Feds sue company over CBD cancer claims (Newsletter: May 1, 2020)

Booker pushes legal marijuana amid COVID; NORML wants govs to scale back cannabis enforcement; Trump’s new drug war order

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• Joseph Drum: “Cannabis prohibition is one of the greatest injustices in American history. We urgently need to reform this draconian and un-American policy and we are relying on leaders like Tom Angell to help us get there. I thank him for all he has done and continues to do for this movement.”

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/ TOP THINGS TO KNOW

The Federal Trade Commission sued Whole Leaf Organics for allegedly marketing CBD products as a cancer treatment, marking an escalation in the feds’ efforts against unsubstantiated cannabidiol claims.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said it’s unfair that marijuana businesses are deemed essential but can’t get coronavirus aid, and reiterated his pledge to push for federal legalization.

• “This hypocrisy—these drug laws that we have that are archaic and cruel—they must end. I’m going to fight to make sure right now that this ugliness is over in our country and we do the right thing on the federal level. And our momentum is building by the way.”

NORML is leading an effort to encourage voters to pressure their governors to deprioritize marijuana enforcement during the coronavirus pandemic. Cannabis arrests and incarceration create “non-essential interactions” that can spread COVID, the group says.

• “Enforcing marijuana prohibition is in itself unfair and unnecessary. Enforcing marijuana prohibition during a global public health crisis, even more so.”

/ FEDERAL

President Trump issued an executive order allowing the secretary of defense to call armed forces selected reserve units to active duty to participate in an “Enhanced Department of Defense Counternarcotic Operation in the Western Hemisphere.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is seeking public input on “experiences with pain and pain management” including “topics focused on using or prescribing opioid pain medications, non-opioid medications, or non-pharmacological treatments.”

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said providing marijuana businesses with access to coronavirus relief funds is “a matter of basic fairness” and that he’s “not backing down” on the issue.

Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI), who is exploring a Libertarian presidential bid, spoke about how people on the left tend to support states’ rights when it comes to marijuana.

/ STATES

A Montana judge dismissed a marijuana legalization campaign’s lawsuit seeking the ability to collect electronic signatures for their proposed ballot measures and to extend the petition submission deadline due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Ohio’s attorney general announced that the Bureau of Criminal Investigation implemented a new testing method to differentiate between marijuana and hemp.

California regulators proposed rules for a statewide certification program for comparable-to-organic cannabis standards.

A Missouri judge is considering a request for a temporary restraining order on selling, transferring or changing medical cannabis business licenses.

Friday is the deadline to apply for Massachusetts’s marijuana social equity program second cohort.

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/ LOCAL

The Santa Clara County, California district attorney’s office expunged or reduced more than 13,000 marijuana convictions.

A King County, Washington councilmember criticized health officials for distributing marijuana edibles, cigarettes and beer in a facility designed to encourage people suspected of having coronavirus to stay in quarantine.

/ INTERNATIONAL

Honduras’s former national police chief was charged by U.S. officials with drug trafficking and weapons offenses.

/ SCIENCE & HEALTH

A study comparing justice-system-involved young adults in California and Pennsylvania found that “rates of marijuana use increased significantly in both states, regardless of whether participants lived in a legalized state,” suggesting that “increases in rates of marijuana use might be better explained by factors beyond legalization laws.”

Scientists developed a “highly sensitive, robust, fast, and accurate [method] for determination of the main terpenes and cannabidiol in hemp and could be routinely used for quality control.”

/ BUSINESS

A Canadian court limited the scope of a class action lawsuit against Organigram Inc.

Vireo Health International, Inc. formed a wholly-owned subsidiary called Resurgent Biosciences, Inc. to commercialize the company’s intellectual property.

BudTrader is going public in a reverse takeover with Lake Victoria Mining, Inc.

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