WeedLife News Network

This is obviously not good for CBD companies, though there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

If you’ve been reading our blog for the last few years, you know that California has taken a pretty absurd position on hemp-derived CBD for the last few years. Though the state led the charge to legalize cannabis (in California, “cannabis” is legally defined as only marijuana and not hemp), the state just can’t get its act together with anything that’s made from hemp.

In 2018, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) published an FAQ that said that hemp CBD could not be added to any kind of orally consumable product like foods, beverages, dietary supplements, or animal products, which has been the rule ever since.

You can read an older analysis of mine on the CDPH’s position here. In my opinion, the CDPH’s position was highly suspect – there is no law in the state that actually forbids adding CBD to anything; the CDPH just followed the federal Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) position. While the FAQ did not expressly say so, it appears that the CDPH actually took the position that CBD was an adulterant under the state’s Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law (which is similar to the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act laws that the FDA enforces).

Photo by pmv chamara via Unsplash

Researchers believe the only natural way to prevent getting hammered with cannabis-related health issues is to sidestep it.

Ever since marijuana started going legal in the United States, the news has been filled with countless reports of people getting their butts handed to them because of it. At first, much of the trouble was blamed on edible pot products — or rather, the average citizen’s ignorance over how much THC is too much to take at one time.

But then, the terror grew into the potential harms of vaporizers, how smoking was as bad as cigarettes and a slew of other hazards that one might encounter if they dance with the doobie. However, scientists now believe they understand how cannabis can be used safely, and they want to share their thoughts with the public.

Researchers from Canada recently published a list of guidelines in the American Journal of Public Health, providing cannabis users with 10 ways to increase their chances for survival in the modern stoned age. According to Dr. Benedikt Fischer, senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the team has uncovered “factual, science-based information” to help the average cannabis user avoid both short and long-term health problems associated with cannabis.

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Starting on July 1, Virginia residents will have the ability to possess small amounts of cannabis and use it in their homes. But that doesn’t mean those already in jail on similar charges will get a quick release.

The complicated process of expunging past criminal records and releasing current inmates incarcerated on marijuana possession charges could take as long as a year or more. That’s a disappointment to those who spearheaded the Virginia legalization effort.

“It makes no sense to me,” state Sen. Louise Lucas, who co-sponsored the legislation that led to legalization in Virginia, told the Virginia Mercury. “That was urgent to me, because now we’re going to be in a situation where you’ve got people still sitting in jail for the very thing that we’ve already legalized.”

An effort to speed up the process got removed from the legalization bill.

The Virginia Legislature voted to make adult-use marijuana legal in the state in April. Lucas and other supporters attempted to include language that would have granted resentencing hearings to people in jail on certain marijuana-related charges, such as possession. But other lawmakers would not approve those provisions.

Retail cannabis sales will not start in Virginia until 2024. But starting July 1, residents can possess up to one ounce of cannabis and grow up to four plants per household.

With much of the country vaccinated and summer around the corner, it might finally be time to dust off some of those vacation days you’ve been hoarding. After a year of travel bans and border closures, the European Union has announced that all vaccinated Americans will soon be able to travel freely to and from Europe – which is usually the most popular destination for international travel from the U.S.

But, ban or no ban, travel is always complicated for cannabis-enthusiasts. Cannabis is still federally illegal in the United States, and while an increasing number of countries in Europe are legalizing medical marijuana and decriminalizing recreational use, the way those laws are actualized varies wildly from country to country.

If you’ve got the travel bug but are reluctant to leave your pot behind, here are three things you should know:

1. Don’t try bringing cannabis into or out of the U.S. (even if it’s medicinal)

Even though recreational cannabis is becoming legal in states all over the country, medical marijuana and adult-use cannabis are both still fully illegal at the federal level in the United States. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) abides by federal U.S. law, not state law – so, even if you’re leaving the country from California, a state where recreational marijuana is fully legal, attempting to enter another country with cannabis will be considered drug trafficking and a federal offense.

Drug trafficking is a much more serious crime than drug possession. Depending on the quantity found, it can lead to a hefty fine and anywhere between three to five years to life in prison – not exactly something you want to risk, even if you’re using cannabis for medical purposes. We reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to find out what happens if you are caught smuggling cannabis on an international flight.

The South Dakota Board of Education Standards unanimously adopted new rules on Monday that establish guidelines for the use of medical cannabis in South Dakota schools. The move was prompted by the passage of Initiated Measure 26 (IM 26),  a ballot proposition that legalizes medical marijuana in South Dakota, in last November’s general election.

