Law The Cannabis Chronicles - Misc Cannabis News

[Baron23]

So, the only intelligent beings in the entire universe who don't know this (see title of article) are our political, so-called, leaders.


If marijuana remains a Schedule I substance, we can never do the research everyone knows we need

Cannabis has been known to humans for thousands of years, and there is nearly universal support for medical cannabis: Over 90 percent of Americans believe that cannabis should be legalized for medical use, according to a Quinnipiac Poll. Currently, 33 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized cannabis for medical purposes, and states such as Georgia have acted to expand medical cannabis laws.

In Georgia, for example, patients can register with the Georgia Department of Health and receive a card allowing them to possess cannabis for medical reasons. However, it is illegal for anyone to grow, buy or sell cannabis in the state, making it difficult for registered patients to actually acquire it. Just recently, though, the Georgia Legislature passed a bill to allow for the growing, manufacturing, testing and distribution of medical cannabis to those who have been approved by their physicians.

However, as the legal status of medical cannabis continues to evolve and its use increases — and after many years of human cultivation — we still don’t have a full understanding of the plant’s medicinal benefits.

With the 2018 Food and Drug Administration approval of an oral cannabidiol (CBD) solution derived from the Cannabis sativa plant called Epidiolex for the treatment of two rare forms of epilepsy — Lennox–Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome — there is conclusive evidence of at least a limited therapeutical nature of cannabis.

There is also some evidence of further benefits of the plant, but the federal government and congressional inaction have made additional research unnecessarily difficult.

A 2017 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on the health effects of cannabis found that “There are several challenges and barriers in conducting cannabis and cannabinoid research,” including “the classification of cannabis as a Schedule I substance, that impede the advancement of cannabis and cannabinoid research” and “the difficulty for researchers to gain access to the quantity, quality, and type of cannabis product necessary to address specific research questions on the health effects of cannabis use.”

In 2019, we believe there should be more medical options available outside of traditional therapies, and it’s troubling that the federal government is standing in the way of research to clearly determine the health benefits of cannabis. Cannabis could be a life-changing miracle for some patients, and we need the research to prove so, or to let patients know that they need to pursue a different treatment.

To address this situation for patients, we believe the first step is to change the schedule of cannabis. While the Drug Enforcement Administration has taken some action to address the restrictive class of some forms of cannabis, currently cannabis itself is still classified as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act. This classifies cannabis with the likes of heroin, LSD and ecstasy.

The current schedule of cannabis brings about a number of challenges, including regulatory and supply issues. As long as it remains a Schedule I drug, we cannot properly study the effects or potential benefits of medical cannabis as the drug faces significant federal restrictions due to this classification: Under the current system, it is not recognized as a drug that would have any tangible medical benefits at all. And, researchers seeking to conduct clinical research must jump through several hoops to submit an application to the FDA and get approval from the DEA before starting their work.

Furthermore, all research efforts must go through the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the cannabis used must be sourced from their authorized facility. In 2016, the DEA announced that it would create a process to license additional manufacturers for research, but it has yet to approve a single application despite bipartisan congressional pressure.

In all, these additional hurdles create layers upon layers of bureaucratic red tape that must be overcome in order to even begin researching the medical benefits of cannabis.

While many of our colleagues in Congress may have differing opinions on the decriminalization of adult-use cannabis, we believe one thing on which we can all agree is the need to allow and facilitate better research into the drug’s potential medical benefits.

We’re glad to see the U.S. surgeon general shares this sentiment: He said in December that he has concerns about the difficulty of conducting research on cannabis because of the scheduling system, but it’s not enough. The federal government must get out of the way of science, and allow for the American people to access the information necessary to treat pain and potentially save lives, especially as the opioid epidemic is ravaging our communities.

We are two members of Congress from different parts of the country with differing views on whether the recreational use of cannabis should be legalized. However, we’re committed to working together to deliver better treatments for patients across the nation who desperately need them. Changing the schedule of cannabis is an important place to start.

 

[Baron23]

The Cannabis Revolution Comes to the Capitol

Pot policy is suddenly a hot topic for federal lawmakers — and on the 2020 campaign trail


Since the dawn of the Drug War, federal legislators have stood by, or even applauded, as millions of Americans have racked up convictions for marijuana offenses — with arrests increasing in the latest FBI crime statistics, despite nearly a dozen states having already legalized cannabis. But over the past two years, and now accelerating with Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives, federal marijuana reform has become a hot topic on the Hill. Congress is weighing measures to tax and regulate cannabis; to open the federal banking system to pot businesses; to allow the industry to claim federal tax deductions; and, most powerfully, to repair the harms created by generations of prohibitionist policies.

“The federal momentum around marijuana reform is at the highest we’ve ever seen,” says Queen Adesuyi, who coordinates federal policy for the Drug Policy Alliance. The issue has gained traction across the political spectrum, from right-wing Alaska Rep. Don Young to moderate Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to left-wing superstar Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Even former GOP House Speaker John Boehner has joined the board of a marijuana firm. “It’s an unprecedented moment,” Adesuyi says.

“It’s not a question of if we’re going to get a federal law,” says Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat who represents pot-legal Oregon and is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. “It’s a question of when.” At the national level, Wyden says, politicians are eager to bring order to the new marijuana reality, as half a dozen states, from Illinois to New Mexico, weigh legalization this year alone. “People are seeing that we’re headed to a crazy quilt of state laws,” he says, “and it would really make sense to have a federal, uniform set of rules.”

The most surprising development is that congressional efforts seem to have backing from Attorney General William Barr. In a previous stint leading the Justice Department in the 1990s, Barr authored a report titled “The Case for More Incarceration,” and he’s made clear he opposes marijuana reform as a personal matter. But during his nomination hearing in January, Barr vowed to end his predecessor Jeff Sessions’ crusade against state-legal pot, citing industry investments that were made under assurances by the Obama administration that pot businesses were not a priority for federal prosecution.

Barr then threw down a challenge for Congress. “The current situation is untenable and really has to be addressed,” he said, likening state marijuana reforms to a “backdoor nullification” of national law. (Since the early 1970s, marijuana has been classified under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule I drug, on par with heroin.) “If we want states to have their own laws,” Barr said, “then let’s get there. And let’s get there the right way.”

The “right way” is ripe for debate on Capitol Hill, and in the 2020 race for president.

Marijuana businesses have rallied behind a quick-and-dirty bill that would give legal cover to the $10 billion industry. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), each hailing from marijuana-legal states, have co-sponsored the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act, which was reintroduced this month.

The STATES Act does not remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act. But it does exempt pot-legal states from federal marijuana enforcement, if they adhere to baseline standards. The bill also tweaks laws to improve industry access to banking and to grant pot businesses federal tax deductions. “It’s a very simple bill, and I think that is the selling point,” says Michael Correia, director of government relations for the National Cannabis Industry Association. In March, a House committee voted to advance an even narrower bill, the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act; it would safeguard banks that serve state-regulated pot businesses from charges of money-laundering.

Other reformers in Congress, however, reject this industry-centered approach. They see pot businesses building on top of the inequality created by the racist enforcement of the Drug War. In February, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) introduced a nonbinding resolution called “Realizing Equitable & Sustainable Participation in Emerging Cannabis Trades,” or RESPECT, co-sponsored by Ocasio-Cortez, among others. Noting that “less than one percent of the cannabis industry is owned or operated by people of color,” the resolution calls on lawmakers and the industry to address the “most egregious effects of the War on Drugs on communities of color.”

The Marijuana Justice Act, introduced by Lee in the House and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) in the Senate, likewise insists that the case for legalization is rooted in the harms prohibition has inflicted, disproportionately, on minority communities. “To say that we’re just going to legalize and move forward, without addressing the damage that has been done, without addressing the injustices that have been heaped upon people, to me is unacceptable,” Booker tells Rolling Stone.

The Marijuana Justice Act begins by removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and making it legal under federal law. It adds provisions to expunge arrest records for past marijuana offenses, and offers a pathway to early release for many now behind bars. Most controversially, the bill creates a reinvestment fund of at least $500 million a year — a form of reparations for the communities hit hardest by the Drug War.

Introduced with little fanfare last Congress, the bill is a hot ticket today, gaining co-sponsorship by six of the 2020 presidential contenders in the Senate. “Too many lives have been ruined because of the War on Drugs,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) tweeted in February, declaring her “proud” support of Booker’s bill. “We must change the system.”

In gridlocked Washington, where funding the daily operation of government is a heroic feat, near-term prospects for pot reform are uncertain. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a lead sponsor of the Marijuana Justice Act, says he’s “optimistic” the House can pass a bill centered on legalization and record expungement. But he concedes, “There is a generational issue. Some of the members are having a struggle. We still have some convincing to do.”

