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Study: Cannabis May Reduce PTSD, Depression, And Suicidal States

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Science.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. It is estimated that as many as 354 million adult war survivors globally suffer from PTSD.

The condition can often lead to increased rates of depression and the sufferer experiencing suicidal thoughts. It is like living in a constant nightmare. Anyone who suffers from PTSD or has a loved one that does will often be quick to point that out.

Cannabis use has been found to help treat PTSD, and according to a new study, it is associated will lowered rates of depression and suicidal states among PTSD sufferers. Read more about it in our recent article in Cannabis & Tech Today.

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What Can Other Nations Learn From The Vape Crisis In The U.S.?

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business, Politics.

Vape hysteria has gripped the United States in recent months, with a growing number of illnesses, and even some deaths being reported across the country. Regulators recently announced that the likely culprit is vitamin E acetate, which is a common ingredient in some vape pen cartridges, especially unregulated vape pen cartridges.

Vitamin E acetate is used by some vape pen creators to change the level of thickness of the cannabis oil inside of the vape pen cartridge. The ingredient is also used as a filler for unregulated vape pen cartridges.

Leading up to the announcement THC was being unfairly blamed for the vape crisis by members of the mainstream media and especially by cannabis opponents. It resulted in a situation where hysteria was driving the conversation and the research instead of science and sound public health policies.

Other countries can learn from the failures of how this played out in the U.S. Read about it in our latest article on Cannabis &Tech Today.

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Will The NBA Reform Its Cannabis Policy?

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is popular all over the globe. What once started as a North American sport has spread across the planet, resulting in the NBA now being comprised of players from countries from all over the world.

Look at any team’s roster and you will see players from a number of different countries, all of which have huge followings in their home countries. Because of that, cannabis policy reform in the NBA would provide a huge boost to cannabis reform efforts in every country that is represented by players in the league.

Currently, the NBA prohibits players from consuming cannabis with THC in it. As calls for cannabis reform in professional sports leagues have ramped up in recent years, along with the explosion in popularity for CBD products, there has been some confusion as to whether CBD is prohibited by major professional sports leagues.

For professional sports leagues that prohibit cannabis, drug testing policies are in place that seek to detect the presence of THC, and not CBD. Some CBD products contain trace amounts of THC, and that could result in a player failing a drug test due to THC build-up, but the failure would be due to the presence of THC, not CBD.

The current drug testing threshold for the NBA is very strict – a mere 15 ng/mL of THC metabolites. To put that number into perspective, Olympic athletes are held to a standard of 150 ng/mL. An NBA player that violates the league’s cannabis policy can be forced into a mandatory drug rehab program, and/or fined, and/or suspended. There are no exemptions for medical cannabis in the NBA.

The NBA commissioner that instituted the cannabis prohibition policy that is currently in place in the league is David Stern. While Stern served as the commissioner of the NBA he suspended players like retired NBA Allstar Clifford Robinson for cannabis use.

In Robinson’s case, he was suspended multiple times by the NBA for his cannabis use and was the recipient of a ridiculous amount of stigma from the league that still lingers to this day. Clifford Robinson was a featured speaker at our event in Portland, Oregon last year.

David Stern has since changed his stance on cannabis and is now calling for the NBA to reform its cannabis policy. Per CNBC:

“I think it’s time to take a whole new look at it,” Stern, 77, said in an interview Wednesday with CNBC at the SeventySix Capital Sports Innovation Conference in Philadelphia.

Stern said his feelings about marijuana have shifted with the recent surge in medical use of THC and CBD — the two main compounds in cannabis — to treat pain, anxiety and other ailments.

“In many cases in sports,” Stern said, “the opioid crisis begins with players being prescribed pills for their pain, and if there is another substance, whether it be CBD or THC that eases pain, then I’m all for it.”

David Stern joins a growing list of people (including regulators and politicians) that have had a change of heart when it comes to cannabis policy but only after they are no longer in a position to directly act on it. To date, David Stern has yet to issue an apology to the players that he punished for their cannabis use, or for any role that he may have played in contributing to the opioid crisis that he mentioned in his recent interview.

The NBA’s anti-cannabis league policy goes beyond just testing for THC. If a player is the subject of a cannabis offense away from the team, such as an arrest for cannabis possession, they can also be punished.

That policy perpetuates institutional racism, which is obviously unacceptable. If a player of color is statistically far more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession in society, and the league punishes players when they are subjected to those situations by law enforcement, then that same player of color is statistically far more likely to be punished for cannabis by the NBA compared to their caucasian peers.

