The National Fraternal Order of Police released a statement through its website last month suggesting that Donald Trump make good on campaign proposals and tackle a number of issues within his first 100 days in office. In addition to more than a dozen proposals that would dismantle much of the reforms suggested by President Barack Obama’s policing task force in 2015, the FOP also requested that Trump not use federal law enforcement agencies to pursue violations of marijuana in states where the “use, manufacture and possession of marijuana” is legal. And, in fact, the FOP asks for more research into medical marijuana.
Recent news indicates pot smokers have plenty to celebrate — and a few things to worry about. From the DEA’s recent reclassification of CBD to a tasty cannabis-infused granola bar recipe, here are ten stories we’ve recently written about marijuana.
With pot now legal in Massachusetts, some police dogs are “ overqualified.”
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who wants to advise President-elect Trump on drug policy, says that as mayor of Davao he used to personally hunt drug suspects down on his motorcycle and kill them, in order to encourage constituents to do the same.
A court ruled that finding evidence of marijuana use in someone’s trash is not alone grounds to search the house. A law professor disagrees.
Colorado is awarding $2.35M in research grants to study driving while high and the effects of dabbing, among other topics. The Cannabist says DUI is a pressing issue.
A Johns Hopkins study found that cannabis legalization reduces opioid overdose deaths by as much as 25%.
The synthetic marijuana that sent 18 people in Brooklyn to the hospital in a “zombie” like state, was 85 times as powerful as marijuana.
Doctors remain skeptical of marijuana’s medical value.
Colorado is about to raise the allowances for residual solvents in concentrates. Leafly investigates how much of these chemicals is unhealthy.
A doctor tell’s Gwyneth Paltrow’s site Goop that cannabis can help with PMS.
Illegal grows in California are sickening and killing wildlife.
A Connecticut MED user is suing Amazon and a staffing company for refusing to hire him.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) could be facing a lawsuit after its announcement earlier this week that it now considers cannabidiol, or CBD, a Schedule I substance.
The DEA doesn’t have the authority to make a law and schedule controlled substances without an act of Congress, argues Robert Hoban, managing partner at the Hoban Law Group. The Denver firm has represented various hemp and marijuana businesses since 2008, many of which have told Hoban and his partners that they would be plaintiffs in a lawsuit.
An inventor between projects, Yoni Ofir started out building a machine for his own plants. He was interested in cannabis and thought it was high time to improve his home-grow operation. The result? An all-in-one, fully enclosed system that’s controlled by an app and makes home growing simple with the click of a button.
LEAF is a little bigger than a mini-fridge, just big enough to grow one cannabis plant. Everything in the unit is completely controlled, from the nutrient dosing to the lighting.
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.
Remember the stoner kid in Dazed and Confused who swears that George Washington’s old lady, Martha, lit up a fat bowl for Georgie at the end of the day? Probably bullshit, but whatever: Washington definitely grew hemp before it was banned more than a century later. He had a lot of stress with that whole revolution thing, and it’s fun to imagine Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and other banknote heads passing around a joint while talking about their brave new world. Although colonial dirt weed certainly wasn’t as potent as the modern Presidential Kush, I can’t help but feel a little more stately when I get an eighth of this sticky hybrid and blaze one for the nation.
For many, cooking with cannabis can be daunting. But Emma Levy is making it easier to create edibles.
After working at Chicago’s famous La Fournette Bakery and Cafe creating croissants and wedding cakes, she’s moved to Colorado and is now incorporating cannabis in her cooking. While she develops a new line of marijuana-infused products for Blue Kudu, she was willing to share one of her recipes with us.
This Tart Cherry Dark Chocolate Granola Bar not only looks good enough to eat, it looks good enough for holiday-gift giving. And since the recipe calls for already infused chocolate, you won’t make a mess trying to cook up cannabis oil on the stove.
It doesn’t really change anything for now.
Here’s your daily dose of pot news from the newsletter WeedWeek.
The DEA confirmed that marijuana extracts containing CBD are illegal. The agency explained that the notice, published in the Federal Register, does not change its enforcement priorities.
Cannabis attorney Bob Hoban responded, “The sky is not falling; however, this is a very concerning move by the DEA…What it purports to do is give the DEA control of all cannabinoids as a controlled substance.”
More than 30% of cannabis businesses are very concerned about Trump’s presidency, according to a Marijuana Business Daily Poll. In particular, they’re worried about the U.S. attorney general nomination of prohibitionist Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions (R).
In Slate, I wrote that the industry is cowardly, hypocritical and stupid for not fighting the Sessions nomination. Legalization activist and journalist Tom Angell tweeted that I’m “ WAY off base” and then got into an interesting Twitter exchange with Bill Piper of Drug Policy Alliance, which is opposing the nomination.
The U.S. Senate extended the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which prohibits the federal government from interrupting state MED programs, until April 28. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R- Calif.) said he’s confident that it will be extended again. He also wants it to be expanded to include state REC programs.
Rohrabacher and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) are forming a “ cannabis caucus” in Congress. Congress also announced that it will perform a comprehensive review of the war on drugs in search of alternative policies in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, called for changes in U.S. drug policy, as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.
Mexico’s Senate passed a MED bill, amid a new wave of drug violence.
Maine’s REC recount has been suspended until the new year. With 30% of the votes counted, yes remains ahead. After Montana’s MED vote, state laws need to be rewritten.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment just announced another round of grants — totaling $2.35 million — that will fund seven studies researching the health and safety impacts of marijuana. About $1.7 million will go to projects studying how marijuana affects driving ability, which has been a hot topic around town and inspired the creation of a green lab for law enforcement training.
This is the second round of awards from marijuana-related tax funds authorized by the Colorado Legislature. Each awardee went through a review and scoring process; the seven were chosen from 58 initial applications.