WeedLife News Network

As a pain specialist, I often have patients asking me whether they should try medicinal cannabis. There’s a common perception it can be an effective way to manage chronic pain.

But two expert groups have recently recommended against medicinal cannabis for people suffering persistent non-cancer pain.

The International Association for the Study of Pain published a position statement last week after its presidential taskforce summarised the evidence on the topic.

And yesterday the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists published guidance for health practitioners in the form of a Choosing Wisely recommendation. (Choosing Wisely is an initiative of NPS Medicinewise which aims to highlight low-value health care.)

A new study from the Department of Neuroscience at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, published in Nature Neuroscience and titled “Spinal astroglial cannabinoid receptors control pathological tremor,” shows how cannabis could help those who suffer from pathological tremors. 

According to the study, cannabinoids can interact with a certain type of star-shaped cell, called an astrocyte, in the spinal cord to help with tremors. Cannabinoids do this by regulating the release of purines and metabolites and regulating the transmission of electrical signals to the synapses. 

The Study and Its Impact

In order to conduct the study, the research team used a mouse model to show how cannabis can help with tremors, conditions often brought on by trauma or neurodivergent disorders, that can cause uncontrollable shaking of the head or limbs. These conditions impact more than 200,000 people per year just in the U.S., so relief is much-needed.

“We have focused on the disease, essential tremor. It causes involuntary shaking, which can be extremely inhibitory and seriously reduce the patient’s quality of life. However, the cannabinoid might also have a beneficial effect on sclerosis and spinal cord injuries, for example, which also cause involuntary shaking,” said Jean-François Perrier, PhD, who worked on the project. 

“We discovered that an injection with the cannabinoid WIN55,212-2 into the spinal cord turns on the astrocytes in the spinal cord and prompts them to release the substance adenosine, which subsequently reduces nerve activity and thus the undesired shaking. These findings may result in the development of targeted treatment with little or no side effects. In probing astrocytes to understand the biological effects of cannabis, the researchers take a novel approach as earlier studies have focused primarily on neurons.”

Two Maine legislators are coming to the defense of Maine’s medical marijuana program with a bill that would place a moratorium on a set of proposed regulations and require greater input from the industry before any further rule changes are implemented. 

Co-sponsored by Rep. Lynne Williams, D-Bar Harbor, and Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, the bill would require that in order to amend the rules governing the medical cannabis program, the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy must consult “caregivers, registered caregivers and patients and physicians and certified nurse practitioners with significant knowledge and experience certifying patients under the laws governing the medical use of marijuana.”

The proposed bill comes just days after medical marijuana patients and providers, known in the industry as caregivers, slammed the proposed rules in a seven-hour public hearing, claiming that the medical program would not survive the changes. 

Speakers repeatedly asked officials from the Office of Marijuana Policy to go back to the drawing board and, this time, give caregivers, patients, cultivators and manufacturers a seat at the table. 

The newly proposed legislation would do that and more. 

Unfortunately, the results of the latest study do not bode well for the immediate future of cannabis medicine.

Cannabis advocates have been screeching and screaming for the past decade about how marijuana is more effective in taming post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than any other drug known to man. But, a long-awaited, FDA-approved study dedicated to learning more about the efficacy of cannabis against this affliction shows that isn’t necessarily true. It finds that while weed is a safe and commonly used treatment option for those marred by this condition, it isn’t as effective as initially believed.

Now, before you go off the deep end and start drumming up wild conspiracy theories about how the federal government’s health agencies are holding back the truth concerning the power of cannabis, you should know that this study was overseen by Dr. Sue Sisley of the Scottsdale Research Institute. Sisley has been a massive proponent of medical marijuana for years, doing everything in her power to fight for answers to whether cannabis can help military veterans suffering from PTSD. She fought for nearly a decade to get permission from Uncle Sam to launch this research, and her team spent the past three years in the trenches digging for answers.

All for unimpressive results.

