Business
Legalize America Is the First Cannabis-Focused Super PAC
Cannabis businesses and advocates are banding together to push for cannabis reform in 2024.
The U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC) announced on June 28 that it has created Legalize America, which is the first United States’s Super Political Action Committee (or Super PAC) that is specifically dedicated to cannabis reform. A Super PAC is an “independent expenditure only political committee” that can receive unlimited contributions from various sources “for the purpose of financing independent expenditures and other independent political activity,” according to the Federal Election Commission.
“We’re excited to share that we’ve launched Legalize America, the nation’s first Super PAC devoted to cannabis reform. The new independent expenditure group will work to raise the profile of cannabis as a national issue in the 2024 election and beyond,” the USCC wrote on Twitter.
Legalize America also states how it plans to take action. “We are committed to working with advocates, industry professionals, and community leaders to create policies that support cannabis legalization in a thoughtful and responsible manner,” it stated on its website. “Our primary focus is on promoting federal legalization, expunging records for non-violent cannabis offenses, and ensuring that the benefits of legalization reach all Americans, regardless of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.”
Legalize America has garnered support of numerous cannabis companies with the intent of raising awareness for cannabis reform in next year’s election and in the future. Legalize America Chair Matt Harrell, who also holds the position of vice president of government relations with Curaleaf, explains what Legalize America plans to accomplish. “Legalize America is committed to ending cannabis prohibition and advancing expungement efforts and responsible use,” said Harrell. “We will use all available tools—including scorecards, endorsements, and targeted independent expenditure campaigns—to advance cannabis reform, with the goal of creating a prosperous and equitable cannabis industry.”
David Culver, senior vice president of public affairs with the USCC, told Market Watch that congress is not doing its job in reflecting the will of the people. “Congress is stuck in the past,” Culver said. “They’re way behind what Americans want. It’s not unusual for Congress to be a lagging indicator.”
Legalize American Secretary Pete Meachum, also senior director of government affairs at the Cronos Group, explained that action is needed now to help push legalization along. “We believe the 2024 presidential election will be a pivotal moment in the fight to end cannabis prohibition,” said Meachum. “We are laying the groundwork now to use advertising, grassroots engagement, voter outreach and events to keep cannabis front and center throughout the campaign.”
Legalize America added that it plans to partner with “high-profile public figures and brands” to raise funds and support reform efforts. It also plans to work with legal dispensaries to ask consumers for “round up” donations.
The USCC member list currently includes 38 companies, such as Ayr Wellness, Cresco Labs, Green Thumb Industries, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Vicente LLP, Wana Brands, and more. It’s led by chair Jessica Billingsley of Akerna, Vice Chair Dan Pabon of Schwazze, Meachum as treasurer, and chair emeritus Christian Sederberg of Vicente Sederberg LLP.
News regarding the 2024 election continues to take shape, with candidates speaking in support or opposition of cannabis and other psychedelic substances. Last week, current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stated that if elected to become president, he would not decriminalize cannabis. “I don’t think we would do that,” he said in response to an individual who represents military veterans who could benefit from decriminalization. “If you do something with that, it could be goodnight right then and there. You could die just by ingesting that, so I think that that’s problematic.”
However in June, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that he would partially end the War on Drugs if he is elected. At a CNN townhall, he addressed a question from a mother whose son was put in prison for fentanyl use, asking what he would do “about the war on drugs, which has obviously failed so miserably.”
“End it,” Christie said. “I want to focus on treatment. Look, your son—and I don’t want to pretend to know him, but I know a lot of people have gone through this. And I’ve had some dear friends who have lost their life to this. He has a disease the same way heart disease, diabetes, cancer. It is a disease, and he can be treated.”
Back in December 2024, musician Afroman announced that he is also running for president in 2024 with the intent of legalizing cannabis. “There comes a time in the course of human events when change must be affected,” said Afroman’s campaign manager. “That time is now. Americans are suffering, and the status quo is no longer acceptable.”
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/legalize-america-is-the-first-cannabis-focused-super-pac/
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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