Tag: marijuana

Human Use Of Cannabis—For Food, Fiber And Psychoactive Effects—Stretches Back Millennia, New Report Says

A new paper in the European Journal for Chemistry traces the history of cannabis through “thousands of years of contact with mankind,” noting the plant’s legacy as a source of fiber, nutrition, medicine, spirituality and pleasure.

At the same time, it notes that cannabis “is perhaps one of the greatest controversies in contemporary humanity” and a key driver of the modern war on drugs.

The paper, “From ancient Asian relics to contemporaneity: A review of historical and chemical aspects of Cannabis,” was written by Gabriel Vitor de Lima Marques and Renata Barbosa de Olivera, of the pharmacy department at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil.

The cannabis plant appears to have first been used for its fiber, as a material for ropes and other manufactured goods, the authors wrote. Use of hemp fiber dates back to approximately 10,000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia and to roughly 6,000 and 5,000 years ago in China and Kazakhstan, respectively.

Ancient peoples considered cannabis one of the five main grains, along with rice, soy, barley and millet, the paper continues. And once stalks were processed into hemp fibers, they became durable materials for ropes, sails and boat rigging, clothing, paper, animal husbandry and more.

“Used as a stunner to facilitate the capture of fish,” it says, “Cannabis is possibly the first plant to be cultivated for non-food purposes.”

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Ohio Marijuana Legalization Campaign Sends Cease And Desist Letters To TV Stations Airing Opposition Ads ‘Filled With Lies’

Advocates behind a ballot measure to legalize marijuana in Ohio sent cease and desist letters on Thursday to local TV stations in an effort to get them to stop airing opposition ads that the cannabis campaign says are “filled with lies.”

“It’s incredibly disappointing anytime Ohio voters are lied to,” said Tom Haren, a spokesperson for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, “but it’s clear our opposition sees no other way to defeat Issue 2.”

According to a copy of the letter included in a campaign press release, two television ads from the organization Weed Free Kids “contain multiple false or misleading statements about the proposed law.”

“Unlike candidate ads,” wrote lawyer Donald McTigue of Columbus-based McTigue & Colombo LLC, “organizations like ‘Weed Free Kids’ do not have a ‘right to command the use of broadcast facilities.’” And because stations aren’t required to run issue ads, the letter continues, “your station bears responsibility for its content when you do grant access.”

Citing federal regulations and case law, the letter says the stations have a duty to protect the public from false, misleading or deceptive advertising, warning that failure to do so “can be cause for the loss of a station’s license.”

“My client asks that your station cease broadcasting these ads immediately in the public’s interest in accurate discourse on the subject of the proposed law,” it says.

The yes campaign uploaded the videos to YouTube for reference.

In one, titled “Flatline,” a series of warnings flashes across the screen as the sound of an EKG machine beeps sporadically. A steady beep at the end of the spot suggests heart failure or death.

Among the alleged falsehoods in the ad are claims such as the initiative would allow “recreational marijuana sold in thousands of Ohio stores with NO protections for children.”

In another ad, “Candy,” the opposition campaign says that “stores could be flooded with candy laced with a drug that puts kids at risks”—a claim juxtaposed against a background products called Stoney Patch Kids, which resemble Sour Patch Kids candy.

The producer of those products, which are unregulated and not sold in licensed cannabis stores, was sued by the maker of Sour Patch Kids in 2019. Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission also sent the company a warning letter.

“Issue 2 allows for marijuana manufacturers to market their edibles as sweets as candy, without any safeguards for children,” the opposition ad claims. “That means many children will be poisoned by lookalike products.”

Included with the one-page cease and desist letters are seven pages of fact-checking notes meant to demonstrate the alleged falsehoods in the Weed Free Kids ads.

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Cops and Reporters Are Still Hyping the Halloween Threat Posed by Strangers With Cannabis Candy

It’s October, which means it is time for alarmist cops and credulous reporters to start warning parents about the purported menace of cannabis edibles in trick-or-treat bags. KSNT, the NBC affiliate in Topeka, Kansas, got a jump on that annual rite last month, when it amplified a “community advisory” from the St. Mary’s Police Department about “THC-infused gummies and snacks marketed to children ahead of the holidays.”

That framing is misleading in at least two ways. First, it assumes that producers of marijuana edibles that resemble popular candy brands are targeting children, who cannot legally buy such products even in states where adults can, as opposed to nostalgic grownups with a sweet tooth. Second, it implies that nefarious adults are apt to distribute THC treats on Halloween, requiring extra vigilance by parents who already worry about the danger allegedly posed by needles, glass shards, or poison that might be lurking in their kids’ candy hauls.

