Why it will be difficult for Jeff Sessions to put the genie back into the bottle on marijuana policy

Last week, the US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, announced that he would be revoking Obama-era Department of Justice guidance which left the enforcement of marijuana policy to the states by giving prosecutors more discretion to pursue marijuana cases. A. Lee Hannah and Daniel J. Mallinson write that Sessions' policy about-face draws opposition from many of those in his own party, state US attorneys, interest groups, and state legislatures. Given that the federal government is dependent on state and local law enforcement for implementing drug prohibition, this opposition could well push Congress to change federal marijuana law

Uncooperative federal government has led to innovation on marijuana policy in more liberal, less religious states.

In the past two decades, 29 states and Washington DC have liberalized their laws on the use of medical marijuana - in defiance of federal regulations. A. Lee Hannah and Daniel J. Mallinson look at why some states have become 'defiant innovators' in this area. They find that if a state is more liberal and less religious, if the state ..

How the US states have learned from each other to create more comprehensive medical cannabis policies.

Medical cannabis was first legalized in California in 1996 – since then, 32 more states have done the same, and 11 have made the drug legal for recreational use. A. Lee Hannah and Daniel J. Mallinson take a close look at how the US states have learned from each other on how to regulate cannabis in the face of a continuing [...

Why legal cannabis may be more widespread in the US after the election.

The process of implementing comprehensive cannabis legislation varies between states and is often met with bureaucratic challenges. With many states putting medical and recreational cannabis on the ballot this election, Lee Hannah, Gideon Cunningham and Daniel Mallinson look at the key differences in these states’ approaches to legalisation. The increasing momentum on legal cannabis, they write, is likely to put further pressure on Congress to pass national cannabis policy reform

How Pennsylvania has taken steps to address the cannabis industry’s equity problem

While cannabis decriminalization and legalization has grown across the states, the profits from cannabis-related businesses have tended to flow mainly to white men, raising issues of equity. In new research, Lee Hannah, Daniel Mallinson, and Lauren Azevedo evaluate measures introduced in Pennsylvania to improve equity in who benefits from cannabis sales

Maximizing Social Equity as a Pillar of Public Administration: An Examination of Cannabis Dispensary Licensing in Pennsylvania

Public administration upholds four pillars of an administrative practice: economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and social equity. The question arises, however, how do administrators balance effectiveness and social equity when implementing policy? Can the values contributing to administrative decisions be measured? This study leverages the expansion of medical cannabis programs in the states to interrogate these questions. The awarding of dispensary licenses in Pennsylvania affords the ability to determine the effect of social equity scoring on license award decisions, relative to criteria that represent the other pillars. The results show that safety and business acumen were the most important determining factors in the awarding of licenses, both effectiveness concerns. Social equity does not emerge as a significant determinant until the second round of licensing. This study then discusses the future of social equity provisions for cannabis policy, as well as what the findings mean for social equity in public administration

Caspase-1 cleavage of the TLR adaptor TRIF inhibits autophagy and β-interferon production during pseudomonas aeruginosa infection

Bacterial infection can trigger autophagy and inflammasome activation, but the effects of inflammasome activation on autophagy are unknown. We examined this in the context of Pseudomonas aeruginosa macrophage infection, which triggers NLRC4 inflammasome activation. P. aeruginosa induced autophagy via TLR4 and its adaptor TRIF. NLRC4 and caspase-1 activation following infection attenuated autophagy. Caspase-1 directly cleaved TRIF to diminish TRIF-mediated signaling, resulting in inhibition of autophagy and in reduced type I interferon production. Expression of a caspase-1 resistant TRIF mutant enhanced autophagy and type I interferon production following infection. Preventing TRIF cleavage by caspase-1 in an in vivo model of P. aeruginosa infection resulted in enhanced bacterial autophagy, attenuated IL-1β production, and increased bacterial clearance. Additionally, TRIF cleavage by caspase-1 diminished NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Thus, caspase-1 mediated TRIF cleavage is a key event in controlling autophagy, type I interferon production, and inflammasome activation with important functional consequences