WeedLife News Network

Gov. Andy Beshear is expected to make an announcement regarding medical marijuana on Tuesday. 

Medical cannabis is not currently legal in Kentucky, but Beshear has said he supports its legalization. The governor Medical Cannabis Advisory Committee earlier this year, after a medical marijuana legalization bill stalled out in the state Senate. In September, the governor's office announced that the advisory committee reported that many adults in the commonwealth favor medical marijuana legalization. 

Beshear's office says the governor will provide an update on medical marijuana in Kentucky at 1 p.m. CT on Tuesday in the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort. 

The governor will be joined by Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary Kerry Harvey, Public Protection Cabinet Secretary Ray Perry, addiction specialist Dr. Linda McClain and veteran and advocate Jared Bonvell. 

Delhi-based cannabis wellness startup Awshad has announced the launch of their new prescription product - a cannabis medicinal capsule line branded as ‘Calmasule’.

The objective behind this roll-out of the new product line of Awshad is to help people experience the healing qualities of cannabis in the form of a capsule in order to enable them to alleviate pain, insomnia, stress and various other lifestyle ailments through an all-natural solution and thus aid their overall well-being. Interestingly, the naming of Calmasule is inspired by the first and foremost effect of this capsule, which is to calm down one’s nerves to further help an individual with managing anxiety, pain and sleep issues.

With this new line of products, Awshad intends to expand its target audience and customer base and thereby increase sales and revenue in order to consolidate market leadership. Thisin turn will help Awshad infuse more resources in educating and spreading awareness to destigmatize cannabis and spread awareness on its myriad wellness benefits, which till date remains the biggest hurdle in this industry.

Awshad has been working with leading cannabis manufacturing and formulation teams in India in a bid to come out with these superlative, pure cannabis extract capsules that have been proven to have very high efficacy and showed extremely promising results amongst the focus groups. Only if and when they have a prescription, the customers would be able to buy Awshad’s newly-launched capsule products directly from the Awshad website or via aggregator marketplaces like CBD Store, It’s Hemp and others.

Awshad’s new range of capsules have been made available under two variants: Calmasule and Calmasule Plus; the main difference between these two variants lies in the concentration/ratio of CBD and THC (both of them being compounds present in cannabis) present in the product. Calmasule is the milder product variant which is more versatile and can be used by a wide range of users. With 10mg CBD and 5mg THC (2:1 CBD: THC ratio), Calmasule helps patients combat anxiety, stress, insomnia and mild pain issues. On the other hand, Calmsule+ is a much stronger product variant with 15mg CBD and 15mg THC (1:1 CBD: THC ratio), thus especially recommended for those facing chronic and more serious ailments like chronic pains, chronic insomnia, Cancer, Parkinson’s, Epilepsy, Arthritis, etc.

Speaking on the launch of the new product, Shivam Singhee, Co-Founder & CEO, Awshad said, “We at Awshad are extremely pleased and excited to introduce our and India’s first cannabis extract-based capsules to the market, called Calmasule and Calmasule Plus. These newly-launched Awshad capsules are meant to derive the best efficacy and results for our discerning Indian customers. Also, these capsules will be the strongest products among our current offerings, and is geared towards people who are looking for highly effective products to deal with their more serious ailments. In the long run, we understand the importance of a variety of products under a trusted brand can lead to bigger market acceptance, and knowing that our customers come from diverse backgrounds and situations, we shall continue to strive to serve them all with appropriate products that will help them achieve their health and wellness goals.”

Veterans are essentially subject to the laws within the U.S. states in which they live, but no federal Veterans Affairs doctor is going to be recommending THC gummies.

It is well-known and generally accepted that active duty military service members in the U.S. cannot partake in even the slightest bit of THC. But what about once they retire?

The subject of U.S. military veterans and their access to medical marijuana continues to be a topic of debate and several proposed bills in congress.

As it stands, veterans are essentially subject to the laws within the U.S. states in which they live, but no federal Veterans Affairs (V.A.) doctor is going to be recommending THC gummies.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website, “As long as the Food and Drug Administration classifies marijuana as Schedule I, V.A. health care providers may not recommend it or assist Veterans to obtain it.”

