Wisconsin Democrats roll out a marijuana legalization bill, a Pennsylvania medical marijuana expansion bill passes the Senate, and more.

Members of the Sinaloa Cartel parading through San Gregorio Chemic in Chiapas state, near the Guatemalan border. (YouTube)

House Democrats Reintroduce Comprehensive Marijuana Reform Legislation. House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), along with Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) have reintroduced the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act (HR 5601), one of the most comprehensive marijuana reform bills ever introduced in the U.S. Congress.

Following efforts led by states across the nation, the MORE Act decriminalizes marijuana at the federal level. The bill also aims to correct the historical injustices of failed drug policies that have disproportionately impacted communities of color and low-income communities by requiring resentencing and expungement of prior convictions. This will create new opportunities for individuals as they work to advance their careers, education, and overall quality of life. The MORE Act also ensures that all benefits in the law are available to juvenile offenders.

The bill:

• Decriminalizes marijuana at the federal level by removing the substance from the Controlled Substances Act. This applies retroactively to prior and pending convictions, and enables states to set their own policy.
• Requires federal courts to expunge prior convictions, allows prior offenders to request expungement, and requires courts, on motion, to conduct re-sentencing hearings for those still under supervision.
• Authorizes the assessment of a 5% sales tax on marijuana and marijuana products to create an Opportunity Trust Fund, which includes three grant programs:
  • The Community Reinvestment Grant Program: Provides services to the individuals most adversely impacted by the War on Drugs, including job training, re-entry services, legal aid, literacy programs, The Cannabis Opportunity Grant Program: youth recreation, mentoring, and substance use treatment.  
  • Provides funds for loans to assist small businesses in the marijuana industry that are owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals
  • The Equitable Licensing Grant Program: Provides funds for programs that minimize barriers to marijuana licensing and employment for the individuals most adversely impacted by the War on Drugs.
• Opens up Small Business Administration funding for legitimate cannabis-related businesses and service providers.
• Provides non-discrimination protections for marijuana use or possession, and for prior convictions for a marijuana offense:
  • Prohibits the denial of any federal public benefit (including housing) based on the use or possession of marijuana, or prior conviction for a marijuana offense.
  • Provides that the use or possession of marijuana, or prior conviction for a marijuana offense, will have no adverse impact under the immigration laws.
• Requires the Bureau of Labor Statistics to collect data on the demographics of the industry to ensure people of color and those who are economically disadvantaged are participating in the industry.

The MORE Act has the support of a broad coalition of civil rights, criminal justice, drug policy, and immigration groups, including: the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Drug Policy Alliance, NORML, Better Organizing to Win Legalization, and Minorities for Medical Marijuana, the Center for American Progress, and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

Wisconsin Democrats File Marijuana Legalization Bill. State Sen. Melissa Agard and state Rep. Darrin B. Madison have introduced a marijuana legalization bill. This bill would allow Wisconsin to join thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia that have passed laws broadly legalizing cannabis in some form. Republican majorities in the legislature have blocked any progress on such bills in the past.

"I’ve said this time and time again – we know that the most dangerous thing about cannabis in Wisconsin is that it remains illegal," said Sen. Agard. "For the past decade, I have worked to undo Wisconsin’s antiquated and deeply unjust marijuana policies and put our state on a prosperous path forward.  

"Legalizing cannabis is a matter of public safety and racial justice here in Wisconsin," said Rep. Madison. "People in Wisconsin indulge in cannabis use and deserve the ability to buy safe cannabis and use it responsibly without being criminalized. According to the ACLU, Black people were 4.24 times more likely to be arrested than white people in Wisconsin during 2018. Similar disparities exist in convictions, leading to immeasurable harm to black communities in Wisconsin. The bill we’ve introduced today lays a solid foundation for those that have been harshly convicted for non-violent possession charges and the ramifications of those convictions." 

Under the proposal, adults in Wisconsin aged 21 and older could legally have marijuana in their possession. The measure would also lay the groundwork for a regulated cannabis market to launch in the state.

Medical Marijuana

Pennsylvania Senate Passes Bill to Expand Medical Marijuana Program. The Senate has approved a bill that would expand the state’s medical marijuana program by allowing growers to sell directly to patients despite ongoing federal cannabis prohibition. The bill was approved last Wednesday on a 44-3 vote.

Sen. Chris Gebhard and a bipartisan coalition of senators introduced Senate Bill 773  earlier this year. The current state medical law authorizes licenses for 25 businesses growing and processing medical marijuana, but only five of those licensees can sell directly to patients through vertically integrated dispensaries. SB773 would allow all medical marijuana growers and processes to sell directly to patients.

