Tag: the war on (some) drugs

THC-O Qualifies As Legal Hemp Under Federal Law, Appeals Court Says, Rejecting DEA’s Restrictive Stance

A U.S. appeals court has ruled that the hemp-derived cannabinoid THC-O-acetate is federally legal under the 2018 Farm Bill, rejecting the position of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that the chemical is a Schedule I controlled substance.

The opinion, published on Wednesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, comes in an employment case that rests in part on the federal legality of the cannabinoid. In it, the majority of a three-judge panel ruled that DEA’s interpretation of what qualifies as illegal marijuana is overbroad and does not apply to THC-O, which can be synthesized from other cannabinoids found in legal hemp.

In rejecting DEA’s 2023 interpretation of the law, the Fourth Circuit panel sided with an earlier opinion out of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled the Farm Bill’s legalization of hemp removed restrictions on a wide range of cannabinoids, for example delta-8 THC.

“Because the statute is subject to this other reasonable (and, we think, better,) interpretation,” says the new Fourth Circuit opinion, “we reject [the employer’s] contention that the DEA’s interim final rule or letter mandates a finding that THC-O is illegal.”

“Between the DEA’s February 2023 letter and [the Ninth Circuit opinion], we think the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of the 2018 Farm Act is the better of the two,” judges wrote. “And we’re free to make that determination ourselves, despite a contrary interpretation from the DEA, because we agree with the Ninth Circuit that [the federal definition of hemp] is unambiguous.”

Specifically, the opinion says, “The Ninth Circuit held that it didn’t need to consider the DEA’s position on synthetically derived substances because the definition of ‘hemp’ under the 2018 Farm Act was unambiguous in its application to all products derived from the cannabis plant, ‘so long as they do not cross the 0.3 percent delta-9 THC threshold.’”

To further justify its reasoning, the court cited a Supreme Court decision from this year that overturned the so-called Chevron doctrine of providing deference to federal agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutes, writing that it means judges need not defer to DEA’s own interpretation of the law.

The opinion says of the federal hemp definition: “Even if it were ambiguous, we needn’t defer to the agency’s interpretation, see Loper Bright Enters. v. Raimondo.”

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People Who Use Marijuana Are Less Likely To Have Severe COVID Infections, Study Shows

A new study shows that cannabis users have lower rates of severe COVID-19 infections and experience fewer serious consequences such as death or lengthy hospital stays when they get the virus.

“Cannabis users had better outcomes and mortality compared with non-users,” says the report, authored by researchers at Northwell Health in New York. “The beneficial effect of cannabis use,” it adds, “may be attributed to its immunomodulatory effects.”

The study, published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, looked at data from the National Inpatient Sample Database, which tracks hospital admissions. Patients admitted for a COVID diagnosis were divided into cannabis user and non-user groups, and they were also matched in an effort to account for differences in age, race, gender and other comorbidities.

“On initial analysis, cannabis users had significantly lower rates of severe COVID-19 infection, intubation, ARDS [acute respiratory distress syndrome], acute respiratory failure, severe sepsis with multiorgan failure, mortality, and shorter length of hospital stay,” the paper says. “After 1:1 matching, cannabis use was associated with lower rates of severe COVID-19 infection, intubation, ARDS, acute respiratory failure, severe sepsis with multiorgan failure, mortality, and shorter length of hospital stay.”

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Rhode Island Officials Consider Letting Marijuana Packages Have More Color—And Requiring More Info About The Product

Drive along the highway and you’ll see plenty of big, attention-grabbing billboards with bright colors advertising Rhode Island’s few licensed cannabis retailers. But go inside one of those stores and you’ll be met with a sea of neutral colors: white, gray or black. Occasionally, there’s navy blue.

Those neutral colors are by design, mostly to ensure products are not attractive to children who might accidentally ingest them. But state regulators may allow for some color in the future as the Rhode Island Cannabis Control Commission ponders changes to its packaging regulations.

Commissioners were presented with the idea during their July 30 meeting, where the three-member panel decided to add the language to its ongoing draft regulations that will govern the state’s fledgling cannabis sector. Other proposals include placing the name of the lab that tested the cannabis, the use of a QR code (with commission approval), and a list of cannabinoids that make up the product.

Allowing color “provides for more branding freedom for licensees” and came at the recommendation of the commission’s 18-member Cannabis Advisory Board, according to the July presentation.

“We’re trying to give the people the ability to brand the product, which gives them the ability to differentiate themselves in the market,” advisory board member Stuart Procter, co-founder and lab director for cannabis testing facility PureVita Labs in West Warwick, said in an interview.

The commission was formed last June, just a little over a year after recreational cannabis was legalized. Commissioners spent last summer on a listening tour, hearing the concerns of community members and cannabis workers, which include ensuring the commission prioritizes social equity measures.

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Missouri health department to begin enforcing ban on psychoactive cannabis compounds

On Sunday, the state of Missouri will begin enforcing Gov. Mike Parson’s executive order to crack down on psychoactive cannabis products.

The governor has said the products being targeted are often packaged to look like candy and can appeal to children, and they’re sold at convenience stores and other businesses with liquor licenses. The only exceptions will be for products that come from a source approved by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).

The executive order issued August 1st also required the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control to file an emergency rule to forbid liquor license holders from selling psychoactive cannabis, but the rule has been blocked by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.

In a statement, the Department of Health and Senior Services said the rejection of the emergency rule filing “has no impact” on their enforcing the executive order.

“Executive Order 24-10 does not apply to products under the control or purview of the Division of Cannabis Regulation pursuant to Article XIV of the Missouri Constitution and sold by establishments licensed pursuant to Article XIV of the Missouri Constitution,” the statement said.

