Tag: medical marijuana

Senate Approves Bill Allowing Doctors To Issue Cannabis Recommendations to Veterans

A bipartisan congressional bill – the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (MilCon-VA) Appropriations Act – has been approved by the Senate that allows military veterans to receive medical cannabis recommendations issued by government doctors.

Doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will be able to recommend medical cannabis to their patients in states where it’s legal.

The bill provides support for critical housing, infrastructure, and facilities for U.S. military forces and their families, as well as increased funding for veterans health care and benefits.

The measure was advanced by a bipartisan vote of 28-0.

Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Susan Collins, stated: “The significant investments this legislation makes in America’s military are critical to our national security, helping to ensure our military’s readiness and safety while reducing maintenance costs.

“The bill also supports much-needed funding to improve medical care and housing for our nation’s veterans. As the Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, I will continue to champion this funding as the appropriations process moves forward.”

Previously, VA doctors were not authorised to issue recommendations on medical cannabis, even in states that have legalised the plant for medical or recreational use.

Supporters of the Bill have said that it provides a modest but meaningful reform for the veteran community.

Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley reintroduced the legislation in April.

Speaking on the passage of the bill, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, stated: “…despite the tough funding constraints, these bills move our country forward—not back—with important investments to keep our promise to our nation’s veterans, to get Americans where they need to go safely, to increase our housing supply, address the homelessness crisis, support our farmers and ranchers, keep American families healthy and safe, and much more.”

Speaking at the time of the legislation’s reintroduction, Wyden stated: “Veterans in Oregon and nationwide are unfairly and unacceptably stuck in a legal gray zone when discussing medical cannabis with their doctor.

“Veterans deserve the opportunity to explore various treatments with their doctor without fear of prosecution or employment ramifications.

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Florida Attorney General Defends Firing Of Corrections Officer For Using Medical Marijuana To Treat PTSD

A case filed with the Florida Supreme Court tests whether the Department of Corrections properly fired a corrections officer because of his use of medical marijuana while off work.

Florida’s First District Court of Appeal upheld the firing, but Samuel Velez Ortiz now argues before the state Supreme Court that the action violates both the Florida Constitution’s sanction of medical marijuana and the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent rulings establishing a broad right to bear firearms.

The state Public Employees Relation Commission upheld the firing, reasoning that his medical marijuana use rendered him unqualified to carry a firearm—a condition of his employment—under federal law prohibiting use of the drug.

A petition that Velez Ortiz’s attorneys filed with the state Supreme Court cites 2022’s New York State Rifle Pistol v. Bruen, in which the justices in Washington established a public right to carry firearms outside the home for self protection. Subsequent rulings by a federal trial judge in Oklahoma and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the right of sober persons to carry guns even if they smoked marijuana on other occasions.

“This lower court’s [First DCA] opinion permits a sanction on medical marijuana patients, which results in loss of employment for being a qualified patient and strips a person’s right to bear arms for being a qualified patient,” it says. “The opinion states because he uses medical marijuana ‘he cannot lawfully possess a firearm. Each time he does, he is committing a felony.’”

The brief notes that Velez Ortiz was a qualified medical marijuana user because of his PTSD and never worked while under the influence. A random drug test flagged him for cannabis metabolites.

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Feds Threaten To Make It Harder For Medical Marijuana Patients To Get State Gun Permits In Arkansas

Arkansas’s recently enacted law permitting medical cannabis patients to obtain concealed carry gun licenses “creates an unacceptable risk,” and could jeopardize the state’s federally approved alternative firearm licensing policy, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) says.

The Arkansas law took effect in August, clarifying that a person’s status as a qualified patient in the state cannot be used “in determining whether an applicant is eligible to be issued a license to carry a concealed handgun.”

The policy change has apparently attracted the critical attention of federal officials at the Justice Department, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette first reported. A letter sent by Marianna Mitchem, chief of ATF’s Firearms and Explosives Industry Division, to the operations director for the Division of Arkansas Crime Information this week said there are “public safety concerns” with the law.

Mitchem advised the state official that Arkansas has been previously notified that a condition of its alternative gun licensing scheme, which allows gun buyers to receive approval by the state without going through a federal background check, is that firearms cannot be purchased by a “controlled substance user.” In the eyes of the federal government, that includes medical cannabis patients.

The letter contained a veiled threat, stating that if the state department did not answer two specific questions, it would warrant a reevaluation of Arkansas’s alternative gun permit policy.

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Pennsylvania Officials Won’t Give Medical Marijuana Patients Access To Edibles—For Now

Officials tasked with monitoring the state’s medical marijuana program said this week edibles don’t belong in Pennsylvania’s marketplace.

Concerns about safety, efficacy and legal enforcement gave members of the Medical Marijuana Advisory Board pause. Six abstained from voting on the recommendation at all during its Wednesday meeting. Only two members supported the proposal, while two more rejected it.

