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Tag: medical marijuana

  • Should Marijuana Be Used To Treat Psych Disorders?

    Should Marijuana Be Used To Treat Psych Disorders?

    Researchers examined 83 studies to determine if there is any evidence that MMJ can be beneficial for those with psychiatric disorders.

    A new review of 83 studies concluded that there is “scarce evidence” that marijuana and other cannabis products are beneficial for psychiatric distress including post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. 

    The study was published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

    “We considered all studies examining any type and formulation of a medicinal cannabinoid in adults for treating depression, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, or psychosis, either as the primary condition or secondary to other medical conditions,” the study authors explained. 

    What The Evidence Says

    They found that in the studies, which covered more than 3,500 patients, those who used marijuana did not experience relief from their psychiatric symptoms. 

    “There is scarce evidence to suggest that cannabinoids improve depressive disorders and symptoms, anxiety disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, or psychosis,” the study authors wrote. “There is very low quality evidence that pharmaceutical THC (with or without CBD) leads to a small improvement in symptoms of anxiety among individuals with other medical conditions.”

    This should cause providers and patients to use caution when it comes to cannabis products to treat mental illness. 

    “There remains insufficient evidence to provide guidance on the use of cannabinoids for treating mental disorders within a regulatory framework. Further high-quality studies directly examining the effect of cannabinoids on treating mental disorders are needed,” the study authors concluded. 

    There’s Big Money In Touting MMJ To Treat Psych Disorders

    In an editorial that accompanied the study, Yale medical professor Dr. Deepak D’Souza explained that doctors and patients should recognize that there are commercial interests at play in portraying cannabis as a treatment for psychiatric disorders. 

    “There is growing public interest in the use of cannabis and its principal constituent cannabinoids, [THC] and cannabidiol, for a plethora of conditions, including psychiatric disorders,” he wrote. “In parallel, there is considerable commercial interest in touting these products as treatments for various disorders. As a result, health practitioners need to be well informed about this topic.”

    Reports about the benefits of cannabis should be considered scientifically, not just for how they play out in the news, he said. 

    “Although the potential therapeutic use of cannabinoids receives substantial coverage in the media, more scientific information is needed about this topic that is based on careful systematic reviews or meta-analyses,” he said. “Although there have been a few reviews of existing evidence have been published none has considered all the available evidence, the potential differential effects of different cannabinoids, and the safety of these compounds in mental disorders.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Doctors Remain Skeptical Of Marijuana For Pain Relief

    Doctors Remain Skeptical Of Marijuana For Pain Relief

    “We have given marijuana the status of medicine with none of the standards,” said one medical official.

    As more and more patients turn to cannabis for pain relief in hopes of avoiding opioids, many doctors remain skeptical about what they see as an unproven and unregulated substance taking the place of a proven medication. 

    “We have given marijuana the status of medicine with none of the standards,” Stanford University psychiatrist Keith Humphreys told Pew Trusts. 

    New York, Illinois and Colorado now allow physicians to recommend cannabis instead of opioids for pain relief, while other states allow people with opioid use disorder to access a medical marijuana card. 

    Proponents of these measures, including Colorado Rep. Edie Hooton, say that there are few risks to cannabis, while opioids can be deadly. 

    “We’re talking about an alternative to managing symptoms to a narcotic, or to a pharmaceutical with severe side effects,” Hooton said. 

    Opponents Speak Out

    However, medical professionals aren’t convinced. In Colorado, fewer than 2% of doctors have recommended cannabis to patients. Some doctors, like pain specialist Ken Finn, say the policy is foolish. 

    Finn said that the new bill is “the worst policy I’ve ever seen,” and that the interest in it “tells me what lengths people will go to to try to get some relief.”

    Ziva Cooper, research director of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, said that studies have shown that cannabis has promise as a pain reliever. However, most of those studies were done using specific compounds in tightly-regulated circumstances.

    In addition, most of the study participants were on other pain medications, too. The results may be less predictable with bud from dispensaries. 

    Cooper said, “We don’t know yet how effective cannabis and cannabinoids are for pain when they’re administered by themselves. We also don’t know how cannabis and cannabinoids stack up next to opioids for pain relief.”

