The Cannabis Wire Daily newsletter is sent to C-Wire Plus subscribers every weekday morning at 7 a.m. Excerpts are published here later in the day. Don’t miss the full picture. Subscribe now.
Will Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam sign the adult use bill on his desk?
One Congress member is asking him not to, though Northam’s support for adult use is pretty firm.
“Legalizing recreational use of marijuana, even if limited to adults, would expose our future generations to drug use at young impressionable ages,” U.S Representative Bob Good of Virginia wrote to Northam. “It is my hope that the Governor will not move forward with this legislation and will instead acknowledge that the many negative consequences far outweigh any potential positive revenue for the Commonwealth.”
+ More: Read Cannabis Wire’s latest coverage of the adult use bill in Virginia.
Florida now has more than 500,000 medical cannabis patients.
We’ve been watching the number of cannabis patients in Florida steadily climb higher than most (if not all) medical cannabis programs.
Now, as of March 5, it hit 500,950.
The USDA’s final hemp rule goes into effect on March 22.
In January, as Cannabis Wire reported, the US Department of Agriculture released its final rule on hemp production, and set its effective date for this month. On Monday, the USDA announced that it reviewed the final rule, as is customary when there is a change in administrations, and that it is cleared to go into effect on March 22.
Though, this isn’t necessarily news that all hemp advocates are celebrating.
The National Industrial Hemp Council (NIHC) flagged, for example, the recent National Association of State Departments of Agriculture vote, on which Cannabis Wire reported, to support raising the level of THC allowed in hemp to 1%.
“We believe legislation on Capitol Hill is likely to follow. This would complicate the USDA’s efforts to implement those specific provisions,” NIHC spokesperson Larry Farnsworth said in a statement.
“We do need regulatory certainty and NIHC appreciates what USDA is doing. The benefit of delayed enforcement of specific provisions is that it keeps the rule in place, allowing everyone to move forward, without forcing regulators and the industry to implement costly and uncertain methodologies that would no longer be needed with the new legislation.”
