Author: News Room

Massachusetts retailers have now sold more than $5 billion in adult-use marijuana since the state’s recreational market launched five years ago, regulators announced on Wednesday. After three consecutive months of record-breaking cannabis sales from June to August, purchases in the state have now amounted to $5.02 billion, according to the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). Sales reached $139.3 million in August alone, with the year-to-date total at $1.05 billion within the first eight months of 2023. Aside from rising recreational sales, dispensaries have additionally sold more than $1.13 billion worth of medical cannabis products to patients and caregivers since 2018. Marijuana…

CBD products in the UK carry less of the hemp-derived compound than advertised, according to research that looked at four product categories. The study, by researchers from Loughborough University and horticulture specialist Bridge Farm Group, was published last month in the Journal of Cannabis Research, a scientific journal of Berlin-based Springer Nature. The range of deviation from advertised CBD concentrations differed among product types but was not related to product price, the study showed. The authors said the research embraced a wider range of products than previous similar studies in the UK: 13 tinctures, 28 oils, 10 e-liquids, and 11 drinks, all…

A key Senate committee chairman says that he’s spoken with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) about moving bipartisan marijuana banking legislation, which he hopes to advance along with several other priority bills “in the next six weeks.” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told Punchbowl News on Monday that the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act is one of the top bills on his fall legislative agenda. And while he didn’t comment on the substance of his conversation with Schumer, the majority leader has made clear in letters to colleagues and in a floor speech on Tuesday that…

Thirty-five years ago this Wednesday, the chief administrative law judge for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) itself declared marijuana to be “one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man,” recommending rescheduling and criticizing the agency for impeding patient access. Now, with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) newly advising DEA to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) follow a scientific review it carried out under a directive from President Joe Biden, the anniversary is taking on renewed meaning. DEA Administration Law Judge Francis Young made history on…

Three in five Florida adults say they support legalizing marijuana, a new poll finds as activists wait to see whether the state Supreme Court will allow a legalization initiative to appear on the ballot next year. The survey from the University of South Florida (USF) and Florida Atlantic University (FAU) showed that 60 percent of Floridians are in favor of adult-use legalization, which is exactly how much support the proposed initiative will need to receive at the polls to pass if it’s ultimately placed on the ballot. Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority (83 percent) back medical cannabis remaining legal in the…

The California Assembly has approved a Senate-passed psychedelics legalization bill, sending it back to the opposite chamber for concurrence on recent amendments before the measure potentially heads to the governor’s desk. The Assembly cleared the legislation from Sen. Scott Wiener (D) in a 42-11 vote on Wednesday—a significant victory for advocates after an earlier version of the psychedelics reform measure that also passed the Senate ultimately stalled out in the Assembly last year. The bill would legalize the possession and cultivation of small amounts of certain entheogenic plants and fungi for adults 21 and older. “California’s veterans, first responders, and…

The head of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), which is set to vote on a referendum to legalize cannabis for adults on Thursday, says he believes efforts by an anti-marijuana North Carolina GOP congressman to insert himself into the tribe’s internal affairs could ultimately cause more members to support of the measure. In an interview this week with Marijuana Moment, EBCI Principal Chief Richard G. Sneed said it was a “big misstep” for U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) to run an op-ed in the tribal news publication, Cherokee One Feather, in which the congressman said legalization on the…

Marijuana retailers in Maryland broke another record last month, selling nearly $92 million worth of products during August, the state’s second month of legal adult-use sales. That’s a jump from July’s $87 million in receipts and more than double the typical sales numbers from when the market was open only to medical patients. Newly released data from the Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) indicates that licensed stores sold more than $91.7 million last month, overwhelmingly in the form of smokeable flower ($55.1 million). After that came concentrates ($24.7 million), infused edibles ($6.2 million), infused non-edibles ($5.2 million), shake or trim ($512,991)…

The Massachusetts attorney general’s office has determined that a pair of 2024 psychedelics legalization ballot initiatives have met state constitutional requirements, and it’s now releasing final summaries of the measures and allowing activists to begin collecting signatures to qualify them to go before voters next year. In a press release on Wednesday, the office said that it vetted 42 initiative petitions and approved 34 of them, including that psychedelics reform measures that were first submitted to the state last month. The proposals from the Massachusetts for Mental Health Options campaign are nearly identical, except that one would give adults a…

An anti-marijuana advocacy group is taking aim at a banking arrangement between Wells Fargo and the state of Maryland that allows officials to receive and process tax revenue generated by state-legal cannabis businesses, calling the scheme “an active effort to protect the banks who are breaking federal law” and making an attempt to alert federal officials about it. The state, for its part, has said it “complies with applicable laws and regulations.” Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), which opposes marijuana legalization, made the allegations in a press release late last month following media reports of the banking arrangement, including in…