Government
Religious Anti-Marijuana Groups Are Getting Louder — And They’re Ready To Take Action
In North Dakota, religious groups have teamed up with law enforcement members in a push against Measure 2, which would legalize recreational marijuana.
The poll revealed that barely half (54%) of respondents who identify with any religious group think that cannabis should be legal for medical and recreational use. At the same time, roughly three-quarters (76%) of surveyed US adults who consider themselves atheists, agnostics, or “nothing in particular” want to see the plant legalized.
While cannabis advocates and shareholders are tireless in their push to legalize marijuana, religious activists are rooting for the opposite.
Just a few weeks after the Amendment 3 — which seeks to legalize adult-use cannabis in Missouri this fall — was criticized by Catholic bishops who urged Missourians to vote “no” on the amendment, religious organizations in North Dakota and Arkansas followed suit.
Islamists & Christians Agree On Marijuana
In North Dakota, religious groups have teamed up with law enforcement members in a push against Measure 2, which would legalize recreational marijuana, reported KVRR.
A North Dakota Catholic Conference statement insisted that Catholics are obliged to “protect human life and the common good.”
Islamic advocates seem to be on the same page as Christians, at least regarding cannabis.
“From a religious point of view, from the Islamic point of view, any intoxicant for that matter is forbidden,” said Mohamed Sanaullah, a board member at the Islamic Society of Fargo-Moorhead. “Again, it’s a personal decision. If they’re more religious, they probably should be voting no.”
North Dakota sheriffs, deputies, police chiefs and peace officer associations all share a similar stance on the issue.
“It [marijuana legalization] will greatly strain our law enforcement resources which are already strained,” said Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski who shared concerns regarding how legalization would affect his department. “It will exacerbate an already existing issue with addiction.”
In his view, marijuana should be treated the same as alcohol. He cautioned that children could be affected the most if the plant is accessible.
“Even when you talk about it being for only 21 and older, well, just like any other prescription medication that adults bring into their homes, kids have access to it,” Zibolski said. “That also increases their ability to get a hold of it easier.
Kristie Spooner, the chair at Healthy and Productive North Dakota went a step further, saying that cannabis can cause psychosis in addition to other mental health issues.
Still, members of New Approach ND support cannabis legalization in North Dakota as well as its responsible use.
“Most people, myself included, would rather have a system regulated from seed to sale,” said Mark Friese, New Approach’s treasurer. “Regulated safe, checked marijuana with it being done in the light of day, legitimately with businesses that are subject to regulation.”
Arkansas Activists Are Moving On From Words To Deeds
Meanwhile, in Arkansas, David Couch, the attorney behind the state’s medical marijuana amendment, is working to defeat recreational cannabis legalization efforts by Responsible Growth Arkansas (RGA).
Couch joined forces with the church-based Family Council Action Committee to fight against Issue 4, which would make adult use of cannabis legal, reported The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Couch held a joint news conference on Wednesday with Jerry Cox, executive director of the committee. In it, Couch said that he is currently touring the state and meeting with church groups, chambers of commerce, as well as other groups and organizations that are against the proposed marijuana policy change.
Cox revealed that the committee has distributed roughly half a million flyers headlined “Arkansas Does Not Need Another Drug Problem” and “Deadly meth, opioids, heroin and fentanyl are already destroying too many lives” to local churches.
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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