WeedLife News Network

The new legislative session began on Tuesday. At the top of the list for state lawmakers to discuss is the medical marijuana program.

Across Mississippi, people who support medical marijuana have been vocal over their frustrations with state leaders to approve the program that was passed by an overwhelming 74 percent of voters in 2020. One of the state’s advocates in launching a medical marijuana program is Conner Reeves, a Jackson attorney who has previously served as general counsel for the Mississippi State Medical Association and as the medical policy advisor for the Medical Marijuana 2020 Campaign, which successfully saw a citizen-initiated ballot measure get passed. WLOX’s David Elliot spoke with Conner Reeves on Wednesday about the medical marijuana program and the bill currently set to be discussed in Jackson.

A new city law bars many employers from testing job applicants for cannabis use, but there are several exemptions to the ordinance.

If you’re looking for a job in Philadelphia, you may no longer need to pass a drug test for marijuana. A new city law bars many employers from testing job applicants for cannabis use. It took effect Jan. 1.

But there are several exemptions to the ordinance and questions about enforcement. If you’re a job applicant or hiring manager, here’s what you need to know about the city’s ban on pre-hire marijuana testing.

Medical marijuana is legal in Pennsylvania, but some people who are prescribed cannabis have a hard time landing jobs because of drug screenings. City Councilmember Derek Green introduced the bill after specifically learning of people with autism spectrum disorder who struggled to find work due to their medical marijuana use.

“It just seemed to be contradictory that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is allowing this product to be used for individuals to help improve their quality of life,” said Green, a Democrat.

“But then that’s also restricting their ability to improve their life by getting gainful employment.”

In the last year, a new product popped up in stores across Ellis County.

Found on shelves in local convenience and liquor stores, Delta-8 products were being sold in a variety of forms, from edible to vape-based.

Often found near CBD or nicotine-based products, Delta-8 has been readily available for months across the state.

But while the product was being openly purchased and consumed, recent guidance from the Ellis County Attorney and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt clarified Delta-8 is illegal to sell and possess in Kansas.

After informing area businesses of the new clarification, most shops in the county have removed the product from their shelves, but now Ellis County Attorney Robert Anderson, warned those that continue to sell or possess the product are now in clear violation of the law.

The deadline has passed for municipalities in New York State to opt out of recreational marijuana sales and consumption. Over 600 have said no to dispensaries, and over 700 say they will not allow consumption sites as of now.

Rensselaer Mayor Mike Stammel said his city has not opted out of either opportunity, and he is excited about the economic growth recreational marijuana will bring.

In August the city council approved for a former storage facility to be a marijuana cultivation and manufacturing plant. While the city hasn’t opted out of consumption sites, Stammel believes focusing on growing is more important. Now, he is waiting for the state to get the ball rolling more quickly on opening up the market.

Heather Trela from the Rockefeller Institute of Government has been working on a database that keeps track of which municipalities across the state are opting out. For those choosing “no,” Trela believes more information from the state might change their minds to opt in at a later date.

A fugitive was taken into custody Sunday after officials learned he was wanted across multiple states while he was taken into medical care.

According to an arrest warrant, officers responded to West Trinity Lane after Kenneth Johnson, 29, reported he was feeling ill due to smoking marijuana. Officials said he was taken to TriStar Skyline Medical Center where he was treated.

During this time, police said a records check of Johnson’s name and social security number showed he had two outstanding failure to appear warrants, and that he was wanted by U.S. Marshals in Arlington, Virginia.

After being discharged from the hospital, police said they searched Johnson and found 7.3 grams of marijuana in his pocket.

He is now faced with four separate charges.

A race starting in Houstonians' livings rooms could set the stage for one of the state's most expensive gubernatorial races ever.

According to the College of Psychiatrists in Ireland, some 45,000 people between the ages of 15 and 34 meet the criteria for marijuana dependence.

In 2021, fewer people in Ireland were charged or issued a summons for possessing drugs following the introduction of a new scheme that allows for cannabis possession to be treated with a warning, reported The Irish Times.

