Tag: medical marijuana

Medical Marijuana Is The Leading Cause Of Rejected Gun Permits In Hawaii, New Report From AG’s Office Shows

Of the roughly 500 firearm permit applications denied by officials in Hawaii last year, more than 40 percent were rejected because of applicants’ status as medical marijuana patients, according to new data from the state attorney general’s office.

Across Hawaii, state-legal cannabis use was the leading cause of gun permits being denied (40.7 percent), with mental health issues responsible for about a quarter of rejections and domestic violence disqualifying about 7 percent.

That said, a relatively small portion of firearm registrations were rejected by law enforcement last year. Of 23,528 applications processed during 2023, only 519—about 2.2 percent—were denied.

Of the rejected applications, 211 resulted from medical marijuana. Those denials included not only patients currently enrolled in the state program but also former patients. As the AG report notes, “police departments allow former patients to apply for firearms no less than one year after the expiration of their medical marijuana card.”

Under federal law, being an “unlawful user” of a controlled substance, including marijuana, means a person cannot legally buy or possess a gun.

Notably, the report showed that rejection rates varied significantly by region. In Kauai County, for instance, just 0.2 percent of applications were denied in 2023, compared to about 6.9 percent in Hawaii County, which comprises the Big Island.

Of 332 denials in Hawaii County last year, 191—about 57.5 percent—were due primarily to medical marijuana.

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Delaware Governor Signs Bill To Expand Medical Marijuana Access By Letting Doctors Recommend It For Any Condition

Delaware’s governor has signed a bill to significantly expand the state’s medical cannabis program as regulators take steps to launch the recreational marijuana market.

The new law approved by Gov. John Carney (D) on Tuesday removes limitations for patient eligibility based on a specific set of qualifying health conditions. Instead, doctors will be able to issue marijuana recommendations for any condition they see fit.

The measure will also allow patients over the age of 65 to self-certify for medical cannabis access without the need for a doctor’s recommendation.

Here are the key provisions of the medical cannabis expansion legislation, HB 285:

  • The list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana will be removed, allowing doctors to recommend cannabis for any condition that they believe patients could benefit from.
  • Patients 65 or older will be able to self-certify their need for medical cannabis—without any need for a recommendation from a healthcare provider.
  • Regulators will be authorized to issue medical cannabis cards with two- or three-year terms, instead of just the current one-year term.
  • Patients diagnosed with a terminal illness, meanwhile, will be able to qualify for a card with an “indefinite” expiration date.
  • The measure will provide patients with medical marijuana cards from other jurisdictions with the same privileges as registered in-state patients.

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DEA Appears To Question Marijuana’s Medical Value Despite Rescheduling Recommendation

In the wake of the federal government’s marijuana rescheduling announcement last week that acknowledged the medical benefits of cannabis, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Thursday released a report that appears to question the legitimacy of state medical programs.

“Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level; it has been ‘legalized’ or ‘decriminalized’ at the state level for recreational use in 24 states and the District of Columbia, and for ‘medical’ use in 38 states and the District of Columbia,” the annual National Drug Threat Assessment says, appearing to call those state-level changes and the medical value of cannabis into question by putting scare quotes around key words.

That’s despite the fact that DEA recently agreed to a Department of Health and Human Services recommendation to move cannabis to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, acknowledging for the first time that cannabis has an accepted medical use in the U.S.

The comments make up only a small part of the 57-page annual report, which the agency said analyzes “illicit drug threats and trafficking trends endangering the United States.”

The top-level findings, according to a statement from DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, are that the country’s shift toward synthetic substances such as fentanyl and methamphetamine—which she blamed largely on international cartels—has caused unprecedented harm.

“The shift from plant-based drugs, like heroin and cocaine, to synthetic, chemical-based drugs, like fentanyl and methamphetamine, has resulted in the most dangerous and deadly drug crisis the United States has ever faced,” Milgram said. “At the heart of the synthetic drug crisis are the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels and their associates, who DEA is tracking world-wide.”

“The suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and money-launderers all play a role in the web of deliberate and calculated treachery orchestrated by these cartels,” her statement continued. “DEA will continue to use all available resources to target these networks and save American lives.”

In 2022, drug-related deaths killed 107,941 people in the United States, DEA said in its press release about the new assessment. “Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are responsible for approximately 70% of lives lost,” it says, “while methamphetamine and other synthetic stimulants are responsible for approximately 30% of deaths.”

The agency press release doesn’t mention marijuana, though this year’s National Drug Threat Assessment itself does include some cannabis-related details.

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Cannabis Can Help Treat Female Orgasmic Disorder, Study Finds As Ohio Officials Consider Adding It As Qualifying Condition

Ahead of a decision by Ohio officials on whether to add female orgasmic disorder (FOD) as a qualifying condition for the state’s medical marijuana program, a new study highlights the benefits that researchers say cannabis could offer people with the condition—including increased orgasm ease and satisfaction.