The vote came after a discussion about the growing popularity of “troches,” an ingestible form of THC that resembles a cough drop. Dispensaries market the product alongside tinctures, which users absorb sublingually.

Supporters say some patients dislike the respiratory and digestive side effects that come from other forms of medical marijuana, including vaping cartridges, flowers, pills, and concentrates. Edibles offer a viable alternative.

Critics argue, however, that traditional edibles offered in other states come with a higher risk of poisoning, particularly in children, because of deceptive packaging and underestimated potency.

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GOP Congressman Worries That Moving Marijuana To Schedule III Could ‘Allow Big Pharma To Control It’

A Republican congressman says he’s concerned that if the federal government doesn’t “go further” than simply moving marijuana to a lower drug schedule—as the top health agency has recommended—large pharmaceutical companies might be able to overtake the cannabis industry.

On Monday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) filled in for a Newsmax host and led a segment that featured attorney John Morgan, who spent millions to put a successful medical cannabis initiative on the ballot in Florida. The two discussed recent reporting that the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) is advising the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Morgan criticized the status quo that currently lists marijuana in the same schedule as drugs like heroin, and he accused the alcohol and pharmaceutical industries of wanting to block research into cannabis because such studies could support the idea of substituting marijuana for the more dangerous drugs that they market.

“Well, I totally concur with the assessment that marijuana reform is often blocked by Big Pharma because they want the opportunity to control it,” Gaetz, who also pressed the DEA administrator on the status of the scheduling review last month, said. “My concern is that if we don’t go any further than moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, that could potentially allow Big Pharma to control it.”

The congressman also suggested that the Biden administration may have been moved to recommend rescheduling after seeing research showing that legalization is associated with reduced opioid-related hospitalizations and lower rates of child foster case cases due to substance misuse. And he then asked Morgan if he felt the HHS Schedule III recommendation is “sufficient.”

Despite certain concerns about a potential power grab by the pharmaceutical industry if marijuana is rescheduled, Morgan said that it represents “a step in the right direction,” echoing recent remarks made my numerous congressional lawmakers who back marijuana reform. “It has to happen,” he said.

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We Need to Chill Out About Categorizing ‘Medical’ Versus ‘Recreational’

I used to wake up in the middle of the night, every night, with a nightmare. In it, my body was frozen, and trigger warning: In the nightmare, I was fading in and out of unconscious, but someone was raping me. They were textbook PTSD nightmares, and I had no idea what to do about them.

I was raised in the Caribbean, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, surrounded by ganja culture. While millennial “statesiders” my age I’d meet later when I moved to the South for school and then New York for my forever home, I realized that my childhood was different. Far from the “Just Say No” and D.A.R.E rhetoric my contemporaries experienced, many of my friend’s parents were Rastafarians. I grew up understanding that cannabis was a sacrament. So I spent high school, during the Bush era, on the debate team arguing for its legalization, and college majoring in journalism, reporting on cannabis. I’ve always been vehemently pro-legalization. But the reason cannabis didn’t become a big part of my personal life until a decade ago, in 2013, was because I was a total boozehound. 

But alcohol made my PTSD stemming from my assault worse. Sometimes, back in the day, to be perfectly honest, it made me downright nasty or even suicidal. So my ambition kicked in, having seen what alcoholism can do to others (it runs in my family), and I quit. I haven’t had a drink in 10 years. I’ve been Cali Sober since before the term existed, baby. 

So, a few years into sobriety, when a stoner close to my heart told me that people used cannabis to treat anxiety, PTSD and that THC could even suppress nightmares, at first, I was skeptical. Sure, it should be legal, just like alcohol, and the government is full of shit, but would it affect me like liquor did? Personally, 12-Step programs did more harm than good. I’m a big believer that a one-size-fits-all model is not suitable for recovery, something society finally seems ready to talk about.

Especially in the first few years after my assault, I needed to be shaken and reminded of my power — which had been robbed from me — instead of admitting I was powerless, which is, in so many words, the first step of AA. I’m glad the program works for many, including people I love, and I won’t even get into the fact that its founder, Bill W., fully embraced psychedelics at the end of his life, adamant that they could treat alcoholism. Because this story is about why recreational use and medical use have more overlap than the establishment makes them out to.

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States That Legalized Medical Marijuana Saw Nearly 20 Percent Drop In Foster Care Cases For Parental Drug Misuse, Study Finds

States that legalized medical marijuana saw a nearly 20 percent drop in the number of children entering foster care due to parental drug misuse after three years of the reform, a new study found. Legalizing for adult use, meanwhile, was not associated with any statistically significant change in foster care entries.

Researchers at Georgia College and State University set out to learn whether legalization would “lessen stigma, permit proper use, and reduce the chance that a child will be removed” or, conversely, if foster care cases would increase due to expanded access to legal cannabis.

The study looked at national data involving 3.4 million foster care cases from 2007 to 2019. Using difference-in-differences analyses, researchers examined rate changes in foster case placements related to drug misuse, comparing states that enacted legalization to those that maintained prohibition. They controlled for factors such as state unemployment rate and per capita income.

