Government
Weed Legalization in Germany Hampered by EU Laws
Plans to legalize cannabis in Germany could be delayed as government officials try to determine how legalization will be viewed by the European Union’s courts.
Germany has slowed its plans to legalize cannabis this year, with some officials expressing concern that a hastily drafted reform measure will be rejected by European Union courts. Although the plan to legalize marijuana has not been scrapped, a government official said recently that lawmakers are proceeding with a “degree of caution about promises of a breakthrough” and have scaled back plans to achieve legalization by early next year.
In November 2021, the center-left Social Democrats Party (SPD) received the most votes in Germany’s most recent federal election and created a coalition with the environmentalist Green Party and the Free Democrats (FDP) to form a new government. Known as the traffic light coalition in reference to the parties’ colors, the new ruling majority replaced the Christian Democratic Union, which had led the government under Chancellor Angela Merkle for 16 years.
As negotiations to form the new government were underway, representatives of the coalition announced that cannabis would be legalized for adults and a regulatory framework for legal sales would be created. Spokespeople for the new ruling alliance announced that cannabis would be legalized for adults, including the launch of regulated recreational marijuana dispensaries.
“We’re introducing the controlled distribution of cannabis to adults for consumption in licensed stores,” an unidentified spokesperson for the coalition said. “This will control the quality, prevent the transfer of contaminated substances and guarantee the protection of minors. We will evaluate the law after four years for social impact.”
The goal of cannabis legalization in Germany has been restated by the Green Party and the liberal Free Democratic Party since the traffic light coalition took power, including Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann predicting in May that a reform bill could be passed by next spring and lead to “the first legal joint” being sold in Germany in 2023.
In early June, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach announced that the government would start the legal process for cannabis legalization soon. He told the German newspaper Handelsblatt he has changed his stance on legalization over the past two years, and now believes the negative impact of prohibition outweighs the risks of recreational cannabis reform.
“I’ve always been opposed to cannabis legalization, but I revised my position about a year ago,” Lauterbach said.
A series of five hearings to discuss different aspects of cannabis were scheduled by the German government. Commissioner for Addiction and Drug Issues Burkhard Blienert said that “the time has come” to move forward, according to a translation.
“We are starting the preparatory phase of legislation,” he added. “Being able to finally announce this is a special, gratifying moment for me personally. Like many others, I have been working for years to ensure that we in Germany finally stop criminalizing cannabis users and start a modern and health-oriented cannabis policy.”
Government Officials Scaling Back Legalization Hopes
But after expressing optimism that reform would come quickly, government officials have been walking back predictions that Germany will legalize cannabis by 2023. On Monday, a legal analysis by German parliament researchers was leaked to the news portal RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, warning that the effort to legalize cannabis would conflict with European regulations in several ways.
Early in the ruling coalition’s discussions of legalization, officials identified the United Nations 1961 single convention on narcotic drugs as a potential obstacle to achieving the goal, although both Uruguay and Canada effectively ignored the international agreement when cannabis was legalized in those countries.
German officials now largely believe that the 1961 treaty is not the obstacle it once seemed and have turned their attention to European Union laws that might jeopardize legalization in Europe’s most populous country. Under a Council of the European Union framework decision from 2004, member states are required to ensure that sales of drugs including cannabis are “punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalties.”
Additionally, the 1985 Schengen Agreement, which led to the abolishment of border crossings throughout the European Union, requires member nations to combat the illegal export, sale and supply of “narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, including cannabis.” As the government considers the challenges to cannabis legalization under EU laws, officials are rethinking the pace of reform.
“There is a degree of caution about promises of a breakthrough before the end of the year,” said an official familiar with the matter. “The complexity of all is starting to sink in, and there’s a sharper awareness of the risks involved. We don’t want another autobahn toll debacle,” a reference to a plan to build a toll road that was abandoned when the European court of justice ruled it violated an anti-discrimination law because it would disproportionately affect foreign drivers.
The traffic light coalition remains on target to finish drafting a bill that would allow for the legal distribution of cannabis, according to government sources cited by The Guardian. But lawmakers are also watching to see what happens in neighboring Luxembourg, where officials unveiled a plan this summer that would legalize the recreational use of cannabis in private settings but maintain prohibitions on using cannabis in public.
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/weed-legalization-in-germany-hampered-by-eu-laws/
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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