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New Jersey has added more than 30,000 patients to its medical marijuana program since Gov. Phil Murphy took office last January, but now the state will soon have a market better suited to serve those patients.

Murphy on Tuesday signed a bill that overhauls the state’s medical marijuana program, following months of debate and negotiation with lawmakers that saw an effort to legalize recreational marijuana here fail.

The new law will likely add dozens of medical marijuana providers, greatly increasing capacity from the six providers currently operating.

It will also take steps to make it easier for patients to get medical marijuana by relaxing rules on how much they can buy and how many times they must see a doctor to qualify for the program.

The state’s program has been strained by the influx of patients, with complaints of long lines at marijuana dispensaries and supply shortages.

“We were one of the first states to have a medical marijuana regime…it just didn’t take off,” Murphy said Tuesday before signing the legislation during a ceremony at Tommy’s Tavern and Tap in Freehold. “A lot of us have come to an understanding of how medical marijuana can be used to help patients.” [Read more at NJ.com]

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RICHMOND, Va. — While tobacco has long been Virginia’s cash crop of choice, the creation of five medical cannabis processing facilities and dispensaries across the state will mark the emergence of a new kind of lucrative plant.

The framework of Virginia’s state-regulated medical cannabis industry was established in a slew of bills during the 2018 and 2019 General Assembly sessions, including SB 1557, which took effect on July 1.

The five processing and dispensing facilities will enable Virginians to access therapeutic strength, Board of Pharmacy regulated cannabis products after receiving approval by a certified doctor, physicians assistant or nurse practitioner.

The drug is not prescribed in the Commonwealth because marijuana remains illegal on a federal level.

Instead, Virginia created an “affirmative defense” which protects patients from criminal charges for possessing CDB and THC-A oil.

To invoke the defense, patients must meet with a Board of Pharmacy registered health care provider, receive a written certification for use, and then register with the Board.

Patients will then receive an affirmative defense card which enables them to legally buy, carry and consume regulated, medical-grade cannabis products purchased from one of the state’s five dispensaries.

The five facilities, one for each of the state’s health service areas, allow each company to handle the entire manufacturing process for their given jurisdiction – from growing marijuana and extracting the CBD, THC, and THC-A oils to running the dispensary storefronts that they sell through.

Green Leaf Medical Cannabis will serve “Health Service Area 4”, which encompasses 27 counties including Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover counties and the cities of Richmond, Petersburg, Hopewell and Colonial Heights.

The company is a multi-state operator currently cultivating and dispensing medical cannabis in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

In March, Green Leaf filed plans with the city to begin building their oil processing facility in South Richmond at 2804 Decatur St. near the Clopton Siteworks development in the Swansboro neighborhood. [Read More @ WTVR]

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Some 271 million people globally, or more than one in 20 of the population aged 15 to 64, used recreational drugs in 2017, according to newly released data from the United Nations World Drug Report. That’s a 30% increase from 2009.

The use of cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines and prescription stimulants are at post-recession highs in the U.S., the study said. And although the use of prescription opioids has dipped recently, the number of overdoses has increased. More than 47,000 deaths were recorded there in 2017, many of them attributed to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

The most popular drug globally continues to be cannabis, with an estimated 188 million people having used it in 2017, according to the study. Cannabis usage is most prevalent in North America, where there are an estimated 56.6 million users, followed by Asia with 54.2 million.

One-third of Israeli men in the 15-to-64 age bracket and 28.5% of those in Jamaica used cannabis at a greater frequency than all other countries measured, the study said. American men followed at 21.4% while Canadians and New Zealanders rounded out the top five with 19.1% and 18.6%, respectively, according to the latest data available. [Read More @ Bloomberg]

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Since 2008, it’s been illegal to smoke indoors at most public places in Illinois. But smoking could once again be allowed at bars, restaurants, coffee shops and other businesses, even new cannabis smoke lounges and weed-friendly movie theaters and concert venues — if local officials approve that.

That’s under a largely overlooked provision of the new Illinois law legalizing recreational marijuana use and sales.

The law legalizing the recreational use of marijuana beginning Jan. 1 provides an exemption to the Smoke-Free Illinois Act that banned smoking at workplaces and most public places because of the health threat of secondhand smoke. A similar exemption already was in place for cigar lounges.

