A newly formed coalition of professional athletes and entertainers, led by retired boxer Mike Tyson, has sent a letter to President Donald Trump—thanking him for past clemency actions while emphasizing the opportunity he has to best former President Joe Biden by rescheduling marijuana, expanding pardons and freeing up banking services for licensed cannabis businesses.

The “Coalition of Athletes and Entertainers Supporting President Trump’s Policy Objectives” also counts NBA’s Kevin Durant and Allen Iverson, NFL’s Dez Bryant, Antonio Brown, Ricky Williams, the musician Wyclef Jean and others among its members who signed onto the letter.

“Today, people continue to serve lengthy federal sentences for conduct that is now legal in most states–which makes their continued incarceration not only cruel but absurd,” the letter says.

“After making sweeping promises to voters in 2020, former President Biden failed to deliver on his pledge to address marijuana-related injustices,” the coalition said. “Not only did he leave office without commuting the sentences of those incarcerated for marijuana, but in one of his final acts, he denied nearly every pending marijuana-related clemency application.”

The athletes said that inaction reflects a “betrayal” that “underscores the urgent need for bold leadership, we believe, and represents an opportunity to correct glaring disparities as part of your Administration’s ongoing push for criminal justice reform.”

The letter, first reported by Fox News, also notes clemency actions Trump took in his first term, including the pardoning of Weldon Angelos over a cannabis-related conviction. Angelos has since become a prominent reform advocate who’s worked with both the Biden and Trump administrations to expand clemency opportunities.

Further, the coalition made the case that Trump should finalize the process of moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) that was initiated under the last administration but has since stalled out.

“Marijuana’s current classification as a Schedule I substance is scientifically outdated, economically detrimental, and at odds with modern medical understanding,” they said. “Rescheduling marijuana would harmonize federal law with state policies, promote innovation, encourage research, and drive economic growth.”

Tyson separately addressed the rescheduling issue during an interview published by The Dales Report on Thursday. He said, “I have a strong belief that [reclassifying cannabis is] possible—more possible than during the last administration.”

The boxer also said that he feels Trump must be adequately informed about marijuana policy, in part because Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba “is educated on this,” and she’s “very acquainted with the president.”

Tyson, along with Habba, recently toured a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) lab—donning a DEA jacket as he promoted his marijuana brand’s commitment to safety and learned about fentanyl-related issues.

“I just believe that it’s a powerful, powerful revolution going on right now,” Tyson said during Thursday’s interview. “I think we’re gonna win. I really believe in it.”

The letter from the coalition of athletes additionally speaks to the industry’s desire to enact reform allowing state-legal cannabis business to access financial services afforded to other traditional markets.

“State-legal cannabis operators, including many of us, have also been unjustly denied banking services despite full compliance with state law,” it says. “Despite operating legally in 40 states, employing over 450,000 Americans, and generating more than $35 billion annually, these businesses face unjust barriers to banking services, and their employees struggle to obtain mortgages from traditional lenders.”

“Moreover, cannabis businesses cannot take standard business deductions, leading to effective tax rates often exceeding 85 percent. While foreign cannabis companies benefit from listings on U.S. exchanges, such as NYSE and NASDAQ, American cannabis operators are unjustly excluded. We fully support your commitment to ‘work with Congress to pass common-sense laws, including safe banking,’ ensuring fair economic opportunities and equal access to financial services for all American businesses.”

Other signatories on the letter include NBA’s Steven Jackson, Chris Webber, JR Smith, John Salley and Al Harrington, as well as NFL’s Jim McMahon, Kyle Turley, Champ Bailey, Marvin Washington and Tony Richardson. Boxers Boyd Melson, Paul Willias and Keith Thurmon, as well as the streamer Adin Ross, also put their names on the letter.

This comes days after Trump’s first pick for attorney general in the current administration, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), reiterated his own support for rescheduling cannabis—suggesting in an interview with a Florida Republican lawmaker that the GOP could win more of the youth vote by embracing marijuana reform.

On marijuana rescheduling, the president did endorse the policy change on the campaign trail. But he’s been publicly silent on the issue since taking office. Gaetz said last month that Trump’s endorsement of a Schedule III reclassification was essentially an attempt to shore up support among young voters rather than a sincere reflection of his personal views about cannabis.

A survey conducted by a GOP pollster affiliated with Trump that was released in April found that a majority of Republicans back a variety of cannabis reforms, including rescheduling. And, notably, they’re even more supportive of allowing states to legalize marijuana without federal interference compared to the average voter.

