Tag: Marijuana Laws

If West Virginia students are interested in participating in a new program that allows them to attend community colleges for free, they’ll have to make sure they haven’t smoked any marijuana recently. It was announced on Thursday that THC will be on a list of banned substances for participants in the program, funding for which was approved unanimously by the state Senate in February via Senate Bill 284. “The motivation for the bill is to lift the education-attainment level for all West Virginians and give them a pathway to a brighter future,” said legislation sponsor and state Senate president Mitch Carmichael at the time of the bill’s passage. “From a state perspective, it helps us say to the world that our workforce is drug-free, trained, educated, and ready to go to work.” A

Cannabis edible and topical products will be available to Canadian consumers by the middle of December, according to media reports. Rules to regulate the products are expected to be released by the federal health agency Health Canada on Friday and would go into effect on October 17, one year after Canada legalized cannabis with the passage of Bill C-45. Initial regulations only included provisions that allowed the sale of cannabis flower and oils. Once the new regulations for cannabis edibles and topicals go into effect in October, manufacturers would be given 60 days to implement them before products go on sale in December. Sources speaking with CTV News on the condition of anonymity revealed that the regulations are expected to limit the amount of THC in edible products to 10 milli...

Canada’s historic legalization of marijuana in October 2018 prompted some major changes to the country’s drug-impaired driving laws. The changes aimed to respond to concerns about legalization’s impact on public safety, especially on the road. As a result, many provinces implemented “zero tolerance” policies for drivers found to have THC in their system. But a new study from researchers at the University of British Columbia suggests Canada’s drug-impaired driving laws may be too strict. According to researchers, the low levels of THC Canada currently considers over the legal limit do not increase drivers’ risk of getting in a car crash. Researchers: No Link Between Low Levels of THC and Car Crashes Due to public perceptions about the health and safety risks of legalized cannabis, Ca

Researchers conducting an archaeological study of tombs in western China have found the earliest evidence of cannabis smoking so far discovered, according to a report on their work published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Analysis of braziers in the tombs revealed that cannabis plants with high levels of psychoactive compounds were being burned during ancient mortuary ceremonies. The evidence suggests that cannabis was smoked as a part of religious or ritual ceremonies at least as early as 2,500 years ago. Other evidence has shown that cannabis was cultivated for fiber and grain in East Asia from 4,000 B.C. or earlier. “There has been a long-standing debate over the origins of cannabis smoking, there are many speculative claims of ancient use,” Robert Stengle, a resea

We already know that inordinate amounts of people are in jail for small-time marijuana possession across the country — even in states that have legalized recreational marijuana, but are behind the times when it comes to the expungement of past criminal records. Compounding this issue is the prisoners who are caught with cannabis when they are already in jail, an offense that can end up adding years to their sentence and hence, costing taxpayers a whole lot of money to keep non-violent offenders locked up. California recently took a step in the right direction when it comes to guaranteeing incarcerated people’s rights in the middle of the cannabis legalization movement. Though it remains illegal to consume marijuana in prisons, the state’s 3rd District Court of Appeals decided that l

Lawmakers in North Carolina are considering a bill that would allow farmers in the state to grow hemp. The measure, the North Carolina Farm Act of 2019 (Senate Bill 315), would classify hemp as a “viable agricultural commodity” and permit farmers to cultivate and sell the crop. Hemp agriculture was legalized at the federal level last year with the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which requires the states to regulate production. Senate Bill 315 would establish the North Carolina Hemp Commission and task the new body with creating regulations and issuing licenses to farmers. The bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Finance on Wednesday and then referred to the Committee on Rules and Operations of the Senate. The bill has already received the endorsement of the Senate’s agriculture

Tax revenues from Colorado’s cannabis industry have topped $1 billion since legalization, according to a new report released on Wednesday by Denver cannabis law firm Vicente Sederberg. The report details and analyzes fees and taxes collected by the Colorado Department of Revenue since the beginning of legal sales of cannabis for adult use on January 1, 2014. Colorado voters legalized possession and sales of recreational marijuana with the passage of Amendment 64 in 2012. Taxes and fees collected by the Department of Revenue totaled $1.02 billion at the end of April, according to data from the agency. The figure “does not include hundreds of millions of dollars in additional cannabis related taxes and fees collected by local governments,” the report notes. Since 2014, more than $6.56