Politics

Federal judge dismisses lawsuit challenging marijuana’s schedule I prohibited status

Lawyers for the Justice Department argued for a dismissal of the suit, arguing: “There is no fundamental right to use marijuana, for medical purposes or otherwise.” A judge for the Federal District Court in Sacramento considered similar arguments in a 2014 legal challenge, also spearheaded by members of the NORML Legal Committee, but ultimately rejected…

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Politics

Maine law requires employers to stop drug testing for marijuana and ignore use out of workplace

On February 1, 2018, portions of IB 2015, c.5, “Question 1 – An Act to Legalize Marijuana” took effect in Maine requiring employers to stop drug testing job applicants for marijuana use and also preventing employers from firing workers 21 years or older for the use of marijuana outside of the workplace. The portion of Question 1 dealing with…

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Politics

Why is the FDA [trying to] ban… kratom?

Kratom is a plant indigenous to Southeast Asia that has been utilized for millennia to treat pain and illness, and improve mood, among other uses … The FDA recently announced it was classifying Kratom as an opioid, paving the way for criminalization … The FDA’s current decision to classify Kratom as an opioid is both…

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Politics

Oregon… [made] drug possession a misdemeanor

Jo Meza, owner of Amazing Treatment, a rehab center in Salem, applauded the move. She has seen the damage caused by drug addiction in her 30 years in the field. “Jailing is not helping the problem,” Meza said. “All you’re doing is putting a Band-Aid on it and ripping it off when they get out…

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Politics

Trump administration looking into death penalty for drug dealers

“He’ll say, ‘You know the Chinese and Filipinos don’t have a drug problem. They just kill them.’ ” President Trump has long expressed admiration for how Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has encouraged the extrajudicial murder of anyone suspected of dealing drugs. An estimated 12,000 people have been killed by police and vigilantes in the Philippines…

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Politics

Psychedelic science: spirituality of medicine

Are psychedelic users happier than the rest of us? According to a recent study in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the answer is yes. ​ Breaking harmful neural patterns and allowing the brain to make new connections is one of the mechanisms by which psychedelics improve mental health … The pharmaceutical therapies currently used in the…

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