Cannabis News of Note for the Week:
Green Market Report: LeafLink buys Dama Financial for undisclosed amount
Politico Pro Cannabis (7/29/24): Unpacking the VP Contenders’ Cannabis Stances (paywalled newsletter, text below)
Cannabis Reports of Note for the Week:
Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency: Adult-Use and Medical Marijuana Break-In Reports
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Politico Pro Cannabis (7/29/24): Unpacking the VP Contenders’ Cannabis Stances
Kamala Harris faces a very compressed timeframe to choose her running mate. The presumptive Democratic nominee will need to settle on her VP pick no later than Aug. 7, which is just over a week away. Here’s a look at where some of the top contenders stand on cannabis policy.
Andy Beshear: The Kentucky governor has been a champion of establishing a medical marijuana program during his two terms in office. Beshear has frequently touted cannabis as having the potential to reduce opioid use among Kentuckians and combat the state’s overdose epidemic. In Nov. 2022, he issued an executive order granting a blanket pardon to people possessing marijuana who legally purchased it through other states’ medical programs.
Then in March 2023, lawmakers overwhelmingly passed legislation establishing a medical program. It included strict limitations, however, including a ban on selling smokable flower. Kentucky is now in the process of allocating licenses to medical marijuana businesses, with the program slated to launch at the start of next year.
Roy Cooper: North Carolina’s governor presides over a state with no legal medical or recreational marijuana but wants that to change. A spokesperson for the governor told local news in 2021 that Cooper was “encouraged” North Carolina might legalize medical marijuana — although he didn’t explicitly endorse the bill. He also supports removing criminal penalties for marijuana possession, telling a racial equity and criminal justice reform task force in 2022 that “North Carolina should take steps to end this stigma.”
Mark Kelly: The Arizona senator has a mixed record on marijuana policy. Kelly co-sponsors a bill to make it easier for the cannabis industry to access banking services, and signed on to a letter urging the heads of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees to include that bill in the National Defense Authorization Act in late 2021. He has not forcefully supported federal legalization, however. He supported Arizona’s recreational legalization measure in 2020, but told POLITICO in 2021 that he was undecided on federal legalization.
Josh Shapiro: Pennsylvania’s governor has been a vocal proponent for adult-use legalization, calling on the Legislature to send him a weed bill to sign. Shapiro even included revenue from adult-use marijuana sales in his proposed FY2025 budget, but legalization language did not ultimately make it into the state’s budget deal. Still, with a year-long legislative session, lawmakers could pass legalization legislation when they return to the Capitol in September. Shapiro also praised the Biden administration’s move to reclassify cannabis.
“Governor Shapiro has made clear that we need to catch up — practically every one of our neighbors has legalized marijuana and is benefiting from hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity and revenue,” Will Simons, a spokesperson for Shapiro, said in a statement about the budget.
Tim Walz: The two-term Minnesota governor has overseen arguably the country’s most unusual path toward full legalization. The state has had a medical program in place for roughly a decade, but it was among the strictest in the country with fairly paltry enrollment. That began to change in 2021, when Walz signed legislation allowing flower products to be sold in the medical market. That was followed a year later by enactment of legislation — tucked into a huge health care bill, and catching many legislators off guard — that legalized low-potency, hemp-derived THC beverages and edibles. In the ensuing two years, that market has exploded, with THC beverages being widely sold at bars and restaurants, liquor stores, concert venues and even hair salons.
In 2022, Democrats won full control of the Legislature and passed legislation — strongly backed by Walz — establishing an adult-use market. Minnesota has just started the licensing process for recreational business, with the first adult-use sales expected to launch in the first half of next year.
Gretchen Whitmer: Michigan voters backed recreational legalization in 2018, the same year that Whitmer was first elected governor, after serving for 15 years in the state Legislature. Whitmer supported that referendum and has overseen the development of a market that is rivaling California as the biggest in the country. That included signing legislation in 2021 that made Michigan one of the first states in the country to curb the burgeoning market for intoxicating, hemp-derived products, putting them under the regulatory authority of the state’s cannabis agency. The following year, Whitmer installed a former law enforcement officer as the state’s cannabis czar, signaling that enforcement would be a top priority for the state’s regulatory agency.