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Breonna Taylor was a 36-year-old Black emergency medical worker who was killed in March while police in Louisville, Kentucky carried out a no-knock warrant as part of a narcotics investigation.

“Breonna Taylor died as a result of the war on drugs,” said Josh Alb as he shouted to demonstrators on the steps of Newark City Hall on Friday. “The police went into her house for a no-knock warrant for drugs that were never there. This is one of the biggest pieces missing from the conversation surrounding her.”

The war on drugs was a narcotics prohibition campaign that was created under former President Richard Nixon in the 1970s. Alb said the policy is still being used today to harm Black people like Taylor.

Alb, a William Paterson University student who lives in Newark and works in the cannabis industry, led about 30 demonstrators down Broad Street on Friday while shouting her name. They called for the legalization of marijuana to begin to end the war on drugs.

Legalization could happen soon - at least in New Jersey. Voters will decide if it should become legal on Nov. 3.

As any marijuana stock investor can tell you, the past 15 months haven't been pretty for pot stocks. Since April 2019, the vast majority of cannabis stocks have lost 50% or more of their value as growing pains have taken shape. In Canada, supply issues have led to everything from shortages to bottlenecks. Meanwhile, high tax rates on legal product in the U.S. have ensured that black market demand remains robust.

But in spite of these problems, the marijuana industry is slowly but surely finding its footing and maturing before our eyes. This isn't going to be an overnight process, but we're witnessing the initial stages of this shakeout and maturation taking place.

As we motor on through this unprecedented year, here are the five biggest cannabis catalysts you should have your eyes on for the remainder of 2020.

1. The 2020 elections

One of the more intriguing questions to be answered this year is, what's going to happen on the marijuana front come November when Americans head to the polls? No matter who wins the presidency, there's a pretty good chance that legalizing cannabis is out of the question. However, state-level legalizations could provide ample opportunity for the U.S. pot industry.

Right now, we know that three states are, for certain, voting on a cannabis measure come November -- New Jersey, Mississippi, and South Dakota. South Dakota is of particular interest since it's the first state to vote on a separate medical marijuana and adult-use weed measure in the same election.

Low-priced cannabis products will be key to converting consumers from the illicit market to the legal market, but once that’s done they’ll be willing to spend more on pricier items like vape pens and edibles, according to Aurora Cannabis Inc.’s new chief commercial officer.

Cannabis is “unlike tobacco or alcohol because of the presence of this massive black market,” said Miguel Martin, who joined Aurora with its acquisition of U.S. CBD company Reliva LLC in May. “There are some underpinnings to make the pie bigger in a way that you traditionally wouldn’t with discount brands.”

Some Canadian pot companies were caught off guard last winter by avid consumer demand for low-priced flower and had to rush to develop new offerings. In February, Aurora said its market share in flower declined in the prior quarter “as the market shifted significantly towards value brands,” and announced the launch of Daily Special, a cheaper product designed to “compete strongly with the gray market and help grow the overall size of the legal segment.”

In May, Aurora said Daily Special was the top-selling flower brand in Ontario for the previous two months and attributed the company’s 24% quarterly growth in recreational pot revenue to the brand’s popularity.

However, the cannabis market changes rapidly and “what’s popular today may not be popular tomorrow,” said Martin, who was previously president of Logic Technology Development LLC, a manufacturer of electronic cigarettes, and a senior executive at tobacco giant Altria Group Inc. “I do think like with any other category, things will start to settle and then you’ll have the ability to move people up the value chain or the pricing chain.”

Marijuana legalization is heating up again as the US elections get closer. The COVID-19 pandemic paused legalization campaign efforts in some states. However, many states have resumed their signature-gathering efforts amid easing lockdowns. Montana resumed its signature-gathering efforts in mid-May and followed all of the necessary measures amid the lockdown. Let’s take a look at the state’s efforts and where it stands.

Montana works towards marijuana legalization

After facing a string of coronavirus-led challenges, the New Approach Montana campaign is all geared up. The group is behind the legalization efforts in the state. The group resumed its campaign in May and successfully collected the required signatures. A Marijuana Moment article discussed that the group submitted more than 130,000 signatures last month to qualify for the November ballot. Montana’s legalization efforts include recreational and medical cannabis. The group submitted two proposals:

Looking at the number of signatures submitted, it appears that the group collected the required signatures. Voters will decide the fate of marijuana legalization in the state.

The campaign has worked hard to collect the signatures. Overall, the group followed strict health protocols and worked profusely to collect more than the required signatures before the deadline. The support for legalization in Montana is also evident from the signatures collected. As reported by Cannabis Business Times, Pepper Petersen, a spokesperson for New Approach Montana, said, “We can generate tens of millions of dollars of new tax revenue, create thousands of new jobs, and provide a new source of commercial activity for Montana’s existing small businesses.”

