Welcome to this Week in Cannabis News for Friday, January 5, 2023. Watch the full episode of This Week in Cannabis News:
Here’s what you need to know this week:
Rescheduling is on the minds of cannabis industry leaders in DC. Last year, remember that the Department of Health and Human Services recommended that cannabis be rescheduled from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3. That recommendation was made to the Drug Enforcement Agency, who is the final arbiter of such things. And while the industry waits for the DEA’s decision, the DEA did acknowledge this week that they are indeed “conducting its review”. And, in a letter to congress, the DEA’s congressional liaison reiterated that the DEA has “has the final authority to schedule, reschedule, or deschedule a drug under the Controlled Substances Act…”
Recall that the Democratic Governor of Wisconsin Tony Evers would like to legalize cannabis, and do it quickly in that state, Republicans in Wisconsin have a more slow-go approach in the works via legislation they are going to propose this month. Yesterday, the Governor acknowledged that his path to rapid legalization may take time, and that he might support the Republicans’ incremental approach in order to get there faster.
Some medical cannabis licenses are on hold based on legal action in Alabama. A judge issued a Temporary Restraining Order this week to stop the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission from issuing integrated licenses, these are the most vertically integrated licenses available in Alabama.
In Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear has backed a measure that would increase the number of patients eligible to receive medical cannabis in that state.
For this week’s cannabis expert we’ll go back a few months to a conversation with Frederika Easley of The People’s Ecosystem to talk about something that was cannabis front-page news then, and is front page news now - rescheduling. We talked about the implications of rescheduling on The People’s Ecosystem, but to the industry overall.
As always follow Dutchie’s LinkedIn page.
