The Social Equity Council is expected to influence how Connecticut’s new cannabis industry will address the historic harms of criminalization.
Department of Consumer Protection
Posted inMoney, Politics
State, Foxwoods scuffle over tax status of new gaming machines
The unheralded arrival of 100 electronic bingo games at the Foxwoods Resort Casino is raising concerns at the State Capitol that the casino’s owner, the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, is testing the market for gambling machines that appear to fall outside the tribe’s longstanding revenue-sharing deal with the state of Connecticut.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy picks Michelle Seagull to oversee consumer protection
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy named Michelle Seagull as the commissioner of consumer protection Monday, putting the Harvard-educated lawyer in charge of an agency whose responsibilities include the regulation of casino gambling and the liquor and pharmaceutical industries, including medical cannabis.
Posted inPolitics
Harris, weighing run for governor, quits as commissioner
Jonathan Harris is stepping down as commissioner of the Department of Consumer Protection “to pursue other professional opportunities,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Monday. Harris is one of the Democrats looking at a run for governor in 2018.
Posted inHealth
Pharmacists offer overdose-reversing drug, but say demand muted
Some customers thank Ed Schreiner for making naloxone available at his pharmacy. The bin with brochures about the drug, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, is often empty. But since last year, only about a dozen people have asked Schreiner to prescribe the drug. Other pharmacists said they’ve been similarly surprised by the low demand, given the state’s ongoing opioid crisis.
Posted inHealth
St. Francis to test marijuana as alternative to opioids
The study will be the first state-approved research on medical marijuana, part of a law passed this spring that grants immunity under state law to those participating in approved studies.
Posted inHealth, Politics
House authorizes limited use of medical marijuana for children
With backing from Connecticut’s pediatricians, the House of Representatives voted 129-13 Wednesday night for legislation allowing physicians to prescribe cannabis to treat children for a half-dozen serious medical conditions. The bill now goes to the Senate.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Pediatricians back new push to allow medical marijuana for some kids
A proposal to allow minors with certain medical conditions to use marijuana for palliative purposes is back before legislators this year, this time with the backing of onetime opponents: pediatricians.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy watch: Rubenstein leaving; Mullen, Klee staying
William Rubenstein will retire in January as the commissioner of consumer protection, while two others will return to the Malloy administration: Dr. Jewel Mullen at the Department of Public Health and Robert Klee at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Posted inHealth
Companies in four CT towns to produce medical marijuana
Portland, Simsbury, Watertown and West Haven will be home to facilities that produce medical marijuana for patients to use in accordance with state law, officials announced Tuesday.
Posted inHealth
Connecticut has 1,154 medical marijuana patients, but no applicants to grow or provide the drug yet
As of Tuesday, there were 1,154 patients certified to use marijuana for medicinal purposes in Connecticut, according to the state Department of Consumer Protection. Of those, 365 live in New Haven County, 281 live in Fairfield County, and 222 live in Hartford County. Tolland County has 28 patients, the fewest of any county.