Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Congressional Committee Invites Hemp Industry Expert To Testify At Hearing On How FDA ‘Failed’ To Regulate Products

A congressional committee has scheduled a hearing for next week focused on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), inviting a hemp industry representative to testify on how the agency “failed” to approve certain products such as CBD.

The House Oversight Committee hearing—titled “Restoring Trust in FDA: Rooting Out Illicit Products”—is set to take place on Wednesday.

FDA “failed to approve products and take necessary enforcement actions resulting in a flood of illicit and counterfeit products entering the country,” a memo on the hearing says.

The meeting won’t exclusively focus on cannabis issues. But among the four listed witnesses selected to testify is Jonathan Miller of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, an organization that has long criticized FDA’s inaction on CBD and other cannabinoid regulations since the crop was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill.

Miller told Marijuana Moment on Friday that he expects the hearing to be “wide-ranging,” but his testimony will concentrate on “all the challenges the hemp industry has been having by the FDA’s failure to regulate our products.”

He said that his testimony will serve as an “update” on issues he outlined during a 2023 hearing before a subcommittee of the full panel, where lawmakers raised concerns about FDA’s refusal to establish rules allowing for the marketing of federally legal hemp as a food item or dietary supplement.

In the two years since that initial meeting, the hemp market has faced repeated regulatory challenges—with a growing number of states moving to enact bans on certain hemp products due to the lack of regulations around intoxicating cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC that have become widely available.

“Nothing has happened at the FDA” to resolve the issue, Miller said. “And we think these ban efforts have a lot to do with the fact that we’re not regulated. So if we can get regulated, hopefully people will drop the efforts to ban our products.”

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New Delaware Marijuana Bill Addresses Dispute With FBI That Has Threatened To Delay State’s Recreational Market

Delaware lawmakers have filed legislation meant to fix an issue with the state’s marijuana legalization law that led FBI to reject its request to create a fingerprint background check system for would-be cannabis industry workers.

Rep. Ed Osienski (D) and Sen. Trey Paradee (D), who championed the legalization bills that were enacted into law in 2023, said on Thursday that FBI’s decision to deny the state’s request for a background check service code is a “disappointing setback,” but they’re hopeful that their new proposal will address the problem.

While state regulators have been planning to license the first recreational cannabis businesses in April, the enacted statute requires the background checks to be in place first. Without a legislative fix, the market launch will likely be delayed.

“I know this is a disappointing setback, especially for the entrepreneurs who have invested so much and the consumers who have been anxiously waiting for legal access,” Osienski said in a press release. “But I’m optimistic that this bill will provide the necessary fix to get Delaware’s adult-use cannabis market back on track.”

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Florida Lawmakers Vote To Exempt Military Veterans From Medical Marijuana Registration Fees

A newly amended Florida bill would allow military veterans to skip the state registration fee for medical marijuana cards and obtain the certifications for free.

The bill, HB 555, was filed in February by Rep. Alex Andrade (R) and originally would have made more significant changes to the state’s existing medical cannabis program, for example allowing home cultivation as well as reciprocity for out-of-state patients. But on Thursday, the House Health Professions and Programs Subcommittee advanced a two-page substitute bill that instead would make only small changes to the program.

First, the measure would change how often patients need to renew their medical marijuana cards, from the current annual process to once every two years.

Second, it would also waive the $75 registration and renewal fees for veterans, specifying that the state “may not charge a fee for the issuance, replacement, or renewal of an identification card for a qualified patient who is a veteran.”

Veterans would need to include their discharge form (DD 214) along with their applications.

“It certainly does help in the medical marijuana space, and it certainly helps veterans,” Rep. Michelle Salzman (R) said at Thursday’s hearing, according to a report by Action News Jax.

Jodi James, with the Florida Cannabis Action Network, told the publication that the group is “really excited about making medicine more available to people on a fixed income, and particularly our veterans.”

Rep. Lavon Bracy Davis (D) told Florida Politics: “I love this bill.”

If HB 555 becomes law, the changes would take effect July 1.

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CIA Flying Drones Over Mexico – Where Are The Spies?

Multiple news outlets are reporting that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is flying drones over Mexico to collect intelligence on drug cartels and fentanyl labs. Leaving aside for a moment the question of why the much bigger Department of Defense is not doing this, here are my questions. Where are our spies? Why are we reduced to taking pictures from the air to attempt to acquire intelligence on transnational terrorist organizations operating inside Mexico and, in fact, in our largest cities? Why don’t we have the cartels penetrated at every level by human sources?

It is the job of the CIA to crawl into the belly of the beast and obtain critical intelligence on the most serious threats facing this nation. It does not exist to produce lukewarm assessments saying that we have moderate confidence that North Korea remains to the north of South Korea. It exists to steal the crown jewels, to put on the desk of the President of the United States every day intelligence no one else on the planet has, and which gives the President a decisive advantage over our adversaries.

