Last Thursday, the California state Assembly approved a bill that would prohibit state and local law enforcement officers from assisting federal drug agents making arrests of people complying with the state’s drug laws. The bill now moves to the state Senate.

The bill, if passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, would effectively make California a “sanctuary state” against enforcement of federal drug laws related to the sale and use of marijuana. The state is also considering similar legislation to become a sanctuary state regarding federal immigration laws.

Proponents argued that stricter enforcement of federal anti-marijuana laws supported by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions along with a push for stricter sentencing are counter to the spirit of the spirit and letter of Proposition 64 that voters approved last November making sales of recreational marijuana legal in the state.

Opponents countered that the legislation flouts federal law and would interfere with local and state agencies’ ability to cooperate with the federal government.

The bill narrowly passed the Assembly and faces similar long odds in the state Senate.

What Wounded Veterans Need: Medical Marijuana
After 16 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, many Americans view post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and traumatic brain injury, or TBI, as the “signature” wounds of these conflicts. The Department of Veterans Affairs has spent billions of dollars to better understand the symptoms, effects, and treatments for these injuries. But despite advances in diagnostics and interventions in a complex constellation of physical, emotional, behavioral and cognitive defects, TBI and PTSD remain leading causes of death and disability within the veteran community.

There is something else the U.S. can do for suffering veterans: research medical marijuana.

Many Afghanistan and Iraq veterans have contacted the American Legion to relay their personal stories about the efficacy of cannabis in significantly improving their quality of life by enabling sleep, decreasing the prevalence of night terrors, mitigating hyper-alertness, reducing chronic pain, and more. This is why the 2.2 million members of the American Legion are calling on the Trump administration to instruct the Drug Enforcement Agency to change how it classifies cannabis, release the monopoly on cultivation for research purposes, and immediately allow highly-regulated privately-funded medical marijuana production operations in the United States to enable safe and efficient cannabis drug development research.

Read more at Defense One.

The DEA Says ‘Marijuana Is Not Medicine’ — Reality Says Otherwise
Speaking in Ohio on Thursday, Chuck Rosenberg — acting administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration — declared, “Marijuana is not medicine.”

He may as well as said the Earth is flat.

In April, Gov. Jim Justice (D) of West Virginia signed legislation into law making the Mountain State the 30th state to authorize the physician-recommended use of marijuana or marijuana-infused products.

His decision was not only based upon compassion but also upon evidence. In January, scholars at the National Academy of Sciences determined that there exists “conclusive evidence” that cannabis is effective for the treatment of chronic pain and other diseases.

An additional 16 states permit patients to access products containing cannabidiol, a specific chemical compound available in the cannabis plant that is known to possess anti-psychotic and anti-epileptic effects.  

On Wednesday, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial data published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine reported that CBD administration significantly reduces seizure frequency in children with an otherwise drug-resistant form of the disease — a finding that led the study’s lead author to pronounce: “Cannabis is approved in 20 countries for spasms in multiple sclerosis so to say there’s no evidence of efficacy is simply untrue. … They have to de-schedule this drug. It’s just not fair to the research and clinical communities, or to the patients. It’s medieval.”

Read more at The Hill.

Court Order Could Delay Nevada Retail Marijuana Sales
Nevada’s July 1 roll out of recreational marijuana sales could be in jeopardy after a district court judge signed a temporary restraining order.

A judge on Tuesday signed the order prohibiting the Department of Taxation from enforcing a May 31 license application deadline for the state’s recently approved early start program.

The Independent Alcohol Distributors of Nevada filed a complaint arguing that the November voter-approved ballot measure that legalized cannabis in Nevada gives liquor wholesalers exclusive rights to marijuana distribution licenses for the first 18 months of sales in the state.

Despite that claim, tax commissioners approved temporary regulations on May 8 to give the tax department discretion in doling out licenses for marijuana distributors. Distributors will be responsible for transporting marijuana products from cultivation and production facilities to dispensaries.

“The statute clearly gives a priority and exclusive license to alcohol distributors, in order to promote the goal of regulating marijuana similar to alcohol,” the judge ruled.

Read more at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Marijuana Real Estate: Cannabis Cultivation Grows to 4.2 Million Square Feet in Denver Area
The boom may be over.

Marijuana’s appetite for metro real estate, once a driver of the industrial-market recovery, is showing signs of stabilizing after Denver’s decision last year to cap the number of grow operations in the city.

But first, the industry gobbled up another big chunk of warehouse space.

Marijuana grows occupied 4.2 million square feet of industrial space in metro Denver at the end of 2016 — up 14 percent since the second quarter of 2015, when they accounted for 3.7 million square feet, according to a new report from CBRE Research.

“Most of that growth took place in the second half of 2015 and the first half of 2016. Nothing really has happened in the latter half of 2016,” said Matt Vance, economist and director of research and analysis for CBRE in Colorado. “Things have stabilized.”

Overall, the Denver market is home to 145.8 million square feet of warehouse space. The overwhelming majority of grow space in the metro area falls within Denver city limits.

Read more at the Denver Post.

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