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The Institute for Justice argues that the seizures violated state law, federal law, and the U.S. Constitution.

Because the continued federal prohibition of marijuana makes banks and payment processors leery of serving state-licensed cannabis suppliers, many of those businesses rely heavily on cash, which exposes them to a heightened risk of robbery. As a new federal lawsuit shows, that danger is not limited to garden-variety criminals. It includes cops who use federal civil forfeiture laws to steal money earned by state-legal marijuana businesses.

Five times since last May, sheriff's deputies in Kansas and California have stopped armored cars operated by Empyreal Logistics, a Pennsylvania-based company that serves marijuana businesses and financial institutions that work with them. The cops made off with cash after three of those stops, seizing a total of $1.2 million, but did not issue any citations or file any criminal charges, which are not necessary to confiscate property through civil forfeiture. That process allows police to pad their budgets by seizing assets they allege are connected to criminal activity, even when the owner is never charged, let alone convicted.

Empyreal, which is represented by the Institute for Justice, argues that the seizure of its clients' money violated state law, federal law, and the U.S. Constitution. In a complaint it filed last Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Empyreal says it is "entitled to protection from highway robberies, regardless of whether they are conducted by criminals or by the Sheriff and federal law-enforcement agencies acting under color of law."

On May 17, Dickinson County Sheriff's Deputy Kalen Robinson pulled over one of Empyreal's vans on Interstate 70, ostensibly because the Colorado tag number was partially obstructed by the license plate frame. Robinson grilled the driver, who explained that she planned to pick up cash from licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in Kansas City, Missouri, the next day, then take it to a credit union in Colorado, which would entail traveling through Kansas again on the same highway. Robinson let the driver proceed on her way without issuing a citation, but the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) kept an eye on the van the following morning as it visited the Missouri dispensaries.

Later that day, Robinson stopped the van again as it traveled west on Interstate 70, seizing more than $165,000 in cash from its vault. In September, the Justice Department filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking to keep the money. If the government prevails, the Dickinson County Sheriff's Department will get up to 80 percent of the loot under the Justice Department's "equitable sharing" program.

On an isolated farm, greenhouses stand in regimental order, sheltered by a fringe of trees. Inside are hundreds of head-high cannabis plants in precise rows, each rising from a pot nourished by coils of irrigation tubing. Lights powerful enough to turn night into day blaze overhead.

In the five years since California voters approved a broad legal marketplace for marijuana, thousands of greenhouses have sprouted across the state. But these, under their plastic canopies, conceal a secret.

The cultivator who operates the grow north of Sacramento holds a coveted state-issued license, permitting the business to produce and sell its plants. But it’s been virtually impossible for the grower to turn a profit in a struggling legal industry where wholesale prices for cannabis buds have plunged as much as 70% from a year ago, taxes approach 50% in some areas and customers find far better deals in the thriving underground marketplace.

So the company has two identities — one legal, the other illicit.

“We basically subsidize our white market with our black market,” said the cultivator, who agreed to speak with The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity to avoid possible prosecution.

Gary Chambers is running for a Senate seat in Louisiana.

Progressive activist and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Gary Chambers Jr. smokes marijuana in a field in New Orleans while talking about marijuana reform in his first campaign ad.

On Jan. 1, smokeable medical marijuana became legal in Louisiana under certain conditions. But the use of cannabis has been a question asked of politicians for decades.

Also last year, the New Orleans City Council pardoned 10,000 cases of marijuana possession for anyone convicted after 2010.

Chambers, who has never been arrested, ended the ad saying, “Most of the people police are arresting aren't dealers, but rather people with small amounts of pot, just like me.”

There is no blood, saliva, or breathalyzer analysis that can ascertain whether a person who has used marijuana is actually impaired.

New Jersey is unlikely to allow its marijuana users or medical marijuana patients to grow their own cannabis plants at home, the new president of the state Senate said this month. 

State Sen. Nick Scutari, D-Union, was the main proponent of New Jersey marijuana legalization in the state Senate and was elected by his colleagues as the body's president this year. But speaking to a virtual webinar of cannabis industry entrepreneurs and experts, he said he "did not see (home grow) happening right now," repeated a common refrain that allowing "home grow" would only contribute to the black market and hold back the legal industry from taking off. 

