The Coast Guard has set the 2021 minimum random drug testing rate at 50% of covered crewmembers because positive results crossed the 1% threshold for the third straight year. This contrasts with an earlier six-year stretch when the rate held at 25%.

“Intoxicated operations pose a serious threat to life, property and the environment in the maritime commons,” the Coast Guard said in a Federal Register notice published today. “As such, the minimum random drug testing rate is intended to deter and detect illegal drug misuse in the maritime industry.”

The agency did not give the amount over 1%.

Employers must submit test data for each calendar year by mid-March of the following year. Since 2018, mariners in safety-sensitive positions have been tested for semi-synthetic opioids in addition to marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, phencyclidine (PCP), and opiates such as heroin.

A bill to legalize recreational marijuana in Louisiana advanced from a House committee Tuesday for the first time ever after three Republicans on the panel agreed to move the measure forward for a wider debate.

Mandeville Republican Rep. Richard Nelson's House Bill 524 to legalize weed cleared the House Criminal Justice Committee on a 7-5 vote and advances to the full House.

A second bill by New Orleans Democratic Rep. Candace Newell to decriminalize marijuana (House Bill 243) also cleared the committee Tuesday.

Medical marijuana is already legal in Louisiana with efforts to expand that program also gaining momentum. Last week the full House approved a bill by Pro-tem Tanner Magee, R-Houma, to add smokable marijuana to the state's medical program.

Nelson said he would have been voted least likely to carry the banner for legalizing recreational pot in high school, where he was an Eagle Scout and valedictorian.

Canada has already legalized pot; Mexico is likely to legalize it soon. The U.S. must not fall behind.

President Biden is not there yet. Neither are Republicans in Washington. But the wave of momentum toward nationally legalized cannabis only continues to mount. It is time lawmakers in the Capital get on board with what a majority of the American citizens they represent want.

There are signs of progress. The U.S. House recently passed a bill to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level, the first of its kind. When Democrats won control of the Senate this year, the change paved a potential path for legislation in that chamber as well. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said this month he intends to soon introduce a federal cannabis legalization bill.

Photo by Fokusiert/Getty Images

At the state level, the pace of acceptance is escalating. November ballots in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota all approved the legalization of recreational use – though South Dakota’s law is currently held up in the courts. More states are following suit this year, including New York, where legalization was signed into law in March.

Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Randall Woodfin announced on Tuesday that blanket pardons would be issued for cannabis convictions going back more than 30 years, giving up to 15,000 people even more reason to celebrate on 4/20. And in another move by state leaders to mark the high holiday, the Alabama Democratic Party called on lawmakers to legalize cannabis for both medical and recreational use.

In a statement from Woodfin, the mayor noted that Birmingham kicked off a Pardons for Progress program in 2019 that was designed to make it easier to have past cannabis convictions pardoned and the records sealed. But those eligible for pardons were required to apply for the relief and only nine convictions have been cleared since the program’s inception.

Under the new plan announced by Woodfin on Tuesday, closed cases from 1990 through 2020 that resulted in a conviction for misdemeanor marijuana possession charges will be automatically pardoned. Cases still pending before the court would have to be closed before a pardon could be issued. The pardons, however, will not result in a reduction or refund of any fines or fees paid to the court.

Woodfin noted that the new campaign for justice was being initiated in an effort to address the disproportionate impact of convictions for minor marijuana offenses.

“Here’s why we’re doing this—no one should be held up by a single past mistake,” Woodfin wrote in a statement from the mayor’s office. “No one should be denied job opportunities or freedoms due to missteps from the past. No longer will these residents be bound to their past. They deserve a chance to be part of our workforce, to provide for their families, and to achieve success on their own. That new life starts rights here, today, with forgiveness and redemption.”

In 2018, Michigan voters approved legalizing cannabis for adults age 21 and older, including possession, use, and cultivation. But what about all the people with previous criminal records for the very same activity now deemed legal?

