Can RFK Jr. Fix Our Dysfunctional Public Health Agencies?
His priorities may not be the drastic reforms that are actually needed.
Drug Legalization
A Psychedelic Ban Would Disrupt Important Research
Making DOI and DOC Schedule I drugs would interfere with psychiatric research.
This Week's Election Results Are a Discouraging Sign for Drug Policy Reformers
Despite a few bright spots, the disappointing returns suggest that the road to pharmacological freedom will be rockier than activists hoped.
Voters Reject Marijuana Legalization in North Dakota and South Dakota
Residents of the two deep-red states have approved medical use of cannabis but remain leery of going further.
Massachusetts Voters Reject Decriminalization of 5 Natural Psychedelics
The initiative also would have authorized state-licensed "psychedelic therapy centers."
Nebraska Voters Overwhelmingly Approve Medical Marijuana
Whether the policy will actually be implemented depends on the outcome of a legal challenge.
Florida's Marijuana Legalization Initiative Fails To Pass
A majority of the state's voters said yes to Amendment Three, but that wasn't enough to clear the 60 percent threshold required to pass a Florida ballot initiative.
To Get Through This Election, Take an Edible
Whether you're facing existential dread about this election's outcome or just hoping that we at least know the outcome before the week is over, cannabis can be a welcome stress reliever.
The Story About THC-Laced Halloween Candy Shifts From Malevolent Strangers to Careless Parents
The change in official warnings and news coverage reflects the dearth of evidence that malicious pranksters are trying to dose trick-or-treaters.
Voters in 5 States Will Decide Whether To Legalize Marijuana or Psychedelics Next Week
The ballot initiatives would allow recreational marijuana use in Florida and the Dakotas, authorize medical marijuana in Nebraska, and decriminalize five natural psychedelics in Massachusetts.
Two Pot Legalizers Top the Democratic Ticket
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz both back marijuana legalization, but they took different paths to get there.
SCOTUS Case Involving Cannabis Fraud Highlights the Illogic of Federal Drug Testing Mandates
A trucker lost his job because he tested positive for marijuana after consuming a supposedly THC-free CBD tincture.
Kamala Harris Promotes Federal Pot Legalization As a Boon to Black Men
Although the framing is a transparent political ploy, it is reassuring to see that the vice president has not abandoned her opposition to the federal ban.
8 Years After Legalizing Pot, California Will Finally Allow Cannabis Cafés
The new law should help licensed retailers compete with the black market while mitigating the odor that offends Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.
Trump Endorses Federal Marijuana Reforms and Reiterates His Support for Legalizing Pot in Florida
His new stance could encourage Vice President Kamala Harris to emphasize her opposition to federal marijuana prohibition.
Bowing to Public Opinion, Trump and Harris Both Agree That Marijuana Should Be Legal
It remains unclear whether either would do anything about that as president.
Trump Repeats an 'Urban Legend' by Invoking 'Fentanyl Laced Marijuana'
At least he draws the right conclusion from this imaginary hazard, acknowledging the dangers created by prohibition.
The Democratic Party Platform Still Won't Commit to Legalizing Marijuana
Democrats' official 2024 platform praises President Joe Biden's marijuana pardons but fails to call for decriminalization.
Walz, Like Harris, Supports Marijuana Legalization—but He Beat Her to the Punch
The Democratic vice presidential nominee has a long record of supporting cannabis reform.
Weighing Kamala Harris' Veep Options
A very special Reason Roundtable crossover episode with two guests from The Dispatch!
Majority of Public Comments Support Descheduling or Legalizing Marijuana
While lawmakers remain resistant to change, most of the public thinks it's high time to stop treating marijuana as dangerous.
Unlike Biden and Trump, Kamala Harris Has Repeatedly Supported Pot Legalization
The presumptive Democratic nominee has a more liberal drug policy record than both the president and the Republican presidential nominee.
The DOJ Claims Medical Marijuana Patients Who Own Guns 'Endanger the Public in Multiple Ways'
Defending the federal ban on gun possession by drug users, the government's lawyers seem increasingly desperate.
