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South Africa: An adult use bill, years in the making, is signed into law.
The president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, signed off on a bill this week to allow for personal cannabis cultivation and use.
Some context: back in 2018, the country’s Constitutional Court ruled that personal cannabis prohibition is unconstitutional, handing the matter over to lawmakers. (A similar ruling took place in Mexico, with the country’s Supreme Court, but lawmakers there have yet to act, as Cannabis Wire has reported.) Lawmakers finally passed a bill, the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act, this February – four years after the Court’s deadline.
A statement released by Ramaphosa’s office on Tuesday reads: “The consequent regulatory reform enabled by the CfPPA will, amongst others, entirely remove cannabis from the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act. This will further enable amendment of the Schedules to the Medicines and Related Substances Act and provide for targeted regulatory reform of the Plant Breeders Rights Act and the Plant Improvement Act, as well as other pieces of legislation that require amendment to allow for the industrialisation of the cannabis sector.”
It continues: “The Bill further guides the medically prescribed administration of cannabis to a child while also protecting children from undue exposure to cannabis. It provides for an alternative manner by which to address the issue of the prohibited use, possession of, or dealing in, cannabis by children, with due regard to the best interest of the child. It also prohibit the dealing in cannabis.”
League of Minnesota Cities to localities: move fast, or consider a moratorium.
The League of Minnesota Cities is telling localities to start preparing now for adult use. Why? Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill last week to allow some cultivation to start this year – before adult use rules are finalized – so that a supply is ready when sales go live next year.
Specifically, the new language reads: “A social equity applicant with a license preapproval for a cannabis microbusiness license, cannabis mezzobusiness license, or cannabis cultivator license, may grow cannabis plants from seeds or immature plants if the social equity applicant: (1) has provided documentation in a form and manner prescribed by the Office of Cannabis Management from the applicable local unit of government that states the social equity applicant is in compliance with local zoning ordinances and state fire and building codes.”
Since this is a change from the original adult use law, the League is telling cities that they either need to get up to speed fast, or consider moratoriums.
“Cities should review their zoning ordinances and determine if changes need to be made to properly regulate cannabis cultivation,” they write. “In the alternative, cities still have the ability to adopt a moratorium on cannabis businesses. A moratorium may be a proper action if a city cannot effectively amend their zoning ordinances in time to deal with early cultivation.”
New York wants help destroying seized cannabis.
The Office of General Services posted an RFP “on behalf of the New York State Office of Cannabis Management” that is “seeking a DEA-Registered Reverse Distributor to perform cannabis destruction services following the seizure of illicit cannabis products.”
The lengthy doc contains a few interesting nuggets. For example, that “there are three secure warehouses across New York State where the seized products are stored in plastic bags.”
These regions are identified as: Albany, Buffalo, and NYC.
The contractor will be required, within a year, to destroy a “backlog of product totaling approximately (180) 55-gallon drums.”
Then, they can start “monthly destruction,” and “OCM estimates there will be (10) 55-gallon drums at each Lot to be properly destroyed each month.”
Finally, there are four “main categories of product to be destroyed,” including:
“A) Leafy plant matter
B) Edible products in gel, liquid or gummy form
C) Concentrated product in glass containers
D) Vaping equipment which contains batteries and metals”