Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Missouri Bills Would Regulate Hemp-Derived Delta-8 THC Like Marijuana

A Republican state senator has filed legislation to renew last spring’s failed effort to regulate intoxicating hemp products in Missouri, such as Delta-8 drinks and edibles.

Delta-8 THC products can be sold in stores in Missouri because the intoxicating ingredient, THC, is derived from hemp, not marijuana which is a controlled substance. And hemp is federally legal.

There’s no state or federal law saying teenagers or children can’t buy them or stores can’t sell them to minors—though some stores and vendors have taken it upon themselves to impose age restrictions of 21 and up.

And there’s no requirement to list potential effects on the label or test how much THC is actually in them.

State Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from O’Fallon who chairs the legislative committee that oversees Missouri’s marijuana rules, said the products are too easily accessible to children, particularly teenagers.

“I’ve had constituents reaching out to me saying that their kids had been hospitalized,” Schroer said.

Schroer’s bill would task the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) with regulating these products, as the agency currently does for the state’s marijuana program. And products would have to be sold at DHSS-licensed dispensaries. State Rep. Chad Perkins, a Bowling Green Republican, has filed a companion bill in the House.

DHSS spokeswoman Lisa Cox said the department does not take positions on proposed bills.

“However,” she said, “we do acknowledge the potential and ongoing public health impact of unregulated THC products.”

Over the past few years, Cox said there’s has been an increase in children going to the hospital for cannabis exposure.

“The department has increased its emphasis on regulatory mechanisms that protect health and children in order to minimize any contribution of the regulated cannabis market to such incidents,” she said. “As of right now, there is no such protective framework for unregulated THC products.”

Sean Hackman, president of the Missouri Hemp Trade Association, said his organization advocates for measures such as prohibiting sales to minors and mandating clear user instructions and rigorous product testing.

“While any overdose report, especially those involving minors, is deeply concerning, this does not constitute a public health emergency but rather an opportunity for improved regulation,” Hackman said in an email to The Independent in response to the legislation.

The association opposes tasking the department with regulating the products and requiring them to be sold in dispensaries.

A similar bill filed by Republican state Rep. Kurtis Gregory of Marshall got stuck in committee during the last legislative session.

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Florida Officials Arrest Two People Accused Of Falsifying Signatures For Marijuana Legalization Ballot Initiative

Florida officials say they’ve arrested two paid canvassers charged with allegedly falsifying signatures on petitions to put a marijuana legalization initiative on the state’s 2024 ballot.

As the state Supreme Court weighs a legal challenge to the ballot measure that was brought by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R), the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) said in a news release last week that two individuals are facing multiple felony counts of submitting falsified petitions.

FDLE said that three canvassers are being prosecuted on fraud charges, including one person who was involved in petitioning for an unrelated gambling-related initiative. The department said that “circulators submitted dozens of falsified marijuana and gambling initiatives petitions,” without specifying how many signatures may have been impacted.

“The Florida Constitution is a sacred document by which Florida’s government, voters and citizens are adjudicated,” Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd said. “Florida Law lays out a detailed process by which issues can be submitted to Florida’s voters for consideration before they are added to Florida’s Constitution.”

“To fraudulently misappropriate this process for personal gain is not only illegal but also violates the trust of law-abiding Floridians across the state,” he said.

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Scientists Published More Than 32,000 Marijuana Studies Over The Past 10 Years, Including Thousands In 2023, NORML Analysis Shows

Researchers have published more than 32,000 scientific papers on marijuana over the past 10 years—including over 4,000 in 2023 alone—according to an analysis from NORML that again calls into question critics’ claims that cannabis is insufficiently studied to be legalized.

The advocacy organization’s analysis is based on keyword searches on the federal National Library of Medicine website PubMed.gov. This year marked the third in the row that cannabis-related papers totaled over 4,000 as researchers continue to explore risks and benefits amid the legalization movement.

“Despite claims by some that marijuana has yet to be subject to adequate scientific scrutiny, scientists’ interest in studying cannabis has increased exponentially in recent years, as has our understanding of the plant, its active constituents, their mechanisms of action, and their effects on both the user and upon society,” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said in a blog post.