The rules govern the administration of medical cannabis in South Dakota’s public and private elementary, middle, and high schools. The nine-page document includes provisions for the administration of medical cannabis to students, the allowable forms of medical cannabis, and notification requirements. The approved rules also delineate the responsibilities and rights of students, caregivers, volunteers, and school staff in relation to the administration of medical cannabis to students in schools.

South Dakota Board of Education Standards President Jacqueline Sly noted that because of the complexity of the issue, the new rules are subject to future amendments.

“Just like any other rules we put in place, sometimes we miss things or we have to adjust things. I would say we have the ability to do that (here),” said Sly. “I would also say that we need to give it a fair shake, and kind of work out the kinks, because some of that can be worked out at the local levels.”

Diane Roy, general counsel to the state Department of Education, agreed with Sly, noting that implementing IM 26 will be uncharted territory for school districts and administrators. As the legislation is rolled out across the state, school officials will have to remain flexible as policies governing medical marijuana evolve.

Moving to end one university’s decadeslong monopoly on supplying marijuana for U.S. research, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said last Friday it will soon issue licenses to a number of growing facilities. Since 1968, only one operation, the University of Mississippi, has been licensed to supply marijuana to U.S. medical researchers who want to explore its value for treating conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain.

DEA announced on its website that it had sent a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to several manufacturers that had applied for licenses to grow cannabis for research studies. The memos come less 6 months after the agency published a final rule describing how exactly the program would work. And they mark a huge shift after years of delayed license applications. Although consuming marijuana is legal for medical purposes in 36 states and for recreational use in 17 states, consumption remains a criminal offense under federal law.

“We were euphoric. This is a victory for scientific freedom. It’s finally a chance to use real-world cannabis in our own studies and supply genetically diverse cannabis to scientists across the nation,” says Sue Sisley, the president and principal investigator at the Scottsdale Research Institute (SRI), which received one of Friday’s MOAs. In 2019, SRI sued DEA to force it to end years of delay in processing license applications. Two other applicants, the Biopharmaceutical Research Company and Steven Groff, a physician in York, Pennsylvania, also received memos from DEA, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Australian Federal Government’s recently handed down 2021-22 Budget included $1.5 million for a trial exploring personalised medicinal cannabis dosing in cancer patients.

Awarded via the Medical Research Future Fund, Dr Hannah Wardill will lead the CANCAN trial to be carried out at University of Adelaide in South Australia. It will primarily target prevention of common symptoms associated with advanced cancer treatments, which are highly toxic.

“The CANCAN trial will show that targeting gut distress, due to mucosal injury, with medical cannabis will improve patient wellbeing and maintenance of intended dosing,” said Dr. Wardill. “It’s also hoped the personalised CBD and THC preparation will prevent and manage clusters of related side effects of cancer therapy including detrimental effects to sleep, appetite, mood, pain and fatigue.”

Dr. Wardill has been a member of the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer and the Mucositis Research Group since 2013. She has been awarded the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer International Young Investigator Award, and is also an Australian Young Achiever and Qiagen Microbiome Award winner.

“This is another important step in our journey to create high quality, consistent, affordable, person-centred, precision cannabis medicines and comes on the back of other recent significant milestones,” said LeafCann.

Last month, a warning was raised by a chemist on the constituents of delta-8 THC, its production techniques, and other unknowns.

Delta-8 THC is fast becoming an ever-present compound. While this may seem like good news, it is a thing of concern. There seems to be a lot of misinformation about this compound, with a lot of concerns about the production, labeling, and marketing strategy.

Colorado has recently banned sales of delta-8 THC products, and other states like Vermont have already removed it from the shelves.

Photo by Hector Roqueta Rivero/Getty Images

Delta-8 THC is commercially produced by different companies., with each company having its unique technique for preparing d8 isolates. These techniques have no regulations and most times third-party tests are not done. Because to this, some companies are introducing unhealthy compounds like heavy metals when creating these isolates.

Minnesota’s Department of Agriculture has welcomed the USDA’s approval of the state’s revised hemp plan.

The state’s original plan was approved in July last year, but after modifications were made to the USDA’s rules Minnesota needed to file a new plan.

Some of the changes included random sampling of fields being based on risk factors of the crop, allowing remediation of crops if plants exceed the 0.3% total THC threshold but test under 1%, and an extension of the testing window before harvest from 15 days to 30 days.

“This is a major step forward, and we’re pleased that modifications have been made at the federal level that can ensure Minnesota’s hemp growers and processors are successful in this fledging industry,” said Minnesota Department of Agriculture Assistant Commissioner Whitney Place.

