marijuana

A marijuana activist holds a flag during a march on Independence Day on July 4, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Alaska relaxes rules for marijuana ads, allows free samples

BY: - September 25, 2023

Alaska Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom has signed new regulations that allow the state’s legal marijuana businesses to advertise more widely and to distribute free samples of marijuana at retail stores. The regulations, signed Sept. 8, go into effect Oct. 8, and are part of a broad wave of regulatory changes affecting the state’s marijuana industry. […]

Various types of cannabis are displayed at Essence Vegas Cannabis Dispensary before the midnight start of recreational marijuana sales in June 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Alaska marijuana businesses, citing black market, plead for tax relief

BY: - September 15, 2023

In an unusual offseason hearing, a committee of the Alaska Legislature considered a proposal on Friday that could lower the state tax on marijuana sold in the state. House Bill 119, considered Friday by the House Labor and Commerce Committee, would shift the state’s marijuana tax system from a tax per ounce to a sales […]

Advocates for marijuana legal reform listen to music while attending the first annual National Cannabis Festival April 23, 2016, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Pot smell and safety concerns ignite disputes over public smoking

BY: - August 11, 2023

Carl Sack is no fan of marijuana. He tried smoking once in high school and hasn’t touched it since. And he doesn’t just dislike the clouds of pot smoke he encounters around Duluth, Minnesota — he hates them. “I can’t stand to be around the stuff,” he said. But he’s still adamantly opposed to local […]

Anne Fogel, of Missoula, Montana, stands on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, July 13, 2023, between meetings with U.S. senators about securing the release of her brother, Marc Fogel, who has been detained in Russia since August 2021. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Family pleads for U.S. teacher imprisoned in Russia: ‘We’re not forgetting my brother’

BY: - July 15, 2023

WASHINGTON — Days after meeting with high-level White House officials, the family of an American teacher imprisoned in Russia walked the halls of the U.S. Capitol complex Thursday, pleading with U.S. leaders to remember that Marc Fogel is staring down a 14-year sentence in a penal colony on a marijuana charge. Fogel, 61, an international […]

Alaska Court System rule change will remove hundreds of marijuana convictions from Courtview

BY: - February 21, 2023

On May 1, the Alaska Court System will remove the marijuana possession convictions of about 750 Alaskans from Courtview, the state’s online database of court cases. The Alaska Supreme Court announced the move in an order signed Jan. 31 by the court’s five justices. The action, first publicized Sunday by the Alaska Landmine, follows years […]

Various types of cannabis are displayed at Essence Vegas Cannabis Dispensary before the midnight start of recreational marijuana sales in June 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Weed on the ballot: Voters could approve legal marijuana in 5 more states

BY: - November 4, 2022

Midterm voters in five states will determine if they should join the growing list of places where recreational marijuana use is allowed, even as any use of the drug is still illegal under federal law. Referendums to legalize recreational use of marijuana are on Nov. 8 ballots in Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, South Dakota and North […]

No marijuana-possession prisoners in Alaska, state officials say

BY: - October 7, 2022

The state of Alaska, which voted to legalize recreational marijuana use in 2014, has no one in prison for simple marijuana possession, officials with the Alaska Department of Corrections and the office of Gov. Mike Dunleavy said on Thursday. Earlier in the day, President Joe Biden said he would pardon thousands of people in federal […]

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the one-year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

Biden to pardon all federal offenses for simple marijuana possession, review criminalization

BY: , and - October 6, 2022

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced executive actions that would pardon thousands of people with prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession. Biden then called on governors to follow suit with state offenses for simple marijuana possession, saying that “just as no one should be in a Federal prison solely due to the […]