The $2 million study, funded by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), was as legit as they come. Researchers selected 76 vets with PTSD, giving them a mix of cannabis with THC levels between 8-12%.

Australian medical cannabis company Bod Australia Limited (ASX:BDA) has entered into an agreement with Drug Science UK involving a trial of Bod’s MediCabilis product in managing symptoms associated with long-COVID.

“Long-COVID” is a phenomenon where symptoms continue for weeks or months beyond the initial illness. Far from being isolated cases, it appears long-COVID is quite common; but as with the initial illness the impacts vary patient to patient. Even asymptomatic people who had relatively mild cases are reportedly experiencing long COVID.

At the time of writing, there have been more than 122 million cases of COVID-19 globally. It’s estimated 10% of those testing positive will have symptoms for 12 weeks after diagnosis.

Common reported symptoms are lethargy, muscle aches, loss of smell and taste and shortness of breath. For some, it can be debilitating and prevent them from engaging in a normal level of activity. As well as the physical effects, there’s also the psychological impact that may manifest as anxiety.

With the illness remaining a mystery and more people experiencing it as time goes on, there needs to be ways to manage long-COVID.

Suzette Meyers is easy to label. Idaho native. Stroke survivor. Registered Republican.

But the Coeur d’Alene resident is also charging ahead with another label, one she repeats loudly and proudly: medical marijuana advocate.

“I look at people from my hometown in Salmon,” she said. “How many of them have had to suffer from debilitating conditions while people in the states around us have the freedom to choose what goes in their medicine cabinets?”

Meyers returned to Idaho from her lobby work in the Phoenix area last year, where she championed for medical marijuana in the Arizona Legislature, to continue her efforts in Coeur d’Alene. As North Idaho spokesperson for Kind Idaho, the emerging advocacy group that lobbies for medical marijuana legislation, Meyers said she’s eager to get the issue in front of Idaho voters in 2022.

“When you look at these communities so close to the borders, all they’re doing is stimulating economies in other states,” she said from a comfortable couch in Cloud Vapor, a vape shop in Post Falls, less than 5 miles from the Idaho-Washington state line. “We’re stimulating their economies and their agendas. Why shouldn’t we be doing that with our own economy or our own agenda?”

Cannabis helps to mitigate some of the symptoms associated with chemotherapy while helping the body fight back cancerous cell growth.

Yes, it is possible to combine cannabis with chemo and radiation, but you must speak with your oncologists first before taking this step. Cancer is a life-threatening illness that scares many people; it’s why several works of research and scientific tests on potential medicinal solutions are being conducted.

Many cancer patients get excited when they discover that a particular plant or drug holds the promise of relieving them of chemotherapy’s pain — particularly with cannabis because there have been studies that show the positive impact of cannabis on severe ailments.

The idea here is not that cannabis cures cancer. The discussion here is on combining cannabis with chemo to minimize radiation’s impact on a cancer patient. So let’s discover why it is possible to combine both treatment options.

Cannabis and chemo

During chemotherapy, cancer patients experience a range of unpleasant side effects and symptoms ranging from dizziness to nausea and vomiting. These patients need chemotherapy because it is a powerful treatment that kills the body’s growing cancerous cells, however, these side effects often make it a gruesome experience.

The 2020 elections not only brought the U.S. a new president, but the electorate in four states also approved recreational marijuana.

Two more okayed medical marijuana, bringing the number of jurisdictions with those programs to 34. 

While CBD is legal on the federal level, states can legislate it themselves.

With cannabis illegal under federal law, and various states implementing their own guidelines about it, rules regarding CBD are murky.

Considerations complicating CBD’s legality are its intended use and source, as well as whether it should be used recreationally or medically.

It is time that we stop treating cannabis like a street drug and start treating it like any other medicine or commodity in society.

Colorado has long been a shining beacon on how to legalize cannabis. Since they have officially gone green in 2012, they have been pioneering cannabis legislation and showing the world that if you legalize drugs — the apocalypse won’t come.

