New Jersey Senator Cory Booker paid a visit to Natura, Sacramento on Monday to take a look at some grow rooms and talk about cannabis.
Senator Booker didn’t have long to talk but he greeted a room full of weed people with a smile and accolations for those who have taken legal and personal risks to pioneer the industry and set the standard for the rest of the states still in the early days of their legal markets.
“We’re in a weird place in our country where we’ve had this prohibition that has lasted for generations that has really punished folks,” Senator Booker said Monday. “I’m from Newark where marijuana enforcement is disproportionately focused on low income people, people of color, people who are suffering, people who are struggling. And we have this perverse reality in America where we have people with criminal convictions who are doing things that presidents and congress people and senators have admitted to doing. The hypocrisy of that is maddening.”
A long time advocate of legal cannabis, Senator Booker recently introduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. If passed, this bit of legislation would essentially end federal cannabis prohibition by removing cannabis from the list of controlled substances entirely.
“Thousands of people have suffered at the hands of our broken cannabis laws, and the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act would finally dismantle the outdated federal marijuana prohibition, expunge past convictions for people with low-level cannabis offenses, and ensure restorative justice for communities impacted by the War on Drugs,” Senator Booker said in a press release. “These common-sense policies will ensure a more equitable criminal justice system and promote public safety.”
Senator Cory Booker watches hash get squished into rosin. Courtesy: Natura
The announcement of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act came almost directly after an announcement by the DEA to reschedule cannabis from Schedule 1 alongside drugs like heroin and LSD to Schedule 3, alongside drugs like Xanax, Codeine and Ketamine. While rescheduling certainly represents a step forward with regard to the federal laws regarding cannabis, it would not necessarily do anything for people serving prison time for federal cannabis infractions. It’s also unclear how rescheduling would affect existing state cannabis markets, though speculation has run rampant to that end since rescheduling was announced.
The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act contains provisions to create uniform federal regulations for cannabis through the establishment of a federal regulatory commission for cannabis as well as directions for the FDA to establish standards for labeling of cannabis products. The act would also secure additional funding for substance abuse recovery programs, establish grant programs to help individual states combat black market cannabis operations, and direct the Department of Transportation to collect data on cannabis-impaired driving. There are provisions in the act to, among other things, do away with tax burdens on legal cannabis businesses, remove cannabis from federal drug testing, provide automatic expungement for non-violent cannabis crimes, and require various federal agencies to spend money studying cannabis. The bill is co-sponsored by 15 additional Democratic senators and the full text can be found here.
“It’s past time for the federal government to catch up to the attitudes of the American people when it comes to cannabis,” Leader Schumer said in a press release. “We have more work to do to address decades of over-criminalization, particularly in communities of color, but today’s reintroduction shows the movement is growing, and I will keep working until we achieve meaningful change.”
This is not the first time Senator Booker has attempted to push legislation to decriminalize cannabis production. He said Monday that when he made his first attempt to do so as a congressman, he was laughed at by his fellow senators.
“I’ve been in the trenches on this. When I first got to the senate 11 years ago, I put forth a major piece of legislation called the Marijuana Justice Act, and I’m not joking I literally got laughed at by senators saying that we shouldn’t do that or it’s a career ender to come out like that,” Senator Booker said. “But now the world has changed in over a decade. The red states and blue states all around America, some partisan issue, have come forward and say, no. This is ridiculous. I’ve had law enforcement officers say ‘Gosh, if there was a drug I’d want to ban it would be alcohol not marijuana.’”
Senator Booker’s visit to Natura was brief but served as yet another indicator that the times are a-changing in Washington and cannabis is moving away from its long-time status as the poster child of the drug war and moving toward a much more realistic and less harmful spot in the eyes of our national legislators. Senator Booker expressed his admiration for the people who have been willing to work in the cannabis industry while it goes through its post-prohibition growing pains.
“I came here to, not learn, but connect with these people that are part of a larger movement in America for justice and I’ve just seen that each and every one of you are willing to work in an industry that’s not easy, but also wants to be in a country where freedom’s never been easy,” Senator Booker said. “Justice has never been easy but we need people like us to stand up for it. It’s what makes it possible.”
The new location adds to Catalyst’s legacy of excellence
Catalyst is excited to announce the grand opening of their brand-new San Diego location. This new dispensary will be located on Convoy Street, just off the 52 Freeway, in a convenient neighborhood with nearby restaurants and dedicated parking. Stop by now to experience the new shop and stock up on all your favorites.