Commissioner Stern may or may not be sincere in his calls for NBA cannabis reform, but regardless, his voice will hopefully provide a boost to reform efforts in the NBA, which will, in turn, provide a boost to reform efforts elsewhere if reform in the league is achieved.

When will the NBA end its harmful cannabis prohibition policy? Hopefully sooner rather than later, however, there is no current timetable for such a policy change. A lot of words have been said by the current NBA commissioner, however, meaningful actions have remained elusive.

Sport cannabis is a new frontier for the emerging cannabis industry, and if leagues like the NBA get on the right side of history, it will open up huge opportunities for players via endorsement deals, for cannabis companies that create products and services that cater to athletes, and ultimately the league itself will no doubt benefit via receiving a sizeable stream of new advertising revenue and revenue from partnership deals from the cannabis industry.

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South African Police Crack Down On Illicit Cannabis Industry

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Business.

If there is a truism in the world of cannabis, it is that if you give the cannabis industry the slightest crack and it will flow through. That said for all the enthusiasm, there are still laws and regs to be followed.

In South Africa, the SAPS (the South African Police Service) has issued a warning that the entire cannabis industry is essentially under watch, and notably, the establishment of any brick and mortar retail site, online platforms, and social media promotions are all still illegal.

This warning does not apply of course to medicines authorized by the Medicines and Related Substances Act. Further, while growing and consuming cannabis at home in private is now legit, doing so in public with any substance with more than 0.1% of THC is still a crime.

Naturally of course, just as in other places this will be hard to enforce, particularly beyond urban areas. The country has always seen cannabis production, albeit mostly of the illicit kind. Stop an individual in the street with flower, however, in this environment and it could just as easily be CBD.

Stopping the profusion of online media, whether it is deemed “advertising” or not, will also prove tricky in a world where such promotion can be international.

That said, it also appears that the South African government is trying to get a handle not only on domestic production but imports into the country and of the medical and CBD kind. To do so legally, one must possess a valid license.

Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) are also very much in the room, particularly as the country is considering exports to the rest of the world – namely the much-vaunted European medical market.

However, no matter how well planned the transition is supposed to be, it is also clear that South Africans, like just about everyone else, are a bit ahead of the politicians.

Putting the cannabis genie back in its bottle, in other words, is harder than it sounds, and in truth, almost impossible to stop once the ball (as in South Africa’s case too) actually gets rolling, no matter how many police warnings are issued.

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How Much Does Your Medical Cannabis Cost?

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Medical.

The question of patient access, just about everywhere, comes down to not only a way to easily obtain one’s cannabis, but also to be able to afford it.

Patients just about everywhere (with a few exceptions) are still struggling with both issues.

In The US…

Cannabis is not federally legal yet. However, economics in many state markets, particularly recreational ones, have continued to push the price of cannabis lower. That said, for many patients any out-of-pocket is prohibitive. Thanks to a lack of federal reform, there is no health insurance that currently covers anything but dronabinol in the United States, let alone a mandate to prescribe and cover cannabinoids. Adding insult to injury and even in the largest state economy (California), towns and municipalities are allowed to ban the cannabis industry from operating within their jurisdictions. This has already created “cannabis deserts” where patients have to drive long distances to find legal outlets, not to mention continued to encourage the online, unregistered, and grey markets to flourish.

Patients, depending on where they are in the U.S., and whether or not they can avail themselves of a non-profit collective, can pay fairly low prices for cannabis. But they can also be forced into expensive, recreational-only models. It is still all over the place.

In Canada…

Patients so far have retained their right to grow at home, and as a result, access in Canada is the easiest and cheapest out of any country so far. However, it is not so easy to be completely “off-grid” when it comes to medical cannabis. So far, at least, there is also no mandatory health insurance coverage for the same. All expenses come out of pocket, and growing medical-grade can get expensive, even at home.

In the UK…

Assuming that Brexit is still possible, look for massive disruption on the cannabis front if it happens. Even though the drug can now be prescribed by Schedule II prescription, rumours are that as of this fall not a single patient has been reimbursed by the NHS so far. With the number of operations outsourced to private surgeons skyrocketing, expect the same thing on the cannabis front. Look for extremely rocky territory here as the issue continues to make headlines, and that the doctor to write the prescription will set you back about $1,200 per month when combined with the cost of medical cannabis.

In Europe…

Germany is the most “forward” when it comes to patient access. However, while patients theoretically can get their medical cannabis covered under health insurance (so prescriptions can cost the patient about $12 per month), this is not the reality for many Germans. Out-of-pockets, even when you can find a doctor to prescribe, can easily run $1,200 per month. While the supply chain problem is also starting to ease, there are still major issues with achieving a steady supply at most pharmacies across Germany.

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Would The CBD Revolution Have Occurred Without The Internet?

