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More than 800 cannabis industry leaders have signed onto a letter urging Congress to deschedule marijuana to mitigate the risks associated with vaping products obtained on the illicit market.

Led by the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), the letter being delivered to House and Senate leadership on Thursday argues that the recent spate of vaping-related lung injuries and deaths demonstrates the need for robust federal regulations that aren’t available because marijuana remains a federally controlled substance. It notes that a majority of these medical issues appear to be the result of using adulterated, unregulated products.

“Make no mistake, the legal state-regulated cannabis industry knows that any death is one death too many,” the letter states. “Fortunately, we have policy tools that can be employed to help limit the illicit market, implement uniform good manufacturing practices and prevent future harms.”

NCIA and its co-signers—including representatives of firms such as Berkeley Patients Group, Leafly, Weedmaps, 4Front Ventures, SPARC, Foria and Vicente Sederberg LLP—argued that the public “needs accurate and actionable information from the government, particularly about illegal, untested, and dangerous illicit market consumer products.”

Aaron Smith, NCIA’s executive director, told Marijuana Moment that “it is absolutely vital for members of Congress to understand that this vaping illness outbreak is directly tied to failed prohibition policies that support the unregulated underground market.”

“There is a reason there are no illness outbreaks related to tainted alcohol in this country: the substance is regulated at the federal and state levels, and licensed producers have almost entirely replaced bootleggers,” he said. “Descheduling cannabis products and regulating them effectively is essential to improving on successful state regulatory systems, allowing more comprehensive research, and displacing the illicit market.”

The letter lays out five policy recommendations to ensure that people aren’t exposed to dangerous and untested products.

“—Congress is urged to immediately remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and begin to sensibly regulate this substance in a manner similar to alcohol and other consumables, and to make funds immediately available to state medical authorities to investigate these cases.

“—Licensed vape cartridge producers are encouraged to halt the use, if any, of additive thickening agents until more data is available.

“—Given the preliminary reported association of some illness cases with Vitamin E acetate, any licensed producer that has included this additive in recent vape product batches is strongly encouraged to issue a voluntary recall of those products.

“—Licensed cannabis retailers are encouraged to take steps to ensure none of their available vape cartridge inventories have been sourced from a producer that uses Vitamin E acetate.

“—Cannabis vape cartridge consumers are urged to immediately cease the use of any product obtained from the illicit market and to limit any future purchases of vape cartridges and other cannabis products to state-licensed, regulated businesses.”

“Descheduling is the only way to truly reform federal cannabis policy in a sensible manner so that state regulatory programs can most successfully ensure consumer safety and to pave the way for appropriate federal regulations,” the letter argues.

Currently, marijuana remains within the purview of the Drug Enforcement Administration, rather than agencies responsible for enforcing quality control standards such as the Food and Drug Administration.

The other problem is that federal restrictions inhibits state-legal marijuana businesses from effectively competing with the illicit market, NCIA said. Removing cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act would “ensure that unethical actors are increasingly disrupted by legitimate, responsible businesses.”

“The legal cannabis industry is extremely concerned about these reported illnesses and deaths. It is clear that the American public wants quality-controlled cannabis products made available for adults and patients. The recent news is, unfortunately, yet another reminder that there is no time to waste. Our industry wants to provide the products voters demand with a tireless focus on improving consumer safety. We are at the ready to work collaboratively with federal lawmakers, the same way we have at the state level for over a decade. Please let us know how we can help move the ball forward on descheduling legislation. Lives are literally at stake.”

NCIA, as well as the Cannabis Trade Federation, made a similar call for regulations in response to vaping issues last month, urging congressional action because existing policy prevents “federal regulatory agencies from establishing safety guidelines, discourage states from regulating cannabis, and make it more difficult for state-legal cannabis businesses to displace the illicit market.”

Smith said that the marijuana industry “is committed to ensuring the safety of cannabis consumers, and NCIA stands ready to help lawmakers and regulators do just that.”

Read the full letter from cannabis industry representatives to Congress below:




Image by Lindsay Fox from Pixabay.

