CANNASWEEP

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 9, 2024

OFW’s Cannabis Team regularly monitors cannabis news, legislation, regulation, and policy so our clients stay up-to-date on the latest developments impacting their business.

If you have any questions or would like more information about any of the items below, please contact us.

We also track cannabis-related legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress.  If you would like to learn more about our Congressional Bill Tracker, please reach out to Ben Dash.

Federal Executive Branch — Office of the President, Departments and Agencies

• DOJ submitted information collection request to OMB for review and approval of application qualifications for certificates of pardon for simple possession of marijuana. The information collected from the Certificate Application will primarily be used to determine whether the applicant qualifies for pardon under the terms of the Proclamation. The President issued a Proclamation on Granting Pardon for the Offense of Simple Possession Marijuana (Proclamation) on October 6, 2022.
• Vice President Harris, when campaigning in South Carolina, said “what we have done to pardon tens of thousands of people for simple marijuana possession under the federal law, because frankly, nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed. And so these are some of the things that we have done that I think really do resonate with young people, with Black voters and young Black voters, with young Black men.”
• Regulatory Compliance Is Now More Accessible for the Cannabis and Hemp Insurance Market (Lexology)

U.S. Congress

• 50 lawmakers signed a bipartisan, bicameral letter to the DOJ asking for more information about the involvement of China in America’s illicit cannabis industry.
• 28 non-profit organizations in the U.S. hemp industry – representing every element of the hemp food chain and every region of the nation – as well as four leading national dietary supplement organizations – wrote a letter to urge the House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold a hearing concerning the lack of FDA regulation of the growing hemp market, focusing on products such as CBD.
• Senator Warren (D-MA) tweeted, “We must legalize marijuana nationwide and start to repair the harms of an unjust criminal legal system.”
• What CBD Wants: Analyzing the Industry’s Demands for Farm Bill 2024.

