The leader of the Ohio House of Representatives says that any changes to the voter-approved law that legalized marijuana won’t come until next year.

Last week Ohio’s full Senate voted 28 to 2 to pass legislation that would make multiple changes to Issue 2, a law legalizing recreational marijuana that was passed by voters in last month’s election. The Senate approved the bill one day before the provisions of the law allowing marijuana possession and cultivation took effect, with proponents hoping the House would promptly take up the issue. Now, it appears clear that the House will not act on any marijuana bill this year, with the legislative session nearly over.

“I don’t think there will be anything about marijuana on the floor”, Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens (R) told reporters Tuesday morning. “I think we’ll continue the discussion”.  Continue reading

Pennsylvania’s full legislature has passed legislation to allow all licensed marijuana growers and processors to sell marijuana directly to patients.

According to a new federally funded study, teen marijuana use is considerably lower now than it was in the 1990s, well before any state legalized marijuana. Teen usage rates also remain below pre-pandemic levels, despite multiple states legalizing the plant over the past few years.

The 2023 Monitoring the Future survey is conducted by the University of Michigan and is funded by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The survey found that past-year marijuana use among teens remained stable for all three grades surveyed (8th, 10th and 12th).

“The percentage of youth who have used marijuana had not returned to pre-pandemic, 2020
levels by 2023,” states the survey. “In all grades, 2023 levels remained below those in 2020.”
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New York’s “Cannabis Crop Rescue Act” has been delivered to Governor Kathy Hochul.

Senate Bill 7295 was approved by the New York Senate earlier this year in a 53 to 8 vote, followed by approval in the Assembly 134 to 6. Yesterday the measure was officially delivered to Governor Hochul, giving her 10 days to decide whether or not to sign it into law, veto it or allow it to become law without a signature. If Governor Hochul was to veto the measure, the Legislature could override it with a two-thirds majority.

The proposed law would allow recreational marijuana cultivators and processors “to sell tested, packaged, and sealed cannabis products or biomass to a cannabis dispensing facility licensed or permitted by a tribal nation for retail sale.”
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Legislation that would facilitate the automatic review and expungement of charges related to marijuana possession and cultivation has been scheduled for a hearing. The bill would also allow those in jail for a marijuana offense that has since been decriminalized to “apply to the sentencing court for an order of discharge and release.”

House Bill 1790 was filed in February by State Representatives Chynah Tyler (D), Lindsay Sabadosa (D) and James Arena-DeRosa (D). Nearly 10 months later, the measure has been scheduled for a public hearing in the legislature’s Joint Committee on The Judiciary.

The hearing will take place on December 19 at 1PM EST.
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In October Georgia became the first state in the US to sell medical marijuana products through licensed pharmacies. The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) is now threatening said pharmacies.

Medical marijuana capsules.

Under Georgia’s restrictive medical marijuana law, those with a qualifying medical condition who receive a recommendation from a physician are allowed to purchase, possess and use products (such as tinctures and capsules) containing marijuana-derived CBD and up to 5% THC. What makes Georgia’s law unique is that it allows marijuana products to be sold through pharmacies, something no other state has allowed.

Earlier this month the DEA sent a letter to pharmacies who are currently selling marijuana products, or who have been approved by the state to do so in the near future, telling them that what they’re doing remains federally illegal.
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There was just shy of $90 million worth of legal marijuana and marijuana products sold in November in Maryland.

According to the Maryland Cannabis Administration, there was exactly $89,670,575 in marijuana sold legally through licensed retail outlets in November, almost identical to the $89,997,762 sold in October. Sales data includes the legal distribution of dried marijuana flower and shake as well as marijuana concentrates, edibles, tinctures, topicals and vape products.

$55,995,498 of these sales were purchased by recreational consumers, with the remaining $33,675,077 purchased by medical marijuana patients.
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For the sixth straight month there was over a quarter of a billion dollars of legal marijuana sold in Michigan.

(Photo credit: GETTY Images).

In total there was $260,485,282 worth of legal marijuana and marijuana products sold in November, according to the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency. This is a slight decrease from the $262 million sold in October, but it marks six months in-a-row where sales were above $250 million.

The vast majority of the legal marijuana purchased was for recreational consumption ($256.6 million), with just $3.8 million purchased by medical marijuana patients.
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Attorneys for Hunter Biden have filed a motion declaring that a law preventing drug users from buying and possessing firearms is unconstitutional.

(Photo credit: Getty Images).

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, is facing multiple misdemeanor and felony charges (United States of America V. Robert Hunter Biden), some stemming from his admission that he purchased a gun while addicted to illegal drugs. Now, his attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss the charges with the US District Court for the District of Delaware.

Biden’s attorneys argue that the gun charges are a violation of the Second Amendment, saying that preventing drug users from buying or possessing guns is an unconstitutional law that flies contrary to a recent US Supreme Court decision which found that in order to be constitutional, a gun law has to be analogous to a law that existed when the founding fathers established the constitution.
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