This is just a glimpse. Want to receive every issue of Cannabis Wire Daily, our newsletter that is sent to subscribers each weekday morning, and unlimited access to cannabiswire.com?
What’s the latest on that cannabis super PAC?
Last summer, the US Cannabis Council and its members announced the formation of Legalize America, which they described as “the nation’s first Super PAC devoted to reforming cannabis laws across the United States.”
“We believe the 2024 presidential election will be a pivotal moment in the fight to end cannabis prohibition,” said Pete Meachum, VP of Government Affairs for Cronos Group. “We are laying the groundwork now to use advertising, grassroots engagement, voter outreach and events to keep cannabis front and center throughout the campaign.”
While there are months to go until the election, and plenty of time for the PAC to ramp up raising, Cannabis Wire decided to check in to see what’s going on so far.
Their total raise? $92,095.75
How much of that is cash? $50,000, all from Curaleaf.
The rest is in-kind (legal and administrative support), from USCC or Curaleaf.
Their total spend? $87,351.85.
On what? Roughly half to USCC, and the other half to Authentic Campaigns, a “digital strategy company”
In short: it’s been slow, so far.
Kaiser Permanente’s latest partnership takes on cannabis vaping.
Kaiser is partnering with the Truth Initiative, the non-profit best known for its public education campaigns around tobacco, to “address the growing problem of cannabis-filled vapes,” the Truth Initiative announced this week.
They will include new lessons as part of their existing curriculum, which they say has “enrolled more than one million” high school students.
Some thoughts on the strange situation in Nebraska.
Anyone paying attention to the push for cannabis reform in Nebraska over the last few years would know that advocates have had a tough go.
In 2020, the state Supreme Court stripped medical cannabis from the ballot, as Cannabis Wire reported at the time. In 2021, Nebraska Sen. Anna Wishart made her case in the legislature, but the legislation failed to advance. She vowed to return to the ballot in 2022, but the campaign fell short of the needed signatures to qualify. She went back to the legislature, and they again killed the bill in 2023.
Today, Nebraska remains one of the rare few states without a medical or adult use cannabis program.
But in the meantime, something else has happened: a proliferation of intoxicating hemp-derived products.
Some striking sentiments arose during a hearing last week on a bill that aims to rein in these products, not least of which was the argument from one hemp retailer that their customers “find benefits for health concerns with our products.”
That hemp retailer, The Cannabis Factory, has 16 shops and more than 100,000 “loyalty program” members, according to Nelam Millatmal, who testified on its behalf.
This raises a number of questions: in the absence of legal access to medical cannabis, are these hemp products filling the gap? If so, will lawmakers simply aim to crack down on these products, or will they eventually move to advance legislation to legalize medical cannabis? Even if they do, would it make a difference, considering these hemp products are popular in states with both medical and adult use cannabis?
It remains to be seen. But in the meantime, it’s noteworthy that a state that has tried harder than most to keep cannabis products out is now awash in them.