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Oklahoma lawmakers on Wednesday approved a bill in committee to decriminalize low-level possession of psilocybin and promote research into the therapeutic potential of the psychedelic. The measure from Rep. Daniel Pae (R) is one of two GOP-led psilocybin reform bills that were filed in the Oklahoma House last month. The other is less far-reaching in that it doesn’t contain a decriminalization provision and is more targeted in its research guidelines. The House Public Health Committee approved Pae’s bill, HB 3414, in a 7-2 vote. The 26-year-old lawmaker’s proposal would make it so possession of up to one and a half…

“We just want to try to take that away.” If approved for what is known as a retail microlicense, the three-generation family — whose members range in age from 31 to 78 — plans to open a roughly 2,500-square-foot shop stocked with an array of cannabis products. The store has a name, Simple ReLeaf, and a focus: homeopathic remedies. But its location is not yet clear, one of a number of crucial details that are still up in the air as they try to get a toehold in the multibillion-dollar cannabis market. In an industry dominated by deep-pocketed multistate and…

Think you live too far from the Mexican border to be hurt by the chaos there? Bloomfield is a picturesque village in central Connecticut, 3,500 miles from America’s southern border. But illegal drugs flowing across that border nearly killed a 16-year-old at Bloomfield HS two weeks ago. He tried marijuana, not knowing it was laced with fentanyl. Police rushed to the school nurse’s office and administered two doses of Narcan just in time to save him. Responding to the surge in teen overdoses, Connecticut’s Gov. Ned Lamont is asking, “How did this happen? How is there more fentanyl on the streets than…

A Republican Missouri lawmaker on Tuesday unveiled a bill to tax and regulate adult-use marijuana in the state. It would provide opportunities for expungements, authorize social consumption facilities and permit cannabis businesses to claim tax deductions with the state. Rep. Ron Hicks (R) filed the omnibus legislation, titled the “Cannabis Freedom Act.” He said in a memo to colleagues that the measure was drafted in a way that thoughtfully incorporates elements from “every marijuana bill filed this session” to create a “free but tightly regulated market for legal marijuana.” Here’s what the cannabis legislation would accomplish as drafted: Possession, home…

A Republican Missouri lawmaker on Tuesday unveiled a bill to tax and regulate adult-use marijuana in the state. It would provide opportunities for expungements, authorize social consumption facilities and permit cannabis businesses to claim tax deductions with the state. Rep. Ron Hicks (R) filed the omnibus legislation, titled the “Cannabis Freedom Act.” He said in a memo to colleagues that the measure was drafted in a way that thoughtfully incorporates elements from “every marijuana bill filed this session” to create a “free but tightly regulated market for legal marijuana.” Here’s what the cannabis legislation would accomplish as drafted: Possession, home…

As Connecticut prepares to launch its legal adult-use cannabis market later this year, the state is now open to applications from “social equity” cultivators—subject to a $3 million licensing fee in each case. The fee flies in the face of lawmakers’ promise that legalization will benefit communities most targeted by the drug war. Cannabis cultivators will be licensed to grow and produce cannabis, selling their products to other businesses rather than directly to consumers. The $3 million licensing fee is written into the law, so can’t be reduced or waived unless lawmakers take action. Jason Ortiz, president of Students for…

A Republican Missouri lawmaker on Tuesday unveiled a bill to tax and regulate adult-use marijuana in the state. It would provide opportunities for expungements, authorize social consumption facilities and permit cannabis businesses to claim tax deductions with the state. Rep. Ron Hicks (R) filed the omnibus legislation, titled the “Cannabis Freedom Act.” He said in a memo to colleagues that the measure was drafted in a way that thoughtfully incorporates elements from “every marijuana bill filed this session” to create a “free but tightly regulated market for legal marijuana.” Here’s what the cannabis legislation would accomplish as drafted: Possession, home…

A Republican Missouri lawmaker on Tuesday unveiled a bill to tax and regulate adult-use marijuana in the state. It would provide opportunities for expungements, authorize social consumption facilities and permit cannabis businesses to claim tax deductions with the state. Rep. Ron Hicks (R) filed the omnibus legislation, titled the “Cannabis Freedom Act.” He said in a memo to colleagues that the measure was drafted in a way that thoughtfully incorporates elements from “every marijuana bill filed this session” to create a “free but tightly regulated market for legal marijuana.” Here’s what the cannabis legislation would accomplish as drafted: Possession, home…