NYC Illicit Pot Shop Crackdown Having Effect, MA Senate Approves Safe Injection Sites, More… (7/31/24)

President Biden points a nationwide safety memorandum on fentanyl, the Philippines Home approves a medical marijuana invoice, and extra.

Marijuana Coverage

New York Metropolis’s Crackdown on Unpermitted Pot Retailers Bites. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and Mayor Eric Adams (D) celebrated what they mentioned was the success of their effort to crack down on unlawful marijuana retailers as metropolis officers mentioned 779 retailers had been shut down because the crackdown started in April. 

Officers mentioned that they had additionally issued 41,000 violations with penalties of greater than $65 million and seized unlawful merchandise price greater than $41 million. 

“Within the three months since launching ‘Operation Padlock to Shield,’ our administration has delivered main outcomes on a serious high quality of life and public security situation,” Adams mentioned. “For too lengthy, unlawful retailers have contributed to a sense that something goes on our streets, whereas concentrating on our most susceptible – together with youngsters – with harmful, counterfeit merchandise marketed as sweet.”

The unlicensed marijuana retailers emerged after the state legalized marijuana in 2021 however didn’t get a authorized market up and operating till this yr. Now, there are some 60 licensed marijuana retailers within the metropolis. However even after the almost 800 retailers shut down thus far, there are nonetheless greater than 2,000 illicit retailers estimated to be open for enterprise. 

Drug Coverage

Biden Points Nationwide Safety Memorandum to Improve Efforts to Block Fentanyl Move. President Biden (D) issued the next assertion on Wednesday: “At this time, I’ll situation a Nationwide Safety Memorandum directing each federal Division and Company to do much more to cease the move of narcotics—together with fentanyl—into our nation. “This Memorandum builds on my Unity Agenda, which made ending the opioid epidemic a high precedence. It can allow our authorities to disrupt drug cartels—and their suppliers and financiers—extra shortly and successfully. It can improve intelligence assortment on traffickers’ evolving ways to smuggle narcotics into our nation. And it’ll assist our legislation enforcement personnel seize extra lethal medication earlier than they attain our communities. This Memorandum may also complement our historic work to increase entry to remedy, together with by making naloxone—the life-saving medicine that reverses the consequences of opioids—extensively accessible over-the-counter for the primary time.  “I’m calling on Congress to do their half—together with passing the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Detect and Defeat” proposals. These bipartisan proposals improve penalties on drug smugglers, give border officers key instruments they should goal fentanyl at our border and shut different loopholes that traffickers exploit. I additionally as soon as once more urge Congress to go the bipartisan border safety settlement which offers funding for extra border brokers and extra drug detection machines. These are the important thing investments wanted to cease fentanyl from reaching our communities.”

Hurt Discount

Massachusetts Senate Passes Protected Injection Web site Invoice. On Tuesday, the Senate permitted a hurt discount invoice that included a provision permitting for protected injection websites, Senate Invoice 2898. It can additionally enable for a broad panoply of hurt discount measures, together with needle exchanges, drug checking, and expanded entry to the opioid overdose prevention drug naloxone. 

“A single overdose in Massachusetts is one too many,” mentioned Senate President Karen E. Spilka (D-Ashland). “Opioids have stolen life from mother and father, youngsters, siblings, and buddies. The laws permitted by the Senate at present makes highly effective strides in the direction of mitigating this disaster by serving to these dealing with substance use dysfunction scale back hurt, discover remedy, and obtain restoration that lasts a lifetime. “

“With the fentanyl disaster and polysubstance epidemic persevering with unabated, we can not rely out any evidence-based intervention that has the potential to save lots of lives,” mentioned Senator Julian Cyr (D-Truro), Assistant Majority Whip and Vice Chair of the Joint Committee on Psychological Well being, Substance Use, and Restoration. “Yearly for the final eight years, greater than 2,000 of our neighbors and family members have died from an overdose. The provisions on this invoice—together with overdose prevention facilities by way of native approval—are amongst confirmed hurt discount instruments that we will deploy now to arrest overdose deaths and finish the opioid epidemic. I’m proud that the Senate took decisive motion on this situation, and I’m grateful to my colleagues for his or her endorsement of those lifesaving insurance policies.”

A earlier model of this invoice handed the Home of Representatives earlier this yr however doesn’t embody the protected injection website provisions, so the 2 branches should now search to hammer out the variations in convention committee

Worldwide

Philippine Home Approves Medical Marijuana Act. On Tuesday, the Home voted to approve the Entry to Medical Hashish Act, Home Invoice 10439. The measure handed overwhelmingly with 177 votes in favor, 9 opposed, and 9 abstaining. 

The invoice would enable the usage of medical marijuana, make it accessible to certified sufferers, and create a Medical Hashish Workplace as a regulatory physique. Lawmakers had been fast to emphasise that it doesn’t legalize marijuana for leisure use. 

“In no way is that this invoice a gateway to the leisure use of hashish,” mentioned  Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, one of many sponsors of the measure.

The invoice would enable the usage of marijuana by certified sufferers with debilitating or nondebilitating medical circumstances. The Medical Hashish Workplace would specify which circumstances are qualifying. 

The invoice now goes to the Senate.