Latest Cannabis News: March 12, 2024
Latest Cannabis News: March 12, 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.
Medical
Alabama: Alabama’s medical marijuana program will be bogged down in court for at least another month. More than 25 lawyers were in Montgomery County Circuit Court and about half of them took part in the arguments before Judge James Anderson during a hearing that lasted more than an hour. At the conclusion of Thursday’s hearing, Anderson gave the companies until April 1 to file motions in response to the AMCC’s motion to dismiss the cases. The judge said the AMCC would then have until April 15 to file a response.
Hawaii: Lawmakers in Hawaii’s House of Representatives are set to take up a Senate-passed bill to legalize and regulate adult-use marijuana this week. The chair of one committee slated to consider the measure is optimistic about its chances of being enacted into law, but others—including the House speaker—say the legislature needs to consider the concerns of law enforcement leaders who have criticized the proposal.
Kentucky: With the deadline to begin the sale of medical marijuana in Kentucky less than nine months away, new dueling proposals are being introduced to alter the program. Ky. Sen. Steve West, R-Millersburg, introduced SB 337, adding 10 more conditions that would qualify someone for a medical marijuana card in Kentucky. Meanwhile the House Health Committee on Thursday passed HB 829, which was introduced by Ky. Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville. It has several provisions, but the biggest ones included allowing private religious schools, and perhaps some public schools, to refuse to give medical cannabis to minors – even if their parents got them a card and it’s needed. The bill also requires a pharmacist to consult with anyone getting a medical cannabis card.
A bill legalizing recreational use in Kentucky was introduced earlier this year by state Rep. Rachel Roberts, D-Newport, but it has yet to be assigned a committee or get a hearing in Frankfort.
New Hampshire: The New Hampshire House approved a group of bills expanding the state’s therapeutic cannabis program Thursday – as lawmakers continue to grapple with whether to legalize marijuana for everyone.
The chamber voted to pass House Bill 1278, a bill to add debilitating or terminal conditions to the list of qualifications for using therapeutic cannabis, also known as medical marijuana. In a separate vote, the House approved House Bill 1349, which allows those with generalized anxiety disorder to be part of the therapeutic cannabis program.
Both bills would require the patient to obtain a recommendation from a medical provider that they be prescribed medical cannabis.
The House also approved a bill to increase the amount of cannabis a medical marijuana patient can possess at one time. House Bill 1350 would raise the limit from 2 ounces to 4. Currently, the state’s cannabis decriminalization law allows people to possess up to three-quarters of an ounce.
And the House passed House Bill 1581, which would create an opportunity for the state’s alternative treatment centers to create greenhouses. The centers cultivate and distribute the state’s therapeutic cannabis; the bill would require them to receive permission from the Department of Health and Human Services, which regulates medical marijuana.
New Hampshire’s latest cannabis legalization effort is moving toward familiar territory: approved by the House but with uncertain chances in the Senate. This year’s legislation, House Bill 1633, would broadly legalize cannabis, allowing anyone 21 and older to possess and consume it. It would also require that anyone seeking to legally buy it in New Hampshire to do so at one of 15 locations authorized and franchised by the state Liquor Commission, which would control how it is tested and marketed. Under that model – the first of its kind to be proposed by a state – 10 percent of sales would go toward the state.
https://www.aol.com/nh-cannabis-legalization-bill-shaped-101038842.html
Recreational
Arizona: Arizona legislators introduced more than a dozen bills focused on amending marijuana laws this year, but just five are left standing as lawmakers have passed the midpoint of their annual session. Remaining bills run the gamut from advertising restrictions to addressing the failures of the social equity program to regulating hemp production.
Source: https://azmirror.com/2024/03/06/five-marijuana-bills-remain-after-weeks-of-deliberations/
Delaware: The Office of the Marijuana Commissioner (OMC) has released additional sections of the informal draft regulations for review. The sections of draft regulations released yesterday include the sections related to testing, sampling, waste, disposal, appeals, variances, and fee schedules.
The Informal Comment Period on the OMC website omc.delaware.gov will close on March 29, 2024. Once this informal feedback has been collected, considered, and appropriate revisions are made in response to the feedback, the OMC will begin the formal rulemaking process.
Pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act, Chapter 101 of Title 29, the OMC shall file notice and text of proposed regulation with the Registrar for publication in the Register of Regulations.
OMC continues to encourage stakeholders and members of the public to review these preliminary, draft regulations in the informal process, as well as the officially proposed regulations when published later in the Register of Regulations.
Source: https://news.delaware.gov/2024/03/11/212214/
Maryland: The Maryland Cannabis Administration will hold lottery drawings for its first round of social equity licenses Thursday. After opening the pool for social equity applications in November, the administration will be selecting up to 179 applicants from more than 1,200 entries that were approved. The lottery drawings will be livestreamed on the agency’s website at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. The administration told The Baltimore Sun that the next round of licensing can be held in May or later, but that it has not been scheduled.
Source: https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/03/08/maryland-cannabis-social-equity-lottery/
Minnesota: Minnesota’s top cannabis regulator says the state probably won’t meet its goal of launching full-scale retail marijuana sales in the first quarter of 2025.
This week saw a number of marijuana-related developments out of Minnesota, including a proposal from regulators to authorize temporary licenses in order to get an adult-use retail market off the ground with a focus on equity and a request from the state’s Department of Natural Resources to clarify rules around cannabis consumption on public lands. The new temporary licensing bill—SF 4782, officially introduced on Thursday—is part of regulators’ efforts to launch regulated sales as early as possible next year. Under the proposal, temporary licenses—including up to 50 for retail businesses—would become available to qualifying social equity applicants. Those include military veterans, residents from low-income areas, people with past cannabis convictions and farmers facing hardships.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/cannabis-sales-minnesota-start-expected-clear-107897510
Missouri: Missouri regulators will begin accepting the second round of adult-use cannabis microbusiness applications April 15-29. Forty-eight new retail and wholesale microbusiness licenses will be awarded by lottery and announced in July, according to a news release from the state’s Department of Health & Senior Services.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/second-round-for-missouri-cannabis-microbusiness-applications-set-for-april/
Ohio: Ohio’s voter-enacted law legalizing recreational marijuana came with a series of deadlines — yet sales could begin even sooner than anticipated. Since last fall, the state’s newly created Division of Cannabis Control has been working to draft and finalize rules in time to release applications for dispensary licenses by June 7 and issue provisional licenses to operators by Sept. 7. However, Gov. Mike DeWine is urging more immediate action. During a press conference this week, DeWine called for state lawmakers to pass a newly introduced bill allowing consumers 21 and up the ability to buy from medical dispensaries immediately to prevent “black market” sales.
Source: https://www.wvxu.org/show/cincinnati-edition/2024-03-07/ohio-recreational-marijuana-rollout-plan
Virginia: Virginia’s 60-day General Assembly session adjourned Saturday without the state’s Republican governor signing into law a bill finally legalizing adult-use marijuana sales. That’s partly because the Democratic-controlled General Assembly has yet to formally send Gov. Glenn Youngkin the bill, according to the Virginia Mercury. This latest conflict with Youngkin means marijuana sales in Virgina is “up in smoke,” state Delegate Paul Krizek, D-Alexandria, told the Mercury.
The prospects of a grand policy bargain appeared to collapse Thursday as Democrats revealed a budget proposal without Youngkin’s arena plan, prompting the governor to say he was less inclined to look favorably on Democratic priorities. In a news conference on the Capitol steps, Youngkin said the arena deal Senate Democrats rejected involved up to 30,000 jobs and $12 billion in economic impact.
“And, bluntly, you want to talk about putting a cannabis shop on every corner?” Youngkin said. “I don’t quite get it.”
The governor said several other topics had been part of an “overall discussion” with Democrats. However, he suggested the rejection of an economic development project that could’ve drawn bipartisan support isn’t going to make him more likely to approve bills that passed mostly along party lines.
The Senate version of that bill is sponsored by Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, Youngkin’s chief antagonist on the arena proposal. The House version was sent to the governor on a seven-day timeline, meaning he has until midnight Friday to act on it.
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