News 
Market Data 
Discover
Replies to post #91737 on Rightsmile, Inc. (RIGH)
04/30/19 10:00 PM
Mexican Lawmakers Plan To Tackle Marijuana Legalization This Summer
April 23, 2019 ..... By Kyle Jaeger
Mexican lawmakers will hash out the details of a marijuana regulation bill during the upcoming summer recess, with the goal of passing the legislation ahead of an October deadline, a key committee leader said.
After the Supreme Court deemed the country’s ban on cannabis consumption, possession and personal cultivation unconstitutional last year, the Senate was charged with amending the law to reflect that ruling.
Julio Ramón Menchaca Salazar, head of the Senate Justice Committee, said that the body would “take advantage of the recess period” to finalize the legislation, according to a newsletter posted on the Senate website on Sunday.
The recess begins on May 1 and lasts until August 31, giving lawmakers several months to develop a regulatory plan for cannabis before the Supreme Court’s October deadline. The Senate released a report in February instructing lawmakers to consider various aspects of legalization as they write the marijuana bill.
Salazar has already met with the nation’s attorney general to discuss the move, the Senate newsletter said.
Legalization legislation has already been introduced in the legislature, including a bill from Olga Sanchez Cordero, who as a senator filed a proposal last year to allow adults 18 and older to possess, consume and cultivate cannabis. But as of yet, it’s not clear what bill the Senate will move to advance.
“Canada already decriminalized, and [marijuana is] decriminalized in several states of the United States. What are we thinking?” Sánchez Cordero, who is now Mexico’s interior minister, said at the time. “We are going to try to move forward.”
The Senate’s Health Commission held a hearing on marijuana reform earlier this month, with policy experts and lawmakers testifying about the prospect of a regulated marijuana market.
“By regulating cannabis, Mexico will be able to better shape how cannabis is produced, distributed, and consumed, and therefore protect public health,” Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said in a press release. “Mexico will also demonstrate regional leadership, and take an important step toward reforming the misguided policies that have caused such devastating harm in recent decades.”
The hearing came one month after lawmakers from various political parties convened to begin the process of considering reform legislation.
Last month, the nation’s secretary of Security and Citizen Protection posted a Twitter poll on legalizing marijuana that showed more than 80 percent of respondents in favor.
05/07/19 10:20 PM
CBD Is Wildly Popular. Disputes Over Its Legality Are A Growing Source Of Tension.
May 6, 2019 ..... by Timothy Williams
DUNCANVILLE, Tex. — When the police raided Amy Wazwaz’s tobacco shop in North Texas this spring, officers seized every product containing CBD oil, from bath balms to lollipops.
CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a chemical compound derived from the cannabis plant, but one that does not result in a high. It has become wildly popular during the last several months because of claims that it helps with a variety of ailments, from anxiety and diabetes to headaches and menstrual cramps.
But while CBD is now as common as coffee in some neighborhoods, sold in shopping malls and tested by a national hamburger chain, possession of CBD in some places can prompt an arrest.
In Duncanville, a suburb of Dallas, the authorities broke down the door of Ms. Wazwaz’s store, seized CBD products and thousands of dollars in cash, and confiscated employees’ personal cellphones.
“I’m not some mob boss,” Ms. Wazwaz said in an interview. “I’m a soccer mom with kids.”
Confusion over CBD dates back years, but it intensified last year when a provision of the 2018 Farm Bill lifted a federal ban on hemp production that had previously classified hemp as a controlled substance on a par with heroin.
Both hemp and marijuana are varieties of the cannabis plant, which is believed to have been among the first plants that humans cultivated. The plants produce a family of chemicals known as cannabinoids, some of which are psychoactive — meaning they produce a high when smoked or ingested — while others are not. A major difference between marijuana and hemp lies in how much of each they produce.
Marijuana is rich in THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component; it can account for as much as 40 percent of the total cannabinoid content. Hemp, on the other hand, is richer in CBD, and generally contains only 0.3 percent THC or less. CBD oils, which are processed from the hemp plant, are legal to possess under the new federal law as long as they, too, contain no more than 0.3 percent THC.
Most states, though, have yet to change their laws to match the new federal rules, leaving local police and prosecutors in a quandary over what is legal and what is not. The result has been a gold rush of CBD marketers, a raft of online ruminations about what is permissible, and, increasingly, confusion.
