Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Marijuana Is Now Legal In Ohio As Voter-Approved Law Takes Effect, But Lawmakers Are Considering Some Changes

Ohio’s voter-approved marijuana legalization initiative took effect on Thursday, and despite ongoing wrangling by state lawmakers to modify significant portions of the law, some provisions—including legal use, possession and home cultivation of cannabis—have immediate impacts.

Voters solidly approved the legalization ballot measure, Issue 2, on a 57–42 margin last month. But soon after, Republicans in the state Senate indicated their plans to gut the bill by eliminating home grow, reducing legal possession and allowable THC limits, raising sales tax, criminalizing the use and possession of marijuana obtained outside of a licensed retailer and steering funding away from social equity programs and toward law enforcement. Stakeholders said the overhaul would devastate the market, with ACLU of Ohio calling the measure a “demolition of Issue 2.”

As of Wednesday, however, the GOP-controlled Senate abruptly reversed course, and the full chamber instead approved a revised bill that in some ways would expand the voter-approved law. Among other changes, it would allow all adults 21 and older to buy cannabis from existing medical dispensaries in as soon as 90 days, maintain home cultivation rights and provide for automatic expungements of prior convictions.

The bill now goes to the House, where an alternative measure has been introduced. But regardless of how the proposed changes pan out, some reforms have already taken effect with Issue 2 kicking in on Thursday. Here’s a brief rundown of what’s new and what’s still to come in the months ahead.

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Florida Medical Marijuana Company Asks Court To Block Legalization Initiative That Would ‘Significantly Impact’ Its Business And Patients

A Florida medical marijuana certification company is seeking to block an adult-use cannabis legalization ballot initiative in the state Supreme Court, arguing that the reform “disproportionately prioritizes” profits from recreational sales and that it would “significantly impact our business operations and the well-being of our clients.”

My Florida Green, a service that connects patients seeking medical cannabis cards to doctors who can certify them, is asking the court to allow it to submit an amicus curiae brief in the case contesting the Smart & Safe Florida legalization measure that was brought by state Attorney General Ashley Moody (R).

The company says that it’s not opposed to adult-use legalization in principle, but it’s arguing that there are “potential consequences” of the 2024 constitutional amendment that could impact “patient care and public health.”

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Ohio Senate Committee Approves Bill To Allow Marijuana Sales From Dispensaries ‘Immediately’, Keep Home Grow And Expunge Records

In a stunning reversal, an Ohio GOP-controlled Senate committee has unanimously approved a revised bill that in many ways would expand the voter-approved marijuana legalization law that goes into effect on Thursday— by allowing adults to start buying marijuana from existing medical cannabis dispensaries in as soon as 90 days, maintaining home cultivation rights and providing for automatic expungements of prior marijuana convictions, among other changes.

Just days after the Senate General Government Committee advanced legislation to fundamentally undo key provisions of the cannabis initiative voters passed at the ballot last month—proposing to eliminate the home grow option and delaying legalization for at least one year until adult-use retailers started sales, for example—the panel dramatically walked back the measure and passed it in a unanimous bipartisan voice vote on Wednesday.

It’s now been referred to the Senate Rules and Reference Committee before potentially advancing to the floor as early as Wednesday evening. That said, it is not clear that the House is ready to make any changes on an expedited basis to the legalization measure that’s set to take effect on Thursday.

The overhaul of the measure comes one day after the Senate panel held a hearing and received public testimony on the initial proposal, with many advocates and stakeholders expressing frustration with the seeming undermining of voters’ decision and recommending changes such as freeing up medical cannabis dispensaries to start servicing adult consumers while regulators develop rules to license recreational retailers.

Sen. Rob McColley (R) detailed the latest changes following negotiations during an extensive recess in committee on Wednesday, stating that lawmakers’ focus “needs to be stamping out the black market” and also “protecting the access that the people of Ohioans voted for,” while ensuring that the administrative implementation “runs as efficiently as it possibly can, while protecting opportunities for for Ohioans to engage in this new industry.”