According to Garda Press Office’s figures, as of December 14, 2021, up to 5,957 people were either charged or issued a summons in connection to drug possession for personal use compared to 11,127 in 2020 and 9,923 in 2019. This means that the number of people charged was nearly halved.

The expansion of the Adult Cautioning Scheme covering section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act (regarding possession of illegal drugs) only covered simple marijuana possession. The cautioning scheme is run by An Garda Síochána (the Irish police dept.) along with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was extended across possession of cannabis for personal use, trespassing, trading without permission and laws relating to specific events, according to the Times.

These changes in the number of people charged for possessing marijuana come “against an international trend towards legalization, but also warnings from the psychiatric profession as to the harmful effects of the drug.”

Irelands’ Psychiatrists Warn About Potency 

In 2021, the College of Psychiatrists in Ireland warned that increasingly high potency of marijuana and widespread belief the plant is harmless was generating “devastating effects.”

You may have noticed both U.S. political parties are currently haunted. The apparitions? Ghosts of elections past.

As it stands today, Republicans are doing the better job of exorcising their electoral demons, with Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia as perhaps the most stunning example. The challenge now is President Biden’s, to deliver a common sense, easy-to-understand victory for the American people in time for 2022. He has a clear opportunity in cannabis legislation. 

If we could, like Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, make phantom visits to the dinner tables of present-day voters, we would see how average Americans are struggling with the contradictions of today’s cannabis policies. 

We’d hear the outrage. How can this nation continue to tolerate the impacts of unfairly targeted cannabis enforcement, which falls heavily on people of color and undermines their employment, education, and housing opportunities—often forever?

But mostly, we’d hear the anger at Washington. Why can’t leaders deliver a rational, consistent, nationwide cannabis policy? Why the constant gridlock? Why the harmful holdup? Both parties would be rewarded for achieving cannabis reform.

Ramone Marcio Martinez, 39, of Salt Lake City, carved the number 6 into the woman's left hand to remind her she had 6 months to 'love him or be killed'

A self-proclaimed Utah “millionaire” is accused of kidnapping a woman and holding her captive in his home for weeks. He reportedly beat her repeatedly and carved the number six into her hand — a reminder that the victim had a six-month deadline to “love him or be killed.”

On December 29, Ramone Marcio Martinez, 39, of Salt Lake City, was arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping, assault, and five counts of aggravated assault in the case, which is being classified as domestic violence, according to local reports. The unidentified victim managed to escape with a single text message to her friend saying she was being held captive. An investigation was launched after the friend alerted the police.“The victim had texted him begging for help and that she was scared for her life,” according to a police booking affidavit, obtained by ABC 4.

Who is Ramone Marcio Martinez?

A LinkedIn profile shows that Martinez is the CEO of Truu Med, a medical cannabis doctor referral service. The company connects patients with doctors that will write a letter on behalf of the patient. Last year, he appeared on a local news outlet to discuss his business.

In 2019, he gave an interview to CBS affiliate KUTV regarding the regulation of the medical cannabis industry in Utah. "We welcome the regulations to come; we don't mind the oversight whatsoever," he said at the time. Martinez is being held in the Salt Lake County jail. 

Martinez tortured victim for weeks

When the police responded by going to Martinez's home in the Poplar Grove neighborhood, he reportedly "had his hand in his hoodie pocket and I could see the outline of a handgun which he was holding onto."

Court documents indicate Marienville-based State Police filed criminal charges against 55-year-old Terry Hubert Webb. According to a criminal complaint, around 5:20 p.m. on December 4, Marienville-based State Police initiated a traffic stop after observing a vehicle making a traffic violation.

One of the passengers in the vehicle, identified as Terry Hubert Webb, was subsequently found to be in possession of a white powder substance in a plastic baggie. When asked about the substance, Webb reportedly stated it was cocaine, the complaint states.

According to the complaint, Webb was also found to be in possession of a small amount of marijuana, three plastic containers with marijuana residue, a white and blue metal container, a black metal smoking device with marijuana residue, and a red plastic straw with white residue.

