State News

California is ablaze, and as wildfires scorch an arid landscape, some of those flames are burning the state’s most sacred crop. Yes, large marijuana fields have gone up in smoke in recent months, and more such fires are likely. This raises an inevitable question: Could you get baked if you got caught downwind? It’s not an idle ponderance. Plenty of ...

Election Day 2014 marked a major turning point in the movement to reform marijuana laws. Two new states legalized recreational pot by substantial margins, as did Washington, D.C. A major medical marijuana initiative failed in Florida, but it was the only setback of the day. So what does all this mean for the future of cannabis policy in California? Above ...

Despite fear-mongering to the contrary, decriminalization of marijuana in California hasn’t led to a surge in crime, impaired driving, drug overdoses, or high school dropout rates, according to a new study. In fact, just the opposite has occurred. The report, produced by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, was released in October. The researchers found that none of the ...

A bill approved by lawmakers in the House of Representatives could end the long-running crackdown on medical marijuana in California. The so-called Hinchey-Rohrbacher Amendment passed the House Dec. 11. Attached to the $1.1 trillion budget under consideration in Congress, the amendment would rescind funding from the Department of Justice that is used to “prevent (medical marijuana states) from implementing their ...

Yet another attempt to impose new regulations on the medical marijuana industry in California has fallen apart. Legislation to regulate the chaotic MMJ market died in Senate committee before the end of the legislative session in August. The defeat followed the failure to pass another medical marijuana reform bill in the Assembly. Similar attempts have died in each of the ...

Cannabis is getting a whole new audience. An indie film company has struck a deal to promote two new cannabis strains through a horror film from director Kevin Smith. The movie, “Tusk,” is about a man who slowly turns into a walrus. Marketers plan to use it to sell two branded strains of marijuana, Mr. Tusk and White Walrus, both ...

A Canadian medical marijuana company is looking to set up an operation in California, where medical weed is legal. Maple Leaf Green World announced in September that the business had hired three men – Brian Patterson, Marc Montoya, and Dillon Patterson – to start a pot-growing business in the Los Angeles area. Officials with the company said they want to ...

Synthetic marijuana, a dangerous chemical concoction designed to produce a weed-like high, claimed another life in California last month. Connor Eckhardt, a 19-year-old California teen, died shortly after taking a single hit of synthetic pot, also known as K2 or Spice. The drug consists of dried herbs sprayed with chemicals that mimic marijuana’s effect on the brain. Eckhardt suffered immediate ...

A longtime online journalist at NBC News is leaving the staid world of mainstream reporting for a new assignment: writing about weed. “I’ve been a journalist for as long as I’ve been a marijuana advocate,” said senior editor Al Olson. “My first byline was at the age of 14, the same age I smoked my first joint.” Olson announced in ...

A recent poll finds most Latinos in California view drug possession, especially marijuana possession, as an illegitimate reason for deporting undocumented immigrants. The poll was released July 25 by Presente.org. “Latinos believe that the war on drugs is a failure and that our sentencing system is broken,” said Arturo Carmona, executive director of Presente.org. “Families shouldn’t be torn apart over ...