Tag: the war on (some) drugs

New Hampshire Lawmakers Move Forward With Plan To Legalize Simple Possession Of Marijuana

Committees in New Hampshire on Wednesday took action on a handful of marijuana bills, advancing a plan that would legalize the simple possession by adults as well as a proposal to double existing possession limits for medical cannabis patients and caregivers. They put a pause, however, on broader legislation to legalize and regulate a commercial recreational marijuana market.

At a hearing, the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee gave its approval to two different bills. One—HB 198, from Rep. Jared Sullivan (D)—takes a simple, unregulated approach to marijuana legalization.

If approved, the measure would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to two ounces of marijuana flower, 10 grams of concentrate and up to 2,000 milligrams of THC in other cannabis products.

Retail sales of marijuana products, along with home cultivation, would remain illegal under the plan. Consuming marijuana on public land would also be prohibited.

Another bill—HB 190, from Rep. Heath Howard (D)—would increase the possession limit of medical marijuana by patients and caregivers, raising it to four ounces from the current two. Existing 10-day patient purchase limits would also increase from two ounces up to four.

Members of the committee voted 9–7 in favor of HB 198 and 14–0 to advance HB 190.

“We as a body have passed bills legalizing cannabis again and again,” Rep. Alissandra Murray (D), who made the motion to advance HB 198, said before Wednesday’s vote. “The people of New Hampshire have made it clear that they would like us to legalize cannabis.”

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Using Marijuana Every Day Could Help People Quit Opioids, New Study Indicates

A newly published study found that among drug users who experience chronic pain, daily cannabis use was linked to a higher likelihood of quitting the use of opioids—especially among men.

“Participants reporting daily cannabis use exhibited higher rates of cessation compared to less frequent users or non-users,” says the report, published last week in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review.

When results were split by sex, researchers observed that “daily cannabis use was significantly associated with increased rates of opioid cessation among males.” Those differences “suggest potential differences in cannabis use behavior and effects,” the paper says, and underscores the need for further research.

The report was authored by an eight-person research team from the British Columbia Centre on Substance Abuse as well as the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University.

Between June 2014 and May 2022, the team examined data from 1,242 people who used drugs (PWUD) while also living with chronic pain. Of those, 764 experienced “a cessation event.”

Daily cannabis use, it says, “was positively associated with opioid cessation.”

“Our findings add to the growing evidence supporting the potential benefits of cannabis use among PWUD, underlining the need for further research,” authors wrote.

Indeed, a growing body of research to date has examined the associations between cannabis reform and opioids, often finding reductions in opioid use in areas that legalize marijuana for medical or adult use.

A recent federally funded study in the U.S., for example, found an association between state-level marijuana legalization and reduced prescriptions for opioid pain medications among commercially insured adults—indicating a possible substitution effect where patients are choosing to use cannabis instead of prescription drugs to treat pain.

That research, which was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, looked at national records of opioid prescription fills as well as prescribing of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and other pain medications. Analysis showed that prescription opioid fills dropped following legalization in U.S. while prescribing of non-opioid pain medications saw “marginally significant increases.”

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Arizona Lawmakers Approve Psychedelics Bills To Create Psilocybin Advisory Board And Fund Ibogaine Research

Arizona lawmakers have approved two different bills focused on psychedelic therapy.

Senate passed a bill to create an advisory board tasked with studying the science of psilocybin, as well as state and federal policies surrounding the psychedelic, while the House separately approved a measure to fund clinical trials on ibogaine.

The Senate legislation from Sen. T. J. Shope (R) cleared the chamber in a 23-4 vote on Tuesday after it was significantly amended in committee, with members removing central provisions to establish licensed psilocybin service centers for adults seeking mental health treatment.

On the House side, the body advanced the ibogaine research legislation, sponsored by Rep. Justin Wilmeth (R), in a 36-22 vote on Monday, sending it to the Senate. It would provide funding for the state Department of Health Services (DHS) to “conduct a certified clinical research study on the use of ibogaine for the treatment of neurological diseases.”

An earlier version of Shope’s Senate psilocybin bill moved through both chambers last year with the regulated access components intact, but it was vetoed by the Democratic governor, who argued that “we do not yet have the evidence needed to support widespread clinical expansion.”

However, the year before, Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) signed into law budget legislation that included provisions to fund research into the medical potential of psilocybin mushrooms for a variety of conditions.

The new Senate-passed bill hopes to leverage some of those appropriated $5 million to create an Arizona Psilocybin Advisory Board, comprised of up to 12 members appointed by the governor and legislative leaders.

Representatives of the attorney general’s office and DHS, as well as military veterans, first responders, scientists with experience with psilocybin and physicians would be among the members.

Under the bill, the board would need to be selected by December 31, 2025, and they’d need to hold their first meeting by March 1, 2026.

