WeedLife News Network

Even without Congressional assistance, the president has the authority to initiate the process of getting marijuana rescheduled by the Controlled Substances Act. 

While it is still kind of hard to see through the funk of the 2020 election, rest assured it is over for Donald Trump. As of January 2021, President-elect Joe Biden will take his shot at making America great again.

It will be during his first 100 days, a period that typically sets the tone for the presidency, that America will get to see precisely what kind of leader it is dealing with. Some citizens hope to see action that will help rebuild an economy crushed by the dreaded COVID-19, others want an effective vaccine, and a good deal of the population just wants medical marijuana.

Although more than half the nation has laws on the books that allow people to use marijuana for medicinal use, the federal government isn’t as progressive. Cannabis remains a Schedule I dangerous drug within the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which basically means that it is highly addictive and doesn’t possess any healing properties. But science disagrees. There is a growing body of evidence showing that marijuana can help patients treat a variety of health conditions ranging from insomnia to more life threatening illnesses. And as for all of that business about being “highly addictive,” even Uncle Sam admits that it is only about as habit forming as caffeine. 

Still, it would take an act of Congress to reschedule cannabis. Well, that or a highly motivated president. 

More Utah doctors will be able to recommend medical cannabis to qualifying patients, under a new bill being proposed.

The forthcoming legislation will allow physicians to recommend cannabis for up to 15 patients without having to go through hours of specialized training through the state. But if a doctor does, they can help up to 275 patients.

"We want to make the barrier to entry on the part of providers, prescribers, lower," said Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers.

As FOX 13 reported in an investigation last year, qualifying patients still struggle across Utah to find doctors willing to recommend medical cannabis. Some don't want to go through so much paperwork and licensing for a handful of patients, while others are uneasy about recommending cannabis.

"This bottleneck that we have here, it is forcing patients to go outside and try to doctor shop which was never the intention," said Desiree Hennessy, the head of the Utah Patients Coalition, which sponsored Proposition 2 that legalized medical marijuana in Utah.

Increased medical knowledge and changes in social norms have meant that over the last decade attitudes towards medical cannabis have changed exponentially. After speaking to clinicians and patients studies have concluded that while it may have once been taboo, medical cannabis is now believed to be a legitimate medical therapy by some. It may be much more accepted but few studies have looked into how patients use medical cannabis and whether men and women see it differently. A new study has found that a significant number of women would use cannabis to treat chronic conditions and pain. 

The study, which was published in the Journal of Women’s Health assessed the gendered attitudes patients have towards medical cannabis. It found that after obtaining a medical cannabis card women are more likely to cut down or discontinue using prescribed medication and medical assistance. The study was supported by research that suggested that while men are more likely to be experienced cannabis users more generally, women are more likely to substitute prescribed medications and painkillers for medical cannabis. 

Cannabinoids are compounds found in cannabis. Research has suggested that they could be a great painkiller. PMS and PMDD, endometriosis and some gynecological cancers are some of the conditions which can cause intimate and pelvic chronic pain. The study revealed that a substantial number of women would be open to using medical cannabis to treat pain, especially if they’d used it before. 

It’s not completely clear as to why women are more likely to swap out prescribed medication for medical cannabis. However, past research has found that women engage with complementary or alternative medicine differently to men. Women are more likely to access preventative services, use alternative medicine to treat pain, mental health conditions or insomnia and for headaches and migraines. As medical cannabis has increasingly been seen as a safe and legitimate treatment and news of the opioid crisis has spread it may now fall under the category of complementary or alternative medicine. 

The researchers wrote, “the implication that women may conceptualize medical cannabis as complementary or alternative medicine merits further research, as this finding may be viewed as a consequence of patient experience with cannabis, and not only of shifting public attitudes toward it.” 

A new study finds that women are now more open to treating gynecological conditions with cannabis.

A new study reveals that women would consider using cannabis to treat different gynecological conditions, from menopause to menstrual pains.

Published in the Journal of Women’s Health, the study shows that women have a history of using cannabis to cope with chronic pelvic pain, menstrual cramps and pain associated with gynecological cancer. “A larger proportion of women who reported ever using cannabis were willing to use cannabis to treat conditions commonly seen in gynecological practices compared to never-users (91.6% vs. 64.6%),” says Leo Han, MD, MDH, and one of the lead authors of the study.

Authors of the study theorize that this willingness to give cannabis a shot could be influenced by the relative safety associated with cannabis use and with the negative side effects that are common when using opioids for pain management. It’s important to note that conditions like endometriosis are infamously difficult to diagnose and treat, resulting in more and more women being willing to try alternate methods of treatment.

