NFL Players Union Creates Pain Management Committee to Study Marijuana

There has been a lot of controversy generated lately over the NFL’s policy on marijuana and players using it for pain management and treating other ailments. The League currently bans all use of cannabis, no matter what the reason.

Evidence shows that marijuana works for pain, the medical reason most people want it — but doctors still have questions

The most common reason that people seek out medical marijuana is for chronic pain.

Marijuana survey finds medical users more likely to consume edibles and vaporize

People who use marijuana for medical purposes are much more likely to vaporize or consume edible forms of the drug than recreational users, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Bill Filed To Delay Ark. Medical Marijuana Amendment Until It’s Legal Under Federal Law

Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, filed a bill Thursday (Jan. 26) that proposes delaying the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment until medical marijuana is made legal under federal law.

Cannabis Comes to the Rescue of Those Addicted to Opioid Painkillers

Painkiller overdoses, especially those relating to the use of opioids, are on the rise and becoming more of a problem every day. In fact, the number of deaths from prescription opioid pain relievers in the U.S. has gone from less than 10,000 in 2002 to over 20,000 in 2015. Beyond the damage done by the pills themselves, misuse of these painkillers often leads people down the road to heroin. Consider this data from the American Society of Addiction Medicine:

• Four in five new heroin users started out misusing prescription painkillers.
• 94% of respondents in a 2014 survey of people in treatment for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were “far more expensive and harder to obtain.”

State of the Leaf: As Opinions Shift, Unlikely States Weigh Legalization

U.S. News Updates

Arkansas
The Arkansas House has voted to delay the launch of a medical marijuana program approved by voters in November. The delay will push the start date from March to May of this year. The House also voted to delay the date the state will begin accepting dispensary applications, pushing it from June 1 to July 1, 2017. The delays are designed to give officials more time to draft rules and regulations for the program. While legislative delays have aroused suspicions in others states that officials could be trying to hobble the new legalization, the author of the Arkansas amendment, Little Rock attorney David Couch, says he doesn’t see the delay as an effort to sabotage the program. Creating infrastructure for the state’s medical marijuana program, he acknowledged, would likely take more time to implement.

What are THC, CBD, and Other Cannabis-Derived Transdermal Patches?

Transdermal cannabis patches are a unique method of cannabis consumption. You needn’t inhale nor ingest to experience its effects. In fact, you don’t even need to touch a cannabis flower at all. All the work is done by a simple patch adhered to a veinous area of the body, thus allowing the cannabinoids to go to work entering the bloodstream for an effective and long-lasting response.

What’s Behind All the Delays in Newly Legal States?

Five of the eight states that voted to legalize cannabis for medical or adult use in the 2016 election are now facing months of new delays. Most of the slowdowns have been initiated by legislators and state officials, who claim it will take them more time to set up a regulatory system. But a number of legalization advocates have pushed back, claiming in a few cases that the delays are a thinly veiled attempt to sabotage, or at least slow-walk, the programs.

Total Marijuana Market in U.S. and Canada an Estimated $53 Billion in 2016

According to new data from Arcview Market Research, marijuana consumers in the United States and Canada spent over $53 billion in the legal and illegal cannabis markets combined in 2016.

The National Academy of Sciences Deems Marijuana an Effective Medicine

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine analyzed roughly 10,000 scientific studies done on the effects of cannabis since the year 1999, and the results point to the undeniable fact that marijuana is indeed an effective medicine.

Can Cannabis Chewing Gum Treat Irritable Bowel Syndrome?

A biotech firm has launched clinical trials in the Netherlands to test whether its CBD chewing gum could help treat irritable bowel syndrome.

Two-Thirds Of Cops Support Some Form Of Marijuana Legalization

CONTRASTADDICT VIA GETTY IMAGES

A new survey suggests the law enforcement community doesn’t agree with the government’s policy of prohibition.

A new survey of thousands of police officers from departments around the U.S. suggests that the majority don’t agree with the federal government’s stance on marijuana.

Cannabis is an Effective Treatment for PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that occurs when an individual is exposed to one or more traumatic events such as sexual assault, combat, etc. PTSD is sometimes accompanied by other psychiatric disorders, such as obsessive compulsive disorder. PTSD patients suffer hyperarousal with insomnia, social isolation, negative flashbacks, avoidance and anxiety. Chronic, untreated PTSD leads to disrupted brain chemical turnover and the patient becomes hyper-responsive to stressors. PTSD patients may exhibit dissociative behaviors or arousal, emotional or dysphoric symptoms, or a combination.

