Author: News Room

The governor of Pennsylvania has issued 2,540 pardons during his tenure, and at least a quarter of those were for people with prior marijuana convictions, his office announced on Thursday. As Gov. Tom Wolf (D) prepares for the end of his tenure next week, he’s touting his record as the governor who has granted the most clemency in the state’s history—with 369 pardons this week alone. Wolf’s clemency total includes 232 people who qualified for relief under a cannabis-specific pardon program that the state facilitated late last year, as well as another 395 that were part of a separate expedited…

The Oversight Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives says it will investigate the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over its regulatory jurisdiction of hemp-derived CBD. The committee is expected to bring FDA Commissioner Robert Califf before the House, said Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who chairs the panel. Stakeholders have criticized slow progress on federal CBD rules at the FDA, which has repeatedly said more research is needed on the safety and efficacy of CBD products. ‘Lack of action’ “I want to bring the FDA commissioner in front of the committee, and this is one of the things that we…

A key GOP lawmaker says he plans to take Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials to task over their failure to enact regulations for hemp-derived products like CBD in the marketplace. In a recent interview conducted by the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said that he would leverage his authority as the new chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee to put the head of FDA on the spot about the ongoing regulatory lapse. “I want to bring the FDA commissioner in front of the committee, and this is one of the things that we want to…

The federal U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) held a public meeting on Thursday, where members voted to propose an amendment to update sentencing guidelines to suggest that judges treat prior marijuana possession offenses more leniently. As it stands, federal judges are directed to take into account prior convictions, including state-level cannabis offenses, as aggravating factors when making sentencing decisions. But as more states have moved to legalize marijuana, advocates have pushed for updated guidelines to make it so a person’s marijuana record doesn’t add criminal history points that could lead to enhanced sentences. The new USSC proposal doesn’t seek to remove…

Bipartisan Washington State senators have unveiled a revised bill to legalize psilocybin services for adults. The “Psilocybin Services Wellness and Opportunity Act” was filed by Sen. Jesse Salomon (D) on Wednesday, with 20 cosponsors. It seeks to legalize and regulate the psychedelic for adults 21 and older. An earlier version was introduced early last year with far fewer cosponsors, and while it received a committee hearing, it did not ultimately advance toward enactment. The Psilocybin Wellness and Opportunity Act is once again 🔔 LIVE! With🚨*20*🚨 co-sponsors! This is huge.Can we get 1k comments in support of the bill? 📢https://t.co/6bnsJITwDcLike and…

The Arizona cannabis market has already sold more than $1.2 billion through October 2022, putting it on pace to easily eclipse the $1.4 billion sold in 2021. By David Abbott, Arizona Mirror For the eighth straight month, and the eleventh time in the past year, medical marijuana sales dropped from the month prior, clocking in at about $31 million in October 2022. By contrast, adult-use cannabis sales that voters approved in 2020 hit a new high in the same month, with more than $85.4 million in estimated sales, according to the Arizona Department of Revenue (ADOR). The crumbling of the…

People who live in states where recreational marijuana is legal experience lower rates of alcohol use disorder (AUD) compared to those who live in states where cannabis remains illegal, according to a new federally funded study. Researchers observed 240 pairs of twins in cases where one twin lived in a state that legalized marijuana and the other did not. They found that while overall alcohol consumption did not significantly differ, those living in states where cannabis had been legalized were “less likely to risk harm while under the influence of alcohol” than their twin residing in a state where marijuana…

While Connecticut locals lined up to shop in the state’s first legal weed stores on Tuesday, thousands of low-level cannabis convictions were cleared.Connecticut officially launched its legal adult-use cannabis industry this week, along with Clean Slate laws which erased low-level cannabis convictions for nearly 43,000 residents just before legal sales began on Tuesday.“I’m really excited because I’ve been caught with weed before and it’s no fun,” said a customer at one of the state’s first legal dispensaries yesterday. “It shouldn’t have been a crime,” he said, “and I’m happy that people less fortunate than me (got this).” Thanks to paid…

“I am working with others see how we could get to a ‘yes’ to take care of those who are at the end of life.” By Al Cross, Kentucky Health News State Senate President Robert Stivers (R) suggested Monday night that he might be willing to approve medical marijuana in Kentucky on a very limited basis, to relieve patients’ pain at the end of their lives. But he cast fresh doubt on whether relief actually comes from cannabis, or rather from expectation that it will. “I am working with others see how we could get to a ‘yes’ to take…

A top Republican Wisconsin lawmaker is pushing back against the idea that the conservative legislature is close to making a deal on medical marijuana legalization, and he’s again warning the Democratic governor against calling for adult-use legalization as part of his forthcoming budget request. While Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R) said last week that his caucus is “getting pretty close” on medical cannabis reform, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a new interview published on Wednesday that that’s not necessarily the case from his chamber’s perspective. The speaker said that any attempt to legalize…