Cannabis Law Prof Blog

New at the MLPR Blog

Over at Marijuana Law, Policy, and Reform, law profs Doug Berman and Rob Mikos are highlighting some interesting stories and studies from around the web:

Interesting accounting and analysis of "America’s Marijuana Evolution"

 

"Congress To Decide On State Marijuana Protections Soon"

 

Interesting Opportunity to Try to Shape the WHO’s Scheduling of CBD (and Possibly Domestic Law Too)

 Notable review of major Philly firms now happy to talk up their marijuana practices

 

 

Canadian landlords bracing for weed legalization

With legislators in the Great White North considering marijuana legalization, lawyers are already facing a myriad of potential client issues/  One group that will clearly be affected is Canadian landlords.  Land-use lawyers Tom Halinski and Meaghan Barrett of Toronto's Aird & Burlis LLP have a helpful take on what's coming up. and some helpful hints for landlords.  A sample:

Landlords of residential buildings must be aware of marijuana's legal status in order to properly deal with:

• tenants illegally using, growing or selling the drug under both the current regime and once the Cannabis Act and regulations come into force, and;
• tenants legally using or growing marijuana, either with a valid Health Canada license under the current regime, or in the future once the recreational use of marijuana is legalized.

Since we do not yet know the details of how marijuana will be regulated in Ontario, we can only look to the tools currently available in order to inform approaches that may be taken in the future.

The Residential Tenancies Act (the "RTA") addresses neither smoking tobacco nor smoking marijuana directly, but landlords have been able to rely on certain provisions of the RTA to combat unwanted use or production of marijuana in the premises.

-- Frank Snyder

Blacks get jail, whites get business licenses?

Racial disparities in marijuana prosecutions and marijuana business licenses have been a long-standing issue for states in dealing with creating medical and recreational cannabis businesses.  In a new opinion piece in the Washington Post, columnist Courtland Milloy highlights the issues in Maryland and D.C.:

Among marijuana’s unique properties, the way it illuminates racial disparities stands out.

Take arrests for marijuana possession. Even though there is minimal difference in the amount of marijuana used by blacks and whites, blacks are four times more likely than whites to be arrested for smoking pot, according to a 2013 study by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The disparities in Maryland and the District were among the highest in the nation, with blacks up to eight times more likely than whites to be arrested.

On the other hand, when it comes to getting a lucrative marijuana grower’s license, you can hardly find a black person at all.

These disparities don’t occur by happenstance. They are evidence of institutional racism, which many readers have tried to dismiss as, according to one, “just a vague excuse for any measurement by which blacks on average don’t do as well as whites on average.”

-- Frank Snyder