Author: News Room

The Maryland House of Delegates has passed a bill to create a psychedelics task force responsible for studying possible regulatory frameworks for therapeutic access to substances such as psilocybin, mescaline and DMT. It would be charged specifically with ensuring “broad, equitable and affordable access to psychedelic substances” in the state. A week after being approved in the House Health and Government Operations Committee, with amendments, the full chamber approved the measure measure from Del. Pam Guzzone (D) on third and final reading in a 136-1 vote on Wednesday, sending it to the Senate. Originally, the “Task Force on Responsible Use…

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Psychology looked at pairs of twins in an effort to untangle the relationship between psychedelic use and psychotic or manic symptoms in young people, concluding—contrary to popular fears—that use of psychedelics “may be associated with lower rates of psychotic symptoms among adolescents.” Manic symptoms, meanwhile, were linked to psychedelic use, but that appeared to be due to genetic predisposition. “Psychedelic use was associated with more manic symptoms for individuals with a higher genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia or bipolar I disorder than in individuals with a lower genetic…

Vice President Kamala Harris will be meeting with cannabis pardon recipients at the White House on Friday to discuss their experiences under the president’s clemency proclamations, and Marijuana Moment has spoken exclusively to one of the invited participants. Staff with the VP’s office started reaching out to people who were pardoned under President Joe Biden’s 2022 and 2023 proclamations earlier this year, taking meetings as officials worked to better understand how they’ve navigated the process, which has also involved Justice Department issuing certificates for the pardons. On Friday, Harris is set to meet with three marijuana pardon recipients during a…

Since Massachusetts first opened its adult-use cannabis market, licensed retailers have sold more than $7 billion in legal medical and recreational marijuana, according to numbers from the state’s Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). The price per gram of legal marijuana, meanwhile, continues to fall to record lows. The sales milestone—roughly $7.05 billion—includes $5.81 billion in recreational purchases since adult-use sales began in late 2018 as well as $1.24 billion worth of medical marijuana receipts over the same time period. CCC’s sales data for the medical market extends back only to December 2018, when the commission assumed oversight of the system. In…

A crackdown on New York’s illicit cannabis trade has had an “immediate and catastrophic effect” on the market for CBD and other cannabinoids, which has “essentially halted,” a group of hemp companies charge in a lawsuit against the state. Claiming enforcement of new rules governing hemp-derived cannabinoid products cost them “millions of dollars in losses,” ten state-licensed hemp operators are suing the New York Cannabis Control Board (CCB) and Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York over raids under revised hemp regulations released in November. Another crushing blow The upheaval in New York…

A Hawaii Senate panel has significantly scaled back a measure that—as passed by the House last week—would have directed the state to automatically expunge tens of thousands of arrest and conviction records for low-level marijuana possession, amending the proposal to instead limit the relief  to a one-county pilot program. The move comes as lawmakers in the state are also advancing separate legislation that would legalize cannabis. “Instead of the bill’s statewide automatic expungement program for arrests and convictions,” said Sen. Karl Rhodes (D), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said at a hearing onTuesday, “I propose that we adopt the…

“This is Attorney General Mayes giving the marijuana industry something that the legislature would not.” By Jim Small, Arizona Mirror Arizona law bars the sale of “diet weed” products like delta-8 THC in smoke shops and convenience stores, Attorney General Kris Mayes said. But proponents of the hemp industry say the effect of a formal legal opinion that Mayes issued Monday goes far beyond the hemp-based intoxicants and will likely also sweep up the entirety of the CBD marketplace in Arizona, barring sales of products used to improve sleep and reduce body aches and pains. And it may prompt litigation aimed at…

A bill on the desk of Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee (D) would exempt registered medical marijuana patients from the state’s 37 percent cannabis excise tax, which is currently one of the highest in the country. The exemption would only apply, however, to products that have been certified to higher testing standards than typical state-legal products. HB 1453, which lawmakers sent to the governor last week, would allow registered patients and caregivers to avoid the tax when purchasing products that are compliant with Department of Health (DOH) testing standards. Medical marijuana cardholders already are eligible for exemptions from sales and…

As at least four U.S. states weigh whether to add female orgasmic disorder (FOD) as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana, a newly published journal article by one of the organizers of that effort further reinforces the potential benefits offered by cannabis, including increased orgasm frequency, improved satisfaction and greater ease achieving orgasm. Published this month in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, the report is the product of a 2022 observational study by authors Suzanne Mulvehill, a clinical sexologist, and Jordan Tishler, a doctor at the Association of Cannabinoid Specialists and the company inhaleMD. While decades of sexuality research support…

“It gets to what we needed to do. To make sure THC drinks are treated the same way as intoxicating beverages are treated.” By Peter Callaghan, MinnPost The law was confusing enough—and troubling enough—that some bars and restaurants decided it was safer to keep hemp-derived beverages off the menu. At issue was a provision in the state’s recreational marijuana law signed last May that would have prohibited bar servers from selling a patron alcohol and THC beverages in the same five-hour period. The first confusion was over when bars would start enforcing the “five-hour rule.” Some thought immediately after the…