WeedLife News Network

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.

A researcher at West Virginia University has received $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study industrial hemp for two years.

One of the many factors Michael Gutensohn, an assistant professor of horticulture in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, will be studying is the THC levels in hemp plants. THC is the psychoactive compound in hemp and cannabis that causes someone to get high and hemp growers are only allowed to have 0.3% of it in their plant. However, this is hard to control because very little is understood about the hemp plant since growing it was illegal until 2018.

If you look at hemp, there’s very little [understood], but on the flip side of that, any grower that grows hemp has the same questions and issues as, say, someone who grows corn would have. There’s a huge gap in knowledge and we really need to do some research there and we’re almost decades behind some of these other crop systems.

Michael Gutensohn – WVU Assistant Professor

Because very little is known about why hemp plants go hot, the term for when they exceed the 0.3 percent THC limit, growers often have to discard their harvest or wait and hope the concentration drops, according to a WVU press release. Gutensohn said this problem is far from rare and as a result growers are suffering, and in need of answers.

According to a new report by the research firm New Frontier Data, the legal retail sales of marijuana and marijuana products in the United States reached all-time highs during the months of April and May.

According to the report which covered 24 legal recreational or medical marijuana programs, “Average consumer monthly spending rose to record highs in April and May, reaching $290 and $296, respectively.”

They found that “One unanticipated effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the growth acceleration of legal cannabis markets (and erosion of the illicit markets) in those states which have activated both medical and adult-use sales.”

The report states that “One unanticipated effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the growth acceleration of legal cannabis markets (and erosion of illicit markets) in those states which have activated both medical and adult-use sales. In 2019, the total combined illicit market for cannabis in the United States was an estimated $64 billion, which through the growth of currently legal markets is projected to shrink some $4 billion by 2022.”

It continues by stating that: “Through higher sales and increased patient participation in medical-only markets, the second quarter of 2020 saw surging patient counts in medical markets – particularly in those having 1) lower barriers to entry (i.e., less restrictive qualification requirements), and 2) more accessible markets (i.e., greater density among dispensaries).”

Arkansas-based beer distributor Premium Brands of Northwest Arkansas is adding a hemp beverage to its lineup.

An analysis of police arrest data in Albany, New York shows that racial disparity in the enforcement of marijuana laws in Albany continues, despite assurances from the city’s police chief that the issue would be investigated following a report from a civil rights group last year.

In April 2019, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) released a report on the enforcement of cannabis laws that showed that Black people were far more likely than white people to be arrested for a marijuana violation in Albany. The disparity was documented despite strong evidence that the two groups use marijuana at approximately the same rates nationwide.

At that time, Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins, who is Black, said that the city’s police did not target the Black community and that the disparity in arrests would be investigated. However, an analysis of police data by the Albany Times Union found that between July 9, 2019 and the same date this year, 97% of those arrested or cited for a marijuana offense in the city were Black. 

During that time, Albany police issued citations or made arrests for 134 marijuana offenses, the majority of which were civil violations or low-level misdemeanors, including 76 citations for marijuana possession. Only four of those charged with a marijuana offense during the time period were white. 

After the NYCLU report was released last year, the Albany branch of the NAACP met with police representatives to discuss the racial disparity. With no change evident a year later, Debora Brown-Johnson, the branch’s president, said last week that it’s time Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan took a look into the matter.

Study after study is finding that not only does CBD oil help with headaches, but also pain related to inflammation and anxiety.

It’s often said that there is nothing like the exhaustion of a thyroid condition. The endocrine system, when not in working order, can wreak havoc on many functions within the body. Functions like:

In fact, according to the American Thyroid Association, the complex relationship between thyroid disease, body weight, and metabolism is being studied more and more. With so many bodily functions relying on one teeny gland, the function of the thyroid is paramount to your well-being — mind, body, and spirit.

A 2018 study published in the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology researched cannabis use for self-medication in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and found that, “10.2% of patients reported using it for migraine headache symptoms…with low doses tending to alleviate migraine while higher doses even triggering headaches. These findings call for creating a highly specific prescription for individual patients, which might be required for a safe and successful treatment plan.”

To put it plainly, cannabis works but needs to be personalized to help alleviate symptoms in a way that’s personal and efficient.

Banking institutions and accountants offering services to cannabis businesses would have a safe harbor in California law under one of the weed-related bills awaiting state lawmakers’ action when they return to Sacramento this week.

