Government
Puerto Rico Bill Would Expunge Low-Level Weed Possession Convictions
A Puerto Rico senator has followed President Biden’s lead by filing a bill that would expunge convictions for simple cannabis possession.
A senator in Puerto Rico has filed a bill that would expunge convictions for low-level marijuana possession. The sponsor of the legislation, independent Senator José “Chaco” Vargas Vidot, filed the bill on October 11, saying that he was inspired by President Joseph Biden’s announcement five days earlier that he would pardon federal convictions for simple marijuana possession.
The senator from Puerto Rico was referring to an announcement Biden made on October 6 in which the president said that he would issue an executive order to pardon all federal convictions for simple marijuana possession. The president’s pardons will affect about 6,500 people who were convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and thousands more in the District of Columbia, according to a report from The New York Times. Biden also called on governors to take similar action at the state level, where the vast majority of cannabis possession charges are filed and prosecuted.
“As I often said during my campaign for President, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana. Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit,” Biden said in a statement on October 6. “Criminal records for marijuana possession have also imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities. And while white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates.”
Under Vidot’s plan, possession of up to five grams of cannabis would be decriminalized. The senator said the amount allows for a presumption of personal use, while larger quantities would still be subject to prohibition.
Stiff Penalties for Pot Possession in Puerto Rico
In Puerto Rico, convictions for possession of any amount of cannabis are considered felonies that carry penalties of two to four years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000 for the first offense. Punishment for subsequent offenses is even harsher, with the time behind bars increased to four to 10 years, according to information from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
According to inmate population information from Puerto Rico’s Department of Corrections (DCR), 65% of prisoners, or about 5,000 of the 7,000 people behind bars, suffer from problematic substance misuse. The DCR report also reveals that about 8% of men and 11% of women prisoners began using drugs after they entered the correctional system.
“Undoubtedly, these figures reflect a problem of availability of substances within the country’s prison institutions,” Vidot said. “Thus, people who report that they were not substance users prior to the conviction begin this process of consumption and addiction within the institution,” Vidot said. “For those people who were already fighting the disease of drug addiction when entering the penal system, the condition worsens within it.”
Following Biden’s announcement, Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said that he would not follow the example set by the president’s executive order to pardon marijuana possession convictions, adding that DCR records indicate that no prisoners are being held for possession of marijuana. But Vidot countered that the agency’s records do not contain enough information to make that determination.
“The governor has already said that he will not give way to the executive order, lacking the will and courage to take an important step for justice,” Vidot said. “It is statistically impossible to know the number of inmates for simple possession of marijuana, because when they arrive at Corrections they tell them the law they violated, not the specific drug. Now the question is, who will have the courage to join me and give way to this in Puerto Rico?”
In 2018, Vidot, who is also a public health worker, introduced Senate Bill 912, a measure that would decriminalize possession of all controlled substances. And while the new bill is focused specifically on cannabis possession, the senator noted that he would like to see the Puerto Rican government eliminate all penalties for drug possession.
“Even though the goal should be the decriminalization of all drugs, as several advanced jurisdictions have already successfully done, with this proposal we advance the decriminalization of cannabis or marijuana, taking the first step in that direction,” he said.
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/puerto-rico-bill-would-expunge-low-level-weed-possession-convictions/
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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