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All across the US, states and cities are voting to legalize weed and decriminalize the use of natural psychedelics, putting an end to nearly a century of hardcore prohibition. And after decades of passing draconian drug laws, even Congress is showing some fervor for walking back the War on Drugs. 

Yet in spite of the growing support for updating the country's antiquated drug laws, President Biden seems content to stick to his prohibitionist roots. Not only has he continued to express his opposition to adult-use legalization, his administration has also fired and disciplined White House staffers who got high in weed-legal states.

Now, the president is ready to double down on a Trump-era law that will impose harsh mandatory minimum sentences on anyone caught in possession of fentanyl. This relatively new narcotic, which is legally prescribed to treat extreme pain, has flooded the black market in recent years, contributing heavily to the nation's opioid crisis. 

In 2018, the Trump administration classified fentanyl and several related opioids as Schedule I drugs, and Congress extended that classification again last year. This extension will expire in a matter of weeks, though, and the Biden administration is now pushing Congress for another extension. 

“The Administration takes the May 6 deadline seriously and will work with Congress to seek a clean, seven-month extension to prevent this important law enforcement tool from lapsing,” a spokesperson for the Office of National Drug Control Policy told RealClearPolitics. 

The opioid crisis has cost millions of American lives, and no one is arguing that the federal government should allow fentanyl to spread unchecked. But the Schedule I classification of these drugs means that anyone caught possessing them is subject to harsh mandatory minimum sentences that can further destroy the lives of anyone who has become involved with these addictive drugs.

Drug reform advocates are arguing that extending the Schedule I classification of fentanyl will only criminalize drug addiction instead of treating it. The War on Drugs has done nothing to actually stop the spread of illegal drugs, and critics are arguing that the government needs to approach the opioid crisis as a public health issue, and not exclusively a law enforcement concern.

“Tough-on-crime laws do not make us safer and have a disproportionate impact on black and brown communities,” said Aamra Ahmad, senior legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, to RealClearPolitics. “In fact, at the federal level, 75% of people sentenced in fentanyl cases are people of color and over half of fentanyl prosecutions target people who need help, such as users, couriers, and street-level dealers, rather than focusing on high- or even mid-level dealers.”

Not only do these prohibition laws disproportionately target minorities, but they are also almost entirely ineffective. A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Trump administration mostly used the new classification to bust low-level fentanyl dealers, which did nothing to reduce the availability of these drugs. In 2019, only 10 percent of all fentanyl-related cases actually targeted high-ranking dealers or traffickers.

It's abundantly clear that the War on Drugs is doing nothing to stop the spread of fentanyl, yet the feds are preparing to continue this ineffective strategy. Last week, over 100 criminal justice and drug policy groups sent a letter urging Congress to drop the Schedule I classification and instead focus on finding an effective solution to the crisis.

“As we approach the 50-year milestone of President Nixon’s announcement of the War on Drugs, there is ample evidence that these unscientific policies destroy communities, entrench racial disparities, and do nothing to reduce drug supply or demand,” the groups wrote, according to The Huffington Post. “Lawmakers should instead support legislation grounded in public health and evidence-based approaches to illicit fentanyl-related overdose deaths. We must learn from the lessons of the past.”

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The New Jersey Supreme Court just ruled that a construction company must cover all monthly medical cannabis costs for a former employee, setting a precedent that will protect employees’ access to medical pot.

This ruling serves as the final word in a lengthy legal battle between M&K Construction and one of its former employees, Vincent Hager. In 2001, Hager was injured during a regular work shift when a cement truck poured wet concrete on him. This accident left Hager with a herniated disc, spinal nerve damage, and chronic back and leg pain. 

Hager had to undergo several surgeries for his injury, and ended up becoming dependent on opioid medications that were prescribed to him for the pain. But when New Jersey expanded its medical cannabis program in 2017, Hager was able to replace these addictive drugs with medical pot. Unfortunately, the Garden State has some of the highest medical marijuana prices in the nation, and Hager was stuck paying over $600 a month for his new medicine.

Since federal law continues to prohibit cannabis, neither private health insurers nor government health aid programs will cover the cost of medical pot. So, Hager filed a claim with the state demanding that his former employee reimburse him for these costs. Eventually, a workers' compensation judge ruled that M&K did indeed have to pay for the medicine, but the company appealed. 