In 2020, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed "clean slate" legislation that created a path for residents to clear many pot-related offenses from their criminal records. And earlier this month, the Michigan Attorney General created a website to help people apply to get the convictions expunged.

However, cannabis advocates like Barton Morris, an attorney at the Cannabis Legal Group, says the law doesn't go far enough.

While misdemeanors like possession and use are automatically expunged under the law beginning in 2023, now-legal activities that were previously considered felonies, like growing marijuana, isn't.

"Growing marijuana is now completely legal — you can grow 12 plants in your basement," he tells Metro Times. "Well, if you were doing that before 2018, you could be convicted of a felony. This law doesn't address that."

With nearly a dozen pot policy reform bills currently under consideration in the Texas legislature, Democratic Rep. James Talarico took advantage of the 420 high holiday on Tuesday as an opportunity to promote his recent move to get the ball rolling on Texas cannabis legalization. While the cannabis community was reveling in its celebration of the plant, Talarico turned to social media to share the news of a bill he filed last month.

“Happy 4/20! I’ve filed legislation to legalize cannabis, expunge past marijuana convictions, and use the new tax revenue to fund early childhood education,” Talarico tweeted on Tuesday.

To back up his push for Texas cannabis legalization, he went on to share public opinion data collected by the Texas Tribune in a recent survey, tweeting “this is a popular bipartisan idea. According to the latest polling, 60% of Texans support the full legalization of marijuana. Only 13% said it should be completely illegal.”

The member of the Texas House of Representatives also noted that human beings have been reaping the health benefits of cannabis for more than 3,000 years and that the herb can be used to treat a host of maladies including chronic pain, depression, and addiction. Talarico also posted that the commonly held notion that cannabis is a gateway drug to more dangerous substances has been thoroughly debunked.

“In fact, medical research suggests alcohol and tobacco are far more dangerous to our health than cannabis,” he wrote. 

There are several locations across Europe where cannabis use is as much part of the culture as French wine and Italian coffee.

In recent years, we’ve seen a huge increase in weed - otherwise known as cannabis or marijuana - becoming legalised for medical use across the board. CBD oil and hemp especially have seen a rise in popularity across markets from skincare to wellness.

While elements of cannabis have their advantages, the science doesn’t work in recreational joint-smokers’ favour. The drug is heavily associated with mental and physical health conditions including psychosis and schizophrenia.

So why have some places decriminalised it?

Well, the fact is when it comes to mind-altering substances, weed is one of the softer drugs. It’s believed to be on a par with alcohol (which is completely legal across the continent for those with legitimate ID). So rather than wrack up the bills and time associated with criminal offences, in some countries there’s more of a ‘we’d rather you didn’t, but if you must’ mentality.

Let’s find out where those places are.

At our recent Emerge Virtual Cannabis Conference & Expo, transformative thinkers and innovators voiced their insight on diversity, expungement, and prison reform to hundreds of eager virtual attendees.

The event hosted several prominent speakers from the industry, boasting a powerhouse assembly of cannabis enthusiasts.

Hemp and cannabis culture is all about community; it’s a space where everyone deserves representation.

As the demand for cannabis continues to grow, many revolutionary leaders within the industry, including Andrew DeAngelo, Wanda James, Steve DeAngelo, and others have been fighting for change within the hemp space to better reflect the inclusive nature of the plant. 

Wanda James

James is the CEO of Simply Pure and the first African American woman to own a dispensary in Colorado.

A bill that would expand access to medical cannabis in public schools in Colorado was passed by the state House of Representatives on Tuesday and is now headed to the desk of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis. The measure, Senate Bill 21-056, was approved by members of the House with a vote of 57 to 6. Under the bill, children with complicated medical conditions would be able to receive cannabis-based medicines from school personnel while on campus.

If signed into law by Polis, the bill would help students access medical cannabis in public schools by requiring school districts to create policy “for the storage, possession, and administration of cannabis-based medicine by school personnel.” The Senate bill would also protect school personnel who elect to administer cannabis medicines to student patients, who must have a doctor’s treatment plan on file with the school. Cannabis medicines used by students under the measure must be in a non-smokable form.

