The Democratic National Committee on Saturday approved a party platform plank calling for marijuana law reform. All 15 members of the platform drafting committee, including the 7 appointed by Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign committee, approved the plank.

But not until the committee had rejected language proposed by the Sanders-appointed members that was both simpler and more far-reaching than the plank as finally approved.

According to a report at marijuana.com, the rejected language read:

We will refocus our drug policy by removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and allowing states to set their own policies.

The adopted language reads:

We believe that the states should be laboratories of democracy on the issue of marijuana, and those states that want to decriminalize marijuana should be able to do so. We support policies that will allow more research to be done on marijuana, as well as reforming our laws to allow legal marijuana businesses to exist without uncertainty. And we recognize our current marijuana laws have had an unacceptable disparate impact, with arrest rates for marijuana possession among African-Americans far outstripping arrest rates among whites despite similar usage rates.

The platform may still be amended by the full platform committee which is scheduled to meet on July 8 and 9 or by all the delegates at the party’s national convention in Philadelphia that begins on July 25.

Here are excerpts from other recent cannabis-related news stories.

$60M in Oregon Rec Cannabis Sales from January Thru May
Oregon rang up nearly $60 million in recreational cannabis sales between Jan. 1 and May 30, and that number will likely get even bigger later this year now that edibles and concentrates have been added to the lineup for adult-use customers.

Although adult-use sales formally began last October, when existing medical marijuana dispensaries were allowed to begin serving rec customers, sales taxes for rec cannabis only kicked in after the start of the year. The total sales figure is based on state tax collections.

From the start of the year through May, rec customers purchased almost 12,000 pounds, or six tons, of cannabis from dispensaries, according to the Register-Guard.

Those sales figures could jump later this year when the full rec market comes online. That’s because, for now, consumers face temporary limits on the edibles, concentrates and flower they can purchase.

Read more at Marijuana Business Daily.

Starbuds Loses License for Denver Marijuana Grow in First Decision of Its Kind
Neighborhood push-back against a northeast Denver marijuana grow operation culminated Thursday in the city’s first-ever denial of a routine cultivation license renewal.

Starbuds, a marijuana chain that grows plants on the second floor of its recreational shop at 4690 Brighton Blvd., plans to appeal the decision by Stacie Loucks, the executive director of the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses. In her decision, Loucks agrees with a hearing officer’s earlier findings that the grow operation’s odors and other effects conflict with a new aspirational neighborhood plan for working-class Elyria-Swansea.

But Brian Ruden, one of Starbuds’ owners, says more is at risk than Starbuds’ small grow operation in a matter being watched by Colorado’s marijuana industry.

“The truth is that this is a David vs. Goliath fight,” he said. “And this is an attack against the industry, not just Starbuds,” by neighborhood activists and the city.

Read more at The Denver Post.

Democratic Senators Push DEA to Downgrade Marijuana Classification
A group of Democratic lawmakers is renewing pressure on the Drug Enforcement Administration to remove marijuana from its current position on a list of the most dangerous drugs, a category that includes heroin and ecstasy.

Marijuana’s classification as a “Schedule I” drug is “a main barrier” to research on its potential health benefits and conflicts with a decision by half of the states to approve medical marijuana laws, eight Democratic senators wrote this week in a letter to the DEA and the Department of Justice, its parent agency.

DEA spokesman Russ Baer said in an interview that the agency is in the “final stages” of its deliberation on the issue, and he said a decision on whether to reschedule marijuana is expected “sometime soon.”

Mr. Baer said he did not expect an answer by June 30, however, despite previous guidance from DEA officials that they hoped to make a decision in the first half of the year.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal blog.

Lawsuit: State Produced Bogus Marijuana Test Results
Several medical marijuana caregivers and patients have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging the Michigan State Police crime lab intentionally misrepresented test results that expose thousands of people to possible felony charges.

The civil rights lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Detroit, alleges the state police acted in concert with the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan (PAAM) and other law-enforcement agencies, including the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

The lawsuit was triggered by an alleged ongoing policy by the state to produce inaccurate test results that show marijuana seized during criminal investigations contained the synthetic cannabinoid Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is responsible for marijuana’s psychoactive effects. THC has little or no psychoactive effect when a marijuana plant is converted to an oil or edible, according to the lawsuit.

Under state law, possessing marijuana plant-based oils and edibles is a misdemeanor and Michigan residents with medical-marijuana licenses are legally allowed to possess them. It is a felony, however, to possess synthetic, laboratory-manufactured THC, according to state law.

The state crime lab has established a policy that potentially treats plant-based oils and edibles as synthetic THC, a policy that could expose people to a felony charge, according to the suit.

Read more at The Detroit News.

Pioneers and ‘Potpreneurs’ — What Does It Mean to Be on the Verge of Legalization for a Good Chunk of the Country?
The influence of Keith Stroup was everywhere at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Exposition (CWCB) in New York City last week. Stroup is the founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML.) He started the movement in 1970 and he’s never stopped; his entire adult life has been committed to making recreational use of marijuana legal.

In a keynote address, Stroup said, “I didn’t think I’d live to see it [marijuana legalization], but I’m sure as Hell glad I did!” He was dressed in faded blue jeans, a colorful tie and a black sport coat with a cannabis plant lapel pin. As his long, white hair spilled onto his face, the 72-year-old lawyer declared, without apology and to much applause, “I smoke pot and I like it a lot.”

Stroup “confessed” to getting high for 50 years, and he encouraged everyone in the audience to “come out of the closet.” He recounted the movement’s history, beginning with the 1972 Shafer Report. It recommended that the use and possession of marijuana not be a criminal offense. Then-President Nixon ignored the report, but Stroup toured the country to publicize its recommendations.

In 1973, Oregon decriminalized marijuana—making possession a mere misdemeanor, like a parking ticket—and 11 other states followed. But then a marijuana backlash set in, thanks largely to the Reagans, who touted “Just Say No,” and as Stroup put it, “Eighteen years went by without a victory, until 1996 and medical marijuana passed in California.”

Read More at AlterNet.

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