One measure (A.B. 1525) says financial services, including public accounting firms, don’t commit a crime under any California law “solely by virtue of the fact that the person receiving the benefit of any of those services engages in commercial cannabis activity as a licensee” under state law.

A study from researchers at the University of New Mexico has found that more than nine out of 10 migraine patients reported that inhaled cannabis provided relief for their symptoms. A report on the research, titled “Alleviative effects of cannabis flower on migraine and headache,” was published this month in the Journal of Integrative Medicine.

To conduct the study, researchers tracked the effects of inhaled herbal cannabis on the symptoms experienced by 699 migraine sufferers over a period of 32 months. Participants self-administered cannabis while at home and reported their use and its effect on symptoms via the smartphone application Releaf. The intensity of pain related to migraine or headache was measured on a scale of zero to ten prior to and immediately following cannabis consumption.

“According to the current results, cannabis flower appears to be effective at reducing headache- and migraine-related pain intensity for most people that choose to use it,” the authors of the study wrote.

“It seems possible that the use of cannabis flower, combined with other behavioral modifications, might offer some patients a natural, safer, and more effective treatment regimen, compared to the use of some conventional prescription pharmaceuticals,” they added.

The study found that 94% of participants reported relief of symptoms within two hours of cannabis inhalation. On average, study participants experienced a reduction of 3.3 points on the ten-point scale. Varieties of cannabis with a THC content of 10% or higher were found to be most effective at relieving migraine symptoms. Males tended to achieve greater relief than females, and younger participants reported greater benefit than older patients.

If you think the stock market has gone for a wild ride over the past five months, take a closer look at how marijuana stocks have performed over the past couple of years.

Through the first quarter of 2019, investors could have thrown a dart while blindfolded at a list of publicly traded pot stocks and had a good shot at landing a triple-digit return. With tens of billions of dollars in black market weed sales conducted each year, the prospect of steadily moving these sales to legal channels proved more than enough to excite investors.

First, let’s get into a description of each method.

Topicals

Topicals include creams, lotions or oils and are rubbed onto your skin. For the most part, topicals are used to relieve pain, inflammation, or both.

Capsules

Capsules consist of two tubes each closed off at one end. The two pieces fit snugly into each other and dried plant particles or plant extract is contained within the capsule. Occasionally, you can find CBD oil in a gelcap, a hollow “container” made of gelatin that is made to hold a specific amount of an oil or tincture containing CBD.

Gummies

Gummies other edibles are created using a specific quantity of CBD and can be eaten just like any other gummy, cookie, infused fruit, brownie, or piece of hard candy. Most edibles can be made with or without sugar.

Tinctures

Tinctures and drops are a liquid form of CBD. They can be flavored or retain the “hemp-y” flavor of the original plant. Most tinctures are not technically tinctures. Those types of formulations were traditionally made by extracting an herb with alcohol. For the most part, CBD which will be used to formulate a tincture is extracted from hemp with food grade alcohol or supercritical carbon dioxide. The alcohol or carbon dioxide is removed and the extract is then dissolved in some light oil like coconut oil, glycerin or propylene glycol. Tinctures are usually ingested by mouth but can be used as topical applications.

Uncertainty abounds in the coming weeks, as the cannabis industry will learn if its business is as resilient as alcohol.

No neat and tidy summation explains how the coronavirus impacted the cannabis industry. Due to the plant’s federal illegal status, cannabis businesses were not eligible for small business relief other sectors enjoyed and big companies scaled back many of their operations. Just don’t tell the customers.

The cannabis industry is expected to surpass $15 billion in combined recreational and medical sales, a 40% rise from the year previous, and weed workers should outnumber computer programmers by year’s end.

But the industry will now confront whether increasing sales numbers were correlated to the additional $600 benefit in unemployment checks provided by the CARES Act. These extra benefits, which were designed to ease financial burdens for out-of-work Americans under the coronavirus pandemic, ended July 26.

Republicans and Democrats are currently drafting a new round of relief funding, as more than 30 million Americans remain out of work. That $600 bonus in benefits has emerged as a primary separation between the two parties, as Democrats want to maintain the weekly benefit and Republicans would like to reduce it to $200 a week.

While many businesses have been struggling to survive during the pandemic, Illinois pot dispensaries have continued to thrive, setting another sales record in July.

The $61 million in recreational marijuana sales last month represented a 28% increase over June, when Illinois had $47.6 million in sales, according to the Illinois Department of Professional and Financial Regulation. Those figures do not include medical marijuana sales.

