Browsing Marijuana News

Attention all current and prospective Oregon medical marijuana patients: Ready or not, how you obtain medicinal cannabis products in your state is about to change. For the past fifteen months, recreational and medical marijuana sales have occurred side-by-side at many dispensaries, but starting January 1, 2017 retail shops have to decide between servicing medical patients or recreational users. While this is great news for adults who wish to purchase marijuana for recreational use, this could have a negative effect on some patients as many medical marijuana dispensaries make the switch to a potentially more lucrative recreational marijuana market. The reason …

Patients suffering from chronic pain will soon be eligible to participate in New York’s medical marijuana program state officials announced Thursday. “After conducting a thorough review of the scientific literature, it became clear that there may be certain benefits in the use of medical marijuana by patients suffering from chronic pain,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard A. Zucker said in a statement announcing the change. “Medical marijuana is already helping thousands of patients across New York State, and adding chronic pain as a qualifying condition will help more patients and further strengthen the program.” – …

A medical marijuana patient has been refused service at an Illinois bank because of his status as a legal medical marijuana patient. Darren Steven Miller suffers from terminal lung cancer and stage three multiple sclerosis (MS). When Illinois began implementing their medical marijuana program, he was one of the first patients to register. “This is between me and my doctor, not between me and my bank.” – Darren Miller According to Miller, The Bank of Edwardsville in Granite City, IL has refused to allow him to open a new bank account simply because he listed “marijuana activist” …

Minnesota will soon allow those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) access to medical marijuana under the state’s medical cannabis program. Petitioners in Minnesota pushed a total of nine new health conditions for consideration this year including PTSD, schizophrenia, acquired absence of limb (phantom limb syndrome), arthritis, autism, depression, diabetes, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and insomnia. Dr. Ed Ehlinger, the Minnesota Commissioner of Health, made the announcement on Thursday. “This decision was made after careful deliberation of available evidence, consultation with experts in the field and public input,” Commissioner Ehlinger said in a statement. “While the process of …

On Tuesday, eight out of nine states voting on marijuana referendums approved their measures, including all four states considering medical marijuana initiatives. “This is the most momentous Election Day in history for the movement to end marijuana prohibition.” – Rob Campia, Marijuana Policy Project The states of Arkansas, Florida and North Dakota all voted to enact comprehensive medical marijuana laws, and voters in Montana essentially re-legalized medical marijuana, expanding an existing medical marijuana law that had been effectively gutted by the state legislature. Following the results of Tuesday’s elections, 28 states, and the District of Colombia, now have passed comprehensive …

After the recent rejection of the Rhode Island-Washington Marijuana Rescheduling Petition, it is easy to point fingers at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and proclaim how corrupt and inept they must be to uphold the position that marijuana still has no medical use. [1][2][3] However, once we see that the DEA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) both believe that the only way a drug substance can have medical use is for it to pass through the FDA’s own drug approval …

Voters in Florida will be presented once again with a proposal to legalize medical marijuana in the Sunshine State, and two polls released this week indicate that Amendment 2 will receive the 60% needed to pass. On Monday, the Florida Chamber of Commerce released a poll that found 73% support Amendment 2, while only 22% opposed it. The poll has a margin of error of +/-4 percent. “Both of these polls indicate that Amendment 2 is likely to garner the 60% super-majority required in Florida to pass.” Then, on Wednesday, the Saint Leo University …

With two different approaches to legalizing medical marijuana appearing on the November ballot in Arkansas, a new poll suggests that voters prefer Issue 6, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment, over Issue 7, the Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act. The Talk Business & Politics-Hendrix College poll, released Sunday, found 49% in favor (43% opposed) to Issue 6, while just 36% were in favor (53% opposed) to Issue 7. “With both of them on the ballot, they will both fail, and that’s heartbreaking.” – Melissa Fults, Arkansans for Compassionate Care This latest poll could …

The Massachusetts Department of Public Heath (DPH) could be making a couple of noteworthy amendments to the Bay State’s medical marijuana program — changes designed to make it easier for patients to be certified for medical marijuana use. Among the proposed changes unveiled earlier this month are two key improvements to the program that will, if ultimately included in state regulations, have a direct impact on patients. The first is a proposed amendment to the state’s medical marijuana program that will allow a Certified Nurse Practitioner (CNP) to write patient recommendations. CNPs already provide prescriptions to patients …

Supporters of a proposal to legalize medical marijuana in Oklahoma have filed a lawsuit calling anti-pot Republican Attorney General E. Scott Pruitt’s rewriting of their ballot question misleading, effectively ending their long-shot attempt at placing the measure before voters in November. “No elected official has the right to rewrite these ballots in such a way that he would try to unfairly influence voters. Scott Pruitt has a habit, a pattern of doing this.” – David Slane, Oklahomans for Health Oklahomans for Heath, backers of State Question 788, had collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot …