Just recently, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said it would not reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule II drug. However, the agency said it would try to make it easier for scientists and companies to access marijuana for research.
Soybean fields in parts of Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee are plagued by “superweeds” that have become resistant to glyphosate, the main ingredient in biotech company’s Monsanto’s RoundUp herbicide. Farmers are now dousing the plants with illegal chemicals to try and kill the rogue weeds.
On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped a 4-year-long effort to shut down Harborside Health Center in Oakland, California, the largest marijuana dispensary in the US.
Employee Derek Flores, right, waits for a patient at a display case at the Harborside Health Center in Oakland, Calif. The center will be one of the models for Maine’s first medical marijuana dispensaries. Credit: John Patriquin/Staff Photographer
Officials at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are preparing to crack down on stem cell clinics in the United States that advertise pricey treatments for a variety of treatments, but don’t provide any scientific evidence that they work.
On Thursday, the Vermont state Senate gave final approval to a bill legalizing recreational marijuana, beginning in 2018. If it reaches the governor’s desk, Vermont will be the first state in the nation to legalize the drug without a referendum.
The bill cleared the regulatory hurdle when Sen. Becca Balint, a Democrat, who had originally opposed the measure, changed her vote.
The Senate rejected amendments to push off decriminalization until 2019, but opted to place warnings on marijuana packaging similar to those on cigarette boxes.
A legislative drafting error has caused local governments in California to act post-haste to fix what would be a ban on marijuana cultivation in the state. Gov. Jerry Brown signed an emergency bill to fix the problem just days ago.
The legislation, AB21, proposed by Democratic Assemblyman Jim Wood of Healdsburg, would amend the comprehensive medical marijuana regulations that the California Legislature passed in September. It would:
It’s been a full year since Washington D.C. legalized marijuana, ignoring House Republicans that were strongly against it. But congressional conservatives continue to ban pot sales in Washington, D.C.
A controversial fertility treatment requiring 3 genetic parents was recently approved by an elite panel of U.S. scientists and ethicists.
The 12-member panel, assembled by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, released a 164-page report outlining how scientists could ethically carry out such genetic engineering for the purpose of eliminating rare mitochondrial diseases – a process that would exclude girls.
A dissenting branch of the Native American Church claims the US government illegally seized its sacramental cannabis. They are now fighting back with leaders like James “Flaming Eagle” Mooney and Joy Graves, who brought a case to a US district court on January 15th.
Graves claims she mailed 5 ounces of cannabis to a church member in Ohio on December 10th, but it never arrived. The Postal Service tracking website reported that the package had been seized by law enforcement.
Even after medical marijuana use is made legal on a state level through legislations, those who would provide it to the public often have to go through multiple levels of red tape to open their doors. After months of navigating through bureaucratic roadblocks and community anxieties, two Long Island medical marijuana dispensaries have opened to the public on Friday. [1]
