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Senators spent Friday scrutinizing a 60-page piece of legislation proposed by Gov. Albert Bryan that would revise the Virgin Islands Cannabis Use Act, but after eight hours of debate the lawmakers were divided as to whether the measure was ready.

Meeting as the Committee of the Whole, the Senate discussed the bill that would expand the medical marijuana program approved by the Senate and signed into law by Bryan a year and a half ago. The new bill proposes amendments to the existing act to provide better regulation, and generate tax revenue that could alleviate the impending insolvency of the Government Employee Retirement System.

Sen. Kurt Vialet said when the original act was passed by the previous Legislature and signed into law, it was under the assumption that those who needed medical cannabis would be supplied access, but the cannabis board that had 12 months to come up with policies to regulate the industry failed to do so, asking for an extension in December. This has caused senators to feel pressure to not let the process drag on.

But some committee members have been skeptical of the enhanced bill since the governor first unveiled it in December. Friday’s hearing demonstrated at least some senators remain on the fence and certain testifiers who were proponents of the bill also showed hesitation.

Barbara LaRonde, president of the V.I. National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws testified, that the legislation should be examined for social inequities and specifically address the community hardest hit by the war on drugs.

But some business owners tell 41 Action News they were caught off guard by an additional hurdle imposed by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, which oversees the industry, before growers can put seeds in the ground.

After each of the 338 medical marijuana license holders is verified by the state, they have to go through an additional verification process.

"Once those 338 were were chosen by merit, then the department of health did a verification process where they go through the application with a license holders then they prove that everything they put on the application was accurate, correct and conforms to the department’s rules," MoCannTrade spokesman Jack Cardetti said.

But there's a final step, called a commencement inspection, before cultivators, manufacturers and dispensaries can start up "where they actually come on site, look at your facility, make sure it has all the security that you said it was going to have, make sure it has all the promises that were made in the application were followed through on," Cardetti said.

Only two of 60 cultivators have made it through that process so far near St. Louis.

Despite all that's gone on in 2020, it's important not to lose sight of the fact that we're now less than five months away from Election Day. We'll see voters choose who'll be president of the United States for the next four years, and could even witness the current political makeup of Congress shift.

But one of the more interesting stories for 2020 is going to be which states "go green."

Currently, two-thirds of all states have legalized medical marijuana, with 11 of those states allowing for the consumption and/or sale of adult-use marijuana. With Election Day approaching, a dozen states have at least one ballot initiative devoted to cannabis, three states of which are guaranteed to have residents voting on those measures in November.

While there are a handful of states that look like near-certainties to legalize marijuana in November, there are just as many surprising disappointments. The following four states, which on the surface would look to have a good shot at legalizing adult-use cannabis in 2020, will have to wait until next year, or perhaps even 2022, to get their chance to go green.

Should the resolution pass, the Nevada pardons represents growing marijuana-centric criminal justice reform occurring nationwide.

A new resolution introduced by Gov. Steve Sisolak would pardon tens of thousands of low-level marijuana offenders in Nevada, a state that voted to fully legalize cannabis in 2016. Sisolak will present the resolution to the Nevada Board of Pardons Commissioners next week. If passed, it will provide an unconditional pardon for anyone convicted of possessing less than one ounce of marijuana.

“The people of Nevada have decided that possession of small amounts of marijuana is not a crime,” Sisolak said. “If approved, this resolution will clear the slate for thousands of people who bear the stigma of a conviction for actions that have now been decriminalized.”

The Governor’s office clarified that such pardons would not apply in cases of possession with intent to sell. A bill, signed last year by Sisolak, already exists that allows low-level marijuana offenders to petition the courts to expunge their records. This new resolution would remove that bureaucratic step and pardon offenders automatically.

Sisolak first floated the resolution back in March at a Board of Pardons Commissioners meeting. Though a pardon does not overturn a conviction, it does restore various rights to offenders, including the right to vote and hold certain jobs and public office.

In the desert, Republicans and Democrats have found something to agree upon: A majority in both parties plan to vote to make marijuana legal in the upcoming Arizona election if they get the chance.

