Today is April Fool’s Day. While we could tell you some fake story about how weed is falling from the sky, we’d prefer to go in a different direction. The cannabis industry has come such a long way, and rather than discuss the fools who are still pushing against cannabis, we’d rather celebrate those who continue to shine a light on the plant while calling it like it is, unrelenting in their efforts to expand access to cannabis across the board. Here are just a few political advocates who are shooting for change.

Gary Chambers, Running for Senate in Louisiana

Although Gary Chambers is not yet a member of the Senate, we’d be hard-pressed not to include him given his advocacy on the subject of cannabis, among other topics. He announced his candidacy in January this year with a video of himself smoking a blunt and talking about the harms caused by the War on Drugs. Most recently, he spoke at the Chamber of Cannabis in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 10 about the long-term imprisonment of Kevin O’Brien Allen for a cannabis conviction and his approach to politics. 

“I didn’t get into politics to be a politician,” he shared. “Most of the people who came into my community with a suit and tie was lying … I don’t talk the way that the average politician talks, and I don’t produce content to tell voters what our message is, in the way that [an] average politician does so. Because I don’t think it’s transformative, and I don’t think it works.” 

Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York

Many politicians approach their jobs with a no-nonsense approach, and Kathy Hochul has made some waves in favor of New York state’s cannabis program. In August 2021, she was appointed as the state’s first female governor and vowed to launch the cannabis industry that former Governor Andrew Cuomo stalled. 

In a press release on September 1, 2021, Hochul confirmed her intention to make cannabis a priority. “One of my top priorities is to finally get New York’s cannabis industry up and running—this has been long overdue, but we’re going to make up for lost time with the Senate confirmation of Tremaine Wright as Chair of the Cannabis Control Board and Christopher Alexander as Executive Director of the Office of Cannabis Management,” she stated. Most recently, she also implemented a Seeding Opportunity Initiative on March 10, which sets a goal for cannabis sales to begin by the end of 2022.

John Fetterman, Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor

Former Mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania and current state Lieutenant Governor, John Fetterman has long been advocating for cannabis legalization to help those who have been negatively affected by the War on Drugs. In May 2021, he questioned the country’s ban on the plant. 

“This isn’t controversial,” he shared on the topic of legalization. “Canada, the whole country has legalized, and somehow they managed to keep doing pretty darn well … they haven’t descended into anarchy, you know?” In an interview with Forbes in September 2021, he shared that cannabis legalization has “always been the right thing to do.” He’s currently running for Senator of Pennsylvania, the ballot window of which is approaching on May 17, 2022.

Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader

On the congressional level, Chuck Schumer is a familiar name with those following the many attempts to make cannabis federally legal. He introduced a bill for federal decriminalization in June 2018, and federal legalization in May 2019. In April 2021, he was done waiting for President Joe Biden to take a stance on cannabis and was ready to bring a cannabis bill to the senate floor. 

“We will move forward,” Schumer said. “[Biden] said he’s studying the issue, so [I] obviously want to give him a little time to study it. I want to make my arguments to him, as many other advocates will. But at some point we’re going to move forward, period.” As of February 4 while attending a press conference, he stated that he will once again focus on introducing another bill to tackle the issue this April. 

“In the coming weeks, we’re ramping up our outreach—and we expect to introduce final legislation. Our goal is to do it in April,” Schumer said at the press event. “Then we begin the nationwide push, spearheaded by New York, to get the federal law done. As majority leader, I can set priorities. This is a priority for me.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, US House of Representative of New York

The initials “AOC” have been seen in many headlines since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez assumed her office in January 2019. During this time, she has been a vocal advocate on many issues, including cannabis and psychedelic therapies. In July 2021, she advocated for an amendment to allow the further study of substances such as MDMA, psilocybin and ibogaine as a potential medical treatment for certain conditions. 

In December 2021, Ocasio-Cortez and Congressman Dave Joyce introduced the HOPE (Harnessing Opportunities by Pursuing Expungement) Act with the hopes of encouraging states to support cannabis expungement programs. “As we continue to advocate for the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana, this bipartisan bill will provide localities the resources they need to expunge drug charges that continue to hold back Americans, disproportionately people of color, from employment, housing and other opportunity,” she said of the bill.