“Our estimates suggest that when states permitted recreational marijuana use, there was no corresponding change in the number of foster care entries related to parental or teenage drug abuse relative to control states,” the study says.

But for states that legalize medical cannabis, there was a discernible shift. In the first two years of implementation, states saw an average eight percent to 10 percent decrease in foster care cases connected to drug misuse. By the third year, cases dropped 18 percent, which amounted to “approximately 700 fewer entries to foster care [that] were related to parental drug abuse when a state legalized medical marijuana.”

That’s an especially important finding given that 90 percent of foster case entries due to drug misuse happen in states where medical cannabis is legal, says the study, which is pending peer review. Drug misuse is the second most common reason that a child is placed into foster care.

The study also compared states that have restrictive versus comprehensive medical cannabis programs, but researchers said they are “hesitant to draw conclusions” about the differences because of conflicting data using two analytic models.

For limited medical marijuana states, there was a “sizable decrease” in foster care drug misuse cases in the third and fourth year after implementation based on one difference-in-difference model, but that effect was less pronounced in the other model.

States with less restrictive medical cannabis legalization laws, in contrast, showed a “statistically and economically significant decrease in the number of entries” in one model, but data from the other model was less clear.

“Our findings suggest that states which legalized medical marijuana experienced a decrease in parental drug abuse-related entries into foster care in the initial years following the legalization compared to states that did not legalize medical marijuana,” the study says. “Estimates exploiting variation in state-level limitations on medical marijuana are mixed.”

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Young People At Risk Of Psychosis Saw Symptoms ‘Surprisingly’ Improve With Marijuana Use, Study Finds

A new study of teens and young adults at risk of developing psychotic disorders found that regular marijuana use over a two-year period did not trigger early onset of symptoms—contrary to the claims of prohibitionists who argue that cannabis causes mental illness. In fact, it was associated with modest improvements in cognitive functioning and reduced use of other medications.

A team of researchers at Zucker Hillside Hospital, Stanford University School of Medicine, University of Michigan and University of California at Davis carried out the study, which was published Tuesday in the journal Psychiatry Research.

“Recreational cannabis use has recently gained considerable interest as an environmental risk factor that triggers the onset of psychosis,” the study authors wrote. “To date, however, the evidence that cannabis is associated with negative outcomes in individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis is inconsistent.”

To investigate, the team tracked 210 CHR patients ages 12–25 who participated in an Early Detection and Intervention for the Prevention of Psychosis Program (EDIPPP). Over the course of two years, researchers compared the mental health and prescription medication usage of people who regularly consumed marijuana to non-users.

The study found that “continuous cannabis use over 2-years of follow-up was not associated with an increased psychosis transition rate, and did not worsen clinical symptoms, functioning levels, or overall neurocognition.”

“Nevertheless, our findings suggest that continuously using cannabis may be associated with slightly elevated, albeit non-significant, attenuated positive symptom levels relative to non-users,” the researchers said.

“CHR youth who continuously used cannabis had higher neurocognition and social functioning over time, and decreased medication usage, relative to non-users,” they reiterated. “Surprisingly, clinical symptoms improved over time despite the medication decreases.”

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Medical Marijuana Company Slams DEA In Lawsuit Alleging Extreme Delays To Cannabis Research Licensing

A company focused on developing marijuana-derived pharmaceuticals is suing the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) over what it calls “exponential delays” in the agency’s process for granting licenses to grow cannabis for medical research.

Rhode Island-based MMJ BioPharma Cultivation Inc. filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday, alleging that DEA’s yearslong licensing application process has hamstrung the company’s business and stymied innovation that could benefit patients. It’s asking the federal court to compel the agency to act.

“Despite beginning this process in November of 2017,” the company says in the lawsuit, “MMJ has been unable to conduct the research that it was created to do.”

MMJ is working to produce a gel capsule containing cannabis extracts, which it says is intended to treat multiple sclerosis and Huntington’s disease. While it previously received DEA authorization to import marijuana into the U.S. from Canada, MMJ later applied for permission to cultivate cannabis in-house for research and development purposes.

“This registration is essential to MMJ’s ability to conduct FDA-sanctioned clinical trials,” the company says, “because without the ability to cultivate their own marijuana, they are unable to produce the proper compound.”

MMJ asserts that DEA’s pre-registration investigation for the license application began in June 2021 and lasted through the following October. “At the end of the visit, the diversion investigator informed MMJ that they would return to the DEA office, ‘write up’ the report, and submit the report to their group supervisor who would then submit those findings to DEA Headquarters for a final determination,” the suit says.

But according to the petition, no final determination ever came. “Despite numerous attempts to follow-up and check the status of the registration approval determinations for manufacturing, DEA personnel have expressed to MMJ that they have not yet made final determinations and they have no idea when that determination will be made,” it says.

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