Author: News Room

In the contest for the world’s leading portable electronic hash vaporizer, the Puffco Peak Pro is charging into the fall season.Released on the company Puffco’s ten-year anniversary in July, the re-designed Puffco Peak Pro ($420) updates the company’s flagship device. Not the totally revamped model some had been expecting, this Pro resets the baseline for the marquee product, and is now the best current “out of the box” experience for the Peak.What’s new in the Puffco Peak Pro in 2023?The 2023 Puffco Peak Pro includes a revamped glass top. (Courtesy Puffco)Past buyers of a Puffco Peak would often upgrade to…

New York regulators will officially open the state’s cannabis market to all applicants—including big businesses and existing medical marijuana companies—beginning next month, under rules adopted on Tuesday. The move could allow the new retailers to open by the end of the year. But the change, meant to speed the slow rollout of New York’s legal marijuana market, has sparked an outcry among smaller growers and social equity applicants. They say it will undercut the state’s ambitious plan to prioritize small businesses and companies owned by people most directly impacted by prohibition. The New York State Cannabis Control Board (CCB) approved…

A Republican congressman who opposes cannabis legalization is demanding answers about the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s (HHS) recent recommendation to reschedule marijuana, writing in a letter to the Biden administration that he’s “very concerned” about the agency’s guidance. In a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) lists 11 questions he wants the agency to answer by October 3. The questions include inquiries about how HHS arrived at its rescheduling recommendation, which officials “were consulted with or contributed to” the recommendation and which outside stakeholders had a seat at the table. It also asks…

Rates of criminal legal referrals to treatment for cannabis use disorder (CUD) among young adults “declined significantly more rapidly” following adult-use legalization of marijuana, according to a new study out of Temple University, a trend authors say is “likely due to falling cannabis-related arrests” among people 18 to 24 years old. However, among adolescents—those 12 to 17—the researchers found that “the trajectory of decline in the proportion of criminal justice referrals did not change significantly following recreational legalization.” To arrive at those conclusions, the study analyzed state-level data from 2008 to 2019 about treatment admissions to programs that received public…

A GOP congressman says he will soon be reintroducing bipartisan legislation to protect state marijuana programs from federal interference—though his office tells Marijuana Moment that it will be somewhat “different” from versions of the legislation he’s filed in past sessions. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, will be refiling the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act—a bill that would amend the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to undo federal criminalization of people acting in compliance with state cannabis programs. He told Forbes in an interview released on Monday that the purpose of the measure…

New Mexico set a new record for marijuana sales in August, with more than $48 million in combined medical and adult-use cannabis purchases, state data shows. The New Mexico Regulation & Licensing Department’s (NMRLD) cannabis reporting portal shows $34,707,557 in recreational marijuana sales and $13,525,500 from medical cannabis last month, for a total of $48,233,057. Those numbers come from 1,095,922 marijuana transactions at the state’s 1,021 licensed retailers. Via NMRLD. All told, patients and adult consumers have made almost $724 million in combined medical and recreational cannabis purchases since each program launched. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) touted the industry’s…

A coalition of 14 Republican congressional lawmakers is urging the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to “reject” the top federal health agency’s recommendation to reschedule marijuana and instead keep it in the most restrictive category under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). In a letter sent to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram on Monday, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) led a dozen other colleagues in both chambers in arguing that any decision to reschedule cannabis “should be based on proven facts and science—not popular opinion, changes in state laws, or the preferred policy of an administration.” Of course, the…

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) hopes to announce the scheduling of a marijuana banking bill vote in his panel “in the next few days,” with plans to hold the markup during the current work session that ends October 6. But he also acknowledged that there are still some “outlying issues” that need to be resolved among members. While a committee spokesperson told Marijuana Moment on Monday that the vote would not be taking place next week as some cannabis industry observers have speculated, Brown says the actual markup date could be scheduled imminently as senators move toward the…

The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) misspoke when she said President Joe Biden (D) sent a “letter” to top agencies directing a marijuana scheduling review, according to the Justice Department. Prior to the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) making a cannabis rescheduling recommendation last month, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said during a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing in late July that the president “had sent a letter” to the secretary of HHS and the attorney general “to ask for the scheduling—descheduling process to begin.” The assertion raised some eyebrows, as the administrative mechanisms behind the ongoing scheduling review…

A key House committee is set to take up large-scale spending legislation this week, and members will be deciding on multiple marijuana and psychedelics amendments filed by bipartisan members in recent weeks. The House Rules Committee will meet on Tuesday to take up an appropriations bill covering the Department of Defense (DOD)—one of several spending packages that lawmakers are hoping to use as a vehicle for drug policy reform. The committee makes the final call on whether amendments can proceed to votes on the House floor. Some of the cannabis and psychedelics measures are familiar, having been introduced in past…