A new Colorado law will reclassify personal possession of Schedule I and Schedule II substances from a felony to a misdemeanor.

“The war on drugs is an abysmal failure, and this puts things on the right track,” said bill sponsor Rep. Leslie Herod (D-Denver).

In May 2019, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed HB19-1263 into law. After a last-minute effort to repeal the law failed, it took effect this month.

Under the new law, possession for personal use of substances like LSD, cocaine, MDMA, heroin, fentanyl, and other illicit drugs will carry much less punishment as the state focuses on substance abuse as a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue.

“What it means is people will have another chance,” said Herod. “When folks are ready to get clean and sober and get back into society and get back to work, they won’t have this felony over their head.”

Drug felony charges in Colorado have more than doubled in the past six years, straining capacity at state prisons and taxing the criminal justice system.

“About 30 percent of all state felony filings are for drug offenses,” according to Christie Donner, the executive director to Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. “And Denver leads the way, with 41 percent. That’s clogging up the courts, so there’s a budget request for more judges. But more judges means we’ll need more prosecutors and more public defenders and more court staff. So not just prisons are impacted — and this is happening across the state.”

After a third misdemeanor offense for personal possession, the law calls for the crime to be charged as a felony.  Dealing illicit substances is still subject to felony charges.

“Most importantly, this bill doesn’t eliminate the opportunity for a judge to sentence jail time,” said Herod. “We’re not saying it’s no longer a crime; we’re not saying that simple possession is something you’re going to get a slap on the wrist for. One-hundred eighty days is still 180 days in jail.”

A report from the Joint Budget Committee found that the law could save the state between $8.6 million to $13.7 million in taxpayer money over the next five years. The state wants to use the savings from reduced incarceration costs to fund a grant program to fund mental health resources, substance abuse treatment centers, and law enforcement diversion programs.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other members of Congress are urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to speed up its guidance on hemp-derived CBD products. Specifically, Congress wants the FDA to issue formal “enforcement discretion” regarding CBD.

Hemp was legalized last year thanks to the 2018 Farm Bill, which made CBD legal as well. However, without guidance from the FDA, hemp and CBD are in a regulatory gray area. Lawmakers say that the FDA’s current approach to CBD has “created significant regulatory and legal uncertainty for participants in this quickly evolving industry.”

Currently, the FDA prohibits adding CBD to food or drinks marketed beyond a single state or to be added to food as a dietary supplement. Because of the regulatory confusion, some local governments have insisted that CBD is illegal in their state.

“Given the widespread availability of CBD products, growing consumer demand, and the expected surge in the hemp farming in the near future, it’s critical that FDA act quickly to provide legal and regulatory clarity to support this new economic opportunity,” lawmakers wrote.

The FDA has said it could take years to finalize CBD regulations. Congress isn’t waiting, and the US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture is working on guidelines to submit to the FDA. According to U.S. Hemp Rountable, Congress is working on rules that would require the FDA to:

Lawmakers wrote that they appreciate that the FDA has pursued “enforcement actions against the worst offenders,” but that “it can do so while eliminating regulatory uncertainty for farmers, retailers, and consumers.”

“Without a formal enforcement discretion policy, anyone participating in the growing marketplace for legal hemp-derived products will continue to face significant legal and regulatory uncertainty.”

McConnell, who has been supportive of the hemp industry, does not support ending marijuana prohibition. Asked to comment of legalizing hemp but not cannabis, McConnell said that hemp is “a different plant. It has an illicit cousin which I choose not to embrace.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking public comment (yep, that means you) regarding the classification of marijuana as a Schedule I substance under both U.S. law and international drug agreements. The FDA is putting together a recommendation for the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO). WHO is currently reviewing the international classification of cannabis, including THC, CBD and other cannabinoids.

Cannabis was listed in the UN’s Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs as a Schedule I drug in 1961, and the WHO says that cannabis is “the most commonly used psychoactive substance under international control.” Schedule I drugs include LSD and heroin–drugs that are considered high risk for abuse and addiction and that have no currently accepted medical use.

The FDA is specifically looking for input regarding the “abuse potential, actual abuse, medical usefulness, trafficking and impact of scheduling changes on availability for medical use of” marijuana. The FDA will forward public comments to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO). Recommendations from the WHO are used to inform public health policy and drug laws.

In December, the WHO released a preliminary review of CBD, a non-psychoactive compound found in marijuana, that said CBD should not be scheduled as a controlled substance. They concluded that CBD has a low potential for abuse and that it “has been demonstrated as an effective treatment of epilepsy in several clinical trials” and “is generally well tolerated with a good safety profile.”

The preliminary review also found that “there is no evidence of…any public health related problems associated with the use of pure CBD.”

The deadline to submit public comments to the FDA is April 23.

Want to support the declassification of cannabis, but you don’t know where to start? NORML has posted a pre-drafted comment on their website, and they will be hand delivering all comments to the FDA.

In what may be a sign of things to come, the adhesive brand Gorilla Glue Co. has reached a settlement with the Las Vegas-based cannabis company behind Gorilla Glue #4 (as well as #1 and #5).

The Gorilla Glue Co. filed a trademark infringement suit against GG Strains back in March of this year. The glue company said that the cannabis company was infringing and diluting its “famous, valuable brand.”

The settlement comes after months of negotiations.

According to The Cannabist, under the agreement GG Strains will have to transition away from the Gorilla Glue name, imagery and any other similarities to Gorilla Glue Co.’s trademarks by September 19, 2018. The cannabis company will also shut down gorillaglue4.com and transfer the domain to Gorilla Glue Co. by January 1, 2020.

The marijuana company’s website says the strain names will change as follows:

Don Peabody, the grower behind the sticky strain, was trimming his harvest when his phone rang. After the call, Peabody went to hang up the phone, but it was stuck to his hand. It reminded him of the super-strong adhesive, so he dubbed the strain Gorilla Glue.

Cannabis has a tradition of naming strains after things or people in pop culture. There’s Skywalker OG, Girl Scout Cookies, Bruce Banner, and Charlotte’s Web, just to name a few.

Before widespread legalization, cannabis breeders and growers didn’t need to worry about things like trademark infringement. But with more social acceptance also comes with more scrutiny, and as the market grows, more companies will want to protect their names.

The dispute and rebranding effort is estimated to cost the cannabis firm $250,000.

Ross Johnson, one of the founders of GG Strains, said about the settlement, “We’re going to survive; we’re going to overcome it. Is it a setback? Most definitely it is a setback. But it’s all behind us now, and it’s allowing us to move forward.”