Cannabis News

cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
Now that Mexico has all but legalized Cannabis with this last act of their Supreme Court, we (the US) will now be the meat in a legal cannabis sandwich. It can't stay this way for long. Even before we change the federal law, legal cannabis is already available from the arctic circle all the way to central America along the west coast of our continent.

If the orange man stays in office I'll bet that making cannabis legal will be a battle cry of his 2020 campaign. What better way to pull Dems into his fold? There is surely no other way.
If he doesn't survive till 2020 I can't imagine Pence doing the same thing. He would be a much more typical thug.. I mean republican and legal cannabis is not really a republican issue even tho many republicans want it.
 

macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member
THC! CBD! TERPENOIDS! CANNABIS SCIENCE IS GETTING HAIRY
https://www.wired.com/story/cannabis-science-entourage-effect/
TODAY, CANNABIS CONTINUES its slow march toward nationwide decriminalization with voters deciding whether to allow recreational use in Michigan and North Dakota, and for medical purposes in Utah and Missouri. As states keep chipping away at federal prohibition, more consumers will gain access, sure—but so will more researchers who can more easily study this astonishingly complex and still mysterious plant.
 

Tranquility

Well-Known Member
If the orange man stays in office I'll bet that making cannabis legal will be a battle cry of his 2020 campaign. What better way to pull Dems into his fold? There is surely no other way.
If he doesn't survive till 2020 I can't imagine Pence doing the same thing. He would be a much more typical thug.. I mean republican and legal cannabis is not really a republican issue even tho many republicans want it.
The greatest shift to Trump from Democrats is in blue collar workers. Unless the economy tanks in the next couple of years, that will continue. Black and Hispanics also voted for him and poll for him at higher than traditional levels for Republicans. When looked at as a group statistically, both have been doing very well in this economy and we will need to see if the traditional vote metric stays the same when a credible case can be made they are doing better. Those will be the battle cries of 2020.

But, I agree pot will be there too.

Rorabacher and The Mooch both think Trump will deal with cannabis on the federal level in the next two years. Once the election is over and the rumor about Sessions resigning after the midterms comes true, it is entirely possible there is at least a light focus on cannabis reform. Trump certainly seems to be supportive of criminal justice reform--part of which dovetails with cannabis reform because of all those who were convicted before the legalization/regulation push. As to if that support expands to use, we'll see. I suspect, however, Trump could light up a doobie, pass it to the left hand side, pull out a vape and get medicated on live TV while signing a federal cannabis legalization bill and the fruit on /r/trees will remain a pineapple rather than change to orange.
 
Tranquility,

macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member
The Mormon Church vs. Pot

In September, a billboard appeared near downtown here urging voters to support Proposition 2, an initiative to legalize medical marijuana that is on the ballot Tuesday. Quoting from Mormon Church scripture and its “word of wisdom” about food and drink, the billboard read, “All Wholesome Herbs God Has Ordained for the Use of Man.” In other words, you can use pot for your medical ills and still be a good Mormon. .
 

blackstone

Well-Known Member
TODAY, CANNABIS CONTINUES its slow march toward nationwide decriminalization.....

....As states keep chipping away at federal prohibition, more consumers will gain access, sure—but so will more researchers who can more easily study this astonishingly complex and still mysterious plant.

So encouraging to see words like this in the news! Thanks macbill! I also like how many articles now seem to recognize that there has been a notable "shift" just recently.

Here are two more which have statements that made me happy...

A detailed story including some big food/drinks businesses who are interested in the market:

'Riding on a high': TheraCann expected to grow sales of ETCH Biotrace thanks to growing demand for legalised cannabis

"The rapid global adoption of cannabis legislation:) has accelerated the need to secure and validate cannabis supply chains from seed-to-sale"

========= And,

First of Its Kind Study Finds Virtually No Driving Impairment Under the Influence of Marijuana


"When taken in moderate amounts, cannabis seems to cause no significant driving impairment.

As cannabis prohibition laws crumble seemingly by the day:cool:, it’s allowing more research to be performed on this psychoactive substance that has long been a part of the human experience."
 

cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
Weed Wins on Election Day. So What Comes Next?
marijuana-515319110.jpg

Getty Images
And so a few more dominoes fall. Michigan voted to legalize the recreational use of cannabis, while Utah and Missouri legalized it for medical use, according to projections made late Tuesday night. (A recreational measure in North Dakota failed, though medical cannabis remains legal there.) They join 31 other states that have already gone the medical route, and nine others that have gone fully recreational.

