Tag: marijuana legalization

Marijuana's Unknown Health Impact Leaves Experts Concerned

The drug’s Schedule I designation has limited research on the effects of cannabis and one expert says this is cause for major concern.

Sixty-one percent of Americans now believe that marijuana should be legalized, but one expert says that among growing acceptance of the drug, people need to remain aware that cannabis can cause real health concerns.

“It’s a giant experiment,” Christian Hopfer, a professor of psychiatry at University of Colorado School of Medicine, told The New York Post.

Hopfer, who voted against recreational cannabis legalization in Colorado, is co-leading a $5.5 million study of 5,000 sets of twins funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The study will examine the impact that legalization of cannabis has on mental health and substance use, as well as giving information on how using marijuana affects health.

Despite the fact that research on the effects of cannabis has been limited by the drug’s Schedule I designation, Hopfer says that some health consequences have been well-established.

“Smoke a couple times a day and marijuana will knock off your memory. That is pretty certain,” he said.

He rebuked the claim that people will use marijuana whether it is legal or not.

“There is no question that legalization has a normalizing effect on something that used to be against the law,” he said. “By age 21, 98% of the population has had a drink. But only 10% of the population has tried cocaine, and 50% [have] tried marijuana.”

Hopfer is particularly concerned about the fact that teens could become exposed to marijuana more frequently, despite the fact that other research has shown no increase in teen marijuana use when the drug is legalized. Though a recent study found that while teens are abstaining from drug use, when they do decide to use, they are choosing marijuana as their first drug.

However, teens who do use the drug face severe consequences, said Hopfer.

“If you start smoking pot as a teenager, you have a four times higher likelihood of getting addicted,” he said. “The brain of a teenager is more sensitive to the effects than the brain of an adult would be. [Marijuana] is likely to have a more detrimental effect on kids.”

Despite claims that marijuana is not addictive, an estimated three million Americans have marijuana use disorder, he added.

“You can’t stop and you give up other things to keep using,” Hopfer says. “People go to work stoned and are stoned with their loved ones. Performance in life and on the job both get negatively impacted.”

Another public health risk associated with marijuana occurs on the road. In Colorado, marijuana-involved traffic fatalities have doubled since the drug was legalized, according to the Denver Post. In general, states with legal marijuana have about 3% more traffic accidents reported to insurance companies than states where cannabis is prohibited.

View the original article at thefix.com

19 June 2018
Massachusetts Could Become Marijuana Research Hub

“My vision is Massachusetts could be the number one leading cannabis research state in the world,” said one public health official.

After Massachusetts voterslegalized marijuana for adult use in 2016, sales of the drug are slated to start this July, leaving many Bay State businesses scrambling to position the state as a leader for marijuana research.

“My vision is Massachusetts could be the number one leading cannabis research state in the world,” Marion McNabb, a doctor of public health and former global health worker who co-founded the Cannabis Community Care and Research Network in January 2017, told MassLive.

The law that legalized cannabis in Massachusetts contains a research clause, which allows institutions like colleges, nonprofits and even corporations to buy or grow marijuana for research.

This isn’t wholly unique—other states including Colorado and Pennsylvania have similar provisions—but with many biomedical and academic establishments in Massachusetts, people in the industry are hopeful that this will open the door to more research.

“Given the investment in technology, the staggering array of biotech and scientific expertise, it virtually ensures Massachusetts will be an important player,” said Staci Gruber, director of MIND (Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery) at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.

However, while marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I drug under federal law, researching it will remain difficult even in states that have legalized the drug. Funding is one of the biggest challenges for marijuana research.

It is very rare to get federal funding for marijuana research. And institutions like universities and medical schools are hesitant to fund research because they could risk losing their federal funding, especially under an administration that has been vocal in its opposition to marijuana.

Currently, the only way to study marijuana with federal approval is to obtain samples that are specifically grown for research. However, Gruber said that these samples are different from what is being used by the vast majority of people who consume marijuana.

“The products the government grows and oversees for research may not have any bearing on products patients are using in the real world,” said Gruber, who has been researching marijuana for 25 years.

Even without a change in federal policy, the Massachusetts legalization of recreational pot will open new research opportunities, she said. For example, she can ask questions of people who buy cannabis at dispensaries and consume it, without providing the drug herself.

She hopes that this will help advance marijuana policy, and take the nation out of a gridlock where quality research is prevented by the policy toward marijuana research.