"I'm not against marijuana being grown at home for medical purposes and maybe even just recreational purposes," Scutari said at the event, hosted by the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association, a trade group for the cannabis industry.

"But we've got to let this industry … it's not even off the ground yet."

What's the hold up? 

The push to legalize home grow has largely been led by patient advocates in the state's medical marijuana program, who argue that allowing a limited number of marijuana plants would help patients avoid the exorbitant costs charged by legal medical marijuana dispensaries — and keeps them from turning to the black market.

In 1996, California became the first state to legalize medical cannabis. Since then, 36 states (and four U.S. territories) have followed suit, keeping pace with rapidly evolving policies and attitudes toward cannabis. In addition to the widespread legalization of medical cannabis, 18 states, two territories, and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for adult use.

As one of 14 states that have not legalized medical cannabis under state law, Tennessee is in the minority, even in the South. In fact, five of Tennessee’s neighboring states have legalized cannabis for either medical (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Missouri) or adult use (Virginia). And Mississippi appears to be on the verge of legalizing medical cannabis, too (as we’ve written about here, here, and here).

Tennessee’s current policy regarding cannabis does not appear to reflect the attitudes of its voters. According to a 2018 poll conducted by Middle Tennessee State University, most Tennesseans (approximately 81%) support some form of legalization, with 44% supporting medical use and 37% supporting adult-use legalization. This widespread popularity has even caught the attention of some Tennessee state representatives who are personally opposed to legalizing medical cannabis.

For example, Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-D75) introduced legislation last July that would have required county election commissions to place three non-binding questions on the ballot asking voters whether Tennessee should (1) decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana; (2) legalize medical marijuana; or (3) legalize adult-use marijuana. Rep. Griffey released a statement clarifying that while he was personally “against the legalization of marijuana,” his “personal opinion should not dictate” that marijuana remains illegal under state law if legalization is what Tennessee voters want.

So where does Tennessee stand on medical cannabis now? And where might it head? These questions are the focus of this article, which is the first in our series on cannabis in Tennessee.

Oklahoma needs to move on from the “Wild West” that emerged with legalization of medical marijuana by strengthening regulation of the industry, a state lawmaker said.

State Rep. Sean Roberts, a Republican from Hominy, said Wednesday that he’ll introduce legislation this year to modify both the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana and Patient Protection Act and Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Waste Management Act. Goals are to cut down on illegal cultivation of marijuana and to address rising influences of “foreign actors” on state interests.

“These changes that I am proposing will stop the many illegal operations in our state run by foreign actors, such as criminal Chinese enterprises or cartels, who participate in human trafficking and are smuggling their illegal narcotics out of Oklahoma to other states,” Roberts said.

If passed, Roberts’ legislation would alter Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority ownership residency requirements for businesses. Specifically, it would change OMMA residency requirements from 75% of owners living in Oklahoma to 100%. It also proposes that Oklahomans found to be acting as “middlemen” for entities outside the state would face potential suspension of business licenses.

“When medical marijuana was legalized in Oklahoma, it basically created a ‘Wild West’ situation as we did not have enough legal structure in place to address all future issues that could arise,” Roberts said.

Registered patients would be subject to purchase limits that would restrict them to no more than 3.5 grams of cannabis flower, 1 gram of concentrate, or up to 100 milligrams of THC in infused products.

A new bill to legalize medical marijuana was introduced in Mississippi on Tuesday and on Wednesday afternoon, the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee approved the measure by a voice vote. The bill is expected to be taken up on the floor as soon as Thursday, reported Marijuana Moment. A medical cannabis program could start in 2022.

SB 2095, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Blackwell (R), would allow patients with about two dozen specific medical conditions (such as cancer, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, muscular dystrophy, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, hepatitis, Alzheimer’s, as well as chronic medical conditions) to qualify for medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.

The stakes were high — and scary — at a South Dakota community center card game. A group of seniors inadvertently ate a batch of cannabis brownies brought by a 73-year-old woman who didn’t know that her adult son had baked them with THC butter. The incident happened last Tuesday in Tabor, a town with a population of 423 people, according to an affidavit obtained by The Smoking Gun. Police responded to several calls of a “possible poisoning” and found that all the patients had been playing cards at the Tabor Community Center and were “under the influence.”