The KSNT story features a photograph of cannabis candy made in California, where medical marijuana was legalized in 1996, followed by recreational marijuana in 2016. At a glance, the package looks a lot like cherry-flavored Airheads Xtremes, a blatant trademark violation that surely is cause for concern at Perfetti Van Melle, which makes the genuine article. But the package carries several clues that the product is not intended for children. The front includes a “medicated candy” descriptor, along with a state-mandated cannabis label and a statement of THC content. A label on the back warns: “Contains Cannabis, A Schedule I Controlled Substance. Keep out of Reach of Children.”

KSNT nevertheless describes the product as “disguised THC candies.” Citing police, it says “the THC edibles are very dangerous in the hands of children and are disguised as popular brands such as Air Heads, Fruit Gushers, Sour Skittles, Sour Patch Kids, Buzzy Peaches and Cherry Blasters.” The implication is that the manufacturers want to trick kids into getting high, although it’s not clear why that would be a sensible business strategy. And while the reference to “the holidays” implies that the risk of dangerous confusion is especially acute around Halloween, the article cites no evidence to support that premise.

That’s par for the course with Halloween-related warnings about cannabis edibles, which police departments and news outlets have been issuing for many years despite a dearth of actual incidents involving malicious distribution of such products to children. “Doctors are warning about the risks of dangerous drugs being mistaken for candy,” WLS, the ABC affiliate in Chicago, reported last year. “Those incidents increase around Halloween, especially now with some drugs looking more and more like colorful treats.”

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California Governor Signs Bills To Let Doctors Prescribe Psilocybin And MDMA If They’re Federally Rescheduled And To Change Marijuana Testing Rules

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed a bill that would allow doctors to immediately start prescribing certain currently illicit drugs like psilocybin and MDMA if they’re federally rescheduled, and he also approved separate legislation to amend THC variance testing requirements for marijuana.

The governor signed off on the measures—which are just two of more than a dozen cannabis and drug policy reform proposals on his desk—on Saturday.

AB 1021, sponsored by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D), Isaac Bryan (D) and Corey Jackson (D), says that, if the federal government reschedules any Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), California health professionals will automatically be able to legally prescribe and dispense it.

This could be especially relevant to the psychedelics psilocybin and MDMA, which have been designated as breakthrough therapies by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are expected to be approved for medical use as early as next year.

Following a recent Phase 3 clinical trial, a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Nature last month found that treatment with MDMA reduced symptoms in patients with moderate to severe PTSD. The findings mean federal regulators could consider approving the drug for wider use as soon as next year.

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Exclusive video captures smoke shop raid in Philadelphia

Authorities across the region are cracking down on illegal marijuana operations.

Law enforcement raided a total of five smoke shops in Philadelphia and South Jersey.

Police said some of the shops were allegedly selling to minors.

Only the Action News Investigative Team was there as officers with the Philadelphia Police’s Narcotics Unit raided a home and smoke shop on the 6000 block of Lansdowne Avenue in Overbook on Monday.

This shop was one of three in the city raided for allegedly selling illegal marijuana products.

The other two are on the 2200 block of South 21st Street in South Philadelphia and the 7900 block of Verree Road in Fox Chase.

Police took out boxes of evidence from the Overbrook shop, and two men were arrested and taken away in handcuffs.

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THE SCIENCE IS CLEAR: MARIJUANA IS SAFER THAN TOBACCO

Nearly twice as many Americans believe that smoking cigarettes is more hazardous to your health than smoking marijuana. They’re right.

Numerous studies assessing the long-term health impacts of cannabis smoke exposure belie the myth that marijuana is associated with the same sort of well established, adverse respiratory hazards as tobacco.

For example, federally funded research at the University of California, Los Angeles compared the lifetime risk of lung cancer among more than 2,000 long-term marijuana smokers, tobacco smokers, and non-smokers.

Investigators determined that those who regularly smoked cigarettes possessed a 20-fold higher lung cancer risk than non-smokers. Those who only smoked marijuana had no elevated risk.

“We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer,” the study’s lead author explained. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”

More recently, a team of health experts writing in the journal Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases reported that neither former nor current cannabis smoking “of any cumulative lifetime amount” was associated with COPD progression or development.

