Marijuana

A new study finds students who attend schools with suspension policies for illicit drug use are more likely than students at schools without such policies to use marijuana in the following year.

President Barack Obama this week said if enough states decriminalize marijuana, Congress might reschedule the drug. Marijuana is a Schedule I drug, which is defined as a drug with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer of California is a co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill to end the federal prohibition on medical marijuana, federal records show. The Washington Post reports that Boxer’s office did not announce her support of the bill when it was introduced last week.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, March 13 - Thursday, March 19, 2015.

Medical marijuana would be permitted for pets under a measure introduced this week in the Nevada legislature.

A bill introduced Tuesday by three U.S. senators would end the federal prohibition on medical marijuana, The Washington Post reports.

Sheriffs from Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas are asking a federal court in Denver to strike down Colorado’s amendment that legalizes recreational marijuana. They are also asking the court to shut down the state’s licensed marijuana stores, USA Today reports.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, February 27, 2015- Thursday, March 5, 2015.

Residents of the District of Columbia will be able to legally possess small amounts of marijuana starting Thursday, Reuters reports. District of Columbia voters approved an initiative in November to legalize possession of marijuana. Republicans on the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee say the measure is illegal.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, February 20, 2015- Thursday, February 26, 2015.

Schools in Colorado are grappling with how to educate students about the health consequences of marijuana, now that recreational use of the drug is legal for adults.

Colorado middle schools reported a 24 percent increase in drug-related incidents last year, according to USA Today. School-based experts tell the newspaper they believe the jump is directly related to marijuana legalization.

Five people involved in a medical marijuana case in Washington state, where recreational use of the drug is legal, must stand trial, a judge has ruled.

Scientists have discovered a new brain circuit that causes marijuana users to get insatiably hungry, commonly known as “the munchies.” In a study of mice, researchers found the hunger is triggered in part by brain cells that usually turn down appetite.

A new bill introduced in the Vermont Senate could make the state the first to legalize recreational marijuana through the state legislature. In the four states in which recreational marijuana is currently legal, voters passed ballot initiatives.

A growing number of television shows are depicting marijuana use, The Wall Street Journal reports. Marijuana is being written into story lines of dramas and comedies, and new reality shows are being created about the fledgling legal marijuana industry.

A group of marijuana entrepreneurs in Colorado hopes to open the first-ever financial institution designed to serve their industry. They are faced with a stumbling block—they have not been given approval to make deposits in a Federal Reserve account, according to The New York Times.

In the four states where recreational marijuana is legal, local and state governments are figuring out how to divide the tax revenue, NPR reports.

Fewer Americans are driving drunk, but a growing number are driving under the influence of marijuana and other illegal drugs, according to a new government report.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said in an interview this week that medical marijuana may help some patients.

Police in rural Nebraska counties bordering Colorado report a large increase in illegal marijuana trafficking, according to NPR.

From e-cigarette vapor to new strains of synthetic marijuana, our Join Together News Service covers the top drug and alcohol news of the day making an impact in your community, work and life.

Although authorities are trying to crack down on synthetic marijuana, emergency department physicians are still seeing an influx of young people who experience serious side effects after taking the drug, according to Lewis S. Nelson, M.D., Professor in the Dept. of Emergency Medicine and a medical toxicologist at NYU.

More people have been calling poison control centers in Colorado and Washington state since recreational marijuana became legal for adults 21 and older in those states, the Associated Press reports.

Owners of legal marijuana businesses in Colorado and Washington state will have to file their first federal tax returns this year, CNBC reports. While the cost of growing marijuana is deductible under the federal tax code, the cost of selling it is not.