Category: December 2020

Though having no connection to employee representation or labor management relations, labor unions, and especially the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, have politically aligned themselves with pro-marijuana measures and stumped for their enactment. Unions are doing this because they identify nascent marijuana business as a fertile new source of members and new revenues to bolster Labor’s dwindling membership rolls and flagging financial resources.

To do this, the paper is divided into five sections. Section one is the introduction. Section 2 examines legal frameworks and policies on cannabis in Nigeria. Section 3 discusses legalizing the use of cannabis/ Indian hemp in Nigeria. Section four discusses legal framework of cannabis in other jurisdictions. Section 5 concludes the paper with recommendations.

While most Americans focused on the Presidential race, election day also produced newsworthy developments in the regulation of cannabis and other controlled substances. Every single drug policy reform measure that was on the ballot in states across America passed.

Even two weeks after Election Day, jurisdictions nationwide are riding high after a number of positive wins related to the possible systemic legalization of cannabis use nationwide. As of November 3, 2020, the pendulum now undeniably swings in favor of cannabis, with medical cannabis legal in 33 states and recreational adult-use permitted in 12 states and Washington D.C.

Last May Minnesota’s governor approved the state’s omnibus agriculture policy bill, which identifies “certain data about industrial hemp grower or processing applicants and licensees as private or nonpublic.” The bill (HF 4285) also requires the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) to securely maintain data on license applicants and to keep records about who requests information about hemp licensees. 

 Legalization of marijuana has been front and center on the Mexican legislative agenda since 2018. At that time, the Supreme Court ruled that laws prohibiting personal adult use of marijuana were unconstitutional. The court held that the two individuals who filed cases should be allowed to use cannabis for recreational purposes.

France is finally moving forward on the medical use of cannabis. At the end of 2019, Law No. 2019-1446 indicated that French law would allow for a trial for medical use of cannabis-based products. The decree and implementing ministerial order [arrêté] establishing the parameters of the trial were released last week.

On 31 January 2020, the cultivation and possession of small amounts of cannabis became legal under the law of the Australian Capital Territory (‘ACT’) with the coming into effect of the Drugs of Dependence (Personal Cannabis Use) Amendment Act 2019 (ACT). This appeared to be a significant milestone in Australia’s regulation of personal drug use.

As we reported in our recent commentary, voters in five states in the 2020 general election passed initiatives to legalize marijuana usage. As the success of these ballot initiatives suggest, despite marijuana’s classification as an illegal Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substance Act, a growing number of states have legalized some form of marijuana usage. Employers, though, can adopt human resource policies and processes that establish drug policies appropriate for their workplace while staying compliant with the changing state marijuana laws.

addressing the issue of drug trafficking and the illegal drug market, we intend to demonstrate, through the illustration of empirical data, the failure of the prohibitionist approach. Finally, through an examination of the most important reforms on the subject that have been adopted to date in the world (mainly in the United States)

On November 3rd, voters in Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana, and Mississippi passed ballot measures to bring legal cannabis to each of their states. It’s not every year that we see states from opposite ends of the political spectrum agree on something with such vigor. In fact, loosening the laws surrounding cannabis—be it medical use, recreational use, or farming of hemp products—has consistently been one of the only areas receiving bipartisan support in a country divided on almost everything else.

Last year, in a presentation to a gathering of Oregon cannabis lawyers, representatives from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (“OLCC”) and the Oregon Department of Justice (“DOJ”) took the position that there are “No 5th Amendment rights in the regulatory realm,” that “What you don’t say COULD be held against you,” and that “Remaining silent = non-cooperation.”