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A bill to legalize recreational pot for adults narrowly advanced in the South Dakota legislature last week, winning approval in the senate by just a single vote. The legislation would bring some redemption to advocates who have been in a tug-of-war battle with the state for the last two years to end prohibition and finally get legal sales in the state. 

In 2020, 54 percent of South Dakota voters approved Amendment A, which would have legalized recreational marijuana, in addition to hemp and medicinal cannabis, within the state. (That same year, an even larger majority of voters passed a separate ballot measure that legalized only medical marijuana.)

But it was doomed from that moment forward, with Republican Governor Kristi Noem mounting a legal challenge against the amendment.

In February of last year, a circuit court judge in South Dakota ruled in Noem’s favor, saying that Amendment A violated the state’s constitution and could not become law.  

Months later, on the day before Thanksgiving, the state’s Supreme Court upheld that lower court ruling on the grounds that the amendment ran afoul of the constitution’s “one subject” requirement.

Undeterred, advocates said in the fall that they intended to put another legalization proposal on the 2022 ballot, which was an impetus for the GOP-controlled state Senate to forge ahead with its own measure. 

“This is your opportunity to take control of the issue,” said one of the bill’s sponsors, Republican state Senator David Wheeler, as quoted by the Associated Press. “This bill is your opportunity to do what the people said they wanted in Amendment A.”

“The train on marijuana is only moving in one direction nationwide,” he added. “It is better for us to get ahead of it.”

The bill that passed the state Senate on Wednesday would allow adults age 21 and older to have up to an ounce of marijuana in their possession. Additionally on Wednesday, legislators in the chamber passed a number of bills “to set up retail licenses in the same way it licenses liquor establishments as well as automatically remove from background check records misdemeanors and petty offenses for pot ingestion or possession that are more than five years old,” according to the Associated Press.

Despite its passage in the state Senate, the bill still faces a long, difficult road to ultimate approval. 

Leaders in the state House of Representatives, where Republicans also have a big majority, have indicated that the legislation will face stiff opposition in their chamber.

“That hasn’t been very favorable in the House,” state House Majority Leader Kent Peterson said on Thursday, as quoted by local television station KELO. “I would assume that’s going to have a decently tough path going forward.”

And then there’s Noem, a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate who has long been vocal in her opposition to recreational pot legalization. 

At a press conference on Wednesday, the governor didn’t say if she would veto the bill should it land on her desk, but reiterated that she is against recreational pot use.

“I haven’t seen anybody get smarter from smoking dope,” Noem said, as quoted by Dakota News Now.

A poll late last year found that a little more than half of South Dakota voters disapprove of Noem’s handling of cannabis legalization.

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Medical cannabis is officially, finally, legal in Mississippi. 

The state’s Republican governor, Tate Reeves, signed legislation on Wednesday that will allow qualifying patients to receive the treatment, ending a long and drawn-out struggle that dates back to the 2020 election, when a huge majority of Mississippi voters passed a ballot initiative. 

“The ‘medical marijuana bill’ has consumed an enormous amount of space on the front pages of the legacy media outlets across Mississippi over the last three-plus years,” Reeves said in a statement that he posted on Twitter.

“There is no doubt that there are individuals in our state who could do significantly better if they had access to medically prescribed doses of cannabis. There are also those who really want a recreational marijuana program that could lead to more people smoking and less people working, with all of the societal and family ills that that brings.”

After voters approved the initiative to legalize medical cannabis in 2020, it didn’t take long for the measure to unravel. The state Supreme Court struck it down last year, ruling that the initiative was unconstitutional based on a technicality. 

Ever since then, Reeves and lawmakers have been engaged in a back-and-forth surrounding a legislation to replace the one nullified by the court. Despite being opposed to the initiative, Reeves said that he would honor “the will of voters.” But getting a bill on his desk proved to be difficult. 

In the fall, Mississippi legislators produced a bill, but Reeves did not call a special session, citing objections with the legislation as it was drawn up.

“I am confident we will have a special session of the Legislature if we get the specifics of a couple of items that are left outstanding,” Reeves said in October. “Again, we have made great progress working with our legislative leaders.”

The chief dispute between Reeves and lawmakers centered around the amount of cannabis a patient could purchase. Reeves had said he wanted the limit to be set at 2.7 grams per day.

Last week, members of the Mississippi state House and Senate finally reached an agreement on a bill that will allow qualifying patients to purchase up to 3.5 grams as many as six times per week.

