Belgium Takes First Step Towards Legalization of Medicinal Cannabis Cultivation

Is Belgium next in line to legalise the cultivation of medicinal cannabis? The first step has been taken. On February 26, 2019, the parliamentary committee of health approved a bill for the establishment of a government controlled cannabis agency. This agency is to regulate cultivation and trade in medicinal cannabis.

Currently, the cultivation of cannabis in Belgium is not permitted, even for medical or scientific purposes. The government agency which is to be created, is to control all cultivation and trade of medicinal cannabis. 

Government control
The Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP) announced that, after establishment, the cannabis agency will launch a public tender for the cultivation of medicinal cannabis. Certain growers will be licensed to grow a set amount of cannabis at designated locations. Afterwards the cannabis agency will purchase and distribute the entire production, having a monopoly on the complete trade. The cannabis agency will be part of the FAMHP. 

Growing market 
"The approval of this bill is an important first step in the right direction. Soon licensed players will be able to grow cannabis in a legal way," says Anton Buntinx of Corbus Advocaten. The Belgian law firm specializes in the growing market for the cultivation and distribution of cannabis intended for medicinal and scientific purposes.

"With the establishment of this cannabis agency, Belgium is following other countries that are already active on the market for the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal use. Belgium jumps on the bandwagon of the ever-growing market for legal cannabis cultivation for medical use." He continues: "The FAMHP can thus organize the cultivation of cannabis in Belgium, without liberalising the market."

In recent years, more and more countries have been legalizing the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal use. In the Belgian horticulture sector too, steps have now been taken to be able to play along in this area. In Kinrooi (Limburg) there is already an ambitious player ready to set up a nursery and research center. The intention is that they will develop and produce new types of cannabis for medicinal use on a large scale.

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For more information:
Anton Buntinx
Corbus Advocaten
anton.buntinx@corbus.be 
www.corbus.be

Publication date : 2/27/2019 
© HortiDaily.com

Legalized Marijuana in New York State: The Green Gold Rush

Lissa Harris@lissaharris

It’s a moment cannabis advocates have been waiting for. On Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo officially unveiled a plan for legalizing recreational marijuana in New York State, in his State of the State budget address in Albany.

The plan includes the creation of a new Office of Cannabis Management, taxes on cultivation and wholesale, a ban on sales to anyone under 21, licensing for businesses throughout the supply chain, and the ability for counties and cities to ban sales, Gannett’s Jon Campbell reports. Also in the works: a program to review and seal past marijuana-related criminal convictions.

Officials estimate that legalization will eventually bring in $300 million in tax revenue a year, but the industry will be slow to ramp up, the New York Times reports:

That number, though, would not be available until the fiscal year starting in 2023, according to Mr. Cuomo’s budget director, Robert Mujica.

The initial rollout would bring in much less revenue, projections show. Budget documents released Tuesday projected no revenue from marijuana regulation and taxation for the 2020 fiscal year, and $83 million for 2021.

A code name for marijuana written on a train in New Jersey. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Keeping Up With The Joneses

With more and more states moving toward legalization, the climate around cannabis is shifting quickly. Politicians who would have been loath to endorse recreational marijuana just a few years ago are now starting to worry that their states will lose out economically if they don’t jump on board the legalization bandwagon.

New Jersey, whose governor Phil Murphy campaigned on a promise to legalize recreational marijuana, is racing New York to pass a cannabis law. Reporter Payton Guion for NJ.com explains why New Jersey legislators are anxious to get there first: 

If New Jersey were to somehow get beat to legalization by New York, the state would be leaving a lot of potential tax revenue on the table. Millions of people would likely cross the border to buy legal weed, based on estimates of New Jersey’s potential marijuana market.

But no one is likely to cross the border to buy weed in New Jersey if it’s also legal in New York. 

While our neighbors New Jersey and Connecticut have yet to legalize, New York is already losing potential business–and tax dollars–to Massachusetts, where recreational cannabis has been legally available since November. Recently, Rockland/Westchester Journal News columnist David McKay Wilson, who writes about tax policy, took a road trip to Northampton, home to Massachusetts’s first legal dispensary. There, he met New Yorkers willing to stand in line for hours for the chance to purchase just an eighth of an ounce:

The New Yorkers claimed they could find marijuana on the streets of Schenectady for $150 an ounce, which would produce about 60 marijuana joints. That cost would be far less than what they would pay in the Massachusetts dispensary. Though state law allows dispensaries to sell as much as one ounce of cannabis, NETA has limited its sales to a maximum of one-eighth of an ounce because its supply of Massachusetts-grown marijuana is limited.

