WeedLife News Network

On November 6, 2018, Missouri voters passed Article XIV of the Missouri Constitution, establishing a medical marijuana program in Missouri. Article XIV requires the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) to protect the trade secrets of medical marijuana businesses as well as patients’ information by keeping that information confidential.

Article XIV Section 1.3.(5) of the Missouri Constitution states, “The Department shall maintain the confidentiality of reports or other information obtained from an applicant or license containing any individualized data, information, or records related to the licensee or its operation, including sales information, financial records, tax returns, credit reports, cultivation information, testing results, and security information and plans, or revealing any patient information, or any other records that are exempt from public inspection pursuant to state or federal law…”

The Administrative Hearing Commission, the administrative agency charged with hearing the medical marijuana licensing appeals, recently ruled that the confidentiality provision in Article XIV did not prevent litigants from compelling DHSS to disclose trade secrets or other proprietary information submitted by other businesses.

“As most people know, there were many more applicants than there were medical marijuana facility licenses,” said Lyndall Fraker, Director of the Section for Medical Marijuana Regulation. “Some of those applicants are now pursuing their competitors’ business and proprietary secrets through the appeal process. It’s our responsibility to implement the Constitution, and we want to be sure we’re doing exactly that."

DHSS initiated an action in Cole County Circuit Court seeking a judicial order regarding whether it should continue protecting the confidentiality of business and trade secrets.

Earlier this year, the Arkansas Department of Health suspended expiration dates on medical marijuana registry cards due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. This allowed individuals to temporarily use their cards past the expiration date written on their card.

This temporary extension will end on September 30, 2020. Cards with an expiration date on or before September 30, 2020, will expire on September 30, 2020.

Cardholders need to submit a renewal application by September 11, 2020, to allow time for processing. Cards with an expiration date after September 30, 2020, will expire on the date written on the card.

To renew, cardholders will need to submit an updated physician written certification, patient application, copy of their Arkansas driver’s license or ID, and the $50 processing fee. Applications can be submitted here.

Sometimes, emotions are like fireworks, suddenly exploding into colourful arrays, spilling down into every facet of life. Talk to any woman who has fluctuating hormone levels and she’ll tell you that feeling unbalanced or “out-of-whack” is something that she wishes never occurred.

Scientists have long been looking into the link between hormone imbalance, early menstruation and quality-of-life. While not solely caused by environmental factors (some of these are genetic or induced by thyroid problems or stress) hormone imbalances can affect mood, weight gain, hair loss and pain levels.

While both men and women are susceptible to hormone fluctuations, according to the Between the Bridges Healing Center, “Women experience hormonal imbalances at key transitions in their lives, for example, puberty, childbirth, perimenopause and menopause.”

Amanda Holmberg-Sasek, a therapist at Radiant Living Therapy in Plymouth, Minn., says she often sees clients who are experiencing the effects of hormone imbalance and its direct connection to a healthy sex life.

“Working with the psychological effects of hormone imbalance can really help make big changes in and out of the bedroom,” Holmberg-Sasek explained. Often a cause of dysfunction in relationships, she believes having a conversation is the first step to feeling and communicating more effectively with your partner.

There’s a lot of misinformation and exaggeration regarding the benefits of CBD. Here are some conditions that the compound can help alleviate.

Despite the incredible popularity that CBD has amassed over the past couple of years, there’s a lot that scientists and experts still don’t know about the compound. While it’d be great if CBD could do all of the things many companies promise it does, it’s a compound like any other, with its fair share of limitations. It’s also one that stands on rocky legal ground, meaning that it needs much more research in order for us to get a clearer picture of what it does and how it functions with our bodies.

While there’s a lot of misleading marketing regarding a large percentage of CBD products, there are a few benefits that have been associated with CBD and that have some scientific support. Here are three conditions that CBD can actually treat and provide relief from:

Epilepsy 

Photo by KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images

The most significant results that support medicinal CBD oil show that the compound is effective at treating seizures and rare forms of epilepsy. In 2018, Epidiolex, an oral CBD medicine, was approved by the FDA. The drug can be used to treat two kinds of epilepsy: Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gestault syndrome. According to the research, it’s believed that CBD helps suppress seizures by decreasing inflammation in the brain and thus slowing down the messages that it’s receiving.

Do you wonder if medical marijuana can help you feel better? You aren’t alone! Many people with lung cancer consider whether or not medical marijuana can make them feel better as a complementary therapy, alongside a prescribed treatment course. The answer is it certainly could… but like all diagnoses, it’s an individual matter and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach that works for everyone.

From a medical standpoint, “there’s very little clinical data” on the topic, Dr. Edward Garon, a medical oncology and hematology specialist at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, told SurvivorNet. “It is an area where there is some preclinical data, such as animal data, but not a lot of data on humans, that would be sufficient for clinical evidence for us to recommend it to people.”

