Cannabis sales are coming to Maine—nearly three years after state voters passed a legalization law back in 2016. After three years of delays, Mainers will finally get their cannabis shops in early spring 2020. Legislators in Augusta on Thursday finally approved a legal framework that will allow the state’s long-delayed retail cannabis stores to open. […]
A leader of China’s drug enforcement agency on Monday blamed cannabis legalization in Canada and the United States for a spike in the amount of marijuana entering the People’s Republic. A Chinese official called cannabis legalization a ‘new threat to China.’ According to CNN, Liu Yuejin, deputy director of the China National Narcotics Control Commission, […]
Historians have long been aware of the use of cannabis in ancient times. It’s one of the oldest cultivated plants in East Asia, and references to it appear in written texts as early as 1,000 BCE. Now a group of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has added something significant to the historical record: […]
Take it as another sign of the growing acceptance of cannabis nationwide: Two of America’s most cannaphobic states are finally making progress on reform. Things are happening in Alabama and Mississippi, y’all. Medical legalization stalled in the Alabama Legislature, but a new commission will draft a bill for 2020. In Alabama yesterday, Republican Gov. Kay […]
‘The Haymaker’ is Leafly Deputy Editor Bruce Barcott’s opinion column on cannabis politics and culture. Back in the summer of 2017, I flew to Denver to witness one of the cannabis industry’s first political fundraisers. By campaign standards it was a cheap ticket: $100 a head to support Rep. Jared Polis, the 420-friendly congressman who […]
Most American physicians are woefully ignorant and “unprepared” for the reality of cannabis consumption among patients despite it being approved for medical use in 34 states and legal for all adults in 10 of those states. ‘Marijuana has become an inescapable part of my medical training, and most of my learning has come from patients.’ […]
Cannabis legalization has dramatically reduced the number of marijuana arrests in Washington, Colorado, and other adult-use states. But as the overall number of arrests plummeted, the racial disparities within those numbers remained stubbornly intact. In fact, the disparity has gotten worse. Before legalization, black people were 2.4x more likely to get arrested for cannabis. After […]
‘The Haymaker’ is Leafly Deputy Editor Bruce Barcott’s opinion column on cannabis politics and culture. Hester Burkhalter is my new hero. Burkhalter is the 69-year-old North Carolina great-grandmother who was arrested last month at an Orlando Disney World security checkpoint after a guard found a small bottle of CBD oil in her purse. Cops in […]
Legalizing medical marijuana in Wisconsin would yield a net benefit of $1.1 billion to the state over five years. That’s the conclusion of a recent cost-benefit analysis undertaken by the University of Wisconsin’s La Follette School of Public Affairs. Researchers estimate that medical legalization would prevent 49 overdose deaths every year in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is […]
On the eve of April 20, the global cannabis holiday, officials at the US Department of Homeland Security have issued a policy alert declaring that immigrants applying for naturalized citizenship will be rejected if they admit to consuming state-legal cannabis or work in the legal industry. US Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency of Homeland […]
