Author: Ben Adlin

[ad_1] Little Five Points Pharmacy, in Atlanta, is one of nearly 120 independent pharmacies in Georgia that recently applied to dispense medical marijuana under a new state program. Then last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sent Little Five Points and other pharmacies across the state a warning that the activity is unlawful because THC remains a Schedule I controlled substance. “I’m very, very, very disappointed with it,” pharmacist Ira Katz, at Little Five Points Pharmacy, told Atlanta First News. “We always felt, as pharmacists, that this is a drug and it should be kept in pharmacy. It should be…

[ad_1] A pair of bipartisan state senators in Pennsylvania are working to garner support for a legislative proposal that would decriminalize marijuana, downgrading simple possession from a misdemeanor crime to a civil offense. Sens. Sharif Street (D) and Camera Bartolotta (R) plan to reintroduce a bill from last session, SB 107, that would remove the possibility of jail time for possession and use of marijuana and instead impose monetary fines. The penalty for possession would be $25 under the pair’s proposed change, while the fine for consuming cannabis in public would be $100. Street and Bartolotta circulated a co-sponsorship memo…

[ad_1] A prospective ballot measure that would legalize adult-use marijuana in South Dakota and allow medical dispensaries to serve anyone 21 and older received a final ballot explanation from the state’s attorney general on Thursday—but the chief backer of the proposal says he has no plans to collect signatures or campaign for the change. The measure, sponsored by Rapid City resident Emmett Reistroffer, would allow “individuals 21 of age or older to possess, grow, ingest, and distribute marijuana or marijuana paraphernalia,” according to Attorney General Marty Jackley’s (R) final explanation. Adults could possess up to three ounces of marijuana and…

[ad_1] The campaign behind a prospective California ballot initiative to legalize psychedelics filed a final revised measure with state officials this week, making a handful of changes to the proposal following a public comment period that ended late last month. While adults would be allowed to legally grow, possess and use substances like psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, DMT, ibogaine and mescaline under the measure, they would need physician recommendations to purchase the psychedelics at regulated stores. Among the major changes in the final, revised proposal are the addition of a section requiring that larger psychedelics businesses obtain peace agreements with labor…

[ad_1] LSD and psilocybin could offer promising therapeutic potential for the treatment of chronic pain “on a mechanistic and experiential level,” according to a newly published literature review that highlights scientific findings happening as part of the “psychedelic renaissance”—a recent thawing of stigma and opposition into psychedelics research after decades of prohibition. What’s more, authors note, the pain-relieving effects of LSD and psilocybin seem to increase with repeated treatment, unlike opioids, which display “decreased therapeutic effect” over time. The narrative review, published last month in the South African Medical Journal, charts both the history of the two substances as well…

[ad_1] During a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) pressed the heads of major financial institutions on their commitments to marijuana banking reform and social equity. Warnock said he’s willing to support removing barriers to cannabis banking, but he wants to ensure the focus on commerce doesn’t obscure the need for justice after decades of criminal prohibition. “I want to be clear that I am open to SAFER Banking and more regulatory clarity around cannabis,” Warnock told the heads of Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and others, “but my fear is that if we pass…

[ad_1] More than three months after news leaked that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) was recommending that marijuana be moved to Schedule III under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the agency has finally released a tranche of documents related to its recommendation and the detailed review it undertook on cannabis’s accepted medical value. Among the materials newly made public are correspondence from HHS officials to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram as well explanations of the health agency’s reasoning for the recommended change after conducting a required eight-factor analysis under the CSA. Most pages are…

[ad_1] As marijuana legalization began to take effect in Ohio on Thursday, Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb (D) announced that the city has “modernized” its drug testing policies for applicants for city jobs, eliminating “antiquated language around pre-employment marijuana testing that has previously hindered hiring efforts.” “The criminalization of marijuana in our state and the punitive effects it has had on education, housing, and employment opportunities have lasted far too long, but will eventually be a thing of the past—thanks to Ohioans who made their voices heard loud and clear last month when they voted to approve Issue 2,” Bibb…

[ad_1] Ohio’s voter-approved marijuana legalization initiative took effect on Thursday, and despite ongoing wrangling by state lawmakers to modify significant portions of the law, some provisions—including legal use, possession and home cultivation of cannabis—have immediate impacts. Voters solidly approved the legalization ballot measure, Issue 2, on a 57–42 margin last month. But soon after, Republicans in the state Senate indicated their plans to gut the bill by eliminating home grow, reducing legal possession and allowable THC limits, raising sales tax, criminalizing the use and possession of marijuana obtained outside of a licensed retailer and steering funding away from social equity…

[ad_1] Georgia recently became the first U.S. state to allow pharmacies to sell medical marijuana, with nearly 120 facilities applying to sell cannabis oil as of October. But now the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is warning pharmacies that dispensing THC is unlawful because it remains a Schedule I drug. “All DEA registrants, including DEA-registered pharmacies, are required to abide by all relevant federal laws and regulations,” says a copy of a letter sent to a Georgia pharmacy by Matthew J. Strait, a DEA deputy assistant administrator in the agency’s Diversion Control Division. “A DEA-registered pharmacy may only dispense controlled…

[ad_1] Results of a new clinical trial published by the American Medical Association “suggest efficacy and safety” of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of bipolar II disorder, a mental health condition often associated with debilitating and difficult-to-treat depressive episodes. “The 15 participants in this trial had well-documented treatment-resistant BDII depression of marked severity and a lengthy duration of the current depressive episode,” authors wrote. After seven psychotherapy sessions, one involving a single dose of psilocybin, the paper says, study subjects “displayed strong and persistent antidepressant effects, with no signal of worsening mood instability or increased suicidality.” In the nonrandomized controlled study,…

[ad_1] The governors of six U.S. states—Colorado, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Louisiana—sent a letter to President Joe Biden (D) on Tuesday urging the administration to reschedule marijuana to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act by the end of this year. The move, they say, will provide economic and tax benefits for cannabis businesses, protect public health and more closely align government policy with public opinion. “Rescheduling cannabis aligns with a safe, regulated product that Americans can trust,” says the governors’ letter, which points to a poll that found 88 percent of Americans support legalization for medical…