“It’s difficult to change laws without empirically sound data, but you can’t do clinical trials that represent what most people are taking,” Gruber said.

View the original article at thefix.com

15 June 2018
Bipartisan Bill To Protect States With Legalized Marijuana Gains Traction

The bill would allow states to determine “the best approach to marijuana within [their own] borders.”

Though Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues to wage war against marijuana, President Donald Trump has said that he is willing to support bipartisan legislation that would allow states to determine their own rules regarding the legalization and regulation of marijuana.

The bill was introduced by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Gardner (R-CO), who, as High Times noted, have taken distinctly opposite stances regarding marijuana in their respective states. But the pair has united over federal cannabis prohibition, which they view as impugning on not only states’ rights to determine their own laws, but also the legal cannabis industry’s ability to access safe banking and insurance.

Their efforts appear to have earned a positive response from Trump, who told reporters that he would “probably” support the bill.

The bill, called the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States, or STATES Act, would allow individual states, Washington, D.C., U.S. territories and federally recognized tribes to determine for themselves “the best approach to marijuana within [their own] borders.”

This would be accomplished by amending the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) so that those states or tribes that comply with basic protection would be considered exempt from federal law regarding the “manufacture, production, possession, dispensation, administration, or delivery of marijuana.”

The STATES Act would also remove industrial hemp from the CSA, and would implement several “common-sense guardrails” to ensure that states continue to regulate marijuana in a “safe and respectful manner” that is compliant with federal standards. These include prohibiting individuals under the age of 18 to work in marijuana operations and preventing sale or distribution of marijuana to individuals under the age of 21 for reasons other than medical purposes.

Additionally, and most crucially for legal cannabis business, the bill would allow federally insured banks to do business with such entities.

In a statement, Senator Warren wrote, “The federal government needs to get out of the business of outlawing marijuana.” She added that current federal laws have negatively impacted the criminal justice system, scientific research and economic development, while states like Massachusetts have implemented commonsense marijuana legislation that has supported these categories. “They have the right to enforce their own marijuana policies,” she wrote.

Senator Gardner took similar aim at government policies in his statement while focusing his argument on states’ rights issues.

“The federal government is closing its eyes and plugging its ears while 46 states have acted,” he wrote. “The bipartisan, commonsense bill ensures the federal government will respect the will of the voters—whether that is legalization or prohibition—and not interfere in an states’ legal marijuana industry.”

At a press conference on June 6, President Trump said that he knew “exactly what [Senator Gardner’s] doing,” and “probably will end up supporting” the STATES Act.

Given Trump’s penchant for spur-of-the-moment decisions that often take his cabinet and party by surprise, it remains unclear whether he will ultimately voice approval for the bill, but the statement flies in the face of Attorney General Sessions’ stance on marijuana, which was crystallized in a January 2018 memo granting federal prosecutors the “necessary tools” to crack down on cannabis.

View the original article at thefix.com

13 June 2018
"Clear My Record" Project To Help Expunge 250,000 Marijuana Convictions

San Francisco is partnering with tech-nonprofit Code for America to expedite the difficult expungement process.

A new initiative aims to speed up the process of expunging a marijuana conviction from a person’s criminal record, with the ambitious goal of clearing 250,000 marijuana convictions by 2019.

It’s only right. Nine states and Washington, D.C. have legalized marijuana for adult use, while 29 states and D.C. allow the medical use of marijuana. Marijuana has already yielded a booming multibillion-dollar industry, with no sign of slowing down.

Yet, a marijuana conviction can still be a barrier to employment, housing and other benefits.

“In a human way, when you see the problem up close it becomes a moral imperative to solve it,” said Jennifer Pahlka, founder and executive director of Code for America.

In January, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced that his office will be retroactively applying Proposition 64—the law that made cannabis legal in California for adult use—to thousands of misdemeanor and felony convictions dating back to 1975.

Specifically, the DA’s office said it would review, recall and resentence “up to 4,940 felony marijuana convictions and dismiss and seal 3,038 misdemeanors” which were sentenced prior to cannabis legalization in California.

The initiative will be helped by the Clear My Record program, a project of Code for America, a non-profit organization that uses technology to tackle local issues by teaming up with state and city governments.

Clear My Record recognizes that the process of expunging one’s low-level and non-violent marijuana conviction “is a very bad one”—bogged down by paperwork, the cost of hiring legal support, and a whole lot of waiting, according to Pahlka.