In the Senate, roadblocks abound. “The Senate is not where the House is,” says Wyden. But it’s not unthinkable that a bill could advance. Adesuyi of DPA insists that Booker’s bill — building off the success in the last Congress of the criminal-justice reform bill known as the FIRST STEP Act — hits a bipartisan “sweet spot.” Gardner says that the STATES Act, which has four GOP co-sponsors, can pass if it reaches the Senate floor: “If it has a vote, it has over 60 votes.” He believes Trump supports reform; others are skeptical. “It’s not like we have Rand Paul as president,” Khanna says. “I don’t think we’re ever going to get this administration on board, and that means it’s going to have to be a new president that gets this done.”

Given that trajectory, reformers are thrilled the Democratic field is rallying behind the Marijuana Justice Act. Khanna, who co-chairs Bernie Sanders’ campaign, believes centering legalization in the election will give the next Democratic president “a mandate to implement change.” Booker, himself a candidate, insists the moral core of his bill can help it transcend partisanship. “This is so much bigger than presidential politics,” he says. “This has been a driving purpose since I watched firsthand how privileged people could use marijuana without fear of repercussion, and how poor kids and minority kids have no margins whatsoever.”

If the Marijuana Justice Act is a statement bill — designed to guide the national debate — other lawmakers are developing detailed legislation to disentangle marijuana from federal criminal statutes. In the House, Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) is said to be working on a comprehensive legalization package. And from his perch in the Senate, Wyden has introduced a series of bills that — in a nod to the mythical numerology of stoner culture — start with S.420.

Wyden’s bills offer a three-step path to the full federal legalization, regulation and taxation of pot. The least controversial bill, S.422, would normalize pot businesses under the IRS tax code. Currently, because they’re “trafficking” in a federally controlled substance, these firms cannot claim routine tax deductions. The next step, S.421, systematically destigmatizes marijuana under federal law. It would prevent people in state-legal businesses from getting arrested or being hit with civil penalties; empower veterans, whose health care is administered federally, to obtain medical marijuana in states where it is legal; grant marijuana businesses access to banks; and create a path for people with past marijuana violations to expunge their records — opening access to federal housing and student aid, and guaranteeing that marijuana isn’t a barrier for immigration and naturalization.

S.420 is the capstone bill. It would remove marijuana from the DEA’s schedules. In turn, the federal government would get a cut of pot revenues, through an excise like the government now imposes on alcohol. The bill would require all pot enterprises to register with the Treasury Department, as well as offer support to states that continue to ban marijuana and don’t want a flood of imports from neighboring legal states.

Wyden is optimistic that even conservatives are movable on this issue. He points to a bipartisan victory in the last Congress: “It wasn’t very long ago when I introduced the first hemp bill, but we ended up in a relatively short period of time having a McConnell/Wyden bill,” he says. “And it is now law.” Hemp is no longer governed by the Controlled Substances Act, legalizing not only the industrial fiber but also the market in CBD, expected to grow to $16 billion by 2025.

Advocates say the tipping point on federal pot policy can’t be reached without intense public pressure. In a web broadcast from his Senate office, Booker, with Lee, made a direct appeal to the nation’s pot consumers. “If you are digesting an edible, if you are smoking,” Booker said with a smile, “don’t think, ‘Hey, I’ve got my rights.’ No. Please be concerned about all the people who are suffering because of this prohibition.”

“If just the people who have used marijuana in the United States of America got behind this bill,” Booker said, teeing up Lee to finish the sentence, “we’d win tomorrow!”

 

[momofthegoons]

Harvard, MIT share $9 million gift to study marijuana’s health effects

An investor in the cannabis industry has donated $9 million to Harvard and MIT to study the drug’s health effects, in what the institutions describe as the largest private gift to support marijuana research in the United States.

The Broderick Fund for Phytocannabinoid Research, announced Tuesday morning, will be shared equally by Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the goal of filling vast gaps in the understanding of how marijuana affects the brain and behavior.

“The lack of basic science research enables people to make claims in a vacuum that are either anecdotal or based on old science,” said the donor, Charles R. “Bob” Broderick, an alumnus of both universities. “For generations we haven’t been able to study this thing for various sorts of societal reasons. That should end now, as well as the prohibitions that are falling around the world.”

Broderick has invested heavily in the booming marijuana business, starting in Canada in 2015 and more recently the United States, through his family-run Uji Capital.

Although Broderick stands to profit if the studies find benefits from marijuana, the universities and the researchers said the donor will have no say in the work process or its results. They also pledged to publish their findings even if they find marijuana doesn’t help or causes harm.

Broderick recalled the first time he raised the idea of funding cannabis research with a Harvard development officer: “There was silence on the other end. Then she said, ‘I don’t think we do it.’ And I said, ‘That’s the problem.’ ”

The official soon called back to say that Harvard researchers studying brain chemicals would be interested in examining marijuana’s effects.

Dr. Igor Grant, a longtime California marijuana researcher who is not involved with the Harvard-MIT project, said the grant “will really let them move forward with research that has been difficult to fund.”

“The work in this area has been very, very slow coming,” said Grant, director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California San Diego.

“This is exactly the type of research we need,” said Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a Massachusetts primary care doctor and board member of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, a group promoting legalization and regulation of marijuana. Whether for or against marijuana, Grinspoon said, “Everybody wants more research.”

The marijuana studies to date vary in quality, often have conflicting results, and typically involve either purified extracts or smoked marijuana — not the gummies, cookies, vapor, oils, or highly potent buds that people consume today.

When the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reviewed 10,000 studies of marijuana’s health effects, it found strong evidence for only three benefits: easing chronic pain, reducing vomiting from chemotherapy, and relieving painful muscle spasms in people with multiple sclerosis.

Marijuana is legal throughout Canada and in 10 US states; an additional 23 states allow marijuana only for specified medical purposes. But the US government has classified cannabis as a dangerous drug with no medicinal value, making research into its effects extremely difficult.

Until recently researchers could work only with marijuana grown at a federal farm in Mississippi, whose plants are less potent than those purchased at dispensaries in states where the drug is legal.

But John Gabrieli, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT and one of the grant recipients, said “a fast-changing regulatory environment” is allowing access to better material.

The MIT researchers intend to use extracts from the plants to tease out the effects of marijuana in people with schizophrenia — about half of whom are heavy cannabis users, Gabrieli said.

The researchers want to pursue intriguing evidence that a component in marijuana known as tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, improves cognitive function in people with schizophrenia. They will look at how THC as well as another key component — cannabidiol, or CBD — affect cognition alone and in combination.

Another MIT researcher will study how chronic exposure to THC and CBD may alter the cell types implicated in schizophrenia, potentially shedding light on why teens who use cannabis are at greater risk of developing schizophrenia and why the drug may be more dangerous for teens than adults.


Other studies at MIT will examine whether marijuana ingredients can help people with autism and with Huntington’s disease, and will study the effects of cannabis ingredients on attention and working memory.

It’s been “incredibly hard” to get funding for marijuana research, Gabrieli said. “It’s been illegal all over the place until very recently. Without the philanthropic boost, it could take many years to work through all these issues.”

At Harvard, the $4.5 million gift establishes the Charles R. Broderick Phytocannabinoid Research Initiative, involving some 30 basic scientists and clinicians at the medical school and its affiliated hospitals.

The Harvard team plans to study the effects of marijuana ingredients on brain cell function and the connections between brain cells, testing purified ingredients on mice and rats.

Researchers at Harvard have been studying natural brain chemicals known as endocannabinoids, which are involved in a variety of functions, including memory, appetite, and stress response.

The grant will enable them to expand that research to encompass cannabinoids derived from plants. “Marijuana has about 100 different cannabinoid compounds. We understand very little about the specific effects of each of them on the nervous system,” said Bruce Bean, Harvard neurobiology professor and one of the project’s researchers.

Anecdotally, people report that marijuana relieves pain and promotes sleep. But no one knows which ingredients induce those effects or how they work in the brain, Bean said.

The study will enable the researchers to gather preliminary data that could position them to win federal grants. It will also support graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and potentially draw more people into the field.

“We’re very excited about this. I think it’s going to stimulate some interesting research,” Bean said.

The research, however, is funded by someone who could profit if the findings are favorable or lose money if new dangers are discovered. Could knowing this somehow, even unconsciously, bias the results?

Josephine Johnston, director of research at the Hastings Center, a think tank concerned with bioethics, said such conflicts of interest are commonplace.

“In a pure world, you wouldn’t have a situation like this. But it’s pretty much a fact of life of biomedical research in the United States that you have interested parties funding research,” said Johnston, co-editor of a book on conflicts of interest in biomedical research. Institutions can enact safeguards to ensure both that the research is unbiased and that it’s perceived as trustworthy.


Both MIT and Harvard said they have such policies in place, requiring that gifts come without strings attached and that researchers have control over their work and its publication.

