KENTUCKY
Title: New organization supports cannabis
Author: Ledger Independent
Date: 26 February 2018
Extract:
Kentucky Bluegrass Cannabis, LLC has launched a statewide grassroots campaign seeking to pass legislation that will legalize, regulate and tax medical marijuana in Kentucky.
The campaign is known as Compassionate Access and Relief Effectiveness or CARE for Kentucky, advocates for citizens and policymakers to support legislation currently before the Kentucky General Assembly to legalize medical cannabis.
MAINE
Title: Maine: Lawmakers Push To Rewrite 2016 Voter-Approved Marijuana Law
Author: NORML
Date: 27 February 2018
URL: http://blog.norml.org/2018/02/27/maine-lawmakers-push-to-rewrite-2016-voter-approved-marijuana-law/
Extract:
State lawmakers are moving forward with a legislative proposal to significantly amend various provisions of the state’s 2016 voter-approved cannabis law: The Marijuana Legalization Act.
Members of the Marijuana Legalization Implementation Committee have voted 16 to 1 in favor of overhauling the law, which has yet to be fully implemented. Lawmakers had initially voted last year to delay the enactment of provisions regulating the retail production and sale of cannabis. Then in November, Republican Gov. Paul LePage vetoed legislation that sought to license and regulate marijuana businesses and sales, stating: “Until I clearly understand how the federal government intends to treat states that seek to legalize marijuana, I cannot in good conscience support any scheme in state law to implement expansion of legal marijuana in Maine.” Lawmakers voted in favor of sustaining LePage’s veto.
MASSACHUSETTS
Title: Agreeing To Staggered Rollout Of Laws, State Votes To Delay Marijuana Home Delivery, Cafes.
Author: WBUR
Date: 26 February 2018
URL: http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/02/26/delay-on-marijuana-delivery-cafes
Extract:
Home delivery of marijuana and social consumption of marijuana products will not be part of the legal marijuana industry when it launches in Massachusetts this summer.
The Cannabis Control Commission acquiesced Monday to criticism from Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration, the Legislature and others, and agreed to delay the launch of home delivery and social consumption until at least this fall, a move that addressed two of the most commonly-condemned parts of the agency’s draft industry regulations.
NEW YORK
Title: Judge Rejects Lawsuit Seeking to Legalize Marijuana Nationwide
Author: NY Times
Date: 26 February 2018
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/nyregion/legalize-marijuana-lawsuit-rejected.html
Extract: A federal judge in New York tossed out a sweeping lawsuit Monday that sought to make marijuana legal under federal law, ruling that the plaintiffs had failed to take the necessary first step of asking the Drug Enforcement Administration to remove cannabis from its list of dangerous substances.
The ruling by the judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan, was a stinging defeat for the plaintiffs — among them a former professional football player who owns a company that sells pot-based pain relievers, a 12-year-old girl who treats her chronic epilepsy with medical marijuana and a nonprofit group that works on behalf of minorities in the marijuana industry.
OREGON
Title: Regulators ask for more money to police legal weed
Author: East Oregonian
Date: 26 February 2018
Extract:
Amid mounting pressure to shore up controls on legal cannabis, Oregon regulators want more money to enforce state marijuana laws and rules.
In early January, Attorney General Jeff Sessions alerted states that had legalized recreational marijuana that he was rolling back the previous administration’s guidance on marijuana prosecutions. Sessions’ memo effectively leaves it up to federal prosecutors in each state to exercise individual discretion when it comes to enforcing violations of federal marijuana law.
Billy Williams, Oregon’s top federal prosecutor, claimed Feb. 2 that the state has a “massive marijuana overproduction problem,” and that weed grown in Oregon is leaking into the illicit market and across state lines. And state auditors said in a Feb. 7 report that Oregon’s cannabis licensing and tracking systems have weaknesses that could overlook illegal activity.
TENNESSEE
Title: With assist from House Speaker Beth Harwell, medical cannabis bill advances in House subcommittee
Author: The Tennessean
Date: 28 February 2018
Extract:
Legislation that would permit medical cannabis in Tennessee made it through an early hurdle thanks to a tie-breaking vote from House Speaker Beth Harwell Tuesday in a key House committee.
With a 4-3 vote, the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee approved the measure in dramatic fashion.
Voting in favor were Reps. Sherry Jones, D-Nashville; Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis; and Rep. Tilman Goins, R-Morristown.
Reps. Micah Van Huss, R-Jonesborough; William Lamberth, R-Cottontown; and Rep. Michael Curcio, R-Dickson, cast no votes.
