Legislation to decriminalize the possession of personal amounts of marijuana has been passed unanimously by an Alabama Senate committee.
The Senate Judiciary Committee recently voted 11 to 0 to pass the marijuana decriminalization bill, sending it towards a vote by the full Senate. The vote marks a massive shift increase in support from just last year, when the committee passed the measure 6 to 4 (though it eventually stalled in the House). If passed by the full Senate, the measure would then need to pass the House of Representatives before it can be sent to Governor Kay Ivey (R) for consideration.
Under the proposed law, those caught possessing no more than an ounce of marijuana would be hit with, at most, a $250 fine for the first two offenses, and a $500 fine for subsequent offenses. As noted by Marijuana Moment, possession of more than an ounce but less than two ounces would be considered a class A misdemeanor, while possession of more than two ounces would be a class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The study states that marijuana use has been on the rise among U.S. adults as a growing number of states pass laws legalizing it for medical and recreational purposes. Although marijuana is thought to act on the cannabinoid receptor in the brain, which is involved in sexual function, little research to date has examined the drug’s impact on sexual health, the study team notes.
Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Gardner (R-CO), along with Representatives David Joyce (R-OH) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), have reintroduced The Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act of 2019, reports NORML. This Act amends the Controlled Substances Act to reduce the number of instances in which federal law enforcement agencies could carry out legal actions against state-licensed cannabis businesses or other related enterprises.
For the study a team of investigators from the John H. Stroger Hospital in Chicago, the SUNY Downstate Medical Centre in New York City, and the Digestive Disease Institute in Cleveland assessed the relationship between cannabis use and the prevalence of Crohn’s disease-related complications and clinical outcomes in a nationwide cohort of hospitalized patients.
“OK kids, that’s how we make a law,” Governor Polis said after signing 
The legislation was introduced by Representative Ray Rodrigues, who is the Chairman for the House Health and Human Services Committee. The measure would also set limits on the potency of medical marijuana in edibles and would fast-track the state health department’s rule making for the medical marijuana industry, which was legalized by voters in 2016.
According to Reuters, the bill would provide sought-after clarity to banks across the country that want to do business with the growing marijuana industry, where companies have struggled to gain access to the financial system. The issue is especially relevant now that 10 states in the U.S. have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes; over 30 have passed some form of medical marijuana legalization.
For the study researchers from Washington State University, the University of Massachusetts, and the Colorado School of Public Health assessed trends in teen marijuana use and employment in the years immediately prior to and immediately following the enactment of retail marijuana sales (2010 to 2016), reports NORML in a news release.
“Most diabetic patients describe moderate to severe pain symptoms whose pharmacological treatment is palliative and poorly effective”, states the study’s abstract. “Cannabidiol (CBD) has shown promising results in painful conditions.” With this in mind, researchers “aimed to investigate the potential antinociceptive effect of CBD over the mechanical allodynia in streptozotocin-induced diabetic (DBT) rats, as well as its involved mechanisms.”
