A Weekly Roundup of Stories We Found Interesting – From The Profound To The Profane

Trump Could Use NAFTA To Bully Canada’s Emerging Weed Industry
The U.S. is cracking down on cannabis at home while pushing close allies like Israel to curb their cannabis industry. Is Canada next?

4 Key Changes To Massachusetts’ Marijuana Regulations
The Cannabis Control Commission voted unanimously to accept the new rules that will govern the legal industry. The biggest change is that there will be no cannabis cafes, or weed delivery services until next year, at the earliest. Read about the other changes.

Racial Disparities in NYC Cannabis Arrests Are Getting Worse
This is the first in a three-part Leafly series on cannabis in New York City. Under the liberal mayor Mayor Bill de Blasio, overall cannabis arrests are down but racial disparities have actually ticked up.

Nevada Won’t Budge on Its Ban on Cannabis Sales and Use in Casinos
Las Vegas casinos will let you light up cigarettes indoors and booze is handed out like tap water, but getting stoned at the poker table is still strictly forbidden, even after legalization.

K2 Isn’t Synthetic Marijuana. But chemically, It’s a Mystery
K-2, also known as Spice, is often called “synthetic marijuana”. It can inflict users with “anxiety, agitation, nausea and vomiting, high blood pressure, shaking and seizures, hallucinations and paranoia, and they may act violently. Labs that have tested the compounds in K2 have found everything from bath salts to generic ecstasy. According to the NPR report, traces of opioids have been found in different batches as well. It is a rotating concoction of chemicals, and have nothing to do with marijuana.

California Tribes May Go Their Own Way in Marijuana Market
American Indian tribes that say they have been cut out of California’s legal marijuana market have raised the possibility of going their own way by establishing pot businesses outside the state-regulated system that is less than two months old.

Employer-Required Drug Tests Decline
Employers are struggling to hire workers in the tightening U.S. job market. Marijuana is now legal in nine states and Washington, D.C., meaning more than one in five American adults can eat, drink, smoke or vape as they please. The result is the slow decline of pre-employment drug tests, which for decades had been a requirement for new recruits in industries ranging from manufacturing to finance.

Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate Dennis Kucinich Promises to Legalize Cannabis if Elected
Dennis Kucinich has promised that, if elected, he will expand the state’s medical marijuana program, push for industrial hemp farming, and most importantly, legalize the use and sale of recreational cannabis.