In 2015, the Minnesota Industrial Hemp Development Act became law, allowing the Department to create a hemp pilot program that operated from 2016 through 2020. The pilot started off slowly, but gained significant steam in the final couple of years. The following statistics show the number of permitted growers each year since 2016.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey is still reviewing a medical marijuana bill that would allow registered patients with qualifying conditions to safely access and use medical cannabis. If Ivey signs the bill into law, Alabama would become the 37th state in the U.S. to legalize medical marijuana. Learn more in the video above.

Ivey on Thursday signed three bills into law, including legislation for wine delivery and permanent daylight saving time.

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COMPASSION ACT SUMMARY

Qualifying for the Program

Legal Protections

Physicians’ Role and Regulation

Click here to read the full breakdown of the bill.

Job growth for the United States in April 2021 might not have quite matched expectations with a disappointing increase of 266,000 jobs and an unemployment rate rise for the first time since 2020, but executive search and staffing firm Cannabiz Team’s latest Cannabis Industry Salary Guide for Q2 2021 tells a different story for the cannabis market. With 320,000 full-time cannabis jobs in the U.S., the cannabis industry ranks as the fastest-growing industry in America. As cannabis legalization spreads, projections have cannabis hitting $35 billion dollars in sales and providing 500,000 full-time jobs by 2024.

It’s entirely likely you or someone you know has made the unfortunate and all-too-easy party blunder of imbibing too much alcohol and then adding cannabis to the mix. What seems like a natural social combination of a few drinks and a few joints can quickly turn into nauseous, seemingly unending awfulness. The effects of both cannabis and alcohol can creep up on you unexpectedly, as your body interacts with the intake of chemicals at different speeds. I’ve certainly questioned on many a dark morning the plausibility of ever combining the two reliably, under any circumstances. The jury’s still out.

In the meantime, I can report firsthand that enjoying the two individually is the best plan. To take it even further, you can replace an alcoholic beverage with cannabis-infused mocktails, which is beneficial to your body, as opposed to the known havoc wreaked by alcohol. Instead of drinking a numbing poison for kicks, there is now the option of enjoying a plant that has been used throughout recorded civilization as a holistic natural medicine.

The question is, however, how can you enjoy cannabis consumption as innocuously and acceptably as drinking an alcoholic beverage?

Welcome to the world of “mocktails”: cannabis-infused drinks that are a delicious, effective and subtle alternative to an alcoholic beverage. Take extra care when drinking cannabis, as liquids are processed more quickly by your body than edibles, so you may feel the effects in as little as 10-20 minutes. Let it ride for at least 45-90 minutes before drinking more, to be on the safe side.

Remember: you can always drink more, but you cannot go back in time and drink less.

The U.S. is in a unique position right now to make drastic policy changes that will continue to benefit the country for decades to come.

You or someone you know wants the United States government to legalize marijuana. In fact, it’s more likely than not that most of the people you rub elbows with on any given day support ending federal pot prohibition.

The latest poll from the Pew Research Center finds that 91% of the population now thinks Uncle Sam should end cannabis criminalization across the board and allow it to be used for therapeutic purposes. They also think it should be taxed and regulated like alcohol and tobacco. This means only 1 in 10 Americans believe marijuana should remain classified as an illegal drug, and that most of the population considers it ridiculous to keep policing it.

Photo by RobinOlimb/Getty Images

So, hey, someone should let the federal government know that the country is primed for legal weed. Because the inner workings of that rusty machine are not likely to come to terms on this issue anytime soon.

US medical cannabis company MedPharm has been awarded a research grant to evaluate cannabinoid product label claims of potency.

The three-year study funded by the state of Colorado will delve into trends in consistency between laboratories, shelf life and label accuracy within product categories.

“The proposed work will allow a direct comparison of product content to product labels, enabling an independent quantification of any systematic biases that may exist across product types or testing facilities,” said MedPharm Director of Chemistry Dr. Tyrell Towle.

As well as help informing regulators on any potential issues and helping to shape policies and procedures for testing and dosing, the results will also be of interest to medical cannabis patients and scientists – they will be made public.

Dr. Towle says there have been no previous studies systematically testing the full range of cannabis products sold in Colorado’s retail market.

ALMOST 40% OF Irish people believe cannabis should be legalised for recreational use and there is an overwhelming support for the medical use of cannabis. 

New polling by Red C on behalf of The Journal shines a light on the nation’s views on legalising cannabis, with only 4% of people opposed to the medical use of cannabis.  

At present, the use of four cannabis-based products is allowed in Ireland in strict circumstances and under a pilot scheme.