That’s a win for the citizens of these states—cannabis is far and away safer than alcohol and comes with a range of proven medical benefits, and still more that researchers are exploring. But it also may be a win for cannabis nationwide: The more states that legalize cannabis, the likelier it is that federal prohibition will topple soon.

“Momentum is gaining for change in Congress to allow states to determine their own marijuana policies,” says Morgan Fox, media relations director at the National Cannabis Industry Association. “Two thirds of the country wants marijuana to be legal, and politicians are ignoring that at their peril.”

This midterm election’s outcome is relevant to more than just the end game of dissolving the federal prohibition of cannabis. The momentum could also help the states that have already voted to legalize the drug but remain hamstrung by federal regulation. Over the summer, for instance, the Senate Appropriations Committee torpedoed an amendment that would have allowed banks to work with cannabis companies. This, of course, is a major headache for the industry: If a cultivator or distributor or dispensary can’t find a bank to work with, it’s kinda hard to do business.

States where marijuana is legal are also currently blocked from helping veterans gain better access to cannabis. In September, Congress stripped another amendment that would have allowed physicians affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs to recommend medical marijuana in states where it’s already legal.

So, the theory is that with more states voting to legalize, that attitude would trickle up to their representatives in Washington. And one particularly tall hurdle just fell. Republican Pete Sessions of Texas, the chairman of the House Rules Committee who's been blocking votes on cannabis amendments, just lost to Democratic challenger Colin Allred. How serious is Allred about medical marijuana? It's telling that he called Sessions out on the veterans amendment.

But then again, the cannabis momentum isn't coming from politicians, but from the people. “One of the interesting political dynamics of cannabis legalization is that it's happening in almost every state by ballot initiative,” says Ryan Stoa, author of the book Craft Weed: Family Farming and the Future of the Marijuana Industry. “Meaning, it's not as if legislators are reading the tea leaves.”

Meaning, maybe we’re pinning too much hope on politicians to push for the federal reform their voters want. “For whatever reason, there still seems to be a lot of hesitation on behalf of politicians, even in the face of strong public support for legalization,” Stoa says.

It’s in a state’s best interest, though, to have cannabis legalized federally, because the economics of cannabis is nutso. Historically, California has provided perhaps three quarters of the domestically grown cannabis in the United States. That’s been over the black market, of course. But even though California has gone recreationally legal, that black market persists, both in-state (high taxes mean some patients skip the legal market) and across the country. Cultivators are “producing more supply than consumers are demanding in the state of California, which means a lot of that supply is going out of state on the black market,” says Stoa.

When a state goes legal, the cannabis sold in-state must be produced in-state (the feds don’t like interstate cannabis markets, for obvious reasons). But legalizing comes with severe growing pains. Small California growers, for instance, are buckling under the weight of new regulations meant to protect the environment and consumers. It’s mighty tempting, then, to skip selling to distributors (which in turn safety-test the product) and instead go black market and sell it all themselves out of state.

“The black market is thriving, and it's going to continue to thrive,” says Swami Chaitanya, a (legal) grower in California’s legendary Mendocino County. “And the fact is that when it goes legal in those other states, then all of the persecution tends to drop down a level, until I imagine more black market will go to those states that are now legal.”

The fragmentation of the market could be especially acute in states that follow a similar, highly regulated legalization path as California, but that don’t have massive-scale local production of cannabis. Nevada had that problem, same with Colorado. But shortages would be less of a problem in the first place if cannabis were legal federally and producers could sell their products legitimately across state lines.

How Michigan, Utah, and Missouri settle into legal cannabis is to be seen, as is the pace with which Congress gets around to federal legalization. But a bit of bright news: we’ve got fresh faces. “With the new Congress,” says Chaitanya, “it's almost a question of not so much, does it get legalized in most states, but are the congressional people elected going to be pro-cannabis?”

For the sake of their constituents, economies, prison systems, and the country in general, let’s hope so.
 

cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
North Dakota votes against marijuana legalization, rejecting Measure 3
The measure was an attempt to get marijuana legalization in a conservative state. It failed.



marijuana_plants.0.jpg

North Dakota voters on Tuesday rejected Measure 3, a ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana in the state.

North Dakota’s Measure 3 would have let people 21 and older possess, use, grow, buy, and sell marijuana for recreational purposes. It also would have created penalties for people under 21 possessing or attempting to distribute marijuana, and for people distributing marijuana to others who are under 21. And it would have expunged previous marijuana convictions from criminal records.

