We can expect that when the Legislature bans substances like Tianeptine or “gas station heroin,” then copycat drugs will pop up, maybe with a molecule in a complex organic compound changed here or there.
To go beyond listing dangerous drugs that are out there already, Texas and other states have enacted catch-all language that would list or cover “whack-a-mole” new drugs that people would discover or invent.
Continue reading “Whack-a-mole drugs — Texas’s solution”New psychoactive substances like Tianeptine or “gas station heroin” are popping up in North Carolina, and our Legislature is struggling with the problem. https://www.wbtv.com/2024/02/14/nc-lawmakers-working-ban-gas-station-drug-that-mimics-effects-opioids/
But as soon as the Legislature bans substances, copycat drugs pop up, maybe with a molecule in a complex organic compound changed here or there.
To go beyond listing dangerous drugs that are out there already, I’m trying to find catch-all language that would list or cover “whack-a-mole” new drugs that people would discover or invent.
Continue reading “Whack-a-mole Drugs”February 6, 2024
[This post has been updated.] In North Carolina, there is an open and flagrant marijuana market in 2024 , since regular old intoxicating marijuana is being sold in retail storefronts across the state. It’s the tomato model: No licenses, no taxes, no age limits, no regulations.
There are plausible and largely unchallenged claims of legality, on the ground that much standard raw plant material or “flower” is legal because it contains less than the federal limit of 0.3% Delta-9 THC. (Gummies and other Delta-9 products benefit from the same claims.) Maybe this open market benefits from a loophole, or maybe law enforcement is mostly standing down.
In any event, 0.3% looks like a technical glitch in the 2018 farm bill that Mitch McConnell pushed — to create opportunities in hemp cultivation for Kentucky farmers. But he didn’t know what he was doing, or the staffers who drafted the language didn’t.
So far, that marijuana market is thriving. North Carolina cities and counties and the state itself are mostly tolerating this market. Will Congress or our Legislature do anything about it? We’ll see.
Here are three stories:
https://abc11.com/hemp-marijuana-cannibas-stores-north-carolina/12767483/: “In its raw form, the THCa flower meets the legal qualifications of having less than 0.3% Delta-9 THC. But when heat is applied, like when the user smokes or vapes it, more of the product (the THCa) is converted to Delta-9 THC which allows its effect to mirror marijuana products sold in legalized states.”
Continue reading “Intoxicating marijuana is openly sold in North Carolina”Good article by Simon Westlake, https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2024/0123/Growing-like-a-weed-Taking-stock-10-years-after-legalization-began
While a handful of smaller conservative states rejected pro-cannabis ballot measures in 2022, there’s no sign of a wider national rollback. In November 2023, Republican-run Ohio voted to become the 24th state to legalize pot. “Nobody has retracted or retreated,” says Pat Oglesby, a tax lawyer who teaches a cannabis policy class at the University of Virginia. “I think the momentum is for a loosening, not a tightening, of state marijuana sales.”
+++
Another policy tool is taxation. New York and Connecticut levy excise taxes on cannabis that increase with potency, just as liquor is taxed at higher rates than beer. But regulators have also found that high taxes on cannabis, while healthy for state coffers, can make illegal weed more attractive. A combination of high taxes, stringent regulations, and a lack of dispensaries has hamstrung California’s legal recreational market, while illegal producers are thriving.
California faces a law enforcement challenge in shutting down its entrenched illegal industry, says Mr. Oglesby, the tax lawyer, who has advised the state’s regulators. “Cops don’t want to arrest people,” he says. “And juries might not convict them.”
Here is the public-domain 2015 study by Adam Orens for the state of Colorado reporting that THC in edibles and other products is more intoxicating than TCN raw plant material — Marijuana Equivalency in Portion and Dosage. It’s the basis for differential tax rates in New York and Connecticut. So far as I know, it has not been validated or refined by subsequent studies. It’s also available at http://hermes.cde.state.co.us/drupal/islandora/object/co:29996/datastream/OBJ/view.
