Stay strong, Arizona medical-marijuana patients.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and local authorities have little power to stop you from consuming, possessing, or even growing cannabis under state law.
The 2010 Arizona Medical Marijuana Act contains a sort of “Dracula clause“: If freedom-hating prohibitionists try to kill it, it will come back to life and bite them. Read it in the Phoenix New Times.
A new study found that people who are more likely to develop schizophrenia are more likely to try cannabis. It also found new evidence that cannabis use can cause schizophrenia.
The number of pregnant women who use cannabis is up more than 60% since 2002. While knowledge of how cannabis affects fetuses is limited, Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, called it “cause for concern.”
The Duluth News Tribune looks examines the case for, and against, treating PTSD with MED.
More experts say cannabis should be prescribed before opiates, VICE reports.
Ohio doctors say they’re reluctant to recommend MED.
An article from “The American Tribune” on an overdose from injecting cannabis turned out to be fake news.
Connecticut has approved its first MED study, to compare pain relief with an opiate in patients with fractured ribs. A Connecticut hospice will use cannabis to reduce its dependence on opioids.
President Obama granted clemency to 231 individuals. His total of more than 1,300 sentence commutations totals more than his 11 predecessors combined. Here’s the story of one of them, Paul Free, who was serving a life sentence and is now eligible for parole in 2020.
Obama also granted 78 “pre-Christmas” pardons.
Vox examines how Obama has reshaped the war on drugs, and how that legacy is will be jeopardized under President Trump. For one thing, Obama tended not to use the term “War on Drugs.”
A court ruled that Arizona MED users can’t be convicted of DUI without evidence of impairment.
A Colorado man who drove impaired and killed a motorcyclist was sentenced to 10 months in jail and two years probation.
A day after they opened, six unlicensed Cannabis Culture dispensaries were raided and closed in Montreal. The 10 arrests included owner and “prince of pot” Marc Emery.
Spotted in D.C.: “ This is your brain on Jeff Sessions.”
In Milton, Mass., a dispensary seeks to open in the historic “ Swift Hat Shop” building.
The study is from a U.S. government agency.
Here’s your daily dose of pot news from the newsletter WeedWeek.
U.S. teenagers find it harder to buy weed than they have for 24 years, according to an annual survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The same study found that teen drug use is declining nationally.
Humboldt County’s growing areas voted against REC, but the cities voted for it.
A long awaited task force report in Canada recommended 18 as the legal buying age. For more see hereand here. The country plans to legalize REC next year.
REC businesses in Portland, Oregon, are struggling to obtain licenses. And the head of the state’s lab accrediting agency is stepping down.
Florida lawmakers are thinking about how to regulate MED. For more see here. A proposal in Ohio would allow 40 MED dispensaries in the state.
Tennessee Republicans are considering a MED program.
Radio Free Asia reports that Chinese visitors to North Korea buy pot by the kilogram and sell it for a healthy mark-up in China.
Australian economists say legalizing REC would be good for the Queensland economy.
Stanford Medical School professor and tobacco advertising expert Dr. Robert K. Jackler editorializes that “If nationwide legalization happens, it is essential that the tobacco industry is banned from the marijuana market.”
L.A. Weekly profiles Seventh Point LLC, a cannabis private equity firm focused on Los Angeles. The firm expects L.A., the world’s largest cannabis market, to be the “Silicon Valley” of weed. The city’s cannabis community is uniting to legalize dispensaries.
Keith McCarty, CEO of delivery app Eaze, is stepping down, shortly after the company secured $13M in funding. He’ll be replaced by Jim Patterson, who, like McCarty was a senior executive at Yammer, a workplace social network which sold to Microsoft for more than $1 billion.
President Elect Donald Trump selected Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R) to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt has repeatedly sued the agency to block anti-pollution laws. While this might be seen as support for states’ rights — and by extension the marijuana industry — Mark Joseph Stern at Slate calls Pruitt “ one of the phoniest federalists in the GOP.”
In particular, Pruitt joined Nebraska in suing Colorado over the state’s REC industry. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, retired Marine General John F. Kelly, opposes legalization saying that it increases health care costs and crime, and that the state experiments with it open the U.S. to accusations of hypocrisy from Latin American nations. Kelly is open to the plant having medical benefits.
It also emerged that Jim O’Neill, a Silicon Valley investor who Marijuana.com describes as a “ Marijuana legalization activist,” could be tapped to lead the Food and Drug Administration. O’Neill is neither a doctor or scientist, typical credentials for the position. For more see here.
Marijuana entrepreneurs want Trump to see them as “ job creators,” Forbes reports.
The New York Observer, which is owned by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, called for rescheduling.
In an effort to protect marijuana laws under the Trump administration, Colorado is cracking down on home growers. The state is poised to surpass 3,000 licensed businesses next year.
What attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) means for state-legal pot business remains the big green question. In an in-depth piece, Politico says Sessions could easily “ ignore the will of millions of pro-pot voters” and crack down. Time lists seven reasons Trump is unlikely to go after the industry.
The Sessions hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 10 and 11.
Pro-cannabis group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is petitioning the Justice Department to correct what ASA says is incorrect or misleading information about cannabis on the DEA web site. ASA is represented pro-bono by the major San Francisco law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.
Though he’s promised to legalize next year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he still wants police to prosecute dispensaries. His pro-pot supporters feel “cheated.”
Canadian producer Cronos Group will work with First Nations groups in Canada to help them join the cannabis economy.
An upcoming March ballot measure for regulating the industry in Los Angeles raises many questions.
A Democratic state Senator in Texas introduced a “longshot” MED bill. Virginia Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R), asked for a study of how the state’s cannabis laws might be changed.Tennessee could also be in play.
Oregon took emergency steps to lower the testing burden on growers, but the industry is skeptical.
REC opponents in Maine were accused of not providing enough volunteers for a recount of the recent vote. A judge ruled that following the recent vote, MED dispensaries in Montana can reopen immediately.
Maryland named 102 pre-approved dispensary license winners. In New York, licensees are worried about competition in the relatively small market.
Guam is implementing a MED program. Dusseldorf, Germany is on the path to legalization.
Among other things, they are preparing safety guides for “trimmigrants”
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.
Reveal follows up on its investigation of sex abuse of trimmigrants in California’s Emerald Triangle, with an update on how communities in the region have responded.
Massachusetts became the first state on the east coast to legalize REC, despite opposition from the state’s most prominent politicians, both Democrats and Republicans. Dispensaries could open as soon as January 2018.
All four states voting on MED approved it. In Florida, voters legalized MED with 71% in favor. In Arkansas, a MED initiative has a comfortable lead with most precincts reporting. North Dakota’s MED initiative passed with about 64% of the vote and Montana’s Initiative to expand MED access also passed comfortably.
Each of the MED states also voted for Donald Trump, who is now president-elect.
It looks like the proposed REC business bans in Pueblo, the Colorado industry’s secondary hub, failed. I wrote about the situation for the L.A. Times.
There were numerous local votes in Oregon on the industry’s status in communities. See the results here.
The Eureka Times-Standard explains your rights in California post Proposition 64. Public consumption will not be allowed except in licensed businesses, which will open in 2018 at the earliest.
Stocks in private prison companies jumped following Donald Trump’s victory. Racial disparities in criminal enforcement remain a concern.
The Nation profiles Bill Montgomery (R), the anti-pot Phoenix prosecutor who won re-election.
An odor problem has earned a Boulder grow $14,000 in fines.
The NFL Player’s Association said it would explore MED as a pain management tool. The league isn’t budging, for now.
Playboy calls legalization one of the election’s “ silver linings.”
Colorado Harvest Company and O.pen vape were among the major donors to Levitt Pavilion amphitheater, a new venue for free concerts in Denver.
It’s even classified as a chemical weapon.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.
| “Who’s got the lighter?! Let’s spark the fire!” |
There are states with medical and recreational marijuana laws on the books where a person can adhere to all of their specific state laws, pay all applicable local tax and licensing fees, and conduct a safe and honest business in the cannabis industry. But, in many cases, they still cannot get a company credit card with which to conduct the day-to-day merchant services that are essential to any type of business.
So it is pretty interesting to see singer Gwen Stefani, no stranger to some weed, featured in a new MasterCard television ad. It is even more interesting when you hear the song that MasterCard marketing execs chose to represent their multibillion dollar brand.
Iowa lawmakers seem rather slow to respond to outside stimulus. In 2010, the state Board of Pharmacy said lawmakers should consider allowing Iowans to access legal medical marijuana. The suggestion was completely ignored at the time, but the Board says they need to consider it now.
So once again, the Board of Pharmacy is going to take up the issue and will hold a hearing November 17 to get public input.
| A CBD-oil syringe. |
A limited Iowa medical cannabis law that allows parents of minors to bring home high-CBD/low-THC oils from Colorado is hitting some major snags, as would-be patients and politicians are increasingly saying they need to be able to grow their own supply.
| BruceRauner.com |
| Republican Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner, who would have vetoed the Illinois medical marijuana laws. |
Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner wouldn’t have allowed medical pot in Illinois had he been governor over this past term. Since he’s not governor, though it’s easy for him to sit back and play armchair quarterback when it comes to medical cannabis and criticize the current administration for following through with the will of the people and their elected officials.
But medical marijuana is legal, and now Rauner says he would milk it for all he can. His latest idea? Give out grow and dispensary licenses to the highest bidders, effectively cutting out small business owners and giving preferential treatment not to those who care about patients and medicine, but those who purely see dollar signs in the new industry.