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Michigan marijuana regulators would no longer be allowed to deny a person a medical cannabis license based on their \u201cmoral character and reputation\u201d or prior marijuana convictions under a newly filed Senate bill.<\/p>\n
Sen. Jeff Irwin (D) introduced the legislation\u2014as well as a separate measure to legalize the possession and cultivation of certain psychedelics<\/a>\u2014last week.<\/p>\n The purpose of the cannabis bill is to align licensing policy for the state\u2019s medical and recreational market. Under the adult-use legalization law, there\u2019s no exclusionary language about moral character or previous marijuana convictions for license applicants, but the restriction does exist in the medical cannabis law.<\/p>\n SB 619 would strike<\/a> statutory language allowing the Marijuana Regulatory Agency to deny an applicant based on \u201cintegrity, moral character, and reputation.\u201d And it adds<\/a> lines clarifying that people with marijuana felony or misdemeanor convictions are not automatically disqualified from participating in the program.<\/p>\n Irwin told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Monday that the subjective nature of the moral character clause \u201cinvites unequal application of the law, it invites favoritism, it invites corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m certainly not suggesting that that\u2019s what\u2019s happening at the agency. I just think that getting rid of that clause and aligning it with what we passed in 2018 makes a lot of sense,\u201d he said, referring to the recreational legalization ballot measure approved by voters that year.<\/p>\n \u2014 It\u2019s not just about eliminating a questionable standard for prospective licensees, the senator argued. It\u2019s also about taking additional steps to incentive participation in the legal industry by people who have been harmed by the drug war, removing unnecessary barriers so that they can shift away from illicit cannabis activity and move into the regulated market.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s part of the goal that we need to reach in the state of Michigan if we\u2019re to be the most successful in building the legal market,\u201d Irwin said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we need to keep the taxes low. We need to keep the barriers to entry low. We need to welcome people who might have a marijuana conviction on their record into the licensed space. That\u2019s all part of being successful as a state in making sure the majority of transactions are taking place in a safe and regulated legal space.\u201d<\/p>\n The bill is cosponsored by Sens. Sean McCann, Stephanie Chang and Sylvia Santana, all Democrats. Irwin said that while he\u2019s not been guaranteed a committee hearing in the Republican-controlled legislature, he\u2019s optimistic about building bipartisan support for the proposal, especially considering that members of both parties have previously moved to eliminate moral character clauses from other industries.<\/p>\n Both Michigan\u2019s medical and recreational markets have proved lucrative, with the state reporting a record $171 million in sales in July<\/a>. That translates into $23 million in tax revenue, some of which will go to infrastructure projects, public education and individual jurisdictions.<\/p>\n Last month, state officials also awarded $20 million in marijuana tax revenue to\u00a0fund a pair of research projects<\/a>\u00a0meant to investigate the therapeutic potential of cannabis for military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n Michigan officials have also recently taken steps to ensure that residents in the state who legally consume cannabis have certain employment-related protections, with the state attorney general filing a legal brief last month arguing that workers fired from the jobs for marijuana use outside the workplace are still eligible for unemployment benefits<\/a>.<\/p>\n Irwin\u2019s separate psychedelics legislation comes as the state is becoming a unique hub for the movement to change policies around entheogenic substances, with local chapters of the group Decriminalize Nature pushing their city councils to adopt reforms.<\/p>\n The Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council\u00a0approved entheogenic decriminalization last year<\/a>\u2014and in July, local lawmakers passed a resolution to officially designate September as\u00a0Entheogenic Plants and Fungi Awareness Month<\/a>.<\/p>\n Efforts are also underway in Grand Rapids to enact a policy change for psychedelics.<\/p>\n Bernie Sanders Touts \u2018Progress\u2019 On Legalizing Marijuana And Ending The Drug War<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of WeedPornDaily<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post People Couldn\u2019t Be Denied Marijuana Licenses Based On \u2018Moral Character\u2019 Or Cannabis Convictions Under New Michigan Bill<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Michigan marijuana regulators would no longer be allowed to deny a person a medical cannabis license based on their \u201cmoral character and reputation\u201d or prior marijuana convictions under a newly filed Senate bill. Sen. Jeff Irwin (D) introduced the legislation\u2014as well as a separate measure to legalize the possession andContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":49793,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49794,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49792\/revisions\/49794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: People Couldn\u2019t Be Denied Marijuana Licenses Based On \u2018Moral Character\u2019 Or Cannabis Convictions Under New Michigan Bill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"