Law The Cannabis Chronicles - Misc Cannabis News

[Baron23]

This is a very important case and will get to be more important as the corporate pigs line up at the trough and try to patent everything about cannabis including strain genetics.


Patents on pot? U.S. lawsuit puts cannabis claims to the test

In October, the U.S. government issued Axim Biotechnologies Inc (AXIM.PK) a patent for a cannabis-based suppository to treat irritable bowel syndrome.

Britain’s GW Pharmaceuticals Plc (GWPRF.PK), which recently brought to market a drug derived from marijuana for epilepsy, is now seeking patent protection for another one to treat eczema.

With marijuana now fully legal in Canada and at least partially legalized in the majority of U.S. states, companies are rushing to patent new formulations of the age-old botanical. This year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued 39 patents containing the words cannabis or marijuana in their summaries, up from 29 in 2017 and 14 in 2016.

How well the patents hold up in court remains to be seen. If they do, a handful of companies could be in position to demand licensing fees from the rest of the industry.

The first U.S. case is now winding its way through the courts. In a July lawsuit, Colorado-based United Cannabis Corp (CNAB.PK), accused Pure Hemp Collective Inc of infringing its patent covering a liquid formulation with a high concentration of CBD, a non-psychoactive cannabis ingredient touted for its health benefits.

One of the key issues in this case and others, experts say, is whether the patent is overly broad or obvious in light of “prior art,” the existing level of science or technology against which an invention’s novelty can be judged.

Given the long history of experimentation with marijuana, patents claiming new formulations or methods of using the drug could have trouble withstanding legal challenges, said John Stewart, a board member at Canadian cannabis company Emblem Corp.

Still, one factor that could help patent holders defend their products is the lack of documented previous research. Because marijuana has been illegal, many of its uses have not been written about in the sort of scientific articles typically presented as prior art in patent cases.

“Because of 80 years of prohibition, there is a massive lack of prior art documentation for cannabis,” said Beth Schechter, executive director of the Open Cannabis Project, a nonprofit that opposes cannabis patents. “Folk knowledge and information that is clear to the industry might not be seen or considered by the patent office.”

OBVIOUS OR INVENTIVE?
Marijuana-based patents could never really be put to the test as long as cannabis was broadly illegal. Even if companies had potential grounds to challenge a rival’s product for patent infringement, they were often reluctant to call attention to potentially criminal activities.

But in a climate of increasing tolerance the number of marijuana formulas and extracts being brought to market has exploded, opening the door to challenges from patent-holders. The worldwide cannabis industry is expected to reach $75 billion by 2030, according to Cowen & Co, making it one of the world’s fastest growing industries.

At the center of the United Cannabis case is the patent covering its formulation of CBD, which has become trendy as a health supplement and is widely available in U.S. cafes and wellness shops.

While the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency considers CBD products to be illegal, federal prosecutors are not bringing criminal cases against sellers.

United Cannabis’ patent covering a highly-concentrated CBD formulation could potentially apply to most of the CBD products now on the market, said Neil Juneja, a patent lawyer in Seattle.

United Cannabis general counsel Jesus Vazquez declined a request for an interview but referred to a blog post from August in which he defended the company’s patented technology as “novel and inventive.”

Others say similar formulations have been used for decades.

“There are plenty of people who know the facts about cannabis extracts and biochemistry who are just up in arms over this patent,” said Dale Hunt, a patent lawyer in California.
Donnie Emmi, a lawyer for Pure Hemp, said he believed the company had a good chance of invalidating United Cannabis’ patent. In a court filing, Pure Hemp said highly concentrated liquid CBD formulations are “ubiquitous” and “were not invented in this millennium.”

INDUSTRY NEEDS TO ‘WAKE UP’
Still in its infancy, experts say the marijuana industry is largely ill-prepared for patent litigation and battles over licensing fees that may lie ahead.

“The cannabis industry needs to wake up to this business reality,” said Reggie Gaudino, a vice president at cannabis research firm Steep Hill Inc.

Part of the reason companies have been slow to recognize the threat, analysts and investors say, is that patents are foreign to the open-source, laissez-faire culture that has historically surrounded marijuana.

“This industry has traditionally been made up of people who really believed in this cause, this plant, and the health benefits,” said Kris Krane, a cannabis industry consultant.

“Most of the new players getting involved now are getting into it from a business perspective and they will look at patents as more of a business consideration.”

 

[Baron23]

“Restricting hemp cultivation makes as much sense as restricting who can grow corn,”
​

This ^^ . The whole discussion is just asinine....which is, in fact, a comment on our political leaders. :-)


Felons may be back in the hemp farming business

People with felony drug convictions may be able to grow hemp after all.

A controversial provision in the Senate farm bill that bars felons from growing hemp, even as it makes it easier for farmers across the nation to grow the crop, has been modified.

Congress is expected to release final details of the compromise bill next week, with a vote shortly afterward.

The farm bill’s original version would have banned nearly all drug felons from growing hemp. But advocates have learned that thanks to a compromise, the bill would allow such felons to grow hemp beginning 10 years after their conviction.

Any felons now growing hemp, which was permitted on a more narrow basis under a 2014 farm bill, would be allowed to continue.

Advocacy groups were not fully satisfied with the new bill’s likely changes.

“Any ban will still have an adverse affect on people with felony convictions who are trying to get their lives back in order and would unfairly lock people out of new job opportunities they desperately need.,” said Grant Smith, deputy director of national affairs for the pro-legalization Drug Policy Alliance.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Ron Wyden, a co-sponsor of the hemp legislation, said the Oregon Democrat was an architect of the new felony compromise.

Wyden told McClatchy in July that he wanted hemp treated like every other agricultural crop, which means no bans on who can grow.

“Restricting hemp cultivation makes as much sense as restricting who can grow corn,” Wyden said.

At the first Kentucky Hemp Days fest in Cynthiana, Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles hailed the crop’s progress and supported full legalization a day after U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell inserted hemp language in the Farm Bill.

By Janet Patton
The tweak to the felony provision comes amid stiff opposition to a blanket ban from a group of Republican and Democratic members of Congress, along with hemp industry advocates and groups that back efforts to overhaul the nation’s criminal justice laws.

“No other agricultural commodities in the U.S. have this type of restriction,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky said, in one of two letters he wrote to House and Senate farm bill negotiators in opposition to the sweeping felon ban. Paul was the lead Republican co-sponsor on a Wyden bill to legalize hemp in 2012, the first Senate hemp bill.