The following charges were filed against Webb through Judge Daniel L. Miller’s office on December 29, 2021:

– Possession of Controlled Substance, Misdemeanor
– Marijuana-Small Amount Personal Use, Misdemeanor
– Use/Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Misdemeanor
– Disorderly Conduct Hazardous/Physical Offense, Summary

These Iowa senators would like to see recreational cannabis pass in 2022, but will the rest of the state government let it happen?

A trio of Democratic lawmakers in Iowa want to bring cannabis legalization to the ballot. 

The idea comes via three state senators, Joe Bolkcom, Janet Petersen and Sarah Trone Garriott, who said at a press conference on Tuesday that they intend to push a constitutional amendment that would legalize recreational pot use for adults aged 21 and older. 

“Marijuana prohibition has been a costly failure,” said Bolkcom, who represents Iowa City (home to the University of Iowa), as quoted by local television station KWQC. “It’s ending across America because it has caused far more harm than good.”

The station reported that the proposal “requires a simple majority in both the state house and senate in two consecutive General Assemblies to be included on a ballot,” and that once it is in on the ballot, “more than half of Iowans need to vote for the amendment for it to become a part of the state’s constitution.” KWQC added that the three lawmakers “already submitted language to the Legislative Services Agency to propose this amendment in the next legislative session.”

“Right now, you can go to Hy-Vee or Kum & Go, and buy a six-pack of beer,” Bolkcom said, according to the television station.

States making up 44% of U.S. population have followed Colorado in legalizing adult use

Most states in the U.S. are in violation of a major federal drug statute.

The 1971 Controlled Substances Act lists marijuana in the most dangerous category defined in the law, on par with cocaine and heroin because of its supposed potential for abuse and lack of medical applications.

But 36 states plus the District of Columbia allow either full legalization for adult use or wide scale medical use, putting them at odds with federal law. Congress so far has been unable to come up with a solution, despite support from leading Democrats for a smoother relationship between the states and the federal government.

State acceptance happened quickly, with Colorado and Washington the first to legalize adult use less than 10 years ago.  By the first of the year, marijuana possession will be legal for all adults in 18 states — including Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Virginia — that make up 44% of the national population.

That number has recently been growing: The governors of New Mexico and Virginia signed their legalization laws just this year. Montana’s, enacted through a ballot measure in 2020, will go into effect New Year’s Day.

A company denied licenses to grow medical marijuana in Missouri urged the state Supreme Court last week to compel regulators to provide application info that the health department has argued it’s constitutionally obligated to protect.

At issue is the Department of Health and Senior Services’ refusal to turn over applications of successful license holders, despite being ordered by lower courts to disclose them.

In its filing with the Missouri Supreme Court, DHSS argued that the administrative hearing commission acted outside of its authority and requested the lower court’s decision be reversed in order to uphold the confidentiality outlined in the state’s constitution.

James Layton, an attorney arguing on behalf of DHSS, said during the December 14 hearing that it is the right of applicants who submitted information for it to be kept confidential and urged the Missouri Supreme Court to “vindicate” the rights of those who invested their money, personal interest and confidential information.

“If that right is to be breached,” Layton said, “they are entitled to some process before that happens.”

As this Congressional session comes to an end, many people have been disappointed by the lack of action on important legislation. One of those is cannabis. Going forward, pro-cannabis legislators ultimately have choices to make. If comprehensive cannabis legislation is dead in this Congress—and it is—is any alternative palatable? Is the status quo of prohibition preferable to holding out hope for broad-based legislation at a later date?

The reality that is holding Congress back from passing federal cannabis legalization is a simple one that often undermines complex, multi-faceted policy changes that have deep divisions within the legislative branch: there is not a sufficient coalition of House members and a filibuster-proof majority of senators who agree on comprehensive legalization. That result is often frustrating or bewildering for supporters of reform for two reasons. First, they look at national polling and see not just a majority, but a supermajority of Americans who support full-scale cannabis reform. Second, there are majorities of House and Senate members who would say yes to the basic question: ‘Should cannabis be legalized nationally?’

