Tag: Cannabis

LIVE from Washington, D.C. - Sen. Chuck Schumer and 2020 hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren are in attendance at the summit dedicated to discussing policy reform surrounding the cannabis industry. FOX News operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network…

COLUMBIA — When Sam Fogle returned from Iraq after getting hit by a roadside bomb, he suffered from severe brain injuries and severe post-traumatic stress disorder. He said it could do the same for many veterans like him. “I love my state,” Fogle testified Thursday about the Statehouse’s medical marijuana effort. “I don’t want to move out of my state to get the choices others have.” Then there’s Mark Keel, the chief of South Carolina’s Law Enforcement Division. A longtime opponent of legalizing medical marijuana, Keel said he continues to believe that legalizing medical marijuana could lead to a spike in traffic fatalities and other dangerous outcomes, and he said S.C. should maintain its historic independent streak by declining to follow dozens of other states that have legalized medicinal use of the drug. “South Carolina doesn’t have to be like the other 33 states that’s decided to go down that road and conduct social experiments on their citizens,” Keel said. “If you vote yes for this bill... be prepared to open a Pandora’s box of unintended consequences.” The disagreements, reiterated many times in different forms over hours of public testimony Thursday to the Senate’s Medical Affairs Committee, highlighted the ongoing stalemate over whether South Carolina should become the latest state to allow for medical use of cannabis to treat chronic pain, epilepsy and other debilitating conditions. With little to no chance of passing this year, supporters hope the ongoing pressure on the issue can help build momentum heading into the second year of the legislative session in 2020. Many of those who testified have already pleaded with the committee to rule one way or another for years. The committee’s chairman, Sen. Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, suggested that a continued “wait and see” approach to the chance of federal Food and Drug Administration approval may no longer be tenable.

But when a state Senate vote was abruptly put off Monday because it didn't have enough support, the delay was a reminder that the politics of pot legalization aren't purely partisan. The key question instead can be whether voters or legislators are making the decision, experts say. Several states where it passed — like Massachusetts, Michigan and Vermont — are less blue than purple, with governors and legislative leaders of different parties. The Democratic governors and legislature leaders of New York and New Jersey have been jostling to make their states next in line to legalize marijuana, but the effort hasn't gone as smoothly as they might have hoped. Those are also among the sticking points that prompted the New Jersey Senate to postpone Monday's planned vote, which would fulfill a campaign promise from Gov. Pot advocates, meanwhile, say they don't expect it to be easy to change policy about a drug that was illegal in all 50 states for decades, and still is in the federal government's view. Nine of the 10 states that have legalized recreational marijuana did so through voter referendums — not through their legislatures. "I actually see this as a populist-movement-vs.-representative (body) issue," says Andrew Freedman, who helped set up Colorado's recreational-pot program and now consults governments on doing so. For all that, lawmakers in 21 states at least proposed legalizing marijuana last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. “States are talking about it in the rainbow of red, blue and purple.”

NEW YORK (AP) — To anyone who figured the path of legalizing recreational marijuana use ran along blue state-red state lines, a sudden setback for pot advocates in New Jersey may show the issue isn’t so black-and-white. But when a state Senate vote was abruptly put off Monday because it didn’t have enough support, the delay was a reminder that the politics of pot legalization aren’t purely partisan. The key question instead can be whether voters or legislators are making the decision, experts say. Several states where it passed — like Massachusetts, Michigan and Vermont — are less blue than purple, with governors and legislative leaders of different parties. The Democratic governors and legislature leaders of New York and New Jersey have been jostling to make their states next in line to legalize, but the effort hasn’t gone as smoothly as they might have hoped. Those are also among the sticking points that prompted the New Jersey Senate to postpone Monday’s planned vote, which would fulfill a campaign promise from Gov. Nine of the 10 states that have legalized recreational marijuana did so through voter referendums — not through their legislatures. “I actually see this as a populist-movement-vs.-representative (body) issue,” says Andrew Freedman, who helped set up Colorado’s recreational-pot program and now consults governments on doing so. For all that, lawmakers in 21 states at least proposed legalizing marijuana last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. “States are talking about it in the rainbow of red, blue and purple.” ___ Peltz is a member of AP’s marijuana beat team.

