[author: Susan Ryan]
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. This week, we start off with talk of federal re-scheduling. Then we note that the new DEA head is also the interim head of the DCMPD. There’s news from New Jersey concerning cannabis lounges. And finally, despite what you may have heard, THC drinks are not available for purchase on Virgin Atlantic.
FEDERAL RE-SCHEDULING
There’s been a lot of discussion this week about possible federal re-scheduling. Regular readers will recall the hullabaloo surrounding the initial announcement, in April 2024, that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was beginning the process of moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III. They will also recall that we took a cautious view of this development. Well, we’ve got another case of over-excitement. News reports that the President expressed some interest in re-scheduling at a political fundraiser have been blown up into speculation that the President is intent on doing it. Here’s what he said at a press conference:
“Some people like it. Some people hate it—people hate the whole concept of marijuana, because it does bad for the children [and] it does bad for people that are older than children. But we’re looking at reclassification, and we’ll make a determination over the next few weeks—and that determination, hopefully, will be the right one.”
That just doesn’t sound like someone who’s made up his mind to re-schedule.
DEA HEAD’S NEW SIDE HUSTLE
Another reason to hold the confetti on re-scheduling is that the Head of the DEA, Terry Cole, has just been named the interim federal commissioner of the DC Metropolitan Police Department. Considering the attention that recent events in the Nation’s Capital have generated (and that are beyond the scope of this blog), re-scheduling may not be top of mind right now.
NEW JERSEY
We have news from the Garden State this week. Four cannabis lounges have opened: two in Atlantic City, one in Camden County and one in Newark. If you’re not familiar with the cannabis lounge concept, think of it as a bar, with weed taking the place of alcohol.
AND FINALLY
Here’s yet another situation in which a cannabis company says a person, or in this case a business, is endorsing their product, when they are not. This time, Drippy, a THC drinks company, is claiming that you can order their products while flying on Virgin Atlantic. To be clear, you CANNOT possess or consume any cannabis of any sort on an airplane or in an airport.
Be well everyone – we’ll see you next week.
