Author: News Room

A key U.S. Senate committee has approved a spending bill with an amendment allowing doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to discuss and recommend medical marijuana to patients living in legal states. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed the cannabis amendment from Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) in a voice vote on Thursday before advancing the overall legislation, which provides funding for VA for the 2024 Fiscal Year. The measure “simply says, in states that have a medical cannabis program, that a veteran’s doctor can talk to their veteran patient about the pros and cons of medical cannabis and…

“We are designating at least one way to show eligibility with very specific documentation but also allowing for applicants to show eligibility in other ways.” By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent In St. Louis in the 1980s, if you got caught with even a “butt of a joint,” you were going to do jail time, said Bob Ramsey, who was assistant public defender at the time. Ramsey particularly remembers the head of the prosecutor’s marijuana task force, under then-Circuit Attorney George Peach. “She was just absolutely ruthless and brutal,” Ramsey said. “You didn’t even bother to talk to her because you…

Former President Donald Trump seemed confused during a recent interview when he was confronted with the fact that his proposed plan to impose the death penalty on drug traffickers would have condemned a woman he pardoned and promoted as an example of a key criminal justice reform achievement during his administration. Speaking with Fox News host Bret Baier, Trump first defended his extreme position that drug traffickers should be quickly convicted and executed, touting countries like China and Singapore for enforcing the lethal penalty against drug offenders. The 2024 Republican presidential candidate said that capital punishment “is the only way…

“This type of thoughtful and restorative relief is consistent with your support of historic and meaningful smart justice reform efforts.” By Aaron Sanderford, Nebraska Examiner A refreshed Nebraska Pardons Board meets for the first time Thursday, adding a first-year governor and attorney general to a three-person panel that returns the secretary of state. The board, which has the state’s power to set aside criminal convictions and consequences, will consider the commutations of three criminal sentences, the pardons of 51 people and restoring the driver’s licenses of three people. But three state senators who worked this spring with Gov. Jim Pillen (R) and…

The National Football League (NFL) and its players union announced on Thursday that they are jointly awarding another round of funding to support independent research on the therapeutic benefits of CBD as a pain treatment alternative to opioids for players with concussions. A total of $526,525 is being granted for two studies, including one that will be led by the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience (ASPN) to explore cannabidiol and non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation (nVNS) as alternative treatments for post-concussion headache pain. “New treatment avenues such as cannabinoids and non-drug options such as [nVNS] have shown promise as a…

A congressional committee has approved a large-scale defense bill that includes GOP-led provisions to create a medical marijuana “pilot program” and require a study into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics for active duty military members under the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). The House Armed Services Committee held a markup of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Wednesday, approving the legislation with drug policy reform amendments from Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), which were both adopted in a voice vote as par of an en bloc package. Mace’s amendment calls for a DOD medical cannabis pilot…

A California Assembly committee has approved a Senate-passed bill to legalize marijuana cafes, allowing dispensaires to offer non-cannabis food and drinks at their location if they receive local approval. About a month after the legislation from Sen. Ben Allen (D) cleared the Senate, the Assembly Business and Professions Committee advanced it on Tuesday in a 15-2 vote. The measure now heads to the Governmental Organization Committee before potentially moving to the floor. The bill is largely consistent with a separate proposal to authorize cannabis cafes that passed on the Assembly floor late last month. Under the proposal, retailers and microbusinesses…

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is “confident” Congress will be able to pass a bipartisan marijuana banking bill this session—and other Democratic senators also echoed that point, according to a cannabis industry entrepreneur who spoke with the lawmakers recently. After speaking at an event focused on higher education last week, Schumer was approached by the CEO of the Colorado-based cannabis company Simply Pure, Wanda James, who became the first Black woman in the country to own a licensed marijuana dispensary in 2009. In a phone interview on Tuesday, James told Marijuana Moment that she spoke with the majority leader…

A bill to legalize marijuana in Colombia has stalled out for the year after the Senate failed to advance it with enough support during a final vote on Tuesday—even though a simple majority of senators who were present voted in favor. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Juan Carlos Losada, was previously approved in the both chambers last year as part of the two-year process that constitutional amendments must undergo. It then passed the Chamber of Deputies again in May and advanced through a Senate committee this month. But while it received a majority of the votes on the floor on…

Bipartisan and bicameral New Hampshire lawmakers have reached an agreement on creating a commission that will study the feasibility of legalizing marijuana through a state-run model and proposing legislation to enact the reform. Members of a House-Senate conference committee voted on Wednesday to incorporate the cannabis commission compromise into a bill that must now be approved on the floor of both chambers by a legislative deadline of June 29. The legislation that the committee took up initially only required a commission to study the novel state stores idea for cannabis, a model that the Republican governor recently endorsed. But it…