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MN Supreme Court Rules Weed Odor No Cause for Search, Scottish Safe Injection Site Plans, More... (9/13/23)

Nebraska advocates kicked off their third campaign for a medical marijuana initiative on Wednesday, a pair of psychedelic amendments to the defense spending bill will get a House floor vote, and more.

The odor of marijuana alone is not probable cause for a vehicle search, the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled. (Creative Commons
Marijuana Policy

Minnesota Supreme Court Rules Weed Odor Alone Does Not Justify a Vehicle Search. The state Supreme Court has ruled that that the mere odor of marijuana does not establish probable cause for police to search a vehicle. The state now becomes the latest marijuana legalization state to see such a ruling.

The ruling came in the case of a Litchfield man was pulled over in 2021 for having "too many auxiliary lights on his grill." Two police officers claimed they smelled marijuana coming from an open car window. The man denied having marijuana and police search of the vehicle turned none up, but it did turn up a small amount of methamphetamine, for which the man was charged.

The trial court noted that the man was not driving erratically, nor was there any evidence of a crime in plain view when police approached the car and ruled the search inadmissible. (Even though the state did not legalize marijuana until this year, at the time of the search, medical marijuana was legal and pot possession was decriminalized.

The state appealed the decision to the appeals court and lost and then to the state Supreme Court, where it has now lost again.

Medical Marijuana

Nebrasksa Medical Marijuana Proponents Hope Third Time Is the Charm. Backers of a proposed 2024 medical marijuana ballot initiative kicks off their campaign in Lincoln Wednesday. Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana is hoping the third time is the charm after a first effort was sidelined by the state Supreme Court and a second effort ran short on signatures after losing a major donor.

The group’s co-chairs, State Senator Anna Wishart and former State Senator Adam Morfeld, are meeting with patients, families, caregivers, and volunteers in an initial fundraiser.

To qualify for the 2024 ballot, campaigners will need to come up with 87,000 valid voter signatures by the first week of July 2024.

Psychedelics

House Committee Clears Psychedelic Amendments to Defense Bill for Floor Vote. The House Rules Committee on Tuesday declared that two psychedelic amendments to the defense spending bill are in order, meaning they can advance to House floor votes. But the committee also blocked separate marijuana-related amendments from advancing.

One of the psychedelic amendments, from Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), would allow active-duty service members suffering from PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury to participate in clinical trials of the efficacy of psychedelic substances. The second, from Crenshaw and Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), would appropriate $15 million in funding for the Pentagon's Psychedelic Medical Clinical Trials.

While Republican-led committee advanced the psychedelic amendments sponsored by fellow Republicans, it blocked the marijuana amendments that came from Democrats. One would have ended the disqualification of potential enlistees for THC; the other would have barred federal funds for marijuana testing upon enlistment.

International

Scottish Safe Injection Site Could Be Approved Within Weeks. After Scotland's Lord Advocate, the Scottish government's highest legal official, confirmed that users of a proposed safe injection would not be prosecuted, the proposed pilot scheme is set to be approved by local officials—the next step toward its realization.

Scottish drugs minister Elena Whitman told members of the Scottish Parliament Tuesday that the plan would go before the city’s integrated joint board of council and health officials on 27 September, where it is expected to be approved and put out to public consultation.

While the Conservative government in London sets drug policy for the United Kingdom, it is the Scottish Lord Advocate who decides whether to prosecute.

Lord Advocate Bain said she believed it would "not be in the public interest to prosecute drug users for simple possession offences committed within a pilot safer drugs consumption facility."

The Scottish government and the Glasgow city council, both of which are led by the Scottish National Party, have been supportive of a pilot project for years, but now Scottish Labor, the Scottish Liberal Democrats, and the Scottish Greens are all on board, and the Scottish Tories have agreed not to try to block the proposal.

Federal Appeals Court Restricts Detroit Vehicle Seizures, NC Tribe Votes Yes on Weed, More... (9/8/23)

New York City settles with a Black woman whose child was seized because of her marijuana use, the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals reins in vehicle seizures in Detroit, and more.

