Author: News Room

Ignoring warnings from my family and that internal fear monster informed by nothing more than movies about narcotraficantes, I board the plane for an adventure in Colombia. From the moment I see Santi’s welcoming smile as I wheel out of the baggage area, I feel my anxiety dissipating. This is going to be an amazing weekend with Wind Hill Tours, the brainchild of Damian Holman, a cannabis grower based out of Maine. He, his wife Sonja, and their business partner Santi have brought down two other “cannabis influencers” (Mary Pryor and Ace King) to assess the tour and to advise…

A federal appeals court panel heard arguments on Friday in the case of a Seattle-based doctor who’s asking the federal government reschedule psilocybin, part of his effort to clear a path for terminally ill cancer patients to legally use the substance to help treat end-of-life depression and anxiety. Lawyers for the doctor say the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) dropped the ball when rejecting the psilocybin rescheduling petition outright, arguing that they agency instead should have referred the matter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to evaluate the substance’s medical use before reaching a final decision. Matt Zorn,…

Recognizing Snoop Dogg’s “significant contributions to the popularization of marijuana,” comedian and late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel proclaimed the rapper’s birthday of October 20—this Friday—to be the “new high holiday” of DoggFather’s Day. In a mock-proclamation unveiled on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday night, Kimmel noted that “Mr. Dogg’s birthday falls on the exact midpoint to 4/20—a coincidence that is totally tripping me out right now.” Explaining the origin of the celebration to Snoop, Kimmel said half-birthdays are big in his family—”We sing Halfy Birthday, we have half a cake”—and on 4/20 last year, “I was sitting there thinking, ‘I…

Michigan’s governor has signed bipartisan legislation that will allow state-licensed marijuana businesses to conduct trade with tribal cannabis entities. The pair of bills, SB 180 and SB 179, were passed by the Senate in June and approved by the House of Representatives earlier this month. On Thursday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed them into law. Though the two pieces of legislation work together, the bulk of the policy changes are packaged in SB 180, sponsored by Sen. Roger Hauck (R). Adjustments in tax revenue allocation, meanwhile, are contained in SB 179, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Irwin (D). The bills are…

Colorado marijuana regulators announced this week that out of 285 underage sales checks conducted at state-licensed cannabis stores this year, there have been only four failures—a compliance rate of about 99 percent. “While any failure is unacceptable,” the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) said in the latest issue of its quarterly In the Weeds newsletter on Monday, “we’re pleased to report this very high compliance rate which is on par with the compliance percentage from 2022.” Records from the state’s underage sales dashboard show an underage sales check compliance rate of 99 percent in 2022, which was…

A Johns Hopkins professor who championed groundbreaking new research into psychedelic substances passed away Monday from colon cancer at the age of 77. Dr. Roland Redmond Griffiths, according to a New York Times obituary, helped usher in a new era of psychedelic research during his time at Johns Hopkins by leading several studies regarding the ways in which psychedelic substances may help combat a myriad of mental health disorders.  Dr. Griffiths’ 2006 paper “Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-Type Experiences Having Substantial and Sustained Personal Meaning and Spiritual Significance” was a first-of-its-kind study in which otherwise healthy adults were administered psilocybin in…

Halloween is coming up and all the streamers are pushing their scariest flicks at you, but which ones should you vape to? Sure, you want to be scared, but you don’t want to end up catatonic, either. Not surprisingly, comedy horror was a big favorite in Leafly’s X (Twitter) poll, so we’ve definitely included a couple of films that mix laughs with the jump scares. But there are some just-plain scary movies here too that’ll have you hittin’ that indica. Army of Darkness (1992)Listen up, you primitive screw heads! Ash is back and ready to kick undead ass with his twelve-gauge…

“Federal law makes it a felony for ‘prohibited persons’ to possess a firearm…and prohibited persons include those unlawfully using controlled substances.” By Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix A case filed with the Florida Supreme Court tests whether the Department of Corrections properly fired a corrections officer because of his use of medical marijuana while off work. Florida’s First District Court of Appeal upheld the firing, but Samuel Velez Ortiz now argues before the state Supreme Court that the action violates both the Florida Constitution’s sanction of medical marijuana and the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent rulings establishing a broad right to bear…

A New Hampshire commission charged with drafting legislation to legalize marijuana through a series of state-owned stores heard from a representative of the state attorney general’s office on Thursday who spoke to some of the unique legal considerations that could arise from the state-run sales model. Myles Matteson, a senior assistant attorney general who heads the office’s criminal justice bureau, told the commission that while no state-level cannabis regulatory regime is completely free from liability, New Hampshire’s decision to chart an entirely new course could attract additional scrutiny in the form of both federal criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits. “The…

“The Medical Association has a rule that doctors can’t recommend medical cannabis until there’s at least one license issued in every category.” By Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector A Montgomery judge Wednesday agreed to amend a temporary restraining order on the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC), potentially opening the door to limited licensing in the near future. Montgomery Circuit Court Judge James Anderson decided to make the change after AMCC, which is fighting numerous lawsuits over the process, asked him to lift the temporary restraining order before its next meeting. “If your honor were to dissolve the [temporary restraining order], then…