In another letter, Paul and Sens. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey and Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, argued that barring drug felons would make it more difficult for people with criminal records, particularly blacks and Hispanics who are over-represented in the criminal justice system, to secure jobs in the hemp industry.

They noted that prior hemp legalization efforts were left to the discretion of the states, which they said are “best placed to know what the most optimal hemp policy is for their residents.”

Many states already go further than the original felony provision.

Kentucky bars anyone convicted of any felony or any drug-related misdemeanor from securing a hemp license for 10 years after the conviction.

North Carolina bars anyone with any felony conviction within the past 10 years from growing hemp. Anyone with a drug-related or controlled substance felony conviction is barred regardless of the date of conviction.

But other states, chiefly Colorado, where more than half the nation’s 2017 hemp production took place, could have found themselves required to run criminal background checks on farmers if the original 2018 farm bill felony provision was included.

The state briefly considered restricting growers with a criminal record but a state official told McClatchy in August that “If it’s going to be a legitimate industry we don’t want to be fingerprinting farmers who want to find a productive crop.”

The farm bill compromise mirrors several states’ regulations, said Colleen Keahey Lanier, executive director of the Hemp Industries Association. Lanier said she was pleased that lawmakers were willing to soften the restrictions, but said the felony restriction continues to pose an unfair discrimination against the crop.

“It’s still an unfortunate and unnecessary prohibitionist approach that I wish would be eliminated,” Lanier said. “We’re talking agriculture here and a distinct variety of cannabis that isn’t marijuana.”

The original felony provision was included in an amendment submitted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, a major champion of expanding industrial hemp.

McConnell, who routinely tells audiences that hemp is distinctly different from its “illicit cousin” marijuana, did not include the felony provision in his original legislation, but accepted it after hearing from the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Trump administration.

The hemp provision in the farm bill, a detailed measure that spells out federal agriculture policy, would remove hemp from the federal list of controlled substances, giving each state the ability to allow farmers to grow it legally. Thanks to a provision that McConnell included in the 2014 farm bill, many states, including Kentucky, now allow growing hemp on a regulated, experimental basis.

Supporters say taking hemp off the controlled substances list would position hemp as a legitimate agricultural commodity, eliminate confusion and make it easier for farmers and processors to gain access to lines of credit, small business loans and crop insurance.

The text of the compromise bill won’t be released until next week because the House has been out this week in observance of the late President George H.W. Bush.

 

[Baron23]

Marlboro owner Altria invests $1.8 billion in cannabis company Cronos

New York (CNN Business)Altria hopes pot is the key to help it grow beyond its stagnant cigarette business.

Tobacco giant Altira is investing $1.8 billion in Canadian cannabis company Cronos Group. That will give Altria a 45% stake in the company, with an option for Altria to increase its stake to 55% over the next five years.

Reports of an Altria-Cronos deal first surfaced earlier this week. The decision by Altria to go ahead with an investment in Cronos shows that Altria is serious about investing in marijuana as a new growth area as sales of traditional cigarettes slow.

Altria's stock has fallen nearly 25% this year and the company is expected to report revenue growth of only about 1% this year and in 2019.

"Investing in Cronos Group as our exclusive partner in the emerging global cannabis category represents an exciting new growth opportunity for Altria," said Howard Willard, Altria's CEO, in a statement.
Shares of Altria (MO) rose 2% in early trading Friday while Cronos (CRON) soared more than 30%.

"Altria is the ideal partner for Cronos Group, providing the resources and expertise we need to meaningfully accelerate our strategic growth," said Cronos CEO Mike Gorenstein in a statement.
Gorenstein added that Cronos will use the investment from Altria to expand its distribution and infrastructure around the world and also boost its investments in research and development for new brands and products.

Cronos and other cannabis stocks have been thrust into the spotlight in the past few months following the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada in October, as well as legalized recreational and medical pot in several US states last month.

With Democrats winning control of the US House, Congress may finally pass the Farm Bill, which would make it legal to produce hemp and potentially open the door for more products containing cannabidiol, or CBD.

Many alcoholic beverage, tobacco and other consumer products companies may want to bet on cannabis.
Canadian marijuana company Canopy Growth (CGC) already has received a multibillion dollar investment from Corona owner Constellation Brands (STZ).

Coca-Cola (KO) was rumored to be considering an investment in Canadian cannabis company Aurora (ACB).

Coca-Cola CEO says company has no plans for cannabis drinks
But Coke shot down the talk in October. CEO James Quincey said the company "doesn't have any plans at this stage" to enter the CBD market.

Coke's archrival Pepsi (PEP) hasn't completely ruled out a move into cannabis. Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston told analysts during its earnings call in October that "it's fair to say we look at everything" in response to a question about cannabis.

The Canadian subsidiary of Molson Coors (TAP) has a joint venture with The Hydropothecary Corporation to produce cannabis-infused drinks for the Canadian market. Lagunitas, a beer brand owned by Heineken (HEINY), is selling a cannabis-infused sparkling water brand in California.

Investors seem to be betting that more deals could be coming. Shares of Canopy, Aurora, Tilray (TLRY) and Aphria (APHA) all surged Friday morning.

 

[Baron23]

This firmly goes under the heading of "No shit, Sherlock"...sigh


Surgeon General blames lack of marijuana research on schedule 1 status

At a national summit on police efforts to address the United States’ opioid epidemic, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams spoke about the need for further scientific and medical research on cannabis. In response to a question about the U.S. Controlled Substances Act (CSA), Adams called for a review of the way the government schedules different medications, including marijuana. The CSA lists cannabis as a Schedule I substance, a classification reserved for drugs deemed the most dangerous, with no accepted medical use and high abuse potential. The extraordinary difficulty and cost scientists and doctors face if they try to study cannabis is a major consequence of that classification. In the U.S., no drug is both as common yet as under-researched as marijuana. And Surgeon General Adams blames the lack of research on the plant’s Schedule I status.

U.S. Surgeon General Renews Support for Rescheduling Medical Cannabis
Last Thursday’s statements at the Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative conference in Massachusetts weren’t the first time Surgeon General Jerome Adams has spoken favorably about reclassifying medical cannabis. In a public speech last December at the National Black Caucus of State Legislators’ annual conference, Adams said he felt medical marijuana “should be like any other drug.”

During the speech, Adams went on to call for allowing the FDA to vet and study medical cannabis. Last December, the FDA had not yet approved the cannabis-derived epilepsy medication Epidiolex. But it had approved cannabidiol oil and other CBD derivatives. The FDA has also authorized a handful of studies, including one investigating the use of cannabis to treat PTSD in veterans.


