Chris Alexander, policy coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance, advocates for marijuana legislation at the state Capitol in Albany, New York. Supporters say the bill would promote social justice and equity. State lawmakers and advocates pushing to legalize marijuana this year aren't just touting legalization as a way to raise tax revenue and regulate an underground pot market. They're also talking about fixing a broken criminal justice system and reinvesting in poor and minority communities that have been battered by decades of the government's war on drugs. [continues 1556 words]
One of the nation's top public-health officials has explained why the fight against the opioid epidemic is so personal to him. At a conference in New Orleans, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield Jr. opened up about his family's experience with opioids, saying that one of his adult children nearly died of an overdose of cocaine mixed with fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid that is 30 to 50 times stronger than heroin, according to the Associated Press. [continues 681 words]
SECAUCUS, N.J. - Tucked inside a nondescript commercial warehouse here sits a sophisticated marijuana-growing operation. A custom filtration system feeds a proprietary cocktail of nutrients into a hydroponic, two-level farming system. Two pallets of crops are harvested every day, and the 15,000 square feet will eventually yield two tons of marijuana per year. And it's all legal. Opened just a few weeks ago, Harmony Dispensary is the latest site in New Jersey to provide marijuana for medical use, a program that has expanded greatly since Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, was sworn in. More than 10,000 patients have enrolled since he took office in January, bringing the total to about 25,000. And on Monday, Mr. Murphy's office announced it was seeking up to six new applicants for medicinal marijuana dispensaries. [continues 1122 words]
YOKY RIDGE, Colombia-On a hilltop base shielded with sandbags, police sharpshooter Jose Diaz gazed into thick jungle as a fellow commando checked tripwires protecting the stronghold. A radioman listened in on the fighters they were battling. "They're always looking for the right moment to attack our base," said Hector Ocampo, commander of the Colombian detachment in a cocaine-trafficking corridor near Panama. Their adversaries weren't the FARC rebels that security forces had long fought, but a cocaine-trafficking gang known as the Gulf Clan. In the year since the powerful Marxist guerrillas disarmed, drug gangs like this one have battled each other and the state for control of the booming cocaine trade in remote regions where the FARC once ruled. [continues 872 words]
WORCESTER - Moments after the Board of Health unanimously voted Monday night to issue the city's first license to operate a medical marijuana dispensary, many of those in attendance began to applaud. It was a modest celebration of sorts - for the representatives of Good Chemistry of Massachusetts Inc., which was awarded the first license, public health officials and members of the Board of Health - as it culminated what was a long process that began more than 5= years ago. Soon after Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum question in 2012 to legalize marijuana for medical use, Good Chemistry began scoping out potential sites for a dispensary in the city. [continues 1529 words]
A budding medical marijuana industry has slowly been gaining acceptance in Central Florida as lawmakers consider regulations and the number of approved dispensaries grow. But as medicinal solutions land most of the support, advocates say it's only a matter of time before full legalization lands on the table. At the Orlando Marijuana Expo, a workshop and advocacy event Saturday at UCF, attorney Carrie McClain said the piecemeal approach to legalization would not be effective but has helped build some momentum. [continues 404 words]
Sales at Hawaii's six medical marijuana dispensaries totaled $6.7 million in the past 10 months, and their earnings are likely to grow with two changes to the state's cannabis law. Medical cannabis dispensaries can now sell "safe pulmonary administration products" - essentially cannabis oil vapes. Sales at Hawaii's six medical marijuana dispensaries totaled $6.7 million in the past 10 months, and their earnings are likely to grow with two changes to the state's cannabis law. Dispensaries last week began selling a type of vape cartridge for cannabis oil and are now allowed to sell pot to tourists who obtain a medical marijuana card. [continues 566 words]
As bad as getting off opioids the first time was, nothing prepared Briana Kline for trying to come back from relapse. She was in deep, past the Percocets and other pills. This time it was heroin, even a close brush with fentanyl. But the medicine that so helped slay her cravings before didn't seem to be cutting it. "The Suboxone didn't make me feel the way it usually does," said Kline, 26, of Lancaster County. "I was struggling a lot with cravings. I'd go a couple of days, be OK. Then I'd go use again." [continues 1283 words]
