Lakeland, FL: The adoption of state-level marijuana legalization laws is associated with reductions in the number of alcohol-related fatalities involving pedestrians, according to data published in the journal IATSS (International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences) Research. A pair of researchers affiliated with Florida Polytechnic University examined the relationship between marijuana legalization and rates of pedestrian-involved fatal crashes between the years 1985 and 2019. Investigators reported …

Oklahoma City, OK: Oklahomans will decide on March 7 whether to approve a citizens’ initiated measure (State Question 820) legalizing the adult-use marijuana market. State Question 820 permits adults to legally possess and home-cultivate personal use qualities of cannabis while also establishing a licensed, retail marketplace. Those with past marijuana convictions, or those who are currently incarcerated for certain cannabis-related crimes, would be …

Honolulu, Hawaii: Licensing Hawaiian businesses to engage in cultivating and selling cannabis to adults will create thousands of jobs and raise tens of millions of dollars in new tax revenue, according to an economic assessment provided by the Hawai’i Cannabis Industry Association. Authors of the report estimated that legalization will create 3,375 new jobs and will yield nearly $82 million in annual tax revenue. …

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 3, 2023 /CNW/ – Weldon Angelos, Founder of The Weldon Project and Mission [Green] which focuses on gaining the release of cannabis prisoners, announced today that he helped secure the release of Luke Scarmazzo, who was serving 22 years in federal prison for lawfully operating a state compliant medical cannabis dispensary from 2004-2006. Today, U.S. District Court judge Dale A. Drozd granted compassionate …

MIAMI, Feb. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ayr Wellness Inc. (CSE: AYR.A, OTCQX: AYRWF) (“Ayr” or the “Company”), a leading vertically integrated U.S. multi-state cannabis operator (“MSO”), announced it will host its second iteration of “Changing Legacies,” a multi-state series of clinics to expunge the records of individuals with past cannabis convictions. Ayr’s “Changing Legacies” series is a core pillar of the …

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Americans for Safe Access (ASA) unveiled their annual report, “2022 State of the States Report: An Analysis of Medical Cannabis Access in the United States.”The report evaluates the effectiveness of each state cannabis program from a patient perspective and assigns a grade using a rubric that reflects the key issues affecting patient access, broken down into more …

Montreal, Canada: The adoption of state laws regulating the sale of cannabis to adults is strongly associated with reductions in the use of prescription opioids, according to a review of longitudinal studies published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry. Canadian investigators reviewed data from 32 longitudinal studies evaluating public health outcomes in states that legalized adult-use cannabis sales compared to jurisdictions that did not. …