According to Journal of Women’s Health Editor-in-Chief Susan G. Kornstein, MD, the study found that “a large proportion of those women who had never used cannabis were willing to try it to treat gynecological pain. Fewer, but still a substantial percentage, would use it for procedural pain or other gynecological conditions.”

Cannabidiol (CBD) is extremely popular right now.

In fact, it is so popular that Google search data for the last few years shows that CBD is searched more often than THC.

For many decades THC was the cannabinoid that most scientists and cannabis enthusiasts focused on, however, that has clearly changed.

Products containing CBD are far more legally available in the global marketplace compared to products containing large amounts of THC.

That, combined with a growing body of peer-reviewed studies that find CBD to be an effective medicine, has resulted in exponential growth in the use of CBD worldwide.

The Mississippi Department of Health has been working around the clock to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the agency will be responsible for starting a statewide medical marijuana program within the next nine months.

Uncertified election results show 74% of Mississippi voters approved the ballot measure that allows doctors to prescribe up to 5 ounces (142 grams) of marijuana per month for people who have at least one of more than 20 serious medical conditions.

“This vote shows minds are changing," said Jaqueline Temple Rudder, a homemaker from Madison County who lost her father-in-law to cancer and voted for Initiative 65. "We don’t want our sick suffering.”

Both Gov. Tate Reeves and state's top health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, opposed the initiative. Reeves said passage would lead Mississippi to have the “most liberal weed rules” in the country - although it does not legalize recreational marijuana. Dobbs said it would distract health officials who are working furiously to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The constitutional amendment places the Mississippi Department of Health in charge of issuing medical marijuana identification cards and licensing treatment centers where patients will access marijuana for medical purposes. Officials will have until August to begin licensing treatment centers and certifying eligible patients.

Buyers, including publicly traded companies, have started buying Ohio medical marijuana dispensaries as the required state waiting period expires.

An operator based in northern Ohio and a Canadian company acquired stores this fall, and a national cannabis brand announced intentions to acquire a group of dispensaries owned by Central Ohio’s Hondros family of companies.

Ohio-based Standard Wellness LLC has acquired the Springfield dispensary of Pure Ohio Wellness LLC, the companies announced last week. Approved by the state Oct. 29, the transaction comes weeks after Pure Ohio opened Madison County’s only dispensary outside London.

The sale for an undisclosed amount provides capital to expand Pure Ohio’s processor attached to its Springfield cultivator, said owner Larry Pegram, a retired motorcycle racer. The grow operation started a year ago and the processor opened this summer. It also has a Dayton dispensary.

“The London dispensary is kind of our signature store,” Pegram said. “(Selling Springfield) gives us the ability to produce more product.”

As more research finds that CBD can be a useful medicine for dogs and cats, the compound has become one alternative medicine that’s being considered much more now than ever before.

In the U.S. and many other countries, dogs and cats alike are adored as loving family members. The ASPCA has estimated that in the U.S., 78 million dogs and 85.8 million cats are owned and treated as pets. Similarly, 44% of all American households have a dog as a pet, and 35% have a cat. Due to the abundance of pet dogs and cats, the demand for medical and veterinary services is significantly high, and it keeps growing.

For decades, pharmaceutical medications and traditional treatment methods tended to be the norm. However, in recent years, cannabidiol (CBD) has been making a large splash within the veterinary medicine industry. So, stick around to learn about the unique relationship between cannabis, but specifically CBD and modern-day veterinary medicine. 

CBD Usage and Pet Mammals—What the Research Says

As more research findings are released about CBD’s medicinal properties that can be reaped by mammals including dogs and cats, the compound has become one alternative medicine that’s being discussed and/or considered much more now than ever before.

To date, publications from Colorado State University (CSU) and Cornell University have documented the pharmacokinetics of CBD in dog subjects. The study reported that orally administered CBD (by mouth) is absorbed more effectively than transdermally administered CBD (applied on the skin’s surface). The study also found that orally administered CBD was well tolerated, which supports CBD’s solid safety profile.

More than 5,000 cases in metro Phoenix could be affected under county prosecutors’ plan to drop marijuana-related charges following the passage of Proposition 207, officials said Tuesday.

Prop 207, which decriminalizes the recreational use of marijuana in Arizona, was adopted in a 20-point landslide in last week’s election.

On Monday, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said it will start filing motions to dismiss pending and unfiled possession and paraphernalia charges.

On Tuesday, MCAO spokeswoman Jennifer Liewer released information about how many cases could be impacted and how the process would unfold.

“We have to review each individually and expect to find that most of those can be dismissed,” she said in an email. “However, a significant number will include other felony charges – meaning that the entire case will not be dismissed, only those charges covered by Prop 207.”

