According to a new study, those with a history of marijuana use are less likely to develop the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) than those who haven’t used cannabis.
The study, titled “Cannabis consumption and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: A three years longitudinal study in first-episode non-affective psychosis patients”, was published in the journal Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry.
The U.S. government is growing the largest crop of marijuana for research purposes in five years, reports the Associated Press.
The increase is in response to the rapidly growing interest in marijuana strains with high levels of THC and CBD.
As noted by the AP, the government is the only source of cannabis for nearly all research in the U.S., while it still considers it illegal and dangerous. Mississippi, which holds the sole federal contract for producing marijuana. That’s enough for 5 million joints, although the government provides marijuana in different forms.
The crop will be divided between high THC and high CBD varieties with “recent interest (in CBD) as a potential medicine for a number of medical conditions,” NIDA said. The compound THC causes pot’s mind-altering effect; CBD doesn’t get people high.
Last year, a CBD-based drug was approved by federal regulators for two rare seizure disorders and researchers are pursuing research on it for other conditions. Others are focused on THC.
“We want to study what our patients are using,” said University of Colorado Assistant Professor Emily Lindley, who is investigating marijuana with high THC as an alternative to opioids for chronic back pain.
Lindley and other researchers want others besides the University of Mississippi to get federal authorization to grow research pot. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration created an application process for growers, but has not acted on more than two dozen applications. In June, Scottsdale Research Institute in Arizona asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to order the DEA to process the applications.
“We are still working through the process and those applications remain under review,” said DEA spokeswoman Katherine Pfaff in an email Thursday. She declined to comment on the litigation.
In response to questions from the AP, NIDA said there had been no major increase in demand for cannabis by researchers in recent years. Last year, 20 researchers got shipments of government marijuana, much of it from frozen cannabis grown in 2014. Since 2010, the number of researchers receiving government marijuana has ranged from eight to 21.
Researchers should be able to obtain material from the new crop in the fall after harvest and analyses are completed, NIDA said.
According to a new study published in the journal JAMA [Journal of the American Medical Association] Pediatrics, marijuana legalization not only doesn’t increase teen usage rates, but it may also actually decrease them.
Those with acute pancreatitis who have a history of marijuana use have “lower age-adjusted, mortality, morbidity, and hospitalization-cost than non-cannabis-exposed patients”, according to a new study.
The chemical residue of marijuana has been found in incense burners that were used during funerary rites in western China in about 500 BC, reports Reuters.The finding proves what may be the oldest evidence of smoking marijuana for its mind-altering properties.
When the term hemp is mentioned, what comes to mind for many people is a plant that makes you high. This is because hemp is often used interchangeably with marijuana. However, although both plants belong to the Cannabis Sativa family, they are two different subspecies with different properties.
Marijuana is an illegal plant with psychoactive effects that mess your brain. People use this specific type for recreational purposes. However, hemp is a beneficial product. With less than 0.3 THC (the intoxicating compound), hemp is primarily grown for medicinal and industrial purposes. The difference in THC is what actually makes hemp legal across the United States.
According to new research, the use of marijuana is a safe and effective treatment for those with fibromyalgia.
The study, titled Safety and efficacy of medical cannabis in fibromyalgia, was published by the Journal of Clinical Medicine and was published online by the U.S. National Institute of Health.
Illinois has officially become the 11th U.S. state to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes.
As reported by the Associated Press, Illinois’ new governor signed the legislation into law today making his state the 11th to approve marijuana for recreational use in a program offering legal remedies and economic benefits to minorities whose lives critics say were damaged by a wayward war on drugs.
Last year was a historical moment for both the state of Vermont and the marijuana community. Vermont became the first state to legalize marijuana with a legislative vote rather than a ballot initiative.
However, it became clear quickly that the new laws weren’t as liberal as some probably would have liked. While a good first step, there is still much ground to be covered in terms of true recreational legalization.
Keep reading to discover what’s going on with Vermont’s marijuana laws and some possible changes and what they could mean in the future.
According to newly released polling, well over 50% of voters in Florida support legalizing marijuana for all uses.
According to the new Quinnipiac University poll, 65% of Florida voters support legalizing the personal possession of small amounts of marijuana, similar to what has been done in 10 other states plus the District of Columbia. Quinnipiac notes that this is, by far, an “all-time high” in the state for legalization support.
