Latest Cannabis News: July 6, 2021
Latest Cannabis News: July 6, 2021
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
North Carolina: A key North Carolina Senate committee approved a bill to legalize medical marijuana in the state last Wednesday. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which first heard testimony on the proposal last week, approved the legislation in a voice vote. It must still move through three additional panels before potentially being considered on the floor. Rules Committee Chairman Bill Rabon (R) is sponsoring the measure, which would allow patients to access cannabis if they have a “debilitating medical condition” such as cancer, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis. Regulators would have authority to add additional qualifying conditions. Under a substitute amendment adopted by the committee a 13-member Medical Cannabis Advisory Board would be able to “review petitions to add a new debilitating medical condition and have the power to add a new debilitating medical condition,” according to a summary. Separately, a nine-member Medical Cannabis Production Commission would be established to “provide a safe, regulated supply of cannabis appropriate for medical use by qualified registry identification cardholders; ensure statewide access to safe and affordable cannabis to registry identification cardholders; establish a system that is well regulated, includes a seed to sale tracking system, and is financially viable for suppliers to ensure the highest quality cannabis and cannabis infused products for patients; and generate sufficient revenue for the Commission to oversee and for the Department to maintain and operate the system.”
Source: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/north-carolina-senators-approve-medical-marijuana-bill-in-committee/
Medical
Alabama: The board that will oversee Alabama’s new medical marijuana industry is taking shape. Authorities have named at least 12 of the 14 members of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission. The Legislature passed a bill in May to legalize and regulate the production and use of medical marijuana products in Alabama, a seed-to-sale intrastate program. The bill calls for the Medical Cannabis Commission to be in place by July 1. The commission has a deadline of Sept. 1, 2022 to set up the rules to implement the program and issue licenses to cultivators, processors, transporters, testing laboratories, and dispensaries. Doctors will be able to recommend medical cannabis products to patients for about 15 categories of conditions and symptoms: Autism; cancer-related weight loss, or chronic pain; Crohn’s; depression; epilepsy or condition causing seizures; HIV/AIDS-related nausea or weight loss; panic disorder; Parkinson’s; persistent nausea not related to pregnancy; PTSD; sickle cell; spasticity associated with diseases including ALS and multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injuries; terminal illnesses; Tourette’s; chronic pain for which conventional therapies and opiates should not be used or are ineffective.
The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries will regulate the cultivators.
Source: https://www.al.com/news/2021/06/alabamas-new-commission-on-medical-marijuana-taking-shape.html
Connecticut: Four days after becoming the law of the land, Gov. Ned Lamont’s office released its first set of “guidance” for legalized marijuana. The state unveiled its specially dedicated website ct.gov/cannabis. Lamont says the website spells out what’s legal now, what will be legal in the future, and what will never be legal, including person-to-person private sales.
Source: https://bronx.news12.com/connecticut-launches-new-website-for-legal-marijuana-information
Mississippi: The Mississippi Supreme Court rejected a final appeal by medical marijuana advocates to reconsider a landmark ruling in which the court struck down a voter-approved MMJ bill because of a technicality. According to Mississippi Today, the high court on Thursday released a final decision in which it cited a time period last November when parties failed to act on an opportunity to intervene on the ruling. The decision effectively marks the end of the road for legal appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court’s May decision to overturn a popular medical marijuana legalization ballot measure, which voters approved by a nearly 3-to-1 margin last year. Meanwhile, Mississippi lawmakers have expressed some interest in passing a medical marijuana law of their own, though that wouldn’t happen this year unless the governor calls a special session of the Legislature.
Pennsylvania: Medical marijuana patients can continue to get a three month’s supply at a time, rather than one month’s, under revisions to the Pennsylvania program signed into law last Wednesday by Gov. Tom Wolf. The bill makes it easier for producers to remove contaminants such as yeast and mold from medical marijuana, to turn it into products that are topical in form, not to be inhaled or ingested.
Rhode Island: With little time remaining in the regular legislative session, the Rhode Island Senate has approved a bill to legalize the possession, purchase, and cultivation of cannabis for personal use for adults 21 and older. The original proposal was introduced in March and amended last week by the Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee. In addition to legalizing cannabis for adults, the amended version of S 568 would establish a Cannabis Control Commission to regulate the legal cannabis market, tax adult-use cannabis sales at 20%, and establish a social equity program to support communities disproportionately impacted by cannabis criminalization.
Recreational
California: California lawmakers delivered a budget bill to the governor’s desk on Friday that includes sweeping changes to the state’s cannabis licensing system, Marijuana Business Daily reports. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is expected to sign the bill into law. The bill addresses some major issues for the cannabis industry including an extension to the state’s provisional licensing program, under which the majority of the state’s cannabis businesses have been operating. The provisional licenses can now be renewed through January 1, 2025. The legislation also consolidates the state’s three cannabis regulatory agencies into a single entity: the Department of Cannabis Control. Additionally, the bill will allow cannabis businesses to trade free samples of their products with other companies.
Source: https://www.ganjapreneur.com/california-lawmakers-approve-cannabis-licensing-changes/
Colorado: A slate of new Colorado requirements for hemp products taking effect Thursday could signal a new wave of regulations as states move to regulate over-the-counter hemp products more like those made from marijuana. Colorado’s health department now requires edible hemp products to be tested for a long list of pesticides and contaminants, including heavy metals and mycotoxins. The changes include a new requirement that hemp products carry labels listing total cannabinoid content in the package, including THC, in milligrams. Currently, hemp product labels don’t have to mention THC as long as the finished item is less than 0.3% THC. By Oct. 1, Colorado will require hemp products to be tested for 106 pesticides, compared with 13 pesticides for regulated marijuana.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/colorado-rolls-out-new-hemp-testing-thc-labeling-rules/
Maine: There are new rules for Maine’s number one cash crop: marijuana. A bill overhauling the state’s medical marijuana rulemaking process is now law. A bill overhauling the state’s medical marijuana rulemaking process is now law. Under the new law Medical marijuana growers and caregivers will have a greater say over any new rules generated by the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy. The measure will freeze Maine’s current medical marijuana rules, add legislative oversight to future rule changes and allow local caregivers and patients to have more of a say in the process.
South Dakota: Despite voter approval, legal cannabis is on pause in South Dakota—everywhere except for a tiny town located on an Indian reservation, where the Flandreau Santee Sioux will open the state’s first legal cannabis business this past week. Last fall, South Dakota became the first state in the US to legalize adult-use marijuana at the same time as medical cannabis when voters approved a pair of ballot measures. Little has gone to plan since then. A lawsuit backed by the state’s Republican Gov. Kristi Noem may scuttle recreational cannabis, and bureaucratic and legislative roadblocks may delay the state’s medical-marijuana program from selling its first gram until mid-2022. But starting July 1, anyone with a medical cannabis recommendation—from any state—will be able to walk into an old police station in Flandreau, a town of about 2,200 people forty minutes north of Sioux Falls, and buy legal marijuana at the Native Nations cannabis dispensary, owned and operated by the Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe.
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