Cops arrested Michael Koranda, 43, after he reportedly told them he had cooked the illicit goods with half a pound of THC butter he bought in Colorado, where recreational cannabis is legal.Michael Koranda’s mother reportedly took the brownies he baked after he went to bed.

Koranda then went to bed and “his mother unknowingly took the brownies to the card game where several people ate them,” the affidavit read. He was charged with possession of a controlled drug or substance, which is punishable to 5 years in prison, according to the report.

Cannabis edibles can have a significantly stronger effect on users than smokable marijuana. Manufacturers warn that it is easy to accidentally ingest a paralyzing amount by overconsuming the tasty treats.

South Dakota voters approved an amendment to legalize recreational cannabis in November, but that referendum was struck down by the state’s high court.

As of Jan. 1, Oregonians can legally purchase up to two ounces of cannabis flower from licensed retailers, NORML reports.  In a Dec. 28 meeting, Oregon's Liquor and Cannabis Commission approved new rules, including doubling how much marijuana customers can purchase and giving the green light to home delivery across city and county lines, among other issues. (Click here for Benzinga article.)

The new provisions are expected to help streamline oversight of the industry, reduce violence and help keep children from accessing hemp products containing THC, the agency said.

Last year, lawmakers enacted legislation, Senate Bill 408, allowing the amount of cannabis flower that adults can possess to two ounces and more when they're in their homes. 

Ending Illegal Weed Grows & Decriminalization Efforts

The new rules have taken effect on the heels of Oregon lawmakers passing Senate Bill 893 and Senate Bill 5561 last month, with a goal of putting an end to illicit cannabis cultivation by creating better infrastructure to fight the proliferation of illegal marijuana grows in Southern Oregon.

In November, voters in Oregon approved Measure 110, which will decriminalize the possession of small amounts of all illegal drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, oxycodone, methamphetamine and LSD, as well as create a support program for drug abuse and addiction.

Armed men in pickup trucks rule over vast illicit industry that has transformed rural counties, depleting water and scaring locals

Christopher Hall parks his old Toyota on a dirt road that dead-ends in a forest in Oregon’s Illinois Valley. He points out a cluster of greenhouses surrounded by piles of trash, and the hillside above, which has been terraced and entirely stripped of vegetation. Guard dogs run through a small clearing, barking at us.

Two men pull up almost instantly in a Honda with busted headlights; the driver asks Hall what he’s doing there. For a bespectacled middle-aged conservationist, Hall is surprisingly reckless. Even though he can see the men are armed, he yells back at them: “Where are you from? We know what you’re doing here is illegal! How many plants are you growing?” One man says they’re from Serbia and claims they have a license to grow as another truck pulls up.

I tell Hall I think we should move on, and he reluctantly shifts into drive but is unable to resist a few parting shots:

“Do you think you can just keep trashing our streams? Have some respect for the land!”

Pot was legalized for recreational use in Oregon in 2015, making it legal for any person to grow up to four plants. But in the past year, longtime locals have been alarmed by the rapid proliferation of unlicensed pot farms, unprecedented in terms of size and allegedly controlled by crime syndicates from eastern Europe, China and Mexico.

Like many other states, Wyoming is gearing up for cannabis reform on the legislative sector in 2022. Here’s to positive change!

Activists in Wyoming are circulating petitions for two ballot measures to reform cannabis policy in the state, including one to legalize medical marijuana and a second to reduce penalties for cannabis-related crimes.

Wyoming is one of about a dozen states that have not yet passed laws to legalize cannabis in some form, despite data from the University of Wyoming that shows a majority of residents support cannabis reform and 85 percent support legalizing medical cannabis. Last year, a bill to study medical marijuana and another measure to legalize and regulate cannabis died in the Wyoming House of Representatives without a hearing, despite both measures gaining the approval of the House Judiciary Committee. 

Activists Advance Two Ballot Proposals

Due to the legislature’s inability to pass cannabis legislation, the Libertarian Party of Wyoming is leading the campaign for two ballot initiatives to reform marijuana policy in the state. The first proposal would legalize the medicinal use of cannabis, while the second would reduce the penalties for cannabis offenses. 