Adams’ comments last week echo his speech from a year ago. As Surgeon General, he still doesn’t condone adult, “recreational” cannabis use. And he remains adamantly opposed to smoking cannabis, even for medical reasons. Nevertheless, Adams is committed to basing policy decisions on science, not the threadbare prejudices that have hampered federal drug reform for decades. Throughout his career, for example, Adams has supported a number of evidence-based harm reduction approaches to a range of public health issues, from opioids to HIV/AIDS. However, Adams remains skeptical about cannabis’ potential as an opioid exit drug or opioid replacement.

Surgeon General Needs to Apply Pressure to Justice Department on Rescheduling MMJ
Adams’ position on medical cannabis stands in sharp contrast to that of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. And with Sessions out of office, there’s an opportunity for the Surgeon General to put some pressure on the Justice Department regarding rescheduling medical cannabis. He’d have the support of members of Congress, where a bi-partisan consensus on the need for amending the CSA continues gaining momentum. It would be possible to create a separate research designation for cannabis, opening up avenues to research that have remained blocked by federal prohibition.

“Just as we need to look at criminal justice laws, rules and regulations, we need to look at health laws, rules and regulations, and that includes the scheduling system,” Adams said. Then again, advocates have a strong case that the time for looking is over and what’s needed now is concrete action.

 

[momofthegoons]

Hemp legalization clears House, off to president for final approval

Hemp legalization awaits the pen of President Donald Trump after the U.S. House on Wednesday followed the Senate and approved a 2018 Farm Bill that removes hemp from the U.S. Controlled Substances Act.

The House voted 369-47 to agree to a Farm Bill compromise that includes redefining cannabis plants with no more than 0.3% THC.

The measure aims to clarify that those low-THC cannabis plants aren’t illegal drugs, which would be the most significant change to the Controlled Substances Act since it was passed in 1971.

Trump has 10 days to sign or veto the $867 billion bill; his signature is considered almost certain as Congress scrambles to finish its work before this session ends Dec. 21.

If signed into law, the bill will:

• Remove hemp’s low amounts of THC from the Controlled Substances Act.
• Allow nationwide hemp production, while permitting states to submit individual plans to regulate the crop to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which will oversee hemp the same as any other agricultural commodity.
• Guarantee interstate commerce for hemp products, including CBD.

Hemp won limited legal protections in 2014, when Congress passed a Farm Bill that gave states the ability to experiment with hemp production for research purposes. The 2014 Farm Bill gave rise to a patchwork of state regulations regarding hemp and hemp-derived CBD.

 

[Shredder]

As a grower I'm not a fan of hemp. Or more specifically hemp pollen. Hemp puts out more pollen than all but a small handful of plants, hundreds of pounds per acre, and it travels hundreds of miles on the wind. And a couple grains of pollen can ruin a crop. You don't have to live next to a hemp farm to suffer. Cops in Italy get a gauge on Moroccan hash production by pollen counts in Italy. It easily travels that far and farther.

I think we need to be careful of what we wish for.

 

[momofthegoons]

I think we need to be careful of what we wish for.

LOL.... You're starting to sound like me....

 

[Baron23]

"Stuart, however, maintains the symposium was not focused on a particular view, despite the fact that no speakers were invited who are known to support marijuana legalization."

The mendacity of our political class is still...even after all of these years of life....breathtaking. What a crock of BS this ^^ is.



US Attorney holds conference against marijuana legalization

Marijuana legalization is reaching all-time highs for public support, but some officials still show opposition to the change. U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart, who is in charge of the Southern District of West Virginia, held an invite-only one-day symposium in Charleston.

The event, titled “The Colorado Experiment: A Look Back and What You Need to Know” included guest speaker Bob Troyer, the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado.

Troyer’s presentation included a lot of information on the detriment to state residents following marijuana legalization. Troyer noted that youth use of marijuana increased and work productivity decreased as more workers failed drug tests. Meanwhile, Troyer shared his personal opinion that legalization for medical use is acceptable, as long as appropriate testing is done.

One fact that also came up was that marijuana legalization brought in revenue of $58 million in 2016, while the added costs attributed to legalization came to $23 million. However, that still results in positive revenue of $35 million for the state.

Stuart invited other prominent figures from various career fields and agencies to speak, including a pharmacist, ecologist, the executive director of a non-profit that opposes marijuana legalization and others from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and from Drug Enforcement Administration.

All of the topics covered at the symposium were focused on opposition to marijuana legalization. Topics included concerns about dispensaries that would operate as fronts for the illegal drug trade if legalization went forward, as well as issues that legalization means more positive societal perception and wider acceptance of the drug.

This event was a gathering that is in direct contrast to current societal trends, which include legalization of marijuana for medical use in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Guam and Puerto Rico as well as polls that show as much as two-thirds of current U.S. residents support a move to legalize marijuana across the country.

Even residents in West Virginia have been showing increasing support, as data released in 2018 showed that 67% of residents support legalization for medical use and 34% support legalization for recreational use as well.

Other legislators feel Stuart’s views are a large sticking point in the effort to move forward with legalization in West Virginia. He regularly shares anti-marijuana views on his Twitter account and has filed a lawsuit against a hemp farm located in Mason County.

Stuart, however, maintains the symposium was not focused on a particular view, despite the fact that no speakers were invited who are known to support marijuana legalization.

 

[momofthegoons]

Thailand approves medicinal cannabis

Thailand's parliament has voted to approve cannabis for medical use, with a key lawmaker calling it a "New Year's gift" to the Thai people.

Recreational use will remain illegal.

Marijuana was used in Thailand as a traditional medicine, until it was banned in the 1930s.

South East Asia has some of the world's toughest penalties for drug usage or possession, and Thailand is the first in the region to allow medicinal marijuana.

Thailand's junta-appointed parliament voted to amend the Narcotic Act of 1979 on Tuesday.

It happened after an extra parliamentary session was arranged to push bills through before the New Year's holidays, according to Reuters news agency.

The amendment will become law when it is published in the government gazette, The Bangkok Post reported.

"This is a New Year's gift from the National Legislative Assembly to the government and the Thai people," said Somchai Sawangkarn, chairman of the drafting committee, during the televised session.

What will be allowed?
Consumers will be able to carry specified amounts necessary for medicinal purposes, if they have a prescription or recognised certificate, the Bangkok Post said.

Licences for production and sale of the product will be strictly controlled.

The paper said the law also applies to kratom, a South East Asian plant that acts as a stimulant.

Worldwide changes
Across the world, countries have been revisiting their marijuana laws.