Why don't more jails use them? After Neila Rivera began using heroin as a teenager, she fell into a predictable and depressing pattern. She'd get locked up and go through detox, only to return to drugs as soon as she got out. It's a routine that has become more dangerous as heroin, now commonly mixed with powerful synthetic opioids like fentanyl, has become more unpredictably potent: Studies show that people released from incarceration, their drug tolerance lowered from abstinence, are far more likely than others to overdose. [continues 1565 words]
You can't take it with you. Actually, you can. But it's not a good idea when you're traveling, especially for the risk-averse. We speak, of course, of cannabis; its use was approved by 57% of California voters in November 2016. Proposition 64, known as the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, allows the recreational use of marijuana in the Golden State; medical marijuana had been legal for about a decade before that. Legal, it should be noted, in California. Not legal according to federal law, although President Trump has signaled his willingness to support legislation that, according to an L.A. Times article, would "end the federal ban on marijuana." [continues 810 words]
That old New Orleans con of, "I betcha I can tell you where you got them shoes," just took on a whole different meaning. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration's just released list of "Drug Slang Code Words," for 2018, "shoes" is one of 353 terms the cool kids are using for cannabis these days. (I bet you thought there would be 420.) So, offering to tell the tourists where they obtained their footwear could spark a panic. [continues 364 words]
July 1, a fated day in Massachusetts for advocates of recreational marijuana, came and went. The first day that stores were allowed to sell nonmedical cannabis passed without so much as a joint sold. No retailers had been licensed, and July 1 turned out much like any other day since December 15, 2016, when it became legal in Massachusetts to possess, grow and give away small quantities of cannabis. But in the intervening year-and-a-half, no retailers have begun selling the drug. Advocates of its recreational use have grown frustrated at the retail rollout's plodding pace. [continues 1210 words]
American Grow Lab employees gather clippings from "mother" plants to be grown into use for medical marijuana. American Grow Lab employees gather clippings from "mother" plants to be grown into use for medical marijuana. (Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant) The top federal law enforcement official in Massachusetts signaled Tuesday he would not aggressively prosecute people for using and selling marijuana -- a federal, if not state crime -- saying that while he could not "effectively immunize" residents from federal laws criminalizing the drug, his office was turning its attention to the state's opioid problem. [continues 519 words]
CHESTERVILLE, Ontario - Inside garage-sized containers at one end of a cavernous warehouse in a former Nestle factory south of Ottawa are rows of marijuana plants stacked atop each other, basking in the unearthly glow of grow lights. They belong to Hamed Asi, an Ontario businessman who calls them his "vertical farm." He has no background in growing marijuana, or in any kind of agriculture. His other line of business is installing office furniture; cubicles, filing cabinets and desk chairs fill the opposite end of the warehouse. [continues 1065 words]
To the editor: Your June 28 editorial, "Marijuana-impaired drivers a growing danger," lacks a rational basis for crying wolf. In fact, marijuana consumption's negligible impact on driving ability pales next to alcohol and distraction by smartphone use. While no one expects an editorial board to research extensively law enforcement claims on this subject, as a reader I do expect you to do some research in the scientific journals and not popular press. Had you done so, you would have found the growing consensus that the motor vehicle accident odds ratio following marijuana consumption and driving is an order of magnitude smaller than a blood alcohol level over .05. [continues 88 words]
LOS ANGELES - A slight marijuana smell wafted out as a steady stream of customers walked into a warehouse, its doors and windows covered by bars. Suddenly, police swooped in. "Sheriff's department! Search warrant!" a Los Angeles County deputy shouted as the team thundered through the front door and began hauling out people in handcuffs. The Compton 20 Cap Collective just south of Los Angeles that was raided earlier this spring is one of hundreds of illegal marijuana stores operating in LA County, where marijuana is legal for anyone 21 and over and retailers must be licensed to sell to them. [continues 897 words]
