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Cannabis businesses owe millions in overdue taxes to the Oregon Department of Revenue. The latest numbers show 176 businesses owe a total of $15.7 million. . . . The Oregon Department of Revenue says the top 10 businesses with outstanding balances owe more than $600,000 each.The problem is getting worse. Since July the total owed to the state has gone up by $3 million. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission says it does not have the ability to immediately pull licenses like its counterparts in Washington and Colorado. That's because the tax money is collected by the Department of Revenue and...

Oregon is awash in pot, glutted with so much legal weed, that if growing it were to stop today, it would take more than six years by one estimate to smoke or eat it all. Now the state is planning to curb production. Five years after Oregon legalized recreational marijuana, lawmakers have given the Oregon Liquor Control Commission more leeway to deny new pot-growing licenses, based on supply and demand.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer threw down the gauntlet on Thursday for Michigan residents who are both sick of the state’s abysmal road conditions, and also not nearly high enough.“At its height, the taxes for marijuana will raise about $42 million dollar per year for infrastructure. We have a $2.5 billion dollar problem,” Whitmer said at the Mackinac Policy Conference, referencing the state’s 10% excise tax on its newly legalized recreational weed industry—a portion of which is allotted for infrastructure repairs. After explaining that she gets asked about using marijuana funds to fix the roads so often, she ordered her staff to crunch...

SPRINGFIELD -- The state of Illinois is one step closer to legalizing recreational marijuana. The Illinois Senate voted Wednesday to pass the bill, sending it to the House for consideration in the final two days of the session this week. The fast vote was 38-17, with two Republicans joining 36 Democrats in supporting it. "This bill is going to set the model, I believe, the gold standard for how to approach social equity issues, relating (to) cannabis legalization," Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, the bill's chief sponsor, said in her closing statement on the Senate floor. The action Wednesday came just...

About one in five Canadian adolescents uses cannabis and its recent legalization across the country warrants investigation into the consequence of this use on the developing brain. Cannabis use was linked to impairments in working memory and inhibitory control, which is required for self-control. Cannabis use was also linked to deficits in memory recall and perceptual reasoning. Alcohol use was not linked to impairments in these cognitive functions, suggesting cannabis could have more long-term effects than alcohol. Adolescent exposure to THC induces changes in specific a region of the brain called the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and in a brain circuit,...

The Salt Lake Tribune reports the state plans to charge a $10,000 application fee and an additional $100,000 annual licensing fee for those chosen, according to draft rules for Utah's new medical marijuana program published last week. State officials say the license fees are meant to offset the expense of adding personnel and equipment to inspect the growing facilities. If all 10 grower licenses are granted, revenues to the agriculture department could top $1.1 million the first year and hover around $1 million over the following years as cultivators pay the renewal fee. The state's agricultural department expects to spend...

Colorado is trying to help tamp down the opioid crisis by allowing doctors to recommend medical marijuana for any condition meriting a painkiller prescription, The Denver Post reported. Gov. Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 13 on Thursday, and the new law is scheduled to go into effect on Aug. 2, after passing through Colorado's General Assembly. “This will substitute marijuana for an FDA-approved medication — something that’s unregulated for something that’s highly regulated,” Stephanie Stewart, a physician in Colorado, told the news outlet. Under Colorado law, medical marijuana can be recommended for patients struggling with cancer, glaucoma, HIV and AIDS,...

Authorities said Friday they raided hundreds of black market marijuana operations in Colorado that flouted the state’s cannabis law by growing tens of thousands of plants in Denver-area homes and selling the drugs out of state. Investigators seized more than 80,000 plants and 4,500 pounds (2,040 kilograms) of harvested marijuana, state and federal prosecutors said at a news conference. Officers raided 247 homes and eight businesses and arrested 42 people in Denver and seven nearby counties. State law allows up to 12 marijuana plants per residence for personal use, but some of the homes had more than 1,000 and many...

A Lexington woman and a Columbia man have been charged and declared co-defendants in connection with a home invasion that led to the shooting death of a child. Linda Lyn Monette, 23, who was in the home at the time of the crime, is charged with murder, attempted murder, criminal conspiracy, burglary and armed robbery, according to arrest warrants. Monette was previously charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and obstruction of justice in connection with the incident. Reynerio Rafael Romero Jr., 24, is charged with being an accessory to murder before the fact and criminal conspiracy, according...

Contrary to the image of potheads as peaceful stoners, "cannabis-dependent psychotic patients were four times as likely to be violent," Alex Berenson writes in his magnificent new book, Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence. "No other factor was nearly as important. Alcohol use, which was common among the patients, made no difference." So where are all the marijuana-induced murders? As Berenson says, they're hiding in plain sight. But until you're told about the cannabis-psychosis link, you don't even notice. Crime reporters don't want to look uncool by asking about the perp's marijuana use, and, inasmuch...

