Tag: medical marijuana

Veterans Groups Urge Congress To Expand Psychedelics And Marijuana Access To Mitigate Suicide Crisis

Multiple veterans groups advised congressional lawmakers about the need to continue exploring psychedelics and marijuana as alternative treatment options for the military veteran population at recent hearings on Capitol Hill. And one veterans advocate cited his experience attending President Donald Trump’s Oval Office signing event for a cannabis rescheduling order as an example of progress in the fight for such alternatives.

At a series of joint hearings before the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees last month and this week, representatives of veterans service organizations (VSOs) testified about the need to promote innovative approaches in mental health treatment, in part to help mitigate the suicide crisis that’s disproportionately impacted those who’ve served.

Dan Wiley, national commander of the American Legion, said on Wednesday that the organization’s “number one priority” is “ending veteran suicide,” which involves finding alternatives to conventional therapies because “pills and therapy have objectively not worked.”

“We need stronger transition programs, innovative therapies and improved safeguards to medication management,” he said, while going out of his way to add that, after a decade with the American Legion, “I was proud to be in the Oval Office as the president signed an executive order that reclassified cannabis as a Schedule III drug.”

“This allows for federal research on how it can reduce drivers of suicide,” he said. “Now the American Legion does not support use of illegal drugs, but we strongly support research that could result in new, effective treatments.”

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Arizona Senators Scale Back Bills To Punish Marijuana Users Over Excess Smoke Or Odor Complaints

Arizona senators have dialed back a pair of measures that would penalize people who create “excessive” amounts of marijuana smoke or odor, with members advancing revised versions of the legislation following criticism that, as introduced, they would have added criminalization provisions back into the state’s cannabis use laws.

The latest bill and companion resolution, sponsored by Sen. J.D. Mesnard (R), were amended by the Senate Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, with a floor vote on third reading now imminent. While the bill would on its own enact a statutory policy change, the separate resolution would put the issue before voters to decide.

As the original proposals moved through the legislative process, advocates and certain lawmakers voiced concerns about undermining the will of voters who passed legalization at the ballot, as well as the ambiguity around enforceability and what constitutes “excessive” marijuana smoke.

The legislation was previously amended in committee last month in an attempt to provide a clearer definition of “excessive” smoke and remove a reference to making the offense a “crime.”

The latest revised definition of excessive cannabis smoke or odor describes it as “airborne emissions resulting from the burning, heating or vaporizing of marijuana or marijuana products,” according to a summary of the adopted floor amendment.

Such emissions must also be “detectable by a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities on other private property” and “occur for more than 30 consecutive minutes on a single occasion or on three or more separate days within a 30-day period.”

Members further revised the legislation in response to criticism that the committee-passed versions continued to lack clarity and would pose the threat of criminalization by making the offense a class 3 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail, a maximum $500 fine and up to one year of probation.

That, too, was ultimately changed in the bill (SB 1725) and resolution (SCR 1048) that are teed up to advance through the full Senate.

Specifically, the legislation stipulates that “excessive marijuana smoke or odor is a public nuisance if the person’s conduct is intentional or the person knowingly and substantially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property,” a summary of the amendment says.

The proposals also now specify that “lawful possession or use of marijuana does not preclude a finding of nuisance, except that a court may consider possession of a valid registry identification card as a mitigating factor,” and they provide that “a person is not liable for committing a private nuisance unless the person has received notice of the interference and fails to abate it within five days.”

Under the revised legislation, the affected party would first have to file a compliant with local officials before they pursue action with the state, but only if the municipality has already adopted an ordinance regulating excessive cannabis smoke or odor.

A person would be deemed in violation of the law if a local court has issued a written order directing them to “abate excessive marijuana smoke or odor that constitutes a nuance” and that person “knowingly violates or refuses to comply with the order.”

Each day of non-compliance after failing to adhere to the order would be consider a separate offense, and failure to comply would be a petty offense, rather than a criminal violation.

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Arkansas Supreme Court Ruling Could Let Lawmakers Roll Back Medical Marijuana Access

Emily Williams struggled to find medication that alleviated chemotherapy side effects like nausea and loss of appetite following her 2010 cancer diagnosis. Eventually, she tried marijuana and it provided relief.

“I was just grateful,” she said. “I just felt grateful.”

The experience prompted the Fayetteville retiree to advocate for a citizen-led constitutional amendment voters approved in 2016 to create Arkansas’ medical marijuana program.

