Mac study pegs cannabis as potential predictor of relapse for female methadone patients

Molly Hayes 

Marijuana use could be a predictor for relapse among women undergoing opioid addiction treatment, a Hamilton study has found. 

A research team from McMaster University and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton recruited 777 participants from Canadian Addiction Treatment Centre sites across the province as part of an ongoing research file into the risk factors of addiction. 

About 60 per cent of men and 44 per cent of women in methadone treatment therapy also use cannabis, the study found. The women who smoked pot, the study found, were 82 per cent more likely to relapse and use opioids. 

Senior study author Zena Samaan — an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences at McMaster University and a clinician and researcher at St. Joseph's Healthcare — says there are multiple hypotheses as to why women seem to be affected differently than men. 

"We also found that the women in this sample have more psychological and physical health problems compared to men. We see the impact of the (cannabis) on them much worse." 

On the eve of marijuana legalization, Samaan says these findings come at an especially important time. 

"We want to add to the argument that cannabis is not harmless, despite the belief that it is a natural substance," she said. 

"One (of the concerns it raises) is that, if women continue to use cannabis, they're not going to do well in treatment. So what are we doing? We need to address that specifically."

A major recommendation of the study is that methadone clinicians screen for marijuana use on top of opioid use — something she says used to be done, but was largely scrapped due to resource limitations. 

The study also highlights a need for more comprehensive and personalized addictions and mental-health care, she says, noting that roughly 80 per cent of the study participants identified as having mental health issues. 

In 2014-2015, according to statistics from the province's Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, 54,000 people across Ontario were on methadone treatment. 

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse reports that opioid-related deaths increased by more than 240 per cent between 1990 and 2010. 

More than 700 people died of opioid-related deaths in Ontario in 2015.

Survey Reveals More Epilepsy Patients Use Medicinal Cannabis -- What Does This Mean for Cannabis Research?

By Rhenn Anthony Taguiam

 

2017 looks promising for medicinal cannabis as a new survey shows that a majority of epilepsy patients turn to medical marijuana to properly manage their epileptic seizures. Will this finally pave the way for more research on the substance?

A nationwide survey by Epilepsy Action Australia Study, in cooperation with the Lambert Initiative at the University of Sydney, asked 976 respondents regarding their cannabis of cannabis for people with epilepsy, its benefits and the reasons for using marijuana, The Guardian reports.

Survey results showed that a high percentage of the respondents actually turn to medical marijuana because it can elicit "more favorable" side effects compared prescription drugs that contain anti-epileptic effects.

In fact, the survey found that 14 percent of people with epilepsy use cannabis, 90 percent of which are adults and 71 percent are children who reported success in seizure management.

Anastasia Suraeve, the lead author of the study from the Lambert Initiative, said this means the medical community cannot simply ignore the fact that a lot of people are turning to cannabis-based products in Australia.

She said this may be the indication that it is time to conduct more systematic studies in order to fully assess the effects of medicinal cannabis to people with epilepsy.

Suraeve added that the survey is an indication that Australians are starting to look into the benefits of medical cannabis in epilepsy.

However, there's not much support from the government in the field of cannabis research or the legalization of marijuana itself. This means that future studies on medical marijuana will not be subsidized by the government and will be shouldered by institutions, just like in 2015 where grandparents of a girl suffering from epilepsy donated $33 million to the University of Sydney to conduct researches, The Guardian reports.

There's a medical problem that marijuana might be able to help that no one is talking about

Erin Brodwin

 
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In a sun-filled room overlooking a smattering of palm trees, power lines, and cement-and-terracotta bungalows, a 73-year-old recovering alcoholic rolls a joint.

Frank, whose name has been changed for this story, doesn't particularly like the feeling he gets from smoking cannabis, but he doesn't hate it either. And he admits it helps him sleep.

High Sobriety, the southern California rehab center where Frank is staying, incorporates cannabis into its treatment regimen for people with drug and alcohol addiction. Frank hasn't touched scotch, his former drink of choice — or any other alcoholic beverage, for that matter — in 30 days.

A month ago, he was living alone and drinking around the clock, despite repeated warnings from his physicians about negative interactions between alcohol and the medications he takes for high blood pressure and other age-related health issues. During a bender over the holidays, Frank knocked over the carriage holding his daughter's 10-month old baby. Concerned, his family took him to Alcoholics Anonymous. Nothing stuck, and Frank's health continued to decline.

So one day last year, his daughter called up Joe Schrank, High Sobriety's founder, and asked if he could help.

 
The High Sobriety common room. High Sobriety for Business Insider

The idea behind High Sobriety is simple: Help addicts stop abusing the substances that are causing them the most harm, and use cannabis as a tool to do so.

"Our retention rates are so much better with being able to give them something," Schrank, a trained social worker who has spent the last 15 years working with addicts, tells Business Insider. "The truth is a lot of these people are deep deep deep into the weeds with drug and alcohol use and to think there's a light switch and they can just turn it off...I mean you're dealing with a different person when you talk about cessation of drug use."

Schrank's unconventional approach has put him at odds with many people in the recovery community. But his strategy is part of a new and growing movement that aims to treat addiction like any other mental illness — with science. The approaches coming out of this movement share a common thread: the belief that we should stop treating addiction as a moral issue and start treating it as a medical one.

Reducing harm

Schrank disapproves of the way AA and other similar programs portray drinking and using drugs as moral problems. That approach is out of touch with science, he says.

"I never think of drug use as any kind of moral thing. Actually, I like drug use, although it didn't really work out for me," Schrank says.

Maia Szalavitz, a neuroscience journalist and the author of "Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction," agrees.

"This stuff that emphasizes this morality, we don't have anything else like that in medicine," Szalavitz, a former heroin addict and AA member, says. "And the 12-step thing talking about 'defects of character', that's not exactly helpful for someone who already has a lot of self-hatred."

 
A High Sobriety bedroom. High Sobriety for Business Insider

Like Schrank, Szalavitz believes that for many addicts, giving up their drug of choice is necessary for recovery, but giving up all drugs may not be.

"This whole idea that total abstinence is the only route to recovery has been incredibly damaging to the addiction field," she says.

Instead, a better approach might be to identify addicts' problem drug — which Szalavitz describes as "that one partner that you long for but if you get them you'll go crazy" — and remove that substance.

This idea falls in line with decades of research in a field called harm reduction, which accepts that drug use is a part of daily life. Instead of trying to get people to give drugs up altogether, it aims to improve people's safety by reducing the negative consequences that can be linked with using drugs.

This, Szalavitz believes, could save the lives of the many people who have struggled with AA's hardline approach.

"Addiction is compulsive behavior despite negative consequences. If you're using a substance responsibly and not having negative consequences, why should anyone care?," she says.

Research seems to suggest that partial abstinence may help some people who've struggled with substances like alcohol. Keith Humphreys, the section director for mental health policy at Stanford's department of psychiatry, published a paper in a 2003 that reviewed an approach called "Moderation Management." He concluded that making the method an option for people with drinking problems "seems on balance a benefit to public health."

'To say there's only one option is wrong'

Six years ago, Schrank's friend Gregory Giraldo was found unconscious in a New Jersey hotel room after overdosing on cocaine and Valium. He passed away shortly after.

Schrank, who's now 48, says that if he could see Greg today and offer him cannabis instead of the drugs he died taking, there'd be no question about it. "I'd say, 'Smoke up there, Gregory, go ahead.'"

Giraldo, a comedian, had been to rehab and tried the abstinence-only route several times. But the 12 steps didn't save him. Schrank thinks his new program might have.

High Sobriety founder Joe Schrank. High Sobriety for Business Insider 
 
"He was a brilliant dude," Schrank says. "Maybe he wouldn't have been as functional as an abstinent-only person, I don't know. But when I hear people tell others that [abstinence-only] is 100% of the pie — they're wrong."

Schrank has also gone through AA. He got sober that way 20 years ago and hasn't touched a drink or a drug — even cannabis — since. (Ironically, he doesn't like the smell of pot.) While he says AA helped him "immensely in a lot of ways," Schrank takes issue with the idea that addicts are only given two choices: complete abstinence or nothing.

"To say there's only one option and to present people with only one option is wrong," Schrank says. "It's like saying I have a moral objection to insulin so I'm just not going to take it. It's malpractice if you ask me."

