MAUD, Okla. —

Oklahoma TV station KOCO caught a tornado in its tracks as it nearly flattened a medical marijuana farm.

The damage was significant, but the owner rode out the storm on the farm.

He estimated that $95,000 in plants were destroyed Wednesday when the tornado touched down in Maud not far from a greenhouse, and RVs where people lived on the property.

“This is the first season of the year, so now that the plants are exposed to the weather like this, they’re wasted – not good no more,” a farm employee said. “I’m still in shock. I haven’t fully wrapped my head around this.”

Almost all the nearly 50 greenhouses on site were destroyed. RVs were flipped and scattered.

"That shed flew and hit the RV, and knocks it down like that,” he said.

Help arrived immediately after the tornado struck, fortunately.

"They’re part of the community, the Hmong community, and we are the nonprofit organization in Tulsa but they’re part of the family members,” said Paul Thao, who is with the Hmong American Association Oklahoma.

The two-year-old operation is entering its second season but it’s not clear how it will bounce back. No one was injured.

The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority said its agents are in Maud to make sure licensed product is secure.

All Joshua Chase wanted to do was have a smooth grand opening of his new cannabis dispensary — Oakanna — in Oakland, California. Instead, he got shot.

"They shot and hit me with a ricochet," Chase said.

"It went through the bottom of my foot," Chase added.

This happened more than six weeks ago and to some degree, he wasn't surprised by it.

"This is just what you sign up for being in the cannabis industry," Chase said.

"This is just what comes with the business when you don't have banking," he said.

What's this lack of banking that Chase is talking about? When a typical business receives cash, the owners can easily take the money to a nearby bank and deposit it.

That's not the case with marijuana dispensaries. Because marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, most federally-insured banks don't accept deposits from marijuana businesses.

That means many dispensaries have a lot of cash on hand until they can take it to a specialized institution. For the same legal reasons, most cannot accept credit cards either.

In Washington state, in January and February of this year, there were 50 armed robberies of dispensaries.

"If we would have a banking system that was open it would only make a safer for us, it would be more efficient for us," Chase said.

NOT A NEW DEBATE

This debate is not a new one. In fact, dispensary owners for years have been saying how a lack of banking access can create dangerous conditions for employees. After years of debate on this issue, it's possible Congress addresses it this summer, however.

The change could come from the "Safe Banking Act" which would allow dispensaries access to federally-insured banks in states where cannabis is legal.

Lawmakers are attempting to include it in the Bipartisan Innovation Act, which is meant to fund science, computer chips and more.

Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) spoke about including "safe banking" during the first conference committee of the Bipartisan Innovation Act last month.

"Change our banking laws so the cannabis industry isn't operating in the all-cash darkness," Hickenlooper told lawmakers.

The legislation just might be one of the last major bills Congress passes before the election.

More details on whether safe baking is included in the Bipartisan Innovation Act is expected to be revealed later this summer.

President Joe Biden is pardoning all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana.

In an announcement Thursday, Biden said, "No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana."

The president said he'd instructed Attorney General Merrick Garland to develop an administration process so certificates of pardons go out to eligible individuals.

Biden said thousands of people would be impacted by the decision. He noted that many of those people had been denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result of their convictions.

Biden is also asking governors to also use their pardoning powers for marijuana convictions at the state level.

In addition, the president has ordered the attorney general and the secretary of Health and Human Services to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.

It's currently classified as a Schedule I drug. It's in the same category as heroin and LSD.

"Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana," Biden stated. "It’s time that we right these wrongs."

More states could soon join the growing list of places where recreational marijuana is legal.

Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota will vote in the midterms on whether to amend their constitutions to legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 years and older.

Maryland and Missouri are tying recreational marijuana to calls for social justice. The amendments would grant relief to individuals convicted of certain marijuana crimes.

The ballot measures in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota just focus on legalizing the industry without taking into account prior convictions.

