Author: News Room

Upon exhaling a deep drag from a joint of Blueberry Cookies grown by City Farmers BCN the smoke from my hit travels upward into the rafters of a 16th century modernist palace in the heart of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter. As the smoke rises, I contemplate the significance of the moment and celebrate the freedom of smoking weed in a country where cannabis still exists within a gray area, decriminalized for personal use and cultivation, but illegal for commercial sales. I’m in Barcelona, Spain for an international gathering focused on cannabis genetics. More specifically, I’m within the Hash Marihuana & Hemp…

A second Delaware Senate committee approved a House-passed bill on Thursday to create a regulated adult-use marijuana market, sending it to the floor where a complementary measure to legalize possession is also set for action. The proposals are being sponsored by Rep. Ed Osienski (D), and they both advanced through a separate Senate committee on Wednesday after being approved in the full House. Now the Senate Finance Committee has also cleared the regulations-focused bill, which needed a second stop because of its fiscal provisions. Sen. Trey Paradee (D), chair of the panel, is carrying the legislation in the Senate. He…

Kansas senators have shelved a bill to legalize medical marijuana following a hearing that featured multiple opponents, including state law enforcement representatives. Members of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee voted on Thursday to table the legislation, which the panel itself is sponsoring. Following the action, Chairman Mike Thompson (R) said that lawmakers have “bigger fish to fry,” indicating that he’s not interested in taking the proposal back up before the end of the 2023 session. Officials with the Kansas Sheriffs Association, Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics were among those who testified against the medical…

As Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) renews his commitment to tackling marijuana banking reform this year, the head of the U.S. Treasury Department says that regulators are also exploring options to address the issue. During a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) pressed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about the fact that the cannabis industry lacks access to traditional financial services under prohibition. The senator argued that marijuana as a commodity is more “stable” than cryptocurrency, yet banking regulations have allowed for large investments in the latter that ultimately contributed to the collapse of…

The New Hampshire House of Representatives has approved another bill to legalize marijuana in the state—except this one contains no regulations or limitations on cannabis. About a month after the House passed a comprehensive legalization, taxation and regulation measure that’s being sponsored by bipartisan leaders, members on Thursday took up the simpler legislation to remove marijuana from the state’s listed of banned substances. The chamber first voted, 210-160, to overrule the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, which had deemed the measure from from Kevin Verville (R) “inexpedient to legislate” last month. Members then approved the bill in a…

The governor of Colorado has the same question as many marijuana reform advocates: When will the federal government complete its review into cannabis scheduling that President Joe Biden directed last year? In a video message played at a National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) Colorado Cannabis Caucus event on Wednesday, Gov. Jared Polis (D) talked about his state’s historic vote to legalize adult-use marijuana more than 10 years ago, emphasizing that work still needs to be done. “Over the years, we’ve laid that foundation and continued honing the process to make sure our industry is the very best in the world,”…

A new study looking at data from a federally funded survey found that the prevalence of medical cannabis use more than doubled in the United States between 2013 and 2020, driven largely by state-level legalization. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which has been conducted annually since 1971, added a question about medical marijuana in 2013, specifically asking whether any cannabis use within the past 12 months was recommended by a doctor. During the first year, 1.2 percent of respondents answered affirmatively. Seven years later, that figure had risen to 2.5 percent. Authors of the study, Greg Rhee…

After wrapping up at Tropicanna we headed back to the hotel to shower and change before the biggest night of our trip, the culmination party at Phandee. Now I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know what we were in for with this one. I had no idea what any of our reach was in this part of the world, and other than smoking weed with some Thai locals who happened to stop by the shop at that time, I didn’t have many expectations. I had seen a flyer a few days earlier, but honestly didn’t realize they really promoted it.…

A batch of applications for CBD products submitted by a UK trade group has been advanced by food safety authorities. The Association for the Cannabinoid Industry (ACI), which formed a consortium to represent its members in the approval process, said validation of the applications under two joint dossiers submitted to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) could play a factor in the approval of as many as 4,000 products under 320 brands. ‘Crucial’ “Validation” is the second step in the FSA’s three-step process for approving new (or “novel”) foods. “Every consortium member’s applications ride on the back of those, so the…

A Delaware Senate committee has approved a pair of House-passed bills to legalize marijuana and create regulations for adult-use sales. Both pieces pieces of legislation from Rep. Ed Osienski (D) cleared the Senate Health & Social Services Committee on Wednesday. Sen. Trey Paradee (D), who is carrying the bill in the Senate, told members of the panel that the state’s existing law that merely decriminalizes low-level cannabis possession is inadequate. “The arrests have continued and, as a result, lives have been turned upside down,” he said. “Although the civil offense is not as harmful as an arrest, the citations cannot…