Good days ahead for cannabis companies

Besides Montana, Arizona, South Dakota, and Nebraska have also successfully submitted their signatures for the November ballot. Meanwhile, Idaho is working with a federal court and hopes to resume its signature collection. Some states like Florida, North Dakota, and New York didn’t collect the required signatures before the deadline. As a result, they had to suspend their campaigns.

As of this Wednesday, Argentina will now allow home cultivation of cannabis and the sale of cannabis oils and topicals in pharmacies, which has not been included under the legal cannabis laws so far. Cannabis patients will also now have access to their medicine free of charge. 

This new regulation was drafted by the Argentinian Health Minister and other key stakeholders, and represents a huge step forward for cannabis in Argentina.  

On Wednesday, the Health Minister met with key actors to close details on a draft regulation that will allow for home cultivation of cannabis and the production of oils and topicals by local pharmacies that can then be sold to qualified patients.

Facundo Garreton, director of YVY Life Sciences, a medical cannabis company from the neighbouring country of Uruguay, said that this is huge for the country, which until now has been overlooked as a cannabis hotspot. 

“Knowing that cannabis can alleviate many people’s suffering and not do anything about it, that’s the true crime,” said Facundo Garreton, director of YVY Life Sciences cannabis company in Uruguay and former House rep for Argentina’s province of Tucumán. “Good regulation will help to know the needs of every person, what to buy, where to buy it, while at the same time controlling the product’s quality. We hope this is the start of a path towards full regulation of the entire supply chain.” 

Phil Murphy emphasized the social justice benefits, as well as the financial ones, to legalizing adult-use marijuana in New Jersey.

Add New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to the growing list of state lawmakers positioning marijuana legalization as a quick fix to struggling economies. Murphy also emphasized the social justice benefit legalizing would induce, calling the act “an incredibly smart thing to do.”

“We’re not inventing marijuana,” he said during a radio interview Tuesday with the Jim Kerr Rock & Roll Morning Show. “It exists.”

The looming financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic means the state will need to find ways to innovate moving forward. A co-host on the program suggested cannabis and Murphy agreed, saying he’s “been on that from day one.” He added marijuana’s importance in criminal justice reform — a Black person is 3.5 times more likely to get arrested for cannabis possession in New Jersey than a white person, despite similar rates of use.

“It’s got a huge social justice piece for me,” Murphy said. “The overwhelming percentage of persons nailed in our criminal justice system are persons of color. It’s a no-brainer in that respect. It’s a job creator, it’s a tax revenue raiser, it checks a lot of boxes. I hope we’ll get there sooner than later.”

Virginia’s cannabis decriminalization policy went into effect on July 1 making it the 27th state to decriminalize simple marijuana possession.

The new law reflects recent shifts in public opinion, with 83% of Virginian voters supporting the decriminalization of cannabis, and 61% supporting the legalization of cannabis for adult personal use.

Under the old law, the first violations of marijuana possession imposed a fine of up to $500 and a jail sentence of up to 30 days. Subsequent offenses were a class 1 misdemeanors and permanently visible on a criminal record. The new law removes these provisions.

The timing of Virginia’s decriminalization policy is significant.

Cannabis legalization efforts are often tied to racial justice movements. In a special legislative session scheduled for August, lawmakers will consider further criminal justice reform. Cannabis legalization may be a part of those considerations.

At a time when America is trying to right its wrongs when it comes to the treatment of people of color and the war on drugs over the past few centuries, a Black, disabled veteran is still being held in prison on minor cannabis charges.

Sean Worsley, an Iraq veteran who suffers from a traumatic brain injury and PTSD, uses medical cannabis for his pain and anxiety. He legally purchased the medicine in his home state of Arizona before his arrest. 

Worsley and his wife, Eboni, were arrested in Pickens County, Alabama, where cannabis is still not legal, back in August 2016. This took place when the couple stopped at a gas station and were approached by police officers for listening to music “too loudly”. The police then proceeded to search the vehicle where they found Worsley’s medical cannabis. 

“I explained to him that Alabama did not have medical marijuana. I then placed the suspect in handcuffs,” the arresting officers stated in an official report. 

In addition to the cannabis, the officers found some unopened alcohol and prescribed pills—all legal. However, the pills were not in their original bottle, which the officers claimed was a felony. The Worsleys spent six days in jail and then faced even more criminal proceedings. 

If there’s one area where society has had some difficulty adapting to a space where cannabis products are legal and readily available it’s that many people still don’t have a grip on how to properly use edibles.

Marijuana has been legal now in some parts of the United States for around two decades. It all began with the legalization of a reasonably liberal medical marijuana program in California back in 1996 and progressed into a scene where adult residents in 11 states now have the freedom to purchase cannabis in the same way they might beer.