The States

• Alabama: Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission appealed a trial court order permitting unsuccessful license applicants to depose commissioners on an expedited basis.
• Arkansas: Arkansas marijuana, patient group resubmits ballot proposal to increase access to medical cannabis.
• Colorado: CDOT examines marijuana-impaired driving behaviors of Gen Z, 10 years after recreational marijuana became legal.
• Florida: New state bill would limit THC potency of greater than 30% and all other marijuana products, excluding edibles, cannot have a THC potency of greater than 60 percent; Senate panel advances THC caps as hedge against pot legalization; New Bill Could Erase Florida’s Hemp Industry – SB 1698 would impose new restrictions and outright bans on hemp products that are legal under federal and state law.
• Georgia: Introduced two bills (S.B. 437 here and H.B. 1127 here) that aim to prohibit the sale of consumable hemp products to individuals under 21. The Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper “fully supports the passage of these commonsense” bills.
• Hawaii: Push for legalization of recreational marijuana use remains significant priority in Hawaii – Controversial topics were addressed by legislators Sunday at the Hawaii Cannabis Expo at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, including the future of recreational marijuana, access, and benefits.
• Illinois: The IL General Assembly Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) announced adopted amendments to the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act for “establishing a process through which craft cannabis growers may apply to DOA (Illinois Department of Agriculture) to increase canopy space in increments of 3,000 square feet up to the maximum allowed under the Act for craft growers (changed since 1st Notice from a maximum of 14,000 square feet).”
• Indiana: Room to grow – Inside Indiana’s budding hemp industry; Indiana Senate committee passes medical psilocybin research SB 139, which establishes the therapeutic psilocybin research fund.
• Kansas: Explainer – Why Kansans can’t put marijuana on the ballot; Gov Laura Kelly tweeted, “We need to decriminalize medical marijuana so Kansans with chronic pain and disorders like PTSD don’t have to suffer. Providing this relief is long overdue and would also boost our economy — it’s time to work together and get this done.”
• Kentucky: Sen. Rand Paul speaks with business owners in St. Matthews, Jeffersontown. “He took the time to answer questions from just about everybody, and even some of the hemp issues that are coming up now,” said Dee Dee Taylor, founder and CEO of 502 Hemp. 
• Minnesota: Red Lake Nation Tribal Council to step away from day-to-day operations of its recreational cannabis dispensary; Minnesota regulators to ask Legislature to fix raw cannabis gap in recreational marijuana law.
• Montana: Cannabis Control Division – Hemp Derived Synthetic Marijuana: the “Whys.”
• Nebraska: LB999, introduced by Sen. Teresa Ibach, would restrict the sale, possession and consumption of hemp-derived cannabinoid products that contain isomers, acids and salts, such as delta-8 or delta-10. Delta-8 and similar hemp-derived products would be prohibited in Nebraska under a proposal considered by the Judiciary Committee Feb.1.
• New Mexico: Senate wrangles over proposed changes to cannabis law, sends new version to House.
• New York: Federal judge green lights New York marijuana licensing despite ‘disaster’ legal cannabis market rollout, as Gov. Kathy Hochul recently blasted the state’s legal cannabis market roll-out as a “disaster;” Senate subcommittee members tell N.Y. pot regulators to ‘do better’ – New York’s retail cannabis market rollout has been beleaguered with setbacks and key lawmakers are urging regulators to be “more aggressive” and turn it around; New York cannabis farmers may have to throw away 250,000 pounds of product due to retail-store bottleneck.
• Ohio: Is a marijuana arms race coming to Ohio? Why weed should be sold only in state-owned stores (opinion).
• Oklahoma: In order to optimize compliance, Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) is extending the credentialing deadline to Feb. 29, 2024.
• Pennsylvania: February 2024 Franklin & Marshall College Poll explores the mood of the state’s voters, their positions on issues like marijuana legalization and gambling, their ratings of state political figures, as well as their preferences in the presidential and U.S. Senate races – two in three (63%) registered voters believe recreational marijuana should be legalized in the state; Pennsylvania Lawmakers Take Marijuana Industry Testimony On Market Launch Timing, Equity And Taxes At Legalization Hearings; Excerpt of Governor Shapiro’s 2024-25 Budget Address as prepared, “Well, last year, 57 percent of voters in Ohio supported an initiative to legalize recreational marijuana. And now…practically all of our neighbors – have legalized marijuana. We’re losing out on an industry that, once fully implemented, would bring in more than 250 million dollars in annual revenue.”
• South Carolina: S. 423 (Similar bills H 3226, H 3486), aimed to create a medical cannabis program, falls short in Senate vote; Navigating the Hemp Labyrinth: South Carolina’s Struggle for Regulatory Clarity.
• South Dakota: The Senate Health and Human Services Committee of the SD Legislature has killed a measure aiming to restrict medical cannabis use by people on probation or conditional release.
• Texas: Marijuana laws in TX are confusing. Here’s a guide to know what is and is not legal.
• Virginia:  SB 448 to legalize retail marijuana sales moves forward in Virginia (related House Bill 698); Senator Bryce Reeves provides Inside Update on VA Marijuana Legislation.
• West Virginia: Drug Testing Strips Are Legalized In W.Va. – Senate Bill 269 removes drug testing strips from the state’s list of drug paraphernalia; List of Industrial Hemp Licenses Issued by the WVDA

Cannabis Rescheduling/Descheduling

• The U.S. Department of Justice filed its motion to dismiss the cannabis-industry lawsuit, Canna Provisions, Inc., et. al., v. Garland, No. 23-cv-30113 (D. Mass.).  The lawsuit sought to block federal enforcement of state-legal marijuana.  The DOJ argues that the scheduling decisions should be allowed to move forward first (with the HHS recommendation now with the DEA).  The DOJ makes other arguments, including that the plaintiffs’ lack standing. 
• Cannabis Rescheduling: HHS Findings and Legal Implications (National Law Review)
• Biden Administration Official Disputes Rumors Of Imminent Marijuana Scheduling Decision Amid Heightened Speculation
• Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) tweeted, “A majority of Americans now live in states where recreational marijuana is legal. The very least we can do is deschedule it on the federal level.”
• Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) tweeted, “Keeping marijuana classified as a Schedule I drug is increasingly out of step with medical research, state law, and public opinion. That’s why I joined 11 of my colleagues to call on the Biden administration to deschedule and legalize marijuana altogether” and “even if you live in a state where marijuana has been legalized or decriminalized, we still need marijuana to be legalized at the federal level. That’s why my Democratic colleagues and I called on the DEA to fully deschedule marijuana.”
• Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) tweeted, “Criminalizing marijuana at a federal level harms our communities, contradicts state laws, and is out of step with public opinion. That’s why I joined my colleagues @SenWarren and @SenFettermanPA in urging the Biden Administration to deschedule marijuana entirely.”
• Letters to the Editor: Cannabis legalization isn’t enough. Rewrite all drug laws based on science (LA Times).
• Rescheduling coalition spokesman predicts DEA announcement by end of March – Adam Goers, co-chair of the Coalition for Cannabis Scheduling Reform, said: “We have certainly been told that the process is moving quickly towards completion, but we also don’t have specific intelligence that it’s going to come out on a certain day.”

