Politics

An infamous Arizona pharmaceutical company that spent a half million dollars fighting the state’s marijuana legalization efforts has… received approval from the DEA for its synthetic substitute for the natural plant…the only other product manufactured by Insys, Subsys, is an oral form of the powerful painkiller fentanyl. Fentanyl, in its various forms, is responsible for…

Despite virtually eliminating all punishments for personal drug possession, rates of drug use haven’t skyrocketed like some predicted. As this chart shows, use had gone up slightly when measured in 2007 (a trend in line with other, similar countries), but has since gone back down. In fact, by two out of three measures, adult drug…

“If decriminalisation has any effect on behaviour, it is to make it easier for drug‑users to become non‑drug-users, because they can seek help to quit without risking prosecution and jail.” One option is to decriminalise the taking of drugs by adults, converting it from a problem of crime into a problem, where it exists, of…

The committee that crafts Oregon’s pot policies has proposed legislation that requires marijuana businesses to destroy customers’ personal information, such as names, addresses and birth dates, gathered for marketing purposes, within 48 hours. ​ The measure is scheduled for its first hearing Tuesday. It must pass the full Legislature and be signed by the Democratic…

“Members of a newly formed bipartisan “Cannabis Caucus” are preparing to introduce a slew of legislation — including resurrecting bills from sessions’ past — and aiming to develop a united front to further congressional action on cannabis.” Polis’ 2015 bill is one of 25 marijuana-related measures introduced in the past two years that likely will…

“The purpose of the course was to develop student understanding of how the war on drugs “impacts young people, decimates communities, swells the ranks of the juvenile justice system, and negatively impacts school learning and discipline.” On my campus, a major barrier I saw to recruitment [for SSDP] was the stigma attached to drug policy…

“NORML said that while rescheduling cannabis “will not end federal prohibition” it would “bring an end to the federal government’s longstanding intellectual dishonesty that marijuana ‘lacks accepted medical use.” “It would also likely permit banks and other financial institutions to work with state-compliant marijuana-related businesses, and permit employers in the cannabis industry to take tax…

“A bill introduced in the Oregon senate would mean no more tests for cannabis use as a condition for employment and no more fear that casual use of the now-legal-in-Oregon substance could cost you your job.” Senate Bill 301, first read on Jan. 7, 2017, “provides that conditioning employment on refraining from using any substance…

“The final batch of commutations — more in a single day than on any other day in U.S. history — was the culmination of the president’s second-term effort to try to remedy the consequences of decades of onerous sentencing requirements that he said had imprisoned thousands of drug offenders for too long.” …has long called…