WeedLife News Network

WOOD COUNTY - The Wood County Board of Supervisors has passed an ordinance that requires people to show proof of age 21 to purchase intoxicating hemp products, such as delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in Wood County.

The ordinance went into effect Aug. 23. It also limits the proximity in which these products can be sold near youth-serving organizations and other youth-friendly locations.

“We wanted the focus of this ordinance to be on youth substance use prevention,” stated Jacob Wagner, Wood County Health Department.

Marijuana and hemp are both cannabis plants, but industrial hemp contains 0.3% or less of the psychoactive compound, THC, and marijuana has higher levels of THC. Following the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill which legalized industrial hemp nationwide, a loophole was created that made any other intoxicating chemicals in the cannabis plant legal, except for no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC.

“Delta-8 THC is said to be less potent than delta-9 THC,” Wagner shared, “but products sold in this area are chemically formulated concentrates that cause very similar effects to delta-9 because of their potency.”

In spring 2022, Healthy People Wood County’s substance use prevention team, IMPACT, conducted a community scan of delta-8 THC.

Lisa Quarrell will join expert medical cannabis clinicians at an educational event in Edinburgh this month.

While there’s no strain that will specifically boost your immune system, you can use these strains to lower stress levels that will then strengthen your immunity.

The ongoing pandemic awoke an important discussion that people haven’t had for a while; how to boost the immune system. People are popping vitamins and eating citrus fruits in a bid to protect themselves from the virus, while some folks have been looking into marijuana as well.

But are there strains that protect against the virus or a prevention treatment that people can look into? We take a dive into what we already know and have.

Does Cannabis Work for Colds and Viruses?

First, one’s immune system would have to be compromised for them to get the virus, which then lets us know what we need to guard. While eating foods rich in vitamin C is great, people also need to manage their stress levels so as not to weaken the immune system. Cannabis helps lower stress, which in turn helps strengthen the system. If you can help it, don’t overthink the pandemic or the virus. Instead, focus on getting through one day at a time.

Second, it helps to be cautious when smoking during these times. You would be putting yourself and others at risk if you passed a joint around, even if the people you are smoking with are known to you personally. The best way to combat this virus is to eat right, observe personal hygiene, lower stress levels through cannabis if you are a user, and mask up as has been recommended. It would also do no harm to try the best cannabis strain for pain if you have inflammation or general fatigue. While it will not protect you from the virus, it will give you relief from pain.

While marijuana is known to treat conditions such as epilepsy and cancer, you don’t just get to pick up any strain and hope for the best. It is recommended that you see a doctor who will administer the right one for your condition as well as the required dosage.

Of the 808 study respondents, 77% reported positive effects — with 28% citing reduced pain, 18% noting improved sleep, and 22% experiencing reduced anxiety. (Benzinga)

An online study conducted by Realm of Caring, a cannabis nonprofit advocacy organization, and researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that “medical cannabis consumption can improve the quality of life for those who could not find reprieve from traditional methods.”

Study results, published in Frontiers in Pharmacology, showed that medical cannabis helped mitigate various neurological disorders and pain-related ailments that were impacting participants.

“Realm of Caring takes part in IRB-approved (Institutional Review Board) research to ensure we are truly helping individuals to improve their quality of life,” said Sasha Kalcheff-Korn, executive director for Realm of Caring.

Method: Study participants who consumed medicinal cannabis were invited to complete anonymous surveys to provide feedback about their experiences. “Of the 808 study respondents, 77% reported positive effects — with 28% citing reduced pain, 18% noting improved sleep, and 22% experiencing reduced anxiety.

“This research spotlights several concerns that we actively address, such as providing information to the medical community, partnering with quality product companies for more affordable options, and providing free one-on-one support to alleviate unwanted side effects. Realm of Caring will continue to collect and publish data to ensure we fulfill our mission,” Kalcheff-Korn added.

