Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Delaware Bill Aims To Relax Buffer Zones Between Marijuana Businesses

A new state bill is being proposed that would give marijuana operators more options to place their shops throughout Delaware but may also inflame opponents who have sought restrictions.

The bill comes as local municipalities and counties continue to debate where marijuana shops should be allowed, following the legalization of the recreational marijuana market in 2023, which is set to launch soon.

The restrictions have led to about a third of Delaware’s municipalities deciding to ban marijuana shops outright from their town limits.

Under the current state law, municipalities are allowed to ban marijuana businesses, but counties are only allowed to set restrictions on where they can operate.

The new bill, Senate Bill 75, sponsored by State Sen. Trey Paradee (D-Dover) and filed late last week, will force the state’s three counties to decrease the buffers they created between marijuana shops and sensitive areas like schools, treatment facilities and libraries down to no more than 500 feet.

Paradee said the bill is aimed at addressing concerns that marijuana shop licensees are facing in Sussex County, as more than half of its towns have opted out of having marijuana shops in their jurisdictions and the county has set the widest buffers between shops and sensitive areas at 3,000 feet.

“They effectively made marijuana illegal in Sussex County, and that’s not what the voters of the state want, and that is not what the General Assembly voted for,” Paradee said.

He said the bill will also address the frustrations of business license holders in New Castle County, where some licensees told Paradee they also cannot find eligible space to operate. The northernmost county currently has a buffer set at 1,000 feet.

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Indiana Lawmakers Approve Bill To Ban Marijuana Advertising On Billboards

Tuesday discussion around a Bureau of Motor Vehicle (BMV) bill descended into impassioned debate over marijuana advertising, which Republican lawmakers said should be restricted.

In contention was House Bill 1390, authored by Rep. Jim Pressel (R-Rolling Prairie). The underlying legislation originally just dealt with BMV agency matters, like insurance verification, specialty license plates and registration stickers.

But among multiple changes adopted by the Senate Homeland Security and Transportation Committee on Tuesday—including a significant amendment addressing “predatory” towing—was a ban on “outdoor” marijuana advertising, notably on highway billboards.

Specifically, the amended bill language seeks to prohibit outdoor advertisements for products containing marijuana or a variety of other controlled substances, including heroin, LSD and ecstasy.

The bill now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Pressel, whose district extends to Indiana’s northern border, described “billboards all over the place that say, ‘Come to my store and buy this,’” referencing dispensaries in Michigan, where recreational marijuana is legal.

“And we have trucks—mobile billboards—that drive around and sit in front of our parks. That’s unacceptable, and it sends a mixed message to the consumer that this product is legal in Indiana, which it is not,” said Pressel, who unsuccessfully attempted to add the provision to a separate House bill earlier in the session.

“I think that’s an unfair message,” he continued, “and I believe that we should get in front of this to say that if it’s an illegal substance, listed on our illegal substance list in the state of Indiana, you should not be able to advertise for that.”

Multiple advertisers pushed back.

Ron Breymier, executive director of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Indiana, cited First Amendment issues. He argued that policymakers can dictate the size and placement of billboards, but “not the actual advertisement itself.”

Phones and internet searches, Breymier said, are a “greater threat” than billboards.

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CBD-Rich Cannabis Offers ‘Potential Benefits’ For People With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Scientific Review Finds

A new review of scientific research on the use of marijuana’s components to treat autism spectrum disorder (ASD) finds that “preliminary evidence suggests potential benefits,” including improvements around anxiety, sleep and behavior. But more work—especially randomized controlled trials—are needed “to confirm these results and establish clear treatment guidelines,” authors said.

“Preliminary findings suggest that CBD-rich formulations may provide modest benefits for sleep and social interaction, with a reduction in anxiety symptoms,” says the peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Cureus. “Regarding core ASD symptoms and behavioral outcomes, cannabinoids demonstrated greater efficacy compared to placebo in some studies.”

Researchers also acknowledged that “adverse events varied” among patients, and “response to treatment was inconsistent across individuals,” underscoring the need for further study.

“While cannabinoids, particularly CBD-rich formulations, appear to be relatively safe and potentially beneficial,” the new paper says, “further large-scale, controlled trials comparing CBD to established ASD treatments are essential to clarify its role and long-term impact in ASD management.”