In their case, M&K argued that covering the cost of medical marijuana could constitute aiding and abetting an illegal drug purchase, which could land them in hot water with the feds. Last January, an appeals court found that the company could not be found guilty of this federal crime because it was not directly buying the weed and giving it to Hager. On these grounds, the appeals court agreed that M&K must cover Hager's costs.

Not content to live with either court's ruling, M&K appealed the case yet again. This Tuesday, the state Supreme Court delivered the final word on the matter, unanimously voting to uphold the lower courts' decisions. With every appeal exhausted, the company will now be mandated to cover their former employee's medical marijuana costs.

“We agree with the compensation court and Appellate Division that exempting workers’ compensation insurance carriers from responsibility for workers’ medical marijuana costs would be antithetical to the legislature’s express findings in the Compassionate Use Act and the traditional broad, liberal application of New Jersey’s workers’ compensation scheme,” the court wrote in its opinion, NORML reports.

This ruling sets a precedent that will likely protect other employees' access to medical marijuana throughout the state. And now that New Jersey has voted to completely end cannabis prohibition, injured employees will have even greater access to their medicine.

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Actor Jaleel White, perhaps best known as Steve Urkel from Family Matters, is launching his own personal cannabis brand to celebrate the link between Purple Urkle weed and the character it is named for.

White’s new brand ItsPurpl, developed in partnership with 710 Labs, will offer several variants of the popular Purple Urkle strain. To start, the company will be selling eighths of flower, vape pens with proprietary live resin pods, and 710's unique Noodle Doinks - hand-rolled joints using real fusilli noodles as the crutch. Eventually, the company also hopes to put edibles on the plate.

Purple Urkle strains started appearing on the black market in the early 2000s, and have grown in popularity ever since. Of course, companies have marketed Purple Urkle products using pictures or illustrations of White in his role as Urkel – but without the actor's consent. Now, after shutting down several attempts to exploit his image, White is ready to officially enter the cannabis space on his own terms.

“Friends and family always thought it was funny to send me bootlegged pics of myself featured on cannabis products in dispensaries across the country,” White told Forbes. “At first it was flattering but then it became frustrating seeing and hearing about Purple Urkle in the cannabis marketplace. The thing that always stood out to me was there [was] no clear brand leader for fire purple weed. It made no sense to me [that] no company of significance had claimed this lane, so why not me?”

Many celebrities actively seek out partnerships with weed companies, but this particular collaboration actually happened more organically. 710 Labs founder Brad Melshenker told Forbes that he met White on a flight, and their conversation naturally turned to weed. 

“710 has never been a brand that pursued celebrity deals or endorsements as our agenda has always been quality above all else,” he explained. “But over the years Jaleel and I became friends and organically our conversations developed into a project. He was on a journey to find the real Purple Urkel from back in the early 2000’s.”

Melshenker and White spent a year trying to track down the best possible Purple Urkle variants. Eventually, the team settled on Stefan, a cross between Purple Urkle and The White culitvars, as well as several of the hardiest phenotypes of Purple Urkle.

ItsPurpl products will launch in California's booming adult-use market this 4/20 (of course), but White and 710 hope to expand their market to other states, and even internationally. “I want every state in the union, to keep it all the way real,” said White to Forbes. “I envision product releases in Canada and Europe one day in the future. 'One day' has a funny way of happening a lot faster than we imagine.”

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Illinois' legal weed industry is now making more money for the state than its long-established booze market, according to new tax records.

The Prairie State's legal weed industry only opened its doors last January, but it has been growing exponentially ever since, even in the midst of a global pandemic and recession. Legal pot retailers started busting new sales records month after month, eventually selling an impressive $670 million worth of weed by the end of last year.

The trend of record-breaking sales is continuing into 2021. This January, legal weed shops sold $88.8 million worth of legal weed, more than was sold during any month in 2020. And in March, the state shattered that record by making nearly $110 million in adult-use sales. These record-breaking months brought the state $86,537,000 in legal weed tax revenue, topping the $72,281,000 collected from liquor sales in that same timeframe. 