The Vancouver safe injection site. Pressure is growing for one in Glasgow, Scotland. (vch.ca)
Marijuana Policy

North Carolina Tribe Approves Marijuana Legalization Measure. Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve a referendum permitting the use and sale of marijuana on tribal land. According to preliminary results, the measure was passing with 70 percent of the vote.

The tribe had already approved regulations for the cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes but has not yet begun engaging in sales of medical marijuana products.

The state does not permit marijuana to be used or sold for either medical or recreational purposes, and US Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) urged members to reject the referendum: "To allow our citizens to travel only a few miles to buy and use this common gateway drug … would be irresponsible, and I intend to stop it." To that end, he filed a federal bill last week to without certain federal funds from states and tribes that permit adult use marijuana.

New York City Settles with Mother Whose Child Was Seized Over Marijuana Use. The city's child welfare agency agreed to pay $75,000 plus attorney's fees to a Black woman after child welfare workers forcibly removed a woman’s newborn baby based solely on a positive test for marijuana that she did not consent to. The woman, Chanetto Rivers, alleged racial discrimination.

"I didn’t just bring this lawsuit for myself, but for every Black family that ACS [the Administration for Children's Services] has ripped apart," Rivers said in a statement. "They know what they did was wrong." 

An ACS spokesperson said that marijuana use by itself will not be a basis for charging child abuse or neglect. "A case should not be indicated solely because a parent is using marijuana, but instead CPS should assess the impact, if any, on the safety and well-being of the child," the spokesperson said. 

That is in line with stated ACS policy: "Positive marijuana toxicology of an infant or the mother at the time of birth is not sufficient, in and of itself, to support a determination that the child is maltreated, nor is such evidence alone sufficient for ACS to take protective custody of (remove) a child or file a case in Family Court."

But Rivers' lawsuit alleges that child welfare workers continued to interfere in her parenting even after two judges ordered the agency to reunite her and her child. She was subjected to "needless court proceedings" for months, the suit alleged.

"We are glad that Ms. Rivers was able to call attention to ACS’s deplorable history of racial discrimination against marginalized families," her attorney said. "ACS continued to rely on outdated racist stereotypes and tropes about Black parents."

Asset Forfeiture

Federal Court Severely Curtails Detroit Civil Asset Forfeiture Program. Wayne County, which includes Detroit, has long been notorious for seizing cars from people it claims were involved with drugs or prostitution, but now a federal appeals court has severely curtailed that program.

The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the program's severe restrictions on property owners' ability to appeal seizures violated the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. The ruling only applies to the Wayne County program, but with a similar case on the US Supreme Court docket, a broader precedent may soon be set.

Under the Wayne County program, police would seize vehicles of people driving or parking in areas where illegal drug use and/or prostitution was suspected and offer them a deal: Pay a $1,000 fine and get their vehicle back right away or appeal the seizure—a process that takes months and could result in the loss of the vehicle anyway.

The appeals court ruled that the months-long delay before people could challenge a seizure was too long and that hearings needed to happen within two weeks.

International

British Royal Pharmaceutical Society Backs House of Commons Call for Safe Injection Sites. At the end of August, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee recommended legalization of safe injection sites for drug users, and now the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has backed that call.

The Home Affairs Committee called for a pilot safe injection site in Glasgow. The Home Office rejected a similar proposal in 2020. But both the committee and the society pointed to successful safe injection sites elsewhere.

 

"We believe we can apply that learning here and provide clean, safe spaces for those injecting drugs," said Claire Anderson, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. "This will bring illegal drug users closer to mainstream health and addiction support services, and provide an opportunity for health professionals to engage in treatment and prevention. This in turn will help to save lives, reduce harm and reduce drug deaths," she added.

Florida AG Opposes Legalization Init, Montreal Mushroom Shop Raided Again, More... (8/4/23)

There have been a couple of hiccups as marijuana legalization rolls out in Minnesota, Florida's attorney general thinks voters are too stupid to know that pot would remain federally illegal if the state legalized it, and more.

Magic mushrooms. You can't buy them in Montreal anymore. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

Florida AG Reaffirms Opposition to Marijuana Legalization Initiative, Claims Floridians Too Stupid to Know Pot Would Remain Federally Illegal. Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) on Wednesday submitted a new brief to the state Supreme Court arguing that it should reject the marijuana legalization initiative from Smart and Safe Florida because its summary does not explicitly say that marijuana is illegal under federal law.

