On Saturday, July 5, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Compassionate Care Act into law, making New York the 23rd state with an effective medical marijuana law. The law goes into effect immediately, although patients are not expected to have legal protections or safe access to medical marijuana until 2016.  The law’s passage is the product of many years of work by legislative champions, led by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, and, more recently, Sen. Diane Savino, patients, their loved ones, and advocacy…

UPDATE: The York Board of Selectmen has scheduled a public hearing on the petition during their next meeting on Monday, July 28. A petition that would allow adults to use marijuana has gotten the required amount of signatures and has been submitted to the Board of Selectmen, Seacoast Online reports. The Board of Selectmen in York is scheduled to consider and possibly take action on the petition later today. According to MPP Maine Political Director David Boyer, the petition needed 100 signatures…

[caption id="attachment_7827" align="alignright" width="240"] Dr. Sue Sisley[/caption] This week, University of Arizona professor and leading medical marijuana researcher Dr. Sue Sisley was fired from her position at the university. The University of Arizona refused to renew Dr. Sisley’s contract after advocates engaged in a contentious political struggle with state lawmakers to secure funding for her clinical study on the beneficial effects of marijuana on veterans with PTSD. Dr. Sisley cites her…

The provisions of SB 247 took effect today, moving Vermont’s marijuana policies yet another step forward. This new law eliminates the cap of 1,000 patients who may access dispensaries, allows naturopaths to certify patients, and allows dispensaries to deliver marijuana to patients. But that’s not all: Legislators also authorized a study of whether post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) should be added as a qualifying condition, along with a study of how marijuana legalization and regulation would…

It’s been exactly six months since legal retail marijuana sales began in Colorado, and today is the first day that retail marijuana business licenses are open to all applicants — not just those who previously held medical marijuana licenses. Click here for an application checklist and the required application forms. Please note that these licenses would not go into effect until October 1, 2014, and businesses would still require local approval. In these brief six months, the Centennial State has…

Jacksonville-based attorney John Morgan has given a multi-million dollar donation to the medical marijuana campaign in Florida, Jacksonville.com reports, and will now invest even more in helping seriously ill Floridians find relief. Morgan has added $4 million of his own money in support of Amendment 2, a medical marijuana ballot initiative that will be voted on in November. This amendment was proposed by medical marijuana proponents United For Care. Morgan claims that his support of the amendment…

The rollout of Massachusetts’ medical marijuana program has been proceeding more slowly than anticipated, but a major milestone was reached last week with the approval of 11 dispensary applications. The Department of Public Health granted eleven provisional certificates on Friday, and it’s possible that some of the approved dispensaries will be ready to serve patients before the end of this year. The department had previously given preliminary approval to 20 applicants, but, after further review…

Former President Bill Clinton spoke Sunday on Meet the Press expressing his belief that states should ‘experiment’ with allowing adults to use marijuana recreationally, Washington Post reports. “I think we should leave it to the states,” Clinton said. “If the state wants to try it, they can. And they’ll be able to see what happens.” Though this seems to be a new take from the former president, he claimed that there are still many questions to be answered. He said, “This really is a time when there…

Spurred on by recent stories of epileptic children finding relief by using marijuana extracts that contain high amounts of cannabidiol (CBD), lawmakers have begun adopting bills allowing for medical marijuana to be used as long as it is minimally psychoactive, the Denver Post reports. The oil in these stories is made from specific strains of marijuana that are high in CBD and low in THC, the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana. The CBD-rich oils have been shown to dramatically decrease the…

[caption id="attachment_7800" align="alignright" width="200"] Sen. Mike Folmer[/caption] This afternoon, the Pennsylvania Senate Law and Justice Committee voted unanimously to approve a medical marijuana bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Mike Folmer and Sen. Daylin Leach. The bill is expected to proceed to the Senate Appropriations Committee next. This bipartisan measure would allow seriously ill Pennsylvanians to safely and legally use marijuana to treat their medical conditions. These patients and their…