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Tag: recreational marijuana

  • Teen Marijuana Use Drops Amid Legalization

    Teen Marijuana Use Drops Amid Legalization

    Teen marijuana use is down 8% in states where recreational marijuana is legal. 

    Legalizing recreational cannabis has lead to a decrease in teen use in many states, according to a study published this week that contradicts previous research of how legalization affects teen pot use. 

    The study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, found that recreational marijuana laws were associated with an 8% decrease in teen pot use, and a 9% decrease in frequent use. 

    Recreational Use

    “Because our study is based on more policy variation than prior work, we view our estimates as the most credible to date in the literature,” study author Mark Anderson told CNN. He emphasized that the study focused on recreational legalization, not legalization for medical use. 

    “Just to be clear we found no effect on teen use following legalization for medical purposes, but evidence of a possible reduction in use following legalization for recreational purposes,” he said. 

    The researchers looked at data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s annual national Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, which polled 1.4 million high schoolers between 1993 and 2017.

    Anderson would like to see the data reviewed again in a few years in order to reflect more widespread recreational legalization efforts. 

    “Because many recreational marijuana laws have been passed so recently, we do observe limited post-treatment data for some of these states,” he said. “In a few years, it would make sense to update our estimates as more data become available.”

    Stanford University professor of pediatrics Bonnie Halpern-Felsher said that the study needs an in-depth look, since it found different results from previous research. 

    “I think the big question is why,” she said. “Why are they seeing in this national dataset decreases—pretty significant decreases—when other studies are finding no difference?”

    Age Restrictions

    One possible explanation that researchers float in the paper is that teens are not able to buy legal cannabis because of the age restriction (only those 21 and over can access it), and legalization has lead to fewer opportunities to buy on the black market. Halpern-Felsher agreed that this is possible. 

    “Maybe now because of having legalization, you don’t have the street sales anymore,” she said. “So dispensaries, we would hope, would be better at carding and checking for age verification.”

    Whatever the reason for the decrease, she emphasized that education is key in maintaining teens’ health amid legalization. 

    “The other question is, are youth getting the message about the fact that using marijuana during adolescence is more harmful because of their brain development?” she said. “Given the legalization, we need more education around marijuana or cannabis use for youth and we don’t really have a lot of education.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • California's #Weedwise Campaign Aims To Combat Illegal Pot

    California's #Weedwise Campaign Aims To Combat Illegal Pot

    The public information campaign will highlight the potential health risks of consuming illegal marijuana. 

    In an effort to stem California’s flourishing black market marijuana trade, the state’s cannabis regulatory bureau has launched a digital public information campaign called “Get #weedwise,” which will encourage consumers to buy marijuana products from licensed businesses.

    The three-year, $1.7 million campaign, which kicked off June 21, is also intended as a warning to unlicensed businesses and growers, which will be targeted for shutdown as part of a larger campaign that is also focused on expediting business licenses. 

    The #weedwise campaign will be disseminated via ads on mobile phones and social media sites as well as billboards; Lori Ajax, chief of the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control, which is overseeing the ads, noted that its focus will “directly impact consumer safety by clarifying that only cannabis purchased from licensed retailers has met the safety’s standards.”

    Digital ads will detail health risks that can be incurred by purchasing illegal cannabis, including exposure to chemicals, mold, metals and even fecal matter.

    Consumers who wish to confirm that their retailers of choice are licensed are directed to the state’s online database, where they can enter information about businesses by address or license number. 

    A confluence of high taxes and buyer loyalty to black market sources has helped to undercut California’s attempt to earn a revenue windfall from cannabis since Proposition 64 legalized it for recreational use in 2016.

    Legal business owners have also complained to state officials about these issues, as well as a perceived lack of action against illegal businesses, which are estimated to number more than 1,000 in Los Angeles alone. However, the ad campaign has been largely met with a positive response.

    “It’s overdue, said Virgil Grant, a dispensary owner and co-founder of California Minority Alliance, a cannabis industry group. “If consumers turn against unlicensed shops, then they can’t exist.”

    Bureau spokesperson Alex Traverso told KOVR, the CBS affiliate in Sacramento, that the Get #weedwise campaign is one part of a larger, three-pronged effort to curb illegal sales that will include the closure of illegal businesses and growers, and expediting licenses to business.

