Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Hemp And CBD Groups Threaten To Sue California Over Governor’s New Rules Restricting Cannabinoid Products

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) plan to crack down on hemp-derived cannabinoids in the state is rankling some in hemp industry, who now say they’re exploring lawsuits to challenge the governor’s proposed emergency rules unveiled last week.

On Friday, the advocacy group One Hemp said it’s considering a court challenge “with the intent to hold Newsom accountable to the normal democratic process.”

The organization, which has ties to the hemp CBD industry, notes the governor’s proposal was never approved by the state legislature and would severely restrict access to hemp products already legal under federal law.

“These are products that the disabled, chronically ill and veteran communities cannot live without to help support seizures, pain and mobility management, sleep and more,” One Hemp said in a press release about the possible lawsuit.

Jared Stanley, a founding member of One Hemp and a co-founder of the CBD company Charlotte’s Web, said Newsom’s plan to target hemp-derived cannabinoids is overbroad and would severely harm families who rely on CBD products.

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Psychedelic mushrooms may have played a role in development of human consciousness, study finds

Psychedelic fungi containing psilocybin may have played a role in the development of human consciousness a scientific review has suggested.

The study, published in the journal LILLOA, analysed multiple studies involving psilocybin, psilocin and human consciousness. Taking a multidisciplinary approach spanning studies from the fields of biology, ethnobotany, and neuroscience researchers found that psychedelic mushrooms, specifically the Psilocybe genus of the Hymenogastraceae family, had the “potential to trigger significant neurological and psychological effects” in humans.

The findings support the Stoned Ape Theory, a hypothesis proposed by ethnobotanist Terence McKenna in his 1992 book Food of the Gods. McKenna suggested that psychedelic mushrooms were the major evolutionary catalyst behind the rapid expansion of human consciousness.

“At the cerebral level, psilocybin affects various areas, such as the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the anterior cingulate cortex,” the study authors wrote. “The hypothesis that psilocybin mushrooms may have intervened as a factor in the evolution of human consciousness, either as catalysts for mystical experiences or as drivers of cognitive processes, raises profound reflections on the ancestral interaction between humans and their environment.”

The paper highlights how numerous ancient cultures across the world discovered and studied psilocybin-containing mushrooms, citing a prehistoric cave drawing of a shaman figure clutching mushrooms found in the Tassili caves in the Altas Mountains. This suggests, the authors said, that psychedelic mushrooms have played an important part in the evolutionary process of humans.

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Thousands Flock To Tribal Marijuana Store In North Carolina, Where Cannabis Is Otherwise Illegal, For Launch Of Adult-Use Sales

More than 4,000 of people lined up at The Great Smoky Cannabis Co. this past weekend as the tribal marijuana retailer began the first-ever legal adult-use cannabis sales within North Carolina.

Michell Hicks, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), which voted a year ago to legalize adult-use cannabis on its 57,000-acre Qualla Boundary, called the launch “a significant milestone for our tribe, marking a new chapter of opportunity and growth.”

“This initiative is our right as a Tribal government to assert our Sovereignty,” he wrote.

“I want to take a moment to personally acknowledge and thank everyone who has poured their hard work, time, and passion into making this day possible,” he said. “Your dedication has been instrumental in bringing this vision to life, and I’m confident that this is just the beginning.”

Sales began at 10 a.m. local time on Saturday, with any adult 21 and older eligible to buy marijuana products.

“It’s a special day for us,” Forrest Parker, general manager for Qualla Enterprises, which operates Great Smoky Cannabis Co., told the tribe’s newspaper, Cherokee One Feather. “It’s a special day for the Eastern Band of Cherokees, period.”

Videos posted to social media on opening day Saturday showed a long line of cars waiting to take advantage of the dispensary’s drive-thru.

“When you see the people in this line, it’s clear,” Parker said. “And it’s very validating, I think, to the plant and to the medicine that comes from the ground. Which, nobody understands that more than Indigenous people.”

Great Smoky Cannabis began selling medical marijuana on April 20 of this year. In July, the store began recreational sales, but only to members of EBCI and other federally recognized Indian tribes. Saturday marked the first time any adult 21 and older could purchase cannabis from the store.

Speaking to local reporters on Monday, Parker said the opening was “humbling” and that he expects even more activity as momentum builds.

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Federal Officials Say Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Shows Promise For PTSD, But More Research Is Needed

Representatives of a number of federal agencies convened last week to discuss new treatments for PTSD, including therapies involving psychedelics, MDMA, ketamine and other drugs. While the officials acknowledged the substances’ potential to help treat PTSD and underlying symptoms, they also emphasized the need for further research to ensure efficacy and patient safety.

The discussion, hosted by the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration, a nonprofit formed by Congress to support FDA, didn’t focus specifically on psychedelic-assisted therapies, but the topic nevertheless featured prominently—especially during a stakeholder comment session where most spoke in favor of wider access to MDMA and other emerging treatments.

Betty Aldworth, director of communications and post-prohibition strategy for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)—which has helped lead the push to qualify MDMA as a federally approved treatment for PTSD—said the meeting “illustrated the growing public interest in psychedelic-assisted therapies, with nearly every speaker discussing their potential in a meeting that wasn’t specifically about psychedelics.”

