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Kansas Lawmaker Introduces Cannabis Amnesty Bill
A Kansas state lawmaker has introduced a cannabis amnesty bill that would effectively decriminalize marijuana in the state.
A Kansas state lawmaker last week introduced a cannabis amnesty bill that would effectively decriminalize marijuana in the Sunflower State. The measure, House Bill 2363, was introduced in the state legislature by Democratic House Minority Leader Representative Vic Miller on February 8.
Miller’s bill, which already has the support of 34 co-sponsors, would release all persons currently incarcerated for a marijuana-related crime and allow for the expungement of convictions and arrest records for past cannabis-related offenses. The bill also directs state officials to purge information related to such convictions and arrests from relevant state and federal data systems. If passed, the bill would go into effect on July 1, 2023.
“It doesn’t legalize it per se, but it eliminates the serving a sentence punishment,” Miller said in a statement published by the Kansas Reflector.
The bill would effectively decriminalize marijuana in Kansas. Miller said that the bill, which has been referred to the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee for its consideration, is a way to address the state legislature’s failure to make progress on legalizing cannabis in Kansas. Although an analysis of the legislation’s fiscal impact has not yet been published, he added that the bill would significantly reduce costs to prosecute marijuana offenses.
“This is sort of a backdoor way of relieving people of the penalty,” Miller said. “And in and of itself, it would save in my mind, probably tens of millions of dollars related to those prosecutions in those incarcerations.”
Medical Marijuana Bill Expected Soon in Kansas
In December, a bipartisan special committee of lawmakers wrapped up months of hearings to explore aspects of legalizing medical marijuana including regulation and taxation. At the final meeting of the committee on December 15, Republican Senator Rob Olson, the chair of the panel, said that the committee’s work would result in a new medical marijuana legalization bill for the 2023 legislative session.
“We’ll be able to have a bill out of all the stuff, all the testimonies come through here, that will be as good as any bill in the country,” Olson said. “And if this issue passes, I believe it’ll be a bill that most Kansans can be proud of.”
The Kansas House of Representatives approved a medical marijuana legalization bill in 2021, but the measure died in committee and failed to gain the approval of the state Senate. However, Miller suggested that the eventual legalization of medical marijuana in Kansas is inevitable.
“It’s on both sides of us now in Missouri and Colorado, Oklahoma,” Miller said. “So I don’t think we should, as Kansans, be in a race for last place to do something concerning everything. And it won’t be long before we are the last to do it. I think the people of Kansas are ready.”
A limited medical marijuana legalization bill has already been unveiled for the 2023 legislative session. Under Senate Bill 171 from Democratic Senator Tom Holland, the medicinal use of cannabis would be legalized for use by military veterans only.
The bill, which was introduced in the Kansas Senate on February 7, would legalize the cultivation, distribution and sale of cannabis for use by veterans with chronic illnesses, post-traumatic stress disorder, or opioid use disorder. Under the bill, individuals currently serving in a brand of the U.S. military or who have been honorably discharged or generally discharged under honorable conditions will be eligible to apply for a medical marijuana patient identification card within 60 days of enactment of the legislation.
The measure would also levy an excise tax on the cultivation and sale of medical marijuana and establish a regulatory committee to oversee the limited program. After its introduction, Senate Bill 171 was referred to the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs on February 8.
“This issue is important to all Kansans,” Holland said in a statement to local media. “States all around the country have enacted laws that allow for marijuana use, at least on a medicinal level. It’s long past due for Kansas to follow in their footsteps.”
Although he did not comment on specific legislation, Republican Representative Eric Smith, vice chair of the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee, said that proposals to legalize medical marijuana need to be developed more thoughtfully.
“I don’t support the present way in which they’re trying to pass marijuana for use in medical situations,” Smith said. “I’m not against the use of THC for medical purposes. I think there is a medical need for it, but I think it needs to be done by those professionals in the medical field, not by the average dispensary run by an entrepreneur.”
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/kansas-lawmaker-introduces-cannabis-amnesty-bill/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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