“Legalizing cannabis possession, eliminating criminal penalties for all ages, and creating a regulated market are huge leaps forward for Delaware,” said Laura Sharer, Executive Director of Delaware NORML. “Provisions afforded from the Justice Reinvestment Fund will begin the process of reversing decades of discriminatory, harmful, and fundamentally unfair cannabis laws by putting equity back into our communities.”
City lawmakers have provided final approval to a pair of bills that seek to significantly reform marijuana laws in the District of Columbia. But both bills still must undergo a 30-day Congressional review prior to becoming law.
“Voters and lawmakers took significant steps this year to repeal marijuana prohibition laws and to provide relief to those tens millions of Americans who have suffered as a result of them,” NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said.
“Urine tests are a highly offensive invasion of workers’ personal bodily privacy,” said Dale Gieringer, the Director of California NORML — which had lobbied for several years in favor of the bill. “They are too frequently abused to discriminate against unpopular workers and minorities. Workers should have the same right to use cannabis as to use other legal substances off the job.”
State lawmakers have advanced several priority bills to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk and a few more remain pending but are up against a tight timeline. The legislative session in California ends on August 31st. Any bills not transmitted to the Governor will die after that date. (Once advanced to the Governor, he has 30 days to act on the bills.)
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has signed legislation into law that seeks to promote greater diversity among those participating in the state’s licensed cannabis industry and that lays the groundwork for the establishment of on-site cannabis consumption facilities.
“These are common sense reforms provide further and sorely needed protections and freedoms for patients and others. Lawmakers are to be commended for putting politics aside and taking these important steps forward.”
The Act provides the office of the US Attorney General with a 60-day timeline to either approve or deny the applications from scientists wishing to engage in clinical trials involving the use of cannabis by human subjects.