WeedLife News Network

How Congress stumbled into delivering a buzz

Months after U.S. states scrambled to close a loophole that allowed psychoactive cannabis to be sold in gas stations across the U.S., even where marijuana is illegal, a second loophole is being exploited.

Here it is in a nutshell, according to Jim Higdon, the founder of Cornbread Hemp: The 2018 U.S. farm bill that legalized hemp, introduced by Senator Mitch McConnell, allows hemp-derived CBD to contain up to 0.3% THC by dry weight. Oils and gummies are so dense compared with dry marijuana, however, that you can add enough THC to pack a significant punch without technically violating that rule.

Cornbread Hemp, based in Louisville, Kentucky, is taking advantage of that by shipping gummies with high amounts of THC — the ingredient in marijuana that gets users high — into dozens of U.S. states, including those without medical or recreational programs. It is one of a what seem to be a handful of small companies flouting the gap between federal laws that govern hemp and those that govern marijuana.

Their success shows just how hard it is for U.S. laws to keep up with a little-regulated industry where the science on how to extract and convert psychoactive substances is still evolving.

“Mitch McConnell accidentally legalized weed gummies,” Higdon told me in a phone interview. “It’s not as much a loophole as it is a math issue.”

The Channel Island of Guernsey appears to be throwing its hat into the cannabis legalization ring as soon as next year.

For those watching the European cannabis discussion develop, one of the most interesting places to be right now is the island of Guernsey. Located between France and the UK, the island has been going gangbusters on the medical reform question for several years now.

Now, there is a call for the island to go whole hog on the recreational reform discussion—and even more interesting, the petition is being championed by a political leader who also, not coincidentally, just resigned from the island’s Home Affairs Committee over its cannabis laws. Apparently, Marc Leadbeater’s role as a director of a local hemp company caused other members of the committee to question his perspective on drug reform.

Leadbeater is now proposing a specific political process—namely a requete—to discuss full legalization. If put forward by seven of the States members, the issue must go before the Guernsey government.

Cannabis cultivation license opportunities have been available since July of this year. The island is also home to extraction companies.

The concept of cannabis as an economic redevelopment tool for the acres of empty greenhouses that dot the island has been hot here for a while. 

Two people from Oregon are in jail after being caught with 259 pounds of marijuana in LaGrange County.

State Police pulled them over on the Toll Road yesterday.

A police K9 smelled the pot and the officer searched the vehicle.

Both are facing charges of dealing marijuana and possession.

Warning included in Jackson County property tax bills

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office is warning property owners they could face huge fines and even criminal charges if they lease their land to people growing illegal marijuana.

The warning letter by Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler went out with this fall’s property tax bills.

Josephine County also sent out a warning in its property tax bills this fall, telling property owners they could lose their land through civil forfeiture for illegally growing marijuana or allowing someone else to do it.

Sickler said the Rogue Valley has seen a massive influx of cannabis cultivation over the last year. While most growers are following regulations and doing the right thing, many are not.

Local law enforcement agencies, state regulators, Jackson County code enforcement and the watermaster in Jackson County have teamed up to tackle some of the illegal grows proliferating across the valley.

A proposed amendment to the Arkansas Constitution to legalize recreational marijuana and allow for a number of cannabis businesses proportional to the state's population was filed with the secretary of state's office Thursday morning.

The Arkansas Adult Use and Expungement Marijuana Amendment will be one of at least three adult-use cannabis proposals vying for the 2022 ballot.

The amendment would also allow anyone with certain felony or misdemeanor convictions related to marijuana possession to petition the courts for relief from the conviction.

A look at the impact of Missouri's medical marijuana program one year in.

More than two in three Americans (68%) support legalizing marijuana, maintaining the record-high level reached last year.

Gallup has documented increasing support for legalizing marijuana over more than five decades, with particularly sharp increases occurring in the 2000s and 2010s. In 2013, a majority of Americans, for the first time, supported legalization.

As was the case in 2020, solid majorities of U.S. adults in all major subgroups by gender, age, income and education support legalizing marijuana.

Substantive differences are seen, however, by political party and religion. While most Democrats (83%) and political independents (71%) support legalization, Republicans are nearly evenly split on the question (50% in favor; 49% opposed). Weekly and semiregular attendees of religious services are split on the issue as well, while those who attend infrequently or never are broadly supportive of legalizing marijuana.

Twice last year a federal grand jury demanded the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services turn over records pertaining to the medical marijuana program. 

The pair of subpoenas, issued by the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri in September 2020, were redacted by the department at the request of the federal government before being turned over to The Independent, obfuscating the records being sought by federal law enforcement. 

A third subpoena, from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, was received by the department in July 2021. The records being sought were also redacted. 

The existence of the subpoenas was first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Jack Suntrup.

They follow a 2019 subpoena from a federal grand jury demanding all records pertaining to medical marijuana license applications of four individuals. The identity of those individuals was redacted from the copy of the subpoena first reported by the Kansas City Star. 

