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State lawmakers in Louisiana approved a bill on Wednesday that allows patients in the state’s medical marijuana program to access smokable forms of cannabis. The measure, House Bill 391, was approved in the Louisiana House of Representatives by a vote of 76 to 17 after being approved by the state Senate with a 23 to 14 vote last month.

Under the newly passed measure, registered patients in Louisiana’s medical marijuana program will be permitted to possess and use unprocessed, smokable forms of cannabis. The program’s current regulations only allow patients to access medical marijuana products including topicals, tinctures, gummies, and inhalers that deliver a metered dose of a vaporized cannabis. Marijuana in raw flower form is not allowed and smoking medical marijuana products is also not permitted.

Republican House Speaker Pro-tem Tanner Magee, the sponsor of the bill, told local media that the approved products are too expensive for many of the state’s medical marijuana patients.

“Most of the products aren’t covered by insurance,” Magee said. “This is a way to provide a more affordable option.”

HB 391 was originally approved by lawmakers in the Louisiana House of Representatives in May. However, the bill was amended as it was being considered by the state Senate, requiring the House of Representatives to vote again on the revised version. The measure received overwhelming bipartisan support in both houses of the Louisiana state Legislature.

Delta-8 has caused quite a stir in the world of cannabis, with federal and state governments trying to find ways to cope with this new entrant into the products field. As laws are being put in place to keep it out, a new question becomes, is delta-8 THC a recreational or medicinal product?

Are you a delta-8 user for recreational or medicinal reasons? We know delta-8 is great for relaxing, as well as obtaining medical benefits with less psychoactive effect and couch locking. And this makes it great for both worlds. It doesn’t matter why you like it, we just want you to have it! Check out our array of Delta-8 THC deals, and find the products that work best for you, whether you’re just trying to chill, or need a dose of medicine.

What is delta-8 THC?

Before we get into specifics about it, and whether delta-8 should be considered recreational or medicinal, let’s go over what delta-8 THC is, for anyone who hasn’t been following along with the current controversy. Delta-8 THC is both an isomer and analogue of delta-9 THC, the standard THC of marijuana that people associate with getting high. Delta-9 doesn’t actually exist in large amounts in fresh cannabis flowers, rather its precursor THCA does. THCA decarboxylates when it comes into contact with heat, or over time, losing a carboxyl group (COOH) to form delta-9 THC.

The chemical transformation is this: C22H30O4  –> C₂₁H₃₀O₂. However, we already know about delta-9 THC, what we want to know about, is delta-8. Once the delta-9 THC comes into contact with oxygen, it loses electrons, a process called oxidation. This process transforms delta-9 into delta-8. The loss of electrons makes the compound more stable, meaning delta-8 has a longer shelf life than delta-9. The chemical structure is identical for both.

Delta-8 is an isomer of delta-9 because it actually has the same chemical structure, with a different configuration of atoms within. It’s an analogue of delta-9 because it is structurally and functionally (medically) nearly identical. For this reason, delta-8 and delta-9 THCs are often cited as being useful to treat the same ailments.

Tobacco and nicotine products are some of the most dangerous consumer products on earth, and that’s been the case for many years.

The World Health Organization estimates that over 8 million people die annually worldwide due to tobacco.

Roughly 7 million of those annual deaths are due to direct tobacco use by the consumer, and the remaining 1 million+ die from secondhand smoke inhalation.

Nearly half of all tobacco consumers will die as a direct result of their tobacco use, which is extremely unfortunate.

Cannabis is Safer Than Tobacco

Nicotine, one of the main ingredients in tobacco products, is highly addictive. Anyone who has tried to quit consuming tobacco products will be quick to tell you that.

UC San Diego Health are conducting what they say is the first known randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial examining cannabis as a treatment for acute migraines.

Around 20 participants are already enrolled in the trial, with the aim to reach 90 participants aged 21-65. The participants are provided four different treatments to be self-administered for four separate migraine attacks – one based on THC, another on CBD, one with a THC/CBD combination and one a placebo. All treatments will be administered using a vaporiser.

