Scoop: Europe’s “decision makers” will soon have a cannabis policy toolkit • Harris touts support for cannabis during Second Chance Month roundtable • & more …

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Cannabis Wire spotted a tender that lays out that the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is seeking research and development services and related consultancy services for something called CANNAPOL. 

Specifically, CANNAPOL will be a cannabis policy toolkit aimed at supporting “decision makers and planners with the design, implementation and evaluation of national cannabis policies.” 

EMCDDA plans to offer services in 4 areas: 

+ More: as we reported in this newsletter in February, EMCDDA wrote in its “work programme” for 2024-26 that it aimed to expand its work on cannabis “by building the foundations for a cannabis policy toolkit, which will include practical tools to set up a robust baseline measurement as well as tools and resources to support policymakers with the implementation of evidence-based decisions in the cannabis policy field.”

CANNAPOL appears to be a step in line with that aim.

Last month, Vice President Kamala Harris hosted an unprecedented cannabis roundtable, during which she called federal policy “absurd,” as Cannabis Wire reported at the time.

Yesterday, in a Second Chance Month roundtable with Kim Kardashian, who has pushed the Biden administration (and, previously, the Trump administration) on criminal justice reform, Harris reiterated some of her points on cannabis. 

“We have issued, as an administration with President Biden’s leadership, more pardons and commutations than any recent administration at this point in their term. For example, on marijuana we have pardoned all people for federal convictions for simple marijuana possession. Many of you have heard me say I just don’t think people should have to go to jail for smoking weed. And these pardons have been issued as an extension of that approach,” she said.

This week, a group of 21 members of Congress sent another letter another letter to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram and Attorney General Merrick Garland.  

The group, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, includes Sens. Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker, Ron Wyden, Bernie Sanders, and John Fetterman. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Barbara Lee, and Katie Porter signed on, too. 

The letter notes that it’s been 8 months since the DEA received the recommendation from the Dept. of Health and Human Services that cannabis should be moved from Schedule I to III of the Controlled Substances Act. 

The letter essentially argues that while Schedule III would be better than Schedule I, “the only way to remedy the most concerning consequences of marijuana prohibition is to deschedule marijuana altogether.” 

“While we understand that the DEA may be navigating internal disagreement on this matter, it is critical that the agency swiftly correct marijuana’s misguided placement in Schedule I,” the letter reads. 

“The longer marijuana remains scheduled in the CSA, the longer our communities face senselessly severe penalties and the longer the marijuana laws of the majority of U.S. states remain in conflict with federal law. Right now, the Administration has the opportunity to resolve more than 50 years of failed, racially discriminatory marijuana policy.”