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Audio transcript (~2 min read)
This is the New Realm Compliance Brief, Volume One, Edition Twenty-Nine, for Saturday, September Twelfth.
It was a quieter Friday on the regulatory front, so today's update is a shorter one. Here's what moved.
Our top story: the Nebraska Supreme Court unanimously rejected a constitutional challenge to the state's voter-approved medical cannabis laws. Chief Justice Jeffrey Funke wrote that former state senator John Kuehn lacked standing to bring the case, which had argued the state laws conflict with federal drug law. The dismissal was without prejudice, and Nebraska's Medical Cannabis Commission continues licensing cultivators, with retail access expected in the coming months.
On the federal side, Marijuana Moment reported a first detailed look at conditions the Drug Enforcement Administration is attaching to business registrations under the marijuana rescheduling process. Correspondence to a Mississippi dispensary shows expedited processing was conditioned on not employing people with drug-related felony convictions. The owner said she will request employment waivers and pursue a federal hearing instead, and the report notes D E A practices vary by regional office.
Around the states: in Georgia, registered medical cannabis patients twenty-one and over may now use dry-herb and oil vaporization under the Putting Patients First Act, though smoking remains prohibited; nearly fifty thousand patients are enrolled. And California regulators announced a cannabis product recall over pesticide violations and unsanitary production conditions.
On the radar: semimonthly federal excise taxpayers have three September return periods — the accelerated September sixteenth through twenty-sixth period is paid within September, and the September twenty-seventh through thirtieth period is due October fourteenth. December eleventh remains the effective date for the new federal hemp restrictions. And in November, Massachusetts voters decide a measure rolling back adult-use marijuana sales, with U.S. House action on hemp regulation expected the same month.
Full details and source links are in today's email. This update is for general information only — it is not legal advice.