Schrank and other critics of AA's methodology cite its dismal success rates as one of many reasons that new approaches are necessary.

"About one of every 15 people who enter these programs is able to become and stay sober," Dr. Lance Dodes, a retired professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School wrote in his well-known 2014 book, "The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry." A large 2006 review of 8 trials involving more than 3,400 people also concluded that "no experimental studies unequivocally demonstrated the effectiveness of AA ... for reducing alcohol dependence or problems."

Abstinence-only approaches are simply untenable for people like Frank, Schrank says. "The truth is he's 73 years old, he's alone, and the idea that we're gonna make him go to AA and stop drinking, it's fantasy — that's not compassion."

Still, there is some evidence that AA can help some people. A study of more than 400 people found that "some of the association between treatment and long-term alcohol-related outcomes appears to be due to participation in AA." A 29-year old recovering alcoholic who's been sober for eight years put it to me this way, "If it wasn't for the rooms [of AA] I'd be lying in a gutter somewhere. That's my reality."

Does cannabis help curb addiction?

There simply aren't many studies on whether cannabis works for those struggling with addictions.

The research that exists suggests that cannabis may be a helpful tool in reducing opioid use in people who use them for longterm pain relief. It also could help reduce the physical and psychological symptoms of withdrawal. And it might help some addicts stop using other substances like nicotine, although as a large report published in January by the National Academy of Sciences noted that "only one randomized trial assessing the role of cannabis in reducing the use of addictive substances" exists.

 
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In addition to being few and far between, each of these studies suffered from at least one research error. In some cases, the sample was too small to extrapolate; in other cases the data was based only on surveys, which can't provide scientific answers. In other cases, people in the study knew which drug they were taking, which might have contaminated the findings.

Clearly, more research is needed.

"I think ideally you'd study it before you just go and do it," Szalavitz said. "I think it's an intriguing idea that we need more research on."

And of course, many researchers simply say the idea of using cannabis to treat addiction is absurd.

"Marijuana has exactly no role in the treatment of any mental illness, especially substance-use disorders," Thomas McLellan, who founded the nonprofit Treatment Research Institute and served briefly as deputy drug czar under the Obama administration, told The Guardian.

All of these issues put Schrank in a tough spot.

"It's not the easiest place. AA people hate me, rehab people hate me," he says. "I'm OK with that."

Slew Of New Bills Aim To Reform Marijuana Laws At Federal Level

By Chris Morran

While the Trump Administration has hinted at a coming crackdown on non-medical use of marijuana, federal legislators continue to introduce new bills — some with bipartisan support — intended to further legitimize the cannabis industry.


This morning, members of both the House and Senate introduced legislation that — if passed — would extend federal tax benefits to locally legalized marijuana businesses, take away the threat of criminal prosecution and property loss for those businesses, and make sure the industry is contributing to the country’s bottom line by imposing a tax on marijuana sales.

While a number of states legalized marijuana, the companies that produce and sell cannabis products are not currently able to claim deductions or tax credits in the way that most businesses can. The Small Business Tax Equity Act [PDF] would tweak the Internal Revenue Code to make sure that marijuana businesses would be able to enjoy these benefits — so long as they are operating legally according to their relevant state laws.

This bill is being introduced in the Senate by Oregon’s Ron Wyden, with Sen. Rand Paul (KY) as co-sponsor. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, also of Oregon, is introducing the legislation in the House, with Florida’s Carlos Curbelo co-sponsoring.

Despite state laws legalizing medical and recreational marijuana use and sales, the federal government still categorizes cannabis as a Schedule 1 controlled substance — the same designation given to heroin. Federal law currently prohibits the Justice Department from prosecuting medical marijuana operations in states where they are legal, but recreational pot stores and producers face a continuous threat of arrest, prosecution, and asset forfeiture.

A second bill, the Responsibly Addressing the Marijuana Policy Gap Act [PDF], addresses this issue by removing the possibility of federal criminal penalties and civil asset forfeiture for people and companies that comply with state law.

This bill also attempts to a number of other financial issues that marijuana businesses face because the drug is outlawed on a federal level. It would be legal for pot sellers to advertise in states where their businesses are allowed, though there would be restrictions on TV ads that encourage people to travel from places where pot is not legal to where it has been legalized.

Banks holding accounts of legal marijuana businesses would no longer be at risk of federal prosecution or of losing their FDIC insurance. Similarly, federal banking regulators would not be allowed to discourage financial institutions from doing business with legalized cannabis operations.

On a personal level, previous marijuana-related violations can prevent people from getting public housing or a federal student loan. This bill would provide an expungement process for these individuals, making sure that minor marijuana offenses are not the only barrier for entry to federal programs. Similarly, legal use of marijuana would not be sufficient grounds to deport or deny entry to the U.S. for an individual.

The bill also aims to lift restrictions that prevent veterans from having legal access to medical marijuana in states that have allowed it.

Finally, there’s the Marijuana Revenue and Regulation Act [PDF], which would not only take away marijuana’s Schedule 1 classification, but remove it altogether from the federal schedule of controlled substances. The goal would be for pot to be regulated much like alcohol is now regulated. States would still be able to decide that marijuana is illegal, but in states where it is allowed, marijuana producers, importers, and wholesalers would need to obtain permits from the U.S. Treasury Department. Much like the government currently imposes excise taxes on beer, wine, booze, and tobacco, there would be an excise tax on legalized marijuana, gradually increasing to a maximum of 25% of the sales price.

Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, says today’s barrage of bills is more evidence of the changing federal attitude toward marijuana.

“State-legal cannabis businesses have added tens of thousands of jobs, supplanted criminal markets, and generated tens of millions in new tax revenue,” says Smith. “States are clearly realizing the benefits of regulating marijuana and we are glad to see a growing number of federal policy makers are taking notice.”

Sen. Wyden and Rep. Blumenauer are both from Oregon, where in 2014 voters approved a ballot measure legalizing marijuana.

“The federal government must respect the decision Oregonians made at the polls and allow law-abiding marijuana businesses to go to the bank just like any other legal business.” Sen. Wyden said in a statement. “This three-step approach will spur job growth and boost our economy all while ensuring the industry is being held to a fair standard.”

“As more states follow Oregon’s leadership in legalizing and regulating marijuana, too many people are trapped between federal and state laws,” Rep. Blumenauer said. “It’s not right, and it’s not fair. We need change now – and this bill is the way to do it.”

Pot state Dems want federal regulation of marijuana

By Reid Wilson

 

Democrats from states where marijuana is legal say so many Americans have access to pot products that the federal government should begin regulating the industry, which generated more than $7 billion in sales last year.

New legislation introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, both Oregon Democrats, would take marijuana off the list of federally banned drugs, tax marijuana at a rate similar to alcohol and tobacco, and end the threat of federal criminal penalties for businesses operating in states that allow the use of pot for recreational purposes.

Under the legislation, marijuana businesses would gain access to the regulated banking system. Many banks currently are reluctant to open accounts for marijuana businesses because of fears that the federal government could seize the money.Another measure, introduced by Wyden and Sens. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), would allow marijuana businesses to claim federal deductions and tax credits, ending what the senators called a tax penalty on those businesses.

“This is commonsense legislation that will eliminate the growing tension between federal and state marijuana laws,” said Robert Capecchi, who oversees federal policy for the Marijuana Policy Project.

“States are adopting laws designed to improve public safety by replacing the illegal marijuana market with a tightly regulated system of production and sales. The federal government should be working to facilitate that transition, not hinder it.”

Anti-legalization advocates say the current balance between federal and state laws are unsustainable, and that marijuana use remains a danger to public health.

“While we support federal laws against marijuana legalization, we don't want to see folks locked up or given criminal records for smoking pot,” said Kevin Sabet, who runs Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group that opposes legalization. “While we don't support an enforcement-centered war on drugs, we do support a targeted approach consistent with public health and social justice that stops the corporate interests driving Big Marijuana.”

Oregon is one of eight states where voters have approved ballot measures to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Those new laws put states in conflict with federal law, which still considers marijuana an illegal drug. The vast majority of Americans live in states where marijuana is legal for medical purposes.