Legalizing recreational marijuana has become more popular over the years. According to a 2021 poll by the Pew Research Center, 60% of Americans said recreational and medical marijuana should be legal.

"From 2000 to 2019, the share of Americans saying marijuana should be legal more than doubled,' the Pew Research Center stated.

Currently, recreational marijuana is legal in 19 states and Washington, D.C.

Colorado was the first state to legalize marijuana. Voters in 2012 passed Amendment 64, which amended the state's constitution to legalize cannabis. Other states followed by either passing ballot initiatives or going through their legislatures.

Marijuana is still illegal at the federal level. However, President Joe Biden, this year, softened the government's stance on marijuana. He pardoned all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana.

"No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana," Biden stated in October.

The president also ordered the attorney general and the secretary of Health and Human Services to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.

It's currently classified as a Schedule I drug. It's in the same category as heroin and LSD.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Chirine Touati is one of the millions of people in the U.S. who use marijuana for medical purposes.

“This is concentrated cannabis oil, and then what I do is I put it under my tongue,” said Touati.

She has a medical marijuana card in Utah. Touati uses marijuana to help deal with chronic pain.

“I get really bad burning pain in my feet that can travel all the way the way up my leg and even across my shoulders,” said Touati. “I have multiple sclerosis and I’ve had it for most of my life. I was diagnosed in 2006.”

She says the pain will keep her in bed most of the day on bad days.

She says medical marijuana is the most effective treatment for her pain.

But she says there are many obstacles that keep people like her from getting fair access to medical cannabis in Utah.

She's not alone.

“When we’re talking about access to medicine we’re talking about distance, how far is a patient traveling, how easy is it for a patient to get a medical card, how easy is it for them to have a conversation with their doctor about the topic. All those are little tiny barriers to a patient having access,” said Christine Steinquest, an advocate in Utah who helped pass the state’s medical cannabis law.

While that was a huge step forward, she says the barriers are preventing some patients from getting the care they need.

There are 14 dispensaries in Utah. Michigan, which is just slightly bigger than Utah in square miles, has 410.

“We would like patients to have reasonable access. It’s unreasonable to me to have a patient drive an hour to a dispensary. That’s not realistic. So we have a ways to go,” said Steinquest.

It’s not just a Utah problem. People in other states also say access is a major concern.

“There are some people that need to drive farther than 60 miles,” said Gayle Peterson, a registered nurse in North Dakota.

“One of the biggest things is (a) provider. Quite often, your own doctor you’ve had for many, many years doesn’t want to touch the stuff. Or we’ve heard of larger facilities saying, 'Nope, our providers cannot certify patients for it,'” said Peterson.

Meaning patients may have to seek out specific doctors to prescribe medical marijuana.

Finding a doctor is just one barrier. Price can be another issue for patients.

Touati says the oils she uses can get quite expensive.

“For a gram, it was over $100, for sure,” said Touati.

“It’s very expensive in this state, I mean there’s no way. It would be like a house payment. A couple grand a month,” she added.

Right now, there are bills in several states, including Utah, to examine or expand access to medical cannabis use. They would increase the types of products available to patients, allow patients to grow plants at home and expand access to CBD products among other things.

But Steinquest sees a long road ahead for nationwide access to patients.

“Is there a state with a perfect balance yet? No, I don’t think there is yet. I think we need some more federal action so that business can operate in a manner that makes sense and then maybe we’ll start to see some changes across the board that affect everybody,” she said.

Legislation is moving forward across the country to increase access and decrease business barriers within the marijuana industry.

But some experts say with that legislation comes some concerning safety trends.

Marijuana became legal in Canada in October 2018. The country waited to legalize edible products until 2020 in the hopes of passing more legislation to try and prevent child poisonings.

However, newly published data shows Ontario is still seeing nine times more ER visits for cannabis poisonings in young children. A third of those cases required further hospitalization, and in 4% of those cases, children were admitted to the ICU.

