Thank you, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, for giving me cover so I don't wind up being painted as the "worst person in the world," the label Keith Olbermann used on his TV show to hang on people he didn't like. I have been silent as the opioid epidemic raged because I had no clear-cut solution. The debate currently swirls around the idea of city-approved "safe injection sites," more formally known as CUES -- comprehensive user engagement sites. [continues 545 words]
Seth and Danielle Hyman with their daughter Rebecca 8, of Weston, are seeking to have a strain of marijuana legalized to help prevent seizures in their daughter, Rebecca, in 2014. Despite the legalization of medical marijuana, Seth Hyman said the drug is still difficult to get for is daughter. [Miami Herald] When Seth Hyman first began to buy medical marijuana in Florida for his 12-year-old daughter last year, he hoped it would be the answer to fixing her life-threatening seizures. [continues 902 words]
Hydroponic systems to grow your own pot, an on-site bud trimming school and hand-blown glass pipe demonstrations are among the mix of exhibitors at this weekend's Hawaii Cannabis Expo. Drew Gennuso, owner of Trim Ready Hawaii, showed Ari Medina how to trim legal hemp, which looks like cannabis, Friday at the Hawaii Cannabis Expo at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall. Hydroponic systems to grow your own pot, an on-site bud trimming school and hand-blown glass pipe demonstrations are among the mix of exhibitors at this weekend's Hawaii Cannabis Expo. [continues 767 words]
DOVER, Del. -- A task force studying issues surrounding marijuana legalization in Delaware is wrapping up its work, but it remains unclear whether there is enough support among state lawmakers to legalize recreational pot use. The task force issued a draft report Wednesday and plans to present a final report Feb. 28. Rep. Helene Keeley, a Wilmington Democrat who is co-chair of the task force and chief sponsor of a stalled legalization bill, said the bill would be amended to address some of the concerns raised during task-force meetings. The panel has discussed a variety of issues, including law-enforcement concerns, taxation and banking, consumer safety, and local authority and control. [continues 459 words]
It's a common stereotype that people who smoke weed are a bit foggy-headed and missing a few brain cells. But a new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found that alcohol is much more damaging to your brain than marijuana. In fact, the study - which was published in the journal Addiction - suggests that weed use doesn't seem to alter the structure of a person's brain at all. Kent Hutchison, a co-author of the study, told Medical News Today that he wanted to examine what effect pot has on a person's brain because there isn't a conclusive answer to the question. [continues 364 words]
Political pressure on the state Cannabis Control Commission intensified Thursday, as Attorney General Maura Healey and 78 state legislators joined Governor Charlie Baker in pressing the independent agency to roll out a more limited recreational marijuana industry this summer. In letters sent at the close of a public comment period on the commission's draft rules for pot companies, Healey and the lawmakers urged cannabis regulators to delay their provisional plans to license marijuana cafes, delivery services that don't also operate a physical storefront, and "mixed-use" businesses such as art galleries and theaters that want to sell cannabis on the side. [continues 450 words]
Opponents of recreational marijuana legalization in Connecticut argued Thursday it would cost the state more than it would collect in tax revenue. Legalization would cost the state $216 million in 2020, "far outweighing even the rosiest tax projections," a report released Thursday by Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), a group dedicated to stopping the legalization of marijuana, says. "Legislators are scrambling to find additional revenue," Bo Huhn, a legalization opponent, said during a Thursday morning press conference at the state Capitol complex. "But if you look at all the costs, you will find not only will we not make much, but that you lose money on the deal.'' [continues 458 words]
Berkeley may be the first city to declare itself a cannabis sanctuary city. A customer shops at marijuana dispensary MedMen in West Hollywood in January. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to declare the city a sanctuary for recreational marijuana, a move that may be the first of its kind. The resolution, adopted Tuesday, prohibits Berkeley's agencies and employees from using city resources to assist in enforcing federal marijuana laws or providing information on legal cannabis activities. [continues 367 words]
Latest stops in northwestern Minnesota show surge of drug traffic into the state. It seemed like an innocuous driving violation: A woman was motoring through Otter Tail County in northwestern Minnesota with an obstructed license plate. Then the observant state trooper discovered she was sitting on packages of marijuana. Troopers seized more than 300 pounds of the weed during the stop last Friday, the latest of several large pot busts the State Patrol has made in the past few weeks and a sign that the surge of large quantities of pot and illegal drugs into Minnesota is continuing. [continues 329 words]
