Nevada on Saturday became the fifth state to allow sales of marijuana for recreational use. Voters in California, Maine, and Massachusetts also approved recreational sales of marijuana in last November’s elections, but Nevada is first out of the gate actually selling pot.

Nevada allows consumers to possess one ounce of marijuana. State and federal law prohibit sales of marijuana on Las Vegas’s famous Strip and pot is prohibited in casinos, bars, restaurants, parks, concerts and all federal property. Marijuana may only be smoked in a person’s home and there is a $600 for smoking pot in public.

Still, supporters like former Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman, are delighted: “We in Las Vegas have always been on the cutting edge of all things necessary to make us an adult wonderland.” Adding legal pot sales is expected to make the city more attractive to tourists.

The state also expects pot sales to rev up its tax collections. With some 43 million visitors to Las Vegas last year, the state expects a sharp boost in revenues even if every visitor does not partake. Legal pot is taxed at 25% of the retail price: a 15% cultivation tax and a 10% sales tax.

Everything is not going entirely smoothly however. As we noted in our report on pot prices yesterday, alcohol distributors have been granted an injunction in their suit against the state for issuing distribution licenses. The alcohol distributors were to be given an 18-month head start on pot distribution as part of the initiative approved by voters last November.

Talks on Revamped Marijuana Bill to Resume After Missed Deadline
[Massachusetts] House and Senate negotiators hoping to hammer out a compromise over the state’s recreational marijuana law failed to meet a self-imposed deadline Friday aimed at getting a final bill to Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk and plan to get back to negotiations next week.

A six-member conference committee shed little light on its discussions while meeting off and on behind closed doors with little apparent progress Friday.

A spokeswoman for Democrat Patricia Jehlen — the Senate’s chief negotiator — said late Friday conferees “are making good progress” and plan to continue negotiations on Wednesday, after the Fourth of July holiday.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo earlier adjourned the House until Monday.

Democratic Rep. Mark Cusack, the chief House negotiator, said earlier in the day he remained “hopeful” for an agreement. His counterpart in the Senate, Democrat Patricia Jehlen, replied, “I can’t say that,” when asked if the conference committee was deadlocked.

Read more at CBSBoston.

Cannabis as a Substitute for Opioid-based Pain Medication: Patient Self-Report
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Prescription drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Alternatives to opioids for the treatment of pain are necessary to address this issue. Cannabis can be an effective treatment for pain, greatly reduces the chance of dependence, and eliminates the risk of fatal overdose compared to opioid-based medications. Medical cannabis patients report that cannabis is just as effective, if not more, than opioid-based medications for pain.

Materials and Methods: The current study examined the use of cannabis as a substitute for opioid-based pain medication by collecting survey data from 2897 medical cannabis patients.

Discussion: Thirty-four percent of the sample reported using opioid-based pain medication in the past 6 months. Respondents overwhelmingly reported that cannabis provided relief on par with their other medications, but without the unwanted side effects. Ninety-seven percent of the sample “strongly agreed/agreed” that they are able to decrease the amount of opiates they consume when they also use cannabis, and 81% “strongly agreed/agreed” that taking cannabis by itself was more effective at treating their condition than taking cannabis with opioids. Results were similar for those using cannabis with nonopioid-based pain medications.

Conclusion: Future research should track clinical outcomes where cannabis is offered as a viable substitute for pain treatment and examine the outcomes of using cannabis as a medication assisted treatment for opioid dependence.

Read more at Reiman Amanda, Welty Mark, and Solomon Perry. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. June 2017, 2(1): 160-166. https://doi.org/10.1089/can.2017.0012.

Harvard Study Shows Smoking Marijuana Improves Cognitive Function
Preliminary evidence from a new study led by Harvard Medical School Affiliate McLean Hospital’s Staci Gruber, PhD, suggests that medical marijuana (MMJ) may not impair, and in many cases, may actually improve executive functioning in adults. Splendor in the Grass? A Pilot Study Assessing the Impact of Medical Marijuana on Executive Function, assessed the impact of MMJ treatment on executive function and explored whether patients improved cognitive functioning. “After three months of medical marijuana treatment, patients actually performed better, in terms of their ability to perform certain cognitive tasks, specifically those mediated by the frontal cortex,” explained Gruber in a press statement.

Previous studies have shown that anxiety often interferes with both attention and executive function, so if MMJ products relieve anxiety, it is likely that a patient’s cognitive function may improve. Chronic pain also impairs cognitive performance, especially in tasks requiring executive function, so a reduction in pain will likely increase concentration and cognitive performance.

“Symptom improvement may therefore result in improved cognitive performance,” wrote the authors. “Interestingly, two previous studies have noted a positive association between a history of MJ use and improved cognitive performance on measures of psychomotor speed, attention, working memory, executive functioning, and verbal learning in patients with bipolar disorder compared to patients without a history of marijuana use.”

Read more at Inc.com.

Denver Issues Final Social Marijuana Use Rules, Dropping Waiver and Ventilation Plan Requirements
Denver’s plan to allow people to use marijuana at some businesses drew a step closer to reality Friday, when the city’s top licensing official unveiled final rules for the pilot program that is set to launch in coming months.

Big questions remain: Will the newly adopted regulations for the first-in-the-nation “social use” program provide measured protection for patrons and neighbors of businesses that take part, as city officials say? Or are the rules for consumption areas so restrictive that few businesses and event organizers will want to bother?

The exuberance that greeted the Nov. 8 passage of Initiative 300 — in which 54 percent of city voters directed officials to create a four-year pilot of the social marijuana consumption program — is now tempered among its chief supporters. Their protest of several draft rules released May 11 resulted in only a couple changes by city officials, including the nixing of a proposed requirement that patrons sign waivers upon entry to a business’ consumption area.

“I still have questions that I need answered. We still have concerns about many of the rules,” said I-300 campaign leader Emmett Reistroffer, from Denver Relief Consulting. “However, I recognize some improvements and I’m hopeful that there still are opportunities for businesses and nonprofits to allow cannabis consumption.”

The city will begin accepting applications by the end of August to permit social consumption areas on an annual basis or for events.

Read more at The Denver Post.

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