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Saturday he’s reached an agreement with key lawmakers on a plan to legalize recreational marijuana in the state starting next year. The legislation would allow adults 21 and older to legally buy cannabis for recreational use from licensed dispensaries. Illinois residents could possess up to about an ounce (30 grams) of marijuana, while non-residents could possess about half an ounce (15 grams). The measure also would automatically expunge some marijuana convictions. If it passes, Illinois would join 10 other states, including neighboring Michigan, in legalizing recreational marijuana. While the Illinois law would take effect Jan....

How does increasing cannabis use affect medical care? Researchers at Community Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado, explored one small area of medical care: sedation. They examined the medical records of 250 patients who received endoscopic procedures between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2017 -- years after the state legalized recreational marijuana in 2012. Comparing cannabis users to nonusers, they found that patients who reported smoking or using edibles on a daily or weekly basis required 14% more fentanyl, 20% more midazolam and 220% more propofol to achieve optimum sedation for routine procedures, including colonoscopies. For example, it took 13.83...

Marijuana use remains illegal in New York State, but the New York City council has voted to ban employers from testing job applicants for pot use as a condition of employment. Though the new law exempts certain employers from the ban, including transportation firms and federal contractors obligated to test for drugs, the council’s action is virtually unprecedented. Some courts in other states have ruled that workers using marijuana under medical supervision can’t be fired, but no other jurisdiction has so broadly banned preemployment testing. Advocates say that the new law will end the “stigma” associated with pot use, and...

P(1) "The smoking of marijuana, with its careful preparation of the elements and the solemn passing around of the shared joint, was the unholy communion of the counterculture in the late 1960s, when our present elite formed its opinions." . . . P(2)"But let me say through clenched teeth that it is of course very good news that a fashionable young metropolitan person such as Mr. ­Berenson is at last prepared to say openly that marijuana is a dangerous drug whose use should be severely discouraged." . . . P(5). . . "One evening, the Berensons were discussing one of...

Attorney General William Barr testified Wednesday that he would rather see marijuana legalized nationwide than let states continue to defy federal prohibition. Speaking during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Mr. Barr told members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that conflicting federal and state marijuana laws have created an “intolerable” situation for the Department of Justice. would prefer one of two approaches rather than where we are,” Mr. Barr told lawmakers. "Personally, I would still favor one uniform federal rule against marijuana but, if there is not sufficient consensus to obtain that, then I think the way to go is to...

Last year President Donald Trump signed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 into law. That Farm Bill allowed states to grow hemp. With that, I only imagined our state politicians would loosen Idaho’s stringent anti-cannabis laws. When it comes to politicians, I need to learn to be more imaginative. A few weeks ago, the Idaho House overwhelmingly passed a bill to allow the farming and cultivation of hemp. The measure would have allowed the use of cannabidiol oil for medicinal purposes. But at the insistence of some in law enforcement, lawmakers retreated and instead advanced legislation that would keep hemp...

A new study by a Spanish pharmacologist has revealed traces of human faeces in the vast majority of the cannabis sold on the streets of Madrid, Spain, and that it presents a very real health danger. Manuel Pérez Moreno released his findings in the journal Science Direct and claimed to have found Escherichia coli bacteria, commonly known as E. Coli, in the vast majority of the 90 samples he had purchased off the street and tested, broadcaster RTL reports.According to Moreno, the presence of E. Coli can be explained as being related to the faecal matter contained within the cannabis....

Both groups were surveyed on a host of factors, including their use of marijuana and other drugs. The study’s authors concluded that “people who smoked marijuana on a daily basis were three times more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis compared with people who never used the drug. For those who used high-potency marijuana daily, the risk jumped to nearly five times."

HOUSTON — The Drug Enforcement Agency needs to clear its evidence vaults of marijuana that is no longer needed for evidentiary purposes, and it’s looking for a contractor in Texas that can incinerate a very high volume of pot. According to a document outlining the DEA’s requirements, the incineration provider must be able to process at least 1,000 pounds of marijuana per hour, for eight hours a day. The contractor must be able to accept tightly compressed bricks or bales of pot in packages weighing up to 200 pounds each. “The incinerator facility shall have a secured fence around it....

The plan to legalize weed in New Jersey went up in smoke Monday. Lawmakers canceled a vote to allow adults in the Garden State to buy recreational marijuana, saying there simply isn’t enough support for the growing movement right now, according to a report.