Search Results: haaretz (8)

An interesting finding

Here’s your daily round up of pot news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.

The Centers for Disease Control found that more Americans are using cannabis but the abuse rate has fallen. For additional details see here.

At the L.A. Times, Robin Abcarian looks at the links between cannabis use and psychosis.

A study found that being high decreases cannabis users’ motivation, but that it returned when they were sober.

The DEA said it would add the psychotropic tropical plant kratom, which some consider to have health benefits, to its list of schedule I substances, alongside LSD, heroin, cannabis and other drugs it considers to have no medical uses.

Israeli doctors will begin a first of its kind study to test the effects of cannabis on individuals with autism. The country also plans to start exporting MED.

New York state will expand its MED program, and allow home delivery. Crain’s New York Business asks if the state will allow the industry to thrive. Oregon licensed its first two testing labs.

This month, a Manhattan gallery owner known as Mr. Grey will host an exhibit of bongs valued between $500 and $250,000. You can see pieces from his collection on his Instagram page.

The Forward has a “ Pot Shabbat” with “Jeff the 420 Chef.” The challah, matzo balls, Brussels sprouts, potatoes and cookies were all laced.

Vice meets an Englishman who legally changed his name to “ Free Cannabis.” He planted cannabis in Glastonbury’s celebrated flower displays.

A new cannabis social network caters to seniors. Jimi Hendrix is enshrined in a new line of edibles.

The great comedian Gene Wilder died. Though it did not make the connection, The Cannabist reviewed Snozzberry, an indica dominant hybrid, named for a fruit invented by Willy Wonka. Wilder also appears to smoke weed in “Blazing Saddles.”

The flag of New Mexico

It’s for her sick child.

The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.

New Mexico mom Nicole Nuñez is suing the state over “arbitrary” supply limits. Nuñez’s eight month old daughter has a seizure disorder. A Michigan judge ruled that seedlings count as plants.

The four Colorado doctors suspended for overprescribing large plant counts will have to go through administrative hearings to try and get their licenses reinstated.  A judge tossed out a lawsuit they filed.

Israel Minister of Health Yael German.

Facing increasing opposition from doctors and patients who support and depend on the use of medical marijuana, Israel’s Minister of Health, Yael German, has seen her Facebook page dominated by dissent, and a full-scale hunger protest form on her front lawn.
The protests spawned from a recent increase on the regulations that govern the country’s blooming medical marijuana program, specifically on what illnesses would be eligible for treatment with some Kosher Kush.

​More than two-thirds of cancer patients who were prescribed medical marijuana to combat pain are satisfied with the treatment, according to a comprehensive new study from Israel.

The study involved 264 cancer patients who were treated with medical marijuana for a full year, reports Dan Even at Haaretz. The research was conducted at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, in conjunction with the Israeli Cancer Association.
About 61 percent of the patients reported a significant improvement in their quality of life as a result of the medical marijuana, while 56 percent noting an improvement in their ability to manage pain. Two-third — 67 percent — were in favor of the treatment, and 65 percent said they would recommend it to other patients.

Photo: Casual Encounters

​Officers from the Israel Border Police thought they were hot on the trail of some illegal cannabis on Thursday night, but they stumbled instead upon a different kind of party, finding themselves barging iin on a swingers’ sex party.

The volunteer police officers raided Moshav Beit Hanan in central Israel, finding a hydroponic marijuana growing operation and two suspects, reports Yaniv Kubovich at Haaretz.
The suspects took off on foot and the police gave chase, all the way to a closed area where they stumbled upon dozens of scantily clad party-goers.

Photo: Limor Edrey
Bags and joints of Israeli medical cannabis

​Patients who use marijuana for medical purposes must wait six hours after smoking it to drive a car, the Israeli Health Ministry is set to announce soon.

Until now, the issue of driving and medical marijuana had not been clarified formally in Israel, causing several police-related incidents, reports Dan Even at Haaretz.com.
In one incident in November 2010, scriptwriter Ran Sarig, a medical marijuana patient, was investigated after he was seen on a TV program driving with a joint in his mouth.
Drivers of public or commercial vehicles will be completely barred from using medical marijuana under the new regulations.

Graphic: Jewlicious

​Israel is suffering through the worst marijuana drought in memory. Not even the most seasoned pot smokers can recall a dry spell like this one, reports Saar Gamzo at Haaretz.com.

Reasons for the current weed shortage include recent drug busts by the police and border guard; cooperation between Egyptian cartels trying to boost profits by limiting the supply; and unusually low rainfall this year.
Conspiracy theorists are even claiming a secret Israeli government program to “combat apathy” and “stir up the nation’s fighting spirit.”
But whatever the cause, cannabis costs more than ever before in Israel.

Image: russiatoday.com
Israel is one of the first countries to permit the use of medical marijuana.

​Twenty patients in an Israeli hospital have been treated with medical marijuana in the first program of its kind in the Mideast nation.

Head Nurse Ora Shamai of the pain management program at Sheba Medical Center in the town of Tel Hashomer recently drafted a formal protocol for administering cannabis to patients. The document has already been approved by the Health Ministry’s Dr. Yehuda Baruch, and is expected to soon win final approval from the hospital.
According to the protocol, if a patient needs marijuana, the doctor in charge of treatment will help secure the necessary permit from the Health Ministry. Patients who are able to walk will smoke their joints in the hospital’s smoking room, while bedridden patients will be allowed to smoke in private rooms, near an open window.
“We make it clear to the staff that smoking medical marijuana doesn’t endanger the medical staff on the wards,” Shamai said. “It does not harm those in the area via passive smoking.”