Is Brazil set to regulate medical cannabis cultivation? • RI shop challenges labor req’s • Judge tosses suit against Harlem shop location • & more …

According to the Brazilian news organization Folha, yes. 

Marta Machado, the head of drug policy in the Ministry of Justice, said that the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has been in office since January, plans to shift away from imports by regulating domestic cultivation. 

If this happens, it will mark the most significant shift in the country’s approach to cannabis in years.

As Cannabis Wire reported back in 2019, when former President Jair Bolsonaro was in office, regulators expanded the medical cannabis program, but stood firm against domestic cultivation.

The company, which got one of the state’s first medical cannabis licenses, a decade ago, and has since expanded into adult use sales, filed a lawsuit this week against the state’s cannabis regulators and UFCW Local 328. 

The company is seeking “injunctive and declaratory relief because the Rhode Island Cannabis Act” which “required Greenleaf to enter into a labor peace agreement as a condition of state licensure and thereby deprived Greenleaf of its free bargaining rights, is preempted by the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution” as well as the “National Labor Relations Act.”

Several states, from California to New York, require labor peace agreements.

Turmoil is far from over in Harlem. The 125th Street Business District Management AssociationInc. filed a lawsuit in April over the provisional retail cannabis license near the Apollo related to their concerns that the location could have negative public health consequences and lead to an uptick in crime.  

That distinction is important – there’s been no final license issued – because the Association could take another swing at litigation once it’s awarded. 

“There is no dispute that there remain numerous steps for the applicant to take before a CAURD license can be issued, one of which explicitly provides Community Board 10 the chance to be heard,” Judge Shahabuddeen A. Ally wrote in the decision. 

Ally continued, “There is also no dispute that unless and until a full CAURD license is issued, the applicant cannot operate a dispensary and may yet still be denied full licensure. Further, because the dispensary is not yet operational, petitioner cannot demonstrate that its members have suffered cognizable injury that can provide standing to bring this proceeding at this time.”

Ally noted that the public has a right to weigh in on the location, which would happen through the Community Board process, which in fact would be blocked if the court decided to rule in favor of the lawsuit. 

Until then, and until a final license is issued, the “matter is not ripe for judicial review and that this action is therefore premature,” the judge wrote.