Finding a place to house a medical marijuana dispensary is rarely an easy task, but MariMed Advisors, which specializes in developing cannabis businesses, encountered especially aggressive pushback working for a client in Annapolis, Md., last year. The company reviewed several hundred potential locations for the client's proposed dispensary before finally finding one that met nearly every one of the strict requirements demanded by officials of Anne Arundel County. It had the proper zoning classification and the necessary road access. It was not within 1,000 feet of a school. And, as an added plus, the storefront was discreet, located below ground level and behind another building. [continues 1146 words]
TALLAHASSEE -- Chiding a judge who sided with sick patients and saying plaintiffs likely won't win on the merits of the case, an appellate court on Tuesday refused to allow smokable medical marijuana while a legal fight continues to play out. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal came in a lawsuit initiated by Orlando trial attorney John Morgan and others who maintain that a Florida law barring patients from smoking their treatment runs afoul of a 2016 constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana. [continues 470 words]
JEFFERSONVILLE, GA. - When Georgia authorities found out that smoking marijuana was ridding 15-year-old David Ray of seizures that had plagued him through childhood, the consequences were swift and severe. His mother and stepfather - Suzeanna and Matthew Brill - were arrested and jailed for six days. David, no longer able to medicate with pot, was hospitalized for a week after suffering what his mother called "the worst seizure of his life." He was then discharged to strangers and sent to a Division of Family and Children Services group home after his parents were stripped of custody - another example of "how the war on drugs breaks up families," said Lauren Deal, Suzeanna Brill's attorney. [continues 106 words]
LINDSAY, Okla - Danny Daniels, an evangelical Christian in the rural Oklahoma town of Lindsay, is reliably conservative on just about every political issue. The 45-year-old church pastor is anti-abortion, voted for President Donald Trump and is a member of the National Rifle Association who owns an AR-15 rifle. He also came of age during the 1980s and believed in the anti-drug mantra that labeled marijuana as a dangerous gateway drug. But his view on marijuana changed as his pastoral work extended into hospice care and he saw patients at the end of their lives benefiting from the use of cannabis. [continues 687 words]
U.S. health regulators on Monday approved the first prescription drug made from marijuana, a milestone that could spur more research into a drug that remains illegal under federal law, despite growing legalization for recreational and medical use. The Food and Drug Administration approved the medication, called Epidiolex, to treat two rare forms of epilepsy that begin in childhood. But it's not quite medical marijuana. The strawberry-flavored syrup is a purified form of a chemical ingredient found in the cannabis plant -- but not the one that gets users high. It's not yet clear why the ingredient, called cannabidiol, or CBD, reduces seizures in some people with epilepsy. [continues 902 words]
The legalization of marijuana for general consumption is a devastating, immoral attack by the Trudeau government against the best interests of all of Canada's vulnerable and marginalized citizens, especially our young people, who are ill-equipped to handle it (What A Long Strange Trip It Will Been, editorial, June 21). Surviving in modern society demands vigilance, sobriety, discipline and competence on all fronts. Marijuana use discourages these necessary virtues. There should have been a national referendum before this profound decision was made. There are no adults in charge any more. Peter Best, Sudbury, Ont. [end]
VICTORIA - On the day Canadians can legally buy and use recreational marijuana, the clock will start ticking for cannabis dispensaries already open across the country, say politicians and pot industry insiders. On Oct. 17, provincial licensing, monitoring and approval regulations on legal marijuana retail standards will become law and the cannabis business will get real for marijuana shops currently operating outside the rules. "These are the same people who cried for legalization," said Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang. "Now they've got it, and they have to play by the rules." [continues 659 words]
Seldom a day goes by when financial pages don't highlight new developments in the marijuana industry. So, this is who we are today. Former B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake is now on the corporate board of a major marijuana company. Former Toronto police chief and current MP Bill Blair is a point man on marijuana legalization. Former B.C. Solicitor General and West Vancouver Police Chief Kash Heed is a consultant for marijuana companies. The list of government and policing honchos who have jumped on the bandwagon is substantial. [continues 757 words]