In its current incarnation, the CIA does not do that. It does not come close. It has superb personnel in most cases. Relative to its competitors it is awash in money and technical gear. It has however calcified over the years into a timid, risk-averse, bureaucracy run by people who rarely leave Northern Virginia and never met a PowerPoint presentation they didn’t like.

We were blindsided on 9/11 by a group that had been telling us about every five minutes for at least a decade they intended to attack us on our own soil. It took us ten years thereafter to track down Bin Laden principally because he had the good sense to stay off the internet and his cellphone, and we didn’t have any sources worthy of the name inside his organization.

In 2020 we were hit by a pandemic that almost certainly originated inside a Chinese bio lab that should have been at the very top of our list of collection requirements. We had no advance warning. Five years later we apparently still don’t have the intel we need to figure out what happened or if it is about to happen again.

Is DEI part of the problem? Yes, but the problem goes much deeper than that. We are attempting to conduct espionage using a bureaucracy that increasingly resembles the Social Security Administration.

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An Ointment With The Marijuana Components CBD And CBG Can Effectively Treat Symptoms Of Eczema, Study Shows

Authors of a new report on cannabinoids and atopic dermatitis—also called eczema—say their study demonstrated that an ointment including cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabigerol (CBG) was “effective in reducing itching and improving the quality of life of patients…leading to symptom remission in some cases.”

Published in the journal Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, the original research looked a number of metrics of skin health, including hydration sebum level and pH, in nine adult patients diagnosed with atopic dermatitis (AD).

The transdermal ointment was used as an alternative “to conventional auxiliary therapies during both flare-ups and remission” from May to July 2022, the team wrote. “The results we achieved included improved skin hydration, sebum level, and TEWL [water loss] as well as reduced erythema [redness] in the studied areas (forearms).”

AD, or eczema, “is the most common, chronic, and relapsing non-contagious inflammatory skin condition,” authors noted.

The ointment itself consisted of 30 percent CBD, 5 percent CBG, hemp seed oil and cholesterol. Patients were instructed to “apply a generous layer of the ointment to the same site (the forearms) once daily before sleep and to cover the area with a wet wrap dressing to enhance its effectiveness and protect bedsheets,” the report says.

Photos and other metrics observed a marked improvement in skin appearance and health over a three-month period. Authors wrote that their preliminary analysis of the results “showed that the topical delivery of the ointment compounded with Cannabis Sativa L. var. sativa oil, cholesterol ointment, 30% CBD, and 5% CBG led to the remission of skin lesions on the forearms of the included patients.”

Patients who better adhered to the treatment regimen, they added, demonstrated greater improvement.

“In the course of the therapy, patients adhering to the topical cannabinoid regimen achieved satisfactory skin parameters, including normal hydration and sebum levels, as well as improved TEWL and erythema,” the study says, “as opposed to patients who reported failure to comply with the regimen owing to the fatty texture of the formulation, despite the instructions they received.”

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Maryland Bill To Let Adults Make Marijuana Edibles And Concentrates At Home Heads To The Governor

A Maryland House bill that would allow adults to manufacture marijuana edibles and concentrates for personal use is officially heading to the governor. And a Senate companion version of the measure is also advancing through the legislature.

On Wednesday, the Senate gave final approval to the House-passed legislation from Dels. David Moon (D) and Luke Clippinger (D), voting 38-9 to send it to Gov. Wes Moore (D). The companion from Sen. William Smith (D), meanwhile, cleared the Senate in a 35-8 vote last week and now pending before the House of Delegates Rules and Executive Nominations Committee.

While the state’s cannabis law already allows adults to cultivate their own plants, the measures  would expand their options to account for non-flower marijuana products that can be made at home.

However, they would continue to prohibit the use of volatile solvents to create cannabis concentrates.

Under the legislation, possession, cultivation and distribution of high-volume cannabis in excess of 50 pounds would no longer be considered a felony punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison. Instead, it would be a misdemeanor carrying a maximum 10 year sentence and/or a $50,000 fine.

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Trump’s Veterans Secretary Had ‘Eye-Opening’ Psychedelics Talk With RFK Jr.—And He Plans To Press Congress To Act

The head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) says he had an “eye-opening” talk with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Trump administration’s top federal health official, about the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine. And he intends to press Congress to take action on the issue.

VA Secretary Doug Collins, a former Republican congressman, also said during an interview on the Shawn Ryan Show that was posted this week that he’s open to the idea of having the government provide vouchers to cover the costs of psychedelic therapy for veterans who receive services outside of VA as Congress considers pathways for access.