Canada and Uruguay are among those to have legalised it, including for recreational use. However South East Asia is known for having very harsh punishments for drugs-related charges.

Earlier this year, a man in Malaysia was given a death sentence for selling cannabis oil.

Meanwhile, on the Indonesian island of Bali, a British man is facing up to 15 years in prison after being found with cannabis oil which he says he needed for medical reasons.

The 45-year-old Pip Holmes, from Cornwall, says he asked a friend to send it to him while he was living in Bali to help his arthritis.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Medical cannabis - what the research says
Conclusive or substantial evidence that it helps:

• as treatment for chronic pain in adults
• as treatment for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting
• for improving patient-reported multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms

Moderate evidence that it helps:

• improving sleep in individuals with specific conditions including fibromyalgia and obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome

Epilepsy

• Recent studies have found that cannabidiol (CBD - an active ingredient in cannabis) reduced seizures in individuals with rare childhood epilepsy disorders - Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome

Sources: US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; New England Journal of Medicine; NHS

 

[momofthegoons]

The U.S. Government Has Been Funding Cannabis Research in Israel Since 1965 So It Already Knows The Medicinal Benefit

Despite its official stance, the U.S. has been quietly financing cannabis research in Israel for decades. Then funding was taken over by Big Pharma. You can’t make this up.
Although the federal government maintains that cannabis is a schedule I narcotic with no medicinal benefit, U.S. tax dollars (and many more private dollars) have been bankrolling medical cannabis research for years — except not on American soil, in Israel.

Image credit: John Theodor

If that sounds like pure hypocrisy, it definitely is.

But it’s also may be one of the smartest moves the United States has made in regards to cannabis policy (as depressing as that is). Despite the acknowledged position of the American Medical Association and a great many states, politicians at the federal level are still weary of openly advocating for research into cannabis.

So instead of buckling down and doing the hard work, America opened its regular playbook and decided to pay foreigners to do the work it doesn’t want to do itself.

Image credit: Elena Dijour

It All Started With a Worried Parent
Back in the 1960s, Israel was one of three countries in the world with a government-sponsored cannabis program. It was 1963 when an eager and cannabis-passionate Israeli researcher, from Hebrew University, sought a grant from the NIH. He was turned down because “marijuana is not an American problem.” A bit of trivia: this researcher went on to became the lauded ‘Father of Cannabis,’ Raphael Mechoulam.

One year later, a United States senator caught his son using ‘the drug’ and called Mechoulam back, promising to fund his work if he could help explain what cannabis might be doing to his boy’s brain. It seems that the U.S. had no data on this, which was ultimately an embarrassment for the NIH.

The Clinical Center at NIH, 1960. Image Credit: Flickr.com

Thus, the U.S. National Institutes of Health got involved in the cannabis research business and a world of shady financing deals was born. Mechoulam and his team were given $100,000 every year for the next 50 so that they could continue research into cannabis medicine.

(Side note: no one has ever released the name of the senator who bravely chose to ignore a significant public health issue until it happened in his own home. It’s a shame, too, because he may have done as much for sick Americans as any politician in history.)

Image credit: Global Country of World Peace

Why Don’t They Fund Cannabis Research in America?
One caveat: the United States does allow some cannabis research to take place within its borders. It’s just very, very hard to get approved. If you’re a willing and able researcher hoping to unlock cannabis’ potential to treat cancer, for example, you’ll need to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse — and that’s just from the feds.

You’ll also have to go through the usual research processes, such as institutional review boards, funding sources, etc. as well. Then, if you finally secure enough signatures to begin research, you can only conduct your work at one farm, which happens to be located at the University of Mississippi and is overseen by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It’s probably just easier to move to Canada.

Image credit: Elnur

The Israeli Cannabis Research Deal
Back to Israel. Following the initial 1964 deal, that NIH funding to Israeli went on until 2010, when the original researcher stopped applying for these grants.

In exchange for the money, the U.S. has reaped the benefit of knowing, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that its medicinal cannabis policy is completely wrong. As the the Israeli researcher, Raphael Mechoulam went on to make a myriad of discoveries, including the existence of an endocannabinoid system in the human body, which has a hand in nearly every bodily function (and dysfunction).

Mechoulam’s work has helped doctors across the globe treat 147 million people with medical cannabis for ailments as varied as AIDS, Crohn’s disease, cancer, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis. Not to mention sleep disorders, anxiety, pain relief — and the list goes on.

Image credit: Spectral-Design

Why Did They Stop Funding Mechoulam?
The reason that Dr. Mechoulam isn’t applying for U.S. government grants these days is that his work is now supported by private companies – private, pharmaceutical companies. That’s right. The same Big Pharma that opposes cannabis legalization in the U.S. is subsidizing research in the Middle East. It’s a funny, self-serving world, isn’t it?

Image credit: Vice

Still, the threat of a U.S. public embracing a “dangerous plant” is edging ever closer to a national tipping point. It’s getting very difficult to dismiss these videos and personal accounts of real, life-saving work being done by doctors armed with cannabis-based treatments. The peer-reviewed research is piling up, and we are ever closer to human trials on many accounts.

Still, it’s nauseating that Big Pharma is playing both sides. In the short term, its maximizing profits on opioids and other pain relievers in the profit-hungry American medical market. In the long term, it’s working to gain a foothold in the latest frontiers of cannabis research. Sure, that’s a two-faced way to approach things, but it keeps the right pockets lined. That’s what it’s always been about anyway, right?

 

[Baron23]

Our government is mendacious? Noooooo!!

 

[Baron23]

You have to be kidding me....what is up with these people.


FDA Officials Confiscated CBD Edibles, Yuma Shop Owner Says

At 9:03 a.m. on Thursday, officials from the Food and Drug Administration confiscated edible CBD products from the shelves of a smoke shop in Yuma, the owner of the shop said.

"They came in this morning and they took eight chocolate bars, 14 packs of gummies, and 23 K-cups," said David Murray, who owns Neverlow Glass Gallery.

They left no records, no warrant, just said they were FDA and flashed flip ID badges.

"It wasn't much," Murray said. "They said they were going to send me paperwork within seven to 10 business days or I was going to get my product back."

The three FDA officials were accompanied by "another enforcement unit," Murray said, although he could not recall from what agency.

Four days earlier, FDA officials had stopped in the shop, asking what was edible and for humans, Murray recalled. So he told them about the coffee, the gummies, and the chocolate, not expecting them to return.

When they did, they told him that CBD wasn't for human consumption, Murray said. They also told him that the edibles had to be labeled "as a pet product," he said, along with the words, "if consumed by a human, there’s no concern.” That last statement he found shocking, he said with a chuckle.

