Coordinator for this subject : David G. Evans, Esq. Senior Counsel, Cannabis Industry Victims Educating Litigators (CIVEL)
Contribution from: thinkon908 via Drug Watch International <drug-watch-international@googlegroups.com>
Sent: 19 November 2025 15:27
Subject: FROM DAVE EVANS REPORT OF THE CANNABIS REGULATORS ASSOCIATION WHAT IS WRONG IN POT STATES?
FOR SOME OF YOU THE FILE ATTACHED WAS TOO LARGE – YOU CAN GET IT ONLINE – SEE BELOW:
https://www.ncdhhs.gov/national-landscape-cannabis-regulators-association-cannra-presentation/download?attachment
Cannabis Regulators Association
CRITIQUE BY DAVID EVANS:
They claim to be a national organization of cannabis regulators that provides policy makers and regulatory agencies with the resources to make informed decisions when considering whether and how to legalize and regulate cannabis.
However, in our experience, the state agencies protect the marijuana industry and not the public. They engage in a denial of the harms of marijuana use and its addictiveness. They falsely support the medical utility of cannabis and THC products.
THIS IS A SCANDAL THAT NEEDS TO BE EXPOSED
In their power point presentation to the North Carolina Cannabis Advisory Council, it notes specific problems:
SLIDE 6: The industry is innovative and fast moving (faster than science). THIS ALSO MEANS THE INDUSTRY ARE FASTER (AND SMARTER) THAN THE STATE AGENCIES
State regulatory agencies have been limited in their resources given the needs. THEY DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH RESOURCES TO ENFORCE REGULATION. THE LEGALIZATION BILLS SEE TO THAT BY NOT AUTHORIZING FUNDS.
SLIDE 25: There are regulatory gaps concerning these products:
Chemically derived impairing cannabinoids (Delta8, Delta-10. HHC, THCO, etc.)
THCA gap – Products being marketed with high levels of THCA that are indistinguishable from cannabis products.
0.3% gap – Impairing amounts of Delta-9 THO in products that meet the legal definition of “hemp” per the 2018 farm bill.
SLIDE 27: Consumer Safety Concerns
Consumer confusion
Molecules that are new and unknown
Lack of product testing and oversight
Medical claims that are not approved by the FDA and/or supported by research
IN OTHER WORDS, THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING !!
SLIDE 29: State Regulatory Challenges from the Current Landscape
No or limited state regulatory authority over cannabinoid hemp products
Lack of research to help guide regulatory decisions on many of these molecules; insufficient surveillance for current landscape. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING
Increased challenges understanding data on safety and adverse events. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING
Enforcement challenges
Increasingly blurred lines with the illicit market; increased cartel activity. INABILITY TO CONTROL CARTELS. WASN’T LEGALIZATION SUPPOSED TO STOP THE CARTELS?
SLIDE 37: Research finds that cannabis smoke contains many of the same carcinogens as tobacco smoke.
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Comments by J. Coleman. PhD: drug-watch-international@googlegroups.com <drug-watch-international@googlegroups.com> Sent: 19 November 2025 16:38
To: thinkon908@aol.com;
David,
Good work exposing these folks as frauds. It’s a common strategy for cannabis promoters to recommend stringent rules, knowing full well they cannot be enforced. An example of this is the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized the production and distribution of “lawful hemp” and its derivatives. Reading the statute, one might think that the restrictions in the law, e.g., 0.3 percent or below THC content by dry weight in hemp, would keep commercial pot out of the market. The bill obviously was written by hemp lobbyists, knowing that the complex and confusing regulations would impress hardliners but have no practical effect on the industry because a) there were no resources in the bill to enforce them, and b) determining compliance with the statute would take expensive in-lab analysis that no one was likely to do.
Of course, now that we have seen the lawful hemp industry operate for several years, it’s evident that the controls initially included in the statute are now being ignored. Just last week, Congress had to revisit the 2018 Farm Act to tighten up the hemp provisions to prohibit hemp products with excessive levels of THC from being sold.
Enacting statutes that have no practical effect is one way to prevent the government from regulating the industry. Another way is getting Congress to include in its appropriations bills restrictions prohibiting the DEA from making so-called medical marijuana cases in states where this activity has become a surrogate for legalizing the drug.
For example, in each fiscal year since FY2015, a decade ago, Congress has included provisions in appropriations acts to prohibit the Department of Justice from using appropriated funds to prevent states, territories, and the District of Columbia from “implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.” The FY2024 provision lists 52 jurisdictions, including every U.S. jurisdiction that has legalized medical cannabis use at the time it was enacted.
There seems to be a constitutional issue here, but I have no idea how to make it justiciable. Whether the issue is immigration or drugs, it seems like some states no longer recognize the Supremacy Clause or what it means.
According to the NSDUH: In 2023, 21.8 percent of people aged 12 or older (or 61.8 million people) used marijuana in the past year regardless of mode (Figures 12 and 13 and Table A.5B). The percentage was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (36.5 percent or 12.4 million people), followed by adults aged 26 or older (20.8 percent or 46.5 million people), then by adolescents aged 12 to 17 (11.2 percent or 2.9 million people). (See: Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health)
The same government survey (NSDUH) in 2013 reported: As noted in the illicit drug use section, an estimated 22.2 million Americans aged 12 or older in 2014 were current users of marijuana (Figure 1). The number of past-month marijuana users corresponds to 8.4 percent of the population aged 12 or older (Figure 3). The percentage of people aged 12 or older who were current marijuana users in 2014 was higher than the percentages from 2002 to 2013. This rise in marijuana use among those aged 12 or older may reflect the increase in marijuana use by adults aged 26 or older and, to a lesser extent, increases in marijuana use among young adults aged 18 to 25 compared with the percentages of young adults who reported marijuana use in 2002 to 2009 (See: Behavioral Health Trends in the United States: Results from the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health).
Of interest here is the increase in use that appears linear with the expansion of the “legal” cannabis industry. The percentage of Americans 12 years or older reporting use of cannabis increased 178 percent, from 22.2 million in 2013, to 61.8 million in 2023.
I’ve often compared the cannabis industry to winemaking. With the latter, as anyone who’s ever tried making homemade wine knows, after adding the yeast to the mashed grapes, the yeast consumes the sugar and excretes alcohol in the process. At a certain level, the alcohol produced will kill off the remaining live yeast. There are ways of fortifying the wine, but left on its own, it will settle at about 11-14 percent alcohol, depending upon the sugar content of the source material. At some point in the future (hopefully soon), the cannabis industry may reach a level at which its success draws the attention of state attorneys general who will do the math and realize that the return in tax revenue is a lot less each year from pot than the potential return on suing the industry for harm and suffering, etc. The opiates MDL in Cleveland is a good model. Like those hapless wine yeasts, the action of the industry will have put itself out of business just by doing what it does.
John Coleman – www.drugwatch.org