Tag: marijuana

Using Marijuana Will Make You ‘A Loser In Life,’ GOP Congressman Says

A Republican congressman claims that using marijuana “hurts your DNA,” will “make you a loser in life” and leads to young women being “taken advantage of.”

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), one of the most outspoken opponents of cannabis legalization in Congress, made the comments in an  appearance on “High Stakes,” a podcast produced by the prohibitionist organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM).

“If you want to become a loser in life—if you want, as a young woman, to be around areas where the knowledge that you have of being assaulted, taken advantage of, and harming your life—just go forth and be around marijuana,” he said.

“I became very aware in college about people who used marijuana, who ended up literally dropping out—dropping out of life—who just chose that way of life,” he said. “I saw it from a personal perspective of a danger to someone’s future in their life.”

“There is not one positive effect of this marijuana,” Sessions claimed, despite the fact that nearly every state in the country has legalized cannabis for medical uses and the Trump administration has partially federally rescheduled it, officially recognizing its therapeutic value.

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U.N. Drug Report Highlights How Ineffective Cannabis Prohibition Is

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recently released its World Drug Report 2026, finding that an estimated 256 million people have consumed cannabis within the last year, and that “cannabis remains the most widely used drug by far.” It is worth noting that alcohol and tobacco were not included in the analysis.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 2.3 billion people are alcohol consumers globally, more than 3 million people die annually due to alcohol, and “alcohol causes more than 5% of the global disease burden.” Additionally, WHO estimates that 1.2 billion people are tobacco consumers, and that tobacco use is “responsible for over 7 million deaths annually as well as disability and long-term suffering from tobacco-related diseases.” Both substances are legal and readily available across the globe, while cannabis commerce is still largely prohibited across the world.

“Cannabis production, trafficking and use are all evolving, likely in part due to the ongoing changes in perception towards the drug around the time when many jurisdictions, notably in North America, adopted legalization and/or decriminalization policies.” the UNODC wrote in a press release announcing the publication of its World Drug Report 2026. “The number of people using cannabis has grown by 40 per cent over the past decade, while the prevalence of its use increased from 3.8 per cent of the population aged 15-64 in 2014 to 4.8 per cent in 2024. Cannabis seizures also reached historically high levels in 2024.”

“Historically, most cannabis trafficking has been within regions, largely because cannabis can be grown virtually anywhere. Yet inter-regional trade, with supply coming from North America, is growing: over 2015–2024, 57 countries or territories outside North America identified it as a source region for cannabis seizures, up from just 11 in the preceding decade.” UNODC added.

If there is one major cannabis-focused takeaway from the World Drug Report, it is that cannabis prohibition does not work. Hundreds of millions of people around the world consume cannabis, whether it is legal or not. Cannabis prohibition does not eliminate use. Rather, it shifts the market profits toward organized crime and results in consumers and patients using untested cannabis products.

Furthermore, cannabis prohibition results in limited public resources being diverted away from more worthy efforts toward investigating, arresting, and incarcerating people for cannabis activity. Nearly every morning, people can read headlines about ‘major cannabis busts’ around the world involving large amounts of cannabis being seized. Every one of those headlines should serve as a reminder that there is a better, more sensible approach to cannabis commerce.

Thankfully, an increasing number of jurisdictions are modernizing their cannabis policies and regulations to permit medical and adult-use cannabis commerce. Those policy modernizations don’t just benefit people who consume cannabis; they also provide benefits to all members of society in direct and indirect ways.

For starters, legalized cannabis commerce creates jobs, generates taxes and fees, and boosts local economies. Also, cannabis legalization results in direct savings to national and local governments when they no longer waste money enforcing failed cannabis prohibition. For example, France spends an estimated €570m annually on cannabis prohibition enforcement. That money could either be returned to taxpayers or spent on other things that benefit society as a whole.

Another major benefit of modernized cannabis laws and regulations is affording patients and consumers the ability to acquire and use tested cannabis products. That, in turn, boosts public health outcomes. Allowing legalized cannabis commerce to boost public health outcomes is a major premise behind recent adult-use policy modernizations in Europe. Legalization works, and prohibition does not. Anyone who claims otherwise is likely benefiting in some way from prohibition, including politically and/or economically.

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Czech Scientists Create Blood Plasma from Hemp Seeds

A protein hidden inside hemp seeds could one day save lives.

Researchers in the Czech Republic are developing a groundbreaking blood plasma substitute made from edestin, a naturally occurring protein found in hemp seeds. While the project is still in the preclinical stage, the concept has already attracted international attention because it could potentially address one of healthcare’s biggest challenges: the global shortage of blood plasma.

For cannabis advocates, it’s yet another reminder that the plant’s value extends far beyond cannabinoids like THC and CBD.

What Exactly Is Blood Plasma?

Blood plasma is the pale-yellow liquid that makes up around 55% of human blood. It transports proteins, nutrients, hormones, and other vital substances throughout the body.