The one-eighth ounce was on sale for $50–equivalent to $400 an ounce. But they wanted to buy the legal cannabis, with its potency tested and certified. 

“It better be good stuff for this wait,” [Johnny] Deitz said. “It will be a joy to finally smoke it legally.” 

Cannabis isn’t the first vice New York State has seized on as a potential boost to the local economy. In recent years, the state has rewritten the laws on locally made beer, hard cider, and spirits to be friendlier to small brewers and distillers. The result has been a renaissance of small-scale craft beer and spirits in the state.

In an interview with Leafly, Melissa Moore of the Drug Policy Alliance, a pro-cannabis-legalization advocacy group, likens the recent push to legalize cannabis to the craft brewing and distilling movement:

“I think it’s encouraging to look at what the governor has done in terms of encouraging the craft beer and wine industry in New York State, and trying to put forth provisions that help smaller businesses in that arena be able to actually get a foothold to be competitive and grow and thrive,” Moore said. “And I think that’s something that we would certainly encourage him to look for in marijuana legalization as well.”

The chamber of the New York State Assembly, soon to be tasked with hammering out the fine print on marijuana legislation. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Bumps in the Road?

Even with a cannabis-friendly Democratic majority in both the Senate and Assembly, and the endorsement of the governor, legalized recreational marijuana won’t happen overnight. There are still many details to be ironed out. The AP’s David Klepper reports:

Taxes and regulations must be approved. Rules for licensing retailers must be written. A new government entity may have to be created. Local governments will have to be brought in. Even after a bill passes, it could take a year or more for any pot shops to open, based on what’s happened in other states and New York’s own experience with medical marijuana.

One of the biggest worries for lawmakers is how to deal with marijuana-impaired drivers. There’s no clear consensus on what level of THC in the blood constitutes impairment, and unlike alcohol, marijuana can leave trace substances in a person’s blood for days or weeks, long after the initial high has faded. States are enacting a broad range of different laws and “playing catch-up” with science on the issue, Kaiser Health News reports.

Among the states that have legalized recreational marijuana, there is a range of approaches, from relatively permissive California to highly regulated Colorado. So far, New York has opted to keep the marijuana industry on a tight leash: After the state legalized medical marijuana in 2014, only five licenses were awarded in an intensely competitive process. In 2017, five more companies were awarded licenses.

One of those first five license-winners has deep roots here in the Hudson Valley: Etain, a company with dispensaries in Kingston, Syracuse, Yonkers and New York City, and the state’s only women-owned cannabis business. Founder Amy Peckham, who owns and operates the business with her daughters Hillary and Keeley Peckham, is a Katonah resident whose family operates a large construction business called Peckham Industries.

Getting into business in New York State isn’t easy. Just to apply for one of the state’s five coveted licenses cost the Peckhams about $750,000,The Cutreported in a 2015 feature story.

The first few years of legal medical marijuana have been tough on New York’s pioneering cannabis businesses, with few physicians to prescribe and daunting restrictions on every aspect of the business, but Etain’s founders hope to make good on their investment. Recently,The Street cited Etain as one of the top five businesses that stand to profit most from legalized recreational marijuana in New York State.  

New York's Plan For Legal Marijuana Expected Early Next Year

By Noah Manskar, Patch Staff | Dec 11, 2018 4:54 pm ET | Updated Dec 11, 2018 4:56 pm ET

NEW YORK — New York lawmakers won't have to wait much longer to spark a blunt debate over legalizing marijuana. Gov. Andrew Cuomo plans to proffer a proposal for setting up a recreational pot program in the state early next year, his office said Tuesday.

Cuomo, a Democrat, commissioned a state Department of Health study early this year that found legalizing the drug for adult recreational use would do more good than harm. The governor in August commissioned a working group to draft legislation to that end and held a series of public listening sessions on the issue.

"Now that the listening sessions have concluded, the working group has begun accessing and reviewing the feedback we received and we expect to introduce a formal comprehensive proposal early in the 2019 legislative session," Cuomo spokesman Tyrone Stevens said in a statement.

The governor's office has previously indicated that a proposal would come in the upcoming legislative session. Unveiling it earlier in the year would give the state Assembly and Senate a chance to consider it before final negotiations over the next state budget, which must be approved by April 1.

Cuomo will likely present his next executive budget proposal in January. It's uncertain whether the marijuana plan will be part of the budget or a separate bill on its own, a Cuomo aide said.

"As we have said since August, the goal of this administration is to create a model program for regulated adult-use cannabis — and the best way to do that is to ensure our final proposal captures the views of everyday New Yorkers," Stevens said.