That could deceive state voters who may be ignorant of the policy conflict between the states and the federal government on marijuana, Moody argued. "Most Americans cannot name a single Supreme Court justice," she claimed to support her position.

Smart and Safe Florida found Moody's position incredible, saying it "strains credulity well past the breaking point to think that the average voter is unaware that marijuana is illegal at the federal level."

She also argued that the initiative is crafted to unfairly benefit the marijuana company Trulieve, which is the main financial backer of the campaign.

"This carefully curated ballot summary misleads in ways that, though sometimes subtle, are likely to influence voters -- and to do so in a way that entrenches the Sponsor's monopolistic stranglehold on the marijuana market to the detriment of Floridians," it says. "In its pursuit of a larger customer base and greater profits, Trulieve has invited millions of Floridians to join it in reckless violation of federal criminal law. Trulieve may be reckless enough to stake an entire business model on the whims of federal prosecutors," it continues. "But it cannot invite Florida voters to permanently amend their governing charter by promising that the amendment will do something ('allow' recreational marijuana) that it will not do."

It's not immediately clear what the next steps are in the case. It's possible the court may schedule oral arguments now that both sides have laid out their main arguments in written briefs.

Minnesota Legal Marijuana Hiccups. The first days of marijuana legalization in the state -- beginning August 1 -- have brought at least two police raids on shops they said were skirting the law. Police raided a tobacco shop in Mahnomen on the White Earth Reservation that was selling marijuana and a shop in Faribault that was selling plants.

While non-native parts of the state must wait for regulators to come up with regulations to guide legal marijuana commerce, sales have already begun on one reservation, Red Lake. The White Earth Band, however, says sales are illegal without a permit from the tribe.

Meanwhile, in Faribault, Total Tobacco was raided on August 1 when local law enforcement seized 22 pot plants. The store said it thought it was selling legal plants because the seedlings had not yet reached a state of maturity when THC levels would rise enough to be illegal.

Charges are pending in both cases.

International

Montreal Police Raid Magic Mushroom Shop for Third Time in Three Weeks. The FunGuyz magic mushroom shop is shut down again after being raided Thursday for the third time in three weeks. Police said they seized four kilograms of psilocybin in bulk form, 753 grams of psilocybin edibles, 1,643 psilocybin tablets and slightly more than $10,000 in cash.

Police first raided the shop on July 11, the day it opened and arrested four people. But the owners, who said they were advocating for psychedelic legalization, reopened, sparking a second raid on July 20, with five people arrested. One person was arrested in this latest raid.

Quebec law enforcement is growing tired of the game, and the provincial Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions says police have been granted an injunction to seize the building and prevent it from opening for a fourth time.

FL Supreme Court Marijuana Initiative Fight, Peru Coca Expansion, More... (7/26/23)

Singapore has executed one drug offender with another set for later this week, the Florida ACLU joins the fight for a marijuana legalization initiative, and more.

The gallows. Singapore's implement of choice for dealing with drug traffickers, even small-time ones. (Pixabay)
Marijuana Policy

Florida Supreme Court Grants AG's Request for More Time to Challenge Marijuana Legalization Initiative. The state Supreme Court on Monday granted a request from Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) for more time to challenge a marijuana legalization initiative from Smart & Safe Florida. She now has until August 2 to make her argument that the initiative does not meet state requirements to be on the November 2024 ballot.

Smart & Safe Florida opposed the seven-day extension, arguing instead for a two-day extension, but the Supreme Court gave Moody the whole seven days.

If the high court approves the initiative or fails to issue a ruling by April 1, 2024, would be set to appear on the November 2024 ballot. Since it takes the form of a constitutional amendment, it will need 60 percent of the vote to pass.

Florida ACLU Joins Fight Over Getting Marijuana Legalization Initiative on the Ballot. The ACLU of Florida filed a brief on Monday backing the Smart & Safe Florida marijuana legalization initiative and calling out the state Supreme Court for the way it has handled ballot initiatives in recent years, turning the process into an "acrobatic exercise."

