Canadian cannabis advocates are calling on the federal government to relax strict limits on the potency of cannabis edibles with a petition seeking a tenfold increase in maximum permitted THC levels. 

Canada legalized cannabis through an act of Parliament in 2018, and retail sales of cannabis extracts and edibles were authorized for licensed operators one year later. Regulations on edibles set strict potency limits, however, with a cap of 10 milligrams of THC per product. In contrast, California, the largest regulated market in the United States, limits THC to 100 milligrams per package, with a per-serving cap of 10 milligrams.

Last year, an Independent Expert Panel began a mandated review of Canada’s cannabis regulations. Advocates for the regulated industry see the review as an opportunity to push lawmakers to increase the THC limit on edibles, launching a petition last week calling on the federal government to increase the limit to 100 milligrams per package.

Jennawae Cavion, the executive director of the Canadian chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML Canada) told the National Post that regulations that strictly limit the potency of edibles make it difficult for licensed businesses to compete with illicit operators.

“It’s driving the market to the unregulated market, which (licensed) cannabis retailers cannot compete with,” Cavion said.

Sam Gerges, the owner of the licensed retailer Mary Jane’s Cannabis, agreed that the THC limit on edibles hinders the regulated market from competing with unlicensed operators.

“No one who buys 100 to 1,000 mg edibles on the streets is going to buy edibles from legal retailers,” he said. “That’s like selling non-alcoholic vodka and saying it’s the real deal.”

The authors of the petition note that a government agency charged with maintaining a competitive business environment and Ontario’s sole authorized cannabis distributor have called for an increase in the THC limit for weed edibles.

“Both the Canada Competition Bureau and the Ontario Cannabis Store have called upon Health Canada to increase THC limits,” the petition reads. “The Competition Bureau has stated that ‘restricting THC levels may not be necessary to achieve the government’s objectives,’ while the Ontario Cannabis Store has emphasized the need to ‘revisit the current THC limits.’ These endorsements from reputable organizations highlight the importance of reconsidering the current restrictions.”

Report On Legalization Released Last Month

The Independent Expert Panel began its work in 2022 and issued its first report last month. Many of those interviewed for the report recommended against making “large-scale changes” to regulations so soon after they took effect, with some even suggesting that the minimum age for purchasing and using cannabis should be increased to 21 from the current 18. 

“Many public health stakeholders and some provincial and territorial government officials focused on reinforcing the value of existing regulatory controls, such as the THC quantity for edible cannabis products and promotion restrictions, to reduce harms,” the report reads.

The review panel’s report also noted that 10 milligrams was established as a “reasonable upper-limit” to avoid overconsumption by inexperienced consumers and that more experienced users tend to prefer smoking or vaping cannabis over edibles. The report also noted that some disputed the notion that the THC cap on edibles is driving consumers to the unregulated market.

“Some researchers suggested that it is rare that higher dose edibles drive consumers to purchase illicit cannabis, as consumers often cite convenience, price and quality as reasons for purchasing illicit products,” the report notes.

Cavion disagreed, saying that low-potency edibles are indeed a factor driving consumers to illicit operators. She also noted the regulations are inconvenient and promote unhealthy eating.

“The other part of it is the amount of sugar you have to consume to get your regular dose,” she said. “I shouldn’t have to eat 10 fun-sized chocolate bars when I can just have a few squares of one chocolate bar — if it has to be chocolate at all.”

Michael DeVillaer, an assistant professor at McMaster University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience, argued against hiking Canada’s THC limit on cannabis edibles.

“Given the potential public health risks, I would place the onus on the petitioners to provide market research that shows there is truly high consumer demand for higher THC product,” said DeVillaer, who is the author of a book on Canada’s legalization of cannabis. “But even if there is such demand, that does not mean we should imperil public health protection for the industry’s interests in market expansion.”

“If the cannabis industry and government are sincere about wanting to compete with the unlicensed trade, they need to clean up the licensed one which is fraught with regulatory violations, including poor product integrity which includes use of unauthorized pesticides, mold, microbial and chemical contaminants, incorrect labeling, and misrepresented products,” DeVillaer added. “These are the historical liabilities of the unlicensed trade that the licensed trade was supposed to fix.”