    “When you have a government agency saying here’s how you know what’s legal and illegal, we feel like that’s a linchpin for success,” said Jerred Kiloh, president of the United Cannabis Business Alliance in Los Angeles. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • California’s #Weedwise Campaign Aims To Combat Illegal Pot

    California’s #Weedwise Campaign Aims To Combat Illegal Pot

    The public information campaign will highlight the potential health risks of consuming illegal marijuana. 

    In an effort to stem California’s flourishing black market marijuana trade, the state’s cannabis regulatory bureau has launched a digital public information campaign called “Get #weedwise,” which will encourage consumers to buy marijuana products from licensed businesses.

    The three-year, $1.7 million campaign, which kicked off June 21, is also intended as a warning to unlicensed businesses and growers, which will be targeted for shutdown as part of a larger campaign that is also focused on expediting business licenses. 

    The #weedwise campaign will be disseminated via ads on mobile phones and social media sites as well as billboards; Lori Ajax, chief of the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control, which is overseeing the ads, noted that its focus will “directly impact consumer safety by clarifying that only cannabis purchased from licensed retailers has met the safety’s standards.”

    Digital ads will detail health risks that can be incurred by purchasing illegal cannabis, including exposure to chemicals, mold, metals and even fecal matter.

    Consumers who wish to confirm that their retailers of choice are licensed are directed to the state’s online database, where they can enter information about businesses by address or license number. 

    A confluence of high taxes and buyer loyalty to black market sources has helped to undercut California’s attempt to earn a revenue windfall from cannabis since Proposition 64 legalized it for recreational use in 2016.

    Legal business owners have also complained to state officials about these issues, as well as a perceived lack of action against illegal businesses, which are estimated to number more than 1,000 in Los Angeles alone. However, the ad campaign has been largely met with a positive response.

    “It’s overdue, said Virgil Grant, a dispensary owner and co-founder of California Minority Alliance, a cannabis industry group. “If consumers turn against unlicensed shops, then they can’t exist.”

    Bureau spokesperson Alex Traverso told KOVR, the CBS affiliate in Sacramento, that the Get #weedwise campaign is one part of a larger, three-pronged effort to curb illegal sales that will include the closure of illegal businesses and growers, and expediting licenses to business.

    “When you have a government agency saying here’s how you know what’s legal and illegal, we feel like that’s a linchpin for success,” said Jerred Kiloh, president of the United Cannabis Business Alliance in Los Angeles. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "New York Times" Fact-Checks Elizabeth Warren’s Stance on Legalization

    "New York Times" Fact-Checks Elizabeth Warren’s Stance on Legalization

    Warren is now pro-legalization but the record shows that this was not always the case.

    A new article by the New York Times fact-checks Senator Elizabeth Warren’s comments regarding marijuana legalization.

    In April 2019, the senator, who is currently a 2020 Democratic candidate for president, told a CNN town meeting that she “thought it made a lot more sense for Massachusetts to go ahead and legalize marijuana” instead of decriminalizing it, which the state passed in 2008.

    However, the Times found that Warren’s declaration was somewhat exaggerated, and pointed to comments made in 2011 and 2012 that appeared to show reluctance towards embracing full legalization.

    At the town hall meeting in April, Warren was responding to a student’s question about her stance towards legalization by noting that she “supported Massachusetts changing its laws on marijuana,” and believed that legalization was a more effective measure than decriminalization.

    The Times considered her comment an “exaggerated” version of her actual stance at various times in the past.

    During the Senate Democratic primary debate in October 2011, Warren actually opposed legalization. “Medical marijuana is one thing, but [legalization] generally, no,” she said. A year later, she declined to offer an opinion on the issue during an interview with the Associated Press, but later voiced her support for medical marijuana during an interview for Boston radio.

    In 2015, Warren was asked by Boston Globe reporter Joshua Miller about her previous opposition to legalization efforts. She told Miller that she was “open to it” after hearing about legalization measures in other states, and reiterated her willingness to consider legalization a year later when asked about her position on Question 4, a legalization initiative on the November 2016 ballot.

    The Times piece found that Warren’s statements on various subjects were largely true, including the decline of the minimum wage and her wealth tax plan, though it took issue with her description of Democratic support for said plan as “huge.”

    Warren’s current support for legalization puts her on equal footing with the majority of her fellow Democratic candidates, including Senators Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris and Mayor Pete Buttgieg, as well as former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. 

    Former Vice President Joe Biden supports decriminalization efforts, criminal record expungement for marijuana charges and federal research into cannabis, but has stopped short of backing legalization, a position he shares with two other Democratic candidates, former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and Senator Sherrod Brown.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • New Jersey Governor Issues Ultimatum Over Recreational Pot

    New Jersey Governor Issues Ultimatum Over Recreational Pot

    Governor Phil Murphy is giving lawmakers until May to approve recreational marijuana…or else.