"The ACLU is arguing that the Supreme Court now has a history over the last several years in Florida of striking down these initiatives," ACLU attorney Will Cooper said. "If the Supreme Court really does want to let the people speak and get out of the business of striking these initiatives down and acted by the people of Florida, I think they certainly have a sufficient basis to let it stand," he added.

In the past five years, the Supreme Court has reviewed nine initiatives, striking down four of them, as well as refusing to review another initiative, effectively killing it. In the five year period before that, the high court reviewed seven initiatives and struck down none of them.

International

Peru's Surging Cocaine Trade is Overrunning Remote Indigenous Territories. In Ucayali department, which is a lowland jungle region bordering Brazil, coca has arrived, and the trade is threatening the reserves of the isolated tribespeople who inhabit the area. It is an area largely bereft of state services, including an anemic state security apparatus, a situation that has created "an open door" for the drug trade, say drug experts and indigenous communities.

Coca production has expanded from the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene, and Mantaro Rivers (VRAEM) to far Ucayali, where land under cultivation has spiked nearly five-fold in the past five years. Nearly 35,000 acres of coca was grown on land belonging to some 295 native communities. Nationally, coca cultivation increased by 18 percent from 2021 to 2022.

"Ucayali has practically wide open borders and strategic positioning," said Frank Casas, an expert on Peru's drug trade. "Within the last three years, the region has become a high production area, and not only in terms of coca, but also in the production and commercialization of cocaine to international markets."

Singapore Hangs Drug Offender, Another Hanging Set for Friday. Singapore authorities hanged a 56-year-old man, Mohammed Aziz Hussain, after he was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking less than two ounces of heroin. And it is set to hang a woman, Saridewi Djamani, 45, on Friday for trafficking slightly more than an ounce of heroin in 2018.

The local Transformative Justice Collective and international human rights groups called on the government to halt the pending execution and end the resort to the death penalty. It had been under a moratorium during the coronavirus pandemic, but has returned with a vengeance last year with 15 drug offenders executed since then.

"Singaporean authorities must immediately stop these blatant violations of the right to life in their obsessive enforcement of misguided drug policies," Adilur Rahman Khan, secretary-general of the International Federation of Human Rights, said in a statement.

A joint statement by Transformative Justice Collective and other groups noted that Law Minister K. Shanmugam reportedly acknowledged in a 2022 interview that Singapore's harsh policy on drugs has not led to the arrest of the so-called drug kingpins.

"Instead of disrupting drug cartels… the government of Singapore deliberately retains capital drug laws that, in practice, operate to punish low-level traffickers and couriers, who are typically recruited from marginalized groups with intersecting vulnerabilities," the statement said.

Medical Marijuana Update

It looks like there will be no medical marijuana for North Carolina this year, Minnesota's program adds 19 new qualifying conditions to its already lengthy list, and more.

Florida

Florida Governor Signs Bill Okaying Telehealth for Medical Marijuana. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has quietly signed into law a measure allowing the use of telehealth to renew medical marijuana recommendations, House Bill 387. To obtain a medical marijuana patient card, however, an in-patient examination by a physician is still required.

Minnesota

Minnesota Adds 19 New Qualifying Conditions, Waives Fees for Patients. Irritable bowel syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder are among the 19 different medical conditions just added to the state's very lengthy list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana. That went into effect July 1.

Also in effect as of July 1 is the waiving of registration fees for patients. Until now, it cost $200 a year. And patients can now be certified by a health practitioner, expanding the number of medical personnel who can make recommendations.

"They will enter that into our patient registry and then you are sent a link to go ahead and register for the medical cannabis program," said Office of Medical Cannabis Director Chris Tholkes. "As of July 1st, there is no longer an annual fee of 200 dollars. It's now zero to participate in our program."

New York

New York Town Must Pay $200,000 After Firing Medical Marijuana Patient. The city of Amsterdam must pay almost $200,000 to a city worker fired after failing a drug screening for marijuana. A jury found that the city discriminated against Thomas Apholz, a wastewater treatment plant worker who was first suspended and then fired after the drug test.

The state legalized medical marijuana in 2014. State law grants registered medical marijuana patients disability status, which gives protection from employment discrimination for using medical marijuana.

After he was fired, he filed suit in state Supreme Court in Montgomery County, alleging unlawful employment discrimination and failure to accommodate his disability as required by the New York Humans Rights Law. And now he has won.