There's a bill going through the House of Lords which will decide how the country will regulate its medicines after January 2021. It's called the medicines and medical devices bill. Among other things, it will decide how a post-Brexit UK will maintain a high degree of patient access to the best medicines, guarantee patient safety and high manufacturing standards, and ensure British regulators do not stifle global investments into our life sciences industry.

The main sentiment underlying that debate is that Britain must retain its international reputation within the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries.

Brexit represents a step into the unknown. A no-deal Brexit will create abrupt and fast changes to British regulation, threatening the country's attractiveness. But it might at least prompt a shake-up of the regulatory status quo.

One of the industries that stands to greatly benefit from any change to the status quo is the British medical cannabis industry. Since its legalisation in 2018, the sector's environment has stagnated. British patients have barely benefitted: patient access has been sluggish and confined to less than 20 cannabis products being prescribed on the NHS. The 1.4 million patients who currently self-medicate are stuck paying for pricey private prescriptions or accessing their medicine through the black market and risking arrest.

For such a leader in healthcare, why have so few British patients and businesses benefited from the industry getting the green light in 2018? A lack of NHS funding into research hasn't helped, and nor has a highly restrictive prescribing regime. There's been an extreme reluctance by the government to approve more domestic cannabis cultivation or allow British businesses to export.

Cannabis was the clear winner in the highly competitive 2020 Election, as five states legalized both recreational and medical marijuana.

Finally, it seems as if the country is starting to realize the versatile, medicinal nature of the plant.

Let’s just call cannabis what it is — medicine. 

Unfortunately, the negative stigma attached to marijuana still lingers, and there are those who are still receiving unjust consequences for using it. 

Combat Veteran Tests Positive

In Ocala, Florida, a Belleview High School dean was fired for testing positive for medical marijuana after suffering injuries while breaking up a school fight. 

CBD oil is naturally extracted from the hemp plant and is appreciated for its possible healing properties. Hemp is not to be confused with marijuana as it doesn’t contain the psychoactive component, THC, required for the high effect. This is the reason why hemp oil is legal and safe to use as a health supplement.

Inflammation occurs when the body signals send blood to the areas that need repair. The interacting processes of the cells are what cause inflammation. Inflammation can also be caused by side-effects of medication used to treat certain ailments such as chemotherapy.

We have compiled a list of different ways that you can use CBD oil to treat inflammation. 

Massage Oil

CBD oil is a possible source of anti-inflammatory compounds and chemicals, meaning the oil may reduce inflammation if applied directly to the inflamed body parts. You can use CBD oil to gently massage the areas so that joints or muscles soak in the particles. After you have massaged the oil on the swollen areas such as the ankle or knee, you can tie a cloth bandage around the area as you would after applying a muscle cream. Tying a bandage may encourage the soaking in of the oil. 

A recent study taking place in Israel looked at how effective medical cannabis can be at treating chronic pain, with an emphasis on long-term pain management use. 

The study, originally published in The European Journal of Pain and conducted by researchers with University of Haifa, looked at patients over the course of one year and examined and measured how cannabis worked with their chronic pain conditions and how much relief they received. It checked in with users at one three, six, nine, and twelve months after the treatment started to see how patients were doing with their cannabis treatment.

“At one-year, average pain intensity declined from baseline by 20 percent. All other parameters improved by 10 to 30 percent,” the study reported. “A significant decrease of 42 percent from baseline in morphine equivalent daily dosage of opioids was also observed. Reported adverse effects were common but mostly non-serious.” Reports of adverse effects declined over the course of the study period.”

Another Study, A Consistent Finding

Of course, this is not entirely new information. It backs up what other studies have found, which is that cannabis can help with long term pain relief and reduction of opiate use, as patients rely on cannabis instead of more dangerous treatment options. However, there are some things about the study that are unique. 

“This study is novel in identifying possible predictors for treatment success, including normal to long sleep duration, lower BMI and lower depression scores,” the study explains in detail. “In contrast to current beliefs the diagnosis of neuropathic pain predicts a less favorable outcome. These findings provide physicians with new data to support decision making on recommendations for MC treatment.” 

Jamaica’s Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce is striving to resolve banking issues impacting the country’s fledgling medical cannabis industry.

It seems many banks in the country are balking at funding medical cannabis operations out of concerns for their relationships with banks in the USA; where cannabusinesses also still struggle with securing financial services.

A meeting was recently held with Jamaican banks to discuss the matter.

“We had a meeting with a major stakeholder in the industry and we have been having meetings with persons who are making the various different proposals on how we deal with this correspondent banking issue,” said  State Minister, Dr. the Hon. Norman Dunn. “It is a real issue; it is a real concern”.