With some of the most inclusive and relaxed cannabis laws on the books, it’s no surprise that a new bill in Colorado would require schools to store cannabis-based medicines for students. Currently students may consume cannabis for medical purposes on school grounds as long as a legal Guardian provides them with the doses.

However, for working parents this is definitely a difficult thing to achieve. Especially when we’re talking about kids that require multiple doses during the day in order to manage their symptoms. For example, a child suffering from a seizure disorder requires multiple doses throughout the day in order to pacify any potential episodes.

This would completely inhibit any Guardian the ability to sustain any type of occupation other than that as the caregiver of the patient. In the instance of a parent that is working, it would be simply detrimental to the overall health and Wellness of the child. Especially if it’s inhibits the caretaker to earn a living.

 Little Green Pharma has agreed to acquire two properties underlying its South West WA cultivation and manufacturing facilities as well as two adjacent properties.

IT'S been a big week for South West-based Little Green Pharma, with the medical cannabis company signing a binding agreement to acquire land for expansion and delivering its first shipment of medicinal cannabis oils into a French national medicinal cannabis trial.

LGP has agreed to acquire two properties underlying its South West cultivation and manufacturing facilities, as well as two adjacent properties, with a total land area of about 16,000 square metres.

The purchase is intended to help service higher-than-expected international market demand for LGP cannabis flower medicines, as well as the continued strong growth in demand for LGP's cannabis medicines in domestic markets.

Managing director Fleta Solomon said LGP had the ability to double its indoor cultivation capacity with 3000m2 available within its existing high-security fencing line.

Almost 25% of patients with Parkinson’s disease reported that they had used cannabis in the prior six months in a survey from the Parkinson’s Foundation. A report on the survey, “Weeding through the haze: A survey on cannabis use among people living with Parkinson’s disease in the US,” was published last week in the journal NPJ Parkinson’s Disease.

In the report, the authors note that Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting more than 1 million Americans at a cost to society of more than $50 billion dollars. The disease causes a variety of motor symptoms such as tremors, rigidity, and an unstable posture. Less well-known symptoms include sleep disorders, cognitive changes, pain, anxiety, depression, and hallucinations.

Parkinson’s disease patients typically use pharmaceutical medications to treat their condition with varying degrees of success. However, common treatments do not address the non-motor symptoms and can sometimes cause side effects including dyskinesia, an abnormality or impairment of voluntary movement. 

As a result, many patients turn to complementary or alternative treatments for their disease. 

“The medicinal use of cannabis represents a novel, alternative approach toward PD symptom control,” the authors note. “Preclinical evidence suggests that cannabinoids could be widely beneficial to neurodegenerative diseases, including PD.”

A new study has found that using cannabis lowered the systolic and diastolic blood pressure for people in their 60s with hypertension. That's an important finding, as the number of people with hypertension in the United States alone is more than 100 million.

The study found that using cannabis regularly for three months led to a five-point drop in systolic pressure (the higher number in a blood pressure reading) and a 4.5-point drop in diastolic pressure (the lower number). The decline seemed the biggest about three hours after the use of cannabis.

The researchers, who published their findings in the European Journal of Internal Medicine, found that the improvement occurred whether patients smoked cannabis or used cannabis oil. They also theorize that the reason for the blood pressure drop relates to weed's effectiveness in helping people manage pain.

More older people than ever are using cannabis

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel launched the study in reaction to the increasing number of older people who are using cannabis and CBD. Most of them use cannabis to treat pain, reduce anxiety and get better sleep.

Researchers at the university point out that little study has been done on how cannabis impacts older people. Dr. Ran Abuhasira, who led the research team, said the study "is part of our ongoing effort to provide clinical research on the actual physiological effects of cannabis over time."

