US SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
New SBA lending rules could curb loans to marijuana and hemp businesses
WEEDMAPS
Title: Where Weedmaps Is Spending Its Lobbying Cash
Author: Law.com
Date: 1 May 2018
URL: https://www.law.com/therecorder/2018/05/01/heres-where-weedmaps-is-spending-its-lobbying-cash/
Extract:
Weedmaps, the online marijuana directory under scrutiny from California regulators, has emerged as a major industry player in state politics based on recent campaign and lobbying records.
Over the first three months of the year, the Orange County-based company spent $90,000 lobbying the Legislature, the governor’s office and five agencies responsible for overseeing California’s nascent marijuana market, according to filings with the Secretary of State’s office.
Weedmaps spent another $67,100 on political contributions to the California Democratic Party and 10 state lawmakers between February and April 25, the records show. The donations included $25,000 to state Democrats shortly before their convention in San Diego as well as $10,000 each to the ballot campaign accounts of Assembly Budget Committee chairman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, and Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, who chairs the Governmental Organizational Committee. Both committees vet bills and policies affecting Weedmaps and other marijuana companies.
NINTH COURT OF APPEALS
Title: DEA’s rule on cannabis extracts will stand, federal judges say
Author: Denver Post
Date: 2 May 2018
URL: https://www.denverpost.com/2018/05/02/cannabis-extracts-schedule-i-classification/
Extract:
Hemp industry sued to overturn coding they saw could lead to improper seizure of products, arrest of makers
A federal appeals court this week dealt a blow to makers of CBD-rich cannabis extracts who were trying to stop the Drug Enforcement Administration from considering their products as dangerous drugs.
Hemp industry loses case against DEA, as federal appeals court says CBD a controlled substance
COLORADO
Recommendation that Sweet Leaf lose licenses offers a cautionary tale for marijuana industry
KENTUCKY
Title: Hemp brings jobs and more than $16.7 million in sales to Kentucky
Author: Courier – Journal
Date: 1 May 2018
Extract:
Eighty-one new full-time jobs. More than $16.7 million in gross product sales. And $7.5 million for farmers.
Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles included these figures from last year in an April 24 letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul calling hemp’s economic impact “significant.”
“My goal is to make Kentucky an epicenter for hemp farmers and processors,” Quarles wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained this week by Courier Journal.
He said he wants Kentucky to “have a head start in the race against competitors in other states,” as he anticipates Congress will remove the crop from the list of federally controlled substances. McConnell is pushing for this legislative change to remove a barrier inhibiting the versatile plant some call marijuana’s kissing cousin. This would clear up confusion about whether its products are or aren’t legal.
MISSOURI
Title: Missouri House votes to legalize medical marijuana
Author: KCTV5
Date: 1 May 2018
URL: http://www.kctv5.com/story/38085637/missouri-house-votes-to-legalize-medical-marijuana
Extract:
The Missouri House has voted to legalize medical marijuana.
The bill is partially a response to ballot initiatives that aim to give voters the opportunity to legalize medical marijuana outside of the Legislature’s control.
The House bill, approved Tuesday in a 112-44 vote, would allow anyone over 18 with a terminal disease to use smokeless medical marijuana. People with Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder and several of other conditions would also be eligible.
Proponents say this could help ease suffering for a variety of patients. Opponents say legalizing medical marijuana could make it easier for kids to get access.
NEW JERSEY
Title: New Jersey may allow farmers to grow industrial hemp
Author: WHYY
Date: 2 May 2018
URL: https://whyy.org/articles/new-jersey-may-allow-farmers-to-grow-industrial-hemp/
Extract:
A bill advancing in the New Jersey Legislature would create a pilot program to study the cultivation of industrial hemp and licensing growers and distributors.
Hemp could be a viable agricultural crop in the state, said Assemblyman Reed Gusciora.
“While hemp may be a cousin of marijuana, it has absolutely no psychotropic value. People use it in clothing, in rope, in food, in oils, shampoos,” said Gusciora, D- Mercer.
The restrictions on hemp date from a time when it was misunderstood, said Sen. Declan O’Scanlon.
“I guess you could have hemp that has some level of THC, they’re all low, but there is a restriction here. You would have to test periodically to make sure you’re below 0.3 percent THC,” the psychoactive chemical in marijuana.
OHIO
Another error found in Ohio medical cannabis license scoring process