One target drove a Mercedes and lived in a waterfront condo on Boston Street; another was homeless, essentially living out of a storage unit where he kept his money balled up in a sock. One lived with his extended family in a house he bought with a lead poisoning settlement; yet another had a half-million-dollar home on two acres of land in Westminster. The circumstances of the people who were targeted for robbery by the Baltimore Police's Gun Trace Task Force ranged widely, according to witnesses in the federal trial of two of its former members. The sums allegedly taken went from three figures up to six. [continues 1429 words]
Broward County Schools are hashing out plans for dealing with medical marijuana on campus. Under a proposed policy, students wouldn't be allowed to carry pot and it could not be stored on campus. But a student's parent or caregiver could bring it to school and administer it if the child has the proper medical approval. School staff would be not be allowed to handle it. Pot use has long been banned on school campuses, but Florida voters legalized it for medical purposes in 2016. The state Legislature last year required schools to come up with a policy on dealing with it. [continues 133 words]
Three weeks ago, after Philadelphia announced that it would encourage the opening of a safe injection site, I praised the decision as a bold kind of leadership. It showed that the city was stepping on the national stage in the middle of a life-and-death catastrophe. I still think that. Now the city has to sell it. Sure, it's only been three weeks. But in the absence of an immediate city PR strategy for saving lives - it feels funny even writing that - you can feel myths proliferating. The city cannot simply react to the discourse. It must help lead it. [continues 805 words]
It only seemed appropriate that a long-distance phone call to Cheech Marin would go awry, repeatedly getting dropped. Hearing each other say, "Hello, hello, are you there?" back and forth was like reliving the famous "Dave's not here" routine of Cheech & Chong, where a stoned-out Chong keeps telling anxiety-ridden drug dealer Dave (Cheech) knocking on the door that "Dave's not here." Cheech Marin, left, and Tommy Chong at the 2014 Guys Choice Awards in Cheech, though, knew better than to simply blame cellphone technology. [continues 1192 words]
Frustrated with traditional therapies for chronic pain and post-combat stress disorders, a growing number of military veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are turning to medical marijuana for their treatment, a move that has put them at sharp odds with the Trump administration. The White House has resisted calls from Democrats in Congress, pro-reform activists and even the American Legion, the nation's largest wartime veterans service organization, to support research into whether marijuana can help veterans, apparently fearing that any move by the Department of Veterans Affairs to study its effectiveness will be another step toward nationwide legalization. [continues 1156 words]
Drug treatment can't help dead people. That's why San Francisco is scheduled to open two safe injection sites later this year, where drug users will be allowed to shoot up under medical supervision. If an addict overdoses, trained staff will be available to revive them with an overdose antidote like naloxone, commonly known as Narcan. Staffers can also recommend treatment options to those interested. In an effort to stem fatal overdoses, safe injection sites are now under discussion in such cities as Philadelphia, Seattle, and Ithaca, N.Y. [continues 494 words]
Stung by robberies in California, Colorado, Washington and other states, the cannabis industry is pressing Congress to change federal banking laws so that its retailers no longer have to carry and process large amounts of cash. Yet lacking the lobbying muscle of their adversaries, the industry hasn't gained much traction on Capitol Hill, leaving cannabis business owners and their employees vulnerable to thefts and violent crime. GOP lawmakers from pot-unfriendly states have sidelined legislation in the House and Senate that would allow marijuana businesses to conduct transactions with federally regulated banks. These also include state and community owned banks that are part of the Federal Reserve System. [continues 1138 words]
Ohio's drug overdose deaths rose 39 percent -- the third-largest increase among the states -- between mid-2016 and mid-2017, according to new federal figures. The state's opioid crisis continued to explode in the first half of last year, with 5,232 Ohio overdose deaths recorded in the 12 months ending June 31, 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. The death toll increased by 1,469 or 39 percent, which trailed only the 43.4-percent hike in Pennsylvania and 39.4-percent increase recorded in Florida. Ohio's total number of dead also only fell behind Florida (5,540) and Pennsylvania (5,443). [continues 297 words]
A man and woman were charged with child neglect after an infant girl tested positive for marijuana, according to media reports. Daniel Chambers, 42, and Ashley Willard, 24, both of Union County, were charged Tuesday with unlawful neglect of a child, according to FOX Carolina in Greenville. Willard tested positive for marijuana on Jan. 13, wspa.com reports. Union County deputies say that prompted the S.C. Department of Social Services to test a hair sample from the child the same day, according to goupstate.com. Deputies were notified on Jan. 31, that the baby tested positive for marijuana, according to WSPA. Willard and Chambers were released from jail Tuesday on $5,000 bond each, according to Union County court records. [end]