Murray said the FDA officials did not say that the edibles had to be labeled "not for human consumption." They did, however, say that "they're making their own regulations for [hemp]."

“They didn’t really clarify anything for me," he added.

Murray said the confiscated coffee and chocolates were produced by Hempful Farms. The gummies were from the companies CBD Living Water and Relax.

Chris Martin, who runs Hempful Farms, said he had not heard of confiscations at other shops where Hempful Farm sells products. Neverlow was the only one he knew of — for now.

But at his own store in Phoenix on Thursday, three men — "jarhead-looking guys, straight outta military," Martin said — came in and asked weird questions, like, "You take this and put this in your mouth?” It was as if they were baiting his employees to say that products were edibles, so they could seize it or come back later, Martin said. The men had refused to say where they were from.

"Patients don’t do that. People who are just looking for help don’t do that stuff," he added.

Last week, Paw Puddy, the pet division of Hempful Farms, received a letter from federal criminal investigators.

"An item placed into the U.S. Postal Service mail stream is currently being withheld from delivery as there are reasonable grounds to believe its contents are nonmailable as proscribed in U.S. Postal Publication Service 52, Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable mail," the letter said.

On December 20, the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 was signed into law, removing hemp — the source of CBD — from the list of federally controlled substances. But that doesn't mean federal agencies can't regulate them in other ways.

That same day, FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb issued a statement noting that even though hemp was no longer illegal under federal law, Congress had preserved the FDA's authority to regulate products with cannabis or cannabis-derived compounds.

"The FDA will advance new steps to better define our public health obligations in this area," the statement read. "We’ll also continue to closely scrutinize products that could pose risks to consumers."

The statement cited concerns about claims that hemp products had therapeutic benefits. Cannabis-derived products that claimed to cure, treat, or prevent diseases "must go through the FDA drug approval process for human or animal use before they are marketed in the U.S," it added.

The FDA, which has been affected by the federal shutdown like other agencies, didn't return repeated messages.

What's next for the Yuma shop is unclear. Murray is waiting for the FDA to send the papers they promised, or return his product — not that he can't keep selling these products anyway, because oddly, the FDA agents didn't take Neverlow's back stock of CBD edibles.

"I have more chocolate bars, I have more K-cups, I have more gummies," Murray said. "But they only took what was on my shelf. That’s what confuses me about this whole thing ...They should’ve taken everything.”

(UPDATE: The FDA later emailed the following reply: "The FDA, by policy, does not discuss possible or ongoing investigations; however, if an investigation were performed and the case is deemed closed, the information will be releasable via a written Freedom of Information Act request for records...")

 

[Killick]

For those that haven't seen this Australian Broadcasting Corp documentary it's available on Netflux...

Synopsis

• A Life of Its Own aims to provide clarity and understanding of one of Australia's most stigmatized and controversial issues - medicinal cannabis. Award-winning journalist, Helen Kapalos, takes the audience on a wide-ranging voyage of discovery about medicinal cannabis, addressing the complex issues facing its use. The film was inspired during the making of a TV network news story which detailed a young man's difficult decision to use cannabis for his terminal illness and to ease the debilitating nausea he experienced following chemotherapy - made all the more poignant because the young man's father served for decades as a drug-squad police chief. In the weeks after the story was aired thousands of people came forward speaking of their own experience with medicinal cannabis. The story had unwittingly unearthed a silent majority - personal stories of patients suffering a range of illnesses, from intractable epilepsy to rare genetic diseases. Against the anecdotal evidence of benefits, the film discusses the lack of clinical evidence, the limitations of present drug regulation, the rise of a black market in medicinal cannabis, and the ongoing social stigma. The testimony of medical professionals, scientists, lawyers and politicians brings a balance to the debate.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8395052/

 

[momofthegoons]

Surgeon General Believes It's High Time For Marijuana Reclassification

In this Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018, photo, marijuana samples are organized at Cannalysis, a cannabis testing laboratory, in Santa Ana, Calif. Nearly 20 percent of the marijuana and marijuana products tested in California for potency and purity have failed, according to state data provided to The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)ASSOCIATED PRESS

At the close of 2018, the U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams made a bold move, and called on the federal government to rethink marijuana’s classification as a Schedule I substance. While the Surgeon General did not go so far as to condone legalization for recreational use, he did say that medically, marijuana should be studied like any other pain relief drug and that both health and criminal justice policies need to be re-examined as they pertain to cannabis drug classification.

Because the cannabis plant (of which only portions are referred to as marijuana) is made up of hundreds of different chemical entities, there is much to learn about the array of chemical compounds– individually and in combination– that could provide medical treatment across many health states. The FDA has already approved cannabinoid oil and other derivatives of the plant for treatment of everything from anxiety to epilepsy. Further, as the nation faces an opioid epidemic, discussions surrounding non-opioid pain relief options are growing around Capitol Hill, with cannabinoids at the top of the list.

While the Surgeon General is right in his position on medical research, the move would serve other purposes as well. The change he proposed could be significant for justice system reforms and an economic triumph for the U.S. His belief– and that of researchers around the world– is that the current U.S. classification of marijuana inhibits research for medical advancements that include cannabis and cannabinoids, with the U.S. falling behind in both knowledge and financing. Not only are countries such as China and Israel lapping the U.S. in medical innovations and research, but G7 countries like Canada are earning billions of dollars by having legalized cannabis. For example, in the latter six months of 2018, Canada’s market has run wild with IPOs, including American-based cannabis companies flooding the market.

“The relevance of the Surgeon General’s call to reschedule cannabis cannot be understated,” says Dr. Mark Rosenfeld, CEO of ANANDA Scientific. “The chemistry found only in cannabis plants can provide relief across an incredible array of adverse health states. It does this with minimal side effects and with the prospect of being eminently cost-effective in its us.” He goes on to explain that, The medicinal use of cannabis today has its roots in the 1960s, when Israeli scientists began studies on its unique chemistry. A government program for administering medical cannabis has been in place there for 12 years, and doctors do not hesitate to encourage its use as an effective pharmaceutical alternative. Meanwhile, the United States remains regrettably behind because of its draconian and antiquated anti-cannabis laws. In no small way due to the regulatory and legal nightmare defining the situation for medical cannabis in the U.S., the science supporting its medicinal efficacy remains tentative. But reversing the excessively harsh and prohibitive laws for cannabis in the United States remains essential for making cannabis chemistry real human medicine. It is important to realize that States have approved the medicinal use of cannabis through legislative processes, not scientific or medical ones. That has gotten in the way of scientists determining with certainty the therapeutic impact of cannabis and thus of patients wishing to beneficially use it.

