Government
Why Doesn’t President Biden Just Remove Cannabis from the Controlled Substance Act, Senators Want to Know?
Senators Urge Biden To Reschedule Marijuana
Was Biden Lying To Us About Marijuana All Along While Campaigning?
For many who thought that President Joe Biden was going to help reschedule marijuana, the one thing we’ve been waiting years for, it seems that we thought wrong.
Did he lie to us when he pledged to decriminalize marijuana as well as automatically expunge previous marijuana convictions while campaigning back in 2020?
In fact, Biden’s lack of efforts with regards to marijuana legalization has been so disappointing that senators have had to call him out on it earlier this month. Six US senators wrote a letter sent to the POTUS asking for two requests: one, that the attorney general work to finally remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and two, for the president to use his power to provide relief from people convicted of non-violent marijuana crimes.
It was signed by Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Ed Markey, Ron Wyden, and Kirsten Gillibrand. They added that the Department of Justice (DOJ) took all of six months to respond to a letter sent in October 2021, pushing the attorney general to begin the steps needed to federally deschedule marijuana. They said that the DOJ’s response was “extraordinarily disappointing”.
“It is obvious that cannabis has widely accepted medical benefits, affirmed by medical and scientific communities both here and across the globe,” reads the letter. “The therapeutic properties of cannabis caused by the effects of both the tetrahydrocannabinol-alpha (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) components make it an excellent alternative to highly addictive opiates for pain relief,” it reads.
“The Administration’s failure to coordinate a timely review of its cannabis policy is harming thousands of Americans, slowing research, and depriving Americans of their ability to use marijuana for medical or other purposes,” said the senators in the letter.
“We ask that the Biden Administration act quickly to rectify this decade long injustice harming individuals, especially Black and Brown communities,” the Senators added.
Then last July 16, during a White House press briefing, the president was asked by a reporter if he will be fulfilling his campaign pledge to free marijuana prisoners, which he has the power to do in federal prisons though not in state prisons. He responded with: “I don’t think anyone should be in prison for the use of marijuana. We’re working on the Crime Bill now,” though it remains unclear what on earth he was talking about.
As US President, he has the executive power to pardon any federal crime, there is no need for a bill or a vote from Congress to do so.
So why isn’t he acting on it? He simply needs to sign it.
“Our country’s cannabis policies must be completely overhauled, but you have the power to act now: you can and should issue a blanket pardon for all non-violent federal cannabis offenses, fulfilling your promises to the American people and transforming the lives of tens of thousands of Americans,” wrote the senators in the letter.
“As a candidate for President, you argued that, ‘We should decriminalize marijuana’, and, ‘Everyone with a marijuana record should be let out of jail, their records expunged, be completely zeroed out,’” they continue in the letter. “The first and simplest step in the process is a blanket pardon. The Constitution grants you the authority to pardon broad classes of Americans to correct widespread injustice, as previous presidents have done.”
The sad reality is that the President has taken too little steps to fulfill his campaign pledges since he stepped into the office.
What About Schumer’s Bill?
Last week, a bill by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was introduced; known as the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, it would decriminalize marijuana federally while also allowing states to have the liberty of setting their own marijuana laws without worry of federal penalties from the government.
Senators Schumer as well as Ron Wyden and Cory Booker have been working on this bill over a year ago, though it needs to be passed in the senate. The chances of it passing are small at best, though the good news is that having this piece of legislation can influence discussions on legalizing marijuana in the near future. In addition, some parts of the bill may even be adopted by other bills that have a higher likelihood of passing before the year ends.
The bill will also help expunge federal marijuana convictions while creating a fund that law enforcement can use to prevent illegal cannabis grows. Grant programs will be established to help small marijuana business owners who are new to the industry and who come from communities that have been disproportionately affected by the drug laws. Additionally, the bill mandates the Department of Transportation to create a nationwide standard for testing marijuana-related impairment while minimizing marketing of marijuana to minors.
So far, it’s only been Schumer who has been championing the legalization of marijuana in Washington. He has made it clearly a priority in the last 2 years even if marijuana legalization has spread rapidly around the United States and the government isn’t giving it the time it deserves.
Conclusion
Disappointing is an understatement when it comes to describing Biden’s efforts – or lack thereof, to legalize marijuana. We have to wait and see, should the government suddenly prioritize marijuana convictions and legalization within the coming months. Don’t get your hopes up: thanks to the work of senators, the administration will also be held accountable and policed because of their promises during the campaign period.
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/
New Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud
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