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POLITICSMarijuana Legislation’s Biggest Enemy Wants To Return To CongressPublished 51 mins ago on October 3, 2019By Kyle Jaeger
A former GOP congressman who consistently blocked marijuana reform efforts for years before losing a reelection battle in 2018 is running for Congress again, this time in a more conservative Texas district.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) announced on Thursday that he’s moving to Waco and running for a seat currently occupied by retiring Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX). This comes almost one year after Sessions was defeated by Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) in his Dallas district. Allred was a civil rights attorney and former NFL player who supports medical cannabis and decriminalizing simple possession of marijuana.

It’s safe to say that Sessions’s new campaign isn’t going to win a lot of favor with cannabis reform advocates.

The former congressman served as chair of the House Rules Committee, an influential panel where he was essentially able to singlehandedly prevent even the most modest marijuana reform measures from advancing to the floor. He blocked legislation that would allow banks to service cannabis businesses, protect state marijuana laws from federal intervention and expand military veterans’ access to medical cannabis, for example.

During the last two-year Congress alone, Sessions’s panel prevented more than three dozen marijuana-related measures from being considered by the full body for up-or-down votes.

“Texans said no to Pete Sessions already,” Justin Strekal, political director of NORML, told Marijuana Moment. “Being a carpetbagger in a neighboring district is going to be an anchor on his candidacy that will hopefully keep him far, far away from the halls of Congress.”

When Sessions lost last year as part of a wave of Republican defeats in the House, giving control to Democrats, the gears quickly shifted on cannabis.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) took Sessions’s place as Rules chair, promising early on to allow reform measures to reach the floor. Multiple reform amendments attached to spending bills have been cleared through his panel on the way to the floor, including a historic measure preventing the Justice Department from going after any state cannabis program, not just medical ones. He didn’t put up a fight over bipartisan marijuana banking legislation that passed in the House last month, either, and voted for it on the floor.

The Democratic chairman is also a cosponsor of four pieces of legislation to federally deschedule marijuana.

In contrast, Sessions seems to have a personal animus towards cannabis.

“I, as probably everybody in this rooms knows, have a strong opinion on drugs, illegal drugs, alcohol,” he said just before blocking one measure to prevent federal intervention in state cannabis laws last year. “Marijuana is an addictive product, and the merchants of addiction make it that way. They make it for addiction. They make it to where our people, our young people, become addicted to marijuana and keep going.”

Separately, Sessions claimed that cannabis is now more potent than it was when he was a young man—by a mathematically impossible factor.

“When I went to high school…in 1973, I graduated, marijuana, on average, is 300 times more powerful,” he said. “That becomes an addictive element for a child to then go to the next thing.”

In advance of last year’s election, a political action committee controlled by pro-legalization Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) paid for billboards in Sessions’s district highlighting his opposition to medical marijuana.


Late last year, however, a group of mothers of children who use medical cannabis met with Sessions, telling Marijuana Moment afterwards that he seemed “gracious” and “very receptive” to their concerns.

For Sessions to mount a successful bid for a new seat in Congress, he’s going to have to convince more than reform advocates that he’s qualified to represent them. Flores, the incumbent GOP congressman whose seat Sessions wants, told The Texas Tribune that “conservative leaders and community leaders in the district who are aware of Pete’s intentions have told me they would prefer someone who currently lives, works, and serves in our communities.”

“They strongly believe that we have ample talent here to serve as their next congressman or congresswoman,” he said.

Of course, even if Sessions were to win next year and return to the House, there’s no guarantee he’d go back to helming a congressional cannabis blockade in the Rules Committee. First, Republicans would have to regain a majority in the chamber in order for him to have a shot of taking up the gavel again. And second, there’s nothing that would require Republican leadership to reinstate Sessions back to his position on the panel even if he were elected as part of a new GOP majority.





Marijuana Moment is made possible with support from readers. If you rely on our cannabis advocacy journalism to stay informed, please consider a monthly Patreon pledge.

CONTINUE READINGPOLITICSApplications Are Now Open To Join A Historic Government Psychedelics Board In DenverPublished 2 hours ago on October 3, 2019By Kyle Jaeger
People can now apply to become a member of the nation’s first government panel dedicated to studying the impact of psychedelic policy reform efforts.