That program has since grown into a billion-dollar industry, with more than 115,000 patients using marijuana to treat conditions from Crohn’s disease to post-traumatic stress disorder. But an obscure legal fight over who can change citizen-led amendments to Arkansas’ Constitution casts uncertainty on the program’s future.

The court ruling is part of a nationwide battle playing out in states like Missouri and Nebraska over citizen-led ballot measures. Arkansas is one of 24 states that allows citizens to propose state laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Since the state’s first dispensary opened in 2019, thousands of Arkansans have accessed the program, including Christopher Duffy, a 35-year-old Fayetteville resident who said medical marijuana helped his anxiety and sobriety. Duffy said he’d remain committed to sobriety if marijuana becomes less accessible, but he worries about others.

“I’m lucky to have such a support system where were things to get tough or I started struggling, I could reach out,” he said. “There are those that don’t have that and I fear for them.”

Williams, 69, is afraid of losing access to medical marijuana, which she uses to manage ongoing complications from her illness.

“If I am not able to use this, my life would be completely, negatively impacted,” she said.

These concerns were sparked by the Arkansas Supreme Court upending 74 years of precedent in December with a ruling that declared lawmakers can amend citizen-led constitutional amendments with a two-thirds vote — 67 votes in the House and 24 votes in the Senate.

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Florida Lawmakers Approve Bill To Punish Medical Marijuana Patients For Having Open Containers Of Cannabis In Cars

Citing statistics showing that impaired drivers contribute to more than 30 percent of fatalities on Florida roads, Jacksonville Republican Rep. Dean Black introduced legislation Thursday that would ban medical marijuana patients from possessing open containers of cannabis.

The prohibition would apply if they were driving or a passenger in a vehicle, with the penalty being the loss of their medical marijuana card after committing a third such violation.

The bill (HB 1003) would work the same way Florida law does now in banning driving with open containers of alcohol, Rep. Black told members of the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee Thursday.

“We are trying to make sure that we establish—like we did with alcohol—a taboo. It’s wrong. It has to stop,” he said.

Black cited an Ohio study published last fall showing that, over six years, 40% of drivers who died in motor vehicle collisions had tested positive for THC in their system—and said he had plenty of anecdotal evidence that this is also happening in Florida.

“I was in Tallahassee and watched two people who were in front of me at a light on Monroe Street, and they were passing a bong between the windows of their car,” he said, eliciting laughs from some lawmakers. “It’s ridiculous. It’s killing people.”

Among the concerns opponents expressed is that the bill says that a county or municipality “may” adopt an ordinance that imposes more stringent restrictions than simply the removal of one’s medical marijuana card.

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Oklahoma Governor Wants Voters To Revisit Medical Marijuana Legalization Law And ‘Shut It Down’

The Republican governor of Oklahoma says he wants voters to revisit the state’s medical marijuana law and “shut it down,” arguing that “liberal activists” conned the state and “opened up Pandora’s box’ with legalization.

During his State of the State address on Monday, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) said his “top priority has always been keeping Oklahoma safe,” and one of the “greatest threats to public safety is the out-of-control marijuana industry.”

“When Oklahomans voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2018, we were sold a bill of goods,” he said. “Out of state liberal activists preyed on the compassionate nature of Oklahomans. Then, it opened up Pandora’s box.”

The governor complained that the state has “more dispensaries than we do pharmacies,” adding that marijuana retailers “hide an industry that enables cartel activity, human trafficking, and foreign influence in our state.”

While regulators and law enforcement have “done incredible work to hold back the tide of illegal activity,” Stitt said, the industry is “plagued by foreign criminal interests and bad actors, making it nearly impossible to rein in.”

“We can’t put a band-aid on a broken bone,” he said. “Knowing what we know, it’s time to let Oklahomans bring safety and sanity back to their neighborhoods. Send the marijuana issue back to the vote of the people and shut it down.”

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Florida Patients Could Lose Medical Marijuana Registrations For Having Open Containers Of Cannabis In Cars Under New Legislation

Carrying an open package of medical marijuana, hemp or THC products, including beverages, in a car, would be illegal and could lead to suspension or possible revocation of a patient’s access to medical marijuana under a bill that’s been filed in the Senate.

Fort Myers Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin filed SB 1056 Monday, eight days before the 2026 regular legislative begins.

Martin’s bill would give law enforcement the green light to search a vehicle based on the “plain smell” of edibles, hemp, marijuana or THC beverages by creating a new statute that provides “legislative intent.” In doing so, the bill aims to blunt the effect of an October 2025 Florida Second District Court of Appeal ruling that the smell of marijuana alone is not enough to establish probable cause for a police search because marijuana no longer is illegal.

