United States
Higher than US
Lower than US
US Average
Past-month marijuana use ages 12 and older, 2017-2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health State Estimates.
Marijuana & Legalization
Who is backing New Approach, the top cannabis legalization PAC?
11/3/20--New Approach PAC is the top backer of cannabis ballot measures. According to Cannabis Wire, the PAC has raised nearly $10 million in 2020, and it is backing every campaign for medical or adult use legalization in 2020, except in Arizona. New Approach’s top contributors include philanthropist Cari Tuna, Napster founder Sean Parker, and philanthropist Alexandra Cohen. Read Marijuana legalization proponents outraising opponents 36-to-1 in 2020
10/27/20--Financial support for marijuana legalization, both medical and recreational, has grown significantly in 2020 compared to 2016. Proponents of state ballot measures have outraised opponents this election season by almost 36-to-1, a massive increase from four years ago when advocates outstripped the opposition by only 4-to-1. Read A look inside this year’s adult-use legalization campaigns
10/28/20--Activists working on measures in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota discussed voter education, COVID, legal challenges and more during the NORML 2020 Conference. Read With eye on election and beyond, marijuana industry spends millions on lobbying
10/12/20--According to an article published in Marijuana Business Daily, if Congress moves closer to passing a bill to legalize marijuana, it’s likely lobbying efforts and spending will intensify, given that a crucial question is how the federal government would regulate a national cannabis industry. Read Who are 2020’s top marijuana legalization campaign donors? We’ve got all the data
10/13/20--In most of the five states with cannabis legalization measures on the 2020 ballot, public campaign finance data indicates that prohibitionists are hurting for cash. Read Marijuana & Health
Peter Thiel backs Berlin start-up making psychedelics in $125 million round
11/23/20--Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel has backed ATAI Life Sciences, a Berlin start-up aiming to make psychedelic drugs to treat mental health disorders in a $125 million funding round. Described as a drug development platform, ATAI Life Sciences was set up to acquire, incubate and develop psychedelics and other drugs that can be used to treat depression, anxiety, addiction and other mental health conditions. Read Biden embraces drug courts, but do they actually work?
11/2/20--Despite three decades of intensive research, experts remain deeply divided over the efficacy — and ethics — of drug courts. Drug courts essentially offer a choice to defendants whose alleged crimes are deemed to have been the result of a substance use disorder. Proponents say these courts are both a compassionate alternative to incarceration and a more efficient form of justice, achieving lower crime and recidivism rates for less money than traditional criminal processes. Read Trends in the age of cigarette smoking initiation among young adults in the US from 2002 to 2018
10/6/20--In this repeated cross-sectional study including 71,756 young adults aged 22 to 23 years, the proportion of ever smokers who initiated cigarette smoking in early adulthood more than doubled between 2002 and 2018, and the proportion of daily cigarette smokers who transitioned to daily smoking in early adulthood also increased from 38.7% in 2002 to 55.9% in 2018. Read Young adults as a tobacco control priority population in the US
10/6/20--This study by Barrington-Trimis et al used data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health to examine the proportion of young adult cigarette smokers (aged 22-23 years) who initiated smoking in young adulthood from 2002 to 2018. Barrington-Trimis and colleagues found that during this period with population-level declines in cigarette smoking among youth and young adults, the average age of smoking initiation and the proportion of new initiates and daily smokers who were young adults increased. Read Substance use disorder linked to higher COVID-19 risk
10/27/20--People with substance use disorder (SUD), particularly those with opioid use disorder (OUD) and Black individuals, are at an increased risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), according to a recent study coauthored by Nora Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Read Marijuana & Safety
Investing and Prosecution of Cannabis-Impaired Driving Cases
10/14/20--The National District Attorneys Association’s National Traffic Law Center(NTLC), a resource designed to benefit prosecutors, law enforcement, judges, and criminal justice professionals, has prepared the Investigation and Prosecution of Cannabis-Impaired Driving Cases Monograph. Given that cannabis-impaired driving is becoming increasingly prevalent, this guide offers information to educate about the signs and symptoms of cannabis impairment so they law enforcement officers and prosecutors may effectively prosecute these types of impaired driving cases. Read Pesticide products registered for use on hemp
9/22/20--Since December 2019, EPA has approved adding hemp to the use sites of 47 pesticides. Forty-six of the products are biopesticides and one is a conventional pesticide. As EPA receives additional applications to amend product labels to add use on hemp, the agency will process those applications on an ongoing basis and update this list. Read Workforce drug testing positivity climbed to highest rate in 16 years
8/25/20--New Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index™ Analysis finds that marijuana positivity climbed by double digits across nearly all employee testing categories, while opiate and heroin positivity decline. Additionally, analysis of more than nine million workplace drug test results showed cocaine and methamphetamine positivity surges in Midwest. Read Marijuana Regulatory Agency recalls contaminated pre-rolls, suspends processor licenses pending investigation
8/6/20--The Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA) issued a public health and safety bulletin today, notifying the public of a marijuana product recall of contaminated “pre-rolls” from retail outlets located in Bay City, Hazel Park, Detroit, Traverse City, Ann Arbor, Lansing, River Rouge, Ferndale, Quincy, Lowell, Negaunee, and Lapeer. In addition, the MRA stipulated and agreed to a 14-day suspension of the medical and adult-use processor licenses of 3843 Euclid LLC in Bay City, pending further MRA investigation. Read National Governors Association selects 10 states for data-driven strategies to address impaired driving
8/10/20--As state and local governments adjust to the changing landscape of drug use, the National Governors Association will assist 10 states in developing and executing action plans to improve data collection and standardization efforts related to impaired driving. The states selected are: Colorado, Connecticut, Hawai‘i, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming. Read Marijuana & Commerce
