Tag: medical marijuana

Florida Bill Would Let Medical Marijuana Patients Grow At Home And Crack Down On Hemp-Derived Cannabinoids

A Florida lawmaker has introduced legislation that would allow medical marijuana patients in the state to grow up to two cannabis plants at home while also outlawing certain hemp-derived cannabinoids.

SB 334, sponsored by Sen. Joe Gruters (R)—who endorsed last year’s ultimately unsuccessful ballot measure that would have legalized marijuana for adults 21 and older—would require that homegrown cannabis be cultivated out of public view, “including a view from another private property,” and in an “enclosed, locked space to prevent access by unauthorized persons and persons younger than 21.”

The two-plant limit would apply to a household regardless of how many qualified patients live in the residence. Violations would be a first degree criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The proposal would expand the rights of medical marijuana patients in Florida while at the same time trying to rein in the state’s largely unregulated hemp-derived cannabinoid market. Specifically, it would ban from hemp products the cannabinoids delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC, tetrahydrocannabinol acetate (THCA), tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), tetrahydrocannabiphorol (THCP) and hexahydrocannabinol (HHC).

Delta-9 THC, meanwhile—the chief psychoactive component in marijuana—would be capped at 2 milligrams per serving and 20 mg per package. Further, the bill clarifies that a product’s delta-9 THC content would be determined through a combination of delta-9 itself and THCA, which converts into delta-9 THC when heated.

The new bill would also impose certain additional restrictions on the sale and advertising of hemp extracts, for example banning street retail stalls, sales at festivals and businesses within 500 feet of a school, day care facility or other hemp business. Public advertisements would also be generally prohibited.

Gruters, a former chair of the Florida Republican Party, was a proponent of the backed legalization measure Amendment 3 last November, appearing in an ad alongside Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) to argue that the reform would be “good for Florida” despite strong pushback from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Gruters and Kim Rivers—the CEO of Trulieve, a medical marijuana company that provided the bulk of funding for Amendment 3—also met with Trump ahead of his endorsement of the constitutional amendment, as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access.

Notably, Amendment 3 would not have legalized home cultivation of marijuana—a detail seized on by some critics of the industry-backed proposal.

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More American Adults Use Cannabis As A Sleep Aid Than Choose Prescription Pills Or Alcohol To Fall Asleep, Poll Shows

About 16 percent of Americans aged 21 and older say they use cannabis as a sleep aid, according to a new industry-backed survey. That makes marijuana more popular for sleep than prescription sleep aids (12 percent) or alcohol (11 percent), but still not quite as common as using supplements (26 percent) or over-the-counter sleep aids (19 percent).

Overall, nearly 8 in 10 U.S. adults (79 percent) said something keeps them up at night, according to the new poll, conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of cannabis the company Green Thumb Industries and its “incredibles” line of edibles. Fifty-eight percent, meanwhile, reported consuming at least one substance to help them sleep.

The survey included both “cannabis” and “CBD-only or CBD + melatonin products” as possible selections for participants, who could pick multiple responses. Sixteen percent said they inhale or ingest cannabis—which could refer either to marijuana or hemp products—while 10 percent said they used CBD either alone or with melatonin.

The online survey polled 2,019 U.S. adults ages 21 and older in early June 2024, and the results were released this month. It has a margin of error of ±2.5 percentage points.

Men were more likely than women to say they used cannabis (18 percent versus 15 percent, respectively) or CBD products (11 percent versus 8 percent) for sleep. Among women, people between ages 21 and 34 were most likely to use cannabis as a sleep aid, with older age groups considerably less likely. Among men, by contrast, the 35-to-44 age group was most likely to report using cannabis for sleep.

Lower-income people, with household incomes of below $50,000, were the most likely income level to report using cannabis for sleep (23 percent), with people in higher-income households reporting higher use of supplements and over-the-counter sleep aids.

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‘I break the law to buy my child’s life-saving cannabis drug’

Until recently, Jane would have described her family as normal, law-abiding citizens. But that changed last summer, when the full-time mum started illegally buying cannabis oil online for her daughter, Annie.

The 10-year-old has a severe, rare type of epilepsy, resistant to conventional treatments.

At her worst, Annie was admitted to hospital 22 times in 22 months. Doctors warned Jane there was a very real prospect of her daughter dying from a seizure.

Jane says she doesn’t want to break the law – but the severity of Annie’s condition is such that she doesn’t care. We have changed their names to protect their identities.

“[Annie] deserves to be happy. She deserves to have this quality of life,” Jane explains. “And if I’m breaking the law by giving her this quality of life, am I wrong or is the law wrong?”

The family cannot afford a private prescription, which costs approximately £2,000 each month from one of the many clinics that have been established since the legalisation of so-called full-spectrum medical cannabis – which includes the psychoactive ingredient THC.

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Study: Patients Less Likely To Have Suicidal Thoughts Following Medical Cannabis Use

Patients prescribed cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs) report decreases in the prevalence and intensity of suicidal thoughts, according to observational data published in the journal Archives of Suicide Research.

