If you think two or three powerful companies owning and controlling the sales of all regulated marijuana sounds like a good thing, you can click away from this article and go on with your day in peace.
Rockefeller rocked a top hat as opposed to Jeff Bezos wearing a space helmet on his rocket joy rides—our government was pressured to address rising inequality by creating laws to prevent monopolies.
As the power grab for control of the multibillion-dollar industry heats up, consumers and patients need antitrust protection.
Big tobacco and alcohol companies are making significant investments into cannabis and creating their own front groups, and even larger conglomerates are openly expressing their interest in getting into the industry once the product is federally legal.
As Politico observed recently, so-called “Big Weed” hasn’t been particularly effective, despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on lobbying efforts and hiring big names like John Boehner and other former members of Congress who never supported legalization while in office.
Instead of further entrenching oligopoly-like markets, where consumers complain of high prices, we can put consumers, patients, workers and small businesses first.
When regulators have actively enforced these laws—as in the case of oil and railroad monopolies—they’ve been able to rein in corporate excesses and encourage a more diverse marketplace.
Prohibiting vertical integration is a historically tested method of avoiding anti-competitive market dominance, for example.
To promote broader market access, many states, including Washington, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Michigan have sensibly set some type of limitation on the number and type of marijuana business licenses that one entity may hold.
Congress must also authorize states to continue their existing policies that offer state-level advantages to local and social equity businesses, which are becoming increasingly robust and starting to show results.
By authorizing states to ban or delay interstate commerce, Congress can allow the states with expertise to continue their social justice efforts, instead of voiding their policies overnight, and use the data and information gathered from those states to better regulate the industry.
Even after cannabis is descheduled, under the current proposals, businesses would still need to navigate the state and local processes which have been marked by limited licenses and exorbitant applications that stifle a fair market and create bidding wars that reward larger, better resourced businesses.
The playing field will be dramatically changed for all cannabis businesses when they are competing with companies that can, for example, ship in their own supply from another state with their own existing infrastructure.
We don’t have to stay on our current path and assume that every cannabis company will get gobbled up by bigger ones until we all work for the same employer producing the same three overpriced, low-quality strains.
According to information shared with Filter by the Drug Policy Alliance, there were 60 percent fewer total drug arrests in state over the 10 months after February 1, 2021, compared with the same period the previous year.
Kate Brown had initially wanted to delay payments until July 2022, but advocates told Filter that they successfully fought to get this money paid out early, helping to keep critical services running.
In the meantime, the state has received, and has been reviewing, funding requests from providers all over Oregon.
The largest portion—over 59 percent—have received harm reduction services, like sterile syringes, naloxone and associated training, or safe sex supplies.
On the other hand, less than 1 percent of the people who accessed SUD treatment in Oregon during the 10-month period did so with Measure 110 funding.
Medicaid already helped cover services like residential and out-patient programs, and medications like buprenorphine and methadone.
Housing is another particularly important need that Measure 110 is helping to address.
Hurst acknowledged Oregon’s huge task of setting up the behavioral health resource network in 2022.
Tim Knopp is sponsoring Senate Bill 1541, as an attempt to give law enforcement more money to combat illicit cannabis cultivation in the state.
But thousands of people in Oregon, whether receiving services or avoiding arrest, have already felt benefits from Measure 110.
This article was originally published by Filter, an online magazine covering drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens.
The arguments on the merits themselves are strong, she argued: “DEA must accommodate duly enacted state and federal Right-to-Try laws, as mandated by the Controlled Substances Act.
Last spring, a bipartisan group of attorneys general from eight U.S.
As evidenced by state-level cannabis reform, however—and indeed by Washington’s own right-to-try law—such policies may be insufficient to overcome the barriers of federal prohibition.
Meanwhile in Washington, state lawmakers are set to take up a bill in committee this week that would legalize what the legislation calls “supported psilocybin experiences” by adults 21 and older.
Washington lawmakers last legislative session considered a bill that would have removed all penalties for possession of relatively small, “personal use” amounts of drugs and instead invested in treatment and recovery services.
Ultimately they approved a modest reform, reducing the state’s felony charge for drug possession to a misdemeanor and earmarking more money for treatment.
Jurisdictions across the country are increasingly removing or reducing penalties around drug possession and consumption, especially when it comes to psychedelics.
Other states have passed more moderate measures, for example Connecticut, which last year passed a law requiring the state to carry out a study into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics.
California made a push to legalize psychedelics possession last year, and while that measure was put on pause, the bill’s sponsor says he has plans to move it across the finish line this year.
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Following the vote to legalize recreational cannabis in the state, the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission saw a flood of hundreds of applications to start marijuana businesses.
“Based on conversations I’ve had, with stakeholders, out of the 56 licenses awarded to date, none has been awarded to a Black-owned business.
“The CRC needs to expedite its review and award of the licenses submitted.
Pritzker’s signed a bill last year that’s meant to build upon the state’s legalization law by creating more cannabis business licensing opportunities to help people from disproportionately impacted communities enter into the marijuana industry.
Nearly 17 percent of the state’s cannabis businesses are now minority-owned as of January 1, the Marijuana Enforcement Division reported.