While the inhabitants of the free district of Christiania have decided to close the Pusher Streetknown for its free sale of cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms but also for its score-settling, the mayor of Copenhagen, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, invites the city’s residents, experts and MPs to a debate meeting around the legalization of cannabis.

Five times the government asked the municipal council for authorization, five times “no”

Now the Copenhagen City Council is trying its luck again. In light of the latest shooting at the sanctuary, in which one man lost his life and several others were hit, the city of Copenhagen is now calling for a panel discussion where the legalization of cannabis is on the agenda. day.

“For me, there is no doubt that legalization is one of the tools we should use to undermine the illegal market. I respect that this is a divisive issue, but I hope we can now begin a nuanced discussion,” the mayor said in a press release.

The meeting will take place today September 18.

The Copenhagen City Council has long wanted to establish a pilot program for the controlled legalization of cannabis in the capital. With the recent closure of Pusher Street, a new debate will take place this week.

On five occasions, the municipal council asked different governments for authorization to implement such a program, and on five occasions the response was negative.

Medical cannabis activists in Nebraska have officially launched their third petition drive, aiming to collect enough signatures to put the legalization of medical cannabis to voters on the general election ballot in November 2024.

THE Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana will collect signatures for two legislative proposals:

• The Medical Cannabis Regulation Act, which would create the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission, to regulate medical cannabis businesses in the state
• The Patient Protection Act (Patient Protection Act) which would ensure that consumers and their caregivers do not face legal consequences when using medical cannabis recommended by a healthcare provider

Both petitions require 87,000 valid signatures from registered voters.

Signatures must come from at least 5 percent of registered voters representing at least 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. The group did not achieve this in 2022.

On his first attempt, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana collected enough signatures to put the question before voters on the 2020 ballot, but the state Supreme Court ruled the measure was unconstitutional.

Crista Eggers, campaign manager, said the group will keep trying.

“There was never any question that we wouldn’t come back a third time,” Crista Eggers said in a statement. “This is not an issue we can give up on; it is for people’s lives that we are fighting. »

After several years of waiting and delay, the experimentation with legal cannabis in the Netherlands will finally start on December 15, 2023. According to sources involved in the project, the kickoff of this experiment will be given in the cities of Breda and Tilburg before the end of the year. This news was first communicated to De Telegraaf, before being officially announced by the Dutch government the next day and covered by CannabisIndustrie.nl.

Volgens betrokkenen mogen Breda en Tilburg dit jaar al los. And then you will have to wait until the transfer begins. Bij de proef krijgen coffeeshops ‘staatswiet’ aangeleverd van door de overheid geselecteerde telers.https://t.co/x4cnqwxhUf

— De Telegraaf (@telegraaf) September 14, 2023

“The outgoing Minister of Health, Mr. Kuipers, announced at the beginning of the year that the start-up phase would begin with three growers, but the third is not ready in time. To maintain support for the experiment, we have decided to waive the condition that a minimum of three cultivators must be ready,” the minister and his justice colleague Yesilgöz wrote in a letter to the lower house.

The Dutch government website further states the following:

“The cabinet decided that the start-up phase of the legal cannabis experiment will begin on December 15, 2023. The latest planning shows that by the fourth quarter of 2023, two legal producers should be ready to supply coffeeshops. This will be enough to launch the start-up phase of the experiment in Breda and Tilburg. During this phase, participating coffee shops in these municipalities will be allowed to offer both legally grown and tolerated products. »

Other participating municipalities could join the first two cities during the first quarter of 2024, provided that growers are ready and there is sufficient supply.

Why experiment with legal cannabis in the Netherlands?

Currently, the Netherlands applies a policy of tolerance towards coffeeshops and the sale of cannabis. On the other hand, the cultivation and delivery of cannabis to coffee shops is illegal, effectively placing cannabis growers illegally.

The experiment with legal cannabis in the Netherlands therefore intends to authorize a defined number of producers to cultivate cannabis and supply voluntary coffeeshops to participate in the legal distribution of cannabis. 11 cities have so far volunteered to host the experiment.

Faced with repeated score-settling and collateral victims of the war on drugs, Sébastien Barles, deputy mayor of Marseille, wants to experiment with the legalization of cannabis.

