Cannabis Legalization News

President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has filed a cease-and-desist letter against Mississippi cannabis activists, claiming they are deceptively using two Trump quotes from 2015 and 2019 in which the president expressed support for medical cannabis and state policy reforms.

Kurt Alme, the Trump-appointed US Attorney for the District of Montana, has penned an anti-cannabis op-ed ahead of the state’s legalization vote. The editorial hinges on “Reefer Madness” tropes such as addiction and the gateway theory, as well as an unsubstantiated claim that legalization leads to more traffic fatalities.

Cannabis sales on Maine’s first day of legal sales reached nearly $100,000 and the industry generated about $9,000 in state sales taxes.

Likely voters in New Jersey indicated they support the state’s cannabis legalization initiative by a two-to-one margin, according to a recent poll.

Nearly four years after Maine voters approved cannabis legalization, the state’s adult-use cannabis market is finally opening for business.

In France, 80 members of Parliament have signed a letter decrying cannabis legalization. The letter hinges on tired, prohibition-era tropes including slippery slope fallacies and the disproven “gateway drug” theory.

New Zealand voters appear to be turning away from cannabis legalization, according to the latest poll which found just 35 percent of respondents supported the reforms.

A cannabis garden planted by activists near the Senate building in Mexico City highlights the status of cannabis policy in Mexico: legalization is coming, but the country is currently in a state of legal limbo regarding cannabis.

Arizona medical cannabis patient Nathan Freddy was charged with possession after a Bureau of Land Management ranger smelled cannabis in his pack while he was hiking on federal land.

A cadre of cannabis advocates and business owners called the Alliance for Sensible Markets plans to lobby legalized states into establishing cannabis commerce between consenting markets.

Cannabis activists in Nebraska have submitted 15,000 signatures to establish the Legal Marijuana Now party in the state.

A new study from the Yale School of Public Health shows that states with legal cannabis access experienced fewer cases of the vaping lung disease EVALI.

Medical cannabis advocates are dropping their lawsuit against elected lawmakers who overruled the state’s successful voter-approved initiative by adopting their own medical cannabis program.

Nebraska’s Supreme Court has removed the state’s medical cannabis initiative from the November ballot following a legal challenge by the Lancaster County Sheriff.

Joe Biden, former vice president and current Democratic presidential candidate, said that he supports “mandatory rehabilitation” for people convicted of consumption-related drug crimes.

Pakistan has approved a government-controlled hemp production plan that will allow hemp farming for industrial and medical purposes.

Oklahoma cannabis activists formally withdrew this year’s legalization petition due to signature-gathering risks associated with the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote next month on the MORE Act, which would federally legalize cannabis by removing the plant from the Controlled Substances Act. It will be the first time either chamber of Congress will have officially considered ending cannabis prohibition.

Sheriff Terry Wagner of Lancaster County filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging Nebraska’s medical cannabis voter initiative. Initiative organizers say they will fight and overcome the challenge.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has called for state lawmakers to legalize adult-use cannabis as a way to bridge the state’s budget gap.

Recent polling suggests that 66 percent of New Jersey voters support cannabis legalization; pollsters also logged majority support for social-use consumption lounges and for writing social equity provisions into the state’s future industry.

Adult-use cannabis sales in Maine are set to commence on October 9, more than four years after voter approval, and following an “indefinite postponement” due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A ballot initiative to legalize cannabis for adult use in Montana has been approved by state officials to appear on the state’s General Election ballot in November.

Most cannabis consumers agree that the legal cannabis industry is more convenient and provides safer purchases than its unregulated counterpart.