CMMNJ Monthly Zoom Meeting Agenda for September 14, 2021

CMMNJ Zoom Meeting Agenda for September 14, 2021, at 7 pm 

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84409149862?pwd=MWVybDk0WFJ1ZFlid2pOTjZTVzl4QT09

Meeting ID: 844 0914 9862

Passcode: 447702

Agenda: 

The Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) adopted the initial set of regulations to govern the legal cannabis industry in NJ at the meeting on 8/19/21.

The approved rules address barriers to entry, including:

⦁ Prioritizing applications from certified minority-, women-, and disabled veteran-owned businesses, and from applicants in one of several designated Impact Zones or economically disadvantaged areas;

⦁ Flexible application requirements for microbusinesses (no more than 10 employees and premises of 2,500 square feet) and for conditional licenses;

⦁ Application fees as low as $100

Next, the CRC will examine distribution and delivery service businesses and prepare a Request for Application (RFA) process, to be published in NJ Register. Applications will have priority review, scoring, and approval for Social Equity Businesses, Diversely Owned Businesses, and Impact Zone Businesses. Regulators must pick a date for sales to launch within 180 days.

Social Equity Businesses: based on either economic need or having a criminal record from past marijuana-related offenses.

The kinds of personal-use cannabis business licenses that will be available: Authorized Activity 

Class 1 Cannabis Cultivator: Grow personal-use cannabis (cap on 37 cultivators for two years after February 22, 2021) 

Class 2 Cannabis Manufacturer: Produce personal-use cannabis 

Class 3 Cannabis Wholesaler: Store, sell or otherwise transfer, personal-use cannabis items between cannabis cultivators, wholesalers, or retailers 

 Class 4 Cannabis Distributor: Transport cannabis items in bulk between cannabis cultivators, manufacturers, or retailers within the state of New Jersey  

Class 5 Cannabis Retailer: Purchase personal-use cannabis from licensed cultivators, manufacturers, or wholesalers and sell those items to consumers in a retail store 

Class 6 Cannabis Delivery: Transport a consumer’s purchases of personal-use cannabis and related supplies from the retailer to that consumer 

Conditional license: Begin building out operations for the cultivation, manufacture, dispensing, wholesale, distribution, or delivery of personal-use cannabis while working towards meeting the requirements for a cannabis cultivator, manufacturer, dispensary, wholesaler, distributor, or delivery license 

Summary of the CRC’s Initial Rules for the Personal-Use of Cannabis

Legal weed dispensaries banned in more than 70% of NJ towns. 

Trenton’s statement on passing Cannabis Ordinance. 

National Law Review: What Employers Need to Know

Cognitive Harmony Technologies (CHT) Response to The CRC Ruleset

ACLU-NJ: FAQ’s and analysis of marijuana regulations.

NJ Medicinal Marijuana/Cannabis Program: 

Insurance coverage bills for medical cannabis: Take action with NORML!

S3799 Allows costs of medical cannabis to be reimbursed by Catastrophic Illness in Children Relief Fund, PAAD, Senior Gold and VCCO. Advanced through Senate Health Committee, referred to Senate Budget Committee. Identical bill, A5760 advanced out of Assembly Health Committee; referred to Assembly Appropriations Committee.

A1708 Requires workers' compensation, PIP, and health insurance coverage for the medical use of cannabis under certain circumstances. Passed in Assembly Committees; in Senate Commerce Committee (S3406). Take action with NORML!

ATC’s will be able to include sales of personal use cannabis by submitting municipal approval and a certification to the CRC that they have adequate supply for their patients, and that it will not impact access for patients.

Cannabist ATC opened 8/16/21 adjacent to the Deptford Mall.

Curaleaf’s Bordentown ATC opened 8/27/21, NJ’s 22nd dispensary. 

Still no word on the 24 winning ATC applicants (5 cultivators, 15 dispensaries, and four vertical operators) from the 150 who applied in 2019.

Home cultivation for patients:

A5363/S3420 legalizes cultivation of eight medical cannabis plants.

S3407/A5435 legalizes cultivation of six plants for any NJ adult. 

S3582/A5552 legalizes cultivation of six plants for personal use, and 10 plants for medical use, by adults.

Sign the petition: Let Patients Grow NJ; Website: Let Patients Grow NJ #JeffsLaw.