The bill now goes to the House, where it may become a vehicle for broader reforms, from allowing for patient home cultivation to converting the bill into a full-on legalization bill. But changes too profound could endanger an amended bill's prospects back in the Senate, which would have to address any changes.

"There will certainly be vigorous discussions there on what shape this bill will come back to the Senate in said Sen. Dan Laughlin (R). "If this becomes a vehicle for adult use, I doubt that it would pass this chamber. However, I think if they do add home-grown to this bill, it would strengthen the bill and I believe that we would be able to get it through this chamber as well."

Drug Policy

San Francisco Mayor Proposes Mandatory Drug Treatment for Cash Assistance Programs. Trying a new tack in the city's ongoing effort to get a grip on open air drug use and an overdose crisis, Mayor London Breed is now proposing that city residents with addiction issues who receive cash assistance be required to undergo drug treatment in order to keep receiving payments. The proposal would have to be approved by the Board of Supervisors.

Under the proposal, people who apply for County Adult Assistance Programs would have to undergo screening for substance use disorder and participate in a treatment program if they're found to have an addiction. People who refuse or who "do not successfully engage in treatment" would not be eligible for cash assistance.

"We fund a wide range of services, and we want to help people get the care they need but under current state law, local government lack tools to compel people into treatment," Breed said. "This initiative aims to create more accountability and help get people to accept the treatment and services they need."   

Some, but not all, supervisors are on board. Board President Aaron Peskin demurred, saying that Breed should focus on stopping dealers and open-air drug markets rather than "drug testing people on welfare."

"If she can't find the way to prevent several hundred brazen criminals from selling deadly drugs -- how does she think she will find the resources to drug test thousands of welfare recipients?" Peskin said

Drug Testing

Washington Department of Corrections Sued Over Faulty Drug Tests, Harsh Punishments. Columbia Legal Services (CLS) filed a class action complaint against the Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC), challenging the widespread practice of imposing harsh discipline on people in DOC facilities based on unreliable drug testing. People have faced months in solitary confinement, delays in release from prison, loss of visitation, and other cruel punishments after colorimetric tests have returned "presumptive" positive results on incoming mail and other possessions.

Clifton Bell, et al. v. Washington State Department of Corrections, filed in Thurston County Superior Court last Friday, alleges that DOC’s actions violate plaintiffs' rights under Washington State law and the Washington State Constitution.Plaintiff Gregory Hyde was placed in administrative segregation (another term for solitary confinement) for almost five months after a presumptive positive test result. The item that tested positive for drugs was a packet of crossword, word search, and Sudoku puzzle books sent by Mr. Hyde’s father and stepmother.

After facing months of irreversible disciplinary actions, DOC returned the books in question to Mr. Hyde with no explanation or expungement of the infraction. His father’s name remains on DOC’s records as having mailed drugs to the prison.

"I think DOC is using its power to punish people who can’t fight back," said Mr. Hyde."My elderly father just wanted to send me some puzzle books. Now they’re saying he’s a drug dealer. Now my father is too far away to see because I got transferred to a different facility. My father is impoverished and on a fixed income. I think it’s an abuse of power. I don’t think DOC should be doing this."

Manufactured by companies like DetectaChem and MMC International, the colorimetric tests (also called roadside tests or field tests) are designed to be initial screening testsand the manufacturers are clear that they require confirmatory testing to be valid. Similar test technologies have been found unlawful in many settings, including in other state prison systems. In 2021, a Massachusetts court forced that state’s DOC to stop using similar colorimetric tests from another manufacturer, with the court describing them as "only marginally better than a coin flip"at identifying drugs. The tests in that case were found to deliver false positives nearly 40 percent of the time.

International

Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel Lauded by Chiapas Townspeople for Rescuing Them from Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Townspeople in San Gregorio Chemic, Chiapas, near the Guatemalan border, cheered a 20-vehicle convoy of Sinaloa Cartel fighters as they paraded through the city after having driven out the rival Jalisco New Generation Cartel (JNGC).

JNGC fighters had seized the town and blocked the only highway access to it for nearly two weeks, killing and extorting local residents along the way. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced over the weekend that he was sending 800 National Guard troops to the area. He also implored local youth not to be seduced by the Sinaloa Cartel.

'It turns out that on the border with Guatemala, in Comalapa, towards Motozintla, there are organized crime groups that are fighting for the territory (Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel) to have spaces, to store drugs that enter from Central America, to have control of that territory and they will confront each other, fortunately there have not been many murders,' López Obrador said during his daily presser with the media.

