Friday, December 18, 2020
In today's report:
click here for the link to the video on youtube
Washington State Could Legalize Marijuana Home Cultivation Under New Bill
Whether the new bill has a fighting chance to be enacted, however, is anyone’s guess—though its sponsor says it will at least get a vote in the committee she chairs. Washington lawmakers have repeatedly introduced homegrow bills going back at least to 2015, but so far the measures have languished. Not a single one has made it to a full floor vote.
The latest bill, HB 1019, prefiled last week by Reps. Shelley Kloba (D) and Drew MacEwen (R), is nearly identical to last year’s legislation, which itself was a reintroduction of a measure that stalled a year before. Previous years saw separate efforts crash and burn, too.
Rep. Brian Blake (D), who previously sponsored the homegrow push, is no longer in office. “With him leaving the legislature in January, I did not want his efforts to go to waste,” Kloba told Marijuana Moment in an email. “I wanted to make sure this bill was introduced and heard.”
The measure would allow adults 21 and older to grow up to six #cannabis plants per person, although no single household could grow more than 15 plants total. The plants would need to be clearly marked with the grower’s name, address and date of birth, as well as when they were planted. #growers would not need to register with the state or obtain any special license. (Medical cannabis patients registered in the state can already grow cannabis at home.)
Very little of the pushback seems to have come from licensed retail stores. At a House committee hearing in February, one of the state’s most outspoken cannabis retailers testified in favor of homegrow legislation.
“Many of us have hobby home vegetable gardens,” said Uncle Ike’s owner Ian Eisenberg said, “but it doesn’t affect what we purchase from the grocery stores.”
#lawmakers are set to take up the new legislation when the new legislative session begins in mid-January. Kloba said the homegrow bill “will almost certainly be referred to the Commerce and Gaming Committee,” which she chairs.
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/washington-state-could-legalize-marijuana-home-cultivation-under-new-bill/
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How passage of the SAFE Banking Act could impact cannabis businesses
Marijuana Related Businesss can't deduct on taxes, must work with #predatorybanks and usually paying excessive fees, and have a exceedingly difficulty time finding an insurance policy that isn't cost prohibitive
https://mjbizdaily.com/how-safe-banking-act-passage-could-impact-cannabis-business-access/
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Task Force in North Carolina Recommends Legal Cannabis
During the tough financial times of COVID, many states are turning to legal or medical cannabis to boost the economy and repair the damage done by the war on drugs. The North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice would like to see its home state follow suit in embracing the newly emerging industry.
The task force was first called by Governor Roy Cooper, who knows that the South currently has two problems to deal with in light of 2020 events: racial tension and economic hardships. Therefore, the governor used Executive Order 145 this summer to call a task force to look for solutions to the issues minorities face when it comes to daily discrimination and the legal system. This recommendation has the added bonus of seriously boosting the economy as well.
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Seeing Green: What North Carolina Is Missing By Skipping Out on Legal Weed
https://indyweek.com/news/seeing-green-north-carolina-missing-skipping-legal-weed/
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The recommendations touch on several ideas, including decriminalizing possession of cannabis. Because there were so many charges and convictions of people of color, 31,287 charges in 2019 for those who just had half ounces, to be exact, this would majorly help with social equity and ending discrimination and the war on drugs. It could also lead the way for a legal industry to spring forth in the future.
https://hightimes.com/news/north-carolina/task-force-north-carolina-recommends-legal-cannabis/