Grant, the California marijuana researcher, agreed that conflict of interest is an important concern. But, he added, if people profiting from the marijuana boom invest in science, “maybe that’s not a bad thing. They could just as easily buy yachts or do something else.”

 

[Baron23]

I have never heard of this before...have I been living under a rock?


Millions to march for legal and fair access to marijuana



On Saturday May 4 and Sunday May 5, cannabis advocates around the world will participate in the Global Marijuana March as the event enters its 21st year.

Also known as the Million Marijuana March, the first march was ignited in New York City in 1999 and has evolved into an annual rally usually held the first Saturday in May in different cities all over the globe.

Toronto currently sees the largest turnout of marijuana marchers in North America. The event is complete with vendors, concerts and a number of high profile speakers. Attendees come decked out in cannabis-inspired costumes with colorful protest signs in hand.

The initial purpose of the Marijuana March was to serve as a protest against the continued criminalization of marijuana and for people to be able to use cannabis without fear of imprisonment or other unfair legal sanctions.

Here are just some of the many events that are taking place:

New York City

May 4 - Parade Assembly: 11:00 a.m. | West 32nd & Broadway, NYC
Parade Start Time: 12:30 p.m. | Parade will march to Union Square (Route South on Broadway)
Rally: 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. | Union Square South Plaza
“The NYC Cannabis Parade is one of the longest running public expressions of cannabis culture and political activism. The rally is an inclusive and peaceful celebration of the “cannabis culture” that spans national, cultural and racial divisions. It is also a political event demanding an end to prohibition, which has been proven to be a disaster.”

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

May 5 - 2:00 p.m.
“Starts at Surfside Park and North Boardwalk, in Rehoboth Beach. Ends with a Rally and Call to Action at the Bandstand. Speeches by local reform advocates and leaders, Give-a-ways, Raffles, and more.”

Portland, Oregon

May 4 - 12 p.m. Pioneer Courthouse Square
“We gather to remind the public that there are still prisoners of the drug war who need to be freed. We gather in remembrance of the warriors we have lost along the way. And we gather to celebrate our hard-fought victories to show prohibitionists that we will continue this fight until our freedom is complete.

Toronto

May 4 - Queen’s Park, High Noon – gathering. 2pm launch
“The Global Marijuana March is an international day of cannabis celebration and protest against prohibition. Canada still hasn’t yet legalized cannabis, and more delays simply mean more ongoing injustice.”

Vancouver

May 4 - 12 p.m. Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street
“Come early with your signs, costumes and all your buds as we take over the streets to free the weed."

 

[momofthegoons]

Weed's Waste Problem: The Perils of Plastic May Haunt the Cannabis Industry

While there are resources to make cannabis companies more sustainable, there’s little incentive to utilize them. So how can we motivate the legal industry to embrace eco-friendly practices?

The cannabis industry has a major plastic problem.

According to the non-profit Plastic Oceans International, the world produces 300 million tons of plastic every year. Half of that — 150 million tons — is for single-use purposes. While these issues clearly extend far beyond the reaches of the cannabis industry, state packaging regulations have forced many business owners to seek out the cheapest options in order to keep the lights on.

Take, for instance, a standard disposable vaporizer pen. Beyond the materials of the pen itself, California state law requires that the product arrive to the dispensary in child-proof packaging. At that point, it is then purchased, where it is placed into another child-proof bag. That’s a whole lot of plastic for 200 puffs. According to the firm BDS Analytics, sales in California for disposable vape pens nearly doubled from $3.4 million to $6.42 million between January and March of 2018.

That’s a huge amount of plastic being discarded every day in the weed world — and it’s only getting worse.

“It's disturbing,” says Steve D’Angelo, founder of the famed dispensary Harborside and a major figure in the industry. “It's repugnant to the values that cannabis teaches us.”

The crux of the issue lies with the law.

California’s regulations regarding packaging stipulate that “all cannabis and cannabis products be sold in child-resistant packaging.” That means plastic tubes for pre-rolls and additional protective packaging for items like edibles, vape cartridges, and flower.

Anyone who has visited a dispensary in a legal market has likely engaged in the depressing process of digging their way through multiple levels of petroleum-based, non-recyclable plastic to get to the cannabis product within. These rules requiring child-resistant packaging are not endemic to the country’s largest cannabis market, either — nearly every state with a regulated marijuana industry has adopted similar laws. The result is lots and lots of single-use plastic being thrown away every time a customer arrives home from a dispensary.


For D’Angelo, the current situation is the antithesis of what cannabis is supposed to be about.

“One of the things that cannabis teaches us is to respect Mother Nature and to treasure her gifts,” he noted in a phone interview with MERRY JANE. “These regulations don't do that. Frankly, it's disgusting to see the amount of waste that goes on. I get disgusted every time I buy a cannabis product and, in order to get to the cannabis, I have to work my way through three or four levels of completely unnecessary packaging.”

While the sustainable options available to cannabis manufacturers — who represent the stage in the process where packaging first comes into play —may be limited, there are a few companies that have made it their mission to offer environmentally-friendly alternatives to the glut of plastic pre-roll tubes and flower jars that are pervasive throughout the market. But these companies are few and far between. At present, while there are resources to make cannabis companies more sustainable, it's ultimately the lack of incentive to utilize them that prevents any change. So then, how can we motivate the legal industry to embrace eco-friendly practices?

As writer Whitney Mallett noted in a 2017 feature for MERRY JANE, there are many packaging companies that define their products as sustainable without actually making good on the promise. One especially egregious example is ABC Packaging Direct, which bafflingly suggests that its line of disposable plastic bags offer “a positive impact on the environment.” Mallett also points out that terms like “green” and “eco” are often employed as eye-catching buzz words — a tactic commonly known as “greenwashing.”



Fortunately, not every company has let its moral compass go up in smoke.

Take Denver’s Sana Packaging, for example. The business was created after Ron Basak-Smith and James Eichne, two University of Colorado Boulder graduate students, realized that few (if any) packaging companies targeting the cannabis industry had embraced sustainability as their guiding principle. Launched in 2016, Sana Packaging makes its packaging from biodegradable materials like hemp biocomposite and recycled ocean plastics.

“Our basic thing is that we no longer want to create single-use petroleum plastic packaging for the cannabis industry,” said Basak-Smith, Sana’s co-founder. “When we looked at the regulations in place, we saw that it was very difficult for anything to be made out of sustainable materials with the child-resistance [packaging requirements]. That really took out all of the current options.”

In order to offer a sustainable alternative, Basak-Smith and Eichner had to develop their own material sources. While Basak-Smith is fiercely proud of the work he and his partner have done, he conceded that in order for Sana Packaging to stay afloat, their prices are two to three times what other, non-environmentally focused packaging companies charge.

“That’s really what we're trying to work through right now,” Basak-Smith said. “What is the willingness to pay for sustainable materials? I think we've got into a situation where [people] value the price — whatever that means — over the environment.”

With sustainable packaging coming in at a substantially higher price point, Basak-Smith acknowledged that many cannabis manufacturers simply employ a cost-benefit analysis and decide that saving money is their top priority.



“Companies have to make a profit,” he said. “We're trying to get people to pay more for packaging, which is obviously not the easiest sell. At the same time, the industry does want to do what's right with packaging. People don't want to be wasteful.”

One such person is Kial Long, Vice President of Marketing for CannaCraft in Northern California.

CannaCraft is one of the more popular cannabis manufacturers in the state, having partnered with absoluteXtracts, Care By Design, and Satori. The company is eager to embrace sustainability when it comes to packaging. The issue, according to Long, partially stems from concerns that cannabis regulations may change yet again — a worry that leaves her uneasy about ordering packaging in the quantities required for the choice to make fiscal sense.

“Last year, we didn't really have any insight into what [California’s] permanent regulations would be in six months,” Long explained by phone. “To make the investment at that point, we would've needed to buy packaging in really small increments, which would not have been a good business decision. We are a little bit more comfortable buying our packaging in bulk these days, but there's still some hesitation about how things might pan out.”

Long estimates that child-resistant packaging adds about 10 percent to CannaCraft’s total packaging expenses each month, equating to roughly $20,000. California law currently offers no incentives or subsidies to companies for embracing sustainable packaging. In a statement provided to MERRY JANE, a representative for the California Department of Public Health confirmed the state’s current regulations do not explicitly address this subject:



“The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) mandates that all cannabis and cannabis products be sold in child-resistant packaging,” a California Department of Health official stated by email. “Many packaging options exist that are compliant with this standard, including environmentally-friendly ones.”

Despite being one of the most progressive states when it comes to combating climate change, California apparently isn’t concerned with translating its green-friendly attitude to its cannabis industry. At least not yet.