For instance, when farmers in Oregon and Kentucky, which produce large amounts of hemp, send their product through Oklahoma and Idaho, truck drivers are sometimes arrested by state and local police for drug trafficking.
Though now legal under federal law, CBD is still subject to regulation when it is sold with a claim of therapeutic benefit. Federal policy maintains that adding CBD oil to food products is the same as adding a prescription drug — in other words, forbidden without a doctor’s prescription. But states and cities have made their own rules on the issue, creating up a dizzying, sometimes contradictory patchwork of regulations for consumers, who also have few rigorous scientific trials or studies to rely on about the product’s true effects and limitations.
A recent Colorado law, for example, appears to clash with federal rules by stating that all parts of the hemp plant can be legally added to food for sale. And Missouri, which only a few months ago approved medical marijuana, now allows CBD to be served in alcohol.
Elsewhere, California, Georgia and New York City have sided with the federal authorities, banning the addition of CBD to food. In New York, health inspectors have begun to confiscate CBD-infused cookies.
Adding to the chaos, officials in Texas, Ohio, Nebraska and other states have arrested people for selling CBD products regardless of whether they contain levels of THC higher than the 0.3 percent permitted under the new federal rules.
The Food and Drug Administration has scheduled a public hearing this month on the safety, sale and use of products containing cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds, including CBD.
Texas is where much of the tension has arisen.
CBD products are widely available in Texas, even though state law allows prosecutors to charge people with a felony for possessing a product that contains even the slightest amount of THC.
In Austin, the police say they believe CBD products containing less than 0.3 percent THC are legal. Yet in Tarrant County, home to Fort Worth, Sharen Wilson, the district attorney, has said she will prosecute all CBD cases whether or not any level of THC is present.
Benson Varghese, a Texas criminal defense lawyer who has handled cannabinoid cases, said state lawmakers have not moved quickly enough to address the disarray.
“The citizens of Texas really need clarity,” he said, “because you have a lot of people who don’t think they’re doing anything wrong, but if you’re on the wrong side of a county line, you could be prosecuted for a felony.”
Residents in San Antonio may be confused even if they don’t cross any jurisdictional lines.
Joe Gonzales, the local prosecutor, said, “We won’t proceed on prosecuting CBD cases until the Texas Legislature clarifies the law.” But the city’s police department says it considers any amount of THC present in CBD to be illegal, punishable as a felony.
Around San Antonio, CBD is sold openly and shops display prominent advertisements for it. Three retailers said that police officers were among their most dependable customers, using CBD oil for aches and pains as well as stress .....
..... “I have a lot of anxiety, and marijuana makes it worse, but this is calming,” Andrea Santinelli, 29, said of the daily dose of CBD she takes in her coffee.
The arrival of CBD was hardly calming in Duncanville, where police officers executed warrants in March on Ms. Wazwaz’s two tobacco shops, which also sell CBD products.
“I said: ‘Oh, we’re fine. We don’t have any marijuana. You can search as much as you want,’” Ms. Wazwaz recalled.
But when the officers began to confiscate hemp and CBD products, Ms. Wazwaz said she told them, “You know this is industrial hemp, right? And you know this is CBD oil?”
The Duncanville police confiscated nearly $12,000 in cash, two firearms, cellphones belonging to employees, items containing CBD, and what officers described in police reports as more than 30 pounds of marijuana. Ms. Wazwaz said it was hemp.
“We go by the letter of the law,” said Nathan Roach, a Duncanville police sergeant, who said that officers found products containing THC in the store, and the department considers those products illegal. “The only way you can legally possess CBD,” Sergeant Roach said, is if you have a prescription for Epidiolex.” Epidiolex, a drug containing CBD, has been approved by the F.D.A. to treat epilepsy.
Duncanville’s pursuit of Ms. Wazwaz put local prosecutors in an awkward spot, because the district attorney, John Creuzot, has pledged to stop pursuing low-level cases, including those for marijuana possession.
But while Mr. Creuzot contemplated charges, his office signaled its intentions by filing asset forfeiture documents requesting that the authorities be allowed to keep items seized from the shops.
After The New York Times contacted Mr. Creuzot’s office about the case, a spokeswoman for Mr. Creuzot wrote in an email that the office had decided not to pursue charges against the Wazwaz family and would halt its efforts to retain items confiscated during the raid.
Ms. Wazwaz said she was pleased to hear that, but remained cautious, given all the lingering confusion over CBD. “I want it in writing,” she said.