A new survey by public affairs consultants HighGround of Arizona voters found that 65 percent of them plan to vote “yes” on the Safe and Smart Arizona Act if it makes the November ballot. The act would make weed possession legal for those over 21 and set up a state-regulated adult-use cannabis market. 

Only 25 percent of those surveyed said they oppose the measure. About nine percent have not made up their mind.

The survey asked if the voters, knowing what they know not about the act, would vote “yes” or “no.” The responses were:

The support mirrors that found at the national level. A Gallup survey from fall 2019 found that about 66 percent of U.S. citizens support making weed legal, the same number who said the same thing in 2018. The survey also found support from older people and those from both parties.

Malta Enterprise has played a pivotal role in ensuring support for research and industry in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic. It says Malta’s COVID-19 response is promising for the cannabis industry.

For most of 2020, coronavirus has shaped our lives and the world in which we live. The outbreak and official responses to it have affected all industries and businesses all over the world. The good news is that Malta has been very effective in mitigating and navigating this scenario – so much so that Hans Kluge, General Regional Director of the World Health Organization, singled the country out as the model that other countries should look up to and emulate. This is good news for the cannabis industry in Malta.

Malta cannabis industry: weathering the COVID-19 crisis

Even from an economic point of view, Malta has been praised for the way in which we have handled the situation and supported the local industry in this time of need. In its report titled ‘The great lockdown’, the International Monetary Fund predicts that, of the EU Member States, Malta will be the jurisdiction to suffer the least. The GDP contraction for Malta is expected to be the lowest amongst the EU28, standing at -2.8% in comparison to the average EU contraction of -7.5%. In the post-virus economic landscape, Malta is predicted to grow its GDP by 7% in 2021.

The local manufacturing industry has weathered the first part of this crisis very well. Our sturdy manufacturing ecosystem, which operates in different niches, exports to different markets and trades in different international currencies, has managed to overcome the initial impact of COVID-19. In no uncertain terms, this has been supported by the fact that the country never went into total lockdown, resulting in no days lost from production. In fact, some manufacturers effectively increased production and are now further expanding their operations.

This is very reassuring news to the booming and evolving medical cannabis sector, which is currently setting up its operations on this Mediterranean island. In fact, Malta’s cannabis sector has continued its activities as planned and predicted, with five projects having set up their facilities and applied for the requisite licence from the Malta Medicines Authority. Later on this year we should be seeing the first exports of medical cannabis originating in Malta.

In this day and time, it is almost impossible to turn on the TV and not find a show or news conference or even live footage of an ongoing protest over “Black Lives Matter” or “Economic Equality”. The same situation exists with social media platforms, radio broadcast, etc., all sharing the common theme of social equity. While we all seek a solution, the state of Illinois is doing their part by awarding the coveted “Adult Use Cannabis” business licenses for Craft Growing, Infusion, Transportation, and Dispensaries to social equity applicants by using a scoring system that favors the social equity applicant. We believe in this vision at TGC Group and our dream is to “pay it forward”. 

We see the world, especially for minorities living in poverty, quite differently because of where we come from. “Black Lives Matter” is a movement to save the lives of all people and have human life viewed equally no matter the race of an individual. Economic equality is a totally different fight. Our communities that are impoverished need cash infusions. There needs to be financial infrastructure that recirculates the dollars from the poor communities, and that comes from having business owners in the affected community put their profits back into their community. There needs to be a system of lending that is not based on credit scores and criminal background checks because most people at the bottom will never qualify. 

An example would be my husband, Christopher Lacy, who went to prison for three-and-a-half years for growing cannabis back in 2009. He is not a violent man; he never even had a fight in prison. He spent much of his time in prison teaching inmates how to read, write, and most importantly, he tried to teach them economics. He is educated about cannabis because he has been intimately involved with this plant and has been growing it for about 20 years. Yet when he tried to apply for jobs in Illinois to grow cannabis, his invisible barrier started with the resume. Just think about it: my husband knows more about cannabis than most people in the industry today and could manage a facility with ease. No one can see his worth because of his background and work experience. So many others in our poor communities face the same situation. We know for a fact that there is hidden talent in the impoverished communities and prison system; we intend to find it and empower these individuals to rebuild what was destroyed by the War On Drugs. I speak for all the ghettos when I say this: Give us access to the capital and we will get the rest done on our own. Conventional banks have their hands tied with this approach because they are regulated, but private funds have more flexibility. The excess capital needed to rebuild will not come from jobs, it only comes from ownership.