There aren't a lot of concrete answers as to why marijuana transactions are deadlier, but there are theories. The morning Kim Ambers turned 50, her oldest son, Richard Ambers, called to wish her a happy birthday. I love you, he told her. It was a tradition for the Ambers family members to see one another on birthdays, but Kim Ambers' celebration would have to wait. Richard was working and had a Halloween party afterward. The whole family would go out for breakfast the next day, on Oct. 29, 2016. [continues 1106 words]
Even before California legalized recreational marijuana Jan. 1, pot was enjoying a gray renaissance. From 2006 to 2013, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported a 250% rise in marijuana use by Americans 65 and older. It is still a small share, climbing from 0.4% to 1.4% of that population, but local dispensaries see plenty of silver-haired shoppers. "This is probably the most interested -- and wariest -- group," said Lincoln Fish, chief executive of cannabis company Outco, noting that the average customer at his Outliers Collective in El Cajon is over 58 years old. [continues 963 words]
WASHINGTON - American officials have been quietly raising questions about whether Canada's marijuana legalization might slow traffic at the border, and are being told by their northern neighbours there's no reason that should happen. The issue has come up in phone calls between high-level officials and again in passing this week during a first face-toface encounter between Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and his U.S. counterpart, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. It hasn't been contentious, he said. "The only thing they say is, 'Will this cause lineups?'" Goodale said in an interview. [continues 313 words]
The Baker administration chastised Massachusetts pot regulators this week, saying their draft plan to create one of the world's most permissive regulated marijuana markets goes too far, too fast. The Baker administration chastised Massachusetts pot regulators this week, saying their draft plan to create one of the world's most permissive regulated marijuana markets goes too far, too fast. In a letter to the Cannabis Control Commission dated Monday , the governor's office warned the independent agency that it had reached beyond the core mandate of the state's marijuana legalization law by proposing the licensure of businesses not seen in other states' recreational markets: sit-and-get-high cafes, pot delivery services not tied to dispensaries, and even movie theaters that want to offer patrons cannabis-laced snacks. [continues 921 words]
He smoked pot, grabbed a steak knife and meditated, cops say. Then his mom walked in. Terrell Banks told police the paranoia set in after he smoked weed. Banks, a 23-year-old from Racine, Wisconsin, allegedly said the marijuana "put him beyond his comfort zone," even though the drug has never made him feel that way before, according to Fox6. He grabbed a steak knife, he told police, and walked around his house because of the unsettling feeling. He tried to meditate, Banks said, but the voices in his head said someone was attempting to rape him. Then his mom walked in the house, according to a criminal complaint detailed in the Racine County Eye. [continues 226 words]
After a unanimous vote of support by the Sarasota City Commission, medical marijuana dispensaries will now be operational in the city and those with prescriptions will be able to utilize them immediately. State legislation had preempted the city's ability to regulate the dispensaries, which led to commissioners placing a temporary ban on them until a solution could be found. That solution happened last month when commissioners approved a plan to change zoning codes, paving the way for those prescribed the drug for various medical ailments to obtain it locally. [continues 342 words]
Officials in San Francisco said Tuesday they will open two safe injection sites this summer, joining Philadelphia and Seattle on the list of American cities that are planning to open sites where people in addiction can use drugs under medical supervision and be revived if they overdose. The announcement comes three weeks after Philadelphia officials announced their own plans to open a site here. Like Philadelphia's, the San Francisco site will be funded privately. And also like Philadelphia, the funding sources aren't yet clear, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. City officials there said they were working with "six to eight nonprofits that already operate needle exchanges and offer other drug addiction services." Two will host the first safe injection sites, and will likely open in July, officials said. [continues 105 words]
WORCESTER - There are board games, an X-Box and snacks for sale. Members of The Summit Lounge social club are allowed to bring in food from nearby restaurants. But that's not all they can bring in. The Summit Lounge opened Friday as the city's first private club for those who want a social setting in which to smoke a joint. But Mr. Moon, 27, of Northbridge, said the goal of the business is not just to provide people with a place to get high. [continues 470 words]
