Millions of American military veterans — more than one in five, according to an American Legion survey — use marijuana to treat a medical ailment. But many of those veterans say the Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides health care to former servicemembers, isn’t responsive to their needs. Citing the federal prohibition on cannabis, the VA has […]
Organizations & Associations
Why Advocacy Needs to be a Part of Your Communications Strategy
Heading into the November Midterms, it’s a perfect time to reflect on the myriad ways in which lawmakers and regulators affect our ability to do business in the legal cannabis sector—and how reaching those audiences needs to be an important part of any cannabis company’s overall communications strategy. So for my latest Cannabis Business Executive […]
V.A. Shuns Medical Marijuana, Leaving Vets to Improvise
Some of the local growers along the coast here see it as an act of medical compassion: Donating part of their crop of high-potency medical marijuana to ailing veterans, who line up by the dozens each month in the echoing auditorium of the city’s old veterans’ hall to get a ticket they can exchange for […]
FDA Rejects Petition To Further Restrict Marijuana
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has denied a request from an anti-legalization group to place marijuana and its derivatives on a list of restricted substances that are not “generally recognized as safe and effective.” The move is “not necessary for the protection of public health,” Janet Woodcock, the director of FDA’s Center for Drug […]
Democratic Senator Calls Out Big Pharma For Marijuana Opposition
A prominent Democratic U.S. senator is slamming pharmaceutical companies for opposing marijuana legalization. “To them it’s competition for chronic pain, and that’s outrageous because we don’t have the crisis in people who take marijuana for chronic pain having overdose issues,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said. “It’s not the same thing. It’s not as […]
Lacking Applicants, Secret Service Eases Restrictions on Marijuana Use for Potential Employees
It has become so difficult for the U.S. Secret Service to find recruits that have never before experimented with marijuana that the agency’s new director, Randolph Alles, has thrown his hands in air on the issue, announcing last week that he has relaxed the drug policy for potential new hires. During a recent press briefing, […]
American Pediatricians Reinforce That Any Kind of Marijuana Is Risky for Kids
CHICAGO — An influential doctors group is beefing up warnings about marijuana’s potential harms for teens amid increasingly lax laws and attitudes on pot use. Many parents use the drug and think it’s OK for their kids, but “we would rather not mess around with the developing brain,” said Dr. Seth Ammerman. The advice comes […]
DEA Reinforces That All Cannabis Extracts, Including CBD Oil, Are Schedule I Substances
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) made CBD oil a little more federally illegal in a little-noticed bureaucratic maneuver this morning. Today’s Federal Register (Dec. 14, 2016) contains an item (21 CFR Part 1308) that establishes a new drug code for “marihuana extract.” “This code,” wrote DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg, “will allow DEA and […]
More States Say Yes to Marijuana as NFL Continues to Say No
Voters in seven more states said “yes” to marijuana this month. Pot now is legal for recreational or medicinal use in more than half the country. It’s still against federal law and classified as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning U.S. officials consider marijuana to have a high risk of abuse or harm, and no accepted […]
UK Government Says Marijuana Does Have Medicinal Value
The government’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has found that Cannabidiol (CBD) has a “restoring, correcting or modifying” effect on “physiological functions” when administered to humans, in a potential milestone in the campaign to legalise cannabis and bring about evidence-based laws regarding drugs. The review of CBD, a cannabinoid accounting for up to […]
Here’s Why the FDA Does Not Believe Marijuana Is Medicine
The November election will be a pivotal moment for the future of U.S. marijuana policy. Voters in five states, including California, will decide whether to legalize weed for recreational use by adults, and citizens in four others will cast ballots on whether to allow medical marijuana. If all of the measures succeed, it could force federal […]
A Look Into the NFL’s Tumultuous Relationship With Marijuana
At the conclusion of North Dallas Forty wide receiver Phil Elliott, played by Nick Nolte, gets blackballed by his team owner for “smoking a marijuana cigarette.” After being presented with a photo that shows Elliott toking up, the team owner patronizes Elliott and says, “Illegal drugs are forbidden by the league rules Phil, you know […]
DEA Actively Looking For Marijuana Researchers; Their Answer? No Thanks
Wanted: Someone to grow marijuana for the federal government. Benefits: A contract likely worth millions and the chance to enable medical research. Requirements: Ability to deal with the costs and regulations that come with growing an illegal drug for the federal government. For more than four decades, the University of Mississippi has had an exclusive […]
Lack of Funding May Hold Marijuana Legalization Back This Year
This was supposed to be the year of Pot-Palooza, when five states are set to hold ballot initiatives that would make marijuana legal for recreational users. If all passed, it would bring the number of states offering pot for sale to nine, following similar measures that passed in Colorado and Washington in 2012 and in […]
The Wait Continues: DEA Has Yet To Announce Rescheduling Plan For Marijuana
Talk of rescheduling marijuana has kept the cannabis industry and social media ablaze in 2016—the year when theDrug Enforcement Administration will supposedly announce whether it will reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II drug. Recent rumors had a decision coming down as early as July 1 — but it looks as though we […]
Portland’s Cannabis Festival, The Summer Fair, Will Include Free Samples
It’s legal to possess, grow and buy marijuana in Oregon, but state clean air laws and local rules have put a damper on public festivals featuring giveaways and consumption. The Oregon Cannabis Association has found a way to host a summer fair where members of the public — as long as they’re 21 and older — can take […]
Marijuana in Wonderland: Making Sense of a Judge’s Anti-Cannabis Ruling
By Barry Gainsburg “When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ ” — Lewis Carroll, from Through the Looking Glass Last week, the U.S. District Court in Northern California declined to declare the federal classification of marijuana […]
Medical Marijuana For Children: Advocates Ambivalent About Pediatrics Group’s New Policy On Drugs For Kids
October was magical for 13-year-old Branden Petro. After having near-constant epileptic seizures for five years, he traveled with his mother from Florida to California to undergo drug trials. The three weeks they were there, he was seizure-free, they say. But it wasn’t magic that helped Branden. It was marijuana, his mother said. There’s no hard […]
