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Louisiana Legislators Say They Unknowingly Legalized Hemp Products With THC

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Two Louisiana Senators state that they were misled when they approved hemp legislation.

Louisiana state Sen. Stewart Cathey and Sen. Jay Morris stated in a recent Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on April 18 that legalizing hemp products with THC was unintended. “Last session we unknowingly created a recreational THC market in Louisiana,” Cathey said at the meeting, according to The Daily Advertiser. “It was not the intent of the Legislature to authorize a statewide flood of unregulated THC psychoactive drug marketplace.”

Cathey introduced Senate Bill 219 on April 10, and the most recent meeting held on April 18 was the first time the bill was discussed. SB-219 proposes to change state law that allows up to 8 mg of THC in a hemp product. Instead, it proposes a maximum of 2 mg THC. “If we’re going to legalize [recreational THC], it needs to be done openly and honestly, which wasn’t done,” Morris explained. “It was sold to the Legislature as if we weren’t allowing psychoactive materials.” As of the April 18 hearing, the bill was approved by the committee to appear before the Senate.

While Senators such as Cathey and Morris are working to amend the state’s current law, advocates and business owners spoke about the detrimental effects that amending the law will cause.

Business owners like Jason Garsee who owns Str8W8 Cannabis and is also the president of the Gulf South Hemp Association spoke publicly regarding how changes to current law will only hurt their businesses. “This bill would absolutely gut this industry,” Garsee said. “This bill you’re carrying right now is putting people out of business in your town, state and district. It would decimate my investment and my business.”

Likewise, Black Farmers Hemp president John Ford Lafayette shared similar concerns. “This doesn’t make any sense,” Lafayette said. “We’re trying to grow an industry.” Casey White of Pippi’s Purpose said that they’ve spent their life savings to open their storefronts. Another business owner, Virgin Hemp Farms owner Blaine Jennings, described the bill as “a direct attack on the thousands of business owners in this booming industry.”

Louisiana House Speaker Clay Schexnayder also recently introduced a bill (House Bill 605) to amend current hemp law, but not to the extent of Cathey. Schexnayder has introduced four hemp-related bills since it became federally legal in 2018.

In March, Schexnayder blamed the Louisiana Health Department for mishandling the implementation of the hemp bills. “It was crystal clear in what we wanted as a Legislature,” Schexnayder described.

On April 10, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor released the details of its audit of the Louisiana Department of Health (DOH). Entitled “Oversight of consumable hemp products,” the report found that 36 of the 2,564 registered consumable hemp products approved by the DOH were “prohibited.” Additionally, 198 edibles products surpassed the 8 mg THC limit, among other examples of not complying with state law.

Louisiana’s medical cannabis industry has become successful but recreational cannabis is not currently legal. Cannabis flower sales began in January 2022.

Also in January 2022, Louisiana Senate Candidate Gary Chambers smoked a blunt in a campaign video speaking about the failed War on Drugs and how it has affected people of color. “Every 37 seconds, someone is arrested for marijuana. Since 2010, state and local police have arrested an estimated 7.3 million Americans for violating marijuana laws, over half of all drug arrests,” Chambers said in his video. “Black people are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana laws than white people. States waste $3.7 billion enforcing marijuana laws every year. Most of the people police are arresting aren’t dealers, but rather people with small amounts of pot, just like me.”

Source: https://hightimes.com/news/louisiana-legislators-say-they-unknowingly-legalized-hemp-products-with-thc/

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New Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud

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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:

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/

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Marijuana companies suing US attorney general in federal prohibition challenge

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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.”

Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/marijuana-companies-suing-us-attorney-general-to-overturn-federal-prohibition/

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Alabama to make another attempt Dec. 1 to award medical cannabis licenses

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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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