Voters approved State Question 788 by 56.8 percent, despite a concerted effort against the bill by law enforcement, religious groups, and the business community.

The decision, which makes Oklahoma the 30th state to legalize and regulate medical weed, allows those given a two-year license to possess up to eight ounces of marijuana, six mature plants, and six seedlings, as well as edibles and concentrated forms of the drug.

Controversially, Oklahoma’s law allows doctors to use discretion in prescribing the drug to any patient they think will benefit from it, unlike most other states, where the substance is only available to those suffering from a set list of ailments.

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(Oklahoma Legalizes Medical Marijuana – Weed Finder News  |  Article Credit: VICE News/David Gilbert, Video Credit: CBS News)

The legal marijuana market was already growing exponentially despite fears of a federal crackdown under Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but Trump’s signal that he’ll respect state legalization may swing open the floodgates by reassuring traditional investors, entrepreneurs and local lawmakers that it’s OK to jump in.

Across the nation, risk-takers have poured billions of dollars into the industry while knowing they could be arrested by federal agents at any moment.

They’ve built — largely unseen — a powerful network of businesses poised to take advantage of a more favorable federal climate. That industry has already woven itself into the fabric of the states where pot is legal, providing tens of thousands of jobs and generating billions of dollars in new tax revenues…
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(President Trump Approval Promises Substantial Growth for Cannabis Industry – Weed Finder News  |  Article Credit: USA Today)

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(The History of 420 – Weed Finder News  |  Article/Video Credit: Rolling Stone)

The California-based dispensary chain MedMen confirmed Tuesday that they will open a 10,000 square-foot retail space for qualified medical cannabis patients at 433 Fifth Ave., near Bryant Park. The major metropolitan location will be styled like MedMen’s classic Apple store look, but carry just a handful of licensed New York medical pot products. MenMen Manhattan will serve the state’s small patient base of 49,780. That’s versus hundreds of products in an average California dispensary, where about 23 million adults 21 age and over can walk in.

But as MedMen exec Daniel Yi told me in an interview last week, now’s the time to get established in the Empire State, which could allow recreational use of cannabis in anywhere from four to eight years. New York is set to be surrounded by legalization states including Massachusetts, Vermont, and soon New Jersey.

“Some in the media say, ‘This is dumb’, but the people who are dominant in California started ten years ago,” Yi said.

The midtown Manhattan store may be short on product or customers, but it’s long on symbolism, which can be just as important. “It’s a game-changer,” Yi said.

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(Marijuana Dispensary on Manhattan’s Fifth Ave Opens on 4/20 – Weed Finder News© | Article Credit: GreenState.com – David Downs)

When they leave their apartment, Benjamin wrestles free of her hand and nearly runs into oncoming traffic. Sharon attempts a trip to the supermarket but leaves before she finishes shopping because her son is screaming while he picks up items and throws them to the floor.

That was in October 2016, and typical of most days at the time. Sharon, a single mother who moved to Israel from the United States one year earlier, was alone and losing control. Benjamin was taking Ritalin, a drug usually associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which he did not have. He’d also tried the antipsychotic ziprasidone and a mix of antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs. None of them helped, and he often became more hyperactive as they wore off.

All that changed a year ago, when Benjamin started taking marijuana. In the little apartment he shares with his mother, mornings are now relaxed and orderly. His transformation may signal the arrival of a long-awaited and desperately needed healing for the many others just like him: children living with severe autism.

Autism spectrum disorder affects about 1 percent of children around the world, with disproportionately high rates in developed countries. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 68 children has been identified as having ASD, a wide-cast net of a diagnosis that encompasses several complex brain disorders that make communication and other interactions difficult. Children with milder “high-functioning” autism are often uninterested in making friends, feel uncomfortable when touched and have a hard time making eye contact or reading social cues. These individuals face challenges but can usually navigate building a life within their society.

But in cases of severe “low-functioning” autism like Benjamin’s, the symptoms are more pronounced and often violent. Children engage in repetitive and sometimes harmful behaviors, like rocking and head-banging, and are hypersensitive to sound and light, with exposure often triggering tantrum-like meltdowns. They can’t sleep. They have rages. Some of these children never learn to speak, or they reach their teen years uttering only a few words.

