Author: News Room

Drug policy reform advocates are condemning the House’s passage of a bill that would ramp up federal criminalization of fentanyl analogues—criticizing the move as a backwards, punitive response to the overdose crisis—even if it does contain additional provisions to streamline research into Schedule I drugs like marijuana and psychedelics. The House approved the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl (HALT) Act in a 289-133 vote on Thursday, with 74 Democrats joining all but one Republican in advancing the legislation to the Senate. The measure would classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), including analogues…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has officially announced that he’s running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. The candidate’s marijuana policy record is fairly mixed. While he opposes cannabis legalization, he supported several pieces of reform legislation during his time in Congress and has taken steps to build on Florida’s medical marijuana program as governor. As a general theme, DeSantis seems to support the right of states to set their own cannabis policies, even if he personally draws the line at medical marijuana and finds the plant’s smell “putrid.” DeSantis is one candidate in a growing pool of GOP presidential…

The Nevada Senate has approved a resolution urging Congress to federally legalize marijuana. About a month after the Assembly passed the legislation from Assemblyman Reuben D’Silva (D), the Senate advanced it in a vote of 18-3 on Wednesday. It states that cannabis has “many well documented medical uses,” yet remains a Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), “alongside heroin.” The resolution goes on to note that Nevada voters have approved ballot initiatives to legalize medical and recreational marijuana, and that a state district court ruled last year that the state Board of Pharmacy’s designation of cannabis as…

The Louisiana House of Representatives has approved a bill to streamline expungements for people with first-time marijuana possession convictions. The legislation from Rep. Delisha Boyd (D) cleared the chamber in a 69-30 vote on Tuesday, sending it to the Senate. It makes it so people who are convicted of possessing up to 14 grams of cannabis as a first offense can petition the courts to wipe their record after 90 days from the time of the conviction. That would significantly speed up the timeline for relief, as current law maintains that people must wait at least five years before petitioning…

The governor of Minnesota has signed a pair of large-scale bills that include provisions to establish safe drug consumption sites and also create a psychedelics task force meant to prepare the state for possible legalization. The Democratic-controlled legislature has sent a series of drug policy reform measures to Gov. Tim Walz (D) in recent weeks. He signed the harm reduction and psychedelics proposals, which were part of broader omnibus health and human services legislation, on Wednesday. This comes days after the governor enacted another bill with provisions to legalize drug paraphernalia possession, syringe services, residue and testing—another win for harm…

A California bill to legalize the possession of certain psychedelics and facilitated use of the substances has passed the Senate. The legislation from Sen. Scott Wiener (D) was approved on the floor in a vote of 21-16 on Wednesday and now heads to the Assembly for consideration. The measure, which is a more narrowly tailored version of a bill that Wiener led last session that passed the Senate but was later abandoned in the Assembly after members watered it down significantly, has advanced under an accelerated process that allowed it to skip some committee consideration this year. It cleared the Appropriations…

The governor of Colorado has officially signed a bill to create a regulatory framework for legal psychedelics under a voter-approved initiative. About three weeks after the legislature passed the measure from the Senate president, Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed the legislation into law on Tuesday. Overall, the bill will set up regulations for a psychedelics legalization law that voters passed at the ballot last year, largely focusing on rules for using the substances in licensed healing centers under the guidance of facilitators. The proposal has received mixed feedback from advocates and stakeholders. The ballot measure called for the creation of an advisory board to…

A marijuana financial services company has revised its testimony on a congressional cannabis banking bill following pushback over remarks made at a Senate committee hearing this month where a compliance officer suggested a “pause” to further amend the legislation. Advocates and stakeholders were taken aback by the suggestion from Dama Financial, as it seemed to undermine efforts to show a united front eager to advance the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act. But shortly after the Senate Banking Committee hearing, Dama CEO Patrick O’Boyle said that the company “regret[s] that our testimony did not highlight the bill’s merits and…

Bipartisan Ohio lawmakers have filed a new bill to legalize marijuana, offering the legislature an opportunity to take the lead on reform as an activist campaign works to place a reform initiative on the November ballot. Reps. Jamie Callender (R) and Casey Weinstein (D) introduced the Ohio Adult Use Act, combining and refining prior legalization proposals that the lawmakers pursued last session on a separate partisan basis. The bill would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to 50 grams of cannabis and cultivate up to six plants, only three of which could be mature at one…

Minnesota officials are already soliciting vendors to help build a licensing system for recreational marijuana businesses—even before the governor has officially signed the legalization bill that lawmakers recently sent to his desk. In a request for proposal (RFP) posted on Wednesday, the state Department of Information Technology Services (MNIT) said that it is partnering with Departments of Health and Agriculture, as well as the yet-to-be-established Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) to find a “vendor to provide the software required to accept license applications, process applications, issue licenses, and allow licensees to manage their licenses related to Adult Use of Cannabis.”…