This is the first time in state history that weed tax revenue has eclipsed booze tax income, but it probably won't be the last. Last year, the state Department of Revenue collected $205.4 million in weed taxes, making it the fourth-largest pot tax earner in the entire US.  If demand keeps expanding at the rate it has been, Illinois is predicted to make over $1 billion in adult-use weed sales in 2021, which will push that tax figure even higher. 

While some adult-use states are using cannabis tax revenue to help recover from the economic damage wreaked by the pandemic, Illinois is using its weed taxes to reinvest in communities ravaged by the War on Drugs. Last summer, the state used $31.5 million in pot taxes to fund its Restore, Reinvest, and Renew program, which provides legal aid and youth development programs for low-income communities. 

Last fall, the state used even more of its pot tax income to launch New Leaf Illinois, a program that provides legal aid to help people with prior pot convictions clear their criminal records. Individual Illinois cities are using weed taxes to promote social equity causes, too. Just last month, the city of Evanston dedicated $400,000 in pot tax revenue to fund a program that will provide eligible Black households with housing grants.

As a whole, legal-weed US states collected over $3 billion in medical and adult-use cannabis taxes last year, a 58 percent increase over 2019. That figure is expected to grow even higher in 2021 as existing markets mature, and Vermont and New Jersey might also start selling adult-use weed this year. In the next three years, New York, Montana, New Mexico, and Virginia are also planning to kick off adult-use sales and start collecting their own legal weed tax revenue.

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Uber is cautiously eyeing plans to start its own legal weed delivery service, but only if cannabis is legalized at a federal level.

In a recent “TechCheck” interview, CNBC asked Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi if the rideshare company had any plans to start its own weed delivery service, especially now that New York, New Mexico, and Virginia have all legalized cannabis. Khosrowshahi said that his company is currently focusing on grocery and alcohol deliveries, but added that weed delivery could definitely be in the cards.

“When the road is clear for cannabis when federal laws come into play, we’re absolutely going to take a look at it,” Khosrowshahi said. “But right now with grocery, with food, with alcohol, et cetera, we see so much opportunity out there and we’re going to focus on the opportunity at hand.”

The CEO added that his company is currently focused on “the types of deliveries that a high percentage of consumers are going to want delivered fast into their home and are quite frequent,” Marijuana Moment reports. And although “food, grocery, pharmacy and alcohol are part of that category,” legal weed would fit that bill as well.

But for now, cannabis is still federally illegal, and Uber will steer clear of weed until that changes. Current laws prohibit banks, payment processors, and other financial businesses from servicing companies that handle cannabis. If Uber were to start delivering weed now, these restrictions would force it to become an entirely cash-only business, and the company would even have to de-list from the US stock market.

Uber actually acquired a weed delivery service in a recent acquisition, but let the company go in order to avoid running afoul of federal restrictions. The rideshare company recently acquired the alcohol delivery service Drizly in order to expand its own booze delivery plans, and Drizly already had its own weed delivery offshoot, Lantern. Once the acquisition is finalized, Lantern will become its own private company, though, which will protect Uber from federal interference.

It's hard to say when the feds will actually legalize weed, but the prospects are looking brighter every day. Last fall, the House passed the MORE Act, which would deschedule cannabis from the federal Controlled Substances Act, and this bill will be reintroduced this year. And in the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is working with Senators Cory Booker and Ron Wyden on their own federal legalization bill.

The main sticking point here is President Biden, who has repeatedly stated that he is completely opposed to adult-use legalization. Under the president's antiquated weed policies, the White House even fired and disciplined several White House staffers who had previously used cannabis in states where weed is legal. 

There is a definite possibility that Biden could veto a Congressionally-approved legalization bill, but considering the fact that 75 percent of Americans support legalization, this would be a terrible decision for a president who is seeking a second term in office.

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Most of the current hype about America's legal hemp industry has focused on CBD, Delta-8-THC, and other cannabinoids, but new businesses are continuing to find creative uses for this amazing plant.

Earth Merchant, a small business based in Washington state, just snagged a $100,000 grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help fund the development of sustainable bricks made from industrial hemp. The company's new OlogyBricks are intended to replace traditional construction bricks made from concrete or other traditional materials. 