There is near uniformity across different age groups in believing that medical use should be legal, but opinions vary on whether recreational use of cannabis should be permitted. 

A majority (56%) of 18-34 year olds believe that cannabis should be legalised for both medical and recreational use while this drops to just 21% for those aged over 55. 

On Thursday 15 April, a crucial summit hosted by the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis convened to shape the future of medical cannabis in Britain. Medical cannabis has been lauded as an industry-creating, health-changing, and socially progressive medicine, but the UK has had anything but a smooth transition of medical cannabis from experimental agent to licensed medicine.

Understanding how this group of medicines has developed in the UK is key to understanding where they are heading, and most importantly how best to foster productive interventions for the medical cannabis industry, the clinical space, and above all the benefit of patient care.

Cannabis in the UK

Prior to 2018, cannabis was not a considered a medicine in the UK. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, cannabis possession was illegal, supply and distribution were strictly limited to the research sphere and no prescriptions had been written of dispensed on UK soil to date. This contrasted greatly with the regulatory landscape in the USA and Canada, where for a decade the prescription and dispensation of medical cannabis has been common practice and very much in the lexicon and formulary of clinicians.

That all changed in November 2018, when Charlotte Caldwell, whose unwell son Billy had been successfully treated with medical cannabis in Canada, sought to return to British soil and continue their lives at home with an ongoing prescription. When Caldwell and her son returned to the UK, his cannabis-based medicine was confiscated at the UK border. Billy fell desperately unwell and was admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital. With the assistance of a group of experts, Charlotte was able to make contact with the Home Secretary, and after a matter of days the law was changed. Cannabis was moved from a schedule 1 drug, which could not be prescribed under any circumstances, to a schedule 2 drug, meaning it could now be prescribed by a specialist doctor within their area of expertise. The Centre for Medicinal Cannabis was born. Billy was reunited with his medicine, thankfully recovered, and now enjoys a life at home with his mother.

Policy changes

The Centre for Medicinal Cannabis continues to advocate for policy changes which bring the right medicines to the right patients in a way that is transparent, fair and measured. We anticipated an increase in the prescribing of cannabis-based medicines across the UK, but to this date this has not occurred to any significant level. We knew that this would not be immediate. However, after over two years the number of prescriptions written in the UK for such is barely out of triple figures. Any prescriptions written are largely within the small private sector, not the NHS as we would have expected.

Mississippi will remain in the minority of states without a medical marijuana program after the state Supreme Court on Friday overturned an initiative that voters approved last fall — a decision that also limits other citizen-led efforts to put issues on the statewide ballot.

At the heart of the ruling is the fact that initiatives need signatures from five congressional districts to get on the ballot, but because of Mississippi’s stagnant population, the state only has four districts.

Six justices ruled that the medical marijuana initiative is void because the state's initiative process is outdated. Three justices dissented.

The initiative process was added to the Mississippi Constitution in the 1990s as Section 273. It requires petitioners trying to get any initiative on the ballot to gather one-fifth of signatures from each congressional district. Mississippi had five congressional districts at the time that was written. But the state dropped to four districts after the 2000 Census, and language dealing with the initiative process was never updated.

“Whether with intent, by oversight, or for some other reason, the drafters of section 273(3) wrote a ballot-initiative process that cannot work in a world where Mississippi has fewer than five representatives in Congress," Justice Josiah Coleman wrote for the majority in the ruling Friday. "To work in today’s reality, it will need amending — something that lies beyond the power of the Supreme Court.”

Almost every American supports some marijuana legalization, which is nothing short of amazing in these divided times. The only difference is in what exactly they support. Also, the level of support differs depending on the age of the American you ask.

That said, a new report from the Pew Research Center finds Americans largely in agreement about the legalization of marijuana. That’s worthy of note at a time when so many Americans agree over nothing. 

The latest numbers come from an April 2021 study.

In a survey conducted in April 2021, Pew researchers found that 91 percent of adults in the United States say that marijuana should be legal. Of those, 60 percent say they support both legal recreational and medical marijuana. The other 31 percent support legal medical cannabis only.

Notably, only a small number - 8 percent - opposed legal cannabis in any form.

The support numbers are even higher than those seen the last few years in annual Gallup polls, where support for legal marijuana reached 70 percent last year.

Promoters of Medical Cannabis in Missouri said the fledgling business continues to see major success.

Medical Cannabis officials said dispensaries seem to be the only business without a hiring problem.

In fact, they are dealing with the opposite, too many people want to work there.

They said Missouri dispensaries are setting records for tax revenue and it's only going to get better.

The spokesperson for Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association, Jack Cardetti, said the revenue has been massive.