Cannabis Abroad

• Israel’s new rules might spur growth in the medical cannabis industry.
• Germany’s Government Coalition Reaches Final Deal On Cannabis Legalization.
• Cannabis policy reform and organized crime – A model and review for South Africa.
• Thailand Moves to Ban Recreational Marijuana with Draft Bill.
• One World Products Confirms That Its Colombian Cannabis Operations are Unaffected by Recent Regulatory Developments in Colombia.
• In the course of the legalization of medical cannabis in Ukraine, Minister Viktor Liaschko visited Germany’s largest cannabis network Grünhorn to find out how it works.

Customs and Trade

• S.2367 – CHECKPOINT Act – was introduced in the Senate. The Chief of U.S. Border Patrol shall submit an annual report to Congress to ensure that the Checkpoint Program Management Office, in coordination with U.S. Border Patrol sectors, is overseeing the consistent and accurate recording of immigration checkpoint activity data, including data regarding seizures of trace amounts of marijuana.
• USDA’s The National Weekly Hemp Report reported a low value of $13,000 worth of imports of Hemp (True hemp (Cannabis sativa L.)) classified under the US Harmonized Tariff Code (HTSUS) 5302.10.000 for this past week, bumping the total value to $159,081 thus far in 2024. Indicating that the main source of Hemp is domestic, while the Netherlands continue to be the lead importer followed by France.  Interestingly, a value of over 1 million was recorded in imports of Hemp Seed for Consumption (Oil Seed & Oleaginous Fruits, Broken or not) classified under HTSUS 1207.99.0360 in this past week alone, making the value for the year grow to $3,622,410. Manitoba, Canada leads in the volume and value of imports in this category of product followed by Lithuania.                                                                                                                       
• These products were permitted entry because hemp seeds and plants can be imported into the U.S. The importation is regulated U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the USDA. Importantly, all compliance must be performed prior to importation to avoid detention or seizure by either or both agencies which can easily lead to the forfeiture of the imported goods.

Business, Banking, Insurance

• Q&A with Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America’s (WSWA) President and CEO Francis Creighton – responding to a question about hemp-derived beverage brands on the show floor, he said “in a world where hemp and cannabis products are becoming more and more accepted, we have to roll with those market changes.”
• After relaxing its rules on CBD products for both its players and teams, the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty have become the first NBA & WNBA team to strike a deal in the CBD category (Bloomberg).
• A consultant for the popular cannabis delivery company Eaze had his court-ordered penalty dramatically increased, meaning he’ll now have to pay $17 million — and not an original charge of $100,000 after he tricked major credit card companies into processing marijuana transactions.

Other Noteworthy Updates

• The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) Partners With the National Industrial Hemp Council For the Lab Testing Verification Program – the partnership will help the industry move forward with consistent testing practices that promote consumer safety.
• Marijuana Messes With Your Driving for Longer Than You Think (WSJ)
• The teen brain is especially vulnerable to the harms of cannabis – Cannabis can put teens at risk of impaired brain development, addiction, and psychosis.
• What Percentage of Americans Smoke Marijuana? (Gallup)
• A new study, published in the Cannabis and Cannabinoids Research journal, found more older Americans are using cannabis today than before the pandemic. According to researchers with the University of Michigan’s Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, roughly 1 in 8 Americans over 50 currently use the substance.
• Heavy marijuana use may fuel anxiety disorders, new research finds (Fortune).
• The Effects of Stigma: Older Persons and Medicinal Cannabis – Findings suggest that while medical cannabis consumption is becoming increasingly normalized among older adults, stigma related to cannabis persists and continues to shape older adults’ experiences.
• Mammals With the Munchies: Curing Animals With Cannabis – While many people and their doctors have embraced medical marijuana for health ills, treating pets and zoo animals with CBD and THC is just beginning (The New York Times).

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If you are interested in exploring commercial opportunities in the cannabis space, we would be happy to assist you in any of your cannabis law questions, comments, or concerns. Please contact Tish Pahl (tpahl@ofwlaw.com), Kyla Kaplan (kkaplan@ofwlaw.com), Denise Calle (dcalle@ofwlaw.com), and Ben Dash (bdash@ofwlaw.com) for assistance.