The 13-person team behind the new study includes researchers from various hospitals and universities in Brazil.

Overall, they wrote, “While preliminary evidence suggests potential benefits, particularly for anxiety, sleep, and behavior, the findings remain inconclusive due to study heterogeneity and methodological limitations.”

For the analysis, authors looked at seven studies involving 494 patients, focusing on “key clinical outcomes, such as sleep, autistic core symptoms, anxiety, behavior, social effects, and adverse events.”

“Improvements were noted in anxiety, sleep quality, social effects, and behavior, although these findings varied across studies,” they concluded. “Importantly, adverse events were generally mild and occurred at similar rates in cannabinoid and placebo groups, supporting the intervention’s safety profile.”

Studies also indicated “a slight improvement” in sleep quality, while “autistic core symptoms showed positive responses” the report says. “Some studies also reported reductions in hyperactivity, agitation, self-injurious behavior, and epilepsy, along with improvements in communication skills, attention, and eye contact.”

Drowsiness was the most common side effect, followed by decreased appetite, weight loss, anxiety and restlessness.

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Federal Official Downplays Criticism That Saliva-Based Marijuana Testing As Urine Alternative Would Spur Use By Truckers

Amid ongoing discussions about how to ensure drivers aren’t impaired by marijuana, a federal official recently pushed back on criticism that proposed implementation of saliva-based drug testing could incentivize more cannabis use by commercial truckers.

In comments to the publication Transit Topics, an unidentified official from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) responded to assertions from the CEO of a drug-testing company that oral fluid testing “means truckers who use cannabis will be able to do so with near impunity, as long as they avoid a drug test for a couple of days.”

The contention of the CEO—Ken Fichtler, of Gaize—was that the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) “shift to oral fluid testing will have serious consequences for the trucking industry” because saliva testing has a shorter detection window than typical urine-based testing. He said the tests detect use within the past “24 to 48 hours,” which is far shorter than the period of weeks when marijuana metabolites can be detected in urine.

DOT finalized the new testing policies in 2023 to allow oral saliva drug testing as an alternative to urine-based tests.

The SAMHSA official, granted anonymity by Transit Topics, disputed Fichtler’s claims—both on the test’s detection window itself and the implications of DOT’s revised testing policies for truckers’ marijuana use.

“In referenced journal articles, cannabis use can be detected via oral fluid testing for up to 72 hours,” the official said. “When a donor receives a request for collection, the donor will not know if the test will be an oral fluid or urine collection until they arrive at the collection facility for a federal agency.”

Not knowing whether to expect a saliva or urine test, in other words, would prevent the situation described by Fichtler of drivers simply stopping marijuana use a few days before a saliva-based test.

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Nebraska Bill To Implement Voter-Passed Medical Marijuana Law Awaits Changes Ahead Of Committee Vote

The legislative committee mulling how to help implement Nebraska’s voter-led medical cannabis laws awaits an amendment before lawmakers vote on whether to advance the bill.

Legislative Bill 677, from state Sen. Ben Hansen (R-Blair), seeks to help carry out the overwhelming voter approval to legalize and regulate medical cannabis in the state last fall. His bill would create a regulatory structure for licensing and detail how patients or caregivers could become registered to obtain up to five ounces of physician-recommended cannabis at one time.

State Sen. Rick Holdcroft (R-Bellevue), chair of the Legislature’s General Affairs Committee, said last week that he and seven other committee members were awaiting a final amendment that could help the currently deadlocked committee decide whether to advance the bill.

“The people have spoken, and we need to put in place the best possible regulatory structure,” Holdcroft told the Nebraska Examiner.

Hansen has said one key change in his amendment would be tracking medical cannabis through the state’s prescription drug monitoring program, similar to the process for opioids. At least nine states use a local prescription drug monitoring program to carry out local medicinal cannabis laws.

The Blair senator has also voiced support for defining a “qualifying medical condition” for which a health care practitioner may recommend the drug and requiring that a physician be required to be appointed to one of the two at-large spots on the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission charged with regulating and implementing the laws.