"The industry has evolved to have much stronger, more potent products and these edible products are no exception," said Dr. Sam Wang, a pediatric ER physician at Children's Hospital Colorado. "Kids can get into a lot of THC in these products, and so they can have more profound symptoms, including sedation, coma. We've seen kids with low oxygen because their breathing is low."

Wang says that nearly a decade after legalizing marijuana, Colorado continues to see an increase in calls to poison control and ER visits for accidental cannabis poisonings among children. That increase comes even after the state instituted preventative measures like child-resistant packaging, dose limitations, and restrictions on marketing and gummy products.

Wang says accidental marijuana poisonings among children still aren't as common as calls about household products like laundry detergent and over-the-counter medications. Still, he says there are other concerning trends.

"Those who do use cannabis are using more frequently and are using more products that have higher concentrations of THC — meaning vaping in concentrate use," Wang said. "That in that is in of itself concerning, as there's increasing literature on higher doses of THC use initiating and more frequently at a younger age can lead to long-term health and mental health impacts."

According to a Gallup poll, 68% of Americans now support legalizing marijuana.

COLUMBIA TWP., Ohio — The first medical marijuana dispensary in the Interstate 275-loop opened its doors Wednesday morning in Columbia Township.

Verilife, a medical marijuana dispensary company owned by the Illinois-based Pharmacann, opened the dispensary at 5134 Ridge Ave. between Pleasant Ridge and Oakley Wednesday at 11 a.m.

"We are looking forward to meeting the medical cannabis needs of Ohio's patients seeking relief," said Chaz Mize, general manager of the Cincinnati Verilife dispensary.

The dispensary offers a wide range of medical marijuana products for the medical needs of people in Cincinnati.

"Whether it's tinctures for the senior citizen with cancer receiving chemotherapy, or vaporizers for the patient with chronic pain, we want to ensure our patients are empowered to find what works to meaningfully improve their lives," said Mize.

Patient consultation rooms and access to patient care representatives are also available at the dispensary.

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About Wellness, located in a strip mall at 1525 Genntown Dr. in Lebanon, Ohio, was the first of seven medical marijuana dispensaries to open in Greater Cincinnati.

“We believe there are folks that don't have dispensaries close to them," Mize said. "And then we believe that there are a considerable number of people here in the Cincinnati market that just haven't had the opportunity to use their card yet."

Michael Harris, a medical marijuana patient living in Hamilton County, said Verilife's new location is about 30 miles closer to his home than the Lebanon dispensary.

"I have chronic pain in my legs, in my shoulder and in my back," Harris said. "I have a herniated disc."

He said medical marijuana doesn't make his pain go away, but it makes it manageable, so he can live his life. He said living closer to a more accessible dispensary has made a big difference for him.

Ryan Hoover, another medical marijuana patient, said he uses medical marijuana to treat his PTSD, Crohn's Disease and IBS. He's tried different prescription drugs over the years, but said nothing has worked for him as well as medical marijuana.

"Medicines, some of them work," he said. "But it’s just a matter of time before they stop working or you catch a lot of the side effects from it. I don’t like taking pills so this is really going to help me.”

Medical marijuana is not a prescription, but the state of Ohio allows certified physicians to recommend medical marijuana to patients with certain medical conditions. Patients are provided a card, not a prescription to fill, and can purchase it from state-certified dispensaries.

Butler County could also see its first dispensary soon. Bloom Medicinals said it plans to open a dispensary in Seven Mile before the end of the month.

GEORGETOWN, Ohio — Several law enforcement agencies were involved in busting a marijuana grow operation in the 9800 block of West Fork Road in Georgetown, Ohio on Thursday.

Authorities recovered approximately $6,500 worth of marijuana and three firearms.

Jacob and Elliot Smith, both of whom have criminal histories of violent criminal offenses, along with several juveniles were found on the property.

Both men are currently incarcerated in the Brown County Jail and were charged with having weapons under disability and endangering children.

Charges for growing and trafficking of marijuana including firearm and child specifications are still pending.