The EPA recently awarded grants to Earth Merchant and 23 other companies under its small business innovation research program. This isn’t the first grant the feds have given to fund industrial hemp research, but it is the largest to date. In 2019, the EPA awarded around $12,000 to researchers studying the use of hemp as a renewable fiber for construction.

The EPA's official grant notice describes the OlogyBricks as “durable, lightweight, carbon-negative construction blocks made from industrial hemp, lime, and hemp-derivatives for superior thermal resistance and mechanical properties that will improve energy efficiency and indoor air quality in single-family homes and other architectural applications.”

These hempcrete bricks will be fully produced in the US, using industrial hemp legally grown under the auspices of the 2018 Farm Bill. The EPA explains that hemp can be grown without pesticides or fertilizers and requires less water than crops like cotton or corn. The specific formulation of these hemp bricks can also help reduce water absorption and structural swelling, compared to traditional bricks.

“OlogyBrick construction can improve health outcomes for residents,” the notice explains. “Due to the properties of the lime, hempcrete is antifungal and antimicrobial reducing the risks of airborne bacteria while also being vapor permeable facilitating air exchange and providing a breathable structure for improved indoor air quality without compromising thermal resistance.”

The idea of hemp-based bricks has cropped up before, but as part of a far more conservative agenda. Back in 2019, Trump's buddy Steve Bannon tried to crowdfund a border wall made entirely out of hemp. The crowdfunding attempt failed, but it did create some positive press about the innovative uses of hempcrete as a substitute for concrete and steel.

Innovators are also using hemp for a wide variety of other eco-friendly projects, including renewable bioplastics. So far, these hemp-based plastics have been used to create sustainable weed packaging, filaments for 3D printers, and even hemp toothbrushes. Italian farmers have also found a way to use hemp plants to naturally clean contaminated soil by pulling heavy metals and other toxins out of the ground.

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The creativity-enhancing effects of psilocybin and other psychedelics are highly regarded by artists, musicians, and even the occasional CEO, but there has been little scientific evidence to support these claims — until now.

Last week, the Translational Psychiatry journal published a new placebo-controlled clinical study confirming that psilocybin can indeed enhance creativity. To conduct this groundbreaking new trial, a team of researchers from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, and the UK recruited 60 healthy subjects for a three-part trial. Each subject had used psychedelics in the past, but not for 3 months before the study began.

In the first stage of the trial, subjects were asked to complete a variety of standard creativity tests while remaining completely sober. For the second stage, subjects were either given a full dose of psilocybin or a placebo, and then asked to complete the same creativity tasks. One week later, subjects returned for a final session in which they repeated these tasks while sober.

The researchers discovered that the subjects who consumed psilocybin did indeed show enhanced creativity, with a catch. During the second stage of the trial, subjects who were dosed with psilocybin showed increased ratings of spontaneous creative insights, but rated lower on tests for deliberate, task-based creativity. The researchers also found that the insight-boosting effects lingered on after the initial trip. One week after consuming psilocybin, the subjects in the test group still showed enhanced spontaneous creativity.

These findings “suggest that psilocybin acutely impairs the idea generation and evaluation phase of creative thinking, while enhancing the feelings of quality of generated ideas,” the study authors wrote. “This discrepancy between acute increases in feelings of insight, but decreased number of ideas, could suggest that psychedelics acutely increase the potential for spontaneous creative thought, while decreasing the potential for deliberate creative cognition.”

Based on these results, the study authors suggest that “psychedelics could be a novel tool to investigate underlying neural mechanisms of the creative process. In addition, these findings add some support to the historical claims that psychedelics can influence aspects of the creative process, reducing conventional, logical thinking, and giving rise to novel thoughts, but emphasizes the distinction between spontaneous and deliberate creative cognition, as well as acute and persisting effects of the drug.”

Not only does this study back up anecdotal claims that psilocybin can boost creativity, it can also help researchers understand how this natural psychedelic can help treat mental health issues. Previous studies have found that people suffering from depression, anxiety, and other disorders often have trouble thinking “outside of the box.” By inspiring new, spontaneous thoughts, psilocybin could help people overcome rigid, inflexible thinking.