Until now, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken an arms-length approach to legal marijuana states. A DOJ memo issued under the Obama administration deprioritized prosecution of marijuana-related activity, effectively allowing the industry to operate in states where it is legal.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has been hostile to marijuana liberalization laws, has said that agreement, known as the Cole Memo, will stand for now. But public officials in states where marijuana has been legalized — Washington, Colorado, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada and Alaska have also legalized pot — remain wary of the Trump administration’s future actions.

“I don’t know what direction the Justice Department is going to go, but it is going to raise some legal issues,” Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) told The Hill last month. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) said in an interview that legalization states would fight back in court if the Cole Memo is revised or rolled back.

“It is certainly my hope that the federal government does not undertake any significant changes,” Ferguson said. “States like Washington have legal tools to resist such an effort, in the same way we have legal tools to resist the executive travel ban.”

The measures introduced Thursday are unlikely to advance in a Republican-controlled Congress. But marijuana advocates are increasingly optimistic about their chances of moving some legislation during this session of Congress. In recent years, riders to appropriations bills that would block the Justice Department from enforcing federal marijuana laws have gained steam, and advocates hope the increasing number of states where legalization initiatives have passed will mean more allies in Congress.

A growing number of Republicans who don’t want the federal government suing their states have backed measures to ease restrictions on marijuana use. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) sponsored the measure to block Justice from suing over marijuana. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) has sponsored legislation with Blumenauer to expand access to the banking system for pot businesses. And Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) introduced legislation to allow doctors working for the Department of Veterans Affairs to discuss medical marijuana with their patients.

Pro-marijuana advocates point to public polls that show sentiment has shifted. New data from the General Social Survey released Wednesday shows 57 percent of Americans believe marijuana should be legal, up from 31 percent in 2000 and 44 percent in 2010.

“The time for fiction and myth-making is over. The time for science, safety and social justice is now upon us,” said Tom Rodgers, a Washington lobbyist who backs legalization.

Pro-marijuana states take proactive steps to protect industry, users from Trump

By Andrea Noble

Amid uncertainty over the Trump administration’s willingness to allow states’ recreational marijuana markets to flourish, lawmakers from those states are taking proactive steps to protect their newly legal pot industries from a federal crackdown.

In California, state lawmakers have introduced legislation that would block local police and sheriff’s departments from assisting federal agencies in any marijuana-related investigation into a person or business that is compliant with the state’s own marijuana laws.

Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, the lead author of the bill, recounted the harassment that medical marijuana dispensaries endured from law enforcement when they first opened in California and stressed that the proposal is about “protecting those who are lawful under California laws.”

The bill would not prevent local police from aiding federal law enforcement in investigations of those violating state law.

California is one of eight states where voters approved ballot initiatives legalizing recreational marijuana. It became legal to posses the drug in California last year, but regulations over sales licensing are still in the works and the state’s first dispensaries are not expected to open until next year.

Drug reform advocates say there is concern among those either already active in the marijuana industry or preparing to open pot shops about whether the Trump administration, particularly Attorney General Jeff Sessions, will direct federal agencies to dismantle the recreational market.

“We have this situation now where we are waiting to see what Jeff Sessions and his Department of Justice will do and how that will impact states like California,” said Michael Collins, the Drug Policy Alliance’s deputy director of national affairs.

 

But based on the Trump administration’s own difference in tone regarding medical and recreational marijuana, Colorado lawmakers have devised what some say could be an exit strategy to put to use in case the federal government cracks down on legalized recreational use.

A bill introduced in Colorado would allow pot growers or retailers to reclassify their recreational marijuana as medical marijuana “based on a business need due to a change in local, state, or federal law or enforcement policy.”

If federal authorities start seizing recreational pot, Colorado’s recreational marijuana entrepreneurs “need to be able to convert that product into the medical side so they can sell it,” Sen. Tim Neville, a Denver Republican who sponsored the bill, told The Associated Press.

“If there is a change in federal law, then I think all of our businesses want to stay in business somehow. They’ve made major investments,” Mr. Neville said.

In Oregon, lawmakers are taking steps to shield the identities of recreational marijuana users.

A proposal approved by the Oregon Senate this month would require marijuana retailers to purge all customer records, including their names, birth dates, driver’s license numbers or other identifying information. Such activity is either prohibited or discouraged in Alaska, Colorado and Washington state.

Marijuana currently remains illegal under federal law, though the Obama Justice Department in 2013 announced guidelines that limited federal enforcement of marijuana laws in states that had opted to legalize medical or recreational use.

Mr. Sessions has spoken out in opposition to legalization efforts in the past and more recently has expressed skepticism about relaxed attitudes toward pot, saying that “medical marijuana has been hyped, maybe too much.” He has not indicated if he plans to roll back or revise the Obama guidelines, commonly referred to as the Cole memo, or to otherwise step up enforcement. He has previously said that the Cole memo offers some points of value in terms of enforcement priorities, but that the policy is under review.

“We’re going to look at it and try to adopt responsible policies,” Mr. Sessions said during a briefing with reporters in February. “States, they can pass the laws they choose. I would just say it does remain a violation of federal law to distribute marijuana throughout any place in the United States, whether a state legalizes it or not.”

Federal lawmakers are also taking steps to bridge the gap between state and federal marijuana laws, with a coalition of congressmen introducing a package of marijuana reform legislation.

Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, both Oregon Democrats, on Thursday introduced three bills that would remove marijuana from the list of federally banned drugs and allow it to be taxed and regulated like alcohol; repeal federal criminal penalties related to marijuana in states where individuals or businesses are following the applicable state laws; and allow marijuana businesses to claim tax credits.

With more than 20 percent of Americans residing in states where recreational use of marijuana is legal, the lawmakers said the legislation is meant to protect decisions that state residents have backed.

“The federal government must respect the decision Oregonians made at the polls and allow law-abiding marijuana businesses to go to the bank just like any other legal business,” said Mr. Wyden. “This three-step approach will spur job growth and boost our economy all while ensuring the industry is being held to a fair standard.”

The bills introduced include:
• Small Business Tax Equity Act, which would repeal the tax penalty that singles out state-legal marijuana businesses and bars them from claiming deductions and tax credits.

• Responsibly Addressing the Marijuana Policy Gap Act, which would address discrepancies in federal and state marijuana laws by removing federal criminal penalties and civil asset forfeiture for individuals and businesses acting in compliance with state law.

• Marijuana Revenue and Regulation Act, which would remove marijuana from the list of banned controlled substances and establish a scheme to tax and regulate its sale.

Mr. Jones-Sawyer, the California assemblyman, expressed doubt that the Republican-led Congress would pass marijuana reform. Instead, he said it will be up to state legislatures to protect the will of voters approved marijuana legalization measures in their states.

 

Medical marijuana given green light in South Africa: report

By Staff Writer

Government has taken its first official steps in legalising the manufacture of marijuana for medicinal use, according to a report by The Mercury.

This follows a letter sent by the Medical Control Council to IFP MP, Narend Singh (subsequently verified by The Mercury) which indicated it would publish its proposed guidelines on cannabis production for medicinal use within the coming months, following the IFP’s presentation to the council earlier in February.

“This is a major breakthrough and fantastic news for freedom of choice,” said Singh.

Speaking in tribute of late IFP MP Mario Oriani-Ambrosini, a long-time advocate for the legalisation of marijuana in South Africa, Singh noted that while Oriani-Ambrosini had strongly advocated that the drug also be used for recreational use, the IFP alongside other lawmakers had agreed to withdraw any mention of non-medicinal use in the legalisation bill so that it passed muster.

This was reiterated the South African Medical Association who warned that access to legal marijuana will follow a strict set of guidelines.

“On 23 November, Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health announced that the Department of Health would soon regulate access to medical cannabis for prescribed health conditions,” said Sama chairman, Mzukisi Grootboom.

“The public, and healthcare professionals, should note, however, that the Medical Innovation Bill seeks to allow cannabis for medical purposes only. The bill, and the regulatory framework to be introduced by the Health Department, do not apply to cannabis for recreational purposes, which remains illegal in South Africa.”

The new rules

The Medicines Control Council is South Africa’s drug regulatory authority which is governed by the Medicines and Related Substances Act.

• Under this Act, medical practitioners can apply to the Council for permission to access and prescribe unregistered medicines – including cannabis – for their patients in certain exceptional circumstances.