Continue reading “Marijuana Equivalency in Portion and Dosage — Orens”Here from the public record is my friend Jon Caulkins’s written submission to the Pennsylvania Legislature on cannabis legalization – about expectations for the illicit market and about social equity.
On the illicit market: “I think two-thirds legal and one-third illegal is a reasonable expectation for after the market has stabilized a few years after state-licensed supply opens and before national legalization. That ballpark estimate comes with several elaborations and two warnings.”
On social equity: Although “Most discussion focuses on” “[e]nsuring equitable access to cannabis licenses,” “[t]hat is a mistake.”
And there’s a warning that regulating the marijuana industry won’t be easy. Click to download legible version: https://newrevenue.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2023-10-20-written-testimony-for-pa-cannabis-legalization-hearing.pdf
Dear Members of the New Hampshire Commission to Study with the Purpose of Proposing Legislation, State-Controlled Sale of Cannabis and Cannabis Products:
Some of you support state retailing of cannabis, as I tend to do for my state of North Carolina. Some of you strike the balance differently and oppose state retailing. (Louisiana’s owning and selling cannabis – through the state’s two land grant universities – makes me think that federal illegality is not a practical problem. https://www.lsuagcenter.com/portals/administration/about-us/vice-president-dean-office/Medical%20Marijuana;http://www.suagcenter.com/news/4279.)
The Center for New Revenue, a North Carolina non-profit that I head up, is looking at how much revenue state sales might bring in for North Carolina – over and above taxes. As a cannabis policy researcher interested in government retailing, I wonder if you can correct any mistakes I am making in thinking about revenue from that “public option.”
Continue reading “State marijuana retailing revenue and federal illegality – letter to New Hampshire Commission “September 15, 2023
Sometimes, assets and privileges are up for grabs.
The University of Virginia Law School has an office for me as I co-teach a class on Cannabis Legalization with a focus on who gets the money. Well, for now, I don’t have any use for the office. I teach only three more Fridays.
Until I think of something, this office makes for a thought experiment. It’s in line with Virginia’s marijuana situation that our class is considering: Who gets the privilege of using the room (the asset)? Who gets the privilege of selling marijuana (the money asset)?
Continue reading “What to do with room 163?”What do we call the drug?
Here’s the first jurisdiction to tax our subject:
British Indian colonizers used “hemp drugs” generally, ganja and bhang and more for different products, cannabis rarely, and only for the plant (marijuana not at all):
https://digital.nls.uk/indiapapers/browse/archive/74574106
Continue reading “Marijuana or Cannabis”Here’s a list of cannabis supply architecture models that say what private sellers can get licenses. Maybe others have been used. (Jurisdictions listed are just examples, not exhaustive.)
All comers (Oklahoma with $2,500 fee)
All comers with significant fees (Illinois, https://www.mpp.org/issues/legalization/breakdown-application-licensing-renewal-fees-adult-use-states/)
All comers at the state level with local license needed (Colorado, California)
First-come first-served (Los Angeles for retail; no state starts with this, but moratoria in Oklahoma and Oregon transmute “All comers” into FCFS when licensing stops)
Grandfather existing medical marijuana sellers (lots of states)
Lottery for all applicants who meet certain criteria (Washington, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/medical-marijuana-licensing-states)
Lottery for all comers (“Arizona doesn’t analyze business proposals the way other states do. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/medical-marijuana-licensing-states)
Lottery for social equity applicants with post-drawing verification of status (Illinois, https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.26715.html; Connecticut, https://portal.ct.gov/cannabis/knowledge-base/articles/how-does-the-lottery-work?language=en_US)
Lottery for social equity applicants with pre-drawing verification of status (Maryland, I think, https://www.cannabisindustrylawyer.com/maryland-social-equity-cannabis-lottery-licenses/)
On the merits – competitive licensing (Georgia, Florida)
On the merits — social equity licensing (New York)
Auctions (British India)
Kick the can down the road: Have a commission issue licenses with few or no criteria (Virginia-passed-once Senate Bill 1406 of 2021); or elect or appoint a single individual as cannabis czar to issue licenses (no jurisdiction I know of has tried a single person)
They also oppose having some state body in charge of somehow choosing a handful of medical marijuana sellers that will cartelize the market.