Luckily, J.B. Pritzker and Toi Hutchinson are aware of this and hence created the social equity fund to help the social equity applicants fund their projects if and when they are awarded a license. We must find a way to give to the bottom so that the dollars can trickle up. Trickle Down economics is kind of like that movie “Platform” on Netflix: there are never enough resources to get to the bottom because the people sending the resources down have no idea how to get them to the bottom floors of society. Trickle Up economics can start at the very bottom rungs of society and still will reach to this highest level of the economic system because it’s built in such a way that it will inevitably get there. 

Capital Is Needed To Rebuild

These new licenses, literally pathways to financial freedom if operated correctly and efficiently, are revenue machines capable of changing our community. This change does not come from providing jobs, although jobs do help and will be available, but by providing capital to rebuild. These funds can provide scholarships, business loans, even small infrastructure projects that can be accomplished via the tax revenue generated by the local governments. We have already made a written commitment to give a portion of net margins to the village. Capital in the right hands can make dreams come true. In theory, poverty can be solved. Poverty is not a prerequisite to the American way of life. That is why we were so proud to get zoning approval by our village. They see what we see. We can change neighborhoods like Beacon Hill. The dollars must recirculate in the community. Wherever you see high poverty rates you see high crime rates. This is not a coincidence. If you can lower the poverty rate you can lower the crime rates. This raises the quality of life for everyone. We see the state is on board, the county is on board, the Village of Park Forest is on board, and the citizens of the community are on board. Now all we need is the license and capital to get the resurrection started.  

As the cannabis industry grows globally, no country is according to FTI Consulting better positioned than Colombia to become the “grower” of choice for international cannabis trade. Experts Michael Cullen and Miguel Salcedo explain why. 

While predictions for the global cannabis trade in 2020 vary widely, industry leaders largely concur that legalization efforts will continue across the globe. As of April 2020, medical cannabis is legal (to some degree) in upwards of 50 countries. As a result, marijuana-related business are beginning to leverage international supply chains in pursuit of lower production costs, with a view to Latin America. 

Some countries in the region are positioning themselves to compete in the global cannabis market through regulatory reforms and partnerships with established North American and European players. While their competitiveness will be hampered by persistent political and macroeconomic hurdles, no country is more prepared than Colombia to differentiate itself from other countries in the region to become the industry’s grower of choice. 

Early moves toward legalization

The Colombian government sees cannabis production as a viable alternative to coca growing for farmers in conflict-ridden areas. During the 2016 peace negotiations between the administration of former President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or FARC), a left-wing guerilla group, coca production saw exponential growth following a ban on aerial spraying in favor of manual eradication.

Accordingly, the current administration of President Iván Duque hopes that cannabis production will provide an attractive legal alternative for rural communities, which have historically had few economically viable options beyond cooperating with illegal armed groups in the production of coca.

Colorado lawmakers passed a bill on Monday that would allow the governor to issue pardons for low-level marijuana convictions without input from the judges and prosecutors involved in the original court cases. The measure, House Bill 1424, now heads to the office of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis for his signature.

HB 1424 began its journey through the legislative process only last week, when it was introduced by Democratic Rep. James Coleman as a bill to define social equity applicants in the state’s legal cannabis industry. After speedy approval in the Colorado House of Representatives, the bill moved on to the state Senate, where it was amended to give the governor the authority to issue pardons for convictions for possession of up to two ounces of marijuana.

“This bill is a product of effective stakeholder work that created a path forward on important social equity policies,” said a spokesperson for Polis. “The Governor is happy that a meaningful, bipartisan bill addressing marijuana equity passed the legislature, and thanks lawmakers for their efforts to get this bill to his desk.”

