NEW Biscuits with possible plastic pieces, metal found in ground pork: Here are the recalls for this week
Here are the latest recalls Canadians should watch out for, according to Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Missouri voters have approved a ballot measures legalizing recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older and expunging most records of past arrests and convictions.
Approval of the new constitutional amendment comes just four years after Missouri voters legalized medical marijuana. The latest initiative will allow those licenced to sell medical marijuana to quickly covert to general sales.
Records involving previous nonviolent marijuana offences will automatically be expunged, except for selling to minors or driving under the influence. The initiative also allows people currently incarcerated for most nonviolent marijuana offence to have their convictions overturned and be set free.
Revenue from a state tax on marijuana sales will fund the expungement process, veterans services, drug addiction treatment and public defenders.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Voters approved recreational marijuana in Maryland and rejected it in Arkansas and North Dakota in elections seen as a test of legalization's support in even the most conservative parts of the U.S.
Maryland's vote for legalization made the state the 20th to take that step. Measures also were on the ballot in Missouri and South Dakota.
“By voting for legalization, Marylanders have rejected the failed ideas of the past and have chosen to reform their laws to protect civil liberties and promote racial justice,” Erik Altieri, executive director of NORML, one of the nation’s oldest legalization advocacy groups, said in a statement.
The state voting in Tuesday's elections follows moves by President Joe Biden toward decriminalizing marijuana. Biden last month announced he was pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law.
Advocates of the marijuana initiatives have said Biden's announcement may give a boost to their efforts.
Heading into the election, recreational marijuana was legal in 19 states, and polls have shown opposition to legalization softening. All of the states with recreational marijuana on the ballot, except for Maryland, voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
About 6 in 10 voters support legalizing the recreational use of marijuana nationwide, according to VoteCast, an extensive survey of more than 90,000 voters nationwide conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.
The five states currently have legal medical marijuana programs. That includes Arkansas, which in 2016 became the first Bible Belt state to approve medical marijuana. The state's dispensaries opened in 2019, and more than 91,000 patients have cards to legally buy marijuana for medical conditions.
The legalization campaigns raised about US$23 million in the five states, with the vast majority in Arkansas and Missouri. More than 85% of contributions in those two states came from donors associated with companies holding medical marijuana licences, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent campaign finance reports.
In Arkansas, supporters ran upbeat ads touting the thousands of jobs they said would be created by the measure. Opponents ran more ominous spots, warning voters to “protect Arkansas from big marijuana.”
“The marijuana industry spent millions of dollars trying to write itself into the Arkansas Constitution," said Jerry Cox, executive director of the Family Council Action Committee, one of the groups opposing the measure. “Now they know that Arkansans do not support that kind of crony politics."
The initiative drew the criticism of traditional legalization opponents as well as some medical marijuana advocates, who said the Arkansas proposal placed too many limits and would only benefit a handful of dispensaries. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a former head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, also opposed the measure.
David Owen, who led North Dakota's legalization effort, said he wasn't sure another effort would be made after the proposal was rejected.
“Tonight was not what we wanted, but the people have spoken and we have to prepare for the next steps,” Owen said.
North Dakota's proposal would have allowed people 21 and older to legally use marijuana at home as well as possess and cultivate restricted amounts of cannabis. It also would have established policies to regulate retail stores, cultivators and other types of marijuana businesses.
“It’s pretty clear North Dakota families don’t want marijuana across the state,” said Luke Niforatos, executive vice president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a Virginia-based political organization against marijuana legalization, which helped fight the measure in North Dakota.
Missouri's proposal would legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older and expunge records of past arrests and convictions for nonviolent marijuana offences, except for selling to minors or driving under the influence. Maryland's proposal will also make changes in criminal law and create automatic expungements of past marijuana possession convictions.
South Dakotans, including a sizable number of Republicans, voted to legalize marijuana possession in 2020, but that law was struck down by the state Supreme Court in part because the proposal was coupled with medical marijuana and hemp. This year, recreational pot stood by itself as it went before voters.
In Colorado, where recreational marijuana has been legal for nearly a decade, voters on Tuesday took up a proposal that would allow the use of certain psychedelic substances. If approved, it would make Colorado the second state to take such a step.
Melody Finley, a Republican in Little Rock, Arkansas, said she voted for the state's legalization measure because she thinks it can help some people for certain conditions.
“If you can buy alcohol, you can buy that, too," Finley, 47, a dance instructor, said.
But Rick Huffman, a voter in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, voted against that state's legalization proposal, two years after supporting recreational marijuana on South Dakota's ballot in 2020.
“I’ve got a kid that’s a teenager now,” he said. “So I think it’ll eventually happen, but maybe I’ll wait until my kids grow up.”
Jeff Borgrud, 68, a Democrat in Fargo, North Dakota, said he voted against that state's recreational marijuana proposal.
“I don’t see any use for marijuana use," Borgrud, a retiree and Navy veteran, said. “Maybe an occasional medical purpose but very limited."
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Associated Press writers Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, James MacPherson in Bismarck, North Dakota, and Dave Kolpack in Fargo, North Dakota, contributed to this report.
Here are the latest recalls Canadians should watch out for, according to Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
A new poll suggests a majority of Canadians feel their right to freedom of speech is in danger.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Emotional support animal registrations in the United States reached 115,832 last year, by an industry group’s count. But in the eyes of reptile rescuer Joie Henney, there’s only one: 'Wally Gator.'
The federal government will provide Toronto just over $104 million in funding to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Tiger Woods accepted a special exemption for the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, the first time the three-time champion has needed an exemption to play.
What do you need to pack for a cruise? When it comes to this upcoming cruise from tour and travel company Bare Necessities, the answer appears to be very little.
Danny DeVito had the opportunity to know way more about Drew Barrymore than the rest of us.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.