Cavion countered that strictly regulating cannabis industries will encourage consumers to seek the products they like from unlicensed businesses.

“If we want legalization to be a success, we can’t be limiting the creativity of licensed producers,” she said. “This isn’t an institutional product — it’s recreational cannabis, it’s literally meant for us to have fun.”

Canada’s House of Commons began accepting signatures for the petition to increase the THC limit for cannabis edibles on November 8. The signature collection is scheduled to end on March 7, 2024, at 11:31 a.m. EDT.

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Florida medical cannabis companies have to pay over 22 times the amount to renew their licenses this year—over $1 million dollars—but one company is challenging the unrealistic price hike before it topples the state’s medical cannabis system as we know it.

Sanctuary Cannabis, a medical cannabis company that’s due for a license renewal in January, is arguing that their new $1.33 million price tag for a license is unjustified. The company filed  a petition Oct. 26 against the license renewal fee hike at the state Division of Administrative Hearings.

The company provides unit-dosed products that are independently tested for purity, and the company’s mission is being tested. “We’ve created a space driven by knowledge and compassion, filled with premium, pharmaceutical-grade products, and a professional staff that prioritizes your well-being,” the company website reads.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R – Florida) said he’d raise the license fees last year, High Times reported, and the “exponential increase” of the amount took effect last December. Florida officials “should charge these people more,” DeSantis said in August 2022. “I mean, these are very valuable licenses. I would charge them an arm and a leg. I mean, everybody wants these licenses.” The exorbitant hike went into effect last December.

Tampa Bay Times reports that Florida’s Department of Health adopted a rule last December that instituted a formula that set the license-renewal fee for medical cannabis operators sky high, $1.33 million every two years, which is more than 22 times the $60,000 biennial fee operators were paying when the program started six years ago.

The formula is based on the number of licensed operators and the estimated cost to regulate the medical cannabis program. Forget the tens of millions of dollars that the agency already collects from patients and caregivers who pay $75 per year for medical cannabis cards.

Follow the Money

The lawsuit followed a budget request that revealed the Department of Health collected a total of about $84 million during the 2022-2023 fiscal year—$14.9 million in application and renewal fees for licenses and nearly $65 million from medical cannabis patients and caregivers. The Department also anticipates collecting about the same amount this year and projects receiving $114 million in 2024-2025.

“The petitioners (Sanctuary) take no issue with the department running a surplus or otherwise receiving any fee, fine, or cost that is necessary to support its operation. However, in light of the department’s own income and projections, the department cannot reasonably assert that this exponential renewal fee increase is necessary to keep its operations afloat,” attorneys Will Hall and Daniel Russell of the Dean Mead firm wrote in the Oct. 26 petition.

The biennial $1,332,124.42 fee, the petition argues, “imposes inappropriately high regulatory costs” on operators, “rendering the challenged rules invalid.” 

Do they really need the money? The Department of Health also reported a $16.3 million surplus during the 2022-2023 fiscal year and projected more surpluses of nearly $4 million this year and $61 million in 2024-2025.

Raising the renewal-fee amount “without accounting for significant and undisputed streams of fee revenue is wholly without logic or reason,” Sanctuary’s lawyers argued.

Cannabis operators in nearly all states already struggle daily, as cannabis remains illegal under federal law. The current conundrum creates banking hurdles, forcing most companies to pay higher income taxes.

Ron DeSantis and Cannabis in Florida

Voters in Florida passed a constitutional amendment legalizing medical cannabis in 2016, but regulations that ban smokable cannabis were passed by the legislature and signed into law by former Gov. Rick Scott.

If it’s adult-use cannabis you want, it’s not on the Ron DeSantis campaign agenda.

Ron DeSantis said he would not legalize adult-use cannabis if elected president, confirming what he said in June, and warned about the danger of fentanyl-laced pot at the Never Back Down Super PAC in Iowa. 

