Articles written by Madelyn Beck


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  • Wyoming's delta-8 ban remains in place after judge dismisses court challenge

    Madelyn Beck, WyoFile.com|Aug 22, 2024

    A federal judge in Wyoming dismissed a lawsuit Thursday alleging the state’s ban on selling delta-8 and similar substances is unconstitutional. The substances are similar to marijuana and occur in tiny amounts in the cannabis plant, but anecdotally produce milder effects and, in some cases, can be synthesized using dangerous chemicals. Judge Kelly Rankin accepted the state’s motion to dismiss for many of the same reasons he dismissed the plaintiff’s request for a temporary restraining order or injunction, he stated. “Much of the analysi...

  • Wyoming hemp shops sue state over delta-8 ban, seek halt to enforcement

    Madelyn Beck, WyoFile.com|Jul 11, 2024

    A group of hemp retailers and an agricultural organization are suing the state of Wyoming claiming that its recent ban on the marijuana-like substance delta-8 is unconstitutional. The Hemp Community of Wyoming wants an injunction or restraining order to stop the law from going into effect today. "We will fight to keep our small businesses open, keep food on the tables of our staff, and keep products coming to the hardworking people [of] Wyoming," Gillette's Mountain High Wellness store owners...

  • The giant mental-health loophole in Wyoming's gun regulations

    Madelyn Beck, WyoFile.com|May 2, 2024

    In Wyoming, someone can be deemed a danger to themselves or others, be committed to the state hospital for severe mental illness, be released, go directly to a store and buy a firearm. Such gun purchases violate federal law, and potentially state law. But because Wyoming is one of only three states that don't regularly report people who have undergone mental health adjudication to the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, pre-purchase enforcement is all but...

  • Woman survives Wyoming moose attack

    Madelyn Beck, WyoFile.com|Feb 15, 2024

    Nancy planned on cross-country skiing at Happy Jack in southeast Wyoming on Jan. 19, but forgot her ski jacket. Instead of waiting in the car while her husband skied, she decided to go for a stroll in the woods with her Uggs and knee-length brown parka. "I'll just take a nice little hour-long walk," she said. Nancy talked with WyoFile on the condition that her last name remain anonymous. (No word on whether she was concerned about retribution from a certain hooved critter.) The trails at Happy...

  • Vaccine exemptions surge in Wyoming

    Madelyn Beck, WyoFile.com|Feb 1, 2024

    More and more Wyoming students aren't getting vaccines. These aren't the much-maligned and distrusted COVID-19 vaccines, though. They're long-utilized inoculations against diseases like polio, diphtheria and measles, Wyoming Department of Health data shows. Wyoming requires a range of vaccines, but since 2020, the number of K-12 students securing exemptions has grown from 714 to 1,224 - an increase of 71%. There were 130 more in just the last year. The vast majority of students still get...

  • Major Wyoming abortion decisions loom

    Madelyn Beck, WyoFile.com|Dec 7, 2023

    The last month of the year will be one to watch for those who are both for and against abortion access in Wyoming. The week of Dec. 11 will feature two significant court hearings and the closing of a Jackson clinic — leaving only one physical facility to provide elective abortions in the state. “It’s going to be a tense week,” said Right to Life Wyoming president Marti Halverson, referring to the hearings. “There’s a lot hanging in the balance, obviously,” echoed Sharon Breitweiser, executive director of Pro-Choice Wyoming. “Right now, t...

  • Delta-8 - AKA 'diet weed' - could be criminalized in Wyoming

    Madelyn Beck, WyoFile.com|Sep 21, 2023

    Wyoming has long had an adversarial relationship with smokable or edible intoxicants, and that may continue with delta-8 - colloquially known as "weed light" and "diet weed." Members of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee will consider a draft bill Tuesday in Casper that would effectively ban that substance and any other with "similar chemical structure and pharmacological activity." The discussion comes at a time when stores selling the substance are proliferating in Wyoming, national leaders...

  • 10,000 Wyomingites have lost Medicaid or Kid Care coverage. Most are children.

    Madelyn Beck, WyoFile.com|Aug 17, 2023

    New estimates show that more than 10,000 people have lost Medicaid or Kid Care CHIP coverage since the start of a Wyoming eligibility review and removal process in April. That’s compared to about 9,000 who’s coverage was renewed for the government programs. While about 600 of those removed no longer qualify, the Wyoming Department of Health writes, more than 10,000 lost coverage for “procedural reasons.” Those reasons could include not returning or not completing forms. Three quarters of those procedural terminations involved children, accordi...