Author: News Room

New York’s first marijuana farmers market will open on Thursday in the Hudson Valley, state regulators announced. About one month after the Cannabis Control Board (CCB) started accepting applications for the new Cannabis Growers Showcases (CGS) program, regulators said in a press release on Wednesday that High Falls Canna has been cleared to launch this week and start serving adult consumers at an open market in New Paltz. Licensed growers Queen Farms and Empire Farm 1830, as well as the retailer Legacy Dispensers, will also be on-site to sell their cannabis products. The farmers market will be open in the…

Marijuana sales are booming in the Northeast, with three states in the region—Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island—all hitting new records in July. Maine retailers sold $20.8 million in cannabis in July, which is the third month of record-setting totals in a row. So far in the first half of the year, the state has seen more than $118 million in marijuana sales, setting the stage for a new yearly high compared to the 2022 total of about $159 million. Via Maine Office of Cannabis Policy. In Massachusetts—the most mature market of the three states—adult-use cannabis sales reached a record $136…

The governor of Minnesota says that Republican lawmakers are spreading “misinformation” about the state’s newly enacted marijuana legalization law—and while he believes the policy will continue to be tweaked over time, he will not be convening an urgent special session as GOP members have requested. During a press briefing on Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz (D) was asked about concerns with the cannabis law that Republicans have laid out in a pair of letters that they sent to him and Democratic leadership over the last couple weeks. Specifically, the lawmakers have focused on rules for underage possession of marijuana. “My feelings…

A top German official says he expects the federal cabinet to approve the first part of the government’s marijuana legalization plan “next week,” and he emphasized that the reform will be coupled with a “major campaign” to educate the public about the risks of using cannabis. In an interview with Rheinische Post that was published on Wednesday, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach was asked about the status of the legalization proposal that was unveiled last month. “I expect the cannabis approval to come into the cabinet next week. There will be small changes,” he said, according to a translation. “But I…

Voting is officially open for the 2024 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival—and this time, there are more than 100 marijuana and psychedelics panels that are up for consideration. Drug policy reform issues have been regularly featured at the Austin-based event over the past several years as the cannabis legalization movement has spread and interest in psychedelics reform has boomed at the local, state and federal levels. Psychedelics-related panels have especially boomed during recent SXSW festivals, reflecting the rapid pace of the reform movement and research around substances like psilocybin, MDMA and ayahuasca. This year, there’s a panel track designated for…

Republican support for marijuana legalization has reached a record high nationally, according to new survey data from Gallup. But while a majority of voters in both major parties back the reform, a partisan divide has widened over the past two decades as Democrats have been even quicker to embrace the issue. A majority of Democrats (83 percent) and Republicans (55 percent) both back ending cannabis prohibition, the poll shows. That’s two percentage points higher for Democrats and four percentage points higher for Republicans compared to Gallup’s 2022 survey, reflecting a more rapid uptick among GOP respondents in the past year…

Minnesota Republican lawmakers say they are “disappointed” with the governor and Democratic leadership for their “unwillingness to address glaring defects” in the state’s newly implemented marijuana legalization law, pointing to what they describe as “loopholes” related to policies affecting youth. The letter, led by Rep. Peggy Scott (R), says that Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Democrats have so far ignored their request last month to convene a special session to address the problems that they’ve raised, including their concerns with minimal penalties for underage possession. “In the days since our initial letter, it has become clearer that Minnesota Democrats still…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking comment on whether a series of drugs—including nitrous oxide, as well as a ketamine-like substance, a synthetic opioid and other drugs—should be placed under international control. In a notice published in the Federal Register on Monday, FDA said it is inviting input on the potential international scheduling of the drugs ahead of an October meeting of the the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD). Nitrous oxide—which is medically used as an anesthetic and recreationally used as an inhalant, commonly in small canisters known as “whippits”—is currently unscheduled at…

The Republican governor of New Hampshire has signed a bill that will create a commission tasked with preparing legislation to legalize marijuana through a system of state-run stores—a novel regulatory model that he backed this year after concluding that legalization is “inevitable” in the state despite his broader concerns with the policy. This comes about two months after bicameral and bipartisan lawmakers reached an agreement on the incremental commission legislation in a conference committee. The bill that the conference committee took up initially only required a commission to study the novel state stores idea for cannabis, which Gov. Chris Sununu (R) only…

“It is no secret that New York’s adult-use cannabis rollout has been slower than expected, and now is not the time to stand in the way of progress made.” By Christian Wade, The Center Square A New York judge has halted new cannabis licenses under a program that favors people with previous drug conviction charges following a legal challenge by a group of veterans. The ruling by Supreme Court Justice Kevin Bryant blocks the Office of Cannabis Management from granting new conditional adult-use recreational dispensary licenses, or processing existing ones, while the legal challenge plays out. It comes in response…