They might be reluctantly legalizing cannabis. But they'll never stop thinking they know better than us how we should live The Canadian government announced this week that marijuana would be legal for recreational in just under four months, by Oct. 17, 2018. The intervening time will be used to get legal distribution networks established and give provinces and police forces time to prepare for the transition. And, the government probably hopes, for Canadians to decide they're not so into this marijuana stuff, after all. [continues 377 words]
OTTAWA - Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says the government will look at ways to make things fair for those who have criminal records for marijuana possession after legalization comes into force. Goodale says the question of pardoning individuals with criminal records for possessing marijuana is legitimate and one the government will pursue once the law takes effect. article continues below Trending Stories Death of Comox Valley teen traced to toxic shock syndrome Metal table smashed on head of officer confronting intruder More people in capital travelling by bus, bike and on foot School board backs $73M option to save Vic High exterior [continues 236 words]
CALGARY - A report presented to city council on Monday recommends allowing marijuana consumption in designated spaces at festivals and events. The report, which council had yet to address as of press time, says making an exception will help to move second-hand smoke away from people who don't want to partake, while responding to "the current realities of cannabis consumption at festivals and events. Earlier in June, when council floated the possibility of modifying bylaws to allow space for event attendees to smoke marijuana, Calgary Folk Music Festival executive director Sara Leishman raised concerns about the additional expense that events would have to take on "with no opportunity to recoup costs through sales of sponsorship." [continues 108 words]
VICTORIA - The economic cost of substance use in Canada in 2014 was $38.4 billion, or about $1,100 for every Canadian, says a report released Tuesday. The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction partnered with the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research to examine the data and estimate the harms of substance use based on health, justice, lost productivity and other costs. article continues below Trending Stories Death of Comox Valley teen traced to toxic shock syndrome Metal table smashed on head of officer confronting intruder More people in capital travelling by bus, bike and on foot School board backs $73M option to save Vic High exterior [continues 258 words]
With the legalization of cannabis only a few months away, one of Canadaas top medical organizations is warning women about the risks the drug poses if used during pregnancy and breastfeeding. According to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, marijuana use can lead to preterm birth and low birth weight, as well as lower IQ and hyperactivity after a child is born. aWe want to make sure women understand just because itas legal doesnat mean itas safe,a said Jocelynn Cook, chief scientific officer with the SOGC. aThe science does suggest there are effects on pregnancy and on fetal development.a [continues 309 words]
A convicted Colombian drug cartel leader who went undercover to inform on Mexican kingpin "El Chapo" and other major traffickers has been sentenced to 31 years in prison. The Miami Herald reports that 48-year-old Henry De Jesus Lopez Londono, who was arrested in Argentina and extradited to Miami in 2016, was sentenced on Monday for drug trafficking conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Donald Graham previously rejected a plea deal that included 17 years behind bars. Lopez Londono could have received a life sentence. Officials say Lopez Londono was involved in the smuggling of some 60,000 kilograms of cocaine between 2007 and 2012. [end]
Jeff Greene, the Palm Beach billionaire who this week joined a crowded slate of Democrats seeking to replace Gov. Rick Scott, shared his thoughts about marijuana with Truth or Dara during a lengthy interview that included some chit-chat about Willie Nelson and air pods. (Spoiler alert: He's a fan of both the musician and the technology). On medical marijuana, Greene's got the same take as his competitors, who've all come out in support of allowing patients to smoke their treatment. [continues 615 words]
CALGARY - City council approved changes on Monday to allow areas in Calgary where people can smoke or otherwise consume marijuana in public. The city's Cannabis Consumption Bylaw prohibits public consumption in all forms, even after marijuana becomes legal in October. Changes to the bylaw will allow designated consumption areas both around the city and at festivals and events. The city says there are currently no proposed designated cannabis consumption areas for Calgary's public spaces, but councillors can now begin identifying potential sites. [continues 100 words]
LAFAYETTE, Colo. - The political rise of Colorado's cannabis industry is, in essence, the story of Garrett Hause's alfalfa farm. Mr. Hause, a broad-shouldered, 25-year-old horticulturist who tills his family's land in the shadow of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, said he was never particularly interested in politics - that is, until voters legalized cannabis in 2012. He started familiarizing himself with the stringent state regulations that govern the industry. He and a friend then created Elation Cannabis Company, which uses a section of the family's soil to grow hemp. [continues 1295 words]