Participants will be self-administering the treatments at the onset of a migraine or as early as possible into the attack – one treatment per attack. Among the outcomes to be measured are freedom from pain and pain relief, and the presence or lack thereof of photophobia (sensitivity to light), phonophobia (sensitivity to sound) and nausea. These will be reported at 1 hour, 2 hours, 24 hours, and 48 hours after administration.

Those enrolling will need to agree to a number of conditions, including not using cannabis outside of the study, abstinence from the use of opioids or barbiturates and not driving a motor vehicle within 4 hours of self-administering treatments provided in the course of the study.

However, more solid scientific evidence is needed to establish cannabis’s efficacy.

Minnesotans who rely on medical marijuana to treat a myriad of conditions will soon be able to smoke the plant. 

Gov. Tim Walz signed the omnibus health and human services bill into law this week, which includes a provision to expand the state's medical cannabis program that was created in 2014, with qualified patients allowed to buy the drug starting in July 2015. 

The state's program, though, is one of the most restrictive in the country because it only allows patients to use the drug in liquid, oil and pill forms — smokable medical marijuana is banned (a provision that was needed to get lawmakers and Gov. Mark Dayton to approve the program). 

Since the start, many patients have criticized the law for being overly restrictive and have said the cost of the non-smokable forms of medical cannabis is a major barrier (it's not covered by insurance).

But now, starting no later than March 1, 2022, patients will be able to buy the smokeable flower form of the plant, which supporters say will make the medical cannabis program more affordable and accessible. 

The Danish government has permanently authorized licensed companies to produce and export medical cannabis independent of an existing pilot program.

“This is an important milestone recognizing this young industry, which utilizes the local expertise in greenhouse agriculture mass production,” Aurora Europe said in a statement. “Being able to tap into resources of the established international pharmaceutical industry is also a valuable location advantage.”

Canada-based Aurora has said its Aurora Nordic Cannabis A/S unit, based in Odense, Denmark, is to become the company’s main supply source for the European market. The company’s operations in Odense include more than 9,200 square meters of greenhouse production space and promise a maximum output of approximately 10,000 kg per year. Aurora Nordic produces dried flowers and extracts and will introduce other formulations in the near term, the company has said.

Broad political support

The authorization for production and export of medical cannabis comes as the Danish government, with support of a broad majority of parliamentary parties, decided to continue the medical cannabis pilot program that has been running for four years, but which expires at the end of 2021. The trials were made permanent for growers of cannabis for medical use, and rules allow doctors to continue to prescribe medical cannabis to patients.

Growers finance the pilot program by paying fees but the government said it agreed to discuss grants and possible adjustments to the program in autumn 2021. Continuation of subsidies for patients purchasing cannabis medical supplies is also to be discussed in the future.

Researchers at the University of New Mexico (UNM) have found people suffering from nausea who consumed whole natural cannabis flower had at least some relief within five to 60 minutes.

But not only did individuals report significant symptom improvement almost right away — with nausea falling an average of almost four points on a scale of zero to 10 — that improvement increased by the hour-after mark.

“Symptom relief was statistically significant at five minutes and increased with time,” notes the study published last month in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology.

The investigation shows that 96.4 per cent of the study sample reported nausea relief within one hour. “Despite increasing clinical concerns regarding cyclical vomiting or hyperemesis syndrome in cannabis users, almost all users experienced relief,” study author Sarah Stith, an assistant professor at UNM, says in a statement on Sunday.

To get an idea of how using cannabis affected nausea, researchers employed a mobile phone app so sufferers could report symptom intensity. The study was based on data from 2,220 cannabis self-administration sessions recorded by 886 people using the Releaf App.

While more research is needed, there are some promising results indicating that patients affected by Alzheimer’s and dementia may benefit from using medical cannabis.

For anyone going through the aging process, the thought of forgetting their life or precious memories associated with loves ones can be debilitating. But new studies on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are finding surprising new ways to raise quality-of-life in the later years and what medicines can help patients experiencing the debilitating disease — right now.

