Author: News Room

New Hampshire lawmakers have now pre-filed a dozen marijuana-related bills for the 2024 legislative session, including measures to legalize the cannabis for adults, annul prior convictions, expand the list of qualifying conditions for the state’s medical program as well as increase possession limits and allow home cultivation for patients and caregivers. Ten of the 12 bills were pre-filed in the past week, following two others—regarding home grow for patients and eating disorders as qualifying conditions, respectively—earlier this month. The pre-filed legislation includes some proposals from members of what one lawmaker described to Marijuana Moment earlier this month as “sort of…

California law enforcement officials are revising employment policies for police officers to remove questions about job applicants’ prior marijuana use in accordance with a bill the governor signed in October. The law, which builds on previously enacted cannabis employment protections, formally takes effect on January 1. But in advance of the effective date, the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training said in a memo last week that it’s proactively amended application forms to adhere to the new policy. In addition to prohibiting discrimination against most workers who use cannabis off-duty, the law “makes it unlawful for an employer to…

Since January 2021, when recreational sales began, the cannabis industry has generated more than $4 billion, with about $2.5 billion coming from recreational sales. By David Abbott, Arizona Mirror Cannabis sales in Arizona passed the $1 billion mark for the year in September, as the medical and recreational markets continued a familiar pattern that appears to have solidified over the past several months. Data from the Arizona Department of Revenue (ADOR) for August and September reports that medical sales remain about one-third that of adult-use recreational, a trend that has persisted throughout the year—and led to the lowest medical use…

Delay of the 2023 Farm Bill, and differences among hemp stakeholders are likely to keep the industry off balance after massive contraction over the past two years.Stakeholders had been counting on the Farm Bill to advance industry goals and address critical issues, specifically CBD and other hemp-derived cannabinoids, and marijuana-like psychoactive products downstream from those hemp compounds.While a stopgap bill signed by President Joe Biden provides funding for essential farm programs and food assistance (the biggest programs in the five-year Farm Bill) hemp and other issues are not likely to be resolved until September 2024. And the U.S. Congressional Research…

The governor of New York has vetoed a pair of bills that would have allowed hemp seeds to be included in animal feed for pets, horses and camelids such as llamas and alpacas—citing a lack of information about the safety of such uses, which she wants the state to study in an “expeditious manner.” The Senate and Assembly passed the legislation months ago, but the bills were only formally transmitted to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) late last month. While she’s strongly advocated for the state’s hemp industry, the governor said in a veto message on Friday that the federal Food…

Missouri officials have expunged more than 100,000 marijuana cases from court records during the first year of legalization, according the latest state numbers. But some courts missed Friday’s deadline for felony expungements as clerks work to review decades of old cases. “The courts are going to need more time to finish the job, and in fact, it might be years before all the cases from the past century are expunged,” lawyer Dan Viets, a Missouri NORML coordinator and co-author of Missouri’s 2022 constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana, told FOX affiliate KVTI in St. Louis. “We’ve had more than 100 years of…

A Virginia state senator says he’s “confident” that lawmakers can send a bill to tax and regulate marijuana sales to Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) in the coming year. The question now is whether supporters can build enough bipartisan support to avoid a potential veto. “I am confident, with Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate, that we can get a bill to the governor’s desk,” Sen. Adam Ebbin (D) said in a local TV news interview that aired over the weekend. “The challenge is going to be we want to make that bill bipartisan anyway. We want the governor…

“Many patients face barriers to accessing treatment due to costs, like paying out of pocket for doctor’s visits and the cost of cannabis.” By Sophie Nieto-Munoz, New Jersey Monitor In an attempt to keep enrollment for medical marijuana patients from continuing to drop, the state cannabis agency has lowered registration costs to just $10 every two years, down from $50 for most patients. Enrollment in the medical marijuana program has been declining since the state launched recreational marijuana sales in April 2022, officials with the Cannabis Regulatory Commission said at their meeting Thursday. The number of medical marijuana patients has…

As Colombia’s government moves to fully legalize drug possession by removing an existing fine and the ability for police to seize substances, lawmakers are urging immediate Senate action on a marijuana legalization and regulation bill before a deadline that would require them to start the legislative process over again next year. The cannabis legislation has received three of eight required debates so far—moving through the full Chamber of Representatives before being approved by a Senate committee late last month. It needs to advance on the Senate floor before the end of the year in order to stay alive for the…

New Jersey’s governor and attorney general have announced the recipients of a violence-intervention grant program funded in part with revenue from state-legal marijuana. Gov. Phil Murphy (D) and Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin (D) said last week that $15 million—of which $5 million state’s Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Fund—will be distributed to 29 organizations to support and expand New Jersey’s Community-Based Violence Intervention (CBVI) program. The fund, which was established through the state’s marijuana legalization law, consists of monies from taxes on legal sales, industry fees and civil penalties. In NJ, we know that communities grow stronger when…