Concentrated News

OJAI, Calif. — Imagine a restaurant where you can order dark chocolate infused with cannabis, or where you can pick a pre-rolled joint from a menu and light up at your table. Think of your neighborhood Starbucks or local dive bar, but with marijuana on tap..

It might sound like Amsterdam, but these businesses appear to be part of the next wave of California’s weed industry, which four years after legalization is still looking for ways to compete with the state’s huge illegal pot market.

These cannabis lounges are opening (or reopening, after pandemic closures) in West Hollywood, San Francisco, Palm Springs and elsewhere. And many smaller California cities, including Ojai, a popular destination 90 minutes from Los Angeles, are considering allowing them as a means to increase tax revenue and attract tourists. The idea isn’t universally popular. Though California voters legalized marijuana in 2016, the law preserved local control, and many officials don’t want weed sold in their communities. Source: nytimes.com

On a recent warm day, a few friends gathered around a table in Grant Atkins' backyard in Rochester. Atkins, a public school teacher and reggae and hip-hop performance artist known as "Skribe Da God," recalled how he was born into the pot culture.

Atkins is the kind of legacy cannabis operator state leaders have in mind for New York's initial business licenses for the adult use market.

The first 100 or more retail licenses will be offered to people who either had a past marijuana-related offense or have a family member who did. “You cannot be a Black man in America and not be affected by those laws on drugs," said Atkins' friend, Jeffrey Medford. He described what he called his spiritual connection to the cannabis plant and a calling to grow it.

"We want to live free, we want to be able to have our own businesses, be our own bosses and take care of our families, like everyone else," Medford said.

State leaders say they will expunge the criminal records of those arrested for lowlevel drug offenses, but Jesse Watson, another friend of Atkins and Medford, knows some people who are still afraid to apply for cannabis licenses. Source: wshu.org

The Virginia General Assembly voted to approve the budget bill which contains language to recriminalize personal possession of over four ounces of marijuana in public. The language, which creates two new misdemeanors, will take effect immediately upon Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s signing of the budget.

Currently, the personal possession in public of more than one ounce and up to one pound of marijuana by adults 21 and older is subject to no more than a $25 civil penalty. Upon the Governor’s signature, personal possession in public of over four ounces and less than a pound of cannabis will be a Class 3 misdemeanor, making it punishable by a $500 fine. Second or subsequent offenses will be Class 2 misdemeanors punishable by up to 6 months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

“Rather than creating additional ways to criminalize Virginians for personal possession of cannabis, the Virginia General Assembly would better serve constituents by establishing a legal adult-use marijuana market and ensuring that all cannabis products sold in the Commonwealth are accurately labeled and regulated for consumer safety,” said JM Pedini, NORML’s Development Director and the Executive Director of Virginia NORML.

“Virginia has by legislating through the budget, legalized retail marijuana, we are just going to call it ‘hemp,’” Delegate Dawn Adams, who spoke against the budget language, told Virginia NORML.

During the April veto session, Gov. Youngkin attempted to recriminalize activities involving the possession of two ounces of marijuana by adults via the enactment of an amendment to SB 591. That effort failed with the Senate of Virginia’s refusal to advance the amendment.

DURING THE 2022 VIRGINIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY, REPUBLICAN MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE GENERAL LAWS SUBCOMMITTEE HALTED ANY FURTHER ADVANCEMENT OF SENATE-BACKED LEGISLATION, SB 391, THAT SOUGHT TO INITIATE RETAIL MARIJUANA SALES TO ADULTS BEGINNING THIS SEPTEMBER.

There are currently over 50,000 program registrants. At the time of passage, there were an estimated 8,000 applicants still awaiting approval.