A study that analyzed the hospital patient records of cannabis consumers with COVID-19 reveals new evidence to show that consumers had improved clinical outcomes.

The Journal of Cannabis Research published a new study recently that claims that cannabis can help lessen COVID-19 symptoms. The study, “Cannabis consumption is associated with lower COVID-19 severity among hospitalized patients: a retrospective cohort analysis,” used data collected from two Los Angeles hospitals: Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center. A retrospective analysis found decreased severity of symptoms and improve clinical outcomes in relation to COVID-19 patients.

Researchers explained the importance of studying the relationship between cannabis and COVID-19. “In the USA in 2020, an estimated 17.9% of the population (49.6 million people) used cannabis during the past year,” researchers wrote. “Given the magnitude of COVID-19 and the prevalence of cannabis use in the USA, it is important to evaluate how active cannabis usage may affect clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients.”

Among the 1,831 patients whose cases were analyzed, all were 18 or older. Age among cannabis active consumers was a noteworthy consideration, due to the severity of symptoms experienced differently between young or old patients. “Consistent with known trends, active cannabis users were overall younger than non-users,” researchers wrote. “However, when adjusting for age these outcomes remained consistent. Even more, when adjusting for comorbid conditions, demographics and smoking history we found that cannabis users still had less severe disease progression compared to non-users.”

Cannabis’s unique properties warranted further examination from researchers. “Consistent with our understanding of how cannabis may play a role as an immunomodulator, non-cannabis users were found to have greater elevations in inflammatory biomarkers at the time of admission and during their hospital course,” researchers wrote in their discussion. According to the National Cancer Institute, an immunomodulatory agent is known to suppress the immune system, and assist the body in fighting cancer, infection, and other diseases.

Ultimately, researchers found that cannabis consumption was beneficial for some patients, but more research would be necessary to support that conclusion. “In this retrospective review of 1831 COVID-19 patients requiring hospital admission, current cannabis use was associated with decreased disease severity. This was demonstrated in lower NIH severity scores as well as less need for oxygen supplementation, ICU admission and mechanical ventilation,” they wrote. “While there was a trend toward improved survival in cannabis users, this was not statistically significant. To our knowledge, this is the first study looking at clinical outcomes of cannabis users hospitalized with COVID-19. Further studies, including prospective analyses, will help to better understand the relationship between cannabis and COVID-19 outcomes.”

In a business matter that’s highlighted a tussle between Planning Commissioners and County of Santa Cruz staff, the Commission has been handed a second chance to properly deny a cannabis cultivation operation proposal in Upper Zayante.

Local residents are trying to stop it, arguing it will use too much water and cause other problems—like increased police presence and rats.

On Tuesday, after staff reported the Commission hadn’t acted properly, the Board of Supervisors considered granting the applicant a new hearing by taking jurisdiction.

In his presentation to the board, County Resource Planner Michael Sapunor noted after public hearings in December and March, the zoning administrator gave the go-ahead for a marijuana farm with 20,000 square feet of canopy at 375 Old Mount Road.

Sapunor said the business would have to follow conditions in an archaeological report, use temporary shade house covers on the buildings and install hedges. They’d also have to secure a cannabis business license, he added.

But after hearing testimony from residents who worried about a variety of factors—chief among them water scarcity—the Planning Commission denied the project 4-1.

"Still no indication at this point that we're gonna have the licenses issued and granted anytime in the near future, unfortunately," says Allen Peake

I love University of Kentucky Football and I would often joke with my out-of-state friends that the reason our announcers pump the crowd up with a loud “It’s a First Down Kentucky!” is because, historically, that was all we had to celebrate.

Thank God we have since graduated to celebrating touchdowns and winning seasons.

Right now, we have a Republican super majority in our state house co-sponsoring a popular medical cannabis bill that will inevitably die in the Senate.