Committee Chairman Michael Rulli (R) said that over “the last three or four days, a lot of the public has reached out to probably every single one of our senators with thousands of emails and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of calls.”

“I think the people have spoken,” he said.

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DEA Threatens Georgia Pharmacies Over Dispensing Medical Marijuana Under State Law

Georgia recently became the first U.S. state to allow pharmacies to sell medical marijuana, with nearly 120 facilities applying to sell cannabis oil as of October. But now the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is warning pharmacies that dispensing THC is unlawful because it remains a Schedule I drug.

“All DEA registrants, including DEA-registered pharmacies, are required to abide by all relevant federal laws and regulations,” says a copy of a letter sent to a Georgia pharmacy by Matthew J. Strait, a DEA deputy assistant administrator in the agency’s Diversion Control Division. “A DEA-registered pharmacy may only dispense controlled substances in Schedules II-V of the Controlled Substances Act. Neither marijuana nor THC can lawfully be possessed, handled, or dispensed by any DEA-registered pharmacy.”

The letter, dated November 27, was first posted online by Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), an anti-cannabis advocacy group. DEA did not immediately respond to emails from Marijuana Moment attempting to confirm its authenticity.

One potential complicating factor around DEA’s advisory is a congressional budget rider that prevents the the Department of Justice from spending resources to interfere with the implementation of state medical marijuana laws. The provision was first enacted into law in 2014 and was extended last month to at least February 2024.

It’s not immediately clear how DEA squares its threat against state-authorized pharmacies that provide medical cannabis oil to patients with the agency’s obligation to follow the congressionally enacted federal law.

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Psilocybin’s ‘Efficacy And Safety’ For Bipolar II Depression Demonstrated By American Medical Association Study

Results of a new clinical trial published by the American Medical Association “suggest efficacy and safety” of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of bipolar II disorder, a mental health condition often associated with debilitating and difficult-to-treat depressive episodes.

“The 15 participants in this trial had well-documented treatment-resistant BDII depression of marked severity and a lengthy duration of the current depressive episode,” authors wrote. After seven psychotherapy sessions, one involving a single dose of psilocybin, the paper says, study subjects “displayed strong and persistent antidepressant effects, with no signal of worsening mood instability or increased suicidality.”

In the nonrandomized controlled study, which was conducted at Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Baltimore, “12 patients met both response and remission criteria” at the end of a 12-week study period, the trial found, meaning that measures of the diagnosis had dropped by more than half and fell below a minimum threshold.

“The findings in this open-label nonrandomized controlled trial suggest efficacy and safety of psilocybin with psychotherapy in BDII depression.”

Patients’ self-reported quality of life scores “demonstrated similar improvements,” the study, which was funded by the biotechnology company COMPASS Pathways that develops psychedelic treatments, found. In terms of safety, metrics of suicidal ideation and mania “did not change significantly at posttreatment compared to baseline.”

The nine-author study, published on Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, involved administering a single, 25-milligram dose of psilocybin. Patients with bipolar II disorder (BDII) met with therapists seven times—during three pre-treatment sessions, once during an “8-hour dosing day” and at three post-treatment integration sessions.

“In this study, most participants remitted rapidly (ie, within 1 week of dosing), and in most participants, remission persisted for the 12-week study duration,” the report says. “The 3 participants who restarted medication due to lack of benefit or relapse following improvement generally had poorer response throughout the trial.”

“In a sample of patients with treatment-resistant cyclical mood disorder, achieving persistent remission over a 3-month period is notable, especially given the single dosing of psilocybin,” it continues. “Further follow-up is warranted.”

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Six Governors Push Biden To Ensure Marijuana Is Rescheduled By The End Of This Year

The governors of six U.S. states—Colorado, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Louisiana—sent a letter to President Joe Biden (D) on Tuesday urging the administration to reschedule marijuana to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act by the end of this year. The move, they say, will provide economic and tax benefits for cannabis businesses, protect public health and more closely align government policy with public opinion.