NEW YORK (AP) — To anyone who figured the path of legalizing recreational marijuana use ran along blue state-red state lines, a sudden setback for pot advocates in New Jersey may show the issue isn’t so black-and-white. But when a state Senate vote was abruptly put off Monday because it didn’t have enough support, the delay was a reminder that the politics of pot legalization aren’t purely partisan. The key question instead can be whether voters or legislators are making the decision, experts say. Several states where it passed — like Massachusetts, Michigan and Vermont — are less blue than purple, with governors and legislative leaders of different parties. The Democratic governors and legislature leaders of New York and New Jersey have been jostling to make their states next in line to legalize, but the effort hasn’t gone as smoothly as they might have hoped. Those are also among the sticking points that prompted the New Jersey Senate to postpone Monday’s planned vote, which would fulfill a campaign promise from Gov. Nine of the 10 states that have legalized recreational marijuana did so through voter referendums — not through their legislatures. “I actually see this as a populist-movement-vs.-representative (body) issue,” says Andrew Freedman, who helped set up Colorado’s recreational-pot program and now consults governments on doing so. For all that, lawmakers in 21 states at least proposed legalizing marijuana last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. “States are talking about it in the rainbow of red, blue and purple.” ___ Peltz is a member of AP’s marijuana beat team.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A growing majority of Americans say marijuana should be legal, underscoring a national shift as more states embrace cannabis for medical or adult use. Support for legal marijuana hit 61 percent in 2018, up from 57 percent two years ago, according to the General Social Survey, a widely respected trend survey that has been measuring support for legal marijuana since the 1970s. Among Democrats, 76 percent now favor legalization. Legalization advocates say the increasing public support should prompt the U.S. government to reverse course. At the federal level, marijuana is categorized as a dangerous illegal drug, similar to LSD or heroin. “Our time has come,” said Justin Strekal, political director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. “Never in modern history has there existed greater public support for ending the nation’s nearly century-long experiment with marijuana prohibition.” Support for legalization is strongest among 18-to-34-year-olds, with nearly 75 percent favoring it. Views on marijuana legalization have shifted dramatically: In the 1973 GSS, just 19 percent supported legalization. Support for legalization has been gradually growing for years, but it has increased sharply since 2012, when Colorado and Washington state became the first states to legalize the recreational use of cannabis. Sample sizes for each year’s survey vary from about 1,500 to about 3,000 adults, with margins of error falling between plus or minus 2.2 percentage points and plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Since the summer of 2016, when a campaign to bring a full-fledged medical marijuana market to Florida by constitutional amendment hit high gear, Florida’s licensed cannabis corporations and their executives have given at least $2.5 million in political contributions to state lawmakers and political parties. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald “Their participation goes hand in hand with it being a lawful industry now, or a constitutionally authorized industry, in the state of Florida,” said Senate President Bill Galvano, whose Innovate Florida political committee has received at least $102,000 from marijuana companies and executives since 2016. And in 2019, the three companies have given at least $103,500 to lawmakers’ political committees. All of the donations followed a Jan. 17 press conference DeSantis held in Orlando with marijuana advocate and booster John Morgan to declare that he’d drop the state’s appeals of several lawsuits — including one filed by Morgan — if lawmakers didn’t pass bills by March 15 allowing patients to smoke marijuana. But last month, as Rodrigues’ bill moved through the Health and Human Services committee that he chairs, the Estero lawmaker warned that without legislation to guide smoking marijuana, a federal judge’s ruling striking down Florida’s smoking ban would leave the state with “the law of the wild west.” Ben Pollara, the political consultant who steered the campaign to bring a full-blown marijuana market to Florida, thinks political contributions have helped the industry make its case. Rob Bradley, among the biggest recipients of cannabis donations, was a sponsor of the 2014 Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act long before Costa Farms gave his political committee its first $10,000 contribution from a cannabis company in August 2015. “As is the case with many companies both large and small, we support candidates and elected officials who support our industry,” Curaleaf, the cannabis brand that grew from Costa Farms’ cultivation license, said in a statement. The Democratic politician receiving the most industry money is Nikki Fried, a former marijuana lobbyist who won the race for agriculture commissioner and also happens to date Jake Bergmann, who stepped down as CEO of Surterra the day before the election. Nikki Fried campaign Galvano, the Senate president, says he doesn’t see a link between the campaign money given to lawmakers and the recent change in position on smoking marijuana.

Nine U.S. states currently allow recreational pot. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The number one network in cable, FNC has been the most…

National has released its alternative medicinal cannabis bill, which it says will make cannabis medication products more widely available. But the real story of the day was a political one, with National blindsiding Labour, whose medicinal cannabis bill returned from select committee today. The bill puts pressure on the Government’s support parties, particularly the Greens, whose own medicinal cannabis bill brought by Chlöe Swarbrick was defeated in January. Bills mount up National’s bill is sponsored by Shane Reti, a doctor and the Deputy Chair of the Health select committee, which had been looking at the Government’s bill. Users would be issued with a Medicinal Cannabis Card, certifying them to buy medicinal cannabis products. In the House, Bridges accused the Government of not “doing the work” and said National’s detailed bill was evidence of a “Government in waiting”. Woodhouse said the Government members on the Health select committee were “ambivalent” about National’s proposals, while Bridges said the Government’s bill didn’t even have “the makings of a framework” to look at the regulations National members demanded. The Health Select Committee’s Chair, Labour’s Louisa Wall, said the introduction of a new bill on the day the select committee was to release its report undermined the integrity of the select committee process. Then, to pass its first reading, it would need the support of a minor party, likely the Greens or New Zealand First. Neither minor party would commit to supporting the bill on Wednesday, before they had read it.