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Mexico’s Supreme Court moves to end cannabis prohibition.
Minister Norma Lucía Piña Hernández has drafted a General Declaration of Unconstitutionality regarding Mexico’s cannabis prohibition, and the Court is expected to vote in the coming days.
Cannabis Wire reported on this possibility when lawmakers missed their Supreme Court-mandated deadline to pass a cannabis legalization bill. The Court granted lawmakers several extensions, but the chambers could not agree on the details.
If the Court ultimately votes to end cannabis prohibition itself, lawmakers would still need to craft legislation to establish a framework for the industry.
Advocacy groups applauded the “courage” of the Court in taking this step.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signs legalization bill into law.
Connecticut officially became the 19th state to legalize after Lamont signed the legalization bill that lawmakers recently passed and sent to his desk.
Lamont had a signing ceremony on Tuesday, saying that he is particularly appreciative of the equity fund to help entrepreneurs who might not otherwise have access to capital.
“They need to start up their own business, focused on the most distressed communities, those communities that were hardest hit by the war on drugs, making up for some lost time there. All of us here in public office place a premium upon public health, more so than ever after this last year, and public safety. I think this is a bill that prioritizes that, [to] make sure that we can do this in a safely regulated way,” Lamont said. “I think it is a model for the rest of the nation.”
Former CannTrust executives charged.
It’s been a long time since the name CannTrust was inextricable from one of the biggest scandals in Canada’s cannabis industry. Back in 2019, the company was in a freefall because regulators found out that cannabis plants were kept in hidden rooms. Executives were let go and the company lost millions of dollars and, no pun intended, trust.
That is why the company quickly distanced itself from its former employees who were named in an Ontario Securities Commission (OCS) announcement on Tuesday. The OSC formally charged Eric Paul (chair), Peter Aceto (CEO), and Mark Litwin (director and vice chair) with fraud, among other charges specific to each individual, like insider trading and “making false or misleading statements to the OSC and to the market.”
The three men “did not disclose to investors that approximately 50 per cent of the total growing space at CannTrust’s facility in Pelham, Ontario, was not licensed by Health Canada,” OCS wrote. “In press releases, corporate disclosures, analyst calls and prospectuses, they asserted that CannTrust was compliant with regulatory requirements, and they included all cannabis production in the company’s financial statements, without stating that half was grown without a license.”
