Michigan

It is 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 22. I had flown into San Diego from Detroit the night before after finally getting my medical marijuana certification in Michigan, on 4/20. I’m here with two friends. We’re the three amigos: the Todd Man, aka Todd Durban, aka T_dOG (cannabis artist-at-large); Master G, my old friend and chronic sage, and Big Ben, a traveling nurse from Philly via Thailand. We stow our bags in the trunk of our jet black Prius and prepare to drive to San Bernardino for the 2017 High Times SoCal Cannabis Cup.

(Photo courtesy Flickr.com/gageskidmore)


A bipartisan group of House Democrats and Republicans recently hashed out a $1 trillion budget for government spending, but none of which will be used to crack down on legal pot.
A new government funding bill will block the Department of Justice from using federal funds to prosecute law-abiding medical marijuana companies operating in legal states, reports the Orange County Register.
The budget’s full text of the marijuana provision is as follows:
None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to any of the States

With an established medical marijuana industry already on the books, Michigan’s cannabis advocates have their eyes set on loftier goals for 2018’s midterm election with a well-funded, diversely-backed campaign for full adult recreational cannabis legalization kicking off in the coming weeks.

According to a report from the Detroit Free Press, Michigan cannabis activists held a rally at the state capitol building in Lansing today as a precursor for the year and a half long legalization effort.

Marijuana advocates in Michigan are currently preparing a new measure that would put recreational marijuana legalization up for a vote on next year's ballot. At the same time, officials are working to finalize the state's medical marijuana regulations by the deadline of December 15th.

This week, the Marijuana Policy Project organized a discussion between several stakeholders in the marijuana industry regarding the 2018 legalization effort.

Credit: University of Michigan
Levels of first-time marijuana use in college have increased sharply in the past three years to the highest levels recorded in the past three decades. In 2015, about one in five college students became a first-time marijuana user.

These results come from the annual Monitoring the Future study, which has been tracking substance use among young adults for the past 36 years. It is conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Michigan and is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Michigan medical marijuana dispensary owner Donald Barnes has been fighting a legal battle against local police for the past three years. The police claimed that Barnes was using his dispensary as a cover to sell recreational marijuana illegally, while Barnes has asserted that the dispensary is a legitimate nonprofit.

The dispensary owner said that cops seized marijuana from his dispensary, along with money, property, and even his Christmas presents. “They seized my personal assets, not just my business bank accounts, but they also seized stuff from my home and my personal properties,” Barnes said.

Many sites promise help with health issues, but only a few have been tested in randomized clinical trials.

Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Veterans who have drug or alcohol problems are more than twice as likely to die by suicide as their comrades, a new study finds. And women veterans with substance use disorders have an even higher rate of suicide—more than five times that of their peers, the research shows.

The risk of suicide differs depending on the type of substance the veteran has problems with, according to the study.
The highest suicide risks are among those who misuse prescription sedative medicines, such as tranquilizers.

The study used a tablet-based program, with or without the support of a human therapist, to guide participants through a 'motivational interview' about reducing their drug use. It followed participants for a year after the ER visit where the interaction took place.

Teens should think twice if they believe the negative effects from misusing medication to treat ADHD are short-term. In fact, problems associated with prescription stimulant misuse can last through age 35, according to a new University of Michigan study.

But using medication to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as prescribed by doctors does not show long-term negative effects.
However, high school students who use prescription stimulant medication on their own—without a doctor's orders—are less likely to obtain a four-year college degree and more likely to develop a substance use disorder as adults.