Because the ruling was in conflict with one of its previous rulings, the appeals court certified the question of whether the legalization of medical marijuana and hemp in Florida means the “plain smell” doctrine, which allows searches based solely on the smell of marijuana, still is valid. 

Sen. Martin didn’t immediately reply to Florida’s Phoenix’s request for comment on the bill.

The ban on the carry of open medical marijuana products applies to both drivers and passengers, although it wouldn’t apply to paying commercial passengers or passengers on buses or passengers in self-contained motor homes that are longer than 21 feet. The definition of “open container” mirrors the definition of open container for alcohol.

The bill has different penalties for drivers and passengers who break the law.

There are 929,655 medical marijuana patients in Florida, Office of Medical Marijuana Use data show.

Both drivers and passengers who violate the law could be charged with a noncriminal moving traffic violation and suspension of their medical marijuana identification cards, which enable them to buy the product. And both drivers and passengers who repeatedly violate the law could have their access to medical marijuana permanently revoked.

A driver who breaks the law a second time could be imprisoned for up to 90 days and forced to pay up to a $500 fine or both. Jail time for a third offense for a driver would be increased to up to six months and the potential fine upped to $1,000.

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New Jersey Medical Marijuana Program Sees Steep Drop In Registered Patients

New Jersey’s steep decline in medical marijuana patients continued with another 20 percent drop since the beginning of 2025.

Between January and December, roughly 14,000 people let their medical marijuana registration lapse, a trend that has continued since the recreational market launched in April 2022.

As of mid-December, 51,776 people are registered medical marijuana patients, according to the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission. In June 2022, that figure was nearly 130,000.

Medical marijuana cardholders get some benefits.

Dispensaries hold patient-only hours, give patients special parking, and let them skip ahead of recreational users in line. Patients also avoid paying cannabis taxes and can purchase up to 3 ounces of cannabis per month.

Before the recreational market opened, patients were the only New Jerseyans who could legally buy marijuana.

In recent years, officials have attempted to attract people back to the medical program by dropping the price of a registration card from $200 to $10 (there’s also a free digital option). People must also obtain a card from doctors who qualify to write medical cannabis prescriptions for treatment of conditions like epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, cancer and more.

The drop in enrollment has reflected the trends other states have seen when launching adult-use weed. But most other states allow people to grow their own marijuana at home, particularly medical marijuana users, while New Jersey still fully bans it.

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Congress Abandons Effort To Let VA Doctors Recommend Medical Marijuana On Veterans Day

Advocates are sharply criticizing congressional leaders for advancing a spending bill ahead of Veterans Day on Tuesday that omits bipartisan provisions allowing U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors to recommend medical cannabis to patients in states where it’s legal—even though the policy was approved by the full Senate and House of Representatives earlier this year.

While there’s been significant focus on language in appropriations legislation that passed the Senate on Monday that would ban hemp products containing THC, another key setback for reform advocates is the lack of the medical marijuana provisions for veterans—different versions of which advanced through both chambers.

“The absence of this provision is incredibly disappointing, and makes no sense whatsoever,” Morgan Fox, political director of NORML, told Marijuana Moment. “It is uncontroversial, revenue-neutral, previously approved by both chambers, and long overdue in order to help veterans find relief.”

“The timing of the announcement—just days before a holiday to show our gratitude to service members—is quite insensitive,” he said, referring to the bill’s unveiling on Sunday, just two days before Veterans Day.

Here’s the text of the House-passed version: 

“None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Veterans Affairs in this Act may be used to enforce Veterans Health Directive 1315 as it relates to—

(1) the policy stating that ‘VHA providers are prohibited from completing forms or registering Veterans for participation in a State-approved marijuana program’;

(2) the directive for the ‘Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Operations and Management’ to ensure that ‘medical facility Directors are aware that it is VHA policy for providers to assess Veteran use of marijuana but providers are prohibited from recommending, making referrals to or completing paperwork for Veteran participation in State marijuana programs’; and

(3) the directive for the ‘VA Medical Facility Director’ to ensure that ‘VA facility staff are aware of the following’ ‘[t]he prohibition recommending, making referrals to or completing forms and registering Veterans for participation in State-approved marijuana programs’.”

The Senate-passed language reads:

“None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Veterans Affairs in this Act may be used in a manner that would—

(1) interfere with the ability of a veteran to participate in a medicinal marijuana program approved by a State;

(2) deny any services from the Department to a veteran who is participating in such a program; or

(3) limit or interfere with the ability of a health care provider of the Department to make appropriate recommendations, fill out forms, or take steps to comply with such a program.”