Sales of recreational pot have increased each month since February, which saw a slight drop in sales from January, the first month of legal weed in Illinois.

Marijuana dispensaries have been deemed essential businesses during the pandemic, allowing them to remain open during the early months of the outbreak, when most businesses were forced to close.

So far this year, recreational pot dispensaries in Illinois have sold nearly 6.7 million marijuana products worth a total of more than $300 million.

New Factors Could Help to Push The Cannabis Industry Forward

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to pass an amendment that prevents the Department of Justice from spending taxpayer dollars to enforce federal anti-cannabis laws in otherwise legal cannabis sates, according to NORML.

The Blumenauer-McClintock-Norton-Lee amendment protects legal marijuana programs by restricting spending on anti-marijuana efforts in the majority of states that regulate the use of either recreational or medical cannabis.

“This is the most significant vote on marijuana policy reform that the House of Representatives has taken this year,” said National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws political director Justin Strekal in a news release. “The importance of this bipartisan vote cannot be overstated as today; nearly one in four Americans reside in a jurisdiction where the adult use of cannabis is legal under state statute. It is time for Congress to acknowledge this reality and retain these protections in the final spending bill.”

Strekal also noted this move on the part of the House should be followed by the end of prohibition and the era of cannabis criminalization.

The vote comes after several moves to adjust spending when it comes to anti-cannabis laws, tracing back to 2014. Since then, members of Congress have passed spending bills that protected those involved in the legal use, production, and dispensing of medical cannabis from prosecution by the Department of Justice.

Both millennials and boomers have been smoking and spending more on cannabis since the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Baby boomers and millennials can’t agree on anything: the economy, social values, and smoking cannabis. Not whether or not they should consume the plant — boomers now smoke more cannabis than high schoolers — but how, when and where and everything in between.

These differences in opinions were seen in a recent survey by Verilife dispensaries, which is part of the Pharmacann network. The company surveyed 1,000 milliennials and 1,000 boomers to understand where the generations coincided and contradicted each other in their attitudes about cannabis.

Boomers were twice as likely to use cannabis solely for medical purposes compared to millennials, about half of which reported using marijuana for recreational reasons. Both generations said relaxation was their top reason for recreational consumption.

About a quarter of millennials turned to medical cannabis to relieve chronic pain. The second-biggest reason? Migraines. Boomers, meanwhile, had diverse medical purposes for consuming cannabis, but the top three were arthritis, cancer, and chronic pain.

Research out of University of Newcastle in Australia indicates cannabis has the potential to kill or inhibit cancer cells without impacting normal cells.

Cancer researcher Dr Matt Dun collaborated with Australian Natural Therapeutics Group (ANTG), which produces a variety of cannabis with high levels of cannabidiol (CBD) and low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) called Eve.

We mentioned ANTG and Eve last year when the company was successful in having the strain listed on Australia’s  Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) as being suitable for export.  ANTG notes Eve as has having 11-17% CBD and less than 0.1% THC.

ANTG asked Dr. Dun to test Eve against cancer.

“…so we initially used leukaemia cells and were really surprised by how sensitive they were,” he said. “At the same time, the cannabis didn’t kill normal bone marrow cells, nor normal healthy neutrophils [white blood cells].”

Maine announced this week that the state is on track to be able to offer legal, recreational cannabis to those 21 and over by the end of the fiscal year. 

This past Tuesday, the Office of Marijuana Policy announced that they had 27 businesses in the final phase of licensing and authorization in order to fully open. After a final state review, including security and operation plans and an official inspection, the businesses will be ready to launch, kicking off the start of recreational cannabis in the state.

Recreational cannabis in Maine has been delayed several times, and this latest delay was, of course, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The state had originally planned to launch adult use in June, but this was pushed back as the industry shut down and quarantined. Instead, the focus switched to future projections. Now, the plan is to let a few dispensaries, testing labs, grow facilities, and manufacturing labs open up at the end of the first quarter, roughly late September or early October. 

Director Erik Gundersen of the Office of Marijuana Policy said that this date will give the industry the time to grow and test their products, ensuring high quality for their first legal run. Maine will not allow their legal industry to launch until they are completely confident in the cannabis being produced and can safely say that all industry standards are being met. 

“Our intentions are to start the system,” he said. “But it’s going to be a slower start than we originally intended, pre-COVID. I don’t know when, but we should get to where we expected to be pre-COVID.”