Oregon authorities are trying to shut down any illicit cannabis grows with ties to Mexican cartels.

Law enforcement officers and other authorities in southern Oregon say that a rash of illegal marijuana cultivation operations in the area are linked to Mexican drug cartels intent on overwhelming local resources as a strategy to maximize profits. 

In Jackson County, officials declared a state of emergency last month and said that the proliferation of illicit pot farms had strained local law enforcement and other resources. In a letter to Oregon Governor Kate Brown and state lawmakers, the Jackson County Board Commissioners called for more funding and personnel to support law enforcement and code compliance efforts in the area. 

Jackson County Commissioner Rick Dyer told reporters that other illegal activities including human trafficking, forced labor and unsafe living conditions for workers are tied to the unregulated marijuana cultivation in Oregon, where cannabis commerce is legal for licensed businesses. He added that illegal operators intimidate and abuse their workers, who are often minors or the parents of young children.

Officials in Jackson County hope that their counterparts in neighboring Klamath and Josephine Counties will declare a similar state of emergency so that the region sends a unified message to state leaders.

“It’s harder to ignore when it’s a regional declaration of an emergency,” Dyer said. “And the more of a united front we present it will make it harder to ignore. It is a regional problem, and it could be a regional solution.”

A group that failed to get a recreational marijuana amendment on the ballot four years ago and sued the attorney general over procedural issues hopes to give Arkansas voters a chance to legalize recreational marijuana next year.

Arkansas True Grass, a group of marijuana advocates and volunteers, is gathering signatures for a constitutional amendment that would allow Arkansans aged 21 and over to purchase up to four ounces of marijuana a day and grow up to 12 plants of their own. The group needs 89,151 verified signatures to make the November 2022 ballot. The deadline to submit petitions is July 8, 2022.

The new measure would also expand the number of businesses allowed to sell marijuana. The amendment allows for an unlimited number of business licenses, which spokeswoman Briana Boling said would be “affordable” and would be administered by the state Department of Agriculture. Under the state’s medical marijuana program, the Medical Marijuana Commission licenses dispensaries and cultivators, while the Alcoholic Beverage Control division regulates those businesses. The state Department of Health issues cards to qualified patients.

While the amendment would not change the framework of the state medical marijuana program,  it would increase competition and drive down prices, Boling said.

The Arkansas True Grass proposal would also expunge convictions for some marijuana offenses. Under the amendment, anyone incarcerated or serving parole or probation for a violation of the Arkansas Uniformed Controlled Substances Act and whose current and only conviction is for a marijuana-related offense would be released. All criminal records of such convictions before the passage of the amendment would be expunged.

PORTLAND, Maine - Two sheriff's deputies accepted new cars and an ownership stake in an operation that illegally sold more than $13 million in pot grown for Maine’s medical marijuana program, federal prosecutors said.

Two other law enforcement officers and a prosecutor aided the operation by providing intelligence and tipping off participants, prosecutors said.

Federal documents unsealed Wednesday when one of the defendants pleaded guilty revealed an elaborate program in which marijuana that was grown in western Maine for registered caregivers was sold outside the program, with profits being laundered through a corporate structure.

Twelve people were charged in the 14-count complaint, including a Rangeley select board member, an assistant district attorney, two Franklin County sheriff's deputies, an Oxford County sheriff's deputy and a Wilton police officer.

Switzerland has given the green light to develop a comprehensive national framework for cannabis in the country.

Arkansas sees another campaign to potentially legalize cannabis in the state. Advocates hope this spells the end of state-wide prohibition.

A group headed by a former Arkansas lawmaker has joined the charge to reform cannabis policy in the state by organizing a group to campaign for a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana. Eddie Armstrong, a former Democratic state representative from North Little Rock, is listed as the chair of the organization Responsible Growth Arkansas in a filing with the Arkansas Ethics Commission submitted on October 15.

The text of the proposed constitutional amendment had not yet been filed with the office of the Arkansas Secretary of State as of the beginning of the week. The group’s statement of organization, however, notes that the organization will “advocate for the passage of an amendment to the Arkansas Constitution to allow the regulated sale of adult-use cannabis in the state,” according to media reports. 

In an email to reporters, Armstrong wrote that more details of the proposed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational cannabis will be released in the upcoming weeks.

Medical Marijuana Legalized in 2016

Arkansas voters legalized medical marijuana in 2016 with the passage of Issue 6, a constitutional amendment ballot measure that received 53 percent of the vote. Under the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment, patients can receive a doctor’s recommendation to possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis for the treatment of one or more qualifying medical conditions.

Medical marijuana dispensaries began serving patients in 2019. However, statutory limits on the number of cannabis cultivators and retailers could soon leave patients with an inadequate supply of medicine, says medical marijuana advocate Melissa Fults.

In about one year — by October 2022 — Vermont's retail cannabis market is scheduled to go into place, and the state's Cannabis Control Board has already made some key decisions that will shape Vermont’s legal marijuana marketplace.

