A Pennsylvania legislator introduced a bill Monday that would give medical marijuana patients a chance of expunging a conviction of marijuana possession if the charge resulted from their use of cannabis for medical purposes. The bill is sponsored by State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery), and does not have any support yet from Republicans who control the legislature. To be expunged, patients would have to prove they had a doctor's diagnosis for one of the 21 approved serious health conditions at the time of the conviction. The patient would also have to provide evidence they were using cannabis to treat the condition. [continues 106 words]
A group of Louisiana parents of children with severe autism had cause for celebration Wednesday (May 2) as a bill (HB 627) that expands medical marijuana as a treatment option for the condition cleared another hurdle through the legislature. It was one of two medical marijuana medicals aimed at expanding the patient base in Louisiana that passed through the Senate Health and Welfare committee. The other bill (HB 579) authored by Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, adds glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain and Parkinson's Disease to the roster of conditions already approved for treatment with medical marijuana. Both bills will head to the Senate for a full vote. [continues 488 words]
Louisiana's nine future medical marijuana dispensaries have been selected. The two grow sites, managed by LSU and Southern University, are preparing to start growing and processing the drug by next February at the latest. Legislators have been focused on the issue, too. Two bills are making their way through the Legislature that would potentially expand the number of medical marijuana patients. But after all these preparations are made, will there be doctors for medical marijuana patients to go to? [continues 1090 words]
A Louisiana House committee voted Thursday (April 5) in favor of a proposal to expand the use of medical marijuana to treat people with chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and glaucoma. The bill cleared committee with an 8-4 vote. HB 579, sponsored by Rep. Edward James, D-Baton Rouge, met some debate before the vote. Opponents questioned whether there was enough medical research establishing medical marijuana as an effective treatment for people with chronic medical conditions. A 2016 law allowed the use of medical marijuana to treat certain conditions, including HIV/AIDS, Crohn's disease, muscular dystrophy and epilepsy. James' bill would add glaucoma, severe muscle spasms, intractable pain and PTSD to the list. [continues 502 words]
A company that planned to open a medical marijuana dispensary south of downtown Orlando is challenging the city's ordinance regulating such businesses, alleging it violates state law. Surterra Florida, which operates five dispensaries statewide, filed the suit in Orange County Circuit Court last week and is asking a judge to rule Orlando's law is "invalid and unenforceable." Tallahassee Attorney William Hall, who filed the suit, is also seeking a temporary injunction to keep the city from enforcing the law while the court rules. [continues 409 words]
Cure Oahu, backed by a local private investment group, opened with 10 strains, including top sellers Master Kush, Da Glue, Sour Chem and Sunset Mango. The dispensary in the former Bank of Hawaii branch building at 727 Kapahulu Ave. said there was heavy demand for indica, sativa and hybrid flower strains as well as tinctures and lozenges, which sold out shortly after opening. The 5,434-square-foot building has had a major makeover with a high-tech, 2,400-square-foot open lobby and dispensing area with two private consultation booths and large electronic tablet stations where customers can browse through information and choose from a variety of strains. Patients are also able to register and order products online before coming into the dispensary. [continues 136 words]
Joe Redner, Tampa's outspoken strip club owner and lung cancer patient, is confident he'll be able to legally grow his own marijuana plants soon, after stating his case in trial before a state circuit court judge on Wednesday. Redner, 77, made his case against the Florida Department of Health in a Tallahassee courtroom Wednesday on why he has a constitutional right to grow his own marijuana plants. Leon County Circuit Judge Karen Gievers is expected to rule on the case next week. [continues 613 words]
This summer, millennials, their anxious parents and users from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to Bay Street will get what they long believed was their right - the opportunity to toke up legally. That will be a seminal societal event (pun intended). However, what is attracting less attention than it should are breakthrough discoveries about how non-psychoactive cannabis extracts can alleviate suffering and treat diseases that afflict hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Legalization of a substance for recreational purposes and medical studies should be unrelated issues. But since they are based on the same plant, legal prohibitions and social stigma have held back research, thereby prolonging the suffering of patients and costing lives. [continues 534 words]
FRANKFORT -- Four law enforcement officials and a doctor urged state lawmakers Tuesday to say no to a bill that would legalize medical marijuana. For more than an hour, opponents of House Bill 166 told members of the House Judiciary Committee the ills they see in it. Their predictions about passage of the measure included an increase in crime, creation of trafficking problems along the state's borders, an enhancement of economic and social costs, temptations of children to use marijuana and uncertain physical outcomes over long-term usage. [continues 398 words]
FRANKFORT -- Kentucky lawmakers shelved Wednesday a controversial bill to legalize medical marijuana, but supporters of the measure pledged to continue their fight. Some backers of House Bill 166 were in tears after the House Judiciary Committee voted 14-4 to "pass over" the measure. That's a procedure to put off voting on the bill until a later date. The bill's sponsor, Rep. John Sims, D-Flemingsburg, said it's doubtful the proposal will be revisited in this year's legislative session but "anything is possible." [continues 357 words]
