally for Ohio Republicans in Youngstown Saturday to reiterate his call to execute drug dealers. Painting an oratorical portrait of a country awash in crime, he said that "much of the crime wave is caused by drug dealers who during the course of their lives, will kill an average of 500 American citizens not to mention the destruction of millions of American families who are so devastated by drugs. It's an invasion of crime," he added. "And remember much of the crime that we talk about is caused by drugs. And I'm calling for the death penalty for drug dealers and human traffickers." Trump falsely claimed that the death penalty for drug dealers would "reduce drug distribution and crime in our country by much more than 75 per cent. That's in one day

"Every place that has a real death penalty ... they don't have any people dying of drugs. I mean, literally nobody, because these drug dealers are smart," he said. "They say ‘you know what, if I want to keep doing drugs, if I'm going to continue to sell them, I'm not doing them in China. I'll go someplace else like how about the United States of America where nothing happens?’ We would reduce crime in our country by much more than 75 per cent in one hour. In one hour, the day it's passed, it's got to be meaningful, but you would reduce it in one hour," he claimed. "I say it because it's very hard. Nobody ever talks this way. Nobody talks about the death penalty. It's a horrible thing to say. Even for me, it's a horrible thing."

The remarks were met with cheers from the crowd, which also cheered a Q-Anon anthem played at the rally's end and raised their arms in a one-finger Q-Anon salute to it. Trump was campaigning for Republican senatorial candidate JD Vance, who he said was "kissing my ass" to maintain his support It is not clear what Vance's position on the death penalty for drug dealers is.

Psychedelics

Native American Church Leaders Ask Congress for Money to Support Peyote Cultivation and Preservation. Leaders of the Native American Church, whose members can lawfully use the psychoactive cactus peyote, held multiple meetings with members of Congress last week in a bid to garner federal funding for efforts to preserve the limited habitats where peyote can be grown. The supply of peyote is limited and under strain, and Native American Church members want assistance to ensure that it remains available for future generations. Peyote is a slow-growing crop that takes 10 years to mature, and it is stressed by climate change, unsustainable agricultural practices, and increase non-Native use of the hallucinogen.Specifically, church leaders and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) are lobbying lawmakers to allocate $5 million in funding from USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program or Interior’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs to provide compensation to landowners who agree to convert their property to protected peyote habitats.

International

Peru Reports Coca Crop Grew by 30 Percent Last Year. The area devoted to coca cultivation increased by more than 30 percent last year, reflecting rising coca cultivation in the country ever since 2015. Ricardo Soberon, head of the drug agency DEVIDA, said cultivation had reached 200,000 acres in 19 coca zones, up from 14 in 2020. Soberon said Peruvian producers were responding to high demand from the United States and Europe. "How can we act to reduce the supply if there is a growing demand to buy cocaine," he asked, pointing out that at a kilo of cocaine goes for $1100 in Peru, but nearly $45,000 in London or Paris. 

(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.)

New York City's child welfare agency is still holding marijuana use against parents--especially black ones--San Francisco's new DA is approaching misdemeanor drug prosecutions much like the old one she accused of being "soft on crime," and more. 

San Francisco's Tenderloin is a drug hot spot. (Creative Commons)

New York City Child Welfare Agency Still Citing Marijuana in Family Separations Despite Legalization and Policy Changes. Marijuana legalization went into effect in New York in March 2021, but court records and interviews with people involved show that the city's child welfare agency continues to use marijuana use by parents to take their children from them. Many interviewees were parents who said "it has felt impossible to extricate themselves from deeply rooted biases in the child welfare system surrounding marijuana use, specifically toward people of color." City child welfare authorities cite parental marijuana use to justify initial separations and prolong family separations by demanding drug testing or participation in drug treatment programs. All of the parents interviewed were black and all of them said marijuana was used against them because of their race. Child welfare said official policy is not to remove children solely on the basis of parental marijuana use, but families and attorneys say the agency does not follow the policy, pointing to petitions in which the only evidence of neglect cited was parental marijuana use.