North Carolina

North Carolina Medical Marijuana Bill Probably Dead for This Year. Legislation that would legalize medical marijuana in the state is probably dead for the rest of this year's legislative session, House Speaker Tim Moore (R) said Tuesday. The Senate had passed a medical marijuana bill, Senate Bill 3, four months ago, but other than a single committee hearing, it has languished in the House.

Moore said he agreed with the assessment of House Majority Leader John Bell (R) that there was not enough support in the Republican caucus for the bill to advance further. The GOP caucus has a rule that a majority of its members must be willing to vote for a bill on the House floor for it to get heard, even if the measure could pass with support from Democrats.

Complying with the rule "would require a number of House members who've taken a position of 'no' to literally switch their position to want to vote for it, and I just don't see that happening," Moore said.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Bill to Allow Medical Marijuana for Any Condition Advances. A bill that would loosen up the state's medical marijuana program, most notably by eliminating the requirement that a patient have a specified medical condition to qualify for its use, has passed the Senate Law & Justice Committee on a 10-1 vote.

Senate Bill 835 would also eliminate the expiration date on medical marijuana cards, allow medical marijuana to be sold in edible form, and give independent medical marijuana growers and processors additional retail dispensary permits.

The committee also passed Senate Bill 538, which also allows for medical marijuana edibles, as well as vaping, and Senate Bill 773, which also allows new licenses for growers and processors. All three bills now head for a Senate floor vote.

New Qualifying Conditions for MN MedMJ, PA Pot Poll Shows Declining Support, More... (7/10/23)

Virginia's GOP governor indicates he is not interested in legal marijuana sales, a New York city has to pay for firing a medical marijuana patient, and more.

Marijuana Policy

Pennsylvania Poll Has Declining but Still Majority Support for Marijuana Legalization. A new poll from the Muhlenberg College Public Health Program has support for marijuana legalization at 50 percent, but that number also marks the a decline in support for legalization. Support peaked at 58 percent in 2021 and dropped to 56 percent in 2022. But the survey also has a relatively high margin of error, +/- 6 percentage points, meaning the drop could be a polling artifact instead of revealing a true decline.

The poll comes on the heels of the announcement last week that a bipartisan pair of state senators have introduced a marijuana legalization bill, Senate Bill 846.

Virginia's GOP Governor Says No to Legal Marijuana Sales. In 2021, Democratic lawmakers approved marijuana legalization but failed to reach an agreement on a legal marketplace, deferring resolution of the issue to the next legislative session. But that session flipped control of the legislature and the governorship to Republicans, who are much less interested in legalizing sales.

Now, the administration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has given its clearest indication yet that he is not interested in getting a retail market up and running. "Governor Youngkin has stated that he is not interested in any further moves towards legalization of adult recreational use marijuana," Joseph Guthrie, Youngkin's commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Safety, said during a recent state meeting on marijuana.

Medical Marijuana

Minnesota Adds 19 New Qualifying Conditions, Waives Fees for Patients. Irritable bowel syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder are among the 19 different medical conditions just added to the state's very lengthy list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana. That went into effect July 1.

Also in effect as of July 1 is the waiving of registration fees for patients. Until now, it cost $200 a year. And patients can now be certified by a health practitioner, expanding the number of medical personnel who can make recommendations.

"They will enter that into our patient registry and then you are sent a link to go ahead and register for the medical cannabis program," said Office of Medical Cannabis Director Chris Tholkes. "As of July 1st, there is no longer an annual fee of 200 dollars. It's now zero to participate in our program."

New York Town Must Pay $200,000 After Firing Medical Marijuana Patient. The city of Amsterdam must pay almost $200,000 to a city worker fired after failing a drug screening for marijuana. A jury found that the city discriminated against Thomas Apholz, a wastewater treatment plant worker who was first suspended and then fired after the drug test.

The state legalized medical marijuana in 2014. State law grants registered medical marijuana patients disability status, which gives protection from employment discrimination for using medical marijuana.

After he was fired, he filed suit in state Supreme Court in Montgomery County, alleging unlawful employment discrimination and failure to accommodate his disability as required by the New York Humans Rights Law. And now he has won.