WASHINGTON - Tyson Timbs would like his Land Rover back. The State of Indiana took it, using a law that lets it seize vehicles used to transport illegal drugs. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the Constitution has anything to say about such civil forfeiture laws, which allow states and localities to take and keep private property used to commit crimes. Mr. Timbs bought the Land Rover after his father died. The life insurance money amounted to around $73,000, and he spent $42,000 of it on the vehicle. He blew most of the rest on drugs. [continues 848 words]
You could be in luck: Florida's Medical Marijuana Industry Is Beginning To Take Off Medical marijuana dispensary hiring in Florida is beginning to germinate, as existing operators prepare to open new stores and other companies enter the market. In South Florida, legal growers operate only a handful of dispensaries. But those dispensaries -- including Knox Medical, Curaleaf and Trulieve -- are laying the groundwork for new locations in the tricounty region and across the state. And California-based MedMen is getting ready to enter the market, which could heat up competition. [continues 1289 words]
A few years ago when I served on the board of the co-op building where I live in Brooklyn Heights - a fact suggesting a degree of squareness so profound it should discredit my authority to go on - my next-door neighbor came to me with recurring complaints that her apartment, at various points, but mostly in the evenings, reeked of pot (that, children, is what we of the Atari generation call it) so intensely that it seemed as if someone had come in and lit up right on her sofa. That her oldest daughter began to worry that she was getting a contact high while she was doing her homework made me despair for a generation and suggested that perhaps a certain unwarranted hysteria had taken hold. Then one night, at a moment of extreme fragrancy, my neighbor texted and asked me to come over and take a sniff for myself, and it seemed as if I had walked into a commune in the Redwoods sometime between the Tet offensive and the presidency of Gerald Ford. [continues 772 words]
New York City's Police Department suffered a major embarrassment this spring when a New York Times investigation demolished the department's claim that people of color were more likely than others to be arrested on petty marijuana charges, because citizens in their communities complained more about pot smoking. The investigation found that even when complaints were factored in, the police nearly always arrested people at a higher rate in black areas. A new policy Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Tuesday will lead to fewer people being arrested for smoking marijuana in public. But the new approach - in which officers would usually issue summonses instead of hauling people off to jail - does not address the core problem of racial inequality and poses new dangers. [continues 466 words]
MONTREAL - For one of Canada's largest legal cannabis companies, the vote in Parliament this week to legalize recreational marijuana use represents a broad opportunity to develop new products, including marijuana infused drinks. The hope, said Adam Greenblatt, a manager with the company, Canopy Growth, "is that in five years time people will be drinking cannabis drinks at a cocktail party as if drinking a good wine." Matteo Rossant, 21, a business graduate at Concordia University in Montreal, also envisions an expansive future, one in which he sells maple syrup, lollipops and jelly treats made with cannabis. [continues 1041 words]
OTTAWA - Recreational marijuana use in Canada will be legal in the coming months after legislation cleared its final hurdle Tuesday night, marking what officials here say is a "wholesale shift" in how the country approaches cannabis use. Canadian officials say other technical steps remain before they can unveil on what day the legislation, introduced over a year ago, comes into force. When the legislation kicks in, Canada will be the biggest national government to legalize cannabis. Drug-policy experts have said they expect countries in Europe and elsewhere to look to the Canadian experience for guidance on cannabis legalization. [continues 394 words]
The authors suffer from the same confirmation bias and first-order thinking that begot the demonstrably unsuccessful war on drugs and has sustained it, to tragic effect, for nearly 50 years. Despite enormous expense and countless American lives lost to street violence and incarceration, access to and abuse of marijuana and other drugs remains as prevalent as ever. Why, then, do intelligent people refuse to accept that the goals of the antidrug crusade haven't been, and cannot be, achieved by prohibition? [continues 196 words]