Teen cannabis activist Alexis Bortell, who was instrumental in the bill’s passage, shared the news of the House vote in a Facebook post on Monday. Now 15, Bortell moved to Colorado with her family at the age of nine so she could obtain cannabis medications to treat her intractable epilepsy. In her social media message, Bortell also shared a statement she made to state lawmakers, in which she testified about the frustration she experienced trying to enroll in a school that would allow her medicine to be stored on campus.

“You can imagine my disappointment and anger when I learned that I wouldn’t be able to attend high school in person due to my medical needs,” Bortell testified to lawmakers. “I was denied admission to both high schools I applied to (the only ones accessible to me) because neither school would allow my medical cannabis to be stored on school grounds or allow a school nurse/staff member to give me my medicine when I needed it.”

Bill to Expand Access To Medical Cannabis In Public Schools Cleared Colorado Senate Last Month

At a Senate Education Committee hearing in February, parents of medical cannabis patients explained the difficulties they face administering medicine to their children because of the restrictions on medical cannabis in public schools. Some parents noted they had to leave work to medicate their child on school grounds. Others said they opted to keep their children in remote learning because it was easier to administer cannabis at home. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called 4/20 an "unofficial American holiday."

The top Democrat made his case to "end the federal prohibition on marijuana."

April 20 is usually a day weed users celebrate the recreational drug.

As weed users across the country celebrate April 20 on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer marked the occasion as an "unofficial American holiday" and made his case for marijuana legalization.

"Today is what you might call a very unofficial American holiday: 4/20," the top Democrat said on the Senate floor Tuesday. "It's as appropriate a time as any to take a hard look at our laws that have over-criminalized the use of marijuana and put it on par with heroin, LSD and other narcotics that bear little or no resemblance in their effects either on individuals or on society more broadly."

And then, there were 50, with the newly codified Idaho hemp legalization.

On Friday, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 126, otherwise known as the “Industrial Hemp Research and Development Act.” Similar bills have passed in state legislatures across the country, ultimately earning the eager signature of their respective governors—a trend that was sparked by Congress’ passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. That bill legalized industrial hemp, paving the way for states to exploit what in recent years has emerged as a cash crop.

With Little’s signature on HB 126, that trend finally came to Idaho, which became the 50th state to legalize industrial hemp. 

Per the Associated Press, the “new law does not allow selling to Idaho consumers hemp products containing any amount of THC.”

Under the language of the bill, the director of the state’s department of agriculture “must prepare and submit a state plan as expeditiously as possible, but no later than September 1, 2021, to the secretary of agriculture in compliance with the 2018 farm bill and the rules promulgated thereunder.” 

The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV), whose members insure 90% of the German population have released the data on reimbursed medical cannabis usage covering the entirety of 2020. The new data reveal that the reimbursed sales of medical cannabis were worth €165 million in 2020. 

The road to legalizing cannabis in Mexico has been full of twists, turns, and in some cases dead ends as the deadline approaches soon.

Near the end of 2018, Mexico’s Supreme Court issued a ruling in which cannabis prohibition was deemed to be unconstitutional.

As part of the ruling, the Court set a one-year deadline for lawmakers to pass a legalization measure to implement the ruling and to set up a regulated adult-use cannabis industry.

The initial deadline was not met due to political issues, a second deadline was not met due to the pandemic, and a third deadline was also not met due to the pandemic.

Yet another deadline was granted by the Court, and it appears that lawmakers will fail to meet the latest deadline which expires at the end of April.

An attempt by Idaho Republican leaders to make it impossible to legalize drugs in the state through a ballot initiative failed on Thursday, missing the supermajority support it needed in the House.

The proposed constitutional amendment would have required two-thirds of the House and Senate to approve the removal of a drug from Schedule I or Schedule II. Despite 26 co-sponsors who signed on to the amendment, House GOP leaders failed to garner the 47 votes needed to advance the measure to the Senate.

