Massachusetts activists are gearing up for a multi-pronged push to advance psychedelics reform locally and at the state level, with a campaign kicking off a signature drive last week to put a decriminalization measure on the ballot in the state’s second largest city. The Bay Staters for National Medicine (BSNM) campaign launched its signature-gathering effort to put the policy change before Worcester voters just days after the city’s Human Rights Commission approved a resolution urging the city manager to conduct a study on “the benefits of making arrests for growing and distributing entheogenic plants like psilocybin mushrooms among veterans and first-responders the lowest law enforcement priority of the Worcester Police Department.” Separately, activists are deploying a strategy to have Massachusetts residents force state lawmakers to file legislation to both legalize entheogenic substances for therapeutic use and otherwise decriminalize certain psychedelics. Both the Worcester initiative and the statewide legislation focus on psychedelics, but they would also broadly decriminalize low-level possession of all currently illicit drugs. Activists would like to see the Worcester City Council act on the proposal this year, but if not, they expect to have roughly 16,000 signatures by summer 2023 for placement on that November’s ballot.

Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 04/18/2022 09:07:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/massachusetts-psychedelics-activists-plan-to-put-decriminalization-on-local-ballot-and-force-lawmakers-to-file-state-bills/

U.S. Attorney General Would Be Required To Create Marijuana Commission To Advise On Legalization Under New Bipartisan Bill Marijuana Moment reports.. A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers filed a bill on Thursday that would direct the attorney general to create a commission charged with making recommendations on a regulatory system for marijuana that models what’s currently in place for alcohol. Reps. Dave Joyce (R-OH), Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Brian Mast (R-FL) are teaming up on what’s titled the Preparing Regulators Effectively for a Post-Prohibition Adult-Use Regulated Environment Act (PREPARE) Act—an incremental reform meant to inform comprehensive cannabis policy changes in the future. The measure will “provide lawmakers across the ideological spectrum the opportunity to engage on cannabis reform by creating a fair, honest and publicly transparent process for the federal government to establish effective regulation to be enacted upon the termination of its 85-year prohibition of cannabis,” according to a summary from the sponsors.

Cannabis Law Report, 04/15/2022 23:17:00

Open article: https://cannabislaw.report/u-s-attorney-general-would-be-required-to-create-marijuana-commission-to-advise-on-legalization-under-new-bipartisan-bill/

Banking is one of the most crucial resources the state-legal cannabis industry is missing out on due to federal prohibitions. Fearing retaliation from the federal government, most financial institutions refuse to work with cannabis businesses, depriving them of financial services such as bank accounts and loans. Additionally, it forces marijuana businesses to operate on a cash-only basis, which significantly increases the risk of burglaries and robberies. However, some states have made efforts to increase access to banking services in the nascent cannabis sector in a bid to address these problems. Former chair of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Rodney Hood says that while these efforts deserve plenty of praise, chances are they won’t be enough to change cannabis banking without congressional intervention. Speaking at an Emerging Markets Coalition about the cannabis banking dilemma, he said that this issue “demands special attention.” Cannabis has proven to be one of the fastest-growing industries in the country, generating billions of dollars in sales and creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs. If the industry is given access to banking and loan services, it has the potential to be extremely lucrative in the long term.

CannabisNewsWire, 04/18/2022 04:20:00

Open article: https://www.cannabisnewswire.com/420-with-cnw-federal-regulator-cheers-state-level-cannabis-banking-reforms-amid-congressional-inaction/