Some midsummer highlights from Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform

Depending on one's perspective and professional calendar, the middle of July might feel more like the start of summer (for SCOTUS followers) or more like the end of summer (for law profs with classes starting in August). But with my favorite midsummer classic just a few days way, I am inclined to say call around now midsummer.

I am also inclined to note that it has been nearly a month since I did a full round-up of posts of note from the blogging I do over at Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform, and so I will head into the weekend by here rounding up some MLP&R highlights (for MLB highlights, the Home Run Derby is Monday):

• New York Health Department issues big report concluding benefits of marijuana legalization outweighs potential costs

• Reminders of realities of marijuana arrest rates

• NORML releases report on local marijuana decriminalization efforts

• Senate minority leader Charles Schumer introduces "Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act"

• "Defying Congress, Jeff Sessions Keeps Blocking Medical Marijuana Research"

• SCOTUS provides a good new First Amendment precedent for doctors interested in recommending marijuana

• "Mitch McConnell: Drug Warrior, CBD Champion?"

• Highlighting how extraordinary the approval of medical marijuana was in Oklahoma

• Could North Dakota(!?!) fully legalize marijuana via ballot initiative this year?

• "Guns N’ Ganja: How Federalism Criminalizes the Lawful Use of Marijuana"

• Lots of notable new pieces examining (just some of) the dynamic modern politics of marijuana reform

• "Behind Schedule — Reconciling Federal and State Marijuana Policy"

• Interesting review of the "footprint" of marijuana prohibition and expungement prospects in Michigan months before full legalization vote

• Michigan press suggesting state has a lot to learn from the Colorado marijuana reform laboratory

• "Medical Cannabis Legalization and Opioid Prescriptions: Evidence on US Medicaid Enrollees during 1993‐2014"

• "Time Trends Matter: The Case of Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Overdose Mortality"

• Big new Australian study throws cold water on marijuana as an effective pain reliever

• Comparing financial impact of cannabis boom in Canada to "the dot-com mania of the late 1990s"

• "High on Crime? Exploring the Effects of Marijuana Dispensary Laws on Crime in California Counties"

• "The effects of medical marijuana laws on cannabis-involved driving"

• Formal FDA approval for Epidiolex means some part of the federal government finds some part of cannabis plant has "accepted medical use"