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Psychedelics Have ‘Demonstrated Potential For Treating Drug Addiction’ And Alcoholism, New Research Shows

Two new studies on psychedelics and alcoholism—including one with contributions from a top federal drug official—offer hope for new ways to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD).

One says a single dose of psilocybin “was safe and effective in reducing alcohol consumption in AUD patients,” while the other concludes that classic psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD “have demonstrated potential for treating drug addiction, especially AUD.”

The first study looked at 10 treatment-seeking adults “with severe AUD,” according to a preprint version of the research published online at Research Square. After a single 25 milligram dose of psilocybin, “alcohol consumption significantly decreased” during a 12-week period, the team found.

Coauthored by National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow—in her role at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s neuroimaging laboratory—along with 10 researchers at the University of Copenhagen, in Denmark, the open-label study found that most participants craved alcohol less and consumed fewer drinks following treatment with psilocybin.

“Participants reported a decrease from baseline to week 1 in alcohol craving,” the paper says—a decrease that was sustained four weeks and 12 weeks after the psychedelic was administered. “Further, participants reported an immediate change from baseline to week 1 in self-efficacy, i.e. confidence in the ability to abstain from alcohol.”

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DeSantis Doubles Down On Opposition To Florida Marijuana Legalization As State And National Polls Show Bipartisan Support

As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) doubles down on his opposition campaign against a marijuana legalization initiative that will appear on the November ballot, a prominent conservative pollster is reminding his party that the issue enjoys sizable bipartisan support. And a fresh poll out of Florida shows the legalization measure passing by a comfortable margin.

DeSantis caught flak from cannabis advocates and industry stakeholders on Thursday after calling the proposed marijuana reform that Floridians will get a chance to decide on “bad policy and even worse constitutional law.” He also accused the major cannabis company Trulieve of financially supporting the legalization campaign so that it “gets a constitutionally-protected monopoly on the market,” arguing that Amendment 3 was “written by” the company’s CEO Kim Rivers.

This comes a week after top DeSantis staffer and Rivers feuded over the state legalization initiative, drawing attention to the anti-cannabis governor’s position on home cultivation, which would not be legalized under the reform measure.

But overall polling—both nationally and at the state-level—raise questions about the political thinking behind the governor’s ongoing vocal opposition to cannabis reform. While not all surveys have shown the measure reaching the steep 60 percent threshold needed to enact a constitutional amendment at the ballot under Florida law, it has consistently proved popular among a majority of Floridians.

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Federal Ban On Gun Ownership By Marijuana Users Is Unconstitutional, Appeals Court Says

A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday ruled in favor of a Texas woman whom judges described as a “non-violent, marijuana smoking gunowner,” affirming a lower court’s ruling that federal charges filed against the woman for owning a firearm as a cannabis user are unconstitutional.

“The short of it is that our history and tradition may support some limits on a presently intoxicated person’s right to carry a weapon,” the court wrote in the new opinion, “but they do not support disarming a sober person based solely on past substance usage.”

Judges also pushed back against claims by Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys that cannabis users are inherently more dangerous than other Americans.

“Nor, contrary to what the government contends, do restrictions on the mentally ill or more generalized traditions of disarming ‘dangerous’ persons apply to nonviolent, occasional drug users when of sound mind,” the decision says.

DOJ has argued in this and other recent court cases that the federal law against gun and ammunition possession by someone who uses marijuana is consistent with other historical restrictions on gun ownership, such as by “mental defectives…and others whose possession of firearms is contrary to the public interests.”

But the Fifth Circuit panel disagreed.

“We must ask: why was severe mental illness a reason the Founders disarmed people, and is that ‘why’ ‘relevantly similar’ to § 922(g)(3)?” says the opinion, referring to the statute against gun ownership by people who consume illegal drugs.

Wrote the court: “It is not.”

“The government highlights nothing demonstrating that laws designed to confine (and consequently, disarm) those so severely mentally ill that they presented a danger to themselves and others map onto § 922(g)(3)’s rationale,” the panel said. “Repeat marijuana users, like repeat alcohol users, are of sound mind upon regaining sobriety, whereas those adjudged severely mentally ill often require extensive treatment and follow-up examination before they can be said to be of sound mind again.”

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Marijuana Compound Has ‘Anti-Aging Effect On The Brain,’ Study Of Mice Dosed With THC Finds

Authors of a new study on the neurological impacts of long-term THC administration say their findings “could be the basis for an effective antiaging and pro-cognitive medication,” noting increased energy and synaptic protein production in mice that received low doses of the chief psychoactive substance in marijuana.

“Long-term low-dose Δ9-THC had an antiaging effect on the brain by restoring cognitive abilities and synapse densities in old mice,” says the new research, published this month in the American Chemical Society journal Pharmacology and Translational Science, adding that the “results suggest that Δ9-THC-induced consecutive bidirectional changes [in the brain] may play a significant role in the positive effect of Δ9-THC treatment against brain aging.”

The study, which was supported by an organization funded by the German government as that country launches its new marijuana legalization policy, also sheds some light on the mechanisms that could underlie the beneficial effects of the cannabis component, though it acknowledges the cause remains “an open question.”

Researchers took older and younger age groups of male mice—four months old and 18 months old—and gave them either THC or a placebo for a period for about a month. Measurements included brain function as well as levels of proteins associated with things like metabolism, memory and aging. One of the main proteins analyzed was mTOR, which influences cognitive performance and a variety of aging-related cell functions across the body, such as growth and metabolism.

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