• Medicinal cannabis products may thus be made available to specific patients under medical supervision.

• Only registered medical practitioners may apply for authorisation to prescribe a controlled medicine for a specific patient.

• Authorisation from the council is dependent on the submission of an appropriate dosage regimen and acceptable justification for the proposed and intended use.

• The necessary procedures for approval of the importation of suitable cannabis products for medicinal use by patients with defined medical conditions are already in place.

• Licensed domestic cultivation of medicinal cannabis will be aimed at ensuring the supply of a standardized, quality assured product for medical, scientific and clinical research purposes, and the implementation of control measures necessary to prevent misuse and to ensure patient safety.

• Cannabis grown / cultivated for medicinal purposes, as well as any resulting products prepared from the plant material, will remain subject to stringent security and quality control measures.

• The legislative framework to allow for domestic cultivation of medicinal cannabis is currently under development by the Department of Health in consultation with the Medicines Control Council

High court legalises marijuana for private use in South Africa

By Staff Writer



 
In a landmark ruling The Western Cape High Court has declared that it is an infringement to ban the use of dagga by adults in private homes.

In making the ruling on Friday, it has allowed for the possession, cultivation and use dagga at home, for private use, noted News24.

“Acton, Prince, and 18 plaintiffs applied to the court for the Criminal Prohibition of Dagga Act (sections 4b and 5c), read with certain sections of Part III of Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act, to be declared unconstitutional.”

These sections make it a crime to possess a drug, unless it is for a variety of medical reasons, meaning it was criminal to use marijuana in the country.

In addition to the decriminalisation of marijuana, the court also ruled that Parliament must change sections of the Drug Trafficking Act, as well as the Medicines Control Act within the next 24 months to reflect the ruling.

The decision marks a success fore long-time dagga advocates Jeremy Acton and Rastafarian Garreth Prince, who have famously argued for the legalisation since the turn of the millennium.

More details on how government  plans to oversee the use, selling and cultivation of the plant is expected to follow shortly.

California And Colorado Are The Top Destinations For Cannabis Tourism, Says Survey

By James McClure

A recent survey suggests that one-in-five tourists are more interested in visiting an American state if it has legalized cannabis. That stat comes from the 2017 Cannabis Attitudes Survey conducted by New Frontier Data - a market research firm focused on analyzing the cannabis industry. According to their results, 22 percent of respondents said they would be more interested in visiting states that had legalized recreational marijuana use.

The top cannabis travel destinations for survey respondents were Colorado (61 percent) and California (59 percent). The secondary choices were Washington (37 percent), Oregon (36 percent) and Nevada (36 percent). Other legal states like Maine, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C. and Alaska weren't mentioned. (Which is really a shame because Alaska is one of our top destinations for canna-vacations.)

New Frontier also found that the vast majority (84 percent) of those who could be swayed by marijuana also said they would likely buy cannabis from a dispensary while on vacation.  That should give lawmakers extra incentive to offer sites for tourists to consume their purchases legally.

Right now, people can buy cannabis in legal states but there aren't many places for them to smoke or vape it since public consumption is still banned.



Colorado is on track to become the first state to offer legal venues for onsite consumption. Earlier this month, the Colorado Senate advanced a bill that would allow Amsterdam-like clubs to open up in cities like Denver. That would make Colorado the first state to open licensed clubs, but Oregon could soon follow suit as lawmakers are currently considering similar legislation. Meanwhile, California as well as Maine and Massachusetts passed legalization initiatives last fall that had social clubs baked into the new laws.

That means Nevada was the lone state to legalize recreational use in 2016 without permitting cannabis social clubs. And the Nevada Gaming Control Board isn't keen on allowing cannabis in casinos. Nor are state regulators in Alaska, Washington state or Washington, D.C.

But those jurisdictions could warm to cannabis social clubs if other states begin opening them.

And when that happens, we wouldn't be surprised if more than one-in-five tourists started booking cannabis vacations.

What gives marijuana strains their flavors?

Himanshu Goenka

Even though federal laws in the United States still classify marijuana as an illegal drug, many states have formulated more lax laws surrounding cannabis, with varying acceptability of both medical and recreational marijuana use. However, the nascent industry is far from standardized, especially in terms of the many variants of weed that are available in the market.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada are trying to change that with a new study on the flavor of different strains, hoping a better understanding would lead to cultivation of consistent high-quality varieties. Published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, the open-access study is based on scanning the genome of different cannabis plants to identify the genes responsible for flavor.

The researchers found around 30 terpene synthase genes that are responsible for different flavors in marijuana. Terpenes are produced by a large variety of plants, as well as some insects, and are a large class of organic compounds that usually have a strong smell, which can be fragrant. Synthases are enzymes that catalyze the process of synthesis in an organism, in this case, terpene in cannabis.

Some of the genes discovered by the researchers contribute to the production of limonene, myrcene and pinene in marijuana plants. Limonene, for instance, gives cannabis a lemon-like flavor, while myrcene imparts an earthy flavor. Also discovered was the terpene that gives cannabis its signature smell — beta-caryophyllene.

A fully budded marijuana plant ready for trimming is seen at the Botanacare marijuana store ahead of its grand opening on New Year's Day in Northglenn, Colorado, Dec. 31, 2013. Photo: REUTERS
“The goal is to develop well-defined and highly-reproducible cannabis varieties. This is similar to the wine industry, which depends on defined varieties such as chardonnay or merlot for high value products. Our genomics work can inform breeders of commercial varieties which genes to pay attention to for specific flavor qualities,” Jörg Bohlmann, a professor in the faculty of forestry at UBC and lead author of the study, said in a statement Wednesday.

The number of genes found in the study is similar to that found to play a role in grapevine for the flavor of wine. The researchers said the interaction between terpene compounds and cannabinoid compounds — like tetrahydrocannabinol that gives marijuana its medicinal properties — still needs to be examined. Bohlmann said it will help standardize an industry whose economic potential is massive.

“There is a need for high-quality and consistent products made from well defined varieties.” he said.

Co-authors on the study were graduate student Judith Booth and Jonathan Page, who teaches in the botany department, and also founded cannabis testing and biotechnology company Anandia Labs.

Rehab Clinics Are Using Cannabis to Help Drug Addicts Recover

Zach Harris

Anecdotal evidence from California clinics backs up data about opioid addiction in legal weed states.

A new study published in the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence found that hospitals in legal weed states have seen a drop in patients checking in for opioid abuse, suggesting that greater availability of cannabis might help curb the nation’s opiate epidemic. And now, to push the concept even further, a New York Times report reports that some rehab clinics and doctors in California are openly using marijuana as a tool to help addicts on their path to recovery.

“There’s no scientific reason to believe that somebody is better off being completely miserable and sober than using cannabis occasionally, or even fairly regularly, as an adult and being functional and happy and productive,” Dr. Amanda Reiman, an unpaid consultant with High Sobriety, an LA rehab clinic that openly embraces cannabis use, told the New York Times. “Using cannabis is a relatively safe practice.”

High Sobriety welcomes cannabis use by their patients, each of whom pay $25,000-$80,000 a month for a private room and treatment. High Sobriety co-owner Michael Welch, a former addict himself, believes that the inherent flaws found in traditional 12-step programs result in ridiculously high recidivism rates - something he thinks cannabis can help.

“Every single treatment center knows it, and we know it,’’ Welch said. “Some of us have had the same clients, five, 10, 15 times over. We say: ‘We just can’t reach Billy, we just can’t reach Joe.’”

Instead of giving up on relapsing patients or putting them back into the same program that failed them, High Sobriety is willing to replace heroin with cannabis, even if it turns into a long-term habit, and they aren’t alone.

Dr. Mark Wallace, chairman of the division of pain medicine in the department of anesthesia at the University of California told the Times that he’s been using cannabis for about five years to treat addicts for opioid dependence.

“The majority of patients continue to use it,” Wallace conceded about his patients’ marijuana use, but compared to their lives on opiates, the doctor says he only hears good things like “I feel like I was a slave to that drug. I feel like I have my life back.”

But because cannabis remains a Schedule I narcotic under federal guidelines, some addiction professionals aren’t as liberal about ganja. Dr. Mark Willenbring, a psychiatrist who works with addicts, told the Times he wasn’t convinced, and had strong words for the idea that cannabis could help addicts recover.

