Author: Kyle Jaeger

[ad_1] A National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) committee focused on promoting health and wellness for student athletes is proposing to remove marijuana from the organization’s banned substances list. The NCAA’s Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS) said the association will be soliciting input from members over the summer before potentially taking action in the fall. In order to adopt the policy change, all three of NCAA’s divisional governing bodies will need to approve the proposal—though this most recent committee action was already spurred by a request from Divisions II and III to examine whether drug testing…

[ad_1] Pennsylvania’s agriculture secretary announced on Thursday that the state will be distributing $392,265 in matched funding to promote the hemp market—including by creating a curriculum to teach high school and college students about the “many uses” of the cannabis plant. The bulk of the grant funds ($315,765) will support the student initiative, with money being used to create a STEM curriculum “to effectively engage in industrial hemp production, management, and cultivation by promoting and marketing industrial hemp for its many uses such as food, fiber, fuel, industrial, and personal care products.” The Pennsylvania Departments of Agriculture and Education previously…

[ad_1] More than a dozen congressional Democrats have filed a resolution to recognize the country’s “moral obligation to meet its foundational promise of guaranteed justice for all,” in part by legalizing marijuana and overdose prevention sites as well as expunging drug-related records. The legislation, led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), proposes a number of reforms to address systemic issues like mass incarceration, racial discrimination, addiction and homelessness. Cannabis isn’t the focus of the measure, but it’s included in a section calling for the decriminalization of “behavior and divert cases that do not require confinement” in order to reduce the country’s…

[ad_1] Congressional marijuana reform leaders say that they are encouraged that a top Biden administration official told Marijuana Moment on Thursday that he believes a cannabis scheduling review that he’s overseeing could be completed “this year.” In the months since President Joe Biden directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Justice Department to carry out the administrative review, advocates and stakeholders have eagerly waited for a status update. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra finally offered a tentative timeline, saying he hopes to send the president a scheduling decision “this year.” Three co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus…

[ad_1] The governor of Louisiana has signed a bill into law that will streamline expungements for people with first-time marijuana possession convictions. About two weeks after the measure from Rep. Delisha Boyd (D) advanced through the legislature, Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) gave final approval on Monday. The legislation makes it so people who are convicted of possessing up to 14 grams of cannabis as a first offense can petition the courts to wipe their record after 90 days from the time of the conviction. That would significantly speed up the timeline for relief, as current law maintains that people…

[ad_1] Youth marijuana use in Rhode Island declined significantly in 2022 compared to two years earlier, even as legalization went into effect and COVID-related social isolation restrictions were lifted, according to a recent state study. The Rhode Island Student Survey from the state’s Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) asked more than 20,000 high school students in 23 districts about substance use trends and other social issues. Several national surveys have identified recent drops in teen cannabis use even as more states enact legalization. It’s a trend that’s been observed over the past decade, but experts have…

[ad_1] A California Senate-passed bill to legalize the possession of certain psychedelics and facilitated use of the substances is up against a “challenging road” toward passage in the Assembly, the sponsor said on Wednesday. At a virtual event hosted by the Psychedelic and Entheogen Academic Council (PEAC), Sen. Scott Wiener (D) said that while the reform legislation advanced through his chamber, “it’s not guaranteed to pass” in the Assembly. “But we’re going to try the very best we can,” he said. Part of the complication, Wiener explained, is that the measure has been referred to a second Assembly policy committee…

[ad_1] A top federal health agency is calling for research into the impact of evolving laws around psychedelics in cities and states across the country, including the effects of allowing regulated access to substances like psilocybin. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) issued a “notice of special interest” on Tuesday that discussed the rapid spread of the psychedelic reform movement, describing the “variety of approaches” that different jurisdictions have pursued “that include legalization, decriminalization, reduced penalties, and more.” It pointed out that Oregon voters approved a ballot measure in 2020 that legalized psilocybin services, and Colorado later moved to…

[ad_1] The head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is aiming to present President Joe Biden with a federal cannabis scheduling decision “this year” as agencies work “as quickly as we can” to complete an administrative review, Secretary Xavier Becerra told Marijuana Moment during a press briefing in Sacramento on Thursday. While Becerra and other federal officials have previously emphasized that they are working “expeditiously” to carry out the cannabis review, which the president directed late last year, there’s been a lack of clarity about the specific timeline. Now the secretary has disclosed when he hopes…

[ad_1] A key Senate committee has voted to amend an intelligence oversight bill to include a provision preventing agencies from denying security clearances to applicants solely due to their past marijuana use. The Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously passed the Intelligence Authorization Act on Wednesday after voting 10-7 to adop an amendment proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to prohibit security clearance denials for applicants to intelligence agencies like CIA and NSA just because they admitted to prior cannabis consumption. “This bill includes historic bipartisan legislation reforming the country’s broken classification and declassification system,” Wyden said in a press release on…

[ad_1] The U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously approved a resolution voicing support for Americans incarcerated in Russia—including a U.S. citizen who is serving a 14-year sentence over possession of medical marijuana that he obtained legally in Pennsylvania. The House passed the measure from Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) in a 422-0 vote on Tuesday. The main focus of the legislation is on Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in Russia in March on charges of espionage, an allegation that has been widely decried as false and politically motivated by U.S. officials and media organizations. But another line…

[ad_1] A top Wisconsin lawmaker says that Republicans plan to introduce a medical marijuana bill as early as this summer. But he emphasized that it will be unlike any existing medical cannabis law in the country, strongly signaling that it will be significantly restrictive. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) said on Tuesday that a group of nine GOP members “have been regularly meeting to come up with ideas,” focusing on drafting legislation that avoids setting the state up to more broadly legalize cannabis. “I can’t see any scenario where I would support legalizing recreational marijuana. I just don’t see it.…