Medical Marijuana Update

Oklahoma medical marijuana operators don't like the state's new fee structure, and more.

Florida

Florida Governor Signs Bill Barring Medical Marijuana at Sober Living Facilities. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has signed into law Senate Bill 210, which bars sober living facilities from allowing residents to use or possess medical marijuana, even if that use is medically authorized. The law does not apply to any other doctor-approved drugs. Now, people seeking licenses to run recovery residences will need to certify that they don't allow the use of marijuana, "which includes marijuana that has been certified by a qualified physician for medical use."

 

He also signed Senate Bill 1676, which bars the sale of smokeless hemp products such as "snuff, chewing gum, and other smokeless products) to people under 21. Previously, hemp regulations only barred the sale of smokable hemp products to people under 21.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Regulators Sued over New Fees. Several medical marijuana businesses have filed a lawsuit against the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) over a new law that will increase fees for marijuana businesses. Legislators passed a package of bills designed to reign in the state's Wild West medical marijuana scene and eliminate "bad actors," including House Bill2179, which it broadens licensing requirements for medical marijuana dispensaries, commercial growers, and processors. In effect since last month, the bill mandated new fees ranging from $2,500 to $50,000, based on a tiered fee schedule.

Plaintiffs argue that while lawmakers aimed to weed out illegal grow operations, the new fees will only hurt legitimate businesses. "The state is hitting the good guys and it’s only helping the bad guys," said plaintiff Jed Green.

 

The lawsuit charges that the fee increases are unconstitutional under state law because it passed with less than three-quarters majority support, which is required for any tax increases. It also notes that the bill passed during the last five days of the legislative session, even though the state constitution says revenue-related bills cannot be passed during that period.

Ohio Legalization Initiative Hands in Signatures, Mexico Violence Flares in Morelos, More... (7/5/23)

Maryland saw a big opening weekend for legal marijuana sales, Oklahoma medical marijuana operators are suing regulators over a new fee schedule, and more.

Buckeye voters could finally vote on freeing the weed in November. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

Maryland Celebrates 4th of July Weekend with More Than $10 Million in Marijuana Sales. With legal weed going into effect on July 1, Marylanders embraced it enthusiastically over the holiday weekend, generating more than $10 million in sales over the 4th of July weekend. Adult use sales accounted for about 85 percent of that figure. Adult use sales are estimated to reach $275 million this year and $2.1 billion by 2027.

Ohio Marijuana Legalization Campaign Hands in Signatures. The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol handed in more than 222,000 signatures Wednesday for its proposed marijuana legalization initiative. If the signatures are verified by state officials, legalization will appear on the November ballot.

This is the second round of signature gathering for the effort. A successful first round put the issue before the state legislature, which had four months to approve legalization but failed to do so. That provided the opening for the campaign to move to phase two: putting the issue directly before the voters -- provided they came up with enough signatures to qualify. It looks like they did: The campaign only needed 124,000 valid voter signatures and now has a cushion of 98,000 signatures. State officials will make that determination by July 20.

The initiative would legalization the possession of up to 2.5 ounces by people 21 and over, as well as allowing for the home cultivation of up to six plants, with a maximum of 12 per household. There would be a 10 percent tax on retail sales. Some licenses will be reserved for people who qualify under social equity provisions.

Medical Marijuana

Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Regulators Sued over New Fees. Several medical marijuana businesses have filed a lawsuit against the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) over a new law that will increase fees for marijuana businesses. Legislators passed a package of bills designed to reign in the state's Wild West medical marijuana scene and eliminate "bad actors," including House Bill2179, which it broadens licensing requirements for medical marijuana dispensaries, commercial growers, and processors. In effect since last month, the bill mandated new fees ranging from $2,500 to $50,000, based on a tiered fee schedule.

Plaintiffs argue that while lawmakers aimed to weed out illegal grow operations, the new fees will only hurt legitimate businesses. "The state is hitting the good guys and it's only helping the bad guys," said plaintiff Jed Green.

The lawsuit charges that the fee increases are unconstitutional under state law because it passed with less than three-quarters majority support, which is required for any tax increases. It also notes that the bill passed during the last five days of the legislative session, even though the state constitution says revenue-related bills cannot be passed during that period.