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Federal Ban On Interstate Marijuana Commerce Helps The Illicit Market While Hurting Legal Businesses, California Report Finds

California officials have unveiled a new report on the current status and future of the state’s marijuana market—with independent analysts hired by regulators concluding that the federal prohibition on cannabis that prevents interstate commerce is meaningfully bolstering the illicit market.

The California Cannabis Market Outlook 2024 report—commissioned by the state Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) and carried out by ERA Economics—looked at consumer trends, industry data, regulatory enforcement actions and more.

Marketing conditions for licensed businesses “have been challenging since 2021,” the report says, noting declining wholesale cannabis prices and stagnation in transitioning adults to the regulated market. Just about 40 percent of consumers are buying from legal operators years into the implementation of legalization.

“Competition from the illicit market contributes to lower prices in the licensed market,” it says. “Some consumers still purchase cannabis from illicit operations and illicit cannabis production moves across state lines into different markets.”

“[C]annabis consumption has modestly increased and many of those consumers are purchasing cannabis from licensed cannabis businesses, but there is still a substantial illicit market in California,” it says. “Careful analysis of the data does not show an explosion of illicit market production.”

A key part of the problem is ongoing federal prohibition, according to the analysis.

“Federal legalization of cannabis and facilitation of trade between different states with licensed markets would reduce trade of illicit cannabis and could lead to more stable prices in California and other states,” it says.

The report says “wholesale prices showed that prices in the licensed markets in California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington are related,” and this “link between the licensed cannabis markets in California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington has increased over time.”

“The link is the unlicensed market,” it says.

“Prices in these states have converged, and statistical analysis confirms these markets are co-integrated. Market co-integration generally occurs as a result of trade between nations (or in this case, states). However, without any legal interstate trade, this result indicates that the illicit market is a driving factor that connects prices across states.”

That’s not to say that the lack of interstate commerce is the sole factor stymieing the industry, of course. The report also identifies the unregulated market for intoxicating hemp products—as well as local bans on marijuana businesses—as contributing factors.

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Ohio GOP Leaders Claim Bill To Roll Back Marijuana Legalization Law Doesn’t Disrespect Voters

Ohio’s Senate president is pushing back against criticism of a bill that would scale back parts of a voter-approved marijuana legalization law, claiming that the legislation does not disrespect the will of the electorate and would have little impact on products available in stores.

“My definitive message is: If you want to go purchase marijuana products from a licensed dispensary, that is going to be unchanged by Senate Bill 56,” Senate President Rob McColley (R) said on a podcast posted on Friday. “The only difference you’ll notice is the packaging may not look as appealing to children, but you’ll still be able to buy the same products.”

McColley was speaking on a The President’s Podcast, produced and published by Ohio Senate Republicans. He and host John Fortney, the communications director for the Senate GOP caucus, spent the first half of the podcast defending SB 56, which would amend the cannabis law passed by voters in November 2023.

Among other changes, the bill would halve the number of plants that adults could grow, add new criminal penalties around cannabis conduct and remove select social equity provisions in the law.

The Senate approved the proposal on a 23–9 vote last week.

Critics, such as Sen. Bill DeMora (D), who spoke against the measures on the Senate floor, contend that the plan “goes against the will of the voters and will kill the adult industry in Ohio.”

Fortney began the podcast by acknowledging “a lot of controversy around Senate Bill 56,” asserting that “all it did was preserve access to what the voters approved in November of 2023, the initiated marijuana statute, and put some safety and security parameters around it for—of all things, Mr. President—children.”

“The far left, the Democrat narrative, the narrative of the legacy media, has been, ‘Republicans are trying to take away what the voters approved,’ which is patently false,” Fortney continued. “What a lie.”

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California Proposal Would Prevent Coverage Of Medical Marijuana In Workers’ Compensation Cases

California officials are accepting public comment through mid-March on a plan that would remove medical marijuana as an accepted treatment for injured employees in workers’ compensation cases. The change would effectively prevent doctors in such cases from recommending marijuana and end any compensation to pay for cannabis medications.

The change being considered by the California Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) is based on recently updated guidelines from the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) that say cannabinoids are “not recommended” for treatment of chronic, acute or postoperative pain and separately advising against cannabinoid use by safety-critical workers.

ACOEM in an update earlier this year listed various health risks associated with marijuana use—including cannabis use disorder, motor vehicle crashes, schizophrenia and others—and further said that evidence shows that cannabis is ineffective or only minimally effective at treating various types of pain.

As a result of the ACOEM update, the worker’s compensation division is weighing a change that would remove marijuana and related treatments from California’s medical treatment utilization schedule (MTUS) in workers’ comp cases.

Cannabis reform advocates and workers’ rights groups are pushing back against the proposal, saying it conflicts with numerous other studies indicating that marijuana can be effective for treating pain, and are urging supporters to file written comments with DWC ahead of a planned hearing on March 14.

“The recommendation flies in the face of scores of scientific studies,” Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, said in an email, “including reports by the National Academy of Sciences and California’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, plus the experience of countless California patients and doctors who have found medical cannabis valuable for treating intractable chronic pain.”

