Author: News Room

A powerful GOP-controlled House committee has blocked another series of marijuana and psychedelic reform amendments to large-scale spending legislation, including a bipartisan proposal to protect all state cannabis programs from federal interference. The House Rules Committee declined to make in order for floor consideration several marijuana amendments during meetings on Monday and Tuesday. While most of the measures called for modest reforms supported by legalization advocates, the panel also blocked a proposal from prohibitionist Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) that would have prevented the Biden administration from rescheduling cannabis. The two spending bills that were taken up by the committee this…

With Ohio’s vote to legalize marijuana last week, more than 50 percent of the U.S. population now lives in a state that has ended cannabis prohibition for adults—and nearly 75 percent live in a jurisdiction that has legalized medical or recreational marijuana—according to a report from a firm headed by former federal drug officials. Ohio became the 24th state to enact adult-use legalization, building on a robust state-level movement that has seen a total of 38 states plus Washington, D.C. allow medical access, despite the fact that “cannabis remains illegal at the federal level,” the report says. This means that…

While the Czech government eventually backed off a plan to ban CBD earlier this year, proposed changes to the country’s central drug law would put such products under tight restrictions.A draft amendment to the law on addictive substances currently under debate would eliminate advertising of both hemp-derived CBD and kratom, a mild psychoactive that can be addictive.The amendment carries a blanket ban on advertising of the two substances in all forms of media, event sponsorships and high-profile endorsements. Also, sale to minors would be illegal, retailers would be required to obtain licenses to sell the products, and penalties for illegally trafficking…

“The recent resolution of several court cases including rulings by the court of appeals has enabled us, the commission, to move forward with today’s actions.” By Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder The Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission unanimously granted provisional licenses to four more companies to produce low-THC oil to help Georgians with a list of severe ailments. The licenses will go to Fine Fettle GA, TheraTrue, Nature’s GA and Treevana Wellness. The companies will have access to Class 2 licenses, allowing them to grow cannabis in 50,000 square feet of indoor facilities only for producing low-THC oil. The state…

A coalition of 20 congressional Democrats is urging Treasury Department officials to update federal guidance to prevent financial institutions from discriminating against marijuana business owners over prior cannabis-related activity that’s since been made legal at the state level. In a letter sent to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Director Andrea Gacki on Tuesday, the bicameral lawmakers said that the existing Obama-era guidance “predates action by many states to legalize marijuana possession and sales, and it unnecessarily red-flags businesses whose owners have been engaged in marijuana activities that are no longer criminalized at the state level.”…

“The state government cannot simultaneously authorize the legal sale of a product or service, while forbidding the truthful advertising of said product.” By Steve Wilson, The Center Square A Mississippi medical marijuana dispensary owner is suing the state over its prohibition on advertising for his business and others like it. Clarence Cocroft, the owner of Tru Source Medical Cannabis in Olive Branch, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday with the help of the nonprofit Institute for Justice in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. Cocroft’s complaint says state law and regulations approved by the Mississippi Board of…

“The commission should be barred from using the scores, as the scoring system appears designed to award licenses [to] applicants who just simply cannot cultivate cannabis in 60 days, as the statute mandates.” By Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector A cannabis firm denied an Alabama medical marijuana license asked the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals to prevent a state commission from using prior results to award licenses. Specialty Medical Products, a Wetumpka-based medical cannabis firm that was denied a license for an integrated facility, alleged in a motion filed on October 27 that the criteria used by evaluators are still unknown…

President Joe Biden should smoke marijuana to better understand the country’s “awfully hypocritical” double standard that allows people to drink alcohol and work at the White House but face potential imprisonment over cannabis, says Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), a 2024 Democratic presidential candidate who’s mounting a primary challenge against the incumbent. During a town hall event in New Hampshire last week, Phillips noted Ohio’s recent vote to end marijuana prohibition, contrasting that with Biden’s ongoing opposition to adult-use legalization. The congressman said he’s “sure” that Biden “has never even smelled weed, let alone smoked it.” “The fact of the matter…

A top GOP Ohio lawmaker says there’s no need to rush changes to the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law, despite the governor’s insistence on getting revisions enacted before possession and cultivation become legal next month. Meanwhile, another Republican legislator has already come out with a bill to change the law by redirecting millions of dollars in cannabis tax revenue toward supporting law enforcement training. Just one day after meeting with Gov. Mike DeWine (R) to discuss potential amendments to the statutory cannabis law that voters passed at the ballot last week, House Speaker Jason Stephens (R) said on Tuesday that…

Legalizing medical marijuana is associated with a “lower frequency” of nonprescribed pharmaceutical opioid use, according to a study published this month in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. While the decrease was rather small—between about 0.6 percent and 1.5 percent for regular to frequent opioid use—and was concentrated in people who met diagnostic criteria for cannabis use disorder, the researchers said it could signal “substitution effects with partial replacement of opioids by cannabis.” The research team, from the schools of public health at Rutgers and Columbia universities as well as the University of Arizona’s School of Government and…