Cannabis Group Weekly Alert - Week Of September 10, 2019

This week:

US attorneys and public officials convene at a closed-door "Marijuana Summit" in Oregon. An initiative to legalize medical cannabis is likely to appear on Mississippi's 2020 ballot. Non-residents with qualifying medical conditions can participate in New Mexico's medical cannabis program. Thailand eases restrictions on cannabis extracts with THC content of less than 0.2%. The CDC and FDA are investigating reports of pulmonary illness and death resulting from vaping. And more... Federal

US attorneys and officials from the Food and Drug Administration and US Department of Agriculture attended a behind-closed-doors "Marijuana Summit" held by Oregon US Attorney Bill Williams on September 5. In attendance was North Dakota US Attorney Drew Wrigley, who said he and other federal prosecutors discussed the development of a "cohesive federal approach and strategy" for enforcing federal cannabis laws. In 2018, Oregon US Attorney Bill Williams assured Oregon Governor Kate Brown that he would not target cannabis businesses operating legally under state law.

Civil rights groups including the ACLU, NAACP, National Education Association and National Organization for Women released a 2020 platform advocating legalizing cannabis as well as "dismantling the current paradigm of drug criminalization and replacing the current system with a regulatory approach that treats substance use as a public health issue."

A federal judge ruled that an Oregon vineyard has a plausible claim of harm caused by a neighboring cannabis cultivation operation and can proceed with a RICO lawsuit. In response, a new court filing has been submitted by the defendants asking the judge to dismiss case on the grounds that no commercial cannabis operation existed on the subject property (as alleged by the plaintiff), and the only cannabis being cultivated was for personal medical purposes.

US Customs and Border Protection reversed the lifetime ban it had imposed on a 21-year-old Canadian woman caught crossing the Canada-US border with CBD oil.

The cannabis industry has spent approximately two million dollars this year in lobbying for legislative reform at the federal level. The top four spenders include the Cannabis Trade Federation ($483,000), Curaleaf ($400,000), Surterra ($240,000), and the National Cannabis Industry Association ($220,000). Among other things, the lobbying efforts have included advocating for the STATES Act and the SAFE Banking Act of 2019, and meeting with lawmakers from the US Senate and House of Representatives.

The Wall Street Journal examined how airports handle people traveling with cannabis. TSA spokeswoman Danielle Bennett stated that TSA officers cannot make arrests and are not searching for cannabis or cannabis-infused...

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