“I’m not prone to making exaggerated or unqualified statements and in this case I don’t need to make any: It doesn’t work,” Willenbring said. “Like trying to cure alcoholism with Valium.”

But in California and the more than 20 states that have some form of legal cannabis access, doctors, and addicts alike, are willing to try anything that might help kick the hard stuff - even if that means keeping a bong in the sober house.

Support for marijuana legalization surging, except Republicans or those over 65

Over 60 percent of Democrats and Independents supported legalizing marijuana in the 2016 General Social Survey, but Republican support stood at only 40 percent

By Christopher Ingraham,

Public support for marijuana legalization surged in 2016, according to data just released from the General Social Survey.

Last year 57 percent of Americans told the survey’s pollsters that they “think the use of marijuana should be legal,” up from 52 percent in 2014.

The numbers from the the General Social Survey — a large nationwide survey conducted every two years and widely considered to represent the gold standard for public opinion research — comport with other national surveys last year, which found support ranging from the upper 50s to low 60s.

But the survey indicates two significant fault lines when it comes to marijuana policy: age and political party. Fully two-thirds of respondents aged 18 to 34 supported legalization in the survey, as well as majorities of those aged 35 to 49, and 50 to 64.

But seniors age 65+ stood apart, with only 42 percent supporting legalization.


On the other hand, support among all age groups has risen by similar amounts in recent years. Back in 2008, for instance, only 40 percent of the youngest respondents, and just over 21 percent of seniors, supported marijuana legalization.

Breaking the numbers down by political affiliation tells a slightly different story. In the early 2000s, opposition to marijuana legalization was more or less a bipartisan issue.

Only 29 percent of Democrats and 26 percent of Republicans voiced support for legal weed in 2000.

Since then, support for legalization among Democrats and Independents has risen much faster than among Republicans. In 2016 over 60 percent of the former two groups supported legal marijuana. Among Republicans support stood at only 40 percent, a gap of more than 20 percentage points between Democrats and Independents on the one hand, and Republicans on the other.

Moreover, support for legalization among Republicans has leveled off over the past two years, rising just one percentage point since 2016. But support among Democrats rose by three points, and Independents saw a much greater eight-point jump.

Marijuana use, legal or otherwise, remains widespread in this country. Over 33 million adults currently admit to using the drug, according to Gallup. And with victories for legalization in California, Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts last year, roughly 1-in-5 Americans will soon have access to legal marijuana in their home states.

But many lawmakers and law enforcement groups remain resolutely opposed to legalization. In Massachusetts, one of the most reliably Democratic states in the nation, lawmakers lobbied strongly against last fall’s voter-approved ballot initiative, and have been working since then to delay implementation of the measure.

Similar efforts are underfoot in nearby Maine.

The Trump administration has been non-committal on its approach to marijuana enforcement. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been outspoken in his criticism of legalization, but has stopped short of saying that his Justice Department will pursue marijuana cases differently than his predecessor’s.

Meanwhile, Canadian lawmakers are expected to formally announce that nationwide marijuana legalization will be implemented by July of 2018, meaning that for Americans in northern border states, a legal pot fix is just a crossing away.

The General Social Survey was funded primarily by the National Science Foundation and conducted through in-person interviews with a random national sample of roughly 1,900 adults in the spring of 2016. Overall results carry a margin of sampling error of roughly 2.5 percentage points; the error margin for subgroups is larger.

Marijuana ok for preggy moms

by: Tempo Online

Times have truly changed, even in the age-old belief that the use of marijuana can be harmful especially for pregnant mothers.

Even today on the Internet, you can find a clinical specialist warning that cannabis can affect the growth and development of a baby, and may even lead to leukemia.

Most of the studies performed in North America show that marijuana can cause defects and developmental problems among infants.

However, these studies did not separate the use of cannabis from alcohol, tobacco and even more damaging stuff like meth and heroin.

But in Jamaica, I was shocked to learn that pregnant mothers have been using marijuana on a regular basis to relieve them of their nausea, stress and even depression. This was usually in the form of tea or tonic.

A report revealed that in the late 1960s, student Melanie Dreher conducted a study on marijuana use in Jamaica to monitor and document the results from its usage among pregnant women.

Dreher discovered a culture in Jamaica that regulated its own intake of marijuana to the point of thinking that its use is spiritual.

She examined 24 Jamaican infants whose mothers were using cannabis while pregnant along with 20 infants who were not exposed to its use. The results of her field studies became part of the book “Women and Cannabis: Medicine, Science and Sociology”.

The report recognized the infant’s strengths, probable vulnerabilities and adaptive responses.

More importantly, although the children in the study were evaluated until the age of five, there were no negative impacts monitored on the kids. Quite the opposite, the children appeared to have excelled.

Here in the country, we live in a time where the use and legalization of medical marijuana is being discussed in Congress.

Cannabis can supposedly stop epileptic seizures and help in the treatment of neuropathic diseases like Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis. Not only that, it can likewise treat loss of appetite that a patient experiences after the treatment for HIV or AIDS and chemotherapy.

Firing Line does not tolerate the use or abuse of any prohibited drug. But there are studies showing that marijuana has a number of medical uses, even among pregnant mothers. Let’s not close our eyes to these advantages and continue further studies.

We should also focus on how to prevent any abuses once the use of medical marijuana finds approval.

Argentine Senate approves medical use of cannabis oil

By The Associated Press

 

Argentina's Senate has given final legislative approval to a bill legalizing the use of cannabis oil and other marijuana derivatives for medicinal purposes, and setting up a regulatory framework for the state to prescribe and distribute them to patients.

The legislation approved by senators Wednesday also creates a medical marijuana research program at the Health Ministry, which must "guarantee free access" to cannabis oil and other derivatives to patients who join the program. The legislation was passed by the Chamber of Deputies earlier.

"In history, the big things always come in small steps," said Valeria Salech, president of a private pro-medical marijuana group called Mama Cultiva Argentina, which has argued that cannabis can radically change the quality of life for children suffering everything from HIV to epilepsy.

Her group is already lobbying to push the legislation further, to permit the families of patients to grow their own marijuana.

Under the new legislation, government agencies will be authorized to grow marijuana for research purposes and to produce cannabis oil and derivatives for patients. The state can import cannabis derivatives until they can be produced locally.

Other nations in Latin America are also debating allowing medical uses of marijuana. But Uruguay is the only country in South America that has legalized recreational pot.

In the U.S., voters in California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada last year approved recreational use of marijuana, joining Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Canadian officials have recently said they hope to legalize recreational pot in 2018.

W.Va. Senate approves medical marijuana bill

By WSAZ News Staff | 

 

 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – The West Virginia Senate on Wednesday approved medical marijuana use with a doctor’s guidance.

It is intended for patients with certain debilitating conditions. SB 386, the West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act, is sponsored by Sen. Richard Ojeda, D-Logan.

Under the bill, a 16-member medical cannabis commission would oversee the program. That commission would include medical professionals, law enforcement officials, and government agency representatives, to establish and oversee a state medical marijuana program.

The bill will now be considered in the House of Delegates, where a similar measure stalled in committee earlier this year.

"We applaud the Senate for standing up for seriously ill West Virginians and giving them hope with this much-needed legislation,” said Matt Simon of the Marijuana Policy Project, who is a West Virginia native and graduate of West Virginia University, in a news release. “For many patients, medical marijuana is a far safer alternative to opioids and other prescription drugs. Any delegates who are serious about addressing the opiate crisis in West Virginia need to consider the substantial benefits this law could have on that front. We hope Speaker Armstead will review the facts and give this bill a fair shake in the House.”

A review of more than 10,000 scientific abstracts released in January by the National Academies of Sciences found “conclusive or substantial evidence” that cannabis is effective in the treatment of chronic pain. A study published this year in International Journal of Drug Policy found marijuana is an effective replacement for opioids to treat severe pain.

“Thousands of seriously ill West Virginians are anxiously waiting for their lawmakers to do the right thing and pass this bill,” Simon said. “They shouldn’t have to suffer or be treated like criminals while patients in 28 other states can legally access medical marijuana.”

Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have enacted effective medical marijuana laws and 16 states have adopted medical marijuana laws that are ineffective because they are either unworkable or exceptionally restrictive. West Virginia is one of only six states in the nation that has not adopted any form of medical marijuana law.

