New approaches are definitely needed to battle the opioid epidemic. More drug war is not the answer. The rise in heroin overdose deaths is a result of a federal crackdown on prescription opioids. Criminalization of users increases the risk of overdose deaths and creates barriers to cost-effective drug treatment. The only winners in the war on drugs are drug cartels. The opioid commission created by President Trump failed to mention the potential role of marijuana in reducing overdose deaths. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that states with legal medical marijuana access have a 25% lower opioid overdose death rate. The phrase "if it saves one life" has been used to justify drug-war abuses. Legal marijuana access to ease pain has the potential to save thousands of lives. Robert Sharpe, Common Sense for Drug Policy; Washington, D.C. [end]
The largest survey on cannabidiol or CBD usage to date found that women were more likely than men to use CBD and once they started using it, were likely to drop their traditional medicine. A new survey from Brightfield Group and HelloMD covered 2,400 of HelloMDas community of 150,000 members and did a deep dive into the usage of CBD products and their effectiveness. HelloMD is an online community that brings together doctors and cannabis patients. [continues 633 words]
Hydroponic Tomato Garden Inspired Police To Raid Family's Home WASHINGTON - The police report would claim it all kicked off at 7:38 a.m., but Bob Harte later thought it had to be earlier. His 7:20 a.m. alarm had just yanked him awake. Got to get the kids - a boy in seventh grade, a girl in kindergarten - ready for school. Then he heard, like a starter's pistol setting everything into motion, the first pounding on the front door of his home in Leawood, Kansas, a bedroom suburb south of Kansas City. It was thunderous. It didn't stop. Should I get up? Bob thought. Should I not? Sounded like the house was coming down, he would recall later. [continues 1762 words]
A Texas girl whose family moved to Colorado to use medical marijuana to treat her intractable epilepsy is among those suing Attorney General Jeff Sessions over the federal cannabis prohibition. Attorney General Jeff Sessions says the federal government should be able to prosecute marijuana use and distribution in states that have declared it legal. An 11-year-old Texas cannabis "refugee" has joined a retired NFL football player, an Iraq War veteran and two others in a lawsuit challenging beleaguered Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the federal government's stance on medical marijuana. [continues 795 words]
What's legal, what's not, and what we're waiting on in this time between the passage of a state constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana and a July deadline for the Department of Health to institute rules and regulations. What's legal, what's not, and what we're waiting on in this time between the passage of a state constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana and a July deadline for the Department of Health to institute rules and regulations. During the past six months, the number of doctors in Florida who can recommend marijuana to patients has more than doubled from 374 to 819 as of June 2, according to state records. In Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, the number also more than doubled from 130 to 303. [continues 577 words]
Kevin Jones lives at 700 Spencer St. He says he sees pros and cons to using the dilapidated factory across the street to grow marijuana: jobs and crime. In 1910, Toledo businessman William Bunting opened a cavernous brass factory on Spencer Street, just a short distance from the zoo. Eighty years later, arson badly damaged the building. And today, the vacant warehouse is a neighborhood eyesore, its facade pockmarked with broken windows and crumbling bricks. But soon this once-formidable, now-dilapidated industrial edifice could take on an unlikely new identity: a greenhouse for medical marijuana. [continues 1086 words]
The Democrat-controlled Massachusetts Legislature sent an overhaul of the voter-passed marijuana legalization law to Governor Charlie Baker's desk Thursday - but not before a top Republican lit into the legislation. The Senate enacted the measure on a 32-6 vote. On Wednesday, the House voted 136-11 to move the bill forward. Baker is expected to sign the measure, which would raise cannabis taxes from what the ballot question envisioned, merge oversight of recreational and medical marijuana, and change how cities and towns can ban pot shops. [continues 675 words]
Los Angeles voters want to legalize marijuana, and they don't seem particularly concerned that it remains illegal under federal law. In November nearly two out of three voters in the city of L.A. supported Proposition 64, a statewide initiative to let adults grow, buy and use recreational marijuana. A few months later, voters overwhelmingly backed Measure M to create a city permitting system for marijuana businesses. City Hall has a clear mandate to legalize, regulate and tax pot. [continues 744 words]
Riverside has long prohibited medical marijuana dispensaries. Now officials may add recreational pot businesses to the ban -- at least temporarily. Since November, when California voters legalized adult use of marijuana, the Riverside City Council has not decided whether to allow, tax and regulate pot cultivation, manufacturing and sales. On Tuesday, July 25, council members will consider saying no to pot businesses until they have more information on how state regulations will look and what other Inland and Southern California communities are doing. [continues 469 words]
If there was any doubt that Sacramento was square in the path of California's "green rush," a recent tally showing the city could end up with more marijuana growing operations than it has Starbucks and McDonald's restaurants should serve as a wake-up call. More than 100 companies have applied to open grow rooms, The Bee's Ryan Lillis reported last week, and most are for industrial sites in already troubled, low-income neighborhoods in North Sacramento and off Power Inn Road. [continues 741 words]