    After a failed effort to get recreational marijuana passed during his first 100 days in office, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told lawmakers this week that they have until May to approve recreational marijuana, or he will expand the state’s medical marijuana program by executive order. 

    “We’re not going to wait around a lot. I’m prepared to hold off for a short amount of time, but we’re holding back enormous demand for more access” Murphy said, according to the Asbury Park Press. “I’m still confident we can get it done legislatively and I’m prepared and certainly open-minded and quite supportive for the Legislature to go back at it and find those last couple of votes we didn’t quite get. But that can’t be an unending calendar.”

    Murphy, a Democrat, has been a vocal advocate for marijuana reform in the state. However, in March a vote to legalize marijuana in New Jersey was cancelled because lawmakers could not gather enough votes to ensure that the measure would pass. 

    “Certainly, I’m disappointed, but we are not defeated,” Murphy told The New York Times then. “Justice may be delayed, but justice will not be denied.”

    Now, votes on marijuana legalization are scheduled for the end of May in the state Senate and Assembly. 

    “I think it’s possible we can get this done in May,” state Sen. Nick Scutari, a Democrat in favor of legalization said. “But we can’t pass it unless we have the votes.”

    Bill Caruso, who is a leader in calling for marijuana reform in the state and a board member for New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform, said that postponing the vote was a smart choice. 

    He said, ”If they had another day, they would have been there. That’s how close it was. But I think a wise decision was made to hold off. There was such a short time between some very good and very substantive changes to this bill that confused a lot of folks. So they made a wise decision to stop trying to push it through.”

    Caruso said that it’s important that marijuana is legalized through a legislative vote, because that will ensure that the bill’s social justice components are passed. A public referendum would simply allow voters to select yes or no, essentially starting over on the legislative process of drafting the law.  

    He said, ”When you vote on this legislatively, you get to telegraph everything you’re going to do in the bill. If the Legislature is just given a blank check by the voters, people would be motivated for different reasons. We have the luxury of making this very difficult decision and looking at it in a global way. There is a need to get this right.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Michigan Grapples With Marijuana Licensing

    Michigan Grapples With Marijuana Licensing

    Michigan has been slow to give out business licenses to sell marijuana.

    A judge in Michigan ruled this week that the state could not shut down marijuana retailers while they await a review of their application for a license to sell marijuana.

    The ruling highlights the latest in a series of hurdles facing states in the process of setting up a retail marijuana market. In Michigan, which became the first midwestern state to legalize recreational cannabis last November, marijuana business owners have complained about the state’s slow approval process. 

    Because the state has been slow to give out licenses, dispensaries have been allowed to remain open while their applications were reviewed, according to the Detroit Metro Times.

    There had been a deadline of March 31, but on Thursday (March 28) a judge from the Michigan Court of Claims barred the state from shutting down the shops. 

    “Until further order of the court, [The Bureau of Marijuana Regulation] will maintain the status quo and not enforce the March 31 deadline with respect to both temporary operating facilities and caregiver products,” said David Harns, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

    Even though Michigan legalized marijuana, the slow pace of setting up its legal market has allowed illegal sales to continue to thrive. Not to mention the steep cost of obtaining a license to sell marijuana—which includes a $6,000 application fee and $66,000 a year for the license.

    The state has struggled to license enough dispensaries to keep up with demand, Harns said in February. 

    “We are focused on moving ahead by setting [a] regulatory framework to help create an industry in which licensed businesses can be successful,” he said. “We are constantly in contact with stakeholders, licensed operators and applicants to get a better understanding of how the regulatory environment affects them.”

    Michigan isn’t the only state that has legalized marijuana only to grapple with licensing issues.

    In March, the Sacramento Bee reported that California officials had approved only a fraction of its total applications received. The state gave out temporary licenses as a way to keep the legal market going despite the slow approval process.

    However, those temporary licenses are set to expire in the coming months and California has yet to approve enough permanent licensing to support the legal cannabis industry. 

    “This is the worst way to transition a multibillion-dollar agricultural crop, which employs thousands of Californians. Without legal licenses, there isn’t a legal, regulated market in California,” said State Sen. Mike McGuire, a Democrat who sponsored a bill to extend the validity of temporary licenses. 

