Author: News Room

Congressional marijuana reform leaders say that they are encouraged that a top Biden administration official told Marijuana Moment on Thursday that he believes a cannabis scheduling review that he’s overseeing could be completed “this year.” In the months since President Joe Biden directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Justice Department to carry out the administrative review, advocates and stakeholders have eagerly waited for a status update. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra finally offered a tentative timeline, saying he hopes to send the president a scheduling decision “this year.” Three co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus weighed…

“This gives an opportunity for virtually every community to have access.” By Dave Williams, Capitol Beat Georgians eligible to treat their chronic illnesses with cannabis oil soon will have a lot more choices of places to get the medicine. The state Board of Pharmacy has released a set of regulations that will allow Georgia’s independent pharmacies to dispense cannabis oil to eligible patients enrolled in a registry maintained by the state Department of Public Health. The General Assembly passed legislation in 2019 legalizing the cultivation of marijuana in Georgia under close supervision and the conversion of the leafy crop into…

The governor of Louisiana has signed a bill into law that will streamline expungements for people with first-time marijuana possession convictions. About two weeks after the measure from Rep. Delisha Boyd (D) advanced through the legislature, Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) gave final approval on Monday. The legislation makes it so people who are convicted of possessing up to 14 grams of cannabis as a first offense can petition the courts to wipe their record after 90 days from the time of the conviction. That would significantly speed up the timeline for relief, as current law maintains that people must…

Youth marijuana use in Rhode Island declined significantly in 2022 compared to two years earlier, even as legalization went into effect and COVID-related social isolation restrictions were lifted, according to a recent state study. The Rhode Island Student Survey from the state’s Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) asked more than 20,000 high school students in 23 districts about substance use trends and other social issues. Several national surveys have identified recent drops in teen cannabis use even as more states enact legalization. It’s a trend that’s been observed over the past decade, but experts have said…

With Father’s Day upon us we sat down with entrepreneur, former professional athlete, musician, and visionary Rohan Marley—the guy with the dad of all dads—to talk about Bob’s influence on his life. After chopping it up about football, weed, and everything in between, Rohan shared a heartfelt message to his own father and fathers everywhere: “I want to take this moment to give thanks to my father for giving me this beautiful life. Each and every one of us on earth, we exist because of our fathers … I know many of us here on this planet may never have…

A California Senate-passed bill to legalize the possession of certain psychedelics and facilitated use of the substances is up against a “challenging road” toward passage in the Assembly, the sponsor said on Wednesday. At a virtual event hosted by the Psychedelic and Entheogen Academic Council (PEAC), Sen. Scott Wiener (D) said that while the reform legislation advanced through his chamber, “it’s not guaranteed to pass” in the Assembly. “But we’re going to try the very best we can,” he said. Part of the complication, Wiener explained, is that the measure has been referred to a second Assembly policy committee before…

The head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is aiming to present President Joe Biden with a federal cannabis scheduling decision “this year” as agencies work “as quickly as we can” to complete an administrative review, Secretary Xavier Becerra told Marijuana Moment during a press briefing in Sacramento on Thursday. While Becerra and other federal officials have previously emphasized that they are working “expeditiously” to carry out the cannabis review, which the president directed late last year, there’s been a lack of clarity about the specific timeline. Now the secretary has disclosed when he hopes to…

A top federal health agency is calling for research into the impact of evolving laws around psychedelics in cities and states across the country, including the effects of allowing regulated access to substances like psilocybin. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) issued a “notice of special interest” on Tuesday that discussed the rapid spread of the psychedelic reform movement, describing the “variety of approaches” that different jurisdictions have pursued “that include legalization, decriminalization, reduced penalties, and more.” It pointed out that Oregon voters approved a ballot measure in 2020 that legalized psilocybin services, and Colorado later moved to legalize…

A key Senate committee has voted to amend an intelligence oversight bill to include a provision preventing agencies from denying security clearances to applicants solely due to their past marijuana use. The Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously passed the Intelligence Authorization Act on Wednesday after voting 10-7 to adop an amendment proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to prohibit security clearance denials for applicants to intelligence agencies like CIA and NSA just because they admitted to prior cannabis consumption. “This bill includes historic bipartisan legislation reforming the country’s broken classification and declassification system,” Wyden said in a press release on Thursday.…

The U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously approved a resolution voicing support for Americans incarcerated in Russia—including a U.S. citizen who is serving a 14-year sentence over possession of medical marijuana that he obtained legally in Pennsylvania. The House passed the measure from Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) in a 422-0 vote on Tuesday. The main focus of the legislation is on Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in Russia in March on charges of espionage, an allegation that has been widely decried as false and politically motivated by U.S. officials and media organizations. But another line of…