Back in January, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that he was commissioning a State Health Department study on the impact of marijuana legalization. And on Monday, the Health Department released their final assessment.

In its findings, the report substantiates a broad range of social, economic and health benefits of cannabis legalization and a regulated adult-use market. All told, the New York Health Department’s assessment makes a strong case for legalization in the state and should have a major impact on drug policy going forward.

New York Health Dept. Builds Compelling Case for Legalization

When Gov. Cuomo tasked the State Health Department with studying legal marijuana in New York, he asked for officials to focus on a few key areas.

In addition to evaluating health, public safety and the economic impact of legal cannabis, Cuomo was especially interested in how legalization in Massachusetts and Vermont would affect New York, and what the state could learn from its neighbors’ experiences.

The Health Department’s assessment of the impact of legal weed breaks the issue down into those key areas. It presents strong evidence of the benefits of legalizing and regulating cannabis. Yet it also indicates how negative impacts can be mitigated.

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The Disability Support Program in Ontario, Canada is refusing to cover medical marijuana under the Ontario Drug Benefit Program. And the failure to provide coverage, according to the CBC, is forcing some patients to seek relief from chronic pain with powerful opiates instead. Injured workers covered by the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board have recently been denied reimbursement for medicinal cannabis costs, as well.

Bobby Assoun of Ottawa, Ontario is licensed to use medical marijuana to treat the chronic pain caused by multiple sclerosis. She had been paying for her medicine herself, but a recent financial hardship has made that impossible. Without access to medicinal cannabis, she will have to resume taking the powerful opioid hydromorphone instead.

“There’s only one thing that it will mean, which is that I’ll be going back and using my Dilaudid,” said Assoun, using a brand name for the prescription medication.

But when Assoun has used the drug in the past, fears of addiction led her to limit her use. But that also meant the medicine was less effective. She said that of all the options she’s tried cannabis provides her with the most relief.

“I look at all the medications I’ve taken over the years,

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Since 1970, the winners of the World Cup have seen economic growth after their country’s victory. France’s boon could include CBD, if the government would allow it.

France, who defeated Croatia in the championship match on July 15, was the third-largest producer of hemp in the world in 2017 with 40,000 acres in cultivation, just after Canada (138,000 acres) and China (116,000 acres). In the US, acreage reached 25,000, doubling 2016’s output.

Industrial hemp is grown in France for its seeds and fibrous stems. Only a few strains of the plant, listed in article R.5132.86 of France’s Public Health Code for cannabis, are allowed for cultivation provided they contain less than 0.2% THC.

“France produces the lion’s share of Europe’s pulp and paper,” according to zenpype.com. “It’s the most important hemp market in the EU, accounting for over 50% of fiber applications. French hemp cultivars are suited for grain and fiber production, the specific varieties that industry trends demand.”

France has the highest rates of cannabis consumption in Europe. Among France’s 67 million people, there are 800,000 regular cannabis users and 17 million experimenters. 

Meanwhile, smokeable marijuana containing THC is strictly prohibited in France. Medical use is allowed via prescription. During

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‘We’re kind of doing it the old-fashioned Maritime way, which is storytelling’.

Myrna Gillis sports a colourful rainbow bracelet as a way to demonstrate that her company is dedicated to inclusiveness. In small letters, the word “reef” is printed.

“We also have given this to all of our staff as part of Pride celebrations to promote diversity within our workplace,” Gillis said from her company’s office in Bedford, N.S.

She is the CEO of Aqualitas, a cannabis producer with a production plant in Liverpool, N.S. The company has a licence to cultivate and she hopes the business will be authorized to sell by the time legalization rolls around this fall.

– Read the entire article at CBC News.

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‘I look at all the medications I’ve taken over the years, and they don’t help like medical marijuana’.

An Ottawa woman living with multiple sclerosis says the province’s refusal to cover the cost of medical marijuana is driving her to risk addiction to opiate painkillers.

Bobbi Assoun, 47, has a doctor’s prescription and is federally licensed to use marijuana for MS-related pain. As a recipient of benefits through the Ontario Disability Support Program, her drug costs would normally be covered by the Ontario Drug Benefit program, but that program doesn’t include medical cannabis.

“There’s only one thing that it will mean, which is that I’ll be going back and using my Dilaudid,” said Assoun, referring to the opioid also known as hydromorphone.

