A study found that daily marijuana use is growing rapidly, especially among users who are “poor and lack a high school diploma.” “What’s going on here is that over the last 20 years marijuana went from being used like alcohol to being used more like tobacco, in the sense of lots of people using it every day,” according to one of the researchers. (See the study here.)
The number of U.S. cannabis users is set to exceed tobacco users within a few years.
In a victory for the industry, judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal government cannot spend money to prosecute state legal marijuana businesses. The judge ruled that cannabis companies “are entitled to evidentiary hearings to determine whether their conduct was completely authorized by state law,” Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain wrote.
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson’s pro-legalization stance is damaging his effort to attract anti-Donald Trump Republicans.
Nevada REC supporters reserved $800,000 worth of television ads in Las Vegas. Almost two-thirds of Californians support legalization according to a poll.
In SFWeekly, I wrote that with its recent decision not to reschedule, the DEA is risking irrelevance on pot policy
The Ohio Supreme Court may rewrite its ethics policy so lawyers can work with cannabis companies.
Arizona opened the door to new MED dispensaries and received 750 applications for 31 permits. Oregon is swamped with 1,300 applications.
Angelenos want legal delivery.
In Maine, MED activist Dennis Hammac is wary of the state’s REC initiative.
The New York Times editorializes that marijuana should not be a Schedule I drug. The Post and Courier, South Carolina’s largest paper, wants to legalize MED.