Amazon Relaxes and to Start Lobbying
Amazon is the second-largest employer in the US, and it stated Tuesday that it would stop drug testing its workers for marijuana and treat it the same as alcohol use. “In the past, like many employers, we’ve disqualified people from working at Amazon if they tested positive for marijuana use,” Amazon said in an update posted to its company news site. “However, given where state laws are moving across the U.S., we’ve changed course.” Amazon will continue to do impairment checks on its employees to ensure they are not working under the influence but will refrain from testing beyond that for at-home use.
Amazon also stated it would lobby Congress to pass a bill to legalize marijuana federally. “Because we know that this issue is bigger than Amazon, our public policy team will be actively supporting The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021 (MORE Act)—federal legislation that would legalize marijuana at the federal level, expunge criminal records, and invest in impacted communities,” the company’s post says. “We hope that other employers will join us and that policymakers will act swiftly to pass this law.” The company spent $19 Million in federal lobbying efforts in 2020, the third-largest lobbying spends out of all private companies, only behind Facebook and Blue Cross Blue Shield. With such large sums of money going towards lobbying efforts, policymakers will certainly be feeling more pressure to pass legislation.
This is a huge move as Amazon, along with most American employers, sees historic worker shortages. Maybe this relaxation in policy will help them hire more employees. Maybe Amazon is eyeing a future move into the cannabis industry! Or maybe they believe it is the right thing to do. Motive unknown, this is a monumental decision that many more employers will likely follow and speed up the path to legalization.
Maryland Tracker
Sales in Maryland have been slightly decelerating. May sales were $47 Million, down 1.5% sequentially but up 22% YoY. After a monster, March 2021, April, and May sales have been slightly lower comparatively but are still up significantly YoY. Maryland has an annual run rate of $557 Million. Harvest Health, Vireo, and Terrascend have the largest percent of resources in Maryland.
IL Licenses
The Illinois Senate passed a bill creating new licenses and a lottery system to award those licenses. Illinois, a recreational state, has an underserved market due to a limited number of currently available licenses. The new bill would offer two new dispensary lotteries, which would offer 55 licenses each for a total of 110 new licenses. The second lottery would only be for social equity applicants. The bill would also clear up ongoing disputes for 75 licenses that have been held up for over a year. Illinois only has 109 current dispensary locations, so that this new bill would double that number. “The goal here is to create a diverse cannabis industry with increased opportunities for social equity applicants,” state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, the bill’s Senate sponsor, said during floor debate. “There was a war on drugs that we all know so well, especially those of us in the Black community, there were provisions in the (CRTA) that address that, but we wanted to make sure that there was also ownership.”