Catalyst has always been all about bringing weed to the people. They offer a stunning selection of Real California Cannabis from brands like Alien Labs, 710 Labs, Fig Farms, and way more favorites from top Cali producers. The budtenders at all of their 30+ locations offer a level of professional service that can be hard to find—they understand that every cannabis consumer is different, and work with customers to help them find the right sort of high, instead of pressuring them towards a few expensive options.
Ever since the passing of Proposition 64, which legalized cannabis in California, Catalyst and their CEO and Founder, Elliot Lewis, have been a leading light of the industry. From the CEO on down, Catalyst values the plant and treats both the plant and the people who grow and sell it with respect. Catalyst has proven themselves as dauntless advocates for quality and transparency in the industry, spearheading the Cat 4 initiative that saw brands voluntarily pay for more thorough and expensive lab testing of their products to ensure they were completely free of pesticides.
Catalyst is not only a reputable dispensary you can trust; they’re the rare sort who aren’t afraid to go the extra mile for their customers. If you want to shop premium cannabis at reasonable prices from a spot you can feel good about, then join Catalyst at their new San Diego location, or any of the other 30+ shops all over California. Stop by and discover a brand new love for cannabis today.
BelCosta executives asserted any problems were innocent mistakes rather than nefarious acts.
California marijuana testing facility BelCosta Labs in Long Beach lost its business permit for allegedly inflating THC potency results for clients and other infractions, MJBizDaily reported Thursday, citing an April 10 letter from state regulators to the lab which said its permit was suspended “effective immediately.”
The California Department of Cannabis Control also accused the lab of clearing marijuana products for sale that had failed contamination tests and were a potential threat to consumers.
A spokesman for the lab, however, told MJBizDaily that the company believed it “was doing everything right” and obeying all state cannabis testing regulations.
“We also don’t believe that we were anything close to a public safety or health concern,” BelCosta Vice President Nate Winokur told MJBizDaily.
On Thursday, the DCC’s license database listed the lab’s permit as “suspended.” The license is set to expire April 30.
It’s also not clear from the DCC letter if BelCosta has any immediate remedy to restart operations. CEO Myron Ronay indicated the lab may wind up suing the state if its permit is not restored.
“If we cannot come to an agreement that salvages the business we have built over the last 8+ years we will be forced to resort to the court system,” Ronay wrote in an email to MJBizDaily.
BelCosta executives also took to YouTube to publicly refute the DCC charges in the suspension letter and proclaimed that any issues were innocent mistakes, not nefarious rulebreaking. Winokur also suggested to MJBizDaily that his company may have been “singled out” by regulators for some reason.
Sonoma County officials took another step to deliver tax relief to struggling marijuana growers, as the number of licensed cultivators shrank by almost two-thirds under the burden of hefty state and local taxes.
The County Board of Supervisors this week approved lowering the gross receipts tax to just 2.5% for legal cannabis growers, a reduction of 45%, The Press Democrat reported.
The move came in response to industry pressure, as businesses warn that many are on the brink of moving back into the underground market just to survive. The number of licensed cultivators in Sonoma County has plummeted to just 66 from 155 in May 2023, The Press Democrat noted.
The tax rate for outdoor growers will be slashed to 36 cents per square foot of cultivation canopy from its current rate of 69 cents, The Press Democrat reported, while rates for mixed-light cultivators decrease to $1.15 per square foot from $2.51, and indoor growers will see their rates decrease to $3 from $7.58. The rates will go into effect July 1 after a second board vote to confirm the ordinance’s passage.
The move is the fourth adjustment in the county’s cannabis tax rate since it was established in 2017, and it’s the first time the board has moved to permanently reduce rates. A previous rate reduction in 2022 was temporary.
The move is intended to help stabilize the local cannabis industry, a county marijuana program official told the board, who cited broadly decreasing wholesale prices for cannabis growers in California. The average price per pound of outdoor-grown marijuana flower, the board was told, has plummeted to $143 per pound from $277 a year ago, while indoor flower goes for just $240 a pound, down from $606 a year prior.
Sonoma County is the latest in a string of California localities to cut taxes on struggling marijuana companies in recent years. The Southern California cannabis-friendly town of Desert Hot Springs is also weighing another cannabis business tax cut this month to help dispensaries, to 5% of gross receipts from the current 10%, KESQ reported this week. The city’s mayor even threw his support behind the tax cut.
The move also comes amid a backdrop of fear by California cannabis companies heading into the summer, given that state marijuana taxes are set to increase on July 1, from a 15% excise tax rate to 19%, unless the legislature takes action to forestall the hike.