https://reason.org/commentary/north-carolina-house-medical-marijuana-bill/
University of Virginia Law School Professor Kim Krawiec, who had me talk to her class at when she taught at Duke, asked me to help her teach a class on cannabis legalization this fall. I was delighted to sign up to in person in Charlottesville for four Fridays.
https://www.law.virginia.edu/courses/cannabis-legalization-sc-123820664
Cannabis Legalization (SC)
LAW7724
Section 1, Fall 23
Oglesby, Pat
SCHEDULE INFORMATION
Enrollment: 16/16
Credits: 1
| Days | Date | Time | Room |
| Fri | 09/08/2023 | 0900-1200 | WB127 |
| Fri | 09/29/2023 | 0900-1200 | WB127 |
| Fri | 10/20/2023 | 0900-1200 | WB127 |
| Fri | 11/10/2023 | 0900-1200 | WB127 |
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This short course will examine various cannabis legalization regimes, both domestically and internationally, with a focus on the market and financial aspects of legalization. Specifically, we will consider license allocation methods, taxation, racial equity, reparative justice for casualties of the war on drugs, and the continuing existence of illegal transactions after commercial legalization.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Continue reading “Cannabis Legalization at UVA Law School”On May 30, 2023, at a meeting of the North Carolina House Health Committee on our medical marijuana legalization bill, SB3, around 20 people signed up to speak, but the Committee decided to hear from only three.
Reluctance to hear at length from all comers among the general public on marijuana is understandable. Some of us who take an interest in the issue are vehement and emotional. Some of us are “wacktivists.”
In the mid 2010s, I served as co-chair of the Regulatory and Tax Working Group of the California Blue Ribbon Commission on marijuana legalization to make recommendations for an eventual ballot initiative.
That Commission held open hearings in various spots in California. At a video-recorded forum at Fresno State University, a Commission co-chair, Abdi Soltani from the California ACLU, a big, muscular fellow, opened the floor up to the general public after panelists had spoken.
Now Abdi carried around a wireless microphone, which he gripped firmly and held in front of recognized speakers from the public. As impassioned speakers got carried away and tried to seize the microphone, Abdi held on. When they started repeating themselves, he nodded politely and gently took the microphone away. My recollection is that everyone who wanted to speak got to.
Without such safeguards, a public meeting on marijuana laws would probably get either heated or boring. Or both. So I don’t criticize the House Health Committee for not hearing out speakers – even me. I can email in my comments.
(I’m at the left edge of that image, but I’m trying to dodge any blame for the troubles with marijuana legalization in California today. I’m just a technician who had very little if any influence, which I would pin on a huge overhang of illegal operators from decades of bootlegging, and especially on lack of law enforcement. One Californian says, “California doesn’t arrest people for daylight robbery. They’re not going to arrest anyone for pot.”)
The bill legalizing medical marijuana in North Carolina, Senate Bill 3, says its Medical Cannabis Production Commission is to have two “industry representatives” among its eleven members. Maybe the industry doesn’t need representatives on the Commission to regulate themselves. Marijuana sellers can lobby the Commission quite readily, just as they can present their views to the North Carolina House without being Representatives.
The industry naturally wants to maximize profits, and maximize sales. That’s the American way. But why should industry representatives vote about how to regulate themselves? That’s regulatory capture. The Commission needs to serve the general public interest. We don’t mandate Duke Energy on the Utilities Commission. We don’t mandate Jim Beam’s owners on the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission. We don’t UNC mandate professors on the Board of Governors. (Students, OK.). The way the bill is written now, the Commission is of the marijuana sellers, by the marijuana sellers, for the marijuana sellers.