The Brave New World of Legalized Marijuana

LAW class studies concerns about prohibition—including racism

By Rich Barlow

Class by class, lecture by lecture, question asked by question answered, an education is built. This is one of a series of articles about visits to one class, on one day, in search of those building blocks at BU.

Popular books on legalizing marijuana frequently have fun titles, Jay Wexler says. From Weed the People to Brave New Weed, the School of Law professor waded through many such potboilers (sorry) to prepare his new course, Law and Regulation of Cannabis.

The syllabus, however, forgoes the catchy titles for more scholarly texts and discussion. Coming just months after Massachusetts voters legalized recreational marijuana, the class introduces future lawyers to the tectonic shifts in states that have legalized the drug, and how those laws bump up against the as-yet-immovable rock of federal prohibition. Since drug law is not Wexler’s specialty (that being church-state matters), he boned up on the topic before launching the class and brings in guest experts to lecture.

Among them is Michael Cutler (LAW’73), a defense lawyer and member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, who helped draft Question 4, the pot-permitting Massachusetts initiative approved last November. Any among the 18 students in the class who feared a dry legal disquisition need not have worried: Cutler offered a two-hour report from the marijuana wars front that was both humorous and opinionated.

He described how Question 4 lawyers drafted a “best practices” law based on successful initiatives elsewhere. Then, as he gave talks in support of the ballot initiative in the months leading up to the election, how he relied particularly on parents in his audience, who worried about their kids abusing pot under what was then the current illegalization regimen. Such people, he said, would be more likely to see the advantages of legalization-cum-regulation (the law bans marijuana use for those 21 and under).

“Every parent knows…you have much easier access to unregulated marijuana than you have to regulated alcohol,” Cutler said.

He shared his view that demographics—younger Americans are legalization’s most ardent supporters—will be destiny. “The prohibition supporters are dying,” he said, his bluntness getting laughs. “The future of marijuana law does not lie with courts. It lies with voters.…The change, I think, is unstoppable.” For those soon-to-be-deceased prohibitionists, the class also considers arguments for keeping marijuana illegal, according to Wexler. One guest speaker runs the medical marijuana program in Massachusetts, whose governor, Charlie Baker, opposed Question 4 because of concerns that children might gain access to pot, the initiative’s restrictions notwithstanding.

Wexler’s class, Law and Regulation of Cannabis, discusses the racist impulse behind pot prohibition a century ago, which Cutler called a slam-dunk argument for legalization.

Cutler also served up what he calls the slam-dunk arguments for legalization: prohibition’s underlying racism and the harms it sows, such as gangs who profit off illicit marijuana.
Every American drug prohibition, including that on marijuana, “was adopted with explicit racial animus,” he told the class. “It’s not about safety. It’s not about health.” (Wexler agrees. “The origin of marijuana laws is racist,” he said later in an interview. Federal officials used antiminorities rhetoric when they criminalized pot in the early 20th century. Today, the rate of marijuana use by African Americans mirrors its use by whites, but the arrest rate of African Americans for possession is four times greater.)

Wexler wants students to come away understanding more about “this bizarre situation where…you have this gigantic, burgeoning industry at the state level, and it’s completely dependent on the feds not enforcing federal law” that says pot is illegal.

Wexler said most banks won’t do business with the weed industry, because “they could be prosecuted for money laundering and all sorts of federal crimes. Now, the federal government says they’re not going to prosecute you, but they could change their mind tomorrow.” He recalled Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ 1980s comment that “he thought the Ku Klux Klan were good guys until he learned that they smoked marijuana.” (Sessions has said he was joking, but that comment and others led the Senate to reject him for a federal judgeship in 1986.)

The Trump administration’s attitude toward legalization remains an open question to those in the marijuana industry.

BU and other universities that receive federal money continue to prohibit the use, possession, cultivation, or distribution of marijuana on campus, regardless of Massachusetts law.
The genesis of Wexler’s class occurred a year ago, when a case book publisher working on a marijuana law book asked him if any LAW professor might want to teach the topic. “I said yeah, I’d be interested,” he recalled, noting that he found similar enthusiasm among his deans.

Dana Dobbins (LAW’18) took the class in advance of a job this summer at a Denver law firm (marijuana has been legal in Colorado since 2014). “It’s an interesting time to study this area of law, because there is so much change,” she said. Three other states besides Massachusetts passed marijuana legalization last fall, while another four approved it for medical use.

The class has been interesting for the differing rationales students have for supporting legalization, Dobbins said. People she differs with politically “want marijuana deregulated because it’s a federalism issue, right? They want states’ rights asserted, whereas…I think that criminalization oppresses minorities unfairly.

“There’s nothing quite like marijuana policy out there,” she said, “because legalization is so new.…It could be a huge area of law.”

Kids Peppered With Pot Ads

Legalization of marijuana in more than half of U.S. states fueling the trend, study suggests

 (HealthDay News) -- There has been an alarming increase in young Americans' exposure to marijuana ads as more states legalize the drug, a new study contends.

Recreational and/or medicinal use of marijuana is now legal in more than half of U.S. states, researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said.

"Advertising can be powerful," said study first author Melissa Krauss, a research statistician in the department of psychiatry. "That's why we're concerned that so many young adults are seeing ads for marijuana. It's also likely that younger, more vulnerable kids are seeing ads, too."

For the study, Krauss' team surveyed 742 younger people, aged 18 to 34, all of whom reported recent marijuana use. The researchers found that 54 percent had seen or sought out marijuana ads in the previous month. The ads were either online or in more traditional forms such as billboards or print media.

Marijuana advertising laws vary from state to state, but most of the survey respondents who encountered pot ads saw them on websites or social media. Even in states where marijuana ads are restricted, online ads can't be controlled, the researchers said.

And while ads for marijuana are prohibited on Facebook, "you can go on Facebook and discover pretty quickly that ads and information about dispensaries are there," Krauss said.

Even though the survey only included people who said they used marijuana, it's concerning that so many had seen ads for the drug, even in places where such ads are supposed to be prohibited, she added.

The study found that people who seek out marijuana ads tended to be users of medicinal marijuana products, were more likely to use marijuana products such as edibles and concentrates, and were more likely to be heavy users.

Those least likely to see marijuana ads used the drug recreationally, lived in states where the drug is illegal, and were more likely to smoke marijuana rather than use edibles or concentrates.

"As more states legalize marijuana, we should be vigilant about ads that promote the drug," Krauss said in a university news release.

The study was published March 29 in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

About 30 percent of people who use marijuana have some level of marijuana use disorder, which can be associated with addiction, according to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

More information
The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about marijuana.

Is It Hard To Quit Smoking Weed?

By Melissa Sherrard 

If you're going to put away your pipes, papers, and bongs because you want to quit smoking weed, you might be worried about how difficult it will be to stop. That's a hard question to answer because cannabis smokers use different amounts of marijuana, people break habits in different ways, and unforeseen emotional factors can come into play. Much of kicking any habit is one's personal willpower, but there is some evidence leading us to think that while quitting cannabis may challenging, it's by no means impossible to do on your own.

Some good news we have is that when we stop smoking cannabis, we're kicking a mental habit more than beating a physical addiction. In regards to cannabis, the National Cancer Institute notes its “addictive potential is considerably lower than that of other prescribed agents or substances of abuse.” We don't experience the physiological cravings for marijuana the same way as when we're addicted to cigarettes, alcohol, opioids, or other hard drugs, but even with this advantage, it would be irresponsible to think that stopping a marijuana habit will be a piece of cake for everyone.


The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) tells us that this physical dependency “occurs because the body naturally adapts to regular exposure to a substance (e.g., caffeine or a prescription drug),” and that when we stop taking such substances “symptoms can emerge while the body re-adjusts to the loss of the substance.” So while some people can put down their smoke without a hitch, others have a rough few days ahead of them, complete with some mild - and temporary - withdrawal symptoms like appetite loss, irritability, and insomnia. Part of the reason these symptoms remain mild is that our bodies store cannabinoids (chemical compounds that sets marijuana apart from other plants) for several days, sometimes weeks, after we've last smoked and slowly release it to our systems as cravings arise; it's just that these little pick-me-ups don't pack the same punch as your last puff.



