A Kentucky medical marijuana bill faces a looming Senate deadline, Vermont lawmakers file a number of drug reform bills, and more.

The Rio Grande River. There be cartels on the other side, and the GOP wants to call them "terrorists." (C)

Kentucky Medical Marijuana Bill Wins Senate Committee Vote, Must Pass Full Senate Tomorrow or Die. A bill to legalize medical marijuana in the state, Senate Bill 47, was approved by the Senate Licensing and Occupations Committee on Tuesday. It must pass the Senate by Thursday, the last day of the session before the veto period, or it dies. If it passes the Senate, it would then go to the House, which returns for a final day of legislative action on March 30. The House has passed medical marijuana bills twice in recent years and is thought to still have support for it.

Drug Policy

Vermont Lawmakers File Four Different Drug Policy Reform Bills. Drug policy reform is on the agent in Montpelier this session, with four separate drug policy reform bills already filed. House Bill 423 would decriminalize the possession of personal use amounts of all drugs, as would Senate companion legislation, Senate Bill 119. The bills would also decriminalize "dispensing" drug amounts below the personal use threshold as well as establishing a pilot drug checking program.

Two other bills focus specifically on psychedelics. House Bill 439 would effectively legalize the possession of psilocybin, mescaline, and peyote by removing them from the states definition of hallucinogenic drugs, while Senate Bill 114, would remove only psilocybin from the state’s definition of hallucinogens.

The first three bills are destined for judiciary committees in the respective chambers, while the fourth bill is before the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. If any of them pass out of the legislature, they face possible vetoes from Gov. Phil Murphy (R).

Foreign Policy

House Republicans File Bill Designating Mexican Drug Cartels Terrorist Organizations. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and 20 House Republicans have introduced a bill designating four Mexican drug trafficking organizations as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs). The four groups are the Gulf Cartel, the Cartel Del Noreste, the Cartel de Sinaloa, and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion. The Drug Cartel Terrorist Designation Act would also require the Department of State to issue a report to Congress within 30 days of enactment on the cartels listed above and any additional cartels that meet the criteria for designation as an FTO. For each additional cartel that meets the criteria of an FTO, the Department of State is required to designate each of those cartels as an FTO within 30 days after the report is submitted to Congress. Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) has threatened to file similar legislation in the Senate but has yet to do so.

International

Germany to Move Forward with Marijuana Legalization After "Very Good Feedback" from the European Union. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said Tuesday that the government would bring a revised marijuana legalization proposal before legislators "in the next few weeks" after receiving "very good feedback" from European Union (EU) officials. Germany has conditioned its advance of marijuana legalization on approval from the EU to ensure it would not put it in violation of international obligations. Lauterbach said some changes would be made to the bill to "take into account European regulations and what should or should not be notified," but did not specify what those changes would entail. 

Indiana marijuana reform bills appear dead in the water, Lindsay Graham will file a bill designating Mexican cartels as terrorists organizations, and more.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is ready to go to war with Mexican cartels. (senate.gov)

Indiana Marijuana Legalization, Medical Marijuana Bills Not Moving. Lawmakers filed both a marijuana legalization bill, House Bill 1039 and a medical marijuana bill, Senate Bill 237, in January, but neither of them is moving. The legalization bill has been referred to the House Committee on Public Health, and the medical marijuana bill has been referred to the House Committee on Health and Provider Services, but neither has seen any action and none is scheduled.

Minnesota Marijuana Legalization Bill Wins Two More Committee Votes. The marijuana legalization bill, House File 100, has been approved by the House Economic Development Finance and Policy Committee, marking the 12th committee it has passed. Meanwhile, the Senate version of the bill, passed its ninth committee, bringing the bill ever closer to final floor votes in each chamber. Gov. Tim Walz (D) is pushing lawmakers to get it done this session, and lawmakers are confident it will happen.

Psychedelics

Washington Senate Approves Scaled-Back Psychedelic Research Bill. The Senate has approved Senate Bill 5623, which originally would have set a therapeutic psychedelic services regime similar to the one now in place in Oregon, but was amended to merely creating a task force to promote research into psilocybin and developing a path toward legal access to the drug. After being amended, the bill passed the Senate on a 41-7 vote, and now heads to the House.