So let’s break down how medical marijuana works, explore why it works, and what doctors say about it based on what they do know at this time.

It is important to understand why marijuana can be so helpful for symptoms of cancer and its treatments. First, it’s both an anti-inflammatory and a pain reliever. “When you take plant-based cannabis, marijuana, you’re decreasing inflammation, and you’re relieving pain at the same time,” Dr. Junella Chin, an integrative cannabis physician in New York, told SurvivorNet.

Dr. Garon says, “In general, we have always advised patients diagnosed with lung cancer, not to smoke anything.”

Have you ever wondered why you have butterflies in your stomach when you are stressed? Or why you run to the bathroom before speaking in front of an audience? These are clear examples of how your gut responds to stress. There is a gut-brain connection that links the nervous system to the digestive system.

There are two competing components to your nervous system: the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. The sympathetic system is the “fight or flight” response. This system kicks into gear when you have to speak publically, meet a deadline, or exercise. The sympathetic system causes your pupils to dilate, heart rate to increase, blood pressure to rise, and body to sweat. 

The parasympathetic system helps you digest your food, sleep, dream, and relax. Especially during these stressful times, many of us are living in a perpetual state of “fight or flight.” We are overworked, exhausted, and anxious about what the future holds. This constant state of “fight or flight”  results in digestive ailments such as bloating, irregular bowel movements, acid reflux, and rapid weight gain/loss. Overexertion on the sympathetic system may also cause a decrease in blood flow and oxygen to the stomach, which can lead to cramping, inflammation, or an imbalance of gut bacteria.

The ever-increasing importance of the ECS system

The endocannabinoid system, or ECS, is a vast and essential system that modulates and interfaces with all of the other systems throughout your body. It regulates physical functions, such as movement, pain sensation, and immune responses, as well as cognitive or mental capacities, like perception, mood, and memory. The ECS naturally produces cannabinoid-like molecules that stimulate the body's cannabinoid receptors. These receptors are in many areas of the body, such as the brain, muscles, and gastrointestinal (GI) tract. 

Why and how does CBD affect the nervous system? 

Did you know that our brains make their own internal cannabis molecules (endogenous cannabinoids)? Anandamide (named after the Sanskrit word for bliss, ananda), helps temper stress and balance the nervous system, so we are not spiraling out of control on high sympathetic overdrive. Sympathetic overdrive takes a toll on the body that can eventually lead to a state of adrenal fatigue if left untreated. Adrenal fatigue causes everything from a compromised immune system to a decreased ability to handle stress to and memory problems. 

University College London researchers have found a single dose of cannabidiol boosts blood flow to an important part of the brain.

The hippocampus is part of the brain’s medial temporal lobe (MTL). It plays important roles in shifting information from short-term memory to long-term memory, and in spatial memory that enables navigation. If the hippocampus is damaged, it can impact a person’s existing memories and their ability to form new memories.

The progressive shrinking of the hippocampus is responsible for the short-term memory loss that accompanies Alzheimer’s Disease, the most common form of dementia affecting up to 70% of all people with dementia.

The non-intoxicating cannabinoid CBD is increasingly being investigated for its potential therapeutic benefits, including improving memory function and how the brain processes emotional memories – but the mechanisms have been unclear. New research from UCL may provide an important hint.

The researchers set out to investigate how CBD influences cerebral blood flow in different regions on the brain involved in memory processing. As part of the investigation, 600mg of oral cannabidiol or a placebo was administered to 15 healthy young adult participants who had little or no history of cannabis use. Using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scanning technique called ‘arterial spin labelling’ that measures changes in the blood oxygen levels, the researchers determined CBD significantly increased blood flow in the hippocampus.

Consuming cannabis can provide numerous wellness benefits to consumers and patients as a growing body of peer-reviewed research demonstrates.

Countless people around the world use cannabis for medical or recreational purposes, as people have done for many centuries.

Cannabis has been found by at least one peer-reviewed study to be 114 times safer than alcohol, and many people prefer to make the safer choice and consume cannabis rather than alcohol.

In some instances a consumer or patient may need to refrain from consuming cannabis, either for tolerance-break purposes, or for an upcoming drug test.

It could also just be due to personal preference.

When hormone issues are caused by environmental factors like toxins, growth hormones or waste byproducts, it affects not only the body’s ability to reproduce, but the aging process as well.

Sometimes, emotions are like fireworks, suddenly exploding into colorful arrays, spilling down into every facet of life. Talk to any woman who has fluctuating hormone levels and she’ll tell you that feeling unbalanced or “out-of-whack” is something that she wishes never occurred. 