The Jamaican Government is keen to support its local medical cannabis industry, and is attempting to assist.

Using cannabis-related products has become increasingly popular in North America. Scientific research has discovered a wide variety of ailments that these products could be useful for. Accordingly, the CBD market has surged. 

People are now integrating CBD products into their everyday lives. When shopping for  CBD near you, visit sites like cbdoilnearby.com to find which stores are worth visiting. For the best deals, always buy online unless it’s not an option in your town or city.

What Does CBD do?

The normalization of CBD products is still a relatively new concept. Therefore, not everyone is exposed to information regarding the benefits that this compound can have. In this article, we are going to learn how CBD products can have a positive impact on men’s health.

Cannabidiol known to most as CBD is an active compound that can be derived from cannabis and hemp. It is the second most prevalent, after THC. Many people know THC due to its psychoactive properties. Essentially, THC is what makes users feel “high.”

In the short term, marijuana hinders your learning ability, but doesn’t seem to cause long-term impairment.

Marijuana makes you dumb. At least according to the tired trope surrounding its use. Back in the day, stoners were considered slackers and anyone who smoked weed was on a one-way ticket to Loserville.

Today, many of those stigmas have fallen away. But some still linger in the popular consciousness, like the perception that every hit on a joint results in a lower IQ. But does smoking marijuana actually make you stupid?

Not really, according to a review published in the journal Neuropsychology. Canadian researchers Scot Purdon and Daniel Krzyzanowski aimed to better understand what long-term cognitive effects cannabis could have on users. They analyzed 23 previous studies to determine if marijuana abstinence had any impact on verbal learning and memory abilities.

Based on available literature, they wrote, whatever impairment marijuana use inflicted upon memory and verbal learning “appear to resolve between 7 and 28 days of sustained abstinence.” However, they added, “years of regular use were inversely related to longer periods of abstinence and verbal learning performance, undermining a confident inference that abstinence alone has direct benefits to verbal learning and memory.”

The passage of medical marijuana in Mississippi by voters Tuesday is being hailed as an historic vote.

Jay Czarkowski, a Boulder Colorado-based cannabis industry consultant who donated to the campaign to get medical marijuana approved in Mississippi, said his best advice to Mississippians is to become involve in the process of establishing the rules and regulations for a medical marijuana program.

"There isn't anything urgent; It will take time for this program," he said.

What do you need to know about medical marijuana in Mississippi? We provide answers:

Who will be able to use marijuana under the proposal?

Initiative Measure No. 65 amends the Mississippi Constitution to allow qualified patients with debilitating medical conditions — certified by licensed Mississippi physicians — to use marijuana.

A new study out last month from researchers affiliated with DePaul University and John Hopkins University helped illuminate some notable differences between men and women who are prescribed medical cannabis. 

The study, published last month in the Journal of Women’s Health, found that women “are more likely to report decreased use of prescription medications to treat symptoms, and report lower levels of support from physicians for [medical cannabis] use,” and that subsequent research on gender differences among those who use medical cannabis treatment “may benefit from more detailed data related to symptomatology, utilization, dosing, and outcomes associated with [medical cannabis], and interactions with the health care system to extend these findings.”

The researchers surveyed 361 patients who participate in Illinois’ medical cannabis program. “We summarized participants’ qualifying conditions, symptoms treated with MC, perceived physician support for MC use, use of MC and prescription medications, then analyzed differences by participant gender,” the researchers wrote, noting that they found that “that men report higher levels of support for [medical cannabis] use from both specialist and primary care physicians,” while women “were significantly more likely to increase use of cannabis after acquiring an [medical cannabis] card, and to discontinue prescription medications through [medical cannabis] use,” and that “that being a woman, using [medical cannabis] to treat multiple symptoms, and reporting higher levels of support for [medical cannabis] use from a primary care provider significantly increased the likelihood of discontinuing prescription medication through [medical cannabis] use.”

Gender and Cannabis Use

Researchers have long explored differences between gender when it comes to cannabis use. In 2016, a study from researchers at Columbia University found that “prevalence of past-year marijuana use increased for both men and women between 2002 and 2014.” In that same period, researchers found, “more men reported past-year use than women, but since 2007, the rate of increase was greater for men than for women, leading to a widening of the gender gap in marijuana use over time.” But despite such differences, the researchers said it was difficult to pinpoint a clear explanation.

“These changes parallel national trends in decreased perceived harmfulness of marijuana use, and legalization of both recreational and medical use in over half of U.S. states,” said Dr. Hannah Carliner, one of the authors of the Columbia University study.  “However, changes in attitudes and legality do not sufficiently explain why we observe a sharp increase in use in 2007, or why this increase was greater in men than in women.”