Marijuana Blog

It didn’t get a lot of attention, ended abruptly and took a back seat to the likes of tax reform and the budget, but the issue of medical marijuana legalization in North Carolina did get a hearing this year in the Republican-controlled legislature.

 

Rep. Kelly Alexander Jr., D-Mecklenburg, sponsored a bill he said would have “permitted dispensaries to be created in North Carolina, and would have permitted it (medical marijuana) to be taxed and appropriately regulated.”

 

His efforts were quickly shut down – but not before a brief hearing.

 

“It got one of the fastest hearings in the Rules Committee of the long session, and it was reported out unfavorably from Rules after about 15 to 20 minutes of discussion,” Alexander said. “By putting it on the ‘unfavorable calendar,’ that pretty much meant you’d have to get a two-thirds vote to pull it off the calendar and get it considered on the floor, which of course didn’t happen because the majority leadership wasn’t in favor of that.”

 

Parking the bill on the unfavorable calendar also means it cannot be considered again during the two-year session, though a restructured measure could get a hearing if there is political will.

 

Read more: http://www.starnewsonline.com

A study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that those with a high IQ as a child are more likely to use illegal drugs as young adults.

 

For the study, researchers used data from roughly 8,000 people from the British Cohort Study, a large ongoing population study which examines lifetime drug use, socioeconomic factors, and education levels. IQ scores were measured at the ages of 5 and 10; years later, data was gathered on drug use at the age of 16, and again at the age of 30.

 

After analyzing the data, researchers found that men with high IQ scores at the age of 5 were around 50% more likely to have used illegal drugs such as ecstasy and cannabis compared to those with considerably lower scores when they were adults.

 

For women, the link was even stronger. Those with high IQs were nearly twice as likely to use illegal drugs compared to those with lower IQs.

 

The study, which was conducted by researchers at Cardiff University, concludes that; “High childhood IQ may increase the risk of illegal drug use in adolescence and adulthood.”

 

A person’s rate of depression during adolescence, their parental social class, and their lifetime household income had no effect on these findings.

 

Read more: http://www.theweedblog.com

TUCSON - A campaign to legalize marijuana in Arizona is drawing attention from the state's medical marijuana dispensary operators.

 

The national campaign "Marijuana Policy Project" hopes to put the measure on the 2016 ballot, but some dispensary operators said the focus should be put elsewhere.

 

Medical marijuana card users and dispensaries are speaking out about the efforts to put an initiative on the ballot that would legalize marijuana fully in Arizona.

 

"We'll be working with businesses and advocates and organizations around the state of Arizona over the next year or so to develop the best possible initiative," said Mason Tvert with Marijuana Policy Project.

 

But some marijuana dispensary operators believe more energy should be put in furthering medical marijuana education instead.

 

"At this time I think it needs to be focused on the fact that it is a medication, a powerful medication, very useful to very many people and should be treated like that with a lot of respect. I don't think it's recreational. That's not the intention of it," said Michael Schmidt with Nature Med.

 

Shawn Earl, a medical marijuana patient hopes the initiative does get on the ballot.

 

"I actually think it would help promote the medicinal use of marijuana," said Earl.

 

So far, marijuana has been legalized in Washington state and Colorado.

 

Source: http://www.kvoa.com