Author: News Room

“Because petty misdemeanors in Minnesota are not deemed criminal offenses, there is no right to counsel, which means no public defender.” By Maren Schroeder, High Level Strategies via Minnesota Reformer On May 30, 2023, Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed cannabis legalization into law. More recently, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the smell of burnt cannabis on its own is no longer probable cause for vehicle searches. This, combined with the legalization of cannabis, puts new rules into play for Minnesota consumers. However, it is not a free-for-all out there. With criminal penalties still in place, Minnesota needs to consider…

Passenger cruise lines like Carnival and Royal Caribbean have policies against marijuana, noting that the substance is illegal in many ports it sails to and that they’re following federal law. But as more people return to the ships, and as more of them come from states where the drug is legal, operators are reportedly taking more extreme measures to detect cannabis and cracking down on people who attempt to use it—including those who simply pack CBD products, which are legal across the U.S. As the Wall Street Journal reported in a story on the trend this week, Carnival Cruise Lines…

Dry farms are rare in California, but the results people like Chrystal Ortiz of High Water Farm are able to pull off without watering their cannabis plants all summer are pretty amazing. Sure it takes a Goldilocks type of microclimate in the middle of Humboldt County just off the Eel River—the same neighborhood that hosts all the state’s dry cannabis farmers—but what those farmers are able to do is pretty impressive. It is certainly a leap of faith to start. Ortiz described the trauma of her first season trying dry farming as she watched the plants wilt before they adjusted…

Bipartisan congressional lawmakers are urging House appropriators to ensure that a large-scale spending bill maintains language to allow U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors to issue medical marijuana recommendations to veterans living in legal states. In a letter sent to to House Appropriations Committee leadership on Friday that was led by Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-chairs Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Brian Mast (R-FL), four members requested that leadership “maintain the protections” as part of the final 2024 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (MilConVA) spending bill that’s sent to the president’s desk following bicameral negotiations. Both the House…

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is taking another shot at banning two psychedelics after abandoning its original scheduling proposal last year, teeing up another fight with researchers and advocates who say the compounds hold therapeutic potential. In a notice published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, DEA again proposed placing 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine (DOI) and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-chloroamphetamine (DOC) in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The agency said that its scientific and medical basis for proposing the ban “remains the same” as it was last year, so it’s making an identical argument that the phenethylamine hallucinogens hold high abuse potential with…

In a letter sent to the heads of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) this week, 29 former U.S. attorneys are urging the Biden administration to leave cannabis in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), arguing that “marijuana has only become more dangerous, potent, and addictive” since the government last reviewed its scheduling in 2016. The correspondence comes as DEA continues its review of marijuana’s scheduling after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended in August that the substance be moved, reportedly to Schedule III. “Almost no one has benefitted from…

The governor of Pennsylvania has signed a bill to allow all licensed medical marijuana grower-processors in the state to serve as retailers and sell their cannabis products directly to patients. Just two days after the Senate gave final approval to the legislation—which was amended to further grant grower permits to independent dispensaries—Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) signed it into law on Thursday. Under the measure, sponsored by Sen. Chris Gebhard (R), the state Department of Health will create a process to allow the state’s 10 independent marijuana grower-processors to apply to obtain a dispensary permit to engage in direct commerce with…

Nationwide marijuana legalization in all states would grow annual cannabis tax revenue to $8.5 billion, according to a new report from a nonprofit think tank that includes a “blueprint” for taxing sales. The Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation is proposing a state and federal marijuana tax model that keeps costs relatively low to mitigate illicit sales while imposing higher rates on more potent products. It says the current patchwork of state cannabis laws that mostly tax by sales price is “chaotic,” and while marijuana remains federally prohibited, it’s worth considering the pros and cons of establishing a new framework that takes…

A federal appellate panel has denied a motion by lawyers for a Washington State doctor trying to reschedule psilocybin under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). In an order this week, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected the doctor’s request for a rehearing of an earlier court decision that returned the matter to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). While the earlier ruling, in October, technically went against DEA, the court did not send the rescheduling petition to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for review, as lawyers for the doctor had requested.…

As Virginia’s Republican governor and other leaders pursue a plan to bring two professional sports teams—the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals—to Alexandria, the state’s Democratic Senate leader suggested this week that her support for the plan might be contingent on getting a bill to legalize marijuana sales enacted into law. “While some people want sports stadiums,” Senate President Pro Tempore Louis Lucas (D-VA) said in a social media post on Monday, “I want tolls to disappear from Hampton Roads *and* I want recreational sale of marijuana.” “Guess we will have to find compromises this session,” she said. The comment comes…