International

Mexico's Morelos Sees Violence Flare After Anti-Cartel Vigilante Leader Killed. Morelos anti-cartel vigilante leader Hipolito Mora and two of his men were gunned down last Thursday, sparking a new round of violence in and around the city of Apatzingan, which has been embroiled in a long-running conflict between rival drug trafficking organizations, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Viagras. Roads in and out of the city were blocked over the weekend as cartel gunmen pulled trucks and buses across roads. Shoot-outs also took place in and around the city, leaving at least one more person dead.

The Mexican government has tolerated Viagras control of Apatzingan as a means of keeping the Jalisco cartel out, but residents of the agricultural hub are left paying higher prices for goods than anywhere else in Mexico because Viagras extortion drives prices up. The Jalisco cartel is now battling the Viagras along the banks of river just 15 miles south of the city.

Mora was one of the last leaders of the citizens' anti-cartel armed movement that emerged in the area a decade ago. His death is likely the death knell of any hope of reviving armed civilian resistance to the cartels in the area.

AR Judge Voids Laws Altering MedMJ Law, EU Releases Annual Drug Report, More... (6/16/23)

There are signals that a federal marijuana rescheduling decision will be reached this year, a Senate bill to crack down on drug cartel use of social media wins a committee vote, and more.

Europe is being flooded with cocaine. Spanish authorities caught this batch in 2014. (minisdef.es)
Marijuana Policy

Top Biden Official Says Marijuana Rescheduling Decision Will Go to President This Year. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday that the department is working to present a marijuana rescheduling decision to President Biden "this year." Agencies are working "as quickly as we can" to complete the administrative review, Becerra added.

"What I can tell you is that the president instructed us at HHS -- FDA in particular -- to take a look at how we treat marijuana to see if we can update our review of marijuana as a drug and how we can make sure how we treat it going forward on the federal level," Becerra told Marijuana Moment. "Places like California have already changed the laws, the federal government has not, and so we've been instructed and we're underway with that review as we speak."

The administration is under pressure from lawmakers as well as activists and the industry to get the job done even as Congress works on incremental marijuana law reforms, such as giving marijuana businesses access to the banking history.

Medical Marijuana

Arkansas Judge Throws Out Slew of Laws Modifying Voter-Approved Medical Marijuana Law. Pulaski County Judge Morgan "Chip" Welch on Wednesday threw out 27 laws adopted by the legislature to modify the Amendment 98 medical marijuana initiative approved by voters in 2016. Welch deemed the laws unconstitutional because they made changes to Amendment 98 without letting residents vote on them, which is required by state law.

The voided laws include one barring the use of telemedicine for patients to get a written certification, one prohibiting National Guard members from being caregivers, one that added criminal background checks and changed "excluded felony offenses," one that regulated advertising, one that allowed for the transfer of licenses among dispensaries and cultivation companies, and many, many more.

Drug Policy

Senate Homeland Security Committee Approves Bill to Crack Down on Cartel Recruitment and Smuggling on Social Media. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today approved bipartisan legislation offered by the Border Management Subcommittee Ranking Member Senator James Lankford (R-OK) and Chair Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ). The Combating Cartels on Social Media Act (S. 61) aims to crack down on cartels that recruit teenagers through social media to conduct smuggling and trafficking.

Lankford accused big social media companies of "pick[ing] and choos[ing] which illegal activities they like and which they do not like, and clearly, they like people illegally crossing the US border. Social media companies need to be held accountable for turning their heads to human trafficking at the cost of human lives."

Sinema accused the companies of effectively helping the cartels recruit teenagers on both sides of the border.

The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to analyze cartels' illicit usage of social media and establishes a process for technology companies to voluntarily report cartel recruitment efforts in the US to DHS and state and local partners.

International

European Union Drug Report Finds Continent Exposed to More Drugs Than Ever. In its annual report released Friday, the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) finds that the availability of illicit drugs remains high and that people on the continent are being exposed "to a wider range of psychoactive substances."

The report noted massive increases in drug seizures between 2011 and 2021, led by cocaine (up 416 percent), marijuana (up 260 percent), meth (up 135 percent) and MDMA ( up 123 percent).