A company responsible for keeping Sacramento dispensaries compliant with the law has run afoul of the city's pot czar for planning an illegal marijuana party. Capitol Compliance Management and its nine affiliated dispensaries have been running advertisements in the Sacramento News & Review for a "Holiday Budtender Bash" that was scheduled for Thursday. Joe Devlin, the city's chief of cannabis policy and enforcement, said the company canceled the event after he told them it would violate state and city laws by allowing public consumption of marijuana and by giving it away. [continues 373 words]
A coffee-like plant from southeast Asia was classified Tuesday as a dangerous opioid by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Kratom is an unregulated plant imported from southeast Asia which is commonly sold in convenience stores and used as a home remedy to combat pain and opioid withdrawal, among other uses. The FDA posted reports of kratom-related deaths on its website in December and again earlier this week. Here are a few examples of kratom-related deaths from those reports: [continues 519 words]
On Wednesday, the Illinois Senate Executive Committee overwhelmingly passed SB336, a bill that would allow people with opioid prescriptions to apply for a medical marijuana card, with only Minority Leader Bill Brady, a Republican from Bloomington, voting no in a 16-1 decisive passing. If signed into law, SB336 would amend the medical marijuana program to allow those who are prescribed opioids to apply for medical marijuana instead, giving patients the ability to choose medical cannabis, which has consistently shown to be a safer alternative, over the highly addictive and often deadly opioids. [continues 565 words]
Eighteen businesses have applied for medical marijuana dispensary licenses in Lucas County, with Maumee and Holland joining Toledo as communities where businesses hope to sell medicinal pot, according to the Ohio Board of Pharmacy. The board received 376 applications for a maximum of 60 possible licenses, though some businesses filed applications for multiple sites. The state has also split Ohio into four regional districts, and northwest Ohio will only receive 10 dispensary licenses, with 39 applications competing for those spots. The restrictions are even more complex, though, as each region is broken down further into districts. Lucas County, for instance, will only receive two dispensaries, creating heavy competition among the 18 applications in Toledo, Maumee, and Holland. A district made up of Wood, Hancock and Henry counties will only get one. Three firms have applied to open in Wood County, and no companies have applied to open a dispensary in Hancock or Henry counties. [continues 263 words]
San Francisco is on track to open its first two safe injection sites this July, a milestone that will likely make the city the first in the country to embrace the controversial model of allowing drug users to shoot up under supervision. Other cities - including Seattle, Baltimore and Philadelphia - are talking about opening their own safe injection facilities, but San Francisco could get there first. Facilities already exist in Canada, Australia and Europe. Barbara Garcia, director of San Francisco's Department of Public Health, said Monday that she's tending to the details, including where the facilities will be located. She's working with six to eight nonprofits that already operate needle exchanges and offer other drug addiction services, and two of them will be selected to offer safe injection on-site. [continues 956 words]
States with medical marijuana dispensaries saw "a significant decline" in opioid deaths over a 10-year period, according to a report published this week by the Journal of Health Economics. "The evidence suggests that Pennsylvania will see a reduction in opioid dependence and a reduction in overdose deaths" following the opening of the dispensaries, said David Powell, an economist for the RAND Corporation, in an interview with the Inquirer and Daily News. Pennsylvania is launching its first dispensaries next week, with the first medical marijuana products expected to be available to registered patients on Feb. 15. [continues 390 words]
In what could be a precedent-setting decision, a New Jersey administrative law judge has ordered an insurance company to pay for medical marijuana for an injured worker who suffers from lingering neuropathic pain in his left hand after an accident while using a power saw at an 84 Lumber outlet in 2008. Judge Ingrid L. French took testimony from the worker, a 39-year-old Egg Harbor Township man, and a Cherry Hill psychiatrist/neurologist who said the marijuana treatment was appropriate because it would allow the patient to reduce his prescription opiate use and lower the risk of serious side effects. [continues 742 words]
Florida needs to take advantage of every opportunity to bring awareness and resources to the deadly opioid epidemic that is ravaging communities across the state. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions comes to Tampa today to discuss federal efforts to combat the crisis, but if he sticks to his script of late he will focus on enforcement and punishment instead of where the attention really needs to be: rehabilitation. Without a meaningful commitment at all levels of government to treating addiction, this crisis will continue claiming lives. [continues 489 words]