Officials estimate legal marijuana could become a $3.1 billion business in New York and generate more than $677 million in tax revenue in the first year. At least one politician wants to use some of the money to fund the struggling Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but others argue it should be used to tackle the racial injustices wrought by drug enforcement.

New York would join other northeastern U.S. states in legalizing cannabis. Marijuana sales started in Massachusetts last month and recreational pot use became legal in Vermont in July, according to news reports. Legalization legislation also reportedly got through committee votes in New Jersey's state legislature in November.

BREAKING NEWS: It's Time To Make Weed Legal In NY 'Once And For All,' Cuomo Says

The governor said he wants to legalize recreational pot early in his third term, but offered no details on how to do it.

By Noah Manskar, Patch Staff | Dec 17, 2018

NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday named legalizing recreational marijuana among his priorities for the first 100 days of his next term, but offered no details on how to do it. The Democratic governor fully embraced legalization as a key to ending racial inequities in the criminal justice system during a wide-ranging speech in Midtown outlining an ambitious policy agenda.

"We have had two criminal justice systems: One for the wealthy and well off, and one for everyone else. And that's going to end," Cuomo said.

"We must also end the needless and unjust criminal convictions and the debilitating criminal stigma," he added. "And let's legalize the adult use of recreational marijuana once and for all."

The speech cemented a significant shift in Cuomo's position on legalizing recreational pot, a step nine other states have taken despite the drug's illegality under federal law.

The governor was opposed to legalization as recently as last year, reportedly calling it a "gateway drug." He did not mention marijuana in this year's State of the State speech in January. About two weeks later he announced a study of legalization, which concluded it would do more good than harm.

The governor's movement on the issue coincided with a primary challenge to his re-election from Cynthia Nixon, who embraced legalization early in her campaign.

Cuomo's speech left many open questions about what legalization could look like in New York. He did not say how exactly the drug would be regulated, how marijuana tax revenues would be used, or whether he will include a plan in his upcoming state budget.

Cuomo also did not directly say whether he wants to expunge the criminal records of New Yorkers with pot-related offenses, as his state Department of Health recommended this summer.

Legalizing pot was just one item on Cuomo's lengthy to-do list for the first few months of next year. In the same breath he repeated his support for ending the state's cash bail system, in which many people charged with crimes have to pay money to be freed from jail.

The governor got behind bail reform in his January State of the State speech, but legislation to change the system has gotten stalled.

"A judge should determine the individual's risk of release rather than the individual's access to wealth," Cuomo said Monday.

Also among the governor's priorities for next year are banning corporate political contributions; passing a law to make it easier for childhood sexual abuse victims to sue their abusers; and ending vacancy decontrol, a provision under which rent-stabilized apartments fall out of regulation when their rents get high enough.

He also got behind major election reforms, including automatic voter registration, early voting and making Election Day a state holiday. Officials called for some such changes after chaos unfolded at New York City polling places last month.

Much of Cuomo's agenda would not have stood a chance in Albany with Republicans still in control of the state Senate. But many proposals could become reality with Democrats in control of both houses of the Legislature come January.

"There are no more excuses, my friends," Cuomo said. "Now is the time to stand up and lead and do what you've said you were going to do all those years and make a Democratic vision a reality."

(Lead image: Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at the New York City Bar Association on Monday. Photo from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Office/Flickr)

Marijuana Is Now Legal In Michigan – What You Need To Know

December 3, 2018

MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. (WXYZ) - On December 6, Michigan became the first state in the Midwest to legalize recreational marijuana.

Retail shops aren't expected to open until sometime in 2020, but beginning Thursday, people 21 and older can buy or possess marijuana in the state.  

You can have up to 12 plants inside your home, and a total of 10 oz.

According to Barton Morris with the Cannabis Legal group, whatever you grow on those 12 plants is all yours. However, you need to keep anything over 2.5 ounces in your home locked up.  

So how do you get seeds if you’re thinking about growing plants?

"Seeds are readily available. You can use the internet to do a search and find them pretty much anywhere," Grant Gamalski with Northern Lights Hydroponics and Garden Supply said.

"Instagram is becoming a great resource for getting seeds.  Breeders can sell directly from them to the end user, which cuts the seed bank out of the mix and saves the consumer some money," Gamalski said. 

Keep in mind attorney Barton Morris says it’s technically illegal to purchase seeds.

As for business, Grant says they’ve seen an increase with the legalization date just days away.

"We’re trying to up the consciousness of all humanity, as far as I’m concerned it’s a good thing," Gamalski said.

Remember when marijuana officially becomes legal, you can’t smoke in public places. If you're caught, you could face a fine.