Billions On The Table

The Surgeon General’s public comments come alongside a Congressional report released this week entitled, “The National Cannabis Economy,” highlighting economic benefits of legalized cannabis at the state and national levels. The report concludes that this year alone more than $11 billion will be earned by the marijuana industry, and that sales will reach $23 billion by 2022 due to, “job creation, more tax revenue, and better patient care.”

Of additional interest to federal lawmakers, should be revenue projections that estimate the medical segment of the market will surpass the recreational segment of the market within four years, due to opioid alternatives for pain management as well as chronic diseases. Thus, those trying to improve the regulatory environment and sustainability of a cannabis market agree with the academic researchers and the Surgeon General. Jeffrey M. Zucker, President of Green Lion Partners says, "It’s great to see Surgeon General Adams coming out in support of cannabis reclassification. We still know relatively little about the possible uses of this plant. Our inability to conduct extensive research in the U.S. has led to countries like Canada and Israel jumping far ahead of us before we’ve even really got into it from both scientific and economic perspectives. The discoveries they’re making are life changing for many, and I can only imagine the depth of discovery possible with the US government supporting more research. There are a lot of pharmaceuticals with rough side effects that can potentially be replaced by various forms of cannabis, but it is going to take a focus on science and compassion to get there."

Garyn Angel, CEO of MagicalButter.com, an American company that has seen the global market leave the U.S. in the dust, adds that from an economic perspective, “As cannabis legalization moves forward globally, we are leaving a huge market opportunity on the table here in the U.S.— there are billions of dollars to be made in research, innovation, cultivation, product development and retail sales.” He claims, “By reclassifying cannabis, the U.S. could potentially capture millions in tax revenue, bolstering our economy and encouraging funding of scientific innovation in the process. Every day that we aren’t working to lead the charge in this new “green rush,” we risk being left behind as the global market grows more sophisticated.”

In June, Canada became the second nation in the world after Uruguay (and first G7 nation) to fully legalize cannabis. The result has been global surges in stocks and private sector deals with pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis to research and distribute medical marijuana.

In addition to sales and tax revenue being left on the table, the U.S. is also trailing when it comes to R&D, as well as intellectual property (IP). Countries like China and Israel, where federal funds are appropriated for cannabis research, are seeing vigorous innovations that could shift the entire global market for pain relief within the world’s aging population alone. Not to mention medical breakthroughs for rare and chronic diseases across the lifespan. China, which has become the world’s powerhouse in research, holds more than half of the world’s 600 cannabis-related patents. And Israel, currently has more than 110 clinical trials involving cannabis.

The DEA Is In The Way

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classifies drugs, substances, and certain chemicals used to make drugs into five distinct categories or “schedules” depending upon the drug’s acceptable medical use and the drug’s abuse or dependency potential. According to the website, “The abuse rate is a determinate factor in the scheduling of the drug; for example, Schedule I drugs have a high potential for abuse and the potential to create severe psychological and/or physical dependence. As the drug schedule changes– Schedule II, Schedule III, etc., so does the abuse potential– Schedule V drugs represents the least potential for abuse.”

Schedule I drugs, substances, and chemicals–like marijuana– are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use. Further, they are considered to have a very high potential for abuse. In comparison to marijuana, other drugs in this category are heroin, lacid diethylamide (LSD), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy), methaqualone, and peyote. Which begs the question how the FDA can have already approved cannabis for medical use, and yet the chemical stays with the likes of LSD and heroin.

Moreover, Schedule II drugs (which are considered less dangerous and less addictive) include the likes of substances that many cannabinoid compounds could prevent individuals from becoming addicted to, such ashydrocodone, (Vicodin), cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, oxycodone (OxyContin), fentanyl, Adderall, and Ritalin. Making it hard to believe that even a federal agency classifies marijuana as meaningfully more dangerous than meth.

However, in recent months, the DEA has released a Final Order rescheduling FDA-approved cannabis-derived Cannabidiol (CBD) with no more than 0.1% THC under Schedule V. The decision came after pressure from both the FDA and HHS, but has since gone in circles between the agencies.

But the biggest step forward might be taken with the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. Buried in the 1,000+ page document (Section 7415) are removal of hemp from the Controlled Substance Act (CSA), and redefining how extracts, cannabinoids, and derivates of CBD can be legal. Despite this progress, many regulatory questions remain unanswered, and the growing, selling, purchasing and research associated with various components of plants will come under much scrutiny in coming months.

 

[Baron23]

Read this article!!

Did Marijuana Legalization Really Increase Homicide Rates?

A few days ago, a New York Times op-ed by Alex Berenson, the author of the forthcoming book Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence, made a startling claim about marijuana legalization, a policy that, as he notes, “seems to be on an unstoppable march […] in the United States” in light of both national polling on the issue and the many recent, liberalizing changes to state pot laws:

ecause marijuana can cause paranoia and psychosis, and those conditions are closely linked to violence[,] it appears to lead to an increase in violent crime. Before recreational legalization began in 2014, advocates promised that it would reduce violent crime. But the first four states to legalize — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — have seen sharp increases in murders and aggravated assaults since 2014, according to reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Police reports and news articles show a clear link to cannabis in many cases.

Let’s set aside the idea that legalizing marijuana will reduce violent crime: violent crime is unpredictable and this is probably too optimistic a claim to pin to any one change in the law not geared directly at crime reduction (though it’s not crazy to imagine that obviating black markets might reduce crime in certain instances). Berenson isn’t just expressing skepticism of that claim — he’s arguing, in strong language, that legalization has done the opposite. And if, in fact, there were a tight, clearly illustrated link between cannabis legalization and increases in violent crime, that would certainly be an important bit of evidence to consider as legalization continues. But Berenson doesn’t come close to showing this. Rather, this paragraph is a case study in how to misleadingly use statistics to make oversimplified arguments about human behavior and public policy.

At root, Berenson’s fishiest move is his choice of 2014 as a baseline year. “Nothing interesting happened with regard to pot in 2014,” said Mark Kleiman, a drug expert and public-policy professor at NYU who has himself urged caution over marijuana-legalization Pollyannaish-ness, in an email, “but there was a national uptick in homicide in 2015–2016.”

Kleiman’s right on both fronts. First, here’s a graph of the FBI’s nationwide violent-crime stats from recent years, which show an uptick in violent crime after a long general period of general decline:

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Illustration: FBI
(I couldn’t find a good graph with the per-100,000-residents numbers rather than the raw ones, but those stats follow the same up, up, down-a-bit pattern from 2014 to 2017.)

