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“In the midst of the many crises we face as a country, it is absurd that, under the federal Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is at Schedule I, along with killer drugs like heroin.”
NEVADA PARDONS THOUSANDS CONVICTED OF MARIJUANA POSSESSION
-Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders calling for legalized marijuana and police reform.
ECONOMY
Nevada in June became the latest state with legal Cannabis sales to pardon folks convicted of possessing small amounts of weed, reports the AP. The State Board of Pardons Commissioners voted unanimously on June 17 to unconditionally pardon anyone convicted in the past two decades of possessing an ounce or less. That was the amount allowed when Nevada began allowing adult marijuana sales in 2017. NORTHWEST
PORTLAND WILL STOP USING TAX REVENUE TO FUND POLICE
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ortland, Ore. Mayor Ted Wheeler in June announced the city will redirect $12 million of Cannabis taxes away from the police department, and pledged the funds toward supporting communities of color. The move came just one day after the Oregon Cannabis Association called upon Wheeler to stop sending Portland cops budget funding derived from Cannabis tax revenue, reports The Morning Call. According to the OCA, police budgets received more than $2 million from Cannabis tax proceeds in 2019.
CALLS FOR ENDING FEDERAL MARIJUANA PROHIBITION
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eforming police departments should be coupled with ending Cannabis prohibition in order to better foster racial justice, said Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) during a Congressional hearing on June 17. At the House Judiciary Committee markup on legislation focused on policing, the congressman linked prohibition to some of the problems the bill seeks to address, reports Marijuana Moment. “One of the issues I’d like to take note of is our national drug policy right now federal Cannabis policy, essentially outlawing Cannabis,” Correa said. “As you know, when we talk about arrest disparities, over 650,000 Americans are arrested every year for violating Cannabis laws.” The Congressman added that black people are significantly more likely to be arrested for marijuana compared to white people, despite comparable rates of consumption.
San Francisco Cannabis dispensaries were robbed on the night of Friday, May 29.
JUly 2020
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coveted Illinois dispensary licenses will soon be awarded to minority entrepreneurs.
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eople across the U.S. continue to buy record amounts of Cannabis during the coronavirus pandemic. Almost all legal states declared both medical marijuana and adult-use dispensaries “essential businesses,” allowing them to stay open as lockdowns “THE MARIJUANA began, reports Dispensaries.com. Massachusetts, the lone exception, TAX FUND IS REALLY THE ONLY has since changed course. BRIGHT SPOT IN Oregonians bought a record-setting amount of Cannabis in May, THE STATE BUDGET according to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. RIGHT NOW,” Sales increased 60 percent compared to the same time last year. For the first time ever, sales exceeded $100 million in one month, according to TJ Sheehy of the OLCC. “The marijuana tax fund is really the only bright spot in the state budget right now,” Sheehy said, reports Oregon Public Broadcasting. “In terms of taxable sales it was about $15 million that’s going to go to the school fund, city and county governments.” Oklahoma had records sales for the fourth month in a row. Consumers spent $73.8 million in medical marijuana in April. In May, state lawmakers passed a bill allowing dispensaries to deliver Cannabis, and also allowing out-of-state people to buy marijuana with a 90-day temporary card. Alas, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed that legislation. West coast
REPORTS CALL FOR CALIFORNIA TO SHIFT FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT FOCUS ON MARIJUANA
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FEDERAL LEVEL
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CANNABIS SALES CONTINUE TO BOOM DURING PANDEMIC
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ublic Health Advocates is citing two new studies to argue that marijuana tax revenue in California should go to community-led public health initiatives and investing in communities of color, rather than going to more law enforcement. LAW ENFORCEMENT “Unfortunately, three years after AGENCIES HAVE AN UNHAPPY HISTORY OF (California voters legalized marijuana), elected officials have made DISPROPORTIONATELY decisions that are failing to meet these expectations and to reverse the TARGETING course of the War on Drugs,” cites one of the two reports released by COMMUNITIES OF the coalition, reports The Sacramento Bee. COLOR The reports come as California lawmakers are considering a Bureau of Cannabis Control budget request to fund an 87-member police force dedicated to cracking down on the state’s billion-dollar unlicensed marijuana industry. Advocates, citing the two new research papers, say that law enforcement agencies have an unhappy history of disproportionately targeting communities of color when it comes to marijuana enforcement. The UC Davis study, examining Cannabis arrests from 1996 to 2016, found that black people were nearly four times more likely to be arrested and charged for marijuana-related crimes than were white people.
million dollars ($110 million Canadian) was lost by Aurora Cannabis before ending its partnership with Alcanna in June 2020.
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percent of its former value was lost by beleaguered multi-state Cannabis company Med Men.
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medical marijuana patient authorizations have now been approved in Australia
$50m
dollars was the price paid by generic drug maker Perrigo for a 20 percent stake in Kazmira, a Colorado-based CBD manufacturer.
By STEVE ELLIOTT, AUTHOR OF THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF MARIJUANA
