Right here is NORML’s weekly replace on pending state laws.
Additionally take a look at our recent update on pending state poll initiatives and referendums.
Wisconsin
A number of payments to cut back the penalties for hashish possession are pending in Wisconsin. Underneath present Wisconsin law, possession of any quantity of marijuana is a misdemeanor that carries as much as six months in jail and a $1,000 tremendous.
Assembly Bill 812 reduces the penalties for the possession of 14 grams of marijuana or much less to a $100 civil penalty. The invoice additionally eliminates counting, for the needs of figuring out if an individual is a repeat offender, a legal offense of marijuana possession involving 28 grams or much less. The invoice additionally reduces the penalty to a civil tremendous of no more than $10 for utilizing or possessing drug paraphernalia that pertains to marijuana consumption.
Senate Bill 164 / Assembly Bill 130 search to cut back the penalty for the possession of as much as 10 grams of marijuana to a $100 civil tremendous and eradicate jail time, in addition to the rise in penalty if second or subsequent violations contain as much as 10 grams of marijuana.
Senate Bill 790 reduces the penalty for possessing as much as 14 grams of marijuana to a $100 civil tremendous, and eliminates jail time, in addition to the rise in penalty if second or subsequent violations contain as much as 14 grams of marijuana.
Send a message to your legislator in support of this effort.
West Virginia
Two payments have been filed that search to enhance medical hashish entry in West Virginia. HB 2534 permits for medical hashish sufferers to own and combust hashish flowers. (Present regulation permits vaporization however not smoking.) HB 2550 permits sufferers to home-cultivate as much as ten crops (with a most of 5 mature) for their very own use.
Send a message to your legislator in support of this effort.
Laws has additionally been filed to legalize hashish for adults. Underneath state law, the possession of any quantity of marijuana in West Virginia is a misdemeanor punishable by a tremendous of as much as $1,000 and as much as six months in jail.
House Bill 2291 and Senate Bill 649 search to legalize the non-public use and possession of as much as one ounce of hashish by adults, and to authorize localities to interact in retail gross sales.
Individually, House Bill 2912 can also be pending. It seeks to legalize and regulate grownup use marijuana gross sales by way of state-run shops. Underneath this measure, adults can be permitted to buy as much as two kilos of marijuana at a time and to develop as much as three crops for private use.
Send a message to your lawmakers in support of this effort.
Laws has additionally been filed to guard marijuana shoppers from employment discrimination.
House Bill 2517 would take away marijuana from the screening necessities of the West Virginia Alcohol and Drug-Free Office Act.
Send a message to your lawmakers in support of this effort.
Laws has additionally been filed to amend penalties for these caught in possession of small quantities of marijuana.
House Bill 2060 seeks to cut back the penalty for private possession of as much as 15 grams of marijuana to a tremendous of $500 and a most sentence of 72 hours in a detention facility.
Senate Bill 85 seeks to cut back the penalty for private possession of as much as 15 grams of marijuana to a tremendous of not more than $25.
Send a message to your lawmakers in support of this effort.
NORML opposes the next invoice. House Bill 3205, seeks to cut back employment protections for registered medical hashish sufferers. The measure additionally prohibits workers from taking motion in opposition to an employer for discrimination or wrongful discharge primarily based on medical hashish use.
Send a message to your lawmakers in opposition to this effort.
South Carolina
Replace: HB 150 will doubtless be debated within the Senate subsequent week.
S. 150: The South Carolina Compassionate Care Act, permits qualifying sufferers to make use of, buy, and possess medical hashish with a doctor’s advice. Whereas opponents of medical hashish entry have mentioned they are going to do all the things they will to dam the invoice from receiving the consideration it deserves, Sen. Tom Davis, the invoice’s sponsor, is ready to struggle again.
“We’re going to get this invoice handed,” said Sen. Davis (R) at a press convention this week. “And if there are some up on the Senate ground which can be nonetheless on this reefer insanity, drug battle mentality and block and stand in the way in which of this invoice, I’ll train my rights as a senator to reply in variety to each single different invoice on this calendar.”
Send a message to your senators in support of medical cannabis access.
Mississippi
On November 3, 2020, nearly all of Mississippi voters determined in favor of a residents’ initiative offering complete affected person entry to medical hashish. Subsequently, nevertheless, the state Supreme Court docket nullified the vote and the power of residents to interact in any future citizen initiatives.
The Mississippi Medical Hashish Act (SB 2095), sponsored by Sen. Kevin Blackwell, seeks to revive voters’ will by making a medical hashish entry program. It makes an attempt to create a center floor between the extraordinarily restrictive strategy most popular by some legislators and by the Governor favor with voters’ robust choice for a broad measure.
