Marijuana Moment reports A Kentucky lawmaker announced on Monday that she is pre-filing bills to legalize possession, limited sales, and home cultivation of marijuana in the state for the 2022 session, with endorsements from several leading advocacy groups. Rep. Nima Kulkarni (D) is taking a dual-track approach to the reform, with one bill to have the legislature adopt the policy as a statutory measure and another to enact legalization through a constitutional amendment that would go before voters. Generally speaking, the measures would accomplish the same central objective of ending prohibition, but Kulkarni said they’re meant to complement each other by giving lawmakers an opportunity to pass legalization in the short term while allowing voters to constitutionally enact the reform as a “more permanent fix that gives cannabis use the constitutional protection it deserves.” “I am sponsoring these bills for several reasons, any one of which should be enough for them to become law,” the sponsor said in a press release.

Cannabis Law Report, 11/30/2021 00:13:00

Open article: https://cannabislaw.report/kentucky-lawmaker-pre-files-marijuana-legalization-bills-for-2022-session/

U.S. senators representing Colorado are adding their voices to calls for marijuana banking reform to be included in must-pass defense legislation. In a letter sent to Senate committee leadership on Wednesday, Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) noted that the House passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with the banking amendment, and argued that language should be adopted by negotiators in the conference for the final legislation sent to President Joe Biden’s desk. This comes one day after bipartisan members of the Senate Armed Services Committee sent their own letter urging leaders to include the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act in the final NDAA. “Without federally-approved banking services, state-licensed cannabis businesses cannot write checks, make or receive electronic payments, utilize a payroll provider, or accept credit and debit cards,” the new letter from the Colorado senators says. “This is a serious public safety risk for our communities, inviting theft, tax evasion, robberies, burglaries, or worse.” The senators made the case for how the lack of cannabis banking affects their state, which in 2012 became one of the first in the nation to legalize marijuana. “Legalization has had a profound impact on our state’s economy, supporting over 35,000 jobs and bringing in more than $1 billion in tax revenue,” they wrote. “In Denver, cannabis businesses make up less than 1% of all local businesses but accounted for 10% of reported business burglaries from 2012 to 2016. Cash-only industries also complicate tracking revenues for purposes of taxation and regulatory compliance.”The SAFE Banking Act has been approved in some form in the House five times now, but it’s so far languished in the Senate. Stakeholders have held out hope that the chamber would advance the legislation with a Democratic majority, but some key players like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have insisted on passing comprehensive legalization—like a reform bill he’s finalizing—first.

Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 11/26/2021 08:31:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/more-senators-urge-marijuana-banking-reform-to-be-enacted-through-defense-bill/

A Florida lawmaker introduced a bill last week to decriminalize all currently illicit drugs, provide avenues for relief for those with existing drug-related convictions and promote harm reduction services. Rep. Dotie Joseph (D) filed the legislation, titled the “Collateral Consequences of Convictions and Decriminalization of Cannabis and All Drugs Act” on Tuesday. For marijuana specifically, it would make possession of up to one ounce a noncriminal violation punishable by a $50 fine, rather than a misdemeanor offense. It would apply the same non-criminal penalty to the delivery of up to an ounce of marijuana. People with past convictions for those cannabis-related offenses would be eligible for automatic expungements if more than a year has elapsed since the date of the arrest. The bill goes on to say that the legislature “intends the prioritization of rehabilitative health intervention in lieu of criminalization for personal usage of controlled substances, including but is not limited to stimulants including cocaine, methamphetamine, opioids, heroin, fentanyl, depressants or benzodiazepines, and other addictive controlled substance.” To that end, crimes “associated with the personal usage and possession of controlled substances that do not involve production, distribution or sale shall be decriminalized in favor or civil fines and referral for drug rehabilitation.”

Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 11/29/2021 08:58:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/florida-lawmaker-files-bill-to-decriminalize-all-currently-illicit-drugs/