Every week, Psychedelic Times will bring you a few of the most interesting, overlooked cannabis stories that we come across. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep in the loop on marijuana and psychedelic news.

House Votes to Extend Critical Medical Marijuana Protections Through December 22 — Press Release

The Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment is basically the one thing keeping the DEA from raiding dispensaries in medical marijuana states. It was set to expire on Friday, but got extended just another two weeks until Dec. 22. This news is kind of still breaking, but Salon had a good rundown on it. Call your representatives today and demand that they pursue protections for medical marijuana businesses!

Lawmakers Press Trump Health Official On Marijuana As Opioid Alternative — Marijuana Moment

It may seem obvious to you or me, but the Federal Government is clearly overlooking a solution to the opioid crisis: cannabis. That’s despite pressure from multiple groups to look into this natural alternative. This week, a bipartisan group of Congress members wrote a strongly-worded letter to the Trump Administration pleading for them to look into it.

Rolling Stone published a piece this week titled ‘Medical Pot Is Our Best Hope to Fight the Opioid Epidemic,’ in which they describe in detail how far Big Pharma will go to protect the $24 billion market for opioids. Meanwhile, approximately 91 people a day die from overdoses in the United States and the problem does not appear to be getting better.

Study: Alcohol Sales Fall Following Cannabis Legalization — NORML

About five years ago, I took a class on alcoholism and there was a dude there that delivered beer for Anheuser-Busch. I asked him if he thought booze sales would be impacted by legal marijuana, and the whole class laughed at me. Of course not.

But it seems that cannabis does heavily compete with alcohol. A team of researchers from the University of Connecticut and Georgia State University looked at more than 2,000 counties in the U.S. and compared the sale of medical marijuana against alcohol. “States legalizing medical marijuana use experience significant decreases in the aggregate sale of alcohol, beer and wine,” they wrote. “Moreover, the effects are not short-lived, with significant reductions observed up to 24 months after the passage of the law.”

Legal Marijuana Sales Are Expected to Hit $10 Billion This Year — Fortune

The fact that marijuana has been legal recreationally in the U.S. for only five years and has already become a multi-billion dollar industry is surprising to no one who knew the depths of the black market before legalization. This year, sales jumped 33 percent over 2016’s numbers, which Arcview Market Research didn’t quite anticipate. By 2021, they predict that $10 billion figure will more than double, as Canada, California and numerous other regions join the recreational weed gravy train.

Cannabis Card Carriers No Longer Forced To Give Up Guns In Hawaii — Daily Caller

You may have heard recently that Hawaii demanded people with medical marijuana cards give up their firearms. This is because of a rule by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a federal agency that insists MMJ cardholders are criminals.

Well, after much backlash, Honolulu Police Department has rescinded this demand, although they still refuse to issue new gun permits to cannabis users. Meanwhile, Delaware is eyeing a similar ban.

You Can Now ‘Snort’ Weed Using This Cannabis Nasal Spray — Motherboard

An innovative Colorado company is now offering marijuana nasal sprays, with different THC:CBD ratios, including 1:1, 10:1 and 1:100. It’s a neat idea, but how effective or useful this will be is yet to be seen. At least there are always other options for medical marijuana patients who don’t want to smoke or eat edibles.

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