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New Mexico Senate committee advances adult use bills.
Last night, the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee advanced two adult use legalization bills: HB 12, a social justice-focused bill favored by reform advocates, and SB 288. The former has already passed out of the House, as Cannabis Wire reported in our newsletter earlier this month.
Cannabis Wire spoke with HB 12 sponsor Rep. Javier Martínez ahead of his bill’s introduction, and he noted that the legislature has become less conservative in recent years, adding, “I believe the path toward legalization has opened up more so than ever before.”
HB 12 must clear one more committee before it goes before the full Senate. The legislative session ends this month.
Hawaii Senate advances adult use legalization bill.
Last week, we reported in our newsletter that Hawaii lawmakers advanced SB 767 to the full Senate for a vote. On Tuesday, the Senate passed the bill, which now heads to the House.
Florida lawmakers continue push to cap THC in cannabis products.
On Tuesday, after a two hour hearing, the Florida House Professions & Public Health Subcommittee passed HB 1455, a bill that would cap the level of THC in medical cannabis products at 10%.
At the start of the meeting, subcommittee Chair Will Robinson, Jr. said, “As we all know, discussion on the medical marijuana program elicits a passionate response from both sides of this issue. We have allotted two hours for this meeting so that we may have a healthy debate. It is important that everyone in this room remain respectful of the varying viewpoints and that proper decorum is maintained.”
Indeed, both sides held firm, with voices against the bill calling it anti-cannabis and harmful to patients, while voices in favor of it suggested the program is being used by people simply seeking to get high.
Nikki Fried, the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and longtime supporter of cannabis reform and former industry lobbyist — along with Rep. Carlos G Smith, who, as Cannabis Wire recently reported, has put forward adult use legislation this session — has been loudly pushing against the bill.
“No one has asked for arbitrary THC caps – neither patients nor businesses. These caps are a tax on medical marijuana patients already forced to pay too high a price for medicine. They are a political solution in search of a non-existent problem,” Fried said in a statement this week.
Marylanders strongly support legal cannabis.
Today, 67% of Maryland residents say they support “making marijuana legal for recreational use in Maryland,” according to the latest Goucher College Poll, which included 725 adults.
“The Maryland General Assembly is considering a bill to legalize the use of recreational cannabis. This most recent effort comes on the heels of four states voting to legalize recreational cannabis by ballot measure this past November and, most recently, New Jersey and Virginia passing adult-use marijuana legalization laws,” Mileah Kromer, director of the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center at Goucher College, said in a statement.
“We’ve consistently found that a majority of Marylanders support the legalization of recreational cannabis, but this is the first time Republican support has reached 50 percent.”
+ More: Read Cannabis Wire’s latest coverage of the adult use push in Maryland.
Curaleaf to acquire EMMAC.
Multistate operator Curaleaf, one of the highest-valued cannabis companies in the US, has announced it plans to acquire EMMAC Life Sciences Limited in a $286 million deal (15% of it in cash) as it enters the European cannabis industry.
EMMAC is well-established in Europe, and, most recently, as Cannabis Wire reported in this newsletter, was named as a provider for France’s medical cannabis pilot program. EMMAC also has a large licensed cultivation facility in Portugal, named Terra Verde.