How Immigration Law Magnifies the Injustice Inflicted by the War on Drugs
Every year, thousands of U.S. residents are deported for drug-related activity, including minor offenses and conduct that states have legalized.
Detailing the 'Real Problem With Legal Weed,' a Critic Grossly Exaggerates the Prevalence of Pot Addiction
The Manhattan Institute's Charles Fain Lehman misleadingly equates a survey's measure of "cannabis use disorder" with "compulsive" consumption that causes "health and social problems."
The Government Caused New York's Legal Pot 'Disaster'
The state has thousands of unauthorized shops but fewer than 200 licensed marijuana sellers.
Maryland Governor To Issue Mass Pardon to More Than 100,000 Marijuana Offenders
The blanket pardon is one of the largest yet, and another sign of the collapse of public support for marijuana prohibition.
Rolling Backward
Plus: Hezbollah escalates, congestion pricing halted, the Didion-Dunne family feud, GIMBYism, and more...
In Hawaii, Permission To Use Medical Marijuana Precludes Permission To Own a Gun
The state's gun permit policy underlines the absurdity of assuming that cannabis consumers are too dangerous to be trusted with firearms.
It's Time for Over-the-Counter Ozempic
There's an easy way to lower the cost of next-generation weight-loss drugs.
Biden Decries a 'Failed Approach to Marijuana' but Sticks With It
Rescheduling does not resolve the conflict between federal pot prohibition and state rejection of that policy.
DEA Moves To Reclassify Marijuana as a Schedule III Drug
For over 50 years, marijuana has been in the same category of controlled substances as heroin and LSD. The DEA is finally proposing to end that ludicrous policy.
Biden Exaggerates His Work To Reform Marijuana Policy
Biden has not delivered on his promise to decriminalize marijuana.
Rescheduling Marijuana Does Not Address Today's Central Cannabis Issue
Moving marijuana to Schedule III, as the DEA plans to do, leaves federal pot prohibition essentially untouched.
DEA Finally Expected To Reclassify Marijuana
The change from Schedule I to Schedule III is welcome, but removing it from the schedules altogether is the best option.
New York's Pot Legalization 'Disaster' Was Entirely Predictable
The state’s policies and practices seemed designed to strangle the legal cannabis supply.
Don't Blame Decriminalization for Oregon Drug Deaths
Oregon lawmakers recently voted to recriminalize drugs after voters approved landmark reforms in 2020.
Political Stupidity and Bureaucratic Bungling Created New York's Pot Legalization 'Disaster'
Three years after the state legalized recreational marijuana, unauthorized weed shops outnumber licensed dispensaries by 23 to 1.
Because 'Marijuana Is Dangerous,' 2 Inveterate Drug Warriors Say, 'Legalizing It Was a Mistake'
William Barr and John Walters ignore the benefits of legalization and systematically exaggerate its costs.
RIP Marc Sandhaus, Whose Obsession With Cannabis Landraces Finally Bore Flower
The far-traveling smuggler turned breeder "never gave up" on his dream of recovering neglected marijuana strains.
Biden's Inaccurate and Inadequate Lip Service to Marijuana Reform Ignores Today's Central Cannabis Issue
The president has not expunged marijuana records or decriminalized possession, which in any case would fall far short of the legalization that voters want.
A Belated Bureaucratic Reversal on Pot
Marijuana's classification has always been a political question, not a medical one.
Oregon Legislators Overwhelmingly Vote To Recriminalize Low-Level Drug Possession
The reversal of a landmark reform was driven by unrealistic expectations and unproven assertions.
Biden Is Trying To Motivate Voters Who Oppose Pot Prohibition. Maybe He Should Stop Supporting It.
The supposedly reformed drug warrior's intransigence on the issue complicates his appeal to young voters, who overwhelmingly favor legalization.
Did Decriminalization Boost Drug Deaths in Oregon?
Recent research finds "no evidence" that it did, undermining a key claim by critics of that policy.
The Newly Unveiled HHS Rationale for Rescheduling Marijuana Underlines Drug Warriors' Dishonesty
The points about marijuana's risks and benefits that the department now concedes were clear long before last August.
