The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the challenge to Mississippi’s near-total ban on medical cannabis advertising in the state. The challenge, by Clarence Cocroft, owner of Tru Source Medical Cannabis, argued that the restrictions violate his free speech rights. 

In a statement, Cocroft said he wanted to advertise on billboards that he owns and that the advertising is essential to his business because his dispensary is tucked away in an industrial park “with no foot traffic and hardly any vehicle traffic.” 

“I was hoping the Supreme Court would hear our case so my business could be treated just like any other legal business in the state of Mississippi.” — Cocroft, in a statement 

The ruling upholds the decision from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled Cocroft does not have a First Amendment right to advertise his dispensary because cannabis is outlawed under federal law.

In a statement, Ari Bargil, a senior attorney for the Institute for Justice (IJ), which represented Cocroft, said they are “disappointed that the court declined to hear this case and make it clear that if a product is legal to sell, then it is legal to advertise.” 

“The First Amendment protects the right of people to speak truthfully about their legal businesses,” Bargil said in a statement. “Mississippi has created an entire legal marketplace permitting the sale of medical marijuana, but it is censoring state-licensed dispensaries who want to talk about it.”    

IJ President and Chief Counsel Scott Bullock added that despite the Supreme Court declining to hear the case, the organization remains “committed to fighting battles to protect commercial and other forms of speech in courts throughout the country, so that every person who runs a legal business is able to talk truthfully about it.”    

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“Selling weed through the same system that sells vodka isn’t going to guarantee Black ownership, community power or justice.”

By Krystal Bush, Free My Weedman

In Pennsylvania’s billion-dollar cannabis economy, big corporations are raking in $150 million every month. Dispensaries gleam like Apple stores and marketing teams dream up the next strain drop like sneaker releases. So I’m not surprised to see that the latest cannabis legalization bill, House Bill 1200, proposes a “state store” model as the cornerstone for legalization.

Let’s be real: Selling weed through the same system that sells vodka isn’t going to guarantee Black ownership, community power or justice. That’s not a cannabis bill, that’s a business plan for the state.

Now, maybe I lost too many of you once I said “Black ownership.” But the facts of our commonwealth speak for themselves.

Since 2013, there have been 189,509 people arrested in our state for possession of less than 30 grams of cannabis. Last year alone, Pennsylvania arrested over 12,000 people for a few grams of marijuana. Black residents were nearly five times more likely to be arrested than white residents. In some counties, that disparity climbs even higher.

And I can’t support HB 1200.

Why? Because ownership and access are the foundation of equity for everyone. HB 1200 does not guarantee ownership for the people who’ve paid the highest price for cannabis criminalization.

Let’s not forget: Pennsylvania’s current medical marijuana program is not Black-owned, not woman-owned, not Pennsylvanian-owned and not community-owned. Why should we trust a hybrid model with even heavier state control? Where is the clear pathway for the victims of prohibition to own what they helped build?

Meanwhile, a North Philadelphian named Joseph Akers sits in a New Jersey federal prison nine years into an 18-year sentence for cannabis. The same plant that now bankrolls billion-dollar industries has cost Joseph his freedom, fatherhood and dignity.

Today, Pennsylvania allows corporations to sell cannabis in sleek packaging while Joseph is labeled a “drug dealer” and rots in a cell for doing the same.

What’s worse? HB 1200 does nothing to ensure that Joseph’s 22-year-old son, a young Black man who has already inherited the trauma of prohibition, could even own a piece of this new industry.

I understand that cannabis is still illegal at the federal level. The state may not have the power to free Joseph today, but We The People of Pennsylvania do have the power to repair the harm.

Pennsylvania must include a binding community equity clause in HB 1200 that guarantees absolute ownership, not leftovers, for the people most impacted by prohibition.

Lawmakers like Rep. Rick Karjewski (D), who is committed to social justice, must show the transparency and effort to amend and rewrite the HB 1200 to center on total health equity, not just revenue.

The state store model is looking backwards instead of forwards. Legislators must begin to hear the voices of community stakeholders instead of just well paid corporate lobbyists. And if they won’t, we’ll organize and mobilize to ensure the local people who built this community and this industry are no longer shut out.

