federal policy

The federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau have ordered a California brewery to cease production of their CBD-infused beer because hemp is a non-standard beer ingredient, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Black Hammer Brewing unveiled Toke Back Mountain on Apr. 20 and released eight more CBD-infused beers, which owner Jim Furman said became […]

U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy Williams has announced five priority areas of enforcing federal law in the state, including what his office sees as threats to public safety and interstate trafficking, the Argus Observer reports. Williams outlined his concerns about the state’s industry in a January op-ed in the Oregonian and those concerns are reflected […]

The House Appropriations Committee has passed the so-called Joyce Amendment, which restricts Department of Justice funding for prosecuting state-approved medical cannabis programs. The passage marks the first time the committee has addressed the issue, and the first time such an amendment has passed through regular order in the committee. “Today marks a victory for medical […]

Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer told canna-business owners that he believes cannabis will be treated like alcohol throughout the U.S. in five years during an appearance at the Cultivation Classic in his home state, Willamette Week reports. He said if lawmakers who support legalizing do their job “it’s game over in two years.” “If Democrats control […]

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee has unanimously voted to advance a measure to allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to research medical cannabis, according to a Stars and Stripes report. The bi-partisan measure was introduced last month by the committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Tim Walz, and Republican committee chairman Rep. Phil Roe, who is also […]

Last month, the federal Small Business Administration released a new policy indicating that direct cannabis businesses, indirect cannabis business, and hemp businesses would be locked out of the federal agency’s lending services, according to Green Market Report’s Debra Borchardt. Last week, Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer wrote to SBA Administrator Linda McMahon urging her to repeal […]

Cannabis advocates are raising money for a super PAC called Texans Removing Outdated and Unresponsive Politicians, aimed at ousting Texas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions, who chairs the House Rules Committee and has blocked cannabis reform legislation from reaching the floor for a vote, the Washington Examiner reports. The effort is being led by Marijuana Policy Project […]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged that cannabis will be federally legal in the nation by this summer despite the recommendations of several Senate committees to delay the reforms’ implementation, CBC News reports. “We have been working with our partners across the country to make this happen and we are going to be moving […]

The Federal Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in an unpublished Memorandum of Disposition this week that the Drug Enforcement Administration’s December 2016 Marijuana Extract rule change stands. The rule change added a new code number to the DEA rules for “Marihuana Extracts” to make it easier for the DEA to track and trace […]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is non-committal about whether he is willing to delay implementing the bill to legalize cannabis for adult use in the nation as Senate committees recommend changes to the landmark legislation, the Canadian Press reports. The chamber’s Aboriginal Peoples Committee released a report on Tuesday urging Liberals to delay the measure […]

Ninth Circuit appeals court judges have ruled against the Hemp Industries Association in their bid to overturn a move by the Drug Enforcement Agency to classify CBD as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act. The new rule took effect Jan. 13, 2017. In the April 30 ruling, the panel of three judges […]

Zimbabwe has opened applications for licenses to cultivate cannabis for medical and research purposes, according to a Reuters report. The approval makes Zimbabwe the second country in Africa to legalize cannabis cultivation after Lesotho approved its own regulations last year. The licenses will be valid for five years. They will allow growers to possess, transport, […]

In an interview with Yahoo News, Colorado Sen. Corey Gardner said he believes President Donald Trump “will be true to his word” that the Department of Justice’s rescission of the Cole Memo would not impact state-approved cannabis programs. Gardner, a Republican, had been preventing Justice Department nominees from being confirmed due to the threats to […]

The Senate’s top Democrat, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, has announced legislation that would de-schedule cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act. The announcement — which fell symbolically on April 20, the international cannabis celebration known colloquially as 4/20 — represents a major shift for Democrats, according to a CNBC report. Schumer’s bill would reportedly […]

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the chamber floor and laid out his case for the Hemp Farming Act of 2018, calling hemp a cash crop for the nation’s struggling farmers, a modernization of federal law, a “new spark” for the U.S. economy. McConnell was also the driving force securing the […]

A bi-partisan bill has been introduced in the House to make clear that the Department of Veterans Affairs has the authority to study medical cannabis. The measure was introduced by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking Democrat, Rep. Tim Walz, and Republican committee chairman Rep. Phil Roe. In a press release, Walz notes that “22 percent […]

In a deal with Colorado Sen. Cory Gardener (R), President Donald Trump has agreed to support federalism-based legislation to protect states who have chosen to reform their cannabis laws, Sen. Gardener announced on Friday. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the agreement between the senator and the president during the daily press briefing. The […]

It feels strange to type “former Republican House Speaker John Boehner joins board of cannabis company” – but here we are. Boehner’s history with cannabis During his 24 years in Congress, first as a Representative for Ohio’s 8th District and later as Speaker, Boehner was no friend to the legalization cause. In 1999, two years […]

The Food and Drug Administration is asking for public comment on the international scheduling of cannabis following a request from the World Health Organization. “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is requesting interested persons to submit comments concerning abuse potential, actual abuse, medical usefulness, trafficking, and impact of scheduling changes on availability for medical use […]

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper dispelled prohibitionist myths about cannabis legalization in the state: children are not getting high and there hasn’t been a spike in cannabis-related driving incidents. “We were very worried that by legalizing, we were making this more somehow more psychologically available to kids. We haven’t seen […]

Josephine County, Oregon is suing the state in federal court seeking to invalidate both the medical and adult-use cannabis laws approved by voters in 1998 and 2014, respectively, the Associated Press reports. The lawsuit argues that the state laws are pre-empted by federal drug laws. “Any person in any state who possesses, distributes, or manufactures […]

Illinois’ Bank of Springfield is closing the accounts of the state’s medical cannabis companies by May 21 leaving most of the state’s operators to handle their business transactions in cash, the Chicago Tribune reports. The action is directly tied to the January revocation of the Cole Memo by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Bank of Springfield […]

Anchorage, Alaska’s Steep Hill has been forced to suspend operations after Wells Fargo bank called in the loan on the company’s building because they are a cannabis-related business. The closure leaves just two labs to test cannabis products for the entire state. “We are sorry to announce that Steep Hill Alaska will be suspending cannabis […]

An employee at a Rhode Island medical cannabis dispensary has been denied a mortgage by Home Loan Investment after the company deemed his “marijuana-related business” income unacceptable, according to a GoLocal, Providence report. John Guardarrama, a cultivator for Summit Compassion Center, was previously given preliminary approval for the loan last July but was denied final […]