Susan Duggan

Officials at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have come out against a series of bills that are designed to protect VA benefits for veterans who use marijuana, allow the department’s doctors to recommend medical cannabis and expand research into the plant’s therapeutic potential. Lawmakers and advocates representing veterans discussed the proposals  during a congressional hearing on Tuesday. And while the Trump administration representatives present said the department opposes the bills, support was widespread among witnesses and subcommittee members, at least for some of the legislation. “This is the first time we’ve had a hearing like this with a substantive committee,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) said. “One of the great tragedies of our time is the failure to adequately address the needs of veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan… An overwhelming number of veterans tell me that cannabis has reduced PTSD symptoms [and] the dependency on addictive opioids...

The chair of a key U.S. Senate committee declined Tuesday to commit to considering legislation that would provide federal protections to financial institutions serving state-legal cannabis businesses, which is dubbed  the SAFE Banking Act. Sen. Mike Crapo, a Republican from Idaho, made the comments – as reported by Politico in a tweet – at a meeting of the Independent Community Bankers of America. Crapo says he can’t commit to moving marijuana banking legislation. Via @vtg2 https://t.co/HI3NTVQ70D — POLITICO Pro (@POLITICOPro) April 30, 2019 Crapo’s comments aren’t generally seen as a surprise given that cannabis industry watchers have long viewed the Republican-controlled Senate as the biggest hurdle for the measure, despite the fact that five Senate Republicans are now on board as cosponsors. In late March, a House panel advanced the Secure And Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which has 168 co-sponsors in the Democratic-controlled House, including 18 Republi...

European man smokes joint with marijuana for medical purposes. Cannabis smoking in the world Getty More and more people are looking to combine cannabis with their workout routine.   According to a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health Tuesday , marijuana users in states where the drug is recreationally legal said that they use it either shortly before or shortly after exercise. Many of those mentioned in the paper say that they think marijuana helps to motivate them to work out, as well as enjoy exercise more and improve their recovery. That’s to say that they think that not only is cannabis helping them get motivated to work out, but it’s also helping them avoid pain the day after as well, potentially motivating them to exercise more frequently. The paper is the result of research done at CU Boulder. “Our results suggest that prior findings of cannabis users being more likely to meet official exercise recommendations may be at least partly a...

A major cannabis industry investor has made what is thought to be one of the largest private donations to study marijuana’s health effects. It’s a move that could prove beneficial for the cannabis industry at large by spurring research in the United States and perhaps increasing medical marijuana’s acceptance among physicians. Charles R. Broderick, managing director of Uji Capital – a New York City family office that has invested in Tweed, Aphria and other marijuana businesses – donated $9 million that Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology will split, according to a Harvard Medical School news release. Researchers hope to “unravel the biology of cannabinoids, illuminate their effects on the human brain, catalyze treatments and inform evidence-based clinical guidelines, societal policies and regulation of cannabis,” according to the release. Original Article Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/cannabis-investor-grants-harvard-mit-9-million-study-medical-marijuana/

Officials at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have come out against a series of bills that are designed to protect VA benefits for veterans who use marijuana, allow the department’s doctors to recommend medical cannabis and expand research into the plant’s therapeutic potential. Lawmakers and advocates representing veterans discussed the proposals  during a congressional hearing on Tuesday. And while the Trump administration representatives present said the department opposes the bills, support was widespread among witnesses and subcommittee members, at least for some of the legislation. “This is the first time we’ve had a hearing like this with a substantive committee,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) said. “One of the great tragedies of our time is the failure to adequately address the needs of veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan… An overwhelming number of veterans tell me that cannabis has reduced PTSD symptoms [and] the dependency on addictive opioid...

Original Article Source: https://mashable.com/video/kim-kardashian-cbd-themed-baby-shower/

Activists in Oakland, California say they’ve secured a City Council sponsor for a resolution that would block the police department and other officials from participating “in the enforcement of laws imposing criminal penalties for the personal use and personal possession of” psychedelic drugs. The measure would also instruct the city’s state and federal lobbyists to “work in support of decriminalizing” plant- and fungi-based entheogenic substances such as psilocybin, ayahuasca, ibogaine and cacti. Decriminalize Nature, the campaign behind the resolution, has at this point met with the offices of four out of eight City Council members, with additional meetings scheduled for the coming weeks. Larry Norris, the campaign’s co-founder and steering committee member who helps run educational outreach, told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview that their resolution has generally been well-received and the group is hopeful it will be taken up for a vote as early as May. [embedded content]...

Moosehead, the largest fully Canadian-owned brewery, is partnering with Sproutly Canada to make nonalcoholic, cannabis-infused beverages – marking the latest major brewery to make a splash in the marijuana sector. Moosehead and Sproutly entered into a definitive agreement to form a joint venture, with each holding 50% ownership. Matthew Oland, one of the brewery’s senior executives, has been appointed the first CEO of the joint venture. Sproutly will be responsible for appointing the first board chair. New classes of cannabis – edibles, extracts and topicals – will be added to Schedule 4 of the Cannabis Act no later than Oct. 17, but experts say most of the new products won’t hit shelves until early 2020 . According to the terms of the deal, Moosehead will provide infrastructure such as research and development, operations, procurement, finance and distribution, leaving Sproutly to provide the technology to make the cannabis beverages in Canada. Sproutly’s Infuz2O technol...

