U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to decriminalize cannabis by removing the drug from the Federal controlled substances list.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Thursday unveiled proposed rules for hemp and CBD to put the federal agency officially in compliance with the 2018 Farm Bill.
While DEA stressed that the policies laid out in this interim final rule have already been in effect since hemp was federally legalized, it said the new filing to be published in the Federal Register on Friday will codify those regulations. These “conforming changes to DEA’s existing regulations” will be open to public comment.
Like New Jersey’s law, the Pennsylvania MMA was enacted to decriminalize the possession of a certain amount of marijuana for medical use by qualified patients. This runs afoul of the federal Controlled Substance Act, which defines marijuana in the strictest “Schedule 1” category, making the “manufacture, distribution, or possession” of marijuana a felony.
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act of 2019 could open massive business opportunities for legal cannabis firms around the country, similar to the federal legalization of hemp, if it passes. But that’s a big “if.”
Experts point out major reform before 2021 has long odds because of resistance in the Republican-controlled Senate.
But here’s the new normal: