Category: Virginia
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The Outlaw Report Podcast Episode 05: Talking the MORE Act with NORML’s Justin Strekal
In the latest episode of The Outlaw Report podcast, Scott Cecil talks to NORML Political Director Justin Strekal about the MORE Act, sponsored by Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick Kamala Harris. And The Outlaw Report’s Brandon Soderberg discusses Virginia’s ongoing reforms and the special legislative session and Maryland’s woeful progress when it comes to cannabis…
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Virginia Decriminalized Cannabis, Now it Considers Legalization and Begins its Medicinal Program
In July, Virginia officially decriminalized cannabis possession of up to one ounce, a positive for cannabis reform and a benefit to the many residents of Virginia who are now a bit less apt to get jammed up in the system for using and possessing cannabis. Leading up to decriminalization, arrests for cannabis were actually increasing…
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Synthetic Cannabinoid Seller Pleads Not Guilty in Virginia Federal Court
In March of this year, a federal indictment was unsealed revealing a three-year long investigation into a multi-state conspiracy to distribute and sell the synthetic cannabinoid colloquially called “spice.” The investigation, which began in Virginia alleged that Joseph Ruis, Kimberly Drumm and Bonnie Turner ran a business out of California that was called Aroma Superstore…
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The Outlaw Report Podcast Episode 04: Weed Smell in Maryland and the Limits of the DNC Cannabis Reform
In the latest episode of The Outlaw Report podcast, Scott Cecil and Brandon Soderberg discuss the new cannabis ruling in Maryland’s Court of Appeals related to smell and searching people, the politics of cannabis at the federal level and the Democratic National Committee’s decision to leave weed legalization off its 2020 platform. You can listen…
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Quick Hit: On Netflix’s ‘The Business Of Drugs’
Maybe it’s because of the mind-expanding, harm reductionist cartoon spectacle The Midnight Gospel and the goofy The Goop Lab With Gwyneth Paltrow which really veers into pseudo-science, but Netflix’s latest drug show The Business Of Drugs plays it straight—a little too straight. Across six episodes (“Cocaine,” “Synthetics,” “Heroin,” “Meth,” “Cannabis,” and “Heroin”) The Business Of…
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Virginia Hemp Business Expands—and Includes Teenaged Cannabis Gamechanger Rylie Maedler
Rylie Maedler and her mother Janie have a hemp farm in Birdsnest, Virginia cultivating 25 acres of hemp. “This month, they oversaw the planting of Rylie’s first full field of hemp,” Salisbury Times’ Julie Rentsch reported. “The 4,884 plants that went in the ground on July 3 were donated by Front Range Biosciences, a Colorado…
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Violent Arrest in Virginia on 4/20 Last Year Involving Cannabis Smell Being Investigated
The violent arrest of a Black man named Derrick Thompson by Virginia State Police is being investigated after Thompson’s lawyer, Joshua Ehrlich, released video of the arrest to the public and contacted Virginia’s Attorney General Mark Herring about the incident. The arrest, which took place on April 20, 2019 (the unofficial international cannabis holiday) began…
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For Many Advocates in Virginia, Decriminalization Is Not Enough
Just because Virginia’s cannabis decriminalization has gone into effect, it doesn’t mean the push for cannabis legalization for recreational adult-use has slowed. While passing decriminalization also included a provision to ensure a study about legalization would happen (two different reports on the topic are due later this year), many want legalization to happen sooner and…
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Virginia Cannabis Decriminalization: What It Is and What It Isn’t
On July 1, the state of Virginia decriminalized possession of cannabis of up to one ounce. This law, a few years in the making (it was ostensibly part of Governor Ralph Northam’s campaign in 2017), eliminates any criminal penalty for having small amounts of cannabis and also eliminates cannabis possession appearing on one’s criminal record…
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Quick Hit: Learn About Weed and Vaping…From the DEA
Last month, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) released a whole bunch of drug fact sheets, detailing the basics of a number of drugs from A to Z or close enough to A to Z—more like from amphetamines to U-47700. The fact sheets are part of the DEA’s Get Smart About Drugs (GSAD) program, focused on…
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Embattled Cannabis Company MedMen Loses Its License In Virginia
California-based cannabis behemoths MedMen is teetering on the edge right now. What was not too long ago the largest and most valued cannabis company in the world, has been amid a public relations nightmare for months now and was recently kicked out of burgeoning medicinal cannabis state, Virginia. Earlier this month, the Virginia Board of…