Business
What The Future Of Federal Cannabis Legislation Looks Like With New Congress
The only thing that really is certain about the 118th congress is that no one is really certain about anything.
There is a lot of curiosity building around the 118th congress and what it can, and can’t, accomplish over the next two years. With the House of Representatives now controlled by republicans, and the senate and executive branches remaining democratic, there will certainly be some difference of opinions, and higher hurdles to jump over if lawmakers hope to pass meaningful legislation.
But one issue that had forward momentum in the previous congress, and that has built a bit of bipartisan support, is marijuana policy. A perfect example of exactly how bipartisan cannabis legalization has become is the States Reform Act, which was sponsored by republican congresswoman Nancy Mace.
We had the opportunity to correspond with representative Mace via email after she and other lawmakers attended a hearing called “Developments in State Cannabis Laws and Bipartisan Cannabis Reforms at the Federal Level,” on November 15. We were wondering how this hearing left her thinking about cannabis legalization during the 118th congress, and the current trajectory of the States Reform Act.
In regards to the hearing, “The room was packed with passionate supporters who want to see our country take this historic step forward,” congresswoman Mace wrote. “We were left cautiously optimistic and energized for continued progress,” she continued.
When asked about the current timeline for her bill, she said the timeline remains the same. “The cosponsors of the bill and I are making a push to get the bill passed this Congress with an alternative strategy for the text going into the 118th Congress,” Mace wrote.
It is clear that congresswoman mace is determined to reach across the aisle in Washington in order to make this bill work, and break through to those still skeptical about cannabis in both parties. “Something so popular across the country should not remain so controversial in DC,” wrote the congresswoman. In regards to the political shift in congress, moving from democratic to republican, the republican congresswoman remains optimistic about the bill’s chances.
“A republican shift in congress could bring increased support for the States Reform Act,” Mace wrote. “States should be granted the right to choose their own path on cannabis, and the conservative case for limited federal government provides a framework for this type of policy,” she continued. She also wrote that the Republicans she has spoken with “recognize the burden will be upon our party to get this right.”
We also had the chance to ask John Hudak, Ph.D. deputy director of the Center for Effective Public Management and a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings about the hearings and the future trajectory of cannabis reform.
“The latest congressional hearing was a breath of fresh air from our day-to-day politics because it showed an issue that has bipartisan support from all types of ideologies in Congress,” Hudak wrote in an email.
Hudak also had a bit of optimism about the final weeks of the 117th congress, and their ability to get some meaningful work done in their lame duck session.
“While full scale legalization will not pass during the lame duck, there is opportunity for meaningful piece-meal reforms to get through the U.S. Senate,” he wrote. The current congress and the lame duck session will end on January 3.
When it comes to the next few years, however, Hudak is much less optimistic. “The opportunity for cannabis reform efforts will die with the current 117th Congress,” he wrote. “Republican House leaders have shown very little interest and in some cases explicit opposition to large-scale cannabis reform,” he wrote.
The only thing that really is certain about the 118th congress is that no one is really certain about anything. Conservatives have been slower to move on cannabis legalization than liberals, but people like representative Mace and her co-sponsors are examples of those who may shift that viewpoint and stigma when it comes to conservatives and cannabis, and, in turn, may just help make some changes to marijuana laws in the 118th congress.
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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