Recreational Marijuana Legalized in Oregon and Alaska
NOVEMBER 5TH, 2014
Oregon and Alaska voted to legalize recreational marijuana use on Tuesday. In Washington, D.C., residents voted to allow possession of marijuana, but not retail sales of the drug, Reuters reports.
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Oregon and Alaska will follow Colorado and Washington state which legalized recreational use of marijuana in 2012.
Preliminary results indicate 54 percent of Oregon voters supported the marijuana measure, which takes effect in July 2015. Retail marijuana stores could open in 2016. In Alaska, 52 percent of voters supported legal marijuana, according to preliminary results. Once the election is certified, a state commission would have nine months to come up with regulations. Stores would be likely to open in 2016.
The Washington, D.C. measure could be halted by the U.S. Congress, which has constitutional oversight of the nation’s capital, the article notes. Under the measure, adults 21 and older could possess up to two ounces of marijuana and grow up to six plants.
Voters in Florida defeated a constitutional amendment to allow medical marijuana. In Maine, proposals to legalize the possession of small amounts of recreational marijuana passed in South Portland and failed in Lewiston.
Opponents of legalization in Oregon said they will advocate for stricter laws aimed at limiting access to marijuana by children. Kevin Sabet, co-founder of anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said his group intends to build a broader coalition to counter pro-marijuana groups in 2016. “Tonight is going to inspire us to do better and to try harder and go after the donors we have to go after in order to level the playing field,” Sabet said. “The more people that hear about legalization, the more people are uncomfortable with it. For us it’s about getting our message out.”
The FDA recently voted in favor of pushing a new formulation of oxycodone hydrochloride for approval. The new OxyContin formula is more difficult to crush or dissolve which will hopefully make it harder to be used as a drug of abuse . The FDA recommended that Purdue Pharma's application for a new, resin-coated formulation should replace the original version, which has been on the market since 1996. Randall Flick, MD, an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic who voted to recommend approval of the drug said, "Clearly the old formulation is worse than the new, although I think the difference is relatively small," Flick concluded, "Hardcore abusers are likely to devise new ways to break down the harder tablet or figure out which solvents will dissolve it fastest, within 'day or weeks' of the product's release on the market."