Latest Cannabis News: April 30, 2024
Latest Cannabis News: April 30, 2024
Stay up to date with the latest legalization and cannabis news with the C.B. Advisors. Every week, we will release a snippet of what’s happening with each state in the cannabis industry. Did you miss last week? No worries – click here for last week’s cannabis news.
Federal
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, The Associated Press has learned, a historic shift to generations of American drug policy that could have wide ripple effects across the country.
The DEA’s proposal, which still must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, would recognize the medical uses of cannabis and acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. However, it would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use.
The agency’s move, confirmed to the AP on Tuesday by five people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive regulatory review, clears the last significant regulatory hurdle before the agency’s biggest policy change in more than 50 years can take effect.
Once OMB signs off, the DEA will take public comment on the plan to move marijuana from its current classification as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD. It moves pot to Schedule III, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids, following a recommendation from the federal Health and Human Services Department. After the public comment period and a review by an administrative judge, the agency would eventually publish the final rule.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/marijuana-biden-dea-criminal-justice-pot-f833a8dae6ceb31a8658a5d65832a3b8
No Legalization
Kansas: A bill to legalize medical marijuana in Kansas won’t become law this year after a bid to bring the measure to the Senate floor failed to pass last week.
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/kansas-medical-cannabis-proposal-dead-for-2024/
CBD
North Carolina: Senate leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) said it’s still a priority to get his chamber’s medical marijuana bill, though the House has resisted taking action on it.
The bill, which the Senate passed 36-10 last March, would allow a patient to access medical marijuana with a doctor’s prescription as long as they have one of the specified debilitating medical conditions, such as cancer or epilepsy.
South Carolina: A South Carolina House committee has taken up a GOP-led medical marijuana legalization bill—the first action the legislation has seen in the chamber since being approved by the Senate months ago. With just three weeks left in the legislative session, lawmakers have little time to waste to get the legislation to the desk of Gov. Henry McMaster (R).
Medical
Kentucky: Kentucky is taking new steps to make medical marijuana a reality next year.
Medical marijuana is set to become legal in the commonwealth beginning in January 2025. This week, Gov. Andy Beshear signed House Bill 829 into law, which allows businesses to apply for a license to sell medical cannabis. The application process will open July 1, and a set number licenses will be issued using a lottery system. The lottery, set for October, should remove any temptation to lobby in an effort to “get a leg up in different ways that we don’t want to see,” Beshear said at his weekly news conference. The state initially will issue 48 medical cannabis dispensary licenses, divided among 11 regions. Each region will be allocated at least four dispensary licenses, and counties will be limited to one dispensary with the exception of those that are home to Louisville and Lexington, which can have two licenses. Limited numbers of cultivator and processor licenses will be issued. On Wednesday the Democratic governor signed legislation moving up the timeline for licensing cannabis businesses by six months, with the window for applications running from July 1 through the end of August.
https://apnews.com/article/kentucky-governor-medical-marijuana-34eb7b76827456831a72b51a426bb096
Louisiana: The Louisiana House Health and Welfare Committee recently passed House Bill 707 in a unanimous vote to propose a regulatory framework for the state’s cannabis legalization.
The measure, which prefiled in March, doesn’t directly legalize adult-use cannabis but it does start the process of building a foundation for reform. The goal, according to Rep. Edmond Jordan who introduced the bill, is to attempt to get HB-707 passed in the legislature in 2024, followed by introducing two other bills in 2025 which would address adult-use possession and cannabis taxes.
New Hampshire: A New Hampshire marijuana legalization bill already passed by the House of Representatives landed in a Senate committee on Thursday, where opponents of the current version—including Sen. Daryl Abbas (R) and Senate President Jeb Bradley (R)—unveiled amendments that would revise major portions of the proposal.
North Dakota: Secretary of State Michael Howe on Thursday approved a petition for circulation that seeks to put a measure to legalize cannabis on the election ballot.
The proposal, if passed, would make it legal for those ages 21 and older to produce, process, sell and use cannabis. It also would appoint a state body to regulate cannabis-related businesses in North Dakota. If the signatures are turned in by July 8 of this year, the measure will be up for a vote in the general election in November. If the circulators don’t make that deadline but still submit the signatures by April 25, 2025, then the measure will be on the ballot for the next statewide election, which is expected to take place in 2026.
Source: https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/marijuana-petition-approved-circulation
Recreational
Delaware: Coupe (Delaware’s marijuana commissioner) says a lot of things have to go right in order for adult-use sales to potentially launch by March 2025—nearly two years after Carney allowed the Delaware Marijuana Control Act to be enacted without his signature. The OMC plans to utilize a lottery system—rather than a competitive scoring process—to award the 125 licenses, including 47 reserved for social equity applicants, Coupe said.
Minnesota: The Minnesota House voted (House File 4757) to speed up the process for getting cannabis dispensaries lined up by giving them a route to pre-approval of operating licenses. On a 69-62 vote, lawmakers voted to allow the office to start issuing license pre-approvals as early as this summer. Some Republicans raised concerns about a change to the license eligibility system that would remove a solely merit-based selection process for deciding who gets licensed and introduce a lottery if there are more qualified applicants than available licenses. Stephenson and other lawmakers said the system under the existing law would include a lottery. But the change would alter the process to get entered into the pre-application lottery. The Senate plans to vote soon on a companion bill, setting up potential negotiations on a compromise plan in the final month of session. Stephenson said he would be open to changes to the lottery system as part of the conference committee debate.
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