Steph Sherer, who founded the medical marijuana advocacy organization Americans for Safe Access in 2002 and ran it ever since as executive director, is stepping down to pursue a new cannabis career in Europe – becoming the latest high-profile MJ reformer to exit their posts. Sherer plans to split her time between Washington DC and Prague, the Czech Republic capital, where she’ll serve as president of the International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute (ICCI), according to a news release. The ICCI – which Sherer helped found in 2015 – is a collaboration of patient advocates, scientists and a New York-based investment company Dioscorides Global Holdings. Sherer formed Dioscorides in 2014. The institute intends to work hand-in-hand with governments, private enterprise and universities to further marijuana and hemp reform around the globe. “For the last 17 years, I have worked to break down societal and governmental barriers for patients who need access to medical cannabis,” She...

A key Connecticut legislative committee heard testimony on Monday about a bill that would dictate how tax revenue from marijuana sales would be allocated if the state legalizes cannabis for adult use. SB 1138 wouldn’t legalize marijuana itself; rather, it’s part of a three-bill cannabis reform package that’s working through the legislature, with the goal of later combining the legislation into a single proposal for floor action. For now, each piece of legislation is being considered in committees that have jurisdiction over the areas touched on by the individual bills. A proposal to legalize cannabis for adult use, which would also expunge the records of those with prior marijuana possession convictions, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month. Another part of the legalization packed was  approved by the legislature’s General Law Committee  last month. The separate legislation taken up by the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee on Monday...

A key Connecticut legislative committee heard testimony on Monday about a bill that would dictate how tax revenue from marijuana sales would be allocated if the state legalizes cannabis for adult use. SB 1138 wouldn’t legalize marijuana itself; rather, it’s part of a three-bill cannabis reform package that’s working through the legislature, with the goal of later combining the legislation into a single proposal for floor action. For now, each piece of legislation is being considered in committees that have jurisdiction over the areas touched on by the individual bills. A proposal to legalize cannabis for adult use, which would also expunge the records of those with prior marijuana possession convictions, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month. Another part of the legalization packed was  approved by the legislature’s General Law Committee  last month. The separate legislation taken up by the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee on Monday...

Colorado legislators passed a bill to  open the state’s $1.5 billion-a-year cannabis industry to outside investors and capital such as publicly held companies and large venture funds. The measure, which comes a year after former Gov. John Hickenlooper rejected similar legislation, was approved by the Senate after previously being passed by the House, and now goes to Gov. Jared Polis for his signature. Polis has expressed support for the bill. Andy Williams, co-founder and newly appointed CEO of Denver-based cannabis consultancy Medicine Man Technologies, lauded the bill’s passage, saying it will help drive future growth. “We now have the momentum behind us to accelerate the closing of our two acquisitions, (cannabis research firm) MedPharm Holdings  and Medicine Man Denver,” he said in a statement. The bill: Repeals regulations that cap the number of out-of-state owners to 15 people, provisions that have blocked publicly traded companies and many venture capital fu...

If you yourself don’t deal with anxiety, odds are someone you know suffers from a condition that’s rooted in this natural, fear-based response. Nearly 20 percent of U.S adults are affected by anxiety and anxiety-based disorders. It’s not difficult to see why so many people are affected by feelings of apprehension, nervousness, or panic on a regular basis; modern life can be fast and hectic and that can trigger base responses that make us feel as though we might be in danger. These feelings can be normal and natural for a healthy brain. Sometimes, however, they come about frequently or severely, and can indicate that something is very wrong. Sometimes anxiety disorders aren’t always manifested as panic attacks or hypersensitive responses, which can be the case with disorders like PTSD or  social anxiety disorder ; obsessive-compulsive disorders are also characterized as anxiety disorders. In these conditions, repetitive behaviors, hypervigilance, and ritualistic actions are mor...

Missouri medical marijuana regulators announced they plan to issue 60 cultivation, 86 processing and 192 dispensary licenses in the state’s initial MMJ permitting round. Businesses can obtain applications online June 4. The state will accept them Aug. 3-17, with final scoring scheduled by the end of 2019. For more details – and links to various MMJ program draft rules –  click here . Original Article Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/missouri-license-medical-marijuana-growers-dispensaries-processing/

Cannabis stocks were mixed on Monday, with Aleafia Health losing ground after reporting earnings for 2018 and Organigram gaining on the news it has applied for a listing on Nasdaq. Aleafia Health U.S.-listed shares ALEF, -3.12% ALEAF, -3.36%  fell 4.2%, after the company said its loss widened in 2018 from the year earlier. The medical cannabis company had a loss of C$18.5 million ($13.7 million), or 16 cents a share, in the year, after a loss of C$9.69 million, or loss of 24 cents a share, in 2017. Revenue rose to C$3.3 million from just C$15,766 in the year-earlier period. The company sold C$629,146 worth of cannabis in 2018; the remaining revenue stems from consultation services and research. Looking ahead, Aleafia is expecting to reach annual production capacity of 138,000 kg of dried flower in 2019, and extraction capacity of 50,000 kg. Organigram shares OGRMF, +7.33%  rose 7.2%, after the company, which trades on the TSX Ventures Exchange and the U.S. over-the-co...