One company that has reportedly taken initiative to become more sustainable is Dosist, makers of disposable vaporizer pens tailored to trigger specific effects. Dosist’s recycling program involves collection bins at various dispensaries where their products are sold. Customers who return a used pen receive a $5 discount on their next Dosist purchase. Working in partnership with the waste hauler company GAIACA, recycled pens are then sorted at a facility in Del Rey Oaks, CA. While Dosist was unable to provide any data on the number of pens recycled to date, the program serves as evidence that such efforts are possible if the necessary interest and resources are available.

For Nick Kovacevich — CEO of KushCo Holdings, one of the industry’s premier vendors for cannabis packaging — biding his time in hopes that the industry eventually mandates sustainable practices simply wasn’t an option.

“While a state government subsidy would be incredible and the industry would embrace that,” Kovacevich explained, “we think if history is any bearer of the future, we cannot rely on the state for guidance. We need to take the proactive step, and that is what we feel we are doing.”



To that end, KushCo Holdings has joined with the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a “membership-based collaborative that believes in the power of industry to make packaging more sustainable,” whose members include corporate heavyweights like Verizon Wireless, McDonald’s, and Procter & Gamble. Despite Kovacevich’s enthusiasm for adopting the eco-friendly practices encouraged by the SPC — the organization’s stated goal is to ensure all packaging across industries is sourced responsibly, optimized for efficiency, effectively recovered, non-toxic, and low impact — he suggested that a big picture outlook, one that prioritizes sustainability for the cannabis industry, is also warranted.

“If we step back, we see the quantity of plastics our industry produces and wastes,” he said. “We also think it’s important to keep context, meaning, Amazon, Walmart and other major global realtors send thousands of boxes every day. Pinpointing the cannabis industry, as some outlets have, is a small waste target when compared to the larger retailers. Sustainability is a priority for us because it’s the right thing to do. We see our ourselves as industry change agents, and we want others to follow our lead in this effort.”

While CannaCraft’s Long said she’d be in favor of the state taking a more active interest in encouraging environmental practices, she’s also not planning to wait around.

Instead, CannaCraft developed a native 510 thread cartridge — the units that are filled with cannabis oil for vape pens — which were recently certified as child-resident under the requirements of the Poison Prevention Packaging Act.

“Prior to getting certified,” Long said, “we were adding over 100,000 plastic tubes into the market each month to make sure our vape cartridges were child-resistant. Now, with this new manufacturing process — and with the way that we're able to seal the cartridges — we have received certification which means they are child-resistant on their own now.”



In essence, CannaCraft has removed one level of plastic from the equation by making the cartridges themselves child-resistant and thus eliminating the need to encase them in an additional layer of child-resistant packaging.

Unfortunately, many companies are unable to invest the resources necessary to develop similar, sustainable packaging. Instead, they’re hoping that the industry will pool its resources and share its innovations to ensure environmentally-sound packaging is available to all. Long said that CannaCraft is all in favor of this approach.

“I think this is bigger than our margins,” she explained. “I think the fight against the overuse of plastic is something that our company holds in higher regard than the small savings on our packaging. We'd be very interested in helping other companies get there.”

For Steve D’Angelo of Harborside, the concept of the government subsidizing sustainable packaging appeals to his nature as an environmentalist. But it doesn’t address what he believes is the root of the problem.

“I think it would be counterproductive unless the state coupled it with rather dramatic tax decreases and made the packaging regulations more reasonable,” he said. “With the imposition of taxes and the added cost of compliance — and given how easy it is to obtain cannabis in California in an unregulated way — something like 50 percent of the people in the regulated market outflow [product] to the unregulated market. Doing anything that increases the price of cannabis in regulated dispensaries right now will threaten the very existence of a legal market.”



In other words, if companies that use eco-friendly packaging are not incentivized, they won’t embrace sustainability at a time when the black market is cutting into their profit margins at all ends.

D’Angelo also questions the logic of child-resistant packaging in the first place. He notes that other products — ones that, unlike cannabis, have a proven track record of doing serious harm — are not subject to the same level of regulation.

“I see aspirin and other over-the-counter drugs being sold in containers that are not childproof. I see tobacco being sold in containers that are not childproof. I see alcohol being sold in containers that are not childproof. Then I see cannabis — which is safer than any of those substances — being wrapped in these completely superfluous and unnecessary layers of packaging. It's appalling.”

With more alarming news about the current climate crisis arriving each day, the cannabis industry is uniquely situated to lead the charge on a pivot away from petroleum-based products. And, rather ironically, it was the petroleum and plastics industries that helped make cannabis illegal in the first place. So it would only be fitting if the newly-legal cannabis industry were to push back against the corporations that are creating waste and packing landfills to the brim by making it standard to abandon plastic packaging.

How can cannabis blaze an eco-friendly path? That may mean revisiting current packaging requirements and questioning the validity of their stringency. It may also mean developing a less punitive tax structure that allows smaller businesses to use their subsequent savings or profit from increased sales on sustainable packaging. It’s possible that companies will need to consider making their proprietary environmentally-beneficial packaging designs open source for all to use, too. There will almost certainly need to be a lot more companies like Sana Packaging if the entire industry is to ultimately embrace a sustainable approach. Most likely, a combination of all of the above will be required.



Weaning an industry off non-recyclable single-use plastic is no easy task. It will take participation from every facet of the industry in order to succeed. But if the fight for access to regulated cannabis has proven anything thus far, it’s that precedent is no match for perseverance.

 

[Baron23]

Weed's Waste Problem: The Perils of Plastic May Haunt the Cannabis Industry

While there are resources to make cannabis companies more sustainable, there’s little incentive to utilize them. So how can we motivate the legal industry to embrace eco-friendly practices?

The cannabis industry has a major plastic problem.

According to the non-profit Plastic Oceans International, the world produces 300 million tons of plastic every year. Half of that — 150 million tons — is for single-use purposes. While these issues clearly extend far beyond the reaches of the cannabis industry, state packaging regulations have forced many business owners to seek out the cheapest options in order to keep the lights on.

Take, for instance, a standard disposable vaporizer pen. Beyond the materials of the pen itself, California state law requires that the product arrive to the dispensary in child-proof packaging. At that point, it is then purchased, where it is placed into another child-proof bag. That’s a whole lot of plastic for 200 puffs. According to the firm BDS Analytics, sales in California for disposable vape pens nearly doubled from $3.4 million to $6.42 million between January and March of 2018.

That’s a huge amount of plastic being discarded every day in the weed world — and it’s only getting worse.

“It's disturbing,” says Steve D’Angelo, founder of the famed dispensary Harborside and a major figure in the industry. “It's repugnant to the values that cannabis teaches us.”

The crux of the issue lies with the law.

California’s regulations regarding packaging stipulate that “all cannabis and cannabis products be sold in child-resistant packaging.” That means plastic tubes for pre-rolls and additional protective packaging for items like edibles, vape cartridges, and flower.

Anyone who has visited a dispensary in a legal market has likely engaged in the depressing process of digging their way through multiple levels of petroleum-based, non-recyclable plastic to get to the cannabis product within. These rules requiring child-resistant packaging are not endemic to the country’s largest cannabis market, either — nearly every state with a regulated marijuana industry has adopted similar laws. The result is lots and lots of single-use plastic being thrown away every time a customer arrives home from a dispensary.


For D’Angelo, the current situation is the antithesis of what cannabis is supposed to be about.

“One of the things that cannabis teaches us is to respect Mother Nature and to treasure her gifts,” he noted in a phone interview with MERRY JANE. “These regulations don't do that. Frankly, it's disgusting to see the amount of waste that goes on. I get disgusted every time I buy a cannabis product and, in order to get to the cannabis, I have to work my way through three or four levels of completely unnecessary packaging.”

While the sustainable options available to cannabis manufacturers — who represent the stage in the process where packaging first comes into play —may be limited, there are a few companies that have made it their mission to offer environmentally-friendly alternatives to the glut of plastic pre-roll tubes and flower jars that are pervasive throughout the market. But these companies are few and far between. At present, while there are resources to make cannabis companies more sustainable, it's ultimately the lack of incentive to utilize them that prevents any change. So then, how can we motivate the legal industry to embrace eco-friendly practices?

As writer Whitney Mallett noted in a 2017 feature for MERRY JANE, there are many packaging companies that define their products as sustainable without actually making good on the promise. One especially egregious example is ABC Packaging Direct, which bafflingly suggests that its line of disposable plastic bags offer “a positive impact on the environment.” Mallett also points out that terms like “green” and “eco” are often employed as eye-catching buzz words — a tactic commonly known as “greenwashing.”



Fortunately, not every company has let its moral compass go up in smoke.

Take Denver’s Sana Packaging, for example. The business was created after Ron Basak-Smith and James Eichne, two University of Colorado Boulder graduate students, realized that few (if any) packaging companies targeting the cannabis industry had embraced sustainability as their guiding principle. Launched in 2016, Sana Packaging makes its packaging from biodegradable materials like hemp biocomposite and recycled ocean plastics.

