Marijuana Business Daily

Marijuana reform faces ‘more challenging’ environment in Congress under GOP

Published

2 years ago

February 9, 2023

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Rep. Nancy Mace, of South Carolina, is on U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s good side.

On the surface, the Republican congresswoman‘s loyalty should be good news for marijuana legalization’s prospects on Capitol Hill.

Mace is a leading conservative voice for marijuana reform.

And McCarthy, a California Republican, won the gavel after a protracted leadership fight, relying on steady support from moderates such as Mace to survive a revolt led by the far-right House Freedom Caucus.

But as for the marijuana industry’s hopes for significant reform in the 118th Congress, Mace offers only a cold, hard reality.

“It’s more challenging. It’s certainly more challenging under Republican rule,” she said.

Marijuana will struggle for attention in the current Congress despite promising signs demonstrating the issue’s continued success.

Although marijuana legalization has spread to red states including Missouri, where adult-use sales began last week, and a majority of Americans

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New York City marijuana social equity operators sue over proximity exemptions

Published

2 days ago

January 10, 2025

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Four New York City marijuana retailers with social equity licenses are suing state regulators, claiming that recently issued exceptions to a law imposing a 1,000-foot barrier between stores is “undermining” their businesses.

It’s the latest legal challenge against the state Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), which is overseeing a $1 billion industry that’s still recovering from a botched start marred by long bureaucratic delays, a rampaging illicit market and multiple lawsuits.

The latest lawsuit, filed Thursday in state court in Manhattan, accuses the OCM and the New York Cannabis Control Board (CCB) of “secretly” offering new license applicants exceptions to the state law requiring stores to be 1,000 feet from one another in cities with a population of 20,000 or more.

The four

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Cannabis industry relief efforts underway as wildfires rage across Los Angeles area

Published

2 days ago

January 10, 2025

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Los Angeles-area cannabis operators are prioritizing the safety and security of their employees and relief efforts amid historic wildfires raging across the region that have killed at least ten people, displaced countless others and decimated thousands of homes and businesses.

While it’s far too early to assess potential damages in one of the world’s largest regulated marijuana markets, a handful of retailers in Malibu and around Altadena are in or near evacuation areas, according to maps published by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and cross-referenced with store locations.

A Rise outlet in Pasadena operated by Green Thumb Industries is among the closures, according to an automated message at the business.

The Chicago-based multistate operator did not immediately respond to an

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Colorado shut out of marijuana rescheduling hearings by ‘biased’ DEA, filing alleges

Published

4 days ago

January 8, 2025

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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration rejected a September request from Colorado officials to participate in the United States’ historic marijuana rescheduling process.

That’s one example of the “bias” that should disqualify the agency from overseeing the hearings, according to claims made in a filing submitted Monday to the DEA’s chief administrative law judge, John Mulrooney II.

The decision to exclude Colorado, where sales of adult-use marijuana began more than a decade ago, but include authorities from states without regulated cannabis such as Nebraska and Tennessee demonstrates why the agency should be removed from the proceedings, the filing claims.

Monday’s filing is the latest effort by designated participants Village Farms International and Hemp for Victory to disqualify the DEA, which has “obstructed the rulemaking process

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