Author: Chris Roberts

[ad_1] (This story was last updated at 11 a.m. ET Thursday.) Will Congress protect the nationwide market for hemp-derived cannabinoids through the next U.S. Farm Bill, or will the state-regulated marijuana industry succeed in squashing an unwelcome competitor? Under one proposed amendment, filed Wednesday ahead of a key hearing today, “all ingestible hemp products with any level of THC” would be federally banned, warned the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group. The $1.5 trillion Farm Bill, already nearly nine months overdue, is scheduled for a markup hearing in the House Committee on Agriculture today. Among the many points…

[ad_1] (This story was updated at 7:08 p.m. ET with more details and comments.) Tuesday’s revelation that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will loosen federal restrictions on marijuana has major implications for the American cannabis industry. However, the DEA’s concurrence with health regulators’ findings that the drug has medical value was just the latest hurdle marijuana rescheduling has cleared since October 2022, when the Biden administration ordered cabinet-level agencies to “expeditiously” review federal marijuana law. And a few more steps remain in the federal rulemaking process before cannabis businesses can enjoy tax savings – and other benefits of rescheduling. Those steps could take months,…

[ad_1] New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says she was expressing her “frustration with federal interference” in her state’s regulated cannabis industry when she criticized the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in audio leaked last week. “They’re saying they’re worried about fentanyl, so they’re taking all of our cannabis,” Lujan Grisham said. Lujan Grisham was in Washington, D.C., for meetings with Homeland Security Secretary Alex Mayorkas after a series of incidents in which employees of marijuana businesses licensed in New Mexico were stopped and detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Half-dozen incidents, minimum At least six…

[ad_1] The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has offered federal lawmakers a rare glimpse into the ongoing marijuana rescheduling process. However, an April 16 letter from the agency noting it is “carefully following” protocol while  weighing a potentially revolutionary change to federal drug laws did not satisfy 21 leading Democratic lawmakers. The legislators told the DEA in an April 24 follow-up that “it is time to make good on the President’s commitments” to enact marijuana reform. That was a reference to President Joe Biden’s October 2022 order to cabinet-level agencies to “expeditiously review” marijuana’s Schedule 1 status under the Controlled Substances…

[ad_1] Federal lawmakers are inching closer to a deal on legislation that could include cannabis banking reform, a leading House Democrat says. “Now is the time” for Congress to finally pass the SAFER Banking Act, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the leading Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said Wednesday during an interview with Bloomberg Television. Negotiations between Waters and North Carolina Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry, the committee chair, will soon yield a compromise on cryptocurrency regulation, Waters said. And there’s support across Congress for tucking marijuana banking reform into a cryptocurrency-related bill – all of which could then…

[ad_1] Supporters of long-awaited marijuana banking reform are pinning hopes on Congress packaging a cannabis bill with must-pass legislation. Congress has yet to get the SAFER Banking Act across the finish line despite almost a decade of trying – and repeated success in the House of Representatives. As Barron’s recently reported, one option for SAFER Banking involves packaging the bill with cryptocurrency reform. A marijuana reform/crypto bill then would be included in a must-pass Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill. Banking reform supporters have attempted such techniques in the past without success. In December 2022, efforts to include cannabis banking…

[ad_1] In a reversal for organized labor after years of positive momentum in the regulated marijuana industry, employees at a Cresco Labs cannabis cultivation facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, voted to de-unionize earlier this month, according to documents obtained by MJBizDaily. The situation is believed to be the first instance in the U.S. of a regulated cannabis workplace exiting organized labor. Gardeners, supervisors and other agricultural workers at Cresco’s Fall River cultivation operation had joined the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 328 in November 2020. Their first contract was set to expire in June. But rather than negotiate…

[ad_1] Unionized workers at a Curaleaf Holdings marijuana store in Arizona remain without a contract despite a brief 4/20 protest on Saturday. The demonstration at the company’s Camelback and Midtown locations in Phoenix by United Food and Commercial Workers-represented workers drew supportive local elected officials but has so far failed to break a yearslong impasse. According to the Arizona Republic, about two dozen workers picketed for two hours in 90-degree temperatures outside the Camelback location on 4/20, the busiest day of the year for marijuana retailers. ‘Not asking for the moon’ “They’re not asking for the moon,” said Democratic state…

[ad_1] A long-delayed social equity fund intended to prop up small marijuana businesses in Massachusetts has launched. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy last week awarded the first grants – totaling $2.35 million – from the state Cannabis Social Equity Trust Fund. The initial 50 grants ranged in amount from $20,000 to $50,000, “with an additional $20 million expected to go out to businesses in the future,” the Boston Business Journal reported. The administration had promised that an additional disbursement from the fund of up to $27.4 million would be available as soon as later this year. Paid for by the state’s…

[ad_1] A New Mexico congressman is pressing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to account for what regulated marijuana operators claim is a rash of seizures of state-legal cannabis at Customs and Border Protection checkpoints. Six incidents of product loss totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars have been reported by licensed marijuana companies in New Mexico since February, when operators first alerted the state’s Cannabis Control Division about the situation, according to documents shared with MJBizDaily. In addition to border crossings, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) maintains inspection stations along major highways in border states. Between Feb. 14 and April…

[ad_1] The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will sign off on moving marijuana to Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substances Act, one federal lawmaker believes. U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat and co-founder of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, predicted to reporters on Friday that the DEA would approve health regulators’ August recommendation to reschedule marijuana. After years of adult-use legalization expanding across the country at the state level, “this is the year we can break the federal logjam” on federal reform, Blumenauer said. The DEA has been weighing the revolutionary declaration from the federal Department of Health and Human Services…

[ad_1] A protest is expected to greet customers visiting Curaleaf Holdings’ marijuana store on Camelback Road in Phoenix on Saturday – the 4/20 unofficial cannabis holiday and one of the busiest days of the year for retailers. That’s because the New York-based multistate operator canceled a planned employee raise after federal labor regulators in February ordered Curaleaf to begin long-delayed contract negotiations, according to a Wednesday news release from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 99. The demonstration is planned from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Curaleaf store at 1040 Camelback Road in Phoenix. In a Thursday…