Latest News

Today, a coalition of social justice, drug prevention, recovery, family, and faith organizations penned a joint letter to the leadership of the United States House of Representatives strongly opposing the MORE Act, a bill to federally legalize the commercial marijuana industry that is tentatively scheduled for a vote the week of September 21st. According to […]

US Health Department also singles out Colorado in its report for the state’s high weed use and addiction rates, as well as its co-occurring mental illness problems with marijuana On Friday, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released the 2019 Annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the most comprehensive survey […]

National data released by Quest Diagnostics found that rates of marijuana positivity in the workforce have sharply risen both over the last year (2018-2019) and since legalization was implemented. Furthermore, Quest Diagnostics also reported that workforce drug positivity hit a sixteen-year high in 2019. “While overall workforce drug positivity rates have risen only slightly over […]

Today, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced his fall legislative agenda, which included a call for the legislature to commercialize marijuana to fund “business grants and restorative justice.” Dr. Kevin Sabet, a former Obama Administration advisor and president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), the nation’s largest non-profit dedicated to opposing marijuana commercialization, released the following […]

Today, new data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBS), an annual survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Prevention (CDC) confirms concerning trends when it comes to substance abuse, especially marijuana use, in high school students. Notably, the data finds that lifetime marijuana use is the number one risk factor for prescription opioid […]

Today, a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that among pregnant women surveyed in 2017, those who gave live birth in marijuana-legal states Alaska and Maine had the highest rate of marijuana use, followed by medical marijuana states Illinois, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. “Marijuana use […]

According to a new Canadian study published in Nature Medicine, women who use marijuana during pregnancy have a more than 50 percent greater chance to give birth to a child with autism versus non-users. The study also found the risk for other neurodevelopmental disorders was heightened. “This is an extremely concerning development,” said Dr. Kevin […]

Today, a new survey released by the state of Colorado finds that marijuana use has skyrocketed in the last two years with nearly 21% of young people in the state reporting past-month use. Notably, use in young teens (aged 15 and younger) has increased to 15.5%, up from 2017 (the last time data was collected). […]

A study recently released by the University of Washington finds that marijuana legalization and commercialization may have begun a reversal of previous downward trends in teen marijuana use. The study, which followed 230 teens and young adults, found that young people may be more likely to use marijuana after commercialization, due to normalization as a […]

A broad, diverse group of renowned scientists, led by the first Black United States Magistrate Judge and researchers from Johns Hopkins and Harvard Medical School, sent a letter to former Vice President and current presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, commending him for his unwavering commitment to a well-reasoned approach to marijuana policy. The researchers, members […]

In partnership with the NAACP Illinois State Conference and other social justice groups and individuals, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), the largest, non-profit, non-partisan marijuana policy organization, co-founded by Congressman Patrick Kennedy and a former Obama Administration advisor, launched a national social justice campaign focused on educating lawmakers and the public on smart marijuana reforms, […]

A new study compiled by the Public Health Institute, a California-based nonpartisan organization promoting strong public health policy, programs, systems, and best practices, found that regulations on the marijuana industry in California have fallen well short of protecting youths from the drug. The study also found several hypocrisies in marijuana regulations when compared to regulations […]