“Namely, while under the influence of a psychedelic, rigid thought content (convergent thinking) could be decreased, while unguided, spontaneous thoughts may give rise to new insights and perspectives of previous events and current problems,” the authors conclude. “Patients may then be able to integrate these insights with a therapist, and come up with new, more effective strategies that facilitate adaptive interpretation and coping abilities.”

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Willie Nelson may have quit smoking weed, but he hasn't stopped getting high, and he definitely hasn't stopped advocating for cannabis legalization. 

The country legend and longtime cannabis aficionado will be headlining “Luck Summit: Planting the Seed,” a four-day virtual cannabis festival created with Luck Presents, a cannabis advocacy group from the Red Headed Stranger's hometown of Luck, Texas. The event will be co-hosted by musician Nathaniel Rateliff and will include music performances, speakers, panel discussions, comedy skits, and cooking demonstrations. 

One might expect this event to kick off on 4/20, but it actually begins about a week later, on April 26th. The date was set up to coincide with another important stoner holiday, though – the festival will end on April 29th, which just happens to be Willie's 88th birthday. In order to gain admission to the event, attendees must donate between $10 and $500 to HeadCount's Cannabis Voter Project, a campaign to help educate, register, and turn out voters who support cannabis reform.

“Willie Nelson is a music and cannabis icon, so of course we’re thrilled to partner,” said Sam D’Arcangelo, director of the Cannabis Voter Project, Variety reports. “Texas and the rest of the United States are sitting at a cannabis crossroads right now. There’s no better time to celebrate how far we’ve come and have a conversation about where cannabis legalization goes from here.”

Texas is currently a minority among US states that still prohibits cannabis in almost every form. Recent polls have found that 64 percent of Texas voters want to see the Lone Star State legalize weed, but legislative efforts to pass an adult-use law have died on the vine. The state's medical marijuana program does not allow access to THC-based medicine, even though researchers report that many Texans are using black market or out-of-state medical pot to help them quit prescription drugs. 

“Just like our landlord and patron saint of cannabis, Willie Nelson, we realize that changing anyone’s mind by telling them what to think is a fruitless endeavor,” said Luck Presents co-founder Matt Bizer to Rolling Stone. “We believe that everyone has the right to their opinion and perspective. We also know that after years of stigmatization around the cannabis plant, it’s going to take all of us working together to help create a space for the discourse and education necessary to pave a path toward normalizing, decriminalizing, and giving access to cannabis and its many uses and benefits for the people of Texas and beyond.”

“I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug,” Nelson said in a statement, USA Today reports. “Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If he put it here and he wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?”

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In the space of one single week, three US states have chosen to put an end to the war against weed. Last week, New York and New Mexico both signed off on adult-use cannabis legalization, and this week, Virginia became the first state in the South to legalize weed.

Virginia's road to legalization began in February, when state lawmakers passed a bill to legalize the sale, possession and use of cannabis by adults. Everyone expected Governor Ralph Northam, a longtime advocate of legalization, to sign the bill into law immediately, but the proposal had one major flaw. The original version of the bill would not have legalized weed until January 1st, 2024, and until that date, cops would be free to continue locking up people for pot. 

Unwilling to allow this senseless prohibition to continue unchecked for three more years, Governor Northam amended the bill to fast-forward the start date for personal use legalization to this summer. This Wednesday, the state House of Delegates passed the revised bill with a 53-44 vote, but support in the state Senate came to an impasse with a 20-20 vote. Fortunately, Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax stepped in to break the tie, and the bill became law. 

As of July 1st, 2021, adult Virginians will now be allowed to use and possess up to one ounce of pot. Adults will also be able to grow their own weed, as long as it is labeled and kept out of sight of children and the general public. The new version of the bill also includes a provision to expedite automatic expungements for people with prior low-level cannabis convictions.

“We made history as the first state in the South to legalize the simple possession of marijuana,” Governor Northam said in a statement. “I am pleased that the General Assembly accepted my proposal to make this change on July 1, 2021 nearly three years earlier than planned. Marijuana laws were explicitly designed to target communities of color, and Black Virginians are disproportionately likely to be stopped, charged, and convicted. Today, Virginia took a critical step to right these wrongs and restore justice to those harmed by decades of over-criminalization.”

