SAMHSA announces historic harm reduction grants, South Dakota marijuana legalization campaigners say their signature-gathering campaign is going well, Michigan's governor signs a bill easing burdens on medical marijuana growers, and more.

Marijuana Policy

South Dakota Legalization Campaign Has Collected 15,000 Signatures for 2022 Initiative. South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML), the campaign that has worked since 2019 to legalize recreational and medical cannabis in the state, announced Thursday that it has collected over 15,000 signatures for its proposed 2022 recreational cannabis legalization initiative. A 2022 initiated measure requires 16,961 valid signatures from registered South Dakota voters to qualify for the November 2022 ballot. The campaign says its goal is to gather 25,000 raw voter signatures. It has until May 3, 2022 to get them. The same group sponsored last year's Amendment A legalization initiative, which was recently ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court. "In light of the extremely flawed Amendment A ruling, we hope that the South Dakota legislature will enact a cannabis legalization law in the upcoming session. But if that does not occur, we will give South Dakota voters the opportunity to approve legalization at the next election. We will not stop working until the will of the people is respected," said campaign spokesman Matthew Schweich.

Medical Marijuana

Michigan Governor Signs Bill to Aid Medical Marijuana Growers. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has signed into law House Bill 4921, which amends the Michigan Medical Marijuana Licensing Act so that licensed growers only have to submit financial statements to regulators every three years instead of every year, as has been the case. Whitmer said the bill will make financial reporting easier for growers.

Harm Reduction

SAMHSA Announces Unprecedented $30 Million Harm Reduction Grant Funding Opportunity to Help Address the Nation's Substance Use and Overdose Epidemic. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is now accepting applications for the first-ever SAMHSA Harm Reduction grant program and expects to issue $30 million in grant awards. This funding, authorized by the American Rescue Plan, will help increase access to a range of community harm reduction services and support harm reduction service providers as they work to help prevent overdose deaths and reduce health risks often associated with drug use.

SAMHSA will accept applications from State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments, Tribal organizations, nonprofit community-based organizations, and primary and behavioral health organizations. Providing funding and support for innovative harm reduction services is in line with the Biden-Harris Administration's ongoing efforts to address the overdose epidemic, and is a key pillar for the first time in the multi-faceted Health and Human Services' overdose prevention strategy announced in October.

This funding allows organizations to expand their community-based overdose prevention programs in a variety of ways, including distributing overdose-reversal medications and fentanyl test strips, providing overdose education and counseling, and managing or expanding syringe services programs, which help control the spread of infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis C. To apply to this grant funding opportunity, click here.

Los Angeles Times Editorial Board Endorses Safe Injection Sites. Under the headline "New York City is saving people from drug overdose deaths. Why can't California?" the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times endorsed safe injection sites as an overdose prevention measure and called on the Biden administration to clarify that it supports the harm reduction measure: "The Biden administration could also help by giving a clear statement that it supports states taking action to curb drug overdoses and that it won't move to shut down the overdose prevention centers in New York City or anywhere else. That's really the only rational and humane course of action in the face of a plague of preventable deaths."

Washington State Senator Files Bill to Specify That Fentanyl Testing Equipment is not Drug Paraphernalia. State Sen. Jim Honeyford (R-Sunnyside) has filed a bill, Senate Bill 5509, that would exempt fentanyl testing equipment from being defined as drug paraphernalia. State law currently defines paraphernalia as "testing equipment used, intended for use, or designed for use in identifying or in analyzing the strength, effectiveness, or purity of a controlled substance." But public health agencies and needle exchange programs are already distributing fentanyl test kits. This bill would align the law with reality. Honeyford should not be mistaken for a drug reformer; he is also planning to file a bill enabling prosecutors to charge people with murder if they sell drugs that result in a fatal overdose.

International

New Zealand to Ban Cigarettes by Constantly Rising Smoking Age. The country aims to eliminate cigarette smoking by raising the legal age for smoking, currently set at 18, by one year each year beginning in 2027. That means people born after 2009 will never be able to legally purchase cigarettes. New Zealand already boasts the world's highest cigarette prices at $24 a pack and is also planning to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes and cut back on the number of tobacco retailers. The plan does not have universal support, though. MP Karen Chour, of the libertarian-leaning Act Party, said the move would lead to a black market. "Prohibition has never worked -- in any time or place -- and it always has unintended consequences," she said.

Evo Morales marches back into Bolivia's capitol alongside the current president, the Vermont Medical Society wants to limit THC in marijuana available in the state, and more.

Marijuana Policy

Vermont Medical Society Urges Ban on Sale on Marijuana with More Than 15% THC. The Vermont Medical Society is urging state officials to ban the sale of marijuana containing more than 15 percent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana. The group's board adopted a resolution asking the legislature and the state Cannabis Control Board to adopt the ban. The physicians said high-potency marijuana was associated with more emergency room visits for respiratory distress and "serious medical outcomes," although it is not clear what those "serious medical outcomes" are. The association is also urging that all marijuana products be labelled with warnings that it "may cause psychosis, impaired driving, addiction, and harm to fetuses and nursing babies."

