With just over nine weeks remaining before the November election, voters in some of the nine states where a medical or recreational marijuana measure is on the ballot and who have not yet made up their minds are not likely to affect the outcome much. At least, that appears to be the case based on some recent polling.

Among the five states where recreational marijuana use is being considered, Californians seem already to have made up their minds. Including a poll taken in February, and three more taken since mid-June, average support for legalizing marijuana now runs just over 60%. Opponents of the measure (known as Prop 64) garner 37% of the voters, and less than 2% are undecided.

The vote is much tighter in Massachusetts, where support for a recreational marijuana initiative  (known as Question 4) has lost ground and is trailing by 10 points in the most recent poll, 51% opposed to 41% in favor. This despite the fact that no committee to oppose the measure has been registered and proponents have raised nearly $500,000 in cash and in-kind donations.

Florida voters will be voting again on a proposed constitutional amendment  (known as Amendment 2) to legalize the use of medical marijuana in the state. A similar initiative was defeated just two years ago when supporters fell short of a 60% required majority by just two percentage points. Proponents and opponents had raised more than $5.6 million as of late July, with supporters’ war chest more than double that of opponents, $3.9 million to $1.8 million.

Other states voting on recreational use measures are Nevada, Arizona and Maine. Other states voting on medical marijuana are Arkansas, North Dakota and Montana.

Marijuana: A Potent Disrupter for Young Users, Whose Brains Are Still Developing

Devan Fuentes made it all the way through San Clemente High School without drinking or using drugs. He vividly remembers the first time he smoked pot. He was visiting a friend at Occidental College, and decided the moment had come.

“They brought out a giant three-foot bong,” Fuentes told me the other day in a rustic coffee shop tucked into this town’s historic Los Rios neighborhood. “I heard a lot of people don’t get high their first time, so I held it in for a long time, one large hit. Immediately, I couldn’t feel my legs.”

This was not an entirely unpleasant sensation for Fuentes, 23, who described his younger self as quiet, prone to depression and even “sort of an outcast.”

Pot made him feel more extroverted.

Read more in the Los Angeles Times.

Melissa Etheridge Enters Marijuana Business with Etheridge Farms Line of Products

Melissa Etheridge is diving headlong into the marijuana business. Her company, Etheridge Farms, will soon be making cannabis products available for California medical patients.

“I’m right in the process of branding,” she tells Billboard. “There’s a balm that’s so good for muscles and arthritis. I have my own smoke, some edibles and some [oil] cartridges. I’m really just entering the market with what I’ve learned in the last 10 years about cannabis in wanting to bring a product to America that is focused on health and on wellness and how important this plant is and used to be in our medicinal system. Seventy years ago it was on pharmacy shelves, now it’s time to get back to that; to understand plant medicine. That’s really where I want to enter this market in — is for the person who is looking to unwind at night and not have a couple of drinks and feel like crap in the morning. Maybe this is an alternative, maybe I can wind down this way. And wow, maybe this topical actually helps with this inflammation. I just feel really strongly about the medicinal aspects of cannabis.”

Which is completely understandable. The singer/songwriter was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. Twelve years later, she’s cancer-free, in large part due to her use of marijuana.

“I believe anybody who smokes cannabis is using it medicinally, whether they consider it so or not,” she says. “If it’s my means of relaxing and unplugging and de-stressing at the end of the day, who’s to say that’s not good medicine? Isn’t that what you do when you take your Ambiens and your Valiums and stuff? It’s the same thing. My stress level and all the things I felt contributed to my cancer 12 years ago, I absolutely treat them everyday by smoking cannabis and keeping a balance in my life.”

Read more at Billboard.

Montana Dispensaries Close Under Strict New Rules

Medical marijuana dispensaries across Montana have closed their doors as new restrictions took effect Wednesday that limit pot providers to three patients apiece, leaving thousands of pot users registered with the state without a legal way to buy the drug.

The restrictions begin after five years of unsuccessful court battles to overturn the 2011 state law that rolled back much of a voter-approved law that brought medical marijuana to Montana in 2004. It is one of the most significant rollbacks by the 25 states and Washington, D.C., that allow marijuana to be used for medical purposes.

Medical marijuana advocates estimate that over 12,000 patients are losing legal access to pot because their providers did not choose them as one of their three patients. There were 13,190 registered patients at the end of July, says the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.

Dispensaries posted Facebook messages to their patients that they were closing Tuesday. Some offered their products at discounts, such as Lionheart Caregiving’s $3 marijuana brownie sale, while others gave away inventory before closing down.

“Everybody’s shutting down,” said Kate Cholewa, government relations director for the Montana Cannabis Industry Association. “It’s over.”

[Editor’s Note: Montana voters will vote in November on new medical marijuana legislation.]

Read more at The Cannabist.

US Court Upholds Ban on Gun Sales to Marijuana Card Holders

A federal ban on the sale of guns to medical marijuana card holders does not violate the Second Amendment, a federal appeals court said Wednesday.

The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals applies to the nine Western states that fall under the court’s jurisdiction, including California, Washington and Oregon.

It came in a lawsuit filed by S. Rowan Wilson, a Nevada woman who said she tried to buy a firearm for self-defense in 2011 after obtaining a medical marijuana card. The gun store refused, citing the federal rule banning the sale of firearms to illegal drug users.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Read more at the Associated Press.

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