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Meanwhile, Trump picked former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) to run DOJ, and the Senate confirmed that choice. During her confirmation hearings, Bondi declined to say how she planned to navigate key marijuana policy issues. And as state attorney general, she opposed efforts to legalize medical cannabis.

Adding to the uncertainty around the fate of the rescheduling proposal, Trump’s nominee to lead DEA, Terrance Cole, has previously voiced concerns about the dangers of marijuana and linked its use to higher suicide risk among youth.

During an in-person hearing before the Judiciary Committee in April, Cole said examining the rescheduling proposal will be “one of my first priorities” if he was confirmed for the role, saying it’s “time to move forward” on the stalled process—but again without clarifying what end result he would like to see.

DEA recently notified an agency judge that the proceedings are still on hold—with no future actions currently scheduled. The matter sat without action before an acting administrator, Derek Maltz, who has called cannabis a “gateway drug” and linked its use to psychosis. Maltz has since left the position.

Amid the stalled marijuana rescheduling process that’s carried over from the last presidential administration, congressional researchers recently reiterated that lawmakers could enact the reform themselves with “greater speed and flexibility” if they so choose, while potentially avoiding judicial challenges.

Embracing Marijuana Legalization Could Help GOP Win Over More Young Voters, Trump’s First Attorney General Pick Suggests

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New York cannabis regulators expanded a recall on June 27 that involves more than two dozen adult-use flower and pre-roll products they say were produced using material sourced from outside the licensed market.

The state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) issued the latest recall for 28 products manufactured by IndoGro LLC. The latest recall stems from an initial recall on June 11, when the office determined nine of the company’s products had failed laboratory testing due to the presence of noncompliant pesticides.

The initial nine products had originally been placed under quarantine due to a lack of validity in testing by a laboratory that’s no longer licensed. After the products were retested, the OCM determined they posed a potential risk to public health and safety, ordering a cease in distribution and sales.

That sparked additional investigation, which led to the OCM’s latest recall of the 28 products it determined represent a “serious violation” of the state’s cannabis law.

“The licensee … violated the law by using cannabis from an unlicensed, out-of-state source to produce and sell products in New York,” according to the OCM’s June 28 recall notice. “As such, these products are considered adulterated and pose a potential risk to consumer health and safety.”

The following IndoGrow products are affected by the latest recall:

• The Force Pre-Roll – Lot # SWDV01
• Blue Coffee Flower – Lot # IC099-001-BC
• Blue Coffee Pre-Roll – Lot # IC099-BC1-PR
• Sour Runtz Flower – Lot # IC099-001-SR
• Sour Runtz Pre-Roll – Lot # IC099-SR1-PR
• Cosmic Burst Flower – Lot # PPPG01
• Oreoz Flower – Lot # IC099-001-OR
• Oreoz Pre-Roll – Lot # IC099-OR1-PR
• Secret Formula Flower – Lot # IC099-001-SF
• 1.25g Sour Diesel Preroll  – Lot # IC099-SD1-PR
• 1.25g Black Cherry Gelato Preroll  – Lot # IC099-BG1-PR 
• 1.25g Blue Coffee Preroll  – Lot # IC099-BC1-PR 
• 3.5g Oreoz  – Lot # IC099-001-OR  
• 3.5g Sour Diesel – Lot # IC099-001-SD 
• 3.5g Sour Runtz  – Lot # IC099-001-SR
• 3.5g Secret Formula  – Lot # IC099-001-SF  
• 3.5g Mimosa  – Lot # IC099-001-MI  
• 1.25g Sour Runtz Preroll  – Lot # IC099-SR1-PR  
• 1.25g Mimosa Preroll  – Lot # IC099-MI1-PR  
• Sky Walker 3.5g  – Lot # IC1009-SK001
• Purple Punch 3.5g  – Lot # IC1009-PP001 
• 3.5g Black Cherry Gelato  – Lot # IC099-001-BG  
• 1.25g Oreoz Preroll  – Lot # IC099-OR1-PR  
• 3.5g Blue Coffee  – Lot # IC099-001-BC  
• Darth Vader 3.5g  – Lot # IC1009-DV001  
• Pink Gas 3.5g  – Lot # IC1009-PG001 
• The Force 1g Preroll  – Lot # IC1009-SWDV001 
• Cosmic Burst 1g Preroll  – Lot # IC1009-SWDV01-PR  
• 1.25g Black Cherry Gelato-PR-Grams  – Lot # G-IC099-BCG1-PR 
• 1.25g Sour Diesel Preroll-Grams  – Lot # G-IC099-SD1-PR  
• 1.25g Secret Formula Preroll-Grams  – Lot # G-IC099-SF1-PR  
• 3.5g Black Cherry Gelato-Grams  – Lot # G-IC099-001-BCG  
• 3.5g Sour Diesel-Grams  – Lot # G-IC099-001-BG  
• 3.5g Mimosa-Grams  – Lot # G-IC099-001-MIM 
• 1.25g Mimosa Preroll-Grams  – Lot # G-IC099-MI1-PR   

The products may also go by names Indi, Grow by Indi, Our Creation and Grow with Us, according to the OCM.