Other studies indicate that cannabis smoke and tobacco smoke aren’t equally carcinogenic and that subjects who exclusively smoke cannabis have less exposure to harmful toxicants and carcinogens than tobacco smokers. Some researchers have also theorized that cannabinoids’ anti-cancer activities may offset some of the harms otherwise associated with inhaling smoke.

According to the findings of recent paper published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, “It is increasingly clear that cannabis has different effects on lung function [compared] to tobacco and the effects of widespread cannabis use will not necessarily mirror the harms caused by tobacco smoking.”

A separate review paper, published recently by researchers affiliated with the University of Arkansas, is even more blunt. “The data on marijuana contrast starkly with the consistent demonstration of injury from tobacco, the greatest legalized killer in the world today,” they concluded. “Any possible toxicity of marijuana pales in comparison.”

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House Approves Psychedelic Research And Marijuana Labeling Amendments As Part Of Spending Bills

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to approve a series of psychedelics and marijuana amendments as part of spending bills, and a Democratic congressman is again seeking to revise separate measures to end cannabis testing for federal workers.

On the same day that a Senate committee passed a marijuana banking bill, the House took up amendments to appropriations legislation that were recently cleared for floor consideration by the Rules Committee.

Both psychedelics measures were attached to a spending bill covering the Department of Defense (DOD) in voice votes on Wednesday.

One, sponsored by Reps. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) and Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), would provide $15 million in funding for DOD to carry out “Psychedelic Medical Clinical Trials.” The second amendment, from Crenshaw alone, lays the parameters for the trials, which would involve active duty service members with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The Defense Health Agency would need to send a report to Congress with its findings.

Notably, a Democratic congresswoman argued against the proposal, citing DOD concerns about trials involving active duty service members.

Luttrell said ahead of the voice vote on his amendment that he can “personally attest to the benefits in treating post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy through the use of psychedelic substances.” The congressman, who is a military veteran, has previously disclosed his own experience with psychedelic-assisted therapy.

“There’s a stigma that exists within the [House] that I believe stems from a lack of education experience around the clinical use of plant-based, or psychedelic, medications,” he said. “I understand that when many of my colleagues hear the word ‘psychedelics,’ they think of mushrooms and so on. This isn’t what we are talking about today.”

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Ohio Secretary Of State Forces County To Allow Local Marijuana Vote Despite Prosecutor’s Objection

Ohio’s secretary of state has ordered a county election board to certify a local marijuana decriminalization initiative for the November ballot—meaning that three Ohio localities will be deciding on the reform at the same time voters across the state will have the chance to pass a full legalization measure.

Early voting for military and overseas voters began on Friday. And, on top of statewide legalization on the ballot, voters in the villages of Harbor View, Risingsun and Sugar Grove will also see local initiatives to decriminalize possession of up to 200 grams of cannabis for personal use. That’s a higher possession limit than what would be permitted under the statewide legalization initiative, which would allow adults to have up to 2.5 ounces (about 70 grams).

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) intervened to ensure that Harbor View would see decriminalization on the ballot after the Lucas County Board of Elections voted not to certify the activist-led cannabis measure in light of a local prosecutor’s concerns. After a review, he ordered the board to reverse its decision and qualify what is titled “The OG Wild Bill Marihuana Ordinance.”

Chad Thompson, executive director of the Sensible Movement Coalition (SMC) that has worked to qualify local decriminalization measures in dozens of Ohio cities over recent election cycles, told Marijuana Moment that the board’s initial vote “caught us by complete surprise and we didn’t see it coming.”

Lucas County has historically had a “very supportive” election board that “followed the law,” he said. “Thankfully [LaRose] stepped in and corrected them.”

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White House Promotes Biden’s Marijuana Moves As Part Of ‘Fight For Our Freedom’ Campaign To ‘Mobilize Young People’

The White House is promoting President Joe Biden’s mass marijuana pardon and scheduling review directive as part of a “Fight for Our Freedom” campaign meant to “mobilize young people” as next year’s election approaches.

A factsheet about the campaign that the administration published on Thursday contains a section dedicated to the president’s cannabis reform actions from late last year titled, “Addressing a Failed Approach to Marijuana.”

“The criminalization of marijuana possession has upended too many lives—for conduct that is now legal in many states,” it says. “While white, Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people are more likely to be in jail for it.”

The youth outreach campaign will involve a college tour featuring Vice President Kamala Harris that begins at Hampton College on Thursday. The vice president will visit a total of seven colleges across the country over the next month, though its unclear if she will explicitly tout the administration’s cannabis reform actions on campuses.

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