Tag: cannabis

Scientists Published More Than 32,000 Marijuana Studies Over The Past 10 Years, Including Thousands In 2023, NORML Analysis Shows

Researchers have published more than 32,000 scientific papers on marijuana over the past 10 years—including over 4,000 in 2023 alone—according to an analysis from NORML that again calls into question critics’ claims that cannabis is insufficiently studied to be legalized.

The advocacy organization’s analysis is based on keyword searches on the federal National Library of Medicine website PubMed.gov. This year marked the third in the row that cannabis-related papers totaled over 4,000 as researchers continue to explore risks and benefits amid the legalization movement.

“Despite claims by some that marijuana has yet to be subject to adequate scientific scrutiny, scientists’ interest in studying cannabis has increased exponentially in recent years, as has our understanding of the plant, its active constituents, their mechanisms of action, and their effects on both the user and upon society,” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said in a blog post.

“It is time for politicians and others to stop assessing cannabis through the lens of ‘what we don’t know’ and instead start engaging in evidence-based discussions about marijuana and marijuana reform policies that are indicative of all that we do know,” he said.

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Sports Medicine Doctors Have ‘Favorable’ Attitudes Toward CBD And Marijuana, Study Finds

Sports medicine providers “generally have favorable views toward CBD and cannabis,” and most believe marijuana should be removed from the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of prohibited substances, according to a new survey of 333 doctors published this month.

The study also found that most sports medicine physicians who participated support legalizing marijuana for recreational and medical use.

That said, there are still “varying views” about cannabis within the field, authors found, and those “appear to be significantly affected by age, practice type, and gender.”

Among demographic groups less likely to favor allowing marijuana for recreational use were women, older doctors and rural respondents, according to the survey, results of which appear in the journal Translational Sports Medicine.

“Similarly, these three factors were associated with a higher likelihood of disagreeing with WADA removing cannabis from the prohibited substance list and with the NCAA allowing CBD use by collegiate athletes,” it says.

Men and younger physicians, meanwhile, were less likely to identify marijuana as “performance-enhancing.”

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Biden Expands Marijuana Pardons With New Proclamation Covering Offenses On Federal Properties

President Joe Biden on Friday issued a proclamation expanding a marijuana pardon initiative he began last year by including for the first time people who committed cannabis possession offenses on federal properties.

“Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” Biden said in a statement. “Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs.”

“Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the use or possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either,” the president continued. “That’s why I continue to urge governors to do the same with regard to state offenses and applaud those who have since taken action.”

The expanded pardon proclamation comes as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is considering a recommendation from the Department of Health and Human Services to reschedule cannabis to Schedule III that stemmed from a review that Biden initiated last year in conjunction with his initial marijuana clemency move.

While advocates have welcomed the president’s actions on marijuana, they have critically pointed out that his cannabis-focused pardons have not released anyone from prison and exclude large groups of people, including immigrants and those with convictions for selling marijuana.

Friday’s expanded proclamation notes that it, like its predecessor, “does not apply to individuals who were non-citizens not lawfully present in the United States at the time of their offense” and does not cover “possession of marijuana with intent to distribute or driving offenses committed while under the influence of marijuana.”

Its scope covers federal and Washington, D.C. offenses for “simple possession of marijuana, attempted simple possession of marijuana, or use of marijuana, regardless of whether they have been charged with or prosecuted for these offenses on or before the date of this proclamation,” meaning that it will cover people who committed cannabis possession crimes subsequent to Biden’s initial October 2022 pardon.

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Carnival Cruise Lines Denies That Anti-Marijuana Enforcement Measures Are Meant To Boost Alcohol Sales On Ships

Passenger cruise lines like Carnival and Royal Caribbean have policies against marijuana, noting that the substance is illegal in many ports it sails to and that they’re following federal law. But as more people return to the ships, and as more of them come from states where the drug is legal, operators are reportedly taking more extreme measures to detect cannabis and cracking down on people who attempt to use it—including those who simply pack CBD products, which are legal across the U.S.

As the Wall Street Journal reported in a story on the trend this week, Carnival Cruise Lines not only sends pre-cruise messages reminding passengers not to bring marijuana, but also now employs drug-sniffing dogs.

Companies say they’re focused on legal compliance and providing a comfortable experience for non-users, but the article notes that cruise operators may have an ulterior motive to discourage marijuana use.

“Besides limiting potential legal liability, cruise lines could benefit financially by prohibiting cannabis on board,” the paper reported. “Alcohol is a major revenue-generator for ships, and cruises also limit how much booze passengers bring on board.”

It talked to a Florida-based personal-injury attorney who said he’s “convinced that the decision to take such a hard line on marijuana or CBD is because they’re trying to drive alcohol sales.”

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Colorado Governor Says Marijuana Prohibition Created A ‘Chicken And The Egg’ Research Dilemma That’s Blocked Federal Reform

The governor of Colorado says that while marijuana reform is “not really a partisan issue” anymore, there are still “stodgy nanny state Republicans who want to control it.” Meanwhile, he says, ongoing prohibition has inhibited research into the science of cannabis that’s kept it strictly criminalized at the federal level.

