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Several potential rival presidential candidates are teaming up on legislation to end the federal war on marijuana.

On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is signing on as a co-sponsor of the Marijuana Justice Act, introduced last year by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).

Many political observers expect that Booker and Sanders will compete for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), another rumored contender, is also a co-sponsor of the bill.

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Tom Angell ~ Forbes.com ~ 

New legislation released Tuesday would dump the Department of Veterans Affairs’ excuse for not better researching the possible benefits of cannabis for suffering veterans, a move that could have wide-ranging ramifications for the nationwide legalization of medical marijuana.

The bill — dubbed the VA Medicinal Cannabis Research Act of 2018 — has the support of the top Republican and Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and other key lawmakers.

It would not only clarify that VA has the authority to research cannabis, but require regular reports from department leaders on how seriously they are taking that responsibility.

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Leo Shane III ~ MilitaryTimes.com ~ 

One of Congress’s leading proponents of marijuana law reform — a key Trump ally — announced he will soon be filing new legislation in line with the president’s pledge to support changing federal cannabis laws.

“I am extremely happy that President Trump has made perfectly clear that he meant his campaign promise to respect state laws with regard to marijuana. Now there should be no question in Attorney General Sessions’ mind about the president’s intention,” Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) said in a press release.

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Tom Angell ~ MarijuanaMoment.net ~ 

The election is still a ways off, but one state has legalized pot already in 2018.

Vermont made history back in January by becoming the first state to ever pass a recreational cannabis law through the legislature – as opposed to putting it up for a popular vote.

And there are almost a dozen states that are slated to have cannabis legislation on the ballot in November.

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Ben Neal ~ WeedReader.com ~

Actress Cynthia Nixon is challenging New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination in next fall's election, and it appears the Sex and the City star is making marijuana legalization a cornerstone of her campaign.

Earlier this week Nixon posted a video where she encouraged the state to legalize marijuana and made the issue her first policy plank of her campaign.

She specifically said she wanted to do so to fix racial inequalities caused by the War on Drugs.

Marijuana is one issue where Nixon can gain some traction on Cuomo.

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“Over the last 10 or 15 years, the American people’s attitudes have changed dramatically,” he said in an interview. “I find myself in that same position.”

The U.S. marijuana industry has a new spokesman: John Boehner.

The Republican former Speaker of the House has joined the advisory board of Acreage Holdings, a company that cultivates, processes and dispenses cannabis in 11 U.S. states.

Boehner’s endorsement, after saying nine years ago he was “unalterably opposed” to legalization, could be considered a watershed event: Marijuana has gone mainstream.

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A measure to help improve diversity in Maryland's new medical marijuana industry received final approval by the General Assembly on Monday, as lawmakers worked toward a midnight deadline when the legislative session is scheduled to end.

Maryland lawmakers also will be working on measures designed to improve school safety and fight crime.

The medical marijuana measure increases the number of grower licenses from 15 to as many as 22.

Two licenses are set aside for two companies that sued over the licensing process and four more will be up for grabs.

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The Colorado legislature has advanced a bill that would allow school nurses to administer medical marijuana to students.

While students in Colorado are already permitted to use medicinal cannabis at school it must be administer by a legal guardian or parent.

The bill is named after student Quintin Lovato who, along with his mother Hannah, testified that the current regulations are disruptive to their daily lives. 

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Calvin Hughes ~ Civilized.Life ~ 

Medical marijuana is one step closer to being legal in Utah.

On Wednesday, two bills were up for debate at the State Capitol. The setting was a Senate Committee hearing.

Two bills had already passed through the House and were up before the committee. House Bill 195 came up for discussion and vote first.

It would allow those who are terminally ill -- those with six months to live -- to use medical marijuana.

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A bill that would reduce the penalty for marijuana possession in Alabama is scheduled for consideration on Wednesday by both the House and Senate judiciary committees.

Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, and Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Montgomery, are the bill sponsors.

Todd has tried with similar bills for several years to reduce the penalties for marijuana possession. She believes opposition has faded and is optimistic the bill will pass.

"I haven't talked to one person who is against it," Todd said.

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Could Massachusetts become the first U.S. state where adults can gather and use legal recreational marijuana at so-called “cannabis cafes?”

The Cannabis Control Commission, the five-member panel set up to regulate the state’s marijuana industry, is expected to decide later this month whether to approve draft regulations that would allow for the licensing of social consumption establishments.

The idea has received strong opposition from Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration and from law enforcement officials who warn of public safety and public health risks if such facilities were to open.

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Bob Salsberg ~ Associated Press ~ 

Support for marijuana legalization is quickly becoming a mainstream consensus position in the Democratic Party.

Two of the party's leading potential 2020 presidential candidates joined together this week in support of far-reaching legislation that would end the federal prohibition of cannabis and encourage states to legalize the drug.

“Legalizing marijuana isn’t a matter of if, it’s a matter of when," Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said about the legislation, the Marijuana Justice Act, which he introduced last August.

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Tom Angell ~ Forbes.com ~ 

The lawsuit claims the government’s decision to classify marijuana as dangerous is irrational, unconstitutional and motivated by politics, not hard science.

Army veteran Jose Belen says the horrors of the Iraq War left him with post-traumatic stress disorder, and the drug that helped him cope best with the symptoms was one his Veterans Affairs doctors could not legally prescribe: marijuana.

“Once I did use cannabis, immediately I felt the relief,” said Belen, who is now working with other medical marijuana users to mount a long-shot court challenge to federal laws criminalizing the drug.

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Karen Matthews ~ Associated Press ~ 

Congressman Matt Gaetz held two roundtables discussions on Monday with veterans and faith-based community leaders on medical marijuana research.

In Florida, marijuana is a schedule I drug, the same classification as heroin and LSD, but House Bill 2020 (H.R. 2020) would reschedule marijuana to a schedule III drug, the same as steroids.

Congressman Gaetz met with dozens of veterans across the panhandle at the University of West Florida.

Many of the veterans who were there say they would rather use medical marijuana legally than to take the chance of overdosing on prescribed pain pills.

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Tennessee Republicans are warming to the idea of medicinal marijuana.

It wasn’t quite a 180-degree turn, but state House Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) has bucked some in her caucus by announcing she supports legislation that would legalize and regulate medical marijuana in Tennessee.

Though she was never radically opposed to the idea, it took a familial experience for Harwell to lend her support to legislation pushed this year and in years past by Republicans Sen. Steve Dickerson and Rep. Jeremy Faison.

The medical marijuana effort in our state once seemed quixotic, but now it has the backing of the most powerful figure in the House. 

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The leader of the U.S.’s largest military veterans organization pressed Congress to allow the use of medical marijuana during a hearing on Wednesday.

“The federal government continues to list cannabis as a Schedule I drug – the most addictive and dangerous – although its addiction rates are lower than alcohol, and the less-restrictive Schedule II classification applies to opioids, which kill 91 Americans every day,” American Legion National Commander Denise H. Rohan said in testimony for a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees.

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Tom Angell ~ MarijuanaMoment.net ~ 

At their annual meeting, pro-pot governors say the AG isn't stopping them from advancing plans for medical and recreational legalization.

Over the past few days, most of the nation's governors descended on Washington for their annual meeting with administration officials and the president.

As the governors mingled about and chatted in between sessions, many of them were exchanging ideas and best practices on how to roll out a successful regulatory regime on marijuana.

But hanging over their talks was the specter of Attorney General Jeff Sessions who would like to clamp down on the nation's burgeoning, though disparate, marijuana industry.

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A prominent Democratic U.S. senator is slamming pharmaceutical companies for opposing marijuana legalization.

"To them it's competition for chronic pain, and that's outrageous because we don't have the crisis in people who take marijuana for chronic pain having overdose issues," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said. "It's not the same thing. It's not as highly addictive as opioids are."

"On the federal level, we really need to say it is a legal drug you can access if you need it," she said.

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Tom Angell ~ Forbes.com ~ 

Over the objections of law enforcement and health officials, a second House committee approved a bill Wednesday that would legally allow some Tennesseans to use medical cannabis.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Crosby, would give those suffering from roughly a dozen maladies a legal defense if they are arrested and prosecuted for having cannabis, provided they have a doctor’s note prescribing the product.

The House Criminal Justice Committee advanced the legislation with a 9-2 vote.

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Joel Ebert ~ USA Today Network via Tennessean.com ~ 

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are again calling for industrial hemp to be legally separated from marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act, and advocates believe they might just have the political momentum to succeed.

These are times of cautious but rising optimism for supporters of industrial hemp.

Since 1970, all forms of Cannabis sativa L., including hemp, have been classified as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act.

Past legislative attempts to remove hemp from the CSA — six bills in the House and three in the Senate since 2005 — all died in committees without a floor vote.

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