Invited this Thursday by BFM Marseille Provence, he went to defend a pragmatic policy, “which will make it possible to drastically reduce trafficking, therefore violence, therefore the climate of terror in working-class neighborhoods, to recreate a climate which can make it possible to place of public policies […] the return of real equality, to put back to work or training these young people who are caught up in trafficking today. »

“Everyone says it today, it’s a pragmatic measure. Safe chin thrusts don’t work, everyone says that.”

Correcting presenter Sophie Hebrard who questioned him about the lack of impact of prevention, Sébastien Barles clarified that “It is not prevention” but repression which has no effect. Hence the desire to legalize cannabis, in addition to the particular situation of trafficking in Marseille.

“Precisely because the situation in Marseille is particular, because there is this cartel logic that is being put in place, we must now experiment with legalization, see how it works, regulate, control trafficking, and implement prevention policies precisely. for young people to prevent them from smoking dangerous products. And we see it in Canada, it works, there is less consumption, especially among young people. »

“Legalization can allow better control [des produits]. »

Sophie Hebrard then asks him if, as Gérald Darmanin says, another drug will take the place of cannabis in the event of legalization?

“I think he doesn’t have advisors who can give him feedback from all the states, from Uruguay which has 10 years of experience, from Canada, from the American states where we see that it pays off including money that can be reinvested in working-class neighborhoods […] This is the only answer. Today we are putting 2 billion into repression of cannabis, just for police resources. It doesn’t lead to anything, it doesn’t solve anything,” Sébastien Barles replies.

“Even the reports of the majority of which Mr Darmanin is a part, the parliamentary reports, those who have studied the question, say so.”

The Latin American and Caribbean Conference on Drugs reached a common agreement last Friday on the fact that the war on drugs is a failure and must be rethought, without, however, consensus on the definition of a new model of drug regulation. drugs such as cocaine.

At the meeting held in the Colombian city of Cali, experts and government representatives – mainly Colombian and Mexican – proposed a road map for a new way of approaching the global drug problem that would aside, among other things, the persecution of the peasants.

“International leadership corresponds to our country and I believe that it is exercised responsibly,” assured Colombian Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna, during the first panel of the day.

And as part of that leadership, he added, Colombian President Gustavo Petro signaled to the international community, at various summits and countries, that prohibition was not the right policy.

New drug policy

The Colombian president himself presented, at the closing of the conference, the new drug policy, an initiative which aims to stop attacking the peasants who cultivate the coca leaf and to place emphasis on actions against drug trafficking networks.

This “change in narrative” is an important step, according to organizations that work with farmers and have great knowledge of drugs, but experts like María Alejandra Vélez, director of the Center for Studies on Security and Drugs (Cesed ) from the University of the Andes in Bogota, considers that Colombia is “shy” when it comes to its “international leadership”.

“I welcome the anti-drug policy, but I ask that we not be timid, at least in proposing what this model of regulated cocaine could be, because if we remain in defense of the producer farmer without proposing alternatives on the other side, with a market of 21 million cocaine users, what is fixed on one side will explode on the other,” underlined the expert.

The justice minister responded that he hoped that “we are moving towards a world without an illegal drug economy, with responsible and reasonable regulation of cocaine, heroin, opioids and cannabis”, but he stressed that it was currently difficult to achieve this with international laws.

This is why Colombia cannot act outside this international framework, declared the minister, but it will argue in international arenas “that we need a regulated market with reasonable use of cocaine, heroin, opioids, all these substances, and that prohibition and repression have not worked.

And the progression of alcohol, the consumption of which was persecuted a century ago, could serve as a guideline, just like that of tobacco, the consumption of which has decreased, not by “putting smokers in prison”, but through prevention and public health campaigns.

Ending repression

The conference also discussed ways to end the repression.

“It is an imagination that does not correspond to reality to think that the big drug barons are in prison, it is not true, the prisons are full of poor people,” declared the minister.

“Punitive approaches have limited results in all areas and thinking that criminal law or a punitive approach or prison can give results beyond the limits of criminal sanction is a common error in our contemporary societies, fueled by the punitive phenomenon,” he added.

But “there is no room for maneuver” to abandon the punitive approach, and the Colombian government believes that prosecution efforts should focus on those most responsible for drug trafficking and not on peasants. To eliminate the dependence of small farmers and regions, part of the solution would be to bring public goods and services there and create legal economic alternatives. Destruction operations will thus focus on large crops, or on those of small farmers who do not play the game and increase their production.