Hoping to facilitate this process, Clear My Record has simplified the application process for people seeking expungement with the help of technology. Its goal is to expand the program and ultimately clear 250,000 marijuana convictions by 2019.

“That number is an estimate assuming we get a certain number of counties to come onboard showing the same sort of leadership that DA Gascón has shown,” said Pahlka, according to Mashable. “And I would think it’s a high likelihood. It’s ambitious and I’m excited about it. I also don’t want to stop there.”

The ultimate goal is to right the wrongs of the drug war. “While drug policy on the federal level is going backward, San Francisco is once again taking the lead to undo the damage that this country’s disastrous, failed drug war has had on our nation and on communities of color in particular,” said Gascón in his January statement. “So instead of waiting for the community to take action, we’re taking action for the community.”

Learn how Clear My Record works.

View the original article at thefix.com

13 June 2018
Canada Moves Closer To Legalizing Recreational Marijuana

Canada is taking a countrywide approach to avoid the issues that have unfolded in the United States, according to one Canadian senator.

Canada is one step closer to becoming the first major global economy to legalize recreational marijuana, with the Senate passing a legalization plan on Thursday.

The plan and all its amendments will now move on to the House, according to the BBC. If approved there, legal sales are expected to start within 12 weeks, meaning it could be legal to purchase marijuana in Canada by the end of the summer.

According to one Canadian Senator, Canada is taking a countrywide approach to avoid the issues that have unfolded in the United States, where cannabis is legal in some states but prohibited under federal law.

“We’ve very much learned from the early mistakes made by some U.S. states and other jurisdictions,” Canadian Sen. Tony Dean, an independent who sponsored the bill in the Senate, told USA Today. “We know we have a national challenge with cannabis. We have some of the highest youth consumption rates in the world, an illegal cannabis market worth upward of $6 billion annually, we know it’s harmful for kids, especially younger kids… and we had a government that wanted to tackle those issues.”

Having a national system will allow the Canadian government to address these issues above board, according to Roy Bingham, the CEO and co-founder of cannabis data firm BDS Analytics.

“Canada is creating a normal industry. What we have in the United States is a very abnormal industry,” he said. “In Canada, you see tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical companies, all these mainstream industries interested in getting involved.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ran on a platform of marijuana legalization in 2015. The senate measure will make recreational use and sale of marijuana legal, but it will leave the specifics of the cannabis laws up to each province or state.

Marijuana firms, researchers and public health experts will all be watching Canada closely to see how the market for legalized cannabis unfolds.

“It’s going to be a bit of a science fiction experience for a while,” Benedikt Fischer, an expert on substance use at Toronto’s biggest psychiatric hospital, told The Guardian. “It’s unique in the world, because it’s happening for the first time in a wealthy country. It’s not like in the U.S., where there are these state experiments. Most people kind of ignore Uruguay. And so the world is really looking at this.”

One issue will be setting the price of cannabis high enough to prevent new users from getting started with marijuana, but low enough to discourage black market sales.

“What I am mainly following … is who will be the new legal growers, and whether authorities manage to get some of the illegal growers to become legal growers,” said Tim Boekhout van Solinge, a Dutch criminologist.

Other issues including the impact of legalization on use of other drugs and dealing with impaired drivers, will also be closely monitored by policymakers and researchers from around the globe.

“They’re waiting to see if the sky’s going to fall,” said Jordan Sinclair, company spokesman for Canopy Growth, a medical marijuana grower in Canada. “[Investors] are waiting to see if all the stigma and all the demonization of this product that’s built up in 90 years of prohibition is true. It’s on us to demonstrate that it’s not.”

View the original article at thefix.com

9 June 2018
Marijuana “Tasting Rooms” Proposal Vetoed By Colorado Governor

Critics contend that Hickenlooper’s veto will backfire, driving the rise of more unregulated, indoor clubs.

Colorado governor John Hickenlooper vetoed a bill on Monday that would have allowed marijuana sellers to establish “tasting rooms” for their product. And while some observed that it wasn’t the first time Gov. Hickenlooper has shot down similar bills, the veto took the wind out of many Colorado pot retailers’ sails.

Many sellers had hoped their state would allow people to use marijuana in a regulated, public space. In a statement explaining his veto, the governor cited concerns about impaired drivers and other public health issues.

