Latest Cannabis News: May 2, 2023
Latest Cannabis News: May 2, 2023
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
Florida: A measure that will prohibit hemp-derived products such as Delta-8 from being sold to individuals under 21 years of age passed in the Florida Senate Friday.
The original versions of the bill in the Senate (SB 1676) and House (HB 1475) set limits on how much THC could be included per serving and per package of hemp products. THC is the compound in the cannabis plant that can get you high. The final Senate language includes no such limits.
Those dosage limits caused great concerns from hemp entrepreneurs and those who use hemp products as medicine, leading them to come to the Capitol in large numbers to urge legislators in committee meetings that such limits would severely limit the products’ appeal and extremely damage the industry.
Louisiana: Louisiana lawmakers Tuesday killed an effort to legalize recreational marijuana, leaving the state’s medical cannabis program as the only legal way to secure the drug.
The House Criminal Justice Committee voted 9-4 to scuttle Democratic New Orleans Rep. Candace Newell’s House Bill 24 to create a legal recreational marijuana market in Louisiana.
Minnesota: The Minnesota Senate voted Friday to legalize recreational marijuana for adults, but the bill requires more work and negotiations before it can become law.
The vote was 34-33, with all Democrats voting yes and all Republicans voting no. There are several differences between the Senate bill and the companion version that passed the House 71-59 on Tuesday, so a House-Senate conference committee will need to resolve them before final votes in each chamber.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has pledged to sign the bill once it reaches his desk. It seeks to replace the illicit market for marijuana with a legal and regulated market, and to expunge the criminal records of residents who’ve been convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses such as simple possession.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-marijuana-cannabis-abacadda7170ed99cf055b62a044ef7e
Recreational
Maine: A lawmaker has filed a bill to allow Maine to enter into interstate cannabis commerce agreements with other legalized states. The legislation from Rep. Joseph Perry (D) would make Maine one of a small but growing number of states to allow for marijuana imports and exports, pending a federal policy change.
Under the proposal, the governor would be able to forge agreements with other legal cannabis states “authorizing the transportation, cultivation, manufacture, testing, purchase, sale or distribution of cannabis or cannabis products into and out of this State,” the bill text says.
But the interstate commerce activity could only proceed under one of four circumstances: if federal law changes, if congressional lawmakers restrict agency funding so that the feds won’t be able to enforce the ban on interstate commerce, if the federal Justice Department issues a memorandum tolerating the commerce or if the U.S. attorney general issues a written opinion that authorizing the marijuana imports and exports wouldn’t put the state at increased risk of enforcement action.
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