Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Trump’s Pick For Traffic Safety Agency Will ‘Double Down’ On Marijuana-Impaired Driving Warnings As More States Legalize

President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead a key federal traffic safety agency says he’s prepared to “double down” on increasing awareness about the risk of marijuana-impaired driving in partnership with the White House.

During a Senate committee hearing, the nominee to serve as administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Jonathan Morrison, was pressed on the need to develop technology to detect impairment from THC and also educate the public about the issue.

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), who has long focused on promoting public safety around cannabis and driving, noted at the hearing that while there’s a national standard for assessing alcohol impairment, “currently, there is no uniform national standard to measure marijuana impairment.”

“Creating a national standard marijuana impairment is going to ease the burden of law enforcement, prosecutions, help clarify legal requirements for states and, without question, save countless lives,” the senator said.

The NHTSA nominee agreed and added that he feels “there isn’t necessarily public consciousness that when people are using marijuana, that it has an impairing effect on their ability to drive a vehicle.”

Keep reading

Federal Appeals Court Gives Medical Marijuana Patients Who Want To Own Guns A Win

As the U.S. Supreme Court considers a series of cases challenging the current ban on gun ownership by people who use marijuana, another federal appeals court has ruled in favor of medical cannabis patients who want to exercise their Second Amendment rights to possess firearms.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh District, in a opinion authored by Judge Elizabeth Branch, departed from the ruling of a district could that upheld the federal statute, Section 922(g)(3), that precludes any “unlawful users” of controlled substances from owning or purchasing firearms.

While the Justice Department has repeatedly argued that people who use cannabis, in compliance with state law, are uniquely dangerous—and that there are historical analogues in U.S. gun laws that justify the ban—the appeals court disagreed, vacated the prior ruling and remanded the case back to a lower court.

The federal government’s “allegations in the operative complaint do not lead to the inference that the plaintiffs are comparatively similar to either felons or dangerous individuals.”

The plaintiffs in the years-long case are Vera Cooper and Nicole Hansell, who are registered medical cannabis patients denied gun purchases over their admission to participating in the program, and Neill Franklin, a former police officer who wants to access medical marijuana without jeopardizing his right to own a firearm.

Former Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D) initially led the suit against the federal government, but she was removed from the case after leaving her state office. The Republican commissioner who replaced her declined to become involved in the legal proceedings.

One of the most controversial aspects of the many active firearms and marijuana cases deals with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2022 where justices generally created a higher standard for policies that seek to impose restrictions on gun rights. The ruling states that any such restrictions must be consistent with the historical context of the Second Amendment’s original 1791 ratification.

To that end, the Justice Department has argued that the two medical cannabis patients in the Florida case should be deprived of their gun rights due to their alleged felonious activity and dangerousness.

After reviewing the district court ruling on appeal, the Eleventh Circuit said “nothing in the [complaint] indicates that [plaintiffs] have committed any felony or been convicted of any crime (felony or misdemeanor), let alone that their medical marijuana use makes them dangerous.”

“Thus, the government failed to meet its burden—at the motion to dismiss stage—to establish that disarming medical marijuana users is consistent with this Nation’s history and tradition of firearm regulation,” the opinion says.

Keep reading

Intelligence Reports: Hezbollah Helping ‘Transnational Cocaine Trafficking’ in Latin America

Intelligence reports revealed an international criminal network linking Iran and its proxy Hezbollah with the Venezuelan regime’s Cartel of the Suns and Colombia’s FARC and ELN Marxist terrorist groups, Colombian outlets reported this week.

According to the Colombian magazine Semana, Middle Eastern intelligence agencies provided the information to the Colombian Armed Forces in a report. Semana and the Bogotá-based Blu Radio both claimed to be in possession of a copy of the report, which reportedly details that Iran, through Hezbollah, provided “financial, logistical, and doctrinal support, especially in the context of transnational cocaine trafficking.”

Iran’s support, the report detailed, allowed the criminal alliance linking Hezbollah, the Venezuelan regime and the Cartel of the Suns, the Marxist National Liberation Army (ELN), and FARC’s Second Marquetalia group to establish “drug trafficking corridors, safe havens, illicit military operations, and extractive activities” along the Colombian-Venezuelan border.

Blu Radio detailed that the collapse of Venezuela’s governance structures allowed criminal networks such as ELN to infiltrate state structures and consolidate its presence in the Venezuelan states of Apure, Táchira, and Zulia, all of which neighbor Colombia.

The report then explained that the Cartel of the Suns, run by dictator Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela and the nation’s military, has “evolved” into a more complex structure that interacts with Colombian armed groups. The Maduro regime’s repressive DGCIM Military Counterintelligence Directorate reportedly “acts as a protector of this network, guaranteeing impunity and eliminating dissent.” High-ranking generals from the DGCIM, the Venezuelan National Army, and the National Guard, the radio station said, are presumably involved in the criminal network.