Justice can’t be licensed by the state. Call your legislators. Tell them: Real equity means real ownership and pathway for legacy operators.

It’s not a discounted license. It’s not about waiting years either.

Full circle justice. Reparative equity. Real ownership. Now.

Kristal Bush is the social impact director of Free My Weedman.

Do Cannabis Companies Really Have To Wait for Rescheduling To Escape The 280E Tax Penalty? (Op-Ed)

Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.

A new scientific review on psychedelics as a possible treatment for substance use disorders finds that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy “showed significant reductions in alcohol consumption and high smoking cessation rates” and has potential to lessen opioid dependence.

Psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAP) “was associated with significant reductions in alcohol consumption, smoking cessation, and related psychological improvements,” says the research, published last month in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

The review looked at 16 studies, most of which were open-label or observational. Few were randomized controlled experiments, which authors said “underscor[es] the need for robust clinical trials.”

Research into alcohol use disorder found participants who underwent psilocybin-assisted therapy “reported fewer heavy drinking days, increased abstinence rates, and neuroimaging data indicating normalization of brain activity.”

Studies into PAP and tobacco use disorder, meanwhile, “demonstrated high smoking abstinence rates, with mystical experiences predicting long-term outcomes.”

“Findings for other SUDs [substance use disorders] were mixed,” authors wrote, “though psilocybin showed potential in reducing opioid dependence and nicotine use.”

The new review was authored by a 15-person research team from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, the New York University Center for Psychedelic Medicine, the Center for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, Western University in Canada, the University of South Adelaide in Australia, Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands and the universities of Alberta, Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto.

“By synthesizing data from multiple studies,” they wrote, “we seek to provide a clearer and updated understanding of psilocybin’s therapeutic potential and its applicability across different types of SUDs.”

Despite a lack of robust research, especially outside tobacco and alcohol use, the report says that “psilocybin was generally well-tolerated, and in studies where it was combined with psychotherapy, [showed] significant reductions in reported substance use.”

The results come on the heels of a separate report earlier this year that looked at the use of psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat methamphetamine use disorder. It found that the treatment “was feasible to implement in an outpatient setting, did not appear to generate safety concerns, and demonstrated signals of effectiveness warranting further investigation.”

That study, published by The Lancet as a preprint in January, found that among a small group of people in a stimulant treatment program, “Methamphetamine craving decreased while quality of life, depression, anxiety, and stress improved from baseline to day 28 and 90 follow-up.” Authors noted there are currently few effective treatments for methamphetamine use disorder.

Last summer, meanwhile, two other studies—including one with contributions from a top federal drug official—examined psychedelics and alcohol use disorder (AUD).

One found that a single dose of psilocybin “was safe and effective in reducing alcohol consumption in AUD patients,” while the other concludes that classic psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD “have demonstrated potential for treating drug addiction, especially AUD.”

The National Institutes of Health last year also announced that it would put $2.4 million toward funding studies on the use of psychedelics to treat methamphetamine use disorders—funding that came as federal health officials noted sharp increases in deaths from methamphetamine and other psychostimulants in recent years, with fatal overdoses involving the substances rising nearly fivefold between 2015 and 2022.

In 2023, meanwhile, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) announced a $1.5 million funding round to further study psychedelics and addiction.

Other recent research has also suggested that psychedelics could unlock promising new pathways to treat addiction. A first-of-its-kind analysis in 2023 offered novel insights into exactly how psychedelic-assisted therapy works for people with alcohol use disorder.

Last year, meanwhile, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), which is part of the National Institutes of Health, identified the treatment of alcohol use disorder as one of a number of possible benefits of psilocybin, despite the substance remaining a Schedule I controlled substance under U.S. law.

The agency highlighted a 2022 study that “suggested that psilocybin may be helpful for alcohol use disorder.” The research found people who were in psilocybin-assisted therapy had fewer heavy-drinking days over 32 weeks than the control group, which NCCIH said “suggests that psilocybin may be helpful for alcohol use disorder.”

Outside of psychedelics, research from 2019 indicated that the cannabinoid CBD may also have the potential to treat substance use disorders involving cocaine, amphetamine and methamphetamine—adding to earlier research showing the cannabinoid has the potential to help people battling substance use disorders involving alcohol and opioids.

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