ASD has no cure, and most children’s symptoms are treated with medications approved for depression, anxiety or ADHD. As was the case with Benjamin, these drugs often cause their own set of obsessive behaviors and insomnia, along with weight gain. For many children with severe autism, the drugs help for just a few hours; once they wear off, symptoms like hyperactivity become even more extreme.
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(Is Cannabis the Best Treatment for Autism? – Weed Finder News |  Article Credit: Newsweek)

Inspired by the AG’s public remarks and his recent rescission of nine years’ worth of federal protective guidelines for marijuana businesses and users, Medicine Man‘s Jeff Sesh-ons is a sativa-leaning hybrid of Jet Fuel and Bio Diesel. The combination of genetics from Colorado-based 303 Seeds would usually equate to another strain called Rocket Fuel, but the Medicine Man grow produced a phenotype with different characteristics, so the staff was mulling over what to name it.

“We have a little fun with some strains occasionally,” says Bradley Roddy, director of retail operations for Medicine Man, who explains that the cultivation team will test out different female plants of the same genetics to decide which ones have the most desirable qualities to continue growing for future harvests. “Rocket Fuel had three strong candidates, but when they run side by side, they can taste and smell different…”

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(Denver Marijuana Dispensary Names Cannabis Strain After Jeff Sessions – Weed Finder News | Article Credit: Westword)

Indeed, there is a hypocrisy evident in some corners of the newly legal marijuana market. Earlier this year, Massachusetts medical marijuana provider Patriot Care drew controversy after it opposed a proposal to remove the ban on felony drug convictions from the state’s medical cannabis program.

“Permitting those who have demonstrated the interest and willingness to ignore state and federal drug laws sends the wrong signals to those who would participate in the legal, regulated industry,” wrote Robert Mayerson, CEO of Patriot Care, in a letter to the Massachusetts Public Health Council. While companies like Patriot Care operate legally under state law, all state-legal cannabis companies are violating federal drug laws.

Many states have marijuana laws that bar drug offenders from entering the cannabis industry in an effort to legitimize the trade and help prevent out-of-state diversion. In practice, the ban does not prevent trafficking. But it does shut out individuals with marijuana-related convictions, who are disproportionately black and Latino. And in a twist of absurdity, many of these felony bans apply only to drug-related crimes.

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(Finding Employees without Prior Cannabis Convictions an Issue for Dispensaries – Weed Finder® News  |  Article Credit: Forbes.com)

“I just want kids like me to be able to do what number kids are able to do,” said Alexis Bortell, 11, in a Skype interview with WFAA from her new home in Colorado.

Alexis lived in Rowlett until two years ago.

Pharmaceuticals could not stop her crippling seizures so her family packed up and moved to Denver where they discovered medical marijuana is the only thing that could help their oldest daughter.

It’s not the kind of medical marijuana that’s smoked but rather a blend of THC and CBD cannabis oil.

“I haven’t had a seizure in 866 days,” said Alexis.

She is one of several plaintiffs asking a federal court in New York to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug and essentially legalize it as medicine.
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(11-Year-Old Texas Girl Suing U.S. Govt to Legalize Medical Cannabis – Weed Finder® News | Article Credit: WFAA.com)

On Friday, Gov. Brian Sandoval endorsed the department’s call for a “statement of emergency,” which would allow for more licensed distributors, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.

Nearly 50 dispensaries in the state have licenses to sell marijuana for recreational use. Those sales got underway on July 1.

But those same retailers do not legally have the authority to restock their inventories.

Alcohol wholesalers have the exclusive rights to move marijuana from growers to retailers in Nevada, as part of a temporary court order that was extended in June by a Carson City district judge. The rule aims to “promote the goal of regulating marijuana similar to alcohol” — and protect liquor stores from losing business as the demand for recreational marijuana rises.

Nevada is the only state with legal marijuana that has such an arrangement.
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(Nevada Almost Out of Weed, Gov Endorses ‘Statement of Emergency’ – Weed Finder® News  |  Article Credit: Business Insider)