While the recalled products contain pesticides prohibited under New York law, according to the OCM, state regulators issued the recall as a “precautionary” measure. The office has not received any consumer reports of adverse effects, according to the OCM.

Cannabis consumers can return the recalled products—even if packages are open—to the dispensary they purchased them at. Consumers can also fill out an incident report online.

People who used psychedelics during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic showed “improvements in mental health,” supporting the idea that “beneficial effects on mood and anxiety associated with these substances may extend beyond controlled conditions” that can also apply in moments of “global crisis,” according to a new study.

Researchers at Imperial College London set out to investigate how the use of various drugs impacted mental health outcomes amid the pandemic, drawing on survey data from UK residents from 2019 to 2022.

On average, people who consumed drugs “had worse average mental health scores relative to drug-naive individuals at all timepoints,” the study found. But people who used psychedelics and marijuana “showed average improvements in depression, anxiety and overall mental health from pre-pandemic to January 2022, becoming on par with the drug-naive group.”

Interestingly, the study, which received support from the UK government-funded National Institute for Health Research, said those improvements did not appear for “cannabis-only users, whose worse mental health scores persisted.”

“Those who used psychedelics may have experienced some improvements in mental health across the pandemic timeframe, which supports the idea that beneficial effects on mood and anxiety associated with these substances may extend beyond controlled conditions,” the study authors said.

The findings were based on surveys involving 377,678 respondents between December 2019 and March 2022. They were disaggregated into six clusters: People who used cannabis only, cannabis and cocaine, cocaine only, psychedelics and cannabis, poly-drug and no drugs.

“Naturalistic use of psychedelics is associated with longitudinal improvements in anxiety and depression during global crisis times.”

“Mental health in most drug use clusters remained stable over time, except for the psychedelics and cannabis cluster,” the study found. “At follow-up, this cluster showed significant within-subject improvements. Comparing pre-restrictions data to January 2022, individuals in this group had significantly worse depression and mental health composite scores than drug-naive individuals at baseline, but these differences diminished over time, with no significant differences relative to drug-naive individuals remaining at follow-up.”

“Anxiety scores also dropped significantly in this cluster, though the differences from drug-naive individuals did not reach statistical significance at either baseline or follow-up,” it said. “Further analyses suggest this might be due to individuals in this cluster generally using fewer drugs by January 2022 relative to their pre-pandemic baseline. By contrast, cannabis-only users consistently showed poorer mental health across all symptoms compared to drug-naive individuals, suggesting the change in mental health scores might be related to the additional use of psychedelics within that cluster.”

The researchers said the observation on psychedelics “accords with previous findings that link naturalistic use of psychedelics to improved mental health.”

The study also lays out “several pertinent explanations” for the trend.

“At the population level, drug users have worse mental health than drug-naive individuals–and it could be that (novel) use of psychedelics, albeit less drug use more generally, during crisis times, normalises those differences,” it says. “Another possible explanation is that the context is more influential in driving the effects of psychedelics than it is in driving the effects of other drugs.”

There are limitations to the study, however. including the fact that it was “fully automated online” so researchers “did not conduct the sorts of interviews that are sometimes used to provide comprehensive baseline data on participants’ drug use histories, which limits our ability to assess the influence of prior drug use on mental health.”

“For instance, we did not collect data pertaining to dosage, frequency or context of drug use, which are likely important in determining mental health outcomes, nor have we gathered specific information on other drugs individuals may use in the UK, such as amphetamines,” they said.

“Future research should investigate whether the observed changes in mental health within the psychedelics and cannabis cluster are driven by alterations in the use of cannabis, psychedelics or their combined effects, particularly given their prevalent concurrent use; or whether they are a product of other synergistic or independent factors (such as the quality of interpersonal relationships, concurrent treatment for mood disorders or lifestyle changes),” the study concludes.

Meanwhile, another recent study found that taking a high dose of LSD, coupled with assisted therapy, led to “greater reductions in depression” among patients compared to those who received a low dose of the psychedelic.

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

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.”

High Doses Of LSD Lead To ‘Greater Reductions In Depression’ Compared To Low Doses Of The Psychedelic, New Study Finds

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