Keep reading

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Revives Case Challenging Gun Ban for Florida Medical Marijuana Patients

In a decision issued Wednesday, a three-judge panel said the government had not met its burden of showing that disarming state-legal medical marijuana patients aligns with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.

The case was brought by several Florida medical marijuana patients, joined initially by former Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who argued the restriction is unconstitutional given their lawful conduct under state law.

The court’s ruling nullifies a district court decision from November 2022 that threw out the challenge

The court noted that the individuals involved had not been convicted of crimes or shown to pose a danger that would warrant taking away their gun rights. Under federal law, marijuana use remains a misdemeanor offense, but Florida voters legalized medical marijuana in 2016. The panel ruled that this conflict was enough to allow the case to move forward.

U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch, writing on behalf of the panel, noted that at most the plaintiffs were guilty of a federal misdemeanor for marijuana use. She emphasized that they had not been convicted of a crime and there was no showing at this stage that their drug use made them dangerous enough to justify stripping them of gun rights.

“Accordingly, the Federal Government has failed, at the motion to dismiss stage, to establish that disarming Appellants is consistent with this Nation’s history and tradition of firearm regulation,” she wrote.

Keep reading

Federal Agent Warns DC Residents Trump Is ‘Tired Of’ Public Marijuana Consumption Amid ‘Surge’ To Combat Crime In Nation’s Capitol

President Donald Trump is “tired of” marijuana and alcohol being consumed in public, a federal agent told a group of people sitting on a porch in Washington, D.C. in a video that was highlighted by Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver.

As the National Guard and multiple federal agencies—including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)—take part in the federalization of law enforcement in the District of Columbia, there was one interaction over the weekend that caught national attention.

In the clip featured on Oliver’s HBO show Last Week Tonight, an agent approached a group, apparently on suspicion that they were publicly using cannabis outside their residence.

“We’re doing checks, keeping everybody safe down here,” the agent said, asking if they had “heard of the federal surge that Donald Trump’s putting out.”

He was referencing an executive action that activated the National Guard and other agencies to participate in policing in the nation’s Capitol, with the aim of tackling violent crime. Local officials have disputed the justification for the “surge,” pointing to lower-than-average crime rates in D.C. in recent years.

But as federal agents swept the streets of D.C.—which White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday resulted in 465 arrests over about two weeks—questions are being raised about the nature of the crimes those officers were targeting.

Oliver said that “the purest expression” of the disconnect was “this cringe-inducing encounter where a group of agents approach a man they mistakenly think is smoking marijuana on his back porch, which, by the way, is completely legal in D.C.”

(For the record, possession of limited amounts of marijuana by adults is legal in the District under a voter-approved law—but public consumption is prohibited.)

Keep reading

Cannabis Seed Oil Has ‘Superior Effectiveness’ In Healing Wounds Compared To Conventional Antibiotics, Study Shows

Cannabis seed oil can help accelerate healing of skin wounds—a promising development that authors say indicates that “hemp seed oil may serve as a promising natural and cost-effective adjunct for wound management”—according to a new study of mice.

The report, published in the journal Narra J, compared wounds treated with hempseed oil against those treated with the conventional antibiotic chloramphenicol. Another group of mice was given only a mild saline solution.

“The findings of the present study highlighted the efficacy of hemp oil in accelerating wound healing processes, particularly wound size reduction, epithelialization, granulation tissue formation, and vascularization,” authors wrote, “with results indicating superior effect compared to chloramphenicol ointment.”

The four-person research team, from Universitas Syiah Kuala in Indonesia, noted that there appeared to be specific portions of the healing process in which hemp oil outperformed treatment with chloramphenicol. During other time frames, however, it seemed “comparable” to the antibiotic.

“Hemp seed oil demonstrated superior effectiveness in accelerating wound size reduction compared to chloramphenicol ointment during days 14 and 21,” the paper says, “indicating its potential as a supportive therapy for prolonged wound healing phases. While both treatments improved epithelialization, the significant effect observed on day 14 in the present study suggested that hemp seed oil may provide particular benefits during this critical stage of wound healing, potentially accelerating the transition to tissue remodeling.”

In terms of tissue formation, “hemp seed oil treatment significantly accelerated granulation tissue formation during wound healing, particularly on day 14, where it outperformed chloramphenicol,” authors wrote. “However, its effect on day 21 was comparable to chloramphenicol.”

Keep reading

Anti-Marijuana Groups Narc On D.C. Dispensaries In Letter To Trump, Saying They Are Too Close To Schools

Anti-marijuana organizations are formally narcing on several locally licensed cannabis businesses in Washington, D.C.—sending a letter to President Donald Trump, the U.S. attorney general and a federal prosecutor that identifies dispensaries they allege are too close to schools despite approval from District of Columbia officials.

Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) President Kevin Sabet and the head of a D.C. organization called “1000 Feet” recently sent the letter to the White House and DOJ, saying they “support prioritizing public safety and reducing drug use in the District of Columbia.”