It’s a concept that is preventing thousands of people from going to jail every year as a result of personal marijuana possession. It also boosts local and state economies, creates thousands of new jobs and helps put the food on the tables for around 211,000 families nationwide. But are there any downsides to marijuana legalization that should be considered?

Marijuana legalization itself seems to be working out in most of the states where this new way of life has taken hold. There are often concerns that legalizing the leaf will create a situation that will increase youth consumption, addiction rates and, in some exceptional cases, launch society into a downward spiral of apocalyptic decline. But the reality is, none of this seems to be happening.

Some anti-legalization folks say it is still too early to tell what kinds of blights to society are coming on the heels of legalization, but in places where weed has been legal for several years, all seems relatively good in the neighborhood. Even former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, a man who once opposed the legalization of marijuana, admits that your children are probably safe from legal weed. “We haven’t seen a big spike in consumption,” he said during an interview in 2018 with Rolling Stone. “The only increase in consumption is among senior citizens.

Kiwis want their kush according to a new national poll. Commissioned by supporters of the 'Yes' vote, the survey showed that 48 percent of New Zealanders support recreational use while 43 percent are against it. Medicinal marijuana is legal in the country. 

Voters will officially go to the polls on September 19 to make their decision as part of a referendum during a national election. 

For many watchdogs in the country, it's not an issue of if New Zealand will fully legalize, it's when. 

"Despite almost 55 years of prohibition, it is New Zealand's most widely used illicit drug,' New Zealand Drug Foundation chief executive Ross Bell told The Daily Mail, adding that cannabis was "a reality in New Zealand."

The government is gearing up

Behind the scenes, the New Zealand government has worked on a plan for legalization should the referendum pass. The model includes regulating and taxing the drug. Citizens 20 and up would be able to consume the drug at home or at cannabis cafes.

Marijuana legalization in Idaho had to bear the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. The lockdown forced the state to suspend its medical marijuana campaign. The group responsible for the campaign, the ICC (or the Idaho Cannabis Coalition), failed to collect the required signatures before the May 1 deadline. However, a recent federal court ruling for a separate initiative in the state might have sparked some hopes.

Marijuana legalization hopes rise again in Idaho

The ICC had collected 40,000 signatures when it dropped its campaign. The total required by the deadline was 55,057, which wouldn’t have been a hard task if the pandemic hadn’t happened. Recently, as reported by Marijuana Moment, a federal court in the state permitted Reclaim Idaho to collect signatures to support a school funding initiative in the state. Through this ruling, from July 9, they can now collect signatures in person and electronically for 48 days.

It has also given hopes to the ICC, which feels it can work around the ruling for its medical marijuana initiative as well. “We are in the process of working with the local medical marijuana campaign to assess whether Judge Winmill’s order provides a route for the medical marijuana initiative to still qualify for the November ballot,” Tamar Todd told Marijuana Moment. Todd is the legal director for the New Approach political action committee, which supports marijuana legalization efforts.

Marijuana Moment also reported that the group is confident of gaining the difference in signatures if allowed an extension. Both recreational and medical cannabis are illegal in Idaho. If passed, this ruling will allow Idaho to put medical cannabis on the ballot for voters’ approval. The measure specifies that medical cannabis patients with qualifying conditions can receive recommendations from physicians. Individuals will also be eligible to possess up to four ounces of marijuana and grow up to six plants.

Legalization picking up steam again

The marijuana industry has been in distress for a while now. The launch of Cannabis 2.0 products and state legalization were the only hope for the sector’s recovery. However, the pandemic hit, and the launch of products was delayed. At the same time, the sudden lockdown and quarantines challenged legalization campaigns. Many states had to suspend their efforts for 2020 legalization. Some of the unlucky ones were North Dakota, Florida, and New York. Meanwhile, Arizona, Nebraska, and Montana have successfully submitted the required signatures for their campaigns.

While the unity task force pushed Biden farther left on cannabis policy, the former Vice President still doesn’t support ending prohibition.

Joe Biden will not change his mind on cannabis anytime soon. A task force formed between Biden and Bernie Sanders, which had prior heated discussions on cannabis, agreed on multiple criminal justice priorities, but marijuana legalization was not among them.

Instead, the official policy recommendations (released Wednesday) for Biden as he embarks on winning the general election as the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee represents a reiteration of his previous cannabis views. He believes in cannabis decriminalization, not legalization. The recommendations, however, supply more details about specific marijuana polices Biden could pursue if elected President.

“Democrats will decriminalize marijuana use and reschedule it through executive action on the federal level,” the document reads. “We will support legalization of medical marijuana, and believe states should be able to make their own decisions about recreational use.”

