Author: News Room

“That leaves a lot of room for other people to come in on the backside, people who are already in the industry, people who are not of color.” By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent When it comes to racial equity, state Rep. Ashley Bland Manlove of Kansas City and St. Louis City NAACP President Adolphus Pruitt typically land on the same side. But on Amendment 3—the constitutional amendment that legalized recreational marijuana in November—they couldn’t be further apart. On Monday morning, they both appeared on KCUR 89.3’s Up To Date to talk about the lack of racial equity among marijuana-business license holders…

A group of four Republican senators who do not support marijuana legalization has admitted that the policy change disrupts illegal sales by cartels. The acknowledgement comes in a letter urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reconsider plans to ban menthol cigarettes and set nicotine content limits, arguing that the prohibition and strict regulations could benefit illicit trafficking operations. Writing to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf on Monday, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ted Budd (R-NC) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) unwittingly made the case for the legalization and regulation of controlled substances. The main point of the letter…

Two Black farmers in Florida have been awarded medical marijuana business licenses under a bill that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law last month. The state’s legalization law that was implemented in 2017 stipulated that one medical cannabis business license needed to go to a Black farmer who is covered by the historic “Pigford” class action litigation against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) alleging discriminatory lending practices. But it was only last year that the Florida Department of Health opened applications for the special license. And while regulators announced their intent to issue one to farmer Terry Donnell…

As the Biden administration has promoted its intent to take a harm reduction approach to the overdose crisis, advocates have been eagerly waiting to see if that might extend to authorizing safe consumption sites where people can consume illegal substances under medical supervision. But in a blow to activists, the Justice Department is now rejecting legal arguments about possible statutory exceptions to the federal prohibition on such facilities and is moving to dismiss a lawsuit on the issue. In a motion filed last week in a years-long legal challenge—which comes after months of negotiations that left supporters hopeful for a…

An Ohio marijuana legalization campaign is just 679 valid signatures short of putting its initiative on the November ballot, sate officials say, but organizers now have 10 additional days to make up the difference to qualify. The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CTRMLA) turned in more than 220,000 signatures earlier this month. But the secretary of state’s office said in a letter to the campaign on Tuesday that only 123,367 were verified, several hundred short of the 124,046 signature requirement for ballot measures. In positive news for CTRMLA, however, the state says that activists did successfully meet a separate county…

Colombian lawmakers have reintroduced a bill to legalize marijuana nationwide for the upcoming legislative session. Just one month after the previous version stalled out in the Senate at the final stage of an eight-step legislative process, Rep. Juan Carlos Losada and Sen. María José Pizarro announced on Monday that they’re trying again to enact the reform. Hoy radicamos junto con @JuanKarloslos el proyecto de acto regislativo para regular el mercado de cannabis de uso adulto. Así lo prometimos y vamos por la victoria. Contamos con el respaldo de más de 76 congresistas y con ustedes! #RegularCannabisYA pic.twitter.com/rjulazZORt — María José…

The Florida Supreme Court on Monday granted the state attorney general’s request for more time to file a brief arguing why voters should not get a chance to decide on a marijuana legalization initiative on the 2024 ballot. On the same day that Attorney General Ashely Moody (R)—whose office is seeking to invalidate the cannabis measure—filed a motion seeking the one-week extension, the court agreed to the delay. The attorney general—as well as the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Drug Free America Foundation—told the court that they had “numerous other responsibilities during the relevant period.” The official also previously…

The American Medical Association (AMA) has adopted a series of new drug policy positions, including advocating for psychedelics research, opposing the criminalization of kratom, calling for an end to the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine and supporting the continued inclusion of marijuana metabolites in employment-based drug tests. The organization’s House of Delegates, which met last month to consider numerous resolutions, also declined to approve an additional measure to revise its stance on marijuana in a way that would have maintained its opposition to legalization while implicitly recognizing the benefits of regulating cannabis products—instead opting to continuing its advocacy…

How did Barbenheimer come into existence? Is it because there is something inherently funny about combining a movie as hyperfeminine as Barbie with one as ultramasculine as Oppenheimer? Is it a marketing ploy deployed by a strike-breaking and strike-broken film industry eager to get people back into theaters? Or is it actually just an excuse for dudebros to play with dolls and not feel embarrassed? “I’m just here for the meme,” Ken 1 whispers to Ken 2 when, really, they’re both there for Barbie. And Margot Robbie.  I personally didn’t need an excuse to go see Barbie, which I’d been…

A U.S. congressional committee is scheduled to talk hemp this week as lawmakers presumably will increase pressure on the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to establish guardrails to safely guide the CBD market. A hearing set for 2 p.m. Thursday will look at “Hemp in the Modern World: The Yearslong Wait for FDA Action.” The session, of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services, is open to the public and may be viewed online. The oversight committee, chaired by Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, is investigating the FDA’s failure to regulate hemp-derived CBD products as…