“Yeah, I would not legalize,” DeSantis said at Never Back Down. “I think what’s happened is this stuff is very potent now. I think it’s a real, real problem and I think it’s a lot different than stuff that people were using 30 or 40 years ago. And I think when kids get on that, I think it causes a lot of problems. And then, of course, you know, they can throw fentanyl in any of this stuff now.”

It would take an act of Congress to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level, yet the president would wield a lot of power in that process, i.e. have the ability to veto legislation to do so.

Florida Politics reports that the presidential hopeful is gearing up for the 2024 presidential election, and taking a harder stance against adult-use cannabis.

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A group that is aiming to legalize medical cannabis in Nebraska submitted ballot petitions just under the wire on Thursday, ending a campaign that has been beset by tragedy and financial hurdles.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana said that it had turned in thousands of signatures to the secretary of state in the hopes of getting the medical cannabis proposal on the Cornhusker State ballot this November.

The group will now await word to see if the measure will qualify for the ballot.

“It’s official, we turned in 184,000+ signatures to put medical cannabis on the ballot,” said state Sen. Anna Wishart, a Democratic lawmaker who co-sponsored Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana. “We will know in the coming months if it was enough to qualify. Every signature represents a person who had the guts to go out and ask and a person who had the heart to sign. Thank you Nebraska.”

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana has dealt with a series of setbacks throughout its petition drive. In March, the group’s outlook appeared dire after one of its top donors died in a plane crash, and another donor had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The pair of tragedies left Wishart and others affiliated with the group pleading for donations.

“I’d say devastating is an understatement,” said Crista Eggers, who also led the group’s petition campaign. “We’re pleading with you to help.”

“If what we needed was grit, and drive, and determination, we have that,” Eggers said. “Our campaign would be done and over if that’s what we needed. But unfortunately, the one thing our campaign doesn’t have – and has to have – is money.”

Eggers’ motivations are personal: her son, Colton, has epilepsy and is unable to receive medical cannabis treatment in Nebraska.

“We’ve received so much encouragement from individuals all across the state, who support the many patients like our son Colton, who desperately need access to this medicine. No matter what your political background is, we should all agree that criminalizing a medicine that has the potential to alleviate suffering, is both cruel and inhumane,” Eggers said in announcing the group’s petition campaign last fall. “The current policy doesn’t reflect our family values here in Nebraska, and we’re going to change that. We need everyone who believes in compassion for suffering individuals like my son to be part of this movement and help us win in 2022.”

On Thursday, Eggers marveled at the group’s resilience.

“These were people that cared about this issue and they continued stepping up you know one day after another and when things got tough, right, they kept going,” Eggers said, as quoted by local television station KETV.

“There was no choice to give up, right. Because of all of you. Because of all the people, the stories, who were relying on us to get this done,” Eggers added.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana turned in the signatures at the 11th hour, befitting the tumult that defined its petition drive. KETV reported that the group “used every second they could before they had to turn in their signed petitions in Lincoln,” with people “still signing the petition outside the Secretary of State’s Office less than an hour before the deadline.”

In a post to its Facebook page on Thursday afternoon, the group urged both individuals who wished to sign the petition and notaries to come to the secretary of state’s office.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana mounted a previous effort to get a proposal on the state ballot in 2020, but the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled it ineligible.

“As for what happens tomorrow, we’ll face that tomorrow,” Eggers said on Thursday, as quoted by KETV.

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The cannabis industry’s famed Emerald Triangle is made up of the lush growing regions in Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties of Northern California—but high taxes and large corporations are threatening this community of multi-generational farmers who want to grow high quality weed as a passion, not just for profit.

One local Humboldt advocate and farm owner, Rose Moberly, is bringing awareness to the plight of the Emerald Triangle by circulating a petition to gain support.

Moberly has an impressive and extensive history working in the cannabis history. Starting from her roots interning for the Colorado Senate as an environmental lobbyist to rising in the ranks of a trimming job, grow facilities and even a track-and-trace METRC auditor, she’s explored many facets of the cannabis industry. Things really took off two years ago when she was invited to travel to California to educate small farmers about the track-and-trace system.

