‘marihuana’
Nebraska Attorney General Gives the State Some Bad Legal Advice Concerning Marijuana Legalization
Aug. 4, 2019—On August 1, Nebraska Attorney General Douglas Peterson gave the state some bad legal advice concerning proposed medical marijuana legislation (the Medical Cannabis Act). In response to a request from a state senator, he concluded that the MCA would be preempted by the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and thus null and void. The AG’s full...
What Does New York’s Latest Marijuana Decriminalization Measure Accomplish?
Aug. 2, 2019—As reported in various outlets, e.g., The Hill and the New York Times, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation on Tuesday that decriminalizes some low-level marijuana offenses and expunges (or seals) records of prior (and future) convictions for such offenses. The full legislation can be found at the NY Assembly website here. The linked...
What Makes Illinois’s New Adult-Use Marijuana Law Noteworthy . . .
Jun. 28, 2019—On Tuesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation that made Illinois the 11th state (or 12th state-like jurisdiction, if you count D.C.) to legalize adult-use (aka recreational) marijuana. Illinois legalized medical marijuana back in 2013. The full Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (CRTA) can be found here. It’s long (600 pages), but the state has prepared...
New Article on Enforcement of Marijuana Patents
Jun. 6, 2019—I recommend readers check out Professor Bill McNichol’s (Rutgers) new article on the enforcement of marijuana patents: William J. McNichol, Jr., The New Highwayman: Enforcement of U.S. Patents on Cannabis Products, 101 J. of Patent and Trademark Office Society 24 (2019). (The link is to the SSRN version of the piece.) Here is the abstract:...
The Collision Between Federal Immigration Law and State Marijuana Reforms
Apr. 22, 2019—In mid-April, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued new guidance clarifying the immigration consequences of state marijuana reforms. The USCIS guidance can be found in Chapter 5 of the USCIS Policy Manual. The guidance was prompted by recent cases in which USCIS has denied the citizenship applications of immigrants, solely because those immigrants acknowledged...
Federal Marijuana Banking Bill Advances (a Little)
Mar. 30, 2019—As reported by Tom Angell, the House Committee on Financial Services just voted (45-15) to approve a version of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act. You can find the full story at Forbes here. Here is the text of the original House bill (HR 1595): SAFE Banking Act (Original House version). The Forbes article...
UPDATE: Florida Passes Law Removing Ban on Smokable Marijuana
Mar. 20, 2019—Back in the fall of 2016, Florida voters passed Amendment 2, which legalized the medical use of marijuana. When Florida lawmakers passed legislation to implement the Amendment, they imposed a limitation on how patients could consume marijuana: namely, they defined “medical use” to exclude smoking of marijuana: “(j) ‘Medical use’ . . . . does...
States have Proposed Hemp Regulations, but None Yet Approved by USDA
Mar. 4, 2019—As I explained back in Nov., the 2018 Farm Bill makes some important changes to federal law governing marijuana. See New Congressional Farm Bill Legalizes Some Marijuana. By redefining “marijuana” to exclude hemp (i.e., cannabis plants with very low levels of THC), the Farm Bill legalizes the manufacture, distribution, and possession of those cannabis plants as...
NYT piece on popularity of CBD
Feb. 26, 2019—Roni Caryn Rabin has a new piece in the New York Times discussing what’s behind the newfound popularity of CBD: CBD is Everywhere, but Scientists Still Don’t Know Much About It. As the title of the linked piece suggests, demand for CBD is booming, driven in large part by the belief that the substance can be used...
Federal Court Refuses (for now) to Order Return of 7,000 Pounds of “Hemp” Seized by State Police
Feb. 13, 2019—In late January 2019, Idaho state police seized a shipment of nearly 7,000 pounds of cannabis plant material on its way from Oregon to Colorado. They have also charged the driver of the truck with felony marijuana trafficking. See coverage of the case at CNN.com, here, and at the Idaho Statesman, here. The case raises...