In contrast to Initiative 65, SB 2095 would drive ache sufferers to attempt opiates and different dangerous therapies earlier than hashish. It additionally consists of persevering with medical schooling necessities for certifying practitioners, which can doubtless depress physicians’ participation in this system, and different restrictive provisions – together with extreme taxation. Nevertheless, in lots of different essential methods — together with by permitting uncooked hashish and never capping enterprise licenses — SB 2095 is according to the intent of Initiative 65. Here are key provisions of SB 2095.
Send a message supporting this legislation.
Kentucky
Laws has been filed to legalize the use, possession, and retail sale of marijuana for adults in Kentucky. At present underneath state law, possession of as much as eight ounces of marijuana is taken into account a misdemeanor, punishable by as much as 45 days in jail and a tremendous of $250.
HB 225 would place the legalization query earlier than voters. If handed by voters, it might assure the precise of a person 21 years of age or older to own, use, purchase or promote one ounce or much less of hashish and to domesticate, harvest, and retailer as much as 5 hashish crops for private use; and for the manufacturing, processing, and sale of hashish and cannabis-derived merchandise.
Send a message to your lawmakers in support of this effort.
Indiana
Laws has been filed to legalize and regulate marijuana in Indiana.
SB 324 legalizes marijuana purchases of as much as one ounce per day for these 21 years of age and older.
HB 1311 / SB 414 would legalize marijuana purchases of as much as 4 ounces per day for these 21 years of age and older with the choice for supply. The invoice additionally permits for the house cultivation of 4 crops.
Send a message to your lawmakers in support of this effort.
Georgia
Laws is pending, House Bill 117, to broaden Georgia’s restricted medical cannabidiol (CBD) regulation. The measure would broaden the pool of sufferers eligible to obtain an authorization for CBD remedy to incorporate these with ulcerative colitis.
Send a message to your lawmakers in support of this effort.
Florida
Laws is pending to decriminalize the possession of small quantities of marijuana.
House Bill 957 reduces the penalties for the possession of as much as 20 grams of marijuana from a misdemeanor, presently punishable by a $1,000 tremendous and as much as a yr in jail, to a noncriminal civil violation, punishable by a $100 tremendous or neighborhood service.
House Bill 1232 would decriminalize actions involving the possession of two ounces or much less of marijuana.
Send a letter to your lawmakers in support of this effort.
As well as, a bundle of payments is pending to allow the use, possession, cultivation, and retail sale of marijuana for adults. In response to statewide polling data, 65 % of Florida voters imagine that marijuana must be authorized within the state for leisure functions.
House Bill 549 and House Bill 467 enable for the non-public possession of as much as 2.5 ounces of marijuana, and for the house cultivation of as much as six crops. House Bill 551 establishes rules for enterprise licensing.
Senate Bill 776 seeks to permit adults to buy as much as 2.5 ounces of marijuana at a time, and to own as much as 4 ounces. The measure additionally facilitates the expungement of previous legal information for cannabis-related offenses.
Senate Bill 1696 permits adults to own as much as 2.5 ounces of marijuana and permits for the non-public dwelling cultivation of as much as six crops. It additionally establishes regulation for the institution of licensed companies that might be permitted to permit for hashish consumption on their premises.
Senate Bill 1884 additionally permits adults to own as much as 2.5 ounces of marijuana and permits private dwelling cultivation of as much as six crops. Moreover, it permits the licensing of “Grownup Use Cultivation Facilities,” “Grownup Use Allotting Organizations,” and acknowledges a “Hashish Enterprise Institution” as a cultivation middle, craft grower, processing group, shelling out group, and transportation group.
Send a message to your lawmakers in support of this effort.
Delaware
HB 305 – Delaware’s freshly revised adult-use legalization invoice has been launched within the Home of Representatives by Rep. Ed Osienski.
After a slew of amendments had been launched days earlier than the scheduled vote on HB150 final June, Prime Sponsor Rep. Osienski was compelled to drag the invoice from the Home agenda. HB305 now incorporates a number of of those bi-partisan amendments, together with provisions offered for the institution of a Justice Reinvestment Fund.
If enacted, the Fund will allocate assets again to communities which were over-enforced and disproportionately impacted by hashish prohibition.
Send a message to your lawmakers and allow them to know you need them to vote ‘Sure’ on HB305 and PRIORITIZE this widespread sense coverage.
Alaska
HB 246 would seal the information of these low-level crimes from 9 sure varieties of legal historical past background checks. Individuals with in any other case clear information don’t need to have the remainder of their lives derailed due to a previous marijuana conviction that might now not be prosecuted right now.
Send your state legislators an email asking them to support this bill.
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