The negotiated bill contains no language on the issue at all.

“Denying our veterans access to a medicine that so many use to ease physical pain, or the trauma of PTSD, is straight cruelty,” Adam Smith, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), told Marijuana Moment.

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Congressional Deal Would Ban Many Hemp THC Products, While Excluding Provisions To Let VA Doctors Recommend Medical Marijuana

Newly released spending legislation negotiated by congressional leaders would federally recriminalize many hemp-derived products. It also excludes provisions previously passed by the House and Senate that would have allowed Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors to begin issuing medical marijuana recommendations to their patients.

The new measure, if enacted into law, would ban certain hemp products that were legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill signed into law by President Donald Trump during his first term.

The negotiated bill “prevents the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products,” a summary published on Sunday by the Senate Appropriations Committee says.

Under current law, cannabis products are considered legal hemp if they contain less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis.

The new legislation specifies that, within one year of enactment, the weight would apply to total THC—including delta-8 and other isomers. It would also include “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects (or are marketed to have similar effects) on humans or animals as a tetrahydrocannabinol (as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services).”

The new definition of legal hemp would additionally ban “any intermediate hemp-derived cannabinoid products which are marketed or sold as a final product or directly to an end consumer for personal or household use” as well as products containing cannabinoids that are synthesized or manufactured outside of the cannabis plant or not capable of being naturally produced by it.

Legal hemp products would be limited to a total of .4 milligrams of total THC or any other cannabinoids with similar effects.

Within 90 days of the bill’s enactment, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies would need to publish list of “all cannabinoids known to FDA to be capable of being naturally produced by a Cannabis sativa L. plant, as reflected in peer reviewed literature,” “all tetrahydrocannabinol class cannabinoids known to the agency to be naturally occurring in the plant” and “all other know cannabinoids with similar effects to, or marketed to have similar effects to, tetrahyrocannabinol class cannabinoids.”

The deal was agreed to by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking minority member on the panel, as well as House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-OK). But Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the top Democrat on the House panel, did not sign off.

The language slightly differs from provisions included in legislation that had previously advanced out of the House and Senate Appropriations panels, which would have banned products containing any “quantifiable” amount of THC, to be determined by the HHS secretary and secretary of agriculture.

Separately, the newly released appropriations legislation excludes language that had been passed by either chamber earlier this year to let VA doctors recommend medical cannabis to their military veteran patients in states where it is legal.

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Florida Officials Are Revoking Medical Marijuana IDs From Patients And Caregivers With Drug Convictions Under Law Signed By DeSantis

Florida medical marijuana officials are actively revoking the registrations of patients and caregivers with drug-related criminal records.

The policy is part of broad budget legislation signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The provisions in question direct the state Department of Health (DOH) to cancel registrations of medical marijuana patients and caregivers if they’re convicted of—or plead guilty or no contest to—criminal drug charges.

The measure says a patient or caregiver will have their registration immediately suspended upon being charged with a covered state drug crime, and the suspension will remain in place until the criminal case reaches a final disposition. DOH officials have authority to reinstate the registration, revoke it entirely or extend the suspension if needed.

Bobbie Smith, director of the Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU), told lawmakers on Wednesday that regulators are already banning people from the medical cannabis program under the new policy.

OMMU has “identified 20 individuals that meet the new requirement for revocation, and there’s roughly 140 that we’re still monitoring as they wait make their way through the criminal justice system,” she said at a hearing of the House Health Professions & Programs Subcommittee in comments first reported by Florida Politics.

Under the law, authorities are required to revoke a person’s registration if the patient or caregiver “was convicted of, or pled guilty or nolo contendre to, regardless of adjudication, a violation [of state drug law] if such violation was for trafficking in, the sale, manufacture, or delivery of, or possession with intent to sell, manufacture, or deliver a controlled substance.”

The enacted version of the legislation focuses specifically on production and distribution. It does not contain an earlier restriction from prior versions that would have also revoked registrations for people who merely purchased illegal drugs, including more than 10 grams of marijuana for their own use.

It also clarifies that patients and caregivers have a process to request their registrations be reinstated. That involves submitting a new application “accompanied by a notarized attestation by the applicant that he or she has completed all the terms of incarceration, probation, community control, or supervision related to the offense.”

It’s not clear from the plain language of the revised bill whether it will impact only future criminal cases involving medical marijuana patients and caregivers or whether DOH would need to review the records of existing program registrants and revoke registrations of an untold number of Floridians with past drug convictions.

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