Utah-based music producer Weldon Angelos was on his way to becoming a rising star in the hip-hop industry.

By the time he was 23, he had already worked with titans of rap such as Snoop Dogg and Nas, as well as former associates of Tupac Shakur. In the process of getting ready to stabilize himself with a lucrative contract with a major recording studio, he was arrested after selling $300 of marijuana to an undercover police informant on three separate occasions in 2002. (Photo Courtesy of Weldon Angelos)

April 20, or as it’s written in shorthand, 4/20, is a particularly busy day for medical marijuana pharmacies across the state.

Provo-based Deseret Wellness was slammed with customers on 4/20, a day renowned in counterculture by many who use marijuana, both with a medical need or otherwise. To mark the occasion, the pharmacy, which caters to those who have a medical cannabis card only, decorated the dispensary with green balloons and streamers.

More changes are coming to Utah's medical cannabis program in a pair of bills in the state legislature.

Since voters approved medical cannabis in 2018 (and the legislature overrode the ballot initiative with a compromise bill), the state's program has slowly started moving forward. But the program has had issues, which lawmakers have tried to address in bills.

Nine months following the launch of legal medical cannabis sales in Utah, regulators and industry leaders are hailing the early success of the state’s program and looking forward to 2021 for continued growth. Voters in Utah approved the medical use of cannabis with the passage of a ballot initiative known as Proposition 2 in November 2018. 

Utah’s medical marijuana law may soon undergo another expansion if a bill that is being introduced in the legislature gets approved.

Salt Lake City-based television station FOX13 reports that a bill offered up by a pair of Republican lawmakers seeks to allow more Utah physicians to recommend medical cannabis to qualifying patients.

More Utah doctors will be able to recommend medical cannabis to qualifying patients, under a new bill being proposed.

The forthcoming legislation will allow physicians to recommend cannabis for up to 15 patients without having to go through hours of specialized training through the state. But if a doctor does, they can help up to 275 patients.

"We want to make the barrier to entry on the part of providers, prescribers, lower," said Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers.

Problematic cannabis cultivation on Navajo Nation lands has led to a new resolution to clarify the Nation’s stance.

The Navajo Nation is an American Indian territory covering more than 17.5 million acres of north-eastern Arizona, south-eastern Utah and north-western New Mexico.

The Navajo Nation doesn’t allow for hemp or marijuana to be grown on its land, with the exception of a pilot project being carried out in partnership with New Mexico State University. However, at least one unauthorised party has been cultivating hemp, claiming passage of the 2018 Farm Bill that legalised it at a federal level allows this to occur – and there was no Navajo Nation penalty in place for growing hemp.

Six months after medical marijuana became legal for purchase inside Utah for the first time, the program has already surpassed enrollment projections.

But high demand has also led to shortages in both product and providers interested in recommending medical marijuana to patients.

“It’s been going. It’s been going well, as with all new programs and people starting and really pushing to get up and going like they did early on — and now (producers) are starting to find their traction to be able to keep moving forward,” said Cody James, manager of the Utah Department of Agriculture’s Industrial Hemp and Medical Cannabis Program.