News: Sam’s Final News Episode! [#138]

This Week in Drugs

For Sam’s last episode co-hosting the news (don’t worry, he’ll be back soon with more discussion segments!), Sam and Sarah talk about some bad news from across the United States. Two of the stories concern the Trump Administration: while Kellyanne Conway told college students to eat french fries instead of doing drugs, President Trump blamed the opioid crisis on immigrants. In Connecticut, wine companies publicly admitted that they want people arrested for marijuana so that they will buy wine instead, and New Jersey police are going to be subjected to random drug testing.

Big Stories:

• Kellyanne Conway Recommends Eating Ice Cream and French Fries Instead of Buying Fentanyl
• Trump breaks promise on treatment, blames opioid crisis on immigrants | Editorial
• Connecticut Vineyard and Winery Association opposes marijuana legalization because they think it will hurt wine sales
• Police officers in N.J. subject to random drug testing, AG orders

Headlines:

• The city of Detroit, Michigan, has reached a settlement where it will pay $225,000 to the owner of three dogs after a police officer shot and killed all three of them during a marijuana raid. The owner was a legal medical marijuana patient who was allowed to grow plants, and her only violation was growing them in her backyard instead of indoors. One officer involved has killed 73 dogs during his career.
• On Wednesday, Reddit announced a decision to take down and ban any subreddits affiliated with darknet drug markets. Citing its policy against transactions involving prohibited goods or services, the move appears to be part of a wider crackdown on illegal activities by the site.
• An Arkansas judge has thrown out the five medical marijuana cultivation licenses recently granted by the state, in a ruling on a case that alleged the state’s process was deeply flawed and violated due process and equal protection clauses of the states’ constitution, partly because some application reviewers had financial ties to winning applicants. It’s unclear how the program will proceed, options could include re-scoring the same applications, or possibly starting the process all over.
• A study out of the University of Zurich found “LSD reduces your sense of integrated self” and “blurs the boundary between what is you and what is another person.” The goal of the study was to learn how the brain creates a sense of self. Here’s the link to the study!

Forecast:

• Tuesday, March 27 in Mentor, Ohio: The Sound of Ideas Community Tour: Opioid Crisis in Lake County
• Friday, April 20 in DC: the National Cannabis Festival Policy Summit! The schedule and full list of speakers were released this week and the lineup looks stellar. Many of our former guests will be there speaking about everything from tax reform to criminal justice.

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The post News: Sam’s Final News Episode! [#138] appeared first on This Week in Drugs.