    Cooper added that powerful personal stories can sway lawmakers and public opinion, but they do little to prove the effectiveness of cannabis scientifically. 

    “It’s more based on anecdotes—people reporting that they can wean themselves off opioids,” Cooper said. 

    Robert Valuck, executive director of the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention, said that the benefits of cannabis haven’t been proven to outweigh the risks.

    “The science is thin,” he said. “We’re seeing increases in what people call cannabis use disorder.”

    Many doctors, including Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Jennifer Hagman, cannabis has not yet been proven as good medicine.

    “There’s no condition right now where I feel there’s enough information for me to recommend marijuana to a family for a child or an adolescent,” she said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • I Tried “Medical” Marijuana in Sobriety, Here's What Happened

    I Tried “Medical” Marijuana in Sobriety, Here's What Happened

    I was a destructive, chronic blackout drinker for years; marijuana, on the other hand, always seemed like a potential safe zone.

    Three years ago, at six years sober, I decided to try medical marijuana. “Try” is a cuter word than “relapse,” and “medical” made it seem like it was under the care of a doctor. But there were no doctors involved. And I should’ve known that for the kind of addict I am, when it comes to drugs, there is no try. There is only do, and do, and do more until one day you are on your floor sobbing because all the doing is making your life a living hell but you don’t know how to stop.

    I Know I’m an Alcoholic, but Pot Is Not Alcohol

    I was a destructive, chronic blackout drinker for years (not to brag). This is a gift only in that I have the clarity to know that “casual” drinking is not an option for me. Even the idea of a glass or two of wine with dinner makes me shudder because I want the whole bottle for dinner, followed by a dessert course of hard liquor and total chaos. I could one day forget this and convince myself that things might be different, but luckily it hasn’t happened yet. I’ve made too many amends and recounted too many drunk horror stories at dinner parties to ever go back.

    Marijuana, on the other hand, always seemed like a potential safe zone—a gray area in between complete sobriety and destructive annihilation. Before getting sober in 2010, I was too busy getting wasted on booze to give weed much attention. Unlike with alcohol, I don’t have a back pocket full of marijuana horror stories to put things in perspective. 

    It doesn’t help that the drug has a reputation for being extremely cool and relatively harmless. In TV and movies, heavy weed use gets to be the punchline while heavy alcohol use is the point of tension or tragedy. Alcoholics on screen always seem to crash their cars and destroy their families, while the potheads make dumb jokes and go on snack-related adventures. Sign me up please!

    Plus, medical marijuana really does help a lot of people—it’s been reported to work wonders for people with PTSD, cancer, epilepsy, and other problems I don’t have. It also seems to help people with problems I do have: anxiety, depression, insomnia, ADHD, feeling bored, feeling restless, feeling feelings, the pain of being alive. Based on what I’d read and heard, weed was the potential antidote to about 95% of my problems. 

    Weed’s public image has gotten even better as it becomes legal in more U.S. states, which I fully support even if it does me no favors. The days of reefer madness have been replaced by a culture of vape pens, gummy bears, bud-tenders, and medical marijuana. I live in LA, where you can’t go a block without a billboard or a storefront touting the drug as a solution to all your problems. Fun, glamorous, and soothing, it’s both therapy and leisure! For someone who loves therapy and medication as much as candy, an anti-anxiety medication in gummy bear form is almost irresistible.

    At six years sober from alcohol and drugs, I knew intellectually that smoking, vaping, or eating weed was probably a bad idea. But my imaginative addict brain convinced me I could be a “functional pothead” like I’d seen on TV and movies. I told myself I could smoke up like Frankie from Grace and Frankie or Ilana from Broad City. I didn’t take into account that I’m neither a divorced aging hippie with a bottomless bank account nor the most confident 20-something in the world. Or that neither of these characters are real people.

    Functional potheads exist in the real world, too. I know because I’m friends with them. Many are super-successful and seem happy with their lives. 

    So, with no doctor in sight, I made the decision to join the usually-high club.

    I Was a Dysfunctional Pothead from the Start

    Moments after getting high at a friend’s apartment, I realized my sobriety, which I’d worked so hard to attain, was gone. I also realized the universe was a simulation and everyone I’d ever met was mad at me. I had a debilitating panic attack and woke up the next day on my friend’s couch covered in Dorito crumbs. So, I did it again. And again. And again. For years.

    Weed didn’t torpedo my life the way drinking had. It worked slowly, gradually eroding my mental health and the life I’d built for myself. Like a frog in water slowly heated to boiling, I didn’t realize what was happening until the damage was done. Even then, I didn’t realize, because any time I had a bad feeling, I got high. If I felt shame, sadness, dissatisfaction, worry, pain, or longing, I got high. But emotional pain, like physical pain, exists for a reason. It’s your brain’s way of saying “SOS! We have a problem! Fix it!” Instead of listening and resolving the problem, I just shut the voice up with a weed pen.

    In some ways, weed did improve my life, especially at first. It made parties, which I had avoided since getting sober, more fun and easier to navigate. There’s a reason people numb their brains to ease the discomfort of interacting with groups of other humans all crammed into one place. One of my biggest struggles at parties is how to escape a conversation without the excuse of “grabbing another drink.” You can only go to the bathroom so many times before people get suspicious or try to do coke with you. Weed helped me detach from my anxious, people-pleasing brain and just enjoy hovering right outside the moment, looking in. 

    Sometimes I miss being high at parties. But since most of my life does not take place at parties, it’s not worth it.

    Must All Addicts Be Completely Sober?

    I want to make this clear: I’m pro-weed, just not for me. Like most rational people, I believe that it should be legal. It’s not marijuana’s fault I can’t use it wisely. And it’s certainly not the people wasting their lives away in prison for possessing or distributing it, most of them men of color. Draconian and racist U.S. drug laws have been shamelessly exploited by the police and the prison industrial complex for way too long. So I support the legalization of weed for medical and recreational use. Even if that means I have to smell weed smoke on every street corner and see it passed around at parties like pigs-in-a-blanket. 

    I also disagree with the idea that all addicts must be completely sober. Addiction is a complex problem that manifests differently for everyone and we don’t all benefit from the same treatment. Total abstinence works for some people (i.e. me), but I know recovering addicts who benefit from weed, sometimes as a form of harm reduction. I have lost friends to overdoses because they couldn’t stay sober. So if one kind of high prevents you from a much more lethal one, I’m all for choosing the lesser of two evils. Especially in a society where most people can’t afford therapy or prescription medication. Maybe some people need weed to just make it through the day, and that’s okay.

    For me, it didn’t work. I wanted weed to provide a temporary escape from this reality to a wackier one where food somehow tastes even better, like it does in every Seth Rogen movie. But the “temporary” part didn’t work out for me. I’ve never been good at dipping in and out of reality. If I find an escape, I’m buying a one-way ticket, learning the language, and putting down roots. Bye, reality! I’m an ex-pat now.

    The good news is: I finally got my high horror story. The bad news is it’s not exciting enough to tell at a dinner party. It involves long stretches of panic and paranoia, paralyzing depression, compromising my creative dreams, and isolating myself from people. Shortly before getting sober, I had a panic attack from taking too many edibles while hiking and two very kind strangers had to help me down a mountain. I’ll revisit that one next time I try to tell myself it’s a good idea to “treat my anxiety” with weed.

    Since quitting, my anxiety and depression have improved, in part because the doctor-prescribed medications I take are no longer cancelled out by weed use. I’m more productive, which makes me happier. And food, it turns out, tastes just as good sober. My life isn’t perfect, but it’s a lot better than it was. A big part of me wishes I’d never taken that 2.5-year vacation from reality. But at least next time I pass a billboard advertising weed as “therapy,” which happens at least once every time I leave my apartment, I know to smile and just keep walking.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Debate Swells Over Medical Marijuana And Gun Ownership

    Debate Swells Over Medical Marijuana And Gun Ownership

    Currently it is illegal to possess both marijuana and a legal firearm, even if you are using marijuana for a medical purpose.

    “Is allowing the combination of high-powered pot and gun use a good idea?” queries Alex Halperin of The Guardian.

    This debate is no joke. It involves the clashing of numerous contentious elements—federal marijuana prohibition, state marijuana legalization, the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution and growing tension around gun policy as Americans have numbed to the frequency of mass killings.

    Currently it is illegal to possess both marijuana and a legal firearm, even if you are using marijuana for a medical purpose. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) made this clear in a 2011 Open Letter to All Federal Firearms Licensees:

    “Federal law prohibits any person who is an ‘unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance’ from shipping, transporting, receiving or possessing firearms or ammunition… There are no exceptions in Federal law for marijuana purportedly used for medicinal purposes, even if such use is sanctioned by State law.”

    The same goes for anyone selling or providing firearms or ammunition to people who use marijuana.

    Marijuana remains a controlled substance—i.e. a prohibited drug—in the eyes of the federal government. Under the Controlled Substances Act marijuana is defined as having no medical value and a high potential for abuse.

    Some see this rule as a violation of their constitutional right to bear arms. In April, the governor of Oklahoma signed House Bill 2612, barring state or local agencies from denying medical marijuana patients “the right to own, purchase or possess a firearm just because they’re a medical marijuana patient.”

    And a federal bill introduced in the House of Representatives (also this past April), H.R. 2071, would extend this protection across all states where medical marijuana use is legal.

    “Why am I going to give up one of my rights because I found an organic plant that some are uncomfortable with? I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to trade my rights like baseball cards,” said Joshua Raines, a 31-year-old Army veteran, according to the Dallas News.

    Using CBD oil reduced the number of Raines’ seizures from up to 40 per month to just two or three. But he’s opted to stay out of Texas’ Compassionate Use Program, which allows CBD for intractable epilepsy, because he does not want to give up his right to purchase a firearm. So according to state policy, Raines’ use of medical marijuana is illegal.

    Halperin suggests that with the current lack of sufficient research on the effects of marijuana (due to the fact that it is restricted by the federal government) allowing marijuana users access to firearms may “exacerbate” gun violence in the U.S.—though he does acknowledge the anecdotal evidence that medical marijuana has helped many people including Raines.

    As access to marijuana—both medical and recreational—expands as more states legalize it, the debate will also grow from here.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Legal Cannabis Doesn’t Reduce Opioid Deaths

    Legal Cannabis Doesn’t Reduce Opioid Deaths

    States with medical cannabis programs actually have 23% more opioid overdose deaths than states without medical cannabis, a new study found.

    Since the 2014 release of a study that suggested that states with medical marijuana programs had fewer opioid overdose deaths, proponents of legalized cannabis have argued that it can help save lives amid the opioid crisis. 

    A new, broader study released this week, however, has found that states with medical cannabis programs actually have 23% more opioid overdose deaths than states without medical cannabis. The new results called into concern efforts to paint marijuana legalization as a solution to opioid abuse. 

    “It’s become such a pervasive idea. It would be amazing if it was this simple, but the evidence is telling us now that it’s not,” lead author Chelsea Shover told STAT News. 

    The original study looked at the years 1999 through 2010. During that time, 13 states had medical marijuana programs, and the study found that those states had opioid overdose rates that were 25% lower than states without medical cannabis. 

    When Shover’s team replicated that study, they found the same results in that time period. However, they then expanded the study, looking at years through 2017. During that time, many more states implemented medical cannabis programs, and a handful introduced legalized recreational cannabis.

    During that time period, the researchers found that states with legal medical cannabis actually had higher overdose rates. 

    “Not only did findings from the original analysis not hold over the longer period, but the association between state medical cannabis laws and opioid overdose mortality reversed direction from−21% to +23% and remained positive after accounting for recreational cannabis laws,” study authors wrote. 

    The authors of the new study concluded that the apparent connection between legalized cannabis and opioid overdose deaths was “spurious,” or false.  

    “We find it unlikely that medical cannabis—used by about 2.5% of the U.S. population—has exerted large conflicting effects on opioid overdose mortality,” study authors wrote. 

    Shover emphasized this point. “This isn’t to say that cannabis was saving lives 10 years ago and it’s killing people today,” she said. “We’re saying these two things are probably not causally related.”

    Because opioids and medical marijuana are both commonly used to treat pain, the theory went that people with access to cannabis for pain relief were less likely to get hooked on addictive opioids. Today, states including Illinois allow people to substitute medical marijuana for conditions that they otherwise would be given opioids for. This is based on the assumption that cannabis is safer—and less addictive—than opioids. 

