Author: News Room

As Oklahomans prepare to vote on a marijuana legalization initiative next month, the campaign behind the measure is touting a new endorsement from a political strategist who previously supported two competing cannabis reform proposals that failed to make the ballot. Thursday’s announcement by the Yes on 820 campaign was intended to build unity among legalization proponents, who have sparred over conflicting views on how marijuana should be regulated. Instead, it appears to have aggravated tensions in Oklahoma’s advocacy community. Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action (ORCA) Co-Founder @mastermanOKC helped push two other legalization initiatives, but now he says it’s time for…

New Hampshire residents broadly support legalizing marijuana, according to a new poll that was released one day after the state House of Representatives passed a bill to enact the policy change. Seventy-one percent of respondents in the survey published by the University of New Hampshire on Thursday said they support “legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal recreational use”—with 56 percent saying they “strongly” feel that way. Support transcends party lines, with 86 percent of Democrats, 62 percent of Republicans and 53 percent of independents on board. Just 18 percent of New Hampshire residents oppose legalization, according…

The first two months of 2023 have shown expansive interest in bold drug policy reform in state legislatures across the country—most recently, with the introduction of numerous new bills touching on everything from psychedelics legalization to authorizing safe drug consumption sites. Lawmakers in several states will conduct hearings on such reform proposals over the next week. The marijuana legalization movement continues to spread and evolve, but it’s become quickly apparent this session that legislators are eager to more holistically move away from prohibition and criminalization. Drug decriminalization, harm reduction and psychedelics reform have emerged as central to that effort. Here’s…

Kyle Vigeant, vice president of cultivation for Garden Remedies in Newton, Mass., explains what he’s learned in the seven years he’s been with the vertically integrated company, how the team expanded to meet the demand of the adult-use market, and why his favorite cultivation tool is a jeweler’s loupe. Read the full article here

A Washington State psilocybin bill that a Senate panel gutted of its legalization provisions last week advanced out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Thursday ahead of an end-of-week legislative deadline. The panel approved the proposal, which in its current form would extend the state’s ongoing review of psilocybin, on a voice vote during an all-day session. Committee members also adopted another round of changes to the bill, meant to clean up what was still messy legislation after last week’s overhaul by Sen. Karen Keiser (D) in the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee. Despite the sweeping changes, Keiser…

“Given that [marijuana] has been legal for eight years, it appeared to the Supreme Court that this was an appropriate time not to have people…suffer the negative consequences that can stem from having your name posted on Courtview.” By James Brooks, Alaska Beacon On May 1, the Alaska Court System will remove the marijuana possession convictions of about 750 Alaskans from Courtview, the state’s online database of court cases. The Alaska Supreme Court announced the move in an order signed January 31 by the court’s five justices. The action, first publicized Sunday by The Alaska Landmine, follows years of similar, unsuccessful,…

A federal health agency has published a new advisory on what it warns are the “potential harms, side effects, and unknowns” of CBD as more Americans use the popular cannabinoid. At the same time, the government body is also implying that products purchased from state-legal marijuana dispensaries may be safer than those found at gas stations and other retailers. CBD has appeared on store shelves across the country following Congress’s legalization of hemp in the 2018 Farm Bill, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) advisory notes that “the popularity of CBD products continues to grow.” It…

Federal CBD policy should advance research that can inform consumers about risk while at the same time giving stakeholders regulatory certainty, a senior advisor at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said this week. The comments, from Norman Birenbaum, the FDA’s senior public health advisor on cannabis policy, come as the FDA and Congress are set to work together on new laws aimed to tamp down a flourishing CBD gray market and establish enduring rules for the compound. Acknowledging that many consumers have “folded these products into their daily lives,” Birnbaum said those consumers must be made aware of…

New York’s governor visited one of the state’s first legal marijuana stores on Wednesday but left without making a purchase. “Not today,” Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) told reporters who asked if she planned to buy any cannabis before the visit. “But I’m gonna drop by. I want them to be successful.” Visited Just Breathe in Binghamton, the first legal cannabis dispensary in the Southern Tier! I’m proud that New York is building the nation’s most equitable and inclusive cannabis industry, and we’ll keep working in communities across the state to help it grow. pic.twitter.com/y9OoB3uan0 — Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) February…

The overall total cannabis sales for both markets since the advent of legal adult-use in January 2021 is $2.9 billion. By David Abbott, Arizona Mirror Total Arizona marijuana sales in 2022 mirrored the total from 2021, the first year of the legal adult use market, but the paths that each year reached $1.4 billion in sales were strikingly different. In 2021, medical marijuana sales were the driving factor, accounting for nearly 55 percent—about $760 million—of the total. In 2022, the recreational cannabis market soared to nearly 70 percent of sales, or more than $950 million, as the medical market crashed to…