“Our basic thing is that we no longer want to create single-use petroleum plastic packaging for the cannabis industry,” said Basak-Smith, Sana’s co-founder. “When we looked at the regulations in place, we saw that it was very difficult for anything to be made out of sustainable materials with the child-resistance [packaging requirements]. That really took out all of the current options.”

In order to offer a sustainable alternative, Basak-Smith and Eichner had to develop their own material sources. While Basak-Smith is fiercely proud of the work he and his partner have done, he conceded that in order for Sana Packaging to stay afloat, their prices are two to three times what other, non-environmentally focused packaging companies charge.

“That’s really what we're trying to work through right now,” Basak-Smith said. “What is the willingness to pay for sustainable materials? I think we've got into a situation where [people] value the price — whatever that means — over the environment.”

With sustainable packaging coming in at a substantially higher price point, Basak-Smith acknowledged that many cannabis manufacturers simply employ a cost-benefit analysis and decide that saving money is their top priority.



“Companies have to make a profit,” he said. “We're trying to get people to pay more for packaging, which is obviously not the easiest sell. At the same time, the industry does want to do what's right with packaging. People don't want to be wasteful.”

One such person is Kial Long, Vice President of Marketing for CannaCraft in Northern California.

CannaCraft is one of the more popular cannabis manufacturers in the state, having partnered with absoluteXtracts, Care By Design, and Satori. The company is eager to embrace sustainability when it comes to packaging. The issue, according to Long, partially stems from concerns that cannabis regulations may change yet again — a worry that leaves her uneasy about ordering packaging in the quantities required for the choice to make fiscal sense.

“Last year, we didn't really have any insight into what [California’s] permanent regulations would be in six months,” Long explained by phone. “To make the investment at that point, we would've needed to buy packaging in really small increments, which would not have been a good business decision. We are a little bit more comfortable buying our packaging in bulk these days, but there's still some hesitation about how things might pan out.”

Long estimates that child-resistant packaging adds about 10 percent to CannaCraft’s total packaging expenses each month, equating to roughly $20,000. California law currently offers no incentives or subsidies to companies for embracing sustainable packaging. In a statement provided to MERRY JANE, a representative for the California Department of Public Health confirmed the state’s current regulations do not explicitly address this subject:



“The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) mandates that all cannabis and cannabis products be sold in child-resistant packaging,” a California Department of Health official stated by email. “Many packaging options exist that are compliant with this standard, including environmentally-friendly ones.”

Despite being one of the most progressive states when it comes to combating climate change, California apparently isn’t concerned with translating its green-friendly attitude to its cannabis industry. At least not yet.

One company that has reportedly taken initiative to become more sustainable is Dosist, makers of disposable vaporizer pens tailored to trigger specific effects. Dosist’s recycling program involves collection bins at various dispensaries where their products are sold. Customers who return a used pen receive a $5 discount on their next Dosist purchase. Working in partnership with the waste hauler company GAIACA, recycled pens are then sorted at a facility in Del Rey Oaks, CA. While Dosist was unable to provide any data on the number of pens recycled to date, the program serves as evidence that such efforts are possible if the necessary interest and resources are available.

For Nick Kovacevich — CEO of KushCo Holdings, one of the industry’s premier vendors for cannabis packaging — biding his time in hopes that the industry eventually mandates sustainable practices simply wasn’t an option.

“While a state government subsidy would be incredible and the industry would embrace that,” Kovacevich explained, “we think if history is any bearer of the future, we cannot rely on the state for guidance. We need to take the proactive step, and that is what we feel we are doing.”



To that end, KushCo Holdings has joined with the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a “membership-based collaborative that believes in the power of industry to make packaging more sustainable,” whose members include corporate heavyweights like Verizon Wireless, McDonald’s, and Procter & Gamble. Despite Kovacevich’s enthusiasm for adopting the eco-friendly practices encouraged by the SPC — the organization’s stated goal is to ensure all packaging across industries is sourced responsibly, optimized for efficiency, effectively recovered, non-toxic, and low impact — he suggested that a big picture outlook, one that prioritizes sustainability for the cannabis industry, is also warranted.

“If we step back, we see the quantity of plastics our industry produces and wastes,” he said. “We also think it’s important to keep context, meaning, Amazon, Walmart and other major global realtors send thousands of boxes every day. Pinpointing the cannabis industry, as some outlets have, is a small waste target when compared to the larger retailers. Sustainability is a priority for us because it’s the right thing to do. We see our ourselves as industry change agents, and we want others to follow our lead in this effort.”

While CannaCraft’s Long said she’d be in favor of the state taking a more active interest in encouraging environmental practices, she’s also not planning to wait around.

Instead, CannaCraft developed a native 510 thread cartridge — the units that are filled with cannabis oil for vape pens — which were recently certified as child-resident under the requirements of the Poison Prevention Packaging Act.

“Prior to getting certified,” Long said, “we were adding over 100,000 plastic tubes into the market each month to make sure our vape cartridges were child-resistant. Now, with this new manufacturing process — and with the way that we're able to seal the cartridges — we have received certification which means they are child-resistant on their own now.”



In essence, CannaCraft has removed one level of plastic from the equation by making the cartridges themselves child-resistant and thus eliminating the need to encase them in an additional layer of child-resistant packaging.

Unfortunately, many companies are unable to invest the resources necessary to develop similar, sustainable packaging. Instead, they’re hoping that the industry will pool its resources and share its innovations to ensure environmentally-sound packaging is available to all. Long said that CannaCraft is all in favor of this approach.

“I think this is bigger than our margins,” she explained. “I think the fight against the overuse of plastic is something that our company holds in higher regard than the small savings on our packaging. We'd be very interested in helping other companies get there.”

For Steve D’Angelo of Harborside, the concept of the government subsidizing sustainable packaging appeals to his nature as an environmentalist. But it doesn’t address what he believes is the root of the problem.

“I think it would be counterproductive unless the state coupled it with rather dramatic tax decreases and made the packaging regulations more reasonable,” he said. “With the imposition of taxes and the added cost of compliance — and given how easy it is to obtain cannabis in California in an unregulated way — something like 50 percent of the people in the regulated market outflow [product] to the unregulated market. Doing anything that increases the price of cannabis in regulated dispensaries right now will threaten the very existence of a legal market.”



In other words, if companies that use eco-friendly packaging are not incentivized, they won’t embrace sustainability at a time when the black market is cutting into their profit margins at all ends.

D’Angelo also questions the logic of child-resistant packaging in the first place. He notes that other products — ones that, unlike cannabis, have a proven track record of doing serious harm — are not subject to the same level of regulation.

“I see aspirin and other over-the-counter drugs being sold in containers that are not childproof. I see tobacco being sold in containers that are not childproof. I see alcohol being sold in containers that are not childproof. Then I see cannabis — which is safer than any of those substances — being wrapped in these completely superfluous and unnecessary layers of packaging. It's appalling.”

With more alarming news about the current climate crisis arriving each day, the cannabis industry is uniquely situated to lead the charge on a pivot away from petroleum-based products. And, rather ironically, it was the petroleum and plastics industries that helped make cannabis illegal in the first place. So it would only be fitting if the newly-legal cannabis industry were to push back against the corporations that are creating waste and packing landfills to the brim by making it standard to abandon plastic packaging.

How can cannabis blaze an eco-friendly path? That may mean revisiting current packaging requirements and questioning the validity of their stringency. It may also mean developing a less punitive tax structure that allows smaller businesses to use their subsequent savings or profit from increased sales on sustainable packaging. It’s possible that companies will need to consider making their proprietary environmentally-beneficial packaging designs open source for all to use, too. There will almost certainly need to be a lot more companies like Sana Packaging if the entire industry is to ultimately embrace a sustainable approach. Most likely, a combination of all of the above will be required.



Weaning an industry off non-recyclable single-use plastic is no easy task. It will take participation from every facet of the industry in order to succeed. But if the fight for access to regulated cannabis has proven anything thus far, it’s that precedent is no match for perseverance.

I agree with minimizing plastic waste, but we sholud still keep in mind that the entire packaging waste from MJ across the entire US is still only a drop in the bucket compared to....let's say 16 oz soda bottles?

A broad perspective is, IMO, important.

 

[Baron23]

The 4-Letter word that could prevent U.S. marijuana legalization


Will the U.S. legalize marijuana? Although 33 states have legalized medical cannabis and 10 have also legalized recreational pot, marijuana remains illegal at the federal level. But legislation is moving through the U.S. Congress that would change federal laws to recognize individual states' authority to enforce their own marijuana laws.

You can pretty much count on the marijuana legalization bill passing in the House of Representatives. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), a sponsor of the bill, thinks that the votes needed to pass the legislation in the Senate are there. He also has stated that President Trump supports the effort.