“Eighty members of Congress, the Veterans Affairs Administration, trauma experts, patient advocates, and 14 of 23 stakeholder who gave oral testimony agree the existing evidence base for psychedelic-assisted therapies merit widespread, and growing, support,” Aldworth said in a statement after the event. “It’s time to close the 25-year gap on new pharmacotherapies for the treatment of PTSD by approving this most promising treatment for PTSD and bringing psychedelic-assisted therapies into the healthcare system.”

Speakers at the Reagan-Udall event on Friday included representatives from the Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

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Medical Marijuana Helps People With Arthritis And Other Rheumatic Conditions Reduce Use Of Opioids And Other Medications, Study Shows

New research on the use of medical marijuana among people with rheumatic conditions such as arthritis finds that more than 6 in 10 patients who used medical cannabis reported substituting it for other medications, including NSAIDs, opioids, sleep aids and muscle relaxants. Most patients further said that the use of marijuana allowed them to reduce or stop using those medications entirely.

“The primary reasons for substitution were fewer adverse effects, better symptom management, and concerns about withdrawal symptoms,” says the study, published this month by the American College of Rheumatology. “Substitution was associated with THC use and significantly higher symptom improvements (including pain, sleep, anxiety, and joint stiffness) than nonsubstitution.”

The findings, say authors at the University of Michigan Medical School, McGill University and the University of Buffalo, “suggest that an appreciable number of people with rheumatic diseases substitute medications with [medical cannabis] for symptom management.”

Data for the study came from an online, anonymous survey of adult residents of the United States and Canada, which was advertised on social media and through email contact lists of the Arthritis Foundation and Arthritis Society Canada. Of 1,727 completed surveys, 763 respondents said they currently used cannabis, while 655 said they’d never used marijuana and 268 said they’d used but since discontinued. Researchers analyzed responses of only those who said they were current cannabis users.

“Among 763 participants, 62.5% reported substituting MC products for medications, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (54.7%), opioids (48.6%), sleep aids (29.6%), and muscle relaxants (25.2%),” the report says.

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Missouri Regulators Launch ‘Raids’ Of Nearly 50 Stores, Looking For Intoxicating Hemp Edibles

State health regulators walked into the busy Prime Fuel gas station in Sedalia on Tuesday morning and asked the clerk if there were any intoxicating hemp-derived THC edibles in the store—products the governor banned as of September 1.

The two employees of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) learned the store had already taken the products off the shelves, according to the regulators’ report on the visit, and they were being stored in a box in the office.

The report says regulators called the owner and he voluntarily agreed to destroy the products.

But that’s not how the owner describes the incident, said Craig Katz, spokesman for the Missouri Hemp Trade Association.

“He seemed to be forced into it,” Katz said.

Katz said the owner had boxed up the products so he could return them to the wholesaler for a refund, and he explained this to the regulators. Instead, they told him his manager had to pour bleach over about $5,000 worth of product, Katz said, a process that took two hours.

On Wednesday, the Missouri Hemp Trade Association’s attorney Chuck Hatfield sent a letter to the department’s general counsel saying the regulators deprived the owner of his right to tell his side of the story to a judge.

“The law is extremely clear that DHSS is not authorized to destroy product, or to demand that others do so, without a court order,” Hatfield wrote.

State regulators had visited 44 establishments as of 4 p.m. Thursday to inspect for the banned products, said Lisa Cox, spokesperson for the department.

Of the 44 facilities, regulators found “unregulated psychoactive cannabis products” during inspections at 23 of them, Cox said.

“Four facilities have refused to embargo or discard products,” she said. “The remaining facilities agreed to embargo and/or discard products. At this time, we have taken no court action.”

Cox declined comment on Hatfield’s letter.

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Gavin Newsom Wants California To Have More Restrictive Drug Laws Than Florida

Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed strict new rules on intoxicating substances derived from hemp. The crackdown would give the Golden State more punitive drug laws than even Florida.

Newsom, who was floated as a potential replacement for Joe Biden on the Democratic presidential ticket, announced new “emergency regulations” on Friday. Under the new rules, any “industrial hemp final form food product intended for human consumption” must contain “no detectable amount of total THC,” and “each package shall have no more than five servings.” The new regulations would also prohibit anyone under the age of 21 from purchasing any hemp-derived food products.

Newsom sold the new regulations as necessary to protect children from accessing intoxicating products. “The industry bears full responsibility for not policing itself for the proliferation of these intoxicating products that are hurting our children,” Newsom said at a press conference announcing the new regulations.

THC is the psychoactive compound that occurs naturally in cannabis. Typically, this refers to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, which creates the “high” from smoking marijuana, though there are other variations as well: Delta-8-THC occurs in hemp—derived from the same plant as marijuana—and presents a similar, though milder, response compared to delta-9.

In the 2018 farm bill, Congress legalized industrial hemp by defining it as a cannabis byproduct with “not more than 0.3 percent” delta-9-THC concentration. As a result, an entire industry emerged in which companies manufactured intoxicating products containing delta-8, which could be synthesized from hemp.

