Tag: medical cannabis

The Story: Lebanon's parliament approved the legalization of the cultivation of cannabis. The consultancy McKinsey & Co. advised the government two years ago that the...

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.

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.

Did anyone doubt that legalizing medical marijuana dispensing in Louisiana would descend into something less about medicine and more about politics and money? Although Louisiana legalized use of marijuana for medical purposes over a quarter-century ago, the state had no lawful way to dispense it. These changes invited bucks and influence to shape what would come. To date, research shows only two conditions affected significantly and positively by ingesting marijuana: chronic pain and spasticity. Bills this legislative session have tried to multiply applicable ailments for treatment and to make legal vaporization. A bill that has passed the House of Representatives, although removing vaporization, added several medical conditions to the list of legal uses. According to objective business and science criteria vetted by a committee separate from the board, it ranked only fourth in the area. Former two-time mayoral candidate Troy Henry advises his brother, who owns the long-standing pharmacy, on its operation. Political clout may have played no role in the board’s selections last week, yet the overtones injected into the process create an unseemly appearance. When the Louisiana Legislature is in session, he writes about legislation in it at http://www.laleglog.com.

Local voters strongly approved the recreational use of marijuana when they voted “yes” in big numbers for Proposition 64, last November. "We think the voters have spoken quite clearly on this and that county supervisors are simply going against the will of the voters here," said Virginia Falces, communications director for Outco, a local medical marijuana company. Falces says the local cannabis industry, along with its suppliers and customers, will work to elect new board members who support medical marijuana and who will be open to the recreational sale of cannabis. He has not opposed the sale of medical marijuana and Falces says her industry wants to be sure his replacement is at least as committed as Roberts to allowing the sale of those products. Fifth district incumbent Bill Horn is also "termed out." Horn has opposed the sale of cannabis in any form, so the election of a pro-cannabis candidate in district five could be a political game-changer in San Diego County. Hopefully, that person exists.” Falces says marijuana advocates will interview district five candidates and invite them to tour the company's marijuana growing and distribution center, where they’ll see agricultural and research experts at work. “They’ll see that we produce a very consistent and very clean product that you don't see on the black market or the illegal market." Even though voters legalized marijuana last November, cities and counties can still regulate or even prohibit sale of the drug. That's why Falces says marijuana will continue to be an issue in local elections, and why the votes of both supporters and opponents of cannabis sales are important.