A local Catholic priest said that local residents may have been intimidated into cheering on the Sinaloa Cartel. "Others will say that they have already allied themselves with drug traffickers. They line them up," he said. "It's not that they want to. There will be people who do it on their own, but people are being forced and that is not worth it. People are being forced to defend one cartel, to fight for another and they are being used as cannon fodder."

A House panel approves the CURE Act to protect past marijuana users from federal employment discrimination, the new Thai minister vows to roll back marijuana decriminalization, and more.

Marijuana is on the agenda on Capitol Hill. (Creative Commons)

Revised, Renamed Version of Marijuana Banking Bill Filed, Committee Vote Set for Next Wednesday. The bill aiming to pave the way for providing financial services to state-legal marijuana businesses known as the Safe and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act has now been revised and renamed the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act and is headed for a key Senate committee vote next Wednesday.

Sponsored by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Steve Daines (R-MT), the revised bill was filed Wednesday, is set for mark-up in the Senate Banking Committee, and after that, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says he intends to "bring it to the floor with all due speed."

But despite apparent clear skies in the Senate, the future is a bit cloudier in the House, where a key committee chairman has not committed to allowing it a vote.

Among the key changes to the bill: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation gets one year instead of 180 days to develop guidance for financial institutions, regulators must have a "valid" reason for requesting or requiring the termination of bank accounts for any business, regulators must work with state and federal counterparts to create rules or guidance for pot businesses to increase deposit accounts within two years, FDIC must conduct a biennial survey and report to identify barriers to accessing deposit accounts for small-and medium-sized businesses, and the words "diversity and inclusion" have been remove from section titles, even though required reports on data concerning small and minority-, veteran- and women-owned businesses are still in the bill.

Federal Bill to Remove Marijuana as Barrier to Federal Employment, Security Clearances Wins Committee Vote. The House Oversight and Accountability Committee voted Wednesday to approve the Cannabis Users' Restoration of Eligibility (CURE) Act (HR 5040). The bill would prevent the denial of federal employment or security clearances based on a candidate’s past marijuana use.

The bipartisan bill cosponsored by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Nancy Mace (R-NC), and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) passed on a 30-14 vote, with 10 Republicans joining Democrats in approving it.

The version of the bill approved in committee removed a provision that blocked federal employment and security clearance denials for current marijuana use, leaving the bill addressing only past marijuana use.

International

Scottish Safe Injection Site Pilot Scheme Location Revealed. The proposed safe injection pilot project for the country will be located at the Hunter Street Health Center in the east end of Glasgow. The center already provides a heroin assisted-treatment service.

The safe injection site is becoming a reality after the country's top lawyer officer said users would not be prosecuted for simple possession offenses and the United Kingdom in government in London has said it would not block the scheme.

Glasgow authorities just received a report that found safe injection sites have been shown to "reduce public injecting and discarded needles, and remove barriers to, and improve the uptake into, treatment and care." The report also noted that the Hunter Street Health Center site "offers a discrete base, closely located to the city center, and implementation of the enhanced drug treatment service within the center has not caused significant challenges for the community."

Thailand to Restrict Marijuana Use, New Prime Minister Says, After Decriminalization Last Year. After thousands of pot shops have opened across the country since it decriminalized marijuana a year ago, the new Thai prime minister is vowing to restrict the use of marijuana to medical purposes.

"The law will need to be rewritten," Prime Minister Srettha Thavasin said. "It needs to be rectified. We can have that regulated for medical use only," he said, adding that there can’t be a middle ground for recreational use.

Srettha's Pheu Thai Party ran a hardline anti-drug campaign and vowed to undo decriminalization, but his party is part of an 11-party governing coalition, and some of his partners have different ideas. One partner party, for example, wants tighter control over the industry but not reverting to classifying the plant as a drug.

The industry is not that concerned because it is convinced the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. "More regulation will be good as we don’t want a free-for-all anyway," Poonwarit said Poonwarit Wangpatravanich, president of the Phuket Cannabis Association. "Cannabis is here to stay, but in what status is not yet clear."

A proposed California initiative would warn fentanyl dealers they could be charged with murder in the event of an overdose death, clashes kill four Colombian soldiers ahead of scheduled peace talks with leftist rebels, and more.

Did profits matter more than lives for Emergent BioSolutions? (Creative Commons)

Arizona Pot Workers On Strike Against Curaleaf. Workers at Curaleaf's Dispensary Midtown in Phoenix voted more than a year ago to unionize and seek a labor agreement with the company, but that has not happened yet. Instead Curaleaf has refused to begin union negotiations and fired worker Christian Tallabas for his union activity, so on Friday the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99 led a day-long Unfair Labor Practices strike.