GARDINER, Maine (AP) -- A medical marijuana businessman in Maine is offering weed for weeds in a program to encourage Gardiner residents to clean up their city. WCSH-TV reports (http://on.wcsh6.com/2eEAtNL ) that Dennis Meehan, owner of Summit Medical Marijuana, offered residents who collected trash Saturday free marijuana. The businessman says anyone who was over 21 was offered free marijuana if they presented a bag of trash that was collected in town. Meehan's company advertised the cleanup effort on Facebook, and he says he hopes to expand what he calls "the day of service" program to the entire state. Mehan says the program is about bringing awareness to the "life-changing" nature of cannabis as well. Gifting marijuana is legal in Maine. Meehan says he got the idea for the swap from a Colorado town's similar program. [end]
ORANGE PARK - Town Council soon will take up whether to lift Orange Park's moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries, and if so, where such establishments may open up shop within the town limits. The Orange Park Planning and Zoning Board voting 3-1 with one member absent July 13 recommended the council allow such dispensaries provided they comply with certain conditions. The board's recommendation is non-binding. Under Florida law, medical marijuana dispensaries are treated as pharmacies for zoning purposes. That means wherever a regular pharmacy is allowed to operate, so is a medical marijuana dispensary. [continues 398 words]
San Jacinto has set permit fees for those who wish to operate commercial marijuana businesses in the city. Anyone wanting a permit to operate a commercial marijuana cultivation business in San Jacinto better have some cash. The City Council set the permit fee at $16,500 during its meeting Tuesday, July 18. Annual permit renewals will cost $6,000 and there also will be a $10,000 fee to transfer a permit. The money covers the cost of staff time required to review and process the applications, according to the city. [continues 322 words]
San Francisco Supervisor Jeff Sheehy sponsored legislation to create the city's Office of Cannabis. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday created a new "one-stop shop" to handle policies for marijuana businesses once recreational cannabis becomes legal. Supervisor Jeff Sheehy sponsored the ordinance to set up the Office of Cannabis, which will open for business by the end of this year. It will set up an application system for marijuana licenses, resolve complaints, be a conduit to state regulators, and serve as a centralized information source for the public. [continues 597 words]
California hopes to avoid the same shortage of legalized marijuana that now faces Nevada when sales begin here in January. (File photo | Los Angeles Times) With Nevada suffering a shortage of legalized marijuana, California's state pot czar said Wednesday that efforts are being made in her state to make sure sufficient licenses go to farmers, testers and distributors to supply retailers. Providing temporary, four-month licenses to support some businesses including growers as early as November is planned "so we don't have a break in the supply chain," Lori Ajax, chief of the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation, said in testimony at a legislative hearing. [continues 236 words]
The legislation proposed in Massachusetts wouldn't change the basic marijuana rights of adults that the ballot question put in place. The Massachusetts Legislature is advancing an overhaul of the voter-passed marijuana legalization law Wednesday, when both chambers are expected to accept a House-Senate compromise bill in the afternoon. A final Senate vote, which would send the bill to the governor, is scheduled for Thursday. The legislation would change the legalization law passed by 1.8 million voters in November. [continues 324 words]
California's county fairs -- those wholesome showcases of agricultural bounty -- could become places to score some pot. Gov. Jerry Brown last week signed a bill that details how to carry out the November 2016 ballot measure that legalizes recreational marijuana as of January 2018. Tucked deep in the text is an option for county fairs to allow sampling and sales for people 21 and older in designated spots. The Stanislaus County Fair has had "minor discussions" among the board and Chief Executive Officer Matt Cranford about the issue, spokeswoman Adrenna Alkhas said by email. [continues 323 words]
Oviedo City Council members this week agreed to let the city's moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries expire Aug. 5, making it likely that Oviedo will become the first Seminole County municipality to allow such businesses. Council members also directed city staffers Monday to draft an ordinance that will treat medical marijuana dispensaries under the same zoning regulations as pharmacies. Pharmacies in Oviedo are allowed to operate only in certain office and commercial zoning districts, which are mostly located along major thoroughfares. Council members are expected to vote on a new ordinance in the coming weeks to allow pharmacies and medical marijuana dispensaries to operate only in certain commercial zoning districts, but not in zoning districts for offices. [continues 208 words]
More marijuana growers than Starbucks stores? That could be Sacramento's future. Someday soon, more businesses could grow marijuana in the city of Sacramento than there are Starbucks and McDonald's restaurants combined. More than 100 businesses are seeking special permits from the city to run indoor marijuana growing operations. From North Sacramento to South Land Park, and from downtown to the warehouse district near Power Inn Road, the flood of applications touches many corners of the city. For now, the applications technically cover marijuana for medicinal purposes, and some companies are already growing pot for that purpose under previously approved guidelines. However, commercial production and the sale of recreational pot will be allowed in California beginning Jan. 1, 2018 and city officials expect many of the new businesses will seek to enter that business. [continues 1030 words]
Just when I thought Fresno City Councilman Garry Bredefeld couldn't appear more ignorant and stupid, he proves me wrong with his half-page, anti-marijuana diatribe in Sunday's Bee. It's full of nonsense, half-truths and other easily contested points in support of his argument to try and buffer his moral crusade against the evil weed. Sorry, I underestimated Mr. Bredefeld. Steve Schmale, Fresno [end]