“We may agree with the proponents’ goals to protect the public and children; however, we strongly disagree that this bill is the correct path to achieve those goals,” Hickenlooper wrote.

He was also concerned that passing the bill might prompt a federal crackdown on Colorado’s pot industry.

The governor did, however, acknowledge that the most recent version of the bill was a far cry from previous versions. In fact, the bill “dramatically scaled back some advocates’ ambitions for stand-alone businesses reminiscent of a neighborhood bar or an upscale club,” The Washington Post reported.

Interestingly, the bill that Hickenlooper vetoed didn’t allow marijuana to be smoked in the establishments themselves and also left it up to local municipalities to make decisions around “tasting rooms.”

Proponents of the bill believed it could “resolve a stubborn conflict in Colorado and other states with legal marijuana,” given that while pot possession in Colorado is legal, public use (including in streets and parks) could lead to a police citation. By and large, most states have delayed developing statewide systems for public consumption.

Alaska, the Post added, is one notable exception: regulators there will begin discussions later this month about letting people smoke pot inside stores.

Denver regulators were forced by a voter-backed initiative into allowing sites, otherwise known as “social consumption facilities,” where customers bring their own weed.

Still, state and local regulators assert a tight grip on the business models that govern those facilities. In fact, as the Post notes, “permitted locations have limited interest”—perhaps an understatement, given that Denver officials have issued one permit for a pot club, not to mention only receiving two applications overall since last summer.

Meanwhile, others continue to watch Denver’s system closely: Las Vegas-area officials, for example, have been playing a wait-and-see game with their own licensure. If Denver’s system works, Las Vegas may follow suit.

Until then, San Francisco is the only city in the U.S. that allows lounges where people can legally smoke marijuana products.

In the meantime, critics contend that Hickenlooper’s veto will backfire, driving the rise of more unregulated, indoor clubs. Despite the setback, though, many proponents of the bill remain resolute.

“In its wisdom, the Colorado Legislature sought to close a significant gap in regulation,” said Chris Woods, the owner of an Aurora-based marijuana retailer. “It’s unfortunate that the governor chose not to offer another regulatory tool to state and local regulators. This fight is not over.”

View the original article at thefix.com

9 June 2018
Oklahoma Senator: Vote No On Medical Marijuana, It's "Harmful" to Families

“No one will convince me that our families will be better if only more parents and grandparents smoke more marijuana,” Senator Lankford said in a statement.

High Times has reported that U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) is asking his constituents to vote against a measure that would legalize the medicinal use of marijuana.

Lankford and the conservative religious group Oklahoma Faith Leaders issued a joint statement on May 31 in which they described the measure, State Question 788 (SQ 788)—which would legalize the possession, use and production of cannabis for medical purposes—as “harmful to the social fabric of Oklahoma.”

Lankford added that he believed that the measure was actually a ruse by “outside groups that actually want access to recreational marijuana.” Oklahomans can voice their opinion on the measure as part of the statewide election on June 26.

The measure is the work of Oklahomans for Health, which led a signature drive to include it on the June 26 ballot. Under SQ 788, no specific medical conditions would be required to qualify for a license, but patients would need a signature from a board-certified physician in order to obtain one. Licenses would also be required to operate a commercial growing operation or processing operation, and would require a fee of $2,500.

Users would be allowed to possess up to three ounces of marijuana on their person and eight ounces in their home; a 7% tax would be levied on sales, with the funds going to substance dependency rehabilitation, education and administrative costs.

Proponents have said that the measure will benefit patients and reduce costs to taxpayers for enforcement of prohibition. Opponents cite a lack of sufficient restrictions, including where dispensaries can be located and whether employers can test for marijuana use. Senator Lankford’s statement took a broader approach in its criticism, suggesting that state residents will become “more drug addicted and distracted” if the measure is passed.

“Most of us have seen first-hand the damage done to families and our communities from recreational marijuana,” Lankford wrote. “No one will convince me that our families will be better if only more parents and grandparents smoke more marijuana.”

Tulsa World noted that Oklahoma Faith Leaders is directed by Paul Abner, an evangelist who was also a paid “faith-based consultant” for Lankford’s Senate campaign in 2014.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Abner, who is also a current Republican candidate for State House District 100 in Oklahoma City, received at least $75,000 from Lankford since 2014.

View the original article at thefix.com

6 June 2018