Ultimately, this path led her not only to find love, but also to her current role as co-operator of a second-generation farm called Huckleberry Hill Farms. “Long story short, I wound up falling in love with a certain legacy farmer [John Casali], who challenges me to be a better woman everyday, and I moved out [to Humboldt] over two years ago.”

Moberly describes Huckleberry Hill Farms “as mom-and-pop as it can get!” and her passion for cannabis advocacy and growing knows no bounds. However, small farmers in the Emerald Triangle are facing a dire situation. The tight-knit region of farmers are being challenged by corporations, who jumped onto the cannabis bandwagon once it hit mainstream popularity, without little effort in advocacy or legalization assistance.

“I think it’s important for people to realize where a multi-billion-dollar industry is being created from, and what they had to go through with the War on Drugs in order to legalize this amazing powerful plant,” Moberly told High Times.

More importantly, the shockingly high cultivation taxes that are required to grow in California makes operation difficult for all small farmers, not just those who operate within the Emerald Triangle region. If the current trajectory for taxes doesn’t change, it could be game over for small farmers everywhere. “All farmers no matter where they are in the state of California are suffering from over taxation and over supply,” she explained. “Together we need to communicate with regulators that if they are going to continue to permit farms without federal legalization, they will continue to drive the price down. The Emphasis on the Emerald Triangle has to do with protecting a culture that is not found anywhere else in the entire world, not just California.”

Moberly is confident that some of the nation’s best and most unique cannabis strains are bred in the Emerald Triangle, and if those farmers are forced to shut down due to exorbitant tax requirements, those strains could also disappear forever. “Furthermore, the Emerald Triangle is like the Amazon jungle of genetics. Some of the Legacy Growers here, I’m sure, hold a unique strain of cannabis that might even have the cure for cancer, or Autism, epilepsy, etc,” she said. “If those Farms aren’t able to make it in today’s climate some of those strains and cultivars might possibly be lost forever.”

Moberly shared that a recent local survey showed that 50 to 60 percent of cannabis farms won’t survive through 2022 if some kind of emergency regulations are put in place. Which is why she decided to take action and start the petition “Save the Emerald Triangle Legacy Cannabis Farmers.”

“As a result, farmers who sold flower products last year at $1,400 a pound are now forced to sell their products at $300 per lb to pay their bills,” she wrote on the petition webpage. “Due to the state’s fixed dollar tax, those farmers will be asked to pay a 53 percent cultivation tax of $161.28; while the remaining leaf product which some farmers had to offload as low as $15 per pound will be charged $48 per pound for state taxes. At that price, they’re being subjected to a 320 percent tax rate!”

With enough signatures, she will send a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom, as well as state legislature, to plead the case on behalf of California farmers everywhere. In the meantime, you can help support the cause by visiting the petition here.

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Cannabis policy reform advocates in Oklahoma filed a petition on Thursday for a ballot initiative that would legalize adult-use cannabis in the state. The group, Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action, also submitted a petition for a separate initiative proposal that would modify the state’s current medical marijuana program.

“A lot of this is stuff that has been advocated for by a lot of folks in the community and industry over the last three years, and I don’t see it’s going to make it through the legislative process any time soon,” Jed Green, an organizer of the group, said about the content of two proposed ballot measures.

The recreational petition initiative, known as the Oklahoma Marijuana Regulation and Right to Use Act, would legalize cannabis for all adults 21 and older. The proposal would allow adults to possess up to eight ounces of marijuana purchased from licensed retailers. 

Oklahoma Could Go Legal

Purchases of adult-use cannabis would be subject to a 15 percent excise tax, with revenue dedicated to regulating the industry. The tax on medical cannabis, currently at seven percent, would be eliminated in stages over the span of one year. Excess taxes collected for either program would be used for cannabis research, water resources, and law enforcement training.

The initiative also allows for the home cultivation of up to 12 cannabis plants, which would not be subject to the eight-ounce limit on possession. The measure also includes provisions for those with past convictions for marijuana offenses to have their records expunged or apply for judicial review.

