Paul Armentano

The FBI confirmed this week that cops across the U.S. made nearly a quarter of a million marijuana-related arrests in 2022, during which time cannabis was legal in some form, recreationally or medically, in nearly 38 states. Of these arrests, 92% were for...

As Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference returns to Chicago this Sept 27-28 for its 17th edition, gathering top CEOs, investors and leaders in the cannabis industry, let's scroll through the latest regulatory changes in the space. Pre-Employment Marijuana Screening Scrapped For Michigan State...

There is already a nationwide shortage of police officers and testing for past cannabis use among young recruits is not helping matters.  An Arizona newspaper takes a look at how the police force in Chandler, the fourth most populous town in Arizona (pop. 285,000), is experiencing a...

This article was originally published by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and appears here with permission. Employees who consume cannabis during their off-hours possess no greater risk of occupational injury than do those who abstain from marijuana altogether,...

This article was originally published by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and appears here with permission. Most consumers residing in jurisdictions in the United States where the adult use of cannabis is legal report obtaining their marijuana primarily from...

During Thursday's Senate hearing on the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) used his time to ask the CEO of an anti-legalization organization several important questions. Fetterman pressed anti-cannabis crusader Kevin Sabet of...

Anxiety is running high in the cannabis industry as the Senate Banking Committee gets ready to discuss the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which seeks to normalize relations between state-licensed cannabis businesses and financial institutions.  Most everyone is...

This article was originally published by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and appears here with permission. Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee has signed legislation (Senate Bill 5123) into law prohibiting employers from taking adverse actions against new hires because of...

This article, written by NORML, appears here with permission. Legislation providing patients with greater access to medical cannabis is now law in the District of Columbia. On January 31st, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser signed legislation, B24-0013: The Medical Cannabis Amendment Act. After undergoing an...

This was originally published by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and appears here with permission. Costs specific to the state sanctioned use of medical cannabis are eligible for reimbursement under workers’ compensation laws, according to a...

This article, written by NORML, appears here with permission. Over 40,000 commercially licensed truck drivers failed federally mandated drug screens for marijuana in 2022, and many did not reapply to return to work, according to statistics compiled by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety...

Nearly one in three patients with chronic pain use cannabis as an analgesic agent, and many of them say they're substituting marijuana for opioids, according to data published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open. Researchers with the University of Michigan...

This article was put together by NORML and appears here with permission. Researchers worldwide published a record 4,300+ scientific papers on the subject of cannabis, according to the results of a keyword search of the National Library of Medicine/PubMed.gov website.  This exceeds...

The report was done by NORML and is published here with permission. Government officials have provided some 2 million marijuana-related pardons and expungements in recent years to those with low-level cannabis convictions on their records, according to an analysis released today...

By Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director Rarely a week goes by without police or other public officials warning about so-called “fentanyl-laced” weed. Upon closer inspection, however, there’s little if any truth behind these sensational claims. A case in point...