House members voted 42-28 in favor of the amendment, just short of the two-thirds required. The legislation divided Republicans, several of whom grew emotional as they spoke on the impact of drugs in their families. Many of them centered their debates around medical cannabis or hemp.

Several lawmakers who supported the measure on Thursday argued that putting the amendment on the 2022 ballot would give the public a voice on drug policy. Had the Legislature approved the measure, it would have been up for a vote in the 2022 general election.

If the amendment had passed in both chambers, voters potentially could have faced both the anti-drug measure and a medical marijuana initiative that groups are trying to get on the ballot.

The Mississippi Supreme Court heard arguments this week challenging the state’s overwhelming vote in support of medical cannabis last November but advocates still have their high hopes. 

The Mississippi Cannabis Trade Association released a statement following Thursday’s oral arguments that would determine the industry’s fate. If the challenge is successful it would essentially nullify the election night win for compassion in Mississippi. 

The idea behind the challenge is an old law that says you need 20% of your signatures to come from each of the state’s congressional districts. The problem? Mississippi lost a congressional district in 2003 and officials never updated the law. Now the opposition is attempting to use it as a de facto ban on ballot initiatives. 

“The Mississippi Cannabis Trade Association (MSCTA) looks forward to reviewing the Mississippi Supreme Court’s imminent ruling on the recent legal challenge to Initiative 65. At its very core, this is a matter of upholding the will of the citizens of Mississippi and their constitutional right to propose and enact amendments through the ballot initiative process,” the statement reads. “The state constitution expressly prescribes certain enumerated rights to the people of Mississippi, and therefore, its provisions should be interpreted in a manner that preserves these rights, not destroys them.”

The wildly high number of 75% of Mississippians voted in favor of medical cannabis for a list of 22 qualifying debilitating medical conditions last fall. To put it in perspective, that’s a 20-point larger victory margin compared to when California passed Proposition 215 in 1996. 

Cannabis is now legal in Michigan, but there are some hazy aspects of the new law. Let's clear the air and define what has become legal in the state and what was outlawed in 2020.

Both recreational and medical cannabis are legal in Michigan. The products for therapeutic purposes were legalized in 2008, making Michigan the 13th state that allows it for medical treatment. Cannabis for recreational use was passed in 2018. Its licensed sales started in 2019, and they're expected to grow this year.

Each municipality has the right to allow or restrict recreational cannabis sales. Keep this in mind while traveling across the state because many cities put a veto on these sales.

Consumption

Despite marijuana legalization, it cannot be consumed anywhere you want. It should be done in your own residence away from the public. If you smoke it at your friend's house, ask for the host's approval. People who live in a rented apartment should gain permission from their landlord.

Marijuana consumption on public property or public places (e.g., schools, hospitals, parks, cars, and bars) is banned and considered a civil infraction.

On Monday, New Mexico became the latest state to legalize adult-use cannabis, after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the Cannabis Regulation Act. Sales are expected to begin before April 2022.

Following a legalization wave led by New York and Virginia, this approval now puts more than 43 percent of Americans living in legal cannabis jurisdictions, according to The Marijuana Policy Project.

“The successful bill signing today of adult-use cannabis legislation in New Mexico would not have been possible without the leadership of Governor Lujan Grisham and the tireless support of the State Legislature,” said David Culver, vice president of global government relations at Canopy Growth.

The Bills

Signed bill HB2 allows New Mexicans 21 and over to possess up to two ounces of cannabis, and cultivate six mature and six immature plants at home. The bill also regulates the production and sale of recreational cannabis while including measures to incentivize populations disproportionately impacted by prohibition to enter the industry.

“We are going to increase consumer safety by creating a bona fide industry. We’re going to start righting past wrongs of this country’s failed war on drugs. And we’re going to break new ground in an industry that may well transform New Mexico’s economic future for the better,” said Gov. Grisham, a strong proponent of cannabis reform.