Foreign Policy

Lindsay Graham to File Bill Designating Cartels as Terrorist Groups, Setting Stage for Military Force. Sen, Lindsay Graham (R-SC) said Monday that he plans to file a Senate bill that would designate Mexican drug trafficking organizations as terrorist groups, clearing the way for the US to use military force against the heavily-armed cartels. Appearing on Fox New in the wake of the killing of two Americans by apparent drug gang members in Matamoros last weekend, Graham said: "I would do what Trump did. I would put Mexico on notice. If you continue to give safe haven to fentanyl drug dealers, then you’re an enemy of the United States. Seventy to one hundred thousand people have died from fentanyl poisoning coming from Mexico and China and this administration has done nothing about it," he claimed falsely. Citing an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last week by former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr, Graham unveiled his plan for the bill: "[Following Bill Barr’s idea,] I’m going to introduce legislation, to make certain Mexican drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations under U.S. law and set the stage to use military force if necessary to protect America from being poisoned by things coming out of Mexico." Barr's op-ed called for "a far more aggressive American effort inside Mexico, including a significant U.S. law-enforcement and intelligence presence, as well as select military capabilities."

California legal marijuana sales revenues decrease for the first time ever, a fourth Michigan city endorses natural psychedelic decriminalization, and more.

Attorney General Merrick Garland says DOJ is "still working" on marijuana policy. (DOJ)

Attorney General Says DOJ Still Working on Federal Marijuana Policy Approach. In an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland (D) said the Justice Department is "still working on marijuana policy" and that a broader review of marijuana's scheduling status was being led by federal health officials. "I think that it’s fair to expect what I said at my confirmation hearing with respect to marijuana and policy, that it will be very close to what was done in the Cole Memorandum," he said, referring to an Obama-era policy that directed federal prosecutors to generally not interfere with state cannabis laws but which was later rescinded by Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions. "We’re not quite done with that yet,"Garland said of the marijuana policy review. Garland added that the Justice Department had prioritized finalizing a memo of crack cocaine prosecutions, which has now been completed.

In Sign of Legal Industry's Woes, California Marijuana Sales Declined for First Time Since Legalization. According to the state Department of Tax and Fee Administration, legal marijuana sales totaled $5.3 billion last year, down 8.2 percent from the $5.77 billion in 2021. That marks the first time sales have decreased since the state launched its recreational marijuana market five years ago. Industry observers point to high taxes and the limited number of pot shops for the decrease. As one Emerald Triangle pot farmer, Johnny Casali of Huckleberry Hill Farms explained: "Most of us farmers have been trying to tell the state [regulators] that the marketplace is imploding,"says Casali. "The drop in retail sales means the customer is tired of paying the exorbitant taxes and are now buying it from a friend of a friend or the guy on the corner."

Medical Marijuana

Tennessee Medical Marijuana Bill Killed in Committee. No medical marijuana for you, Tennesseans! At least not yet. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on a near party-line vote Wednesday to kill Senate Bill 1104, which would have set up a system of medical marijuana access in the state. Meanwhile another medical marijuana bill, House Bill 172,was "taken off notice" last week, meaning it is effectively dead for this session. Maybe next time.

Psychedelics

Fourth Michigan City Decriminalizes Natural Psychedelics. Move over, Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Hazel Park—Ferndale has now joined the group of Michigan cities to embrace psychedelic reform. On Monday night, the city council voted unanimously to approve a resolution decriminalizing "entheogenic plants and fungi," such as psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, and its chemical compound, DMT. The resolution makes the "investigation and arrest of persons for planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with, or possessing Entheogenic Plants or plant compounds which are on the Federal Schedule 1 list" the lowest law enforcement priority for the city The ordinance was pushed by the local Decriminalize Nature affiliate, Decriminalize Nature Ferndale. 

An Idaho medical marijuana initiative didn't get past the signature gathering stage, US correctional populations declined in 2021, and more.

