“I don’t know what the problems are, but we need to get that resolved over there or we are going to have to do something legislatively to correct this.”

By Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector

The head of the Senate’s General Fund budget committee last week vented frustration at the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission’s legal woes.

Speaking at Thursday’s Contract Review Committee meeting, Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore), the chair of the Senate’s Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee, said the ongoing litigation over the commission’s licensing process had turned it into a “money pit.”

“Right now, we are putting money into it,” he said. “Right now, we are having more and more and more suits coming in. I don’t know what the problems are, but we need to get that resolved over there or we are going to have to do something legislatively to correct this.”

Brittany Peters, a spokeswoman for the AMCC, said in a statement Monday that the commission’s “longstanding position” was seeing the state medical cannabis program “become fully operational as soon as possible.”

“With the priority of serving patients in the state who would benefit from medical cannabis, the commission is committed to defending against the lawsuits

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SC medical marijuana; Feds removing MDMA from drug testing; CA psychedelics; Ventura on cannabis politics; DEA psilocybin; Legalization & immigrants

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Reps. Morgan McGarvey (D-KY), Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) and seven other bipartisan members of Congress sent a letter pressing the Department of Veterans Affairs to form a strategic plan to implement MDMA-assisted psychedelic therapy in preparation for federal approval as soon as this summer.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Drug Testing Advisory Board is weighing proposals to remove MDMA from federal workplace drug testing programs while adding fentanyl.

The South Carolina House Medical Cannabis Ad Hoc Committee held a hearing on a Senate-passed bill to legalize patient access—but only took testimony from

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A national Democratic Party group is bashing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) “harmful opposition to marijuana reform” ahead of the 4/20 cannabis holiday, calling out the GOP governor’s recent vetoes of bills to legalize retail sales and reduce sentences around past marijuana crimes.

In a statement tied to the 4/20 cannabis holiday and shared exclusively with Marijuana Moment on Friday, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), which focuses on electing Democrats to state legislatures, said Youngkin “continues to hold Virginia back and block the progress made by Democrats in control of the legislature.”

Use, possession and limited cultivation of cannabis by adults is already legal in Virginia, the result of a Democrat-led proposal approved by lawmakers in 2021. But Republicans, after winning control of the House and governor’s office later that year, subsequently blocked the required reenactment of a regulatory framework for retail sales. Since then, illicit stores have sprung up to meet consumer demand.

This year, with Democrats in control of both legislative chambers, lawmakers passed a new legal sales bill, sending it to Youngkin for his consideration in late February. A month later, the governor vetoed the bill, writing in a veto message that “the proposed legalization of retail marijuana in

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