To qualify an initiative to legalize cannabis for the ballot in Wyoming, organizers will have to collect enough signatures to total 15 percent of the vote cast in the 2020 general election, when voter turnout was particularly high because of the hotly contested presidential race. The initiative campaign is also required to collect signatures from 15 percent of voters in at least two-thirds of Wyoming’s 23 counties.

Approximately 278,000 people voted in the general election in 2020, meaning that activists will have to collect more than 41,000 qualified voter signatures for each initiative to qualify for the 2024 election. Initiative campaigns are given an 18-month window to collect the required signatures, setting a deadline for the cannabis legalization measure organizers until January 23 to meet the requirement.

 A medical marijuana shop in Flint is looking to add recreational pot use to its business.

At tonight’s city council meeting, members discussed approving a license for the local dispensary located in Flint’s 8th ward.

During the meeting, Councilman of the 8th ward, Dennis Pfiffer, stated that he was not in favor of granting the dispensary a license and believes that doing so will increase crime within his ward.

Other council members were not in agreeance with Pfiffer and immediately dismissed the idea of blocking the facility from being granted a license for sell of recreational use of marijuana, citing other marijuana facilities that are operating within the community with a lack of issues.

Councilman Quincy Murphy of the 3rd ward temporarily sided with Pfiffer in his disagreement with granting the center a license, but later changed his stance.

Maryland lawmakers are meeting this week to start their 90-day legislative session to discuss topics concerning the $4.5 billion budget surplus, COVID-19, climate change and legalizing recreational marijuana.

The Democratic-controlled Maryland General Assembly will plan how to manage the surplus for the current and upcoming fiscal years, and state Senate President Bill Ferguson said they need to be careful how they approach the budget.

"I think people have heard this $4.6 billion like it's time that we can fund everything possible, but we've got to be very, very thoughtful and moderate about how we approach it, because we don't want to set ourselves up for a fiscal cliff in two to three years from now," Ferguson said.

"The House will pass legislation early next year to put this question before the voters but we need to start looking at changes needed to state law now," Jones said.

Hogan, who is entering his last session as governor, also said he will be proposing an increase in the state's Rainy Day Fund as well as tax relief. The governor has been trying to win tax relief for retirees for years.

Florida's 2022 legislative session kicks off on Tuesday and this year lawmakers are working to pass a bipartisan medical marijuana bill.

Florida doesn’t have recreational marijuana and for its medical marijuana program, people have to have a valid medical reason and need to be able to get the marijuana prescribed.

“I think the first thing to understand about 679 is this is the first bipartisan marijuana package we’ve really run as a state in five years since the constitutional amendment passed. Just getting both sides to agree on a way forward, I count this as a win already,” said Learned.

House Bill 679 also regulates the use and sale of delta-8, a marijuana product with less THC.

“It’s still legal we’re just changing some definitions and making sure the product is safe and tested, and we’re also limiting them to the sale of over 21. Right now there’s no age limit so children can buy this stuff,” said Learned.

Facing a possible industry revolt over California cannabis tax structure, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signaled that he is open to rethinking the taxes the state levels on marijuana growers and purchases. The governor included in a budget proposal he released this week that he “supports cannabis tax reform and plans to work with the Legislature to make modifications to California’s cannabis tax policy to help stabilize the market.”

Asked to expand on the language at a press conference, Newsom said, “There was intention by having that language in the budget. It is my goal to look at tax policy to stabilize the market.”

Newsom’s budget projects that the state will collect $787 million in cannabis revenue during the 2022-23 tax year. Of that, the budget estimates that nearly $595 million will be available to be allocated to youth substance abuse treatment, clean-up of illicit cannabis grows and support public safety-related activities. It’s been a bumpy road for legal cannabis in California since voters approved adult-use sales in 2016. Cannabis activity, including cultivation, distribution and retail, remains outlawed in much of the state, as cities and counties have been reluctant to authorize such activities.  Newsom said his goal is “to get these municipalities to wake up to the opportunities to get rid of the illegal market and the illicit market and provide support and a regulatory framework for the legal market.” Newsom’s statements, and budget proposal, came as welcome news to Elizabeth Ashford, vice president of communications for Eaze, a cannabis delivery company. Ashford previously worked for Govs. Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I think Gov. Newsom knows and his advisers know that they can’t let the legal market fail,” Ashford said in a telephone interview after Newsom unveiled his budget proposal.