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business.

The internet has revolutionized the way people get information, and that is true for cannabis information just as it is for everything else. Positive information about cannabis was purposefully suppressed for many decades around the world for political purposes.

That strategy has become increasingly difficult to carry out because of how easily accessible cannabis information is on the internet. Cannabis advocates can find answers to virtually any cannabis questions and can then disseminate that information all over the web for others to benefit from.

It is likely not a coincidence that cannabis reform victories have paralleled the rise in popularity of the internet. Popularity for CBD has specifically spiked in recent years, and it is likely that the internet has played a huge role in that rise in popularity. Read more about it in our recent article on Cannabis & Tech Today.

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Sir Patrick Stewart Demands Medical Cannabis Legalization

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Medical.

The United Kingdom has one of the most restrictive medical cannabis programs in Europe. Legal medical cannabis access is restricted to only the most extreme medical cases and conditions, and even then, the forms of medical cannabis that are available to patients are very limited.

Famed Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart has become increasingly vocal in his demand for medical cannabis legalization in the UK, as demonstrated in a recent interview. Stewart suffers from arthritis. Per Express:

“”I have arthritis in both my hands and thumb joints and have been prescribed various drugs, including a cream which didn’t do much. The moment I started using cannabis-based cream it worked and I could feel an immediate reduction in discomfort.”

Sir Patrick Stewart is just one of many patients that experience relief after using cannabis to treat arthritis. It is estimated that as many as 350 million people suffer from arthritis across the globe. A vast majority of them are only provided the option of using harmful (and often addictive) painkillers, or going without medicine, or breaking the law by using medical cannabis.

Cannabis has proven to be an effective pain management tool and is far safer than most pharmaceutical drugs. Opioid-based painkillers have wreaked havoc on society over the years, including in the UK, and the fact that opioids are legal in the UK while medical cannabis remains largely illegal makes no sense, as Patrick Stewart pointed out in his interview:

“It seems perverse that opioid prescriptions are still at such high levels when medical cannabis could be a much safer and more cost-effective alternative. I have been given steroid injections for the pain in the UK. Last year I had eight injections into my fingers and knuckles which is about as painful as anything one can imagine.” Stewart said according to the interview.

Stewart is one of the most recognizable celebrities in the world and has a massive fanbase. Hopefully, his advocacy will help tip the scales in support of comprehensive medical cannabis legalization in the UK.

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Israeli Researchers Link Cannabis Use To Weight Gain In Cancer Patients

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Science.

Significant and rapid weight loss is a serious issue for cancer patients and is often one of the first signs that a person is suffering from cancer. Common cancer treatments usually make the problem worse because they often contribute to further weight loss by the patient.

It is estimated that as many as 100 million people worldwide were suffering from the disease as of 2017, which is more than double the number of people diagnosed with cancer in 1990.

The results of a recent study suggest that the use of cannabis oil may be able to help cancer patients gain weight. You can read about it in our recent article at Cannabis & Tech Today.

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Cannabis Legalization Effort Delayed In Mexico

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Politics.

Last year the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled that cannabis prohibition is unconstitutional.

In effect, it somewhat made Mexico the third country to legalize cannabis for adult use. The first country to do so was Uruguay, followed by Canada.

Unlike Uruguay and Canada, Mexico has yet to pass legislation that codifies adult-use cannabis legalization into law.

After its ruling in favor of legalization last year, Mexico’s Supreme Court issued a deadline for lawmakers to pass a comprehensive legalization measure.

Unfortunately, Mexican lawmakers were unable to meet the deadline. Fortunately, they were granted an extension, as reported by Marijuana Moment:

“Just days before the one-year anniversary of a Mexican Supreme Court ruling that deemed the country’s prohibition of personal use or cultivation of marijuana unconstitutional, the judicial body granted an extension of a deadline it imposed on lawmakers to change the policy.

The legislature now has until April 30, 2020 to pass reform legislation, whereas the previous mandate required action by Thursday.”

Mexico will be a massive domino in the effort to end cannabis prohibition worldwide. It is not so much due to Mexico’s population size as much as it’s due to Mexico’s history.

It is no secret that cartels have had a major presence in Mexico for many years. Legalization would shift some cannabis revenues away from cartels and towards legal entrepreneurs and public programs.

The unregulated cannabis market will always exist in Mexico, just as it will likely exist everywhere else to some extent. 

However, every dollar that can be shifted away from cartels to a regulated market that benefits Mexico’s citizenry is a big deal and why legalization is so important in Mexico.

A recent estimate by a ruling party Senator in Mexico projected that legal cannabis would generate up to 18 billion pesos ($945 million USD) for public programs in its first year.