The big question is which pharmaceuticals it could replace.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.
A CDC study confirms that older Americans are the fastest growing group of users in the country. Use by Americans over 65 climbed 333% between 2002 and 2014. For those 55 to 64, it climbed 455%. See the study here.
In Europe, they drink much more than they smoke cannabis.
The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.
U.S. teens are more likely to smoke pot than to binge drink according to a new study. A government study says Miamians are more anti-weed than residents of any other U.S. city, a finding at odds with a visit to Miami.
Vice says legalizing can mitigate problems associated with synthetic cannabis.
LAWeekly talks to Dr. Francis D’Ambrosio, an orthopedic surgeon turned pot activist. “Is the medicine working?” he asked a patient. “Well, then it’d be criminal of me not to renew your prescription.”
The long awaited PTSD study for veterans is recruiting volunteers.
A New York doctor is accused of trading a prescription for the powerful opioid Suboxone for a few grams of pot.
Police in Baton Rouge, La., have reduced their enforcement of narcotics offenses since Alton Sterling was fatally shot on July 5.
Marco Vasquez, police chief of Erie, Colo., spoke in favor of legalization at a national law enforcement conference.
Forbes explains how a Congressional career offender provision got Tennessee grower Paul Fields sentenced to 15 years. It was Fields’ third offense. For the second one, he was sentenced to 100 days.
Hundreds of doctors in Georgia have registered to recommend low-THC, high-CBD cannabis oil but there’s no official directory. Word of mouth is the only way to find one of the doctors.
Bruce Schulte, former chair of Alaska’s Marijuana Control Board, was fired by Gov. Bill Walker (Ind.). Schulte said the state is trying to “subvert” the industry.
Portland City Council appears ready to undo some of the restrictions governing dispensary operations. Humboldt County, Calif. growers are divided on a proposed excise tax.
Washington patients have been under attack by their state legislature, which has pushed a bill that would pretty much end the state’s medical marijuana program and force patients into the highly-taxed recreational model. House Bill 2149 deservedly should die a quick death.
And at least state Sen. Ann Rivers recognizes the flaws. Late last week Rivers introduced Senate Bill 5887 which addresses some of the major issues patients have with the other bill – though it still needs some tweaking to be palatable to Washington medical marijuana supporters.
| Pristoop. |
We all know cops aren’t the brightest bulbs on the shelf (after all, if they were smarter they wouldn’t be cops). But in case you needed a reminder of the mental heavyweights we are dealing with, Annapolis Police Chief Michael Pristoop had to publicly apologize yesterday for passing on a satirical, hoax news story claiming 37 marijuana deaths the day Colorado legalized pot sales.
Even better: Pristoop admits that he believed the information was completely accurate, and even though none of it is true he still is sticking by his wrongheaded position.
In a move chided by most medical marijuana patients and just about every medical marijuana collective owner in the state, the Washington state House last night approved a bill that would eliminate medical pot shops as they currently exist and force patients into a heavily-taxed recreational system.
House Bill 2149 passed by a vote of 67 to 29 last night, has been billed as a way to help keep federal agents out of Washington as well as a way to help funnel more tax revenue through the recreational system. The measure also decreases the total amount of plants patients can grow at home from 15 down to six and drops possession limits from 24 ounces to three.
After New Jersey Governor Chris Christie caught his breath from the walk to the podium to give his 2nd-term inauguration speech on Tuesday, he made a lot of headlines by vowing to “end the failed war on drugs”.
His plan, an inevitable failure in its own right like so many others’ before him, is to treat “addiction” with treatment, rather than incarceration. Of course, he makes no mention of those already unfairly incarcerated in New Jersey on trumped up drug charges, and how to…ahem… balance those scales. As Jacob Sullum writes for Forbes, why should otherwise law-abiding citizens be forced into a situation where they may be forced to decide between rehabilitation and incarceration?
Would you pay $17 for a gram of marijuana if you knew it cost only $2? How about a $100 half-ounce for $136? If you’re planning on buying legal cannabis in Colorado or Washington, that might be the case as both states plan to tax marijuana sales heartily.
| Google maps. |
| 2601 W. Ball Rd., Anaheim, California. |
The federal government no longer wants to try and seize an Anaheim office building owned by Tony Jalali, who was charged last year for renting out space to Remedy Tree Collective, a state-legal medical cannabis dispensary.
Though prosecutors aren’t commenting on the agreement, we’re guessing it stems from the fact that the feds have deemed such cases to be a waste of resources when related to state-legal marijuana shops.