“What we are going to do is give priority to the punitive approach in the fight against cocaine, not against the coca leaf, not against the poor farmer who had no choice but to cultivate coca leaf,” Mr. Osuna said.

To reach the big players in trafficking, the text counts on the destruction of laboratories, the increase in seizures, the control of chemicals used to produce drugs, the fight against money laundering and corruption and provides for the strengthening of various enforcement bodies. police.

The plan is supposed to run until 2033.

The results of a recent study published in JAMA Network Open claim to have found a link between the legalization of cannabis and an increase in road accidents.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Ottawa and examined emergency room visits in Ontario, Canada, over a 12-year period (January 2010 to December 2021), at the end of which they noted a 475.3% increase in traffic accidents that resulted in an emergency room visit in which the driver had cannabis in their body at the time of the accident.

“This cross-sectional study found a sharp increase in cannabis involvement in emergency department visits for traffic accidents over time, which may have accelerated following the commercialization of cannabis for non-medical purposes », We can read in the conclusion of the study. “While the frequency of visits is rare, they may reflect broader changes in cannabis-impaired driving. Greater prevention efforts, including targeted education and policy measures, in regions where cannabis is legal are indicated. »

At first glance, 475.3% is a big number. However, the study was only conducted in Ontario, Canada. The total number of road accidents with injuries due to cannabis during this 12-year period was 426 out of 947,604, or 0.04%.

“Another study also found no increase in the total number of motor vehicle accident hospitalizations in Canada in the 2.5 years following legalization. It is essential to note that the slow deployment of the cannabis retail market in Canada and the overlap of the legalization period with the COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduce the ability of these studies to assess the impacts of legalization,” indicates the study.

However, the study highlighted the fact that men seem more exposed than women to the risk of being involved in such accidents when cannabis intoxication is considered as a factor.

“Of the 418 people with documented involvement in cannabis, 330 (78.9%) were male, 109 (25.6%) were aged 16 to 21 (mean age [ET] at the time of the visit, 30.6 [12,0] years), and 113 (27.0%) had had an emergency room visit or hospitalization for substance use in the two years before their emergency room visit for a motor vehicle accident,” the study said.

“The results of this repeated cross-sectional study suggest that serious cannabis-related traffic crashes have increased over time. The legalization of non-medical cannabis, widespread retail access, and increased variety of cannabis products may have increased these visits despite laws specifically aimed at deterring driving under the influence of cannabis. », Indicates the study.

“Young adults and men appear to be at particularly high risk of cannabis-related traffic accidents. It may be necessary to intensify interventions, including education on driving under the influence of cannabis, enforcement activities and policies to regulate access to commercial retail markets. »

Paris is preparing for an exciting professional event which will take place on Wednesday September 27 and which promises to shed light on the latest developments in the medical cannabis and CBD wellness sectors in France. Hosted by consultancy Augur Associates and Newsweed, this event aims to provide a comprehensive update on the rapidly evolving landscape of medical cannabis and CBD products.

Club Confluence will have the pleasure of welcoming Franck Milone, president of LaFleur, a leading company in the field of medical cannabis in France. With his extensive experience and expertise in the field, Mr. Milone is expected to provide valuable insights into the current state of the industry and its growth potential in France.

The other main subject of discussion will be the evolution of the legal framework for CBD-based products in France, with the presence of Mathieu Bersot, representative of the Union Des Professionnels Du CBD (UPCBD).. While the sector was rather calm about its future, the French authorities are now attacking head-on certain CBD products such as sublingual oils or food. The UPCBD is expected to provide valuable information on the current legal landscape and potential future reforms.

Over the past few months, the medical cannabis and well-being CBD sectors have experienced a lot of turmoil in France. The event will therefore serve as a platform for professionals, stakeholders and enthusiasts to come together and explore these developments. Attendees can expect to gain a better understanding of the regulatory changes, market trends and scientific breakthroughs that are shaping the industry.

This event, which will be held in Paris on September 27, is unmissable for anyone involved or interested in the medical cannabis and CBD wellness sectors. Don’t miss this opportunity to join the conversation shaping the future of healthcare and wellness in the country.

Pre-registration on the Club Confluence website.

What is the Confluence Club?

