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Ever since the Spanish colonists began farming hemp in Mexico over 400 years ago, cannabis has been a delicate topic in the country – first used as a painkiller, then banned in 1920, and today, almost legal… but also, not at all. The marijuana (or marihuana) rules are hazy, and the consequences of breaking them are no joke. We broke down the top three things you need to know before using cannabis South of the Border.

These laws only apply to the use of cannabis inside the country. Bringing cannabis of any amount or any kind – recreational or medical – across the border into Mexico is considered international drug trafficking, and can lead to arrest.

1) Medicinal marijuana use is not legal (yet)

In a nearly unanimous vote in 2017, medical marijuana (or, more specifically, “pharmaceutical derivatives of cannabis“) were made legal in Mexico. But, there’s a catch: the Mexican Ministry of Health still needs work out some specifics. This means that it is still illegal for patients to obtain medical marijuana or for doctors to prescribe it, and it won’t be legal until the Ministry of Health produces guidelines for it. Even then, though, the law stipulates that the cannabis derivatives (oils, capsules, etc.) will be required to contain less than one percent THC.

2) Possessing small amounts of recreational marijuana won’t send you to jail

Service members who admit to using cannabis after they leave the military would be permitted to reenlist under a provision of a $740.5 billion defense spending bill approved by the House Armed Services Committee last week. 

Current Department of Defense regulations dictate that service members who leave the military and decide to return are barred from reenlisting if they admit to using any form of cannabis while separated. The prohibition remains in effect even for former service members whose cannabis use occurred in a state that has legalized marijuana.

But under a provision added to a defense spending authorization bill by Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, service members wishing to return to the military could request a waiver on a case-by-case basis. The waiver, if granted by the Pentagon, would allow reenlistment for those who have been convicted of a misdemeanor marijuana offense or who admit to cannabis use up to the level of a misdemeanor offense while not on active duty.

“Smoking pot just once shouldn’t prevent a patriotic American from fighting for our country,” Gallego said in a release. “We need to finally exercise some common sense when it comes to our marijuana policies, and I’m glad my amendment will lead us in that direction.”

‘Common-Sense Reform’

Gallego has introduced the amendment, which he characterized as “a common-sense reform to modernize our military’s restrictions on minor marijuana use,” each year since 2018. He was spurred to draft the measure by the experience of a constituent who wanted to return to the Marine Corps when he had finished attending law school. After revealing he had used marijuana in a legal state, a recruiter told him he would have to lie in order to reenlist.

Policing reform may have passed the House on a mostly party-line vote, but the battle isn’t over, especially for pro-cannabis lawmakers who argue the failed ‘war on drugs’ has fueled racial tension in low-income communities across the nation for decades now.

After being rebuffed by congressional leaders who asked that amendments on cannabis not be offered in the midst of the historic policing reform debate at the Capitol, pro-cannabis lawmakers are vowing to redouble their efforts to get federal decriminalization (if not outright legalization, which remains their ultimate goal) passed by the end of this year.

While Correa raised his marijuana decriminalization amendment in the House Judiciary Committee, he ultimately pulled it after party leaders asked that the legislation stay focused merely on items like banning chokeholds and ending qualified immunity (political-speak for allowing officers to do basically whatever they want without fear of punishment).

But with cannabis and drug arrests of minorities across the US drawing condemnation from international bodies (namely, the United Nations), a growing number of officials and advocates are demanding that overhauling drug laws be a part of any policing reform in the future.

Still, drawing national media attention to the practice of no-knock warrants – along with actually passing the legislation out of the House – is seen as a win. In part because even most lawmakers can’t comprehend the practice.

Cannabis is legal in a majority of states but remains illegal at the federal level. This legislative divide creates uncertainties that dissuade most federally regulated banks from servicing the cannabis industry. With banking providers in short supply, cannabis businesses are struggling to earn and maintain the same access to financial services as their peers in traditional retail industries.

Cannabis and its derivative products are all the rage right now. State after state legalizes its recreational use and dispensaries all over the country are making loads of money. The medicinal aspects of the plant are also heavily taken advantage of by big pharmaceutical companies, with new, branded drugs being released with cannabis as their primary component. 

Nestled near the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers in Upstate New York, the city of Binghamton and the surrounding county, Broome, was always a hotbed of agriculture and manufacturing. From the rivers to railroads to highways, the area has been at the hub of transportation networks and grew steadily through the 20th century.

Part of New York’s Southern Tier region along the Pennsylvania border, it was the home of the Endicott Johnson Shoe Company, IBM and later, the flight simulator, which was invented and continued to be manufactured in Binghamton. The area boomed through the Cold War era, in part because of its defense-heavy industries, earning it the nickname “The Valley of Opportunity.”

