A Salem medical marijuana dispensary is the first to receive permission to sell marijuana - after obtaining a temporary waiver from the state's strict testing guidelines.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has said it will reconsider its medical marijuana testing standards. Advocates and experts knowledgeable about the testing process say Massachusetts' current standards are stricter than those in other states and difficult to meet.

"We carefully considered the initial testing results and we will review the standards going forward," said Dr. Monica Bharel, commissioner of the Department of Public Health. 

Baker trying to weed out problems for Bay State medical marijuana sale

"Cannabis 01 bgiu". Licensed under Creative Commons

Gov. Charlie Baker has given a three-month waiver to medical marijuana dispensary Alternative Therapy Group of Salem, allowing the dispensary to sell marijuana without having to meet all the state’s testing requirements.

Alternative Therapy Group has been growing medical marijuana at its cultivation center in Amesbury since December, the first in the state approved to grow the drug.

After more than a decade of study, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital are close to developing a new class of non-narcotic drugs that relieve chronic nerve pain by targeting a protein that enhances pain and inflammation.

Their findings, reported in the journal Neuron, could lead to new treatments for diabetic peripheral neuropathy, post-herpetic neuralgia, and inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. Current treatments provide meaningful pain relief in only about 15 percent of patients.

One-time waiver granted for limited amounts to be sold by Salem, Massachusetts dispensary, while state labs secure more rigorous testing.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker yesterday, June 19, approved the issuance of a one-time, temporary waiver that will allow the first medical marijuana dispensary to begin selling its product after meeting final inspection protocols.

One of the Commonwealth’s first medical marijuana dispensaries, Alternative Therapy Group of Salem had requested the waiver because labs in Massachusetts are not yet able to complete the array of quality testing required by Department of Public Health protocols.

Members of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws held signs outside Quincy Market in 2007.

Last year, more than 1,000 Massachusetts residents died from opioid overdoses. Judging by the constant stream of new obituaries — many for heartbreakingly young people with their entire lives ahead of them — there’s little reason to believe 2015 will be any different.

As Massachusetts mobilizes task forces, community meetings, and additional resources for first responders to combat these drugs, it defies imagination that some state lawmakers are at the same time considering legalizing an addictive drug for recreational use.

What will slow the increase in overdoses?

Deaths by drug overdose have been on the rise in the United States, with a majority of states recording increases from 2009 to 2013, according to a study released on Wednesday. 

Across the country, 44,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2013, more than double the number in 1999, the study by the non-profit group, Trust for America’s Health found. Nearly 52 percent of the deaths were related to prescription drugs. The number of overdose deaths increased in 26 states in the four years to 2013, the study found, and decreased in only six states.

Legalizing marijuana in Massachusetts would create thousands of jobs in a newly regulated market, snatch a lucrative business away from "gangs and cartels" and generate new tax revenues for government, according to the political director of legalization efforts in five states, including Massachusetts.

During a televised interview broadcast on Sunday morning, Matt Simon of the  Marijuana Policy Project told WCVB-TV's "On the Record" that he believes an initiative petition being drafted to legalize marijuana will be approved "overwhelmingly" after a debate over impacts in states where it is already legal, including Colorado and Washington.

AMHERST — Massachusetts should begin a robust discussion about marijuana policy and regulation right away so to avoid being caught flat-footed if voters approve legalization at the ballot box in 2016.

That was the central message imparted by nearly a dozen speakers at an invitation-only marijuana policy forum sponsored by the UMass-Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences on Saturday.

AMHERST — As the question of whether to legalize marijuana in Massachusetts looms on the horizon, Colorado’s top marijuana official on Saturday added new data to the debate: Since the state legalized recreational use of the drug, use by adults has not increased.

That was just one of the insights from Colorado’s legalization experience shared by Andrew Freedman, that state’s director of marijuana coordination, during his remarks at a conference held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan, meanwhile, expressed concerns about legalizing the drug for recreational use in Massachusetts, citing potential health impacts on teenagers and young adults.