Governor Hosts Regional Cannabis Regulations and Vaping Summit

October 21st, 2019

• Identifying best practices with regard to the basis for taxation, implementation stages and dynamic market-based controls for cannabis production and cultivation;

• Supporting the market architecture of cannabis regulation, including an awareness of the need to ensure a fair and competitive market, deploying strategies such as a limitation on the number of licenses or licenses types, to protect against manipulation of markets;

• Encouraging in conjunction with their legislature a stable regional market by identifying and implementing a similar overall effective tax rate for cannabis products;

• Incorporating tax mechanisms, such as weight based, potency based, and/or mg/thc based, to ensure price stability for licensees and that the price of cannabis does not fall to a point that increases access and use beyond current usage rates;

• Implementing social equity initiatives to ensure industry access to those who have been disproportionately impacted by the prohibition of cannabis;

• Prioritizing small and diverse businesses’ participation in the cannabis industry;
• Implementing meaningful social justice reform with regard to cannabis policy, including expediting expungements or pardons, waiving fees associated with expungements or pardons and securing legislation to support these reforms;

• Supporting and advocating for the passage of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which would provide clarity and remove disincentives for existing financial institutions to service cannabis-related businesses;

• Supporting research focusing on immediate solutions that will improve the ability of the state to manage cannabis-related cash payments, as well as long-term solutions that allow the industry to thrive; and

• Providing positive guidance to their state chartered financial institutions with respect to cannabis-related banking services. Such guidance may make reference to education, promotion, data sharing, legislation and advocacy with federal and state regulators

• Enacting restrictions for cannabis and vaping product forms, packing, advertising and characteristics that target minors;

• Prohibiting advertising that promotes over-consumption and targets youth, restrict advertising to audiences that are likely majority over 21
• Ban advertising and products that appeal to youth, including flavors and product packaging
• Restricting sale of products to adults 21 and over and imposing strict penalties on licensees that sell to youth
• Creating programming and conducting robust public health education campaigns targeting youth

• Enacting requirements that all cannabis products must be contained in child-resistant packaging;

• Regulating cannabis products and enacting restrictions in a manner that safeguards public health, limits over consumption and discourages the spread of cannabis use disorder;

• Collecting and sharing data on cannabis use to better understand the public health outcomes associated with legalizing adult use;

• Enacting restrictions to discourage over consumption and accidental overdose, such as limiting the amount of cannabis that can be legally possessed, requiring standardized dosages and serving sizes in products and limiting the overall THC content of products;

• Creating youth prevention and public education campaigns to inform youth and the general public about the health and safety consequences of cannabis use;

• Developing warning labels and icons that accurately inform consumers about the dangers of cannabis use; and

• Limiting flavors for inhalable products to the taste of tobacco or cannabis or a taste derived from compounds derived directly and solely from the cannabis or hemp plant.

• Uniform treatment of Drug Recognition Experts (DRE) evidence;

• Uniform standard for blood or saliva tests, both for lab tests and for roadside tests when available;

• Efforts surrounding DRE training;

• Methods for sharing information on suspected “bad actors” in legal market; and

• Law enforcement strategies for illicit market.

• Banning or regulating the sale of flavored vape products to reduce the product’s attractiveness to youth;

• Implementing vape product safety standards for nicotine, CBD and other cannabinoids, and other vaping products including diluents, excipients, cutting agents, and other additives;

• Regulating temperature control, including the heating mechanisms of vaporizers;

• Ensuring all vaping cartridges are properly marked or labeled to inform the user of the manufacturer;

• Increasing enforcement actions for unauthorized sales to individuals under 21 years of age; and

• Restricting advertisements to ensure products are not targeted to minors.