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While more U.S. states continue to legalize marijuana, more U.S. citizens keep getting arrested for marijuana-related crimes. FBI crime statistics show that, for the third year in a row, the number of marijuana-related arrests increased in 2018.
How is that possible? The crime stats from the FBI don’t offer an explanation, only raw data. However, it was clear that arrests have increased in areas where marijuana is not yet legal.
In the West, where many states have legalized cannabis, marijuana possession arrests accounted for only 13.4 percent of all such arrests nationwide. It’s a different story in other parts of the country, however, with the most arrests happening in the Northeast (48.9 percent), with the Midwest (45.8 percent) and the South (44.8 percent) not far behind.
Surrounded by a greenhouse of hundreds of beautiful hemp plants, we speak to Luis about his journey from Brooklyn to Connecticut and learn about the process of growing hemp and some farmer tips for growing lush hemp plants (hint: hemp plants love them some salsa music!).
Cannabis edibles are a growing segment of the market and are expected to reach $4.1 billion in 2022, combining Canadian and U.S. sales. In 2017, that figure was just $1 billion among the two countries. The segment is going to be key to the industry's long-term growth.
Restaurants haven't been able to take advantage of that growth since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has still not permitted cannabidiol (CBD) to be infused into food. While the FDA has held hearings on CBD, there's no indication that changes are coming anytime soon.
One restaurant, however, has been able to get around that problem. Lowell Farms opened its doors earlier this month in West Hollywood, Calf., and it's the first restaurant with a lounge licensed for cannabis use. Customers will be able to eat food and consume pot at the same establishment. That doesn't mean the restaurant will be able to make and serve cannabis food. Instead, cannabis edibles will be permitted only if they are "produced by an outside source."
One of the other restrictions the restaurant will face is not being able to sell alcohol to diners. It's a small price to pay to let them consume cannabis, since pot lounges remain a rarity in the industry. Las Vegas is among the cities looking at permitting such lounges, but that could be years away because there's still a lot of opposition to it.
DEFINITION of SAFE Banking Act
The Secure And Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act was first introduced to Congress in May of 2017 under the sponsorship of Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO). It was reintroduced in April 2019 by Merkley and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), with a House companion bill sponsored by Perlmutter. This bipartisan legislation would impact the ability of federal banking regulators to intervene in the actions of a depository institution dealing with a legal cannabis business. Specifically, the act would prohibit regulators from terminating or limiting either deposit or share insurance of such a financial institution for the sole reason that it does business with a cannabis company. It would also prohibit regulators from in turn barring such institutions from offering financial services to these companies, as it would stop regulators from encouraging financial institutions to not do business with those companies.
At the risk of questioning U.S. American exceptionalism, we are dedicating this blog post to Latin America, and the fact that so many countries throughout Latin America have long legalized cannabis and/or approved cannabis for medicinal use. And yet, this was done in the face of a multi-decade anti-cannabis campaign sponsored by the United States.