"It really grinds my gears how we have corporate from Curaleaf standing right behind this window," said Tallabas at a rally in front of the dispensary. "I personally think it is really disgusting and you should see the look on their faces. "We deserve to know what percentage of our tips we make when our customer service is making this company millions of dollars," he said.

"Not only do we not have a contract despite it being over a year, but there's so many different labor violations already on the books that the National Labor Relations Board has found that Curaleaf is responsible for," said Curaleaf employee Nick Fredrickson.

Joining the UFCW and Curaleaf workers at the rally were representatives of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Opiates and Opioids

California Initiative Would Warn Fentanyl Dealers They Could Be Charged with Murder. Organized by parents who have lost children to drug overdoses, an initiative that would warn fentanyl sellers they could be charged with murder in the event of a fatal overdose has been filed with the state attorney general. Judges would be required to tell people convicted of, or who pleads guilty or no contest to, possession of illicit drugs for sale, this:

"You are hereby advised that it is extremely dangerous and deadly to human life to illicitly manufacture, distribute, sell, furnish, administer, or give away any drugs in any form, including real or counterfeit drugs or pills. You can kill someone by engaging in such conduct. All drugs and counterfeit pills are dangerous to human life. These substances alone, or mixed, kill human beings in very small doses. If you illicitly manufacture, distribute, sell, furnish, administer or give away any real counterfeit drugs or pills, and that conduct results in the death of a human being, you could be charged with homicide, up to and including the crime of murder."

The proposed initiative also includes criminal penalties of 10 to 12 years for a subsequent conviction or guilty plea.

The initiative campaign comes after grieving parents were unable to get a bill to the same effect through the legislature. The bipartisan bill had 41 cosponsors but died in the Senate Public Safety Committee.

"This is a disgusting display of a legislative committee holding hostage 40 million people and their safety and security, all in the name of political, ideological gameplay," fumed Matt Capelouto, who lost a daughter to a fentanyl overdose. "What all of us want here is to protect people from the enduring, the never-ending pain of someone being killed by a drug dealer selling poison. And they won’t do it. They won’t even pass a bill that contains a warning — a freaking warning."

The initiative takes the form of a statutory amendment, which means it will need some 874,641 valid voter signatures within 180 days of the beginning of signature-gathering, or by the first week of July 2024 at the latest.

Harm Reduction

Narcan Maker Blocked OTC Sales for Years in Bid to Boost Profits. Emergent BioSolutions, the manufacturer of the opioid overdose reversal product Narcan, has finally allowed it to be sold over-the-counter (OTC), but only after delaying for five years.

"I’m not sure that OTC is the answer," Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi, then Emergent’s top executive, told investors during a November 2018 earnings call. In December 2018, the company’s then president, Robert Kramer, cautioned "against a rush to an over-the-counter solution for this current crisis," citing concerns about Narcan awareness and insurance coverage.

But the head of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said the bottom line was profits. "I think the problem is that the financial model doesn’t appear to be working for the company, so they’re not motivated to do it," FDA head Robert Califf said at a 2022 conference. "We can’t order companies to go over-the-counter."

Emergent only relented late last year after a competitor prepared its own bid for OTC approval of naloxone. That came after Emergent spent years using the courts and regulatory agencies to stop other naloxone products from entering the market. It had also moved to lock up lucrative state contracts, "hindering broader distribution of the antidote while the opioid crisis worsened," the Washington Post reported Monday.

"It’s a strategy that’s cost lives," said Jennifer Plumb, a doctor and Democratic state senator in Salt Lake City who serves as medical director of the Utah naloxone program.

International

Four Colombian Soldiers Killed in Clash with FARC Dissidents Ahead of Peace Talks. Peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC dissidents known as Estado Mayor Central were set to begin Monday, but their prospects were clouded by a weekend clash that left four soldiers dead.

The Estado Mayor Central broke with the FARC in 2016, when the main body of the leftist guerrilla group signed a peace agreement with the government and has been involved in coca and cocaine trafficking. They had agreed in April to hold talks with the government about a ceasefire.

The soldiers were killed in a clash in Narino, close to the Ecuadorian border and the region of the country with the most coca production. Colombia is the world's largest producer of coca and cocaine. Control over the lucrative drug traffic has fomented conflict in the area for decades, where left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, and apolitical drug cartels spend their time fighting each other and the Colombian state.

Philadelphia's city council takes preemptive steps to block dispensaries from transforming into adult-use retailers, New York regulators open the way for multistate operators to get into the retail weed business, and more.