But after the fall of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, things began to change and both the city and the region experienced a decline in population and money. The shoe factory once employed more than 15,000, but declined and finally closed in 1998. IBM saw its workforce drop from more than 16,000 in the 1980s to a few hundred before it finally sold the plants in 2002.

“You really saw in the late-’80s and through the mid-’90s the manufacturing sector kind of hollowed out,” says current Broome County Executive Jason Garner.

“We’re a manufacturing community that lost its manufacturing base, not unlike Rochester which lost Kodak, or other places that lost major anchors,” agrees Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, who represents the area in the New York Legislature. “We were the home of IBM and the Endicott Johnson Shoes that collectively employed (thousands of) people that are no longer employed.”

The days, weeks, months and time in general feel like a vague concept in the middle of a pandemic, it’s worth remembering that we’re still in the midst of summer. But the usual beloved summer cultural events we so look forward to all winter — from parades to concerts to food festivals — aren’t happening. Theme parks are shuttered and other tourist attractions are mostly closed.

But don’t fret! Things are still happening, only in the virtual realm. We’ve rounded up some of the best online events happening in the coming months that are worth tuning into — especially when you’re stoned. 

Online baking workshop, July 26

Why not get baked and get into baking? This online workshop will teach you how to make donuts, one of the most ideal stoner snacks, after brownies and cookies. 

Category Is, Every Friday in July and August

Your First Visit to a Dispensary

The cannabis industry is rather new and is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States, which means there is a learning curve for consumers. Anyone interested in buying marijuana for medical or recreational use will eventually visit a dispensary, and the first trip to a dispensary can be shocking because of the enormous selection of products available for purchase.

Follow these steps to learn how to prepare for your first trip to a dispensary.

Determine Your Goals

Before you visit the dispensary for the first time, or any time, make sure you know what goals you’d like to accomplish. For example, is there a particular medical condition you’re looking to treat, do you prefer an inhaleable or edible product, or do you prefer a cannabis strain that provides energy or calmness? These are just some questions you can ask yourself when determining your goals.

Research What Products Will Help Accomplish Your Goals

Learn about marijuana here or online by searching Google for terms such as “sativa marijuana strain” and “indica marijuana strain” or “marijuana flower vs edibles” and “marijuana dosage.”

Bring ID and Medical Marijuana Card

Dispensaries have security and receptionists that will ask for your state-issued driver’s license and your valid medical marijuana identification card when you visit.

Hemp laws and regulations in Europe remain uncertain and variable. Much as in the USA, various jurisdictions apply different standards to the cultivation and use of industrial hemp.

The European Union recognizes industrial hemp as the plant Cannabis Sativa L with a THC content of 0.2% or less and there is strong support to increase that limit to 0.3%. While the increase is small, 0.3% is defaulting to the world standard even as some active groups and some countries, notably in Switzerland, a non-EU member, are permitting much higher THC content for Industrial hemp.

Small change isn’t small

Arguably the small change isn’t small at all; it would allow European hemp cultivators and processors to compete with the USA and Canada more easily and there are a variety of products and foods that are more easily obtained with the higher THC content.

Importantly, the THC levels don’t matter much for industrial uses of hemp such as textiles, building materials or plastics, so why be so restrictive especially in the face of a developing world standard that is different?

Finally, the limitation on strains and varieties at 0.2% devalues genetics and increases the use of pesticides. It is also claimed that the influence of climate change makes it more difficult to grow at 0.2% THC in hotter conditions. Since no one is getting high at 0.3% THC, what is the reason to limit European farmers?

With a national referendum just three months away, a new poll has found a growing majority of New Zealand voters are in favour of legalizing cannabis for adults.

In May, the New Zealand government revealed the final draft of a cannabis reform bill that included a framework for a regulated adult-use market.

Kiwis will have the option to vote yes or no on the cannabis legislation in a referendum as part of the Sept. 17 national election. Although the referendum is non-binding, the country’s current coalition government has pledged to enact the bill should the referendum be successful and they remain in power.

If the law passes it would not alter New Zealand’s medical cannabis regulations that came into effect April 1.

The new poll found 56 per cent of respondents plan to vote in favour of legal weed, up from 54 per cent in February. The independent survey of nearly 1,600 Kiwis was conducted in June by Horizon Research and commissioned by licensed medical cannabis company Helius Therapeutics.

For more than 14 years, the tiny, poor Balkan country of North Macedonia has been trying to edge its way into the EU. Now, with just over two million inhabitants, and legislation to run a global medical cannabis market, North Macedonia is fighting corruption to prove that big things can come in very small packages.