Anyone who has any information on the case is asked to contact Brown County Drug and Major Crimes Task Force at (937) 378-2573.

Saguache County, Colorado is larger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

It is a valley surrounded by mountain peaks that draws people who are looking for the secluded lifestyle that rural America can offer.

“Everybody knows everybody,” said Doug Peeples, who owns a grocery market in the county seat of Saguache.

The town of Saguache is small, having never boasted more than 700 full-time residents in the last 30 years. The county is even more dispersed as the population density is less than two people per square mile.

Then, in 2014, all of that changed once Colorado became the first state in the country to legalize recreational marijuana.

“I would venture to guess we saw 2,000 to 3,000 people in overnight,” said Saguache County Sheriff Dan Warwick.

“All of a sudden we had an influx of people that were out-of-towners,” added Peeples.

Located in the southern part of Colorado, the county became a destination for people from neighboring states who wanted to use the weed recreationally, but particularly those who wanted to start grow operations before returning the product back to their home state-- something that is illegal.

“With only six deputies, how do you try and catch these bad actors?” said Warwick. “You just hope to come across it.”

The influx led to squalor and crime as sheds laid abandoned after people would use them for growing marijuana before skipping town once they harvested.

“You’d see people come in and they would grow on a piece of property that they leased for a short period of time,” said Warwick. “They would leave all their trash and junk everywhere and then just pack up and leave.”

It became a divisive issue in the county as full-time residents would be left to deal with the mess.

“For a while, this place was the Wild Wild West,” said county commissioner Jason Anderson.

Anderson, along with the rest of the county commissioners, worked to find a solution by passing an excise tax in 2016 that would give them 5 percent of the profits when legal growers would sell to retailers.

In theory, the legislation would allow the county to benefit from something that had caused so much turbulence as the commissioners allocated money to go towards schools, enforcement, and other areas that needed improvement, but it started off slow.

“The first year [of the tax] we only saw $6,000, again, because the legal operations weren’t up and running yet,” said Anderson.

Gradually, however, that tax money started to increase. After only seeing $6,000 in 2017 Saguache County pulled in $67,000 in 2018 and $280,000 in 2019.

“We hired a code enforcement officer and outfitted him with everything he needs full-time, which is something we could never even think about beforehand,” said Anderson.

The county also set up a scholarship fund for local students planning to go to college and helped others get to school by updating trail systems that encouraged kids to walk in a county where the childhood poverty rate is 46 percent.

“I think we are better off [from the legalization of marijuana] in that we need all the resources we can to continue to adapt to the changes.”

Some places in town still have yet to see the money as some storefronts along the town of Saguache’s main street still lay vacant, but the county hopes as the tax money grows each year, so does prosper in the town.

If you happened to have lost 770 pounds of high-grade marijuana, a sheriff's office in Florida is trying to do the right thing and reunite you with your lost possessions.

"I mean, trying to identify the rightful owner of the property is the very least we can do, especially since it has a street value of roughly two million dollars!!" the Brevard County Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook.

FULL VIDEO: Florida man captures gator using trash bin before releasing it into pond

If the marijuana belongs to you, you could even get an all-expense-paid "staycation" to reflect on how much the lost property means to you and so that you don't get ripped off.

"All of us at one point or another in our lives have lost or misplaced something important and are always hopeful that a good and kind person will find our lost item and do the right thing by returning it to its rightful owner," Sheriff Wayne Ivey said on Facebook.

If you are looking to have your property returned, you can reach out to the Narcotics Agents at the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.

'You have to come home!': Florida teen finds iguana in their toilet

A new national survey found nearly half of college students said they consumed cannabis in 2020 – a new record.

Forty-four percent of college students surveyed reported using marijuana in 2020. That was the highest level in the survey's history. 8% said they used marijuana daily or nearly daily last year, up from 5% in 2015.

Some students at Metropolitan State University in Denver, Colorado said smoking marijuana helped them cope with the struggles and loneliness of pandemic life.

