DOJ To the rescue?
Attorney General Merrick Garland said that Department of Justice resources are not put to the best use prosecuting marijuana-related offenses whether or not states have cannabis legalization laws on the books. Garland, who appeared before a Senate subcommittee in April where marijuana issues were brought up, made the comments as part of written responses to Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). Marijuana Moment first reported Garland's responses. Garland noted that the department's resources are better spent on "violent crimes and other crimes that cause societal harm and endanger our communities." The attorney general also indicated that DoJ might be tackling marijuana issues more generally soon. "The Department is examining a range of issues that relate to marijuana and its production, sale, and use, and we intend to address these issues in the days ahead."
CANNABIS BLACK FRIDAY SALES EVERY DAY.
As we highlighted in our monthly Cannabis Q&A and industry sales call yesterday, which you can access here (CLICK HERE), U.S. and Canadian cannabis retailers have been forced to discount their products in the last several months dramatically. Krista Raymer, a cannabis consultant, believes these discounts are because the sheer amount of adult-use products that have hit the shelves in the last year has dramatically increased, leaving retailers with products that get stuck on the shelves. As this market matures, more product data will become available, making inventory decisions by these cannabis retailers easier and solving this problem. "The combined discount on mainly recreational marijuana cannabis sales in nine U.S. states more than doubled over the past five years, from 7% in June 2017 to 15% in April 2022, according to retail data collected by Seattle-based analytics firm Headset." mjbizdaily.com
JNJ IS LOOKING FOR CANNABINOID CLARITY.
Major drugmaker Johnson & Johnson is asking the U.S. Health Officials to develop basic safety rules for cannabinoids in foods and beverages. FDA regulators have conceded that CBD and other cannabinoids have been made widely available even with the repeated FDA warning that they might not be safe. "They would like to have these products, and they would not like to be prohibited from having them, although they do want a degree of oversight and safeguard so that they would like someone overseeing quality, safety, and purity," said Steven Musser, deputy director for scientific operations at the FDA. mjbizdaily.com
