By appointing Steve Cook to oversee the Justice Department’s focus on cannabis, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has once again doubled down on his archaic criminal justice stance and left the door wide open for a large-scale legal weed crackdown.
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Obama Administration Wanted to Decriminalize Marijuana Nationwide – News
President Obama’s Administration wanted to decriminalize marijuana nationwide, but according to a report from the Huffington Post, officials were so concerned that it would distract from efforts to attack and control the opioid epidemic that it never took the leap.
A former official with the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) told the news source that, during President Obama’s first term, the agency seriously considered recommending a policy change that would have eliminated the criminal penalties associated with minor marijuana possession.
Canadian Companies Consider Covering Medical Cannabis in Employee Health Benefit Plans – News
While the United States is stuck in an ideological tug of war between pro-cannabis legislation and federal illegality, our neighbors up north are on the path towards full-scale legalization. In fact, Canada’s medical marijuana system is already well established, and some of the country’s insurance companies and pharmacy chains have already opted to provide cannabis coverage to customers and employees.
With recreational legalization set to begin in 2018, more and more medium to large-scale Canadian employers are now considering the inclusion of medical cannabis in employee health benefit plans.
States With Legal Weed Are Good Neighbors, Says New Report – News
Despite claims that legal marijuana states are causing trouble for neighboring areas of prohibition, a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research finds the majority of the trials and tribulations reported in these areas are mostly exaggerated.
Researchers from the School of Economic Sciences at Washington State University have released a preliminary study entitled “The Cross-Border Spillover Effects of Recreational Marijuana Legalization,” which shows that the only perilous outcome from conflicting state marijuana laws is “a sharp increase in marijuana possession arrests” in border counties.
The report indicates that, “if a county shares a physical border
Zealous Anti-Drug Prosecutor May Have Role in Drafting New Federal Marijuana Policies – News
Cannabis advocates have yet another new worry, as a zealous Tennessee prosecutor responsible for drafting the Justice Department's recent policy encouraging harsher sentences for criminals is set to focus on marijuana policies. A former cop, Steve Cook is staunchly anti-drug and a strong supporter of mandatory minimum sentences, much like Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Read More »Red Gone Green: Conservative States That Are Legalizing Marijuana – News
If you’re a kind and rational American, we’re guessing that every day since November 8th has been pretty rough for you, to say the least. But, alas, while much of the country remains divided between conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat, red state and blue state, there might be one common desire amidst all of our differences—and that’s the legalization of marijuana.
A liberal state like California passing legislation to permit recreational weed is no big surprise, but what may surprise you is that some conservative states also passed similar laws that cut restrictions on marijuana last November.
Legal Marijuana Sales May Eclipse Movie Ticket and Snack Food Revenue by 2020 – News
Recreational and medical marijuana sales hit between $4 and 4.5 billion last year, around the same amount that Americans spend on frozen pizza or snacks like Doritos in a year, according to new data published in this year's Marijuana Business Factbook.
Read More »Detroit Shut Down 167 Medical Marijuana Dispensaries This Past Year – News
Detroit pot shops are dropping like flies. Since the Motor City added new regulations to their relatively relaxed medical marijuana industry in March of 2016, all of the city’s 283 dispensaries have been operating illegally.
Read More »Nevada’s Hopes for Legal Cannabis Lounges in 2017 Are Dead – News
There was much hope that Nevada would become the first state in the nation to legalize an Americanized version of the cannabis lounge, but a bill designed to bring this controversial concept to fruition was left for dead last week at the gates of the Assembly.
According to reports, Senate Bill 236, which was introduced by Senator Tick Segerblom and approved by the Senate in a vote of 12-to-9, failed to receive any consideration from the Assembly before last Friday’s deadline – killing the bill until next session.
The proposal, which many believed was essential to truly capitalize on the
With No Pot Shops Until 2018, Ohio Medical Marijuana Patients are Driving to Michigan for Legal Weed – News
Ohio’s Republican governor John Kasich made waves last year when he signed an expansive medical marijuana bill and brought the typically conservative Buckeye State into the world of legal weed.
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