Category: Health News

NOTE TO READERS: Representative Rhonda Milstead was misquoted in the original version of this story. It is corrected below. Reporter Bob Mercer apologizes for the error.

PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — A panel of state lawmakers recommended Wednesday that the Legislature should ban home-grown marijuana plants for medical use and overrule South Dakota voters.

Nearly 70% of voters approved IM 26 last November that legalized medical marijuana. One of the provisions calls for a three-plant minimum if a cardholder has a registry identification card to cultivate it at home.

But the Legislature’s Medical Marijuana Subcommittee voted 6-4 Wednesday to recommend banning home-grown marijuana. Told that Colorado officials recommended not allowing home-grown, Representative Rhonda Milstead, who serves on the Adult-Use Marijuana Subcommittee, asked, “Why are we not listening to the experience?”

The Medical Marijuana Subcommittee’s chairman, Senator Bryan Breitling, said references to home-grown were scattered through South Dakota’s new

TALLAHASSEE — This should be the best of times for Trulieve.

The medical marijuana company sold more than half of all the smokable cannabis distributed to patients in Florida last month. It’s recorded 14 straight profitable quarters. The company pulled down more than $215 million in revenue in the last quarter alone. It’s on the verge of acquiring another medical marijuana firm, Harvest Health & Recreation — a transaction that would transform Trulieve into the largest and most profitable national cannabis player in the country, the firm has projected.

But this summer, Trulieve also had its first major public relations crisis. In August, J.T. Burnette, the husband of CEO Kim Rivers, was convicted of five of nine federal corruption-related charges in a highly publicized trial.

Burnette had to answer questions on the stand about a tape-recorded conversation he had with undercover FBI agents in which he bragged about helping lawmakers

Panama legalized medical marijuana use on Monday, joining at least seven other Latin American countries.

After a five-year struggle, Panama’s national assembly unanimously passed Bill 153 during the bill’s third debate. Some members of the assembly shared that they were swayed by the initiative’s motto, “for a day without pain.”

National Assembly President Crispiano Adames, joined by Marcos Castillero, championed Bill 153 to promote and ensure responsible access to medicinal cannabis products. He said that the bill was drafted in a way that seeks to prevent future smuggling by requiring a controlled environment. Adames believes the new law’s most significant achievement will be providing relief to deserving patients.

The new medical marijuana use law prohibits commercial use of homegrown cannabis. Additionally, the bill requires officials to import cannabis in pill and liquid drop form. Panama’s Ministry of Health will be charged with distributing the medication to licensed pharmacies. To become

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Thousands more Texans can now be prescribed medical cannabis oil with low levels of THC, the ingredient that gets people high.

House Bill 1535, which went into effect Wednesday, expands the state’s compassionate use program to people with any type of cancer and those dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The law also doubled the THC limit allowable under the program from 0.5% to 1%. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the ingredient in marijuana that can produce a psychological effect.

It’s another expansion of the state’s medical cannabis law created in 2015. Still, the state’s program remains one of the most restrictive in the country.

Though an overwhelming majority of Texans believe marijuana should be legal in some form, the final call when it comes to determining who can access it lies with the state’s elected leaders.

On September 1, 2021, patients suffering from any stage of cancer and battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will be able to access physician-prescribed medical cannabis in Texas.

What’s happening?

The much-anticipated House Bill 1535 is going into effect on that date, expanding access to medical cannabis to even more patients under the Compassionate Use Program (CUP). Likewise, the bill will increase the THC limit in medical cannabis products from 0.5 percent to 1 percent by weight.

Cancer and PTSD join other conditions eligible for medical cannabis including peripheral neuropathy, epilepsy, seizure disorders, autism, multiple sclerosis, spasticity, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), as well as other neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and more.

How did we achieve expansion?

Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation (TOCC), the leading medical cannabis provider in Texas, advocated for House Bill 1535 alongside its author, House Public