Justice

SANTA FE – New Mexico has become the 17th state to legalize recreational cannabis after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed legislation today, joining a national movement to decriminalize cannabis.  Cannabis laws are increasingly seen as impediments to racial justice and a good source of local state revenues. New Mexico's lawmakers passing of their bill had ...

RICHMOND – Virginia became the first of the states of the Old South, and the 16th state in the Union to legalize recreational cannabis Wednesday as lawmakers voted to approve Gov. Ralph Northam's (pictured) bill that allows adults to possess and cultivate small amounts of the drug starting in July. "The time has come for ...

SACRAMENTO – California State Senator Scott Wiener announced earlier today that his legislation to decriminalize psychedelics (#SB519) just passed the Senate Public Safety Committee on a 4-1 vote. The Senator said on Twitter:  ‘’Our legislation to decriminalize psychedelics (#SB519) just passed the Senate Public Safety Committee on a 4-1 vote. Psychedelics have so much promise ...

NEW YORK – Residents of the Empire State, New York, who are over the age of 21 will be able to legally buy Cannabis as early as next year, in a bill agreed to by both houses of the state legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. A vote on the measure came this evening, Tuesday night, ...

OTTAWA– On October 17, 2018, the Cannabis Act came into force, introducing a strict framework for controlling cannabis within Canada. While cannabis was legalized, it does remain illegal to carry cannabis across the border without a valid permit or exemption. As part of Canada's legalization plan, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) at the time committed to establishing a ...

NEW YORK –  On Wednesday this week, Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York were close to an agreement legalizing recreational cannabis, and that it’s one of New York's key budget priorities. State Senator, Liz Krueger said she expects lawmakers to vote on the measure as soon as next week. “It is my understanding that the ...

CAMBRIDGE – Cambridge's City Council agreed 8-1 last month with an order written by councillor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler that the city make arresting adults with controlled substances “amongst the lowest law enforcement priority” and that the city must stop related prosecutions. The City specified that no money or resources should go into such law enforcement efforts. ...

Sacramento, CA – The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), in partnership with the Bureau of Cannabis Control, today announced $15 million in grant funding through the Cannabis Equity Grants Program for Local Jurisdictions. This program seeks to advance economic justice for populations and communities disproportionately affected by cannabis prohibition by providing funding to ...

WASHINGTON, D.C.–Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), Steve Stivers (R-OH), Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), and Warren Davidson (R-OH) reintroduced the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act today, which would provide protections for financial institutions serving cannabis-based businesses where it is legal. (Pictured above Nydia Velázquez, D-NY). Reps. Perlmutter, Stivers, Velázquez, and Davidson reintroduced the bill to addresses ...

NEW YORK – The Last Prisoner Project has launched 'A Time To Heal,' an advocacy campaign calling on President Biden to leverage his clemency power to commute the sentences of thousands of people unjustifiably incarcerated due to federal marijuana-related violations. The advocacy organization is also encouraging the President to issue grants to the tens of ...

SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that San Diego County announced that nearly 26,000 people with felony cannabis-law violations on their records in San Diego County had them reduced to misdemeanors last month. Furthermore, 1,000 people with misdemeanor cannabis convictions had their cases completely dismissed, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Sunday. An order ...

BOSTON – Massachusetts state legislature's decriminalization bill was introduced in the House by Representatives Liz Miranda and Mike Connolly with a virtually identical bill in the Senate by Julian Cyr. If passed, this bill would completely decriminalize all drugs and replace it with a civil fine system of $50, and even then it could be ...

Gov. Tom Wolf has signed off on 310 pardons, 69 of them impacting the lives of nonviolent cannabis law violators, whom criminal justice advocates say face a lifetime of for a crime that now is on a par with getting a traffic ticket in some jurisdictions across the state. Wolf signed the pardons last week, his office ...

In another example of shifting public perceptions, the Biden administration recently announced new guidelines stating prior cannabis use will no longer automatically disqualify potential political appointees to the Executive Office of the President. White House officials reportedly engaged in “intensive consultation with security officials” before deciding to waive a requirement for “Top Secret” clearance on ...

LOS ANGELES – Well-known Cannabis delivery platform, Eaze, became a household name due to their bright billboards placed on California roads and highways. The "Uber of pot," delivery service was launched in 2014 and was eventually backed with $166 million in funding.  Eaze the company is not implicated. Nor are Eaze a defendant in this ...

SACRAMENTO – Democrat State Senator Scott Wiener, of San Francisco, introduced a bill for California lawmakers on Thursday that would decriminalize substances such as psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, ketamine, DMT and mescaline in that state. California would be a huge boost to the ‘’decriminalization nature’’ efforts that are underway in states and local municipalities around the ...

PORTLAND – Repairing the harm from decades of inequity from the War on Drugs is the goal of the Cannabis Social Equity Act introduced this week by a coalition of legislators in the Oregon State Legislature. HB 3112 is the culmination of months of work led by former State Rep. Akasha Lawrence Spencer including numerous cannabis companies, the ...