Business
Minnesota Senate Approves Cannabis Legalization Bill
The Minnesota Senate on Friday approved a bill to legalize marijuana for adults, only days after the state House of Representatives passed similar legislation.
The Minnesota Senate last week voted to approve a bill to legalize recreational marijuana, only days after the House of Representatives passed a companion adult-use cannabis legalization measure. The bill, Senate File 73, was approved by the Senate on Friday with a vote of 34-33 that saw all senators from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) voting in favor of the bill and all Republicans opposed.
The bill would legalize the possession and use of cannabis by adults aged 21 and older and establish a regulatory framework for the production and sale of recreational marijuana. Adults would be permitted to purchase up to two ounces of cannabis, 8 grams of cannabis concentrates or edibles with up to 800 milligrams of THC. Home cultivation of marijuana would also be allowed, with adults permitted to grow up to eight cannabis plants at home.
DFL Senator Lindsey Port, the lead sponsor of the bill, said that it is time to change Minnesota’s marijuana policy.
“The prohibition of cannabis is a failed system that has not achieved the desired goals and has had incredible costs for our communities, especially for communities of color,” she said in a statement quoted by the Associated Press.
With the bill, Port said that lawmakers have an “opportunity to undo some of the harm that has been done and create a unique system of regulation that works for Minnesota consumers and businesses, while ensuring an opportunity in this new market for communities that have been most affected by prohibition.”
Port added that the measure was considered carefully by lawmakers, who made several amendments to the legislation as it worked its way through the legislative process.
“Minnesotans are ready. Attitudes are changing,” she told Minnesota Public Radio. “Now is our time to undo decades of ineffective and damaging prohibition.”
After the bill was passed by the state Senate, Democratic Governor Tim Walz said that he would approve the legislation, which would make Minnesota the 23rd state in the nation to end the prohibition of marijuana.
“Legalizing adult-use cannabis and expunging cannabis convictions is good for our economy and the right move for Minnesota,” Walz wrote on Twitter on Friday. “When the bill reaches my desk, I’ll be proud to sign it into law.”
The bill also includes measures to address the harms caused by decades of cannabis prohibition, including a provision to expunge convictions for many marijuana-related offenses. DFL Senator Claire Oumou Verbeten said that the legislation is needed to end the racial disparity repeatedly seen in the enforcement of the nation’s drug laws.
“We owe this to the people who have been impacted the most by this prohibition. It’s our communities of color. It’s Black Minnesotans, especially Black men,” said DFL Senator Claire Oumou Verbeten. “We owe this to them. We can legalize this. We can regulate it. We can expunge,” she said. “Because we have to and because it’s a racial justice issue.”
Minnesota House Also Passes Legalization Bill
Also last week, a companion bill to the Senate measure was passed by the Minnesota House of Representatives, setting the stage for a conference committee to rectify inconsistencies between the two pieces of legislation. After the conference committee resolves differences between the bills, the House and Senate will vote on the final version of the bill.
Key differences between the separate versions of the legislation include a possession limit of two pounds of cannabis in the House bill, while the Senate version allows adults to possess up to five pounds of marijuana, including no more than two pounds from a source other than home cultivation. The Senate bill allows local governments to cap the number of cannabis retailers. The House bill does not include such limits, although both versions do not allow cities and counties to enact an outright ban on dispensaries. Additionally, the Senate version levies a tax on cannabis products of 10%, while the House version sets the tax rate at 8%.
Both bills establish an Office of Cannabis Management to oversee the licensing and regulation of cannabis companies. Ryan Winkler of the MN is Ready coalition, a group that has advocated for the legislation and assisted in its development, said that there could be “a few bumps in the road” as regulations to enact the legislation are drafted by the new agency.
“As we’ve seen in every other marketplace – and I suspect any market where you’re creating a new product and there’s large consumer demand – it’s difficult to match supply and demand initially and there typically is a market shakeout after the initial exuberance happens,” Winkler said. “We’re seeing that in other states as well. There’s been a lot of consolidation of cannabis companies in other states. So we are anticipating the challenges.”
All 33 Senate Republicans voted against the bill, with senators citing concerns over public safety, substance abuse and controlling the illicit marijuana market.
“What we’ve come down to after our analysis is this bill simply isn’t enough – not enough public safety, not enough or not enough for public health,” said Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson. “And our local governments are really, really at the bottom of the stick of this.”
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/minnesota-senate-approves-cannabis-legalization-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/
New Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud
Marijuana companies suing US attorney general in federal prohibition challenge
Alabama to make another attempt Dec. 1 to award medical cannabis licenses
Pot Odor Does Not Justify Probable Cause for Vehicle Searches, Minnesota Court Affirms
New Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud
Alabama to make another attempt Dec. 1 to award medical cannabis licenses
-
Business10 months agoPot Odor Does Not Justify Probable Cause for Vehicle Searches, Minnesota Court Affirms
-
Business8 months agoNew Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud
-
Business8 months agoAlabama to make another attempt Dec. 1 to award medical cannabis licenses
-
Business10 months agoWashington State Pays Out $9.4 Million in Refunds Relating to Drug Convictions
-
Business10 months agoLegal Marijuana Handed A Nothing Burger From NY State
-
Business10 months agoCan Cannabis Help Seasonal Depression
-
Business8 months agoMarijuana companies suing US attorney general in federal prohibition challenge
-
Blogs10 months agoCannabis Art Is Flourishing On Etsy