To conclude, we can't say for sure just how easy or hard it will be for you to quit smoking cannabis, we just know that mental preparation and ongoing support are definitely helpful. So unless you've simply boarded the edibles-only bandwagon, it's best to be ready for some possible short-term challenges when you want to quit smoking cannabis.

Federal marijuana hostility unfounded

The national government scrutinizes marijuana despite its ability to generate tax revenue and new businesses

JOSH MAASBERG

As favorability for the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana continues to rise, Republican officials continue to support unpopular positions.

A recent nationwide poll from Quinnipiac University found 71 percent of Americans would oppose a federal crackdown on legal marijuana, and 93 percent are in favor of marijuana legalization.

Meanwhile, prominent Trump administration officials have made ominous comments concerning the enforcement of federal marijuana law.

At a daily news briefing on March 23, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said he expects states to face “greater enforcement” of federal laws against marijuana, even in the 26 states where the substance has been either decriminalized or legalized.

His comments throughout the briefing seemed to imply that recreational marijuana use was linked to the opioid epidemic, a claim most of us know as the gateway drug theory, or the widely-discredited catchphrase for the war on drugs.

Marijuana isn’t a “gateway” to harder drugs, just like ordering a milkshake at Cougar Country isn’t a “gateway” to buying a Super Basket.

According to years of scientific research outlined by VICE and other organizations, the vast majority of people who try marijuana never proceed to use other illegal substances, and there is no conclusive evidence to associate marijuana use with painkiller or opioid addiction. In fact, the opposite is true.

The pain-relieving effects of marijuana are actually associated with a significant decrease in medication side effects and frequency of use of opioids for chronic pain patients.

Additionally, data from the Washington State Healthy Youth Survey affirms that marijuana usage rates for eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders in Washington have remained essentially unchanged for the past decade.

Despite overwhelming scientific evidence, President Donald Trump’s officials, like Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a long-time critic of marijuana, continue to echo ignorant statements about the substance.

“I’m not sure we’re going to be a better, healthier nation if we’re going to have marijuana being sold at every corner grocery store,” he said at a Senate hearing last April. He went on to say, “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.”

But federal officials aren’t the only ones who are out of touch.

Brad Klippert (R), Washington’s 8th Legislative District representative, recently introduced House Bill 2096, “repealing all laws legalizing the use, possession, sale or production of marijuana and marijuana-related products” in the state.

The bill was read on Feb. 13 and sent to the House Commerce and Gaming committee, where it was likely dead on arrival.

Republicans have relentlessly been outspoken about reducing regulations that stifle businesses. This normalized hypocrisy is staggering and should evoke some consideration when mid-term elections come around.

Since the passage of Initiative 502, which legalized marijuana in Washington, legal recreational marijuana sales have exceeded $1.4 billion, according to the March 17 weekly report from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB).

This tax money goes toward state health services, the WSLCB, drug and alcohol education programs, and marijuana research at the University of Washington and WSU.

A crackdown on states with legal medical and recreational marijuana could be a possibility, but the move would certainly be wildly unpopular – something the Trump administration probably doesn’t need right now.

Should push come to shove, Americans need to be ready to act and use their votes.

New Study Shows Accessible Medical Marijuana Helps Fight Opioid Addiction

Hospitals in states with medical cannabis programs see almost 25% fewer patients seeking treatment for painkiller abuse.

Zach Harris

Time and time again, politicians given an opportunity to speak on the merits or detriment of legalizing marijuana have foregone facts in favor of fear mongering.

One of the most used propaganda-points (and favorite of Attorney General Jeff Sessions) is the comparison of cannabis to opioids. And while we know that synthetic heroin and naturally grown cannabis aren’t even in the same ballpark, opponents of marijuana legalization have continually stressed the gateway theory, claiming that increased availability of weed will lead to higher rates of opioid abuse.

According to Reuters and a new study from the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, those theories have even less merit than we originally thought, as it turns out that in states with medical marijuana programs, hospitalization rates for opioid painkiller abuse have gone down a whopping 23%. In the same states, hospitals have seen opioid overdoses drop an average of 13%.

The numbers have given hope to medical professionals dedicated to slowing the country’s opioid obsession.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that battling the opioid epidemic will require a multi-pronged approach and a good deal of creativity," Dr. Esther Choo, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, who was not involved in the study, told NBC News. "Could increased liberalization of marijuana be part of the solution? It seems plausible."

Yuyan Shi, author of the new study for the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence looked at hospitals in 27 states from 1997-2014. Throughout that time frame, nine of the research states passed medical marijuana laws and saw a subsequent drop in pain pill hospitalization.

Shi’s study isn’t the first to correlate cannabis availability with a drop in opioid abuse, either.  A 2016 study at Johns Hopkins University found that states with medical marijuana saw 25% less opioid-influenced deaths than states without legal weed.

So while Jeff Sessions - the most powerful lawyer in the nation - says things like, "I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana...so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another, " our country’s leading medical professionals are actually conducting research to find the truth.

"Instead, medical marijuana laws may have reduced hospitalizations related to opioid pain relievers," Shi concluded.

Marijuana legalization has both advantages, disadvantages

By Stephanie Dolan 

There’s the medical story. There’s the political story. And then there’s the personal story.

Marijuana sales in Colorado in 2015 reached nearly $1 billion and, before the end of October 2016, the $1 billion mark had been surpassed for the year. That money was earmarked for education, infrastructure and a cushion for a state budget so well padded that “budget cuts” are becoming bad memories.

Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, wrote in The Economist that Colorado’s experiment with marijuana legalization is a resounding success.

“In 2014, retail cannabis sales raised some $76 million in tax revenue and fees, according to data compiled by the Colorado Department of Revenue,” he said. “Under prohibition, this money is diverted to black-market entrepreneurs, not to licensed businesses.”

Marijuana prosecutions also fell dramatically in Colorado, saving the state millions of dollars in court and jail costs.

“Ultimately, however, the case for legalization is not solely an economic one,” Armentano said. “Criminalization of cannabis encroaches upon civil liberties, engenders disrespect for the law, impedes legitimate scientific research into the plant’s medicinal properties and disproportionately affects communities of color. That is why a majority of Americans recognize that a pragmatic regulatory framework that allows for the limited, licensed commercial production and retail sale of cannabis to adults is preferable to criminal prohibition.”

While it may be said that a logically sound case may be built for marijuana legalization on facts and figures, there are certainly other things to consider aside from just the bottom dollar.

“I have an identical twin sister,” Plainfield Police Assistant Chief Maj. Carri Weber said. “She lives in South Dakota, and her name is Terri. She had twin boys, Brandon and Brady. Brady died last year on March 21 as a result of smoking marijuana and driving.”

Weber said Brady, then 22 and living in Mitchell, Neb., and a friend were out driving around and smoking marijuana.

“There’s nothing out there,” she said. “When you’re in a field and it’s flat, you can see for miles.

Out there, the way the interstates are, there are stop signs that come up right to the interstate,” Weber said.

 “It’s weird. They don’t merge like we do onto interstates. You just come up to the stop sign, look both ways and then you pull out. The road he was on was like a two-lane highway. I’d compare it to a U.S. 36 going into Danville. They came up to the stop sign. My nephew was a passenger in the vehicle. His friend was the driver. They were so high that they pulled in front of a semi-truck, and it killed them both instantly.”

Weber said it was not dark when the accident occurred, and there would have been nothing to block their view. She said the semi-truck driver was very badly affected by the accident.

Weber admits to trying pot when she was in high school, but when she realized that law enforcement was her ultimate goal, she never did it again.

“I was also very busy with sports in high school,” she said. “I didn’t have much time for anything else.”

Weber played basketball, volleyball and softball. She was offered a softball scholarship and attended Ball State University.

“It’s something that I think most kids will probably try sometime in their lives,” she said. “We’ve found, through new recruits, that it’s very rare to find someone who’s never smoked marijuana.

Those who haven’t really have to fight to make us believe they’ve never done it.”

Weber said she’s comfortable with most of the drug laws -- with one exception.

