New Zealand Joins Australia in Opening Restricted Access to MDMA for PTSD
New Zealand has authorized two psychiatrists to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade MDMA to selected adults with PTSD who have not responded to conventional treatments, while keeping the substance classified as an unapproved medicine. The move creates a tightly controlled access pathway that falls short of broad legalization and places the country somewhere between Australia’s existing model and […]
Colorado Regulators Under Fire For Delays In Warning Public About Reports Of Cannabis Products With Adverse Effects
“When you take a really long time to get a bulletin out to tell people about these issues, a lot of time, people have already consumed the product.” By Christopher Osher and Evan Wyloge, The Denver Gazette This story was originally published by ProPublica. In March 2022, Colorado public health officials started getting startling reports […]
Trump Commutes Two Cannabis Sentences—But What About Rescheduling?
President Donald Trump commuted the federal marijuana sentences of Jerry Haymon IV and Kevin Harden as his administration continues a broader process that could move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III. Their cases sharpen a longstanding question in cannabis reform: what happens to people punished under federal marijuana laws while the government is actively […]
Marijuana Is A ‘Gateway Drug,’ GOP Congressional Majority Leader Says As Trump Moves To Ease Federal Restrictions
One of the top Republicans in Congress says he is concerned that marijuana causes people to use other, more dangerous substances as the Trump administration is moving forward with a proposal to federally reschedule cannabis. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told Marijuana Moment last week that he thinks “marijuana is a gateway drug, and […]
Ed Rosenthal: Why India Should Re-Legalize Cannabis
I’ve spent more than 50 years fighting cannabis prohibition in the United States. Now I’m taking what I’ve learned to India. In 1961, 13 years after its independence, India was forced by the U.S. to sign the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which included cannabis, or in India, ganja. However, as far as cannabis was […]
Fela Kuti and Cannabis: Seun and Femi Kuti on the Plant, Persecution and the Rock Hall
Fela Kuti smoked ritually and said so publicly. The Nigerian state used it to call his politics ridiculous. Ahead of his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Seun and Femi Kuti on what the plant meant to their father, and what it cost him. Sometimes it takes a while to get there, but in […]
Marijuana Should Be Federally Legalized And Taxed, U.S. Senate Candidate Josh Turek Says
Josh Turek, the Democratic nominee in a U.S. Senate race in Iowa this year, says it’s time to federally legalize, regulate and tax marijuana. The candidate, currently a state representative, told voters at an Iowa State University football tailgate that he thinks cannabis’s longtime restrictive Schedule I status is “ridiculous.” Turek told one man that […]
Convenience Store Industry Says Congress Should Regulate Hemp THC Products Instead Of Banning Them
Advocates for convenience stores are celebrating a recently enacted delay in the effective date of a federal ban on hemp THC products, saying the move provides an opportunity to create regulations as an alternative to prohibition. Convenience stores, they say, are an ideal place to continue to sell hemp products under any new rules that […]
Dead Cats, Drag Clowns, and the Weirdest Awards in Indie Film
Dominatrix Mara’s Cocoon, winner of the festival’s WTF Award, finds sensuality and psychological tension in water, nylon stockings, thin latex, flowers, and two women engaged in what the filmmaker describes as a dynamic metamorphosis. Mara wanted the film to challenge the usual media treatment of kink and BDSM. Rather than framing intensity through aggression or […]
Trump releases federal cannabis prisoners (Newsletter: September 7, 2026)
GOP lawmakers talk hemp regulations; NH legalization push; TX Dem campaigns on marijuana; NE medical cannabis laws upheld Subscribe to receive Marijuana Moment’s newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. It’s the best way to make sure you know which cannabis stories are shaping the day. Your support makes Marijuana Moment possible… Your good deed for […]