At the same time, college students reported drinking far less alcohol. 56% of students surveyed in 2020 reported drinking in the past 30 days, compared to 62% in 2019. Additionally, just 28% reported being drunk in the past 30 days, compared to 35% in 2019.

Binge drinking also fell dramatically. Only 24% of students said they binge drank in 2020, compared to 32% a year earlier. Students told Newsy they stopped drinking as much when the pandemic brought their social lives to a halt.

This story was originally reported by Kellan Howell on Newsy.com.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of three Democratic senators, including the majority leader, introduced draft legislation Wednesday that would decriminalize marijuana on the federal level.

Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Ron Ryden (D-Ore.) held a press conference to present the draft bill.

Joining @SenSchumer & @RonWyden to announce our legislative draft that will:
Legalize marijuana
Expunge marijuana arrest records
Reinvest in communities most harmed by the drug war
It’s past time we take steps to fix decades of failed drug policy. https://t.co/SyrwUy9Liq

— Sen. Cory Booker (@SenBooker) July 14, 2021

“We are all joining together to release draft legislation to end the federal prohibition on cannabis. This is monumental because at long last, we are taking steps in the Senate to right the wrongs of the failed war on drugs,” said Schumer.

The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act would remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances, expunge nonviolent federal cannabis-related criminal records, and start regulating and taxing the drug.

“We also very much believe in the expungement of records because of the historical overcriminalization,” said Schumer.

Schumer said people shouldn’t have to live with criminal records for the rest of their lives if they are caught with a small amount of marijuana in their possession.

“Expunge those records. Let these people become productive citizens without that criminal record, that severe criminal record hanging over their heads,” said Schumer.

Booker said the bill would also seek to reinvest in the communities that have been the most harmed by the "War on Drugs."

The next step in the effort to get the bill passed is getting further input from stakeholder groups, according to Schumer.

Booker said at the briefing that this is the first time in history that the majority leader of the U.S. Senate is leading the call to end prohibition of marijuana. He said it was also noteworthy that Ryden, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, was joining them.

While taking questions from the press, Schumer admitted that he doesn’t currently have the votes needed to pass the bill, but a “large majority” of his Democratic caucus supports it. He said he’ll show them the draft legislation and negotiate.

The legalization of cannabis remains popular in the U.S. A Pew Research poll released in April found 91% of American adults say either that marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, or that it should be legal for medical use only. Fewer than 8% said it shouldn’t be legal for use by adults.

County, local and federal law enforcement conducted seven drug raids earlier this month, which led to the seizure of 800 grams of fentanyl, 51 pounds of marijuana and $8,000 in cash.

The Butler County Regional Narcotics task force along with the FBI and local police departments conducted the raids during the early morning hours of June 15. They had search warrants for four locations in Hamilton, one in Oxford, one in Fairfield and one in Middletown, according to a release issued Friday from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.

Eddie Collins, 31, aka “Big Unk,” was booked into the Butler County Jail on June 15 on suspicion of possession of controlled substances. He also is being held on federal charges, records show.

Anyone who has information on criminal activity involving Collins is urged to call the FBI Cincinnati office at 513-421-4310.

Related video above: Legal cannabis businesses reached a record $17.5 billion in sales in 2020Amazon said Tuesday that it will stop testing jobseekers for marijuana.The company, the second-largest private employer in the U.S. behind Walmart, is making the change as states legalize cannabis or introduce laws banning employers from testing for it. In March, a New York man sued Amazon, saying the company rescinded his job offer at an Amazon warehouse because he tested positive for marijuana, even though the city banned employers from testing job applicants for cannabis in 2020. Amazon said in a blog post that it will still test workers for other drugs and conduct “impairment checks” on the job. And the company said some roles may still require a cannabis test in line with Department of Transportation regulations.Related video: The Perfect Time of Day and the Best Time of the Year to Apply to JobsSeattle-based Amazon also said Tuesday that it will support the federal legalization of marijuana by pushing lawmakers to pass the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021.