Author: Ben Adlin

[ad_1] This week saw a number of marijuana-related developments out of Minnesota, including a proposal from regulators to authorize temporary licenses in order to get an adult-use retail market off the ground with a focus on equity and a request from the state’s Department of Natural Resources to clarify rules around cannabis consumption on public lands. The state, which legalized marijuana through the legislature in May of last year, is gearing up to accept license applications from would-be operators and launch legal sales sometime in 2025. The new temporary licensing bill—SF 4782, officially introduced on Thursday—is part of regulators’ efforts…

[ad_1] Amid broad calls for better tests to screen for marijuana use, researchers behind a federally funded study say they have developed new procedures to enhance the selectivity of a popular forensic testing method, allowing better detection of delta-9 THC and its metabolites in blood. The new 107-page report by researchers at the Virginia Department of Forensic Science (DFS) is the product of a roughly $290,000 grant awarded in 2020 by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), a division of the Department of Justice (DOJ). The goal of that funding, according to an award description, was to “develop and validate…

[ad_1] Promising results from a clinical trial of the LSD-like substance MM120 have persuaded the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to award it “breakthrough therapy” status as a treatment for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The drugmaker behind MM120—Mind Medicine Inc., or MindMed—said in a press release Thursday that it plans to hold an end-of-Phase 2 meeting with FDA in the first half of 2024 and begin a Phase 3 clinical trial in the second half of the year. Results of the latest round of study showed that a single oral dose of MM120 (lysergide d-tartrate) led to “clinically and statistically…

[ad_1] During joint U.S. House and Senate committee meetings this week, veterans service organizations (VSOs) pressed members of Congress to more urgently pursue the potential benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy and medical marijuana. The requests from groups like the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Disabled American Veterans and the Wounded Warrior Project come on the heels of organizations at last year’s set of annual VSO hearings criticizing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for “dragging their feet” on medical marijuana research. “Whether it’s cannabis or psychedelics,” Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America…

[ad_1] Maryland lawmakers in a House committee took testimony on Wednesday about a measure that would protect the gun rights of medical marijuana patients under state law. If enacted, the one-paragraph measure, HB 296, sponsored by Del. Robin L. Grammer Jr. (R), would protect the rights of registered medical marijuana patients to buy, own and carry firearms under Maryland law, even people who use cannabis are still restricted from doing so under federal statute. Grammer and others introduced similar legislation last session. Specifically, the bill says that “a person may not be denied the right to purchase, own, possess, or…

[ad_1] Virginia’s Democrat-led legislature passed a number of marijuana-related bills in recent weeks, sending the proposals to Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has been cagey about embracing reform despite the commonwealth’s adoption of a law legalizing use, possession and home cultivation of cannabis in 2021. Among the legislatively approved measures are plans to legalize retail cannabis sales and resentence people incarcerated for past cannabis crimes—both of which passed on mostly party-line votes—as well as a more broadly supported measure that would prevent the state from using marijuana alone as evidence of child abuse or neglect. Here’s a roundup of the…

[ad_1] Organizers trying to protect firearms rights for marijuana consumers in Colorado notched a procedural victory on Wednesday as the state’s Initiative Title Setting Review Board approved the language of a prospective ballot initiative that could go before voters in November. Though the campaign, which is backed by the Second Amendment advocacy group Guns for Everyone, will still have to get official petitions formatted and approved, co-founder Edgar Antillon told Marijuana Moment that the next big hurdle is signature gathering. “There is basically still the submitting on how we’re gonna do the signature forms, and that has to get approved,”…

[ad_1] A House committee in Alaska has advanced a bill that would create a state task force to study how to license and regulate psychedelic-assisted therapy—a plan supporters say will help prepare the state for federal approval of substances such as MDMA and psilocybin. At a hearing Tuesday, members of the House Military and Veterans Affairs Committee agreed to advance the measure with individual recommendations. If it becomes law, the proposal, HB 228, would not itself change the legal status of any drugs. Rather, it would create a legislative task force that would spend the rest of 2024 studying how…

[ad_1] Hawaii’s Senate has passed legislation to legalize and regulate adult-use marijuana in the state, sending the proposal next to the House of Representatives. The legislation, SB 3335, would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and up to five grams of cannabis concentrates and would establish a framework for licensed, regulated sales. Senators voted 19-6 to approve the legalization bill on Tuesday, advancing a version with amendments made in committee last week. The Senate also passed a separate cannabis decriminalization bill, SB 2487, on a 24–1 vote, with only Sen. Kurt Fevella (R)…

[ad_1] As lawmakers in Virginia wait to see how Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) will greet a retail marijuana sales bill sent to him last week, the legislature has passed separate legislation to provide relief for people convicted of past cannabis crimes, mandating that individuals with certain offenses automatically receive resentencing hearings and have their punishments adjusted. The House of Delegates gave final approval to the bill, SB 696, on a 52–43 vote on Monday. The Senate passed the measure 20–19 last month. Should the legislation become law, many criminal cases would need to be resentenced by the end of the…

[ad_1] A Massachusetts workforce development program that receives federal funding said it is restricted from using those resources to aid the state-legal marijuana industry due to ongoing prohibition, a new guidance memo says. It can, however, use the money to provide services to the hemp industry, which is federally legal. In a memo sent to MassHire leaders and staff last month, Diane Hurley, the acting director of the the agency’s Department of Career Services, said that despite state-level legalization of cannabis in Massachusetts, U.S. law still prevents federal Workplace Opportunity and Investment Act (WOIA) funds from being used “to directly…

[ad_1] Virginia lawmakers last week passed legislation that would finally license and regulate retail marijuana sales in the commonwealth—where use, possession and limited home cultivation of cannabis is already legal. The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). Supporters have worked for years to adopt a framework for legal sales after the legislature passed a cannabis legalization law in 2021, but those efforts have repeatedly been halted by Republican lawmakers. This year, however, the Senate’s new Democratic majority passed a retail sales bill that would see stores open in May 2025. Led by Sen. Aaron Rouse…