The industrial hemp plant has a lot of boosters. They praise it for its hardiness and versatility. They say its oils yield food and medicine, its fibers produce clothing and plastic-like auto parts. They contend that when planted strategically, it can absorb manure and other pollutants before they flow into the Chesapeake Bay. So why is it contraband, they ask? Advocates for industrial hemp hope this is the year they can overcome the hemp plant's association with marijuana and win passage of a bill that would make it legal to grow and process in Maryland. At a forum Friday in Annapolis, they expressed confidence this will be the year state lawmakers join a growing national movement to distinguish hemp's industrial version from the plant beloved by millions of potheads. [continues 821 words]
A Philly nurse on safe injection sites "You want me to do what?" "Where's your compassion?" "What a waste of resources!" "I have an obligation to help people stay healthy." These are conflicting responses I imagine nurses and health-care professionals may have when asked to provide care at safe injection sites, places where people can use drugs under medical supervision. There aren't any such sites right now. But the City of Philadelphia announced that it will encourage setting them up. Should health-care professionals participate? It's a dilemma wrought with ethical, moral, legal, and regulatory issues and more questions than answers. As a nurse, I can understand and appreciate both sides. [continues 551 words]
California's top cannabis regulator said the state deserves credit for a successful rollout of retail marijuana sales, but acknowledged that significant issues loom in the near future. One month after the start of recreational marijuana sales, Lori Ajax, chief of the state Bureau of Cannabis Control, gave an assessment of the state's performance for a few hundred people at the International Cannabis Business Conference. She praised her employees, who worked through the weekend before the Monday, Jan. 1 beginning of legal sales, granting licenses to dispensaries eager to start. Employees continued to work on Jan. 1, expecting to receive complaints from license applicants and holders, but they never came, Ajax said. [continues 360 words]
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Legislature is poised to allow anyone to purchase and use a cannabis-derived extract believed to have therapeutic benefits, following a key vote by the state Senate on Monday. Cannabidiol, or CBD, is derived from marijuana and hemp, though the substance, typically sold as an oil, lacks enough of the main psychoactive component THC to get high. Lawmakers approved a law last year allowing those with severe forms of epilepsy to purchase and possess CBD. But the law conflicted with an earlier industrial hemp law approved by the Legislature, and no sooner had it gone into effect than state excise police cracked down on the sale of CBD. [continues 291 words]
When California voters legalized recreational weed in 2016, they made the law retroactive, allowing residents to petition to overturn or reduce old convictions for possession, cultivation and distribution of marijuana. But it is a difficult and expensive legal procedure, advocates say, and many people are not even aware they are now eligible to clean up their records. State courts received 4,885 petitions in the first 11 months after Proposition 64 passed, while the pro-legalization Drug Policy Alliance found more than 460,000 arrests for marijuana offenses between 2006 and 2015 alone. [continues 275 words]
Should New Jersey residents be able to grow their own marijuana at home? A top-ranking Garden State assemblyman thinks so. Reed Gusciora (D., Mercer) is the deputy majority leader in the Assembly and a prosecutor in Lawrence Township. He's also running to be mayor of New Jersey's capital city. Gusciora believes residents should be allowed to cultivate up to six cannabis plants indoors for their personal use if recreational marijuana becomes legal in the state. "Looking at the marijuana laws in place in California, Oregon, Washington and the like, I thought that homegrown should be an essential element of the New Jersey law, too," Gusciora said. [continues 332 words]
The top federal prosecutor in Oregon on Friday pressed for data and details about the scope of the state's role as a source of black market marijuana. U.S. Attorney Billy Williams told a large gathering that included Gov. Kate Brown, law enforcement officials and representatives of the cannabis industry that Oregon has an "identifiable and formidable overproduction and diversion problem." "That is the fact," he told the crowd at the U.S. District courthouse. "And my responsibility is to work with our state partners to do something about it." [continues 445 words]
State Treasurer John Chiang laid out a plan Tuesday to create a public bank for marijuana merchants in open defiance of what he called an =93out of step=94 Trump administration fixing to take the hose to California's sizzling new herbal trade. Chiang said he and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra have initiated "a methodical and disciplined" cost-benefit analysis to determine whether a public bank would work in California amid the threat of a federal crackdown. The move comes 30 days after California's recreational market officially began, creating a financial windfall for marijuana merchants and illuminating a serious problem. Store owners, growers and distributors are being forced to use cash because most banks won't open accounts for them while the federal government still considers marijuana illegal. [continues 738 words]
