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Marijuana News Roundup: Marijuana Wins; Now What?

Paul Ausick

Published: November 13, 2016 8:41 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 5:52 pm

Of the nine states where voters last Tuesday had the opportunity to choose to legalize marijuana for medical or recreational use, people in eight states approved the ballot initiatives. Medical marijuana is now legal in Arkansas, Florida and North Dakota, and Montanans voted to ease legislatively imposed restrictions on medical marijuana that would have essentially made cannabis impossible to get.

California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada approved recreational use of marijuana, and Arizona voters rejected it. We’ve already our initial take on what the election of Donald Trump may mean for any state that has already or just approved marijuana legalization.

Here are some other stories that we think are worth a look:

• For a more detailed look on the future of marijuana legalization under a Trump administration, see this story in National Geographic.
• For how long it might take for states to get marijuana sales started and what it will take for states actually to begin sales, here’s a piece in The Cannabist.
• What may seem like an approaching boom for Las Vegas now that recreational use is legal, may not trickle up to the city’s casinos, according to this story at Casino.org.

How Marijuana Causes Memory Loss

Researchers have long suggested marijuana can cause memory loss. Now, a new study provides insight on this association, revealing how cannabinoids in the drug activate receptors in the mitochondria of the brain’s memory center to cause amnesia.

Study leader Dr. Giovanni Marsicano, of the University of Bordeaux in France, and team believe their findings – published in the journal Nature – may lead to the development of new therapeutics that target cannabinoid receptors, without the side effect of memory loss.

Cannabinoids are chemicals present in marijuana, as well as synthetic forms of the drug.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), there are more than 100 cannabinoids in marijuana, including the main psychoactive compound delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

These cannabinoids are similar in structure to cannabinoids that occur in the body naturally, such as anandamide. Naturally occurring cannabinoids function as neurotransmitters; they send signals between nerve cells, or neurons, affecting various brain regions, including those responsible for emotion, movement, coordination, sensory perception, and memory and thinking.

Read more at Medical News Today.

Seven Common Myths About Legal Marijuana

On Tuesday, nine states considered ballot initiatives that would legalize marijuana for medical or recreational purposes under state law. Twenty-five states have already legalized marijuana for medical use, and four have legalized it fully.

Opponents nevertheless make strong claims about adverse consequences from existing and proposed legalizations. We argue, based on the evidence, that such claims are exaggerated, misleading, or outright false.

Read more at Newsweek.

One in Every Five Americans Is About to Get Legally High After This Election

In the early hours of Nov. 9, Americans found out that their next president is Donald Trump; they also learned that marijuana’s slow drive to nationwide legality had shifted into the next gear.

These two facts may seem incongruous, but that’s only if you’re stuck in 20th-century politics. In 2016, marijuana has become one of the least contentious matters in US partisan politics, and is likely the issue on which most liberals find Trump to be least offensive.

On Nov. 8, which included not only presidential and congressional elections but ballot initiatives in 35 states, voters in Arkansas, Florida, and North Dakota made it legal for doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to their patients. Montana voted to ease recent restrictions on its decade-old medical marijuana law. That, for the first time, means smoking weed is legal, at least for medical and in some cases for recreational purposes, in 30 states.

Read more at Quartz.

Berlin Likely to Semi-legalize Marijuana

Almost completely obscured by the US election was the news that as part of their coalition negotiations to govern the city, Berlin’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the Left Party want to partially allow marijuana use.

Various newspapers cited Green politician Benedikt Lux saying that the three parties had agreed to seek a “scientifically monitored pilot project for the controlled distribution of cannabis to adults.”

That doesn’t sound exactly like bong hits of White Widow or Train Wreck Sweet for all, but advocates say the initiative could be a step toward getting marijuana decriminalized. In the past, explains Max Plenert of the German Hemp Association, attempts by city districts to legalize pot have foundered on the Federal Intoxicants Law, which bans cannabis. Plenert thinks that the entire city, which is also one of Germany’s 16 federal states, has far better chances for success.

“The legal code is decided at the federal level, and this is about a local attempt to try to do things differently,” Plenert told DW. “The Intoxicants Law provides for such experiments. You can apply for exceptions, although the Minister of Health also has influence over the final decision. The state of Berlin has far broader possibilities than a city district in terms of setting up a pilot project. We can make a far more powerful appeal for an exception.”

Leave it to Germany to translate the issue of whether people should be allowed to get high into a rather dry question of political procedure. Marijuana advocates argue that they’re just trying to bring the law in line with reality, particularly in Berlin, a city where it’s easy to buy cannabis and small-time dealing is rarely punished.

Read more at Deutsche Welle.