LOCAL LICENSES FOR CANNABIS DISPENSARIES US

The mayors and councilors of small municipalities are responsible for making cannabis dispensaries awards that can generate millions to the chosen company. Click here to know about cannabis dispensaries.

Cannabis dispensaries regulation can cause corruption in public office, as exposed in an investigation published in the form of a report by the US media Politico. According to this medium, the award of licenses for the sale of cannabis is a limited and highly valued asset that is being the target of many businessmen who have no qualms about putting bribes in the way to get one.

The report points to the regulations of the US states, in which in most cases the number of dispensaries has been limited by number of inhabitants and where the responsibility for licenses rests with city councils. "These practices put million-dollar decisions in the hands of relatively small political figures: the mayors and councilors of small towns and cities, along with the friends and supporters of the politicians who appoint them to the boards," says the report.

"All government contracts and licenses are subject to these types of forces," explained Douglas Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University, to Politico . But according to Berman, in the specific case of cannabis "there are unique facets to government contracting that make it especially vulnerable to corruption."

This was the case of Mayor Jasiel Correira, of the city of Fall River, in Massachusetts. Four years after his election, he was arrested by federal agents accused of trying to extort $ 600,000 from cannabis companies in exchange for granting them licenses to place cannabis dispensaries in the city. Corruption works in other ways too, for example cannabis entrepreneurs can contribute large sums of money to local political election campaigns.

Biden Protects Medical Cannabis Regulations But Prevents Recreational Selling In Washington DC

The president has supported medical cannabis, but has hindered recreational selling in Washington DC through budgets.

Joe Biden wants to protect state laws that regulate medical cannabis in the United States. The president has approved a budget policy that prevents the Department of Justice from using its funding to attack medical cannabis laws and hinders states from implementing their own regulations that authorize the use, possession or cultivation of marijuana. medicinal.

According to Marijuana Moment, Biden is the first president to accept this budget measure on his own initiative. Previous administrations, both Republican and Democratic, have tried to avoid including this protection for medical cannabis. Barack Obama and Donad Trump did not support the protection in their budgets, but it was approved by the Congress of the country against their initial intention.

But at the same time that Biden is trying to preserve medical cannabis laws, he is also trying to impede progress in regulating recreational cannabis. Through budgets, the president has prevented Washington DC from using tax dollars to regulate adult cannabis sales, even though this measure has been supported by the mayor and federal district legislators.

" It is very worrying that the will of the residents of the District of Columbia who voted in favor of legalizing cannabis does continue years of being ignored, despite the overwhelming support in the city for cannabis dispensaries , " said Marijuana Moment Queen Adesuyi, manager of national policies the DPA drug policy foundation.