Category: Outlaw Report
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Out Of State Cannabis Growers A Concern in West Virginia
Early last month, West Virginia’s Office of Medical Cannabis (OMC) within the Department of Health and Human Resources announced that it had approved the first 10 medicinal cannabis grower permits out of a total of 39 applicants. Medicinal cannabis was approved in 2017 after West Virginians voted in favor of it but the program is…
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Quick Hit: 68% of Americans Now Support Cannabis Legalization
In news to no one who reads The Outlaw Report but worth noting anyway: The majority of people support cannabis legalization. See, according to the most recent Gallup poll, a whopping 68% of Americans support the legalization of cannabis. That is up slightly from last year’s polling results where 66% of Americans supported legalization and…
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Psychedelics and Cannabis in Washington D.C.’s Election
In Washington D.C., the major drug reform news was the overwhelming vote in support of Initiative 81—the “Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act of 2020”—which would decriminalize a number of plant-based psychedelics (such as psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, and iboga) within the District. Initiative 81 received 89,714 votes in favor and 27,429 in opposition. That is…
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D.C. Mayor Won’t Approve Psychedelics Decriminalization Even If Voters Support It
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she is not in favor of moving forward with the initiative that would decriminalize psychoactive drugs such as psilocybin, ayahuasca and other “natural plant medicines” even if voters approve of it on Election Day. “It seems like the issue is not an organically D.C-created initiative,” Bowser said at a…
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Quick Hit: DEA Uses the Postal Service To Promote Drug Abstinence
While the Trump administration has no interest in even addressing the Covid-19 pandemic, his Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is offering up an equally feckless response to drugs in America: Just don’t do it. Last week, in a typically Trumpian collaboration, the DEA, Miss America 2020 Camille Schrier, and the United States Postal Service Trump has…
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Lawsuit From White, Women-owned Cannabis Company Argues Black and Indigenous Cannabis Entrepreneurs Not “More Disadvantaged”
A cannabis company has filed a lawsuit against the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission (MMCC) and a number of minority-owned cannabis companies arguing that the process for scoring minority businesses is unfair to white women. Hippocratic Growth, who applied for grower and processor licenses and were ranked 21st as a grower and 50th as a processor,…
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‘Tainted’ Cannabis Scare in Virginia Makes The Case For Legalization
Last week, Alexandria, Virginia officials put out a warning to citizens about the possibility of cannabis that, they wrote, “may be mixed with unusual substances.” The warning was put out after there were what officials characterized as four “overdoses”—including one fatal overdose—that it would seem, cannabis was involved. The three people who suffered non-fatal overdoses…
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Episode 10: 2020 Elections Special
For this special episode of The Outlaw Report, Scott is joined by Mike Liszewski, one of the foremost experts on Capitol Hill on cannabis law and policy and more broadly, drug policy reform. They preview the 2020 elections and what wins for either party at the Presidential and Congressional levels would mean for cannabis in…
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Episode 09: ABRAcadabra: Dank Deliveries and Cannabis for Cops
Scott, Shabnam, and Brandon discuss the continued easing of restrictions for cannabis delivery in the District, a new law in Virginia preventing the alleged smell of cannabis from leading to a vehicle search, and Maryland’s recommendation to ease restrictions of prior cannabis use for law enforcement recruits.
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Virginia Cannabis Smell Bills Amended; Dropped Weed Charges More Likely Thanks to Northam
Two bills considered by Virginia governor Ralph Northam last week will help protect people who use cannabis from prosecution by preventing police from searching a vehicle based on weed smell alone and preventing judges from overruling the wishes of prosecutors and defense attorneys when both sides agree a charge should be dismissed. The Outlaw Report…
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Maryland Now Has Proposed Regulations For Edibles
During the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission’s October meeting, the MMCC finally awarded a number of grower and processor approvals and announced that in the coming weeks, they would release its annual report and the drafted regulations for edibles. While the annual report has not yet arrived, the October 23 edition of the Maryland Register contained…
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D.C. Cannabis Dispensary Employees Join Union
The first Black-owned dispensary in D.C. is also the first to unionize. As excited employees looked on, Norbert Pickett, CEO and owner of DC Holistic Wellness signed the 5-year bargaining contract with United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400 on October 21. “Here at DC Holistic Wellness, we want our workers to have a…