The classification as a Schedule I substance poses all sorts of legal issues, from research to a veteran’s right to use cannabis as therapy. One might argue it is common medical sense that military veterans should receive any and all possible treatments available to them. Additionally, it is particularly taxing since cannabis has shown great promise when it comes to alleviating symptoms related to several issues that many veterans face.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the School of Pharmacy decided that informing students on the history of marijuana, a drug that is currently illegal in the state of Wisconsin, is valuable knowledge to educate students on before they enter the workforce

Lucas Richert, an associate professor at UW-Madison, as well as a historian of medicine and pharmacy, focuses on both legal and illegal drugs, and has been a proponent of educating UW Pharmacy students, specifically on the history of marijuana. 

Although educating future pharmacists and medical professionals on cannabis may be new to the Division of Pharmacy Professional Development (DPPD), according to Richert the study of cannabis for medicinal purposes is not. 

“It's important to remember that cannabis has been used within medical circles for centuries, to varying degrees of course,” Richert said. “Scholars in the School of Pharmacy and in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, for example, studied cannabis over a hundred years ago — just as they are now.”

Similarly, the debates around medical cannabis are long standing, according to Richert. 

“The debates we are having about medical cannabis now aren’t new,” Richert said in a DPPD article. “These debates have been waged all over the world, and some of the different therapeutic modalities we have now, and generally, the way cannabis is being used today, also has echoes in the past.”

Just days after Missouri approved recreational marijuana, some Kansas City area weed businesses say they are ramping up their facilities and preparing to cash in from increased sales.

Others, however, are more relieved than elated. They view legalized marijuana, which voters statewide approved Tuesday, as a lifeline in a medical industry that is oversupplied with too few customers to go around.

Businesses in the established medical marijuana industry were counting on Tuesday’s vote, which legalized recreational marijuana for adults over the age of 21. They hope recreational sales, expected to start in early February, will help their businesses stay afloat.

“I don’t know that too many people would have been able to survive had that ballot initiative not pass,” said Chris McHugh, CEO of Vertical, an indoor cultivation, manufacturing facility and dispensary in St. Joseph.

While nearly two-thirds of Missouri voters approved legalizing medical marijuana in 2018, the state currently reports only about 200,000 active medical marijuana patients. Just more than 53% of voters approved recreational marijuana on Tuesday. Business owners like McHugh are cautiously optimistic that legalized recreational marijuana will increase the number of people willing to buy into the industry.

“There’s just not enough demand to keep the industry going and it’s slowly starving to death,” McHugh said.

AUSTIN - A topic seen as controversial to some is becoming a booming industry in the Lone Star State.

More Texans are turning to medical marijuana, and this is only the beginning.

“We’ve sold medicine to more than 25,000 Texans,” said Morris Denton, CEO of Texas Original.

Texas Original first opened its doors on Feb. 8, 2018, and has continued to grow. They are one of three licensed medical cannabis operators in the state. The company is based in Austin but saw an opportunity in the Piney Woods.

“In East Texas and Nacogdoches in particular, basically started to grow pretty quickly for us,” Denton said.

The owners say they are impressed with their dispensary’s performance in Nacogdoches, and now they are looking to expand.

OXFORD - Oxford City Council approved an ordinance Tuesday night allowing for medical cannabis dispensaries to operate within the city.

However, council members added two provisions to the ordinance, one of which tightens up the requirements for setting up operations and the other earmarking any tax revenue from the dispensaries received by the city for public health services.

The move comes in the wake of the Legislature's approval in May of medical cannabis for patients with qualifying conditions and who possess a valid medical cannabis card.

Council President Chris Spurlin said he could not support the measure.

"If it was just for aiding the critically ill I wouldn't have a problem with it," Spurlin said. "I don't see how it can be illegal in the state but make it OK to do one thing with it as long as we're getting a nine percent tax off of it."

Mayor Alton Craft asked for the ordinance to include the tax the city is allowed to receive be earmarked exclusively to the Oxford Health Systems which includes EMS services.