Hospitals rely heavily on plasma during:

  • Severe blood loss
  • Major surgeries
  • Burn treatments
  • Trauma care
  • Various medical conditions require plasma proteins

The problem? Plasma can only be obtained from human donors, leading to persistent supply shortages worldwide. Estimates suggest that demand significantly exceeds available supply in many regions.

The Hemp Connection

The Czech project centers around edestin, a storage protein naturally found in hemp seeds.

Scientists believe edestin possesses several characteristics that make it an interesting candidate for a plasma substitute. The protein’s structure appears highly compatible with mammalian biology, prompting researchers to investigate whether it could mimic some functions traditionally performed by human plasma proteins.

The concept is not entirely new. Czech researchers have been studying the medical potential of hemp-derived edestin for decades, and a patent covering its use as a blood plasma substitute was granted in 2008.

Why This Could Be a Big Deal

If researchers can successfully develop a safe and effective plasma substitute from hemp, the advantages could be enormous.

Unlike donated human plasma, a hemp-derived alternative could potentially be:

  • Produced on a large scale
  • Less dependent on donor availability
  • Easier to store and transport
  • More accessible in developing countries
  • Free from many supply-chain limitations associated with human donations

The Czech startup behind the initiative, Plasma for People, believes the technology could eventually provide a low-cost, plant-based solution for emergency medicine and healthcare systems worldwide.

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Louisiana Governor Is ‘Tired’ Of ‘Being Inundated With The Smell Of Marijuana’ At Football Games, So He Signed A Bill To Jail People For It

Louisiana’s governor says he signed a bill that threatens to send people to jail for up to one year if they smoke marijuana within 2,000 feet of a school property—including a college campus— because he is “tired” of smelling cannabis at football games.

“Like most of you, I’m tired of going to our college and high school campuses and being inundated with the smell of marijuana,” he said in a video posted to social media. “And I’m tired of seeing drugs littering our high school and college campuses, hurting our students.”

“These drugs take away from the family-friendly environments that our colleges are supposed to be, especially on game days,” the governor said.

The legislation from Rep. Gabe Firment (R) that Landry signed last month applies to people who violate drug laws “while smoking, vaping, or otherwise abusing such controlled dangerous substance while on any property used for school purposes by any school, within two thousand feet of any such property, or while on a school bus.”

The bill “takes a massive step toward protecting our families and children in Louisiana on those campuses,” the governor argued in his new video that was posted on Friday.

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Babies exposed to cannabis in the womb show no signs of impaired brain development, study finds

Children exposed to cannabis in the womb do not show signs of impaired cognitive or language development by age three, according to new research that challenges concerns about prenatal cannabis use.

The study, published in the journal Early Human Development, found that children with prenatal cannabis exposure actually scored higher on language assessments than unexposed children, and performed equally well on cognitive tests.

Recent data shows that past-month cannabis use amongst pregnant women in the US has grown from 3.8% in 2002 to 7% in 2017, and daily use during pregnancy increased from 0.9% to 3.5% in the same period.

This prompted the multi-national team of researchers from King’s College London, Cambridge University, Aalborg University, and the University of Oslo to hypothesise that children exposed to cannabis while developing in the womb would develop cognitive and language issues by the age of three.

The study analysed data from Danish families registered with Familieambulatorier (Family outreach clinics), which continuously monitor children of families deemed vulnerable or high-risk from early pregnancy until the child reaches school age.

The cohort consisted of 810 Danish children born between the years of 2009 and 2015 who were not diagnosed with conditions such as foetal alcohol syndrome or epilepsy, as these conditions would negatively affect the outcome of language and cognitive assessments.

Children were split into four groups, based on their exposure during gestation. 106 (13%) were exposed to cannabis only, 138 (17%) were exposed to tobacco only, 112 (14%) were exposed to both, and 454 (56%) were registered as not being exposed to either substance.

Researchers found that children with prenatal cannabis exposure achieved a higher Bayley-III Language scale score of 3.26-points than those in the group who were not exposed to cannabis, and they found that exposure to tobacco did not worsen this outcome.

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West Virginia Supreme Court Considers Whether Smell Of Marijuana Can Be Basis For Police To Search Homes

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia is considering a case that questions whether the odor of marijuana alone is enough for law enforcement to obtain a warrant to search a person’s home.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on an appeal of Berkeley County Circuit Court’s decision to throw out evidence Martinsburg police officers found in a home after detecting the “strong odor” of the drug. Excluding the evidence effectively stopped the state from prosecuting a man on drug charges, an attorney told justices last week.

Aaron Lewis was arrested in 2020 on three counts of drug possession with intent to deliver and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, according to reporting by the Herald-Mail.

Court documents say Martinsburg police were answering another man’s call about a suicidal woman who had reportedly stabbed herself when they came across Lewis while searching the caller’s backyard. Officers were unable to locate the woman so they started going door-to-door looking for her.

The officers went to Lewis’s home where his son, Aaron Lewis Jr. answered the door. The officers detected the “strong odor of marijuana,” according to court documents. The younger Lewis refused to give officers permission to search the home.