Wait. Isn’t this like the revolving door? Prosecutors resign and start representing criminal defendants. All U.S. Attorneys General I know about practiced law privately before serving the government. Alcohol regulators worked for liquor interests before working for the state.
No, putting industry representatives on the Cannabis Commission is not like the revolving door. It’s worse. That was then and this is now. Former prosecutors are rarely suspected of sabotaging their clients’ cases. LeBron James doesn’t undermine the L.A. Lakers when they play one of his former teams from Cleveland or Miami, does he? Letting industry representatives regulate their industry on behalf of the public? No man can serve two masters. Matthew 6:24. Not at the same time.
Let’s not put any foxes on the Henhouse Commission.
Cite: New N.C.G.S. section 90-113.118.
As I hope to appear before the Health Committee of the North Carolina House on May 30, here are notes and links to sources.
Patient health and public health
Patient health
No patients will get legal medicine for years and years. The Fiscal Note for SB3 says two to three years after enactment.
But first, 3 people have to appoint a “Production Commission.” (What if they drag their feet?)
Second, That Commission decides on “qualifications and requirements for licensure of suppliers.” How do you decide on how to pick winners? That’s hard. That’s a can of worms that the bill kicks down the road.
Third, people apply for licenses.
Fourth, HHS picks 20 semi-finalists.
Fifth, the Commission picks ten winners.
Sixth is when the trouble starts.
Georgia legalized medical cannabis oil in April 2015, with a seven-member commission to pick licensees. Losers complained, and protested, and went to court. After all that fighting, the first sale took place over 8 years after the Governor signed the bill.
Unrestricted licensing – where everyone can get a license – would speed time to market, but has proved disastrous in Oklahoma for law enforcement and industry.
We can get medicine to patients faster if the state keeps control.
That’s about patient health.
Public health
I’m against arresting people for using marijuana, but marijuana makes people nervous. It’s a slippery slope from medical to recreational. The government can’t readily describe and limit medical use. No one can.
Some people overdo marijuana. Former California Gov. Jerry Brown worried, “how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation?”
Baptist teetotaler and Republican prohibitionist John D. Rockefeller Jr., said about liquor: “only as the profit motive is eliminated is there any hope of controlling the liquor traffic in the interest of a decent society.” That’s what he said as Prohibition ended, and he recommended what we did: sell alcohol through state stores.
Louisiana’s land grant universities have a monopoly on producing medical marijuana there (incidentally proving federal illegality a non-issue for state sales).
We can keep the noise down and promote public health better if the state keeps control of medical marijuana.
More
For revenue, and to keep marijuana in North Carolina, state commerce is the better way. See https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article272626684.html.
People sometimes say that a state cannabis monopoly is impossible, because cannabis sales are federally illegal. Well, some future administration could stop all cannabis sales, public and private, but the federal government we have today won’t shut down state sales. Louisiana has been selling marijuana for years, through its land grant state universities, Southern U. and LSU. The federal government hasn’t lifted a finger. Southern is “the only historically Black university in the nation to launch CBD and THC lines of medicinal marijuana products.”
http://www.suagcenter.com/news/4279
Neither of the two part-time jobs I’m taking on pays much, but it’s still nice to get paid.
One is consulting for a study for the State of California via UCLA and RAND: “Assessing the feasibility and consequences of implementing a cannabis potency tax in California ($1,082,815); Ziva Cooper, UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, and Beau Kilmer, RAND Corp., principal investigators.”
The other is co-teaching an in-person class at the University of Virginia with tenured full professor Kim Krawiec four Fridays this fall: “Marijuana Legalization: Who Gets the Money?”
The Center for New Revenue 