national news
5
million dollars was spent by the Cannabis industry lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill in 2019 for access to banking, a rise of $2 million since 2018.
10
US Senators are requesting that Cannabis businesses be eligible for assistance in the next coronavirus aid package, efforts backed by nearly three dozen US House Representatives.
CANNABIS LOBBY PRESSES FOR PANDEMIC RELIEF FUNDS he Cannabis lobby is seeking aid for small businesses in the next coronavirus pandemic relief package, reports The Hill. Marijuana businesses have already gotten some help at the state level. Twenty states, D.C. and Puerto Rico are allowing medical Cannabis dispensaries to stay open during the pandemic. Eight states allow both medical and recreational facilities to operate. Cannabis industry groups are now pushing for more states to allow legal marijuana outlets to remain open and are seeking funds in state aid packages. But the push for federal help, while the federal government still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance, hasn’t yet made any headway. The $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill passed by Congress in March prohibits Cannabis businesses from receiving any small business loans. That’s unfair, according to Cannabis groups - and they are pushing to change that in the next aid package.
east coast
MARYLAND WOMAN ALLEGEDLY CAUGHT TRANSPORTING 100 POUNDS OF WEED
A
aklEAF.COM
30
percent more Cannabis was sold in March 2020 than in March 2019, according to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.
Maryland woman allegedly caught with 100 pounds of marijuana prompted authorities to remind the public that they continue to investigate crimes and make arrests during the coronavirus pandemic, reports the Philly Voice. Upper Merion Police and the Montgomery County Detective Bureau investigated. According to Montgomery County D.A. Kevin Steele, Kayla Messinese of Edgewater had tried to use the COVID-19 outbreak as an “opportunity to transport a large amount of marijuana.” Detectives followed Messinese to a parking garage where she met with two people to allegedly complete the transaction and they arrested her, authorities said. Investigators said they found three duffel bags in her car, each filled with vacuum-sealed bags of Cannabis. Cops claimed the 100 pounds of weed had a street value of $200,0000.
MAY 2020
63 10,000
million dollars is the amount spent by Arkansas medical Cannabis patients since the first dispensary opened in May 2019.
pounds of medical marijuana have now been sold in a new threshold for the still burgeoning Arkansas medicinal Cannabis industry, at a cost of more than $63 million, across 21 operational dispensaries.
quoted
COVID-19
T
12
17
billion dollars is the projected amount of retail Cannabis sales in the U.S. in 2020, according to BDS Analytics.
“Marijuana has been illegal and demonized for decades.” - Karen O’Keefe, Marijuana Policy Project director of state policies. “In a lot of states, it went from being illegal to essential in a short amount of time,” she told NPR. economy
HUNDREDS OF PENNSYLVANIA JOBS GOING UNFILLED
M
edical Cannabis organizations in Pennsylvania, designated ‘essential’ and ‘life-sustaining businesses’ by the state during the coronavirus pandemic, say a bottleneck has prevented them from hiring hundreds of employees, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer. Unemployment has hit more than one in six Pennsylvanians since the shutdowns began. But legal Cannabis businesses say they are strugUNEMPLOYMENT HAS HIT MORE gling to fill jobs left open by quarantined workers who either may have the coronavirus, or THAN ONE IN SIX need to care for an ailing loved one. PENNSYLVANIANS Hiring is frozen because prospective employees can’t get the required FBI criminal backSINCE THE SHUTDOWNS ground checks and drug tests. Many of the offices that processed fingerprints are closed BEGAN. due to being deemed ‘non-essential.’
health
D.C. ALLOWS MMJ DELIVERIES AND CURBSIDE PICKUPS Washington, D.C. now allows Cannabis dispensaries to provide delivery service and curbside pickups to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports Marijuana Business Daily. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a democrat, has signed an emergency rule allowing dispensaries to deliver and provide curbside pickups until August 12. Medical Cannabis businesses in D.C. were already considered ‘essential,’ so they were allowed to stay open during the crisis.
legalization
VIRGINIA DECRIMINALIZES CANNABIS
V
irginia will be “a more fair, just and more equal place” now that simple marijuana possession has been decriminalized, according to state attorney general Mark Herring. “Decriminalization is an incredibly important first step, and one that many thought we may never see in Virginia, but we cannot stop until we have legal and “DECRIMINALIZATION IS AN INCREDIBLY regulated adult use,” Herring said. FIRST Gov. Ralph Northam signed the decriminalization legislation into law in April. The IMPORTANT STEP, AND ONE THAT new law does away with criminal charges for simple possession and creates a $25 MANY THOUGHT WE MAY NEVER SEE IN civil penalty. It also creates a workgroup to study legalization, which will eventually VIRGINIA...” release a report on its findings.
By STEVE ELLIOTT, AUTHOR OF THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF MARIJUANA
