Author: News Room

A congressional leader on marijuana reform is marking the 50-year anniversary of his home state’s historic move to decriminalize cannabis and calling on the federal government to “catch up.” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, said in a floor speech on Friday that this week represents half a century since Oregon moved to decriminalize marijuana—an effort he helped to advance while he was serving in the state legislature. “I was honored to be a part of that process,” the congressman said. “It’s time for the federal government to catch up.” “We owe it to the generations…

As American hemp farmers struggle to accurately sex plants and prevent their crops from going hot—going over the potency definition of what makes the plants hemp or 0.3% THC on a dry-weight basis—technology is improving to make these tasks a little easier. With the help of some of the top minds at Texas A&M University, Louisiana-based Mariposa Technology has created a digital farming tool for hemp and marijuana farmers using a database and software that allows them to test their crops at any stage of the growing season without having to cut any samples. Using a small laser-operated spectroscopy tool,…

The federal ban that’s blocked Washington, D.C. from regulating marijuana sales for nearly a decade would be renewed again under a Fiscal Year 2024 spending bill that cleared a congressional panel on Thursday. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said she was “outraged” to see this and other anti-home rule riders included in the legislation that passed the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. While D.C. voters legalized cannabis possession and home cultivation for adults at the ballot in 2014, the rider from Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) has prevented the District from using local tax dollars to enact rules…

“As regulators and stakeholders sit down to hash out the framework for legalizing marijuana nationally, they must not pull up a chair for smelly old Joe Camel.” By Shaleen Title, Parabola Center for Law and Policy Next week, state marijuana officials from around the U.S. will gather in Annapolis, Maryland for one of the year’s most consequential—yet lowest-profile—meetings in all of drug policy. The annual “external stakeholders” conference organized by the Cannabis Regulators Association (CANNRA) is essentially the big, national, behind-closed-doors meeting between major marijuana associations and the public officials who oversee their industry. I’m a former member of the…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released first-of-its-kind draft guidance on the “unique” considerations that researchers should take into account when studying psychedelics, which the agency says show “initial promise” as potential therapies. Two days after bipartisan congressional lawmakers filed a bill to direct the issuance of such guidance, FDA published a 14-page draft document that appears to be responsive, providing scientists with a framework to carry out research that could lead to the development of psychedelic medicines. A notice about the move is set to be published in the Federal Register on Monday. At that point, a 60-day…

“A generalized smell of raw marijuana does not justify a search of every compartment of an automobile.” By Sophie Nieto-Muñoz, New Jersey Monitor The state Supreme Court said in a unanimous ruling Thursday that police officers improperly used the smell of marijuana to search a man’s car on the New Jersey Turnpike in 2016, a decision that allows the man to withdraw his guilty plea to a weapons offense. The ruling comes more than two years after Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed a law that bars police from using the odor of cannabis as probable cause to search someone or…

A Democratic congressman says that it’s time for Congress to give the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) a mandate to study the benefits and risks of marijuana for military veterans. At a Member Day hearing before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Thursday, Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) urged the panel to advance his bipartisan bill, the VA Medicinal Cannabis Research Act. Back when he was serving in the California legislature, Correa said veterans started approaching him—”slowly, gradually but firmly”—and describing their struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and their desire to use cannabis as an alternative to the traditional…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a 2024 GOP presidential candidate, said he would not federally decriminalize marijuana if elected to the White House—arguing that cannabis use hurts the workforce, inhibits productivity and could even lead to death if contaminated. At a campaign event in South Carolina on Thursday, a person who said they were representing wounded veterans asked DeSantis if he would “please” decriminalize cannabis as president. The governor responded directly: “I don’t think we would do that.” He then talked about Florida’s medical marijuana program that was enacted by voters, saying veterans are “actually allowed access” to cannabis under…

Nimesh Patel doesn’t walk over familiar ground in his latest special. The title alone spells that out loud and clear: Lucky Lefty OR: I Lost My Right Nut And All I Got Was This Stupid Special. The damn good special, which is available to watch on YouTube, is about Patel’s experience being diagnosed with and treated for testicular cancer. Once again, Patel is doing his own thing on stage.  Lucky Lefty is his second self-produced special following Jokes to Get You Through Quarantine and Thank You China. In 2017, Patel was hired as a writer for Saturday Night Live. In…

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) is calling on lawmakers to take steps allowing him to issue mass pardons for people with prior psychedelics convictions as the state prepares to implement regulations for legal use of substances like psilocybin and ibogaine. At a the MAPS Psychedelic Science 2023 conference in Denver on Wednesday, the governor—as well as former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R)—spoke about the therapeutic potential of entheogenic plants and fungi, advocating for legal access. Polis, who recently signed a psychedelics regulations bill to fulfill the will of voters who approved a legalization ballot initiative last year, said that he…