The 10-page study, published in the journal Sexual Medicine, draws on a 2022 survey of “sexually active women who used cannabis.” Among those who experienced challenges in achieving orgasm, more than 7 in 10 said cannabis use increased orgasm ease (71 percent) and frequency (72.9 percent), and two-thirds (67 percent) said it improved orgasm satisfaction.

“The results corroborate 50 years of anecdotal and learned speculation about cannabis helping women with FOD,” the paper says. “The research found that cannabis use increased orgasm frequency, eased orgasm difficulty, and improved orgasm satisfaction. At the same time, the results opened new areas of discussion.”

For example, results of the survey found that women with one or more mental health diagnoses who used cannabis before partnered sex had “a more positive orgasm response regardless of whether they have FOD,” which authors noted was “consistent with research finding that women with FOD experience high rates of mental health diagnoses, prescription drug use, or PTSD.”

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Recreational cannabis use may lower your risk of cognitive decline, study says

When you light up or down an edible, you may be lowering your risk of cognitive decline, according to a new study comparing recreational cannabis users to nonusers. As marijuana isn’t without its health harms, these findings came as a surprise even to the scientists behind the study.

Researchers at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University found that nonmedical cannabis use—regardless of how or how often it was consumed—lowered a person’s odds of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) by 96%. The results were published in February in the journal Current Alzheimer Research. 

“I was expecting cannabis to be linked to an increased risk for cognitive decline, because that’s pretty much what’s consistent in previous research,” study coauthor Roger Wong, Ph.D., an assistant professor of public health and preventive medicine at the university’s Norton College of Medicine, tells Fortune. “I was stunned by the opposite finding.”

Dual use of cannabis, for both medical and nonmedical purposes, as well as medical use alone also correlated to decreased risk of SCD, the self-reported worsening or increased frequency of confusion or memory loss. However, those associations weren’t statistically significant.

Previous research suggests people with SCD are 2.5 times more likely to develop dementia and 1.8 times more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment. About one in nine U.S. adults ages 45 and older experience SCD, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“We don’t have a way to prevent dementia right now,” Wong says. “But if we can prevent subjective cognitive decline at the very beginning and track it, that’ll hopefully fix some of the issues that we’re having right now with dementia later in life.”

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Pennsylvania GOP Senator’s Bill Would Let Medical Marijuana Patients Get Gun Carry Permits

A Republican senator in Pennsylvania has formally introduced a bill meant to remove state barriers to medical marijuana patients carrying firearms after previewing the legislation and soliciting co-sponsors earlier this year.

Sen. Dan Laughlin (R) introduced SB 1146 on Wednesday, which state Senate Republicans noted in a press release was also 2A Day, celebrating the Constitution’s Second Amendment.

The GOP statement called the proposal “a bold step toward ensuring the rights of all citizens,” saying it “acknowledges the importance of the right to bear arms, a fundamental aspect of American freedom.”

“My legislation will make sure a valid medical marijuana cardholder is no longer considered an unlawful marijuana user,” Laughlin said in the release. “Although marijuana remains illegal under federal law, we should be updating Pennsylvania’s laws to ensure valid medical marijuana cardholders are not denied their rights.”

The two-page bill would amend the Pennsylvania’s Uniform Firearms Act, which currently says a concealed carry license “shall not be issued” to someone who “is addicted to or is an unlawful user of marijuana.” SB 1146 would add that “the term ‘unlawful user of marijuana’ does not include an individual who holds a valid identification card” under the state’s medical marijuana act.

It would also add a qualifier to a provision barring carry permits for an “individual who is prohibited from possessing or acquiring a firearm under the statutes of the United States,” asserting that the restriction “shall not apply” to someone prohibited from gun ownership “based solely on the individual’s status as a holder of a valid identification card” for medical marijuana.

The changes would take effect 60 days after becoming law.

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Kentucky Budget Bill On Governor’s Desk Would Restrict Medical Marijuana Funding Ahead Of Program Launch

Kentucky’s legislature has delivered a budget bill to the governor that includes a provision restricting funding for a medical marijuana regulatory body overseeing the state’s forthcoming program until its advisory board determines there’s a “propensity” of research supporting the therapeutic “efficacy” of cannabis.

The language represents a watered down version of what was included in the Senate budget proposal, which would have set a much stricter threshold for the availability of funding for the Office of Medical Cannabis.

A last-minute amendment that was adopted prior to passage on Thursday removed Senate-approved language that would have broadly required a “propensity of federal and international peer reviewed, published research with conclusive evidence as to the efficacy of medical cannabis” in order to fund the regulatory division.

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Kansas Senators Kill Bill To Create Medical Marijuana Pilot Program

Kansas lawmakers have voted to table a bill to create a medical marijuana pilot program in the state that has drawn early criticism from advocates who view it as excessively restrictive.

The Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee took testimony on the legislation in a hearing on Thursday, a little over a week after it was first introduced. But after members heard from supporters, opponents and neutral parties, they accepted a motion to table it until January 13, 2025 in a voice vote—effectively killing the measure for the current session.

After several unsuccessful attempts to legalize medical cannabis in a more conventional manner in recent sessions, lawmakers were exploring whether there would be enough support to enact the more limited reform through a pilot program that would have launched later this year. The committee put an abrupt halt to that conversation.

“Our goal is to provide relief for patients, while also balancing the concerns of legislators and conservative Kansans,” Sam Jones, COO of Kansas Natural Remedies, which helped draft the legislation, said during the hearing.

“By being one of the last states to implement this, I think we’ve learned from other states,” he said. “We’ve tailored this bill to address the things that other states have gotten wrong and to address the things that they may have gotten right. This is a limited bill. This is supposed to be a pilot program. This is a proof of concept for medical cannabis to give proof that medical cannabis isn’t going to cause the end of society.”

Under the measure, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment would be responsible for overseeing the program, and regulators could only approve licenses for four vertically integrated cannabis operators across the state. Pharmacies could also be permitted to sell medical marijuana.

To participate in the program, patients with one of 16 qualifying conditions—including cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain—would need to obtain a certification from a physicians.

There are a number of restrictions built into the legislation, including a ban on smoking marijuana products. While the bill also says that vaporizing cannabis would be prohibited, there’s separate language stating that flower could be inhaled through non-combustable vaporization.

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New Hampshire Lawmakers Vote To Expand Medical Marijuana Program With New Conditions And Higher Possession Limits

The New Hampshire House approved a group of bills expanding the state’s therapeutic cannabis program Thursday—as lawmakers continue to grapple with whether to legalize marijuana for everyone.

The chamber voted to pass House Bill 1278, a bill to add debilitating or terminal conditions to the list of qualifications for using therapeutic cannabis, also known as medical marijuana. In a separate vote, the House approved House Bill 1349, which allows those with generalized anxiety disorder to be part of the therapeutic cannabis program.

Both bills would require the patient to obtain a recommendation from a medical provider that they be prescribed medical cannabis.

The House also approved a bill to increase the amount of cannabis a medical marijuana patient can possess at one time. House Bill 1350 would raise the limit from 2 ounces to 4. Currently, the state’s cannabis decriminalization law allows people to possess up to three-quarters of an ounce.

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After 17 Years, Feds Stop Trying To Imprison a Licensed Medical Marijuana Provider

Seventeen years ago, the federal government raided Charlie Lynch’s medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California, and charged him with five drug felonies. Lynch, whose business complied with state and local regulations, has been fighting to stay out of prison ever since, and last month he finally won that battle.

The Department of Justice (DOJ), which had been insisting since the first iPhone was released that Lynch should be incarcerated for at least five years, suddenly agreed to a deal that will spare him that punishment and erase his criminal record. The case, which proceeded on autopilot even as marijuana prohibition collapsed in one state after another, is a vivid reminder that the unjust, massively unpopular policy persists at the federal level thanks to presidential and congressional inertia.

Lynch, a software developer who lived in San Luis Obispo County, started mulling a new line of work after he obtained a doctor’s recommendation for marijuana to treat his cluster headaches and found there were no nearby dispensaries that could supply his medicine. He conferred with a lawyer, local officials, and even the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) before opening Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers in downtown Morro Bay in April 2006.

California had legalized medical marijuana a decade earlier, and Lynch’s business was licensed, aboveboard, and legitimate as far as the city and state were concerned. The mayor, the city attorney, and city council members attended the grand opening ceremony, where the mayor posed for a photo shaking Lynch’s hand.

None of that mattered to the DEA, which raided the dispensary in March 2007, at which point it had been openly serving patients for a year. During Lynch’s 2008 trial in Los Angeles, he was not allowed to discuss the nature of his business, which was irrelevant under federal law.

“We all felt Mr. Lynch intended well,” the jury forewoman told the Los Angeles Times. “But under the parameters we were given for the federal law, we didn’t have a choice.”

At sentencing, U.S. District Judge George Wu considered details the jury was not allowed to hear, including the purpose of Lynch’s business, his extensive efforts to comply with state regulations, and the “scrupulous record-keeping” that enabled him to do that even as it facilitated his federal prosecution. Noting that Lynch had no prior criminal convictions and deeming him neither a typical drug dealer nor a serious threat to public safety, Wu sentenced him to a year and a day in federal prison.

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