The bill passed the legislature with a veto-proof majority.

“I have made it clear that the bill on my desk is not the one that I would have written,” Reeves said in his statement on Wednesday. “But it is a fact that the legislators who wrote the final version of the bill (the 45th or 46th draft) made significant improvements to get us towards accomplishing the ultimate goal.”

Reeves went on to rattle off a host of changes made to the final bill that he said marked improvements to the law.

“1. Reduces the total amount that any one individual can receive to 3 oz. per month. This one change will reduce the total amount by 40 percent from the original version (I asked for 50 percent). Said differently, there will be hundreds of millions of fewer joints on the streets because of this improvement,” Reeves said in his statement.

“2. The medical professional can only prescribe within the scope of his/her practice. And they have to have a relationship with the patient. And it requires an in-person visit by the patient to the medical professional. 

“3. Only an MD or DO can prescribe for kids under 18 and only with the consent of a parent/legal guardian. 4. An MD or DO must prescribe for young adults between the ages of 18-25. 5. The MSDH will promulgate rules regarding packaging and advertising, and I have confidence they will do so in a way that limits the impact on our young people. 6. Prohibits any incentives for the Industry from the Mississippi Development Authority. 7. Protects our churches and schools from having a marijuana dispensary within fewer than 1,000 feet of their location.”

“I thank all of the legislators for their efforts on these improvements and all of their hard work. I am most grateful to all of you: Mississippians who made your voice heard,” he added. “Now, hopefully, we can put this issue behind us and move on to other pressing matters facing our state.”

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Debate surrounding a proposal to legalize medical cannabis will continue this week in the South Carolina legislature, with votes on changes to the bill reportedly coming as early as Tuesday.

Members of the state Senate began debate last week on legislation introduced by Republican Senator Tom Davis, known as the “South Carolina Compassionate Care Act.”

Under the bill offered up by Davis, patients with at least one of a number of qualifying conditions could received cannabis treatment, including: cancer, multiple sclerosis, a neurological disease or disorder (including epilepsy), sickle cell disease, glaucoma, PTSD, autism, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, cachexia, a condition causing a person to be home-bound that includes severe or persistent nausea, terminal illness with a life expectancy of less than one year, a chronic medical condition causing severe and persistent muscle spasms or a chronic medical condition for which an opioid is or could be prescribed based on accepted standards of care.

But there are restrictions on how the cannabis treatment may be administered, with eligible patients unable to legally smoke marijuana. Instead, they would use alternative methods, such as oils, vaporizers and patches.

According to the Associated Press, “there will be more debate when the Senate meets” on Tuesday, and “there may be votes on amendments to change the bill.”

The state Senate began debate on Davis’s bill last Wednesday and Thursday, but the Associated Press said that lawmakers adjourned before holding a vote.

However, the debate itself was historic. Davis has been pushing to legalize medical marijuana in the Palmetto State since 2015. Last week marked the first time in the GOP lawmaker’s seven-year effort that one of his proposals was actually brought to a debate on the Senate floor.

“If you pound at the door long enough. If you make your case. If the public is asking for something, the state Senate owes a debate,” Davis told The Post and Courier newspaper earlier this month. “The people of South Carolina deserve to know where their elected officials stand on this issue.”

The Post and Courier said that Davis has said that his bill would establish “the most conservative medical marijuana program in the country as a result of continued opposition from law enforcement, most notably State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel, who’s highly respected in the Statehouse.”

The Associated Press said that Davis “made his bill conservative based on concern from law enforcement and others.”

But the legislation’s prospects will still face headwinds from other lawmakers and interest groups in the state. 

Groups like the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association are opposed to the proposal, for example.

“If marijuana is medicine, it should be regulated as every other medicine is regulated. We are aware of no other medication that has to be approved by the General Assembly,” said Jarrod Bruder, executive director of the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association. “This (bill) includes a lot of other things—including vaping, including edibles. This is not going to your local pharmacy—it’s going to a dispensary. This is not being treated like every other medicine is.”

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel voiced similar objections, telling local television station WYFF4: “My position on medical marijuana is well known and unchanged. Until it is approved by the FDA, prescribed by a physician and dispensed by a pharmacist I remain opposed to it. Doctors cannot legally prescribe it and pharmacists cannot legally dispense it.”

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, has expressed opposition to recreational pot, but said last summer that he needs “more information” on medical cannabis.

