Oklahoma Voters Reject Whole Legalization Of Cannabis
The New York Situations claims the point out has “quietly been through a road-stage transformation” when it arrives to approving professional medical cannabis, but on Tuesday, voters turned down the option to entirely legalize the drug. Also: stiffer drug penalties viewed as in North Carolina, paid out medical go away in Colorado, and extra.
The New York Occasions:
With a Cannabis Shop on ‘Every Corner,’ Oklahoma Rejects Full Legalization
In the earlier couple several years, Oklahoma, very long a good bastion of conservatism, has quietly gone through a street-level transformation when it will come to cannabis. Dispensaries dot the landscape, with more than 400 in Oklahoma City alone. And that is just for clinical cannabis. On Tuesday, voters throughout Oklahoma opted versus likely further, according to The Connected Press, rejecting a ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational cannabis use by grownups 21 and around. With the vote, Oklahoma joined a variety of conservative states whose voters have not too long ago determined versus recreational cannabis legalization. (Goodman, 3/7)
Politico:
‘Tokelahoma’ At The Crossroads
Johnny Teehee was sworn in as law enforcement chief of Muskogee in the summer season of 2018, hardly three months soon after the condition passed a referendum legalizing professional medical cannabis. Almost five years afterwards, as he patrols the town, he is overcome by the transformation weed has wrought on this struggling jap Oklahoma town. A block absent from the 1st Baptist Church of Muskogee, where Teehee is a parishioner, is a cannabis improve procedure occupying what utilised to be the central submit business. A plot of land Teehee acquired with the intention of one particular working day setting up a house on it now sits next to a 10-acre weed farm. Dispensaries are all over the place — The Treehouse, Large Pappa’s, Blaze-n-Bake, Pure Grass, Johnny D’s. At 420 Main St. in downtown Muskogee is a weed store emblazoned with a big mural featuring the likenesses of Merle Haggard and Bob Marley. “We do smoke marijuana in Muskogee,” it proclaims, cheekily refuting the opening line of Haggard’s 1969 redneck anthem “Okie from Muskogee.” (Demko, 3/7)
In other health and fitness news from across the U.S. —
AP:
NC Senate Considers Stiffer Penalties For Drug Distribution
As fentanyl overdoses proceed to plague communities throughout North Carolina, the condition Senate is thinking of laws to increase punishments for drug sellers whose distribution of the synthetic opioid outcomes in an overdose demise. A bill that superior Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee would revise state guidelines to develop higher-quality felony offenses for deaths induced by distributing certain managed substances and undertaking so with malice. It would also maximize great amounts for trafficking heroin, fentanyl and carfentanil, environment a sliding scaled primarily based on drug quantity. (Schoenbaum, 3/7)
The Colorado Sun:
80% Of Local Governments Opted Out Of Colorado’s Compensated Family Depart
So far, far more than 1,250 local governments have opted out of the contentious Colorado plan necessitating companies to give