North Carolina legislators have agreed to continue allowing the sale of smokable hemp until June 1, 2020, but it’s unclear whether that temporary measure will remain in effect any longer than that. The debate over smokable hemp flower—sold outside the purview of licensed medical cannabis dispensaries—is still a major discussion in the state.

Part of this hand wringing comes from the regulatory uncertainty over what hemp is. While it’s legally defined as the cannabis plant containing 0.3% THC or less, that ratio means very little to law enforcement. By allowing hemp flower to be sold in retail storefronts around the state, the thinking goes, police officers will be left with no way to discern what’s legal (hemp) vs. what’s still illegal in the state (cannabis with more than 0.3% THC content).

The net effect is the de facto legalization of cannabis, a point that law enforcement officials in other states have brought up in public hearings. 

The ban on smokable hemp flower is seen as one way to ameliorate that distinction. If there’s no legal hemp flower on the market, then all that remains is illicit product that law enforcement can pursue with vested authority. But hemp business owners are caught in the middle of this tension.

"From seed to sale, a lot of people have their lives staked in this, and I just don't think everyone's going to go out silently, if that's the way it does go," Henderson County Sheriff Lowell Griffin told WLOS. 

Brian Bullman, founder of Carolina Hemp Company, told The News & Observer earlier this year that a ban would have far-reaching effects for the quickly expanding hemp industry. North Carolina has licensed 16,924 acres of industrial hemp in 2019. 

“Anything that happens in this state without significant foresight is going to continue to ripple through our economy, our hemp economy,” Bullman told the paper.

In July, the North Carolina Industrial Hemp Commission voted 5-2 to oppose the ban, writing to lawmakers that “The 2019 hemp crop in North Carolina was planted under a statutory and regulatory framework in which all products of hemp legally cultivated in the program have never been previously questioned to be illegal by federal or state law enforcement. … A shift in the law now by criminalizing smokable hemp will create market instability and leave North Carolina farmers insufficient time to find new markets for their crops.” 

S.B. 315 is expected to earn Gov. Roy Cooper’s signature with ease.  

We’re back at it this week with another set of headlines from another busy week in the cannabis business. In the U.S., bans on vape sales continue to lead the headlines in one way or another (Massachusetts is having a difficult time of it lately). And in Mexico, lawmakers seem to be getting very close to finding a pathway to a regulated marketplace after the country’s Supreme Court de facto legalized cannabis consumption last year.

Here, we’ve rounded up the 10 headlines you need to know before this week is over.

Federal: As cannabis reform maintains its place in (or at least near) the spotlight of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race, candidates are beginning to narrow the focus of what they mean when they stake claims to these platforms. This week, Bernie Sanders unveiled a comprehensive plan to legalize cannabis at the federal level and institute guardrails to keep Big Tobacco on the sidelines. Read more 

International: Mexico Senate committees released legislation Oct. 17 that would legalize adult-use cannabis, and the bill needs to be approved by the end of the month to meet a Supreme Court deadline. The bill, first reported by Marijuana Moment, follows last year’s Supreme Court ruling that Mexico’s ban on adult-use cannabis is unconstitutional, which de facto legalized consumption. Now, lawmakers are working toward a plan to regulate a marketplace for cannabis sales. The legislation is similar to a bill introduced by Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero last year when he was serving as a senator. Read more 

Georgia: Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill in April that established a regulated system for the production, processing and sale of medical cannabis oil, but now, six months later, this medical cannabis expansion plan is on hold until Kemp and other top state officials appoint members to a commission to oversee the program. House Bill 324, the legislation that legalized the production and sale of medical cannabis oil in the state, created the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission, a seven-member group charged, in part, with choosing which businesses can grow cannabis and developing licensing requirements for retailers. Read more 

California: Harborside Inc. has announced that the U.S. Tax Court has issued a final decision under Tax Court Rule 155 on the income tax deficiency for Patients Mutual Assistance Collective Corporation (PMACC), the company’s 100-percent owned subsidiary and owner of the iconic Harborside Oakland cannabis dispensary. The U.S. Tax Court has ruled that PMACC owes an aggregate tax deficiency of approximately $11 million for the fiscal years 2007 through 2012. Read more 

