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Some day soon, even as sweet, skunky smoke drifts in from the streets outside, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other staunch opponents of marijuana may draw inspiration from a true believer named Morris Sheppard. After the repeal of national Prohibition in 1933 and until his death in 1941, the Texas senator embraced a yearly custom. A progressive Democrat often considered “the father of Prohibition,” Sheppard would rise on the Senate floor to rail against alcohol and call for a repeal of Repeal. “It was a ritual,” Daniel Okrent, author of the 2010 book “Last Call: The Rise and Fall...

The drug, which is legal for medical use in the majority of US states, is mainly prescribed to ease pain. But this new research conducted in Colorado - which was the first state to legalize - suggests that short-term pain relief could weaken the body's resilience to pain over time. The researchers, from the Swedish Medical Center, Colorado, analyzed around 260 people who were involved in minor vehicle accidents and admitted to trauma centers. Of these, 54 tested positive for recent marijuana use while 16 claimed they used the drug more or less every day.

Canada has passed a landmark law that legalises the recreational use of marijuana nationwide. The Cannabis Act passed its final hurdle on Tuesday in a 52-29 vote in the Senate. The bill controls and regulates how the drug can be grown, distributed, and sold. Canadians will be able to buy and consume the drug legally as early as this September. The country is the first in the G7 to legalise the drug's recreational use.

Delegates at the Republican Party of Texas convention on Saturday voted to approve platform planks endorsing marijuana decriminalization, medical cannabis and industrial hemp. They are also calling for a change in cannabis's classification by the federal government. "We support a change in the law to make it a civil, and not a criminal, offense for legal adults only to possess one ounce or less of marijuana for personal use, punishable by a fine of up to $100, but without jail time," reads one of the party's new positions. "Congress should remove cannabis from the list of Schedule 1," says another....

Diners accused of smoking weed, walking out on $420 restaurant bill Police are looking for a group of more than a dozen diners who allegedly tried to smoke marijuana inside a restaurant before causing a scene and walking out on the $420 bill. The incident happened Sunday night at Frida’s Mexican Restaurante in Memphis, Tennessee, WREG reported. The group of 16 came in at 10:30 pm, a half an hour before closing. “They came in at the last minute,” Frida’s manager Jesse Gonzalez told WREG. “We didn’t think anything of it.” According to Gonzalez, the group ordered some of the...

From January to May, undercover officers made over 100 arrests, including 47 for felony sale of marijuana. “If you sell one gram of marijuana, it’s a felony drug sale,” said Hennepin County chief public defender Mary Moriarty. She says 46 of the 47 people charged in the crackdown were black. Many of them were also poor and homeless, dealing a gram or two just to get by. “Do they deserve to get felony drug charges simply because they are less fortunate than say kids on college campuses,” Moriarty said. Facing criticism over the arrest numbers, Minneapolis’ Police Chief Medaria Arradondo...

President Trump said he likely will support a congressional effort to end the federal ban on marijuana, a major step that would reshape the pot industry and end the threat of a Justice Department crackdown. Trump’s remarks put him sharply at odds with Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions on the issue. The bill in question, pushed by a bipartisan coalition, would allow states to go forward with legalization unencumbered by threats of federal prosecution. Trump made his comments to a gaggle of reporters Friday morning just before he boarded a helicopter on his way to the G-7 summit in Canada. His...

The Senate vote on Bill C-45, commonly known as the Cannabis Act, was expected Thursday evening, ahead of a G7 summit of the leaders of the world's seven largest economies that was scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Charlevoix, Quebec. The legislation would legalize access to cannabis while controlling and regulating how it is grown, distributed and sold. Canadian regulators suggest that, if passed and signed into law, sales are likely to commence 10 to 12 weeks post-legalization. Under the legislation, adults would be permitted to purchase up to 30 grams from distributors that have been licensed by the federal...

Some 22.3 percent of fatally injured motorists who were tested for drugs tested positive for marijuana in 2016, a figure that researchers say has "increased substantially" in recent years as states have legalized the drug for recreational or medicinal use, according to a new report. The finding, in a study released Thursday by the Governors Highway Safety Association, was one of several regarding the growing prevalence of drugs in vehicle fatalities. The report also found that 44 percent of drivers killed in automobile accidents in 2016 who were tested for drugs tested positive for one or more substances – a...

