Cannabis dispensaries throughout the country came one step closer to using banks the way many other businesses can when the U.S. House on Friday cleared a bill with sweeping changes to banking regulations. Colorado Democrat Ed Perlmutter and Ohio Republican Dave Joyce, co-sponsors of the legislation, said Friday their proposal would allow medical and recreational marijuana businesses in states that have legalized use to move away from the cash-only business model they’ve been forced to use by U.S. banking laws. “We need to bring some sense to what is really dangerous right now in this space that so many states allow for dispensaries, for grow operations,” Perlmutter said. “There’s just a lot of cash and that cash can really pose problems.” While the federal government has mostly left marijuana business regulation and oversight to the states that have legalized it, the nation’s banking system is controlled at the federal level. The federal government’s classification of marijuana as a Schedule I illegal substance, by definition something with no medical use and a high potential for abuse, means that it’s difficult for cannabis businesses to use banks.

Mmp News Author, Medical Marijuana Program Connection, 02/06/2022 20:21:00

Open article: https://mmpconnect.com/u-s-house-advances-marijuana-banking-bill-though-final-passage-uncertain/

=Missouri medical marijuana sales are climbing and thousands of workers have flocked to the industry. Now, business owners are betting big on full legalization in 2022. In the town of Humansville, Missouri, troops of cannabis workers are tending to crops in a facility about the size of a typical Target store. They are cultivating dozens of strains of flower for Flora Farms, one of the state’s most ubiquitous brands. “We think the market will go up three or four times (if full legalization passes),” said Mark Hendren, president of Flora Farms. “We hope that and we expect that. And that’s just looking at what’s happened in other markets.” BD Health Ventures, owner of Flora, has given $250,000 to the most plausible path to full legalization this year in Missouri: Legal Missouri 2022, which is gathering signatures to place a proposed constitutional change on the Nov. 8 ballot. That includes two contributions totaling $215,000 it made last month, records show. Cannabis business license holders have lined up behind Legal Missouri, which had banked $1.1 million for the effort by the end of last year.

Jack Suntrup, stltoday.com | the #1 St. Louis website, 02/06/2022 14:28:00

Open article: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/marijuana/booming-missouri-medical-marijuana-industry-bets-on-full-legalization-in-2022/article_c700d32a-fa13-57a4-af79-2e64b0152284.html

A New York senator filed a bill on Wednesday that would promote recycling in the marijuana industry once retail sales officially launch. Sen. Michelle Hinchey (D) is sponsoring the legislation, which would require cannabis shops to apply a $1 deposit for any marijuana products sold in single-use plastic containers and also reimburse consumers for that fee if they return the container. The senator is also behind a separate bill filed last year that would prioritize hemp-based packaging over synthetic plastics for marijuana products. In addition to mandating that retailers take steps to be able to collect cannabis bottles and jars from consumers who wish to return them after use under what it calls a “Cannabis Container Bill of Rights,” the new proposal would also require that marijuana packaging be made from at least 50 percent recycled materials. In the justification section of the bill, Hinchey said that New York’s adult-use marijuana law that was enacted last year includes “important” packaging requirements to such as childproof sealing to prevent youth from accessing the products. However, an “unfortunate externality” of those rules is that they cause the legal marijuana industry to have an outsized plastics footprint and to become a notable environmental consideration.” “The legal cannabis industry in the United States produces about 150 million tons of waste each year. Even when marijuana packaging is recycled at home, it is often sorted out by recyclers and taken to landfills,” it says. “While no industry is blameless in the plastic pollution crisis, New York has a unique opportunity to prevent a new source of plastic pollution as we consider the legalization of recreational marijuana.”

Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 02/03/2022 11:32:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/new-york-senator-files-marijuana-recycling-bill-to-mitigate-environmental-impact-of-new-industry/

A top Maryland lawmaker wants the state to get prepared to regulate adult-use marijuana if voters approve the reform at the ballot this year. Del. Luke Clippinger (D), who chairs the Judiciary Committee and leads a cannabis workgroup that’s been studying the issue, already filed a separate measure in December to put legalization on the ballot as a referendum question in accordance with a plan from the House speaker. Now he’s introduced follow-up legislation based on the findings of the study panel that would set up the regulatory infrastructure for such a program if approved by voters. House Bill 837 would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana and decriminalize possession of amounts greater than that up to 2.5 ounces. “Marylanders deserve to have their voices heard at the ballot box on the question of legalization, but we cannot move forward without an implementation plan that addresses our immediate priorities,” Clippinger said in a press release. “With this legislation, we will be prepared with a comprehensive policy that creates the best, most equitable path to legal recreational cannabis should voters say yes.”

Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 02/03/2022 12:40:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/top-maryland-lawmaker-files-marijuana-legalization-bill-in-anticipation-of-ballot-referendum-passing/

An emergency rule that went into effect on Jan. 13 increased the number of plants that New Mexico’s licensed cannabis producers could grow, but the rule did not apply to microbusiness licensees. The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division’s (CCD) emergency rule allows the cannabis producers to double their plant count from 10,000 to 20,000 mature plants. The limit for microbusinesses, however, must be increased legislatively since it is set in statute, according to the Santa Fe Reporter. Microbusinesses are authorized to grow up to 200 plants under the Cannabis Regulation Act that passed last year to legalize adult-use cannabis. Senate Bill 100, new legislation sponsored by State Sen. Linda Lopez (D-Albuquerque) and Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe), would increase this production limit to 1,000 plants, according to the Santa Fe Reporter. “Equity and fairness are foundational principles of New Mexico’s vision for the state’s cannabis industry,” CCD Director Kristen Thomson said in a public statement. “We will work with legislators and the governor to ensure those values are upheld and that micro-producers see increased plant count limits as soon as possible.” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has added the legislation to the agenda for this year’s legislative session, which began on Jan. 20.

Posted Melissa Schiller, Cannabis Business Times, 02/03/2022 11:48:00

Open article: http://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/new-mexico-legislation-to-increase-plant-count-cannabis-microbusinesses

States that have already legalized medical and/or adult-use cannabis have taken two avenues: legislative action or voter-approved ballot measures. Specifically, the first eight states to legalize adult-use cannabis did so through citizen-led petitions that put a question, measure, or amendment before their voters on Election Day. Washington, D.C., was also in that boat via Initiative 71 in November 2014. It wasn’t until January 2018 that Vermont became the first state to legalize adult-use cannabis through a legislature, which became official when Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed House Bill 511 (Act 86) into law. Since then, five more states have legalized adult-use cannabis through their legislatures (Illinois, Connecticut, New Mexico, New York, and Virginia) and four more have legalized adult-use cannabis through the election process (Michigan, Arizona, Montana, and New Jersey). Many more states have legalized medical programs, with Mississippi becoming the 37th state to do so without imposing strict restrictions, such as low-THC limits. And Mississippi has ridden both avenues to legalization: The voters passed an initiative in the November 2020 election, the state’s Supreme Court overturned it in May 2021, and state lawmakers passed legislation with bicameral veto-proof majorities in January 2022.

Cbt Staff, Cannabis Business Times, 02/04/2022 07:55:00

Open article: http://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/voters-in-these-9-states-could-decide-cannabis-fate-in-2022