But Newsom’s “emergency” rules define THC to include both delta-8 and delta-9, as well as numerous other cannabis byproducts. While federal law allows a hemp-derived substance to be up to 0.3 percent delta-9, Newsom would prefer the limit be zero percent, and he would make manufacturers “provide documentation that includes a certificate of analysis from an independent testing laboratory to confirm the amount of total THC…does not exceed the total THC per serving size limits.”

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Beer Industry Trade Group Applauds California Governor’s Crackdown On Hemp Products With THC

A major alcohol trade association is applauding California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) newly proposed emergency regulations to outlaw intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids and require all CBD products be completely free of THC.

The head of the Beer Association, which represents American brewers, importers and industry suppliers, touted its “longstanding commitment to responsible drinking” in comments issued Monday morning and said Newsom’s proposal will close “an unintended loophole” created with the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp federally.

“The Beer Institute thanks Governor Newsom for his leadership in closing an unintended loophole that has enabled the proliferation of unregulated intoxicating hemp products,” Brian Crawford, the group’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Intoxicating hemp products are being sold as food and beverages, despite not being deemed safe for the U.S. food supply by federal regulators, and in some cases without age restrictions.”

“The beer industry is proud of our longstanding commitment to responsible drinking,” added Crawford, “and to operating in full compliance with a multitude of state and federal regulations.”

The Beer Institute said in an email that its position “aligns with a bipartisan coalition of 21 state attorneys general” who wrote a letter in March urging Congress to amend federal law so that intoxicating cannabinoids are not included in the federal definition of hemp.

More broadly, the Beer Institute has kept its distance from marijuana. It says on a policy page that while members “strongly believe voters should determine whether their state should legalize the sale of marijuana,” the group itself remains neutral on legalization. It further argues that it’s “misleading to compare marijuana to beer.”

“Beer is distinctly different, both as a product and as an industry,” the trade association contends. “Americans welcome beer at nearly every occasion because beer’s moderate alcohol content means it can be enjoyed sensibly. Brewers and beer importers are committed to responsible consumption, advertising, community service and working with law enforcement to promote public safety.”

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Colombia’s Diverse Environments Grow Marijuana With ‘Uncommon Terpenes’ That Can Have ‘Unique Therapeutic Benefits,’ Study Shows

New research on Colombian-grown cannabis reveals “significant phytochemical diversity” in the plants, uncovering what authors say are “four distinct chemotypes based on cannabinoid profile” as well as plants that are rich in uncommon terpenes.

The findings “underscore Colombia’s capacity to pioneer global C. sativa production,” the study says, “particularly in South America with new emerging markets.”

The diversity in compounds produced by Colombian cannabis plants could benefit not only growers—for example, by increasing resistance to pests and other pathogens—but also the development of unique medical marijuana products, says the study, published in the journal Phytochemical Analysis.

One factor behind the observed biological diversity could be Colombia’s varied environmental zones, the research says. The country is home to snow-covered volcanoes, tropical beaches, deserts, grasslands, rainforest and more. That variety also contributes to Colombia’s other agricultural industries, such as coffee.

Authors of the new study, from universities in Columbia, Germany and the United States, sought out licensed cultivators of medical marijuana across Colombia. Ultimately, growers donated 156 samples from 17 total cultivation sites, representing seven provinces and five different regions.

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Harris Campaign Omits Marijuana From New Issues Page As Trump Earns Praise For Backing Legalization

As the cannabis world reacts to former President Donald Trump’s newly announced support for federal rescheduling, advocates are taking notice that a new, long-awaited issues page launched by the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris omits any mention of marijuana policy reform despite her record promoting comprehensive legalization.

The issues page is fairly exhaustive, with details about her platform on taxes, affordable housing, health care, education, child care and more.

The new website section touches briefly on broader drug policy, noting that Harris is “committed to ending the opioid epidemic and tackling the scourge of fentanyl”—noting her record of going after “drug traffickers” as a prosecutor but also pointing out that when it comes to harm reduction, the Biden-Harris administration “made the overdose-reversal drug naloxone available over-the-counter.”

Notably absent, however, is any mention of her position on cannabis policy.

While Harris privately reaffirmed her support for legalization during a roundtable event at the White House event with marijuana pardon recipients—and she sponsored a bill to end federal prohibition during her time in the Senate—she’s been silent on the issue since President Joe Biden bowed out of the race and she became the nominee.

That seems to have created an opening for Trump, the 2024 Republican nominee, to seize the issue in recent weeks, culminating in a post he made on his social media site Truth Social on Sunday, where he embraced the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana and also backed freeing up banks to work with state-legal cannabis businesses.

Trump also confirmed he would be voting in favor of a Florida ballot initiative to legalize marijuana as a resident of the state—another development that seems to run counter to the extreme anti-drug rhetoric he’s previously promoted during the campaign.

The prior Biden-Harris campaign had made several attempts to contrast the administration’s marijuana reform actions with those of the Trump administration, pointing out for example that his former attorney general, Jeff Sessions, had rescinded Obama era guidance that generally encouraged prosecutorial discretion in federal marijuana enforcement.

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