Under the normal process for issuing pardons in Colorado, the governor is required to notify the relevant judge and prosecuting attorney so that they can provide input to guide the decision. HB 1424 eliminates that requirement for low-level marijuana possession cases and instead allows the governor and state attorney general to establish and implement an expungement process.

Bill Also Defines Social Equity Applicants

The original intent of HB 1424 was to create a definition for applicants eligible for the state’s cannabis business accelerator program and a future social equity program for Colorado’s legal cannabis industry. Under the current accelerator program, which is only open to those from economically disadvantaged communities, eligible individuals are permitted to operate marijuana businesses out of existing licensed facilities.

Deadly police actions, punctuated by the ongoing protests after the murder of George Floyd, represent just one arm of an octopus-like creature that feeds off systemic racism. Another element that has been brought up a lot in recent weeks is the failed War on Drugs policy.

Despite the supposed end to the U.S. drug policy, it continues to claim victims, including those who remain in prison for non-violent weed convictions and those whose records prevent them from equal treatment in terms employment and housing.

The War on Drugs “is a policy failure that has come at great cost, to society generally and to minority communities especially,” drug policy experts Katharine Neill Harris and Alfred Glassell, III write in a blog posted last week on Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy website.

But, as Harris and Glassell point out in their post, the failure’s legacy stretches beyond the immediate victims: “The ‘war on drugs’ is an impediment to reducing unnecessary citizen-police encounters and to cultivating humane treatment of people who use drugs.” By normalizing “aggressive policing within a system already mired in institutional racism,” the pair suggests that chances are greater for more and more violent interactions between people and police.

Approaches such as no-knock searches, often led by heavily armed SWAT teams, unsurprisingly “carry a high risk for deadly violence.” And drugs are a routine component of “pretext stops,” described as allowing police officers to stop people for one violation with the intent of uncovering a separate violation. This would be the case if a driver was pulled over for a traffic violation and on the pretext of smelling weed, the vehicle is then searched.

Last week was Hemp Week across the USA, but in the state of Colorado a special local event was officially proclaimed by the state’s government.

As we recently mentioned, a national Hemp Week was held last week – an initiative of the Hemp Industries Association (HIA) that is now in its 11th year. Colorado’s state government took things a step further by issuing an official proclamation declaring Colorado Hemp Week; with a slightly different timeline – June 7 – 13.

“Colorado was the first state in the nation to bring back the cultivation of hemp after 75 years of prohibition and we lead the nation in industrial hemp production acreage,” said a post on Governor Jared Polis’s Facebook page. “Hemp is a necessary agricultural commodity to promote conservation and hemp products can provide sustainable solutions and options for consumers and businesses.”

The Proclamation also states Colorado was the first state in the nation to recognize hemp as a food product.

Colorado voters authorized hemp production in 2012, and the first experimental crops were planted the following year. This was before the federal 2014 Farm Bill that contained provisions for growing hemp for research purposes.

Long-known as a cannabis mecca, Nepal would establish a formal program to develop medical cannabis and the hemp sector under a bill that has been proposed in the country’s parliament.

The Cannabis Cultivation Act, put forth by MP Sher Bahadur Tamang and signed by 40 legislators, would require no license for growers of hemp destined for foods, including but not limited to seeds, honey, oil and drinks, and use of the hemp stalk for industrial purposes. Sales and distribution of those products also would not require special license under the proposal.

Research and production of CBD would presumably be licensed under medical cannabis provisions in the bill, but the measure is intended primarily to advance that compound for Ayurvedic and allopathic healing, according to Nivedita Bansal Shah, COO and a co-founder at Janakpur-based Shah Hemp Inno-Ventures (SHIV), Nepal’s leading hemp company.

THC limit is troublesome

However the bill’s recommended THC limit of 0.2% – which follows the current European standard – would challenge those who want to farm hemp, likely requiring years of breeding to develop cultivars that would come in under that benchmark.