Psychologists point to 'compelling evidence' of cannabis' potential health impairments Apart from the #Metoo maelstrom and the housing crises in Toronto and Vancouver, few things stir up Canadians more than marijuana, which its promoters claim is the cure for everything from glaucoma to brain disease =2E Should private outlets sell recreational marijuana? Is it more enjoyable to smoke or swallow cannabis? Will I get rich on pot stocks? Is it possible to remove the criminal underground from Canada's $6 billion-a-year cannabis industry? [continues 975 words]
Drug may do more harm than good, say critics VANCOUVER * There is little to no research to support the supposed benefits of medical cannabis, and what evidence exists suggests that using marijuana as medicine may do more harm than good, family doctors' associations across Canada are telling their members. A trio of advisories prepared by the Alberta College of Family Physicians has been distributed to more than 32,000 clinicians, summarizing the scientific literature, or lack thereof, around medicinal marijuana. "One thing that was quite consistent was adverse events," said Dr. Mike Allan, a professor of family medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. "And the benefits, even if they're real, are much smaller than what people might anticipate." [continues 552 words]
Have they opened Pandora's box? Some Deerfield Beach city leaders worry that's what they might've done by allowing marijuana dispensaries in the city. They're now trying to stop medical dispensaries from clustering citywide by keeping them out of commercial areas that also have homes, as well as setting rules to stop them from opening next to one another. Mayor Bill Ganz said he doesn't want the city to become known as the place to buy pot, even if it's just the medical kind that doesn't get you high. [continues 705 words]
Medical marijuana is now available in Maryland. Here's what you need to know about it. Medical marijuana is now available in Maryland, more than four years after the General Assembly passed a law legalizing it. Standing up the industry -- with growers, processors, dispensaries and doctors -- took longer than expected. The law needed to be tweaked, rules needed to be written and legal battles needed to be fought over who won licenses. Here's what prospective users need to know about medical marijuana. [continues 1064 words]
The proliferation of personal yet industrial-scale marijuana farms, licensed and shielded by health privacy laws, has created a shadow market in which individual patients are collectively churning out as much marijuana as some commercial producers - with none of the scrutiny. Although they operate under the guise of legitimacy, a Globe and Mail investigation has found that these personal grow-ops are prime targets for robberies and abuse by organized crime. As the federal government edges closer to scrapping Canada's longstanding prohibition against the sale of recreational marijuana, the country's two-tiered medical marijuanaregime serves as a major obstacle to one of Ottawa's frequently stated legalization goals: the elimination of gangsters from a legal marketplace. [continues 3069 words]
Maryland began the sale of medical marijuana to residents in pain on Friday, ending years of delays by embarking on a program that features some of the most liberal policies in the nation on who can qualify for the prescribed cannabis. Dozens of people stood outside a licensed dispensary in Montgomery County, Potomac Holistics, where owners began making sales soon after receiving their first shipment Friday afternoon. "You can tell there's a buzz, and we're excited for so many reasons," Askinazi said. "We're giving care to people who need it." [continues 452 words]
Motacan Compassion Society is exempt from business licence requirement, operator argues A medical marijuana dispensary is suing the City of Abbotsford in an effort to remain open and avoid paying thousands of dollars in tickets. Motacan Compassion Society, which operates a storefront location in an alley off Montrose Avenue in downtown Abbotsford, says it is exempt from bylaws requiring a business licence due to its not-for-profit society status. In a petition filed last week in B.C. Supreme Court, "principal operator" David Smith claims Motacan is a registered society that provides "reasonable access to medical cannabis to members of the society on a highly subsidized basis." [continues 266 words]
Palm Beach County's first medical marijuana dispensary is now open for business. At noon Tuesday, Knox Medical opened the center at 1 South Dixie Highway in Lake Worth, across the street from Lake Worth City Hall. The dispensary occupies a former bank building in downtown Lake Worth, and the interior resembles a dentist or doctor's office. Patients check in at the foyer and then can proceed to a room with glass display cases showcasing Knox Medical's products. Knox Medical CEO Jose Javier Hidalgo said the new dispensary will improve access to medical cannabis for everyone in South Florida. [continues 528 words]
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Wednesday pledged to make medical marijuana available to patients by May and released a list of 109 approved practitioners statewide. It also launched the medical marijuana patient and caregiver registry, with instructions on how those interested can sign up. More than 200,000 patients across the state could qualify for medical marijuana treatment. Pennsylvanians with 17 medical conditions are eligible for medical marijuana patient ID cards. Those conditions are Lou Gehrig's disease, autism, cancer, Crohn's disease, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Huntington's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, sickle cell anemia, spinal cord damage, chronic pain, neuropathies and intractable seizures. [continues 410 words]
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon and chief medical correspondent for CNN is reported to have said, "Every 19 minutes somebody dies of a prescription drug overdose. It doesn't happen with marijuana." In the past Gupta was against legalising medical marijuana in the U.S. but now he is in favour of it. He sees some benefit for certain types of illnesses. The use of medical marijuana (medical cannabis) as a medicine has not been rigorously tested due to several restrictions. But there is some evidence to suggest cannabis can reduce nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy, improve appetite in people with HIV/AIDS, and reduce chronic pain and muscle spasm. [continues 417 words]