A new multi-site study has found that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to engage in substance use than youngsters without the disorder and had higher rates of marijuana and cigarette use going into adulthood. The study's takeaway message, suggested lead author Brooke Molina, should be that parents of children with ADHD need to keep in touch with their children's activities and friends, even into the teenage years. "They should keep their antenna up," said Molina, a psychiatry professor with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. [continues 433 words]
Governor Charlie Baker plans to meet with US Attorney Andrew Lelling next month, and the governor thinks state and federal law enforcement priorities could converge on cracking down on the illicit marijuana market. At the state level, where marijuana has been legalized for medical and other uses, stamping out the black market trade could bolster the regulated sale of the intoxicant, the governor said. "Once we have a regulated legal market here we should want to prosecute and go after people who continue to engage in this product illegally. If you talk to the folks in Colorado, they'll tell you that one of their big problems is they still have an enormous black market, and some of that black market's being supported by some of the legal market, and I think one of the things we should make sure is that the legal market is the market," Baker told co-hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan during his regular "Ask the Governor" segment on WGBH radio. [continues 360 words]
NORTH ANDOVER - Dr. Jeff Goldstein is hunting for "a billion-dollar molecule." But to find it, he first needs permission from residents here to grow marijuana - actually, a stupendous amount of marijuana. That's why, on Sunday afternoon, he was pacing anxiously behind a small folding table in the lobby of Osgood Landing, the massive former Lucent Technologies plant he bought with his wife in 2003 and now hopes to convert into one of the world's largest indoor marijuana growing and research centers. [continues 1246 words]
Dajia Brown cares for Brooklyn at their Somerville home. She credits a Boston Medical Center program for her progress. Last June, Dajia Brown embarked on a dangerous phase of life - so dangerous that many in her situation do not survive. It started when she gave birth to her daughter, Brooklyn, several months after entering treatment for addiction to fentanyl pills. The postpartum period, a tough time for many women, can be particularly challenging for women with opioid use disorder, putting them at high risk of relapse and overdose. [continues 982 words]
Bay Area marijuana retailers who went fully mainstream this month were forced to act like gangsters anyway as they rumbled down freeways and across bridges in sport utility vehicles and sedans and, in at least one case, a Tesla, bearing cash piled in shopping bags and suitcases. The money was headed for the collectors at the San Francisco and Oakland offices of the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, which are handling tax payments under the 2016 state law that legalized recreational cannabis. [continues 1174 words]
Dennis Peron, an activist who helped legalize medical marijuana in California, died Saturday afternoon in a San Francisco hospital. He was 71. Peron was a force behind a San Francisco ordinance allowing medical marijuana, a win that later helped propel the 1996 passage of Prop. 215, which legalized medical use for the entire state. A Vietnam War veteran, Peron spent some of the last years his life on a 20-acre farm in the rolling hills of Lake County, growing and giving away what he once sold: medical marijuana. [continues 434 words]
When Attorney General Jeff Sessions did away with the Obama-era, hands-off approach to recreational marijuana, he left the door open to a new federal crackdown on the drug. He also left the discretion for any stepped-up enforcement in the laps of his local prosecutors. In Western New York, where the recreational use of marijuana is still illegal, Sessions' high-profile actions raised the question: Will there be changes in the type of marijuana cases prosecuted here? Three weeks later, there are no dramatic signs of a crackdown on pot and, to the contrary, there's an expectation that little will change. [continues 997 words]
During his 25 years of researching cannabis, Dr. Daniele Piomelli has received hundreds of emails from people desperately wanting to know whether the plant can help them with medical problems. He recalls the one he received from the father of a girl with autism who was desperate for help. "Ninety-nine percent of the time, I have to say, 'We just don't know,' " said Piomelli, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. "It's heartbreaking." While Piomelli and other marijuana researchers acknowledge a shortage of research on the benefits and risks of the drug, they also said they feel the need to spread what is known about cannabis as California and seven other states move forward with legalized, recreational weed for adults. Piomelli was one of several public health experts who spoke Thursday during a legislative briefing at the state Capitol on the health effects of cannabis. [continues 385 words]
Inside United States