Virginia cops will soon be prevented from busting people for minor pot possession, but they will be able to keep arresting people for selling weed for quite some time. The original bill gives state cannabis regulators until July 1st, 2024 to draft their retail regulations, and sales cannot begin until those regulations are in effect. The revised bill does nothing to change those dates, so legal sales are still more than three years away.

The governor also amended the state's current budget bill to give state cops $1 million in additional funding for additional training to detect stoned drivers. Another $1 million has been set aside for “marijuana prevention and education programs and public health campaigns,” Marijuana Moment reports. These programs would specifically target people under the age of 21.

Even though legal sales are still a long way off, cannabis advocates are celebrating the governor's decision to advance the date for personal use legalization. “This is an incredible victory for Virginia,” said Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML, in a statement. 

“Legalization will bring an end to the thousands of low-level marijuana infractions occurring annually in the Commonwealth — ending a discriminatory practice that far too often targets Virginians who are young, poor, and people of color... Virginians were very clear that they are ready for legalization this year, sending over 8,800 emails in support of these measures.”

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Illinois' adult-use cannabis industry sold over $100 million worth of weed last month, shattering every previous monthly sales record.

In March, cannabis lovers spent $109,149,356 to buy 2,317,315 adult-use weed products from state-licensed retailers. Illinois residents accounted for $75.7 million worth of these sales, while residents of nearby Iowa, Indiana, and other prohibition states snatched up another $33.4 million worth of legal pot. This impressive total averages out to around $3.5 million of pot sold every single day of the month.

These sales don't even take the state's thriving medical cannabis industry into account. Health officials have yet to release data for March's medical marijuana sales, but January's medical sales topped $33 million, and similar results are predicted for March. So, we're really looking at between $140 to $150 million worth of legal cannabis being sold in just one month.

This is the first time that Illinois' monthly adult-use sales exceeded $100 million, but it probably won't be the last. Even though the state's legal weed industry only opened for business in January of 2020, it has been breaking new sales records almost every single month. Last April, during the first wave of the pandemic, the state's legal pot shops still made a record $37.26 million in sales.

Sales continued to grow month-by-month as 2020 dragged on, which the state's top pot regulators took as concrete evidence that the legal cannabis industry is both “recession-proof” and “pandemic-proof.” By the end of the year, Illinois made over $1 billion in combined recreational and medical cannabis sales.

These sales figures aren't just great news for legal weed business owners, they're great for the entire state. Illinois collected a quarter of a million bucks in cannabis tax revenue last year, making it the fourth-largest weed tax earner in the entire US. And instead of keeping all this money for themselves, state officials are directing some of these funds to help communities that have been ravaged by marijuana prohibition. 

Last June alone, the state invested $31.5 million in grants to fund economic development in underserved and marginalized neighborhoods. Some of this tax windfall is also being used to help fund nonprofit legal aid programs that help former cannabis offenders clear their criminal records.

In 2021, as the state's market matures, things are looking even brighter. This January, the state made a new adult-use sales record of $88.8 million, and although sales slumped back down to $80.8 million in February, they busted that $100 million mark in March. If sales keep advancing at this pace, it's looking like Illinois will hit over $1 billion in adult-use sales this year, and medical marijuana sales will push that number even higher. 

This year, the Prairie State might just have a chance to beat Oregon, which sold over $1 billion in legal weed in 2020. Illinois' legal weed market could eventually even grow to rival Colorado's chart-topping pot market, which is now making over $2 billion in annual sales.

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Nearly two-thirds of Texas medical cannabis users said that weed helped them quit using opioids, benzodiazepines, and other prescription medicines, a new survey reports.

Last year, researchers from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy undertook a new study in order to “gain insight into the needs and experiences” of the state’s medical pot users. From August 11th to October 6th, 2020, researchers asked Texas residents who were using cannabis medicinally to answer an anonymous online survey. Nearly 2,900 medical pot users, 22 percent of whom were military veterans, responded to the survey.

Four out of ten respondents said that medical cannabis had improved their quality of life, and 61 percent also said they replaced their use of prescription opioids and/or benzodiazepines with cannabis. Eighty percent of all respondents said they were using weed to help with chronic pain, and 52 percent of veteran respondents said they used it for PTSD. 