In a 2015 study, researchers in the Czech Republic found that while dementia and Alzheimer’s do have a link, there was another stage in the process that was a precursor to memory loss: mild cognitive impairment (MCI) found to be a “boundary area between normal aging and dementia,” the stage before memory loss could hold the key to the development of the disease.

Photo by GDJ via Pixabay

Even more interesting, while cannabis and CBD were both being studied for Alzheimer’s disease, a 2020 study on dementia and cannabis opened the door to more knowledge. Lakewood Medical Health Clinic, a holistic medical marijuana practice located in Ohio, shared that, “In recent years, researchers have begun to study how medical marijuana could be used to treat Alzheimer’s and dementia. While more research is needed, there are some promising results indicating that patients affected by these two conditions may benefit from using medical cannabis.”

New Hampshire will now be expanding the pool of patients eligible to receive medical cannabis, thanks to a newly signed bill, HB 89.

This week, Republican Governor Chris Sununu signed HB 89, which will go into effect July 21. Under this new law, physicians will be allowed to authorize patients who have moderate or severe insomnia to use medical cannabis. In addition to this exciting news, it also allows adults and pediatric patients with autism spectrum disorder to receive medical cannabis in some cases.

This move to sign HB 89 is in line with recently published data that shows autism spectrum disorder can be treated with cannabis safely and with favorable results. A recent study out of Israel looked at the safety and efficacy of cannabis and how administering CBD-heavy cannabis oil can help those with autism. 

The ratio they used was 30 percent CBD and 1.5 percent THC, and the study was conducted with 188 patients who all have autism spectrum disorder. The patients underwent the treatment for six months and provided feedback about their experience. Of those who participated, 90 percent said they had some level of improvement in their symptoms, such as relief from restlessness, seizures, and rage attacks. About one-third of those polled said they were also able to take less of other medications because of the CBD.

Authors concluded: “Cannabis as a treatment for autism spectrum disorders patients appears to be well-tolerated, safe and seemingly effective option to relieve symptoms, mainly: seizures, tics, depression, restlessness and rage attacks. … [W]e believe that double blind placebo-controlled trials are crucial for a better understanding of the cannabis effect on ASD patients.”

Promising news for cardio-conscious medical cannabis consumers has come to light.

The consumption of certain medical cannabis products is not associated with an increased risk of “serious cardiovascular effects,” according to a meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.

“The objective of this study was to evaluate the cardiovascular toxicity associated with medical use of cannabinoids,” write the authors, who note that “several systematic reviews (SRs) have summarized the potential effectiveness of medical cannabinoids, but it is unclear to what extent safety-related outcomes were incorporated.”

A team of clinicians analyzed a total of 47 studies involving 2,800 patients. Forty-five per cent of the studies excluded patients with underlying cardiovascular diseases, they noted.

Although cannabis use was “significantly associated with increased risks” of non-serious issues such as orthostatic hypotension and hypotension (low blood pressure), as well as “a trend of increased risk” of tachycardia (a racing heartbeat), researchers noted that none of the studies reviewed noted any “serious cardiovascular effects.”

After the Florida Supreme Court hears arguments in a case, justices typically try to hand down a ruling within six months.

Although the court heard final arguments in Florida Department of Health v. Florigrown nearly eight months ago, it has yet to render a judgment.

It’s difficult to overstate the stakes of the case. The court could decide to upend the state’s medical marijuana regulations, throwing a $1.2 billion industry with several national conglomerates into a state of uncertainty. Lawmakers and bureaucrats would have to rewrite the rules for the industry — potentially from scratch.For months, the people invested in one of Florida’s fastest growing industries have swapped nervous texts and phone calls every Thursday at 11 a.m. — when the Supreme Court publishes its opinions — bracing for a ruling that could make or break their companies.

“We look to see if it is, in fact, the day of reckoning,” said Taylor Biehl, a Tallahassee lobbyist and the co-founder of the Medical Marijuana Business Association of Florida.

Judges could uphold all or parts of the state’s current regulations, dealing a blow to smaller firms like Florigrown, a Tampa-based company that applied to become a medical marijuana treatment center in 2017. The company was turned down by the state because at the time, the Florida Department of Health had not yet made rules to regulate the industry.

