Author: Ben Adlin

[ad_1] New Jersey officials have announced the availability of $5.5 million in marijuana revenue to support a hospital-based violence intervention grants program. Grants will be awarded beginning next year, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) and Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin (D) said in a press release. Launched in 2020, the New Jersey Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program connects survivors of violent crime, including gun violence, with community-based organizations that provide support services “starting at their bedside.” “These innovative violence intervention programs allow providers to tend to vulnerable victims of violent crimes in the early days of their road to recovery in order…

[ad_1] Backers of a 2024 ballot measure to legalize adult-use cannabis in South Dakota are calling on state officials to scuttle a separate initiative effort that would repeal the state’s existing medical marijuana law. South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, which is working to qualify a recreational marijuana proposal for next year’s ballot, said in a recent letter to Secretary of State Monae Johnson (R) that petitions in support of the medical cannabis repeal measure failed to follow state requirements and should be refiled. The effort to repeal the state’s voter-approved 2020 medical marijuana law is being led by conservative…

[ad_1] A professional organization representing more than 5 million nurses in the U.S. has announced its formal recognition of cannabis as a nursing specialty practice area. The American Nurses Association (ANA) said in a press release about the change on Wednesday that cannabis nurses play an important role in providing patients with education and guidance on incorporating marijuana into treatment. “This recognition highlights the essential role and special contribution of cannabis nurses to the health care system and promotes enhanced integration of cannabis therapies for health care consumers across diverse health care settings,” ANA President Jennifer Mensik Kennedy said. The…

[ad_1] At a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) workshop about psychedelic medicine earlier this month, the director of mental health for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) said she thinks research into psychedelic-assisted therapy needs to more closely resemble real world scenarios. Requiring subjects to have specific diagnoses and pass strict screening protocols, she said, makes it impossible to accurately generalize the effects of such treatment on patients. “There has been great interest in this,” said Rachel Yehuda, who is also a professor of psychiatry and neurobiology who chairs the psychiatry department at the Icahn School of…

[ad_1] Removing criminal penalties for simple drug possession appears to have no significant impact on fatal overdoses, according to a new study published by the American Medical Association that analyzed the effects of decriminalization policies in Oregon and Washington State. “Our analysis suggests that state decriminalization policies do not lead to increases in overdose deaths,” said Corey Davis, an adjunct professor at the Department of Population Health at the New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine and a senior investigator for the new report. The findings, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, come on the heels of another…

[ad_1] Roughly three out of five Ohio voters support a marijuana legalization measure that will appear on November’s ballot, according to a newly released poll, with nearly two thirds of respondents saying they believe legalization in the state is “inevitable.” With less than two weeks before widespread early voting kicks off, 55 percent of respondents said they “definitely” or “probably” will vote yes on the legalization initiative, while about 34 percent “definitely” or “probably” will oppose it. Only about 11 percent remain undecided, says the survey of 843 likely voters, which was commissioned by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like…

[ad_1] Young adults who used marijuana frequently before legalization “showed significant reductions in use and consequences” following the policy change, according to a new study of Canadian data published by the American Medical Association that challenges the widespread worry that ending prohibition will lead to a dangerous rise in youth cannabis use. Consumption did tick up slightly among young adults who claimed not to have used marijuana prior to legalization, but that slight rise didn’t lead to a corresponding increase in cannabis-related consequences, says the study, published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open.…

[ad_1] Sixty-six members of New York’s legislature—about a third of all state lawmakers—are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to sign a bill that would allow licensed marijuana producers to sell products to tribal retailers. The plan would offer a release valve to hundreds of cannabis farmers who are currently sitting on surpluses but have no place to sell their products. “Right now, there are over 200 cannabis farmers trying to sell their crops but only 23 dispensaries open statewide,” the bipartisan Senate and Assembly members wrote in the open letter to Hochul on Monday. “This has resulted in more than…

[ad_1] The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed another federal court brief last week in an effort to dismiss a lawsuit by a Philadelphia-based nonprofit trying to open a supervised drug consumption site. In it, the government argues the organization doesn’t qualify for federal religious exemptions that it is claiming—nor any of the other exceptions raised in the suit. The court filing comes about a month after 35 Christian and Jewish faith leaders from 19 states submitted an amicus brief in which they supported the nonprofit Safehouse’s establishment of overdose prevention site under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). That friend-of-the-court…

[ad_1] More than 80 percent of surveyed psychiatrists now hold strong to moderate beliefs that psychedelics have potential to treat mental health disorders, according to a newly published study. Compared to a similar survey conducted in 2016, researchers found “significantly increased optimism regarding the therapeutic promise of hallucinogens and decreased concern about risks.” “Our data reveal a striking positive shift in attitudes toward the therapeutic potential of hallucinogens among American psychiatrists since 2016,” authors wrote, “with a majority of responding psychiatrists planning to incorporate hallucinogen-assisted therapy into their practice if regulatory approval is granted.” Researchers from Case Western Reserve University,…

[ad_1] A City Council committee in Portland, Maine, unanimously advanced a resolution last week that advocates say would decriminalize certain psychedelic plants and fungi. The measure is now on track for a full council vote as soon as mid-October. The Health and Human Services and Public Safety Committee, which passed the resolution on a 3–0 vote on Tuesday, also amended the bill to cover home cultivation of natural entheogens for personal use and sharing without compensation. Criminal enforcement would not change for selling, dispensing, possessing on school grounds or driving under the influence of the substances. Plants and fungi that…

[ad_1] Marijuana sales in Rhode Island set another record in August, with total retail receipts exceeding $9.67 million. It’s the fourth consecutive month of record-setting sales, according to data released by the state Department of Business Regulation. Adult-use cannabis sales, which launched in the state in December 2022, have consistently grown since the legal market opened. In August, nonmedical purchases totaled more than $7 million. Medical cannabis sales, however—which were $2.64 million last month—have generally declined over the same period, as has the state’s number of active medical marijuana patients. Unlike some other states, Rhode Island breaks down its sales…