from legalizing marijuana sales as part of the budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2023 that he sent to Congress on Monday.
from using its local tax dollars from implementing a system of legal adult-use sales even though local voters approved a legalization ballot measure in 2014.
Both the House and Senate appropriators removed that language from their Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations legislation in spite of Biden’s request.
“With Democrats controlling the White House, House and Senate, we have the best opportunity in over a decade to enact a budget that does not contain any anti-home-rule riders.
The latest Biden budget separately stipulates that D.C.
The former president called for a roughly 90 percent cut in the agency’s budget in his proposals, but Congress did not follow suit.
In committee, that language was largely scrapped in a proposed revised version—replaced with most of the provisions of the House-passed HB 837, which largely focuses on topics such as penalties and expungements.
“The priority here is to get rid of mass incarceration of folks for non-violent small possessions of cannabis.
If it advances with the changes, it appears that it would be incumbent on the legislature to also pass Clippinger’s HB 1 in order for those rules to take effect.
The Senate panel only briefly touched on HB 1, which would ask voters to approve an amendment to the state’s constitution to legalize cannabis use and possession by adults at least 21 years old.
It specifies that the purchase and possession of up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis would be legal for adults, and it would remove criminal penalties for possession of up to 2.5 ounces.
Past convictions for conduct made legal under the proposed law would be automatically expunged, and people currently serving time for such offenses would be eligible for resentencing.
To understand the effects of legalization on the state and its residents, the statutory bill would also establish various research initiatives, including studies into youth impacts, use patterns, impaired driving, advertising, labeling, quality control of products and barriers to entering the industry.
Possession of small amounts of cannabis would become a civil offense on January 1, 2023, punishable by a $100 fine for up to 1.5 ounces, or $250 for more than 1.5 ounces and up to 2.5 ounces.
Activists also wanted lawmakers to include a provision preventing police from using the odor of marijuana alone as the basis for a search, for example, and that wasn’t included.
Another potential problem that advocates have identified is the proposed allocation of equity funds.
Ferguson said last year that he favored legalizing cannabis through the legislature rather than waiting to ask voters on November’s ballot.
As introduced, Feldman’s 83-page bill would have allowed home cultivation of up to four plants per adult, with a maximum of eight plants per residence.
The senator’s bill as filed was considered at a Finance Committee hearing earlier this month, along with a separate Senate measure, SB 692, from Sen.
When it comes to marijuana, legalization began to advance through Maryland’s legislature last session, but no votes were ultimately held.
Two years later, a decriminalization law took effect that replaced criminal penalties for possession of less than 10 grams with a civil fine of $100 to $500.
Also that year, the governor vetoed a bill that would have shielded people with low-level cannabis convictions from having their records publicized on a state database.
As for Maryland lawmakers, a House committee in 2019 held hearings on two bills that would have legalized marijuana.
The state Board of State Canvassers certified the latest version of initiative last week.
Michigan might not seem like the obvious choice for such bold psychedelics reform, but it’s become something of a hub for advancing the issue at the local level.
Ned Lamont signed a separate bill last year that includes language requiring the state to carry out a study into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms. A workgroup has since been meeting to investigate the issue.
A bill to decriminalize a wide array of psychedelics in Virginia was taken up by a House of Delegates panel in January, only to be pushed off until 2023.
Colorado activists, meanwhile, recently selected one of the four psychedelics reform ballot initiatives that they drafted and filed for the November ballot, choosing to proceed with a measure to legalize psilocybin, create licensed “healing centers” where people can use the psychedelic for therapeutic purposes and provide a pathway for record sealing for prior convictions.
It’s an interesting data point, as there’s generally widespread consensus among legalization advocates that those most impacted by cannabis criminalization should be specifically empowered to participate in the industry.
“Giving first dibs on marijuana licenses to those previously convicted divides Democrats and New York City voters.
There’s also a plurality of support for the concept among those living in New York City: 44 percent agree with the proposal and 43 percent are against it.
“The Criminals for Kathy coalition is growing,” GOP candidate Lee Zeldin, currently a congressman, said in a social media post this month, for example.
To qualify for the conditional license, an applicant would need to have been convicted of a cannabis-related offense prior to March 31, 2021, when the state’s adult-use legalization law was enacted.
Existing medical marijuana operators, called “registered organizations” under the state’s cannabis code, would generally not be able to obtain the proposed conditional licenses.
Licensees would need to notify regulators of their intent to continue participating in the recreational market within 120 calendar days of the expiration of the conditional license.
Meanwhile, the state has also taken separate steps to get the industry in a position to have products available by creating provisional marijuana cultivator and processor licenses for existing hemp businesses that take certain steps to promote equity in the emerging industry.
As it stands, adults 21 and older can possess and publicly consume cannabis, as well as gift marijuana to other adults as long as they aren’t being compensated.
The governor released a State of the State book in January that called for the creation of a $200 million public-private fund to specifically help promote social equity in the state’s burgeoning marijuana market.