Chewing coca leaf in Bolivia. Bolivia and Colombia want the UN to remove coca from prohibited drug list (Creative Commons)

New Hampshire Marijuana Legalization Bill Wins Initial House Vote. The House voted 234-127 Wednesday to send a marijuana legalization bill, House Bill 639, to the House Ways and Means Committee, clearing a path for it to win final passage in the House. The bill would set up a system of taxed and regulated marijuana commerce with the Liquor Commission in charge. Cultivation would be taxed at 15 percent, with most revenues going toward reducing the state's pension liability and the state's education trust fund. The House has repeatedly passed legalization bills in recent years, only to see them die in the Senate. Gov. Chris Sununu (R) has also been an opponent; he says he does not expect a legalization bill to reach his desk this year.

Medical Marijuana

Idaho Medical Marijuana Initiative Campaign Comes Up Short on Signatures. Kind Idaho, the group behind an effort to get a medical marijuana initiative on the 2024 ballot, announced Wednesday that it had come up short on signatures. The group said it had managed to collect only about 10 percent of the nearly 70,000 valid voter signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. It cited organizational problems and a lack of national support for the effort.

Psychedelics

Minnesota Lawmakers File Bills to Create Psychedelics Task Force to Plan for Legalization. Lawmakers have filed identical bills in the House and Senate that would create a task force to study the potential legalization of substances such as ibogaine, MDMA, and psilocybin. Senate File 1954 and House File 1884 would establish a Psychedelic Medicine Task Force to "advise the legislature on the legal, medical, and policy issues associated with the legalization of psychedelic medicine in the state." The task force "survey existing studies in the scientific literature on the therapeutic efficacy of psychedelic medicine in the treatment of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder, and any other mental health conditions and medical conditions for which a psychedelic medicine may provide an effective treatment option." The bill says the number of substances under its purview "may include but is not limited to the use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), psilocybin, mescaline, LSD, bufotenine, DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, 2C-B, ibogaine, salvinorin A, and ketamine."

Sentencing

US Correctional Population Continued to Decline in 2021. The total correctional population in the United States fell 1 percent from yearend 2020 to 2021, according to statistics in Correctional Populations in the United States, 2021 – Statistical Tables and Probation and Parole in the United States, 2021, two reports released Thursday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The number of persons held in prison or jail or supervised in the community on probation or parole decreased by 61,100, down to an estimated 5,444,900. Overall, an estimated 1 in 48 U.S. residents age 18 or older were under correctional supervision at yearend 2021, down from 1 in 47 in 2020. Over the 10-year period from 2011 to 2021, the U.S. correctional population declined 22 percent. A drop in the number of persons supervised in the community on probation accounted for 65 percent of this overall change, while decreases in the number of persons incarcerated in state and federal prison accounted for 26 percent of the change.

In 2021, the U.S. incarceration rate increased for the first time in 15 years. However, the rate was still lower than the pre-COVID-19 pandemic rate of 810 per 100,000 in 2019. The increase in the incarceration rate was driven by a 16percent growth in the number of persons housed in local jails, which held an additional 87,200 persons from 2020 to 2021. In 2021, the community supervision rate fell to a 21-year low of 1,440 persons on probation or parole per 100,000 adult U.S. residents, after declining each year since it peaked at 2,240 persons per 100,000 in 2007. At yearend 2021, an estimated 3,745,000 adults were under community supervision, down 136,600 persons from January 1, 2021.

Changes in the demographic characteristics of the US correctional population were small from 2020 to 2021 but were greater than 20 percent over the decade from 2011 to 2021. The number of males in the total correctional population declined less than 1 percent (down 28,300) from 2020 to 2021, while the number of females decreased 3 percent (down 32,800). Compared to 2011, the number of males under correctional supervision in 2021 declined by 21percent and females decreased 25 percent. Over that same decade, the number of black persons under correctional supervision decreased more than 27 percent, while the number of Hispanic persons declined 21 percent and whites declined 20 percent.

International

Bolivia and Colombia Ask UN to Remove Coca from List of Prohibited Narcotics. The government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced Wednesday that it and the government of Bolivia will jointly ask the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) to drop coca leaf from its list of prohibited substances and acknowledge the plant's traditional uses in Andean culture. "Bolivia and Colombia consider it is the moment to once again put this issue on the table," said Colombian vice-minister for multilateral affairs Laura Gil. "To remove the coca leaf - the leaf, not cocaine - from the prohibited substances list," she said. Bolivian President Luis Arce said last month that his government would seek for coca leaves to be removed from the list so they can be commercialized.