In Macedonia, cannabis is illegal for recreational use. There are no personal use or decriminalization laws. It cannot be bought, sold, grown, or used legally by private residents for recreational purposes. Prison sentences for being caught breaking cannabis laws can go up to 10 years.

Medical cannabis in North Macedonia

In 2016, a North Macedonian Health Committee approved an amendment to the laws governing the control of psychotropic substances, allowing for cannabis to be used legally for medicinal purposes. Both ruling and opposition parties were in favor of the change. Part of the reasoning behind the necessity of the law, was to make it so that people who were already using such products illegally to self-medicate, could get better results with medical supervision.

The new laws allowed oils and extracts with .2% THC or lower to be sold without a prescription, and those containing greater than that amount to require a prescription. According to the law, the only doctors capable of writing prescriptions for cannabis products are: radiologists, oncologists, neurologists, and infectious disease specialists.

To give an idea where North Macedonians themselves stood on the issue of legalizing for medicinal use before it happened, a poll from the previous year published by the M-Prosepekt agency, found that 70% of those polled were for the legalization. This number was up 20% from a similar poll done in 2013.

Medical cannabis production in North Macedonia

Along with opening up the laws to allow for residents to have access to medical marijuana, North Macedonia also opened up its laws for the cultivation, production, and exportation of cannabis products.

In response to the COVID-19 emergency, the FDA is announcing a temporary policy regarding enforcement of the requirement for drug samples.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing updated guidance to address questions they’ve received asking for clarification regarding their enforcement of requirements on the distribution of drug samples under the Prescription Drug Marketing Act (PDMA) of 1987 . The PDMA is part of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and the relevant implementing regulations regarding drug samples are in 21 CFR part 203 (part 203), subpart D.

The relevance of this modification affects health care providers, patients affected by COVID-19 and related conditions, and the life science companies themselves, according to information highlighted in The National Law Review. 

The drug sample revisions, issued by the FDA earlier in June, affect how licensed practitioners provide care and consultation to their clients during a public health emergency. In response to the COVID-19 emergency, the FDA is announcing a temporary policy regarding enforcement of the requirement for drug samples. This policy covers samples only to be sent to the requesting healthcare practitioner licensed to prescribe the drug, or to a professional at the pharmacy of a hospital or health care entity.

Under the current FDA guidance during the public health emergency (PHE), the FDA clarified drug samples can not be distributed to licensed retail pharmacies. That set of regulations has effectively not changed.  

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in long periods of isolation, social distancing mandates and disruption to lifestyles across the globe.

According to a new United Nations (U.N.) report, this has caused an increase in the worldwide demand for cannabis, with notable sale surges on the dark web. The U.N. also noted that cannabis remains the main drug that causes people to enter the criminal justice system.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recently released its World Drug Report for 2020 and found that about 269 million people used drugs worldwide in 2018, a 30 per cent increase from 2009.

But because COVID-19 has closed multiple borders and disrupted drug supply chains, the pandemic may lead to drug shortages on the streets. The concern is that this could cause dangerous implications, including impure drugs and price hikes.

“Vulnerable and marginalized groups, youth, women and the poor pay the price for the world drug problem,” noted UNODC executive director Ghada Waly. “The COVID-19 crisis and economic downturn threaten to compound drug dangers further still, when our health and social systems have been brought to the brink and our societies are struggling to cope,” Waly added.

As calls for criminal justice reform sweep the nation, California is taking steps to reverse some effects of the war on drugs, which continues to disproportionately impact people of color.

California’s 58 county district attorneys had a deadline of Wednesday, July 1, to accept or challenge the state’s recommendation to clear the records of some 191,090 past marijuana convictions. The procedure was triggered by Proposition 64, a 2016 measure that legalized cannabis and reduced penalties for related crimes, and by Assembly Bill 1793, which requires justice officials to purge eligible crimes from people’s records.

Because local prosecutors agreed with the vast majority of the state’s recommendations, tens of thousands of Californians are now free of criminal records for cannabis charges. In many cases, the charges for the cases in question are no longer crimes, but the criminal records still could have meant lost job or housing opportunities or, for immigrants, led to their deportation.

“I think there’s been recognition by a lot of people that we needed to change things,” said Christopher Gardner, public defender for San Bernardino County.

Southern California DAs alone moved to dismiss or downgrade more than 100,000 marijuana charges as the July 1 deadline approached. In some cases, they found even more eligible cases than those flagged by the state. Riverside County, for example, recently adjusted 26,424 cannabis convictions — nearly four times more than the number identified by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.

Sleep is easily disrupted by the state of our mental health. That being the case, it makes sense that people are reporting increased issues with their sleep habits, having more vivid dreams, having less restful sleep and experiencing more insomnia during the past couple of months.