Those who have cheered this co-sponsorship in the past have since learned that this is Frankfort’s version of “It’s a First Down Kentucky!” Sadly, the Republican house majority is sleeping on its current legislative leverage while placating our sick and dying advocates, many of which who trudge their wheelchairs through the Capital snow year after year for the same empty promises.

Beshear’s MedicalCannabis Advisory Committee  can change that outcome next session.

How? Optically, this taskforce needs to reach into our rural health communities to enlist doctors who understand the importance of medical cannabis. When working with Secretary Grimes years ago to create the first ever medical cannabis taskforce for our state, we discovered hundreds of medical professionals and veteran leaders who were in strong support of a regulated marijuana program.

Cannabis is now approved for treating various ailments, including restlessness, muscle tightness, persistent discomfort, and the reduction of vomiting and illness caused by chemotherapy.

The majority of businesses are making rapid progress in their research into the potential of therapeutic cannabis and hemp.

CHICAGO - Data Bridge Market research has recently issued comprehensive industry research on “Global Medical Cannabis Market” which includes growth analysis, regional marketing, challenges, opportunities, and drivers analyzed in the report. Key elements of this report range from industry outlook along with critical success factors, industry dynamics or market definition in terms of drivers and restraints, market segmentation and value chain analysis, key opportunities or developments, application and technology outlook, regional or country-level analysis to the competitive landscape. What is more, the Medical Cannabis report provides the data and information for actionable, most recent, and real-time market insights which makes it straightforward to even take critical business decisions

Data Bridge Market Research analyses that the Medical Cannabis Market which was USD 11.0 billion in 2021, would rocket up to USD 54.34 billion by 2029, and is expected to undergo a CAGR of 22.1% during the forecast period 2022 to 2029. In addition to the market insights such as market value, growth rate, market segments, geographical coverage, market players, and market scenario, the market report curated by the Data Bridge Market Research team also includes in-depth expert analysis, patient epidemiology, pipeline analysis, pricing analysis, and regulatory framework.

According to the poll, nearly 13,400 physicians in Canada supplied prescriptions for an average of 2.1 grammes of marijuana each day to patients. The growing number of scientific trials of cannabis-infused medications for various therapeutic areas, particularly the usage of cannabidiol, is boosting market growth. There were around 400 completed or continuing clinical trials as of June 2018. Clinical trials sponsored by GW Pharmaceuticals totaled 40, whereas clinical trials sponsored by sanofi totaled 38. Furthermore, the narrative among physicians about the benefits and supporting clinical evidence is leading to an increase in patient prescriptions for cannabis-infused medicines.

Medicinal marijuana (MMJ), often known as medical cannabis, is marijuana and cannabinoids that doctors recommend for their patients. Due to production and political constraints, the use of cannabis as medicine has not undergone thorough testing. As a result, there has been little clinical study to determine the safety and effectiveness of utilizing cannabis to treat ailments.

BARCELONA - Cannabis prescribed for chronic pain is associated with an elevated risk of heart rhythm disorders, according to research presented at ESC Congress 2022.

Study author Dr. Nina Nouhravesh of Gentofte University Hospital, Denmark said: “Chronic pain is a rising problem. According to Danish health authorities, 29% of Danish adults over 16 years of age reported chronic pain in 2017, up from 19% in 2000. Medical cannabis was approved in January 2018 on a trial basis in Denmark, meaning that physicians can prescribe it for chronic pain if all other measures, including opioids, have proven insufficient. Safety data are sparse, hence this study investigated the cardiovascular side effects of medical cannabis, and arrhythmias in particular, since heart rhythm disorders have previously been found in users of recreational cannabis.”

Medical cannabis comes in various formulations depending on tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) levels. Dronabinol (high THC), cannabinoid (more THC than CBD), and cannabidiol (high CBD) can be prescribed in Denmark. The drug can be inhaled, eaten, or sprayed in the mouth.