Scientists have been looking into the link between hormone imbalance, early menstruation, and quality-of-life for decades. While not always caused by environmental factors, (some are genetic or induced by thyroid problems or stress,) hormone imbalances can affect mood, weight gain, hair loss and pain levels. While both men and women are susceptible to hormone fluctuations, Between the Bridges Healing Center explains that, “Women experience hormonal imbalances at key transitions in their lives, for example, puberty, childbirth, perimenopause and menopause. “

Amanda Holmberg-Sasek, a therapist at Radiant Living Therapy  out of Plymouth, Minnesota, says she often sees clients who are experiencing the effects of hormone imbalance and its direct connection to a healthy sex life. “Working with the psychological effects of hormone imbalance can really help make big changes In and out of the bedroom,” she explained. Often a cause of dysfunction in relationships, she believes having a conversation is the first step to feeling and communicating more effectively with your partner.

When hormone issues are caused by environmental factors such as toxins, growth hormones or waste byproducts, it affects not only the body’s ability to reproduce, but the aging process as well. According to the Dr. Shel wellness center in Sugarland, Texas, an imbalance can overwhelm the liver, which helps “to filter out excessive hormones.” When the liver can’t keep up with the disruptors in the food we’re eating, the air we’re breathing and the water we’re drinking, we experience symptoms, like, “weight gain, brain fog, sleepless nights, headaches” and more. 

When talking about whether CBD oil can alleviate the symptoms of Crohn’s disease, there are two important scientific studies to consider. 

This recent research allows us to make more accurate conclusions about the type of CBD that should be used for this particular condition. 

The first study is from 2017, and 19 patients with Crohn’s disease participated in it. 

They were given 10 mg of pure CBD (also known as CBD isolate), twice a day for 8 weeks.

Researchers found that even though CBD treatment was well tolerated, this type of therapy didn’t result in any beneficial effects.

A new documentary slated for release later this month takes an in-depth look at the science behind cannabis as medicine, from the groundbreaking researchers who first discovered the curative power of cannabinoids to the pioneering patients whose lives have been transformed by the plant. The documentary from Mad Machine Films, CBD Nation, will be available in North America via multiple viewing platforms on August 25.

The film by director David Jakubovic features leaders of the medical cannabis movement, including scientists, patients, and activists such as Steve DeAngelo, the co-founder of Harborside Health Center in Oakland, the largest and one of the first medical marijuana dispensaries in the country.

“CBD Nation brings you the real science that decades of U.S. government-sponsored misinformation have hidden from public view,” DeAngelo said in a press release for the documentary. “Watch it, and learn why cannabis may just be the most valuable medicine ever discovered by human beings.”

The film explores the work of Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, an Israeli organic chemist who, with other scientists, was the first to isolate, describe, and synthesize delta-9 THC, and is widely considered the father of cannabinoid research. He notes that cannabis has been known to have medicinal properties for decades, but the development of the plant’s potential was greatly hindered until patients and families led the way.

“We published our findings thirty-seven years ago: cannabidiol (CBD) blocks epileptic attacks in patients. What happened? Nothing for thirty years,” said Mechoulam, who serves as the president of the Multidisciplinary Center for Cannabinoid Research at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Nothing happened until desperate parents like those in this film did their own research and found out that cannabidiol can help children with epilepsy. But epilepsy is just one of many conditions that we know cannabis medicine can treat. If the world chooses to not look at all of the science, it is not ignorance—it’s negligence.”

Updated regulations around access to medical marijuana caregivers emerged last week as a point of contention among some in the cannabis community, with a patient advocacy group and individual patients disagreeing over the right approach.

During a public hearing on Aug. 3, officials from the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance opposed the Cannabis Control Commission’s proposal to allow caregivers to support up to 10 medical marijuana patients each -- to the disappointment of some individual patients.

Grant Ellis, a patient who said he relies on caregivers, said the CCC’s plan to up the patient to caregiver ratio to 10:1 and to let caregivers grow up to 500 square feet of marijuana in some situations is a “threat to only one group of people, that being the existing brick and mortar dispensaries who do not want patients to have at-cost access to medical cannabis.”

On Aug. 3, officials from the MPAA said caregivers -- essentially people registered with the CCC to care for and provide cannabis to medical marijuana patients -- should be allowed to support more than one patient, but not 10.

“An arbitrary number of patients per caregiver will likely open the door to a gray market that is indistinguishable from the legally-regulated market you and the staff have worked so hard on developing,” Nichole Snow, the president and executive director of the MPAA told the commissioners.

A review of published literature has found that chronic pain patients who use cannabis in addition to pharmaceutical medications showed a reduction in their use of opioids and required fewer visits to the emergency room. The study, “Medical cannabis for the reduction of opioid dosage in the treatment of non-cancer chronic pain: A systematic review,” was published last week in the journal Systematic Reviews.