People usually struggle with their sleep habits. According to Donn Posner, president of Sleepwell Associates, an adjunct clinical associate professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, about 35 per cent of people struggle with recurring bouts of insomnia. Now that people are coping with potential dangers posed to their health with COVID-19, the economy and social distancing pressures, the world’s current situation is a perfect recipe for sleep disorders.

When it comes to health workers, recent statistics show that the pandemic has affected both their sleep and health dramatically. A survey conducted by Sleep Standards found that, on average, healthcare workers are sleeping five hours a night. Forty-one per cent of those polled are experiencing insomnia, 27 per cent are dealing with nightmares, and only 21 per cent report no sleep issues.

Could cannabis help manage these symptoms of insomnia? Studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that it could.

A recent study from the University of Western Australia found that cannabis could provide an effective treatment for those who suffer from acute insomnia, specifically when the type of weed consumed is made up of a blend of THC and CBD. Patients treated with this kind of cannabis reported sleeping for more hours, falling asleep more quickly and getting back to sleep with more ease after waking up in the middle of the night.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly says he stands by a 2017 interview in which he admitted to smoking cannabis and visiting a strip club.

The Fianna Fail TD told Hot Press magazine he had tried marijuana – and was open to the idea of making it legal.

Minister Donnelly, 44, also hinted at experimenting with other substances during a Q&A interview given after he left the Social Democrats before joining Fianna Fail.

When asked if he’d ever tried any other drugs Minister Donnelly replied: “I have many years ago. I have but that’s all the detail I’m going to go into.”

Pressed for an answer as to whether he had ever taken cocaine, he said: “I’m just not going to go down any of those lines if that’s OK.”

A bill that would fully legalize hemp production throughout Hawaii is only a few steps away from becoming law, although many are unhappy with its final form.

A joint meeting of the state Senate Judiciary and Ways and Means committees approved House Bill 1819, which would end the state’s current Industrial Hemp Pilot Program and replace it with a general purpose hemp production program designed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Hemp was decriminalized nationwide by the USDA in 2018, but the state has not legalized its production beyond the Industrial Hemp Pilot Program, which has awarded licenses to growers throughout the state for the past two years. Of the 59 licenses awarded, 18 have been to growers on the Big Island.

However, Rep. Richard Creagan of Kailua-Kona, who co-introduced the bill and a similar measure in 2019, said the current state of the bill attracted criticism from hemp advocates who fear certain aspects of the measure will stifle production.

In particular, Creagan said, many testifiers took issue with a provision in the bill that sets mandatory buffer zones around any hemp production facility. Under the bill, hemp cannot be grown within 750 feet of property comprising a playground, child care facility or school nor within 250 feet of any existing residence not owned by the grower.

Municipalities in Illinois that have cannabis dispensaries will start seeing more money from recreational marijuana purchases. 

Cities, counties and villages that passed an individual 3% cannabis tax could start collecting it as of July 1. In the Metro East, that means more revenue for St. Clair County, Collinsville and Sauget, areas that passed a tax levy and where the region’s two current dispensaries operate.

Madison County won't collect an additional tax because county board members voted against allowing cannabis sales in unincorporated parts of the county last year.

While the tax increase will likely only be a few extra dollars per purchase, it represents more money for local city and county budgets at a time when some municipalities in the region have laid off workers or considered doing so because of the economic damage caused by the coronavirus.

So far, Collinsville has avoided layoffs by using the taxes it collects from cannabis sales to offset drops in other revenue sources, like sales tax, said City Manager Mitch Bair.

In Australia, the NT Farmers Association (NTFA) is encouraging agricultural producers in the Territory to take a crack at growing industrial hemp now that it is legal to do so with a licence.

The Northern Territory Government planted its first crop of industrial hemp in 2016, but it wasn’t until May 2019 that the Territory’s Hemp Industry Bill was tabled. The bill passed in August last year and the Hemp Industry Act and accompanying regulations came into effect in early May.

Now things are good to go, NT Farmers Association, the peak body for all plant-based industries in the Northern Territory, has been keen to promote the crop as an option for the Northern Territory’s farmers. It recently became a founding member of the Australia Hemp Council and has been working with researchers and industry to develop the NT’s competitive advantage.

One of the advantages the Territory has is the potential for two crops a year –  one potentially producing viable seed via a dry season (May–October) crop, and supplying that to other hemp farmers across Australia for summer planting.

“Hemp is an innovative new broadacre cropping opportunity which produces a versatile, environmentally sustainable and profitable products,” said the Association in a recent Facebook post. “NTFA are keen to work with interested producers to make this new opportunity a reality, so if you are keen to find out more or get in touch, email Andrew on kido@ntfarmers.org.au.”