“It is time for politicians and others to stop assessing cannabis through the lens of ‘what we don’t know’ and instead start engaging in evidence-based discussions about marijuana and marijuana reform policies that are indicative of all that we do know,” he said.

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Broken promises: How marijuana legalization failed communities hit hardest by the drug war

In the long and contentious fight for marijuana legalization, lawmakers across the country won over skeptical colleagues by promising social justice: The economic benefits of cannabis sales would be targeted at communities marred by decades of racist drug enforcement policies.

New York’s plan would be “transformative” for afflicted communities, said Majority Leader Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes of the state assembly.

Los Angeles, California, would “level the playing field” for the downtrodden, vowed Councilmember Curren Price.

Illinois would “right the wrongs of the past,” proclaimed state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth.

The result, almost a decade since the start of the legalization movement, has been a series of increasingly elaborate programs designed to ensure that the spoils of legal marijuana sales — which are projected to hit $35 billion this year, and double again by 2030 — would benefit the communities hardest hit by the war on drugs.

But a POLITICO investigation found that those efforts have failed to deliver the promised economic justice, while overwhelmingly white and wealthy investors seek to benefit from the cannabis boom.

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Biden Signs Defense Bill Requiring Psychedelics Studies Involving Active Duty Military Service Members

President Joe Biden has officially signed a large-scale defense bill that contains provisions to fund clinical trials into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics for active duty military service members.

The president signed the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law on Friday, about a week after Congress approved the final deal and sent it to his desk.

Advocates were encouraged to see that bicameral negotiators agreed to maintain the psychedelics research provisions championed by Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) that were attached to the House version over the summer.

However, House negotiators receded on a separate section to create a medical cannabis pilot program for veterans. A Senate-passed provision to protect people from being denied security clearances due to past marijuana use was also left out of the final bill.

Now the psychedelics reform has been enacted, requiring the Department of Defense (DOD) to establish a process by which service members with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury could participate in clinical trials involving psilocybin, MDMA, ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT.

The list of covered psychedelics was also expanded to broadly include “qualified plant-based alternative therapies.”

DOD will need to facilitate that process within 180 days of enactment. It can partner with eligible federal or state government agencies, as well as academic institutions to carry out the clinical trials, with $10 million in funding.

Under the legislation as enacted, the defense secretary will need to provide lawmakers with a report within one year of the enactment, and every subsequent year for three years, with information about trial findings and participation.

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California Psychedelics Ballot Measure Could Undermine Marijuana Taxes, State Officials Say

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) released its review this week of a prospective ballot initiative to legalize psychedelics, outlining not only the plan’s policy implications but also its potential fiscal impacts on the state—which the report calls “various” and “uncertain.”

The measure, which proponents submitted the final language for earlier this month, would allow adults to legally grow, possess and use substances like psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, DMT, ibogaine and mescaline. A person would need a healthcare practitioner’s recommendations to purchase psychedelics at regulated stores.

As filed, the so-called Psychedelic Wellness and Healing Initiative of 2024 refers to “entheogenic” plants and substances, and it includes cannabis among them.

That approach, LAO said in its review, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars in potential tax revenue to the degree it affects the state’s existing marijuana market.

“If the interpretation and implementation of the measure causes a large share of cannabis businesses and consumers to shift from the existing legal cannabis market to the new market created by the measure,” the report says, “it could result in a net reduction of hundreds of millions of dollars in cannabis-related tax revenue.”

On the other hand, LAO added, the change could in fact lead to more revenue for the state.

“If there is not such a shift, the measure could result in a net increase in tax revenue,” the office said, “as people selling currently illegal entheogenic plants or substances or providing related services could begin doing so legally under state law and therefore pay sales and personal income taxes.”

Analysts noted that the potential increase in tax revenue, however, “is significantly smaller than the potential revenue reduction.”

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Oregon Secretary Of State Says Drug Decriminalization Measure Has Improved Treatment, Though Gaps Still Remain

Measure 110 has helped the growth of treatment and recovery services for drug addiction, but the state can do more to better manage the program, according to a report released Wednesday by the Oregon secretary of state’s office.