The researchers identified a total of 1.6 million patients diagnosed with chronic pain in Denmark between 2018 and 2021. Of those, 4,931 patients (0.31%) claimed at least one prescription of cannabis (dronabinol 29%, cannabinoids 46%, cannabidiol 25%). Each user was matched by age, sex and pain diagnosis to five non-users with chronic pain who acted as controls. Users and controls were followed for 180 days and their risks of new cardiovascular conditions were compared.

The median age of participants was 60 years and 63% were women. The study reports, for the first time, the chronic pain conditions of medical cannabis users in Denmark. Some 17.8% had cancer, 17.1% arthritis, 14.9% back pain, 9.8% neurological diseases,  4.4% headaches, 3.0% complicated fractures, and 33.1% other diagnoses (mostly unspecified chronic pain).

The absolute risk of new-onset arrhythmia was 0.86% in medical cannabis users compared with 0.49% in non-users, for a relative risk of 1.74. The risks of new-onset acute coronary syndrome and heart failure did not differ between the two groups. The results were similar for each chronic pain condition and each type of medical cannabis.

Current studies on marijuana for cancer are hopeful, and patients who want to explore using cannabis for cancer are recommended to talk to their doctors.

The big C has a tremendous impact on society and families around the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were over 1,750,000 new cancer cases in 2019 alone, and around a third of those patients died from cancer.

Unfortunately, there is still no known cancer cure, though the evolution of medical technology continues to save more lives. But cancer patients, along with their families, still have to face hardships: treatment with side effects, expensive and addictive medications for pain, poor quality of life, and emotional anguish. But perhaps cannabis can make things a little simpler.

Researchers from the Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse sought out to analyze how patients with advanced cancer responded to medical marijuana treatment.

Participants for the study were enrolled in New York’s MMJ registry. “The goals of this study were to review the characteristics of patients who received medical marijuana under our ambulatory palliative care program and to determine barriers to access and use of medical marijuana in this population,” says the study.

“Data from June 2017 to June 2020 were analyzed. Patients were included if they had a diagnosis of cancer, were certified by a qualified practitioner in the New York Medical Marijuana Program, and received care at Upstate Medical University,” it reads. “Patients were excluded if no marijuana certificate was found or if they transferred care.”

With interstate commerce banned in cannabis, many brands rely on illicit operators to market their products across the country.

By Sarina The annual Hampton Cannabis Expo is expected to draw a crowd this weekend, in part because Long Islanders can see a state-sanctioned path for getting the recreational industry off the ground by 2023. 

Now in its fifth year, the Hampton Cannabis Expo will draw entrepreneurs and investors interested in the marijuana industry, said Neil Kaufman, whose Hauppauge law firm handles corporate cannabis transactions across the nation and is one of the event's sponsors. 

The expo attracted more than 600 people last year, but organizers are planning for a bigger crowd now that COVID-19 is less of a health threat for big gatherings and the state has started rolling out a framework for licensing recreational marijuana firms, Kaufman said. 

"We're expecting attendance to be through the roof. It wouldn't surprise me if there were over 1,000 people there," Kaufman said. "This is an ideal time and place to gather together a huge portion of the industry — and people that hope to be in the industry — to try to accelerate the development of the cannabis industry in New York State, and on Long Island in particular.” 

Regulators have granted 10 "conditional" or temporary cultivation licenses to farmers based on Long Island, according to the Office of Cannabis Management, which creates policies for medical and recreational marijuana.

Clark County is looking to make it easier for people who have old, low-level cannabis convictions on their records — years after the state legalized recreational marijuana use — to keep that information out of the public domain where it could still have consequences for their jobs and housing searches.

At a Clark County Commission meeting earlier this month, officials awarded three nonprofits grants totaling $1.2 million from cannabis tax revenue. Both the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada and Nevada Legal Services received $500,000 to continue sealing records to address cannabis conviction injustices, while Code for America, a technology nonprofit, was awarded $200,000 to explore bringing automatic record sealing to Nevada.

