Senate Committee Passes Medical Marijuana Protections, Marijuana Justice Act Picks Up Support, Attorney General Jeff Sessions Stays Committed to Federal Cannabis Laws: Week In Review

In another fast-paced week in the cannabis industry, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee passed state-legal medical marijuana protections, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren co-sponsored the Marijuana Justice Act, the U.S. Senate approved a hemp measure recognizing the value of the plant, Attorney Jeff Sessions showed no indication of softening his anti-cannabis stance and more.

• Federal: For the third year in a row, the U.S. Senate has adopted a nonbinding resolution recognizing the value of hemp without actually legalizing it. The legislation, adopted June 5, recognizes “the growing economic potential of industrial hemp” as well as its “historical relevance.”

• Language from U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s industrial hemp legislation that would legalize production and sales of the plant was included in the U.S. Senate’s version of the 2018 Farm Bill. The move comes four years after McConnell inserted industrial hemp research pilot program guidance into the 2014 Farm Bill.

• U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions shows no signs of backing away from a potential Department of Justice (DOJ) crackdown on state-legal cannabis businesses, despite an agreement reached by President Donald Trump and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) earlier this spring. Sessions told Colorado Public Radio that he was not told by Trump to back off from states that have legalized cannabis: “I did not have a meeting to discuss in detail what [Gardner’s] comments were,” he said. “They were more about the potential future legislation, as I recall it, and we were not ordered to do anything other than the policies that we intend to carry out nationally.”

• U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) co-sponsored the Marijuana Justice Act June 7, joining Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Kamala Harris (D-CA). Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) originally introduced the bill in August 2017 to essentially legalize cannabis at the federal level.

• Mayors from seven U.S. cities in states with legal marijuana said June 11 that they have formed a coalition to push for federal marijuana policy reform just days after President Donald Trump expressed support for bipartisan congressional legislation to ease the federal ban on marijuana. Mayors from Denver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and West Sacramento—all in marijuana-friendly states—sponsored a resolution at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Boston that asked the U.S. government to remove cannabis from a list of illegal drugs, among other things.

• A U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee vote pushed state-legal medical marijuana protections even further down the legislative process on June 14, echoing what the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment achieved in past spending bills. The amendment would bar the DOJ from spending money on the prosecution of any licensed medical cannabis business or operator in states where medical cannabis is legal.

• Congresswoman Barbara Lee introduced The RESPECT Resolution—Realizing Equitable & Sustainable Participation in Emerging Cannabis Trades—June 14 to elevate the importance of building pathways of opportunity for individuals who have been most adversely impacted by the war on marijuana consumers. The RESPECT Resolution seeks both economic and reparative justice, ensuring that disenfranchised communities will be able to benefit equally in the emerging legal and regulated industry.

• Michigan: The Michigan Medical Marijuana Licensing Board was supposed to distribute the first licenses to cannabis businesses this week, but those businesses will have to wait another month before opening their doors after the June 11 meeting was cancelled. The board was set to award licenses to four applicants that represent four large marijuana growing operations, a secure transport company, a dispensary in Ann Arbor and a processor.

• Colorado: Cannabis advocates in Colorado are disappointed following Gov. John Hickenlooper’s rapid-fire vetoes of bills that would have added autism to the state’s medical marijuana program, permitted licensed marijuana “tasting rooms” and helped cannabis businesses access out-of-state capital. “He just basically torpedoed this legislation, and the reasoning he provided is not particularly compelling,” said Mason Tvert, spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project.

• Canada: The federal Liberal government is rejecting more than a dozen Senate amendments to its landmark law to legalize cannabis, including the upper chamber’s efforts to further limit—or ban outright—the ability to cultivate marijuana at home. In a motion put before the House of Commons, the Liberals say they can’t support a Senate amendment that would allow provinces to ban home cultivation of marijuana, arguing that the bill already gives provinces and territories the ability to impose their own restrictions.

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