Weed hangovers are a mystery. Unlike alcohol hangovers, which happen to even the most resilient drinkers, when weed hangovers happen there’s never much of an explanation. Maybe you smoked more than you’ve ever smoked or maybe you consumed weed in a brand new way. It could never happen to you or it could happen often.

Weed hangovers encompass a range of effects that include brain fog, headaches, fatigue and feeling like you’re still high hours later. While they’re not as uncomfortable as an alcohol hangover, they can still be pretty limiting, starting from the moment you smoke until hours after.

Due to marijuana’s legal status, there’s not a lot of information out there on why these types of hangovers occur. Anecdotal evidence suggests it’s related to the amount of weed that’s consumed. This varies from person to person, depending on the individual’s cannabis threshold.

In general, the more THC there’s in cannabis, and the more you consume of it, the higher the odds of getting a cannabis hangover. Marijuana hangovers aren’t as crippling as alcohol hangovers but there are a few things you can do to put them under control.

If you get recurring weed hangovers

Recurring weed hangovers may indicate that something is off with your cannabis consumption. Everyday users should try to limit the amount of cannabis they ingest, consuming it every other day or just on the weekends. A change of your cannabis smoking schedule might also help; if you get hangovers when you smoke at night, trying smoking during the day.

Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has received almost $700,000 to investigate the effectiveness, safe dosage and side-effects associated with THC and CBD.

Around 770 children aged up to 14 years are diagnosed with cancer each in Australia, and sadly approximately 100 children under the age of 15 years die from it annually.

It’s hoped medicinal cannabis can play a role in alleviating children’s suffering in the final stages of their illness.

A 3-year QUT trial will compare different combinations and ratios of cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to determine which is the more effective in managing symptoms in children with advanced cancer, including lack of appetite and energy, pain, drowsiness, nausea and vomiting. The impact on other areas such as sleep, activity, anxiety and depression will also be measured.

The study marks the first time such an investigation has taken place in Australia involving medicinal cannabis and children with cancer receiving palliative care.  While exploratory in nature rather than a definitive randomised controlled study due to the frailty of the children, it’s envisioned the research will make a significant contribution to the current scant scientific evidence currently available.

When California first passed Proposition 64 legalizing recreational cannabis, voters waited in eager anticipation for natural, quality products to purchase.

What they found instead was 84.3% of sampled cannabis tested positive for pesticide residue. 

The research, conducted by Steep Hill Labs, Inc., further concluded that 65% of cannabis samples submitted to their lab contained Myclobutanil, a pesticide that when smoked or vaporized is converted to Hydrogen Cyanide.

As the name suggests, the chemical is extremely toxic for humans to ingest. 

Discoveries like these underscore the importance of lab testing requirements for cannabis operators.

Rob Tankson. Photo courtesy of PrestoDoctor.

Nowadays, it seems like almost every appointment and meeting is virtual.

While the ease and convenience of platforms like Zoom have transformed everything from education to healthcare since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to remember things weren’t always this way.

This is especially true for medical cannabis patients. 

In a big move for the psychedelic industry, a bill was recently passed by a second California Senate committee which would legalize the possession of numerous different forms of psychoactive drugs in the Golden State.

The legislation, which was sponsored by Senator Scott Wiener (D), advanced through the Public Safety Committee earlier this month, followed by a pass from the Health Committee one week later. If this bill fully passes, an extensive list of psychedelics including psilocybin mushrooms, DMT, ibogaine, LSD, and MDMA would be legalized for adults aged 21 and older.

“The war on drugs has been an abject failure because it is based on the false belief, the false notion, that criminalizing people, arresting them, incarcerating them for possessing, for using drugs, will somehow deter use and improve public safety,” commented Wiener before the vote took place. “It has done neither.”

“Instead we have spent trillions in the last half century on the war on drugs, more people are using drugs now, there’s more addiction, there are more overdoses—I’m talking about drugs generally, not psychedelics. And we have busted taxpayer dollars, and we need to move towards a more health-based approach,” he added.

The bill excludes the use of peyote, an endangered plant, to ensure its availability for traditional Native American spiritual practices, according to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS, a global psychedelic research and education organization.

Cannabis started to gain a positive rep after the medical community began to pay close attention to its effective compounds, and now the Asian community has joined the weed “revolution.”

Certain things have taken the world by storm and still haven’t been embraced by the Asian community — not because they aren’t “good enough,” but because they are not culturally accepted. However, there has been a shift in the way Asians view, receive and utilize cannabis. To strengthen marijuana’s place in the Asian community, one must understand what led to this shift.

Asian Americans and the cannabis discourse

The Asian culture is a largely conservative space that had previously shunned cannabis and drug use. The pressure from the United Nations treaties, which the West promoted, birthed an era of cannabis prohibition in Asia, making it difficult for cannabis companies to penetrate the Asian market.

Photo by Mason Wilkes via Unsplash

Clinical outcomes of the first cohort of patients captured in the UK Medical Cannabis Registry are encouraging.

One of the arguments against medical cannabis is the lack of quality evidence supporting its use. This is rapidly changing, with a bunch of studies being carried out around the world. One of the sources of good quality and comprehensive observational data are formalised patient registries.

Initiated by clinicians at Sapphire Medical Clinics, the UK Medical Cannabis Registry is the first database of its kind in the UK. It’s designed to collate outcomes on medical cannabis prescribing. The data it captures includes prescribed formulations, adverse events and patient-reported outcomes. Anonymised data is made available on request to the medical community for analysis.

Sapphire says the Registry will:

A study has been recently published based on the clinical outcomes of the first 129 patients enrolled in the Registry.

A new study is going straight to healthcare workers in the U.S. and Canada to get their input on their experiences with and advice about medical cannabis.

The exploration is part of a recently announced study that will involve the Cannabis Center of Excellence, Inc. (CCOE), Medicinal Genomics and the University of Massachusetts’ Dartmouth Charlton College of Business, Cannabis Science and Technology reports.

The aptly named “Healthcare Provider Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices Related to Medical Cannabis Research Study” will collect information from practising healthcare providers “about their experiences with medicinal cannabis in their practices, prior education around the topic and interest in future clinical education related to medical cannabis,” notes an earlier CCOE announcement.

Dr. Marion McNabb, president of CCOE, points out that even “the basics of the endocannabinoid system, medical cannabis benefits and risks, and approaches to integrating medical cannabis use” are not part of the regular curriculum for most health professionals, Cannabis Science and Technology reports. This includes those in medical, nursing, dental, public health, emergency medicine and addiction and recovery, Dr. McNabb says.

As evidence regarding the efficacy of cannabis continues to emerge and actual use in treatment snowballing, “this study seeks to hear from healthcare providers themselves about what they know and want to know about medical cannabis, and how its use can be integrated into their practices,” she adds.

Here is the good news when it comes to issue of regulating cannabinoids. Last month, the European Commission added Cannabigerol (CBG) to the Cosing List—namely the regional database of allowable ingredients in cosmetics. This after adding natural CBD as an approved substance the month before.

The process of regulating cannabinoids in Europe is well underway. From one perspective, this makes sense. Each cannabinoid is a unique chemical compound. So are other components of the plant—such as terpenes. However, so far, there has never been a regulatory investigation of the entire plant, compound by compound by any national or regional authority. The EU approach to regulation is, in other words, highly unique in the history of the plant itself.

How does this procedure of regulating cannabinoids at the European level integrate with approval of cannabis for both medical and non-medical use? And for what purpose?

The Process of Regulating Cannabinoids For All Uses

Part of the difference now being seen in Europe with regards to regulatory approaches is that first and foremost, certainly after acceptance of its medical efficacy, cannabis as a plant genus is dealt with as a naturally occurring mixture of many different chemical compounds. This is easy to see in the 2019 European Parliament resolution on the same. Namely the EP called on the European Commission (EC) to regulate the drug by its chemical components, given its recognized medical efficacy.