Cannabis Rescheduling: HHS Findings and Legal Implications
#cannabispolitics – “On August 29, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) made a groundbreaking recommendation to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) – that cannabis should be rescheduled from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This recommendation was made pursuant to President Biden’s request that the Secretary of HHS and the Attorney General initiate a process to review how cannabis is scheduled under federal law. In recent days, the unredacted 252-page analysis supporting the August recommendation was released pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request. While the DEA is presently reviewing HHS’s recommendation and has final authority to schedule a drug under the CSA, it is ultimately bound by HHS’s recommendations on scientific and medical matters….”
Read More: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/cannabis-rescheduling-hhs-findings-and-legal-implications
Marijuana isn’t fueling cartels; US laws drive the violence
#cannabispolitics – ““Marijuana’s placement in the (Controlled Substances Act) has had a devastating impact on our communities and is increasingly out of step with state law and public opinion,” the letter read. “Criminal penalties for recreational marijuana use, and for medical use of marijuana products that lack federal approval, would still exist, disproportionately penalizing Black and Brown communities.”
Which is exactly what Nixon intended when he started his bigoted war on drugs in the first place.
This wink-wink between Washington and the states also leaves the more than 400,000 people employed by the cannabis industry across the country vulnerable to abuse. It’s a huge swath of people who live and work in states as politically different as California and Florida — the latter of which has the fourth-highest number of people employed in the marijuana industry of any state in the country.
You read that right: The state that Gov. Ron DeSantis described as “where woke goes to die” is also the state where the smoke lives on — a political dynamic that epitomizes just how ridiculous it is that we’re still debating this along party lines…”
Read More: https://lasvegassun.com/news/2024/feb/07/marijuana-isnt-fueling-cartels-us-laws-drive-the-v/
Cannabis Law Now Podcast: The ‘CannaBoies’ Lawsuit and Why it Matters
#cannabislawsuit – “On October 26, 2023, a group of large cannabis companies based in Massachusetts filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Massachusetts against Merrick Garland, our current U.S. attorney general, alleging that, while Congress has the constitutional power to ban cannabis from interstate commerce, the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) exceeds that power by overreaching to ban cannabis from purely intrastate commerce…”
Listen Here: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/cannabis-law-now-podcast-the-cannaboie-45195/
Holy smokes! Massachusetts sets record with $1.5B in marijuana sales in 2023
#cannabisindustry – “Adult-use marijuana establishments in Massachusetts set a new sales record in 2023, exceeding $1.56 billion, the Cannabis Control Commission announced Tuesday.
The yearly total surpassed 2022 sales by $78 million, an increase of more than 5%. This marks the sixth consecutive year of record-setting growth in adult-use cannabis sales in Massachusetts, according to the Commission spokesperson…”