But don't put the cart before the horse. There's a four-letter word that could stand in the way of U.S. marijuana legalization. And that word is spelled h-e-m-p.

The hemp hurdle
Hemp, like marijuana, comes from the cannabis plant. A key difference is that hemp contains very low levels of THC -- the primary psychoactive ingredient in cannabis -- while marijuana contains a significant amount of THC. Because of this difference, a person can get high from using marijuana but not from consuming hemp.

This major chemical difference helped clear the way for U.S. legalization of hemp in December 2018. The 2018 farm bill that included language making hemp legal in the U.S. received overwhelming bipartisan support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

One of the biggest cheerleaders for the farm bill was Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The senator used his position as Senate majority leader to help ensure that hemp legalization was included in the farm bill and was instrumental in pushing the bill across the finish line.

McConnell's home state of Kentucky has become a hotbed for hemp production. The senator stated in an interview last year that hemp "could be big" for his state. McConnell added, "I don't know how big this can become, but I know we're ahead of everybody else. We're not afraid of the competition."

Story Continues Below



Probably the greatest opportunity for the hemp industry is in extracting cannabidiol (CBD) for use in a variety of products. Cannabis market research company Brightfield Group even projects that the U.S. hemp CBD market could reach $22 billion by 2022. That estimate could prove to be overly optimistic, but there should nonetheless be a substantial market for CBD products.

An offshoot of this opportunity, though, is that McConnell's enthusiasm for hemp could present a big hurdle for marijuana legalization in the U.S. CBD can also be extracted from cannabis plants used for marijuana. If federal laws change to recognize individual states' rights to make their own decisions on legalization of marijuana, the competitive advantage that McConnell sees for Kentucky's hemp industry could be jeopardized.

As the majority leader, McConnell decides which bills make it to the Senate floor for a vote and which don't. The fate of U.S. marijuana legalization rests in his hands. And he has a vested interest in protecting Kentucky's hemp industry from potential competition.

Political calculations
This doesn't mean that efforts to change federal marijuana laws are necessarily dead in the water, though. There's still a possibility that the current marijuana legalization bill making its way through Congress could pass as early as this year.

While Mitch McConnell wants to protect the hemp industry in his home state, he also would like to remain the Senate majority leader. To keep his position, the GOP must retain control of the Senate. That's going to be a tough challenge with 22 Republican seats up for election in 2020 compared with only 12 Democratic seats.

McConnell knows that every seat will count. One of the GOP seats that could flip to the Democrats currently is held by Cory Gardner. Securing federal legalization of pot could be a key factor in whether or not the Republicans hold on to Gardner's Senate seat because it would eliminate the possibility of U.S. government intervention in Colorado's large marijuana industry. And it could ultimately decide whether or not Mitch McConnell is still the Senate majority leader in 2021.

However, McConnell's political calculations could lead him to roll the dice and block any attempt to vote on marijuana legalization in the Senate. If that happens, the fate of U.S. marijuana legalization is likely to hinge on the outcome of the 2020 elections.

Investing in the meantime
What does all of this mean for investors seeking to profit from U.S. cannabis markets? You can expect that the valuations of U.S.-based cannabis stocks will continue to be well below those of Canadian cannabis stocks as long as marijuana remains illegal at the federal level in the U.S. This presents a buying opportunity for investors who feel confident in the eventual U.S. legalization of marijuana.

One stock that would almost certainly be a winner from changes to U.S. federal marijuana laws is KushCo Holdings (NASDAQOTH:KSHB). The company supplies packaging solutions to the U.S. cannabis industry, as well as hydrocarbons and solvents used in extracting cannabinoids from cannabis plants.

However, some Canadian stocks could also benefit tremendously from U.S. marijuana legalization, notably Canopy Growth (NYSE:CGC). The company recently announced that it was buying the right to acquire U.S.-based cannabis operator Acreage Holdings. This deal would only be finalized, though, if federal marijuana laws in the U.S. are changed.

I like KushCo and Canopy Growth as good picks to bet on U.S. marijuana legalization. However, I also think they should perform well even if federal laws don't change anytime in the near future. One key factor in my view is that both companies are also poised to profit from the U.S. hemp market.

KushCo's packaging can be used with hemp products as well as marijuana products. Its hydrocarbons and solvents can be used to extract CBD from hemp. Canopy Growth is investing more than $100 million in building a hemp industrial park in New York state and could expand into other states in the near future.

It could be months or even years before U.S. marijuana laws are revised. The good news for investors is that there are ways to win while they do something, which, like hemp, is a four-letter word: wait.

 

[Baron23]

Bipartisan Lawmakers Urge DEA To Approve More Marijuana Growers

Thirty members of Congress—including three presidential candidates—sent a letter to the heads of the Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Tuesday, imploring the officials to speed up the process of approving additional federally authorized marijuana cultivators.

The bipartisan letter, which was led by Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Steve Cohen (D-TN), states that federal agencies have ignored previous requests for information about the status of pending applications and explains the need for more manufacturers to produce research-grade cannabis.

As it stands, there is current just one federally authorized marijuana cultivation facility, at the University of Mississippi. The cannabis it produces has been criticized for a lack of product diversity and because it does not chemically resemble the marijuana that’s being sold and consumed in states where it’s legal.

“The application process to research cannabis is one that is arduous and long,” the lawmakers wrote, noting that cultivating cannabis for federal research purposes requires DEA approval and coordination with the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Food and Drug Administration.

The result is that researchers interested in studying marijuana “wait months or even years to have their applications approved” and “then they have to deal with raw materials that do not always lend themselves to proper research.”

While DEA moved in 2016 to create a process to license more growers—and later said it was increasing the quota for research-grade marijuana fivefold due to projected increases in demand—the agency has yet to approve any of the more than two dozen applications that have been filed to date.

“We urge you then to go beyond these steps and do whatever you can to speed up and improve the research application process,” they wrote. “Please let us know what you are considering to change the application process so it moves more quickly and what additional resources from Congress would help in that regard.”

Swalwell was joined by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers who signed onto the new letter. Reps. Don Young (R-AK), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), David Joyce (R-OH), Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Seth Moulton (D-MA) were among those who signed the letter.

Swalwell, Gabbard and Moulton are all seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

In addition to expressing their desire to expand the number of federally authorized marijuana manufacturers, the members also listed a series of questions that were posed to the Justice Department in earlier correspondence that did not receive a response:

“1. What is the current status of the 26 cannabis manufacturer applications? How long has each been pending before DOJ and DEA?

2. What steps have the DEA and DOJ taken to review the cannabis manufacturer applications currently pending? What are the reasons these applications have not been approved?

3. When do you estimate the DEA and DOJ will complete their review of all of the cannabis manufacturing applications and begin approving some as new manufacturers?

4. In the past 12 months, excluding Schedule I Bulk Manufacturer registrations for cannabis, how many other DEA registrations has DOJ reviewed?”

While the Justice Department was reportedly prevented from approving the applications under then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the current attorney general has expressed interest in expanding the cannabis facilities and pledged to review that applications.

“I think we’re going to move forward on it,” Attorney General William Barr said last month. “I think it’s very important to get those additional suppliers.”

“We hope DOJ and DEA share our goal of bringing safe and effective medical treatments to those who are suffering as quickly as possible,” the members wrote in the letter. “We believe cannabis can be part of the solution, but we need more research to make that happen.”

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/40901...ons=false&access_key=key-QNKbE1jY2RlGZsE0a6ku

 

[Baron23]

I've been watching this for a couple of years now and was wondering when the law suits would start.....the idea of a public source genetics data bank....to put genetics in the public domain and protect them from patent....was very laudable. But I guess that greed won out.

Open Cannabis Project Dissolves In Response to Controversy Over Ag-Science Company Phylos Bioscience’s Breeding Program
"We also feel we have been deceived. As a result, no matter what we do as an organization going forward, Open Cannabis Project will never escape this deception."

The Open Cannabis Project, an Oregon nonprofit that aimed to protect the cannabis genome from patent trolls, dissolved May 6, in response to intense backlash against its former business partner Phylos Bioscience.

The nonprofit spun off from Phylos in November 2017, but its executive director Beth Schechter says people's suspicions about Phylos, an ag-science company, continued to pop up in messages from the community.

Last month, Phylos Bioscience announced its intent to launch a breeding program to create new, better strains of cannabis and hemp. Many farmers in the industry balked at the news because they had given the company genomic data with the understanding that it would not be used to enhance a breeding program.

Mowgli Holmes, executive director of Phylos, told WW his company cannot do much with the data it has, because the data set is too small and lacks important context.

Last week, a Cannabis Now story publicized a video clip of Holmes telling investors the near opposite: He boasted that the DNA samples would give the company a "huge lead" in creating new plant strains.

"I think the main ones are that it would be impossible for anyone else to collect this data set at this point," he says in the video, "we are fully integrated in the cannabis industry, we have more trust in the cannabis industry than any other science company."

