It’s finally happening — Attorney General Jeff Sessions will, today, rescind the 2013 Cole Memo regarding federal enforcement in states that legalized cannabis. The Cole Memo, which came on the heels of marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington back in 2012, set forth the Obama administration’s enforcement policies regarding state-legal marijuana. It set out eight
At 3:30pm PST today, Sen. Ron Wyden became the first US Senate Co-Sponsor of Sen. Cory Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act (“MJA”). We’ve discussed the content of the MJA before here and as we stated in the Portland Mercury: “Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act is remarkable in its scope. Not only would it remove marijuana and tetrahydrocannabinols (THC) from Schedule I classification,
Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), resigned his post last week amid public health and personal travel debacles. Mr. Price’s resignation drew very little coverage from cannabis reporters, however, which was sort of strange because the HHS Secretary wields more influence over cannabis law and policy than any other public official besides Attorney General
Tuesday afternoon, the Washington Post broke an article that acting Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief Chuck Rosenberg plans to resign within a week. Rosenberg is an Obama administration holdover going back to 2015, so the news was not totally unexpected. President Trump will be tasked with selecting a successor, which will lead to a confirmation hearing
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is worried about this country’s “historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime.” Because he is so worried, Sessions has spent the past month doing things like: (1) asking his old colleagues for funds to prosecute the War on Drugs, including medical marijuana; (2) writing letters to state
In 2015, Washington passed Senate Bill 5052, which allowed medical marijuana patients and their designated providers to grow cannabis plants for personal medical use and band together to form medical marijuana cooperatives. That bill did not provide a legal pathway for cooperatives, medical marijuana patients, or designated providers to acquire plants. It also did not allow
The California Legislature today passed Senate Bill 94, which effectively repeals the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (“MCRSA”) and incorporates certain provisions of the MCRSA in the licensing provisions of the Control, Regulate, and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (“AUMA” aka Proposition 64). As we’ve covered extensively, draft rules for the MCRSA dropped
The long-awaited proposed regulations under Proposition M for L.A.’s current and future medical (and recreational) marijuana operators are finally out. The 51 pages of initial regulations (that are now in a 60-day public comment period) cover the governance of cultivators, manufacturers, distributors, testing facilities, transporters, retailers, and microbusinesses in significant detail under Proposition M. If you
City of Los Angeles Voters Approve Measure M. The City of Los Angeles is making moves to change its current marijuana policies, which have so far made it impossible to start and operate a new cannabis business in the City. Yesterday, voters in the City were asked to decide between two ballot measures to repeal
The confirmation hearing for Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee to serve as the U.S. Attorney General, begins this morning at 9:30 a.m. ET. You can view the live feed here. Sessions is opposed by civil rights groups and championed by law enforcement, which, together, signal poorly for marijuana. On the specific issue of federal
