Business
Washington State Psilocybin Bill Heads to Governor’s Desk
After amendments were enacted by the House and Senate, a psilocybin bill heads to the desk of Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee.
Washington State’s Senate Bill 5263 was introduced on January 11, and passed on to the House on March 9. As of April 14, it received final passage from the Senate on April 14. Previously there was some concern about the House and Senate agreeing on certain amendments for SB-5263, but ultimately the new bill text was approved by the Senate on Friday and now heads to governor’s for final consideration.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jesse Salomon and Sen. Liz Lovelett, originally would have allowed psilocybin for people 21 years or older to obtain and use psilocybin with the assistance of licensed facilitators. Now, the bill simply implements a dedicated Psilocybin Advisory Board, an Interagency Psilocybin Work Group, and a Psilocybin Task Force, as well as a pilot program through the University of Washington.
The Psilocybin Advisory Board would consist of a variety of individuals, including the Secretary of the Department of Health, policy experts, a military veteran with knowledge of psilocybin, a social worker, mental health counselor, or marriage/family therapist, a representative of a family tribe, a psychologist, and an individual who specializes in either mycology, ethnobotany, psychopharmacology, harm reduction, or scientific research in regards to psychedelic therapy, among others. These individuals serve four-year terms, and would be required to meet five times per year.
Interagency Psilocybin Work Group would be created to “provide advice and recommendations” covering everything from regulatory framework, reviewing indigenous practices, studying various research on the “possible use and misuse of psilocybin therapy,” and developing a social opportunity program.
Finally, Psilocybin Task Force will enlist many of the same requirements as the Psilocybin Advisory Board to create a comprehensive panel of experts who will discuss gaps in scientific research, clinical trials, and much more. SB-5263 requires that the task force to submit a final report to both the governor and legislature by December 1, 2023.
Additionally, SB-5263 was expanded with help from Rep. Nicole Macri. If Inslee signs the bill, it would also create a University of Washington clinical pilot program that would provide military veterans with access to psilocybin treatment if they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or mood/substance use disorders and “offer psilocybin therapy services through pathways approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA).” The program would be set to establish and administer its program by January 1, 2025.
In 2019, Gov. Inslee expressed support for cannabis legalization, followed by positive support of decriminalizing and/or legalizing psilocybin as well. “I would consider it. I haven’t had a chance to think about [legalization] so I can’t give you a ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” said Inslee. “I do believe that our War on Drugs has had all kinds of untoward effects and it’s one of the reasons that, for instance, not only have we legalized marijuana in Washington but I’ve offered pardons—I’m the first governor to offer pardons to several thousands people who have misdemeanor convictions on their records.”
According to The Seattle Times, Inslee’s policy adviser for public health, Samantha Pskowski, told Sen. Salomon in February that “The bill as proposed would create a system for regulation and use of psilocybin that is not supported by the available scientific and medical evidence.” Now that the bill focuses more on the pilot program, there’s hope that Inslee will agree.
Dr. Anthony Back, a University of Washington researcher who is currently working on studying psychedelic therapies, told The Seattle Times that this bill should be passed to help patients in the state. “I think waiting for three years or waiting for more years, is not doing justice to the mental health crisis that I’m seeing now,” Back said.
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/washington-state-psilocybin-bill-heads-to-governors-desk/
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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