NJ Office of Legislative Services (OLS): “There is currently no scheduled return for the legislature, but they will most likely return around October/November.” 

National: 

NORML: Federal: Senate Proposal To End Marijuana Criminalization

"Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act" CMMNJ Comments 

Senators Flooded with Input on Federal Marijuana Legalization Bill.

“The End of Sisley’s Challenge to the DEA” to reschedule marijuana. “So, 50 years of rescheduling petitions aren't enough to exhaust administrative remedies with DEA? A bottomless cesspool of bureaucratic excuses.” CA NORML

Upcoming Events: 

Black Cannabis Equity Initiative (BCEI) and the Capital City Area Black Caucus: “CHALLENGES, & OPPORTUNITIES IN TRENTON” 9/10/21, 3-5PM.

Weedstock, music festival to benefit Delaware NORML, Townsend, DE 9/17-18. (CMMNJ table.)

NJ Cannabis Insider Fall Conference, Carteret Performing Arts Center, Sept. 23. Purchase tickets.

“Medical Marijuana” Zoom meeting with Randi Goldberg’s “Straight Talk” 9/20/21, 11am-noon, Meeting ID: 865 307 0487; Passcode: Str8Talk.

NECANN: New Jersey Cannabis Convention, Showboat Hotel, Atlantic City, 10/2-3/21 Exhibit Hours: Sat: 11am to 5pm; Sun: 10am to 3pm. (CMMNJ table).

ACNA Annual Conference! Oct. 17- 19, 2021, Albuquerque, NM, Register here!

Minorities for Medical Marijuana (M4MM) Sept. Newsletter & Policy Update

CANNADEMIX: Where Cannabis Meets the Community! Middlesex County College October 8, 2021, 3 – 9 PM; Tickets. (CMMNJ table)

Recent Events: 

The New Jersey Cannabis Trade Association’s webinar series: NJCTA Seminar: Dispensary Operations with Ken Wolski.

American Cannabis Nurses Assn: “Cancer and Cannabis in 2021” 8/26/21.

Northeast Leaf Magazine, Sept. 2021: CANNABIS ACTIVIST KEN WOLSKI Inside the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey

National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) State Medical Marijuana Laws

Cannabis Laws Matter: How to get a New Jersey Micro-license: Part 1; Part 2.

Treasury report: 

Checking: $9655; PayPal: $2,614. Make a tax-deductible donation via PayPal to info@cmmnj.org, or send a check to: CMMNJ, 219 Woodside Ave., Trenton, NJ 08618.

Hemp wristbands are available, including wholesale prices. Will your store or dispensary display our colorful, all-hemp bracelets, so patrons can make donations to CMMNJ? We are deeply grateful for all support.

More info: 

Ken Wolski, RN, MPA (609) 394-2137 ohamkrw@aol.com 

Facebook: Friends of CMMNJ: https://www.facebook.com/groups/62462971150/

Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New Jersey: http://www.cmmnj.org 

Twitter: @CMM_NJ

CMMNJ blog: https://cmmnj.blogspot.com/

CMMNJ, a 501(c)(3) public charity, is a non-profit educational organization.

"Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act" Comments

August 31, 2021 

The Honorable Charles E. Schumer 
Majority Leader
U.S. Senate 
 
The Honorable Cory Booker
U.S. Senate 
 
The Honorable Ron Wyden
U.S. Senate

RE:      Medical Provisions in the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act

Dear Leader Schumer and Senators Booker and Wyden: 

Thank you for your continuing leadership on cannabis de-scheduling legalization, as well as on the social justice and equity reforms that play such a critical role in cannabis policy. As you know, cannabis reform is not just about the legalization and thoughtful regulation of marijuana, it’s about principles of American federalism and ensuring that our laboratories of democracy have the opportunity to help shape how cannabis should be regulated in the fifty states. There are currently three dozen state medical marijuana programs serving more than 3,500,000 patients in the United States, rapidly providing treatment plans designed to displace opioid prescriptions, and we are writing to ask for your help in protecting them.

Creating a Pathway for Medicinal Marijuana

While we were elated with much of the draft language in the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, we believe that the bill misses the mark in some key areas by ignoring existing state medical marijuana programs and by failing to recognize state-level advances in medical marijuana. Congress must specifically and intentionally create a path to retain the medical cannabis industry that is critical to patients suffering from chronic pain, cancer, PTSD, depression, and other debilitating conditions.