    Neuroscientist Yasmin Hurd, who directs the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai in New York, said that further large-scale research is needed to examine the link—if any—between access to cannabis and opioid overdoses. 

    “In a time of an epidemic, we have to think differently,” she said. “We have to be more bold in pushing forward clinical trials on a much faster timeline than we have in the past.”

    Although she agreed that cannabis is less dangerous than opioids, she said that marijuana policy should not be pushed forward as a harm reduction strategy for opioids. 

    She said, “Is cannabis less of a mortality risk than opioids? Absolutely. Hands down. But there’s really no research that says cannabis use per se decreases opioid overdose. You can’t make your medical cannabis laws based on that [hypothesis].”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ohio May Be First To Approve Medical Marijuana For Depression, Insomnia

    Ohio May Be First To Approve Medical Marijuana For Depression, Insomnia

    The state is set to vote on whether to add depression and insomnia to the medical marijuana program’s qualifying list of conditions.

    A diagnosis of depression or insomnia may qualify Ohioans for the state’s medical marijuana program.

    In June, state officials will vote on whether to add five more ailments to its list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana—anxiety, autism spectrum disorder, opioid use disorder, depression and insomnia. If they vote to add depression and insomnia to the list, Ohio would be the first state to do so.

    Currently 33 states have established medical marijuana programs, with a different set of qualifying conditions for each state.

    Ohio’s list includes rare conditions, the Cincinnati Enquirer notes, such as sickle cell disease, fibromyalgia and Tourette’s syndrome. Ohio is also currently the only state that allows marijuana for the treatment of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease seen often in football players, boxers and military veterans caused by repeated head trauma.

    Treating opioid use disorder with medical marijuana is already allowed in 4 states—Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Anxiety is a qualifying condition in New Jersey and West Virginia. Autism spectrum disorder is a qualifying condition in Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina and Utah.

    Ohio approved medical marijuana in 2016 with 21 initial qualifying conditions that allow residents to obtain a medical marijuana card with a doctor’s recommendation. This is the first time since then that the State Medical Board has used its power to add to the list of qualifying conditions. The board will hold a final vote on adding the five conditions on June 12.

    The Enquirer found that at least 3.5 million Ohioans suffer from at least one of the 21 qualifying conditions on its current list. If all five conditions are approved by the State Medical Board in June, the number of eligible Ohioans will nearly double.

    The Enquirer’s report emphasized that there is little clinical research on marijuana “since the federal government considers marijuana as dangerous as heroin”—i.e., as long as marijuana remains in Schedule I, a category of drugs defined as having no medical value and a high potential for abuse, it will remain difficult to conduct research on it.

    It seems inevitable that this will change, however. Ten states have decided to legalize marijuana for not only medical use, but recreational use as well. The state of Illinois may join them next. Governor J.B. Pritzker announced plans to legalize marijuana on Saturday (May 4).

    And last week it was reported that Harvard and MIT alumnus Charles R. Broderick donated $9 million to both schools to study cannabis.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • New Law Allows Washington Students To Use Medical Marijuana On Campus

    New Law Allows Washington Students To Use Medical Marijuana On Campus

    Prior to the passing of the new law, students would have to leave campus and miss school to take their medication.

    The recent signing of a bill will allow students in the state of Washington to use medicinal marijuana at schools. 

    According to High Times, the signing of Ducky’s Bill by Gov. Jay Inslee will allow the use of medicinal marijuana in public schools, with a few provisions: it must be given in liquid form and can only be given by a parent of the student.  

    Previously, Inslee told K5 News that the goal of this bill is to keep students in school for more time rather than face losing that time because of having to be given their medication.

    “Currently children who need medical marijuana… have to leave school. They’re missing valuable time,” he said. 

    According to High Times, the bill is named after 9-year-old River “Ducky” Barclay of Aberdeen, Washington. Barclay suffers from a genetic disorder referred to as Batten disease. 

    Because of this, she suffers from seizures. However, when the girl was in second grade, her parents found that the use of cannabis oil decreased her seizure activity and also lead to her being more focused during her classes. 

    As a result, Barclay and her father, John, began advocating for the use of such medications on school property. Her father was present at the bill signing, but reportedly said his daughter was too sick to be present. 

