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(CNN)Marijuana is notorious for slowing certain cognitive functions such as learning, memory and attention span (maybe that's why they call it "dope"?). But new research in young people suggests that these cognitive effects, while significant, may not persist for very long, even among chronic users. The meta-analysis, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, combines data from 69 previous studies that look at the effects of heavy cannabis use on cognitive functioning in adolescents and young adults. It found that those young people who identified as heavy marijuana users scored significantly lower than non-users in a variety of cognitive domains...

President Trump called Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner this week to tell him there will be no crackdown on states that legalized marijuana for recreational use. Trump also said he will support legislation to allow state autonomy under federal law, which currently makes pot possession for any reason outside limited research a crime. Gardner, a Republican, won the assurances by blocking Justice Department nominations after Attorney General Jeff Sessions withdrew the so-called Cole Memo in January.

Dude, check it out. Jason Harris and a group of other renowned glassblowing artists will be meeting in Seattle over the “4/20” weekend to create the world’s largest bong. The final piece, which will be created in parts and then assembled at the Cannabition museum in the downtown Las Vegas Arts District, will tower 24-feet high and weigh 800 pounds when completed. The bong will feature hookah-like attachments and actually be smoke-able, according to Chris Davison, co-owner of Jerome Baker Designs. “I think everybody on the top floor (of the cannabis museum) could end up high,” Davis said, jokingly. “It’s...

Former House Speaker John Boehner announced Wednesday that he is joining Acreage Holdings, which cultivates, processes, and dispenses legal marijuana in the U.S. Why it matters: In 2011, Boehner came out against marijuana legalization, and today's announcement indicates a normalizing of the marijuana industry, despite attacks led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The pot industry panicked when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ended the government’s hands-off policy on weed. Today, it can breathe a bit easier as former Republican House Speaker John Boehner joins the advisory board of U.S. cannabis producer Acreage Holdings. ~SNIP~ The announcement that Boehner and former Massachusetts Governor William Weld will advise Acreage, a private company, “should send shockwaves throughout the industry and act as a positive catalyst for the sector as a whole,” Ajamian said. Boehner’s move marks a fundamental shift for a man who said nine years ago he was “unalterably opposed” to legalization, and indicates...

A third person who experienced severe bleeding after using synthetic marijuana has died in Illinois, health officials confirmed. There are now 107 people in central Illinois and the Chicago area who experienced severe bleeding after using the synthetic pot, often called spice, K2 or fake weed, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. “Each day we’ve seen the number of cases rise,” said director of the IDPH Nirav D. Shah, M.D., J.D. "Synthetic cannabinoids are unsafe. They are not regulated and people don’t know what chemicals may be in them, like rat poison. While efforts are underway to get...

"To combat this misconception in the existing literature, the researchers gave a fresh look at some existing neurological imaging data from the MRIs of both adolescents and adults to see how, using the same variables and controls, the influence of cannabinoids on the brain compared to or contrasted with alcohol. "With alcohol, we’ve known it’s bad for the brain for decades," said Hutchison. "But for cannabis, we know so little." To see any potential difference, the researchers used the data to examine the most important neurological components: gray matter and white matter. Gray and white matter are the two main...

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The U.S. Senate's top leader said Monday he wants to bring agricultural hemp production back into the national mainstream by removing it from the list of controlled substances. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told a group of hemp advocates in his home state of Kentucky that he will introduce legislation to legalize the crop as an agricultural commodity. The versatile crop has been grown on an experimental basis in a number of states in recent years. "I believe hemp has a bright future in our state," McConnell said. "It's now time to take the final step and...

WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors won't take on small-time marijuana cases, despite the Justice Department's decision to lift an Obama-era policy that discouraged U.S. authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Saturday. Federal law enforcement lacks the resources to take on "routine cases" and will continue to focus on drug gangs and larger conspiracies, Sessions said, speaking at a Federalist Society event in Washington, D.C. The comments come after the Trump administration in January threw the burgeoning marijuana legalization movement into uncertainty by reversing the largely hands-off approach...

In media interviews and on his social media pages, Wolf said he was a "former FBI agent" and "Iraq Veteran" who had also worked overseas as a "presidential envoy" with the U.S. State Department. He also claimed to be a "Professor of Human Rights" at Roosevelt University. I'm a cannabis supporter, and it was great seeing a former law enforcement guy embrace it so openly. I especially liked that Wolf spoke of the need not just to legalize it but to destigmatize it. I felt like he was someone that could represent my interests in the nation's capital as soon...