Schechter says those statements undermine the work that the Open Cannabis Project set out to do.

"Dr. Holmes's presentation to investors confirms many of the fears the community has had about Phylos' intentions for years," she said in a statement Monday morning. "We also feel we have been deceived. As a result, no matter what we do as an organization going forward, Open Cannabis Project will never escape this deception."

The Open Cannabis Project will formally dissolve at the end of May, Schechter says. Its last project will be a workshop to help farmers develop better license agreements and understand rules around patents, interstate commerce and growing and selling hemp. (Disclosure: That event is part of Cultivation Classic, an event presented by WW.) The data the nonprofit has collected will continue to live online and be publicly accessible.

"Though the organization is ending on a sad note, we are proud of much of the work we've been able to do," Schechter said in the statement. "We're excited to see what grows from those seeds, and for all the rest of it to turn into compost."

 

[BD9]

This is terrible. Charged with possession of hashish!

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article230142959.html

Doctor told NC grandma to try CBD oil. It got her arrested at Disney World.

A North Carolina woman was recently arrested at Disney World for possessing something her doctor recommended.

At a checkpoint to enter the Orlando, Florida, theme park, Hester Jordan Burkhalter was stopped when CBD oil was discovered in her purse by an Orange County sheriff’s deputy, Fox News reported.

The 69-year-old great-grandmother spent 12 hours in jail before she was released on $2,000 bond on April 15 after she was charged with possession of hashish, according to WDBO.

Burkhalter’s doctor recommended she use CBD oil to help alleviate pain caused by her arthritis.

The charges against Burkhalter were ultimately dropped, but the Sheriff’s Office said the deputy was following the law, even though her peppermint CBD oil contained zero milligrams of THC

 

[momofthegoons]

World’s Longest Serving Marijuana Prisoner Finally Freed

Antonio Bascaro (wearing glasses) surrounded by his children after being released from federal prison. A pilot, he spent 39 years in jail for smuggling Colombian marijuana into the U.S.

After spending 39 years behind bars, Antonio Bascaro, 84, the world’s longest marijuana prisoner, was finally released from federal lockup on May 1.

As the date approached, the volume of well wishes from supporters, fellow inmates and even FCI Miami prison staff surprised Bascaro and warmed his heart.

With excitement high, he and his family were “counting the minutes” until the release on house arrest. In addition to his children and grandchildren, a handful of press greeted the octogenarian as he emerged from the prison gates.

Hours later, Bascaro was with his sister in the kitchen preparing his favorite meal, lechon asado, as his children, grandchildren and friends gathered to celebrate the long-overdue reunion.

It’s a happy ending straight out of a Hollywood movie filled with twists, turns and international intrigue.

From Cuban War Hero to CIA Asset to Marijuana Smuggler
Born in Cuba in 1936, Bascaro quit medical school in 1952 and joined the Navy because he had always dreamed of being a pilot. At the time, Cuba was under the rule of dictator Fulgencio Batista, who would be deposed by Fidel Castro’s Communist regime in 1959.

Bascaro worked as a pilot to support counter-intelligence operations. After Castro took power, he was held in various Cuban prisons before mistakenly being released and eventually granted asylum in Uruguay.

Because of his experience as a Cuban military pilot, the CIA recruited Bascaro in its efforts to overthrow Castro. He trained in Guatemala and relocated to Nicaragua for the Bay of Pigs invasion.

After the failed 1961 invasion, Bascaro returned to Guatemala where he married and had three children. He divorced a decade later and moved to South Florida, a U.S. marijuana smuggling hub. With his CIA training and experience as a pilot, he proved to be a valuable commodity for that kind of enterprise.

Bascaro learned to fly in the Cuban Navy. After his involvement in the Bay of Pigs operation, he used his aviator skills to smuggle marijuana into the U.S..

A mutual friend introduced Bascaro to Jose Luis Acosta, another Cuban exile who was looking for a pilot to help with the logistics of running his operation. Seeking a way to provide for his family and lured and by both the lucrative cash rewards and the excitement of such a proposition, Bascaro accepted Acosta’s offer.

But in 1978, the Feds caught up to the Acosta organization when one of its boats carrying marijuana ran aground. Bascaro was arrested in Guatemala in 1980, subsequently convicted of importing more than 600,000 pounds of Colombian marijuana into the southeastern United States and sentenced to 60 years in federal prison, despite the fact that he was a first-time offender with an impeccable military record and there was no violence in his case.

Bascaro refused numerous offers of immunity from the government in exchange for his testimony about others in the group. Acosta, also sentenced to 60 years, cooperated with authorities and was released in 1994 after 12 years in prison.

Bascaro was arrested in Guatemala in 1980, subsequently convicted of importing more than 600,000 pounds of Colombian marijuana into the southeastern United States and sentenced to 60 years in federal prison.
Over the years, Bascaro tried repeatedly to appeal the length of his sentence to no avail. He filed for clemency on his own twice and again with the help of an attorney during President Obama’s push for justice reform. Each time, he was denied.

The only thing that kept Bascaro from having to serve his entire 60-year term is the fact that he was sentenced under old rules that allowed prisoners to accumulate unlimited amounts of credit for good behavior and educational accomplishments that reduces their sentences.

Conversely, the age of his case kept him from receiving new sentencing reductions that were recently put into place. These would’ve, in theory, led to his release several years ago. However, when passing the laws, legislators failed to account for the possibility of nonviolent inmates who’ve been warehoused as long as Bascaro. That technicality meant more disappointment for the Bascaro family.

Thanks to decent genes and a will to survive, he finally walked out of prison, albeit with the help of a cane, a free man.

Immigration Concerns for Bascaro
But even as friends and supporters celebrate, the government’s threat over his life is not yet entirely over.

Bascaro was originally scheduled to go to a halfway house a year ago, but his lack of U.S. citizenship put that plan on hold. Even now that he’s been released, as a Cuban exile, Bascaro has a compulsory appointment with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) on June 11.

He and his family are hopeful it’s just a formality and that he’ll be allowed to remain in the United States. He thinks his training with the CIA and involvement in the Bay of Pigs invasion should prevent him from being deported. But nothing is certain.

His life would be in danger, if after all these years, he was sent to Cuba or any country that has a Cuban embassy, which Guatemala does. He has no ties to or support systems in either of those countries.

“I think everything is OK,” Bascaro says, “but I know the system and I’m ready for the unexpected.”

 

[Baron23]

More on this subject

Re: Phylos & the future of OCP

On April 16, 2019, Phylos Bioscience announced that they were launching a breeding program. The grower and breeder community responded with anger, and for good reason: a company that earned trust in the community through a narrative of standing against monocropping and promoting the protection of small farmers and breeders is now using their data as part of a plan that’s built to support big-ag models and ultimately become their competition.

In a video leaked online from an investor conference in Miami in February, Phylos CEO Dr. Mowgli Holmes shares the company’s overall investment strategy, which puts breeding at the center of it. According to Dr. Holmes, Phylos now considers itself a “legacy data company” and the genetic sequencing and sex test services they provide growers and breeders only exist to support the breeding project. Some of the statements Dr. Holmes made dismiss the work of the very breeders who contributed to their research and suggest that their breeding project will create “outrageous new strains” to replace them. Dr. Holmes’s presentation to investors confirms many of the fears the community has had about Phylos’ intentions for years.

Phylos was able to allay these concerns and counter these fears through the work of the Open Cannabis Project. Our story has been a key part of shaping their public image as altruistic and science-loving protectors of the cultivation community. OCP started as a project of Phylos to “protect” heirloom varieties from overbroad patents as cannabis transitions into a legal market. In late 2017 we became our own organization, with a new board and new leadership, built with the intent to carry out the same mission — to prevent people who did not invent new cannabis breeds (“patent trolls”) from receiving monopoly-granting patents.

For the past year and a half, we have done our best to carry this out. But we have also discovered that our task was harder and more complicated than we anticipated. We had trouble raising enough money to sustain the effort in the medium term — we never had more than one person on staff and a handful of volunteers. Though we were able to do some work in service of solving our primary problem, ultimately we have not solved it — though have discovered many ways to do this work better.

Through it all, and despite our best efforts, we’ve been called a fraud, a scam and a cover for some kind of secret plot. At first, we thought it was simply a technical misunderstanding of the subject matter. Now we know that there is truth to some of these fears. For those of us who were brought into OCP as it separated from Phylos, we came on board because we sincerely believe in protecting small growers and breeders during this crucial transition to a legal market. We also feel we have been deceived. As a result, no matter what we do as an organization going forward, Open Cannabis Project will never escape this deception.

We cannot take responsibility for the actions of others, but we can acknowledge the role we played in it — albeit unwittingly. We can also love our friends and still draw clear ethical boundaries. Now that we know what we know, we are doing our part to make it right.

