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New Jersey Supreme Court sides with drug offenders in new test of cannabis legalization law

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The New Jersey Monitor reports

People who dodged conviction for minor drug offenses through a diversionary program for first-time offenders before state lawmakers decriminalized marijuana in 2021 can still be admitted to another diversionary program for new offenses, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The unanimous decision was an effort by the state’s highest court to parse the intent of the expansive Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act, which decriminalized the simple possession of cannabis in New Jersey and mandated that prior marijuana convictions be automatically expunged from a person’s criminal record.

That law, though, doesn’t address how judges should handle people who received conditional discharges for marijuana offenses. Conditional discharge is a diversionary program for first-time offenders that allows them to avoid criminal prosecution and conviction for minor drug offenses if they complete certain conditions a judge orders, such as treatment.

That’s why lower courts in several cases made conflicting decisions for people with prior conditional discharges who committed new offenses and applied for pretrial intervention, another diversionary program meant for first-time offenders. People become ineligible for pretrial intervention if they have already participated in another diversionary program.

The Supreme Court consolidated the appeals in several cases:

  • Richard Gomes was charged in Middlesex County in November 2020 with third- and fourth-degree assault by auto. Told he was ineligible for pretrial intervention because of a prior conditional discharge for marijuana possession, Gomes appealed, and a trial court overruled the ineligibility determination and allowed him to apply for pretrial intervention. The county prosecutor appealed.
  • Moataz M. Sheira was charged in March 2021 in Morris County with third-degree possession of cocaine and heroin. Sheira also initially was declared ineligible for pretrial intervention because of his prior conditional discharge for marijuana possession. He asked for it anyway, and a trial court denied his request. Sheira appealed.

In both cases, the appeals court ruled that someone who received a prior conditional discharge of a disorderly persons offense for marijuana possession was ineligible for pretrial intervention.

But Superior Court Judge Jack Sabatino, who penned Tuesday’s decision while on temporary assignment to the Supreme Court, reversed the appellate rulings.

The reversal doesn’t mean people with a previous conditional discharge automatically are entitled to pretrial intervention, Sabatino said. But courts can’t deny pretrial intervention just because the cannabis law is silent on conditional discharges, he said.

“We stress that this is an exceptional situation involving a sweeping new statute that we have endeavored to harmonize sensibly with preexisting laws,” Sabatino wrote.

Source:  https://newjerseymonitor.com/briefs/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-offenders-in-new-test-of-marijuana-legalization-law/



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EWeb Page / SEC Docs – SEC Charges Acreage Holdings, Inc. For Accounting Violations

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ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING
File No. 3-22389

January 10, 2025 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Acreage Holdings, Inc. for violating the books and records provision of the federal securities laws when it created false records regarding a transfer of approximately $4 million that was temporarily moved into the company’s bank account a few days before the end of Acreage’s 2019 fiscal year.

According to the SEC’s order, Acreage caused an affiliated entity to transfer approximately $4.2 million into Acreage’s bank account on December 26, 2019, with the express understanding that Acreage would return the full amount at the beginning of the new year, which it did on January 3, 2020.  Acreage then allegedly created journal entries and other records that mischaracterized the round-trip transfer, first as a repayment of debt owed by the affiliate and later as a short-term loan to Acreage.  The SEC’s order further finds that after certain employees’ concerns about the round-trip nature of the transaction were escalated to a member of Acreage’s board of directors, Acreage recorded an additional journal entry that effectively reversed the transaction.

The SEC’s order also finds that during the audit of Acreage’s fiscal year 2019 financial statements, Acreage created and provided written documents to the accounting firm conducting the audit that misrepresented and omitted material facts about the round-trip cash transfer.  As a result, the SEC’s order finds that Acreage violated Section 13(b)(2)(A) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by failing to make and keep books, records, and accounts that accurately and fairly reflected the round-trip cash transfer.

Without admitting or denying the findings in the SEC’s order, Acreage agreed to cease and desist from committing or causing violations or future violations of Section 13(b)(2)(A), and to pay a civil penalty of $225,000.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Kiran Patel, Nandy Celamy, Russel Feldman and George N. Stepaniuk, and was supervised by Thomas P. Smith, Jr., all of the New York Regional Office.



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Homberg Leaves Dentons For New Post At Gunnercooke

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Peter Homberg writes on Linked In Today

After more than 12 exciting years at Dentons, I’m delighted to share that I have joined the international law firm gunnercooke.

I’m excited to offer my clients truly exceptional service, leveraging gunnercooke’s flexibility, innovation, and collaborative culture to support them closely through their legal challenges, while also shaping and expanding my practice in a direction I’m passionate about.

I look forward to the many exciting projects and cases to come, please reach out if you’d like to know more.

 



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Germany: The Conference of Ministers of Justice propose a resolution to amend the Cannabis Act, allowing authoriries to re-access surveillance for illegal cannabis growers and distributors

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German Cannabis Business Association

Conference of Justice Ministers calls for adjustments following partial legalization of cannabis

2024-11-21 | The Conference of Ministers of Justice (JuMiKo) will discuss a proposed resolution to amend the Cannabis Act on November 28, 2024. Berlin Senator for Justice Felor Badenberg criticizes the fact that important investigative instruments such as telecommunications surveillance, online searches and acoustic home surveillance for the fight against commercial cannabis trafficking have been restricted since the Consumer Cannabis Act (KCanG) came into force. In particular, the collection of traffic data and location data for cannabis-related offenses is now no longer permitted, which makes prosecution more difficult, LTO reports.

The JuMiKo is calling on the Federal Minister of Justice, Volker Wissing, to take this problem into account when evaluating the KCanG. Inadequate adaptation of the Code of Criminal Procedure could lead to ongoing investigations failing due to a lack of evidence. In one notable case, a dealer of around 450 kilograms of cannabis was acquitted because findings from the EncroChat software could not be used.



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