Author: News Room

The Chicago Cubs is the first Major League Baseball (MLB) team to officially partner with a CBD company. While MLB announced its league-wide partnership with a popular CBD brand last year, this marks the first time an individual club has teamed up with a cannabis company. The Cubs struck a deal with the CBD sparkling beverage brand MYND DRINKS, the team announced on Friday. The agreement means that the company’s products will be marketed in signage at at Wrigley Field and promoted through “several in-game features,” it said. The league said last year that individual teams could start selling partnerships…

The Texas House of Representatives will vote on a bill next week that would allow doctors to recommend medical marijuana to patients as an opioid alternative for chronic pain. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Klick (R), would also replace the THC cap that was established under the state’s existing limited medical cannabis law. After moving through the House Public Health Committee last month, the measure was brought before the Calendars Committee on Thursday, which has now scheduled it for floor debate and a vote on Tuesday, April 11. This also comes weeks after a separate House panel unanimously approved…

The governor of New Mexico has approved a bill to fulfill a key goal of the state’s marijuana legalization law by facilitating automatic expungements for prior cannabis convictions. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed the legislation from Reps. Andrea Romero (D) and Javier Martínez (D) late last week. While the legislature did include automatic expungements and resentencing provisions in the state’s 2021 legalization law, the courts have experienced technical issues with processing certain cases. The now-signed bill seeks to resolve those problems by allowing people to verify the status of their expungement and request expedited processing for charges that have…

Living in New York City for these past 13 years has allowed me to see the city evolve up close. The five boroughs’ evolution, or at least some components, happens much quicker than some may think. One of those rapidly changing landscapes has been the cannabis scene.  The city continues to embrace the plant in all its forms further, that is unless you are an unlicensed shop. The predominantly warm welcome from the city certainly stems from its share of social equity and restorative justice advocates. But a significant chunk of the support comes from those who see the revenue…

Cigarette giant British American Tobacco (BAT) said it will invest $10 million for a 20% stake in a new joint venture between two Colorado hemp companies. London-based BAT said it is working with AJNA BioSciences PBC and Charlotte’s Web (CW), related entities, and will seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for a hemp-derived novel botanical drug to treat an unidentified neurological condition. Boulder-based Charlotte’s Web, one of the biggest CBD companies in the U.S., makes a range of hemp extract wellness products. ANJA, Littleton, is a botanical drug development startup focused on neurological disorders which was co-founded by Joel…

Indiana Democratic lawmakers came up with a crafty way to force a House vote on marijuana legalization on Thursday after Republican leadership has blocked the issue from being considered in session after session, though the chamber ultimately rejected the reform. The House took up Senate Bill 20—legislation concerning rules for businesses that sell alcohol and hemp products—on second reading. Part of what the measure would do is create a regulatory distinction for “craft hemp” products that could be marketed to adults 21 and older. Rep. Justin Moed (D) tried to expand the bill with an amendment proposing to strike language…

“Public corruption is a poison to any democracy. Those who wield the power of state have a sacred obligation to serve the people they represent.” By Ken Coleman, Michigan Advance Mark Totten, U.S. attorney for Michigan’s Western District, on Thursday announced that four people were charged in federal court for participating in the bribery of Rick Johnson, former chair of the Michigan Marijuana Licensing Board. Johnson was appointed to the post by GOP former Gov. Rick Snyder after being nominated by then-Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive). Johnson previously served as a Republican House speaker between 2001 and 2004 before becoming…

Bipartisan congressional lawmakers are asking leadership to instruct federal health agencies to include active duty military service members in psychedelic studies. In a letter led by Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) to House Appropriations subcommittee leaders, the lawmakers said that language should be added to upcoming spending legislation for the 2024 Fiscal Year directing the National Institutes on Health (NIH) to be inclusive of military members in ongoing research into the therapeutic benefits of substances like MDMA. “As the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, this directive for the NIH would expand government wide efforts to understand the…

The New Hampshire House of Representatives has approved a bill to legalize marijuana for a second time this session, sending it to the Senate. The proposal, which is being sponsored by Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R) and Minority Leader Matthew Wilhelm (D), cleared the chamber in a 272-109 vote on Thursday. Earlier in the day the body rejected an amendment that would have added separate legalization language to budget legislation. HB 639, the bill that is now heading to the Senate, already got approval from the full House in February, but it needed to go to the Ways & Means…

The top executives of a major alcohol association are rallying industry stakeholders to support its new policy backing federal marijuana legalization. Both the chairman and CEO of Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) discussed the cannabis reform position with representatives of each three tiers of the alcohol industry at the association’s annual event Access LIVE this week. “We believe that the successful state-based regulatory model [for alcohol], which has served America’s consumers and our industry so well, should be a part of the discussion” when it comes to marijuana, WSWA Chairman Tom Cole said. “I call upon my industry…