The new commission automatically includes the three commissioners of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission. Under current law, the governor has the option to appoint two more members.

‘The people have spoken’

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Minnesota Lawmakers File Bill To Legalize Psilocybin Possession And Cultivation

Minnesota lawmakers have introduced a bill that would legalize the non-commercial possession and cultivation of psilocybin by adults 21 and older.

Rep. Andy Smith (D) filed the legislation on Monday, with seven original cosponsors. The measure largely informed by the findings and recommendations of a task force that was established under a separate bill that Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed into law in 2024.

“I’ve had a couple folks ask me this: ‘We’re in a tight moment. Inflation is rising. Why is this something that you’re working on?’” Smith, who served on the task force and whose prior legislation created the body, told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Tuesday. “And it goes back to, all of us recognize, know someone or struggle ourselves with mental health—and that has been apparent for a while.”

“I think the pandemic highlighted how much we have to go as a society and how we deal with very complex issues, and these medications have shown, in studies, to have great potential to help in that,” Smith said. “I think that’s why it’s important—and it’s important to move on these quickly and responsibly.”

Under the lawmaker’s proposal, the state law would be revised to make it so adults would not face criminal or civil penalties for the personal “use, possession, transportation and cultivation.”

The purpose section of the legislation states that the reform is meant to “reduce the burden on the criminal justice system, promote harm reduction, and enable individuals to make personal decisions regarding the use of psilocybin without fear of prosecution.”

A Psychedelic Medicine Board would be established under the bill to establish possession limits. Smith said that requirement—as well as components that may prove more controversial in an especially divided legislature such as decriminalizing cultivation—will likely be up for debate as the measure moves through the process.

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DEA Promotes ‘Anti-420 Day’ Contest For Young People To ‘Flood’ Instagram With Marijuana Warnings

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is promoting an “Anti-420 Day” campaign that’s recruiting students to send short videos warning their peers about marijuana use.

In a bulletin that was distributed on Tuesday, DEA’s JustThinkTwice.com site shared details about the campaign, which is being run by the anti-cannabis nonprofit organization Johnny’s Ambassadors.

“Be an Instagram Influencer for Anti-420 Day,” the message says. “Johnny’s Ambassadors is hiring teens and young adults (high school and college students) to create original videos about the harms of youth THC use for Anti-420 Day.”

The plan is to “flood” Instagram with the short-form videos that would feature students talking about “why young people should not use THC.”

Students would be eligible for a $25 Amazon gift card for a personal video, $35 for a group video and $50 for a “professionally produced educational video or skit with adult sponsor supervision.”

“Your video should either be an educational Youth THC Prevention video on why young people shouldn’t use THC products (vapes, dabs, weed, edibles, gummies) OR a personal story of how you have been impacted by THC use (yourself, a friend, a family member, or a loved one),” the organization said.

It also provided examples of potential prompts, including explainers on “why THC impacts athletic performance on a team” and busting “commonly-held but incorrect myth about THC.”

“Tell a personal story about how you’ve been negatively impacted by THC use” or perform a “skit or drama to educate other teens why using products with THC is bad for you,” the description from Johnny’s Ambassadors—which was founded the parents of a child who died by suicide after consuming high potency marijuana concentrates—says.

There are some restrictions on the content, including a ban on “swearing” in the videos. And no content is allowed that “depicts, imitates, or promotes the possession or consumption of any THC product.”

“DO NOT IMITATE THE USE OF THC/MARIJUANA OR PARAPHERNALIA OF ANY KIND, EVEN AS A JOKE,” it emphasizes.

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Tulsi Gabbard is sure to anger Trump with major admission about Canada’s fentanyl trafficking

Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday struggled to explain why Canada was left off a list of countries that pose a major drug threat to the United States.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly blasted Canada as a national security threat for the amount of fentanyl that comes over its border, which he used as one of reasons he sparked a tariff war with Ottawa.  

Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, was testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the Annual Threat Assessment (ATA) when she was asked about the omission of Canada from that portion of the threat list. 

‘The focus in my opening and the ATA was really to focus on the most extreme threats in that area. And our assessment is that the most extreme threat related to fentanyl continues to come from and through Mexico,’ she said.

Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said he was surprised by the omission of Canada ‘given some of the rhetoric’ from officials in the Trump administration.

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Marijuana Industry PAC Attacks Biden And Canada In New Ads Designed To Appeal To Trump

A marijuana industry-funded political action committee (PAC) is attacking former President Joe Biden’s cannabis policy record as well as the nation of Canada, with new ads promoting sometimes misleading claims about the last administration while making the case that President Donald Trump can deliver on reform.

The American Rights and Reform PAC–which launched in 2023 under a different name, Legalize America, and lists an executive at the major marijuana company Curaleaf as its treasurer—has two ads on its site that appear designed to appeal directly to Trump.

The ads aim to accomplish that by sharply criticizing the president’s predecessor and also emphasizing that American cannabis businesses are losing out to Canada, a more recent target of Trump’s ire, because of prohibitionist U.S. laws.

But with respect to the Biden-centered ad, the PAC’s attempt to draw a sharp contrast between the two administrations included inaccurate characterizations of Biden’s record—at one point stating that Biden was personally involved in criminalizing marijuana while completely ignoring his direct role in initiating a federal marijuana rescheduling review.

“Millions of American patients depend on medical cannabis, but Joe Biden and Democrats classified their medication as a dangerous narcotic like heroin, eliminating their access to relief,” the ad says.

“President Trump is fighting to make America healthy again,” it continues. “He did it before by giving patients life saving treatments with the Right to Try, and he can do it again by rescheduling cannabis. Ask President Trump to end Biden’s war on medical cannabis and put patients first.”

To be sure, advocates have widely criticized Biden for championing punitive anti-drug laws during his time in the Senate and not doing more to release people still incarcerated over federal cannabis-related convictions while in the White House.

But it was under the administration of Republican President Richard Nixon that marijuana was placed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in 1970, before Biden joined the Senate. That was also before any states had legalized medical cannabis, despite the ad suggesting that patients were criminalized while legal programs existed.

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Bungling police raid ‘terrified’ elderly couple’s home in search for cannabis farm after thermal camera mistook the heating in terraced home for drugs den

An elderly couple who like to keep the heating on at home were left ‘shaking in fear’ when police burst into their home searching for a cannabis farm – after a thermal camera on a helicopter wrongly identified it as a drugs den.

Pensioners Barry and Mavis Lovelock were finishing their breakfast when the ‘terrifying’ raid took place.

Nine officers stormed in because a helicopter camera had mistakenly identified their toasty terrace home as a potential cannabis grow.

But after charging upstairs looking for cannabis plants and the strong lamps used to grow them, the sheepish officers came back down empty-handed after quickly concluding their tip-off had been ‘not fully accurate’. 

The heat signature on the couple’s roof had instead been caused by their two gas fires, which they keep on around-the-clock in the colder months.

Leicestershire Police has now apologised. They said another raid on a separate property in the street in Newfoundpool, Leicester, had found a large cannabis farm, with 79 plants being seized.

Mrs Lovelock said the ‘awful’ incident, which took place on March 15 at the property the couple had lived in since 1978, had left her in tears.

She said: ‘They told us the camera on the helicopter had noticed our roof glowing white but that was just because we have the heating on all of the time.

‘People of our age feel the cold so we need the heating on. 

‘We have two new gas fires downstairs and the gas engineer told us they will warm the whole house and they do. We keep the doors open and the heat circulates. We have electric wall heaters too, but we only need to put the electric heater on in the back bedroom.’

She said the couple had just finished their breakfast when she noticed a group of police officers outside as her husband, a retired water board worker, went to make another cup of tea.

Mrs Lovelock said that police then ‘hit the door’, prompting Mr Lovelock to shout: ‘Hang on mate’, before somebody shouted ‘Stand clear’ from the street outside.

She added: ‘They just rammed the door in. It was awful. They knocked the gate at the back in as well.

‘It was terrifying and I said to them, ‘What the devil do you think you’re doing? There’s two pensioners here.’

The couple, who celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary last year, were shown a warrant with their house number on it.

Mrs Lovelock, a former hospital worker, added: ‘They got in and two of them ran upstairs, but they only went to the top of the stairs and ran back down.

‘I think there were about nine of them altogether, maybe more.

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