GR Weekly Review Week Ending July 9, 2021 Confidential: Not for Dissemination Outside of Membership THE WEEK AHEAD: 1. Administrative 2. Federal Priorities 3. Appropriations Lobbying 4. Policy Working Groups 5. Bi-Weekly States Update 6. This Week: Who said What on Cannabis 7. What’s the Word on Weed? 8. USCC Spotlight 9. Pioneers in Cannabis 10. The 101 (new section) Thanks to everyone who is contributing resources to the USCC! This includes not only helping with our upcoming lobbying around descheduling and SAFE Banking, but in the generous offers of support as the USCC continues to ramp up. 1. Administrative ● Stay tuned for a big announcement coming next Wednesday! We have an exciting development coming. ● The GR teams involved in our D.C. lobbying efforts around descheduling and SAFE Banking are meeting on July 21 at the Brownstein Hyatt offices. If you are part of this effort and need any info, please reach out to [email protected]. 2. Federal Priorities ● The USCC GR team began meeting with member GR folks this week to go over our vote counts and make assignments on descheduling and SAFE Banking. These meetings continue next week. We continue to hear of coming hearings for MORE and a desire for a hearing on SAFE, but nothing set. ● We heard through Hill staff Wednesday that BWS is planned for release and comment “before the August recess.” 1 3. Appropriations Lobbying ● The most likely win for SAFE in the near term is the inclusion of some of its basic protections in the appropriations process. The provision was added by a key House committee and will very likely be part of the budget sent to the Senate. With Vermont recently launching new cannabis businesses, it brings the issue much closer to the home state of the powerful Sen. Leahy, who will have an outsized amount of influence over how the Senate treats cannabis provisions in the budget. Stay tuned, but this is a major area of focus for several of our members and lobbyists. 4. Policy Committee and Working Groups ● Caps Working Group. This past week, the THC Caps group considered several areas of policy related to caps, in anticipation of policy recommendations to the Federal Policy Committee. ● International Policy Working Group. Met on Friday to hear the perspective of Michael Krawitz and his work at the UN over the past several decades. 5. Bi-Weekly State Update Tune in next week. 6. This Week: Who Said What on Cannabis White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki shifted her tone on the suspension of US Olympic-hopeful Sha’Carri Richardson. During a segment on CNN Psaki said, “She has lost her mother, she’d gone through a tragedy and she’s also the fastest woman in the world—and I think she’s sending a message to a lot of little girls out there, you can do this. We know the rules are where they are, maybe we should take another look at them. We certainly have to respect the role of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the U.S. Olympic Committee and the decisions they make. But it is sad.” Robert Reich, Former US Labor Secretary tweeted, “So let me get this straight: Elon Musk can smoke a joint on Joe Rogan’s podcast and SpaceX gets millions in federal contracts, but Sha’Carri Richardson tests positive for THC and she’s disqualified from the Olympics?” U.S. Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) tweeted, “Anti-marijuana laws are not only an unnecessary burden on athletes’ civil liberties, but they are also rooted in our country’s racist past. I’m pleased to see the Nevada Athletic Commission eliminate outdated penalties for fighters testing positive for marijuana metabolites.” U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) told Politico’s Natalie Fertig, “The people of Montana decided they want to have it legal in our state and that’s why I support the SAFE Banking Act as well- it’s the right thing to do- but I don’t support federal legalization.” U.S. Senator John Thune (R-SD) was quoted in Politico where he said, “Medical’s getting big- the recreational not as big yet, but it’s growing- and there’ll be more initiatives on the ballot. It’s an area that’s evolving, and our country’s views on it are evolving...How we deal with it nationally I think is still 2 an open question.” Sha’Carri Richardson said in an interview, "People don’t understand what it’s like to have to go in front of the world and put on a face and hide my pain, like, who am I to tell you how to cope when you're dealing with a pain or dealing with a struggle that you've never experienced before." Karen O’Keefe, Director at the Marijuana Policy Project, was quoted in an article on the effect of the Mormon Church on medical cannabis legalization in Utah. She said, “[Utah is] a good example of a state that has a medical program that’s limited, where there’s not any eye to adult-use legalization, and where there was actually active involvement from the medical society in working out the details of the program. Canadian cannabis company Tilray announced it has finalized its first harvest of medical cannabis grown in Germany. Denise Faltischek, Tilray’s Head of International and Chief Strategy Officer said, “It is a testament to the professionalism and dedication of our team that despite the challenges of a global pandemic, we remained on track as the first licensed producer to cultivate medical cannabis in Germany.” 7. What’s the Word on Weed? The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) announced it has opened a 30-day public comment period seeking, “more perspectives from a wide array of backgrounds including those most impacted by United States’ drug policies to inform its future endeavors.” Additionally, Acting Director of the ONDCP Regina LaBelle led a meeting of senior agency officials to discuss and develop the National Drug Control Strategy. A coalition of 30 lawmakers from the Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to reopen certain deportation cases, focusing on those involving cannabis. Led by Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY), the letter points out that a vast majority of unjust deportations have targeted Black and brown immigrants, and calls on the Administration to establish a centralized process to evaluate and authorize returns going forward. Cannabis delivery platform Eaze announced that consumers can now shop and pay for cannabis products through its iPhone app for the first time. The announcement comes after Apple instituted a new policy change stating that it would no longer prohibit cannabis delivery services from being hosted on its App Store. 8. USCC in the Spotlight The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) will host a six-part webinar series examining the consequences of the drug war for Latin America and the Caribbean titled, “Decades of Damage Done: The Drug War Catastrophe in Latin America and the Caribbean.” The first installment is scheduled for Thursday, July 15 beginning at 10:30 am. Registration for the entire event series can be found here. 9. Pioneers in Cannabis Mary Pryor co-founded Cannaclusive, an agency that fosters inclusion in the cannabis industry through marketing, visuals, consultancy, advocacy, education, and wellness guidance, and spearheaded the creation of InclusiveBase, a resource for conscious consumers looking to support minority-owned cannabis businesses. Her journey to starting this company began when she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and turned to cannabis to help alleviate some of her symptoms. As a Black woman, Ms. Pryor has struggled in the predominantly white and male cannabis industry. This is one of the 3 reasons she works to normalize people of color consuming cannabis and creating racial equity within the industry. Do you have someone in mind that we should highlight? Please get in touch with [email protected]. 10. The 101 [This section is part of a new weekly series that takes a closer look at an area of cannabis reform that the USCC navigates as we work toward descheduling and a good regulatory system to follow.] Expungement Today, expungement is a nearly ubiquitous feature of legalization efforts, but that hasn’t always been the case. This is a quick primer on what is, how it emerged as part of the legalization landscape, features we want to see, and some of the challenges. What is expungement? Technically, “expungement” can mean slightly different things, or may be referred to by different terms including terms like sealing or expunction. But generally it refers to removing criminal records associated with particular offenses. In common usage, it is used more broadly to refer to things like overturning convictions, pardons or clemency (which impact the finding of guilt or how a person is treated as part of a sentence), but in practice, expungement is more narrow and limited to removing records. And in practical terms for us, it means removing all publicly-accessible information that shows that a person was arrested, charged, found guilty, or served a sentence related to a cannabis offense. Traditionally expungement is done on a case-by-case basis, with juvenile court being by far the most common place at which state laws allow removal of records. Applying expungement procedures in adult cases may require new law, or new rules for legislative branches. Courts may need to consider how they can proceed without significant costs or requiring former offenders to obtain counsel and return to court. While expungement is attractive and a common feature, it requires careful tailoring to the jurisdictions laws and system.