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Colombian President Calls On Lawmakers To Legalize Marijuana To Combat Cartel Violence In The Illicit Market

The president of Colombia is calling on lawmakers to legalize marijuana in the country, arguing that prohibition “only brings violence” from cartels in the illicit market. And he’s also pushing other nations to legalize coca leaves for “for purposes other than cocaine.”

On Sunday, President Gustavo Petro warned in a social media post of the “multinationalization of the cocaine mafias,” claiming that there are more cartels today than before high-profile trafficker Pablo Escobar was caught and imprisoned.

“The empowerment of mafia organizations shows the failure of prohibition and the absence of alternative measures to simple prohibition,” the president said, according to a translation.

“My government will maintain full cooperation with all governments in the matter of confiscating cocaine,” he added. “And it has focused and will focus its action on large shipments and on high-ranking cocaine and money laundering bosses worldwide.”

Petro then said he’s asking the Colombian Congress to “legalize marijuana and remove violence from this crop.”

“The prohibition of marijuana in Colombia only brings violence,” he said.

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Washington Lawmakers Once Again Abandon Effort To Allow Adults To Grow Marijuana At Home

Democrats in the Washington State legislature have once again given up on a plan to legalize home cultivation of marijuana for personal use, opting instead to keep the conduct classified as a felony.

Lawmakers in the House Appropriations Committee did not act on the homegrow bill—HB 1449, from Rep. Shelley Kloba—before a legislative deadline on Friday, meaning it’s now dead for the session.

If enacted law, the bill would have allowed adults 21 and older to grow up to six cannabis plants at home for personal use, with households capped at 15 plants regardless of how many adults reside on the premises. People could also lawfully keep the marijuana produced by those plants despite the state’s existing one-ounce limit on possession.

Kloba and other supportive lawmakers have worked for nearly a decade to pass a law allowing adults to grow a small number of cannabis plants for their own use, but each year, other lawmakers and executive agencies have stood in the way of the proposal.

Kloba’s staff on Friday confirmed to Marijuana Moment that the bill would not move forward this year, saying that the lawmaker “will continue pursuing this policy” but declining to comment further.

Last year, Kloba sponsored HB 2194, which similarly died after not being called for a vote in the House Appropriations Committee.

After last year’s proposal failed to advance, Kloba similarly said she would continue to pursue the reform.

“Every session has its own character and constraints, which so far have meant that the bill has not advanced to the Senate,” she told Marijuana Moment at the time. “But I am not giving up.”

Washington was one of the first U.S. states to legalize adult-use marijuana, passing a ballot initiative in 2012. Growing marijuana for personal use without a state medical card, however, remains a Class C felony, carrying up to five years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.

Legislative efforts to allow personal cultivation stretch back to at least 2015, but so far each has failed.

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Minnesota Lawmakers, Cities And Businesses Raise Alarm Over State’s Pending Marijuana Contracts With Tribal Nations

People interested in the recreational cannabis market who are not Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) or leaders of the state’s tribal nations have been asking when, where and how they can present their views on imminent state-tribal cannabis compacts.

The answer is: They can’t. The pending compacts that are now expected to allow the state’s tribal nations to enter the legal cannabis business outside of their reservations will not be made public until they are signed by Walz and the tribes. Once signed, they would be the first state-tribal cannabis compacts in the U.S. to allow tribal enterprises to operate outside of reservation lands, and they can’t be amended without mutual agreement.

That leaves lawmakers, local governments and potential cannabis business people to raise issues publicly with little expectation that they will be considered by state negotiators. Walz endorsed the basic tenets of the deal—that the tribes would get a large chunk of the off-reservation market and be allowed to open their stores well before non-tribal stores can open.

“They’re great partners in this. They know how to do this,” Walz said. “Many of them are ahead, obviously enough to set up for them and their sovereignty, to be cultivating. So I think we’re in good shape, and I think they’ll be executed in the near future. And I think that’s the first step in a broader market that is going to be big, and it’ll shake itself out over time.”

He said having tribal stores open first “lets us get out there.”

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Defense Secretary Hegseth Puts Mexico on Blast: ‘Curb the Influx of Migrants and Fentanyl, or US Military Will Strike the Cartels’

Donald J. Trump is moving decisively on a wide array of fronts, both in domestic and foreign policies—and sometimes, these two categories overlap.

Take, for example, border security and the fight – on both sides of the divide with Mexico – against drug influx and illegal migrant smuggling-human trafficking operations, both undertaken by the brutal and extremely well-armed Mexican Cartels.

Here, too, Trump’s team will not operate in the old, expected fashion – but is alerting the neighboring authorities of their full intention of acting forcefully unless they up their game and tackle the issue.

A report arose that, in late January, a mere 7 days after his confirmation as Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth warned Mexican officials that the US military was ‘ready to take unilateral action’ against the country’s drug cartels.

The only way for Mexico to prevent this, the Secretary reportedly stated, is by working harder to stem the flow of fentanyl and migrants into the US.

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