    McGuire added, “In a time where the Golden State is working overtime to bring the cannabis industry out of the black market and into the light of a legal regulatory environment, we can’t afford to let good actors who want to comply with state law fall out of our regulated market just because timelines are too short and departments have been unable to process applications in time due to the sheer number of applications.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Edibles, Legal Pot ER Visits Increase In Colorado

    Edibles, Legal Pot ER Visits Increase In Colorado

    Although edibles make up only 0.32% of legal cannabis sales in the state, they were blamed for 10.7% of emergency room visits. 

    Since Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, cannabis-related emergency room visits have nearly tripled, and people who used edibles were more likely to end up in the hospital than people who smoked pot.

    The findings were part of a study published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Looking at data from one hospital in Colorado, researchers found that although edibles make up only 0.32% of legal cannabis sales in the state, they were blamed for 10.7% of emergency room visits. 

    People who took edibles were also more likely to report serious psychotic symptoms: 18% of people who went to the ER after eating edibles reported these symptoms, compared with just 10% of people who went to the ER after smoking. 

    Lead author Andrew Monte told Rolling Stone that people who took edibles were more likely to end up in the ER because any adverse effects they experienced were likely to last longer than adverse effects in people who smoked cannabis. 

    “My initial hypothesis was that people were stacking doses and getting too high of a dose,” he said. “But after analyzing these data, I actually think it is that adverse symptoms from edible consumption last longer than when people smoke. This leads to more opportunity to say, ‘I need to go to the ER.’”

    The executive director of NORML, Erik Altieri, told Rolling Stone that since the research only looked at one hospital in one state, people shouldn’t draw universal conclusions from it. He said that overall, emergency room visits caused by marijuana are rare, and usually not very serious. 

    “While we support increased public education and enhanced labeling to inform consumers about how to responsibly consume edibles and in what doses, it is important to note that the overwhelming majority of ER cases related solely to marijuana result in the patient simply being hydrated and let go in an hour or two,” he said. 

    Still, with marijuana being legalized in more places and edibles being widely available, some people urge public caution until there is more research into the effects and potential dangers of edibles. In Canada, researchers believe that an elderly man experienced a heart attack after eating a lollipop laced with cannabis. 

    “The outcome of this case is important with new marijuana legalization—hopefully with marijuana use no longer criminalized, more research into the cardiovascular side effects will emerge,” researchers wrote in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • New Mexico May Soon Legalize Recreational Marijuana

    New Mexico May Soon Legalize Recreational Marijuana

    The state’s house voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use, potentially joining the growing number of states that have done so.

    New Mexico could soon become the 11th state in the U.S. to legalize recreational marijuana. The state’s House of Representatives passed the measure on Thursday despite being voted against by every Republican representative as well as a few moderate Democrats.

    The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Javier Martinez (D), believes his bill will get through the senate because he reached across the aisle and worked on it with three senate Republicans.

    If passed, the bill would establish a system of sales and taxation modeled after Washington and Colorado, where marijuana has been legal for several years. However, as a compromise with senate Republicans, the New Mexico bill proposes mostly state-run marijuana dispensaries, with private sales being allowed if no state-run dispensaries are nearby.

    The legislation could become active as soon as mid-2020, possibly generating $9 million in tax revenue, according to estimates from state budget analysts. This figure is expected to grow to as high as $90 million in 2023.

    New Mexico’s Governor, Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, is likely to support the bill—as she ran on a platform “to move towards legalizing recreational cannabis in a way that improves public safety, boosts state revenues and allows for New Mexico businesses to grow into this new market.”

    The state senate has only until March 16th to make a move on the bill, which is good news for legalization opponents.

    “This is no surprise as legalization bills have passed the New Mexico House before. The bill now heads to the Senate, where there already exists a legalization bill that still has to clear three committees before the session ends next Thursday. While the House has passed this bill, we are confident the Senate will see through the tactics of Big Tobacco and Big Pharma investors and put public health first,” said Luke Niforatos of the anti-marijauna organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

    Several other states are also considering bills to legalize marijuana, including New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. Support for legalization on the federal level is growing, arriving in a wave of Democrats vying for the 2020 presidency who support the end of nationwide marijuana prohibition.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Church Hosts Summit About Marijuana’s Impact On Black Community

    Church Hosts Summit About Marijuana’s Impact On Black Community

    Industry leaders discussed topics ranging from marijuana’s impact on business, to criminal justice, to healthcare at the summit.