Pennsylvania Announces Month-Long Pardon Project for People with Small-Time Marijuana Convictions. Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in the state, who is running on a platform of marijuana legalization, announced a one-time, large-scale project to pardon people with past minor and non-violent marijuana convictions. The state Board of Pardons will accept applications for the PA Marijuana Pardon Project from Thursday, Sept. 1, through Friday, Sept. 30.  People who were convicted of simple marijuana possession or possession of marijuana for personal use are eligible for the pardons if they have no other criminal convictions. Those who do have additional convictions are invited to apply for clemency. The state estimates that "thousands" of people will qualify for the program.

Harm Reduction

New York City Harm Reductionists Take to Streets on International Overdose Awareness Day to Demand Safe Injection Sites Statewide. At least nine people were arrested outside Gov. Kathy Hochul's Manhattan office Wednesday as hundreds of people rallied to advocate for an expansion of safe injection sites statewide as they marked International Overdose Awareness Day. Two safe injection sites operate in New York City, but none in the rest of the state. Protestors changed "no more drug war" and blocked traffic, leading to the nine arrests. "It’s exhausting to keep experiencing loss after loss after loss, and to keep fighting without a proper response to this epidemic from politicians, said Alicia Singham Goodwin, drug policy campaign coordinator at VOCAL-NY, which helped organize the action. There were also actions to mark the day in Boston, New Hampshire, and California, where a coalition of more than 50 harm reduction groups rallied across the state and criticized Gov. Gain Newsom (D), who just a week ago vetoed a safe injection site pilot project bill. "Governor Newsom not only used his pen to cosign our participants to death, he did so while blaming his choice on our harm reduction infrastructure," said Soma Snakeoil, executive director of Sidewalk Project.

Law Enforcement

San Francisco's New DA Prosecuting Few Misdemeanor Drug Cases. After city voters ousted former DA Chesa Boudin for being "soft on crime," they expected a crackdown from his successor, Brooke Jenkins. But while police have brought three times as many drug cases to her office than in Boudin's time, about two-thirds of them are not being prosecuted. When it comes to misdemeanor offenses such as simple drug or paraphernalia possession, 99 percent of those cases are being dismissed, sent to another law enforcement agency, or recommended for probation or parole revocation. Jenkins spearheaded the recall effort against Boudin, but she looks to be just as "soft on crime" as Boudin was.

(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.)

A leading Florida Democratic gubernatorial contender calls for marijuana legalization, a Maine law easing up on needle possession goes into effect, and more.       

Decriminalize Nature logo. The group's Oakland chapter is proposing community-based legal psychedelic sales.

Florida Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Christ Calls for Marijuana Legalization. US Rep. Charlie Christ, a leading contender for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination next year, called last Thursday for full marijuana legalization and the expungement of charges and existing sentences for misdemeanor and third-degree felony pot possession. The proposal is part of his Justice for All platform, which he said is designed to reform and rebuild the state's criminal justice system. "Our ‘Justice for All’ plan is my promise and commitment to the people of Florida that I won’t be a governor who turns a blind eye to injustices in our communities," Crist said. "That’s why this plan overhauls a system that has hurt and failed our people, predominantly Black and Brown Floridians, at almost every step of the way. We need to finally catch up to the will of the American people with marijuana legalization." Christ proposes using marijuana taxes for drug treatment and diversion programs, as well as support for public school teachers and police officers. A majority of Floridians favor marijuana legalization, but the Republican-nominated state political establishment has blocked any motion in that direction, including the state Supreme Court, which rejected two separate proposals to put adult-use legalization of marijuana on the 2022 ballot earlier this year. Christ earlier served as a Republican governor, and current Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is also seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, criticized him for failing to act on legalization when he had a chance.