The Confluence Club is a private space for reflection around Cannabis and its issues, intended for current and future hemp and cannabis entrepreneurs. You can follow Club Confluence activities more closely by subscribing to the LinkedIn group of the same name 🙂

The agency responsible for regulating cannabis in New York State has finally decided to open the New York cannabis market to all applicants, including cannabis companies already present in several American states (such as Curaleaf, Acreage, Columbia Care or Cresco Labs) and existing medical cannabis companies, starting next month. This measure could allow new retailers to open by the end of the year.

But this change, intended to accelerate the slow deployment of the legal cannabis market in New York, has sparked an outcry among small producers and social equity candidates. They say the move will undermine the state’s ambitious plan to prioritize small businesses and corporations owned by those most directly affected by prohibition.

Accelerate the deployment of legalization

The New York State Cannabis Control Board (CMO) approved a series of resolutions at its latest meeting, including new rules allowing the state’s medical cannabis dispensaries to transition to the use-based market adult more quickly than initially expected. Originally, medical cannabis businesses were not to be able to compete with new businesses for three years after legal sales began in New York. With Tuesday’s change, that period will be reduced to about a year.

“Today marks the largest expansion of New York’s legal cannabis market since legalization, and we’ve taken a big step forward in achieving our goal of making cannabis available to New Yorkers. safer and regulated across the state,” said Chris Alexander, executive director of theOffice of Cannabis Management (OCM), in a press release.

“The regulations finalized today are the result of robust engagement with stakeholders across the state who submitted thousands of comments. This final package truly represents the values ​​of fairness and competition that we believe are at the heart of this market.”

Other changes include allowing more medical cannabis businesses to apply for licenses, as well as opening applications for new research licenses.

BREAKING: #NYcannabis is expanding. Tea #NYCCB approved adult-use cannabis applications.

Starting October 4, applications for Cultivator, Processor, Distributor, Microbusiness and Retail Dispensary licenses will be available through the New York Business Express (NYBE) platform.

— NYS Office of Cannabis Management (@nys_cannabis) September 12, 2023

Currently, retail licenses are only available to applicants under the CAURD licensing program (Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary). To qualify for this program, the applicant must have been “justice-involved” – in other words, have been directly affected by a cannabis-related conviction – and have some experience running a profitable business. Cultivation licenses, meanwhile, were first granted to participants in New York’s hemp pilot program.

Expanding entry requirements into the state’s cannabis market is expected to accelerate the opening of more legal businesses, as unlicensed retailers have proliferated, particularly in New York City. Although the state approved adult-use legalization in 2021, only two dozen legal retailers have opened in the state. In the meantime, lawsuits have temporarily halted licensing, further complicating the situation.

Last month, a judge suspended licensing under the CAURD program, preventing regulators from granting new conditional licenses for dispensaries, or processing existing licenses, while a lawsuit filed by a group of veterans.

California’s bill to allow cannabis dispensaries to offer non-cannabis food and drinks on their premises is officially on its way to the governor’s desk.

Days after the Senate passed a slightly modified version of the original bill, the California Assembly approved the bill Monday, by a vote of 48-7. The bill now moves to the Governor Gavin Newsom.

New possibilities for cannabis dispensaries

The bill would allow local communities to allow cannabis consumption spaces to prepare and sell non-cannabis food and non-alcoholic beverages in their facilities. The sale of alcoholic beverages in Cannabis cafes would remain prohibited, as would the smoking of tobacco.

The legislation would further explicitly permit “live musical or other performances on the premises of a retailer or micro-business licensed under this section, in the area where cannabis consumption is permitted , as well as the sale of tickets for these shows.

Retailers and micro-businesses would be allowed to offer freshly prepared food and drinks, but the bill limits the sale of prepackaged food to retailers, which is consistent with regulations that the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) state adopted late last year.

The bill was revised along the way to clarify that hemp-based foods and beverages are not considered “non-cannabis” products that could be sold in cafes. It also states that non-cannabis products “shall be stored and displayed separately and distinctly from all cannabis and cannabis products on the premises.”

Our Cannabis Cafe bill–allowing local governments to permit legal licensed cannabis retailers to sell non-cannabis foods and drinks–is out of the legislature and on to the Governor. If he signs it, it will become law next year.

— Matt Haney (@MattHaneySF) September 11, 2023

In fact, some California businesses had found solutions to allow on-site cannabis consumption while still making food available to customers – but they were operating in a gray area, partnering with restaurants.

Governor Newsom has not commented publicly on the plan but has been a long-time supporter of cannabis legalization.