Author: News Room

Some lawmakers who backed the ban in principle feared it “could have unintended consequences.” By Kyle Pfannenstiel, Idaho Capital Sun A bill to criminalize advertising illegal services or products—like marijuana—in Idaho failed to pass the Idaho Senate on Wednesday. Marijuana is illegal in Idaho and in federal law. But states surrounding Idaho, like Washington, Montana, Nevada and Oregon, have legalized marijuana for recreational use in recent years. House Bill 613 would have allowed misdemeanor charges for ​​”any person who willfully publishes any notice or advertisement, in any medium, within the state of Idaho for a product or service that is…

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) has signed legislation into law to exempt registered medical marijuana patients from the state’s 37 percent cannabis excise tax, which is currently one of the highest in the country. The exemption will only apply, however, to products that have been certified to higher testing standards than typical state-legal products. HB 1453, which lawmakers sent to the governor earlier this month, would allow registered patients and caregivers to avoid the tax when purchasing products that are compliant with Department of Health (DOH) testing standards. Medical marijuana cardholders already are eligible for exemptions from sales and use…

Congressional leaders have unveiled a second package of spending legislation to keep the government funded, with provisions included that would continue to block Washington, D.C. from legalizing marijuana sales, fund psychedelics-related clinical trials and more. House and Senate appropriations leaders released the bill on Wednesday after reaching an agreement on the remaining Fiscal Year 2024 spending that wasn’t included in separate legislation enacted earlier this month. The plan is to pass the package ahead of a Friday deadline when the current continuing resolution is set to expire. Despite repeated calls from advocates and lawmakers to remove a controversial rider that’s…

A new federally funded study examining the possible risks of organ donation by marijuana users found no indication that recent cannabis use increases the likelihood of significant side effects in the year immediately after a transplant—even as many healthcare providers continue to restrict transplants to cannabis consumers. Findings of the research, which looked at rates of infections, transplant failures and deaths among recipients, “suggest that organs from donors with a history of recent marijuana use do not pose significant infectious risks in the early posttransplant period.” “Despite concern that donor exposure to marijuana increases the risk of fungal infection in…

Delaware senators have approved a House-passed bill to significantly expand the state’s medical marijuana program ahead of the launch of adult-use sales next year. Nearly two months after the legislation from Rep. Ed Osienski (D) cleared the House, the Senate Health & Social Services Committee advanced the measure on Wednesday. The bill would make a series of changes to Delaware’s medical cannabis program, including removing limitations for patient eligibility based on a specific set of qualifying health conditions. Instead, doctors could issue marijuana recommendations for any condition they see fit. The legislation would also allow patients over the age of…

While the legalization of industrial hemp five years ago heralded potentially vast new markets, the reality has brought chaos, exploitation and threats to public health, state attorneys general warn in a letter to the Committee on Agriculture in the U.S. House of Representatives. Top law enforcement officials from 20 states signed on to the bi-partisan letter, dated, Wednesday, March 20, which urges Congress to use the upcoming Farm Bill to address the spread of intoxicating hemp products across the nation. “The promise of the 2018 Farm Bill to create this agricultural commodity market . . . has failed,” according to…

A congressman is seeking answers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over the agency’s reported request for a legal opinion on the implications of possible marijuana rescheduling from the Justice Department. As part of a House Ways & Means Committee hearing with HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) submitted a written question for the record (QFR) requesting that the top health agency clarify what kind of input it sought from DOJ in recent weeks, as The Wall Street Journal reported this month. The Biden-initiated scheduling review “is a necessary step in the…

The Biden administration’t top health official has again defended his department’s recommendation to reschedule marijuana against Republican criticism, while pointing out that the incremental move would not decriminalize cannabis despite the president’s campaign pledges to do so. During a hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health And Human Services, Education, And Related Agencies on Wednesday, several members addressed the cannabis scheduling review, including two GOP members who oppose the reform and a Democrat who helped advance a legalization bill in 2020. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) pressed Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on the impact of a…

A Democratic congressman laid into a top Biden administration official on Wednesday over the “political malpractice” that is the president’s failure to end marijuana prohibition. The top federal health official promised to deliver that message to the White House, but also deferred responsibility for delays in an ongoing review into cannabis’s scheduling status to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), founding co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, didn’t pull any punches at the House Ways & Means Committee hearing with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra. The retiring congressman cited remarks from…

Germany may avoid a scenario where marijuana legalization is delayed as advocates have worried in recent weeks, with top cabinets official pledging to make certain changes to the legislation passed by parliament in hopes of averting a mediation committee referral. While the Bundestag passed the cannabis legalization bill last month, there’s been an expectation that the Bundesrat, a body known as the Federal Council that represents individual German states, would vote to recommend the committee referral during a meeting scheduled for Friday, which would push back the implementation by six months, from April to October. To prevent that delay, Health…