“I know there’s a lot of suffering that is—apparently is—treatable or helped with what they call medical marijuana,” McMaster said at the time. “I think we need to be very careful and use common sense and see what experience has produced in other states before we move too quickly.”

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Only weeks after the South Dakota Supreme Court struck down a cannabis legalization initiative passed by voters, state lawmakers will consider more than two dozen bills to reform cannabis policy during the new legislative session beginning this month.

Legislators have already filed at least 38 bills for the legislative session that begins this month, according to media reports. Of them, at least two dozen of the bills tackle policy pertaining to medical marijuana or adult-use cannabis. 

Medical Marijuana Bills up for Consideration

Many of the bills coming before the legislature were drafted to implement Initiated Measure 26 (IM 26), a ballot measure to legalize medical cannabis passed by voters in the November 2020 election. Rollout of the state’s new medical cannabis program has begun, with the first medical marijuana identification card being issued by the state in November 2021. Local governments have started to license medical cannabis dispensaries, although the state has yet to issue any cultivation licenses.

IM 26 gave the legislature the authority to pass legislation necessary to implement the measure. Last summer, a legislative Marijuana Interim Study Committee held three meetings to draft legislation to enact provisions of IM 26. Republican State Rep. Fred Deutsch, a member of the committee, said that some of the legislative proposals make minor amendments to the language in the ballot measure.

“I look at all the bills coming through the state Senate as ‘clean up bills,” Deutsch told reporters recently. “They are the result of the summer study, and are pretty much just low-hanging fruit, that is how I think of them. All of them passed by large numbers (in committee.)”

Deutsch noted, however, that the proposed bills retain the spirit of the ballot measure approved by the electorate.

“I want to provide voters the opportunity to have the medical marijuana program that they voted for,” Deutsch said. “A robust, medical program.”

One of the proposals, Senate Bill 10, requires medical marijuana patients to present identification when the purchase cannabis at dispensaries. Senate Bill 16 revises criminal statutes to allow for medical marijuana activities legalized by IM 26, while Senate Bill 18 revises the rule-making authority for medicinal cannabis.  

Recreational Marijuana Bill Filed in State Senate

Republican state Senator Michael Rohl is sponsoring Senate Bill 3, a measure that legalizes the use of recreational cannabis by adults 21 and older. The bill also establishes a system to regulate the production and sale of recreational marijuana.

“(The bill) is a compromise between eight members of the Senate and sixteen members of the House,” Republican Senator Michael Rohl, the sponsor of the bill, explained. “The bill would modernize our criminal code and instruct the Department of Revenue to prepare for adult-use cannabis sales in South Dakota.”

Cannabis advocates including Matthew Schweich, director of the Marijuana Policy Project, say it is past time to legalize recreational marijuana in South Dakota.

“The support we are seeing in the legislature for cannabis reform, which has never been seen before at this level in South Dakota, is a sign that legislators are listening to their constituents,” said Schweich. “They recognize that South Dakota voters are disappointed and angry with the ruling by the state’s Supreme Court on Amendment A.”

Adult-Use Cannabis Ballot Measure Struck Down

Voters also approved Amendment A, a constitutional amendment to legalize adult-use cannabis, in the November 2020 election. However, Republican Governor Kristi Noem challenged the validity of the measure on technical grounds and supported a lawsuit to nullify the ballot measure approved by voters.

In November 2021, the South Dakota Supreme Court struck down Amendment A, ruling that the proposal covered more than one legislative subject in violation of state rules governing voter-led ballot initiatives. Chief Justice Steven Jensen wrote for the majority that the ballot measure clearly contained “provisions embracing at least three separate subjects, each with distinct objects or purposes.”

After the court’s decision was announced, Noem took to social media to express her support for the ruling.

“South Dakota is a place where the rule of law and our Constitution matter, and that’s what today’s decision on Amendment A is about,” Noem tweeted on November 24. “We do things right—and how we do things matters just as much as what we are doing. We are still governed by the rule of law.”

Noem’s views, however, are not in line with those of South Dakota’s voters. A poll conducted in the state last month found that more than half of the voters disapproved of the governor’s handling of cannabis policy, while only 39 percent said they supported her stance.

South Dakota lawmakers return to the state capitol in Pierre on Tuesday, January 11. The governor is scheduled to make her annual State of the State address the same day at noon Central Standard Time.

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