Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what's happening in the world of legalized marijuana. This week, we see two federal bills involving legalization. A lawsuit against the DEA has been dropped. Nebraska's medical marijuana legislation is stalled. And finally, we have a cautionary tale about using drones to deliver marijuana to the incarcerated.
FEDERAL LEGISLATION
Ever the optimists, a bipartisan group of Representatives has re-introduced the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act. This bill has been kicking around so long that the first version spelled marijuana with an h. The idea behind the bill is that states would be able to legalize or not legalize as they wish, with a basic federal regulatory framework. There are any number of polls that show broad support across the political spectrum for this type of legislation, but based on past experience, holding one's breath seems ill-advised.
In other federal legislative news, the Preparing Regulators Effectively for a Post-prohibition Adult-use Regulated Environment Act (PREPARE) Act is back. Another old chestnut, this would instruct the Justice Department to prepare (hence the acronym) for federal legalization by establishing a commission to study cannabis regulation and develop recommendations for a regulatory framework. Planning ahead is always a good idea, but again, based on past experience, those hopes should remain firmly down.
DEA LAWSUIT
One of the many twists and turns of federal re-scheduling of cannabis was a lawsuit filed by a pro-legalization group, Doctors For Drug Policy Reform (D4DPR) against the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The lawsuit alleged that the DEA was biased against re-scheduling, and had improperly prevented groups in favor of moving cannabis to Schedule III from testifying at a hearing. D4DPR has now dropped the lawsuit, saying their goal was to expose agency misconduct, which they claim to have done. If the current administration decides to resume the re-scheduling process, the lawsuit could be refiled, so this may not be over.
NEBRASKA
As regular readers will doubtless recall, Nebraska voters passed a medical marijuana initiative last year. The legislature has been considering how to regulate a retail market, but as the clock winds down on the current session, they have been unable to agree on a path forward. This doesn't mean medical marijuana will be illegal, just that it will be unregulated. Lawmakers are considering various parliamentary maneuvers in an effort to prevent a "Wild West" situation – further bulletins as events warrant.
AND FINALLY
Clearly not the brightest bulb in the vanity mirror, an Alabama woman was arrested on charges of using a drone to drop marijuana into a state prison, not once, but twice. There's a lot wrong with this idea – where to begin? First, you have to figure drones would attract a lot of attention amongst the guards at a prison, which would cause them to investigate. Second, Alabama's attempts to set up a market for medical marijuana have been less than successful, but no matter what ultimately happens, random drone operators are not going to be allowed to dispense to prisoners. And then to do this twice? The mind reels...
Be well everyone – we'll see you next week.
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