Since the first state medical marijuana law was enacted in California in 1996, state governments have continuously demonstrated their competency for regulating the emerging medicinal cannabis marketplace. These states have tailored their regulatory regimes to ensure that they balance public health and safety, administrative feasibility, and business operability. Today, increasing numbers of physicians and other qualified providers in states with legal medicinal cannabis programs routinely recommend cannabis for qualifying conditions. Those qualifying conditions are state-specific and can include chronic pain, cancer, PTSD, end-of-life care, depression, anxiety, and other debilitating diseases.

We must specifically and intentionally retain these state medical programs currently serving millions of patients—offering arguably one of the most viable alternatives to opioids. We must also provide states with ample time to create their own medicinal markets, to build on advances in existing medical programs, and to harmonize state regulatory programs across the country, as is practicable. This must all be done deliberately and will take time to develop and implement. This will require a transition period prior to a national marketplace and intentional lawmaking by Congress.

Insurance Coverage

As a first priority, Congress should intentionally and specifically permit coverage by private insurance companies in the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act. Cigna already allows reimbursement for CBD products. While this should flow naturally from de-scheduling, an intentional and specific provision by Congress authorizing this pathway would stave off private litigation risks and Executive Branch overreach through regulation. Congress should also specifically provide for the allowance of HAS/FSA funds to be used for medicinal cannabis. These tax-deductible contributions are already currently being used on alternative care, including acupuncture, aromatherapy, ayurvedic medicine, homeopathy, nutritional counseling, and unregulated traditional Chinese medicine. These provisions are not currently contemplated in the Act, and will take time to promulgate, coordinate, and ultimately administer. Additionally, the industry should be permitted to make substantiated structure/function claims, without premarket review, notwithstanding the fact that cannabis may already be an ingredient in some pharmaceutical drugs. This policy should also be codified in federal law, rather than being left to FDA rulemaking. 

Insurance Reimbursements

A successful transition to federal regulation must also support a clear pathway for insurance reimbursement for medical cannabis. The NIH/NIDA is currently funding a number of efforts to document and enable the successful treatment of patients with pain with cannabinoids in order to reduce their use/overuse of opioids. However, due to the lack of insurance reimbursements, nearly all of these costs are being absorbed by patients. Some states have noticed the pharmacoeconomic advantage that cannabis treatments can provide over existing therapies in specific indications, and their Medicaid programs are evaluating reimbursement for these situations. In addition, many workers compensation programs nationwide are taking similar steps. We therefore request that Congress specifically provide for the allowance of insurance reimbursements for medical marijuana patients in the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act.

Research

Notwithstanding housing the best medical research institutions in the world, Cannabis research in the U.S. severely lags behind other nations. While convincing research on cannabis safety and therapeutic utility of medical cannabis products is being generated in Europe and Israel, federal prohibition in this country obstructs open research into the science of cannabis therapeutics for products that do not have an approved IND, despite millions of Americans currently buying and using medical cannabis routinely. The president has indicated that he would like to see more research, so let’s give it to him. Let’s unleash American scientists and doctors to evaluate and document the myriad benefits of cannabis. This research will take time to get right and we should get this done prior to unleashing interstate commerce.

The Act mandates the comptroller general to issue a report on the societal impact of cannabis legislation within two years after the enactment of this Act. Congress has also provided a mandate to HHS to issue a report related to the public health effects of cannabis with an end-date of 2025. And Congress mandated that the secretary of transportation collect data on highway safety. The research objectives in the bill are critical to protecting public health and safety and will take time to get right.

For the foregoing reasons, we request that Congress incorporate insurance coverage and reimbursements into legislation and allow for a transition period prior to unleashing interstate commerce and imports. This will support medicinal marijuana programs currently serving millions of patients at the state level, and will ensure that we complete research and implement national standards to protect public health and safety.

Sincerely, 

Ken Wolski, RN, MPA
Executive Director
Coalition for Medical Marijuana--New Jersey, Inc.
219 Woodside Ave.
Trenton, NJ 08618
609.394.2137
ohamkrw@aol.com
www.cmmnj.org

The Board of Directors of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana--New Jersey, Inc. endorsed the above letter and became a signatory to it, but did not create the letter.