Today the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration made the decision to keep marijuana listed as a Schedule I drug under the Federal Controlled Substances Act. Citing a lack of available science to allow for a change in the drug’s status, the DEA did expand the number of universities which may apply to grow marijuana for scientific purposes (right now there is only one).
For marijuana businesses and the marijuana industry in Hawaii, this means business as usual. Banking will remain an issue, businesses will not be able to claim normal business tax deductions on their federal income taxes, and federal prosecution will remain a remote possibility (although it is defunded right now). On the positive side, the University of Hawaii can now apply to be a federally sanctioned source of marijuana for research purposes, our local industry will not be overrun in the near term by national pharmaceutical companies, and the president still has a number of options for how to address the situation.
As long as the industry continues to work within the legal bounds established by the Hawaii State Legislature and State Department of Health, then dispensaries, patients, certifying doctors, and ancillary businesses remain within the protection of a “well-regulated state system” as described in the federal Cole Memorandum (which deprioritized marijuana enforcement). This presents yet another opportunity for Hawaii’s industry to address the social, public safety, and professional implications of a medical marijuana industry in a way that is right for Hawaii.
For more information on this issue, check out HDA member Weedmaps news coverage of the announcement, or give us a call!
It is the Alliance’s mission to provide up-to-date and relevant industry information to the patients, dispensary applicants, and related businesses of Hawai‘i’s growing medicinal cannabis industry and to lobby effectively on behalf of the entire industry. Contact us today and we will send you the Summer Omnibus 2016 Edition of our monthly Industry Publication absolutely free to demonstrate just a little of the value we can provide you as a stakeholder in this industry.
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