In 1994 as a NYPD narcotics detective, I did a study of prisoners arrested for drug crimes for a statistics class I was taking at night. Nine of 10 users stated they started with marijuana, 70% started using between ages 10-15, and 92% before the age of 21. Society must educate our youth before the ravages of drugs become irremediable. Al Schille [continues 3 words]
What's understated is the potential major negative health effects, particularly in connection with developing brains (into the middle 20s), such as permanently impairing brain functioning and cognition and increasing the likelihood of serious psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and paranoia. Is severely damaging the health of our nation's youth and causing major injury to society worth tax revenue and income to the self-serving marijuana industry? McLean, Va. [end]
It makes sense to make marijuana readily available as a less harmful alternative to truly harmful drugs such as opiates. Why would a drug pusher carry marijuana in his inventory when you can buy it over the counter? Messrs. Kennedy and Sabet are behind the times. Matt Ryan Bremerton, Wash. [end]
In Colorado the number testing positive for marijuana in fatal crashes has risen each year from 2013 (47) to 2016 (115), more than doubling (145%) in those four years. Of the 547 traffic fatalities in 2015, 99 were due to marijuana, 187 to alcohol and 35 to both. The most common drug in all fatal crashes is marijuana. There are also other health-related issues to consider. The cardiovascular and cancer risks inherent in smoking tobacco also apply to marijuana. While cigarette smokers inhale more smoke, marijuana smokers hold it longer in their lungs. Marijuana can also demotivate individuals. They lose their ambition and competitiveness. [continues 5 words]
Patrick Kennedy and Kevin Sabet's "This Is No Time To Go to Pot" (op-ed, June 15), at long last, takes on several key deceptions about marijuana, and these men have the credentials to speak. But where are the others? The neurologists? The pediatric psychiatrists? The Business Roundtable groups and chambers of commerce which also are competent and which should have a passionate professional interest in maintaining drug-free workplaces and safeguarding our youth? It is high time they joined in allocating resources to stop this juggernaut. [continues 126 words]
According to Messrs. Kennedy and Sabet, cannabis legalization is "a failed experiment." But in Washington state, which like Colorado legalized in 2012, support has increased from 56% to an astounding 78%. Some failure! Paul Kuhn Nashville, Tenn. [end]
A closely watched medicine made from the marijuana plant reduces seizures in children with severe forms of epilepsy and warrants approval in the United States, health officials said Tuesday. British drugmaker GW Pharmaceuticals is seeking permission to sell its purified form of an ingredient found in cannabis -- one that doesn't get users high -- as a medication for rare, hard-to-treat seizures in children. If successful, the company's liquid formula would be the first government-approved drug derived from the cannabis plant in the U.S. [continues 606 words]
TORONTO - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday marijuana will be legal nationwide on October 17. Trudeau said in Parliament that the government is committed to better protecting Canada's youth and hopes to take money away from organized crime. The Senate gave final passage to Trudeau's bill to legalize cannabis on Tuesday. The country will become the second in the world to make pot legal nationwide. "The legislation is transformative," said Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, adding it "marks a wholesale shift in how our country approaches cannabis, leaving behind a failed model of prohibition." [continues 403 words]
Police demonstrate the Alere DDS2, a saliva swab test some authorities are using to determine marijuana impairment, in May at the Capitol in Sacramento. Police demonstrate the Alere DDS2, a saliva swab test some authorities are using to determine marijuana impairment, in May at the Capitol in Sacramento. A bicyclist has died after colliding with a vehicle driven by a man under the influence of marijuana, according to the Sacramento Police Department. The cyclist, Amar Askhra, 41, struck the vehicle on Truxel Road near the South Natomas Community Center at noon on Saturday. The driver had the right of way, police spokeswoman Linda Matthew said. [continues 295 words]
A British pharmaceutical company is getting closer to a decision on whether the U.S government will approve the first prescription drug derived from the marijuana plant, but parents who for years have used cannabis to treat severe forms of epilepsy in their children are feeling more cautious than celebratory. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide by the end of the month whether to approve GW Pharmaceuticals' Epidiolex. It's a purified form of cannabidiol -- a component of cannabis that doesn't get users high -- to treat Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndromes in kids. Both forms of epilepsy are rare. [continues 1024 words]