Plenty of states, carried along by the nationwide trend, saw increases in violent crime, whatever their pot laws. And as Kleiman noted, there’s no reason to pick 2014 as a year for examining the four states in question. While Alaska and Oregon did officially legalize marijuana then, Colorado and Washington did so in 2012. And state pot-law histories tend to be more complicated than the dates of full legalization, anyway — in Alaska and Oregon (see the previous links), it’s been decades since having small to moderate amounts of marijuana for personal use could lead to anything worse than a small fine. The idea that a state flipping over from a very liberal pot policy to a very liberal pot policy would lead to an immediate uptick in violent crime demands evidence that’s absent from Berenson’s column.

Plus, zooming in on some of these crime stats tells a more complicated story, anyway. Despite Berenson’s claim of “sharp increases in murders and aggravated assaults since 2014” in Oregon, for example, the FBI reported that the murder rate there went up a grand total of 1.0 percent from 2015 to 2016, as compared to a nationwide uptick of 7.9 percent, and then dropped by 11.6 percent between 2016 and 2017, a significantly steeper drop than in the rest of the country. If one insists on positing a tight causal relationship between pot laws and murder rates, one could just as easily argue that Oregon’s homicide trajectory has been softened by pot legalization in these years, at least relative to national trends, saving a number of Oregonians’ lives. And of course, such a focus on state laws and crime rates ignores the larger picture: “Cannabis consumption, and especially heavy cannabis consumption, has been on the rise since 1992,” said Kleiman in his email. “Over that period, national homicide rates have fallen more than 50%.”

What’s frustrating about this pointlessly misleading scaremongering is that, underneath it, Berenson has a fair point, expressed elsewhere in his column: The U.S. is, in fact, in the midst of a rather radical change to its marijuana laws. In many ways, this is an important step toward justice: The war on pot has been an unmitigated catastrophe by many metrics, and it has done disproportionate damage to communities vulnerable to overpolicing. But that doesn’t mean marijuana is totally harmless, or that there aren’t important public-health questions that remain to be answered about the effects of legalization. In fact, there’s a huge amount of uncertainty on this front. As Malcolm Gladwell writes in The New Yorker, examining a mammoth National Academy of Medicine study released in 2017: “Does the use of cannabis increase the likelihood of fatal car accidents? Yes. By how much? Unclear. Does it affect motivation and cognition? Hard to say, but probably. Does it affect employment prospects? Probably. Will it impair academic achievement? Limited evidence. This goes on for pages.”

These are important questions. But the way to get people to take them seriously is, well, to take them seriously — not to revert to the over-the-top claims of the past. Berenson laments the fact that anyone who points out that marijuana legalization could have certain net-negative effects “may be mocked as a modern-day believer in ‘Reefer Madness,’ the notorious 1936 movie that portrays young people descending into insanity and violence after smoking marijuana.” But if you don’t want to be lumped in with Reefer Madness, don’t make unjustified claims about reefer!

 

[Baron23]

This bullshit is too funny by far

"In a 2014 television interview, Harris simply laughed in the face of a journalist who asked about her Republican attorney general opponent's support for legalizing marijuana.​

And she declined to support California's cannabis legalization ballot measure that voters went on to approve two years later.

Over the course of 2018, however, the senator came to embrace marijuana policy reform at a time its popularity had soared with Democratic voters and as likely rivals for the party's presidential nomination got on board."​

What has happened over the course of 2018 is that she decided position herself to run for President and like very other one of our Machiavellian politician its the hell with whatever she values and let's adopt any position that will get us into office.

Lots of them out there...on both sides of the aisle....following the polls, never actually leading the nation.


Kamala Harris Calls For Legalizing Marijuana And Ending War On Drugs In New Book

All the cool presidential candidates are doing it. Calling for marijuana legalization, that is.

"Something else it's past time we get done is dismantling the failed war on drugs—starting with legalizing marijuana," Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who is weighing a 2020 presidential campaign, writes in her new book released on Tuesday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Over the course of the past several years, supporting the legalization of cannabis has become a mainstream consensus position for Democrats, particularly among the party's likely presidential contenders.

Harris, who as recently as a few years ago laughed off questions about marijuana, is no exception.

"We need to legalize marijuana and regulate it," Harris writes, pointing to racial disparities in cannabis enforcement. "And we need to expunge nonviolent marijuana-related offenses from the records of millions of people who have been arrested and incarcerated so they can get on with their lives."

But the former California state attorney general also says in the new book, "The Truths We Hold: An American Journey," that ending prohibition needs to be done "with eyes wide open, understanding that there is unfinished business when it comes to legalization."

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Harris says that due to the drug's restrictive Schedule I status, not enough research has been done on its effects and that officials need to "invest in a solution" to impaired driving issues, as there is no currently available reliable breathalyzer-like device for cannabis.

When it comes to other drugs, the senator says "we also need to stop treating drug addiction like a public safety crisis instead of what it is: a public health crisis."

"When someone is suffering from addiction, their situation is made worse, not better, by involvement in the criminal justice system," she writes.

It is unclear is Harris is suggesting decriminalizing drugs beyond marijuana, but that does seem to be one potential implication of the suggestion that involving the criminal justice system is harmful when it comes to substance misuse.

All told, the passages mark a significant evolution on cannabis and drug policy for the former prosecutor.

In a 2014 television interview, Harris simply laughed in the face of a journalist who asked about her Republican attorney general opponent's support for legalizing marijuana.

And she declined to support California's cannabis legalization ballot measure that voters went on to approve two years later.

Over the course of 2018, however, the senator came to embrace marijuana policy reform at a time its popularity had soared with Democratic voters and as likely rivals for the party's presidential nomination got on board.

Other potential 2020 Democratic candidates who now support legalization include Sens. Cory Booker, (D-NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

In May, Harris signed on as a cosponsor of a Booker-led bill to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and withhold federal funding from states with discriminatory cannabis enforcement.

“Right now in this country people are being arrested, being prosecuted, and end up spending time in jail or prison all because of their use of a drug that otherwise should be considered legal,” she said at the time.

Last week, Warren formally launched a presidential exploratory committee.

 

[Baron23]

Marijuana Company Pushes CES 2019 Over Pot Ban

PAX Labs plans to make a bit of history Monday night at the buttoned-down Consumer Electronics Show. It believes it will be the first to demonstrate cannabis products at the country’s premier technology conference.

