This represents a continuation of a trend that’s been playing out in recent years, especially as more states have move to legalize cannabis and federal officials have seemingly adopted policies placing less emphasis on going after people over marijuana.
In contrast, USCC reported that there were more than 7,000 federal marijuana cases in 2012, the year when voters in two states approved adult-use legalization initiatives at the ballot.
Also, the USCC report found that the average sentence for a marijuana trafficking case was 30 months—about half of that typically imposed for busts involving cocaine, fentanyl and heroin.
In general, people who faced drug charges accounted for 31 percent of all federal cases last year, which is five percentage points higher compared to 2020.
Meanwhile, on the House side, there’s a federal legalization bill sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler , which passed the chamber last session and advanced through his committee again in September.
Jason Nemes , was taken up by the full chamber about a week after clearing the House Judiciary Committee.
HB 136 would establish a relatively restrictive program, prohibiting both the home cultivation of marijuana and the smoking of cannabis flower.
Also on Thursday, the House approved a separate bill to create a Kentucky Center for Cannabis Research to fund studies into “the effects of cannabis, the efficacy and potential health effects of various cannabis delivery models” and more, the sponsor, Rep.
The bill’s relatively narrow approach is designed to win support among GOP leaders in the state Senate, who’ve killed past versions of Nemes’s proposal.
Patients would be able to have a 10-day supply of marijuana products outside the home and up to a 30-day supply secured at their residence.
Products would be subject to a 12 percent excise tax and taxes on gross receipts, with revenues split between state and local governments.
Democratic leaders from both chambers, meanwhile, said in January that legalizing medical marijuana will be a top legislative priority for this year’s session.
If passed, the Democratic-led bill would legalize possession of up to a one ounce of marijuana in public and up to 12 ounces in a private space.
Sales of adult-use cannabis would be taxed at six percent at the state level, with municipalities able to add fees of up to five percent combined between local jurisdictions.
Anyone ever convicted of a misdemeanor for possession, delivery or manufacture of cannabis or cannabis-related paraphernalia could petition a court for expungement.
Despite voters overwhelmingly passing Initiative 65 to create a medical marijuana program in November 2020, the state Supreme Court struck it down on constitutional technicality.
Four city boards in Brandon, Ridgeland, Gluckstadt and Pass Christian have already voted to sit out of the state’s medical marijuana program and at least a few others from Winona to Sumrall are likely to take up their own opt-out vote ahead of the state’s May deadline.
Veazey said past May, businesses will still be up against zoning laws even in cities that haven’t opted out.
He said his could-be business would be near several assisted living facilities and nursing homes, the city’s major hospital, and four pharmacies.
Cities have the option to opt out of just dispensaries, just cultivation operations or both.
Mississippi’s newest city, Gluckstadt, voted 3-2 to opt out this month.
Gluckstadt’s mayor, Walter Morrison, said his city’s standing as a newly designated municipality puts it in a unique spot.
A grower interested in opening a cultivation facility in Gluckstadt told city leaders he could bring dozens of jobs with average salaries of $60,000, said alderman Jayce Powell.
“We definitely are disappointed that those four municipalities have decided to opt-out.
Residents in each of the affected cities have started up petitions to opt back into the program, according to the association.
Decriminalize California was first cleared by the state’s attorney general’s office to begin signature gathering in September, giving them 180 days to collect 623,212 valid signatures from registered voters.
Under the proposal, titled the California Psilocybin Initiative, the “personal, medical, therapeutic, religious, spiritual, and dietary use of psilocybin mushrooms” would have been legalized for adults 21 and older.
Munevar previously told Marijuana Moment that the campaign had a team of 2,800 people who’d volunteered to assist in the signature collection process for this year’s ballot.
California Sen.
Colorado activists recently selected one of the four psychedelics reform ballot initiatives that they drafted and filed for the November ballot, choosing to proceed with a measure to legalize psilocybin, create licensed “healing centers” where people can use the psychedelic for therapeutic purposes and provide a pathway for record sealing for prior convictions.
The governor of that state, Democratic Ned Lamont, signed a bill last year that includes language requiring the state to carry out a study into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms. A workgroup has since been meeting to investigate the issue.
A bill to decriminalize a wide array of psychedelics in Virginia was taken up by a House of Delegates panel in January, only to be pushed off until 2023.