FEDERAL
New Trump Drug Czar Voted Against Marijuana Amendments in Congress
https://www.massroots.com/news/new-trump-drug-czar-voted-against-marijuana-amendments-in-congress
CBS News is reporting that President Trump will name Congressman Tom Marino (R-PA) as White House drug czar.
The position, more formally known as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is responsible for setting broad federal approaches to controlled substance policy and certifying the drug budgets of other agencies.
As a member of Congress since 2011, Marino has consistently voted against marijuana law reform measures on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
For example, he voted three times against amendments to prevent the Justice Department from interfering with state medical marijuana laws.
He also opposed a broader amendment to protect all state marijuana laws from Justice Department interference.
Marino voted three times against amendments to allow military veterans to receive medical cannabis recommendation through Department of Veterans Affairs doctors.
COLORADO
Colorado cannabis cultivation curbs may benefit legal MJ firms
MARYLAND
Bill to diversify Md. medical marijuana industry fails in final seconds of session
The leader of Maryland’s powerful Legislative Black Caucus knew she was facing defeat.
Del. Cheryl D. Glenn (D-Baltimore) made diversifying the state’s new medical marijuana industry a top priority for the largest caucus in the General Assembly, and the issue is personal. Maryland’s marijuana-regulating commission is named after her mother, Natalie M. LaPrade, who died before she could use the drug to alleviate her cancer symptoms. As a black woman, Glenn was tired of seeing her neighbors disproportionately locked up under drug laws but shut out of the profits of drug legalization.
In the waning moments of the 2017 legislative session Monday, Glenn secured the votes for a bill giving minorities a shot at five new licenses to grow marijuana under the state’s lucrative medical cannabis program. But she ran out of time.
MONTANA
NEW HAMPSHIRE
N.H. Senate Weighs Whether to Loosen State’s Marijuana Laws
http://nhpr.org/post/nh-senate-weighs-whether-loosen-states-marijuana-laws#stream/0
Several proposals to loosen New Hampshire’s regulations on the use of marijuana got hearings at the Statehouse Tuesday.
Bills that were up for discussion included one that would allow people authorized to use medicinal marijuana to grow their own plants. Other proposals would add Post Dramatic Stress Disorder and Chronic Pain to the state’s qualifying conditions for medical marijuana use.
All these measures overwhelmingly passed the House last month and are now in the Senate.
NEW MEXICO
OREGON
Oregon Lawmakers Pass Bill Banning Marijuana Merchants From Keeping Buyer Information
(Reuters) – Oregon lawmakers sought on Monday to protect buyers of marijuana from possible penalties under federal law, approving a bill to ban sellers of the drug for recreational use from keeping information on their customers.
More than two dozen U.S. states have legalized some form of marijuana for medical or recreational use.
But the drug remains illegal at the federal level, and President Donald Trump’s administration has said it may ramp up enforcement of federal laws against its use.
The bill, passed by the Oregon House of Representatives 53-5, bans merchants who sell recreational cannabis from keeping information for more than 48 hours that they collect from identification, such as a driver license, that buyers use to prove they are 21 or older, according to a draft of the law.
The state Senate approved the bill in March. It now heads to the desk of Oregon Governor Kate Brown for her to sign into law.
“I personally am very concerned that we give as much protection to Oregon citizens to ensure that their personal identification information is not somehow compromised,” Senator Floyd Prozanski told a committee last month.
Ganjapreneur also report on the subject
PENNSYLVANIA
RHODE ISLAND
Marijuana Legalization Hearing in Rhode Island