Denver became the first city in the U.S. to make psilocybin offenses the lowest law enforcement priority in May, sparking a nationwide movement to reform laws governing psychedelics. As part of that voter-approved initiative, the city was required to establish a panel designed to “assess and report on the effects of the ordinance.”

On Wednesday, the city government opened an application portal for individuals interested in joining the body.

The Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel will comprised of eleven people, mostly appointed by the mayor. Two members must come from the City Council, one must be a harm reduction advocate, two must be a representatives of the local sheriff’s department and Denver Police Department, one must be a criminal defense attorney, one must be a representative of the local district attorney’s office and one must be a representative of the City Attorney’s office. Two members will be chosen by the original petitioners behind the decriminalization ballot measure.

“Our target is to have Denver set a precedent for the rest of the country and be an example for what successful implementation of a psilocybin decriminalization initiative looks like in a city,” Kevin Matthews, who led the successful Decriminalize Denver campaign, told Marijuana Moment in an interview.

While the ballot measure mandated that the review panel be formed by December 31, Matthews said that the mayor’s office is following through with the campaign’s request to move ahead sooner and have members in place by the end of October.

“In many ways implementing the review panel is the most important part of what we accomplished last May,” he said, adding that the early formation of the body “is an example of the work we’re doing here in Denver and what’s possible for the future.”

Here are the three requirements of the panel under the voter-approved measure:

1. Elect a chairperson and meet at least quarterly or more frequently as necessary;

2. By the March 31 immediately following the adoption of the ballot measure, establish reporting criteria for the Denver Police Department, the Denver Sheriff Department and Denver City Attorney’s Office to report psilocybin mushroom arrests and prosecutions;

3. Submit a comprehensive written report with recommendations to the City Council that will include, but not be limited to, information concerning the public safety, public administration, public health and fiscal impacts of the measure. This report must be completed and presented at the first available City Council Committee Meeting for calendar year 2021.

Members will serve three-year terms and won’t be compensated.

People can apply for a position on the board via the city’s website.

Rather than take one of the two seats to be chosen by the decriminalization campaign, Matthews said he will ask the mayor to appoint him to an additional non-voting ex officio slot so that the formal spaces can go to an attorney and medical doctor with relevant expertise.

He said he hopes the panel will explore broader issues beyond the basic matter of how psilocybin-related arrests will presumably decline in the wake of the ballot measure’s passage.

The vote, he said, “sparked a broader conversation about our city’s enforcement policies when it comes to drug offenders” and that the campaign has already had conversations with the district attorney’s office and mayor’s team about “behavioral health in general.”

Calling Denver a “microcosm of the global mental health and addiction crisis,” Matthews said he wants to “utilize this panel to really start to explore what’s possible in terms of psilocybin therapy’s being an integral part of Denver’s healthcare system.”

“My hope is that we can explore some of these broader issues,” he said.

Denver’s historic decriminalization vote set off a surge of similar initiatives across the country. Following the campaign’s success, Oakland’s City Council unanimously approved a measure to decriminalize not just psilocybin but a host of psychedelics that may hold therapeutic potential in the treatment of various mental health conditions.

Now there are efforts underway to legalize psilocybin for therapeutic use in Oregon and to decriminalize the fungus statewide in California.

Decriminalize Denver, which led the city’s decriminalization initiative, has since morphed into SPORE, a national advocacy group that’s collaborating with activists across the country to reduce criminal penalties for psychedelics offenses.



Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Mushroom Observer.

Marijuana Moment is made possible with support from readers. If you rely on our cannabis advocacy journalism to stay informed, please consider a monthly Patreon pledge.

CONTINUE READINGPOLITICSTucker Carlson Thinks Congress Approved Marijuana Banking To Make Americans ‘Dumb’Published 24 hours ago on October 2, 2019By Kyle Jaeger
Why did the House pass a bipartisan marijuana banking bill last month? According to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, it’s because the legislation would help “weed dealers” and because lawmakers “want you to be dumb” so they can avoid public scrutiny.

Carlson, who has made clear in recent years that he’s no fan of cannabis after previously embracing reform during a stint as a libertarian, dedicated part of his show on Monday to the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which cleared the House in a 321-103 vote and saw almost half of Republicans join with virtually all Democrats in support of the bill. The legislation would protect banks that service state-legal marijuana businesses from being penalized by federal regulators.

