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  • Switzerland Considers Making Cannabis Legal

    Cannabis could soon be legal in Switzerland.

    The Swiss Council of States, Switzerland’s smaller chamber of parliament, unanimously approved a bill allowing studies and pilot programs in the landlocked Alpine nation, according to Herb.

    The Council called for an experimental article in the Swiss Federation’s Narcotics Act that would allow for scientific research projects including trials of a “coffee shop” system of cannabis distribution similar to that of Amsterdam.

    Five Swiss cities have already called for such coffeeshop pilot programs.

    Read the full story.

  • Arkansas Court Battle Over Cannabis Grow Licenses Heating Up

    Arkansas’ attorney general is appealing a judge’s order that forbids the state to license five companies to grow medical marijuana.

    Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office on Friday filed a notice that it’s appealing Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen’s ruling that the MMJ licensing process is unconstitutional to the state Supreme Court, according to Marijuana Business Daily.

    Griffen had ruled that the state’s process for licensing the companies violated the 2016 voter-approved amendment legalizing marijuana for patients with certain medical conditions.

    The judge sided with an unsuccessful applicant that had sued the state over the process.

    Read the full story.

  • Cannabis for Cancer, Epilepsy?

    Can cannabis cure cancer? That’s a question Prof. David “Dedi” Meiri, head of the Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Cannabanoid Research at the Technion-Israeli Institute of Technology, is trying to figure out. The answer so far is a very guarded “maybe.”

    Meiri was one of some 70 speakers among the 800 participants at the fourth annual CannaTech  conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, according to Israel21c

    CannaTech was founded in 2015 as a platform to enable the identification and incubation of world-class innovative solutions for the cannabis industry. The conference also has taken place in London and is scheduled for Mexico and Australia later this year.

    While there was no product for sale in the vast exhibit hall, there was plenty of buzz from companies developing everything from medical inhalers, which deliver medical cannabis the way similar devices dose asthma powders, to specific treatments (at least two companies are working on cannabis alternatives to sleeping pills).

    Read the full story.

  • LSU Plans to Start Cloning Cannabis for Medical Use

    The Louisiana state Agriculture Commissioner said on Monday that the LSU AgCenter expects to start cloning cannabis from larger “mother” plants in June to create medical marijuana.

    Dr. Mike Strain, who heads the agriculture and forestry department, said his agency had received $80,000 from an LSU vendor to begin harvesting tissue for the state’s medical marijuana operation, according to the Daily Advertiser.

    Medical marijuana is not funded in next year’s state budget, which starts on July 1, so the department will ask for a $1.5 million loan to provide software and facilities related to the operation.

    Strain’s agency is responsible for overseeing the medical marijuana industry within the state, “everything from when the clone tissue of the marijuana goes in the front door till the compound leaves the back door for distribution to the pharmacy,” he said.

    Read the full story.

  • Why Coffee Could Be the Opposite of Cannabis

    What does coffee have to do with cannabis? According to a new study, your morning joe causes a drop in the levels of certain substances that are linked to the body's system for responding to marijuana.

    The levels of these substances — metabolites found in what's known as the endocannabinoid system — decrease in people who drink between four and eight cups of coffee a day, according to Live Science.

    Endocannabinoids are molecules that bind to cannabinoid receptors, which are found all over the nervous system, as well as in immune and endocrine tissue. The body makes its own endocannabinoids, but it also responds to foreign cannabinoids, like the ones found in the leaves of plants of the Cannabis genus.

    Coffee suppresses the endocannabinoid chemicals that smoking marijuana boosts, said Marilyn Cornelis, an assistant professor of preventative medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, who led the new research.

    Read the full story.

  • Will This Be Last Hash Bash Before Marijuana Is Legal in Michigan?

    Organizers of the 47th annual marijuana rally in Ann Arbor, Mich., are hoping this year's Hash Bash on April 7 will be the last one before cannabis is legalized in Michigan.

    They're counting on state voters to approve a ballot proposal in November to legalize recreational marijuana use for people 21 and older, taxing and regulating it much like alcohol, according to MLive.

    "For the first 46 years, really the focus has been on state prohibition," said Hash Bash lead organizer Mark Passerini, co-founder of the Om of Medicine marijuana dispensary in downtown Ann Arbor.

    "This could very well be the last year we focus on state prohibition and next year we could re-focus toward the ills of federal policy. Federal policy still sees cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug in all forms."

    Read the full story.

  • Question for HR: If Pot Is Legal, Can Employees Still Get in Trouble?

    Johnny Taylor Jr., a human-resources expert, tackled a marijuana-related question as part of a series for USA Today. Taylor is the president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, the world's largest HR professional society.

    Question: How does an employer effectively balance corporate policies of a drug-free workplace with the legalization of marijuana becoming more common, both for recreational and prescription use? — Mila S.

    Answer: Marijuana use by employees (in or out of the workplace) is a complex issue given that many states have legalized medical and recreational weed. On one hand, the employee should be allowed to do what she wants to do on her private time. On the other hand, employers have an obligation to put safety first.

    Imagine if a commercial airline pilot who lives in a state where marijuana is legal decides to smoke a joint a couple of hours before reporting to work. While his state allows him the "right" to consume marijuana, the airline has an "obligation" to ensure that the person transporting 200-plus people 30,000 feet in the air is not under the influence.

    As if this weren't complicated enough, we often forget marijuana is still illegal under federal law, and drug testing can detect marijuana in an employee's system but it cannot yet determine whether the person is impaired.

    Read the full story.

  • The New Chill Pill: Why Cannabis Is Coming for Sleeping Pill Poppers

    Last year, Sonoma winemaker Hadley Larson’s mother had a stroke, a relative attempted suicide twice, and the Wine Country fires forced her to evacuate with her son while her husband stayed to guard their home.

    Months of anxiety and nights of five hours of sleep led to outbursts of “random rage,” panic attacks and suicidal thoughts, she said, according to Green State.

    A psychiatrist in November recommended anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs, but when Larson, wary of side effects, asked him about using cannabis instead, his answer surprised her. “I will tell you,” she recalled him saying, “that that is where the research is headed.”

    Within days of ditching the prescriptions in favor of a tincture of cannabidiol, or CBD, at bedtime, she was a new woman. The non-psychoactive cannabis substance helped to calm her racing thoughts, allowing her to nod off within 45 minutes, rather than ruminating for hours, and her anxiety subsided, too.

    Read the full story.

  • Cannabis at the local level – Berkshire Eagle

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  • 7 Ways Cannabis Can Improve Your Relationship

    Marijuana can help you and your partner keep the spark alive — literally.

    Adrian Sedlin, CEO of luxury cannabis company Canndescent, gave Brides magazine an overview: "Cannabis has a much broader range. The endocannabinoid system controls how your cells communicate with each other. Your head has CB1 receptors, and your body has CB2 receptors. Your body produces cannabinoids naturally. The only plants that produce cannabinoids are hemp and cannabis." Hence weed's reputation for being a natural remedy for your body's ailments.

    Sedlin's company has isolated the precise profiles that will create certain body and brain reactions. Canndescent asks its customers one question—How do you want to feel?—and offers five modes: Calm, Cruise, Create, Connect, and Charge.

    Read the full story.