Psychedelics

Oakland Activists Unveil Initiative to Allow Community-Based Psychedelic Sales. Oakland Decriminalize Nature activists have announced a "Go Local" legislative initiative under which people could legally purchase entheogenic substances from community-based local producers. The move aims to build on the city's current psychedelic decriminalization ordinance, passed in 2019. With the backing of a key city council member, the group is undertaking a one-year project to get feedback on how best to provide legal access to entheogenic plants and fungi—without replicating the crass commercialization of the state's legal marijuana markets. In doing so, "you actually do bring other values into the equation beyond profiteering, because it becomes part of the story that people want to support in the community," said Decriminalize Nature chair Carlos Plazola. The process will begin with a series of public workshops, with an eye toward presenting a measure to the city council next summer.

Drug Policy

DEA Proposes Massive Increase in Marijuana and Psychedelic Production for Research Purposes. In a notice published Monday in the Federal Register, the DEA noted "a significant increase in the use of Schedule I hallucinogenic controlled substances for research and clinical purposes" and proposed dramatic increases in the quotas for production of marijuana and psychedelics for research purposes. The agency is proposing doubling quotas for marijuana extracts, psilocybin and psilocin, quadrupling the quota for mescaline, and quintupling the quota for DMT. But especially striking is the proposed increase in MDMA production from 50 grams this year to 3,200 grams next year and the quota for LSD to increase by 1,150 percent to 500 grams. The quota for research marijuana is also jumping, up from 2,000 kilograms this year from 3,200 kilograms this year. The DEA is responding to massive increases in interest in research on psychedelics and marijuana.

Harm Reduction

Maine Law Decriminalizing Syringe Possession Now in Effect. A new state law that allows people to possess syringes with residual amounts of drugs to avoid being charged with drug possession and that also allows people possessing a dozen or more syringe to avoid prosecution went into effect Monday. Previously, possessing 11 or more needles, even unused, was a misdemeanor punishable by up to 354 days in jail. "Most Mainers agree that punitive drug laws don’t work and people who use drugs need access to safety, not criminal punishment, stigma, and heightened risk of illness and death due to preventable illnesses," said Whitney Parrish, policy and advocacy director with Health Equity Alliance. "We need a public health response to a public health crisis, and this law is a transformative step toward rejecting our failed responses to drug use, rooting policies in pragmatism and what works, and decriminalizing safety—and people who use drugs." Maine saw a record number of drug overdose deaths last year and is currently on track to surpass that this year.

(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.)

A New Jersey bill to ensure workers' compensation covers medical marijuana advances, a Caribbean island nation embraces psychedelic therapies and wellness, and more.

The Democratic presidential contender apologizes for anti-drug bills in the 1990s. (Creative Commons)

New Jersey Medical Marijuana Workers' Compensation Bill Advances. The Assembly Appropriations Committee passed A1708 on Monday, which would require employers and insurance carriers to "provide for coverage for costs associated with the medical use of cannabis" for workers' compensation claimants. The bill now heads for an Assembly floor vote.

Drug Policy

Biden Says Anti-Drug Policies Harmed Black Communities and It Was a ‘Mistake’ to Support Them. Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden is addressing his past support for tough crime and drug policies, saying the Black community was "really hurt" by them. "It was a mistake, and I’ve been trying to change it since then." He pointed to reducing the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity as one way he has attempted to make amends. "There’s so much we can do. And by the way, it’s because we’ve learned so damn much more," he said. "Look, unlike Trump, when I make a mistake I admit it. I admit it. And we can make it better. And I think the public is with us, I really do."

International

German Parliament Rejects Marijuana Legalization. The Bundestag has rejected a bill that would have created a "strictly controlled" adult-use legal marijuana market. The defeat came even as most Bundestag members belong to parties that favor some form of marijuana law reform, but opposition parties could not reach agreement on how to do it. The bill that failed was filed by the Greens, but had only the support of the Left Party.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Okays Psychedelic Program. The Caribbean island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has approved a measure that will allow for the "cultivation, research, processing, and prescription of psychedelic plant-based compounds including psilocybin, ibogaine, peyote, ketamine, dimethyltryptamine, ayahuasca and sassafras" for the purpose of psychedelic therapy. The country has already granted license to three companies to pursue research and wellness with psychedelics.

(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.