British investigators assessed rates of suicidal ideation in a cohort of patients authorized to use botanical cannabis or oil extracts. (British physicians are permitted to prescribe cannabis-based medicinal products to patients who are unresponsive to conventional medications.)

Researchers reported, “Three months after commencing treatment, there was a reduction in both the percentage of the sample reporting suicidal ideation and the mean severity of suicidal ideation. … Twelve-month follow-up indicated a substantial reduction in depressed mood with this reduction being more pronounced in those reporting SI [suicidal ideation at baseline.]”

The study’s authors concluded: “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first observational study of CBMPs to report on rates of suicidal ideation. … The current findings suggest CBMPs may be effective in reducing suicidal ideation, as well as other facets of health and well-being … while also suggesting that the presence of suicidal ideation should not be used as a reason to exclude an individual from CBMPs treatment.”

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Federal Judge In Texas Rules That Ban On Gun Ownership By Marijuana User Is Unconstitutional As Applied

A federal judge in El Paso has ruled that the U.S. government’s ongoing ban on gun ownership by habitual marijuana users is unconstitutional in the case of a defendant who earlier pleaded guilty to the criminal charge. The court this week allowed the man to withdraw the plea and ordered that the indictment against him be dismissed.

The new ruling stops short of declaring that the law against firearm ownership by cannabis users—18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3)—is itself unconstitutional. As applied to the defendant in the case, however, it says that government lawyers failed to demonstrate that the restriction aligns with the nation’s history of regulating gun ownership, noting that that they did “nothing in the way of proving that Defendant was intoxicated by marijuana at the time of this incident.”

David Briones, a senior U.S. District Court judge for the Western District of Texas, also acknowledged in the decision that the legal landscape around marijuana and the Second Amendment had evolved since the court first accepted the guilty plea. In the interim, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which includes Texas, ruled that while “some limits on a presently intoxicated person’s right to carry a weapon” may be constitutional, “disarming a sober person based on past substance usage” is not.

That case, U.S. v. Daniels, was set to be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year but was among a number of firearms-related cases remanded back to lower courts following a separate Supreme Court decision about firearms and domestic violence.

“In the past two years alone,” Briones, a Clinton appointee, wrote in the new ruling, “the Fifth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court have heard and considered the following cases: Daniels, Rahimi, and Bruen. These cases have changed the law when it comes to the Second Amendment, and in the case of Daniels, have challenged the constitutionality of the very statute under which Defendant is charged.”

In the case, the El Paso Police Department responded to a 2021 call at the defendant’s home, entered the house and found two bags of marijuana. A search also found multiple guns inside the home. The defendant allegedly told officers that he’d used marijuana regularly for years and understood it was illegal to have both a medical marijuana card and a gun.

After the guilty plea, the defendant appealed his case to the Fifth Circuit, which later remanded it back to the district court in light of the recent precedent-setting opinions.

“This court now has a fuller picture of the Second Amendment jurisprudence as it stands today,” the order says, “and has reconsidered its position.”

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CBD Is A ‘Promising Candidate’ For Treating Depression With ‘Few Side Effects,’ New Scientific Review Concludes

A new scientific review says there’s “accumulating” evidence that the marijuana component CBD “has antidepressant properties in humans and animals with few side effects” and may also aid in the reduction of inflammation and formation of new brain cells.

“In summary,” says the manuscript, newly accepted by the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, “there is growing evidence that CBD may be a promising candidate for the treatment of depression.”

The review notes that while the anti-depressant effects of the cannabinoid have been previously reported, the mechanisms of action behind those effects are still poorly understood. “Therefore, this paper reviews the molecular targets, pharmacokinetics, and safety of CBD,” it says.

Authors from the departments of pharmacology at Nantong University, the First People’s Hospital of Yancheng and the Jiangyin Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine—all in Jiangsu, China—looked at recently published papers on experimental and clinical studies around CBD, concluding that effects seem to be linked to the cannabinoid’s role in reducing inflammation and enhancing neurogenesis.

As for the cannabinoids’ targets in the human body, authors wrote that “receptor mechanisms underlying CBD’s effects are very complex and involve in multiple receptors including CB1, CB2, GPR55, 5-HT1A, and PPARγ receptors.”

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Kentucky Residents Who Participate In State’s New Medical Marijuana Program Will Be Ineligible To Own Guns, Feds Warn

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is warning Kentucky residents that, if they choose to participate in the state’s medical marijuana program that’s set to launch imminently, they will be prohibited from buying or possessing firearms under federal law.

As Kentucky prepares to implement the medical cannabis law that Gov. Andy Beshear (D) signed last year, ATF has put residents on notice about the ongoing federal ban on gun ownership by people who use marijuana, regardless of individual state policies.

“You cannot possess firearms and ammunition and also be a user of marijuana,” ATF Special Agent AJ Gibes told WDRB this month, referring to a statute requiring gun purchasers to fill out a form that includes a question about whether they are an active marijuana consumer. If they check yes, they’re disqualified from owning the firearm.

Notably, Gibes said that while people who already own a gun aren’t “expected to” turn them over if they become state-legal cannabis patients, those who “wish to follow federal law and not be in violation of it” must “make the decision to divest themselves of those firearms.”