The report found that, though there is demand for these drugs within the EU, "it is likely that increases in quantities seized reflect, at least partially, the larger role played by Europe as a place of production, export and transit for these drugs."

"Almost everything with psychoactive properties can appear on the drug market, often mislabeled or in mixtures. This is why illicit drugs can affect everyone, whether directly through use, or indirectly, through their impact on families, communities, institutions and businesses," EMCDDA Director Alexis Goosdeel said in a statement.

"While western and southern Europe remain the main markets for cocaine, there are signs of cocaine consumption becoming increasingly more common in cities in eastern Europe -- indicating that the cocaine retail market is also developing in other regions. In terms of high-risk opioid use, the countries with the highest number of users per 1,000 inhabitants are Italy, Austria, France, Greece, Spain and Germany," wrote Teodora Groshkova, principal scientific analyst at EMCDDA and Gregorio Planchuelo, database management development officer at EMCDDA.

Washington State to Pay Out Millions to People Busted for Drug Possession [FEATURE]

The Washington Supreme Court's 2021 ruling in Washington v. Blake continues to reverberate. In Blake, the court threw out the state's drug possession law as unconstitutional because it did not require that defendants knew they were in possession of a controlled substance, overturning hundreds of thousands of drug convictions going back to the 1970s.

If you were busted for drug possession in Washington state and paid fines and/or fees, the state has some money for you. (CC)
That left the state without a felony drug possession law until the legislature acted to replace it, which it did temporarily in 2021 and permanently this year, although it required a special session of the legislature to get it done. Lawmakers could have done nothing, effectively decriminalizing drug possession, or they could have fixed the flaws in the original statute and reinstated the felony drug possession charge. Instead, they found middle ground, making drug possession a gross misdemeanor and creating a new offense of public drug use. Both offenses carry maximum jail time of 180 days and a maximum fine of $1,000.

But while the politicians and the press were embroiled in the drug possession law dilemma, another aspect of the Blake decision is just beginning to be felt, and it's going to cost state taxpayers just about $100 million. All those people convicted under the drug possession law are eligible to have their sentences vacated -- tens of thousands have already done so -- and once those convictions are vacated, so are the fines and fees associated with them, meaning the state is going to owe those people money.

To reimburse convicted drug possession offenders of the Legal Financial Obligations (LFOs) they paid, the Administrative Office of the Courts is launching what will be known as the Blake Refund Bureau. The legislature has allocated $50 million to make the refunds and another $47 million to administer the program.

"This is setting a precedent," said Robin Zimmermann, the Administrative Office of the Courts' Senior Communications Officer. "There aren't any other related cases of a state issuing hundreds, or thousands, of vacations [of convictions] and refunds at one time."

Roughly 200,000 felony drug possession convictions and tens of thousands of marijuana possession convictions could be eligible for compensation, although exact numbers are hard to come by because some people may have had more than one conviction and others may have died in the interim.

Municipal, district, and superior courts have already ordered the payment of roughly $8 million, and the Administrative Office of the Courts believes that millions more will be paid out in coming years, necessitating the creation of a specialized bureau to administer the payouts.

"The intent is to have a process that is easy to navigate and will provide for a timely response for individuals to receive their refunds," said Sharon Swanson, the Blake Implementation Manager for the Administrative Office of the Courts.

The Blake Refund Bureau, which is set to be up and running by next month, will create an online portal accessible to the public via a link on www.courts.wa.gov. The refund bureau will provide individuals who have had their Blake convictions vacated a self-navigable database to determine if they have refunds related to their convictions. Refund requests will be submitted through an online application. Once the application has been received and an amount of refund is confirmed by the court, a refund will be issued.

"The Administrative Office of the Courts is dedicated to working with our justice partners to help inform the vast and diverse Blake-impact population across Washington State about the potentially life-changing relief opportunities now available to them -- collectively working to foster fresh starts and make people whole again," said Dawn Marie Rubio, Washington State Court Administrator.

The Office of Public Defense is doing its part with a web site, State v. Blake (wa.gov), with resources and information about how to get drug possession convictions off your record, the first step in the process of getting compensation for LFOs you paid.

The state of Washington is breaking new ground in righting old wrongs. If that means taxpayers have to pay for the sins of their fathers, so be it.

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