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Australian Senators aim to reject adult use legalization.
The Australian Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee has published its report on a bill to legalize cannabis for adult use.
It culminates in one brief recommendation: “The committee recommends that the Senate not pass the Bill.”
Some context: Back in February, as Cannabis Wire reported at the time, the Committee held its first hearing on legalization. Specifically, they met to discuss Greens Senator David Shoebridge’s Legalising Cannabis Bill 2023, which would legalize personal cultivation and to allow for regulated sales and consumption spaces. Ahead of the hearing, the bill had received more than 200 public comments, and following the hearing, the Committee had until May 31 to complete its report.
The 71-page report includes an overview of the comments and the hearing, as well as various “key issues” that accompany legalization. You can read the full report here.
Two Committee members submitted additional views: Deputy Chair Paul Scarr and Shoebridge.
Scarr wrote in support of rejecting the bill that “there are great risks involved in introducing a legal market for recreational cannabis use.” Citing the number of Australians who had said in surveys that they would “try cannabis if a legal recreational market were established,” he wrote that “the potentially disastrous health consequences of cannabis use are not fully understood by the Australian public.”
In his “dissenting report,” Shoebridge cited public support and research that countered Scarr’s points. “The Greens will proceed with this Bill and we will present it to the Parliament for a vote,” he wrote.
“If we don’t succeed this time, there is an upcoming federal election where people can see which politicians voted for this reform and which politicians instead voted for more jail, more policing and more profits for organised crime,” he continued. “Then we can all vote for who we want in parliament next time around.”
From California to Massachusetts, efforts to rein in hemp products.
Here’s the latest:
• The California Department of Public Health doesn’t want anyone drinking these hemp sodas.
CDPH is warning consumers against drinking Mary Jones hemp-infused sodas. These drinks, manufactured in Michigan, contain “prohibited” THC isolate ingredients, regulators said. The warning comes because these “illegal products are inaccurately labeled and contain prohibited intoxicating ingredients, they pose a risk to consumers.”
“California simply will not tolerate the distribution and sale of unsafe, mislabeled and illegal products that put the health of the public at risk,” Tomás J. Aragón, CDPH director and state public health officer, said in a statement. “We continue to work with partners across the state to help protect our communities, especially our youth, from illegal hemp products.”
+ More: CDPH’s action follows an April directive from Gov. Gavin Newsom on “illegal hemp products,” and you can read Cannabis Wire’s coverage of that directive here.
• Massachusetts alcohol regulators warn licensees against selling hemp drinks.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources issued a joint notice about liquor licensees selling food and drinks that contain hemp-derived cannabinoids.
“Please be advised that it is unlawful to manufacture and/or sell food or beverages containing hemp
derived CBD and/or THC. This applies to alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. These products
must be taken off the shelf immediately,” the notice read.
“Any licensee found in violation of importing, manufacturing, transporting, selling, and/or possessing on its licensed premises food and/or beverages containing hemp derived CBD and/or THC faces potential suspension or revocation of its license.”
• Louisiana lawmakers decide against banning intoxicating hemp products.
In yet another state where a debate is brewing over banning or regulating intoxicating hemp products, a Senate bill that sought a ban has been tabled for now in the House. Meanwhile, a House bill that includes regs for mg limits and where products can be sold, passed out of the Senate.
South Dakota voters will decide on adult use (again).
Yet again, South Dakota voters will see adult use on their November ballots. The Secretary of State confirmed yesterday that the measure qualified.
This isn’t the first time South Dakotans have decided on adult use. In 2020, voters legalized adult use, only to see it struck down by the state Supreme Court following a legal challenge led by Gov. Kristi Noem. Then, voters rejected legalization at the ballot box in 2022.
Which direction will they go this time? We’ll see in November. But in the meantime, you can catch up on Cannabis Wire’s coverage of South Dakota’s adult use tumult here.