    According to her father, Ducky can no longer speak and is now blind. She is not expected to live past the age of 14. However, John says, she seemed to understand when he told her the bill had been passed. 

    “All I could say was, ‘I have the good news.’ She reacted very happily to it,” he said.

    According to Washington state Rep. Brian Blake, who sponsored the bill, Ducky’s story has been inspiring. 

    “Like Ducky, there are other children in our state who struggle with seizures or other disorders and I am convinced that these bills will make their lives better,” Blake told KXRO. “It doesn’t have to be this way. We can help these kids so they can have the same opportunity to learn and enjoy school as any other Washington student.”

    For Ducky’s father, the chance to see the lives of other students improve due to his daughter’s action is meaningful.

    “It’s humbling and overwhelming,” he said.

    Similar bills have been passed in other states, the High Times reports, including New Jersey and Colorado.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Harvard, MIT Receive $9 Million Gift For Cannabis Research

    Harvard, MIT Receive $9 Million Gift For Cannabis Research

    The donation is the largest ever earmarked for marijuana research. 

    An investor who made millions investing in the medical cannabis market in Canada has donated $9 million to Harvard and MIT to find research on cannabis. The $9 million gift is the largest donation ever earmarked for marijuana research. 

    “Our desire is to fill the research void that currently exists in the science of cannabis,” Bob Broderick, a Harvard alumni, told the school. 

    Broderick hopes that the gift, which will be divided evenly between the two universities, will empower researchers to commit to studying cannabis, despite federal regulations and limitations on marijuana research. 

    “People take risks when they say, ‘I’m going to start doing cannabis work,’ ” Broderick told WBUR. “For a young researcher at MIT or Harvard to say, ‘I’m going to pivot my career and study the effects of cannabis,’ I don’t think that’s something that would have happened five years ago.”

    Broderick said that it’s important for everyone that more research be done on cannabis and its health effects. 

    “And that’s going to be good for all of us,” he said. “A majority of Americans live in a regulatory environment that has either medical or recreational cannabis.”

    Bruce Bean, a professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, said that the gift will allow researchers to learn more about THC and CBD, but also begin studying the hundred other cannabinoid compounds in marijuana. 

    “Even for [THC and CBD], I have to say our knowledge is very, very sparse in terms of how they actually have their effects on the brain. But for many of the other hundred cannabinoids or so we know — we really know nothing,” Bean said. 

    MIT professor and researcher Myriam Heiman studies the effect of cannabis on symptoms of schizophrenia. Her lab will receive $1 million of Broderick’s gift. 

    “We were saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to study this?’” she said. “And then this gift comes along and really is enabling us to do everything we wanted to do.”

    John Gabrieli, another MIT professor who studies marijuana, will use $1 million to help fund research into the effects of cannabis for people with schizophrenia and autism. He said that marijuana use is already widespread among people with mental illness, so it’s important that research catch up with this current use and understand the health effects for this population. 

    “That’s why we need the science,” he said. “Because right now, it’s happening without the science, and it’s likely to happen all the more as marijuana becomes highly available legally in many states.”

    Broderick hopes that his donation will inspire other philanthropists to help fund cannabis research. 

    “My thought is that this is the largest gift to support cannabis research, but it’s not going to be the largest for long,” he said. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • U.S. Reps Say Stop Classifying Marijuana as a Dangerous Drug

    U.S. Reps Say Stop Classifying Marijuana as a Dangerous Drug

    The federal government currently classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, impeding important research and new medical treatments.

    U.S. Representatives Earl L. Carter and Earl Blumenauer published a call for the government to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule I drugs in NBC News’ opinion section Monday. They argue that marijuana’s current classification, which labels cannabis as dangerous and without any medical benefits, has prevented researchers from studying a substance that is being legalized on a medical and recreational basis across the country.

    Carter, a Georgia Republican, and Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, believe that it’s past time to remove many of the hoops researchers must go through to even begin to study the effects and medical benefits of cannabis.

