Acreage Cannabis produced a one-minute commercial, intending to air it during the Superbowl. The ad consists of testimonials of people who've been helped by medical marijuana. CBS rejected the ad without explaining why. From CNN:

[George Allen, president of Acreage Holdings] said Acreage was willing to spend upward of $5 million for the spot, which is the going rate for a Super Bowl ad in 2019. But Allen said CBS told Acreage that the commercial was not consistent with the network's advertising policies.

CBS (CBS) did not comment when asked why it declined to run the commercial. But a source close to the network said that it does not currently accept any cannabis-related advertising.

Image: Javier Hasse/YouTube Read the rest

Thailand's got a reputation with being less than cool with illegal drugs being brought into their country or used within their national borders. Which drugs are legal and which are disallowed changes up from time to time, however. Until the 1930s, medicinal cannabis use was hunky dory with the Thai government. Then it wasn't. Fast forward to 2019 and the wheel of acceptability will have spun around once more: on Christmas Day, the nation decided that, provided it was used for medicinal purposes, dope was dope once again. Given the stringent drug laws typically enforced in Thailand's Southeast Asian neighborhood (sentences of death over a trafficking charge aren't uncommon,) it's a surprising shift in policy.

From The New York Times:

By a vote of 166 to 0, the military-appointed National Legislative Assembly approved legislation this week that would allow the use of cannabis under medical supervision. Thirteen members abstained.

The measure is expected to take effect next year.

“This is a New Year’s gift from the National Legislative Assembly to the government and the Thai people,” the lawmaker who headed the drafting committee, Somchai Sawangkarn, said during a televised session on Tuesday.

Before anyone goes making travel plans, you should know that saying that it's cleared only for prescribed medicinal use isn't just a suggestion. The penalty for recreational use of cannabis in Thailand is still very serious business: those found in possession of 10 kilograms of herb or less can expect to do up to five years in prison. Read the rest

The Mormon Church (AKA The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or LDS) is joining lawmakers and the governor of the state of Utah to support a deal to legalize medical marijuana, even if a legalization initiative that's on this November's ballot ends up failing.

This is the first time to my knowledge the Mormon Church has made a statement supporting medical marijuana if prescribed by a doctor and dispensed by a pharmacy.

I'm a Utah resident and a cancer survivor, and I'm writing this from my home in Utah.

I found real medical benefit from cannabis during my treatment for breast cancer. The deal described in today's news (I haven't seen the text yet) is great progress for all Utahns, especially for those with cancer and other serious illnesses. The LDS previously shunned any and all cannabis use. This deal isn't enough, IMO, because marijuana smoking would still be illegal. Whole flower combustion has its benefits, and it is a valid method of ingesting cannabis for medical purposes. Read the rest

Lobsters at a restaurant in Maine are getting baked, not in the oven but with medical marijuana.

Charlotte Gill, the owner of Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound in Southwest Harbor, Maine, has been experimenting with getting her lobsters stoned as a way to ease their distress, pain, and suffering.

Boston.com:

After reading about cannabinoid receptors in invertebrates, Gill and her staff took a leftover cardboard box from a vendor and filled it with an inch of water, then covered the box and inserted a straw. They put their first test subject, named Roscoe, into the box and blew marijuana smoke through the straw. The result? Roscoe became very, very chill, she said.

“There was no desire to pinch or grab,” Gill said, noting that in the subsequent three weeks after she moved him back to the tank with his lobster friends, Roscoe remained relaxed, and she observed the other lobsters in the tank “calm down.” (Roscoe was eventually released back into the ocean as an appreciation for his service in her experiment.)

Before serving them to customers, the restaurant is still experimenting with a process where the crustacean is steamed for six minutes, then cooking the body and tail under an additional 420 degrees. Gill’s 82-year-old father is the test subject, and so far he hasn’t tested positive for THC after consuming the body and tail. He still needs to be tested after eating the claws, which did not undergo additional cooking.

Gill is a licensed medical marijuana caregiver and hopes to start serving her hot-boxed lobsters to customers as soon as next week. Read the rest

As you're probably aware, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is against the legalization of cannabis. At a Senate drug hearing in 2016, he even said, "Good people don’t smoke marijuana."

Now some enterprising folks are selling General Jeff's "Old Rebel" Session Papers, $5 packs of rolling papers that feature a cartoon image of Sessions smoking a fat joint. It started out as a joke but now they report they are close to selling out.

They write:

#JeffSesh is a campaign to tell Jeff Sessions:

We’re not criminals, junkies or idiots. Regular Jeffs all over the country—good, responsible, patriotic Americans—have a sesh now and then… and it's OK!

(The World's Best Ever) Read the rest

U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions keeps hinting that he's going to wage war against marijuana in states that have legalized it, and he probably would have started it by now if he wasn't so busy trying to weasel out of the Russia/perjury bind he got himself into. Meanwhile a 12-year-old girl, Alexis Bortell, who says her epileptic seizures have gone away since she started using cannabis oil, has filed a lawsuit against Sessions over the federal classification of marijuana as a Schedule One drug, which is reserved for drugs that have no medical value.

