Legislation to allow marijuana banking has 140 sponsors in the United States Senate and House of Representatives.

The SAFE Banking Act in the House now has 104 sponsors, with the updated SAFER Banking Act in the Senate having 36. This brings the combined total to 140, representing 26% of the entire US Congress.

Although they differ slightly, both bills would allow banks and other financial institutions such as credit unions to provide banking services to state-legal marijuana businesses. For example, this would allow banks to prove debit card processing to marijuana stores, allowing them to no longer operate under a risky cash-only model. It would also allow financial institutions to offer bank loans to marijuana businesses.
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In Maine, February marijuana sales topped $18 million.

There was $18,014,488 worth of marijuana sold legally in February according to the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy. This is roughly half a million dollars more than the total sales for January, but around $1 million lower then December. Sales were distributed across 326,888 different transactions in the state, roughly 6,000 more than the previous month.

The average price per gram of dried marijuana in February was $7.30, just $0.01 more than the all-time low of $7.29 in January.
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The United States Food and Drug Administration has granted “breakthrough therapy” designation to LSD after a clinical trial found it to be beneficial in treating generalized anxiety disorder.

Someone using a tweezer to grab a microdose of LSD (photo credit: Microgen/Shutterstock).

The clinical trials found that LSD “exhibited rapid and robust efficacy” in combatting anxiety, which was “solidly sustained for 12 weeks after a single dose.”

Daniel Karlin, a psychiatrisy at Tufts University School of Medicine, says “A breakthrough designation is a recognition that a drug has demonstrated evidence of clinical efficacy in meeting an unmet medical need with morbidity and mortality associated with it.”
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On February 9 Kamala Harris said “We changed federal marijuana policy”, in a video posted on the social media platform X. Despite that not being true, the video has been shared thousands of times and remains live.

In less than a month, the video has been viewed nearly half a million times, it’s been shared over 2,200 times, and it has nearly 3,000 comments. The video has clearly driven engagement, as was undoubtably its goal, but it does so while claiming provable falsehoods.

“We changed federal marijuana policy, because nobody should have to go to jail just for smoking weed”, said Vice President Harris in the video, which was designed to appeal to young voters and drive their enthusiasm and voter turnout.

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Legislation banning delta-8 THC has been approved by the Florida Legislature and sent to Governor Ron DeSantis.

Hemp, which is used to extract delta-8 THC.

Florida’s Senate gave final approval to Senate Bill 1698 yesterday in a unanimous 39 to 0 vote. The vote came soon after the House of Representatives passed the bill in a much more contentious vote, 64 to 48.

If signed into law by Governor DeSantis or allowed to become law without his signature, the bill would completely ban the sale of delta-8 THC, which is derived from hemp. Hemp was legalized under the 2018 farm bill.
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According to a recent analysis, over half of all hemp grown legally in the United States is grown in California.

According to an MJBizDaily analysis of the recent Census of Agriculture report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, California produced 56% of all U.S. hemp flower throughout 2022, which is used for a variety of purposes including to extract CBD and other cannabinoids.

In a distant second was Kentucky, which grows around 16% of all hemp grown in the US, followed by Oregon with 6% and Colorado with 4%.
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Legal marijuana sales in Nevada were not far from a billion dollars in 2023, with well over $100 million in marijuana tax revenue.

According to data released by the Nevada Department of Taxation, there was $936,031,174 in marijuana sold through licensed marijuana retail outlets and dispensaries in 2023. These sales resulted in $124,415,555 in marijuana tax revenue.

The top month for marijuana sales in 2023 was March, with $75,023,166 in marijuana sold resulting in $12,288,541 in tax revenue.
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A legislative proposal “providing a tax exemption for medical cannabis patients” has been passed by Washington’s full legislature.

By a vote of 82 to 14 in the House of Representatives and 36 to 13 in the Senate, House Bill 1453 has received final approval through the legislature and will soon be sent to Governor Jay Inslee.

The proposed law “Provides a permanent tax exemption from the 37 percent cannabis excise tax for qualifying patients and designated providers with a recognition card on purchases of cannabis products that are labeled as Department of Health (DOH)-compliant product and tested in accordance with the DOH’s rules.”
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Next week a Tennessee legislative committee will consider the Free All Cannabis for Tennesseans Act to legalize recreational marijuana.

House Bill 85 was filed last month by State Representatives Bob Freeman and John Clemmons. Today, the measure was placed on the calendar for consideration on March 12 in the Criminal Justice Subcommittee. This is a necessary step towards the measure working its way through the committee process to reach the full House of Representatives.

The proposed law would allow those who are at least 21 years old to purchase, possess, transport and share (without payment) up to 60 grams of marijuana, and up to 15 grams of marijuana concentrates. The bill would also allow for the personal cultivation of up to 12 marijuana plants.
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