Eaze Technologies, Inc. has announced that it obtained a complete dismissal of Williams v. Eaze, Inc., a putative nationwide class action lawsuit brought under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), by successfully enforcing the arbitration agreement in its Terms of Service. In her lawsuit, Plaintiff Farrah Williams attempted to circumvent the arbitration agreement in Eaze’s Terms of Service by arguing that cannabis contracts cannot be “formed” because cannabis is illegal under federal law. The court rejected this claim. Read more 

Illinois: The state’s medical cannabis program has experienced record growth since changes to the law expanded patient access. More than 87,000 patients have qualified for the program since medical cannabis dispensaries opened in November 2015, and 37,000 new patients registered in the fiscal year ending June 30, which is a 93-percent increase and exceeds the number of patients who signed up in any other fiscal year. Read more 

Although Cresco Labs' stock has fallen since announcing its acquisition deal with Origin House in April, the two parties are moving toward closing. This week, the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the HSR Act, which mandates an antitrust regulatory oversight period) expired. Read more  

Massachusetts: A state judge in Massachusetts has upheld Gov. Charlie Baker’s four-month ban on all vaping sales, originally set in motion Sept. 24, but he’s also given the administration just a few days to remedy its handling of the sudden policy. The state appealed the ruling, but a judge then rejected that appeal. It would seem that the remaining option left for the state is to go through the process of treating the ban like an emergency rule and set up public hearings to vet the policy. Read more

Rhode Island: Gov. Gina Raimondo filed a lawsuit against the state’s General Assembly this week to take exclusive control of medical cannabis and hemp regulation. Raimondo is asking a Superior Court judge to rule unconstitutional new powers that lawmakers awarded themselves over the industry earlier this year in the state budget, which mandate that all new cannabis regulations be approved by the General Assembly. Read more 

Maryland: Maryland’s Medical Cannabis Commission is planning two independent investigations into its most recent medical cannabis licensing process, which has been halted amid complaints and litigation. One investigation will evaluate whether the licensing review process was fair, while the other will verify the accuracy of information included in the highest ranking applications. Read more 

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said during his testimony at Wednesday’s Senate hearing titled “Marijuana and America’s Health: Questions and Issues for Policy Makers.”

This was a curious statement coming from someone who, during the same session, continued to reference research data on synthetic cannabinoids and isolated compounds as a reliable predictor of full-spectrum product effects on brain development.

“I’ll be the first to admit we need to know more,” Adams said as he quoted his recent advisory nearly verbatim. “But I want you to hear this: We know enough now to deliver sound guidance to protect the future of our nation’s youth.”

But do we?

The hearing, convened by the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, was led by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and included testimony from the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Dr. Nora Volkow, as well as a panel of renowned university researchers.

While Feinstein acknowledged the complexity of the plant in her opening remarks and noted that she has personally witnessed the medical benefits of cannabis in the lives of family members, the underlying tone of the conversation remained one of consequence, not benefit.

Senator Cornyn went so far as to compare the implications of cannabis advocacy to the mid-century health claims of tobacco both during the hearing and in a Senate floor speech on Tuesday preceding the caucus session:

“There’s no shortage of people who claim that marijuana has endless health benefits and can help patients struggling from everything from epilepsy to anxiety to cancer treatments,” he said. “This reminds me of some of the advertising we saw from the tobacco industry years ago where they actually claimed public health benefits from smoking tobacco, which we know as a matter of fact were false and that tobacco contains nicotine, an addictive drug, and is implicated with cancers of different kinds.”

Regardless of the prohibitory emphasis on negative outcomes throughout the committee hearing, the consensus was one of hope: that the Schedule-I status of cannabis must be lifted if we are to more fully understand how purchasable products and realistic dosing affect consumer health outcomes.

This message comes on top of recent legislation introduced by Senator Feinstein to expand cannabis research as well as an increase in funding from the National Institute of Health for nine new studies on minor cannabinoids and terpenes.

The irony, of course, is that legislators are demanding more research be completed before policy changes can be made while, at the same time, limiting that needed research through the continuation of Schedule 1 status.

“Policymakers [need] to understand the public safety implications of increased marijuana use before we dive in to the admittedly complex and difficult job of changing federal policy,” Sen. Cornyn said, adding, “It seems like we’re putting the cart ahead of the horse.”

The most persuasive and thoughtful testimony came from Dr. Staci Gruber, director of the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Core at McLean Hospital’s Brain Imaging Center and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Gruber’s testimony pushed back at the idea that this conversation is solely one of THC intoxication and harm reduction for chronic, heavy users. She made the point that not all cannabis use looks the same and reminded the caucus of the plant’s incredible complexity and therapeutic potential that goes far beyond the scope of a THC vs. CBD discussion.  

“When it comes to marijuana, one size does not fit all. We have a single term: marijuana, and we often hear it used to refer to anything like the whole plant or individual compounds from the plant, intoxicating or not.” Dr. Gruber went on to say, “The plant is incredibly complex. Other compounds may yield therapeutic potential but we don’t have much in the way of long term studies and, unfortunately, it’s very difficult to study these compounds using clinical trial models, sort of the gold standard for deriving empirical sound data, given our current restrictions.”

When asked by Sen. Cornyn whether Congress could set forth legislation that classifies THC independently of other non-intoxicating cannabinoids and compounds, Dr. Gruber was quick to point out that the 2018 Farm Bill which asserts hemp production (cannabis containing 0.3% THC or less by law) already makes allowances for this. She also emphasized that, in addition to the recreational market's interest in THC potency, many medical patients also seek out THC-rich products for relief.

"Why hurt one because of another?" Gruber asked, "Regardless of how you feel about marijuana, science, and not emotion or rhetoric, must be our guide. We have a responsibility to provide the best and most accurate data to medical marijuana patients, our recreational consumers, our healthcare providers and the general public so they can make the best and most informed decisions about marijuana use."

Whether looking at rescheduling through a lens of consequence or benefit, the takeaway from the committee hearing was clear: legalization has outpaced science and legislators must work toward dropping the Schedule 1 status of cannabis in order to ensure access to good data for consumers and healthcare professionals alike. Basing policy on incomplete research does everyone a disservice and promotes the continuation of alarmist rhetoric stemming from an outdated and misinformed mindset.

The committee hearing on Marijuana and America’s Health: Questions and Issues for Policy Makers can be found in its entirety here.

As cannabis reform maintains its place in (or at least near) the spotlight of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race, candidates are beginning to narrow the focus of what they mean when they stake claims to these platforms.

This week, Bernie Sanders unveiled a comprehensive plan to legalize cannabis at the federal level and institute guardrails to keep Big Tobacco on the sidelines. Sanders has been a cannabis reform supporter for years; here, he’s wrapping his small business development and social equity policy goals into that broader picture. 

“We're going to legalize marijuana and end the horrifically destructive war on drugs,” Sanders said. “It has disproportionately targeted people of color and ruined the lives of millions of Americans. When we’re in the White House, we’re going to end the greed and corruption of the big corporations and make sure that Americans hit hardest by the war on drugs will be the first to benefit from legalization.”

According to CNN polling, Sanders remains among the top three candidates in the horse race—just behind Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden. Warren has pledged to deschedule cannabis through executive order, but she has not issued a plan on the scale of Sanders’ latest announcement. Biden has not signaled any support for cannabis legalization.

Here's the plan Sanders outlined this week:

• Ensure that revenue from legal marijuana is reinvested in communities hit hardest by the War on Drugs;
• Use taxes on legal marijuana sales to fund a $20 billion grant program within the Minority Business Development Agency to: 
• provide grants to entrepreneurs of color who face discrimination in access to capital;
• provide grants to individuals who have been arrested for or convicted of marijuana-related offenses;
• promote businesses in disproportionately impacted areas;
• provide job training and guarantee jobs for formerly incarcerated individuals; 
• Eliminate drug testing requirements from public benefits and ensure people cannot be removed from public housing for marijuana use; 
• Eliminate the consequences of a marijuana record related to immigration;
• Encourage cooperatives and collective nonprofits businesses to create local economic growth;
• Institute market share and franchise caps to prevent consolidation and profiteering;