But the measure did not include any language regarding regulations and taxes. Cole Haymond, an adviser for the campaign, told Christopher Ingraham at the Washington Post that this is by design: “We leave our bill wide open so the legislature can do their job — regulations, taxes, zoning, whatever.”

This is not how previous successful ballot initiatives worked. They left a lot of room for state lawmakers and regulators to flesh out a system under which marijuana can be bought and sold, but the initiatives generally set up a framework that these policymakers had to follow. North Dakota’s marijuana legalization supporters took a different approach — and that may help explain why they failed.

Medical marijuana is already legal in North Dakota, so the initiative would have had limited impact in that area.

Beyond North Dakota, 2018 has been a big year for marijuana legalization. This year, California opened the world’s biggest legal marijuana market, Vermont legalized marijuana possession (becoming the first state to do so through its legislature), and Canada became the world’s first wealthy nation to fully legalize pot.

Prior to Election Day, nine states had legalized marijuana for recreational and medical purposes, while 21 others had legalized only for medical uses.

Supporters of legalization argue that it eliminates the harms of marijuana prohibition: the hundreds of thousands of arrests around the US, the racial disparities behind those arrests, and the billions of dollars that flow from the black market for illicit marijuana to drug cartels that then use the money for violent operations around the world. All of this, legalization advocates say, will outweigh any of the potential downsides — such as increased cannabis use — that might come with legalization.

Opponents, meanwhile, claim that legalization will enable a huge marijuana industry that will market the drug irresponsibly. They point to America’s experiences with the alcohol and tobacco industries, which have built their financial empires in large part on some of the heaviest consumers of their products. This could result in far more people using pot, even if it leads to negative health consequences.

With Tuesday’s vote, opponents won the day in North Dakota.
 

blackstone

Well-Known Member
I don't think the headline writer for the driving study reported on the Fibromyalgia site above accurately reported the press release. (Also, check the date of the release.)

https://now.uiowa.edu/2015/06/ui-studies-impact-marijuana-driving

The actual study:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871615003142

Well spotted @OldNewbie ! Although I think I like his style or ability in this context!
I do have to ask myself if a Fibromyalgia information site is the right place for it though.

If Sessions is out does this mean we have to have a session now to celebrate? :sherlock:Cause I'm a bit tired!
 

Tranquility

Well-Known Member
Sessions out. Rec Legal. 12 plants per house. Not a bad day in Mich.
The lawyers agree.
https://www.cannalawblog.com/breaking-news-cannabis-wins-big-at-the-midterm-elections/

For Michigan:
Congratulations to the Wolverine State, which voted to legalize adult use (recreational) marijuana statewide. Individuals who are at least 21 years of age will be permitted to possess and use marijuana and marijuana-infused edibles, and grow up to 12 marijuana plants for personal consumption (that’s quite a bit). Permitted retail sales will be subject to a relatively modest 10% tax. Per state law, ballot initiatives take effect 10 days after results are certified, which can take up to three weeks from yesterday. So, legalization should take effect by the end of the year. Michigan is the tenth most populous state in the nation, and the first Midwestern state to legalize cannabis– which is a big deal. (Yes, Michigan is a part of the Midwest.)
Read the whole thing. They feel the loss of Pete Sessions is a big deal in the election. He's been the Chairman of the Rules Committee and he has blocked even voting on many cannabis measures.
 

blackstone

Well-Known Member
Some news coming in from Ireland lately it seems:


Harris urged to push for access to medicinal cannabis


7 Nov 2018
Leader Micheál Martin has urged the Minister for Health to push for access to medicinal cannabis (CBD) so that affected families are not forced to go to the Netherlands every three months.

"This can be resolved. I know it can be resolved. I know this product could be in Ireland at the beginning of next year if there is a push," Mr Martin said.
Mr Martin also said there had been an "institutional resistance" in certain areas.:disgust:

Responding on behalf of the Government, Minister Michael Creed said he did not believe there was any foot dragging on the issue, and there was a willingness to move.

A spokesperson for Minister Harris said the current licensing system allows any consultant to apply to him for a license to prescribe cannabis if he believes it will benefit the patient and the minister wants to overhaul the system and modernise it further.

=========


Government not dragging feet on medical cannabis, Minister insists


Doctor ‘ashamed’ to hear stories of parents being forced to bring kids abroad to access products

Nov 7, 2018

The Government has denied claims that the Department of Health is “foot dragging” over legislation to provide medicinal cannabis to people dealing with chronic pain and serious illness.

