News

New High for Legal Marijuana

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Support for cannabis legalization in the U.S. is stronger than ever before, according to a Gallup Poll released November 9. It found two out of three Americans (68%) think the use of marijuana should be made legal, while just 32% think it should remain illegal. This includes majorities of most demographic subgroups, including gender, age, education and household income. Support is also steadily growing stronger among Republicans, with half (48%) now in favor of legalization.

According to Gallup:

Since 2012, when Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana, there has been a slow trickle of states that have followed suit. Over that period, Americans’ support for marijuana legalization has risen 20 points to a record-high 68%. This measure has enjoyed majority support from the public since 2013. Additionally, Gallup data from earlier this year find that 70% of U.S. adults now consider smoking marijuana to be morally acceptable, marking a five-percentage-point uptick in one year.

Ahead…

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The Democrats won the presidency and narrowly retained the U.S. House. Control of the U.S. Senate will be determined in a January runoff. The President still won’t concede or start a transition process.

So what does this mean in the short term for the industry?

There are some potentially positive developments, but we will have to wait and see (again) what happens in the next few weeks.

Here’s the current federal landscape:

  • House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told lawmakers last week that he would hold a vote in December on a bill that would decriminalize cannabis, create a process to expunge nonviolent pot convictions and remove the drug from the Controlled Substances Act.  It is expected to pass the House, but the Senate? The House vote may end up being largely symbolic, experts say.
  • NORML released a public letter recommending that Biden install an attorney general who favors cannabis legalization. “We cannot allow this sort of Reefer Madness to continue to flourish at the Department of Justice,” the letter stated.
  • 420 IMPAC, or 420 Interstate Marijuana PAC, has been formed to advance the industry’s influence in Congress.In addition to supporting pro-cannabis legislation, the PAC is aimed at removing “prohibitionist” lawmakers and is focused on fundraising for the 2022 midterms. Read more here.
  • Senate appropriators have released several 2021 spending bills that include cannabis-related provisions.  They include measures banning Washington, D.C. from using its own local tax dollars to implement a regulated marijuana market, protecting state medical cannabis programs from federal intervention, and removing barriers to marijuana research caused by federal prohibition. The House released their cannabis-related spending bills over the summer.

Meanwhile, as the feds fiddle, Colorado continues to thrive . . .

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In September, dispensaries brought in nearly $206.5 million in sales.  This was a slight drop from August, and roughly a 9% decline from the record set in July ($237 million). However, sales were still 25% higher than in September 2019. To date, taxes and fees for the state total $318 million.The cannabis industry is helping the Colorado economy even as tourism revenue tumbled more than 50% because of the coronavirus pandemic. Great graphics on this can be found here.

On Election Day, 12 towns voted on cannabis tax issues, allowing cannabis sales, or both.

Read more

The future is green 

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Now that voters in four states – New Jersey, Montana, Arizona, and South Dakota – approved recreational marijuana, and voters in one state – Mississippi – approved medical marijuana sales, expect more states to follow, experts say.

“This indicates that people are frustrated with the outdated drug policies from the 1970s,” Mason Marks, a law professor at Gonzaga University and a fellow in residence at Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, told ABC News.

In fact, governors in New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Virginia have started seriously considering legalizing adult-use cannabis in 2021.

Good news on driving while impaired

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A new study shows that while driving after cannabis use was more prevalent in legal cannabis states, driving while high was actually less common. Researchers recommended states use public education campaigns – such as the Don’t Drive High campaign by CDOT – to effectively decrease impaired driving.

Not all Canadians are nice

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Columbian drug lords were known to keep lions, tigers, hippos and venomous snakes, but Canadian drug traffickers have different taste in exotic animals.

A recent police bust just north of Toronto recovered $150 million worth of illegally-grown marijuana, guns, crossbows and . . .   THREE kangaroos and TWO zebras.

No word on who owned them and why. More…

Counting Down…

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There are only 13 days left until the election.  We’re hard pressed to find anyone who says 2020 has been a good year, but perhaps the last couple of months are shaping up to deliver good news to the cannabis industry.

AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL, there is hope that the 83-year prohibition on cannabis is nearing its end – if the Democrats win the White House, retain the House of Representatives and take control of the Senate.

 

“If the Democrats do a clean sweep, then de-scheduling with interstate trade is definitely within the realm of possibility,” Randal Meyer, the executive director of the Global Alliance for Cannabis Commerce (GACC), told Marijuana Business Daily.  

DE-SCHEDULING would not only legalize marijuana at the federal level, it would end 280E tax restrictions, open banking to cannabis companies and permit interstation and international cannabis trade. Because the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act is already sitting in the House, it would likely be the “vehicle” used to de-schedule.

ASSUMING ALL THAT HAPPENS, it is unclear how to construct a regulatory framework.  Cannabis does not fit neatly into one category that can be regulated by the FDA, as it is food, a drug and a cosmetic.  Some industry recommendations include a hybrid approach, allowing states to continue enforcement and the FDA and Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau oversee interstate cannabis trade.

More than $3 million on lobbying for cannabis reform in Congress has been spent this year in Congress. Click here to see a chart showing the money spent.

Click to see the Marijuana Policy Project’s breakdown of states’ positions on legalization. 

AT THE STATE LEVEL, it’s all about ballot measures.  Voters in five states will decide on legalization of cannabis for recreational or medicinal purposes.  If all five measures pass, medicinal marijuana will be legal in 38 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and adult-use will be legal in 14 of those, and in D.C.

Arizona, Montana, and New Jersey will vote on whether to legalize marijuana for adult use.  

Mississippi will vote on whether to legalize medical marijuana. Currently, it is legal in 33 states.

South Dakota would become the first state to approve both medical and recreational cannabis markets simultaneously. The state’s current marijuana possession laws are considered the harshest in the country.  

Dazed and Confused 

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First the good news. The total number of people arrested in the U.S. for breaking cannabis laws declined for the first time in four years.

Now the really bad news. Arrests for marijuana violations outpaced arrests for ALL violent crimes put together, according to data from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI’s report showed police arrested 545,602 people for cannabis-related crimes in 2019, which is 9 percent higher than the 495,871 people arrested for violent crimes. And the charges? Well, 92 percent of the cannabis arrests were for simple possession.

A recent report from the ACLU found that black people were 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than white people. And in Montana, which is voting on legalization in less than two weeks, Black people were about 9.5 percent more likely to be arrested.

The Maturity of the Market

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Colorado cannabis users have spent about $1.42 billion on cannabis through August, positioning the industry to exceed $2 billion in 2020 sales – four years earlier than industry experts’ predictions.

These numbers come as the Marijuana Enforcement Division released an in-depth report on the Colorado cannabis market, which was prepared by MPG Consulting (formerly the Marijuana Policy Group) and Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. The key themes include:

  • The regulated market is nearing maturity as evidenced by price trends, supply patterns and consolidation.
  • A larger and more compliant market has emerged and includes accurate reporting, better internal controls, better use of the inventory tracking system by state and industry, and an effective regulatory and enforcement system.
  • Most all regulated marijuana products have continued to decline due to improvements in production efficiencies and competition.
  • Adult use marijuana sales are still increasing, medical sales, not so much.
  • Shifting demand to Concentrates continues.
  • Average potency continues a steady increase while price per dose is decreasing.
  • Consumption is increasing among Colorado adults.

How to make change

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Colorado Leads member LivWell Enlightened Health found that just a few cents goes a long way to making change. In August, LivWell asked its customers to “round up” their purchase to the nearest dollar with the difference going to the Colorado COVID Relief Fund. The company has already raised more than $30,000 through nearly 69,000 transactions/donations.

The relief fund supports Colorado communities and organizations affected by the recent outbreak of COVID-19.