That means smoking once again could become commonplace at public places in Illinois, according to the law’s chief sponsor — but only of marijuana, not tobacco, which remains largely banned at workplaces and businesses.

Surprised to hear that, health advocates say allowing more smoking of any kind in indoor public places is a bad idea.

“This is a step backwards for the health of the people of Illinois,” says Kathy Drea, head of advocacy for the American Lung Association in Illinois. [Read more at Chicago Sun Times]

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Colorado’s first-in-the-nation experiment with legalized marijuana has infused the drug into almost every corner of life.

DENVER — Serenity Christensen, 14, is too young to set foot in one of Colorado’s many marijuana shops, but she was able to spot a business opportunity in legal weed. She is a Girl Scout, and this year, she and her mother decided to sell their cookies outside a dispensary. “Good business,” Serenity said.

But on the other side of Denver, legalization has turned another high school student, David Perez, against the warehouselike marijuana cultivations now clustered around his neighborhood. He said their skunky aroma often smacks him in the face when he walks out his front door.

These are the ripples of five years of legal marijuana. Colorado’s first-in-the-nation experiment has reshaped health, politics, rural culture and criminal justice in surprising ways that often defy both the worst warnings of critics and blue-sky rhetoric of the marijuana industry, giving a glimpse of what the future may hold as more and more states adopt and debate full legalization.

Since recreational sales began in 2014, more people here are visiting emergency rooms for marijuana-related problems, and hospitals report higher rates of mental-health cases tied to marijuana. [Read More @ The New York Times]

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SANTA FE – Recent attempts to legalize recreational marijuana use in New Mexico have come up short at the Roundhouse, but Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is laying the groundwork for a legalization bill to make it to her desk in 2020.

The first-term Democratic governor on Friday announced the creation of a Cannabis Legalization Working Group, a task force of at least 19 state lawmakers, Cabinet secretaries, law enforcement officials and medical marijuana executives that will study other states’ experiences with legalizing cannabis use.

The group, which will be led by Albuquerque City Councilor Pat Davis, has also been tasked with making recommendations to the governor that will be incorporated into proposed legislation.

“I want New Mexico’s introduction and management of recreational cannabis to be the envy of the country,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “We can and will incorporate lessons learned from other states so that New Mexico provides for a well-regulated industry that, crucially, does not infringe on or harm our expanding medical cannabis program, upon which so many New Mexicans rely.” [Read More @ Albuquerque Journal]

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Allegations that the legislative push for marijuana policy reform has stumbled in recent months (“Marijuana advocates hit unexpected roadblocks in 2019,” June 2) are nothing short of a pipe dream. 

Nearly one in four Americans reside in a jurisdiction where the adult use of cannabis is legal, and 33 states regulate medical marijuana access by statute. No state has ever repealed a marijuana legalization law, and two-thirds of adults — including majorities of self-identified Democrats, Republicans and independents — endorse making the plant legal, according to the latest Gallup poll. As more states amend their cannabis laws, public support for legalization continues to rise. 

Moreover, 2019 has been an unprecedented year for the passage of state-level reforms. Illinois lawmakers voted to legalize adult use cannabis sales, making it the eleventh state to legalize marijuana outright and the first to comprehensively do so via legislative action. In addition, legislators in three states — Hawaii, New Mexico and North Dakota — have moved to decriminalize marijuana possession. The New York legislature just voted to expand its existing decriminalization laws. This would make the possession of up to two ounces of cannabis a fine-only offense. Also, nearly a dozen states, including Illinois, Oregon, Nevada and Washington, have passed legislation in recent weeks to expunge past marijuana convictions. [Read More @ The Hill}

 

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ZURICH (Reuters) – The Swiss government aims to make it easier for patients to get medical marijuana, proposing on Wednesday to allow prescriptions for cannabis to treat people suffering from cancer or other serious conditions.

The proposal, separate from a Swiss government push to allow some cities to experiment with recreational marijuana, would replace the current system, in which those seeking medical cannabis must apply for an exception from the Federal Health Office to get what is otherwise an illegal drug.

Marijuana is sometimes used to help cancer patients manage chronic pain, to help boost their appetites, and to reduce spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis.

