After months of behind-the-scenes negotiation, legislation to legalize adult use of marijuana is headed for votes in legislative committees next Wednesday Legislative draftsmen is still putting the final touches on the reworked legislation, which will not be made public until sometime next week ahead of the anticipated voting on Wednesday. The last seen version would allow up to 33 retail licenses to be distributed in six zones statewide, including at nine medical marijuana dispensaries that could be hybrid recreational and medical retailers. For years now, who has control over the lucrative new industry has never been far from the minds of lawmakers, the operators and suppliers of the existing medical marijuana dispensaries and those who hope to jump into a newly expanded industry. Among the questions: How do the legislators resolve their conflict with Gov. Dan McKee over the composition of the commission that will parcel out the lucrative licenses in this potentially booming new industry in Rhode Island. While the governor supports legalization, his administration has voiced “significant constitutional concerns” about how members of a proposed three-member cannabis control commission are to be appointed — and removed if necessary.

Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news, 05/14/2022 08:54:00

Open article: https://www.cannabisbusinessexecutive.com/2022/05/lawmakers-set-votes-next-week-on-legalizing-marijuana-in-rhode-island/

A bicameral congressional conference committee tasked with settling differences on a large-scale manufacturing bill kicked off negotiations on Thursday—and several appointed conferees from the House and Senate took the opportunity to push for marijuana banking reform as part of the package. At least seven members made a point to raise the cannabis issue as part of the discussion on the AMERICA Competes Act—most of them in a supportive way. That includes the conference committee co-chair, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA). Conferees emphasized the need to give state-legal marijuana businesses access to traditional financial services as a public safety imperative that could also bolster the economy. “This Congress has a chance to deal with several longstanding policy challenges,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) said. That includes “providing cannabis businesses with access to banking.” “It’s critical that the SAFE Banking Act be retained,” the congressman said, adding that there were three people killed in the chairwoman’s home state of Washington in the span of one week in incidents targeting marijuana businesses. “The SAFE Banking Act is an issue of public and worker safety,” he said. “It’s passed the House six times. I hope we work together to retain it because it is a matter of life and death.”

Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 05/12/2022 12:50:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/congressional-lawmakers-push-for-marijuana-banking-at-first-conference-meeting-on-large-scale-manufacturing-bill/

The New Hampshire Senate on Thursday defeated a bill that was amended in the House to include language legalizing the possession and home cultivation of marijuana for adult use. Cannabis reform has been a struggle in the Senate, with the chamber separately rejecting the GOP-led standalone home grow bill as well as a measure to create a state-run marijuana market late last month. In an attempt to give the Senate “another chance” to pass the non-commercial cannabis bill HB 629, members of the House adopted an amendment last week to include its language in a criminal justice-related measure SB 299, which had already cleared the chamber. But the Senate declined to take that opportunity, with some Democrats joining a majority of Republicans to vote 15-9 not to concur with the amended SB 299 on Thursday. Rep. Carol McGuire (R) is the sponsor of HB 629, which moved through the House and also advanced through the Senate Judiciary Committee with an ought to pass recommendation last month before being rejected on the floor. The Senate was given three options with respect to the amended bill with the legalization language: concur, non-concur, and request a conference committee or non-concur and not request a conference committee. As advocates expected, the body went with that last option. Prior to the vote, Sen. Becky Whitley (D) spoke in favor of the reform measure, saying that it “gives us another opportunity to listen to the vast majority of our constituents.”

Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 05/12/2022 14:37:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/new-hampshire-senate-rejects-marijuana-legalization-again-as-part-of-amended-bill/

An effort by a South Carolina senator to resurrect legislation to legalize medical marijuana was unsuccessful on Wednesday. Sen. Tom Davis’s (R) move to add the main provisions of his bill to legalize medical marijuana to largely unrelated legislation was ruled not germane by Senate leadership, a move that comes one week after the House killed Senate-passed legislation to allow patients to legally access cannabis. The latest development marks another procedural defect that’s unrelated to the policy merits of the reform proposal. The reason that the earlier bill was rejected is that it contained revenue-raising provisions, and so legislative leaders deemed that it needed to originate in the House, rather than the Senate, under the state constitution. There were expectations that the sponsor would attempt to keep the issue alive by putting the full language of his medical cannabis measure into an unrelated House bill to resolve the issue. But instead, he proposed it as an amendment to a Senate bill on contraceptives on Wednesday, without the tax provisions. Davis’s original legislation cleared his chamber along largely bipartisan lines in February.

Tom Angell, Marijuana Moment, 05/12/2022 11:08:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/south-carolina-medical-marijuana-legalization-bill-suffers-another-procedural-defeat/

Industry Victory! California cops agree to stop stealing cannabis cash from armored vans Max Savage Levenson May 12, 2022 Highway robbery no more: California cops agree to stop stealing cash from marijuana transport vehicles. (AdobeStock) Was this real life, or an outtake from Super Troopers? Late last year, sheriff’s deputies in San Bernardino County in Southern California—the largest county in the United States—stopped armored vans on three separate occasions, and grabbed over $1 million in legal cannabis cash from them. Because of federal prohibition and nationwide banking laws, cannabis cannot be purchased with a credit card. So cannabis businesses get saddled with huge amounts of cash. They often depend on third-party companies to transport that money. This literal highway robbery qualified as civil asset forfeiture. As The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights explains, the law allows police to take your property, assets, or money if they believe that it’s connected to criminal activity—no need to file charges, or even establish guilt. In response, Empyreal Logistics—which owns the vans, and operates in 28 states—sued both the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and the federal Department of Justice. Last month, DOJ agreed to return the cash.

Max Savage Levenson, Leafly, 05/12/2022 10:17:00

Open article: https://www.leafly.com/news/industry/california-cops-stop-stealing-legal-cannabis-cash-armored-vans

Politics Mexico’s Supreme Court rules personal marijuana possession legal, again Mattha Busby May 12, 2022, Mexico’s Supreme Court keeps declaring prohibition unconstitutional, but the national Congress still refuses to fully legalize. (AdobeStock) Legal limits on the amount of cannabis that can be possessed for personal use in Mexico are unconstitutional, the country’s supreme court ruled in a decision handed down on Wednesday. It’s the latest in a series of judgments striking down marijuana prohibition, dating back to 2015. Wednesday’s decision does not in practice immediately reduce the risk of arrest or harassment by police for cannabis consumers. (See this Leafly article for why that’s the case.) It comes after the court last year ruled that prohibitions on personal consumption and home cultivation were unconstitutional. But that earlier ruling did not affect the 5 gram decriminalized limit for possession that had been in place since 2009, with those in possession of amounts greater risking a potential jail term of up to three years. “The fact that the public ministry is allowed to take criminal action against a person who possesses more than 5 grams of cannabis for personal consumption is actually punishing moral qualities [and] personal behavior; which has no constitutional support,” Supreme Court Judge Juan Luis González Alcántara wrote.

Mattha Busby, Leafly, 05/12/2022 13:58:00

Open article: https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/mexicos-supreme-court-rules-personal-marijuana-possession-legal-again