Medical Marijuana News

Thailand’s government is currently debating a bill that would legalize medical cannabis, according to a Bloomberg report. Thailand, like many Southeast Asian countries, currently has extremely strict drug trafficking laws. However, as recently as the 1980s, Thailand was one of the world’s foremost cannabis exporters. Thailand’s government is a military junta, or dictatorship, where civilian political power answers […]

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, called for a doubling of the state’s medical cannabis producers today, from six to 12, according to an NJ.com report. New Jersey’s medical cannabis program developed supply issues earlier this year after a previous expansion added several qualifying conditions. The governor made the call after the New Jersey State […]

A Workers’ Compensation Judge in New Jersey has ordered Freehold Township to pay for a claimant’s medical cannabis, according to a report by the New Jersey Law Journal. This is the second time a New Jersey judge has ruled in favor of worker’s comp covering medical cannabis for an injured worker, setting a powerful precedent. A lawyer representing […]

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA), the agency tasked with regulating and overseeing the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP), admitted in a report released Thursday that it has not provided adequate oversight of medical cannabis growers and other industry entities, the Associated Press reports. According to the OHA’s internal review, the program is ripe with the overproduction […]

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) ratified strict emergency medical cannabis rules on Wednesday, flouting voters’ wishes on the issue, SF Gate reports. The rules were drafted by the governor’s appointees on the state Board of Health at an emergency meeting on Tuesday. The rules ban smokable cannabis and require pharmacists at all dispensaries. Medical cannabis advocates […]

California’s new testing regulations took effect July 1 and dispensaries across the state are fighting against the weight of new restrictions. According to a Desert Sun report, many are struggling to get anything on their shelves at all and no dispensary has enough product to fill their shelves. “I’m getting pictures every day of retailers that went […]

On Tuesday, Hawaii Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, vetoed state Senate Bill 2407, which would have allowed for the treatment of opioid addiction with medical cannabis, according to a Marijuana.com report. Gov. Ige announced his rationale for the veto on Tuesday. “The Department of Health already has a formal evidenced-based petition process, made available annually to patients […]

Since Oklahoma voters decided to legalize medical cannabis last month, state officials have fast-tracked the creation of regulatory guidelines for the new industry which, under the voter-approved law, are required within 60 days of the election. Pushback from concerned health officials, however, now threatens to stunt the program’s effectiveness from the outset, the Associated Press reports. […]

A woman returning from Amsterdam to her home in the United Kingdom this week became the first person to legally carry THC-rich cannabis oils into the country, according to The Independent. Hannah Deacon was carrying a five-month supply of cannabis oils for her son, Alfie Dingley, who, at six years old, suffers regularly from epilepsy-induced seizures. […]

Maine lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a medical cannabis reform bill on Monday in a sweeping override of Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s veto, the Press Herald reports. The reforms will ease access to the program by allowing doctors to make cannabis recommendations for any condition that they think it might help, establishing six new medical cannabis dispensaries, permitting […]

The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs added 11 more qualifying conditions to the state’s medical cannabis list on Monday, WZZM 13 reports. The additions mean that Michigan‘s list of qualifying conditions now contains 22 ailments for which doctors can recommend cannabis. The Department of Licensing’s director Shelly Edgerton approved the 11 new conditions, but also denied the […]

The Oklahoma State Department of Health released the final draft of rules outlining the state’s newly established Medical Marijuana Authority program on Sunday, according to a KOCO 5 News report. The move was mandated by voters when they approved a ballot initiative last month legalizing the medical use of cannabis. A rough draft of the rules was first released for […]

The Republican Party of Texas officially endorsed the decriminalization of cannabis last month. Party leaders also called on the federal government to reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule II under the Controlled Substances Act and to legalize industrial hemp. “Civil Penalty: We support a change in the law to make it a civil, and […]

A major cannabis study conducted in Australia has found that medical cannabis does almost nothing to relieve chronic pain among users, despite overwhelming anecdotal evidence of the contrary. The study, published in Lancet Public Health, featured more than 1,500 patients particip[ating in a different study investigating prescription opioid medications. Some 24 percent of those patients also […]

Massachusetts has issued the state’s first retail adult-use cannabis license, according to a MassLive report. The retail license allows the recipient company, Cultivate Holdings Inc., to sell adult-use cannabis out of its existing medical dispensary in Leicester, Massachusetts. Cultivate was in competition with 19 other applicants for the first retail license, but it remains unclear when exactly Cultivate […]

Ohio’s first licensed, state-legal medical cannabis grow has received the go-ahead from the Ohio Department of Commerce, according to a Cleveland.com report. The certificate was awarded to Portage County-based FN Group Holdings LLC on Friday and authorizes the company — which will be doing business under the name Wellspring Fields — to grow up to a 3,000-foot canopy of […]

Maine legislators passed a bill on Tuesday with sweeping reforms for medical and adult-use cannabis laws in the state, the Press Herald reports. The bill is primarily focused on reforming Maine’s medical marijuana “caregiver” system — if passed, the bill would close some loopholes, give caregivers more freedom with their business, and give municipalities the ability […]

On Tuesday, voters at the polls in Oklahoma approved a ballot measure to legalize medical cannabis, according to a CNBC report. After nearly a two-year-old signature drive, cannabis activists were finally successful in bringing State Question 788 to the Oklahoma ballot earlier this year. Oklahoma’s medical marijuana rules are some of the most progressive medical cannabis rules adopted to […]

U.S. Senators voted 86-5 on Monday in favor of legislation that establishes protections for veterans seeking state-legal medical cannabis therapies, according to a report by Marijuana Moment‘s Tom Angell. The measure was added to legislation funding large parts of the federal government, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, through the fiscal year 2019. Specifically, the provision protects […]

Gov. Tom Wolfe of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, on Friday signed a bill amending the Pennsylvania medical cannabis law so that the state can proceed with its MMJ research program, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer. The bill was written to avoid a pending lawsuit that alleges the state improperly delegated authority to medical schools regarding the selection […]

On Monday, Connecticut’s state medical marijuana board voted against a proposal to add opioid use disorder and opiate withdrawal as qualifying conditions for medical cannabis, the Hartford Courant reports. The proposal would have been one of the first in the country to clearly identify medical marijuana as a treatment for opioid addiction. The nine-member board, consisting […]

The Food and Drug Administration approved GW Pharmaceuticals’ cannabidiol-based medication Epidiolex on Monday, according to the Washington Post. It is the first cannabis-based medication to be federally allowed in the United States. Epidiolex is an oral solution that utilizes CBD and was designed to treat two severe but rare forms of epilepsy. The drug was approved for […]

Oklahoma voters will decide on Tuesday whether to pass State Question 778 (SQ778), which would open the door to medical cannabis access across the state, according to a NORML news release. SQ778 — which would let doctors recommend and prescribe medical cannabis for any condition, using their discretion — has been praised by cannabis advocates for allowing doctors, […]

On Friday, Maine state Sen. Roger Katz (R-Augusta) proposed an amendment to a pending medical marijuana reform bill that would require all caregivers to acquire municipal approval to operate a storefront, the Portland Press Herald reports. The amendment is designed to patch a loophole between the adult-use bill passed into law in May and the state’s longer-standing medical […]