Cannabis company Aphria to acquire SweetWater Brewing for $300M
11/4/20--Canadian cannabis giant Aphria is expanding into the U.S. with its $300 million acquisition of SweetWater Brewing Company, according to a release. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2020. Based on volume, SweetWater Brewing is one of the biggest independent craft brewers in the U.S. Aphria has several medical and adult-use cannabis brands in Canada. Read Why Canadian cannabis firm Aphria bought US craft brewer for $300M: Q&A with CFO Carl Merton
11/5/20--Aphria’s deal to buy Atlanta-based SweetWater Brewing Co. is believed to be the first time a large Canadian cannabis company reached across the border to buy a successful craft brewer. Marijuana Business Daily spoke with Aphria Chief Financial Officer Carl Merton about the rationale for the acquisition, and the company’s future plans in the U.S. market. Read Canopy Growth rolls out its first CBD-spiked beverages
11/5/20--Canopy Growth announced Wednesday that it has launched its first line of CBD drinks, called Quatreau. It is being introduced onto the Canadian market in both CBD-only and "balanced" versions, with the latter containing both CBD and THC. Read Cannabis
11/9/20--As published in Tobacco Tactics, the tobacco industry has long-standing interest in cannabis as a potential product. Internal industry documents reveal that since 1970, Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, and RJ Reynolds have been interested in commercial cannabis manufacture. Furthermore, as sited in a recent Huffington Post article by Kevin Sabet, in the US where recreational cannabis is now legal in 11 states, 4 tobacco companies have leant their support to pro-cannabis groups lobbying for legalization. Read Drop in political funding by MPP illustrates shift toward marijuana trade groups, MSOs
10/26/20--The Marijuana Policy Project has long been a leader in funding cannabis reform at the state and federal levels, but the current election season demonstrates that MPP’s role is shifting in a significant way – toward a more collaborative position with industry trade associations and large MJ companies. Read Marijuana & Culture
The Schedule I Status of Marijuana
9/11/20--The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) places various substances in one of five schedules based on their medical use, potential for abuse, and safety or risk for dependence. Marijuana is listed as a Schedule I controlled substance under the CSA, and has been on Schedule I since the CSA was enacted in 1970 (P.L. 91-513). The Schedule I status of marijuana means that the substance is strictly regulated by federal authorities. Read IRS sweetens the pot with new marijuana industry web page
9/14/20--The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released a new marijuana business webpage to help business owners understand and meet their tax responsibilities. The IRS says that it “understands this is a new and growing industry and provided frequently asked questions about record keeping, cash payment options, large cash amounts, and other related topics to help promote voluntary compliance in the industry.” Read How legal weed destroyed a counterculture icon
9/4/20--Constantly running afoul of authorities, High Times magazine became an icon of the counterculture and an indispensable guide to the underground world of cannabis. It also survived the suicide of its outlaw founder, the war on drugs, and three federal grand jury investigations, as reported in a Politico article. But now that cannabis has become legal across much of the country, High Times finds itself in a different kind of trouble. Read Twitter partners with feds on campaign flagging ‘marijuana’ searches while giving ‘alcohol’ a pass
9/10/20--Twitter is partnering with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a federal drug agency, to promote substance misuse treatment resources when users of the social media platform search for “marijuana” or certain other substance-related keywords—but no such health warning appears with results for alcohol-connected terms. Read Commend Biden for resisting Big Marijuana | opinion
7/14/20--The Biden-Sanders joint presidential task force recently issued recommendations for a unity platform to move forward on a number of hot button issues. Among them: marijuana legalization, which the task force notably chose not to endorse, siding instead with decriminalization and research. Several commentators—from publications like National Review to The Atlantic and The Nation—chided Biden for not endorsing pot. But, according to a Newsweek op-ed by president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana Kevin Sabet, the former vice president should be commended for siding with science, not politics. Read Marijuana & Enforcement
9 amicus briefs filed with Supreme Court in support of removing cannabis from Controlled Substances Act
9/17/20--Plaintiffs in the Washington v. Barr case, which seeks to declare the federal law that criminalizes marijuana unconstitutional, have received impressive support in the form of several amicus briefs from cannabis industry organizations, researchers and current federal lawmakers. The case, brought by former NFL player and current cannabis business owner Marvin Washington, claims that the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) is unconstitutional by blocking patient access to the medication and sits in contradiction with the U.S. government’s own statements. Read “False and Misleading:” Suit claims select vapes contain less THC than labelled
7/31/20--A new class action lawsuit against Oregon cannabis company Cura CS LLC seeks more than $10M over claims that its Select Elite vape cartridges contained much less THC than labeled. Read Court Denies DEA’s attempt to dismiss medical marijuana case
8/21/20--On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit filed a one-page order denying the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)’s motion to dismiss in a lawsuit in which the Scottsdale Research Institute and its president, Dr. Suzanne Sisley, are attempting to reschedule medical marijuana. Read
SEC files charges in $25 million cannabis-related offering fraud
7/29/20--The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against six individuals and their companies for defrauding investors in connection with unregistered securities offerings that raised over $25 million. Read Cannabis companies facing proposed class-action lawsuit over alleged mislabelling
6/18/20--Some major cannabis companies in Canada are facing a multi-million dollar proposed class-action lawsuit over allegations the potency of their products is “drastically different” than advertised. The statement of claim filed in Calgary on Tuesday accuses the companies of failing to properly label their products and alleges negligence on their part. Read