“It’s extremely important that the steps that state government can take are taken. They need to take these steps.”

Most states in the U.S. are in violation of a major federal drug statute.

 The 1971 Controlled Substances Act lists marijuana in the most dangerous category defined in the law, on par with cocaine and heroin because of its supposed potential for abuse and lack of medical applications. 

But 36 states plus the District of Columbia allow either full legalization for adult use or wide scale medical use, putting them at odds with federal law. Congress so far has been unable to come up with a solution, despite support from leading Democrats for a smoother relationship between the states and the federal government.

State acceptance happened quickly, with Colorado and Washington the first to legalize adult use less than 10 years ago.  By the first of the year, marijuana possession will be legal for all adults in 18 states — including Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Virginia –— that make up 44 percent of the national population.

That number has recently been growing: The governors of New Mexico and Virginia signed their legalization laws just this year. Montana’s, enacted through a ballot measure in 2020, will go into effect New Year’s Day.

Oklahomans could see on the ballot this year competing state questions to legalize recreational marijuana. 

A second initiative petition to legalize recreational marijuana use in Oklahoma for anyone 21 years or older was filed Tuesday with the secretary of state's office.

Campaign spokeswoman Michelle Tilley said this measure is a new version of a recreational cannabis initiative petition she helped with two years ago. That petition, State Question 807, didn't make it on the statewide ballot partly because the start of the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to collect signatures. 

"This is an effort that started several years ago but has grown," she said.

When I took my deep drag yesterday morning on the Legislature’s big marijuana bong, I noted in passing that Representative Will Mortenson’s Republican friends (and Republicans are the prime sponsors of all 26 marijuana bills in the hopper) appear to be ignoring his advice to leave marijuana policy alone until after voters get their say on the marijuana initiative that he is sure will make the November ballot. Mortenson expressed this wish even though marijuana initiative organizers had not at the time of his writing over a month ago yet submitted their initiative petition for a repeat vote on legalizing marijuana. Those organizers still have not submitted their petition; South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws continue to collect signatures, as evidenced by their advertisement on this blog. Republicans could still halt their efforts the moment SDBML submits its petition to the Secretary of State—What? Steve got the petition, and it has 20K+ good signatures? Whoa, horse! Withdraw all of our bills! Let the people decide!—but I find that prospect highly unlikely. I’d suggest it’s more likely that marijuana advocates will pack the committee rooms and lobbies this winter to shape those 26 marijuana bills, and if they get what they want, they’ll call off the drive for another statewide vote.

Arguably, Mortenson’s Republican friends are deferring to the people by recognizing that all this petitioning signals that South Dakotans want legal marijuana and proposing Senate Bill 3 to codify that popular want. But I won’t make that argument, because if legislators really tuned their lawmaking to popular initiatives, they’d have Medicaid expansion right alongside marijuana legislation.

Consider that while one group is circulating a marijuana petition, two groups have been pushing Medicaid expansion initiatives. Rick Weiland’s Dakotans for Health has been engaging grassroots circulators around the state since November 2019 in circulating petitions to put Medicaid expansion on the ballot. The hospital lobby put together South Dakotans Decide Healthcare for the same purpose and placed a Medicaid expansion amendment (Amendment D!) on the November 2022 ballot.

The voters are sending at least as strong a signal with Amendment D (not to mention every poll I can find on the subject) that they want to expand Medicaid. Plus, the policy evidence from every state that has expanded Medicaid is paints a far more uniformly positive picture of the policy impacts of expanding Medicaid than we get from various states’ experience with legalizing marijuana. Expanding Medicaid saves lives, boosts state budgets, and stimulates the economy. Legalizing pot just means we stop putting people in jail and start taxing them for an already widespread activity of questionable value.

Helping 42,500 South Dakotans get affordable health insurance is a great social good. Adding another sin tax to South Dakota’s budget gimmicks is at best a shrug at behavior of little social value.