He added that ATF is “not actively seeking and working solely on investigations involving just the possession of firearms and marijuana because of our finite resources,” but that doesn’t change the law, and people will still be at risk of prosecution if they violate it.

ATF has also weighed in on other recent state cannabis policy developments.

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Top Indiana GOP Lawmakers Oppose Medical Marijuana Even As Incoming Republican Governor Says It’s Time To Legalize

On the heels of a survey showing nearly 9 in 10 Indiana adults support legalizing medical marijuana—and comments from Gov.-elect Michael Braun (R) that “it’s probably time” to allow access to therapeutic cannabis—Republican leaders in the state legislature are pushing back on the idea.

“It’s no secret that I am not for this,” Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray (R) said during a panel at a law firm event in Indianapolis on Wednesday. “I don’t have people coming to me with really compelling medical cases as to why it’s so beneficial. And any state that I’ve seen pass medical marijuana is essentially passing recreational marijuana.”

House Speaker Todd Huston (R), meanwhile, doubted any medical benefits associated with marijuana, calling the substance “a deterrent to mental health.” He and others suggested that lawmakers supportive of the reform merely want to boost state revenue.

“I don’t believe public policy should ever be built based off revenue,” Huston said. “On any public policy, I don’t think you should chase revenue.”

Bray, who said he has yet to hear a compelling case where medical marijuana has been beneficial, said that “the idea of passing a policy simply because of the revenue that it would generate is something that I inherently, completely disagree with.”

“If it’s a good policy, then do it,” he added, “and revenue may come from that. But the idea of doing it because of the amount of revenue [it would generate] is really, really bad policy in my perspective.”

One Democrat on the panel, Senate Minority Leader Greg Taylor, said that he believes Indiana is falling behind other nearby states that have already legalized medical marijuana. Republican panelists disagreed.

“I’m not sure we’re behind,” Huston shot back. “If we are behind on having fewer people using an addictive substance, I don’t know, I’m OK with that.”

The comments, made at the annual Dentons Legislative Conference, were first reported by State Affairs.

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Marijuana Terpenes Relieve Post-Surgery And Fibromyalgia Pain, Study Shows

New government-funded research on terpenes produced by the cannabis plant finds that some of the aromatic compounds could be promising therapeutics to help manage pain from fibromyalgia or during recovery from an operation.

The study, published this month in the journal Pharmacological Reports, involved administering four separate terpenes—geraniol, linalool, beta-caryophyllene and alpha-humulene—to mice that either underwent paw-incision surgery or had lab-induced fibromyalgia symptoms. Researchers then measured their “mechanical sensitivity” over the course of three hours to evaluate the terpenes’ possible effects on pain.

“These results demonstrate that the terpenes geraniol, linalool, β-caryophyllene, and α-humulene may be a viable medication for post-operative and fibromyalgia pain relief,” says the report, which was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

As for post-operative pain, each of the four studied terpenes “increased mechanical threshold significantly in comparison to the mice treated with the vehicle,” according to the research, referring to a solution without any terpenes that’s been previously shown not to have any pain-relieving effect. “Taken together, the data suggests that all 4 terpenes are efficacious in relieving post-surgical pain.”

All four terpenes also increased mechanical sensitivity in mice with fibromyalgia-like symptoms compared to mice treated with the vehicle alone, at least for some time points measured. Differences in mice treated with geraniol and linalool were statistically significant, while sensitivity in the mice treated with the other two terpenes was “elevated over vehicle but not statistically significant,” according to the report.

“These observations suggest that these four terpenes are also efficacious in a fibromyalgia pain model,” it says.

“This work further strengthens the case for the translational potential of Cannabis and its individual components to determine if they could be effective in relieving post-operative and fibromyalgia pain in patients while causing more tolerable side effects than current standard medications for these ailments.”

The current study, noted authors at the University of Arizona’s pharmacology department and Center for Pain and Addiction, is a continuation of their past research into the same four terpenes to treat other types of pain.

“Previously, we found the terpenes…to be effective in relieving CIPN [chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy] and inflammatory pain in mice,” they wrote in the new report. “Their efficacy in other pain models, such as post-operative and fibromyalgia pain, had not yet been defined.”

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Portugal To Become The New ‘El Dorado’ Of Medical Cannabis in Europe

“We should be the new El Dorado of medical cannabis production,” said agronomist Jose Martins as dozens of workers harvested marijuana in bright sunshine at a farm in southeastern Portugal.

The country is fast becoming a European hub for medical cannabis, with its warm temperate subtropical climate — often compared to California’s — making it an ideal place to grow the plant.

“No other country in Europe has better environmental conditions,” Martins told AFP at the plantation, which is surrounded by razor wire and infrared cameras.

Set in hills near Serpa dotted with olive trees and cork oaks, the 5.4-hectare (13.3-acre) farm owned by the Portuguese pharmaceutical company FAI Therapeutic produces around 30 tonnes of cannabis flowers a year.

They set up two years ago after a flood of foreign cannabis producers were drawn to Portugal because of its favourable climate and legislation.

More than 60 companies are currently authorised to grow, produce or distribute medical cannabis products there, with 170 more having applied for permission.

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