To conduct the meta-analysis, researchers associated with the Mel and Enid Zuckerman School of Public Health at the University of Arizona searched online databases to identify original research conducted to study the effects of medical cannabis use as an adjunct therapy for patients using opioids to treat non-cancer chronic pain. A total of 2,440 unique studies were screened by the authors, who chose the full text of nine studies that qualified for inclusion in the review. The nine selected studies involved 7,222 participants with chronic pain not related to cancer, many of whom were able to reduce or eliminate their use of opioids with medical cannabis. 

The investigators documented “a much higher reduction in opioid dosage, reduced emergency room visits, and hospital admissions for chronic non-cancer pain by MC [medical cannabis] users, compared to people with no additional use of MC. There was 64 to 75 percent reduction in opioid dosage for MC users and complete stoppage of opioid use for chronic non-cancer pain by 32 to 59 percent of MC users, when compared to patients without additional use of MC.”

50 Million Americans Suffer Chronic Pain

The study noted that one in five Americans, or 50 million people, suffer from chronic pain not associated with cancer, the magnitude of which “has led to the proliferation of opioid prescriptions and addiction which is currently a public health concern in the USA.” The use of opioids carries significant risks, including the development of tolerance which can lead to the use of even higher doses and result in addiction.

“Given the current opioid epidemic in the USA and medical cannabis’s recognized analgesic properties, MC could serve as a viable option to achieve opioid dosage reduction in managing non-cancer chronic pain,” the authors of the study wrote in their conclusion.

Some doctors in Western Australian and their patients should have easier and faster access to medical cannabis resulting from a deal signed between Jupiter Health Clinics and Montu.

Founded in 2011, Jupiter Health and Medical Services is a network of more than 300 doctors in 30 medical practices across the state, and is one of the largest networks of GPs in Western Australia.

Montu works with doctors in Australia to support them in developing pathways to medical cannabis access for their patients. It also has a brand of medical cannabis products called “Circle” that are produced as part of a white label agreement with Canadian licensed producer, Aleafia Health Inc.

Montu will be working with Jupiter’s GP’s to educate and provide guidance on how medical cannabis can be prescribed to treat more than 30 conditions.

“Despite significant patient growth in Australia, medical cannabis is still seen as a niche treatment option and this partnership is a significant step to integrate cannabis into medical practice more broadly.” said Montu Managing Director Christopher Strauch.

CBD skincare products are so hot right now! But there are a few things you should know before slathering it on. Cannabidiol (CBD) products are everywhere, from convenience stores to high-end retail shops. While there are a lot of CBD converts out there, there’s a large percentage of people who use CBD topicals without knowing what the compound is and what effects it produces.

The CBD found in lotions and creams has much of the same effect as it does when consumed orally. The compound treats pain and inflammation, making it a great addition to lotions and products that target chronic pain, muscle soreness or just general skincare. One of the biggest draws for people is that CBD topicals are a very low stakes way of getting to know a trendy compound without having to ingest it.

While you won’t get any of the stress and anxiety relieving properties of topicals, some scientific and anecdotal evidence suggests CBD can treat inflamed skin and muscles, lending itself for pain management, relaxation and the treatment of skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema.

Before you start using these products, you should keep a few things in mind. Since CBD is a relatively new compound (at least when it comes to its inclusion in so many of these new brands), you should always read the ingredient list and check that the product contains CBD and not hemp oil. Since the industry is so new, many brands are taking advantage of the misinformation that surrounds the compound. You should also read the ingredients list in order to make sure that there are no harmful agents present or compounds that you might be allergic to.

Penn State College of Medicine researchers have found products containing cannabinoids may have impacts on the effects of some conventional prescription drugs.

The researchers have put together a list of 57 medications that may not function as intended when used with cannabis products including medical cannabinoids, CBD oil and medical or recreational marijuana. This could involve prescription drugs not being as effective, or their effects boosted. All the prescription drugs listed have a narrow therapeutic index – meaning the doses are usually prescribed at levels high enough to be effective, but not at a level that could cause harm.

There are some widely used medications on the list including warfarin, which is an anti-coagulant that prevents blood clots from forming.  Warfarin is commonly used to prevent stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation, valvular heart disease or artificial heart valves. Other classes of drugs include, but are not limited to, antibiotics, anti-convulsants and pain medications.

The researchers, Professor Kent Vrana and pharmacist Paul Kocis, have also published a list of 139 medications that could have a potential drug-drug interaction with a cannabinoid.

This is important research that demonstrates why it’s important for doctors to brush up on cannabis and for patients to be honest with their doctors about their cannabis use, whether its medicinal or recreational.

Anyone who suffers from chronic pain would quickly tell you what a terrible affliction it is.

For some chronic pain sufferers, the condition can be a nagging thing that they have to deal with on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, for other chronic pain sufferers, the pain can be debilitating and have a tremendously negative impact on a person’s life.

Various treatments exist to help chronic pain sufferers.

One of the most common is the use of opioid medications, which can often cause more harm than good.