“A peer-reviewed study set to publish in the medical journal Liver International finds that frequent marijuana use can lower the risk of developing liver disease in alcoholics.”
“A new study conducted by researchers at The University of New Mexico, involving medical cannabis and prescription opioid use among chronic pain patients, found a distinct connection between having the legal ability to use cannabis and significant reductions in opioid use.”
Read more: https://news.unm.edu/news/study-finds-medical-cannabis-is-effective-at-reducing-opioid-addiction
“Where is the logic in conducting the raid at night, when no one can see anything, and shouting ‘put the fucking gun down’ at a confused, half-asleep old woman? Police put her in a position where she might have reasonably thought she was fighting for her life against robbers, giving her no choice but to fire and them with no choice but to retaliate with deadly force—all to bust her son for selling some weed.”
Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/02/01/cops-raid-house-kill-72-year-old-woman-w
“AutoNation may represent the first wave of a coming trend as marijuana becomes more socially acceptable and companies vie for workers in the tightest labor market in 17 years. As more states legalize — Vermont will do so in July — more employees are testing positive on drug tests, according to a Quest Diagnostics report released last year. Positive tests for marijuana rose about 75 percent from 2013 to 2016, the study showed. Results were based on more than 10 million drug tests.”
“The IRS accepts this tainted money in the payment of taxes, turning it into ‘clean’ money; and it is not an unwitting accomplice to the crime. Estimates are that marijuana business owners across the U.S. will owe $2.8 billion in taxes to the federal government in 2018. The government makes a massive profit off the deal, snatching up to 70 percent of the proceeds of the reporting businesses, as opposed to the more typical rate of 30 percent. It does this by branding marijuana businesses criminal enterprises, which are not entitled to deduct their costs when reporting their income.”
Read more: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/biggest-launderer-marijuana-money-u-s-government/
“During his nearly seven-year pretrial incarceration, Tigano loudly and repeatedly invoked his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. Because Tigano kept bringing up the Sixth Amendment, he was forced to undergo three separate court-ordered examinations to determine whether he was competent to be tried.”
Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/01/25/government-is-gutting-the-right-to-trial
“The group of 54 lawmakers sent a letter to the president on Thursday asking him to go against Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ attempts to roll back protections on state marijuana laws, reports Marijuana Moment‘s Tom Angell.
As a candidate, you stated: ‘I really believe we should leave [marijuana] up to the states’ and that ‘it’s got to be a state decision.’ We trust that you still hold this belief, and we request that you urge the Attorney General to reinstate the Cole Memorandum,
wrote the group of lawmakers led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO).”
“Over 50 people a day are still being arrested for it in New York City alone. Most of those arrests, predictably, are happening in communities of color. The new numbers for New York City’s 2017 marijuana arrests just came out and they hardly budged — arrests declined by about 1 percent, disappointing many advocates and attorneys who took the mayor’s word on this issue.”
Read more: https://theintercept.com/2018/01/25/marijuana-legalization-weed-drug-arrest/
“Attorney General Jeff Sessions is actively lobbying Congress to overturn existing law prohibiting federal interference in state medical-marijuana policy. As someone who believes in strong constitutional limits on federal power and the rights of patients to choose, I am deeply disappointed. And as a cancer survivor who wanted the choice for myself, I wonder: does Sessions have any idea what it’s like?”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/jeff-sessions-should-ask-cancer-patients-about-cannabis/
“Your local post office wants absolutely no marijuana sent through the mail. Even in stamp form. The ban does not apply to alcohol, tobacco and guns.”
Read more: http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2017/12/19/postal-service-bans-images-of-marijuana-on-stamps/