“There was a woman who couldn't go see her son graduate on an Air Force base because she had a felony record [for cannabis],” said Venicia Considine, the director of development and community relations at Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, who is also a Democratic Assembly member. “There's a lot of people that live here in Las Vegas that couldn't get jobs, simply because they had something on their record from a decade, two decades ago, that was eligible for record sealing, but there was no real way to get it done.”

Most states have a petition-based process that requires money and multiple actions in each jurisdiction where convictions are filed, and according to experts, less than 10 percent of people who are eligible, get their records cleared. Coders, lawyers and technology professionals want to help state entities conduct a mass record sealing of cannabis convictions, circumventing the tedious process that includes first petitioning a judge, and, if granted, manually sealing the record in each jurisdiction throughout the state.

Policy experts at Code for America, a Bay Area-based organization that uses technology to empower government agencies, have nine months to investigate the scale of digital investment needed to carry out automatic record sealing in Nevada. Lawmakers and legal experts hope Code for America will bring a second wind to the Nevada Second Chance Act, or AB192, a cannabis conviction record-sealing bill passed in 2019 and sponsored by then-Assemblyman William McCurdy II.

“I wanted [AB192] to be an automatic seal, but that was impossible, because we currently still have records that are not digitized,” said McCurdy, who is now a Clark County commissioner.

Aussie basketball legend Lauren Jackson was a pain-riddled 'zombie' before medicinal cannabis allowed her to make a remarkable comeback aged 41​​

Did you know that medical cannabis is legal in Australia? Prescribed in oil, capsule, cream and flower form, there is a multitude of conditions that medical cannabis can help with, Dr Suzanne Graham explains.

Consumers now have the liberty of choosing from so many products and methods of consumption that you can tailor your dose and experience just the way you like it.

Microdosing is a form of consuming drugs in such a way that you avoid getting extremely high. Once associated with psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs such as magic mushrooms and LSD, more people have discovered the benefits of microdosing marijuana over the last few years. As opposed to macrodosing or getting as high as you possibly can, the point of microdosing is to enable the user to still stay productive and focused in a task.

There really is no right or wrong way to consume marijuana. Whether you prefer to microdose to up your creativity or medicate, or macrodose because you want to feel extremely relaxed or buzzed, it’s all down to personal preferences. There are also many ways you can consume marijuana these days — some are better suited for microdosing while others are best for macrodosing.

Microdosing Marijuana

A microdose of marijuana is considered between 1 to 2.5 mg of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive substance of the plant. This is considered the minimum effective dose.

Microdosing small amounts such as these provide the user with the plant’s medicinal and therapeutic benefits without getting too high that you can no longer function. People microdose for many reasons.

The authors stated that “the better results could be due to the medicinal properties, including anti-inflammatory effects, of some cannabinoids.”

A new study found that “cannabis consumption is associated with lower COVID-19 severity among hospitalized patients.” (Benzinga)

According to the researchers “cannabis may actually lead to reduced disease severity and better outcomes despite a five-fold greater concomitant use of tobacco amongst cannabis users compared to non-users in our study population.”

Researchers aimed to assess whether cannabis users hospitalized for COVID-19 had improved outcomes compared to non-users.

The study published in the Journal of Cannabis Research showed that cannabis users had better outcomes, including a decreased need for ICU admission or mechanical ventilation.

A post on Facebook, shared hundreds of times, claims that a “60 gram supply of Cannabis Oil” is “enough to treat one cancer patient”. It also includes an image of several plastic syringes which it claims contain cannabis oil, with the caption “Cancer Cure”.

While there is evidence some cannabis products can be beneficial to cancer patients, and research on this is ongoing, there is no current proof that cannabis oil can cure cancer. 

Claims that cannabis products can cure cancer are ‘misleading’

The Facebook post doesn’t provide any source for its claim that 60g of cannabis oil would be enough to treat one cancer patient, nor does it include any specific information about what types or stages of cancer could allegedly be treated with cannabis oil.