Collins noted that VA has already been conducting clinical trials into the therapeutic use of psychedelics for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), and the initial results show it’s “working,” with “tremendous change” among participants.

The secretary said he and Kennedy, the health and human services secretary, “sat in my office two weeks ago and talked about this very issue,” including how to navigate the regulatory and bureaucratic barriers to freeing up funds to support psychedelics access.

“Because we’re actually a hospital, a healthcare organization, we’re bound by some of the laws that Congress has made that have bound us into what we can use and what we can’t use,” he said, adding that marijuana is a “big example” of an alternative therapy that VA isn’t able to provide under current law.

“You’ve had a lot of congressmen say, ‘We’re not gonna do that. We’re gonna keep it where it’s at’” under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). “And so that it binds us a little bit.”

Asked for details about his conversation with the HHS secretary, Collins said it was “eye-opening because, of course he is very ‘Make America Healthy Again—getting the food additives out, getting those kind of stuff.”

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New Hampshire Senate Committee Rejects Three Cannabis Bills, Including Legalization And Medical Marijuana Homegrow

A week after hearing testimony on four House-passed cannabis bills, a New Hampshire Senate committee has voted to recommend killing three of measures, including a Republican-led legalization proposal and a plan to let state-registered medical marijuana patients grow plants at home.

Another bill rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing on Tuesday would have allowed existing medical marijuana dispensaries—known in the state as alternative treatment centers (ATCs)—to buy nonintoxicating hemp cannabinoid products from commercial producers and, after lab testing, use them in products for patients.

Lawmakers voted 3–1 to designate each of the three bills as “inexpedient to legislate” (ITL), essentially recommending that they not proceed. All the bills will nevertheless move to the Senate floor, at which point the full body will have the option to approve them despite the committee’s recommendations.

While the legalization bill—HB 75, from Rep. Kevin Verville (R)—was widely seen as unlikely to make it through the Senate, advocates said the committee’s recommended rejection of the two medical marijuana proposals from Rep. Wendy Thomas (D) underscores the body’s critical reception in general of cannabis-related legislation.

“It appears that a few senators just want to kill every bill that deals with cannabis policy, no matter how modest and non-controversial,” Matt Simon, director of public and government relations at the medical marijuana provider GraniteLeaf Cannabis, told Marijuana Moment. “That’s very unfortunate because support for cannabis policy reform has always been bipartisan in this state.”

Simon added that he’s still hopeful the Senate will move forward on at least the hemp cannabinoids bill, HB 51, once it reaches the chamber floor.

(Disclosure: Simon supports Marijuana Moment’s work via a monthly pledge on Patreon.)

The panel did not act at Tuesday’s meeting on the fourth cannabis bill before it, HB 196, which would expand the state’s annulment process of past arrests and convictions around simple marijuana possession.

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Florida Officials Say Marijuana Legalization Campaign Committed ‘Multiple Election Law Violations’

Florida officials have sent a cease-and-desist letter to the campaign seeking to place a marijuana legalization initiative on the state’s 2026 ballot, alleging that the group has “committed multiple election law violations.”

The Office of Election Crimes and Security (OECS)—part of Florida’s Department of State—also fined Smart & Safe Florida more than $120,000 for submitting completed petitions more than 30 days after they were signed.

The issue has been referred to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for a “potential criminal investigation.”

The campaign was behind last year’s Amendment 3 legalization ballot measure, which failed to win the required 60 percent approval to become law, and is now working to qualify a revised constitutional amendment for next year’s ballot.

Among the claimed violations listed in the letter are that Smart & Safe Florida failed to provide the official text of the proposed constitutional amendment to voters when obtaining signatures as well as that it delivered “forged or fraudulent petitions”—such as one “purportedly signed by a Florida voter in February 2025, when, in fact, that voter has been deceased since November of 2024.”

In a statement to Marijuana Moment, a campaign representative said it has confidence in the process and intends to push back on the state’s assertion it violated election law.

“The claims made appear to be a targeted effort to thwart the ability for the people of Florida to express their support of a citizen-driven amendment,” the statement says. “We stand by the process and had legal counsel vet all forms and communications prior to mailing and look forward to challenging the validity of these claims.”

Other violations claimed by OECS assert that the campaign circulated non-approved petition forms “in a manner that has created the opportunity for fraud and has led to dozens of Florida voters completing and submitting multiple…petitions” and that it submitted completed petitions after a state-mandated deadline.

The letter demands “an immediate accounting of any and all petition forms that were obtained in response to one of your mailed packages that you or your agents have turned in” and further mandates that Smart & Safe Florida “immediately cease the mailing, use, or circulation of non-approved petition forms.”

“Initiative efforts must be undertaken in compliance with the law,” the document says. “The issues raised in this letter are serious and could serve to undermine public confidence in the initiative process.”

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