Author: News Room

“The week we had had a good process—it’s worked well. The presenters brought things to the forefront that maybe we didn’t see otherwise, that you can’t really see in a paper application.” By Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission Friday awarded 20 licenses for the production and distribution of medical cannabis in its third attempt to get the new industry started in the state. The awards followed three days of presentations from applicants and months of litigation over the AMCC’s prior methods of evaluating applications. “The week we had had a good process—it’s worked well,” said Rex…

Mix Master Mike shot the intro scene to the Beastie Boys’s “Three MCs and One DJ” video 10 times over the course of eight hours in 1998. He would begin by walking from a coffee shop in New York City to the Beastie Boys’s “secret” rehearsal space—which he says was “basically a dungeon”—wearing a Ghostbusters proton pack he’d picked up from a Hollywood prop shop and a NASA spacesuit. MCA (Adam Yauch), Mike D (Michael Diamond), and Ad-Rock (Adam Horowitz) didn’t expect that, but this was Mix Master Mike’s first video with the Beasties and he wanted to make an…

Welcome to December, Stargazers, and get ready—it’s a busy one! First, Neptune goes direct on December 6, inviting a subtle yet profound shift in our spiritual and creative realms. As the planet of inspiration, Neptune’s direct motion encourages our imaginative and spiritual pursuits with a more grounded approach, making it an ideal period for meditation and reflective practices. This is a key time to embrace your dreams and intuition. Mercury enters retrograde on Dec 13, which often brings communication mishaps and technological snafus, so this period calls for patience and flexibility. Make a point to slow down, especially in conversations and…

The New York Supreme Court has officially lifted an injunction that’s barred state marijuana regulators from processing hundreds of new retailer licenses, clearing the path to significantly expand the state’s cannabis market. The court action comes days after the New York Cannabis Control Board (CCB) approved settlement agreements in two lawsuits that have enjoined regulators from moving ahead with licensing since August. “This decision brings much needed relief to the hundreds of provisional licensees who, until now, have had their businesses sidelined,” CCB Chair Tremaine Wright said in a press release on Friday. “We remain dedicated to upholding a fair…

Friday marked one full year since legal recreational marijuana sales kicked off in Rhode Island, and officials say they’re proud of how the market is shaping up. “A year into adult-use cannabis sales in Rhode Island, we are proud of the careful execution that defined our entry into this industry,” said Gov. Dan McKee (D). “This success represents growing opportunity for our state’s economy but also for the nearly 70 licensed cultivators, processors, and manufacturers in the State of Rhode Island which we know are integral to our local cannabis supply chain.” In the past year, officials said, Rhode Island…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is up against an imminent deadline to provide Congress with a report on the therapeutic potential of marijuana and barriers to research under a cannabis bill that President Joe Biden signed into law last year. This comes weeks after another agency missed its due date to produce a separate cannabis report focused on impaired driving that HHS was also involved in. Under the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act—which is generally designed to streamline the process of accessing marijuana and its components for study purposes—HHS is required to send the…

Ohio’s Republican Senate president says his chamber will take the first step toward amending a voter-approved marijuana legalization law at the beginning of next week, with just days left before key provisions of the initiated statute take effect. But the House speaker, for his part, still says he doesn’t necessarily see the urgency. GOP legislative leaders and Gov. Mike DeWine (R) have been discussing revisions to the cannabis statute ever since voters passed the reform at the ballot last month, with the main focus being on possible changes to provisions concerning tax revenue,  youth prevention and impaired driving. Two Republican-led…

A top federal health agency says it recognizes that there are ample concerns among scientists about how they’ve “encountered barriers that have hampered their research” into marijuana under federal prohibition, including “complex” federal regulations and inadequate supplies of cannabis. That’s why the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is now seeking to resolve some of those challenges by standing up a Resource Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, an official said in a blog post on Tuesday. NIH posted a notice of funding opportunity late last month, explaining how it’s seeking an entity to operate the center through a cooperative agreement…

As German lawmaker prepare to vote on a revised marijuana legalization bill next week, the country’s health minister defended the reform against critics in the legislature, while briefly outlining next steps for a commercial sales pilot program. Meanwhile, one German state is signaling that it will pursue legal action to block the reform from taking effect within its borders. At a meeting before the Bundestag on Wednesday, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach took a series of questions from members, some of whom oppose legalization and others who expressed interest in expeditiously enacting the reform. At several points, he pushed back against…

New Jersey has opened applications for the second phase of a marijuana social equity funding program, which will make $150,000 grants to awardees and offer eight weeks of technical assistance. The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) says the round of so-called Seed Equity grants will allocate “up to $8 million in funding for 48 entrepreneurs” who meet social equity qualifications and hold conditional marijuana licenses. Applicants must also employ 50 or fewer employees. Money can be used to cover early-state startup expenses and operating costs The online application portal for the new funding round officially opened on Thursday. “Applications…