Mr Martin said people were still being forced to regularly travel to abroad to access the product. He said the Government should allow a compassionate access scheme. A well respected company that supplied medical cannabis across the EU could provide it in Ireland from next year, he said.

“The absence of such a compassionate access scheme represents the absence of compassion,” Mr Martin said.

However, Mr Creed insisted there was “no foot-dragging” by the department and that the Government was working towards an appropriate, well-informed and correctly medically supervised scheme.

Speaking at a meeting in Dublin organised by Mr Kenny, Ms Twomey said she was forced to travel from her home in Cork to the Netherlands every three months to access the medication
Ms Twomey secured a licence so Ava (her daughter) could receive cannabidiol (CBD) oil and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) oil but said the Minister for Health needed to introduce legislative change so the medication can be accessed locally.

Dr Garrett McGovern told the meeting he was “ actually ashamed to be a doctor” after hearing Ms Twomey’s story.

“It’s a human rights issue and it’s an absolute disgrace,” he said. “In Ireland we have a history of exporting problems out...It’s bad enough to be going through this but actually to have to fight in this way to be denied medication that is immeasurably changing the lives of your family and your children is disgraceful.”
 

macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member
Blue Moon's founding brewer pops top on pot-infused beer

For starters, the beverage has no alcohol and includes 5 milligrams of THC, the high-producing ingredient found in cannabis plants. Made with blood orange peel and coriander, the ale "has a richer, deeper orange character and a little different type of bitterness because of the cannabinoids," Villa said.
 

hans solo

Left coast Canada
I wonder if they can do a stout like beverage.
My favourite dark beer is Young’s double chocolate stout.
Awesome for a wee glass and for cooking too.
 
hans solo,
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Ramahs

Fucking Combustion (mostly) Since February 2017
I wonder if they can do a stout like beverage.
My favourite dark beer is Young’s double chocolate stout.
Awesome for a wee glass and for cooking too.

One of my favorites right now is an Oatmeal Stout, made by Convict Hill
I like Young's Double Chocolate, but it's a bit too rich to drink much more than one. When I'm out I'll sometimes get one to finish the night, but It would rarely be something I order early in the evening.
 
Ramahs,
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florduh

Well-Known Member
'Best Congress we've ever had' for marijuana legalization, Dem says

Whether congressional elections were better for Democrats or Republicans may be up for debate*, but they were a clear win for cannabis.

Not only did three states — Utah, Missouri, and Michigan — legalize some usage of marijuana, voters "have given us the best Congress we've ever had" as far as easing federal restrictions on the drug, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat who captured 73 percent of the vote in his district, told reporters on Wednesday.

"In terms of a victory for the continued momentum of cannabis legalization, it was a big night," said Blumenauer, who helped form the bipartisan Congressional Cannabis Caucus and has introduced a bill that would drop using or selling the drug from the list of activities that disqualify foreigners from entering the U.S. "Three of the greatest obstructionists to progress are not coming back."

I swear to the fucking Baby Jesus, if Dems don't put a Bill on the floor of the House for cannabis legalization, I'll lose it. It's time to get EVERY Congressman on the record. Do you support continuing this idiotic prohibition, or not?

Now, 68% of Americans support Legalization. There isn't even a valid craven political reason for politicians not to move forward on this.




* It's not
 

Tranquility

Well-Known Member
'
I swear to the fucking Baby Jesus, if Dems don't put a Bill on the floor of the House for cannabis legalization, I'll lose it. It's time to get EVERY Congressman on the record. Do you support continuing this idiotic prohibition, or not?

They WILL put a bill up. Some think it will die because they will try to do too much and won't work with the other party.

https://www.marijuanamoment.net/wha...y-republicans-means-for-federal-legalization/
...
Don Murphy, director of federal policies at the Marijuana Policy Project and a former Republican state lawmaker from Maryland, is concerned about the loss of the GOP allies on Capitol Hill. He told Marijuana Moment that he expects House Democrats to “load up” cannabis legislation with “deal killing amendments the GOP Senate and President Trump won’t accept."

He also said the message voters sent to pro-reform Republicans who lost on Election Day was that supporting cannabis reform alone isn’t enough to win the hearts of left-leaning reform advocates. It made it “difficult to suggest that drug policy is both good policy and good politics,” Murphy said. “Liberals will still hate you, but they’ll hate you less.”...​
 
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