Free Republic

One of the groups formed to fight the legalization of marijuana for recreational use has now decided it’s for the measure — but only if the Michigan legislature takes it up and amends the proposal. The Committee to Keep Pot out of Neighborhoods and Schools — a political action committee formed to fight a ballot proposal to legalize marijuana — is now urging the Legislature to take up the initiative, amend it and pass a full legalization of pot for adult recreational use. The committee hopes that if the Legislature acts, recreational use will be regulated as stringently as the...

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that the scent of legal weed is in the air — and he wants New Yorkers to feel free to blaze away in public without fear of getting tossed in jail. In an unexpected announcement, City Hall said Hizzoner was eager to see the NYPD stop busting pot smokers and instead hand out summonses for sidewalk toking. “With marijuana legalization likely to occur in our state in the near future, it is critical our city plans for the public safety, health and financial consequences involved,” de Blasio said in a statement.

Defiance . . . nullification. It is a trend. I take it as a sign of our contentious times that we now witness states in open rebellion against centralized control from the Imperial City of Washington, D.C., while cities and counties are also rattling the chains set by their respective state capitals. The sweep of marijuana decriminalization and legalization is only the most obvious. Gay marriage became a legal mandate set by the Supreme Court only after several state legislatures, initiative measures, and courts took the lead on the issue. The Supreme Court has not weighed in on marijuana in...

CARPINTERIA - This picturesque coastal town cradled by mountains and sandy shores is a scene out of a Southern California postcard. Residents of Carpinteria say they feel lucky to live in what they consider a slice of paradise. But change is in the air. And sometimes, they say, it stinks. That’s because marijuana has become a new crop of choice in the farmlands surrounding this tight-knit community of 14,000, which has long helped fuel the U.S. cut flower industry. Residents say a thick, skunk-like odor from the marijuana plants settles over the valley in the evenings and before dawn. To...

If Illinois legalizes recreational marijuana by ballot measure this November, police may have to "put down" many of the 275 K-9 dogs trained to recognize narcotic substances across the state. Police organizations oppose legalizing marijuana for recreational use, and some marijuana advocates have condemned them for dangling canine death as a political tool. Police agencies invest thousands of dollars and months of training to teach dogs to sniff out and alert officers to the presence of various illegal narcotics, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs. These dogs, affectionately known as K-9 units, are very specialized, and police insist that...

Marijuana reform activists have created a new super PAC aimed exclusively at defeating Texas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions, the House Rules Committee chairman who has blocked cannabis reform legislation from reaching the House floor. Marijuana Policy Project founder and former Executive Director Rob Kampia is leading the effort, which he said is crucial to legalizing medical marijuana federally and affirming federalism for recreational pot, two policies supported in principle by President Trump. “Everyone knows who he is and that he’s our biggest problem on Capitol Hill. Half of my job has already been done by Pete Sessions himself," Kampia told...

(CNN)To get away from the memories of war in Afghanistan -- the violence, the unexpected danger, the rush of adrenaline and the hypervigilance that can come with post-traumatic stress disorder -- Aaron Newsom started gardening. Since World War II, generations of veterans have found healing in horticulture. Digging in the dirt did that for Newsom, but the Marine, who served in an attack helicopter squadron, wanted more. He wanted to share this healing feeling with service members who may never even touch a spade, and he had an idea. In addition to the public gardening he was doing in Santa...

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...

It turns out Oregonians are good at growing cannabis—too good. In February, state officials announced that 1.1 million pounds of cannabis flower were logged in the state's database. If a million pounds sounds like a lot of pot, that's because it is: Last year, Oregonians smoked, vaped or otherwise consumed just under 340,000 pounds of legal bud. This month, WW spoke to two dozen people across Oregon's cannabis industry. They describe a bleak scene: Small businesses laying off employees and shrinking operations. Farms shuttering. People losing their life's savings are unable to declare bankruptcy because marijuana is still a federally...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Wednesday he doubts the accuracy of scientific research that increasingly links state-legal medical marijuana to reductions in opioid use and overdose deaths. "I think one study that suggested there’s some sort of inverse relationship between increased marijuana use and reducing of deaths, I did see that," Sessions said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. "I’ve asked my staff to take a look at it because science is very important, and I don't believe that will be sustained in the long run," he added, citing opposition to pot legalization by medical groups.

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...

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...

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.

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) Hey, let’s do that with Obamacare, too! – Chuckie Schumer announced on Friday that he’s introducing a bill that would essentially rescind federal marijuana laws because, he claims, he is such a huge believer in the concept of federalism that he thinks we should just let the states decide on whether pot should be legal or not. This marks the first issue in his long political career on which the old collectivist expressed a fealty to federalism. Talking Points Parrot for Senate! – Just minutes after Schumer had held his press conference,...

Trey Willison, a cannabis farmer in Eugene, first started worrying last May about there being too much marijuana in Oregon. He had sold all his “clone” plants to other growers, who were using them to cultivate yet more marijuana. “You start doing the math on that and it just didn’t make sense how people could be growing that many plants,” Willison said. Fast-forward nearly a year and Oregon does indeed have a glut of marijuana; there are over 1m lb of usable but unsold marijuana, according to the state tracking system. That’s more than 128m “eighths” of weed, and almost...

In a change from his previous stance on the matter, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has announced he will introduce a bill to Congress for federal decriminalization of marijuana. Earlier today, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced he is co-sponsoring Senator Cory Booker's (D-NJ) proposed "Marijuana Justice Act," which would decriminalize marijuana, impose penalties on states maintaining criminalization and open the door to forgiveness or civil suits concerning past convictions. John Boehner announced that he was joining the board of marijuana company Acreage Holdings, saying "I'm convinced de-scheduling the drug is needed so we can do research." Last year, Representative...

Politics isn't always red or blue. Lately, it has been green. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., plans to introduce legislation on Friday to decriminalize marijuana on the federal level, adding a high-profile advocate in the effort to decriminalize, legalize and normalize marijuana use in America. Schumer's legislation would remove marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under a 1970 law that classifies marijuana as dangerous as heroin for legal and regulatory purposes. It would establish funding for women- and minority-owned marijuana businesses, require more research on the drug's public health impact, and maintain federal authority to regulate commercial advertising,...

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...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A medicine made from the marijuana plant moved one step closer to U.S. approval Thursday after federal health advisers endorsed it for the treatment of severe seizures in children with epilepsy. If the Food and Drug Administration follows the group's recommendation, GW Pharmaceuticals' syrup would become the first drug derived from the cannabis plant to win federal approval in the U.S. The 13-member FDA panel voted unanimously in favor of the experimental medication made from a chemical found in cannabis - one that does not get users high. The panelists backed the drug based on three studies...