From KDVR:

"As the seizures got worse, we had to move to Colorado to get cannabis because it's illegal in Texas," said Bortell, who was diagnosed with epilepsy as a young child.

The sixth-grader said traditional medicine wasn't helping her seizures and doctors in her home state were recommending invasive brain surgery.

But a pediatrician did mention an out-of-state option: Medical marijuana.

Shortly after moving to Larkspur [Colorado], Bortell's family began using a strain of cannabis oil called Haleigh's Hope.

A drop of liquid THC in the morning and at night has kept her seizure-free for 2 1/2 years.

"I'd say it`s a lot better than brain surgery," Bortell said.

Other people joining Bortell in the lawsuit include a former pro football player, another minor, and a military veteran. The federal government moved to have the case dismissed, but lost.

Never give up! I won't! #alexisbortell

A post shared by Alexis Bortell (@alexisbortell) on Sep 14, 2017 at 8:33am PDT

Image: Wikipedia/Alexis Bortell Read the rest

The fellow who posted this video said, "I wanted to get medicated, so I asked the driver if I could smoke. He clearly said 'yes,' so I did. In New Orleans, marijuana has been decriminalized, so I didn't see the problem. But he did, so I got ejected." Read the rest

Two medical marijuana product companies are offering free weed to folks impacted by the catastrophic Valley fire. Recipients must present a valid medical marijuana prescription at one of 5 dispensaries in San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol or Lake County.

SFist shares:

The giveaway has been going on since Thursday and runs through October 7, and the two companies, Care By Design and AbsoluteXtracts, will be giving out the products via five dispensaries in San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, and Lake County, according to a joint statement.

Read the rest

My herb grinder collects a lot of pollen, and I had forgotten it was there. This handy pollen press lets me efficiently store and use it! Read the rest

The suit charges Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido with soliciting bribes for preferential treatment.

Although marijuana is legal to purchase – both for medical and recreational use –  in Colorado under state law, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled today that marijuana users can be fired from their jobs for using marijuana - even for medical reasons and outside of work hours. The case went to court nine months ago after Brandon Coats, a quadriplegic with a medical marijuana card, was fired by Dish Network in 2010 for using marijuana outside of work to control his seizures. His attorney, Michael Evans, says Coats' has no other options.

"For people like Brandon Coats, there really isn't a 'choice,' as MMJ is the only substance both he and his (Colorado-licensed) physicians know of to control his seizures due to his quadriplegia," Evans said. "He has to have it. "

But until marijuana laws are changed on the federal level, the federal ban on marijuana will always trump state laws, and in Colorado it is up each company to come up with their own policy on marijuana use after hours. For more details on the ruling, click here.

Image: "A medical cannabis patient's supply of medicine in their home." Sonya Yruel/Drug Policy Alliance Read the rest

National Geographic shares the stories of children who seek relief from cancer and epilepsy through the use of cannabidiol (CBD) oil with little to none of marijuana's psychoactive component THC. Read the rest

A cannabis extract containing non-psychoactive cannabidiol tested on hard-to-treat epileptic patients cut seizures in half. Read the rest

In December, Obama signed a bill containing a provision that prevents the federal government from interfering with states' medical marijuana activities. Yet, two weeks later, Obama’s Department of Justice filed "a strenuous defense of the drug’s Schedule I classification — the same category reserved for heroin."

This isn’t an abstract issue relevant only to constitutional obsessives. It’s a basic principle of ordered liberty that arises from even deeper foundations than our founding document. When the laws are in such discord and conflict as our drug laws are now, the enforcement of the law becomes of necessity an exercise in executive whim—compounding the capriciousness of arbitrary, selective application that Obama has made so conspicuous in his approach to governance.

At a time when the legitimacy and uniformity of government coercion has come into deep question among urban blacks in addition to suburban whites, the president needs to realize that in dithering on marijuana law he is playing with fire. His haphazard and contradictory mismanagement of America’s shift toward pot reform lends dangerous credence to the growing sense that our government no longer cares to guarantee our equal protection under the law.

Daily Beast: Obama’s Pot Policy Is Refer Madness Read the rest

The federal spending measure passed this weekend, and one of the provisions in it "effectively ends the federal government's prohibition on medical marijuana and signals a major shift in drug policy," reports the LA Times. The provision forbids federal drug agents from raiding retail operations.

I asked Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, if this was as big of a deal as it seems to be. He said, “It’s an historic vote in the annals of marijuana law reform. The disconnect between Congress and the vast majority of Americans regarding federal interference with state medical marijuana laws at last is over.”

Image: Shutterstock Read the rest

With the holiday season approaching, travelers likely have lots of questions about the rules set out by the TSA. Is mascara a liquid? Does a cane count as a personal item? Are ice skates allowed on a plane? And most importantly: Can I fly with my legally obtained marijuana? By Caroline Siede.

Beginning in 2015 medical marijuana cardholders throughout the US will be legally allowed to buy weed from Nevada dispensaries.

When you consider that Nevada has fewer than 7,000 medical marijuana patients, it’s not a very large base. But when you factor in MMJ patients from other states who might take advantage of Nevada’s system — another 110,000 from Colorado, 570,000 from California and 100,000 from Washington — suddenly those numbers are looking a lot better.

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