For all of these reasons, it is time to say goodbye to the Open Cannabis Project. We will sunset the organization by the end of May 2019. The open data set will remain in the public domain, hosted at an organization such as the Internet Archive and of course on NCBI. We will do our best to share what we’ve learned with anyone who’s interested in taking this kind of work further.

Our final public offering will be a Legal and Advocacy Clinic for breeders and growers on licenses, patents, interstate commerce, and new FDA hemp regulations. The event is part of this year’s Cultivation Classic, with proceeds to benefit the Craft Cannabis Alliance and potentially another nonprofit.

We are grateful for all the support that was given to us, particularly for the past year and a half. We are also grateful to our critics because they too care about protecting small breeders and growers and want to make sure it is done right. We hear you.

There are still some pressing issues facing growers and breeders today. All of us at OCP, and particularly the signatories on this letter, would like to hear from you so that we can begin to craft a plan to truly protect small breeders and growers together. If you are interested in research and activism around breeding, open source, documentation, data and law related to inventorship and ownership, here are some problems that still need to be solved:

• The cannabis community still needs better documentation systems for legal, scientific, environmental and R&D reasons, as well as community-led frameworks to support it.
• Growers and breeders still need legal resources to help them protect their work — and, really, legal resources in general.
• There are still overbroad patents that could be countered, though they aren’t just on plants and likely require a new strategy.

Many of us look forward to using what we’ve learned in continued service of solving these kinds of problems, with new partners and new directions. If you have an idea or question about any of these things, please get in touch.

Though the organization is ending on a sad note, we are proud of much of the work we’ve been able to do. We’re excited to see what grows from those seeds, and for all the rest of it to turn into compost.

Sincerely,

Beth Schechter
John Gilmore
Jesse Dodd
Angela Bacca
Dale Hunt
Nat Pennington
Rebecca Gasca
Reggie Gaudino

 

[ClearBlueLou]

I’ve been following this...lots of angry people with reason to be angry

 

[momofthegoons]

Top Democrats to Introduce Bill Removing Marijuana from Controlled Substances List

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries announced Thursday they are reintroducing legislation that would remove marijuana from the federal controlled substances list, decriminalizing the drug at a national level and effectively leaving states to decide their own marijuana laws.

The Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act, which was introduced during the last Congress but stalled, would deschedule marijuana, help states expunge low-level marijuana convictions, and allocate funding for minority and women-owned marijuana businesses.

Despite increasing legalization in the states, marijuana on the federal level is currently classified as a Schedule I drug alongside others like heroin and LSD that are deemed to have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical value.

The bill joins a handful of other measures already introduced in Congress that seek to reform federal marijuana prohibition and indicates that marijuana will be a top policy priority for congressional Democrats.


Schumer is introducing the bill in the Senate, while Jeffries is sponsoring companion legislation in the House. Both lawmakers are Democrats from New York.

"What we're saying is very simple: Let each state do what it wants," Schumer said in a videoannouncing the bill's introduction. "There's not going to be the heavy hand of the government telling you you can't."

The bill is poised to garner at least some Republican support amid evidence of a growing appetite in Congress for federal marijuana reform. A measure that would shield people complying with state marijuana laws from federal intervention – essentially giving control over marijuana laws to states – is backed by members of both parties. Attorney General William Barr has indicated that he would support that bill, dubbed the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States Act, or STATES Act.

The measure introduced by Schumer and Jeffries would also allocate funding for studies on the health impacts of marijuana and road safety.

 

[ClearBlueLou]

Appropriate time to mention that now would be a good moment to to call and remind them to rescind the Marihuan Control Act and the Marihuana Tax Act, and to strike state cannabis criminalization laws in the states (federal law trumps state law, so it should reverberate downward into states, counties, municipalities.

And to *thank* them for supporting the measure (don’t demand compliance, assume compliance - yes it’s a trick, one politicians use...and they’re not immune to it)

 

[Shredder]

Appropriate time to mention that now would be a good moment to to call and remind them to rescind the Marihuan Control Act and the Marihuana Tax Act, and to strike state cannabis criminalization laws in the states (federal law trumps state law, so it should reverberate downward into states, counties, municipalities.

And to *thank* them for supporting the measure (don’t demand compliance, assume compliance - yes it’s a trick, one politicians use...and they’re not immune to it)

The mj tax act was axed years go when Timothy Leary challenged it in court. Is the marijuana control act, a state act? I haven't heard about it.

 

[ClearBlueLou]

It was federal: they had hearings.

The Marihuana Control Act was some time in the 30s...that was the one where they ignored the AMA, but listened to the parakeet owners. AMA argued against controlling cannabis at all (it was and had been part of the US Pharmacopoeia for many years, *and* had de-facto GRAS status)...parakeet owners argued they’d be robbed of the pleasure of their birds if the birds couldn’t have their hempseed - which is why the exception for *sterilized* hempseed...

I didn’t know the tax act was gone (hurray!!!)

 

[Baron23]

Drug Czar....wtf is a "czar" in our democratic government. Such BS.

“We’re doing more research,” he said. “[The Drug Enforcement Administration] is working hard, [the Department of Health and Human Services] is working hard, to make sure that we understand the impact of legalization of marijuana on the body.”
​

The only thing they are working hard at is blocking MJ reseach and legalization at every turn.

You just can't believe ANYTHING from ANYBODY in the professional political class anymore.....IMO, of course.

Federal Drug Czar Pressed On Marijuana, CBD And Racial Disparities In Drug Treatment
The head of the White House’s drug policy office was asked about marijuana, CBD and racial inequities in treatment access during a congressional appearance on Thursday.

Rep. Jim Jorden (R-OH) kicked off the cannabis questioning during the House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing on the opioid crisis by asking both Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director James Carroll and a Florida sheriff about their positions on “liberalizing marijuana laws” in the country.

The sheriff flatly said he was “1,000 percent” against it and peddled a gateway drug theory, claiming that parents have told him that their children were referred to other drug dealers after seeking out cannabis and began taking “coke and heroin and other things.” Carroll’s response was only somewhat less alarmist.

“What we’ve seen is that the marijuana we have today is nothing like what it was when I was a kid, when I was in high school,” he said. “Back then the THC, the ingredient in marijuana that makes you high, was in the teens in terms of the percentage. Now what we’re seeing is twice that, three times that, in the plant.”

He added that edible marijuana can have THC levels as high as 90 percent and said that, at this point, the government doesn’t understand how such products impact health.

“We’re doing more research,” he said. “[The Drug Enforcement Administration] is working hard, [the Department of Health and Human Services] is working hard, to make sure that we understand the impact of legalization of marijuana on the body.”

Later, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) turned the drug czar’s attention to another aspect of the cannabis plant: hemp-derived CBD.

The congressman, who is a former Kentucky agriculture commissioner and champion of hemp legalization, said that he’s been increasingly interested in exploring alternative pain management options to offset opioid prescriptions. After discussing his state’s hemp market, which he said was “really booming” as an “emerging industry,” he mentioned that CBD oil derived from the plant has particular potential.

The oil is “non-THC, so we’re not talking marijuana, we’re talking about hemp,” he said. “Non-THC CBD oil for treatment of minor pain like inflammation and other forms of minor pain.”

“This seems to be really making a difference. We also, in my research, my staff, we’ve listened to physical therapists, chiropractors, other forms of alternative forms of pain treatment,” he said, asking Carroll whether he had any thoughts about moving forward with such alternative therapies.

Carroll declined to directly weigh in on CBD’s therapeutic potential but said “that’s something, again, I think HHS is going to regulate to make sure we understand the health impact of it.”

Finally, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) addressed the director more broadly about racial disparities in the enforcement of drug laws and access to treatment services, noting that while much of the country and Congress is focused on opioids, some regions in the U.S. are experiencing increased addiction to other substances such as methamphetamine.

“Our country unfortunately has a history of racial inequity when it comes to how we pursue either enforcement or treatment, depending on the type of drug,” she said. “I was wondering if you agree that one of our goals should be to increase treatment for all drug addiction, including addiction to methamphetamines, cocaine and other drugs in addition to opioids.”

Carroll agreed with the congresswoman, saying that while opioids are especially problematic, the country is experiencing an “addiction crisis” and “we have to treat people as we find them.”

 

[ClearBlueLou]

What a useless exercise...

 

[Bcbud]

Rep. Jim Jorden (R-OH) kicked off the cannabis questioning during the House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing on the opioid crisis by asking both Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director James Carroll and a Florida sheriff about their positions on “liberalizing marijuana laws” in the country.
The sheriff flatly said he was “1,000 percent” against it and peddled a gateway drug theory, claiming that parents have told him that their children were referred to other drug dealers after seeking out cannabis and began taking “coke and heroin and other things.” Carroll’s response was only somewhat less alarmist.

With uneducated morons like this in charge how can the actual facts ever be revealed.