VPR’s Mitch Wertlieb spoke with senior political correspondent, Bob Kinzel. Their conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mitch Wertlieb: In one of their earliest and most important decisions, the board has decided to prioritize small marijuana growers, and why are they doing this in particular?

Bob Kinzel: Mitch, they're really doing this at the direction of the Legislature, and I think it might be one of the most important decisions that they've made, because it has a rippling effect on many aspects of this issue.

So, let's start with, what's a small grower. The board defines this as an indoor operation that's no larger than 1,000 square feet.

Thirteen people, including four former law enforcement officers, a prosecutor and a former selectman, have been charged in a conspiracy to use medical marijuana grow houses in western Maine to illegally sell $13 million of the drug in and out of Maine.

Court documents in the case were made public Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor after one of the defendants pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess and distribute more than a ton of marijuana and 1,000 marijuana plants.

The documents detail a far-reaching scheme in which the head of the conspiracy, 41-year-old Lucas Sirois of Farmington, allegedly gave cops ownership interests in his company and brand new “company” cars in exchange for confidential information that he used to benefit his business. He also learned about the federal investigation into his illegal business dealings through the officers’ networks, according to the documents.

A former Rangeley selectman is also implicated, accused of accepting cash payments from Sirois in exchange for advocating for his agenda, including a vote to advance a marijuana ordinance Sirois had drafted to a town referendum.

The defendant who pleaded guilty is Randal Cousineau, 69, of Farmington, who admitted that he participated in a conspiracy to illegally cultivate and sell marijuana from 2016 to July 2020. Cousineau was the primary financier and 50 percent partner in an illegal marijuana cultivation facility in Farmington, according to court documents. He also held an interest in an illegal marijuana distribution company.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has officially banned the mailing of vaping products — and that includes cannabis, as well as federally legal CBD vapes and nicotine.

The agency announced the final rule on Wednesday to comply with legislation passed last year to stop nicotine vapes from being shipped through the U.S. mail.

While the law bans "electronic nicotine delivery systems," it defines them broadly as "any electronic device that, through an aerosolized solution, delivers nicotine, flavor, or any other substance to the user inhaling from the device."

"It goes without saying that marijuana, hemp, and their derivatives are substances," the agency said, as reported by Marijuana Moment. "Hence, to the extent that they may be delivered to an inhaling user through an aerosolized solution, they and the related delivery systems, parts, components, liquids, and accessories clearly fall within the [Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act's] scope."

There are exceptions: vapes can be shipped within the states of Alaska and Hawaii, verified businesses can mail vapes to each other or to government agencies, and individuals can ship up to 10 electronic nicotine delivery systems for non-commercial use per 30 days.

Researchers may be one step closer to developing the equivalent of a Breathalyzer for detecting marijuana use.

In an early study, scientists found that their rapid test was able to reliably detect THC in people's saliva in under 5 minutes. THC, short for tetrahydrocannabinol, is the active ingredient in marijuana.

Those facts have made it hard to develop a roadside test for marijuana use, akin to the Breathalyzer used to measure drivers' alcohol levels.

There are some existing saliva tests for THC, but they are hampered by issues like slow processing time or giving "binary" results -- similar to a yes/no on a pregnancy test.

Lee said his team was able to develop a test that not only quickly detects THC in saliva, but quantifies the amount.

It took about 3 minutes from "sample in, result out," according to Lee, who is based at Massachusetts General Hospital's Center for Systems Biology in Boston.

Arrests made at Illegal Marijuana Dispensary

On Wednesday, October 20, 2021, at approximately 10:00 a.m., deputies from the Sheriff's Lakeside Substation Crime Suppression Team and detectives from the Sheriff's Lakeside Substation, with the assistance of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET), the Sheriff's Special Enforcement Detail, and a representative from San Diego County Code Compliance, served a search warrant at an illegal marijuana dispensary located at 8802 Winter Gardens Blvd in Lakeside.

The warrant was part of ongoing investigations by the Sheriff's Department of illegally operating cannabis facilities in San Diego County. Detectives seized the following during the search: 

There were four subjects arrested for various narcotics and weapons related charges. 

This warrant follows community concerns about illegal marijuana dispensaries operating near schools and residential areas.  We want to assure those we serve the San Diego County Sheriff's Department is listening to the community and recognizes the negative impact illegal marijuana dispensaries have on our neighborhoods. 

A Columbia man was arrested and charged for smuggling weed from a California airport to Columbia.

Kevin Antwan Simmons, 43, is charged with trafficking marijuana after officials found more than 40 pounds of weed and $4,000 in his suitcase at Columbia Metropolitan Airport, according to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.

“Law enforcement officers from the Sacramento area notified South Carolina-based Drug Enforcement Administration agents that Simmons was flying into Columbia October 17,” said Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon. “Once Simmons landed and grabbed two suitcases at baggage claim, DEA and Lexington County narcotics agents approached him and he consented to a search of his bags.”

Sacramento officers found the weed in the suitcases when the bags were X-rayed before the flight departed, according to deputies.