Drug Policy

Austin Municipal Initiative to Decriminalize Pot Possession, Bar No-Knock Raids Has Enough Signatures to Make Ballot. An Austin progressive nonprofit, Ground Game Texas, has announced that it has gathered enough signatures for the Austin Freedom Act of 2021 to qualify for the ballot. The initiative would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana and bar the use of no-knock search warrants. The group needs 20,000 valid voter signatures to qualify and says it has gathered 30,000 raw signatures.

International

Bolivian President and Predecessor Evo Morales Lead March of Thousands into La Paz. President Alberto Arce and his ousted predecessor, Evo Morales, led a march of thousands of coca farmers, miners, and local residents into the capital Monday after marching across the country for a week. The rally was called by the ruling Movement Toward Socialism to demonstrate support for the government against "right wing" elements. Morales had been ousted in 2019 after contested elections and replaced by rightist lawmaker Jeanine Anez. Anez herself now faces sedition, terrorism, and conspiracy charges for her actions during her brief reign, and Morales has now regained leadership of the largest coca growers' union in the country.

Sri Lanka Moves to Legalize Hemp Exports. The government is preparing to introduce a bill to legalize the export of hemp, said State Minister of Indigenous Medicine Promotion, Rural and Ayurvedic Hospitals Development, and Community Health Sisira Jayakody. "There has been clinical evidence of the benefits of this plant. We must remember that cancer and other major diseases have also been treated with Hemp. Because of this, within the next three months we plan on presenting a bill to Parliament for the legalization of the export of hemp for medicinal use ," said Jayakody.

An Illinois judge rules the odor of raw marijuana is no longer a basis for a vehicle search, an Ohio move to legalize marijuana is nearing its signature-gathering goal, and more.

Marijuana Policy

Connecticut Health Officials Confirm First Actual Case of Marijuana Laced with Fentanyl. While scattered police departments have previously reported cases of marijuana laced with the powerful opioid fentanyl, those claims have never panned out. But now, top Connecticut health officials say it has turned up there. After nearly 40 cases of reviving apparent overdose victims with the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone who reported using only marijuana since July, the state Department of Public Health announced last Thursday that it had found fentanyl in a marijuana sample it tested. "This is the lab-confirmed case of marijuana with fentanyl in Connecticut and possibly the first confirmed case in the United States," said DPH Commissioner Manisha Juthani, MD.

Is it what it seems? Harm reductionionists have posited on email lists that it is likely to be a case of surface contamination, and noted that fentanyl requires a vaporize at different temperatures.

Illinois Judge Rules Smell of Marijuana No Longer Provides Basis for Vehicle Search. A district court judge in Whiteside County has ruled that the odor of raw marijuana alone does not provide probable cause for a warrantless search of a vehicle. Possession of up to an ounce of marijuana has not been a criminal offense since June 2019, but police officers continued to use the smell of weed as a reason to search vehicle during traffic stops. But Judge Daniel P. Dalton ruled that "there are a number of wholly innocent reasons a person or the vehicle in which they are in may smell of raw cannabis." Judge Dalton ruled that "the court finds the odor of raw cannabis alone is insufficient to establish probable cause." This is only a district court opinion, and the state can appeal if it chooses.

Ohio Marijuana Legalization Petition Nearing Enough Signatures to Force Legislature to Act. The state Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which is pushing a signature-gathering campaign for an initiated statute that would force lawmakers to act on legalization or send the issue to a popular vote, says it is nearing the required 133,000 valid voter signatures to force the issue. If they reach that signature goal, the General Assembly would have four months to act on the proposal. If lawmakers fail to act or reject legalization, petitioners would then have to gather more signatures to send the issue to the voters in the next general election. The proposal would legalize the possession of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana, set up a system of retail sales, and allow people to grow up to two plants of their own.

International

International Criminal Court Temporarily Suspends Probe into Human Rights Violations in Philippines Drug War. The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has temporarily suspended a formal investigation into human rights abuses during outgoing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs and drug users. The move comes after the Philippines government filed a request for deferral, saying its own investigations into drug war killings were underway.

"The prosecution has temporarily suspended its investigative activities while it assesses the scope and effect of the deferral request," ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan wrote. Khan wrote that he would seek more information from the Philippines. Duterte pulled the Philippines out of the ICC in 2018 and had vowed that it would not cooperate with the ICC, but has allowed severely limited investigations into several dozen killings out of the thousands admitted by the government and the more than 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.