“Setting THC limits is not relevant in Nepal unless and until we study our genetic landraces,” said Dhiraj K. Shah, SHIV’s CEO and co-founder. “This law would lead to the import of certified 0.2% THC seeds, destroying our genetics even before we could discover their potential,” Shah said. “This is what happens when underdeveloped countries make laws under the influence of developed countries.”

Six months after the decriminalization of cannabis in Trinidad and Tobago, some early results are in. 

Among other things, the nation has seen a significant drop in cannabis-related arrests. A somewhat confusing rollout and COVID-related delays have, however, pushed back the establishment of a fully regulated medical cannabis industry and fueled an apparent spurt in illicit cultivation.

When amendments to the country’s Dangerous Drugs Act were pitched to the population and members of Parliament six months ago, Faris Al Rawi, the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, said it would be  the country’s most aggressive realignment in the area of drug policy and criminal justice reform in decades. Indeed, the Act allows persons to possess up to thirty grams of cannabis and five grams of cannabis resin without penalty, and it makes possession of between thirty grams and sixty grams of cannabis and up to 10 grams of cannabis resin a ticketable offense. Previously, any amount of cannabis resulted in a criminal penalty. 

So far, some results are significant. An analysis of data from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service by Cannabis Wire shows that between January and December of 2019, a period before the Act was in force, the country’s Police Service arrested and charged 3,630 individuals for offenses related to cannabis: 3,254 for possession, and 376 for possession with the intent to sell. Since the passage of the Act in December, however, up until the end of April 2020, only 192 arrests have been made: 117 for possession, and 75 for possession with intent to sell. 

Still, parts of the decriminalization rollout have been “flawed,” Nazma Muller, a cannabis legalization activist, told Cannabis Wire. She pointed out, for example, that citizens still have no legal access to seeds, which the Ministry of Agriculture has said they will provide, although the Act has granted them the right to cultivate cannabis since December. Muller has again begun to protest the delays and announced plans to form a union to represent cannabis farmers in their dealings with the Government.

At the end of May, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO). The announcement came on the heels of a Trump threat to permanently cut off all U.S. funding for the organization (the U.S. is the largest individual national contributor) because of a supposedly “China-centric influence.”

But beyond squabbles about politics or supposed “foreign” influence, what will this decision have, if any, on the international or domestic cannabis industry?

A Brief History of The WHO and Cannabis

In a nutshell, the WHO is the health arm of the United Nations (UN). It is by definition, an intergovernmental organization created in the aftermath of WWII in 1948 to foster international responses to global health threats. The WHO has, as its primary function, a global coordinating role in developing international public health policy and coordinating global responses to epidemics and pandemics, as well as other diseases. Their responses to diseases, beyond the current crisis, include those for SARS and ebola, as well as smallpox, polio, and measles.

The WHO, named in the three global narcotics control treaties that are now up to sixty years old next year, also has the authority to make scheduling determinations. And that currently is where the friction, if not the debate, lies when it comes to cannabis.

The WHO And Cannabis Reform

Despite expanding reform on a country-by-country basis over the last five years, the WHO has not budged on considering reclassification, although the entity has considered the question for the last three years. Indeed, the WHO recommended that cannabis be rescheduled in 2019, but delayed the vote yet again in early March 2020, about a week before declaring COVID-19 a global pandemic. The decision about the reclassification of the plant as well as the cannabinoids within it, is expected to happen this December. The outcome is widely expected to change THC at least to a legitimate (Schedule II) drug and potentially deschedule hemp. 

To legalize, or not to legalize? That is the question South Dakotans will answer when it comes to marijuana in the state. In November, voters will decide on Constitutional Amendment A and Initiated Measure 26.

Amendment A would legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana as well as require laws ensuring access to medical marijuana. IM 26 would establish a medical marijuana program for qualifying patients. On Wednesday, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws held a Zoom news conference to make its case to legalize it. However, local law enforcement has questions about the implications of approving the amendment and initiated measure.

South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws want voters to say yes to cannabis in the state.

“The outright prohibition on cannabis does not work,” Brendan Johnson, former U.S Attorney and member of Better Marijuana Laws, said.

Supporters include Johnson and Chuck Parkinson , who worked for President Reagan’s administration on the frontlines of the famed War on Drugs.

