Author: Ben Adlin

[ad_1] A New Hampshire marijuana legalization bill already passed by the House of Representatives landed in a Senate committee on Thursday, where opponents of the current version—including Sen. Daryl Abbas (R) and Senate President Jeb Bradley (R)—unveiled amendments that would revise major portions of the proposal. The panel also heard three other cannabis-related measures, including a proposal to double the amount that medical patients can possess as well as a plan to provide legal relief for people with past marijuana convictions. Despite the eagerness of some on the Senate Judiciary Committee to make adjustments to the legalization bill, its sponsor, Rep.…

[ad_1] A federal judge on Thursday agreed to schedule oral arguments in a case from major U.S. marijuana companies that are seeking to shield in-state cannabis activity from federal enforcement. The businesses have said in their lawsuit against the federal government that the prohibition of marijuana has “no rational basis,” pointing to officials’ largely hands-off approach to the recent groundswell of state-level legalization. The new order, from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts’s Western Division, comes following the companies’ request for oral argument earlier this month. The in-court arguments will be held on May 22 at 10:30…

[ad_1] A Missouri Senate committee on Wednesday stripped a proposal from a House-passed budget bill that would have funneled $10 million in state opioid settlement money to research psilocybin. An earlier version of the Republican-led proposal would have instead put the money toward the study of ibogaine as a treatment for opioid use disorder, but a House floor amendment earlier this month switched the focus to psilocybin. After the latest changes in the Senate Appropriations Committee, the budget would allocate no money to psychedelics research of any kind. Separate Missouri legislation that would legalize the use of medical psilocybin by…

[ad_1] Following the failure of a Hawaii bill to legalize cannabis for adults, Gov. Josh Green (D) says he has “a possible solution” to the issue: vastly expanding the state’s existing medical marijuana system to allow people to register based on any health concern rather than needing to have one of a specific list of conditions. “This would make it very available—that’s marijuana—for those who choose it in their lives,” the governor said in an interview with Hawaii News Now, “and it would still keep kids safe, which has been everyone’s priority.” At the same time, Green reiterated his support…

[ad_1] Authors of a new research letter published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on Wednesday said there’s no evidence that states’ adoption of laws to legalize and regulate marijuana for adults have led to an increase in youth use of cannabis. To arrive at the results, researchers at Montana State University and San Diego State University took responses from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), which asks high-school students about various health-related activities, the report explains. All told, the four-author team analyzed results from 207,781 respondents. Findings showed that states’ adoption of recreational marijuana laws (RMLs)…

[ad_1] A new settlement between the federal government and an Arizona-based nonprofit will permit the group to import and use ayahuasca as a religious sacrament—an agreement leaders are calling a historic milestone for spiritual freedom. Under the settlement announced by the Church of the the Eagle and the Condor (CEC), the group will be permitted “to import, receive, manufacture, distribute, transport, securely store, and dispose of ayahuasca solely for CEC’s religious purposes.” Specifically, the agreement says the church will import ayahuasca, which contains the psychedelic substance DMT, “in concentrated paste or in liquid form” and then “combine the ayahuasca paste…

[ad_1] The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is arguing that a federal law giving seriously ill people the “right to try” investigational drugs doesn’t apply to controlled substances like psychedelics. The agency’s claim comes in a new brief in a lawsuit filed by a Washington State doctor seeking to legally use psilocybin to treat cancer patients in end-of-life care. “Because substances in Schedule I are deemed to have no accepted medical use in under the CSA,” DEA contends, referring to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), “the law does not provide for any registration that would permit such drugs to be…

[ad_1] Proposed changes to federal workforce drug testing guidelines that are currently being reviewed by officials would remove screening for MDMA—which has only rarely appeared in workers’ urine samples during recent years—and add testing for fentanyl, a substance that’s become far more widespread in unregulated drug markets over the past decade. Both MDMA—which the federal government could reschedule later this year—and the related substance MDA, which the government would also remove from inclusion in required drug tests under the proposed changes, were less common in tests than PCP, which was also considered for removal from the testing panel but for…

[ad_1] More Biden voters than Trump voters want to live in a place where marijuana is legal, according to a new survey. But a separate poll shows that legalization itself has majority support among both Democrats and Republicans. Nearly half (48.6 percent) of U.S. homeowners and renters who plan to vote for Joe Biden in November’s presidential election said they want to live in a jurisdiction where cannabis is legal, says a new report published last week that was commissioned by the real estate platform Redfin and conducted in February by polling firm Qualtrics. Among likely Trump voters, just 12.4…

[ad_1] Lawmakers in Hawaii’s Senate on Monday voted down a bill that would have expanded the state’s existing marijuana decriminalization law, further denying reform efforts by advocates this legislative session following the failure of a separate broader legalization bill early this month. Meanwhile, separate legislation to facilitate expungements of past cannabis offenses is advancing to the governor’s desk. The chamber voted 16–9 to reject the decriminalization expansion bill, SB 2487, which would have decreased the fine for low-level marijuana possession from $130 to $25. The new penalty would have applied to possession up to an ounce of cannabis—up from three…

[ad_1] Lawmakers in Vermont have formally adopted changes to narrow the scope of a House-passed overdose prevention site bill, which in its amended form would create and fund a facility in Burlington where people could use currently prohibited substances in a medically supervised environment—part of a pilot program aimed at quelling the ongoing epidemic of drug-related deaths. After approving a panel amendment last Thursday, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted 3–2 to advance the bill, H.72. On Friday, the Finance Committee also voted 4–2 to approve it. It next proceeds to the Senate floor where consideration is scheduled to…

[ad_1] Dozens of marijuana companies and advocacy groups are pushing back against Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) recent claims that the U.S. would be in violation of international drug treaty agreements if it reschedules cannabis to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). In a letter sent to Romney this month, more than 50 organizations said the senator made “inaccurate claims that neither reflect the current state of medical and scientific knowledge about marijuana nor an accurate application of relevant treaties to proposed reforms.” Signatories—including major marijuana businesses, industry groups, law firms, ancillary businesses and and cannabis advocacy organizations—said in…