Those groups called on the ICC to get back to investigating Duterte: "We ask the ICC not to allow itself to be swayed by the claims now being made by the Duterte administration," said the National Union of People's Lawyers, which represents some victims' families. The national justice system is "extremely slow and unavailing to the majority of poor and unrepresented victims", the statement said. The Duterte government's claim that existing legal mechanisms could bring justice to Duterte's victims was "absurd," said Human Rights Watch. "Let's hope the ICC sees through the ruse that it is," said Brad Adam, HRW Asia director.

In a groundbreaking move a year ago now, Oregon voters approved decriminalization for personal use amounts of all illicit drugs, with Measure 110 passing with a healthy 59 percent of the vote. That made the state the first in the US to make this dramatic break with decades of the war on drugs. Now, as other states pondering a similar move look for evidence to bolster their case, some of the initial results in Oregon are looking pretty impressive.

Measure 110 promised not only thousands fewer drug arrests, but also a turn from the punitive to the compassionate -- providing hundreds of millions of dollars for greatly expanded access to evidence-informed drug treatment, peer support, housing, and harm reduction services, without raising taxes to do so. Services would be funded through excess marijuana tax revenue (over $45 million) and savings from no longer arresting, incarcerating, and prosecuting people for drug possession. State analysts estimated the excess marijuana tax revenue alone should result in over $100 million in funding for services in the first year and up to $129 million by 2027.

The state analysts were off the mark. Last week, the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), whose legislative action arm, Drug Policy Action spearheaded the successful campaign, and the Oregon Health Justice Recovery Alliance, which is working to implement treatment, harm reduction, and support programs, announced they had secured funding of $302 million over the next two years. That's over $150 million a year, including $30 million lawmakers agreed to release ahead of schedule in May of this year.

That initial round of grants went to 70 organizations in 26 of the state's 36 counties, with these results:

• 33 harm reduction and addiction recovery service providers expanded access to treatment services for indigent, uninsured individuals.
• 52 organizations hired peer support specialists -- a role that addiction medicine experts have long heralded as essential to one's recovery journey.
• 32 service providers added recovery, supportive and transitional housing services.
• 30 organizations increased harm reduction services, which include life-saving interventions like overdose prevention; access to naloxone, methadone and buprenorphine; as well as drug education and outreach.

"We were about to have to close our doors in Wasco County, which would have been devastating to the people that depend on us for support there, but thanks to Measure 110 passing, we were not only able to get the funding we needed to stay open, but also to expand the services and spectrum of care we were able to provide our clients," said Monta Knudson, Executive Director of Bridges to Change, a nonprofit that offers peer recovery support, housing and treatment services in the state.

"Addiction has touched us all somehow, some more personally and heartbreakingly than others," said Tera Hurst, Executive Director of the Health Justice Recovery Alliance. "Too many of us have lost loved ones to addiction, or struggled with it ourselves. COVID-19 has made things much worse, decreasing access to care during a time when Oregonians need these services more than ever before. That's why we celebrate the great strides made when it comes to addressing Oregon's addiction crisis, while recognizing that there's still much work to be done. Our immediate focus is to ensure every Oregonian knows these critical harm reduction and recovery services are being invested in and expanded so that they will be available to anyone who wants and needs them, and that they can feel comfortable and safe accessing them."

But while the huge expansion of treatment, harm reduction, and related social services is undeniably a good thing, drug decriminalization is ultimately about getting people out of the criminal justice system by not getting them sucked into it in the first place. It's looking like Measure 110 is achieving that goal.

According to the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, there were roughly 9,000 drug arrests a year prior to passage of Measure 110, and while it is too early to have precise numbers, thousands of Oregonians who would have been arrested for drug possession this year have instead faced only their choice of a $100 fine or a health assessment. It won't be 9,000 fewer drug arrests, though, because some felony drug possession arrests (possession of more than the specified personal use amounts) have been downgraded to still arrestable misdemeanors. Still, it will be thousands fewer people subjected to the tender mercies of the criminal justice system and all the negative consequences that brings.

"A year ago, Oregonians voted yes on Measure 110 to remove criminal penalties for possession of drugs and expand access to health services. Now, because of this measure, there are thousands of people in Oregon that will never have to experience the devastating life-long barriers of having a drug arrest on their record, which disproportionately and unjustly affected Black and Indigenous people due to targeted policing," said DPA Executive Director Kassandra Frederique. "Because of this measure, there is more than $300 million in funding that did not exist before being funneled into community organizations to provide adequate and culturally competent care that people desperately need. And while the devastation of 50 years of cruel and counterproductive policies can’t be erased overnight, by all metrics we hoped to achieve, and what voters asked for, we are going down the right path."

A number of states -- including Washington, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, New York, Rhode Island, Maryland and Kansas -- the District of Columbia, and even the United States Congress have introduced bills or launched campaigns to similarly remove criminal penalties for drug possession and increase access to health services since the passage of Measure 110. These initial results should provide plenty of ammunition for advancing those campaigns.