A Massachusetts woman who cleared her medical marijuana use with her new employer—and who was then subsequently fired on her first day of work, anyway, for having positive drug test results—has filed a discrimination complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in an attempt to get her job back.

Reports the Boston Globe:

BOSTON — Medical marijuana advocates are bristling at a report that suggests pot dispensaries will contribute to the deadly opioid crisis.

A report by the Massachusetts Health Council released last week recommends ways to fight opioid abuse including enforcement of a prescription monitoring program; releasing updated, community-level data on fatal and non-fatal overdoses; and expanding treatment options.

More than 1,000 people died from opioid-related overdoses in Massachusetts last year, according to state health officials.

But the report also calls for tightened rules on medical marijuana dispensaries and a ban on edible cannabis products. It suggests that pot dispensaries, similar to pain clinics that dole out addictive drugs, will contribute to the epidemic.

Cristina Barbuto says state law should protect workers who use medical marijuana with a doctor’s certificate.

Cristina Barbuto was thrilled when she landed her new marketing job last year.

Her delight quickly evaporated when she was fired after her first day because a drug test revealed marijuana use. She lost her job even though she’d disclosed during her interview that she takes the drug, with a doctor’s legal permission, to ease the symptoms of a digestive disorder.

A striking feature of the rollout of the state-legalized retail sales of marijuana has been the tremendous popularity of edible marijuana products. Marijuana brownies have long been a staple of cannabis coffee shops in the Netherlands, but the new products are quite different. They are skillfully produced and packaged to closely mimic popular candies and other sweets. These products can now be purchased legally in four states; retail stores are operating in Colorado and Washington State, and voters recently approved retail sales in Alaska and Oregon.

Home-brewing could soon take on a more dangerous twist: Scientists have engineered brewer's yeast to synthesize opioids such as codeine and morphine from a common sugar, an international team reported on Monday.

"It is going to be possible to 'home-brew' opiates in the near future," Christopher Voight of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was not involved in the research, told reporters.

The process described in Nature Chemical Biology is inefficient, requiring 300 liters of genetically engineered yeast to produce a single 30 milligram dose of morphine.

But with improvements that are well within reach, that dose could be obtained from "a glass of yeast culture grown with sugar on a windowsill," Voight said.

Health officials in Massachusetts on Friday overhauled the process of granting licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries.

Regulators from the administration of Governor Charlie Baker revamped licensing strikes away the subjectivity and secrecy that had ruined the system under former governor Deval Patrick’s tenure.

It has been found that the controversy surrounding the previous system sparked more than two dozen lawsuits, and left patients without any dispensaries 2½ years after voters approved marijuana for medical use.

The Department of Public Health is unveiling changes to the way it issues licenses under the state's medical marijuana dispensary program.

The changes outlined Friday include a revamped application process that allows marijuana dispensaries to be approved similar to how other health care facilities, such as pharmacies, are licensed.

Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel said the changes to the licensing procedures are critical to get the program up and running.

"This change creates a more streamlined, efficient and transparent process that allows the commonwealth to maintain the highest standards of both public safety and accessibility," Bharel said in a written statement.

Massachusetts will begin accepting applications for new medical marijuana dispensaries on June 29, the Department of Public Health announced Friday.

In April, the department announced that it was revamping its troubled medical marijuana licensing process.

Massachusetts health authorities moved Friday to dramatically overhaul the process for granting licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries, aiming to streamline the process and remove politics.

Regulators from the administration of Governor Charlie Baker said the revamped licensing strips away the subjectivity and secrecy that had tainted the system under former governor Deval Patrick’s tenure. Controversy surrounding the previous system sparked more than two dozen lawsuits, leaving patients without any dispensaries 2½ years after voters approved marijuana for medical use.

Law enforcement operating in medical marijuana states could be forced to dig deeper than just evidence of a home grow operation to establish probable cause for a search warrant.

Recently, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts determined that in order for police to obtain a warrant to search a residence for illegal marijuana possession or cultivation, they must first be able to prove that the occupants of the dwelling are not properly registered to engage in such activities.