“Until we pass recreational (marijuana legalization) we will not be able to truly bring stability to our program. Legalization prevents diversion,” Green said. “Folks have been and are going to use marijuana. Have been for decades. It is in the best interest of our state to get ahead of the curve on this issue. We must put this issue to rest.”

Medical Marijuana Reform Petition also Filed

Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action also filed a second petition to reform the state’s current medical marijuana program. The measure, titled the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Enforcement and Anti-Corruption Act, would amend the state constitution to create the Oklahoma State Cannabis Commission. 

The new agency would serve as the regulatory body for medical cannabis patients and businesses. The State Health Department, at the discretion of the OSCC’s board, would retain oversight of food permit and safety regulations with cannabis products. 

The commission’s board would be made up of representatives of state agencies that have regulatory authority over any aspect of the cannabis industry. The commission would also allocate funding to those agencies to support their regulatory and oversight duties.

Green also campaigned to get State Question 788 to legalize medical marijuana on the 2018 ballot. Since the initiative’s passage, Oklahoma has licensed more than 375,000 cannabis patients, more than 2,300 dispensaries, 8,600 cultivators and about 1,500 cannabis processors. But he says that a lack of enforcement of the cannabis industry has made it difficult for legal businesses to operate effectively while allowing the state to become a hotbed of illicit activity.

“What we’ve seen with that not being done is a big problem,” Green said. “The efforts that the (Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control) is making right now to clean up this variety of, especially illegal grow ops we have; that does not happen overnight. That level of infrastructure does not get built overnight.”

Both petitions include language stating that the presence of THC metabolites in a person’s bodily fluids or hair is not on its own proof of cannabis impairment. Additionally, screening tests showing the presence of such metabolites can not be used to deny a person housing, health care, public assistance or other rights.

If the petitions are not challenged within 10 days, Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action will have 90 days to gather at least 178,000 signatures for each proposal to qualify for the 2022 ballot.

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A political action committee in Florida is spearheading a petition drive to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana in the state, after two previous legalization efforts this year were stymied by the courts. 

Sensible Florida PAC announced on Friday that it was kicking off “a new petition drive for a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution that will permit adults 21 and older to grow and use marijuana.”

The group said it has initiated “an aggressive campaign” in order to get the proposal on next year’s ballot. 

The timing of the petition drive may strike some as unusual, and the prospects of qualifying for the 2022 ballot might seem dim.

Cannabis Progress Previously Halted in Florida

In June, a different constitutional amendment proposed by Sensible Florida was ruled unconstitutional by the state’s Supreme Court. A majority of the justices took issue with the proposed amendment’s language, particularly the portion that said marijuana would be legalized “for limited use and growing by persons 21 years of age or older,” saying it was “misleading.”

“As an initial matter, the initiative’s ‘age limit’ is clearly not the “limited use” contemplated by the ballot summary,” the majority opinion said. “Indeed, the summary tells voters that the measure will regulate marijuana ‘for limited use… by persons 21 years of age or older.’ The summary thus informs voters that the initiative imposes use limitations on age-eligible persons, not that the age limitation is itself a ‘use’ limitation. 

“Secondly, ‘use’ cannot be synonymous with ‘possession,’ ‘growing,’ or ‘gifting.’ Indeed, the initiative separately addresses those activities… The Sponsor’s inability to point to anything in the text of the measure that could credibly support the ‘limited use’ language in the summary leaves no doubt that the summary is affirmatively misleading.”

“We conclude that the language in the ballot summary indicating that the proposed amendment “regulates marijuana … for limited use … by persons 21 years of age or older” is affirmatively misleading and fails to comply with section 101.161(1), Florida Statutes,” the opinion continued. “Accordingly, the proposed amendment should not be placed on the ballot.”

Sensible Florida said at the time that it would go back to the drawing board and offer up a new amendment with the intention of qualifying for next year’s ballot. But for legalization advocates in the Sunshine State, the June ruling by the state Supreme Court was all too familiar. In April, the court struck down a different ballot measure that aimed to legalize recreational pot use in the state, saying that proposal’s language was also misleading.

In that decision, the court specifically took issue with the notion that the measure would not change federal law against marijuana.

