DEMOCRAT WIN
Optimism for cannabis legalization as Democrats claim the house in Pennsylvania
Marijuana Moment reports that Pennsylvania Democrats say that they’ve won enough seats to take control of the House after Tuesday’s election — a development that could have major implications for cannabis reform in the state.
With a poll finding that two in three Pennsylvania voters say they support cannabis legalization, the publication highlights that the hope for advocates is that the newly Democratic House could partner with Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro (D) to push for legalization in the 2023 session.
In a public statement Shapiro said: “Look, the majority of Pennsylvanians support legalizing recreational marijuana, and I support boosting the economy — so I’ll legalize it as Governor. It’s going to bring billions of dollars to Pennsylvania.”
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FIRST NATIONS
Canada’s Indigenous leaders point to ‘systemic exclusion’ from cannabis industry
Some Indigenous leaders believe they’ve been largely excluded from Canada’s multibillion-dollar legal cannabis retail and cultivation industry, reports MJ Biz Daily.
Noting that cannabis retail and cultivation remain largely absent from Canada’s Indigenous communities, Indigenous leaders have now called for the federal and provincial governments to allow them to regulate cannabis in accordance with their own principles.
Dwayne Nashkawa, a strategic adviser for Nipissing First Nation, said: “There’s been a lot of talk about a high-level of engagement with First Nations about cannabis, but beyond the initial round of PowerPoint presentations and group meetings, there’s been almost an entire absence of meaningful dialogue for two or three years now on the federal side.”
GERMAN DEVELOPMENTS
Start-ups head to Frankfurt stock exchange ahead of German legalization
Benzinga reports that Berlin startup HIGH became the first medical cannabis company to list on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Friday, 11 November 2022.
The company is listed with the ticker symbol “HIGH” following the leak of a draft of the German government’s cannabis legalisation measure was leaked. Shares of the company rose as high as €19.70 Euros after the IPO was priced at €6.48 per share.
Medical cannabis company Cantourage – which is listed on the Frankfurt stock market’s Scale segment for small and medium-sized companies – is also aiming to raise capital through a private placement of around 15 percent of its shares. “It’s time to democratize the medical cannabis market in Germany and offer investors the opportunity to participate early,” said Cantourage CEO Philip Schetter.
ILL CONCEIVED
Germany’s ‘error-strewn’ cannabis plan requires immense political will to succeed
European cannabis policy expert, Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli, has expressed concern with Germany’s cannabis legislation proposals, writes BusinessCann, saying they are ‘under-cooked’, ‘error strewn’ and ‘ill-conceived’.
However, he highlights that a nation state has the capacity to pursue its own domestic drug control agenda, despite Germany having “not done its homework” and its white paper being “riddled with many basic errors”.
Riboulet-Zemouli suggests the two compliant ways to proceed with Germany’s plan are:
- A ‘lex lata’ interpretive approach to legalize non-medical cannabis industry under article 2 paragraph 9 of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (SCND).
- Legalizing as a scientific experiment.