– Read the entire article at CBC News.

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In an effort to better understand the ways cannabis use impacts traffic safety, UC San Diego is conducting a virtual driving study that tests how driving high impacts the ability to respond to common challenges on the roadway. The study, the largest of its kind to date, is being conducted by the college’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research. And to make sure they’re attracting the right candidates, researchers are paying people to smoke weed for the study.

For Participants, It Pays To Drive High

If the idea of getting paid to smoke weed and get behind the wheel sounds good to you, you’re in luck. UC San Diego’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research is still recruiting participants for its study on cannabis and driving.

And for the study’s participants, it pays to drive high. The CMCR is giving participants $50 for an initial appointment. But when participants come back for their full day assessment, UCSD is prepared to drop an additional $180.

Those involved in the study will have their work cut out for them. Besides a long day of simulated driving, there’s no guarantee a participant will even get high.

Anyone participating in the study, however, will get to

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“We thought it was less than that,” says principal investigator Richard Belanger.

About half of pediatric doctors surveyed about cannabis say they’ve encountered a young patient who had used marijuana for a medical reason.

The questionnaire for the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program found 419 of 835 respondents had a patient who had used either authorized or unauthorized cannabis for some sort of medical relief.

The one-time study did not detail how many cases involved unauthorized use, the nature of the condition being treated nor the ages of the patients. But principal investigator Richard Belanger says he’s surprised by the number of young cannabis users and says it points to the need for more information for doctors, parents and patients.

– Read the entire article at Huffington Post.

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Republican Party groups in Oklahoma have joined the fight against restrictions added by regulators to the state’s new medical marijuana program. On June 26, voters passed State Question 788 (SQ 788) by a margin of 57-43 percent. The measure legalizes the medicinal use of cannabis in the state and creates a regulated supply chain to provide medicine to patients.

But then last week, the Oklahoma State Board of Health (OSBH) slapped controversial restrictions on proposed rules to govern the program. One bans the sale of smokable forms of marijuana in dispensaries, while another requires that cannabis providers have a licensed pharmacist on site.

The Fight Begins

Almost immediately, activists and some individual lawmakers vowed to fight the board’s restrictions. So far, at least two lawsuits have been filed to challenge the rules in court.

“We will absolutely throw the book at them with class-action lawsuits on behalf of patients. We won’t be railroaded,” said Chip Paul of the advocacy group Oklahomans for Health.

“We simply want our state question implemented and properly regulated,” he added.

A press release from Oklahomans for Health called on legislators to join the fight to “reinstate the will of the people and do whatever is needed

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Good news! Today, the New Jersey Department of Health announced that it will begin accepting applications for six additional businesses that can grow, process, and sell medical cannabis in the state. The winning businesses are supposed to be announced on November 1. Unfortunately, there is no provision yet for equity applicants, although applicants may be awarded up to 50 (out of 1,000) points for diversity.

With the tiny number of existing businesses, patients have experienced supply shortages and high prices due to a lack of competition. Today’s expansion should help begin to address these problems, although more will need to be done. Separating the licenses for growing, processing, and selling cannabis will help make many more types of products available to patients, and the health department plans to consider additional applications for these licenses beginning in the fall.

In other news, while the June 30 budget deadline came and went without legislative action on any of the pending marijuana bills, Senate President Steve Sweeny has said he believes there could be a vote on legalizing and regulating this summer.

If you are a New Jersey resident, click here to ask for your lawmakers’ support.

Related

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The treatment was unconventional. People addicted to everything from alcohol to opioids were given the option of using marijuana to help deal with withdrawal symptoms from their former drugs of choice. But nearly a year after the facility, a Los Angeles-based rehab center known as High Sobriety, opened its doors, a consultant to the operation started to notice problems.

“It was like walking into a cloud of smoke,” Sherry Yafai, the facility’s new clinical director, told Business Insider. That’s no longer the case, according to Yafai, who took on a leadership role at the facility roughly a year after it opened and made some major changes to its treatment protocol.

Her changes hint at a tough reality about the use of cannabis as medicine. Although marijuana is being increasingly recognized for its potential health benefits, using (and dispensing) it remains an inexact science that can be further complicated by stigma and misunderstandings about drug use.

– Read the entire article at Business Insider.

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