    “[R]esearchers seeking to conduct clinical research must jump through several hoops to submit an application to the FDA and get approval from the DEA before starting their work,” they wrote. “Furthermore, all research efforts must go through the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the cannabis used must be sourced from their authorized facility. In 2016, the DEA announced that it would create a process to license additional manufacturers for research, but it has yet to approve a single application despite bipartisan congressional pressure.”

    The representatives support their argument by pointing out that over 90 percent of U.S. residents approve of legalizing cannabis for medical purposes and the FDA approved oral cannabidiol (CBD) solution for the treatment of two forms of epilepsy in 2018. They also express concern that not only could the current red tape prevent people from getting treatment that could help them, it could be preventing some from realizing that they “need to pursue a different treatment.”

    An increasing number of federal U.S. legislators have been getting on board in terms of cannabis decriminalization or full legalization. Recent business deals between large cannabis companies have caused speculation that legalization could be right around the corner in spite of the DEA’s continued refusal to take the drug off of the list of the most tightly-controlled substances.

    As more states legalize cannabis and more people try it for treatment of physical and psychological illnesses, there has been increasing concern that research has fallen too far behind. As the opioid epidemic has raised questions about what to do about the millions of people who need regular pain relief, U.S. researchers have been unable to quickly and effectively research how well cannabis could act as a full or partial replacement for drugs that are physically addictive and carry the risk of overdose.

    “The chemistry found only in cannabis plants can provide relief across an incredible array of adverse health states. It does this with minimal side effects and with the prospect of being eminently cost-effective in its use,” said ANANDA Scientific CEO Dr. Mark Rosenfeld.

    “The medicinal use of cannabis today has its roots in the 1960s, when Israeli scientists began studies on its unique chemistry. A government program for administering medical cannabis has been in place there for 12 years, and doctors do not hesitate to encourage its use as an effective pharmaceutical alternative. Meanwhile, the United States remains regrettably behind because of its draconian and antiquated anti-cannabis laws.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Huge Cannabis Industry Deal Suggests Federal Legalization Could Be Close

    Huge Cannabis Industry Deal Suggests Federal Legalization Could Be Close

    Rumors of federal cannabis legalization have been brewing ever since key anti-cannabis leaders have left the White House.

    A multi-billion dollar deal between two big cannabis companies could signal that the end of prohibition is near, according to an article in Forbes.

    Canopy Growth, the biggest cannabis company in the world, recently signed a $3.4 billion agreement to acquire the well-known U.S. medical marijuana firm Acreage Holdings.

    However, this deal will not go into effect until after cannabis becomes federally legal in the country.

    Industry experts are now speculating that such a big deal between cannabis companies that are powerful enough to have lobbyists in Washington, D.C. could mean that there is a yet-unannounced plan to legalize the drug soon—perhaps even within the year.

    “Our right to acquire Acreage secures our entrance strategy into the United States as soon as a federally-permissible pathway exists,” reads the Canopy Growth press release on the merger.

    Mike Adams of Forbes and Cannabis Now notes that the company that makes Corona beer owns 37% of Canopy Growth’s equity and has been working with them to make THC-infused beverages in Canada. It looks like “Big Alcohol is becoming Big Cannabis,” Adams writes.

    Rumors of imminent federal cannabis legalization have been brewing ever since shakeups in the White House have removed some key anti-cannabis leaders and replaced them with individuals with a more accepting view on the drug, which remains in the federal Schedule I classification alongside heroin.

    In November 2018, former House Rules Committee chairman Pete Sessions lost his bid for re-election. Sessions was known for blocking any pro-cannabis legislation that came up, which he could do in his position as chairman. With him gone, as well as former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, there is now a clear path for legalization.

    “This is the first Congress in history where, going into it, it seems that broad marijuana reforms are actually achievable,” said Tom Angell of Marijuana Moment early this year.

    At the same time, in February the World Health Organization (WHO) called on the UN to reclassify cannabis to recognize the substance’s medical applications. Like in the U.S., the UN still has cannabis under its most tightly regulated classification and considers it to be “particularly dangerous.” WHO argued in their report that the current classification has fallen behind modern research.

    “The World Health Organization has proposed rescheduling cannabis within international law to take account of the growing evidence for medical applications of the drug, reversing its position held for the past 60 years that cannabis should not be used in legitimate medical practice,” the report reads.

    View the original article at thefix.com