All posts in Connecticut News

By Katryna Perera (December 15, 2021, 9:13 PM EST) — The Council for Federal Cannabis Regulation has requested a meeting with the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to address what the organization says is a public health crisis “unfolding with increasing severity” due to a federal reading of a rule that has “needlessly hamstrung” the regulation of cannabinoids. The CFCR sent a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra on Sunday stating that the two organizations must work together to overcome the restrictions of the so-called drug exclusion rule under the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics…

Colorado voters could have the chance next year to vote on legalizing possession and personal cultivation of psychedelics, and creating a system of licensed businesses to produce psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine and mescaline for supervised use at “healing centers.” A national advocacy group recently filed two separate psychedelics reform initiatives for Colorado’s 2022 ballot, both of which are titled the Natural Medicine Healing Act. The first would legalize the possession, cultivation and an array of entheogenic substances, as well as establish a regulatory model for psychedelics therapy. The other is a similar, but somewhat more dialed-back proposal that would initially legalize…

With adult-use recreational cannabis officially legalized in the state earlier this year, Connecticut Legal Services and law firm Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP are collaborating to help people erase past cannabis-related offenses from their records. Carmody and Connecticut Legal Services, which operates as the state’s largest legal aid agency, recently announced the launch of an initiative that will help low-income individuals navigate the process of filing petitions to expunge certain marijuana convictions. S.B. 1201, signed by Gov. Ned Lamont in June, automatically erased qualifying convictions issued between 2000 and Oct. 1, 2015, but people with convictions before or after…

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A Project Safe Neighborhoods investigation that brought together thirty-six federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and culminated in federal charges being brought against twenty-three individuals and the seizure of thirteen kilograms of fentanyl, eleven kilograms of cocaine, eleven kilograms of marijuana, and two kilograms of psilocyn mushrooms, was recognized today with a national Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDEFT) award. All twenty-three individuals have been adjudged guilty in U.S. District Court in Providence and sentenced to federal prison. The eight-month investigation, dubbed “Operation Panamera,” relied on the combined expertise of the Rhode Island DEA Drug…

Colorado voters could have the chance next year to vote on legalizing possession and personal cultivation of psychedelics, and creating a system of licensed businesses to produce psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine and mescaline for supervised use at “healing centers.” A national advocacy group recently filed two separate psychedelics reform initiatives for Colorado’s 2022 ballot, both of which are titled the Natural Medicine Healing Act. The first would legalize the possession, cultivation and an array of entheogenic substances, as well as establish a regulatory model for psychedelics therapy. The other is a similar, but somewhat more dialed-back proposal that would initially legalize…

.page-container .pagenation ul li {list-style:none;} .page-container .pagenation ul {display:block; clear:both; float:left;} Toi Hutchinson (left), Steve Hawkins (right) Marijuana Policy Project has a new president and CEO, Toi Hutchinson. She replaces Steve Hawkins, who was executive director since 2018. Hutchinson is the first Black woman to head the organization. In a press release issued by MPP, Hawkins stated: “I’m proud of what we have accomplished at MPP and look forward to working alongside Toi in the fight to end cannabis prohibition.” Hawkins has had a dual role as United States Cannabis Council (USCC) president and CEO. He now will exclusively lead USCC….

This has been a year for the history books. Together, we will make 2022 even better. In 2021, five additional states — Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Virginia — legalized cannabis for adults. That means that an additional 42 million Americans were liberated from the oppressive and failed policy of marijuana prohibition. State lawmakers also took steps to ensure justice for individuals with prior marijuana convictions. Officials in California, Illinois, New York, Virginia, and elsewhere moved to either seal or expunge the convictions of some 2.2 million Americans who formerly faced the lifelong stigma of a marijuana-related…

Last week New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker got a slap in the face from the city council, the Board of Alders, which rejected his nomination of Acting Police Chief Rene Dominguez to become permanent chief, despite her creditable 20 years with the city’s police department. The board’s complaints against Dominguez were that she hadn’t produced a plan for improving the department, the department’s upper ranks have lost members of racial minorities, the department is out of touch with the community and needs to look more like it, and the department has failed to solve most of the city’s recent murders….