The plane landed safely at San Jose Mineta International Airport, about 50 miles south of San Francisco. The airline says the passenger accused of smoking was turned over to law enforcement. The remaining 32 passengers were placed on other aircraft to continue their trips. Passengers reported smelling smoke, and one said he smelled marijuana. “It looked like that someone needed to smoke a joint on a plane, and he went into the bathroom, smoked his blunt, and set off the fire alarm,” passenger Jonathan Burkes said.

The legalization of cannabis in California has done almost nothing to halt illegal marijuana growing by Mexican drug cartels, which are laying bare large swaths of national forest in California, poisoning wildlife, and siphoning precious water out of creeks and rivers, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said Tuesday.

A 21-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of marijuana Tuesday night after a multicar crash killed three in Fremont. The collision, which involved five vehicles, occurred around 9:30 p.m. on the northbound I-880 near Stevenson Boulevard, according to the California Highway Patrol. Three people were killed when they were ejected from an Escalade — a woman, a teen and a child. Five other people, four of whom are juveniles, were injured in the crash. … Similar to other states that have legalized pot, California now relies on drug recognition experts — police officers trained during...

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. voters back legalizing marijuana, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. Support for legalization hit 63 percent in the survey — the highest level of support recorded by a Quinnipiac poll. A third of American voters still oppose legalization, the poll found. Support for medical marijuana is even higher, at 93 percent. Only about 5 percent of respondents opposed it. The poll also found little support for Attorney General Jeff Sessions's decision earlier this year to rescind an Obama-era policy that paved the way for individual states to legalize marijuana without federal interference. Seventy percent...

Dear Honorable Jeff Sessions, I feel obligated to share the results of my five-year-long investigation into the medical benefits of the cannabis plant. Before I started this worldwide, in-depth investigation, I was not particularly impressed by the results of medical marijuana research, but a few years later, as I started to dedicate time with patients and scientists in various countries, I came to a different conclusion. Not only can cannabis work for a variety of conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and pain, sometimes, it is the only thing that works. I changed my mind, and I am certain you...

The governor of Colorado does our nation a grave disservice by misleading the public about the impact of marijuana on his state in the April 9 interview in Rolling Stone magazine. Neither the governor's statements, nor the smoke rising from 4/20 events, can hide the fact that drug use and addiction, especially among youths, are a growing public health concern in communities across Colorado and the nation. ... According to the 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, Colorado is a national leader among 12-17-year-olds in: (1) Last year marijuana use; (2) Last month marijuana use; and (3) The...

Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2004 1:09 p.m. EDT Billionaires Secretly Met in Aspen to Defeat Bush In the days following the Democratic National Convention in Boston this past August, several billionaire Democratic activists secretly met at the famed Aspen Institute in Colorado. The purpose of their clandestine meeting was "to use their fortunes to engineer the defeat of President George W. Bush," The New Yorker magazine reports in its most recent edition. Details of the meeting remain sketchy, but the magazine described the Aspen conference this way: "Five billionaires joined half a dozen liberal leaders in a lengthy conversation about the...

Cannabis is responsible for 91 per cent of cases where teenagers end up being treated for drug addiction, shocking new figures reveal...The findings also back up academic research, revealed in The Mail on Sunday over the past three years, that skunk is having a serious detrimental impact on the mental health of the young. At least two studies have shown repeated use triples the risk of psychosis, with sufferers repeatedly experiencing delusional thoughts. Some victims end up taking their own lives.

About half of marijuana users in states where it's legal say they've gone to work while under the influence of the drug ... Instamotor polled 600 self-identified marijuana users in states where recreational marijuana is legal ... Almost half -- 48 percent -- of respondents said they have gone to work high, with 39 percent stating that they go to work under the influence at least once per week. ... 50 percent said they would likely be fired if their boss knew they were high at work.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced legislation Friday that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level and establish “dedicated funding streams” for women and minority businesses to grow and distribute the drug. “The time has come to decriminalize marijuana,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. “My thinking, as well as the general population’s views on the issue has evolved, and so I believe there’s no better time than the present to get this done. It’s simply the right thing to do.” Schumer’s legislation would maintain laws that prevent trafficking of marijuana across state lines in cases where the drug is...

Cannabis activists paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue with flags, banners, a 51-foot inflatable joint, and a plan to get high at 4:20 p.m. two years ago in a last-ditch bid to convince President Barack Obama to administratively legalize marijuana. Attendees blew smoke through a shofar, took selfies, and reveled in a communal cloud as police watched, but the rally didn't sway Obama, who left office with pot still a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning illegal for any purpose outside limited research. "I think he will go down among potheads as fitting the stereotype as someone who was...