“Rescheduling cannabis aligns with a safe, regulated product that Americans can trust,” says the governors’ letter, which points to a poll that found 88 percent of Americans support legalization for medical or recreational use. “As governors, we might disagree about whether recreational cannabis legalization or even cannabis use is a net positive, but we agree that the cannabis industry is here to stay, the states have created strong regulations, and supporting the state-regulated marketplace is essential for the safety of the American people.”

The governors noted that the recent Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommendation to reschedule marijuana “comes on the heels of 38 states creating their own state markets” and regulatory systems.

“In some cases, these state regimes have thrived for more than a decade,” the letter says, calling the rescheduling recommendation “a signal that FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services have faith in state regulators and the regulations that they have promulgated to keep citizens safe.”

Many of the benefits of rescheduling, the governors told the president, are economic. “Rescheduling to Schedule III will alleviate restrictions of Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code,” they noted, “allowing cannabis-related businesses to take ordinary business deductions—just like every other American business. Economists estimate that this will save $1.8 billion per year by shifting cannabis companies to a standard federal corporate rate of 21% versus the up to 80% effective tax rate they face now.”

The office of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), who led the group letter, said in a separate press release that rescheduling “will not only alleviate the financial and safety concerns for businesses but allow a thriving industry to play a full role in the American business environment.”

Demand for marijuana in the United States isn’t going away anytime soon, the governors told Biden, arguing that regulated products are far safer than those sold on illicit markets.

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Ohio Senators Take Testimony On Controversial Marijuana Legalization Overhaul As House Republican Files Alternative Bill

Ohio senators held a second meeting on a bill to significantly change the state’s marijuana legalization law that’s set to take effect this week, hearing public testimony amid sharp criticism of the GOP-led effort. In other chamber, meanwhile, a Republican representative has filed alternative legislation that would largely preserve what voters approved at the ballot, with certain exceptions such as a proposed ban on sharing cannabis between adults.

One day after the Senate General Government Committee gave initial approval to the cannabis overhaul measure, voting to attach it to an unrelated House-passed bill, the panel reconvened on Tuesday to take testimony, hearing from business owners, advocates and legalization opponents.

The legislation—which Senate President Matt Huffman (R) hopes to advance to the floor as early as Wednesday, before legalization takes effect on Thursday—would make fundamental alternations of the voter-passed initiated statute.

For example, it would eliminate a home grow option for adults, criminalize the use and possession of marijuana obtained outside of a licensed retailer, reduce the possession limit, raise the sales tax on cannabis and steer funding away from social equity programs and toward law enforcement. The bill also contains substantive amendments related to THC limits, public consumption and changes to hemp-related rules that stakeholders say would “devastate” the market.

Advocates have sharply criticized the GOP-controlled chamber over the proposal, arguing that it disrespects the will of voters, especially as it concerns the elimination of home cultivation and changes to possession rules.

Top Republicans, including Gov. Mike DeWine (R), have insisted that voters were only supportive of the fundamental principle of legalizing marijuana without necessarily backing specific policies around issues such as tax revenue.

The committee chairman, Sen. Michael Rulli (R), told the packed room of testifiers on Tuesday that he “strongly” suggested they “lower the temperature,” offering his assurances that lawmakers “understand the problems with homegrown and with taxes and how do we fix that and how do we get the people’s wishes.”

Rulli and other members asked several witnesses about how to most effectively mitigate the illicit market, including the possibility of allowing existing medical cannabis dispensaries to start selling to adult consumers before recreational retailers are licensed.

The chairman also expressed interest in addressing the lack of regulations around hemp-based intoxicating products, though he said it was unlikely to be tackled under the bill at hand given the expedited timeline they’re working with.

The panel heard testimony from several representatives of advertising companies who expressed opposition to the bill’s outright ban on billboard media for cannabis businesses, saying the industry should be subject to the same rules as alcohol.