The task force also recommended it would not launch federal prosecution for matters legal at the state level. The statement is an obvious reference to current Attorney General William Barr, who was accused of inappropriately using Justice Department funds to target the legal cannabis industry.

Law 360 reported that the Massachusetts’ Cannabis Control Commission handed down hefty fines to three cannabis companies doing business in the state. 4Front Ventures Corp. (FFNTF) and Garden remedies were fined for using pesticides on plants, while Acreage Holdings Inc. (OTC:ACRGF) was fined for failing to disclose its relationship with two license holders.

4Front Ventures

4Front Ventures fined $350,000 settlement over pesticides used at its Georgetown, Massachusetts, facility. According to Law360, the settlement included a statement that 4Front Ventures admitted hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and other pesticides were used at the facility, which is not approved for use on marijuana. The commission reportedly said that the company received test results that showed the plants contained a banned pesticide in June or July 2019 but didn’t alert the commission until August. Company CEO Leo Gontmakher said the company has made changes to ensure the violations do not happen again. “Patients were protected and no one was harmed,” Gontmakher said.

Garden Remedies

A $200,000 settlement was reached with cannabis company Garden Remedies over its Fitchburg, Massachusetts, facility. Like 4Front, Garden Remedies also noted in its settlement that it acknowledged using unapproved pesticides and altering its financial records to hide the purchase.

Company CEO Karen Munkacy said in a statement that the company has fired the employees involved in the falsified documents and ended its relationship with the vendor that provided the pesticides in question.

“While the product we used is permitted to be used in cannabis cultivation in many other states and is not an externally applied pesticide that puts anyone in danger, it is not permitted in Massachusetts and the situation was mishandled,” Munkacy said. “The company and I will continue to strive to ensure that ethical and regulatory violations never again occur.”

In Kansas City, you no longer need to sweat it if you’re holding a little bud. 

That’s because the City Council on Thursday passed a new measure removing marijuana from the city’s code of ordinances. The measure passed the council by a vote of 9-4, according to local television station KMBC. With its passage, marijuana is essentially decriminalized in Kansas City. 

The proposal was offered up last month by Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, a Democrat, along with four other council members. 

“One of the ways we improve police-community relations is by eliminating laws that for too long have led to negative interactions, arrests, convictions, and disproportionate rates of incarceration of Black men and Black women,” Lucas said at the time. “Reducing petty offenses—such as municipal marijuana offenses—reduce these negative interactions each day.”

In a tweet on Thursday heralding the vote, Lucas noted that the measure comes on the heels of two significant votes on marijuana policy in Kansas City and Missouri. In 2017, voters in Kansas City approved a measure—by a margin of 72-25—to decriminalize marijuana for 35 grams or less, opting instead to impose a mere $35 fine. A year later, voters in Missouri overwhelmingly approved a measure legalizing medical marijuana. Thursday’s vote, Lucas seemed to be saying, followed in that tradition.

Senator Mike Gabbard, Chair of the Agriculture and Environment Committee, applauded the final passage of a bill in the House of Representatives today to legalize the growing, processing, and sale of industrial hemp in Hawai‘i.

It passed the Senate on Wednesday unanimously, with Senators Les Ihara, Clarence K. Nishihara, and Laura H. Thielen expressing reservations.

The bill now goes to Governor David Ige to sign into law.

“This commercial hemp program will help grow a new industry in our state, which is especially needed now due to the impacts of COVID-19,” said Senator Gabbard. “This bill will provide an opportunity for economic development and the diversification of our economy. Hemp is an incredible plant that produces over 25,000 products and we’re very close to making the Hawaiian Hemp brand a reality, not only in the U.S. but globally as well.”

The bill (HB1819 HD2 SD3), was championed by Senators Gabbard, Donovan Dela Cruz, Rosalyn H. Baker, Karl Rhoads, and Senate President Ronald D. Kouchi, and Representatives Mark M. Nakashima, Sylvia J. Luke, Nadine K. Nakamura, Kyle T. Yamashita, Richard P. Creagan, Chris Lee, and House Speaker Scott K. Saiki.

Pending litigation, the Oklahoma attorney general’s office temporarily has agreed the state will not enforce some medical marijuana laws that could force some dispensaries to close their doors.

On Monday, Oklahoma’s assistant solicitor general agreed the Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority will not enforce certain residency and location requirements that pertain to medical marijuana businesses and how long their owners have resided in Oklahoma.

The temporary stipulation comes as some medical marijuana businesses are suing the state over the legality of laws requiring cannabis business owners to be residents of the state for at least two years and mandating that dispensaries be located more than 1,000 feet from schools and preschools.

The laws took effect on Aug. 29, 2019.

As the legality of these provisions is debated in court, the Medical Marijuana Authority will not consider the two-year residency requirement when evaluating business license renewal applications, as long as a business owner originally applied for a license before the new law took effect.