Justice

WASHINGTON, DC--The Justice Department is fighting back against a recent ruling that overturned a longstanding federal law banning cannabis users from possessing firearms. In early February, a federal judge in Oklahoma deemed the 1968 law unconstitutional, stating that using cannabis does not exhibit any of the characteristics historically associated with firearms regulation. The judge argued ...

MICHIGAN-- Skymint, one of Michigan's largest cannabis cultivators and retailers, is now under the control of a receiver as the industry faces an increasingly difficult market in the state. The Ingham County Circuit Court in Lansing appointed Gene Kohut, a partner at Detroit-based business advisory firm Trust Street Advisors, as the receiver in what could ...

NEW YORK-- New York’s state Cannabis Control Board has announced it will double the number of “justice-involved” retail permits from 150 to 300, in an effort to expand the market and support social equity retailers. While the move was partly driven by the fact that many qualified applicants can now afford to pay for their ...

RICHMOND-- Virginia lawmakers have approved strict new regulations on products containing delta-8 THC, a hemp-derived cannabinoid. The legislation, which was hammered out on the last day of the General Assembly session, will require sellers of intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoid products to obtain a state license. The new regulations also prohibit the sale of products with more ...

NEW HAVEN–Yesterday, on January 1, 2023, almost 40,000 citizens of Connecticut with cannabis-related offenses would have their records completely or partially deleted in an act called ‘’The Clean Slate Act.’’ According to the legalizing legislation that Connecticut adopted last year, thousands of people will have their low-level cannabis offenses automatically dismissed as effective January 1.  ...

DENVER –In this week's midterm elections, the Mile High State of Colorado appears to be on track to legalize magic mushrooms after the group opposing the ballot question conceded defeat.  Though the result was still too close to call officially as of Thursday afternoon with 89% of the ballots counted, Proposition 122 was winning with ...

DALLAS– Five Texas communities had their municipal ballot measures approved by voters, ending local enforcement of minor cannabis infractions. The propositions were approved by voters in the cities of Denton, Killeen, San Marcos, Elgin, and Harker Heights.  The regulations specifically prohibit local law enforcement from issuing citations or making arrests for the majority of cannabis-related ...

ANNAPOLIS–Maryland voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum (Question 4) directing state lawmakers to establish rules and regulations governing the production and sale of cannabis to adults. “Maryland voters have overwhelmingly rejected the failed policy of prohibition and voted for the common sense policy of legalization,” commented NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri, “For far too many decades, ...

NEW YORK- According to an internal memo from earlier this week that an FDA spokesperson provided to the financial publication, MarketWatch, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has appointed Norman Birenbaum, the former director of cannabis programs for New York State, as its first senior public health adviser on cannabis research and regulation initiatives.  Douglas ...

WASHINGTON, D.C.– President Joe Biden is beginning the process of decriminalizing cannabis and fulfilling a campaign promise to overturn earlier federal possession convictions. He is also beginning to relax the drug's official categorization. Senior administration officials predicted that thousands of Americans would be impacted by Biden's decision to pardon all previous federal crimes of simple ...

SACRAMENTO – California's Governor Gavin Newsom today announced that he has signed several measures to strengthen California’s cannabis laws, expand the legal cannabis market and redress the harms of cannabis prohibition. Though the state has made significant progress since the legalization of cannabis, local opposition, rigid bureaucracy and federal prohibition continue to pose challenges to ...

SAN FRANCISCO–A resolution that decriminalizes psychedelics and other "entheogenic plants" including magic mushrooms (psilocybin), ibogaine, and ayahuasca, which was proposed last month by Supervisors Dean Preston and Hillary Ronen, has been approved. In a stroke of a pen, magic mushrooms and ayahuasca have been decriminalized in San Francisco, making it the latest U.S. city to ...

WASHINGTON, D.C.–In order to avoid the Department of Justice meddling with adult-use cannabis programs, an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2023 was approved by the House Committee on Appropriations this week. With the non-committee support of former supporters Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Tom McClintock (R-CA), and ...

WASHINGTON, D.C.– The US Supreme Court's justices have declined to take a position on whether or not workers' compensation insurance policies should cover the costs of employees' medical cannabis-related expenses.  Following differing opinions from multiple state supreme courts, litigants requested the Court's involvement. In a friend-of-the-court (amicus) brief, Empire State NORML and two other organizations—the ...

TRENTON-New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin stated last week that under the state's new cannabis legislation, off-duty cops will be able to buy and consume cannabis. In a statement emailed to New Jersey police departments on Wednesday, Platkin's outlined the policy, which comes roughly a week before recreational cannabis sales begin in the state. According ...

LOS ANGLES–The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has agreed that cannabis seeds are considered hemp under the 2018 Farm Bill if they don't exceed the 0.3 percent THC standard. This came from a response to a question from attorney Shane Pennington, the DEA recently conducted a study of federal law and regulations, which he released on ...

TORONTO - Under new guidelines governing access to psilocybin, the hallucinogenic component found in "magic" mushrooms, six terminally ill cancer patients in Canada got the country's first legally produced psilocybin.  Over the weekend, the patients were given the medicine as well as counseling.  In January, Health Canada changed its rules to allow doctors to request ...

LOS ANGELES - A majority of the US House of Representatives approved the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act, or H.R. 3617, in a floor vote on Friday. The MORE Act removes cannabis from the federal Controlled Substances Act, thereby allowing states to legalize cannabis markets free from federal interference. The Act also provides ...

WASHINGTON, D.C.–The House is expected to pass legislation legalizing cannabis this week, marking the latest example of rapidly shifting attitudes about drug prohibitions, which marks a near reversal from Presidents Nixon and Reagan's failed ''war on drugs,'' which destroyed countless lives and devastated minority communities unnecessarily. The bill, authored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler ...

NEW YORK–New York Governor Kathy Hochul stated on Thursday that the first licenses to open the newly authorized cannabis retail stores coming to the state later this year will be reserved for those with prior cannabis-related crimes. The proposal, which was adopted by the state's Cannabis Control Board earlier in the day, aims to provide ...