Lawmakers mandated the financial review, which looks at services that were established starting in 2022, two years after voters passed Measure 110, decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs and putting a share of cannabis revenue into treatment and recovery services.

Since 2022, the state has awarded $264 million in grants to 233 providers throughout Oregon that provide treatment, counseling and harm reduction, which can include distribution of clean needles. The review looked at where that money has gone and what providers are reporting to state officials. It did not consider how many people have been treated or received services or gauge the impact to society.

The findings come amid a call by Republicans for repeal of Measure 110, consideration by Democrats of needed changes to the law and a fentanyl-fueled rise in addiction and overdoses.

“Since it’s been implemented, the top question on everyone’s minds has been: Is Measure 110 working?” Audits Director Kip Memmott said in a statement. “It’s a complicated question to answer and much of the public conversation about Measure 110 is outside the scope of this review. We identified important progress being made, but it’s clear there is still much work to be done.”

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It’ll be a white Christmas regardless of the weather! UK has the second highest rate of cocaine use in the world, figures show

Many Britons are likely to celebrate a white Christmas regardless of the weather — as figures show the UK has the second highest rates of cocaine use in the world.

One in 40 adults in the UK take the class A drug, which is more than any other country in Europe and behind only Australia globally.

Experts say high use of the powder — known by its nickname ‘snow’ — is fuelled by the UK’s binge drinking culture, with many taking the stimulant to counteract the sedative effects of alcohol.

Once the preserve of high society, it is now widely used across all social classes, as its price has fallen in real terms over the past decade and it can be delivered ‘as quickly as a pizza’.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) compiled a global league table of cocaine use based on latest data from 36 countries.

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Ohio GOP Governor Pushes Lawmakers To Fix ‘Ridiculous’ Marijuana Sales Delay And Send Tax Revenue To Police

The governor of Ohio is pushing lawmakers to take action as soon as possible to address the “ridiculous situation” the state has found itself in, where marijuana is now legal to possess and use but without any place for consumers to purchase regulated products from.

Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said that the Senate passed a “good bill” to make various changes to the legalization law that voters approved at the ballot last month, but the House didn’t act before lawmakers adjourned for the year. He said he’s spoken with House Speaker Jason Stephens (R), who assured him that the chamber would work to “fix these problems” when they return.

While DeWine opposed the legalization initiative that voters overwhelmingly approved, he said “what’s important is we go forward,” starting with enacting reforms to provide legal access to cannabis sooner than later. The Senate bill, for example, would allow existing medical marijuana dispensaries to begin sales to adult consumers within 90 days of enactment, rather than licensing retailers in nine months under the current timeline.

“I don’t think anybody who voted for [legalization] thought that we would have a situation like we do today,” the governor said, adding that he doesn’t want Ohio to experience the same issues that New York has faced throughout its protracted legalization rollout, with illicit retailers proliferating.

“The legislature needs to take action now so that we could actually start selling it in Ohio legally and control how it is being sold—and so that the person who’s buying it knows exactly what in fact they’re they’re getting,” DeWine told WSYX in an end-of-year interview that aired on Thursday.

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Sports Medicine Doctors Have ‘Favorable’ Attitudes Toward CBD And Marijuana, Study Finds

Sports medicine providers “generally have favorable views toward CBD and cannabis,” and most believe marijuana should be removed from the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of prohibited substances, according to a new survey of 333 doctors published this month.

The study also found that most sports medicine physicians who participated support legalizing marijuana for recreational and medical use.

That said, there are still “varying views” about cannabis within the field, authors found, and those “appear to be significantly affected by age, practice type, and gender.”

Among demographic groups less likely to favor allowing marijuana for recreational use were women, older doctors and rural respondents, according to the survey, results of which appear in the journal Translational Sports Medicine.

“Similarly, these three factors were associated with a higher likelihood of disagreeing with WADA removing cannabis from the prohibited substance list and with the NCAA allowing CBD use by collegiate athletes,” it says.

Men and younger physicians, meanwhile, were less likely to identify marijuana as “performance-enhancing.”

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