A bill aimed at capping the amount of THC in medical marijuana cleared its first committee stop in the Florida House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The Professions & Public Health Subcommittee passed the bill, HB 1455, allowing it to move forward in the Florida House.

The bill states that qualified physicians may not prescribe medical marijuana containing more than 10 percent THC to patients. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main psychoactive compound in cannabis that produces the high sensation.

The bill would also limit patients to 15,000 milligrams of THC every 35 days.

For decades now, cannabis has been treated as a joke medicine, or worse. Fortunately, since 2020, we’ve seen several groundbreaking studies that have begun dispelling cannabis’s negative reputation.

In a December 2020 study by the University of New Mexico published in the Journal of Cannabinoid Research, researchers reviewed data collected from 2306 self-administered doses of cannabis flower by 670 participants via a cannabis tracking app called Releaf.

From that data, researchers found that decreases in symptom intensity were reported in 95.51 percent of cannabis sessions. Additionally, higher CBD concentration was not associated with changes in intensity of symptoms while higher THC concentration was associated with reductions in negative symptoms. Yet, cultivars labeled indica provided better results than cultivars labeled sativa. While the labels sativa and indica have been discounted, this study used them to match the consumer’s market options.

Although paranoia has commonly been associated with cannabis, this study found that people were much more likely to report positive effects after ingesting cannabis than negative ones. Due to this, the authors have hypothesized that the classic paranoia may have more to do with the illegality of cannabis than the inherent effects of the plant. They also hypothesize that this positive profile is why many patients choose to substitute cannabis for traditional pharmacological substances such as benzodiazepines, atypical antipsychotics, SSRIs, beta-blockers, and other medications meant to treat negative affect.

In contrast to the idea that THC causes anxiety, the study found that: “…the fact that higher THC appears to confer greater anxiolytic effects in our study at higher THC levels suggests that the whole natural Cannabis plant may act very differently on the brain as compared to synthetic or derived THC isolates.” While there was a lack of absolute control over the experiment, Releaf represents an innovative solution that allows for reliable and comfortably supplied information to be reported.

When Silicon Valley tech workers didn’t invent microdosing, they may be responsible for turning it into a trend: The practice is often touted as a biohack for creativity, inspiring new ways to pump out code, design interfaces, or harness the entrepreneurial spirit. But, microdosing psychedelics may have real benefits that go beyond the reflective walls of San Francisco high rises. 

A “microdose” is a dosage of a psychoactive substance that is too low to produce a noticeable intoxicating effect. Psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, and cannabis are the three most commonly micro-dosed substances. Anecdotally, the reasons why consumers microdose are many: Anxiety, creativity, and depression all make the list. 

Yet, while consumers report many benefits to microdosing, the topic has long eluded the scientific community that’s responsible for putting these reports to the test. The 1971 Controlled Substances Act criminalized the possession, cultivation, and processing of many drugs, psychedelics included. The act, however, does a lot more than criminalize the possession of these substances. It also forces scientists to jump through immeasurable hurdles to access psychedelics for research.

But that doesn’t mean that some researchers don’t try. 

Microdosing for Anxiety

Every once in a while, researchers are given express permission to move forward with psychedelic studies. Fortunately, the rising popularity of microdosing is spurring a push for real scientific research on the topic. Five years ago, there were virtually no studies on microdosing psychedelics. Yet, in the time since, academic journals published nearly 400 different papers on the topic. 

The best CBD oil for pain really depends on your condition. Whether you have an injured back or chronic migraines, let us help you find what you need.

If you have never experienced chronic pain, it is difficult to imagine how much a sensation can impact your life. Pain has a way of making itself known in every occasion, taking the limelight in the middle of the night and forcing your attention during quality time with friends and loved ones. This intrusive feeling is the single most common reason people use medical cannabis. Yet, accessing the herb is still difficult around the globe. Fortunately, patients now have another natural option that can help them feel their best: CBD oil for pain.