“The one law I struggle with is that you cannot, in the state of Indiana, be charged with a felony until you’ve been caught with 10 pounds of marijuana or more,” she said. “Ten pounds is a lot. That’s for more than personal use. So, to me, if you have 10 pounds, you’re a dealer. You’re not just possessing it for personal use. If you have an ounce, that’s personal use. When you have 10 pounds, then you’re selling it.”

As a former undercover officer on the drug task force, there is no love lost between Weber and drug dealers. She also recognizes that, due to some of the laws, marijuana is simply more socially acceptable nowadays.

“It’s not a felony to have a joint now,” she said. “Our legislation keeps looking at marijuana as though it’s not a big deal. Alcohol is also very socially acceptable, but if you get pulled over for drunk or impaired driving, that’s a misdemeanor. If you get another citation within five years, it’s a felony. You usually don’t get jail time out of it. I think it’s the laws that perpetuate that socially acceptable stigma. They’re not going to lower their laws or regulations on opiates though, because now we know that our opiates are getting a lot of heroin users started.”

While Weber won’t hesitate to make a marijuana arrest, depending on the circumstances, she won’t commit to marijuana as a gateway drug for every person who smokes it.

“It depends on the person,” she said.

Ironically, Weber is from Colorado. She too is familiar with the numbers and the revenue that marijuana sales are bringing in for the state.

“My mom still lives out there, in Evergreen, a small town just west of Denver,” she said.

“The homeless rate out there is very high now. People know they can smoke there, so they’re moving without the money for housing. They live in the parks and smoke all day.”

The growing homeless population is not the only problem Denver is experiencing.

“The marijuana has to be grown in a warehouse,” Weber said. “The dispensaries are just where they sell it. It has to be transported. They hire people to load up all this marijuana on the trucks. Denver’s not that far from Mexico. People are getting beaten, robbed and killed when they’re taking the marijuana from the warehouse to the dispensaries.”

While Weber has strong feelings about marijuana due to her family and law enforcement history, she is empathetic to the suffering with cancer or any other disease that marijuana or CBD oil might affect.
“I do have an aunt who has arthritis,” she said. “She went and got a brownie once. If it helps people medically, I’m okay with that -- if we can control it, if there is any way to ensure it’s used properly.

But we’re not controlling our opiates and right now we have a terrible heroin problem. So that scares me. We don’t do a good job of policing our opiates, so what would this do?”

Colorado budget proposal cuts teen survey on sex, drugs

Youth advocacy groups that both favor and oppose marijuana legalization hope the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey can be saved

By Kristen Wyatt,

DENVER — Colorado schoolchildren may not be asked about their drug use and sex habits in anonymous surveys anymore, under a bipartisan budget proposal moving through the Legislature.

The budget draft introduced Monday cuts about $745,000 to end the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey.

The youth-risk surveys are sent every other year to randomly selected middle and high school students and are used to chart risk behaviors such as smoking, drinking and bringing guns to school. The anonymous surveys have been done since 1991.

The survey has long rankled conservatives, who consider the questions an invasion of student privacy.

Some also question Colorado’s ability to keep the results anonymous, though survey administrators insist they don’t track students and have never had a security breach.


“The range of questions being asked of students I believed was inappropriate,” said Republican Sen. Kevin Lundberg, one of the Legislature’s main budget-writers.

Lundberg cited questions about suicide as being needlessly intrusive.

The high school students were asked in 2016, “During the past 12 months, did you make a plan about how you would attempt suicide?”

The question was followed by a question about how many times the child attempted suicide in the last year, which struck Lundberg as inappropriate.

“As I parent, I look at this and think, I wouldn’t want that entire range of questions posed,” he said.

The draft budget isn’t final, so the survey funding could be restored through ongoing negotiations. And there’s a chance Colorado could seek federal money to continue it.
But state health officials say the survey’s future is very much uncertain without state support.

“Scaling back (the survey) would make it nearly impossible to look at the health of subgroups of students such as by age, grade, and race/ethnicity,” said David Brendsel of the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, which runs the survey in conjunction with the Education Department.

Democrats in the Legislature oppose the cut, saying policy makers need to know as much as possible about risky youthful behaviors.

“This survey is the best way to take the temperature of what’s going on with our kids,” Democratic Rep. Jonathan Singer said. “Without this, we’re flying blind with our tax dollars.”

But it’s not clear how hard Democrats will fight to restore the survey funding. Lawmakers have to trim hundreds of millions from Colorado’s $27 billion overall budget — including a massive proposed hit of about $500 million to hospitals — so it’s uncertain whether the survey will attract much attention as lawmakers hammer out the details over the next couple of weeks.

Colorado has a Republican Senate and Democratic House, forcing bipartisan agreement on spending priorities.

Youth advocacy groups that both favor and oppose marijuana legalization hope the survey can be saved. The survey is frequently pointed to as evidence that youth pot use hasn’t gone up since legalization, though children’s perception of pot’s dangers have dipped, possibly foretelling higher use in the future.

“We rely on the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey to provide vital information about the impacts that the sale of Colorado’s highly potent marijuana has on youths’ health and well-being,” said Henny Lasley, head of Smart Colorado, which aims to protect kids from marijuana’s harms.

Ganja babies! – More and more children reportedly seeking medical attention after using marijuana

jamaica-gleaner

A 50 per cent jump in the number of children seeking assistance at public medical facilities for ganja-related illnesses in Jamaica since the weed was decriminalised in 2015, is causing worry for local health officials.

With 70 per cent of the population having easy access to ganja and law making possession of up to two ounces no longer a criminal offence, children – some as young as 12 years old – have been trying the weed in its many different forms.


But there is moderate to high risk associated with smoking ganja or its frequent use in food and drinks, and a 2016 National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA) cross-sectional study has shown that the teenagers are getting hooked early.



Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton last week told The Sunday Gleaner that he was very unhappy with the findings.

“The drug treatment programme of the ministry, primarily for persons affected by marijuana usage, and in particular since the decriminalisation of two ounces or less, has shown a 50 per cent increase in persons – young people, schoolchildren, adolescents – which raises a lot of concern for us,” said Tufton.

The NCDA study showed that average age distribution of first use was 14 years old in 2016, up from 13 years in a similar study conducted in 2013.

One in four persons who use the weed tries it as a drink – ganja tea, while one in 10 eats it – ganja cakes.


The study also shows that more teenage boys are using ganja than girls with the highest use of the drug being in Kingston and St Andrew, while the lowest usage was in Portland and Manchester.

“It is a major concern for the Ministry of Health and we are being accused of stymieing the efforts of the Cannabis Licensing Authority and marijuana legislation.

“Our position is that we have no objection to cannabis for research purposes; we are on the committee, and we are prepared to move ahead with it. But as Ministry of Health, we cannot sanction smoking cigarettes, ganja or ‘cho cho’ leaves because of the impact on the lungs,” said Tufton.

“We have raised concerns in view of the lack of adequate laws, the lack of resources spent on public education which was supposed to be the case, and the lack of follow through on the legislation which includes ticketing persons who are using ganja in public,” added Tufton.

According to the health minister, the use of ganja in public spaces, instead of private use as approved under the decriminalisation legislation, “has become quite fashionable and has piqued the curiosity of young people to experiment and it is having an adverse impact on them”.

Tufton’s position has found support with former Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson who had led the move to ban smoking in public spaces.

“My worst fears are now justified based on the reports. From the beginning I was opposed to anything that was not medicinal usage of marijuana. What I was always concerned about was the use of marijuana by children and young people, because the development of the brain was still taking place.


“And, therefore, left on their own to be out there smoking, there would be problems,” Ferguson told The Sunday Gleaner.

“There was always concern by my team about what would happen to our children and this is why part of our support of amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act was support for a massive public education programme concomitant with the amendments,” added Ferguson.

According to Ferguson, the public education programme should have been a joint effort with the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, National Health Fund and an increase in the budget of the NCDA.

The former health minister added that his major disappointment is that the public-education programme was not sustained and is almost non-existent now.

“Funding should have been routed through the NCDA but it was not sustained and now there is a lot of confusion. So while some may use it and there are no perceived mental issues, some will show significant problems,” suggested Ferguson, who said his position and that of the present health minister are backed by medical evidence.

The health ministry is now considering policy changes including, targeted intervention for male substance users, the strengthening of prevention initiatives, drug treatment under health insurance plans and the help of the police to enforce the laws regarding underage drug use.