“The proposal makes it possible for doctors to directly prescribe cannabis as part of their treatment,” the Swiss cabinet said in a statement.

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The Swiss government aims to make it easier for patients to get medical marijuana, proposing on Wednesday to allow prescriptions for cannabis to treat people suffering from cancer or other serious conditions.

The proposal, separate from a Swiss government push to allow some cities to experiment with recreational marijuana, would replace the current system, in which those seeking medical cannabis must apply for an exception from the Federal Health Office to get what is otherwise an illegal drug.

Marijuana is sometimes used to help cancer patients manage chronic pain, to help boost their appetites, and to reduce spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis.

“The proposal makes it possible for doctors to directly prescribe cannabis as part of their treatment,” the Swiss cabinet said in a statement.

“Growing and processing medical cannabis as well as its sale would then be possible under a system regulated” by Swissmedic, the country’s drug regulatory agency.

A formal comment period runs until mid-October.

Just how insurers will handle reimbursement for medical marijuana will be dealt with separately, the government said.

“The biggest obstacle to automatic reimbursement is that the scientific evidence of efficacy is not yet sufficient and the conclusions of existing studies are sometimes contradictory,” the government said. [Read more at Reuters]

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Illinois this month became the latest U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana. The legislation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker permits recreational use of the drug for adults 21 and older and allows for the expungement of minor marijuana-related convictions. Illinois had previously legalized marijuana for medical purposes.

Nationwide, public support for cannabis legalization has steadily grown in recent years. As support has risen, a growing number of states have legalized or decriminalized the drug. Here are five facts about Americans and marijuana:

1. A majority of Americans support marijuana legalization. About six-in-ten Americans (62%) say the use of marijuana should be legalized, according to a fall 2018 survey. Public opinion on marijuana legalization was essentially the opposite nearly two decades ago: In 2000, a similar majority (63%) said the use of marijuana should be illegal.

2. Views of marijuana legalization differ by generation and political party, though support has increased across demographic groups over time. Majorities of Millennials (74%), Gen Xers (63%) and Baby Boomers (54%) say the use of marijuana should be legal, up sharply from earlier years. And while a smaller share of the Silent Generation (39%) currently favors legalization, support among these Americans has also increased. [Read More @ Pew Research]

 

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The global story about cannabis — the most-used recreational drug in the world — is about as fuzzy as your body feels after taking your first hit. While some places, such as states in the US, have legalized the drug, it is strictly prohibited in others.

Almost 200 million people smoke pot worldwide according to the2019 World Drug Report, published Wednesday, and that number is rising. Whether this is a good or bad thing seems somewhat hard to decipher with inconsistent global regulations on the drug, conflicting research studies and little concrete evidence of its long-term effects.

This inconsistent approach to regulation is most apparent in the United States, where, for example, one can take a road trip to Colorado — where cannabis was legalized recreationally in 2012 — and purchase the drug at one of the local streetside dispensaries as long as they have an ID.

However, immediately after crossing the border into Kansas, Colorado’s border state where the drug is illegal, pot-smokers can be arrested and charged with thousand-dollar fines or jail time. If caught again, they could face even heftier jail sentences. [Read more at Deutsche Well]

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday signed into law a bill that will legalize marijuana in Illinois next year, marking a momentous shift in how the state treats drug use. 

The bill will allow the licensed growth, sales, possession and consumption of cannabis for adults 21 and older.

The signing ceremony, attended by several lawmakers, officeholders and marijuana supporters, took place at the Sankofa Cultural Arts & Business Center in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. 

Pritzker called the legislation a “sea change” for Illinois, saying that the war on drugs has destroyed families and disproportionately affected minorities.

“Illinoisans have had enough,” he said. “… The time for change has long since passed.”

“This legalization of adult use cannabis brings an important and overdue change to our state, and it’s the right thing to do.”

Illinois becomes the 11th state to legalize recreational cannabis. Pritzker noted that Illinois is the first state to fully legalize commercial sales through the legislature, rather than through referendum.

He emphasized that the law provides for automatic expungement of arrests for marijuana possession under 30 grams, and that he will pardon those with convictions for possession up to 30 grams.

Individuals and prosecutors may go to court to seek expungement of cases involving up to 500 grams. [Read More @ The Chicago Tribune]

 

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