Although this survey is specifically focused on Texas' medical marijuana program, it also supports other research showing that cannabis can serve as an effective replacement for pharmaceuticals. In recent years, researchers have found time and time again that medical cannabis can help reduce the rates of opioid overprescription, use, abuse, and overdose deaths.

Texas technically legalized medical cannabis in 2015, but as the researchers note, the vast majority of patients are excluded from this program “due to restrictions in the state's law.” This law allows a limited number of patients to use CBD-based medicine with no more than 0.5 percent THC content. Since most forms of traditional medical cannabis remain illegal, many Texans are either forced to either buy medical pot out of state or purchase untested black market weed.

Even when their conditions are covered under the state's medical marijuana program, some patients still turn to the black market, which is one of the only ways to acquire high-THC weed in Texas. For example, 18 percent of patients suffering from neuropathy said they used illicit pot to treat their pain, even though this condition is covered under the state’s MMJ program. 

Based on their findings, the researchers recommend that Texas vastly expand the number of medical conditions that qualify patients for medical marijuana use. The study also recommends completely removing the cap on THC content, protecting medical marijuana patients from workplace and housing discrimination, and decriminalizing minor pot possession in order to “avoid criminalizing patients.”

The lack of access to quality medical cannabis has forced the vast majority of survey respondents (84 percent) to consider leaving Texas and moving to a state with a reasonable, progressive medical marijuana program. This finding highlights the disconnect between Texas lawmakers and the views of voters who elected them to office. Earlier this year, another poll found that a solid 64 percent of Texans want to fully legalize cannabis in the Lone Star State. Some lawmakers have at least expressed interest in expanding the state’s dismal medical pot program, but so far, there seems to be little legislative interest in full legalization.

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Over the past decade, the New York Police Department (NYPD) has come under fire for almost exclusively enforcing marijuana prohibition laws against people of color, while allowing white people to puff in peace. New York City officials attempted to solve the problem with decriminalization policies, but despite these efforts, the proportion of minorities arrested for minor pot crimes continued to grow, eventually climbing as high as 94 percent in 2020.

But now that New York state has finally ended its war on weed, those days are over. As of last Wednesday, it is legal for any adult in the state to carry and use up to three ounces of flower, or 24 grams of concentrate. And now that pot is legal, every law enforcement agency in the state needs to change its ways.

On Thursday, NYPD officials sent a memo to all officers explaining the new rules regarding cannabis enforcement. Under the new law, adults are allowed to smoke weed anywhere that tobacco smoking is legal. The memo advises cops that they are not allowed to “approach, stop, summons, arrest or search” anyone who is smoking weed “on sidewalks, on front stoops and other public places,” Marijuana Moment reports. 

The days of police using the aroma of cannabis as an excuse to conduct a search or traffic stop are also over. Officers cannot stop and frisk a person because they smell like weed, nor can they conduct a vehicle search on the basis of weed odor. “The smell of marihuana alone no longer establishes probable cause of a crime to search a vehicle,” the memo clearly states.

Of course, driving while stoned remains prohibited, and cops have leeway to investigate anyone who they believe could be driving under the influence. If police see a driver smoking weed, or other evidence of weed intoxication, they have the right to make a sobriety check. However, the memo explains that the vehicle's trunk “may not be searched unless the officer develops separate probable cause to believe the trunk contains evidence of a crime,” CNN reports. 

Licensed retail sales are not expected to begin until December of 2022, and all sales of cannabis remain illegal until that time. It is legal to give up to 3 ounces of weed to another person for free, though, so cops are advised that they cannot arrest someone for selling weed unless they actually see cash change hands. 

The memo also says that anyone who is currently on parole is legally able to smoke weed, unless the conditions of their parole specifically prohibit it. 

The new cannabis law applies only to adults over 21, but as the NYPD memo notes, there are no longer any rules in place for enforcing underage pot use. For the time being, this means that cops cannot bust anyone under 21 for carrying weed or smoking it in public.

“In the future, the NYPD may have the ability to issue a civil summons for such violations,” the memo says, according to Marijuana Moment. “Until that time, possession of 3 ounces or less by a person under 21 cannot be the basis of an approach, stop, summons, juvenile report or arrest. Possession by individuals under 21 of more than 3 ounces is enforceable.”

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

Chris Moore, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife