Though no state received the highest grade and several received grades of a C or lower, overall the study showed that the legal landscape continues to improve.
“One example is California, which passed several new bills in 2015 to enhance the medical cannabis program. One such bill is a potentially life saving measure introduced by Assembly member Marc Levine which protects medical cannabis patients from being excluded from the organ transplant waiting list. Without this protection, the consequences are likely to be devastating – even fatal – for patients.”
While Raymond Schwab, a US Veteran and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) sufferer, and his wife prepared for a move from Kansas to Colorado, Kansas State took their five children away. The charge? – suspicion of child endangerment. Raymond manages his PTSD symptoms with medicinal cannabis — a recommendation he obtained in Colorado, where it is legal.
There’s still a stigma against parents who use medical marijuana,” says Jennifer Ani, a family law attorney who says she sees around five similar cases a month – in 95% of which she believes the child was in no reasonable danger. “As much as marijuana is a moving target throughout the nation, with Child Protective Services it’s even more so.”
“A US navy veteran who served in the Gulf war, Schwab says that he uses a homemade cannabis butter to treat his post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and chronic pain. For years, he says, his mental health issues went undiagnosed, resulting in a bout of alcoholism and substance abuse. He was prescribed a variety of sedatives, antidepressants and chronic pain medication, which he says often made him feel worse. “I got addicted to the pain medication, which led to heroin addiction.”
Schwab says that he has been sober since a stint in rehab in 2011, and that cannabis is the only medication that helps with his anxiety, depression and physical pain.”
Do you know about Weed For Warriors? The nonprofit’s sole purpose is to advocate for veterans to be able use medical marijuana as an alternative to psychiatric drugs. Learn more.
Research shows medicinal marijuana alleviates PTSD! Read the full study, published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, and titled” PTSD Symptom Reports of Patients Evaluated for the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Program”.
Medicinal marijuana has been shown to successfully manage seizures and treat pain. Now these benefits are being applied to dogs, as more owners turn to CBD for ailing pets.
“Biscuits, edibles, and capsules containing non-psychoactive cannabinoid compounds like cannabidiol (“CBD”) are being marketed to owners of ailing and elderly animals as a way to relieve pain and reduce inflammation. Since they do not contain any tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”), the products don’t produce the “high” associated with marijuana and some human-focused medical and recreational cannabis edibles and other products.”
Increasingly, companies are stepping up to meet pet owners’ needs by producing hemp-based, CBD-infused pet products. Though these treats are currently legal to sell, the FDA is taking notice.
“Companies in California, Oregon, and Washington are making these hemp-based products, including publicly traded companies like Peak Pharmaceuticals Inc. (PKPH 0.1149 -25.39%), Greenhouse Solutions Inc. (GRSU 0.274 -8.05%) and American Green Inc. (ERBB 0.0033 -4.90%).
Since hemp is completely legal to sell in food products, following the infamous HIA v. DEA lawsuit, these companies are free to sell the products without approvals. That doesn’t mean that regulators haven’t taken any action.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) took a bite out of the industry in February of 2015 when it issued several warning letters to firms that were “marketing unapproved drugs for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of diseases.”
Learn more about the benefits of CBD for treating pain in this study published in the journal Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management, and titled “Cannabinoids in the management of difficult to treat pain”.
From rope, to clothes, to paper, to fuel, it seems that hemp’s uses are endless. Now scientists have identified one more benefit of the versatile plant – removing radiation from soil.
“The process of using plants to clean polluted soil is called phytoremediation. According to a 2014 report from Nation of Change’s Christina Sarich, two members of the mustard family are more frequently used in phytoremediation, but cannabis has shown some promise because of its hardiness to toxins and quick growth rates. Some have even considered using it near Fukushima.”
In 2009, scientists from Belarus experimented with using hemp to detoxify land near Chernobyl, the location of a catastrophic nuclear incident that occurred in the 1980s. In addition to helping clean up radiation near the site, they discovered an additional use.
“The Belarusian scientists noted that one added benefit of industrial hemp over other phytoremediation plants is that it can also be used to produce biofuel, potentially adding a second use for the crop after it removes toxins from the soil.”Learn more about how hemp is being used for phytoremediation in this study published in the Scientific Bulletin of Escorena, and titled “Bioremediation of soil contaminated with cadmium using hemp shives. A case study of modification of physiological parameters in Triticum aestivum”.
Because cannabis remains illegal in many states where the NFL operates, players rely on pharmaceuticals to manage pain and the effects of head trauma—frequently with disastrous consequences.
Experts suggest that legalizing medicinal marijuana for NFL athletes may help holistically promoting cognitive function, which can be significantly damaged by repeated concussions.
“In 2013, Professor Yosef Sarne of Tel Aviv University’s Adelson Center for the Biology of Addictive Diseases at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine published researchindicating that “even extremely low doses of THC [tetrahydrocannabinol]—around 1,000 to 10,000 times less than that in a conventional marijuana cigarette —administered over a wide window of one to seven days before or one to three days after injury can jumpstart biochemical processes which protect brain cells and preserve cognitive function over time.”
Still, the league has not acknowledged the medicinal benefits of marijuana even though there seems to be an increasing need for players to have access to holistic treatments.
“On Tuesday, the news came out that former Giants safety Tyler Sash, who died at the age of 27 last September due to an accidental overdose of painkillers, was diagnosed with CTE. Might medical marijuana have helped him with both issues—the head trauma that marked the latter parts of his life, and the pain that predicated the need for all those pills? We don’t know yet. The NFL doesn’t seem to want to be proactive on this issue, and it’s too late for Sash and those like him.”
Read the full study published in the journal Experimental Brain Research, and titled “Long-term behavioral and biochemical effects of an ultra-low dose of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC): neuroprotection and ERK signaling.”
