Sales of cannabis for recreational use got off to a roaring start last weekend in Nevada. One often-cited estimate for the first four days (July 1 through July 4) of retail sales comes to $3 million. Of that, the state’s tax take is about $1 million.

The state, however, appears to have been unprepared for that level of success. Demand has been so great that licensed dispensaries are running out of supplies. The state’s Department of Taxation has declared a “statement of emergency” that would permit state officials to come up with ways to combat the shortage.

According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, the regulation would allow state officials to consider distribution applications from a larger pool of applicants. The problem, as we have noted before, is the result of a restriction in the legalization law that grants the state’s alcohol distributors an 18-month head start on pot distribution. Only seven liquor distributors have done so and state officials say that most of the other distributors that have applied don’t meet the requirements to become a licensed pot distributor.

 

Scientists Lay the Groundwork for a Reliable Marijuana Breathalyzer
Marijuana is now legal for recreational or medicinal use in at least 28 states and the District of Columbia. But driving under the influence of marijuana is illegal no matter which state you’re in. To enforce the law, authorities need a simple, rigorous roadside test for marijuana intoxication.

Although several companies are working to develop marijuana breathalyzers, testing a person’s breath for marijuana-derived compounds is far more complicated than testing for alcohol.

But scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have taken an important step toward that goal by measuring a fundamental physical property of the main psychoactive compound in marijuana, delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Specifically, they measured the vapor pressure of this compound—a measurement that, due to the compound’s chemical structure, is very difficult and has not been accomplished before. The results were published in Forensic Chemistry.

“Vapor pressure describes how a compound behaves when it transitions from a liquid to a gas,” said Tara Lovestead, a NIST chemical engineer and the lead author of the study. “That’s what happens in your lungs when a molecule leaves the blood to be exhaled in your breath. So if you want to accurately measure blood levels based on breath, you need to know the vapor pressure.”

Read more at Phys.org.

Marijuana and Vulnerability to Psychosis
Going from an occasional user of marijuana to a weekly or daily user increases an adolescent’s risk of having recurrent psychotic-like experiences by 159%, according to a new Canadian study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. The study also reports effects of marijuana use on cognitive development and shows that the link between marijuana use and psychotic-like experiences is best explained by emerging symptoms of depression.

“To clearly understand the impact of these results, it is essential to first define what psychotic-like experiences are: namely, experiences of perceptual aberration, ideas with unusual content and feelings of persecution,” said the study’s lead author, Josiane Bourque, a doctoral student at Université de Montréal’s Department of Psychiatry. “Although they may be infrequent and thus not problematic for the adolescent, when these experiences are reported continuously, year after year, then there’s an increased risk of a first psychotic episode or another psychiatric condition.”

She added: “Our findings confirm that becoming a more regular marijuana user during adolescence is, indeed, associated with a risk of psychotic symptoms. This is a major public-health concern for Canada.”

Read more at Science Daily.

Next Hurdle in Recreational Marijuana: Legal Pot Use in Public
When Oregon voters in 2014 approved the ballot measure legalizing recreational pot, they specified that pot use in public places would remain unlawful.

But as marijuana growing, processing, retailing and consumption have swelled in Oregon, so has the chorus pushing for the right to toke on pipes or joints or inhale from vaporizers in public — whether at pot lounges or in city parks.

Some Oregon lawmakers tried to push the public-­smoking bubble in the legislative session that just ended. Senate Bill 307 would have allowed licensed marijuana lounges, where pot smokers and vapers could publicly partake in pot. It also would have allowed public marijuana use at temporary events.

But the bill died in committee, despite the backing of famous former Trail Blazer basketball player Cliff Robinson, now a pot retailer and advocate, and other notables, such as Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler.

Public use of pot remains one of the unresolved features of recreational marijuana legalization in Oregon. People do smoke pot in public, including on streets and in parks. But that’s a violation of state law, a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $3,500 and six months in jail.

Read more at The [Eugene, Oregon] Register Guard.

Federal Cannabis Pesticide Ruling Widens Rift with State
U.S. pesticide regulators have denied the registration of four pesticides for cannabis cultivation in California, stating that “cultivation of cannabis is generally unlawful,” and further dividing the rift between the federal and state on marijuana use.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced its intention to deny the application for four pesticides – commonly used on a wide range of food crops and approved for organic crops under federal law – in a letter dated June 22.

However, the U.S. EPA also states that the applications submitted by the California Department of Pesticide Regulations in late May [do] not meet the standard of “similar use pattern” to other federally registered products.

But this decision is clearly more about the division between how the federal government views marijuana – a schedule 1 controlled substance – and how the states that have legalized its use for medical or recreational purposes.

“. . . the Administrator (of the U.S. EPA) intends to determine disapproval is reasonable because the EPA does not believe the process under (federal pesticide statutes) to be used for the purpose of  facilitating activities that are generally in violation of federal law,” the letter signed by E. Scott Pruitt, administrator of the EPA, states.

California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana when the voters backed the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Voters then broadly approved recreational use in November.

Read more at the [Solano County, California] Daily Republic.

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