There is a catch, however. A ban on cannabis at the show has forced the San Francisco-based company to demo its vaporizer with CBD/THC pods at Planet 13, a local dispensary. (At a CES event Monday evening, placebo pods containing flavors such as blueberry cheesecake will have to suffice.)

“We are a technology company in the pot field,” PAX Labs Chief Executive Bharat Vasan told Barron’s in a phone interview. “We want to bring more and more acceptance to the field.”

Company spokesman Jeff Brown called the ban “odd” since CBD/THC pods are legal in Nevada and “there’s no shortage of beer, wine and alcohol poured and consumed at CES.”

Next year, PAX Labs hopes to work directly with CES to loosen the rules and allow cannabis technology companies to demo on the floor, Brown said.

A CES spokeswoman said there are no cannabis or e-cigarette products on the exhibit floor because the show does not have a category for the market.

If CES is reticent about such technology, several venture capitalists have shown no hesitation to plow money into the startup, which has raised more than $50 million from the likes of Tao Capital Partners and Tiger Global Management. The company is in the midst of another “substantial” round, Vasan said, which could lead to a potential IPO.

PAX Labs has created buzz (so to speak) through vaporizer and pen-and-pod devices and an app that lets consumers control their cannabis intake. In particular, the app controls the temperature and amount of weed consumed to approximate the desired effect, according to Brown.

“Whether you take an easy or intense inhalation, the app will regulate how much oil is consumed,” he said.

With the volatility of marijuana stocks grabbing the attention of investors, PAX Labs is one more entry to consider. If it goes public, it would join six notable large public cannabis companies: Aphria (APHQF), Aurora Cannabis (ACBFF), Cronos Group (CRON), Canopy Growth (CGC), GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH), and Tilray (TLRY). Five are Canadian and trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and on U.S. exchanges or on the over-the-counter market, while one is U.K.-based. Canadian marijuana sales totaled an estimated $771 million in 2018.

 

[Baron23]

Let me see if I got this straight....their stock price went down because they basically bought $4B worth of pot??? haha

The maker of Corona beer is plunging after slashing guidance because of its marijuana acquisition

Constellation Brands, the company behind Corona beer, plunged 11.45% to $152.61 early Wednesday after slashing its guidance because of its recent marijuana investment.

Constellation Brands adjusted its full-year comp earnings guidance to $9.20 to 9.30 a share, down from its previous forecast of $9.60 to $9.75. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting $9.43 a share.

Constellation's guidance was impacted by its recent investment in the marijuana industry. In August, the beverage maker announced a $4 billion investment in the Canadian cannabis producer Canopy Growth. The deal was closed in November, giving it a 37% stake.

"Constellation estimates the interest expense associated with this transaction to approximate $55 million before tax with an approximate $0.25 impact on fiscal 2019 comparable basis EPS results," Constellation said in a press release at the time.

But the company's updated guidance shows the impact was bigger than expected.

Constellation posted $1.97 billion of comparable sales in the third quarter, topping the $1.91 billion that was expected by Wall Street, according to Bloomberg data. Comparable earnings came in at $2.37 a share, which was $0.31 higher than what analysts were anticipating.

Constellation Brands was down 22% in the past twelve months.

 

[momofthegoons]

Companies Around the Country are Giving Up On Drug Testing for Marijuana
Casinos in Las Vegas are Even Dropping Marijuana from the Substances They Test For

Job growth in the United States has been climbing and the unemployment rate has been on the decline with the most recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting on Friday that non-farm payroll jobs climbed by 164,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate fell to 3.9% from 4.1%. The country is seeing such strong job growth that employers are hiring more people without high school diplomas and there is a new trend to drop drug testing for cannabis.

Along with the marijuana legalization movement has come a broader awareness of the realities of cannabis use, and employers are getting the message as well. Especially in states that have legalized cannabis such as Nevada, employers are becoming more lenient when it comes to cannabis consumption. Caesars Palace, one of Las Vegas’s most historic casino resorts, recently dropped testing its applicants and employees for cannabis consumption although it remains completely restricted to come to work high or use cannabis while at work.

“It has come out of nowhere,” said Michael Clarkson, head of the drug testing practice at Ogletree Deakins, a law firm. “I have heard from lots of clients things like, ‘I can’t staff the third shift and test for marijuana.'”

The Trump administration also may be softening its resistance to legal marijuana. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta suggested at a congressional hearing last month that employers should take a “step back” on drug testing.

There is no definitive data on how many companies conduct drug tests, though the Society for Human Resources Management found in a survey that 57 percent do so. Nor is there any recent data on how many have dropped marijuana from mandatory drug testing.

After the Drug-Free Workplace Act was enacted in 1988, amid concerns about cocaine use, drug testing spread to most large companies. All Fortune 500 companies now engage in some form of drug testing, according to Barry Sample, a senior director at Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest testing firms.

As knowledge continues to spread about the realities of cannabis consumption, employers and states may begin to realize that regulating and enforcing rules towards cannabis should be adminstered similarly to alcohol. A lot of research suggests that alcohol is a more dangerous drug and can impair people much more than cannabis. While it will never be acceptable to be impaired on any sort of drug while at work, during off hours if people are allowed to consume alcohol then why should they not also be able to smoke marijuana?

 

[Baron23]

I keep wondering where these people where when they had the executive branch and both houses of Congress. Did we get legalization then....no, we did not.


Democratic congressman says this will be the most pro-marijuana congress ever

Many people are hoping that Congress will begin pushing more pro-marijuana legislation now that Democrats are in control of the House of Representatives. And one Democrat is definitely raising people's expectations, writes Joseph Misulonas.

Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer says that this Congress will be the most pro-marijuana in history. Blumenauer says Congress has made some progress towards cannabis goals, but has been "restrained" by members of the Republican leadership. But now that Democrats are in charge, Republican leaders won't be able to stop legislation anymore.

Blumenauer also said he's spoken to five dozen new members of Congress, and says many of them are at the very least open, and many are very supportive of marijuana legalization.

However, don't expect Democrats to push full-on legalization right away. Blumenauer says Democrats will be pushing smaller pieces of legislation first, such as allowing veterans access to medical marijuana, increasing federal research and giving cannabis businesses access to banking and other financial services. While that may not be as sexy as full on legalization, Blumenauer says passing these pieces of legislation will help build momentum for accomplishing bigger goals in the future.

Of course, Democrats only control the House of Representatives. They'll still need Republicans in the Senate to support their legislation in order to get it passed, and then they'll need President Trump's support to sign the bills. So it's possibly a little too early to assume that we're getting ready for some major shifts in marijuana policy.