CBD for Pain: How It Works

Along with emotion, temperature, and pleasure, pain is one of the few ways that the human body communicates with the brain. While there are many different types of pain, the uncomfortable sensation, first and foremost, acts as a signal for tissue damage. When cells in a particular area experience damage, they release chemical compounds that trigger inflammation and sound the alarm to the nervous system that something is wrong.

If everything goes according to plan, pain signals stop when tissue damage stops. However, it doesn’t always pan out that way. Chronic pain occurs when nerves continue to send distress signals to the brain and spinal chord, even if the painful stimuli or tissue damage has stopped.

Here’s where CBD for pain comes into play. Short for cannabidiol, CBD is a non-intoxicating compound found in the cannabis plant. Over the past decade, a growing body of evidence has found that the cannabis compound may act as a strong anti-inflammatory, reducing triggers for pain at the site of injury. However, that’s not the only superpower behind CBD for pain. The molecule may also trigger the release of feel-good neurotransmitters, which not only improve mood but may counteract negative pain signals to the brain.

More people are embracing the Adderall and weed combination, but we don’t know much about how they really interact.

A way to level up, or a dangerous drug cocktail? There’s lots of enthusiasm and skepticism out there about the weed and Adderall, aka “weederall,” combination, and plenty of misleading and concern-trolling information about taking the two together.

And that makes learning actual, useful, credible info about the combo difficult. But don’t worry, we’ve done the digging for you. Depending on who you ask, Adderall and weed are an ideal combo, a perfect pair of stimulant and depressant. Yet others who’ve combined the two have had unpleasant and sometimes distressing experiences involving racing hearts and shallow breathing.

Both experiences are true and possible. Complex drugs lead to complex effects, especially when combined in experimental ways. Everyone’s results will vary, but knowing how and why those effects can be so different is important. So if you’ve ever wanted to learn more about the Adderall and weed combo, read on.

Why Do People Mix Adderall and Weed?

So what’s behind the cannabis and Adderall combination that’s so attractive to the people who consume and take the two drugs?

Weed trim is a common term used to describe the excess parts a cultivator must trim from their plants post-harvest in order to fully maximize a plant’s bloom and, in turn, get more desirable crystals. In short, a good trim will get the grower a bigger, higher quality plant yield.

With a varying amount of states now allowing marijuana-users to legally grow their own crops, cultivation and harvesting techniques are, arguably, more important now than ever before. When it comes to the excess scraps that come from a fruitful harvest, an inexperienced (or in some cases, even an experienced) grower might not know what to do with weed trim. Luckily, there are several ways you can utilize your weed trim, rather than simply dump it in the garbage and call it a day. So let’s go through and look at what to do with trim leaves after a successful harvest.

What To Do With Trim Leaves — What Are Trim Leaves?

First, let’s go into a little more detail about weed trim, before getting into how to best utilize it.

Typically, weed trim is collected after harvest. In fact, it plays an important role during the growing process, as it serves as an indicator for your plant’s health. The leaves, which are commonly referred to as fan leaves before they are trimmed, can help a cultivator determine if the plant is lacking nutrients, water, or even sunlight depending on the colors of the leaves.

Removing trim helps make the plant’s buds achieve the classic nug look, but it also helps remove some unnecessary parts of the plant, at least in terms of smoking. But some of these parts, although low in potency, can still be consumed. And yes, you can still get high. Or, at the very least, achieve a higher level of physical and mental wellness.

When it comes to products that can be made from hemp, the possibilities seem to be endless.

Hemp may not get you high, but it can do pretty much anything else you can imagine. This low-THC variant of the cannabis plant has a dizzying array of uses, including everything from food to medicine to rope to bricks and more—somebody even made a sports car out of hemp. Here are 15 products that can be made from hemp.

1. Beer

Beer and hemp are the perfect match. That’s because hops and cannabis are essentially botanical cousins.

There are now a handful of breweries around the country that use hemp to make cannabis-infused beer.