    As the senior pastor at the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York, Anthony Trufant is used to preaching about subjects that affect his community. Last week, he discussed the importance of black people and other minorities becoming involved with the soon-to-be legal marijuana industry in New York. 

    Trufant was speaking to more than 1,000 people who attended the Business of Cannabis summit held at the church, according to NBC News. 

    “It is a matter of economic justice,” said Trufant. “There are opportunities for investment, for employment and for microbusiness. Last but not least, it is a matter of political justice.”

    The church organized the cannabis summit to bring together industry leaders to talk about how legal recreational marijuana will affect the black community in areas ranging from business, to criminal justice, to healthcare. 

    Trufant spoke about the need for people to have their criminal records expunged of marijuana-related offenses. In New York City, blacks are eight times more likely than whites to face low-level marijuana charges.

    The state’s Attorney General Letitia James, the first African-American woman to hold the position, acknowledged this when she said, “This war on drugs has far too long been a war on people of color and a war on poor Americans and that’s mostly impacted my brothers, sons, fathers, and my friends.”

    In addition, Trufant and industry experts spoke of the importance of minorities being able to access marijuana for medical reasons. 

    “We recognize that in a time when there are soaring health care prices, that cannabis is really a matter of protection for people who are suffering from cancer and other ailments,” he said. 

    Registered nurse Kebra Smith-Bolden said that people who have grown up in high-stress areas often turn to marijuana to self-medicate for medical conditions that have not been diagnosed. 

    “People who grew up in the ‘hood, people who saw violence in their lives, they are literally checking off every box [for PTSD symptoms]. People who assume that people are just getting high; they are actually trying to medicate themselves. But they need to learn how to do it properly.”

    In addition to benefitting from easier access to marijuana, organizers and presenters at the summit want minorities to be able to enter the cannabis industry and benefit monetarily from legalized cannabis. 

    “I hope that today some minds were shifted,” said Gia Morón, executive vice president of Women Grow, an organization that helps women enter the cannabis industry. “I hope today, some questions were answered and I also hope that we have invited more people to join us in this industry, because I would love to be less the minority and I’d love to become the majority.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • New York Counties Skeptical Of Marijuana Legalization

    New York Counties Skeptical Of Marijuana Legalization

    In the more rural counties upstate, sheriffs and others are concerned about the effect that marijuana legalization will have on road safety.

    As New York state moves forward with plans to legalize the recreational use of cannabis, some counties in the state are expressing skepticism and considering whether to “opt out” of recreational cannabis. 

    If marijuana is legalized in New York, counties may be able to stop marijuana businesses from operating within their boundaries, according to WKBW Buffalo. 

    Chautauqua County in Northwest NY is one of the counties that is wary of marijuana legalization, according to Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello. 

    “It’s irresponsible to legalize recreational marijuana,” he said, adding that the bill being considered by the state does not make the rules around recreational cannabis use clear. 

    Niagara County Legislator Jesse Gooch said that he does not have a strong opinion on marijuana legalization, but he would like to hear from his constituents about their concerns. Because of that, he plans to host community forums to discuss whether Niagara County should opt out of legalization by not allowing marijuana to be bought, grown or sold in the county. 

    “I would like to set up a couple of open forums where we invite the public residents to come in and really just talk it out,” Gooch said. 

    NY Governor Andrew Cuomo expressed opposition to legalization as little as two years ago, but now supports a bill to legalize recreational use for people over 21. He has essentially said that the move is inevitable. 

    “It’s a false choice legalize marijuana or not, because we are there already,” Cuomo said, according to WIVB. 

    Despite that, law enforcement in New York has been against legalization. In the more rural counties upstate, sheriffs and others are concerned about the effect that marijuana legalization will have on road safety, according to Thomas Dougherty, Livingston County Sheriff.

    Dougherty said officers will need to be specially trained to detect whether a driver is operating under the influence of marijuana. 

    “I don’t know many agencies that can afford to have a full force of [drug recognition experts], some of the largest counties have 3 or 4. Again we have major concerns on what will be the fiscal impact,” he said. 

    Dr. Gale Burstein, Erie County Health Commissioner, said that since she has no say in whether marijuana use is legalized, she’s just doing her best to prepare for how that may impact public health in the county. 

    “We know that you can get addicted to marijuana. That’s a known fact, even though people don’t believe that,” she said. “In states where marijuana has been legalized, they’ve seen a much higher incidence of impaired driving and very serious motor vehicle accidents compared to states where marijuana has not been legalized for recreational use.”

    View the original article at thefix.com