The Garden State will be facing a budget shortfall through the end of the next fiscal year as a result of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Can marijuana legalization help?

Registered voters in New Jersey are expected to vote in favor of adult-use marijuana legalization in November — but uncertainty surrounds the pending legislation.

“Cannabis advocates looking forward to creating an adult use regulated and taxed cannabis marketplace have reason to be cautiously optimistic as we approach the consideration of the issue in the form of a public question on the ballot for the voters in November,” says Charles Gormally, co-chair of the Brach Eichler LLC cannabis practice group.

Early polling has shown consistent support for the question. Nevertheless, Gormally said he expects to see a large influx of pro- and anti-pot advocacy on the question in the months leading to the election itself.

“Since the early 1970s, we have created a significant number of stake holders in the failed cannabis prohibition regime that continues to dominate federal and state law enforcement interest groups,” he says. “In addition, advocacy groups touting the false narrative of cannabis as a ‘dangerous gateway drug’ are well financed and powerful forces that oppose cannabis law modernization.”

Traffic searches, a longtime tool in the War on Drugs, dropped dramatically following marijuana legalization, new data reveals.

Two weeks have passed since George Floyd was killed while in the custody of Minneapolis police, sparking nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic injustice. National organizations and lawmakers have admitted that rolling back Drug War policies is an important step to fixing inequalities that exist in criminal justice.

Sen. Cory Booker noted racial imbalances in marijuana enforcement as just one explanation for the protests. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, described cannabis legalization as a “civil rights” issue.

That’s because, as data shows, legalizing marijuana changes the behavior of police departments. Colorado and Washington voters approved recreational cannabis in 2012 and a 2017 analysis by the Stanford Open Policing Project examined how this affected the focus of state police. Data shows that roadside searches dropped by nearly half post-legalization, with the most dramatic decrease occurring among Black and Hispanic drivers. In addition, Burlington police in Vermont released data last year that showed traffic searches dropped by 70% after the state legalized marijuana.

According to Stanford researchers, the threshold to pull over minority drivers is lower than it is for white drivers. Though traffic stops eventually dropped by more than 50% in both Colorado and Washington following legalization, that disparity between white and minority drivers remained.

Though California legalized marijuana to roll back unjust Drug War policies, cannabis taxes help fund police operations.

California Governor Gavin Newsom discussed during a press conference last week how the state plans to fix issues of systemic injustice and racism following widespread protests of police brutality. Newsom referenced California’s efforts to roll back the consequences and policies of the War on Drugs, including mandatory-minimum sentencing and the disparity between prosecuting crack vs. cocaine drug possession.

A major act of criminal justice reform, Newsom highlighted, was California legalizing recreational marijuana in recent years. The governor went so far as to describe legalization as a “civil rights” issue.

“That’s why the state was one of the early adopters of a new approach as it relates to cannabis reform—legalization around adult-use of marijuana,” Newsom said. “It was a civil rights call from our perspective.”

“I was proud to be out in front in those efforts,” he continued. “It was about addressing the disparities. It was about addressing incarceration. It was about addressing the ills of this war on drugs.”

It all started with a bizarre, teasing tweet on June 6th, when billionaire Elon Musk told his 35 million Twitter followers: "This will probably get me into trouble, but I feel I have to say it."

Musk has been the target of much controversy in recent months, claiming his company Tesla's stock price were too high, calling shelter-in-place orders "fascist," and calling the panic over the pandemic "dumb." All of these proclamations have come via his Twitter feed, so when Musk again turned to the platform to warn that he might be stepping in it again, the Twitterverse wondered what he would say this time. 

Speculation was rampant. Will he announce the invention of wireless seatbelts? Are Tesla stockholders about to have another nervous breakdown? Will he be saying something about the Black Lives Matter movement?

No to all of the above. Turns out his big revelation the next day was perhaps the most sensical thing Musk has said in the last few months. 

Musk became another critic of the antiquated and unjust penal system that incarcerates innocent people for non-violent cannabis crimes. Far from getting him in trouble, his tweet evoked a plethora of praise.