The latter, however, is the wrong question to ask. Often, in a legislative body, the issue is not whether a law should be reformed, but how that law should be reformed. And there’s the rub for federal legalization legislation. Liberals and progressives in the Democratic Party cannot agree with moderate and libertarian Republicans on what cannabis reform should look like, even if majorities agree that the law should be changed. And as pro-cannabis reform members from both sides dig their heels in on the importance of provisions that are close to their heart (and the heart of their base), it makes assembling that coalition impossible.

Here are the fault lines

Liberal Democrats and especially the party’s most progressive members are unwilling to support legislation that does not incorporate significant social equity and racial justice provisions into it. Their argument is a straightforward and convincing one: the War on Drugs was waged on the backs of Black Americans, Latinos, and indigenous populations, and reform should not proceed without a significant effort to right the wrongs of the past.

Moderate Republicans and libertarian members of the party see the issue from a market perspective. They believe government should get out of the way and let cannabis be treated as an agricultural commodity in which the business community and the free market—rather than government prohibition—should prevail. (It should be noted that most pro-cannabis Democrats and Republicans do agree on some restorative justice such as pardons and record expungement for non-violent cannabis offenders.)

Last month marked five years since Massachusetts voted to legalize recreational marijuana, but state lawmakers find themselves weeding through proposed restrictions on a product that researchers say can harm the health of youths.

On a 2016 ballot question, Massachusetts residents approved legalization, joining California, Maine and Nevada voters in doing so that year. Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon previously had legalized recreational marijuana.

Under the Massachusetts law, adults older than 21 are permitted to use, grow and sell marijuana in limited quantities without legal consequences. The state began allowing licensed recreational sales in 2018, bringing 14 recreational dispensaries, out of a total of 165 in the state as of Sept. 1, to Berkshire County.

But, some state lawmakers are proposing restrictions. State Rep. James O’Day, D-Worcester, has proposed raising the minimum age for recreational use to 25, citing a desire to keep young people safe. Separately, state Rep. Bradford Hill, R-Ipswich, filed a bill to limit serving sizes, flavors and levels of THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

Gov. Charlie Baker had expressed concerns when he signed the legalization bill into law in 2017.

A Louisiana woman is facing felony drug charges following a traffic stop in Madison County.

Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers stopped Natalie Borchers, 44, of New Orleans, for a speeding violation on I-70 on Friday, Dec. 17.

During the traffic stop, troopers said criminal indicators were observed and a drug-sniffing K9 alerted to the vehicle.

During a search of the vehicle, troopers found 50 pounds of psilocybin mushrooms, 20 pounds of marijuana, and 3 pounds of psilocybin-laced tablets worth approximately $153,000.

A Louisiana woman is facing felony charges after 50 pounds of psilocybin mushrooms, 20 pounds of marijuana, and 3 pounds of psilocybin-laced tablets worth approximately $153,000 were found during a traffic stop in Madison County. (Ohio State Highway Patrol)

Colorado Department of Corrections officials say there is a scourge of narcotics flowing into the state’s facilities, including ultra-potent, hard-to-detect synthetic drugs that can be absorbed into paper and mailed to inmates.

The Limon case, which came before the arrests of five prison staff accused of smuggling drugs into the facility, was one of at least three fatal drug overdoses inside a Colorado prison in the past 13 months. The deaths underscore what the CDOC says is a scourge of narcotics flowing into the state’s facilities, including ultra-potent, hard-to-detect synthetic drugs that can be absorbed into paper and mailed to inmates.

Congressional Democrats are gearing up for a sweeping set of initiatives aimed at decriminalizing marijuana that they plan to take action on this spring.

The federal proposals seek to establish 21st-century banking services for the nearly $18 billion industry and purge the criminal records of thousands of marijuana offenders.

“The growing bipartisan momentum for cannabis reform shows that Congress is primed for progress in 2022, and we are closer than ever to bringing our cannabis policies and laws in line with the American people,” Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) wrote in a memo to the Congressional Cannabis Caucus on Thursday. 

The memo is a road map to dozens of bills that seek to reimagine the role of the federal government in every aspect of the cannabis industry, with some measures receiving GOP support.

Bills like the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, sponsored by Lee and Blumenauer, seek to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substance Act and purge records for those convicted of using marijuana.