Gov. Jared Polis (D) is hoping that will change sooner rather than later. He and the governors of five other states sent a letter to President Joe Biden this week, urging officials to reschedule marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) by the end of the year.

In an interview that aired on Fox News Radio’s “The Guy Benson Show” on Thursday, Polis said he would’ve liked to see a federal policy change five or 10 years ago as states such as Colorado enacted adult-use legalization, but he theorized that prohibition itself created a “chicken and the egg” situation that has effectively stymied reform by making it harder to conduct research on the effects of cannabis, a stalemate that has been reinforced by congressional politics.

The administrative marijuana scheduling review that Biden directed last year could help break that policy logjam, he said. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has already determined that cannabis should be moved from Schedule I t0 Schedule III, and now it’s up to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to make a final determination.

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Nevada Officials Approve Plan To Let People With Marijuana Convictions Become Police Officers

Nevada officials have officially adopted a proposal to amend hiring standards for police officers to allow job candidates who were previously disqualified for certain marijuana-related offenses to now be eligible for law enforcement positions.

After holding a public hearing on the reform in October, the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) voted to approve the change, revising regulations around hiring that currently prevent a person from becoming a peace officer if they have been convicted of an offense involving the unlawful use, sale or possession of a controlled substance.

The new language says the restriction doesn’t apply “to a person who has been convicted of an offense involving the unlawful use, sale, or possession of marijuana if the offense is not unlawful at the time the person submits an application for certification as a police officer.”

The commission said the change will expand the pool of eligible candidates for law enforcement positions and “aid agencies in the ability to fill much needed positions.” There will be no adverse effects from the reform, it says, nor additional costs to regulators.

Approval of the change, which was first proposed in May, does not mean that officers can use cannabis once employed, but it represents a significant policy change, especially given that the current rules are written in a way that explicitly emphasizes the no-tolerance policy for marijuana.

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Study Finds ‘No Evidence’ That Medical Marijuana Causes Cognitive Impairment In Patients With Chronic Health Problems

Findings of a study examining marijuana’s neurocognitive effects “suggest that prescribed medical cannabis may have minimal acute impact on cognitive function among patients with chronic health conditions”—which may come as a relief to long-term cannabis patients who are concerned about potential neurological drawbacks of the drug.

Authors of the report, published last month in the peer-reviewed journal CNS Drugs, wrote that they found “no evidence for impaired cognitive function when comparing baseline with post-treatment scores.”

To conduct the study, researchers had 40 people in Australia self-administer a single dose of medical marijuana in a laboratory setting, following instructions on the product label. Participants were then tested on an array of neuropsychological metrics—including multitasking, pattern recognition memory, reaction time, rapid visual information processing and spatial working memory, among others—and surveyed on their subjective experience.

“The absence of evidence for cognitive impairment following medical cannabis self-administration was surprising,” the study says, “given prior and substantive evidence that non-medical (‘recreational’) cannabis use reliably impairs a range of cognitive functions. At the same time, these findings are consistent with two systematic reviews published in the last year that suggest that medical cannabis, when used regularly and consistently for a chronic health concern, may have little if any impact on cognitive function.”

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States Where Marijuana Is Illegal Typically See Higher Rates Of Treatment Admissions, Federal Study Says

Despite fears by critics that marijuana legalization would lead to sharp increases in problematic use, newly published data from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows that states where cannabis sales remained illegal typically had the highest rates of treatment admissions for the drug.

The data, which was published last week and covers 2021, show admissions to substance use treatment services among people aged 12 and older who go to state-licensed facilities. All told, the SAMHSA report presents findings from nearly 1.5 million admissions nationwide over the course of the year.

Of all the tallied admissions nationwide in the new Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), 10.2 percent were for marijuana or hashish as the primary substance, according to the SAMHSA data. That’s the fourth most common substance after alcohol (34.8 percent of all admissions), heroin (20.2 percent) and methamphetamine (13.5 percent). It’s just above “other opiates/synthetics” such as pain medications or fentanyl (9.1 percent) and cocaine (5.6 percent).

In terms of states with the highest admissions rates where marijuana was the primary substance, on a per capita basis, the top 10 states were South Dakota (151 per 100,000 residents), Iowa (144), Connecticut (141), South Carolina (119), Minnesota (110), New York (95), Wyoming (85), Georgia (84), North Dakota (81) and New Jersey (80).

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Germany Delays Final Vote On Marijuana Legalization Bill Until Next Year

A final vote on a bill to legalize marijuana in Germany that was initially planned for this week has been called off amid concerns from leaders of the country’s Social Democratic Party (SPD). The delay means that action on the landmark proposal will be postponed until next year.

“It always has to be approved by the parliamentary groups in the end,” Dirk Heidenblut, an SPD member of Germany’s Bundestag who is responsible for the party’s cannabis policy, said in an Instagram post. “And if a faction leader, in this case the SPD, has concerns, then it cannot be set up yet.”

Despite the delay, Heidenblut added that as long as the measure advances by the end of January, the delay shouldn’t meaningfully impact the schedule for implementing legalization.

If lawmakers pass the bill, the early stages of reform—including home cultivation for personal use—would begin as soon as April.

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