Before they obtained a search warrant, they entered the home to conduct a “protective sweep,” during which they found a bundle of money and two clear bowls with a leafy substance on the kitchen stove, court documents say. Two officers then left to obtain the search warrant while other officers stayed on scene to secure the apartment.

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Louisiana Lawmakers Pass Bill To Send People To Jail For Smoking Marijuana Near College Campuses

Louisiana lawmakers have approved a bill that threatens to send people to jail for up to one year if they smoke marijuana within 2,000 feet of a school property—including a college campus.

The legislation from Rep. Gabe Firment (R) was passed by the House of Representatives in a 59-34 vote last week.

HB 568, which now heads to the Senate for consideration, applies to people who violate drug laws “while smoking, vaping, or otherwise abusing such controlled dangerous substance while on any property used for school purposes by any school, within two thousand feet of any such property, or while on a school bus.”

The pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) said the “incredibly draconian penalties” in the legislation threaten to reverse cannabis reform progress made in the state in recent years.

In 2021, then-Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) signed a bill decriminalizing marijuana by removing the threat of jail time for possessing up to 14 grams.

“HB 568 would make cannabis use a felony in huge swaths of urban and suburban areas. Two thousand feet is a little over ⅓ of a mile,” Kevin Caldwell, MPP”s Southeast legislative manager, said in an action alert to supporters. “In addition to mandatory incarceration of up to a year, the bill includes a fine of up to $1,000.”

“This is an attempt to bring back the draconian penalties that Louisiana was infamous for in decades past. This bill seeks to undo years of hard work by advocates for ending jail time for minor cannabis offenses,” he said. “Under this legislation, a student could be incarcerated for a year for consuming in a college dorm room.”

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The Top Ten Marijuana Myths That No One Should Believe

Even today, with 80% of states legalizing cannabis in some form, and half the country legalizing it for medical purposes, I have been called a lunatic for ever thinking that cannabis would be recognized for the miracle plant that it is. Shockingly enough many have yet to see through the mainstream media facade to the ruling puppeteers behind. 

Many still hold fast in their belief that cannabis is dangerous and not medically efficacious, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary backed by scientists and industry leaders alike. The only ones, it seems, that are not reconciling their incorrect beliefs, and intentionally so, are the politicians with their hands in Big Pharma’s back pocket, also known as, the American political elite. 

They continue to stand on their podium of lies broadcasting their misinformation, casting aside what little integrity they retain while making the conscious decision to sell out their constituents, their country, and themselves, all for a little extra paper, that they most likely did not truly need in the first place.

Despite the onslaught of ridiculous claims and outright lies reminiscent of the days of “Reefer Madness” that have been cast into minds of unsuspecting Americans, it would seem that We, as a nation, or rather as the people of a nation, have chosen to see past the obvious attempts by the government to misdirect our attention and feed us State-sponsored comforting lies, that only benefit an elite few, and perpetuate a Deep State agenda. 

We, as the American people, have shown this country’s ruling masters that we see though their half-hearted attempts to coral us into an aligned way of thinking and viewing the world, a way of thinking that primarily benefits those in control and casts what little remains down to those of us still scrabbling for the scraps from their table. We have shown them, that we will think for ourselves. 

As there are most definitely more pressing issues facing this nation, and the world for that matter, the topic of cannabis and its subsequent legalization is, in my opinion, one of the primary catalysts that began the awakening we are currently experiencing. It showed every American citizen that when the people stand together, truly unite, our voices are all that matter.

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56-Million-Year-Old Fossil Found in Germany May Be Oldest Known Cannabis Plant

A fossil discovered in Germany may be the oldest known cannabis-related plant ever identified, potentially pushing the timeline of the genus back by about 30 million years.

The fossilized leaf, dated to between 56 million and 48 million years ago, was found in the Saxony-Anhalt region of Germany and is now being highlighted as a possible early relative of modern marijuana. That would make it far older than previous estimates suggesting the Cannabis genus emerged around 20 million to 28 million years ago.

According to researchers, the fossil had actually been sitting in a museum collection for around 150 years after first being described in 1883. Only recently was it reexamined in detail, leading to renewed interest because of how closely it resembles today’s cannabis leaves. Researchers say the shape of the leaf and its vein pattern are both strikingly similar to modern marijuana plants.

Even so, the fossil is not believed to be the same as modern Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica. Instead, it appears to represent an extinct relative from much earlier in the plant’s evolutionary history. Researchers note that today’s marijuana varieties have been heavily shaped by human cultivation and selective breeding, likely over thousands of years.

The discovery is notable not just because of its age, but because of where it was found. For years, cannabis was widely believed to have originated in the Tibetan Plateau region of Asia. This fossil suggests the genus may have a far older and broader history than previously thought, and that its origin may not be tied only to high-altitude regions in Asia.

Researchers say they can’t determine whether the ancient plant contained THC because the fossil does not preserve the tiny structures where cannabinoids are produced.

Still, the fossil is offering one of the strongest signs yet that the history of marijuana may stretch back much further than once believed, while also opening the door to new questions about where the plant first emerged.

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