Free Republic

Democratic senators are putting pressure on the Biden administration to use its authority to deschedule cannabis, as a Senate proposal to legalize marijuana faces an uphill battle. Democrats press Biden to use ‘existing authority’ to take step toward marijuana legalization Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and others on Wednesday sent a letter calling on the Biden administration to “use its existing authority to (i) deschedule cannabis and (ii) issue pardons to all individuals convicted of nonviolent cannabis-related offenses.”

Nearly all cannabis on Britain’s streets is now super-strength skunk that could be fueling the rise in mental health problems, scientists have warned. Researchers at King’s College London tested almost 1,000 police seizures from Kent, Derbyshire, Merseyside, Sussex and the capital in 2016, and found 94 percent were of a dangerously high potency. In 2005, just 51 percent of cannabis sold on the street was sinsemilla, also known as skunk. Dr. Marta Di Forti, Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist at King’s College warned that the powerful drug placed Britain’s 2.1 million cannabis users at risk of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression,...

Mental illnesses are triggered six years earlier in patients who have smoked high-strength cannabis every day, a study has claimed. Mental health patients who smoked skunk daily—which has a high amount of the drug’s active ingredient, THC—had their first psychotic episode at an average age of 25, compared to 31 for non-users. Yet the damage was not limited to heavy smokers or those using powerful cannabis, according to the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London. Mental health patients with a general history of using cannabis still had their first psychotic episodes at 28—three years earlier than those who never...

SACRAMENTO, Calif.— Agents have seized more than $2.6 billion worth of marijuana plants this year, already surpassing last year's season total by 20 percent, authorities said. The state Department of Justice's annual Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, or CAMP, is still a month away from wrapping up operations after the season peak at the end of September. The raids, many in remote, forested terrain, pit agents against often heavily armed guards protecting their marijuana plots. About three weeks ago, a grower was shot dead and a state Fish and Game warden was wounded during a raid on a 22,000-plant pot farm...