Nearly all cannabis on Britain’s streets is now super-strength skunk that could be fueling the rise in mental health problems, scientists have warned. Researchers at King’s College London tested almost 1,000 police seizures from Kent, Derbyshire, Merseyside, Sussex and the capital in 2016, and found 94 percent were of a dangerously high potency. In 2005, just 51 percent of cannabis sold on the street was sinsemilla, also known as skunk. Dr. Marta Di Forti, Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist at King’s College warned that the powerful drug placed Britain’s 2.1 million cannabis users at risk of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression,...

Molson Coors Brewing Co. (TAP) voiced concerns about the potential impact that cannabis legalization could have on its beer sales, in its latest 13F filing. Although it has been a slow process, the legalization of cannabis across various parts of the United States has ushered in new business opportunities and provided legitimate alternatives to once-clandestine industries. (See also: The Economic Benefits of Legalizing Weed.)Supporters of the marijuana legalization movement contend that this has a beneficial impact on everything from individual growers and distributors to secondary markets and governments, which could benefit from taxes on sales. However, there are also detractors...

Urbn Leaf posted a photograph of the girl on Friday outside the shop that sells medical and recreational marijuana and invited customers on its Instagram account to come get some Girl Scout cookies.The San Diego Girl Scout council is looking into whether a scout who was photographed selling cookies outside a marijuana dispensary broke any rules. Officials were trying to identify the girl and talk to her family because she was in a commercial area, which is not allowed, council spokeswoman Mary Doyle said in an email Monday. Urbn Leaf posted a photograph of the girl on Friday outside the...

Eight more dispensaries have received their final licenses to operate in Maryland since the start of the year. With those additions, 30 dispensaries, 12 processors and 14 growers are operating in the state's medical cannabis industry. The industry is still in its infancy and growing. The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission pre-approved 15 cannabis growing businesses, 15 processors, 102 dispensaries and a handful of testing laboratories in 2016. Over a year later, several of these companies are still working toward their final licenses.The commission oversees the regulation of the industry and is in charge of granting business and patient licenses, evaluating and inspecting cannabis businesses and...

Gov. Phil Scott has signed Vermont's marijuana legalization bill into law. A Scott administration official tells WCAX the governor signed the bill shortly before 2 p.m. Monday. Scott is now the first governor in the country to sign marijuana legalization into law. Eight other states legalized marijuana through public referendums. In a letter to lawmakers, Scott said he signed the bill, H.511, with "mixed emotions." The bill allows Vermonters over the age of 21 to have an ounce of weed and to grow a few plants. Once signed, the new law goes into effect July 1.

Cannabis users are more likely to experience negative emotions, particularly feeling alienated from others, new research reveals. People who use marijuana are significantly more likely to feel that others wish them harm or are deceiving them, a US study found. Brain scans also reveal the class-B drug increases signal connectivity in regions of the brain that have previously been linked to psychosis, the research adds, which is associated with severe depression.

On January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment became law when five state legislatures (North Carolina, Utah, Nebraska, Missouri, and Wyoming) passed it. In the end, 46 of 48 states passed it, with only Connecticut and Rhode Island voting it down. The text of the amendment set into motion what became known as Prohibition: Here we are, almost 100 years later and marijuana legalization is proceeding apace, despite the efforts of the current attorney general. What lessons might we draw from Prohibition, which was repealed in 1933 with the passage of the 21st Amendment? They are many, for sure, but here...

The federal government says grass and guns don’t mix, and that is putting gun owners who use marijuana — and the strongly pro-gun-rights administration of President Donald Trump — in a potentially uncomfortable position. As gun-loving Pennsylvania becomes the latest state to operate a medical marijuana program, with the first dispensary on track to begin sales next month, authorities are warning patients that federal law bars marijuana users from having guns or ammunition. “They’re going to have to make a choice,” said John T. Adams, president of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association. “They can have their guns or their marijuana,...

Users of cannabis, cocaine and heroin are victims of discrimination and should no longer be called druggies or junkies, an international drug legalisation pressure group declared yesterday. It called for an end to negative language for drug users and their habits in order to ensure their human rights are respected. As part of the drive to persuade people to think differently about drugs, the words addict and even drug user must be thrown out, a report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy said. It urged newspapers and broadcasters to encourage more positive attitudes by calling a drug user a...

FULL TITLE: Elderly couple stopped last month with 60 pounds of pot arrested again on suspicion of possessing drug money A California couple arrested last month with 60 pounds of marijuana that they described as Christmas gifts were arrested again Tuesday on suspicion of possessing drug money. Patrick and Barbara Jiron of Clearlake Oaks, California, were arrested on Interstate 80 in western Lancaster County. Sheriff’s deputies stopped the couple’s westbound pickup truck, saying it was following another vehicle too closely, Sgt. Jason Mayo said. “A deputy made the stop, and their daughter was driving,” Mayo said. “A K-9 (service dog)...