This Week in Marijuana Law: The Global Market

Canada medical marijuana grower Tilray has confirmed another export deal with a cannabis company licensed by the Chilean government, becoming the first foreign mover in overseas markets. While this is a big move in the emergence of a new global marijuana market, it is also a reminder of how cannabis companies in the United States are lagging behind the rest of the world in exports. Because the U.S. still considers marijuana illegal at the federal level, marijuana companies which are legal at the state level are unable to export their product. Until the U.S. de-schedules marijuana, Canada will dominate the global marijuana market.

There are still several influential anti-cannabis voices in the United States who may have significant influence on the future of federal marijuana policy. The National District Attorneys Association has assembled a working group to develop a policy platform regarding marijuana. Some DAs want to send a letter to the governors of states with legal marijuana telling them to close those businesses within 90 days. Attorney Charles Feldmann of Feldmann Nagel Cantafio PLLC, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent and cannabis industry attorney, believes the District Attorneys "would carry some weight.”

“It is an important group. I don’t think that means it’s going to become Holy Scripture for (the DOJ),” he said, “but it is something they would pay attention to.” Conversely, he added, is the NDAA “just too diverse and divided to ever really come up with something unifying?”

Read more of this week’s marijuana news here.