This comes as the president considers a proposal to federally reschedule cannabis, which he said last week will be decided imminently. The issue has divided key voices in the MAGA world, and SAM is among the most vocal opponents of the reform.

But as Trump has moved to federalize D.C. law enforcement by putting DOJ and the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in positions of power to subvert local police control, the letter from the anti-cannabis groups encourages the administration to address the “ongoing lawlessness” allegedly associated with certain marijuana businesses in the jurisdiction.

Specifically, they say that over the last two years, “the DC government has licensed marijuana retailers to operate in close proximity to several elementary schools and daycare centers, over the strenuous objections of parents and educators, and in blatant violation of the Federal Drug-Free School Zones Act.”

The groups said that while they were “pleased” to see former interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin “take initial steps against one of the worst offenders” by threatening a locally licensed medical marijuana dispensary with criminal prosecution back in March, “we have not seen any public progress since then.”

Martin, for his part, has since been tapped by Trump to serve as U.S. pardon attorney.

“We hope the initiative you announced this week will provide another opportunity for you to protect the District’s children by taking swift action to close down all the offending marijuana retailers near schools and to inform the DC government that any further licensing of retailers at locations in violation of the Federal Drug-Free School Zones Act will be treated as a criminal conspiracy,” SAM and 1000 Feet said in the letter, which was sent on Friday.

Keep reading

Texas Senate Again Votes To Ban THC Hemp Products Despite Governor’s Push For Regulations

As the second special session of the Texas legislature commences, the state Senate has again approved a bill to that would ban hemp THC products.

Despite Gov. Greg Abbott (R) renewing his call for a regulatory model for intoxicating cannabinoids and an age limit of 21 to purchase such products, the Senate on Tuesday passed legislation from Sen. Charles Perry (R) to recriminalize the market in a 22-8 vote on third reading consideration. A day earlier the body had given initial approval to the measure on second reading.

This comes days after the Senate State Affairs Committee unanimously approved the proposal, which followed the full Senate’s passage of an identical bill in the first regular session this year.

“Nothing’s changed, other than the fact that more and more information comes out every week regarding the impact and effects of THC on the brain the body and long term use, and the impacts of that,” Perry said ahead of the initial vote on Monday. “This stuff is not good and it’s harmful for those that use it, specifically on a long-term basis.”

Before Tuesday’s final vote, Perry claimed that “every state that has legalized recreational pot may have less people in prison, but they have more people laying on the street—and definitely, from a business community, less people working because of lost productivity.”

“With that, I hope that the ban goes through…and sends a strong message: We don’t need to be another California, Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico, New York City,” he said.

Democratic House lawmakers staged a walkout during the first special session Abbott convened—denying the chamber a quorum in protest of a proposed redistricting plan for the state’s congressional map. Now as those members have ended their protest and head back to the legislature, hemp legislation is advancing again.

The bill approved by the Senate would continue to outright ban cannabis products with “any amount” of cannabinoids other the CBD and CBG. Even mere possession of a prohibited cannabis item would be punishable as a Class B misdemeanor, carrying up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Keep reading

Psilocybin Can ‘Maximize’ Recovery From Traumatic Brain Injury, Scientific Review Concludes

Psilocybin, a main chemical component in psychedelic mushrooms, could play a beneficial role in patients recovering from traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to a new scientific review published in the journal Brain Science.

Reviewing 29 published studies about the use of psilocybin in patients with TBI, a three-person team from Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and Hackensack Meridian’s JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute concluded that assisted psilocybin use “may have benefits in TBI by reducing inflammation, promoting neuroplasticity and neuroregeneration, and alleviating associated mood disorders.”

That conclusion, along with “positive findings in related fields, like treatment for depression and addiction, highlight the necessity for more extensive clinical trials on psilocybin’s role in TBI recovery,” authors wrote.

“The research on psilocybin as a therapeutic agent shows promise for its application in TBI in theory,” the new review says, “but it requires more in-depth studies.”

The report points to psilocybin’s apparent anti-inflammatory properties and its ability to promote the production of new neurons and connections in the brain. It also says the drug’s antidepressant properties could be helpful given the comparatively high rates of depression in TBI patients.

But the new paper also flags “concerns regarding potential ‘bad trips’ and other possible side effects,” emphasizing the “need for more controlled clinical trials to establish safe and effective protocols.”

Notably, the review found no indication that classical psychedelics were associated with an increase risk of seizures, which authors said was important given the heightened incidence of seizures already associated with TBI.

Authors emphasized that federal restrictions on psilocybin limit researchers’ abilities to easily conduct trials, writing that although “decriminalization efforts in the United States are indicative of growing interest, its federal Schedule I classification limits rigorous scientific exploration.”

Overall, the paper says, “psilocybin treatment with current therapeutic practices has the potential to maximize TBI recovery, thus providing a novel method to enhance treatment for people dealing with this persistent condition.”

The research comes amid a renewed interest in psychedelics to treat mental health and medical conditions, including TBI and post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD), especially in military veterans.

Keep reading