Indiana Veteran Leads Medical Marijuana Legalization Efforts

Indiana lawmakers have neglected to pass, or even really discuss, a medical marijuana bill over the past several years – even when there was one introduced. It’s sad to see that the quality of life of thousands of people doesn’t seem to be a priority to them – but in the hope of gaining their attention and pushing them into opening up a discussion on the topic, one veteran is leading the movement to legalize medical marijuana in the state.

Companies Sue DEA over Recent CBD Rule

Two hemp-related companies and an industry association filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) this afternoon in a California federal court, seeking to overturn the DEA’s attempt last month to codify the illegality of cannabidiol (CBD).

Marijuana: Good for You or Dangerous?

The National Academy of Sciences has just completed one of the most comprehensive reviews ever done of marijuana research. In a report released yesterday, doctors and scientists from a wide range of disciplines evaluated more than 10,000 scientific abstracts from which they drew nearly 100 conclusions about the drug’s therapeutic value, its potential for abuse, and its link to diseases ranging from schizophrenia to cancer.

Here’s What the National Academy’s Medical Cannabis Report Actually Says

The release of “The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids,” a comprehensive report by the National Academy of Sciences, has sparked a flurry of reaction around the nation. Cannabis advocates have focused on the report’s conclusion that cannabis possesses therapeutic value for chronic pain patients, while others emphasized the report’s warnings about car crashes and memory problems. USA Today’s headline captured the report’s overall sense of caution: “Marijuana can help some patients, but doctors say more research needed.”

Pot has some medical benefits, U.S. Academies say, but obstacles to research loom

Many states have legalized medical marijuana, but possession and use remains a federal crime in the United States.

There is “conclusive or substantial evidence” that marijuana or related compounds can effectively treat chronic pain, nausea caused by chemotherapy treatment for cancer, and spasticity caused by multiple sclerosis, according to a report published today by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report urges more research on both the benefits and risks of marijuana, but notes that researchers who want to study the drug face significant obstacles.

Sessions Hearings Fail to Answer Questions on Cannabis

This week’s confirmation hearings for Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect Trump’s pick for attorney general, did little to ease cannabis advocates’ fears that the incoming administration could put state-legal cannabis programs at risk.

An Unlikely Ally for the Medical Marijuana Community

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A new fund from the Washington CannaBusiness Association aims to help the very patients hurt by legislation it helped pass.

Washington medical-marijuana patients may be offered financial help in the near future from an unlikely source: the Washington CannaBusiness Association. The trade organization, along with Republican Senator Ann Rivers, was instrumental in crafting SB 5052, otherwise known as the Cannabis Patient Protection Act, which effectively shut down hundreds of medical dispensaries across the state. As a result, many medical patients were driven back to the black market, searching for CBD-rich cannabis and lower prices.

Leafy is Watching the Jeff Sessions Confirmation Hearings So You Don’t Have To

When President-elect Donald Trump nominated US Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama to be the next attorney general, the institutional outcry came nearly immediately. The New York Times editorial board called the pick “an insult to justice.” The NAACP declared him unfit to be the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. And it wasn’t just civil rights leaders—civil libertarians expressed a few fears of their own. 

Here’s the First Batch of California Cannabis Bills in 2017

With Proposition 64 the law of the land and adult-use cannabis stores expected to open in a year or so, California lawmakers are now introducing legislation to tinker with the state’s current cannabis laws.

Local veterans push for medical marijuana access: VIDEO

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A former Marine says access to medical marijuana means life or death for many veterans across Indiana.

Changes Could Be Coming to Medical Marijuana Laws in Massachusetts

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Even though medical marijuana has been legal in Massachusetts since 2012, it took the state years to get things rolling for the thousands of patients registered to the program. In the entire state there are currently only nine dispensaries so far – although hopefully this number will increase.

Cannabis and Migraines: A Possible New Treatment Option?

Cannabis as a medicine has an ancient history with anecdotes dating back to the Vedic period (c.1500 BCE) in India and Nepal. It wasn’t until 1839 that William Brooke O’Shaughnessy introduced the therapeutic potential of cannabis to the western hemisphere, and another 75 years after that until Sir William Osler, the father of modern medicine, proposed its use for the treatment of migraines and headaches. The criminalization of cannabis has since hindered our ability to research its potential; to-date, much of what we understand is largely anecdotal or based on animal or tissue culture experiments.