Competition for New York marijuana retailer licenses is going to heat up. (Creative Commons)

California Assembly Approves Bill to Stop Employers Asking About Past Marijuana Use. The Assembly on Wednesday approved Senate Bill 700, which would bar employers from asking job applicants about past marijuana use. The bill has already passed the Senate, but because of technical amendments made in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, it must go back to the Senate for a final concurrence vote.

"It is unlawful for an employer to request information from an applicant for employment relating to the applicant’s prior use of cannabis," the bill says, although it lays out certain exceptions, such as for public safety-sensitive and law enforcement positions.

The measure builds on a law passed last year that bars employers from penalizing most workers for using marijuana in compliance with state law. That law makes it

unlawful for employers "to discriminate against a person in hiring, termination, or any term or condition of employment, or otherwise penalizing a person, if the discrimination is based upon" off-duty marijuana use or drug tests that reveal cannabinoid metabolites.

New York Regulators Open Adult-Use Retail Sales Licenses to Multistate Operators. The Office of Cannabis Management, which regulates legal marijuana in the state, voted Tuesday to allow state medical marijuana operators to apply for adult-use retail marijuana licenses, clearing the way for multistate operators to enter the largest weed market on the East Coast.

Multistate operators snapped up most of the 10 "registered organization" permits to seek the new licenses. The Office will accept applications for retail or microbusiness licenses from October 4 though December 23.

"Today marks a pivotal step toward expanding and sustaining the state’s medical program and creation of an economically viable and equitable adult-use cannabis industry in New York," said Barry Carmody, a spokesperson for the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association (NYMCIA).

Not everybody was as happy with the decision as NYMCIA. "Today’s Cannabis Control Board meeting opened the door for big cannabis to come in and compete with New York-based businesses," the Cannabis Association of New York (CANY), which represents small and state-based businesses, said in a statement.

Philadelphia City Council Overrides Mayor's Veto of Bill to Block Medical Marijuana Dispensaries from Transforming into Adult-Use Retail Outlets. Adult-use marijuana is not yet legal in Pennsylvania, but the city council passed a bill to block existing medical marijuana dispensaries from transforming themselves into adult-use retail outlets once that happens. Mayor Jim Kenney (D) then vetoed that bill, but now the city council has voted unanimously to overturned that veto.

The bill says that medical marijuana dispensaries "shall not include a person authorized to dispense marijuana for recreational or other nonmedical purposes."

Kenney's veto came because he believes the bill "creates unnecessary complexity" by setting special rules that only apply to a small section of the city (where dispensaries are) and because it was premature given that marijuana is not yet legal in the Keystone State. "Furthermore, the mayor wants to avoid creating barriers to local businesses who want to expand their current portfolios in the event that the laws change," said Sarah Peterson, a spokesperson for the administration.

But in overriding the mayor's veto, the council adhered to a tradition of voting in support of members of districts on matters of land use and streets in their district.

International

Australian Federal Opposition Seeks to Overturn Drug Decriminalization Law in Australia Capital Territory. New laws in the Australia Capital Territory (Canberra) that decriminalize the possession of personal use amounts of drugs go into effect next month, but some federal politicians want none of it and are now trying to overturn it.

Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash of the national Liberal Party has filed a bill to do that—a private senator's bill called the Australian Capital Territory Dangerous Drugs Bill 2023 – which will be debated next month.

Likewise, federal opposition leader Peter Dutton declared himself dumbfounded by decriminalization. "I am totally shocked and dismayed at what the ACT government is doing," he said. "As a former police officer, I know that our hard-working law enforcement agencies work tirelessly to keep drugs off the streets and to keep our community safe, yet here we see this crazy government legislation that gives a green light to drug use and drug importation to Canberra.  The ACT government is rolling out the red carpet for drug use and more crime. It is effectively welcoming more ice, heroin, cocaine, MDMA and speed on our streets."

Canberra politicians, however, remain unbowed.

In a statement, ACT Labor senator and former chief minister Katy Gallagher said the laws were a "matter for the ACT Assembly".

"The ACT Assembly is a mature parliament, democratically elected by ACT voters," said ACT Labor senator and former chief minister Katy Gallagher. "I have spent my career in public life supporting the rights of Canberrans to determine the laws, policies and programs under which they are governed, and I will continue to do so despite the attempts by the federal opposition to try to undermine them."

Canberra Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee is also standing up for her constituency. "The Canberra Liberals will always stand up for territory rights and I am very concerned about any step to diminish that," she said. I do not agree with this action taken by the federal Coalition to seek to overturn legislation that was passed by the ACT Assembly."

She said while she disagreed with decriminalization, it was up to local voters—not national politicians—to make the decision by replacing the current government.