The full US House of Representatives has given approval to an amendment that would allow Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors to recommend medical marijuana.

Currently, under the law, VA doctors are prohibited from recommending medical marijuana to their patients, even if those patients reside in states where medical marijuana is legal. However, a provision aimed at removing this prohibition and allowing VA doctors to recommend medical marijuana received approval today in the House by a vote of 290 to 116, following its passage by the House Rules Committee yesterday.

This vote officially incorporates the amendment into a $1.5 trillion Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, which is essential for funding national defense and various military operations. The amendment is based on the text of the bipartisan Veterans Equal Access Act, which boasts 29 bipartisan sponsors.

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A Republican-led committee in the United States House of Representatives has released a spending bill that would allow Washington D.C. to open recreational marijuana stores roughly a decade after the district legalized them, while also allowing banks to work with state-legal marijuana businesses.

The House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Subcommittee has released its Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Services and General Government Bill. The measure would remove a long-standing provision under federal law that prevents Washington D.C. from allowing legal recreational marijuana sales, despite the district legalizing them in 2014. The removal of the provision was sought by Chair Dave Joyce (R-OH), who also co-chairs the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.

The spending bill also includes language that would protect financial institutions that provide services to marijuana and hemp businesses that are legal under state law
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In March, there was over $70 million in legal marijuana sold, and over $10 million in marijuana taxes garnered in Nevada.

Data released by the Nevada Department of Taxation Cannabis Tax Revenue shows that there was $73,167,470 worth of marijuana and marijuana products sold through legal means in March. This is considerably lower than the $83 million sold in February, but considerably higher than the $62 million sold in January. Marijuana sales for March resulted in $10,058,746 in tax revenue for Nevada.

$55,596,859 of these sales came from Clark County, just shy of $10 million came from Washoe County and $7.7 million came from “all other counties”.
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U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) led 10 of her colleagues in sending four letters to Senate Appropriators requesting robust funding to support a wide array of small businesses in Nevada, including one letter focused on marijuana businesses.

These requests would provide $37 million for the Rural Business Development Grant Program and $10 million for the Federal and State Technology Partnership Program to support the growth and development of small businesses in rural areas across the nation. These letters also call for “eliminating burdensome barriers to capital for certain small businesses – specifically providing nonprofit child care providers with greater access to loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA), and allowing legal cannabis small businesses in Nevada, and other states where cannabis is legal, to access SBA programs and resources.”

Senator Rosen in a press release said “Small businesses are the backbone of Nevada’s economy, which is why I’m leading efforts to cut through bureaucratic red tape that prevents them from accessing capital and working to secure the federal funding for resources they need to thrive. As a member of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I’ll always advocate for Nevada’s small businesses and fight to support them.”
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An amendment that would allow physicians at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to recommend medical marijuana to their patients has been approved by the House Rules Committee.

(Photo credit: Getty Images Plus)

The House Rules Committee yesterday gave approval to an amendment to a $1.5 trillion Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies appropriations bill that would provide veterans with legal access to state-level medical marijuana programs. Filed by Congressmembers Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Brian Mast (R-FL) and Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), the amendment is based on the Veterans Equal Access Act. The bipartisan legislation was filed last year and currently has 29 sponsors.

The measure would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to authorize providers to discuss medical marijuana with veterans and recommend its use if the patient is located in a legal marijuana state and the physician believes it could be beneficial.
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California generated substantial revenue from marijuana taxes in the first quarter of 2024, surpassing a quarter of a billion dollars from over $1 billion in sales.

According to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the state collected $259.9 million in taxes from the legal distribution of marijuana in the first quarter, covering January, February, and March. During this period there was $1,203,751,922 in taxable marijuana sales, including dried marijuana flower, shake, concentrates, edibles, and topicals, among other marijuana products.

The state garnered $152.5 million from the marijuana excise tax and $107.4 million from the sales tax.
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An initiative to legalize recreational marijuana has officially been placed on the November 2024 presidential election ballot in South Dakota.

“We qualified for the November 2024 ballot!”, said South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws in a post made today on the social media platform X. “To everyone who gave their time, energy, or signature to this petition, we thank you – qualifying an initiative for the ballot is the first step towards reforming South Dakota’s cannabis policy in 2024.”

Secretary of State Monae L. Johnson sent out a press release stating that “a petition submitted for an initiated measure was validated and filed by her office today. This ballot question would legalize the recreational use, possession, and distribution of marijuana. The title for the ballot question will be Initiated Measure 29, and it will appear on the 2024 General Election ballot on November 5, 2024.”
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Two marijuana-related bills that recently passed the Louisiana Legislature were officially sent to Governor Jeff Landry today, initiating a 10-day window for the governor to decide its fate.

At the end of May Louisiana’s full legislature recently passed House Bill 165 and House Bill 391. Today, the measures were sent to Governor Landry, giving him three options; sign them into law, veto them or allow them to become law without executive approval.

House Bill 165 “removes incarceration as a punishment for the possession of certain drug paraphernalia in quantities not exceeding those required for individual personal use.” It “provides that the punishment for the possession of certain drug paraphernalia in quantities not exceeding those required for individual personal use is a fine of:
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