Cannabis News Update July 2, 2021
Today in cannabis news: A North Carolina state Senate panel approves a medical cannabis legalization measure; Harvard University opens a first-ever Psychedelics Policy Center; U.S. House lawmakers advance bills on cannabis protections for immigrants and veterans.
The Morning Buzz presented by TRICHOMES brings you late-breaking news that tells you what’s happening within the cannabis industry. Check in with the cannabis community at TRICHOMES.com
** First up: This week, a major North Carolina state Senate panel passed a measure that would legalize medical cannabis statewide. Prior to the measure being discussed in the chamber, it must still pass through three more committees.
Bill Rabon (R), the chairperson of the Rules Committee, is supporting the measure, which would permit people with a “debilitating medical condition” including cancer, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, or multiple sclerosis to obtain cannabis. Further eligible conditions could be added by authorities.
The bill’s goal, according to Rabon, is to “give some compassionate care for specific ailments to those people in North Carolina who need it and to make them law-abiding citizens.”
Among the yes votes in the committee was Majority Leader Kathy Harrington (R), whose husband was recently diagnosed with blood cancer.
“If you had asked me six months ago if I would support this bill, I would have said no,” they said. “But life comes at you fast.”
** Next up: This week, Harvard Law School launched a one-of-a-kind psychedelics policy center, with the goal to aid physicians in navigating this new medical field as reforms move forward.
As per a news release, the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR) will be a 3 year-long endeavor to “promote safety, innovation, and equity in psychedelics research, commerce, and therapeutics.”
The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard University acknowledged in its unveiling that state and municipal psychedelics advancements require an assessment of policy effects as well as the possible implications of private corporations seeking to enter the industry.
“Right now, there are a handful of psychedelics research centers at universities around the country. However, they are focused on clinical research,” said Mason Marks, senior fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center and director of POPLAR. “There is no systematic research being done on psychedelics law, and POPLAR will fill this gap.”
Marks, who also works on a psilocybin advisory council in Oregon, which was formed after voters passed a medicinal legalization effort last year, said the venture will resolve ethical issues for medical professionals working with psychedelics and will operate to advise the decriminalization progression without explicitly participating in it.
** Last up: This week, legislators in the U.S. House of Representatives adopted various budget measures that address a variety of cannabis policy concerns, such as immigration qualification for cannabis users, incentives for military veterans who work in the business, and regulations on cannabidiol (CBD) and hemp.
An individual who confesses to smoking cannabis, even in accordance with state statute, is ethically unsuitable for citizenship, as per the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). In a 2019 memorandum, the department reaffirmed its stance, saying that working in a state-authorized cannabis sector is another element that could affect someone’s immigration eligibility.
A clause in an appropriations bill that allots funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for fiscal year 2022 prohibits its component departments from refusing anyone immigration benefits or safeguards, or punishing them in an application, merely because they’ve confessed to consuming cannabis or were found guilty of a low-level cannabis infraction.
This comes just one day following the House Appropriations Committee passing legislation that contains verbiage protecting financial institutions that service state-licensed cannabis firms and, importantly, excludes a previous rider prohibiting Washington, D.C. from utilizing its tax revenue to allow adult-use cannabis sales. The panel also passed a resolution urging federal authorities to review rules that lead to staffers being fired for using cannabis legitimately in adherence with state statute.
source