“A constitutional amendment cannot unequivocally ‘permit’ or authorize conduct that is criminalized under federal law,” Chief Justice Charles Canady wrote. “A ballot summary suggesting otherwise is affirmatively misleading.”

The challenges to each proposal were backed by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, a Republican. 

“We thank the Florida Supreme Court for their time and attention to this issue and respect their ruling,” a Moody spokesperson said after the state Supreme Court’s ruling in April. “Floridians must fully understand what they are voting on when they go to the ballot box.”

Other Florida politicians were upset by the decisions. Congressman Charlie Crist, who previously served as governor of the state, lamented June’s ruling and laid blame on Florida’s current governor, Republican Ron DeSantis.

“The Florida Supreme Court that @GovRonDeSantis packed with partisan judges just denied another ballot initiative to let Floridians vote on legalizing marijuana. This is wrong. Legalization should be up to the people of Florida,” Crist tweeted at the time.

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Cannabis reform activists in Ohio can now circulate petitions for a cannabis legalization measure after receiving permission to begin collecting signatures to place the proposal before lawmakers.

The Ohio Ballot Board approved the proposed legalization measure from the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA) as a single issue on Monday, allowing the group to begin collecting the nearly 133,000 signatures necessary to submit the proposal to the legislature.

“We’re happy with today’s outcome and believe the ballot board made the right call on this one,” campaign spokesman Tom Haren said in a press release after receiving the green light to circulate petitions, adding that the group would begin collecting signatures “as soon as possible.” 

If the group collects at least 132,887 valid signatures, the proposal will head to the Ohio General Assembly for consideration by the legislature. If lawmakers decline to approve the measure or amend it, supporters could collect an additional 132,887 signatures to place the proposal before voters, possibly as soon as the November 2022 general election.

Under the proposed statute, adults 21 and older would be permitted to possess and purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and 15 grams of cannabis concentrates. Additionally, the proposal allows for the home cultivation of up to six cannabis plants by adults, with a maximum of 12 plants per household. Regulated, commercial cannabis production and sales would be legalized as well.

The legalization plan also levies a 10 percent tax on retail marijuana sales, with 36 percent of revenue going to local governments that host cannabis businesses and 25 percent dedicated to funding substance abuse programs. Another three percent of taxes raised would be used for operational costs to govern the legal cannabis program, with the remainder allocated to a cannabis social equity program to remedy disproportionate harms caused by the War on Drugs.

The proposal also allows local governments to opt out of allowing marijuana companies from operating within their jurisdictions, although that authority would not apply to existing medical marijuana businesses.

Earlier Ohio Petition Nixed By AG

In early August, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost rejected an initial draft of a summary of the cannabis legalization proposal. After reviewing the proposal to ensure it was a “fair and truthful” description of the law, Yost cited a list of seven deficiencies in the summary and returned it to supporters for correction. The attorney general wrote, for example, that the summary did not adequately explain the “cannabis social equity and jobs program” and did not clearly indicate that home growers are limited to possessing up to six cannabis plants.

“In total, the summary does not properly advise a potential signer of a proposed measure’s character and limitations,” Yost wrote in a letter to the group’s attorney.

Yost approved a revised version of the summary language on August 20, clearing the proposal for Monday’s consideration by the ballot board.

Although CRMLA could take the proposal to the voters if necessary, Haren says that the group is “laser focused” on getting the legislature to approve a legal source of cannabis in Ohio.

“The name really says it all,” Haren said. “We want to regulate marijuana like alcohol. By that, we mean restrict sales to people under 21 years of age. We want to make sure every product is tested, is produced here in Ohio by licensed cultivators or processors [and] sold at licensed dispensaries.”

Haren added that if the plan is approved by lawmakers, Ohio’s adult-use cannabis program could launch as quickly as within 90 days of the effective date of the new statute. But if the legislature balks at the proposal, he expects the legalization effort to succeed at the ballot box.

“It’s time for Ohio to take the next step,” Haren said. “We think this is something Ohioans support and are in favor of. We think it’s wildly popular among the voting public.”

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