Category: Politics
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Op-Ed: National Expungement Week of Action in the DMV
by Ray Dixon National Expungement Week (N.E.W.) is a non-cannabis specific awareness movement that facilitates expungement relief and wrap-around services to communities affected by the War on Drugs. The American Bar Association describes “expungement” as “the process by which a record of criminal conviction is destroyed or sealed from state or federal record.” An expungement…
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In Baltimore, an Unconstitutional Stop, a Blunt, Planted Cocaine, and an Unsolved Murder
A complaint filed against two Baltimore Police officers on behalf of the family of a Baltimore man describes an unconstitutional police stop that resulted in the discovery of a decriminalized amount of cannabis which quickly escalated into, lawyers allege, cops deleting evidence and planting drugs. The complaint goes on to detail how the man, Sherman…
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Maryland Could Have Increased Its Decriminalization Threshold—And Didn’t
At the beginning of the 2020 legislative session, Luke Jones of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Maryland (NORML) told The Outlaw Report that the “number one policy goal” for those pushing for cannabis reform in Maryland was House Bill 550, which would increase the decriminalization threshold in the state from 10…
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The 2018 Farm Bill Makes It Harder For Crime Labs To Test For THC
The 2018 Farm Bill was great news for hemp farmers across the country when it made the production of hemp for agricultural purposes legal. The 2018 Bill removed hemp from the federal list of controlled substances and defined it as any part of the plant with the botanical name Cannabis Sativa (the same name as…
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Baltimore’s Next Mayor and City Council President Are Pro-Cannabis
The results of Baltimore’s June 2 primary election—mostly done via mail and then seriously mishandled by the Baltimore City Board of Elections—are finally in as of last week and they suggest some potential change in the city when it comes to cannabis (in Baltimore, winners of the Democratic primary are presumed General Election winners). Both…
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Cannabis and Washington D.C.’s Primary Election
Tuesday June 2 is Washington DC’s primary election. With ongoing concerns about COVID-19’s spread and now, what appears to be a growing uprising against police violence nearly at the door of the White House—President Trump is reportedly hiding in a bunker underground—it will surely be an especially complicated election. There are six council seats on…
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Richmond Will No Longer Drug Test City Employees For Cannabis
Last week, Richmond’s City Council approved a resolution that would stop the city from drug testing employees for cannabis. Currently, Richmond drug tests for cannabis for pre-employment and randomly drug tests current city employees. But now, with Virginia getting ready to institute its medicinal cannabis program—as well as decriminalization of up to an ounce and…
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More Dispensaries in Virginia; Richmond Council Proposes Excluding Cannabis From Drug Testing
Virginia’s dedication to cannabis reform in 2020 is one of the most fascinating and encouraging cannabis stories in the region. The approval of decriminalization of up to an ounce and the establishment of a proper medicinal cannabis program nearly catches Virginia up to Maryland which began its own similar changes six years earlier. There are…
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Maryland Governor Hogan Vetoes Bill Automatically Expunging Cannabis Convictions
Among a smattering of vetoes from Maryland governor Larry Hogan last week was the vetoing of House Bill 83, which would have prevented cannabis possession convictions from going into Maryland Case Search, the state’s court database, if it was “the only charge in the case and the charge was disposed of before October 1, 2014.”…
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Washington DC Dispensaries Respond to Cannabis Delivery Rule
On April 13, an emergency rulemaking announced by Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser and DC’s Health Department allowed the district’s medical marijuana dispensaries the ability to deliver for the first time. It was in response to COVID-19 which makes access to DC’s seven medicinal cannabis dispensaries extremely limited which means many patients cannot access the…
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Virginia Cannabis Reform Continues
Virginia approved cannabis decriminalization earlier this month and continues expanding cannabis and cannabis-related reform. Senate Bill 918/House Bill 1430, recently approved by Governor Ralph Northam, regulates products containing CBD as food: “The bill authorizes the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services to adopt regulations establishing contaminant tolerances, labeling requirements, and batch testing requirements,” SB 918’s…
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15 Year-Old Federal Grant Revoked Because Maryland Town Rented Space to a Cannabis Grower
The town of Hancock, MD has agreed to pay back a $600,000 federal loan they received to rehab a building because they began renting that building out to a cannabis company in 2015, nearly a decade after the loan was given to them. In 2015, Harvest Health & Recreation Inc., an Arizona-based cannabis company with…