Latest Cannabis News: December 29, 2020

Stay up to date with the latest legalization and cannabis news with the CB 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.

CBD:

Texas: On the second day of the filing period, Rep. Erin Zwiener filed HB 441, which would decriminalize the possession of marijuana for personal use, resulting in a citation rather than an arrest. Zwiener’s bill is a follow-up to Rep. Joe Moody’s 2019 effort with HB 63 that passed through the House before dying in the Senate. Now, lawmakers have returned with several other bills looking to expand medical use in Texas once again.
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Medical:

Delaware: Columbia Care Inc. signed a definitive agreement to acquire Maryland-based Green Leaf Medical, LLC, a privately held, cannabis multi-state operator in the mid-Atlantic region, for approximately $240 million. The deal includes the potential for additional performance-based milestone payments. Columbia has medical marijuana locations in Smyrna, Rehoboth Beach and north Wilmington.
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Georgia: Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff isn’t taking the youth vote for granted in his runoff bid, and one strategy he’s deploying is using the social media app TikTok to tout his support for marijuana legalization. With two weeks before the vote in his race and one other Georgia Senate runoff election, which together will decide which party ultimately controls the chamber, Ossoff’s campaign has taken to the predominantly Gen Z app to generate enthusiasm. It’s been met with mixed reviews in the media, but one of his latest videos, published on Tuesday, is at least reassuring for cannabis reform advocates.
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Maryland: With lawmakers in Maryland preparing to consider marijuana legalization during next year’s legislative session, this week a lead proponent in the House of Delegates unveiled an early outline of what the state’s legal cannabis system could look like. Del. Jazz Lewis (D), who prefiled the legalization bill, shared a draft of the legislation with Marijuana Moment on Tuesday. While his office said it’s “still working on the bill” and that “things are subject to change,” Lewis’s current plan would legalize and regulate the cannabis, allow for sales by state-licensed businesses, expunge past convictions and establish a social equity program meant to reinvest in communities hit hardest by the war on drugs.
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Minnesota: A panel of Minnesota lawmakers is backing the decriminalization of marijuana and expunging past cannabis records as a way to help “dismantle systemic racism” in the state. Last week, the House Select Committee On Racial Justice adopted a report that broadly details race-based disparities and recommends a series of policy changes that could resolve those issues. In order to “address disproportionately harmful impacts on communities of color” in the legal system, the legislature should pursue cannabis decriminalization and clearing the records of those convicted on non-violent marijuana offenses, the report states.
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Mississippi: A mayor’s lawsuit is making baseless arguments as it seeks to overturn a medical marijuana initiative that Mississippi voters approved, state attorneys said in court papers filed Monday. Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler filed the lawsuit in late October. She opposed Initiative 65 because it limits cities’ ability to regulate the location of medical marijuana businesses. Initiative 65 specifies that the state Health Department has until mid-2021 to establish rules for a medical marijuana program.
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Missouri: A Cole County, Missouri, judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit alleging limitations on the number of medical marijuana licenses issued by the state were unconstitutional. Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce ruled that the regulations at the heart of the lawsuit were “properly promulgated and are in compliance with Missouri’s laws and Constitution.” She ruled in favor of the state on all counts and ordered plaintiffs to pay court costs.
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New Jersey: There are only days left before a New Jersey voter-approved constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana goes into effect—but the governor’s concerns over provisions of a separate bill to decriminalize cannabis possession is causing a snag. Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has generally embraced the pending marijuana policy changes under the dual proposals to implement legalization and decriminalize possession. But language in the latter bill that would remove penalties for people under the age of 21 for possession of marijuana is giving the governor pause about signing off on the legislative package.
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Oklahoma: An industry executive says Oklahoma City’s proposed zoning code for marijuana is “overreach.” The city council last week deferred until Feb. 2 further discussion of regulations for growing, processing, storage and retail medical marijuana businesses. A dozen citizens expressed opposition to the proposal, citing lack of consultation, taxes paid by the industry and stigmatization.
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Recreational:

Arizona: Arizonans can expect to see dispensaries begin to sell recreational marijuana as early as March; however, there is currently nowhere Arizonans can legally buy marijuana as the Department of Health Services must first issue licenses to sell, according to marijuana lawyer Tom Dean. “Those licenses will be given to all of the existing medical marijuana dispensaries first,” Dean told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Gaydos and Chad Wednesday. “Those licenses will be issued around the end of March. Then, there are an additional 26 social equity licenses that will be issued at some point later in 2021.
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Illinois: A central tenet of Illinois’ program was that it would endeavor to right the wrongs of a war on drugs that inordinately punished people of color by giving a leg up to those from disadvantaged communities or who had been punished for low-level drug crimes. Illinois was supposed to award 75 cannabis dispensary licenses over the summer — a date originally pushed back because of the coronavirus pandemic, then further put on hold after a furor over how the hundreds of applications were scored.
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Michigan: Though marijuana magazine High Times has long written about marijuana, the company is now finally getting into the business of selling it — and it’ll launch its first products on Monday in Michigan. High Times will premiere a limited run of high-quality (and high-THC) flower at more than a dozen stores across the state through a partnership with cannabis operator Red White & Bloom.
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