“Discounting that the voters know about things I think is always a bad decision,” Sen. Bill DeMora (D) said at the hearing, pushing back on his colleagues pushing for major changes. “Voters spoke—and in my district voters [there was a] 70 percent approval rating—and for me to say that ‘voters be damned because they didn’t know what they’re talking about’ is a bit egotistical on my part.”

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Nevada Officials Approve Plan To Let People With Marijuana Convictions Become Police Officers

Nevada officials have officially adopted a proposal to amend hiring standards for police officers to allow job candidates who were previously disqualified for certain marijuana-related offenses to now be eligible for law enforcement positions.

After holding a public hearing on the reform in October, the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) voted to approve the change, revising regulations around hiring that currently prevent a person from becoming a peace officer if they have been convicted of an offense involving the unlawful use, sale or possession of a controlled substance.

The new language says the restriction doesn’t apply “to a person who has been convicted of an offense involving the unlawful use, sale, or possession of marijuana if the offense is not unlawful at the time the person submits an application for certification as a police officer.”

The commission said the change will expand the pool of eligible candidates for law enforcement positions and “aid agencies in the ability to fill much needed positions.” There will be no adverse effects from the reform, it says, nor additional costs to regulators.

Approval of the change, which was first proposed in May, does not mean that officers can use cannabis once employed, but it represents a significant policy change, especially given that the current rules are written in a way that explicitly emphasizes the no-tolerance policy for marijuana.

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US States With Medical Cannabis Access See Decline in Nonmedical Opioid Prescriptions

Medical cannabis legalization is associated with a decrease in the frequency of nonmedical prescription opioid use, according to a Rutgers study.

The study, published in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, examined data from a nationally representative survey of adults who reported nonmedical prescription opioid use – or using prescription medications without a prescription or in a manner other than prescribed.

According to the study, when states implement medical cannabis laws, there is a 0.5 to 1.5 percentage point decrease in regular to frequent (up to or greater than once per week on average) nonmedical prescription opioid use among people who reported using opioids in the previous year. However, these reductions were concentrated in people who met diagnostic criteria for cannabis addiction.

Still, the pros of legalizing marijuana to address risky opioid use should be considered alongside the cons, according to Hillary Samples, faculty member at the Center for Pharmacoepidemiology and Treatment Science in the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and lead author of the study.

“There might be some benefits to allowing legal access to medical cannabis in the context of opioid-related harms, ”Samples said. “However, from a policy perspective, there are much more effective interventions to address the ongoing overdose crisis, such as increasing access to treatment for opioid addiction.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of drug overdose deaths rose more than 14 percent from 2020 to 2021 in the United States. To understand approaches to mitigate this crisis, researchers have examined whether cannabis serves as an alternative to opioid use as cannabis might help with pain and symptoms of opioid withdrawal.

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Ohio ACLU Slams GOP Plan To Gut Voter-Approved Marijuana Law

Less than a month ago, Ohio voters approved marijuana use, possession, and sales for adults. It was a 57 percent to 43 percent vote, a considerable landslide in voting terms. The margin was not a surprise. Legalization is popular across numerous demographics and, apparently, across the state.

Issue 2 also passed as an initiated statute, not a constitutional amendment. The difference is the initiated statute process, by design, invites some level of input from state legislators. In fact, because it was state law—not the Ohio Constitution—that was changed, legislators have the power to tinker with, improve or entirely scrap all of Issue 2 anytime they want.

No one expects legal sales to start when Issue 2 is officially enacted this week, 30 days after its passage. Understandably, there is a regulatory framework that takes a little time to put together. This is true even if Statehouse politicians were 100 percent on board with every word of Issue 2.

However, “on board” is the opposite of what Senate Republicans have in mind. Before this week, House Bill 86 was a non-controversial bill tweaking state liquor laws. It passed the House 85–6. On Monday, with very little notice, it became the vehicle for the Senate GOP’s planned demolition of Issue 2.

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