Jan 14 2024
According to the Maryland Cannabis Administration there was $96,473,978 worth of legal marijuana and marijuana products sold in December, a new monthly record for the state. Medical marijuana sales were $34,967,892 while recreational marijuana sales were $61,506,086.
Total marijuana sales for the year finished just shy of $800 million at $787 million.
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Jan 13 2024
According to the 2024 Physician Certification Pattern Review annual report, there was 859,026 medical marijuana patients as of the end of FY 2023. This is an over 100,000 patient increase from the 757,600 patients at the end of FY 2022.
Florida’s Physician Certification Pattern Review Panel is a seven-member body created by the Florida Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine. The panel is legally required to submit a report on the state’s medical marijuana program at the start of each year.
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Jan 12 2024
Dried psilocybin mushrooms. (Photo credit: Rich Townsend/Getty Images)
House Bill 753 was filed last month by State Representative Nate Gustafson along with a bipartisan coalition of 23 cosponsors, and assigned to the House Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care. Today the measure received an official fiscal note.
The measure would create “a medicinal psilocybin treatment fund and a pilot program to study the effects of medicinal psilocybin treatment on patients with post-traumatic stress syndrome at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and making an appropriation.”
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Jan 12 2024
HHS today released the full, unredacted 252 page document explaining why it sent a letter to the DEA in August requesting marijuana be rescheduled. In the letter HHS says that marijuana “has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States”, while also noting that its “potential for abuse less than the drugs or other substances in Schedules I and II.”
In December HHS released the document after a pair of attorneys requested them through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). However, the 252 pages were heavily redacted. The documents released today were entirely unredacted.
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Jan 12 2024
The Florida Chamber poll found that 57% of Florida voters support legalizing recreational marijuana. Although this is a significant majority, it’s short of the 60% threshold required for a constitutional amendment to be approved during the November election. Polling released late last year by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab found support for legalization to be 10% higher, at 67%.
“Supporters of the amendment have surpassed the signature requirement to gain access to the ballot however the amendment has not yet been approved or rejected for the ballot by the Florida Supreme Court”, states a press release. “Last fall, the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments for and against why the amendment should be on the ballot but has yet to rule on the proposed amendment’s ballot language and must do so by April 1st in order for the amendment to make the 2024 general election ballot.”
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Jan 12 2024
In the letter to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, the coalition of attorneys general explain that rescheduling cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III will “allow the state-regulated cannabis industry to continue to set the standard for legal products and work to eliminate the illicit market and unregulated intoxicating hemp products.”
The letter comes just days after the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sent a letter to congressional lawmakers informing them that their review of marijuana as a schedule I drug is currently underway, while noting that the agency has “the final authority” when it comes to any rescheduling effort.
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Jan 11 2024
(Photo credit: Frederic J. Brown/AFP).
“I think it’s a state by state issue,” said Haley when asked about legalizing marijuana at a town hall held earlier today. “I think that’s something that needs to be handled close to the people, and so I think all the states should be able to decide on that.”
Although Haley’s lack of support for legalizing marijuana nationwide is no surprise for those who know her politics, it’s notable that Haley would be willing to support state marijuana rights, given 24 states have legalized recreational marijuana despite marijuana remaining a Schedule I drug on the Controlled Substances Act.
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Jan 11 2024
Delegate Sean Hornbuckle filed House Bill 4483 yesterday. The measure was assigned to the House Health and Human Resources Committee.
If passed into law, the proposal would make the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana legal for everyone who’s at least 21 years old. The law would allow marijuana tinctures, but would not allow marijuana concentrates such as hash, oil and wax.
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Jan 11 2024
In December HHS released an over 250-page document explaining its rationale for wanting marijuana to be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Federal Controlled Substances Act (the Department sent a letter to the DEA in August officially requesting the move). The document, released after a pair of attorneys requested them through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), were heavily redacted when they released in December. Now, an attorney representing HHS says that they will soon release the full unredacted document.
“Good afternoon and thank you for your patience”, reads an e-mail from a Department of Justice attorney to attorney Matt Zorn, one of the two who initially requested the documents and sought an unredacted version. “The agency has advised that it will release the letter and its enclosures in their entirety.”
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Jan 11 2024
Congressmembers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Valerie Foushee (D-NC) have officially signed on as cosponsors to the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. The measure, filed in September by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D), now has 82 sponsors.
The MORE Act would remove marijuana as a federal controlled substance, effectively decriminalizing it nationwide. It would place a 5% federal excise tax on marijuana sales in states where its legal for the first two years, with it increasing to 8% by the fifth year.
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