But as far as Carlson is concerned, the proposal is a ploy to enrich certain individuals and make the American population apathetic to the overall shortcomings of Congress.

The host started the segment by complaining about inaction on issues such as infrastructure and immigration and said that while Congress “should be working on these things,” they remain preoccupied with impeachment proceedings and are too divided to tackle them in any case. There is one exception to the partisanship, though, he said.

“On most issues they’re divided, but we should correct and say on one issue they’re in virtual total agreement,” he said. “Last Wednesday, that was the same day the House was convulsed with the impeachment debate, 291 Democrats and 91 Republicans came together in a rare moment of bipartisan agreement to pass the so-called SAFE Banking Act.”

“Safe for whom? Weed dealers,” Carlson said.



“Even though marijuana is still illegal federally, the bill would allow banks and credit unions to provide banking services to people who deal marijuana,” he said. “So in the middle of the deadliest drug epidemic in our history, the only thing Congress can agree on is it ought to be easier to sell drugs to Americans.”

Carlson has a couple theories about why there was bipartisan support for the banking legislation—and it has nothing to do with concerns about crime and the lack of transparency that are associated with forcing cannabis businesses to operate on a largely cash-only basis.

“One, a small number are getting very rich doing it. The former Republican Speaker is now a weed lobbyist,” he said, referencing John Boehner. “And for another, when you mismanage the country this badly, you want the people to be so out of it they don’t respond. That is really true. They want you to be dumb.”

“Choose sobriety so you can be awake enough to critique them and the crappy job they’re doing,” he said.

While Carlson’s point about the legislation primarily benefitting existing marijuana firms is also a point of contention among some pro-legalization advocacy groups, nothing in the legislation is aimed at promoting cannabis use. It’s a bill six years in the making that was endorsed by 50 state banking associations, the National Association of State Treasurers, the top financial regulators of 25 states, a majority of state attorneys general and bipartisan governors of 20 states, among others.

But Carlson isn’t alone is his objection to the House passage of the SAFE Banking Act. The Family Research Council (FRC) is similarly against the legislation and expressed frustration on Tuesday that “some conservatives out there” have “fallen for the libertarian lie that the government can do a better job regulating marijuana and protecting people if it’s legal.”


FRC
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@FRCdc
· Oct 1, 2019
It was the first ever vote on a stand-alone #cannabis bill.

Last Wednesday, in the U.S. House, more than 300 members of Congress put their names behind a bill that would help legitimize a business that's destroying and endangering lives. #SAFEBankingAct https://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20190930/pot-bill …


Pot Bill Tokes the Line on Public Safety
When the alarm went off at Jennifer Hrobuchak's work, the 22-year-old district manager didn't think twice. She got in her

frc.org

FRC
?
@FRCdc
The #SAFEBankingAct would make it easier for marijuana companies to "open checking accounts and get business loans." Pot companies argue that it would make the entire market safer, since they tend to operate on a "cash-only basis" or pay sky-high fees to banks who work with them.

2
11:11 AM - Oct 1, 2019
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FRC President Tony Perkins wrote in a blog post that the SAFE Banking Act is “one of the more ridiculously named pieces of legislation in the Democratic House” and urged the group’s supporters to ask their senators not to take up the bill.


FRC
?
@FRCdc
· Oct 1, 2019
Replying to @FRCdc
There are probably some conservatives out there who've fallen for the libertarian lie that the government can do a better job regulating #marijuana and protecting people if it's legal.


FRC
?
@FRCdc
The research is clear: all that's happening in the states where pot is allowed are more arrests, more hospital visits, more suicides, more crime, more DUIs, more work-related problems.
Contact your senators and ask them to hold the line on the #SAFEBankingAct.

View image on Twitter
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11:11 AM - Oct 1, 2019
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Prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana also opposed the legislation, suggesting that it’s a simply a red herring in the push to federally legalize marijuana.



Photo courtesy of Fox News.

Marijuana Moment is made possible with support from readers. If you rely on our cannabis advocacy journalism to stay informed, please consider a monthly Patreon pledge.

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