PART II: Federal Cannabis Crusader
By Andrew Haftkowycz
Brian Hanna, the executive director of the Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA) has been a busy guy lately. From advising the DEA on how the federal government should approach legal cannabis nationwide, to bringing down the hammer on cannabis oils in Michigan, Hanna is on a path to make Michigan Marijuana one of the biggest players in the U.S. and maybe even the world.
BRIAN HANNA: Federal Cannabis Crusader
While Hanna and his CRA are busy cleaning up Michigan’s cannabis reputation, which took a hit with the federal indictment of Rick Johnson, the former head of the Cannabis license board, it’s not without a purpose. Hanna has seen the writing on the wall with Biden’s Marijuana Proclamation and the DEA’s public comment period on federal rescheduling of marijuana.
Brian Hanna has both sought guidance from the DEA in its public comment period – and offered recommendations to the DEA. What does that mean for the Michigan cannabis market?
The federal government is preparing to reschedule marijuana, possibly opening up the flood gates into a national commercial interstate market. With the fractured and often non-sensical regulatory schemes that pepper our country in “legal marijuana” states, Michigan currently has a few cannabis regulations that may not make sense in the current marketplace. Hanna has taken the lead with a progressive approach on some of these seemingly non-sensical rules.
While requesting clarity from the federal government, Hanna has showcased Michigan as an example of the DOs and DON’Ts of cannabis regulations.
In the CRA’s official July public comment to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the CRA outlined the multiple pitfalls Michigan’s cannabis regulators have discovered since 2008. Helmed by Brian Hanna, the CRA issued recommendations to the DEA, including improvements to business tax treatment, opening channels to bankruptcy for marijuana entrepreneurs, and making sensical changes to marijuana’s federal regulations, including interstate import/export regulations and simplifying needlessly complex categories of medical and recreational products.
Hanna is attempting a powerplay on the DEA by using 15 years of cannabis regulation data to help shape the federal guidance and regulations in the image of Michigan’s CRA.
HANNA on Bank Reform
Hanna mentioned the need for Bank reform, which we have reported on extensively at Scott F. Roberts Law.
The average startup costs for many marijuana businesses range from $1,000,000 -$1,500,000. Hanna has gone on the record to state that this astronomical number has made the industry inaccessible to a large swathe of the population, and the federal banking treatment of marijuana is the main culprit in this inaccessibility.
Hanna has provided the DEA with guidance on how the federal government can change its treatment of marijuana businesses via rescheduling to Schedule III to provide marijuana businesses with the same tax incentives as non-marijuana businesses nationwide. Hanna shares a progressive approach to bringing cannabis businesses into the mainstream – by making them equal to any other business in the United States as far as the IRS is concerned.
HANNA’s STATE LAB: The Jewel of the CRA
The CRA is investing in a State Reference Lab that will meet the enormous testing demand that has overloaded Michigan’s Safety Compliance Facility market and serve as a check against the results of licensed safety testing facilities, some of which have been accused of inflating THC results.
The CRA’s State Lab, which aims to go operational before 2025, will be tracking criminal and illicit products to create another channel for regulatory quality controls upon the industry.
The rollout of the CRA’s State Lab, however, poses a complicated issue: centralized control over testing is a large accumulation of power over the commercial viability of a marijuana open market. With Michigan’s history of top-down corruption in cannabis, the CRA State Lab does provide potential for abuse of discretion. There is a need for public comment and disclosure of system controls to reassure Michigan cannabis entrepreneurs that everyone, including Hanna’s regime, is playing by the rules.
With that said, Hanna plans to use the State Lab for Product compliance and Testing Measurement Calibration to synchronize an incredibly decentralized cannabis product testing protocol.
To put it in stoner terms, how many times have you heard “The stuff they sell nowadays is just WAY too strong for me to handle,” or “sometimes you eat a gummy and you go for a ride, but sometimes you go to Narnia and back.”
The anecdotal experience you hear from your cousin or your barber or your old high school gym teacher has been heard by Brian Hanna and the CRA – and they’re doing something about it with the CRA State Lab – both to keep consumers safe knowing the “high” they get is exactly what it is labeled to be… and to make the CRA State Lab produce the statistics the Federal government wants to see when creating a model for national marijuana legalization.
HANNA’s Michigan: The Federal Marijuana Gold Standard
Hanna wants to create a “Gold Standard” for Panels and lab result standards, and to also gather information from the cannabis industry, in an attempt to inform the federal government of determining the proper national standards to use as the federal government lifts its heel off the country’s neck with cannabis policy.
Hanna envisions the Michigan model as a blueprint for national adoption. As the automotive capital of the world—and the leader in all things cherries—Michigan has long set the national standards for industries that influence both the country and the world.
Why shouldn’t Michigan also claim the national standard for weed?
MMFL-MTRM-A: A Game of Legislative Chicken
Hanna also wants to apply the pressure on the Michigan legislature: to fix the damn mess that they left us with the Medicinal MMFLA and the Recreational MRTMA laws – and to put it into one unified act.
Hanna himself admits that it all comes from the same plant – the same plant will create identical products, but the capacity, amount, maturity, and day-to-day oversite of those two identical products will be treated very differently (MED vs. REC) because they have two completely different pieces of legislation dictating their government regulation.
HANNA Wants One Weed Act to Rule Them All
Hanna wants ONE ACT: One overarching piece of cannabis legislation to make a marijuana plant be treated as a single unit of cannabis product between the grower and the consumer.
Is Hanna our nation’s next marijuana Teddy Roosevelt? That’s not for Scott F. Roberts Law to say, however we can help you with your cannabis business needs. If you or someone you know is in need of marijuana expertise, the experienced cannabis legal team of Scott Roberts Law is an excellent resource for any cannabis business issues, schedule your consultation today to see if we can assist you with your medical marijuana business concerns.
